On the 23rd of September, Li Hualong, who was actively planning to launch an offensive, received a report from the Imperial Bodyguard in Yangzhou.
By the time the messenger of the Brocade Guard delivered the letter to Li Hualong, he was already seriously injured and died an hour later. According to what he said before he died, they had been chased many times after entering Jiangnan. Out of the team of ten, he was the only one who survived. This information was very important.
Li Hualong attached great importance to this and immediately personally read the contents of the report.
Then he turned pale with fright.
He had never imagined that the situation would reach this point.
Xiao Ruxun's route of advance was very frightening.
At the beginning, the army was divided into three routes. One started from Burma, one went to Yunnan, one went to Guangxi, and one was the navy.
The army that went to Yunnan, with the help of Deng Zilong, occupied all of Yunnan. It was unknown whether Inspector Chen Yongbin of Yunnan was dead or alive.
In Guangxi, Chieftain Cen Dalu led his Wolf Soldiers to seek refuge with Xiao Ruxun. Because of their support, Xiao Ruxun's advance into Guangxi was like a hot knife through butter.
In Guangdong, Guangdong Navy Admiral Chen Lin led the entire navy to seek refuge with Xiao Ruxun and helped Xiao Ruxun attack by sea. Guangzhou was captured by Xiao Ruxun's navy in a sneak attack. The governor of Guangdong and Guangxi fled to Guangxi in a panic and no one knew whether he was dead or alive. Guangdong was like a group of dragons without a leader and was quickly captured by Chen Lin.
Xiao Ruxun's navy then headed north to Ningbo prefecture and launched a sneak attack from the sea. In a very short time, they swept through the entire Ningbo prefecture and launched many attacks around it.
Therefore, at the end of August, Xiao Ruxun had already occupied Guangdong and Guangxi and sent the navy to capture Ningbo prefecture and Zhenjiang prefecture as well as Nanjing. They destroyed Shen Yicheng's family, cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and captured Nanjing, causing the Ming government officials in Jiangnan to panic and be unable to resist.
In the span of a month, this combination of fists had left Jiangnan riddled with holes. At present, Xiao Ruxun's army was still divided into three armies, while the navy was active in front of Li Hualong, obstructing his attacks and cutting off the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal's supply route, causing the entire Imperial Court to feel uneasy.
They did not know whether Xiao Ruxun's troops in Yunnan had attacked Sichuan or not, because they did not receive any news from that direction.
There was also a unit under Chen Lin's leadership that had launched an attack on Fujian. A conservative estimate was that they had already conquered half of Fujian.
Meanwhile, the main force of the Zhennan Army entered Huguang under the personal leadership of Xiao Ruxun. The vanguard of the army headed straight for Changsha. Wherever they went, there were very few who resisted. Most people surrendered at the mere sight of the enemy and did not resist at all. Those who resisted were also no match for the elite troops under Xiao Ruxun.
Li Hualong was deeply shocked.
At the same time, he realized that Huguang was in danger, that Changsha was in danger!
Once Changsha was lost, Wuchang would be in danger. Once Wuchang was lost, Xiao Ruxun could march along the Yangtze River to Nanjing and rendezvous with the active navy in the area. At that time, Li Hualong could guarantee that he would not be able to hold Yangzhou!
At present, there was only a navy of less than twenty thousand soldiers facing him. He had sixty thousand elites and other local troops, but they were incapable of attacking and could only passively take a beating. And this was when he had the advantage in numbers and the other side did not dare to rashly land.
Once Xiao Ruxun's main force arrived, there would be at least seventy to eighty thousand soldiers. At that time, Li Hualong would have to consider the material of his coffin.
Once his army was defeated, Yangzhou would be in danger. Once Yangzhou was broken through, there would be no army on the road from Yangzhou to the capital that could stop Xiao Ruxun's land and water advance! At the latest, in ten days, Xiao Ruxun's vanguard would arrive at the capital and begin to attack. At that time, everything would truly be over!
Could the trash army of the capital resist in the south?
This feeling was similar to the Taizu Sect's Xu Da's northern expedition to the Mongol Yuan Empire, advancing by land and water to the capital with unstoppable momentum!
At that time, the morale and drive of Xiao Ruxun's troops could not be compared to those of the capital!
And in this world, there were many opportunistic people. Once Xiao Ruxun's status as the victor was confirmed, Li Hualong could guarantee that countless people would immediately hug Xiao Ruxun's thigh and beg him to rely on him. Shen Yicheng's government would be abandoned as quickly as possible.
Xiao Ruxun would not recognize the newly ascended Taichang Emperor. The young Emperor would definitely be deposed …
Would the Retired Emperor ascend the throne again? Would the Daming Dynasty come out unscathed? What would this boorish martial artist do? How many people would he kill? How many people would he implicate? How many people would die in the Daming Dynasty? How much blood would flow?
At that time, what would happen?
Li Hualong simply did not dare to imagine that situation.
At this moment, he thought of the scene before he set off, and his resentment towards Shen Yicheng and Xiao Daheng rose to the extreme.
"Treachery! Treachery!!! "
Li Hualong fiercely swept all the things on his table to the ground, and then kicked over the table.
He gasped violently.
If he could follow his strategy and the main force went south to seek a decisive battle on land, there would be a chance to take Nanjing and Zhenjiang Prefecture, limit the front line to Jiangnan, restore the food supply, and also attract Xiao Ruxun's army to confront him. In this way, it would still give the imperial court time to recruit troops from the nine borders to the south.
And now, Xiao Ruxun's army may have already taken Changsha and was rapidly advancing towards Wuchang, while he was entangled by a navy and could not get away at all, trapped in a quagmire!
In the end, he was a civil commander with quality and self-restraint. His overly strong psychological quality made him quickly regain his calmness. He forced himself to calm down and think about the situation at hand.
Xiao Ruxun's march into Wuchang was already unstoppable. There were no strong troops in Huguang Province, or rather, there were no strong troops in the whole of Jiangnan except for the Wolf Soldiers and the troops in Sichuan. Huguang was even more so. How could they compete with the Daming Dynasty's number one general, Xiao Ruxun, on the battlefield?
Wasn't it normal to surrender at the sight of the wind?
In fact, it was indeed so. It was written in the intelligence that most of the local officials surrendered at the sight of the wind. There were not many who were willing to resist at all. They probably used Xiao Ruxun's northern expedition as a shield to protect their own safety!
Their actions made Xiao Ruxun's march extremely smooth. There was no resistance at all. It was exactly the same as when Cheng Zu Jing was in danger!
And what should he do to avoid the subsequent outcome? What should he do?
Li Hualong thought about it and looked at the map again and again. In the end, he helplessly came to a depressing conclusion.
Unless the rebel navy was defeated in a short period of time, and the Zhenjiang prefecture and Nanjing were recaptured to open up the canal route, they could only wait for Xiao Ruxun's army to enter Nanjing. Then, the land and sea troops would advance and resume Xu Da's northern expedition.
In fact, putting aside all the conditions and looking at it, Li Hualong felt that Xiao Ruxun and Xu Da were quite similar. Both of them had outstanding military achievements and had accumulated numerous meritorious deeds. It was just that the two's actions were too different.
Li Hualong sometimes had such thoughts.
But he would not easily give up any hope. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, he would fight for the court he protected and the Emperor he recognized. This was his belief, his unshakable belief.
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