Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 468
Everything is ready, which is enough to describe Emperor Shi's preparations for sending troops this time.

Logistics, diplomacy, military strength, maps, plans for crossing the river, marching routes, etc., everything has been properly arranged.

At the beginning of July, Emperor Shi summoned his generals and secretly began to arrange deployment.

Regarding the arrangement of personnel, he is arbitrary, which is the greatest power in the hands of the emperor.

In the previous discussions and discussions, Emperor Shi asked them to open up their views and try their best to accept the opinions of all parties, but once it was time to make a decision, no one was allowed to refute.

Emperor Shi paced back and forth, looked down at the crowd, and spoke clearly, while the secretary in charge of the Imperial Academy next to him recorded his words without missing a word.

This time Emperor Shi did not talk nonsense, looked down at the crowd, spoke seriously, and held the memo that Zhao Shijian had written to him last night in his hand, "After many considerations, I have the following arrangements for this dispatch."

Everyone became solemn immediately, the hall was unusually quiet, everyone looked serious, and no one made a sound.

"This time the troops are divided into four armies, the West Route Army, the Middle Route Army, the East Route Army and the Wuyue Army."

After he finished speaking, the academicians of the Imperial Academy had prepared a huge map and hung it behind him. Many details were supplemented by the map that Lu Duoxun brought back from the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Shi directly drew the marching route on the map with charcoal.

"The east road is a water army, with a total of 3 people, [-] gunboats, [-] warships and warships, with Liu Renshan as the deployment of the east road army, and Si Chao as the commander. The East Route Army Supervisor, Liu Qingchuan, Fu Zhaoyuan, Zhe Yuxun, Meng Xuanzhe listened to it."

"No!" Several people stood up immediately.

The East Route Army is a veteran except for Zhe Yuxun, and Zhe Yuxun is the son of Zhe Dejian. He has been sent to the capital as a hostage for several years. try.

Pointing to the map, Emperor Shi began to explain the route and strategic purpose of the march: "The Eastern Route Army went out of Daliang, entered the Huaihe River along the Bian River, went to Sizhou, went east to Chuzhou, and then went south along the Caoqu and Yangzhou to enter the Yangtze River.

Your primary goal is to capture Runzhou, an important town across the river from Yangzhou, and then encircle Jinling to the west, understand. "

"Understood!" Several people said in unison.

Emperor Shi asked Liu Renshan, the head coach of the East Route Army, and Si Chao, the supervisor of the army, to recount the route and purpose of the march, and they both said exactly what they said, so they were relieved to continue.

"The Central Army leads Hujie's third chamber, and Longjie's left chamber, totaling three or five. Li Chuyun is deployed as the Central Army's capital, Pan Mei is the Central Army's supervisor, and Wang Quanbin, Han Baozheng, Jing Si, Chen Chengzhao, and Fan Ruobing are in charge."

"No!" Another group of people who were named stood up.

"The Central Route Army went out of Yingzhou, Chuzhou, and Hezhou, and erected a pontoon bridge at Caishiji in the south of Hezhou. After crossing the river, they occupied Dangtu, Ma'anshan and other important places, cut off the reinforcements from the west, and ensured that they could go east even if the reinforcements were blocked. Siege Jinling."

"promise!"

As usual, let the coach Li Chuyun and the supervisor Pan Mei retell the story, and then Emperor Shi continued to give orders.

"As for Wuyue, I will issue an edict to order Qian Chu, the king of Wuyue, to set up an envoy for the camp in the southeast. He will lead tens of thousands of soldiers from Hangzhou to the north to support him. He will also send Li Fang as envoy and Wang Shenqi as the supervisor."

In fact, Emperor Shi of this edict had written to King Wuyue privately before, and King Wuyue replied very simply, "I am willing to do the work of a dog and a horse, and I will not hesitate to die."

Then came the arrangement of the main force of the West Route Army. Emperor Shi said in the formation: "As the main force of this attack, the West Route Army will control the first and second compartments of the crane, and the left compartment of iron cavalry, with a total of 5 people.

I ordered Cao Bin to deploy for the capital along the river to lead the West Route Army and at the same time dispatch the other three armies. "

"No!" Everyone fought out one after another.

Cao Bin was extraordinarily solemn. This was his first time in command. Emperor Shi gave him the authority to dispatch the four armies to attack Tang. Faced with such a posture, Cao Bin was very dignified despite being excited.

"The West Route Army went to Jingnan, Jiangling, and fought east along the Yangtze River all the way to Jinling. The important towns of Wuchang, Ezhou, Jiujiang, and Hukou in the west are all within your attack range.

How to direct the overall situation can be decided by the master. "

Afterwards, Emperor Shi directly untied the sword from his waist and handed it to Cao Bin. He knew that although Cao Bin had fought many battles, he was younger, and secondly, it was his first time in command, so he had to mobilize many veterans who had made great contributions. It's not easy being a veteran.

So he said in front of everyone: "This sword is my favorite sword for the Southern and Northern Wars. I entrust it to you today, just like this important task of destroying the Tang Dynasty. Seeing the sword is like seeing me. On the battlefield, the lieutenants of all armies and their subordinates Those who do not need to die can be beheaded immediately, and there is no need to play."

When Cao Bin heard this, he knelt down with a plop, his eyes reddened, "Please don't worry, the officials, I will definitely live up to the grace!"

Emperor Shi nodded, helped him up, and then said: "Zhao Kuangyin is the envoy from Yangzhou, supplying the army on the middle and east routes, while Shen Yilun is the envoy from Jingnan on the west side, supplying the army on the west route."

After the arrangements are made, Luqiu Zhongqing, the privy envoy, will make books for them, and Emperor Shi will personally award tiger charms on the day when the troops are dispatched.

Then he ordered all the generals to go back to order Qi soldiers and prepare to send troops.

Looking at the people who were gearing up, Emperor Shi carefully considered whether there were any flaws in his plan. As for the power given to Cao Bin, he did not give it randomly.

Cao Bin is significantly different from other powerful generals. He is the most disciplined, cautious, and one of the most kind generals in the army, which is significantly different from the generals of the Five Dynasties.

When he was in Shu, he was famous for his strict discipline and kindness to the people. Later, he went to fight the Southern Han Dynasty as well. Wherever his troops went, he truly did not offend the people, and the military discipline was very strict.

If such a person were to let him be the coach to fight the Emperor of the History of the Liao Kingdom, he would be a little worried. After all, kindness does not command soldiers. When facing a powerful enemy, kindness is likely to become a weakness.

But it is different for Southern Tang. Firstly, the strength of Qin State has a crushing advantage over Southern Tang. Second, he does not want to destroy the production of Southern Tang, nor does he want Southern Tang to become a piece of scorched earth. Jiangnan is the most prosperous place he wants to preserve. .

In this way, Cao Bin is the best candidate, and because of his cautious character, Emperor Shi is not afraid that Cao Bin will use power indiscriminately.

After the personnel arrangements were made, the armies began to prepare.

Emperor Shi began to plan, what kind of excuse would be used to launch this war.

After thinking about it, he couldn't think of any good excuse, but war needs an excuse, but if he is well prepared, then the excuse is the least important one.

So after discussing with several prime ministers, Emperor Shi adopted Fan Zhi's proposal.

An imperial edict asked Li Yu to enter the court, and the Mid-Autumn Festival came to Daliang to spend with the emperor.

Everyone knows that this edict is to find fault, but Emperor Shi is indeed seeking fault.

If Li Yu really dared to come to Daliang, then the Southern Tang Dynasty would be liberated peacefully. If he did not dare to come, as a subordinate state, he would not obey the orders of the suzerain state, and Emperor Shi could justifiably send troops.

Such an excuse is very perfunctory, and such an excuse is also very useful, and in the face of absolute strength, the excuse is not so important. Smart people in the world know that there will be this battle sooner or later.

So at the end of July, Emperor Shi's outrageous Zhao Shu was sent across the river with the autumn wind and sent to Jinling.

(End of this chapter)