I Xiaoxiong

Chapter 185 Calmly
At this moment, there are only a few people in the military tent.

Wu Wang Zhao Deyu, Changshi Gu Xianglin, Qian Luo who joined the army, Li Zichun, Liu Taiqing, the commander of the navy, Wang Tingshan, the commander of the navy, and Xue Julin, the governor of the general who came last.

Qian Luo looked at the people and continued: "Honglian Dao's proposal is that the two armies join together, Honglian Dao can regard the prince as the emperor, as long as the prince can recognize Honglian as the state religion, and Sheng Gong Fangqiu as the state teacher. And the two armies merged Afterwards, Commander Xue and Marshal Fang Jiao of Honglian are both marshals and will be in charge of the military aircraft together, and the generals only need to accept the post of Guardian of the Red Lotus."

"What kind of madness is this Red Lotus Road going?" Everyone asked in amazement.

They have no objection to enshrining the prince as the emperor, but enshrining Honglian as the state religion, isn't this a dream.

"We are able to cooperate with the Red Lotus Army and quote each other. We have already been criticized. If we merge, we must never do so. The prince is a man of heaven and nobles, with the blood of the Taizu. What he did was on the side of the Qing emperor. .If you merge with the Red Lotus Army, what will the subjects of the world think? How will the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River think?"

Chang Shi Gu Xianglin directly stated the representative meaning behind this choice.

That is, although Honglian and Wu Wangfu are both rebelling, their goals are different and their supporters are also different.

Those who supported Prince Wu's Mansion were Hao Zong, a noble family in the south of the Yangtze River, the old tribe of King Wu, and the sage names of several generations of King Wu in Jiangnan.

The King of Wu and the Red Lotus Army can quote each other and echo each other from afar, but if they really merge, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River will immediately give up their support for the King of Wu.

Because the red lotus is against the imperial court, but for the gentry Haozong, it is also their sworn enemy.What is Red Lotus promoting?
All living beings are equal, and wherever they go, they will inevitably kill the local wealthy landlords and plunder their property.

This is the natural enemy of the aristocratic family.

Therefore, Gu Xianglin, who was born in the Jiangnan Gu family, definitely could not accept working with Hongliandao.

And Gu Xianglin's attitude, in fact, is to some extent the attitude of the aristocratic family in the south of the Yangtze River.

King Wu naturally understood this.

"It's not feasible to merge with Honglian, but Shouzhou has been unable to attack for a long time, so we need to make another plan. My army has been attacking Shouzhou for almost ten days. You should know better than me whether it can be captured, so What should we do in the current situation?"

Zhao Deyu's tone was very flat, but it was a bit harsh to the ears of several leading generals.

Now Shouzhou can't take it, and after a long time, when the court reacts, it will be dead.This truth is clearer with the aura of these soldiers.

But now Shouzhou is here, but it is hard to beat it, and it is difficult to advance an inch.

The traditional ant-attached siege, as well as tunnels, have been tried, but apart from causing a large number of casualties and demoralizing the army, there is no effect.

Moreover, Shouzhou has no record of being breached since the establishment of the city. The few times the city was breached was because the defenders in the city had run out of food and the reinforcements could not continue to open the door to offer the city.

The rebel army's previous plan was that Huainan's defense was empty, and there should be only a few thousand defenders. But who knew that the Jingnan Army would suddenly appear.

In this way, whether it is Jiancheng of Shouzhou or the small town of Zhengyang, it will be difficult to fight.

Qian Luo, who joined the army, finally exposed the current situation that everyone doesn't want to talk about.

That's the way out for the rebels, where is it?
After attacking Shouzhou for ten days, more than [-] people were killed and injured, but Shouzhou was still strong.The plan to go north through Shouzhou has actually failed.

The officers and soldiers who may cross the river at any time also make everyone feel anxious.

Especially Zhao Deyu, when he heard that the reinforcements were led by Marquis Wu'an, he was even more terrified.

The impact of the war with the state on him was very great.

The [-] troops fought in an array, and were almost wiped out by the [-] official troops.

Then Fu Jinchuan made a surprise attack on quarrying, and after crossing the river, he drove directly to Jianye.

Now knowing that Fu Jinchuan led the army to come, even knowing that the reinforcements are no more than [-] people at most, I still feel a little scared in my heart.

But Zhao Deyu didn't show any trace of fear on his face.

"How about retreating to Hongzhou and Raozhou? The waterway of Poyang Lake is good for boats, enough for self-defense."

At this time, Wang Tingshan, the commander of the navy, put forward this suggestion, that is, to withdraw the troops and return to Jiangnan West Road. Hongzhou, Raozhou, Jizhou and other places are still in their hands.

Wang Tingshan's proposal made everyone silent.

Because returning to the south of the Yangtze River means that there will be no chance to go north. Unless the world is in chaos, there will be no chance to go north to the Central Plains.

And now Jianye on Jiangnan East Road is also besieged, Runzhou and Caishi are lost, Jiangbiao's defense system has disintegrated, and the imperial army can continue to press over.

Without the natural danger of the great river to rely on, it is unrealistic to want to compete with the imperial court.

Returning to Raozhou and Hongzhou may be able to hold on for a while, but it is just waiting to die.

Therefore, those who are unwilling to admit defeat are unwilling to respond to this retreat.

But now again the time has come when a decision must be made.

If they can't attack Shouzhou, Huainan is a dead end for them, and it is absolutely impossible to stay in Huainan to manage and defend themselves.

One is the place where Huainan was fought in the Fourth World War. There is no natural danger to rely on, and it is even more convenient for the imperial army to dispatch because it is close to Gyeonggi-do.

The second is that most of the rebel soldiers are from Jiangnan. If Jiangnan is captured by the court, the morale of the army will inevitably be scattered.

This is also one of the reasons why you can't go west to join the Red Lotus Road.

So now there are two very clear paths in front of us, whether to continue to attack Shouzhou, or to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River, and continue to fight against the imperial court based on Raozhou and Hongzhou.

And although Jianye is currently besieged, it has not been breached by the imperial court, and places such as Yuezhou and Hangzhou are still under the control of the rebels.

So after careful consideration, this suggestion does not seem unacceptable.
And just after everyone had accepted the plan to go north in their hearts, and had actually declared a failure, they hadn't waited to announce it.

There are scouts reporting back outside the military tent.

The defenders of Zhengyang City left the city and took the initiative to attack.

"What? Take the initiative?"

This is very unexpected news to everyone in the military tent.

Zhengyang is not far from the city of Shouzhou, so in order to prevent Zhengyang defenders from attacking and harassing, 7000 people were specially arranged to set up camp five miles away from the east gate of Zhengyang City.

Since the rebels attacked Shouzhou, Zhengyang's defenders have been standing still without any action.

Sit back and watch the rebels attack Shouzhou.

But now that they are attacking suddenly, could there be any change?
"Could it be to attract the attention of our army, and then give the reinforcements on the east bank a chance to cross the river?"

Liu Taiqing quickly thought of such a possibility.

After hearing this, Xue Julin nodded and said, "It is very likely so. It seems that the Feishui line must be strictly guarded, and the officers and soldiers may take the opportunity to cross the river."

But as he spoke, he himself felt that something was wrong.

Zhengyang is not close to the west bank of Feishui, how did they know that the army on the east bank of Feishui had arrived?Could it be that reinforcements came from the north of Huaihe River?

But even if the imperial court directly sends reinforcements, the response will never be so fast. In less than a month, it is absolutely impossible to mobilize the army from Shangjing.

"Anyway, since Zhengyang's defenders dare to focus on attacking, they can't let them go. First defeat Zhengyang's army and take the city. If Zhengyang falls, the Shouzhou defenders may also be shaken. As for Fei The officers and soldiers on the east bank of the water still need to take strict precautions."

And just as they were discussing, the [-] infantry troops in Zhengyang City went out to form an array.

At the same time, a few miles to the west of the city, [-] cavalry troops calmly crossed the river from Huaibei on the quietly erected pontoon bridge.

(End of this chapter)