First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 284 The Arrival of Li Xiaogong

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Although Yang Junmao is fearful of internal affairs, he is one of Xiao Liang's top generals after all, and his military strategy and military strength are top-of-the-line. Otherwise, Xiao Xian would not have entrusted Yang Junmao to guard the gate of the capital.

Now that he has decided to surrender, Yang Junmao has a straightforward personality, so he no longer twitches. When the matter has come to this point, Yang Junmao stepped forward and said: "If you don't give up, the crime will go away."

Yang Junmao immediately followed Jiang Baoyi and others to Bailizhou.

Outside the city of Yidu, Wei Ling led the city defenders out of the city to greet them, but in the Jingchu area, the only person who could greet Wei Ling as a dignified fourth-rank hussars general so respectfully was Li Xiaogong, the king of Zhao Jun and the chief of the Jingxiang Road Marching.

Seeing that Wei Ling was the only one welcoming him, Li Xiaogong frowned, and came up to each other to greet each other, Li Xiaogong asked directly: "Where is Gao Changshi?"

Wei Ling paused, and replied truthfully: "Gao Changshi led the army to Zhijiang."

"Zhijiang?" Li Xiaogong was startled for a moment, then he felt unhappy in his heart, frowned and reprimanded: "Zhijiang is the important city of Xiao Liang, how dare he venture into it".

Hearing this, Wei Ling bowed his head and remained silent. He also had no idea about Lin Zhisong and others. At this moment, a fast horse came up to him, "Zhijiang is a good news. Gao Changshi has broken through Zhijiang. The enemy general Yang Junmao was surrendered, and more than [-] people were captured."

Everyone was stunned when they heard the words, Li Xiaogong was also very surprised, and asked: "How about the casualties of our army?"

"Less than a hundred people," the scout hurriedly replied.

Li Xiaogong was immediately convinced when he heard the words, clapped his palms and praised: "Okay, once the Zhijiang River is broken, you can go straight to Jiangling, and you should be the first to do it."

Wei Ling also had a look of joy, and said bluntly: "Your Majesty, then we..." He couldn't wait to go to the front to participate in the battle. Before Li Xiaogong arrived, Gao Chong lacked generals, and Yidu City was very important. The only way is to send Wei Ling to stay behind. Now that Li Xiaogong has arrived with the main force of Kuizhou, and there are many soldiers and generals, Wei Ling yearns to attack the city and pull out the stronghold.

Li Xiaogong laughed when he saw this. He couldn't guess what Wei Ling was thinking, so he laughed and said, "As you wish." He immediately appointed a Kuizhou general to stay in Yidu, and then ordered the whole army to set off for Zhijiang immediately. .

At this moment, Wei Ling stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty may take the water route, and you can take the warship along with you."

"Warship?" Li Xiaogong paused.

Wei Ling slapped his head, "Your Majesty, please come with me", and immediately took Li Xiaogong and others straight to a dock by the river in the south of the city.

The dock was already heavily guarded, and the captain of the Tang Army who stayed behind hurriedly came to see him.

When he came to the dock, Li Xiaogong was stunned when he saw a large number of warships displayed here. These were obviously not the ships he supervised in Kuizhou.

"Your Majesty, these are all Xiao Liang's warships, but now that Xiao Mian has sent the navy to farm the land, this warship has been put on hold." Wei Ling grinned and said, "Just to support our army, and the whole army will go down the river." And then go straight to Jiangling."

Li Xiaogong was overjoyed when he heard the words, "God helps me, and Xiaoliang should be defeated." Although Li Xiaogong supervised the construction of warships in Kuizhou in advance to deal with the Jingchu water battle, after all, his background is shallow, and warships cannot be built in ten and a half months. , and some parts may even take years.

Therefore, the Kuizhou Tang army actually did not have many warships, and even fewer qualified warships. Many of the ships were called warships, but they were actually fishing boats for fishermen.

But these warships in front of him are all excellent warships carefully built by Xiao Liang. Although there are no such giants as the five-tooth warships, there are not only defensive warships such as Pingcheng, 艨艟, and 艚舟, but also There are offensive warships such as the Kaimao and Bachaoga, and the types of warships are very complete.

After all, in today's world, when it comes to water warfare, Xiaoliang is the number one. In the land of Jingchu, with great rivers and lakes, water armies are indispensable. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao, Huang Zu, Lu Su and others fought in Yunmeng, Wuhu, Dongting and other places to train sailors, these places are now in the territory of Xiaoliang.

It's a pity that Xiao Xian destroyed the Great Wall by himself in order to reduce his military power. The powerful navy and excellent warships did not play any role.

Bailizhou originally belonged to Zhijiang County. The island is not big. There is only a small village with more than a dozen families of fishermen living there.

Yang Junmao built a fort here after he took office as the garrison general of Zhijiang, and garrisoned [-] troops. After Xiao Mian "rested his troops to garrison the fields", there were only more than [-] people left here.

Under the leadership of Yang Junmao, Jiang Baoyi occupied Bailizhou with little effort.

"General Jiang, the leader of the Liang army is Wen Shihong. This man is a resourceful man. He must know the importance of Bailizhou and will definitely come to attack. It is better to leave heavy troops to guard it." Yang Junmao looked at the Bailizhou that he managed alone. Continental defense fortress, full of self-confidence.

Standing by the river, Yang Junmao pointed to Zhijiang City not far to the north, and scolded Fang Qiu for his boldness, "If a strong enemy attacks Zhijiang City, Bailizhou can attack it from behind, and vice versa. It is in the shape of a corner, relying on each other, and as long as the Bailizhou is guarded, it will be difficult for the navy to advance an inch."

Jiang Baoyi looked at the terrain and nodded in agreement. This place faces the river on all sides and is in the middle of the river. The middle is high and the surroundings are low. The water source is sufficient. As long as there is enough food and grass, guarding this place is like inserting a sharp knife into the Yangtze River. Guarding Zhijiang City can also guard the waterway of Jiangling.

"I will report to Gao Changshi and ask for more troops and food," Jiang Baoyi said bluntly.

At this moment, Yang Junmao fixed his eyes, looked at the tower in the middle of the island, and said in a deep voice, "There is a situation."

Jiang Baoyi looked over, only to see thick black smoke burning from the tower, which was a warning from the beacon fire.

Everyone hurriedly climbed to the highest place to look around, and saw that the junction of water and sky was densely packed, with hundreds of ships coming from the west, "The direction of Yidu?" Yang Junmao asked doubtfully, hadn't Yidu been breached by the Tang army?

"Wait, this is my Datang Navy." Jiang Baoyi has very good eyesight and is far away. Although he can't see the exact words of the flag on the ship, his eyes are very clear, bright yellow, on the dark warship Very obvious.

Nanliang respected the virtue of wood and favored blue, so the flag should be blue, while Datang respected the virtue of earth and favored yellow, so there are some obvious differences in the eyes of the flag.

At this time, everyone also saw the flag clearly, and their hearts were relieved, and at the same time, they increased their confidence. The Tang Navy is so majestic, and the day of Xiao Liang's demise is not far away.

When you get closer, you can see the clearly visible big banner with Tang characters fluttering in the wind of the river, and the flag of Li Zishuai is on one side.

"The king of Junjun Zhao is here, you all follow me to welcome you," Jiang Baoyi said immediately.

The big banner with Tang characters on the tower has declared that Bailizhou belongs to the Tang Dynasty, so Li Xiaogong came here directly, he couldn't wait to know the specific battle situation.

"Your Majesty, that's Jiang Baoyi." Wei Ling stood at the bow of the boat and squinted his eyes while setting up the awning. "It seems that Bailizhou has been taken."

(End of this chapter)