Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 576

At this time, Zhu Lingzhi was leading 15 horses to station in the Hukou area of ​​the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. A few days ago, he heard that Jinling was in dire straits, so he wanted to lead his troops eastward to rescue Jinling.However, due to the containment of the Song army under Cao Wei and Yang Yanping, they dared not raise troops for fear of being copied.

After receiving the imperial edict, Zhu Lingzhi had no choice but to call the southern capital to stay at Chai Kezhen, and let him take over the town of Hukou. He personally led an army of 100. More than [-] people, mighty

Swing along the Yangtze River to the east.In addition to large and small warships, Zhu Lingzhi also weaved many rafts out of giant wood, more than a hundred feet long, and carried a lot of sulfur and kerosene. He planned to set fire to the rafts and burn down the pontoon bridge that the Song army re-erected on Chizhou to transport grain and grass. Lift the siege of Jinling.

Outside the city of Jinling, the commander-in-chief of the Song Army, and the generals of the Song Army were discussing the matter of Zhu Lingzhi's [-] troops coming to aid.

All the generals asked for a fight, but Pan Mei didn't agree. Instead, she thought of Cao Bin, who was firmly on her head in the Song Guojun, and sneered in her heart, but her face was full of awe, and said: "Now that Jinling is about to break the city, if Zhu Ling can let Zhu Ling If Zhi arrives three days late, our army will be able to break through the city."

Not waiting for the reaction of the generals, Pan Mei pretended to be hesitant, and then said: "Come here, pass on the commander's order to Cao Wei and Yang Tingping, asking them to delay Zhu Lingzhi for three days no matter what method they use. "

Zhao Zan frowned slightly, and said, "Cao Wei and Yang Yanping have less than 2 troops under their command, plus more than 1 sailors on the river, that's only 3 people, and we have to divide our troops to look at Lin Renzhao in Caishiji. For Zhu Lingzhi's army of more than [-], the difference in numbers is too great, and the [-] Qinhuai River Navy is useless now, it is better to let them support Cao Wei and Yang Yanping."

Pan Mei smiled and said: "General Zhao! The soldiers are so valuable and fast, Zhu Lingzhi can arrive at Jinling in a short time. Sending a navy to go at this time, isn't it an umbrella after the rain?"

Zhao Zan's expression darkened, guessing some dark thoughts of Pan Mei, he sneered in his heart, and didn't speak any more.

Cao Wei and Yang Yanping's troops stationed at the mouth of the Caishiji Canyon, in addition to their troops, the more than 1 Song Army navy left on the Yangtze River to block the Lin Renzhao waterway were also controlled by Cao Wei.

Cao Wei and Yang Yanping heard that Zhu Lingzhi was leading the army as King Qin, as if they were facing a big enemy, because the opponent's number was about five times that of their own, they were worried that Zhu Lingzhi would go all out to attack them along the way and rescue Lin Renzhao, so the two planned to meet the enemy While preparing, he sent someone to ask Pan Mei for support.Unexpectedly, Pan Mei not only refused to support them, but also strictly ordered them to drag Zhu Lingzhi's [-] troops for three days.

In the tent, after Cao Wei saw Pan Mei's secret order, his face was livid, and he punched the wooden table next to him, cursing: "Pan Mei is too deceitful. Although our army is braver than the Tang army, the water battle is better than the Tang army. Weaker. Now the number of people is so different from that of Tang Jun, and it still makes us drag for three days."

Yang Yanping picked up the official secret order that Cao Wei threw on the ground, and his face was equally ugly. Pan Mei left the two of them here to watch Lin Renzhao, and lost the opportunity to go south to attack the city and plunder the land and make great contributions. My heart was on fire, but Lin Renzhao's men and horses were no small matter, and someone had to do this matter. Although the two were extremely dissatisfied, for the sake of the overall situation, they would not say anything.Now that Pan Mei actually gave them such an unreasonable order, the new hatred added to the old hatred, and the two finally couldn't help but began to insult the coach.

The so-called "soldiers take obedience to orders as their bounden duty" is not as strict as the professional soldiers of later generations in this era, but the requirements on the battlefield in this era are even stricter than those of later generations. Obeying the order of the Shangguan, the Shangguan beheaded him on the spot, and he killed him as soon as he killed him. It was reasonable and no one could say anything. If he died, he would die in vain, and his death would be worthless.

Therefore, the insults by Cao Wei and Yang Yanping belonged to insults, but now Pan Mei’s order cannot be disobeyed. Otherwise, although Pan Mei will not behead the two of them because of Cao Wei’s death, she can use this as an excuse to treat the two of them. The two were convicted.At the least, the two of them will have nothing to gain in this attack on the Southern Tang Dynasty, and at the worst, they will be demoted and even Yang Yanping will be imprisoned.

Just when Cao Wei and Yang Yanping frowned and thought hard about how to complete Pan Mei's military order, a mysterious guest ushered in the two army's garrison.

Bai Zixuan, the eldest son of Bai Chenao, the previous sword master of Yangzhou, is 38 years old, and his swordsmanship is superb. Although he can't compare with Bai Canghai and Ye Chen, there are very few people in the world who can surpass him in swordsmanship.

However, Bai Zixuan's biggest feature or strength is not his swordsmanship, but his resourceful head, which Ye Chen had a deep understanding of when he was in Yangzhou two years ago.

In addition, as Bai Canghai is the assassination officer of Huaxia Weifu, Jianzhuang's close relationship with Huaxia Weifu and Ye Chen cannot be hidden from the world, let alone Maitreya Jiaolou Yanming and Shangguan Bingyun.In the past two years, the Maitreya Sect has used various methods to deal with Jianzhuang, but even under such circumstances, Jianzhuang still firmly guards the Yangzhou base camp, and has never moved to the territory of Song State according to the arrangement of Ye Chen and Bai Canghai. Way to act.Apart from the strength of the hundreds of swordsmen in Jianzhuang, this is the reason why Bai Zixuan's personal skills are too powerful.

In fact, Bai Zixuan is the only person Ye Chen has ever seen who can compete with Shangguan Bingyun and Yufeng if it is only counted as resourcefulness.At the beginning, Ye Chen brought Princess Yongqing to the Wuyue Kingdom, and later he was able to subdue Wuyue by himself by chance, and Bai Canghai reminded him of this.Therefore, apart from Bai Zixuan's extraordinary resourcefulness, Ye Chen has a deep understanding.

That's right, the one who came was Bai Zixuan.Cao Wei and Yang Yanping knew the relationship between Ye Chen and Jianzhuang, so they didn't neglect Bai Zixuan.

Bai Zixuan came here to bring them a big surprise.

Bai Zixuan came here to offer a plan, and when he told the plan, Cao Weihe couldn't help clapping his hands and exclaiming: "Okay, good! Brother Bai has a clever plan, it's like the rebirth of Sun Wu, and the rebirth of Kong Ming, what a wonderful plan! But, How can brother Bai be sure that the strong winds in this season are all east or northeast winds?"

Bai Zixuan said with a smile: "My Bai family has been on the banks of the Yangtze River for a hundred years. At this time of year, the wind is either east or northeast. Zhu Lingzhi knew this, but he couldn't tell when the wind would blow, but in the next But we can see that, and that’s how we win.”

Cao Wei and Yang Yanping looked at each other, and the last doubt in their hearts disappeared.

Cao Wei and Yang Yanping immediately acted on Bai Zixuan's strategy, deployed urgently, and planted countless long poles and large trees between Zhoupu in Jiangzhong.Looking from a distance, it looks like the masts on thousands of large ships, densely packed and numerous.

Although it is the end of March at this time, the Yangtze River is still in the dry season, and the water surface is shallow.Zhu Lingzhi's warships could only sail along the center of the river, and their movements were very slow.

The warships lined up one after another.Zhu Lingzhi stood under the banner of the leading boat, majestic and majestic.When we reached the Wankou area, we saw countless masts and masts on the river in the distance.Zhu Lingzhi was shocked, thinking that the warships of the Song army had set up an ambush here, he hurriedly ordered to stop the advance, and sent sentry ships to find out the truth.

When he was hesitating and lingering, Cao Wei led the navy general Liu Yuqin and led the warship, and suddenly killed him.The golden drums were beating together, the arrows were raining like rain, and the sound of shouting and killing was earth-shattering.

Zhu Lingzhi hurriedly ordered the soldiers to pour ointment on the raft in front of them and light a big fire. For a while, the surface of ten li Wang turned into a sea of ​​flames and smoke.

Zhu Lingzhi originally thought that relying on the soaring fire would be enough to destroy the Song Army, but unexpectedly, at this moment, a northeasterly wind blew up.The huge fire wave reversed its momentum and rushed towards the fleet of the Southern Tang army. The Southern Tang army never thought that they would play with fire and set themselves on fire. Suddenly, thousands of warships turned around and fled, flying like headless flies in the river. In the middle of the crowd, you crowded each other and rampaged, many ships were on fire, and the soldiers jumped into the water to escape.Ships that did not catch fire also became hasty, colliding with each other, capsizing in severe cases, and leaking in light cases.

Cao Wei took advantage of the situation and ordered a fierce attack, all arrows were fired.The army of the Southern Tang Dynasty had already been burned to the ground, how could it be vulnerable?Many soldiers on the warships dared not fight any more, and hastily raised white flags to beg for surrender from the Song army.

Zhu Lingzhi saw that the [-] army and countless warships were destroyed, and knew that the situation was over, so he looked up to the sky with a long sigh, jumped into the sea of ​​fire, and burned himself to death.

In this battle, [-] broke [-], and the Song army won a complete victory, confiscating more than [-] warships and countless weapons.I lost less than a thousand.Such a big victory was the first time that the Song Army had conquered the Southern Tang Dynasty. Even though Cao Wei and Yang Yanping had not participated in the attack on Jinling, they were still among the top generals in the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Li Yu's only teacher who worked hard for the king disappeared overnight, and his last hope was shattered.Li Yu burst into tears when he got the news.His younger brothers Li Congshan and Xu Xuan came to comfort him and told him that the Song Dynasty was so powerful that the disaster of national subjugation was inevitable.

Li Yu thought so, so he called a group of ministers to discuss and prepare to submit the surrender form.

However, Prime Minister Han Xizai, Guoshi Lou Yanming, and ministers Chen Qiao, Zhang Bo, and Wang Dongyang all strongly opposed it, and Chen Qiao even admonished him with death.They believed that although Jinling had been besieged, it was still impregnable.The Song army was unable to attack for a long time, so it was bound to retreat.

Li Yu is a very uninitiated person, and a glimmer of hope has been rekindled.While asking Lou Yanming, Chen Qiao, and Zhang Bo to defend the city, he begged Song Zhao Kuangyin to retreat.

Xu Xuan, a scholar of the Southern Tang University, is good at speech and eloquence. He is said to be eloquent and his tongue is like a sharp knife.Li Yu wanted to send him and Zhou Weijian, another eloquent debater, to Kaifeng together, and brought Li Yu's personal letter to meet Emperor Song, intending to talk and laugh.

Unexpectedly, Prime Minister Han Xizai took the initiative to stand up and expressed his willingness to go to Kaifeng with Xu Xuan to persuade Emperor Song.

Although Li Yu was a little surprised, he was overjoyed. Although Xu Xuan's eloquence was strong, he was inferior to Han Xizai, who was the prime minister, in terms of experience and decision-making, and Han Xizai was even more important as a prime minister.

(End of this chapter)