Tibet

Li Lin finally set off. An army of 150,000 people marched eastward with 3,000 carts full of grain. Of course Li Lin had his plan. He was the legal envoy of Jiangnan West Road. At present, he was just He lost half of the prefectures and counties in the west, but half of the eastern half was still in his hands. He now only moved the Jiedushi official office to Xuanzhou, rather than abandoning the Jiangnan West Road.

Xuanzhou is the easternmost state on Jiangnan West Road. The border of Xuanzhou is only 150 miles away from Taihu Lake. Ningguo County in the southeast is only 300 miles away from Hangzhou. Lushui County in the northeast is only 100 miles away from Jiangning County.

It can be said that Xuanzhou is a perfect springboard. His 150,000 troops stationed troops in Xuanzhou legally and reasonably, and then they can capture the core of Jiangnan East Road, from Jiangning County to Yuhang County.

Of course, this was the plan that the two military advisors had planned for him long ago, but Li Lin had been hesitant, and now he was forced by Li Ye to move eastward. But once Li Lin moved east to Xuanzhou, he would seize Jiangnan East Road and Huainan Road His ambition is fully demonstrated.

Li Lin's army left Hongzhou by land. At the same time, his water fleet also set off. There were a total of two thousand ships of various sizes. Most of them were civilian ships, but there were also 500 medium-sized fighting ships and 2,000 ships. The ships set off in three batches. The first batch was grain and grass ships, about a thousand ships, all civilian ships. The second batch was warships carrying crude copper and silver and some civilian ships, about 700 ships. The third batch was There are about five hundred warships carrying armor and supplies.

There are a total of 2,200 ships, but only 3,000 sailors are responsible for protecting them. These 3,000 sailors are mainly aimed at fishermen and water thieves along the way, not against Li Ye's navy. Li Lin knows full well that even if 30,000 sailors are The military escort was no match for Li Ye's navy. The difference in strength between the two sides' warships was too great.

The fleet traveled north along the Gan River and entered Poyang Lake. At dawn, the first batch of ships arrived at the mouth of the lake.

At this time, Li Ye personally led hundreds of warships and was already waiting at the mouth of the lake. On the vast river, Li Ye stood on the bow of a ten-thousand-stone warship and stared at the direction of the lake mouth in the distance. At dawn, there were still people on the river. There was a thin layer of fog that loomed over the lake in the distance. In fact, his fleet was still far away from the lake mouth. They could not see the lake mouth, and the fleet coming out of the lake mouth could not see them.

The official name of Poyang Lake at this time should be Pengli Lake, but the county with the largest jurisdiction is called Poyang County, so the people in Poyang County also call it Poyang Lake, which is considered a folk name!

The speedboats came quickly, and a scout leader got on the boat. He knelt down and reported, "The first batch of boats has begun to leave the lake mouth. It stretches for nearly ten miles, and there are nearly a thousand boats. They all have flat bottoms of 300 stones." The cargo ships are divided into three teams, and the three first ships each have about two thousand dan."

Li Ye got Ji Guangchen's information, and he knew many details inside. The first batch of fleets were all forage. They were actually test ships. Only this fleet passed the Hukou garrison safely, and the second and third batches followed. Only then will the fleet continue heading north.

In fact, Li Ye was not interested in the grain and fodder of the first batch of fleets. His goal was the second and third batches of fleets.

Li Ye nodded, "Continue to monitor and report at any time!"

"Follow the order!"

The scout leader bowed and hurried off by boat.

At this time, Li Mi smiled slightly at Li Mi and said: "Your Highness, aren't you worried that this is Ji Guangchen's trick? Pretending to surrender, Your Highness sent a wrong intelligence, so that the fleet carrying copper and silver successfully escaped!"

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said, "How likely is it that the military advisor thinks Ji Guangchen is using a trick?"

"About 20%!"

Li Ye nodded, "In that case, there's no need to be grand!"

He immediately turned around and ordered: "General Yu Baosheng, listen to the order!"

"The humble post is here!" Yu Baosheng, the navy general, stepped out and said,

"General Yu can lead a hundred Mongolia clippers and three thousand brothers to Pengze County, intercept the first fleet in Pengze County, and bring the fleet back to Hanyang!"

"Follow the order!"

Yu Baosheng took a command arrow and left.

Pengze County is in the east, about a hundred miles away from the mouth of the lake. Intercepting the fleet hundreds of miles away will not affect the subsequent operations at all.

A fleet of hundreds of warships is speeding towards the east, and they will rush to Pengze County first to intercept them.

There is certainly a reason why Li Ye values ​​Ji Guangchen very much.

Ji Guangchen was different from other governors. The other governors just acted according to the prevailing situation. Their own strength exceeded King Yong, so they changed their direction and joined him.

But once the imperial troops arrived and they withdrew, these governors would turn to serve the imperial court.

Ji Guangchen and Liu Julin were different. They expressed their allegiance to him. If he left Jingxiang and went to Longyou or Hexi, they would also go with him.

He values ​​​​them, but Li Ye doesn't want to take risks. Ji Guangchen is both civil and military, and quite resourceful. It is indeed possible that he faked his surrender and deceived himself, so that the precious copper and silver could go east smoothly.

Now that the military advisor reminded him, Li Ye decided to take another insurance policy.

Li Ye continued to wait patiently, and time passed little by little. In the afternoon, the scouts came to report that the second and third batches of fleets were approaching the lake mouth at the same time and were about to leave the lake mouth.

Li Ye immediately ordered: "Send out the entire army to seize the enemy's fleet. If there is resistance, shoot to death!"

Jiang Han's fleet consists of fifty large ships worth 5,000 stones and 400 Mongoose clippers. They just took away a hundred Mongoose clippers, and now there are still 300 ships.

These 350 warships are filled with 15,000 sailors, which is more than enough to deal with the enemy fleet.

The fleet was dispatched and headed towards the mouth of the lake. Sure enough, not far from the mouth of the lake, they saw the second batch of fleets, all of which were about 500 stone fighting boats. There were five or six hundred ships, and Ji Guangchen's intelligence Exactly the same, then these bucket ships were temporarily used as cargo ships, carrying crude copper and crude silver.

Li Ye attaches great importance to this batch of blister copper. After refining 7 million jins of blister copper, 6.5 million jins of fine copper can be obtained, which can be used to mint one million coins and 400,000 taels of silver.

The price of silver is still very expensive now, still at a high level of one to four. This is equivalent to getting 2.6 million yuan, which can support an army of 100,000 for about nine months. If this is used as the capital of official trade, That would be even more impressive.

More than 500 warships of the Yongwang Army noticed the approaching warships on the river and immediately sounded the alarm.

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

Wei Zichun was shocked and quickly ordered: "Turn the fleet around and sail back to Poyang Lake!"

He wanted the fleet to escape back to Ganshui or Yushui, and hide them anywhere, so that the other party might not be able to find them.

Hundreds of fighting ships began to turn around, but it was too late. Dozens of five-thousand-stone warships came across and lined up in front of them, cutting off their retreat.

Three hundred Mongolian warships of the Jianghan Army also rushed up. The three thousand sailors on the fighting boats raised their bows and fired arrows, but it had no effect. The warships of both sides collided on the water. The Jianghan Tang Army shouted: "If the Tang Army does not kill the Tang Army, Those who surrender will avoid death!”

While shouting, they jumped on the other side's ship one after another. The number was three to one. The Yongwang army was no match at all, and they all knelt down and surrendered.

Wei Zichun was on the first boat. He heard screams outside. It was quiet for a moment. He stood up and walked out of the cabin tremblingly. Suddenly, several swords were placed on his neck. Wei Zichun was so frightened that he sat down again and raised his hands and shouted. : "I surrender! I surrender!"

The Jianghan Army drove the prisoners of war onto twenty large ships and temporarily imprisoned them under the cabins. The naval forces on the large ships controlled the second batch of nearly 700 ships, including fighting boats and civilian ships.

Soon, they checked the goods clearly and reported to Li Ye on the flagship, "Your Highness, all of them are rough copper ingots, and some may be silver ingots."

Li Ye nodded, feeling very pleased. It seemed that Ji Guangchen had not deceived him, and that he was truly loyal to him.

At this moment, the third batch of ships, about 300 cargo ships, sailed out of the lake and appeared at the mouth of the lake. They saw dozens of large ships in the distance and were frightened to turn around and wanted to go back, but were blocked by more than 30 boats. The warships intercepted the third batch of fleets, which had no escorts. They did not dare to disobey, so they had no choice but to come forward to join forces.

Seeing that all the ships had been captured, Li Ye ordered some warships to take the captured enemy ships back to Hanyang. He himself led 30 large ships and 200 Mongolian warships to sail to Poyang Lake, carrying the With ten thousand troops.

Two days later, Li Ye's fleet arrived in Yuzhang County, Hongzhou, and Ji Guangchen was already waiting for Li Ye's arrival at the dock.