Li Zhigao and Chai Jian certainly knew how dangerous the current situation was for them.

In addition to the local state soldiers, the Xiangbei Army is mainly composed of Zuo Longque Army, Zuo Wuwei Army and Zuo Longwu Army. The generals of the three towns, including the team leader, Wu Commander, Shi Chang and other grassroots military attachés, all came from Tan.

Recruitment from the garrison military offices in Lang, Yue, Deng, Xiang, and other places.

There are 45,000 regular soldiers in the three towns, of which nearly 26,000 are from the military garrison in Tanzhou, Langzhou and Yuezhou. This is in line with the large number of Tanzhou surrendered soldiers who were recruited in the later period of the war to reduce the vassal state.

, it was related to the on-site compilation of soldiers in the military government. This was once the main source of soldiers for the Forbidden Army, followed by soldiers from Jiangxi and Jiangdong.

Once the news of the failure of the palace transformation spreads, the minds of these generals will become extremely unstable.

Even though it is difficult for low-level military attachés and generals to control their own destiny, and they are more likely to be coerced by mid-level and senior generals in war, they cannot be expected to have high combat effectiveness and morale, and it is even difficult to avoid large-scale fleeing in the future.

When An Ning Palace fled north across the Yangtze River, the Shouzhou Army must have had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. However, until the Hongzepu battle, Liang Jun secretly used a plan to destroy the Wuya Army Navy and the Youshenwu Army, and they were unable to launch a decent counterattack.

.

In addition to the shortage of supplies, another main reason is that in addition to the Ya Army, a large number of Shouzhou Army generals and their families were abandoned on the south bank of the Yangtze River, which severely damaged the morale of the army.

In addition, there are about 2,000 regular soldiers in the Xiangbei Army, who come from the Taowu Jitunying Military Mansion in Gyeonggi Province.

The earliest generals of the Longque Army were all recruited from Taowu Jijunfu. After many bloody battles, the soldiers stationed at Taowu Jijunfu suffered heavy sacrifices. On the one hand, the number of soldiers dropped sharply. On the other hand, the Longque Army was split into left and right Longque.

Army, and the Youlongque Army, under the command of Zheng Hui, is currently entering the jurisdiction of the Qingyuan Army Jiedu Envoy to fight. Later, some elite soldiers and generals were recruited into the ranks of the guards and pro-army, resulting in the Taowu Ji army

The proportion of military households in the Xiangbei Army has been greatly reduced.

Although this group of generals is small in number, they are the most elite veterans.

Before the palace coup, both they and Jinling had hoped to incorporate these old soldiers into the planned new Youwu Xiang Army, and they also intended to concentrate them under Li Qi's command. They are currently stationed at Wuguan with Li Qi.

Once the news of the failure of the palace coup, Li Pu's suicide and Li Changfeng's death by a random blade at Jinghaimen reached Wuguan, it would be hard for them to imagine that Li Qi would still choose to stand with them.

This also means that Li Qi's troops may become their most direct threat; of course, they can currently block the narrow passage between Wuguan and Jingzikou, temporarily isolating Li Qi from Junzhou

.

The day before yesterday, they also sent people to Jingzhou to ask for a meeting with Zhang Wei, but the messenger fled back in embarrassment under the arrows and failed to enter Jingzhou City to see Zhang Wei.

Zhang Wei did not directly order the messenger to be shot and killed under the Jingzhou City, but he already cared about the old friendship. However, under the current situation, it was impossible for Zhang Wei to choose to stand with them. Even when the official order from the imperial court came, Zhang Wei's troops were very worried.

It may be the vanguard army attacking Xiangbei.

The ones they can really have better control over are the generals whose families are all in Xiangbei and recruited from the military mansions of Xiang and Dengjun. This group of troops only has about 17,000 people.

And under the current situation, don't expect them to have high fighting will for the time being.

More critical is the supply of military supplies such as grain and fodder.

In the past, the Privy Council would deliver supplies such as grain, salt, iron, and soldiers' armor worth up to 150,000 yuan every month. In addition, the local government would raise part of it to cover the military garrison and war expenses in the three towns. It was still comfortable and nourishing.

.

Later, when the central grain supply was cut off, they wanted to maintain the current scale of troops to resist the invasion. Even if they could still control the existing territory, the shortfall would be divided among the states and counties with a total population of less than one million, which would be quite large.

If each household has to pay four to five dan more for grain, how intense will the conflict with the local government become?

Is there any reason for them to be optimistic about this situation?

…………

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The family members were young and had to take official ships to evacuate directly to Xiangcheng. Only a few people such as Su Hongyu, Yao Xishui, Zhong Yanhu, Zhou Yuan, Chun Shisanniang and more than a hundred soldiers surrounded the Queen Mother Wang Chan'er and Chen De.

Anji Xiang and others landed in Yingzhou City and met Li Zhigao, Chai Jian and others.

Seeing Li Zhigao's resolute and gloomy face, which had just passed his forties but had a lot of frosty white hair on his temples, Yao Xishui felt ashamed and embarrassed. He stood beside Lu Qingxia and could not say a word.

Lu Qingxia had sent a message in advance to inform him of the detailed process of the failure of the palace coup. Li Zhigao held the sword at his waist and stood in front of the city gate, looking at the people who were hurriedly looking like bereaved dogs. He had nothing to say for a moment.

, even seeing the Queen Mother Wang Chaner, who was still gorgeous and charming in her forties, she had no intention of coming forward to salute.

Su Hongyu came over with her young son in her arms and called in a low voice: "Husband."

Li Zhigao nodded and said coldly: "It's been a hard journey."

Su Hongyu saw that Li Zhigao was still resentful, but she couldn't tell her the pain. She couldn't say in front of everyone that she didn't know about the palace change from beginning to end, or she was in such a mess after someone passed on the news after the palace change failed.

You couldn't help but follow Lu Qingxia and the others to escape from Jinling City, right?

"Dad!" Li Zhi, who had just turned sixteen, and his second son Li Tian, ​​who was not yet fifteen, both put on armor and held swords in their hands, and stepped forward to salute Li Zhigao.

Looking at his two sons who were almost as tall as him, but the childishness on their faces had not yet completely shed, Li Zhigao somewhat regretted that he had not brought them into the army for training two years earlier, so that they could hardly see the pain in their eyes at this time.

Cover up the look of panic.

Li Zhigao patted the tall eldest son Li Zhi on the shoulder, sighed softly, and said: "Everyone has been traveling all the way, so please follow me to the government office to rest first."

Chai Jian looked at his wife, concubines and disciples coming over, and just nodded with a gloomy face, not in the mood to say anything comforting. However, even if Lu Qingxia didn't bring his wife and children over, he couldn't give up his military power and run away.

Go to Jinling and throw yourself into a trap and let others slaughter you.

"Where are Zhou Shu, Chai Xun, Deng Tai and the others?" Zhou Yuan asked as he glanced at the generals beside Li Zhigao. Unexpectedly, Zhou Shu, Chai Xun, Deng Tai and others were there.

"Zhou Shu is in Suiyang, Chai Xun, Deng Tai and others are in Liangzhou." Li Zhigao said.

Of course he knew what Zhou Yuan was worried about, but at this time, was it possible for him to order Lu Qingxia, Queen Mother Wang Chan'er, the "Second Prince" and others to be detained and handed over to Jinling to give them a chance to find peace?

In fact, the remaining late Honglou forces are deeply entangled among the middle and senior generals in the three towns of Xiangbei. In fact, he has never been able to bypass Lu Qingxia and others to make decisions. This may be the reason why they have come to this end step by step.

The root cause?

…………

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The Yingzhou Governor's Mansion had been renovated a few years ago and was quite spacious. He asked the Queen Mother Wang Chan'er and others to go to the side courtyard to rest, and strictly guarded it with his direct bodyguards. Li Zhigao invited Lu Qingxia, and Zhou Yuan and others followed him to the Yamen Hall for discussion.

Follow-up countermeasures.

At this time, the sky was getting dark, and two old soldiers lit the big candle, which was burning brightly and emitting the smell of tung oil.

Lu Qingxia and the others fled westward along the river, covering 1,780 miles of waterways in seven days. They were not very strong in passing through the states along the river, but they were constantly harassed and intercepted before they arrived at Yingzhou.

Their contact with the land was almost cut off along the way.

At this time, Li Zhigao also informed them of the changes in the situation in Jinling City in the past few days:

"...Yang Yuanyan sent his son Yang Cong and secretary-general Wang Wenqian to Jinling three days ago to support the new emperor. He also asked the new emperor to abolish the Huaidong vassal state, and mobilize Zhao Zhen's troops to join the Youwu Guards to conquer Xiangbei. Jinling also made preliminary arrangements.

It was decided to organize Zhao Zhen’s troops into the Youwu Xiang Army, and they will sail westward in the near future..."

"Huaidong's reaction is so fast!"

Unexpectedly, Huaidongfei not only did not become a constraint to restrain the troops of Gyeonggi and Tangyi, but immediately asked for the reduction of vassal status, and sent elite combat forces to directly participate in the suppression of Xiangbei. Sitting behind the Tan case, Lu Qingxia,

When I heard the news, I couldn't help but feel a chill running up my tailbone.

This news means that Jinling has basically mastered the situation in the Jianghuai River. The next steps for the superiors of various states and counties and Zhang Wei to express his obedience to Jinling in Jingzhou will happen very quickly. After that, Jinling will be able to officially send troops to suppress Xiangxiang.

North.

"What's going on in Huaixi?" Zhou Yuan asked with some frustration.

The number of soldiers and horses that the imperial court could directly mobilize was limited. Zhao Zhen's troops were organized into the Youwu Xiang Army, which joined Zhang Wei's Youwu Guards. There were only 30,000 elite troops. Zhao Zhen and Zhang Wei each had their own agenda. Even if they could follow up from Hunan and Jiangxi

Each state has recruited tens of thousands of state soldiers, but it will take at least two to three months to complete the gathering of troops and horses.

The most worrying thing at present is that the elite Tangyi army attacks Wusheng, Pingjing and other passes between Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, threatening Suizhou's northeastern flank, and orders the Tangyi Navy to coordinate with the Youwuxiang Army and the Youwuwei Army along the Han

The water moved northward, tearing apart their fragile defense lines at Jingmen and Yingzhou.

"Tangyi's soldiers, horses and military supplies in Huaixi are still moving to Shouchun and Fengtai to gather. Three days ago, they successfully erected an iron cable pontoon bridge in Jiaoshan Gorge east of Fengtai to open up Cai Jin's army.

Between Qiao and Bozhou, the land route from the north to Bianjing shows no signs of moving westward for the time being." Chai Jian said with a sullen face.

A topographic map of the middle and upper reaches of the Huaihe River is hung on the west wall of the hall. The floodplain areas on both sides of the Shaying River and the specific location of the Jiaoshan Floating Bridge are also roughly marked.

The narrowest point in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River is the Xiashi Gorge on the north side of Bagong Mountain. Whether it is a suspension bridge or a pontoon bridge, it only takes 200 meters. However, the low-lying area on the north bank of the Xiashi Gorge, that is, near Xixi Stone Mountain, has been

Flooded.

Even if a suspension iron bridge is built to connect the East and West Kip Mountains, it will be difficult to pass through the floodplain area to the north of the Xi Kip Mountains, which is thirty to forty miles wide, and it is still impossible to attack from the south to the north.

Only by bypassing the flood plain, moving more than 60 miles east, and building a cable pontoon bridge in the Jiaoshan Gorge between Fengtai and Linhuai, can we open a passage from the hilly area on the north bank of the Jiaoshan Gorge and extend directly north to Qiaoshan Gorge.

The hinterland of the state.

The Jiaoshan Gorge is more than twice as wide as the Xiashi Gorge. At that time, there was no ability to build such a long cable suspension bridge and could only build a pontoon bridge. However, in such a short period of time, it was possible to build a cable pontoon bridge that could withstand the impact of upstream floods.

It is definitely a reflection of Tangyi’s strength.

The biggest problem with the pontoon bridge is that it will cut off the Huaihe River, which will cut off the connection between Tangyi's navy and the upper and lower reaches of the Huaihe River, but it also shows Tangyi's determination to send troops to the Huaihe River.

From the construction of the Jiaoshan Crossing Bridge, we can also see Tangyi’s strategic choice to send troops to the Hehuai River. They should go north along the Yingshui River by boat with a partial division, and land at the southern end of the Chen-Bian Post Road to support Liang who was defending Bianjing.

army, but the Chen-Bian Post Road is too easy to cut off and cannot accommodate many soldiers and horses moving northward, let alone support the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Bianjing City, mostly old and weak, who have withdrawn northward. The main force of the Tangyi Army should have to come from Jiaoshan

Cross the river directly, attack all the way north from Qiaozhou, seize Qiaozhou, eastern Chenzhou, Bozhou and other areas from Xu Mingzhen's Shouzhou Army, and completely open up the connection between southern Bianjing and Huaixi.

This also means that Tangyi will spare no effort to fully participate in the Hehuai War.

For Xiangbei, this is the only news that Tangyi's main troops will not move westward for the time being, which may be the only news that can make everyone less panicked.
To be continued...