royal robes

Chapter 1120 Uneasy Factors
"Report~!"

"What's the matter?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Southern Tang barracks withdrew to the south. I don't know why they went down the Huai River."

After Li Jing heard the news, he immediately waved his hand to signal the messenger to retreat.Then looking at the two sons beside him, Li Congjia's resourcefulness has always been excellent, and Li Hongji has become more and more powerful recently. Li Jing knows that he is old and not as smart as a young man. Now all he has is experience.

"What do you think Zhou Jun wants to do?"

"Well..." Li Congjia said: "I think the Zhou army wants to go south to attack Luzhou."

"I don't think so."

"Then what else? The Huaihe River runs through most of the Central Plains. They don't want to cross the Huaihe River and go back to Zhou Dynasty. How long will it take?" Li Congjia has always been very confident in his judgment, and this time is no exception.Apart from attacking Luzhou, the Zhou army had no other feasible options.

Li Hongji said: "I think Zhou's army wants to go to Lu'an. Of course it is not to attack Lu'an but...the Huaihe River outside Lu'an City is less than [-] meters wide, and they can cross the river from there. However, it is two miles away from Shouzhou to Lu'an. It will take several days to travel hundreds of miles. Our navy can definitely block the waterway in advance so that the Zhou army has nowhere to escape."

"Yeah~ they can still use this trick." Li Congjia admired his eldest brother's growth. The idiot he was before is really gone. Today, Li Hongji is much wiser than the average person.

In fact, Li Congjia also knew very well that his elder brother had always been very smart, but he didn't like to use his brain and he didn't know much about the current situation.So now Li Hongji is constantly studying and using his brain to make his brain flexible again.Of course, the mastery of the current situation and region is also improving.

This was the first time for Li Congjia to be persuaded by others with a few words. If Chai Rong is not a fool, even if he captures Luzhou, it will be a dead end.If 20 troops occupy a city within the enemy's territory, they will definitely be besieged. Even if Li Jing doesn't speak, a large number of people will attack.

Unless Chai Rong was willing to give up his military power, divide the 20 army into several batches, attack the cities around Shouzhou separately, and connect all the cities into a defensive line, so as to resist the Tang army's attack.But doing so is also impossible. As long as the military power is not in Chai Rong's hands, the military power he has distributed may not be able to get back. Some people will definitely surrender out of fear, and the loss will be even greater.

At that time, Li Congjia did not expect that the Huaihe River outside Lu'an City was shallow. He also knew that Chai Rong wanted to retreat, but the Huaihe River was a great obstacle, but the soldiers had to cross the river to retreat.It is not impossible to bypass the Huaihe River, but it is too long and too far, and the chances are not great.

But outside of Lu'an City is fine, because the distance is very short, as long as you are careful, everyone can cross the river safely.After arriving in Lu'an, they don't need to build floating bridges at all, they just need to connect them with ropes.As long as you grit your teeth at a distance of less than [-] meters, even a weak person can do it.When faced with such a life-and-death choice, no soldier will shrink back.

"Hongji, how much time do you think it will take to get from here to Lu'an and then across the river? Two hundred miles, 20 people walking, and crossing the river should take a lot of time."

Li Hongji nodded and said: "That's true, I think it will be no less than 7 or 8 days. But our navy can reach the outside of Shouzhou City within three days, and it only takes one day to catch up with the Zhou army. The water route is better than the land route. The speed is too fast, so we don't have to worry at all. Zhou Jun is also helpless, because the river mouth becomes narrower as he goes downstream, and the more restrictions are imposed on the navy."

"Oh~ but it's pointless to do that, isn't it?"

"Yes, but the Zhou army has no other options." Li Hongji chuckled and said, "We have basically won this battle. It will be the end of the Zhou army when our navy comes from the Bohai Sea and the Yangtze River to the Huaihe River. But I still can't figure out one thing, why Chai Rong took this risk, if they cross the river now, although the loss is huge, the whole army will not be wiped out. But... I always feel a little uneasy."

Li Hongji was still a little worried, he felt that Da Zhou was not so easy to deal with.Chai Rong, Zhao Kuangyin, Fan Zhi, and Wang Bo were all difficult characters. After learning about their relationship with Zong Xin, Li Hongji always felt that things were going so smoothly that people couldn't believe it.

First, Chai Rong was seriously ill. He successfully attacked Zhou Jun's pontoon bridge twice, and some people even burned Zhou Jun's food and grass.It went so smoothly, everything went as expected.If these things were planned by Wu Yazi, Li Hongji wouldn't be surprised, but all these things were planned by his father and younger brother... a bit worried.

"Hongji, what are you worried about?"

Li Hongji said: "Father, I always feel that things are going too smoothly. If Taoist Wu Yazi planned all this, I would not be suspicious, but...it feels a bit strange from Jiahe's plan. "

"What do you mean? Could it be that I'm not as good as Wu Yazi?" Li Congjia said, "Brother, Wu Yazi is just a Taoist priest from outside. I'm your younger brother. How capable am I?" Don't you know?"

"What Cong Jia said makes sense, why do you look down on your own brother and father? Could it be that our ability is so poor? Wu Yazi is indeed formidable, but he is not inferior to Cong Jia, regardless of martial arts and resourcefulness. Li Jing said excitedly: "Of course, you are also very good. I, Li Jing, are very comforted by having your sons. But to be honest, if you were so good in the early years, how could it be Chai Rong's turn to beat us?" Even the Great Zhou could not be established, and when Liu Zhiyuan established the Great Han, I destroyed him."

"It's done this time. Wait a few more days and we'll be able to capture the 20 troops of Dazhou. The next step is to drive straight in and capture Bianliang." Li Congjia became more and more excited as he thought about it. problem.

Take Wu Yue first, then attack the Southern Han and Northern Han, and finally seize Western Shu to rule the world.The next step is to go north to counterattack Khitan, not to mention destroying Khitan, Li Jing hopes to take back the sixteen prefectures of Youyun in his lifetime.

"I don't know where Lin Renzhao is now, it's best to hurry up... I can't wait."

The Lin Renzhao that Li Jing was talking about was the general of the Southern Tang Navy. He was appointed as the commander of the navy because of his superb martial arts and resourcefulness.

Lin Renzhao's personality is somewhat similar to Liu Renshan's, but he is not as slow as him, but he is cautious in doing things.After Lin Renzhao became a general of the navy, he developed the navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty into the number one in the world, and the navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty could not be compared at all.

Although Zhou Jun also has some navy troops, their level is too poor to compete with them at all.Lin Renzhao would not be proud of the strength of the navy, on the contrary, he was careful everywhere and strived for a steady win.

Lin Renzhao fought against pirates in the South China Sea all the year round. The pirates from Japan often robbed passing merchant ships and coastal residents.In fact, the coastal residents have nothing to rob, but the Dongying people just like to do these things. Since the Tang Dynasty opened the sea route, there have been many such rogue pirates in Dongying.

The life in Dongying is far inferior to that in the Central Plains, so they want to rob everything here.For them, as long as it is something from Huaxia, it is a good thing.If you can grab gold and silver, it will be considered a fortune.

Therefore, Lin Renzhao's main combat target is still at sea, not only the pirates but also the Wuyue fleet.Although the combat effectiveness of the Wuyue Fleet is far inferior to that of the Southern Tang Navy, it is still a coastal country, and their naval forces are not weak.

………………

Lin Renzhao was enjoying the scenery along the way on his boat. At this time, the Southern Tang Navy had just passed Hongze Lake and was sailing towards the Huaihe River Basin.

After receiving Li Jing's imperial edict, Lin Renzhao set out several days in advance. Lin Renzhao also went to full speed. He even found a lot of trackers and ordered people to row boats to push forward.Although he didn't know what it was, Lin Renzhao vaguely felt that this time might be unusual.

The road was calm and calm. With the warm spring and the flowers blooming, the spring rains also began to fall, causing the river to rise in tide, the speed of the water became faster, and the speed of the boat was faster than expected.

It only took three days to rush from Hongze Lake to the middle reaches of the Huaihe River. Li Congjia and Huangfu Jixun had already arrived before they arrived in Shouzhou.These two people knew the situation well, and at the same time they were very skilled in martial arts, so Li Jing sent them to tell Lin Renzhao the situation here, so that he would know the importance of this matter.

After learning that Zhou Jun had not yet crossed the Huaihe River, Lin Renzhao accelerated the process and rushed directly to the lower reaches of the Huaihe River.

On the way, we encountered some pontoon debris hanging in the river. These were connected with chains and ropes. Although the head and tail were severed, there was still a wide area, blocking the fleet's way.

Lin Renzhao didn't speak at all, and the front row of the fleet directly released the small boat of the salvage team, and quickly removed all the remains without affecting the speed of the boat at all.

This was an eye-opener for Huangfu Jixun and Li Congjia, because the fleet's organization and discipline were too strong, and such a not-so-small problem could be solved without Lin Renzhao's words. The so-called well-trained was nothing more than that.

It only takes one day from Shouzhou to Liu'an by water, but it takes three days by land.The boat sailed for half a day, and the sky was getting dark. The advance troops had already found the traces of the Zhou army. Because there were too many people, they walked slowly.

If an ordinary ship encounters an iron chain across the river, there is really nothing that can be done. It may capsize if it rushes directly towards it.Because the speed of the ship is too fast, but also too heavy.Being injured by a chain or losing your balance is very dangerous.

Lin Renzhao still did not speak, and the salvage team dispatched again and directly broke the iron chain connecting the river, without any obstruction at all.

"Master Lin, the advance troops have discovered the Zhou army's camp and set up camp on the bank of the river." Zheng Yanhua, the deputy, said excitedly, "They thought they would be able to sit back and relax with an iron lock on Hengjiang, so they dared to camp on the bank of the river. Don’t you know that the Southern Tang navy is number one in the world, if you can’t even solve this little trouble, how dare you call it number one in the world?”

"Don't underestimate the enemy. There are many capable men in the enemy army. Zhao Kuangyin alone can destroy a fleet of mine. Order to slow down and watch for ambushes around. The purpose of the navy is not to fight the Zhou army. We only need to occupy the Huaihe River The right to control is to prevent them from crossing the river. Wherever Zhou Jun goes, we will follow."

"As ordered."

(End of this chapter)