Luo Yi looked surprised: "Your Majesty, why is this? Yang Ming is now in a foe. We are sending troops to take advantage of the opportunity to attack him in one fell swoop. "Chen Kefu shook his head, "Yang Ming is no longer afraid at the moment. He has become a person with little influence. What we really should see is that the recent expansion of the Chen Dynasty in Jiangnan is extremely fast. The next step is that he will become the biggest obstacle to our unification of the world."

Li Jing looked at Chen Kefu and said, "Your Majesty means that Nan Chen will win the battle between the Four Heroes of Hanzhong?" Speaking of this, Li Jing's expression became very serious.

Chen Kefu nodded. Yang Ming and Yang Hao were already defeated, and the Sui Dynasty finally became the past. Now our real enemy is Nan Chen, who also used the banner of Chen, and they are our real enemies. Chen Faxing seized a good opportunity to seize the Jianghan land in one fell swoop when we were unable to seize the Central Plains and look west. If Chen Faxing was allowed to take down Bahan Minshu again, then Nan Chen could occupy the entire south, and they would be our biggest enemy at that time. Don’t forget that the Southern Dynasty’s name was Chen, and the emperor was my father. This was not only a battle between the north and the south, but also a battle between my father and son of Chen.”

Xue Dingguo said with some confusion: "No, Nanchen just captured Jianghan, but they also lost Huainan. Now Lingnan has joined our court again. Although they advanced westward to Bahan, the Yuwen clan is also involved. It is unknown whether the Bahan belongs to him. Maybe this will be a battle of dragons and tigers. Wouldn't it be better for us to sit and watch the battle of tigers? When they fight for both sides, it will be more appropriate for us to send troops."

Chen Kefu sighed and said, "They only saw some superficial things, but did not notice some substantial things. Haven't they discovered that the Southern Dynasties have ended the previous major clans' respective ruling and loose alliance situation? The four major families of the Southern Chen, Wang, Gu, Xie, and dozens of small and medium-sized families below have now basically lost their troops. The Nanchen troops have now all returned to the hands of Chen Faxing. Even Du Fuwei, who held the last tens of thousands of Huainan army, has now become the godson of Chen Faxing. Chen Faxing has fully grasped the Southern Dynasties' army, and he has become the actual emperor of the Southern Dynasties. Everyone. Nanchen has completely changed. This is a Jiangnan Dynasty where the Shen family controls the Southern Chen army and begins to centralize power. If we still look at the current Nanchen with the previous peace of Jiangnan, maybe we will be the next Jianghan to be captured by them."

Chen Kefu planned to give Yang Xiao, who was still unwilling to surrender, and to help him continue to resist Chen Faxing and his three parties. Then, Marshal Yang Shanhui and Zhang Zhongjian divided into two armies to fight south. Of course, given the current situation of the court's food and grass, Chen Kefu's combat intention was not to regain Jiangnan in one fell swoop. Instead, Yang Shanhui and Zhang Zhongjian mobilized a small number of elite troops to raid Jiangnan.

Zhang Zhongjian commanded the four major fleets to harass and loot the territory of Nanchen along the southeast coast and the Yangtze River. The biggest goal was to harass the troops of Nanchen, mobilize the troops of Nanchen, and find an opportunity to plunder the food and food of Nanchen. Especially now, it is the time for the harvest of food in the south of the Yangtze River. At this time, the attack on the south is to grab the food that Nanchen had just harvested.

While raiding Nanchen and looting Nanchen, an elite army led by Yang Shan Club, when Zhang Zhongjian mobilized Nanchen troops to mobilize defense on the southeast coast and the Yangtze River, he rushed south from Jiujiang Prefecture, the bridgehead on the south bank of the Yangtze River that had been captured. He captured the four counties of Yuzhang, Yichun, Luling and Nankang as soon as possible.

The biggest strategic purpose of this move is to cut off the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which the Southern Dynasties now occupy, and the Jianghan and Jingxiang counties in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, completely separate them. It also opens up a channel connecting the four provinces of Lingnan. It not only cuts off the territory in the middle and lower reaches of the Southern Dynasties, but also connects the territory of Lingnan, killing two birds with one stone.

Before Zhang Zhongjian and Yang Shanhui left, Chen Kefu deliberately left the two to use imperial meals. During the meal, Chen Kefu specifically explained to the two that although the competition in Hanzhong at this time was related to future strategies, the new dynasty was just established, but actually, after the reorganization of the troops, the army of Da Chen did not increase but surrendered. After removing a large number of surrendered troops and prisoners, they were either disbanded or surrendered to village soldiers and militias, the number of Da Chen's army is now only more than 300,000, and has been transferred to various places to change into government soldiers. A large number of soldiers were distributed to land, disbanded into farmers, and undergo a long round of renovation.

Under such circumstances, Chen Kefu had neither food nor soldiers. He wanted to participate in the battle for Hanzhong, but he was not as strong as possible. Moreover, according to the analysis of the General Staff Headquarters, if Chen's army entered Hanzhong strongly at this time, the biggest possibility was to cause a joint confrontation between Shen Faxing, Yang Hao, Yu Culture and theirs. At that time, the war would likely turn into a long-term confrontation. This is the war that Chen Kefu cannot afford now.

After thinking for a long time, he planned to take action against Jiangnan this time. First, most of the soldiers in the south were in Jianghan and Bahan, and the Jiangbiao area were empty. On the other hand, as Li Jing said, the richest places today are Liaodong, Shuzhong, Huainan and Lingnan. Due to the lack of war in recent years, these four places are far superior to those in the Central Plains. The imperial court is short of food now, but the Chen army is not suitable for entering Shuzhong at this time, so it can only rob Jiangnan and open up a channel with Lingnan to obtain food from Jiangnan and Lingnan.

Chen Kefu asked Yang Shanhui how he planned to fight the south. Yang Shanhui said that he would send 50,000 troops and capture all counties in Jiangxi in half a year. This made Chen Kefu happy and a little surprised, "I didn't expect that Marshal Yang also viewed the situation in Jiangnan in this way."

Yang Shanhui looked panicked: "Did I say something wrong? If Your Majesty thinks half a year is too long, then I will almost recover the counties in Jiangnan in four months." Chen Kefu said heavily: "It is already a very powerful ability to take down Jiangnan in half a year. But now I want to say something to you, I hope I will never say it out in the future. Because this time I only need to conquer the four counties of Yuzhang, Yichun, Luling and Nankang. Because the court is short of food, I nominally give it to you.

Ten thousand troops fought south, but in fact they only gave 30,000 people. The other two outsiders were the soldiers sent to Lingnan. And the real reason was that all this was because the court's goal this time was to obtain grain, plunder food from Jiangnan, and collect food from Lingnan. The capture of the four counties was not only to cut off the east and west of Nanchen, but also to open up the north-south passage between the court and Lingnan. It was not allowed to capture more Nanchen territory at this time because we needed Nanchen food, but the court could no longer accommodate more people at this time."

Chen Kefu's words were very straightforward. Faced with the newly added territory and population of nearly half of the territory and population due to the successive victory this year, the imperial court's food shortage this time. For this reason, Chen Kefu and the prime ministers of the Shangshu Province discussed for a long time but couldn't come up with a solution. Finally, Chen Jie made a somewhat "unkind" proposal, which was to plunder the grain of the court and the people of Jiangnan and obtain grain from Lingnan.

In order to squeeze more food from Jiangnan, the people in Jiangnan may not have food available, which is a cruel thing. If the Chen court does not recover all parts of Jiangnan, then the court will do this only a normal way for the two countries to fight. But if the court occupys various prefectures in one fell swoop, the situation will be complicated. At that time, the people in Jiangnan are also people of the court, and the court will not be able to collect all the food of their people in Jiangnan and eat it for the people in Henan, Hebei, Shandong and other places.

So in the face of this situation, Chen Jie's proposal was to suck blood. He would not seize these Jiangnan prefectures that could be seized for the time being, but only the court plundered and robbed grain. In this way, the court not only took food, but also did not have to take into account the people in Jiangnan, and did not have to bear bad reputations. Moreover, compared with the court's harassment and plundering operations, the court needed to mobilize less troops and horses, and consumed less food and grass, and the situation was stronger.

This practice of deliberately releasing all parts of Jiangnan and not regaining their territory, but only sucking blood to supply Henan, Hebei and other areas has recovered its territory. It is indeed cruel, at least for the people of the more than a dozen counties in Jiangnan. But the court had only one way at this time. This is why, in the face of such a big move as the Conquest of the South, Chen Kefu sent Yang Shanhui, the least famous of the top ten marshals.

Yang Shanhui was also moved when he heard the emperor explaining this in person. He also realized in an instant that his biggest responsibility for going south this time was not to recover Jiangnan, but to collect grain.

On the second day, Yang Shanhui and Zhang Zhongjian and his party quietly left the capital without any grand ceremony. They even quietly put in a quiet manner. Chen Kefu put on a casual uniform and took a team of guards to send two commanders by the Luoshui River at dawn. The two went south this time and took away more than 100 middle and lower-level officers from the Pojun Martial Arts Hall in Luoyang. These were all outstanding officers who were selected and taught in the martial arts hall that were originally directed by Hebei. This time, this time, the Chen army in Jiangnan will enrich the Chen army and make the court more firmly grasp the troops.

Yang Shanhui and his team had just left, but another group of people had just arrived outside Luoyang City in silence. This was a large army of up to thousands of people, and the leader was the Concubine Shu Li Xiuning, who was riding horses and guarding dozens of female soldiers.

Behind her, the former Li Tang ministers also accompanied the team. Li Yuan's old ministers Pei Ji, Feng Deyi, Tang Jian, Dou Wei brothers, Wen Daya brothers, Liu Hongji, Yin Kaishan, Liu Zhenghui, Ren Gui, Yang Gongren, Feng Li, Xie Shufang, Li Gang, Du Yan and others. In addition, Li Shentong, Li Daozong, Li Xiaogong, Li Xiaoan, Li Daoxuan, Li Daoan, Linghu Defen, Chai Shao, Shi Wanbao and other generals, as well as Li Yuan's son, Li Zhiyuan, currently the head of the Li family, and Li Wujing, Li Yuanchang and other children of Li Yuan's age.

The old ministers and Li clans of the Li Tang in Hedong were basically all in the team. As soon as Chen Kefu ascended the throne, he immediately gave the officials and ministers of the Li clan and the former Li family. Then an imperial edict ordered all the civil and military officials of the Li clan and the former Li family to be transferred to Luoyang, the capital.
Chapter completed!