After the Eastern Expedition was issued, Li Yuan transferred his energy from the military. In addition to waiting for Li Xiaogong's war report, he no longer paid attention to the war in the south. It was already late February, and annual local reports came one after another. This was also the busiest period of Li Yuan's year.

In the imperial study, Li Yuanzheng discussed the imperial examination with Prime Minister Chen Shuda and Prince Jiancheng. Since the Northern Sui Dynasty advanced the imperial examination time to early March, Li Yuan also considered following up and held the imperial examination for the Tang Dynasty at the beginning of March.

At this time, a eunuch reported at the door: "Your Majesty, Your Highness, the King of Qin, said there is an urgent military situation to ask for a meeting!"

Li Yuan nodded, "Supreme him come in!"

After a moment, Li Shimin quickly walked into the imperial study room, knelt down and bowed, "My son is paying homage to my father!"

"The emperor is exempt from gifts!"

Li Yuan asked: "What emergency military information does the emperor have to report to me?"

"Father, the situation in Jianghuai is probably not as simple as we know."

Li Shimin then reported the information that Yao Silian and Chu Liang accidentally obtained in detail. Li Yuan's brows were already frowning, and he said for a while: "Don't the emperor think this information is a bit incredible?"

Seeing that his father did not believe his words, Li Shimin hurriedly said, "Father, those merchants and ministers have detained them, especially the fur merchant who spent the winter in Huoshan County. The minister reexamined him again. He had no problem. The situation was completely consistent. Father, tens of thousands of Sui cavalry hid in the Jianghuai River. Du Fuwei could even make trouble in the Jianghuai River. Is this possible?"

Li Jiancheng next to him said: "Even if the information provided by this merchant is real, when the cavalry entered Huoshan County in November last year, we had just considered using Du Fuwei. These tens of thousands of cavalry should not be targeting Du Fuwei, but had other intentions."

Chen Shuda also said solemnly: "Your Majesty, since Your Highness has confirmed it, we should accept this reality. Perhaps there are some situations in Jianghuai that we do not understand. After all, so far, we have not received direct reports from Du Fuwei, and it is all heard of all kinds of hearsay news. Your Majesty, I believe that we must send someone to Lujiang County to confirm the situation."

Li Yuan was upset by this unexpected information, and his second son always swept his excitement. His anger gradually rose in his heart. Seeing Li Shimin wanting to speak but stop, he shouted dissatisfied: "You still have anything to say together!"

Li Shimin already felt that his father was angry, but if he didn't say some words, the consequences would probably be even worse. He gritted his teeth and whispered: "I agree with the emperor's opinion, and I also think that Zhang Xuan had other intentions to send cavalry into the Jianghuai River."

"What are the intentions?"

"Father, son minister thinks that Zhang Xuan wants to attack Jiangxia."

"Enough!"

Li Yuan shouted angrily and interrupted Li Shimin's words. He could no longer help but angry, pointing at Li Shimin and scolding: "Everyone is stupid, but you are the smartest. Do you think I don't understand your little thoughts? I tell you that this is the last time. If you try your best to overturn the case for him, I will directly dismiss him."

Li Shimin knelt down and said in tears: "I am not going to overturn the case for Qu Tutong. I am worried that Zhang Xuan had already stationed heavily in Jianghuai. At that time, not only will our Eastern Expedition fail, but even Jiangxia, Xiangyang and other counties cannot be protected. Father, it is related to the overall situation, so we cannot be careless!"

Li Jiancheng and Chen Shuda also knelt down and asked the emperor to calm down. Li Jiancheng advised: "Father, Chen's plan is more feasible. Regardless of whether Du Fuwei succeeds or not, we should send people to contact Du Fuwei. He is the one we have inserted into the Jianghuai River and should be under our control and cannot let him get out of control."

Although Li Yuan was dissatisfied with his son's constant opposition to the Eastern Expedition, he was actually worried that something would happen to Jianghuai. It was just that his son happened to step on his sore spot, so he became furious.

Li Yuan calmed down his anger a little and said to Chen Shuda: "I will leave this matter to the Prime Minister to deal with it. I will immediately send someone to Lujiang County to contact Du Fuwei. I need his performance report."

After Li Xiaogong launched the Eastern Expedition, the Tang army was in a state of power, and the officials of counties along the way surrendered one after another. The 20,000 troops led by Li Xiaogong advanced rapidly. They were not blocked. Five days later, the army entered Jiujiang County.

The Tang army first arrived in Fengcheng County, which was the county seat of Jiujiang County. When the army was at the city, the prefect Zhu Wen led a group of officials out of the city to surrender. Of course, Zhu Wen did this with Zhang Xuan's prior permission. Otherwise, escaping to Jiangbei by boat was the most beneficial choice for him. Otherwise, once the Sui army came back, how should these officials who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty face?

Zhu Wen raised a pot of soil and said, "We are willing to offer the city to surrender to the heavenly army, and only beg your highness to be kind to the people, to restrain military discipline, and not to indulge soldiers."

Li Xiaogong ordered his soldiers to take over the surrendered land. Even if Lujiang County was taken back to the Tang Dynasty, he smiled at Zhu Wen and said, "The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty has always been kind and kind to the people. Since he is already a citizen of the Tang Dynasty, how can I entrust the army to disturb the people? Please rest assured that the army will not enter the city."

Zhu Wen was overjoyed and waved his hand again. A team of mule carts drove out of the city, and the car was filled with slaughtered pigs and sheep. Zhu Wen smiled and said, "There are three hundred pigs and a thousand sheep here. It is the wish of the people of Fengcheng to the army. Please accept it."

Li Xiaogong laughed and said, "thank you!"

He ordered the soldiers to take over the pigs and sheep, and asked the deputy general to lead the army to station outside the East City, and then whispered to Zhu Wen: "There is something I want to inquire about, please don't hesitate to the prefect Zhu!"

Zhu Wen walked aside with him, and Li Xiaogong said slowly: "We only stay in Fengcheng County for one hour at most. When the ships are collected, the army will set off. But I really want to know the situation in Pengze. I wonder how much can the prefect Zhu tell me?"

Zhu Wen smiled bitterly and said, "I understand what Your Highness means, but I'm afraid you will disappoint Your Highness. I know Pengze County very well, but the local government cannot ask about the situation of the garrison in Pengze County, and we also know nothing."

"Of course I won't ask about the details. I just heard that there is a huge warehouse in Pengze County. Is this news true?"

"This is true, because Pengze County is the foundation of the navy. It was built three years ago to store grain and food resources. It was not a large warehouse, and there were at least fifty large warehouses, right next to the navy camp. After it was completed, I had visited it."

"We got the information, and there were at least 300,000 stones of food stored there. Is it true?"

Zhu Wen shook his head quickly, "I don't know very well, so I can't talk nonsense."

"What do you think of the prefect?"

"Since this is the location of the Navy Army's yamen, there must be food quality in the warehouse. Otherwise, what the army eats is just how much food it has."

"I understand, thank you, Prefect Zhu for telling the truth."

At this time, a soldier rushed over and reported: "Your Highness, our ship has arrived at the dock!"

If you take land, you must cross the mouth of Panyang Lake from Fengcheng County to go to Pengze County. Otherwise, you have to go south and bypass the entire Poyang Lake, and the journey will increase by thousands of miles. Therefore, the Tang army collected civil ships along the way, and collected 80 civil ships, cargo ships, passenger ships, and fishing boats in Fengcheng County alone.

Li Xiaogong was very anxious. He not only wanted to seize the food from Pengze County, but also wanted to seize the cargo ships there. According to the naval army deployment map, there were hundreds of cargo ships of more than 2,000 stone, including two Hengyang boats. If he could seize these cargo ships, then their logistics transportation problems would be solved.

Li Xiaogong made a quick decision and said, "Transfer my order, and the army will immediately cross the lake and advance eastward!"

．

．

．

．

．

．

Li Xiaogong knew that Lai Hu'er had led the main force of the navy to the Jianghuai River to support him, so there should be only a small number of warships, navy troops and a large number of cargo ships left in Pengze Lake. In order to prevent ships from leaving Pengze Lake, the Tang army must attack the Sui army camp in Pengze County as quickly as possible.

Since the Tang army took time to cross the lake, in order to seize every opportunity, Li Xiaogong ordered the powerful general Shi Huaiyi to be the vanguard and lead three thousand troops to cross the river first. Without waiting for the main force, he directly led his army to attack Pengze County.

Pengze County is located in the northeast of Jiujiang County. Pengze Lake in its territory is connected to the Yangtze River. It is a natural lake port. It has become the base camp of the Sui Army Navy. At most, nearly a thousand large and small ships were moored in the lake, including warships and cargo ships. Officials, warehouses and camps were built on the shore. The main force of the Yangtze River Navy was stationed here. In addition, the Sui Army Navy had another part of the navy in Jiangning.

Since the main force of the Sui Navy rushed north to support the Jianghuai River, there were only less than forty left-behind warships and two thousand Sui soldiers left in Pengze Lake.

However, there were still a large amount of resources in the Sui Army camp in Pengze Lake that had not had time to transfer, including weapons, armor, grain tents and other strategic materials, as well as hundreds of cargo ships.

According to the notes on the naval army deployment map, there are at least 300,000 stones of grain in the warehouse.

Just as dawn, Tang army general Shi Huaiyi led three thousand vanguards to a hundred steps away from the Sui army's naval camp.
Chapter completed!