Yongxing County is located at the southernmost point of Jiangxia County, west of the Yangtze River, about fifty miles away from the Yangtze River. It is close to a small tributary of the Yangtze River: Fushui, which is located on the north shore of Fushui.

After passing through the Jiugong Mountains from Yuzhang County and entering Jiangxia County, the first county town I encountered was Yongxing County. However, if you leave Yongxing County and walk north, you will have to walk more than 300 miles before you can reach Wuchang City. There are hilly mountains in the middle, and there are large forests.

Therefore, Yongxing County is particularly important for the Tang army entering Jiangxia County by land. It has been struggling for hundreds of miles and its physical strength has been exhausted, so it needs a county town to recover its physical strength.

But six days after Li Xiaogong led his army into Jiugong Mountain, overwhelming ships appeared on the Yangtze River east of Yongxing County, and even five giant ships appeared. Nearly a thousand warships and cargo ships were loaded with 80,000 main forces of the Sui army sailed towards Yongxing County.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Sui army flag was hung on the top of Yongxing County, and a temporary camp surrounded by camps appeared in the open space west of the city.

In the central army's large tent, a huge sand table had just been built, and several people were busy rectifying the sand table. The sand table was made in three months last year by the Sui army scout last year, and it was not very accurate. Especially the terrain of Jiangxia was too far from the actual situation and needed to be repaired before use.

Zhang Xuan stood in front of a map and silently stared at the Jiangxia map. There were large forests and hills to the south of Yongxing County, and then to the south was Jiugong Mountain District. In terms of time, the Tang army should have walked out of the mountain area in the past two days.

Zhang Xuan did not intend to ambush and attack the Tang army. The other party had an army of 90,000, and he led an army of 80,000. Such a large scale could not hide the opponent's scouts. Moreover, this should be a battle between the two armies, and ambushing and attacking was meaningless.

"Does Your Highness think Li Shenfu will lead his army south to meet Li Xiaogong?" Fang Xuanling walked up and asked with a smile.

Zhang Xuan looked at the map and nodded, "It's possible, I hope so too!"

Zhang Xuan didn't care much about Li Shenfu. Li Shenfu was far from his opponent. Instead, Li Xiaogong is a powerful figure. He pondered for a long time and asked again: "What do military advisors think of Li Xiaogong's biggest weakness in the army?"

"Frankly speaking, Li Xiaogong's army now has many weaknesses, physical fatigue and morale are sluggish. In fact, these are not important. I think the biggest weakness should be food."

"Does the military advisor think the other party's food will be cut off?"

"It will not be cut off, but it will definitely be even more nervous. The scout said that when they set out, they only brought a thousand mules to carry food. The grain carried by a thousand mules was just a drop in the bucket for the ninety thousand troops. They also had to rely on the dry food carried by the soldiers. And I suspect that these mules and horses were not food, but fodder or horse beans."

"The military advisor is right. There are thousands of war horses in their army. There are no big carts that transport horse materials, so there are only these mules."

Fang Xuanling smiled and continued, "We all have experience. Soldiers usually have to carry weapons and armor. The spear sheath alone weighs ten kilograms and simple luggage. These burdens are already very heavy. In addition, a soldier can only carry dry food for up to ten days. Today is the sixth day. Their dry food is only a maximum of five days. As long as we drag them for five days, the Tang army will be defeated without fighting."

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "Just like the Goguryeo army back then."

Fang Xuanling nodded, "The situation is indeed very similar now."

As the two were talking, Xu Shiji took two officials into the tent, "Master, they are here!"

The officials who came in were Huang Kai, the magistrate of Yongxing County and Li Zhishou, the county magistrate, and the two walked up to kneel down to salute, "I am here to see Your Highness, King Qi, I wish you a thousand years of life!"

Zhang Xuan smiled faintly and said, "You are not my subordinates yet, so there is no need to be so much courtesy, please get up!"

The two stood up, feeling quite uneasy. They both saw that a war was about to break out in Yongxing County. I wonder how many people it would affect?

Xu Shiji said on the side: "The magistrate of Huang County came from a famous family in Jiangxia, and Li County Wei is a local, and he is well aware of the terrain of Yongxing County."

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "I will ask Huang County Magistrate about Jiangxia County when he looks back, but now I want to first understand some of the terrain distributions of Yongxing County."

At this time, a person who was engaged in the ceremony went forward to salute, "Your Highness, the sand table has been corrected."

Zhang Xuan nodded and brought everyone to the sand table. Zhang Xuan said to Lee Jishou: "Now, I must first know where the Tang army will come out after passing through the Jiugong Mountain District?"

Li Zhishou looked at the sand table for a moment and pointed with a wooden pole, saying, "There are three roads that pass through the Nine Palaces, and of course there are some small roads, but there are no way to walk livestock and war horses. There are only three roads that can walk livestock. We call the East Line, the Middle Line and the West Line. Generally, the Western Line is unlikely. It is to go to Baling County. The journey is long. There are only the East Line and the Middle Line from Yuzhang County. The two roads are about 80 miles apart. To be honest, they are possible. I cannot be sure which line they came out of."

At this time, Fang Xuanling took the wooden pole and pointed to a narrow hill facing north and south and said: "This is called Longjiling. We found a Tang army scout on the east side of Longxuling. Can it be used as a clue?"

Huang Kai, the county magistrate next to him, said: "The hunters in our Yongxing County say that 'When you pass the dragon ridge, you won't live long'. Everyone knows that there is a very steep white rock at the top of Longxu Ridge. It is easy to get into trouble when you climb over it. It is said that it will touch the dragon's reverse scales. If the Tang army led the way by the hunters, then the hunters would never take them across the Longji Ridge."

County lieutenant Li Zhishou also nodded and said, "Huangxianjun is right. Since the Tang army scouts appeared east of Longjiling, they must have taken the eastern line. This is also the flattest and best way to walk in Jiugong Mountain."

Zhang Xuan pointed at Fushui and asked, "If there were no ships and no bridges, how should I cross the river?"

"You can cut wood and raft, or cut bamboo and raft, and you can cross the river. However, it is spring flood now. The water in the upper and middle reaches is very fast, and the rafts are easily overturned. If the water is not sufficient, it will be difficult to survive after falling into the water. You can only go downstream. Although the riverbed is a little wider, at least the water is gentle, so you can cross the river with a raft."

"What if I were to build a floating bridge with a raft?" Xu Shiji asked from the side.

"It's not possible in the upper and middle streams. As the saying goes, the water is too fast, and you can build a floating bridge downstream."

Zhang Xuan asked some questions again, and finally he changed the topic and asked: "How far is the iron mine in Jiangxia County from here?"

"Does Your Highness refer to Green Copper Mountain?"

"It is the iron mines of the Tang Dynasty now, and there should be many people mining them."

County Magistrate Huang Kai said: "It is 80 miles southwest of Wuchang County, about two hundred miles away from us. There are tens of thousands of miners working hard to mine and smel every day and night, which is the biggest source of pig iron in the Tang Dynasty."

"I understand. Thank you, the two county lords. You go back to appease the people and tell the elders in the city to stay at home and not come out. The war will not affect the county town."

The two of them were overjoyed and bowed together, "Thank you, Your Highness for protecting the people of Yongxing, and we remember your kindness in our hearts."

Zhang Xuan asked Xu Shiji to send the two county magistrates away. At this time, Fang Xuanling asked with a smile: "Does Your Highness want to intercept the Tang army based on Fushui?"

Zhang Xuan nodded, "As long as they can't pass the Fushui, we will definitely win this blocking battle."

After saying that, Zhang Xuan immediately ordered, "So let Sun Changle and General Mai Mengcai come to see me!"

Soon, two cavalry generals walked in quickly and bowed, "See the commander!"

"Two generals are exempted from gifts!"

Zhang Xuan pointed to the Fushui Road on the sand table: "Fushui is 270 miles long. General Mai can lead 10,000 cavalry personnel to intercept the upstream for a hundred miles, while General Sun also leads 10,000 cavalry to intercept the midstream for a hundred miles. You can arrange your own troops. Once you find that the main force of the enemy is going to cross the river, you must report to me immediately!"

"Abide by the orders!"

The two bowed and turned and hurried away

Just the day before Zhang Xuan deployed the cavalry to intercept the Tang army to cross the river, two personal soldiers sent by Li Xiaogong used rafts to cross the Fushui under the cover of night, and continued to urge the horses to run northeast.

Two days later, two cavalrymen arrived in Wuchang County and met Li Shenfu, the chief general of the Tang army who was in Jiangxia.

Li Shenfu was about fifty years old and was the cousin of Emperor Li Yuan. She was tall and thin. She was a famous handsome man when she was young. The wisp of whiskers under her jaw was neatly trimmed, with beautiful eyebrows and eyes, and looked a bit like a fairy-like look.

This is the first time Li Shenfu is in charge of the south. He was previously responsible for the security of Hedong County and Pujin Pass, and he replaced Prince Li Jiancheng in Taiyuan. This time Li Shenfu was transferred to Jiangxia to replace Qu Tutong. He was not very willing. The main reason is that Jiangxia is too far away from the center of power, and staying here for too long will affect his status in the court.

So Li Yuan promised him before he came to Jiangxia, and three years later he appointed him as the governor of Longyou. Only then did Li Shenfu come to Jiangxia happily to take office.

But he couldn't be happy these days. The clouds of war had already enveloped Jiangxia. The entire Yangtze River had been controlled by the Northern Sui Navy. His army could not leave the river at all. Seeing that the war was about to come, Li Shenfu was really worried.

At this time, a personal soldier reported outside the hall: "Your Highness, Prince Zhao sent someone to ask for a visit!"
Chapter completed!