The next morning, the Sui army began to climb 6 in Danyang County on a large scale. In addition to the 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry that first landed, another 30,000 infantry came ashore this time, and another 20,000 naval troops occupied Yanling County. Yanling County, also known as Jingkou, today's Zhenjiang, is also the starting point of the Jiangnan Canal. It captured Yanling County and allowed the Northern Sui navigator to gain a foundation for entering the south of the Yangtze River.〔＜(??

But Zhang Xuan had his own action plan. Winter was coming, and he did not want to fight this battle in winter. He had to complete his strategic deployment in Jiangnan first, not only to attack Wujun, Kuaiji and other counties, but also to eliminate Lin Shihong in the next step.

So the first step was to build a foundation in Jiangnan. This was Zhang Xuan's usual method. He built the foundation of Qinghe County on the other side of the Yellow River, so that the Qingzhou army could enter Hebei smoothly. He captured Shangdang County and Changping County a few months ago, which also laid the foundation for the Sui army to enter Bingzhou.

The same is true this time. Zhang Xuan chose Danyang County as his first base for going south and spent a winter to fully control it.

Ten days later, the Sui army vanguard captured Qua County, which was guarded by only more than a thousand soldiers. At this time, Meng Haigong's army had retreated south to Piling County. With the 50,000 Sui troops fully stationed in Danyang County, the threat faced by Jiangning County was lifted. More than 100,000 Jiangning people who had lived on the other side for a full twelve days began to cross the river and head south, and began to return to their homes 66.

The Sui Army camp outside Jiangning City has been built. This is a huge wall-shaped barracks no less than Jiangning City. The circumference is twenty miles long, with 6,000 large tents and a vast training ground. At this time, 50,000 troops were neatly arranged on the training ground and receiving the lectures of the supreme commander of the Sui Army. Zhang Xuan stood on a two-meter-high wooden platform, with more than a dozen generals standing behind him.

In the slightly chilling river breeze, Zhang Xuan's voice was heard far away.

"From Xuzhou to the Central Plains and then to the south and the south, we fought south and made great achievements, which was enough to make us boast about our descendants. Today we crossed the Yangtze River and prepared to sweep across the south of the Yangtze River. But not now, what we need now is rest. When the New Year is coming, we must eat and drink, write letters to our families far away to report safety, actively train, and wait for the drum of war in spring to be ringed."

Zhang Xuan took a deep breath and swept the faces of every soldier with a sharp gaze. He seemed to hear the soldiers' heartbeat, and slowly said: "Many veterans still remember that a few years ago we had only a few thousand people, occupying a county in Beihai. But to this day, we already have Qingzhou, Hebei, Xuzhou, Central Plains, Jianghuai, thousands of miles of fertile fields, with a population of over 20 million, but not enough! After the spring of next year, we will start to march towards Jiangnan. I will lead all the soldiers to sweep the south. That will be our new journey. Our goal is the world. We must unify the world and forge the most powerful empire. The soldiers, use our roar to express our mood at this time!"

Zhang Xuan raised his right arm and shouted: "We will win!"

"It will win!"

Fifty thousand soldiers shouted together, and tears of excitement surged in everyone's eyes. A belief that he was willing to die generously burned in their hearts. Everyone, whether it was a soldier or a general, shouted loudly, "I will win."

In the Tai Chi Palace in Chang'an, Li Jiancheng hurriedly walked up the steps in front of Wude Hall, but heard someone calling him behind him. When Li Jiancheng turned around, he saw that it was the Shangshu Pushe Pei Ji. During this period, Pei Ji deliberately cursed Li Jiancheng and invisibly alienated Qin King Li Shimin. Li Jiancheng also took advantage of the situation to win over Pei Ji. The two had gradually reached an alliance relationship.

There was a reason why Pei Ji cursed Li Jiancheng. Because Li Yuan was intoxicated by alcohol and sex in the harem, he fainted at the dynasty meeting on the fifth day of the dynasty, which attracted the discussion and concern of the ministers. Pei Ji even secretly bribed the imperial doctor Xi to understand Li Yuan's physical condition. The imperial doctor implicitly told him that if the emperor continued to indulge himself like this, he might get seriously ill within three years.

It was because of worrying that Li Yuan's life would not last long that Pei Ji turned to Li Jiancheng's thigh and gave up his usual position of supporting Qin King Li Shimin.

Li Jiancheng stopped and laughed: "I thought I was late, but I didn't expect the Prime Minister to be late."

"Just just counted the newly-made armor in the military weapon supervision warehouse. I guess the emperor will ask about this matter today."

"Oh, I wonder if the soldiers and armor are enough for new recruits now?"

In the past two months, the Tang army recruited 130,000 new soldiers in Guanlong, making the Tang army's strength reach 300,000, but the logistics failed to keep up. The main reason was that the armor left in Chang'an in the Sui Dynasty had been exhausted, but the progress of the forging of the new soldiers' armor could not keep up, which affected the army's formation, which made Li Yuan very angry.

Pei Ji smiled bitterly and shook his head, "There is still a gap of 40,000 sets of soldiers."

"so much!"

Li Jiancheng was surprised, "What causes it? Are there insufficient craftsmen?"

"The lack of craftsmen is only one aspect. The key is that there is no pig iron in our warehouse. Without pig iron, it is difficult for a good cook to cook without rice!" Pei Ji sighed deeply.

Li Jiancheng was about to ask again, but at this moment, an eunuch walked out quickly and saw the two of them. The eunuch hurriedly stepped forward and said, "The Lord is going to be angry, Your Highness and the Prime Minister, go quickly!"

Li Jiancheng nodded and walked quickly into the hall with Pei Ji.

In the imperial study room, Li Yuan was full of anger and walked back and forth with his hands in his arms. In the hall, Li Shimin, Chen Shuda, Liu Wenjing, Tang Jian, Cui Mingan, Dou Guan, Dugu Huaien and other important officials stood with their hands down, and no one dared to speak.

"I talked about recruiting troops a few months ago. It's the end of the year and recruiting troops has not been completed yet. Who do I raise? Are there people I have to buy? "

Li Yuan became more and more angry as he said it. He grabbed a stack of memorials on the case and threw it hard on the ground. "It's all a bunch of incompetent people. Liu Wuzhou fought for two years but could not take it. He sent troops to the Central Plains and returned empty-handed. Zhang Xuan had already taken Jiangnan, but we couldn't take a step east. What's the face of you receiving my salary?"

Everyone knelt down, "Your Majesty! Stop your anger!"

At this time, the eunuch reported at the door: "Your Highness the Crown Prince and Prime Minister Pei are asking for a meeting!"

"Let them in!"

Li Yuan sat down dejectedly in his seat, waved his hand and said, "I am a little out of control, you all get up!"

Everyone stood up and felt very ashamed. Today they received a quick report. After the Sui army destroyed Du Fuwei, they sent troops to Danyang County. The Jiangnan gentry surrendered to Zhang Xuan. The news shocked everyone. Unexpectedly, the Sui army expanded so quickly that everyone felt a very heavy sense of crisis.

After a moment, Li Jiancheng and Pei Ji walked into the imperial study one after another, stepped forward and bowed, "See Father! See Your Majesty!"

Li Yuan blamed Li Jiancheng unhappily, "Why are you here now? Don't you know I'm waiting in a hurry?"

"I reported to my father, my son was about to go out of the palace to inspect the market. As soon as I walked to the Zhuque Gate, I learned that my father had been summoned, so my son rushed over."

Li Yuan looked at Pei Ji again with dissatisfaction, and Pei Ji hurriedly said, "I am counting the military weapon supervisors who have just entered the warehouse, so I am a little late. Please forgive me!"

"You all have excuses, just let's just keep your body flat!"

The two of them saluted and stood up, and Li Yuan said to Li Jiancheng again: "I have brought everyone here today. I believe the emperor knows the reason. The gentry in Jiangnan was forced by Meng Haigong and surrendered to Zhang Xuan. The power of the Northern Sui Dynasty has expanded to Jiangnan, but we are unable to move forward. Even the simple matter of recruiting troops has been delayed for several months. I am really disappointed and angry."

Li Jiancheng bowed and said, "Father, the slow progress in recruiting troops is not because the ministers are not doing their best. Recruiting troops itself is not a simple matter. It requires corresponding national strength to support it. It not only requires a lot of money and food, but also requires corresponding weapons and armor. The reason why we set the troops at 200,000 was because our military inventory could only supply 200,000 people. Now, 130,000 people have increased sharply, and the supply of weapons and armor is insufficient."

Li Yuan snorted coldly, "What do you mean is that we have not even made a knife in the past two years, and we are all consuming the old capitals of the previous dynasty. Is this what it means?"

"I don't mean that. The armor will be consumed continuously. A knife can only participate in two battles at most and cannot be used. The armor is the same. It is easy to damage and difficult to repair. In the past two years, we have also built a large number of armor, but the consumption is too large, so it seems a bit ineffective."

Li Yuan ignored him and asked Pei Ji again: "Pei Xiangguo said just now that he was counting the newly entered military armor. I want to know, how much is there for us now?"

"Your Majesty, you're probably still short of 40,000 sets of armor."

Everyone was in an uproar, and Li Yuan said angrily: "Why are there so many differences?"
Chapter completed!