[Please ask for monthly tickets first! Since Lao Gao has always been diligent, I support Lao Gao, so don’t be too ugly on the monthly ticket list.]

Yiling County was occupied silently, with only hundreds of defenders in the county. Under the strong pressure of the Sui army, they opened the city and surrendered. When the people of Yiling County woke up, the flag on the top of the city had turned into the Red Eagle Battle Banner of the Sui Dynasty.

A group of Sui soldiers patrolled the streets, and the granaries and government offices were all occupied by the Sui army. After occupying Yiling and Yichang counties, Wang Junkuo's first thing was to break the iron chain bridge of Dingshu Fort and arrange a ferry on the beach to transport people who needed to cross the river.

It should be said that the move to break the iron chain bridge is extremely vicious. Unless there is a ferry, the army can only cross the river to Jiangling County hundreds of miles away, where there are more than a hundred large ships in the Tang army.

The second thing Wang Junkuo did was to incorporate all the nearly 7,000 Tang troops captured in succession into the Sui army and carry out intensive training. All officers above the captain were all served by the Sui army. In this way, the Sui army had 17,000 troops in Yiling County.

Wang Junkuo immediately sent someone to report the matter to the head coach Yang Yuanqing.

...........

Wang Junguo's 10,000 cavalry traveled from east to west for a total of fifteen days, but from entering the Tang army in Jiangxia County to Yiling County, it took him five days and five nights, hiking at night during the day, and was extremely cautious and careful, avoiding the Tang Dynasty garrison, avoiding the county town, and marching in remote countryside.

Although the Sui army was extremely cautious, it was discovered by the local government of Ziling County when they passed through Nanjun. The Ziling County Magistrate received a report from the villagers and found a cavalry of 10,000 people passing through the border. The county magistrate immediately sent people to Jiangling County to report to the Nanjun Prefecture, and found a suspicious army, which was difficult to determine whether it was the Tang army or the Sui army.

Zhao Song, the prefect of Nanjun, realized that the situation was serious and that the Tang army in Jingxiang could not have 10,000 cavalry. He immediately found the garrison in Nanjun and asked them to report to Li Xiaogong with an eagle letter. When Li Xiaogong received this emergency report, it was already the third morning of Ziling County's discovery of the Sui army's transit.

Wang Junguo had already captured Yichang County the night before. Li Xiaogong stood on the city tower and watched Xinying gradually disappear at the end of the south. However, his heart became extremely cold, and a intuition told him that Yichang County had been lost.

Next to Jingzhou Master Shi Gao Shilian whispered: "Your Highness, you should inform the court immediately to strengthen the defense in Shu and prevent the Sui army from taking advantage of the situation to attack Bashu."

Gao Shilian was a descendant of the Northern Qi royal family and was also the brother of Changsun Sheng. After Changsun Sheng passed away, he brought his sister and nephew to the family to raise him. He betrothed his niece according to Changsun Sheng's will. He had a very good relationship with the Li family.

Li Xiaogong shook his head, "I'll report it when I haven't replied to it in the evening!"

He sighed. Turning back to the city, Gao Shilian looked at Li Xiaogong's lonely and far away back, and he sighed for it. He could understand Li Xiaogong's helplessness at this moment.

There was no panic or furious. But it did not mean that he was not in a hurry. If the Eagle Signature could be delivered in time, then with the three thousand defenders, he could fully defend Yichang County, and even the Sui Army would have no chance to cross the river.

If the Sui army had already captured Yichang County, the Tang army's large-scale counterattack would not have any effect. Li Xiaogong's anxiety and bitterness at this time was really hard to express to outsiders.

However, Gao Shilian also knew that the Sui army occupied Yiling actually had little impact on the Jingxiang Battle. Although the Sui army cut off the Tang army's way back to Bashu, the Tang army could still withdraw to Hanzhong.

The real threat to the Sui army's occupation of Yiling Road was actually Bashu, which was an impact on the overall situation of the Tang Dynasty. Gao Shilian was worried. The only way to deal with the Yiling crisis was to the court deploy heavy troops in Bashu. I wonder if there were so many troops in the court?

Li Xiaogong left the city wall and, under the escort of hundreds of personal soldiers, rode his horse toward the palace slowly. At this time, Li Xiaogong felt in chaos, and he was a little confused. He was a little confused.

Tens of miles north are Xu Shiji's 40,000 troops, and to the east are more than 100,000 Sui troops who came from Jiangnan. Now another Sui army is striking towards Yiling.

The entire Jingxiang faces three sides of the 200,000 troops of the Sui Dynasty, and he only has 80,000 troops in his hands. How should he deal with it?

Li Xiaogong returned to the palace and walked into his study. He stood in front of a huge sand table, silently staring at various places in Jingxiang on the sand table. The location of the Sui army had already checked the red flags, and he felt that there were many murderous intentions. A war was about to break out on the land of Jingxiang.

Du Fuwei's army rushed from Jiangbei to Yong'an County, Xiao Xian's army fought from Jiangnan to Jiangxia County, and there was also a Sui army fleet composed of hundreds of large ships in the river.

There was also Xu Shiji's army in Nanyang County, with 40,000 troops pressing against Xiangyang, and his army was mainly concentrated in Xiangyang, Nanjun, Jiangxia and Anlu.

He only had 80,000 troops, and it was impossible to be distributed too widely. In fact, for example, Baling County and Changsha County in the south, there were only 2,000 troops each, symbolically stationing a few troops, while other Qingjiang County, Yuanling County, Wuling County, etc. had no troops stationed at all.

Li Xiaogong picked up a red flag and planted it on Yichang County. He first thought that Yichang County had been lost. At this time, Li Xiaogong saw the iron chain bridge between Anshu City and Qiting Town, and he thought for a moment.

In fact, from this iron chain bridge, we can see Yang Yuanqing's strategic intention of seizing Yiling County. If he wanted to attack Nanjun from the west, then the iron chain bridge would definitely not be demolished, and they could not break their own path.

If Yang Yuanqing's strategic attempt was to point troops to Bashu, the Sui army would definitely demolish the iron chain bridge.

Thinking of this, Li Xiaogong immediately turned around and shouted: "Come here!"

The two personal guards quickly walked into the study and bowed, "Please give me instructions."

"Transfer my order to Lieutenant Lin, and immediately send someone to Qiting Town to investigate the situation of the Iron Cable Bridge. We must reply before dawn tomorrow!"

"Abide by the order!"

The two personal guards bowed and turned around and retreated. Li Xiaogong stood in front of the sand table with his hands on his back. Now the Sui army is still advancing westward and the battle cannot be fought for a while. The key now lies in the court. How many reinforcements can the court send?

At this time, Li Xiaogong's heart was filled with expectations for reinforcements.

.........

The vast river surface is vast, and the sky is the same in the distance. Piles of white clouds are piled up on the vast river surface like hills. This is within the Jiujiang County of the Yangtze River. A fleet of nearly 500 sea ships is sailing westward.

The huge sails bulged, and with the power of the east wind, the boat sailed rapidly. It was not far from the front of the city of Shucheng County, the capital of Jiujiang County.

Starting from Jiangyangcang, the Sui army's thousand large ships were divided into two groups, along the Tongji Canal, heading north to Liyang, transporting 200,000 stones of grain and a large amount of materials to Liyangcang. The prince Yang Ning also followed the fleet north and returned to Taiyuan.

Another fleet was led by Yang Yuanqing, and the ship was carrying 10,000 cavalry, carrying 300,000 grain, a large amount of forage, and military supplies to Jingxiang to support the Jingxiang Battle. Their destination was Jiangxia County, and the Sui Army's logistics supply base was established in Jiangxia County.

At the bow of the first big ship, Yang Yuanqing stood with his hands behind his back and stared at the distant river from afar. Hundreds of egrets hovered and soared on the river surface. The entire river surface showed a faint green color, clear water and clear sky, and the distance was as pure as a blue gem, with clear water and blue sky. This is the Yangtze River of the Sui Dynasty.

"Your Highness, there is Fengcheng County ahead, and there are still ten miles."

As the personal soldiers pointed at the small black dots that appeared in the distance, the weather was clear and the distance was very far away, and it was vaguely visible that it was the outline of a city.

Yang Yuanqing nodded, "Stop in Fengcheng County for an hour."

He needs to meet with the prefect of Jiujiang County and appease the local officials. This is very important. He not only needs to appease the south of the Yangtze River, but also needs to appease the officials of various counties along the Yangtze River.

In fact, there are Yuzhang County, Yichun County, Luling County, Linchuan County, Poyang County, etc. These prefectures and counties do not rely on the Yangtze River, so they can only let Cen Wenben comfort him.

Yang Yuanqingda's thoughts turned to Wang Junkuo again. In terms of time, he should have arrived in Yiling County long ago. I wonder if he had seized Yichang County, which was related to the major strategic plan to seize Bashu.

If the capture of Yichang County fails, then the Tang court will have a retreat to Bashu, which is a scene that Yang Yuanqing absolutely does not want to see. Then he can only attack Hanzhong after the Jingxiang Battle, pinch Hanzhong, and cut off Li Yuan's attempt to move the capital to Bashu after the end of the Jingxiang Battle.

However, Hanzhong is in a dangerous terrain, and with Luo Yi, a warrior, guarding it, the Sui army would have to pay a huge price to attack Hanzhong.

At this time, what Yang Yuanqing was most concerned about was the situation in Yiling. Based on Wang Junkuo's strategy, he hoped that he had not read the wrong person.

The fleet gradually arrived in Fengcheng County. On the mast, a crew member waved a red flag high and signaled the ship behind to dock in Fengcheng County.

The ship gradually slowed down, and Yang Yuanqing's big ship leaned towards the dock. Fengcheng County was built close to the Yangtze River, only one mile away from the riverside. It is a large county with a population of more than 3,000 households.

There were drums and drums on the pier, and colorful flags were flying, which was extremely lively. Tens of thousands of people from Jiujiang County gathered at the pier to welcome His Highness the King of Chu. When the ship gradually approached the pier, cheers on the pier were shocking, and tens of thousands of people were in high spirits and boiling for it.

There were dozens of officials waiting on the dock. The headed official was Cen Wenben, who had just become the prefect of Yuzhang County. There were also several senior officials next to him, the prefect of Jiujiang County and Poyang County, as well as the prefect of Qichun on the other side of the Yangtze River, as well as the chiefs of each county and Sima.

These were originally officials of the Xiaoliang Kingdom, appointed by Xiao Xian. After Xiao Xian surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, these officials also wrote letters to surrender to the Sui Dynasty. Yang Yuanqing ordered Cen Wenben to appease them and still let them serve as their original positions to maintain the stability of the former land of Xiao Liang.

At this time, Cen Wenben led the officials to greet him. More than a dozen officials bowed to the ground and bowed deeply, "See Your Highness the King of Chu!"

"My envoys please give up the gift."

Yang Yuanqing smiled and helped everyone up one by one, comforting them with kind words, saying that the court would attach importance to the southern counties, and just like the northern ones, and would also protect the interests of officials from infringement.

In short, they were asked to be officials at ease and stabilize the situation in the south for the Sui Dynasty. As for whether they were corrupt and abused the law and other illegal matters, they would not consider it now. After unifying the world, they would take the account slowly.

At this moment, Yang Yuanqing suddenly saw a carriage parked not far away, and there was a pair of clear and bright deep eyes in the carriage window staring at him silently.
Chapter completed!