After Luo Yin defected to Du Hong, Du Hong did not care about his disrespectful behavior in the past, but instead relied on his confidant. After all, Luo Yin did not come alone, and there were several thousand men under his command. Not long after, Yang Xingmi fought with Sun Ru, and most of the Yongxing defenders were transferred. With Luo Yin's cooperation, Du Hong naturally easily recovered Yongxing, but this completely offended Yang Xingmi. After Yang Xingmi defeated Sun Ru, his strength increased greatly and he conquered the city along the Yangtze River. Du Hong felt great pressure, so Du Hong was ready to find a boss for himself. Du Hong came to Zhu Wen and took the initiative to join him. Someone came to surrender, but Zhu Wen had no reason to refuse, so he naturally accepted Du Hong, the younger brother.

After Zhu Wen and Yang Xingmi had a feud, Zhu Wen gathered several vassal states in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to attack Yang Xingmi. In 897, Zhu Wen was defeated by Yang Xingmi in the Battle of Qingkou. Yang Xingmi was extremely angry at Du Hong's betrayal and sent troops to surround Ezhou. Du Hong hurriedly called for help from Zhu Wen, and Zhu Wen sent troops to Ezhou to rescue him. Yang Xingmi had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

Zhu Wen surrounded Fengxiang and competed with Li Maozhen for Zhaozong. Under Li Maozhen's forced, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang sent envoys to rescue him. Under Zhu Wen's instructions, all the envoys who went to Huainan through Ezhou were killed by Du Hong. Yang Xingmi was preparing to attack Guangzhou, and Zhu Wen asked Du Hong to send troops to rescue him. Du Hong's small actions made Yang Xingmi extremely unhappy.

Yang Xingmi did this now, not only met the requirements of the court, but also helped Wang Shifan by using the strategy of surrounding Wei to save Zhao, but also ensured the safety of his territory and punished traitors. After all, although Yang Xingmi had a large territory and was very strong at this time, he also had disadvantages. In the north was his old enemy Zhu Wen, in the east was Qian Liu, in the southwest, in the west was Du Hong. These were his enemies, and there were also unobedient generals inside, and the situation was very dangerous.

Now Zhu Wen has captured the emperor in his hands and commanded the princes to order the princes. Sooner or later, the Central Plains will be unified. When Zhu Wen makes his move, the Jianghuai will be even more dangerous at that time. Du Hong is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and is Zhu Wen's iron-core follower, which is a great threat to Yang Xingmi, who is in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. As Zeng Guofan later said: "If you want to pacify the south of the Yangtze River, you must entrench the upper reaches and build your foot down to succeed." The Western Jin Dynasty destroyed the Eastern Wu and the Sui Dynasty destroyed the Chen Kingdom, which all rely on the upper reaches of the territory.

The land was in the intersection of Wu and Chu, and the merger of Jiang and Han dynasties became the extremely critical point, and it would not be called the "bridge of nine provinces". From here, it was difficult to reach the current. During the Three Kingdoms, Sun Quan did not hesitate to turn against Liu Bei, but also wanted to seize Jingzhou and capture Guan Yu. As for the Hunan Army of Zeng Guofan and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hundreds of years later, they fought to the death to fight for this place. When Wuchang was lost, the general trend of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was basically gone.

In order to successfully capture Ezhou, Yang Xingmi stopped fighting on other fronts and focused on dealing with Du Hong. He ceased the battle with Qian Li from Zhejiang, released prisoners of war, and relieved his worries. Yang Xingmi believed that he had a foundation for cooperation with Ma Yin because he let Ma Bin go back to reunite with his brother Ma Yin. Yang Xingmi sent a special envoy to Tanzhou, preparing to persuade Ma Yin to become brothers with him and deal with Zhu Wen together. Tanzhou is in the upper reaches of Ezhou. If he can win Ma Yin's support, Du Hong will become a turtle in the jar and Ezhou will definitely go down. At least he should be on the wall and not send troops to help Du Hong. Yang Xingmi was still scared of generals like Sun Ru.

In the first month of the third year of Tianfu (903), after Yang Xingmi made preparations, he sent his top general Li Shenfu as the head coach, and Liu Cun, the Shuzhou regiment training envoy, led more than 10,000 troops from land and land to attack Du Hong, the governor of Wuchang Army stationed in Ezhou. Du Hong's strength was too far from that of Yang Xingmi, and he was soon defeated. Li Shenfu easily took Yongxing County, a town of fish and rice, cut off the grain supply channel of Ezhou, and then came to the city of Ezhou. Zhu Yougong's troops under Zhu Wen, who was originally stationed nearby and could have assisted Du Hong at any time, had already been urgently transferred to Xuzhou by Zhu Wen to participate in the attack on Wang Shifan, the governor of Pinglu.

In March of the third year of Tianfu, Du Hong saw that the situation was critical and quickly asked Zhu Wen for help. Du Hong has always been Zhu Wen's hardcore little brother. In the case of trouble, the boss naturally could not stand by. However, the situation Zhu Wen was facing at this time was also very serious, and the government in Chang'an needs to be firmly controlled. Li Maozhen was still eyeing him and was always thinking about making a comeback. Pinglu Wang Normal School had not been completely solved, and Li Keyong was still ready to move behind him. Zhu Wen really didn't dare to use too many troops to rescue Du Hong.

But Du Hong must save it, otherwise it will make other vassal states disappointed. Who would be willing to hang out with him in the future? On the one hand, Zhu Wen divided his troops into two groups and sent Kang Huaiying to lead 50,000 troops in Huoqiu, preparing to go south to attack Yang Xingmi, and use the strategy of attacking the east and west to force Yang Xingmi to withdraw his troops. However, this army was soon repelled by Yang Xingmi personally. Zhu Wen also sent general Wu Zhang to lead 3,000 troops to rescue the siege, and was also defeated by Li Shenfu. Zhu Wen sent general Han Jie to lead 10,000 troops to join Wu Zhang's troops, stationed at the entrance of the siege, and supported Du Hong.

On the other hand, Zhu Wen used the puppet emperor Zhaozong in his hand. Since he had already taken the emperor, he had to order the princes, otherwise why would he hold the emperor hostage? Under Zhu Wen's instruction, Zhaozong also issued an edict to the Jingnan Jiedushi Cheng Yan, Wuzhen Jiedushi Lei Yanwei, and Wu'an Army Jiedushi Ma Yin, demanding these three major vassal states to send troops to rescue Du Hong at the same time.

Among these three Jiedushi, Cheng Yin was the most active. After receiving the edict, he immediately took action. Jiangling, where Cheng Yin was located, was the capital of Jingnan Road, and was called Jingzhou in ancient times. It connects east and west, and is located in the north and south.

At the junction of the four directions is the Juzhen hub, which is "a city that gathers boats and carriages, and a key to controlling the lake and ridges". However, after being burned and killed by Qin Zongquan's subordinates, Jiangling, which was known as "millions of families in the city", was only 17 people who were dying!

But Cheng Shi was not discouraged. He worked diligently, "to recuperate and wither, work hard to make peace, do business and train farmers, and be diligent in raising farmers." In just a few years, Jiangling City returned to the level of more than 10,000 families. Although Cheng Shi was born in Huaixi and had a strong and fierce personality, he knew how to care for the people and understand the people's feelings. He was worried that the poor people would be wronged and often decided cases personally, so he was deeply loved by the people.

Cheng Shi's real power expanded along the Yangtze River to several states in eastern Sichuan, with a force of 50,000. Cheng Shi expanded in territory and increased his strength and became more and more ambitious. So Cheng Shi's ambition and desire began to gradually expand, thinking that his strength was strong enough to achieve hegemony.

Cheng Xian was busy managing Jingnan, but he couldn't take care of it, so he invited his father-in-law to help. However, this father-in-law was a man who took power and had a conflict with Cheng Xian's sons. At this time, Cheng Xian became irritable and stubborn, and once it started, his relatives would not recognize him. His father-in-law took the opportunity to slander, saying that his son was dissatisfied with his father and deliberately rebelled. In anger, Cheng Xian listened and believed in his sons and killed his sons without any concern.

There were several cheating warlocks in the area. Cheng Xian did not carefully distinguish them and summoned all the warlocks into the mansion to be responsible for practicing the immortal pill of immortality. Cheng Xian was in a mess because he took the immortal pill regularly!

When Zhu Wen asked for the rescue of Du Hong to come to Jingnan, Cheng Wen had a brief thought. Cheng Wen decided to use the excuse of this rescue of Du Hong to send troops on a large scale, take the opportunity to annex Du Hong, and even annex Yang Xingmi, and dominate the Jianghuai.

Cheng Feng waited for this opportunity for a long time and started construction of two hundred giant ships many years ago, namely "Qishan", "Stealing the Sea", "Splitting the Waves", etc. Not only was the name scary, but it looked exaggerated. Each warship carried more than 1,000 armored soldiers, like a water barracks.

As for the ship, there were even more materials, "just as much as rice". The ship built by Chengzhi was like a giant, which took three years to form and was as high as several floors. He was also "the ship was listed on the department and bureau, and there was a system of government offices." There were warehouses, barracks and government offices on the ship, called "Hezhouzai", which was simply a floating Jiangling City.

Cheng Xian immediately recruited all the troops to a total of 100,000, and went east along the river in the name of rescuing Ezhou. Thinking of defeating Li Shenfu, he took the opportunity to seize Huainan. Secretary Li Qi questioned his military strategy and suggested: "Each of our warship can carry thousands of soldiers, and the load of the ships loading rice must be doubled! The hull is too heavy and it is impossible to deal with it quickly if it encounters an emergency. The Huainan soldiers have always been known for their fierceness and speed. If we fight with them, we will not be able to catch up if we win.

If you lose, you can't escape, how can you win? Moreover, Lei Yanwei of Langzhou and Ma Yin of Tanzhou are our ally on the surface, but in fact they have always been our enemy. If our army goes east with all its might and Jiangling is empty, how can we not beware of their desires? In my opinion, it is better to send a general to Yuezhou, and the general's main force will be stopped on the north bank of the Yangtze River to support Du Hong. Strictly guard the camp and do not fight with the Huainan army. If there is no food or grass in the Huainan army, the Huainan army will naturally retreat, and the siege of Ezhou will be lifted."

Yuezhou controls the throat of the Yangtze River from Dongting Lake: If Lei Yanwei or Ma Yin wants to take advantage of the opportunity to leave, it is their must-pass place. Because they must send a navy, not an army. Because they march by land, they will abandon the long and short. There are many waterways and lakes in Jingzhou, so it is very inconvenient to march by land. Li Qi's plan is mainly to prevent allies. As for Du Hong's life and death, they cannot care about that many, and the generals agreed.

However, Cheng Shihou, the confidant of Cheng Shi, disagreed with the opposition and said to Cheng Shi: "The general spent several years building a ship, but now the flag has been released, but he gave up halfway. What is his face to go back to meet the military and civilian elders?" So Cheng Shi did not accept Li Qi's suggestion and still acted according to his original plan.

Of course, Cheng Shi didn't care about Du Hong's life or death, but this time he went out to expand his territory and achieve hegemony! If he is not proactive, why should he come out? As for Ma Yin and Lei Qianwei, they also expressed that they would send troops to rescue Du Hong. How dare they go to attack my city without obeying Zhu Wen's orders?

Besides, the so-called "If there is no month left, the military and military rations in Huainan will be poor." After all, Cheng Yan has much more people than Li Shenfu, so he naturally consumes more food every day. If he continues to consume like this, it is hard to say who has poor military rations.

Cheng Xian felt that as long as he defeated the Huainan army as soon as possible, the trip would be very likely to be successful. Cheng Xian thought that the pros and cons had been settled, and ordered the army to go down the river. He soon crossed the mouth of Jingjiang, and he did not divide a branch of troops to station here. Cheng Xian did not expect that he completely miscalculated this time, so he could never come back. Cheng Xian came out in full swing, and Lei Yanwei from Langzhou had the first idea.

Before Cheng Shi arrived in Ezhou, Ma Yin and Lei Yanwei joined forces and sent troops to attack Jiangling, plundering all the population and wealth. Cheng Shi's soldiers heard that their home was destroyed and their family lost money. The morale of the army was immediately disintegrated, and Cheng Shi's team was not easy to lead. At this moment, Cheng Shi was in a difficult situation: he wanted to return to Jiangling, but he didn't know how to face it.

Some of them have worked hard for ten years and are determined to move forward, but the coalition forces that were agreed upon are gone, and Zhu Laosan has no expression.

More than 600 years ago, Guan Yu, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms stationed in Jiangling, rashly dispatched all the main forces to the Northern Expedition, which led to Wu general Lu Meng taking advantage of the opportunity, leaving behind the allusion of "losing Jingzhou" for later generations. Unexpectedly, in these hundreds of years, almost the same plot was repeated by the careless Cheng Shi in the same place. This is exactly the same saying that "losing Jiangling" was repeated by Du Mu's famous saying: Later generations mourn him but do not learn from him, so that later generations will mourn him again!

What happened next continued to be the same as Guan Yu's situation at that time: the Chengxian army, who was heading towards Ezhou, suddenly learned that their families had been destroyed! The morale of the army was in chaos and he had no intention of fighting anymore. This huge army, like the army that Guan Yu besieged Fancheng back then, had a sharp decline in combat and was on the verge of collapse!

Li Shenfu, the commander of the Huainan Army, heard that Cheng Yan's army was approaching Ezhou. In order to find out the enemy situation, he personally took a light boat to reconnaissance the situation of the Cheng Yan army. After returning, Li Shenfu said to the generals: "Although Cheng Yan's army has many warships, they have poor cooperation with each other. As long as we take the initiative to launch a rapid attack, Cheng Yan will also become our prisoner!" Li Shenfu, who was skilled and brave, only drew out thousands of elite navy troops, went upstream and fought against the current and fought against Cheng Yan's 100,000 troops!

Cheng Yi was in chaos at this time. He did not dare to move towards Ezhou anymore. Instead, he returned to the army urgently, but did not return to Jiangling, but entered Dongting Lake through Jingjiangkou. He wanted to turn the gun and seek revenge on Lei Yanwei and Ma Yin.

On May 12, when he arrived at Junshan, Cheng Yi's navy was caught up by Li Shenfu's navy. Li Qi once pointed out that the big ship's slow movement was exposed. In an unfavorable situation, he could not even avoid the war. The two armies immediately started fighting, and the weak Li Shenfu army actively attacked and made the Cheng Yi's army retreat step by step. The wind direction at this time was beneficial to the Huainan army. The generals of the Huainan army, Qin Pei and Yang Rong, took advantage of the situation to set fire with the wind. The "Hezhouzai", "Qishan", "intercept the sea", and "slash the waves" warships could no longer intercept the sea or cut the waves. They just turned into burning torches on the lake surface, and Cheng Yi's army finally collapsed completely.

Seeing the fire burning out his last hope, Cheng Wei was jealous and jumped back to commit suicide. The word "王" was opened, and it was inside the water. Unexpectedly, Cheng Wei was a prophecy. Li Shenfu won a great victory, wiped out Cheng Wei's 100,000 troops, and captured 200 warships. Han Jie heard the news and hurriedly led his troops back. Du Hong from Ezhou was suddenly in panic all day long.

Just when the situation was getting better, Li Shenfu continued to besiege Ezhou and was preparing to take it down in one fell swoop, but he received an urgent letter from Yang Xing secretly urging him to return to his country because a fire broke out in the backyard of Huainan.

Since the Sun Ru Rebellion, the richest Jianghuai land, with a densely populated area, has been "a thousand miles east and west, swept the ground all over", and it is within reach of the sight. In particular, Yangzhou, there are only a hundred households left, and people are known as Wucheng. At this time, Huainan could be said to be "poor country, narrow land, and few people". Even though Yang Xingmi worked hard, Yangzhou still had no energy to recover. What's even more sinister is that Yang Xingmi was isolated and had no help, and was attacked from all sides. Yang Xingmi had to let go of the other end of Zhejiang and make peace with Qian Liu. This wise move was opposed by Tian Feng from Xuanzhou. He relied on his strong troops and devoted himself to attacking and plundering trouble. Yang Xingmi repeatedly ordered him to stop him, but Tian Feng was dissatisfied and made an appointment with Zhu Yanshou and An Renyi to rebel together. Yang Xingmi had no choice but to let Li Shenfu let Du Hong go temporarily and lead his army back to quell the rebellion.

Besides, after Lei Man captured Li and Lang, he was appointed as the governor of Wuzhen Army by Zhaozong. After Lei Man died in the fourth year of Guanghua, his son Lei Yanwei stayed for his descendants. Since Lei Man seized the Wuzhen Army, he had no ability to govern. He could only go out to rob. So robbing the family has always been the main business of the Lei family army. His actions are more like a group of officials and bandits. Lei Yanwei perfectly inherited his father's strengths. Even if Cheng Man stayed in Jiangling, he would run to Jingnan every few days to make a fright. At the same time, he was looking forward to one day to rush into Jiangling, which was more prosperous under Chengzhi to loot.

Besides, since Cheng Yin occupied Jiangling, the Lei family's evil deeds were curbed by him. Jiangling and other places lived a peaceful life and became more and more prosperous and rich. Cheng Yin became famous for this and was collectively called "North Korea Nanguo" by Han Jian in the north by people at that time. The court even carved stones for him.

The Lei family has always held a grudge against Cheng Yi and was even more jealous of the prosperity of Jiangling. This time, Lei Yanwei came to join forces with Ma Yin to hurt people in secret and exude his anger.

After receiving Zhu Wen's edict, Lei Yanwei naturally would not be as crazy as Cheng Yi. His strategy was to watch quietly first. Cheng Yi's madness made Lei Yanwei very excited! The prosperous Jiangling Mansion in Jingnan has always been a place that Lei Yanwei has always coveted, dreamed of, wanted to plunder, and wanted to occupy. Cheng Yi's entire army is now dispatched, and Jiangling Mansion is empty in defense. This opportunity does not launch a sneak attack. I am really sorry for the famous reputation of the Lei family robbing the army. As for the rescue of Du Hong, Lei Yanwei hums, who is Du Hong? If he doesn't know him, what does his life or death have to do with me!

However, Cheng Shi had occupied Jiangling Prefecture for 16 years. Although Jiangling Prefecture had a weak defense, it might not be possible to take it easily. Lei Yanwei was worried that he was not strong enough and was afraid that he would not lose rice. So he decided to find a partner and join him to do the business. So Ma Yin became his ideal partner. He sent an envoy to Tanzhou to visit Ma Yin and made an appointment to join a tour of Jiangling.
Chapter completed!