Chapter 375: The Storm of Jianghuai (2)

A carriage was walking on the streets of Jiangdu County. There were shops on both sides of the street, and various huge signs were erected in the air. Although there was no loud shout, carriages loaded with goods drove out from the alley from time to time. Various races appeared in the shops. Short and modest Japanese, dark-skinned Indians, big zombies wearing black robes and wide trousers, and blue eyes, like the people who had not yet evolved. The shops with their own characteristics showed the prosperity of this famous Jiangzuo city.

Du Mei picked up one end of the car curtain and looked at the bustling street. The carriage drove past a large sign that was five meters high and two meters wide. The signs read "Jinxiufang". This is the main store that Li Chenghong opened in Guangling.

Du Mei stared at the sign for a long time. After a while, he shook his head disdainfully, pulled the curtains on the carriage. The carriage turned a corner and walked onto another wide street. After walking about two miles, he arrived at the Guangling County Governor's Office. It was now evening and the yamen had been closed, and two big signs that were avoiding stood at the door.

Du Mei's carriage did not stop in front of the yamen, but went around a bend to the back house of the governor's yamen. The back house was a crimson door. The door was not big, and a small stone steps opened up the back door. Du Mei's entourage jumped out of the carriage and went forward to knock on the door. After a moment, the door was opened, and an elderly old man showed half of his face. He looked at the entourage and the carriage in surprise. The entourage whispered a few words to the old man, handed in a famous post, turned around and pointed to the carriage. The old man nodded, then closed the door and went in to report.

After a while, another rush of footsteps came from the door. The door opened with a creak!, and the white-haired old man just now bowed to the carriage enthusiastically, "My master invites the sir to come in."

Du Mei got out of the carriage, bowed slightly to express her gratitude, and quickly walked into the back house of the governor's mansion. The governor's mansion was not big, mainly divided into two parts, one part was more than a dozen bungalows, mainly for the servants and some ordinary guests, and the other part was surrounded by flower walls. At first glance, the walls and holes were filled with rich green. This was the owner's residence. The old man led Du Mei into the wall through a small door and walked quickly along a stone path. The yard was full of various trees, and several old houses were hidden in the thick green. Although there were no precious flowers and trees, the exquisite towers and flowers in the garden were trimmed cleanly and tidy, and even the grass in the cracks in the stone road on the ground was trimmed, appearing quiet and elegant. Du Mei, who had always paid attention to details, nodded secretly, and could see that the owner living here was a serious and well-educated person."

"How long has Governor Zhao lived here?" Du Mei asked casually.

"It's almost a year since he was an official elsewhere, but he was transferred to Guangling as the governor in May last year."

The old man glanced back at Du Mei and explained with a smile: "The governors in the past did not live here, but only left an empty house. They each had their own prefectures in Jiangdu County. Only my master was from a poor family and was honest. He was highly praised every year. Since he was the magistrate of Jiangdu County, he lived in the office and had never had his own house. Alas! There are not many such good officials."

"How long have you been following Governor Zhao?" Du Mei asked with a smile.

"How long do you need to ask?" The old man raised his head and smiled, "He has been grown up since he was a child. How long do you think it will take?"

"Will the father-in-law know Zhang Huan?"

"Zhang Huan?" The old man hesitated for a moment, and he suddenly remembered it and couldn't help but say angrily: "You mean Zhang Shibalang! Why didn't I know him? He had the best relationship with my master. I liked to go fishing back then, and that kid liked diving. He always straightened my hook in the water or wrapped around the water plants. That kid would have to be scolded by me."

When Du Mei heard that the boy on the left and the boy on the right, she couldn't help but smile and said, "Do you know what Zhang Huan is doing now?"

"I seem to have heard from my wife that if I am an official in Longyou, I will never marry Pingping. So what if I am an official? He would not marry such a pretty woman. If I were thirty years younger...."

Before he could continue, Du Mei interrupted him, "Actually, I am disrespectful to call him Zhang Huan now. I will not be able to call him Your Majesty in a short time!"

"What is Your Majesty?" The old man suddenly staggered and almost fell out. Du Mei quickly supported him, "Be careful, old man!"

The old man's legs were frightened and he slowly turned around and looked at Du Mei with pleading eyes, "Brother, I didn't say anything just now."

Du Mei smiled slightly and said, "As long as you tell me what is the real reason why your master refuses to marry the Chu family daughter, then I didn't hear anything just now."

At this moment, a low voice suddenly came from the front, "Why should Judge Du make things difficult for an old man?"

Du Mei looked at the sound and saw a man standing behind a cluster of green bamboos. He was about thirty years old, with a slender figure and a thin face. He had short beards under his jaw, and his eyes were bright and full of righteousness. This person was Zhao Yan, the governor of Guangling County, and Zhang Huan's close friend back then.

To be precise, Zhao Yan is still the acting governor of Guangling County. His official position is the chief of Guangling County. A year ago, Wang Yuanpei, the then governor of Guangling County, died suddenly. Pei Jun wanted to transfer his confidant Taiyuan Yin Xianyu Shuming to take over as governor of Guangling County, but was firmly opposed by Chu Xingshui. The two were stalemate. Pei Jun transferred the shrewd, capable and famous Zhao Yan to serve as chief of the governor, and temporarily served as governor's government affairs. Unexpectedly, he soon encountered chaos in the Central Plains. Later, Pei Jun died, and the governor was delayed. Zhao Yan had been acting for almost a year. Although his rank was much smaller than that of the governor, he was honest and dedicated and willing to do practical things for the people. Therefore, the people of Guangling called him governor Zhao and hoped that he would be acting forever.

But Zhao Yan himself was very sober. He had mastered the power of the governor of Shangjun from the third rank for nearly a year with a fifth-rank chief. This was extremely abnormal in any case. Moreover, the Chu family, which was powerful in the Jianghuai River, remained silent. That was because the Chu family recommended Han Fukong, the governor of Huaiyin County, and was not approved by the governor of Guangling County. Once the time was ripe, the Chu family would definitely attack him.

Just at this moment, news came from the court that Zhang Huanguizong and Li's family were appointed as the governor of the country, but the Chu family had an opposition with the court. For both public and private, Zhao Yan's choice could not be to favor the Chu family.

Zhao Yan walked up and bowed to Du Mei first, "I'm going to Zhao Yan to welcome Judge Du to Guangling."

The other party had a special relationship with his governor, so Du Mei did not dare to put on airs in front of him. He hurriedly replied, "I have heard many things about Zhao's envoy! When I see him today, Du Mei is honored."

Zhao Yan just smiled faintly, and then he instructed his hometown: "Uncle Quan, go to the door and take a look. Are those suspicious people still outside?"

Du Mei was startled, "What! Is even the governor's mansion being monitored?"

"Chu Xingshui knows my relationship with Zhang Huan, how could he not be careful about me? But please rest assured, since you have entered my mansion, I can keep you safe." Speaking of this, Zhao Yan waved his hand and smiled: "Mr. Du, please come to my study to talk!"

"please!"

Du Mei followed Zhao Yan and walked quickly towards his study.

Eighty miles north of Yancheng County, Huaiyin County, an army of 30,000 people was advancing south quickly. Under the stars in the sky, it was like a black river running southward on the white irresistible salt-alkali beach.

This army is mainly composed of cavalry and is mixed with nearly a hundred thunderbolt chariots. They are the main forces that annihilated the Tubo Army and the Dashi Army in Anxi. Not long ago, this army was the first to defeat the Khitan cavalry in Hebei. They are the elite of Zhang Huan's 400,000 troops. They are all equipped with Arab horses, long spears, horizontal swords, steel crossbows, solid armor captured from the Dashi Army, coupled with superb cavalry, brave combat momentum and rich combat experience, which made this army invincible and unstoppable.

Of course, Zhang Huan must hold such an army firmly in his hands. At this moment, our governor was like he was in Anxi, wearing a helmet and armor, and advancing south with the army.

Zhang Huan arrived in Pengjun three days ago. Without any hesitation, he immediately took over the command from Wang Siyu. He also divided his troops into three groups and ordered Cao Hanchen to go to the western front and lead 20,000 troops to go south from Haozhou. He also ordered Wang Siyu to be the general of the middle route, leading 30,000 troops to cross the Huai River from Linhuai to restrain the main force of the Chu family. He himself led the 30,000 elite troops to Yancheng. The reason why he went to Yancheng was because the scouts found information that the Chu family was stationed in Yancheng. The main general was Li Shidao who had always been worried about. Ten thousand of the 20,000 troops were the Puyang army of Li Shidao in the past.

Zhang Huan was not worried about the Chu family's determination to resist. He was worried about whether Li Shidao would take advantage of the opportunity of the Chu family's resistance to the court to realize his personal ambitions. Once Jianghuai fell into Li Shidao's hands, it would be like a leg of the Tang Dynasty was cut off and Li Shidao could not be given any chance. This is why Zhang Huan did not hesitate to move his troops south.

Several scouts rushed forward against the army, with four hooves flying and their ponytails flying, as if they were flowing. After a moment, the scouts found the governor in the central army. A captain saluted on the horse and said, "Report to the governor, the Li Shidao headquarters is stationed in five miles west of Yancheng County. According to this, they have no sign of retreating. We have investigated along the way, and have not found any ambush."

Zhang Huan nodded, he looked up at the starry sky. The dark blue night sky was full of stars, and there were at least four hours before dawn. According to the current marching speed, he could arrive in Yancheng before dawn. Zhang Huan ordered without hesitation: "Send the order and the whole army will travel for another forty miles to rest!"

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Yancheng County, which is today in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, was often flooded with sea water during the Tang Dynasty. To the east of Yancheng, there were large areas of saline-alkali wetlands, with no grass growing and extremely sparsely populated. It happened that there were some sparse villages decades ago, and villagers made a living by drying salt. Since the implementation of salt monopoly in Suzong, private salt was no longer allowed. A large number of salt residents were forced to move south, and the population in Yancheng area became even smaller. Often, a family could not be seen even if they traveled dozens of miles.

Yancheng County is the only county town in a radius of hundreds of miles, with only more than a thousand families, mostly relying on salting the government to make a living. However, at this moment, Yancheng County has stationed nearly 20,000 Chu families to defend Zhang Huan's army from breaking through from the east.

Just as the scout of the Longyou Army explored, the commander of the army was Li Shidao. The position of his garrison was indeed five miles west of Yancheng County. However, Zhang Huan did not expect that the first place where Chu Xingshui deployed Li Shidao's garrison was Anyi County, about 300 miles west of Yancheng, which was the only place for Caohe. However, Li Shidao sent false news to Chu Xingshui five days ago that he found the scout of Longyou Army in Yancheng area. The Longyou Army was most likely to go south from the coast, which forced Chu Xingshui to change the deployment of the army and agreed to transfer to the Yancheng area to the garrison. In fact, Li Shidao really didn't want to meet Zhang Huan's army and preserved his 20,000 troops as his capital to make a comeback.

However, Li Shidao did not expect that Zhang Huan was much more interested in him than the Chu family, so he didn't know whether he would feel honored or bitter after he understood this?

Frankly speaking, Li Shidao did have a little ability to lead troops. In order to completely control the 20,000 troops, he formulated extremely strict military disciplines, allowing people to plunder their wealth, but not embezzled; allowing women to be raped, but they must be brought back to the camp to share with all the brothers; only in the army, only if they absolutely obey superiors, they should be killed immediately if they have any objections; at the same time, he eliminated a large number of intermediate officers by means of military competition and long-distance marching, and allocated a group of shrewd and capable soldiers from the Puyang army. In this way, in just half a month, he completely mastered the army.

At this moment, the night was already very dark. When the fourth hour approached, Li Shidao's tent was still brightly lit. He was sitting in the tent sleeplessly and studying the map of the southeast. Li Shidao knew very well that the Chu family would definitely be destroyed by Zhang Huai. After Zhang Huai destroyed the Chu family, he should turn west to deal with Li Xilie in Huaixi. Then his opportunity would come at this time. If he sweeps across the wealth of Jianghuai and then turns to Quanzhou and Lingnan to develop, he may not be unable to establish his own foundation.

Li Shidao's eyes went south along the map. Finally, his fist hit Quanzhou hard, breathed a long sigh of relief, and said to himself: "It's this!"

Suddenly, a rapid running sound came from outside, and a personal soldier almost rushed in. He looked panicked and reported loudly: "General, something is not good. A large army was found twenty miles away in the north."

"What!" Li Shidao stood up in shock, "Is it Zhang Huan's army here? Why didn't he walk in Caohe?"

Just for a moment, Li Shidao immediately reacted and ordered anxiously: "Transfer my order, the entire army will gather immediately and prepare to retreat south!"

"Yes!" Just as the personal soldiers were about to go out, Li Shidao called him again, "Wait a minute, don't rush to send an order."

Li Shidao frowned, he walked a few steps in the tent with his hands behind his back, and suddenly asked again: "You seemed to be saying just now that they were camping twenty miles away, not marching, right?"

"Yes, our scouts found that they were indeed stationed in camp, not marching." The personal soldiers replied without hesitation.
Chapter completed!