Li Yi had previously secured a firm seat in Shouzhou, and had intended to wait for Xu Zhengye to capture Hezhou before the two sides met and sat down to discuss cooperation in detail.
However, he began to get anxious as he could not capture Hezhou for a long time.
After that, there was still no news of the fall of Hezhou City. Instead, he heard the news that Xu Zhengye was defeated and retreated to Jiangning!
To Li Yi, this was simply absurd! How could Hezhou, which was already at the end of its strength, not be conquered?
How could Chang Kuo, who only brought less than 20,000 reinforcements, not die?
How could Princess Xuan'an, who always stays out of disputes, suddenly come out to intervene in this matter!
Li Yi was surprised, puzzled and unwilling.
But after all the emotions subsided, the panic and anxiety in his bones that was about to explode still prevailed. He began to fidget again, pacing back and forth in the tent.
"Oh no! Chang Kuo will definitely come back to seek revenge on me!"
"And the Saint and the imperial court... must have known about He Wei's death. They will surely send orders to all places to jointly attack and punish me... Xu Zhengye has retreated back to Jiangning. What should I do now!"
The reason why he dared to sit here after killing He Wei was that he was sure that Xu Zhengye would soon take over Hezhou. By then, when he would join forces with Xu's army, the entire Huainan Road would be in his pocket. Naturally, he would not have to fear the court's attack on him!
But the current situation is completely different from what he had imagined before, making his situation suddenly become difficult.
One of his two aides spoke up at this time: "General, you are right. Now that Hezhou has been taken, Chang Kuo will definitely turn back. If he gathers the troops ordered by the court to attack you, he will definitely threaten you..."
"Do I need you to remind me of these?" Li Yi was upset due to anxiety and began to blame the two of them: "This is the good idea you came up with in the first place! Didn't you two say with certainty that Chang Kuo would definitely die in Hezhou?"
The two aides looked at each other, then lowered their heads and raised their hands to apologize to the incompetent and angry man.
Li Yi continued to walk back and forth: "...These days, the Japanese army has been talking about the situation in Hezhou. They all suspect that I am deliberately trying to get rid of Chang Kuo!"
He was very angry while speaking.
Although this is true.
But he was not angry because those people guessed the truth, but from the attitude of the army, it can be seen that most people are obviously biased towards Chang Kuo! During this period, some people even stood up and asked to go to Hezhou to support Chang Kuo. He used the reason that "this commander and General Chang have their own plans" and used tough measures to suppress those people.
If Chang Kuo died, it would be fine. Without a backbone, these people would naturally not be able to cause any trouble. But now Chang Kuo is still alive... In this situation, if Chang Kuo returns, those people will definitely side with Chang Kuo!
"You two, your humble servants, naturally understand the general's concerns... The current situation is unfavorable, and the general should not engage in direct conflict with Chang Kuo."
"That's right, the most urgent thing is to leave Shouzhou immediately!"
"Leaving Shouzhou?" Li Yi paused and subconsciously looked at the two of them: "Where are you going!"
Just as the two were about to speak, the voices of soldiers were heard outside the tent.
Li Yi allowed the person to come in. The soldier was his personal guard. He quickly walked into the tent, saluted, and presented a secret letter with both hands.
Li Yi hurriedly opened it and his eyes lit up immediately.
It’s Xu Zhengye!
Xu Zhengye also anticipated that he was in a bad situation, so he wrote to invite him to go to Yangzhou, Jiangdu, to discuss matters...
After discussing with his two aides, Li Yi decided that this was the best option at the moment.
The remaining 80,000 troops who were supposed to follow Chang Kuo to support Hezhou were "divided into two groups" by Li Yi and Chang Kuo in the name of attacking Yangzhou.
The attack on Yangzhou was fake, the real purpose was to deliberately delay the march. Whenever they encountered Xu's troops blocking the way, they would repeatedly stop their troops from advancing. As a result, they had been away for half a month and were still on the way.
"General, you should move out of Shouzhou as soon as possible, and after you join up with the 80,000 troops that have gone ahead, you can rush to Yangzhou together."
The staff said, "Xu Zhengye just lost a battle, and his subordinates are in need of more people. If the general leads an army of more than 100,000 to fight, he will treat him as a distinguished guest... When the general takes control of Yangzhou, the court will be helpless, and there is no need to be afraid of a mere Chang Kuo!"
Li Yi did not hesitate any longer and immediately ordered the camp to be moved.
This order spread in the army and caused a sensation.
"…Deputy Marshal Chang chose to set up camp in Shouzhou in the first place because he wanted to use the Huai River as a line of defense to guard the important roads around the capital, in order to prevent Xu's rebels from attacking the Eastern Capital and the Central Plains… How could they easily withdraw their camp and leave such an important place?" Several captains stood up to question.
"Yes, if we all leave Shouzhou, what if Xu's rebel army lurking near Huainan Road takes the opportunity to invade?"
The deputy general who came to deliver the message sneered and said, "The war situation is unpredictable. It changes from time to time. How can we be so foolish as to defend a place to the death?"
"But I heard that Hezhou has been settled and Deputy Marshal Chang is coming back soon. For such an important matter, why don't we wait until the deputy marshal returns to the camp before discussing it..."
"Ridiculous!" The deputy general interrupted them in a solemn voice, "Who said that Deputy General Chang wants to go back to Shouzhou? Deputy General Chang has sent a message back to the camp, saying that he wants to attack Yangzhou from Hezhou, and the commander-in-chief will lead the army to break camp and go with him. This is the countermeasure agreed upon by the commander-in-chief and the deputy commander-in-chief!"
Finally, he said loudly: "Deputy Marshal Chang has defeated Xu's rebels in Hezhou. Now is a good time to take back Yangzhou! We must wipe out the rebels in one fell swoop. Anyone who dares to question military orders and spread rumors will be punished for disturbing the morale of the army!"
In order to intimidate everyone, two captains who had doubts about this were killed on the spot with military sticks.
Soon, the army began to prepare to break camp.
The army had been camped here for a long time and could not leave immediately. Li Yi felt uneasy, fearing that Chang Kuo would come back with his men to attack the next moment. He did not want to wait any longer, so he took his trusted personal soldiers and cavalry and left first.
His staff advised him not to rush, but Li Yi just couldn't wait, like an ant on a hot pan, unable to wait even a moment.
When the army heard the news that the commander had already left the camp with the cavalry, some people in the army soon realized that something was wrong.
Since leaving Beijing to attack Xu Zhengye, their commander has always been willing to retreat if he can, and not fight if he can escape... When has he ever been so active? To the extent that he is so active, it seems more like he is eager to escape than to retake Yangzhou, right? There are many people who feel that something is wrong, but under the military order, they can only obey for the time being.
The commotion of the army moving out of camp was naturally not small. Xier, Azhi, Adian, Lao Kang and others, who had been following Chang Suining's instructions and staying in Shouzhou City, heard the news and left Shouzhou City that night.
This happened three days before Chang Kuo and Chang Suining set out to leave Hezhou.
As early as the day after retreating to Jiangning, Xu Zhengye had someone send a secret letter to Li Yi.
Therefore, just two hundred miles out of Hezhou City, Chang Kuo and others met Lao Kang and his group who came to look for them on the way.
Hearing that Li Yi had ordered the troops to move out of Shouzhou and head to Yangzhou, Chang Suining immediately frowned and said, "He doesn't have the guts to fight Xu Zhengye."
Chang Kuo's brows were also tightly knitted. He didn't go to fight, but he dared to go... That meant he was hooking up with them! Chang Suining raised his eyes and looked at Chang Kuo, with a vigilant tone: "Be sure to intercept him on the way, and never let him arrive in Yangzhou with his head and troops."
Although Li Yi is a fool, his status as a royal family member and the troops he holds will cause great trouble once they are under Xu Zhengye's command.
Chang Kuo nodded solemnly, and at Chang Suining's signal, he immediately ordered to continue on their way and change the route to intercept Li Yi. He let Lao Kang and the others talk the rest while they walked on the road.
"I had expected that Li Yi would escape, so I sent someone back to Shouzhou to get information...but I never thought he would go to Yangzhou!" Chang Kuo cursed on the way, "This guy may not be very courageous, but he has great ambitions!"
He actually dared to collude with Xu Zhengye, he was trying to get the skin of a tiger.
Chang Suining and Lao Kang asked about the news in the court.
The news of He Wei's death must have been reported back to the capital. Facing Li Yi's rebellion, the court must have countermeasures.
Although she was carrying the imperial edict entrusted by He Wei in her arms, she and Lao Chang were not 100% sure that they could stop Li Yi with the 10,000 soldiers they led. If they had the help of the imperial court, their chances of winning would naturally be greater.
Lao Kang replied, "When we left Shouzhou three days ago, we secretly heard the news that the imperial envoy had already left the capital, and he must be on his way here now."
If the imperial envoy arrives, he will immediately mobilize troops to control Li Yi and take back the imperial troops.
As a result, Li Yi's reputation as a traitor will soon spread everywhere.
However, it takes time to mobilize troops from various places, and if Li Yi has really colluded with Xu Zhengye, then Li Yi will have a smooth journey to Yangzhou. If he waits for the imperial envoy to come, it may be too late.
Therefore, she and Lao Chang had to rush there to intercept them first.
"... He Wei has been dead for more than 20 days. I don't believe that the entire Jiangnan area was kept in the dark by Li Yi! In the end, no one is willing to speak out. They are just pretending to be deaf and dumb with their own ulterior motives!" Chang Kuo spat on his horse and cursed, "It's rotten, it's all rotten!"
"Yes, it's rotten." Chang Suining looked at the muddy official road ahead and frowned.
Through this rotten appearance, it can be seen that people’s hearts are no longer united.
Since the Ming Dynasty came to power, all the pent-up dissatisfaction in various places seemed to be exposed through Xu Zhengye's call to "support the Li family's regime."
In the past two days, she also heard news of uprisings in various places in Hezhou.
Luo Guanlin's original manifesto was quite inflammatory, and now there are many places responding to Xu Zhengye's voice, not just in the Jiangnan area.
Some of those responses were true and some were false, just like Xu Zhengye's so-called loyalty to the Li family, which was just a banner for selfish interests. Now everyone is Xu Zhengye, and everyone wants to be Xu Zhengye.
This means that the prestige of the court and the empress will inevitably be weakened, and with weakened prestige, the implementation of many government orders will be hindered or treated perfunctorily.
Therefore, the imperial envoy who came this time is very important - if his ability is insufficient, it will be difficult to mobilize enough troops in time under the current situation.
If he is another idiot...
Chang Suining felt her scalp tighten when she thought of this possibility. If her teacher suffered from aversion to stupidity, then she suffered from a fear of idiots.
The world is so big that it can accommodate millions of straw bags. It is not wrong to be born a straw bag, but if a straw bag is placed in an inappropriate position, it will be a big disaster.
Li Yi is a good example.
She had to rush with Old Chang to intercept Li Yi this time. In a sense, she was leading the charge. Considering whether there would be support to arrive in time, Chang Suining asked, "Have you found out who the imperial envoy is?"
Lao Kang said: "There is a military commander, whose identity has not been discovered, but what is certain is that the leader is Wei Shilang, who was born in the Duke of Zheng's Mansion."
The person who came was Wei Shuyi.
Chang Suining was a little surprised.
Wei Shuyi, who is full of secrets in his mind and eyes and can cause trypophobia, is naturally not a fool.
However, the situation in Jiangnan is chaotic and dangerous, and he is just a civil servant... Let's not expect anything else for now and just wish him good luck.
…
After another day of marching, although Chang Kuo still had not received any news from the imperial envoy, he had added 5,000 troops to help.
They met Chu Xing and his group who came looking for them.
Chu Xing had been ordered to stop Xu's rebellious army in the Si Shui area, but halfway through the battle they ran into a shortage of food and fodder. They sent people to ask Li Yi for food and fodder supplies several times, but received very little, like trying to get rid of an ant.
Fighting a war without food and fodder will only lead to death.
Chu Xing managed to raise funds locally, but was unable to hold out for long. The army was hungry and morale began to weaken. They then encountered a strong attack and suffered heavy casualties. Only 5,000 men were left out of tens of thousands of troops and barely broke through.
That day, although Chu Xing was exhausted from fighting, he still greeted Li Yi's ancestors for eighteen generations in his heart.
Then, he heard that his general was fighting against the rebels in Hezhou, so he made up his mind and ordered the remaining 5,000 troops to rush to Hezhou.
On the way, a scout sent by Chang Kuo to explore the way discovered their tracks, and the two sides were able to meet there.
These five thousand soldiers were like famished refugees, so Chang Kuo first asked people to take out some dry food for them to fill their stomachs.
Looking at Chu Xing and the others wolfing down their food, Chang Kuo felt both angry and distressed.
Thanks to the loyalty of the people of Hezhou, they prepared enough dry food for them. Otherwise, Chang Kuo would not only feel sorry for his subordinates, but also secretly feel sorry for the food.
After filling his stomach, Chu Xing then explained the process of the Battle of Si Shui to Chang Kuo in detail.
Finally, he knelt down in front of Chang Kuo with a heavy heart and apologized. Without mentioning anything else, he, as a general in this battle, suffered such a defeat and faced such heavy casualties. He felt grief, indignation, guilt and self-blame in his heart.
"Get up, this is not your fault!" Chang Kuo's face was extremely gloomy: "I will grind Li Yi's bones and scatter his ashes to sacrifice to the soldiers who died in vain!"
Chang Suining said nothing, but just stretched out his hand to lift up Chu Xing's arm.
When he helped her, he realized that Chu Xing's arms had become much shriveled under his robe.
Everyone calmed down and continued on their journey.
On the way, Chu Xingcai talked to Chang Suining: "When I came here, I heard about the girl's deeds of killing the enemy in Hezhou, and I thought it was a misunderstanding... I didn't expect that the girl really came."
The girl's appearance here already shocked him, not to mention he also heard: "In Hezhou, that Ge Zong...was it really killed by the girl?"
Chang Suining didn't need to speak, because the shepherd's purse lady beside her spoke up and confirmed: "How could this be false? I was watching with my own eyes at the time, and Madam Chang cut off the head of that bastard with one knife!"
Chu Xing couldn't help but stare in amazement.
So, did he actually teach such a powerful apprentice? Update sent, good night!
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