"...the navy defeated Hongzepu, and eighty-nine out of ten Chu generals were killed. When I heard about it in Xuzhou, I was so worried that I couldn't sleep all night. I was worried that your majesty and the princes in the court would not notice the plan of Emperor Liang, and I wished I could fly to him with my wings.
Your Majesty is by your side, helping your Majesty solve your problems. Although I have not yet finished mourning, but the national crisis is looming, there is no one who does not worry about the country but his family. Therefore, the Empress Dowager summoned me without worrying about anything else. I gathered my troops, horses and warships, and did not dare to delay.
In a short time, under the starry night, he led eight warships and arrived at Tangyi on December 12, carrying 3,251 loyal and brave people from Xuzhou. I hope that my meager body can serve as a shield for the imperial capital, and I hope that I will be sincere.
My heart goes out to Your Majesty..."
"...Tangyi is the northern gateway to the imperial capital. If Tangyi survives, the imperial capital will be safe and sound. Its city was destroyed in the war at the end of the previous dynasty. The late emperor ordered the tripod to Jinling and sent generals to build the city as a vassal screen. However, it is difficult for Tangyi to survive alone.
.Dasi Mountain is the remnant of Huaiyang Mountain. It is adjacent to the river and pillows the Chu River. Beyond the Chu River is Nanqiao, Chuzhou, Langya and other places. Going to the west is Liyang and Imperial Capital across the river. It is high in the west and low in the east. Xihua, Tianjing
All the peaks are one hundred and thirty feet high, and the mountain is majestic. Naturally, it and Tangyi are at the angles of each other, forming the Gancheng on the north bank of the imperial capital. The Chu River, named Tu Shui in ancient times, originates from Fucha Mountain and runs from west to east at Tangyi.
To the west of the city, where it merges into the river, there is another vassal screen to the north of Dasi Mountain..."
"Xu Mingzhen is a thief who rebelled against the Liang Kingdom and supported tens of thousands of troops. Even if the Liang army does not come, the Jianghuai River will be in danger. It will be impossible to defend the heart of Huaixi, but it cannot lose its foothold on the north bank.
Bo Jian, in addition to the independent city of Tangyi, should use Dasi Mountain, build fortresses both inside and outside Chuhe River, fill them with elite troops, and guard Shuzhou in the west and Yangzhou in the east. Only then can the enemy troops have a hard time drinking from the eyes of the Yangtze River.
Dare to take a peek at the cauldron in front of His Majesty..."
"I have little virtue and incompetence, but I am loyal to Your Majesty. I am willing to summon for Your Majesty the warriors who dare to fight in the Jianghuai River to guard Tangyi, Dasi Mountain, and Chuhe River, in the hope that one day I can shroud the body of the Great Chu Horse and continue my father's ambition. I hope Your Majesty
I agree, and I, Han Qian, will kowtow..."
Xuzhou Shuiying arrived at Tangyi on the north bank before noon. In the afternoon, Feng Liao and Guo Rong crossed the river and entered Jinling City to present Han Qian's "Request to Guard Beishu".
In the Chongwen Hall, the pale-faced Yang Yuanpu was sitting behind the imperial desk. Hearing Feng Liao stand in the center of the hall and read the memorial loudly, the corners of his eyes could not help but twitch slightly.
Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Han Daoming, Li Changfeng, Chen De, Zhang Chao, Guo Liang, Zhang Han and other officials were sitting on the left and right, either with expressionless faces, solemn expressions, or in shock and confusion.
After listening to Feng Liao read Han Qian's letter "Requesting the Guardian to Beishu", he was speechless for a long time.
Han Qian's memorial contains a lot of eloquent words, but the actual meaning can be summarized in a few sentences.
It's nothing more than "I came under the order of the Queen Mother. When I came, I saw that only Tangyi city would be very passive, so I suggested to build more forts with Tangyi as one end, along Dasi Mountain and the Chu River, and recruit brave men from the Jianghuai River.
Only by fighting brave men and forming a defense line that is more than a hundred miles long can Jinling be safe and secure. I am incompetent and unwilling, and my greatest advantage is that I am loyal to the emperor, so I ask the emperor to agree that I will take full responsibility for this matter, kowtow."
Although it took three or four days for the remaining soldiers of the Right Shenwu Army and the Navy to successfully break through the encirclement, and most of them were still stranded in the hills and mountains in the northern section of the Wujian Mountains, unable to cross the enemy's cavalry blockade, there were still some soldiers who came from other places.
Direction to break out of the siege and escape.
Xu Jing, the head of the Staff Division, gathered dozens of broken troops, risked his way through the reed swamps set on fire by the ambush, and successfully broke out of the encirclement. He hurriedly headed south and escaped back to Jinling late at night the day before yesterday.
Xu Jing is currently regarded as the highest-ranking official who has fled back to Jinling. Of course, in addition to Xu Jing, there are also other officials who have fled back to Jinling.
Seventy or eighty more people fled directly across the river and returned to Jinling.
At the same time, there were also three to four hundred defeated troops. When they passed through Tangyi, they were directly collected by Han Qian and Zhou Pan.
However, apart from the four thousand remnant soldiers in Wujian Mountain, these were the only few generals who fought their way out of Zhongli's siege.
This also means that in Zhongli's breakout battle, more than 12,000 generals were annihilated.
Even if the remnant troops in the northern section of the Wujian Mountains can successfully break through, the Youshenwu Army and the Dachu Navy can be said to have been completely destroyed.
The Five Tooth Army on the left and the Shenwu Army on the right were composed of generals and soldiers before the war, and there were more than 42,000 naval forces. In the end, only about 4,000 people escaped alive, and nine out of ten were killed. How different is it from the total destruction of the army?
This was a rare defeat and a disastrous defeat since Liang and Chu fought for supremacy.
Even in the Jingxiang War, where the situation was extremely critical, Liang Jun was beaten so hard in the early stage that he was unable to fight back, and the loss of real elite combat power was far less severe than this time.
At this time, Liang Jun's most elite heavy armored cavalry was ambushing in the south of Zhongli City, becoming a key part of defeating the breakout troops. Wen Ruilin's appearance in Zhongli, Gao Long's assassination of Chen Mingsheng before breaking out, etc. are enough to show that.
Li Pu's previous plan for the navy to attack Hongzepu was because the kings and ministers of Chu fell into the enemy's conspiracy and trap from the beginning.
Although Jinling City had not yet received news of a large group of Liang troops crossing Huainan, this was something that should be foreseen at this time.
In fact, because Li Zhigao, Han Qian and Zhou Pan were worried that a violent conflict between Yang Yuanpu and Queen Mother Wang Chan'er would seriously shake the morale of the army, they not only stopped passing on military intelligence information to Jinling, but even deliberately blocked the information.
Because before Xu Jing fled back to Jinling, the court only knew that a large group of Shouzhou cavalry was marching eastward, but it did not know the details about the specific scale and the circumstances of the encirclement of the Youshenwu Army. Li Zhigao had no further details.
The news came back.
It was not until the Privy Council directly sent reconnaissance cavalry across the river to Chaozhou City yesterday that they discovered that Li Zhigao had persuaded the generals with Li Pu to act according to the Queen Mother's secret edict at about the same time that Xu Mingzhen was leading the Shouzhou cavalry to intercept the You Shenwu Army.
They have given up the plan to attack Chaozhou City and are arranging their troops to retreat to the southeast of Qianshan.
And also yesterday, Hunan Xuanwei Envoy Huang Hua came from Yueyang with the news that Xuzhou Water Camp entered the Yangtze River under the Queen Mother's decree. Until today, it was confirmed that Xuzhou Water Camp entered Tangyi, and Feng Liao came to Jinling on behalf of Han Qian to submit a memorial.
In the past three days, one piece of news after another has shaken everyone's hearts like a giant stone dropped from a height of ten thousand feet.
If it were before the You Shenwu Army was annihilated, Yang Yuanpu would of course have rushed to the Changchun Palace angrily and asked why the Queen Mother secretly passed on secret edicts behind his back and why she interfered in state affairs without saying hello.
He might even angrily convene the ministers to discuss the abolition of the Queen Mother's title system and interfere in government affairs. He might also ask Chen Ruyi and Anji Xiang to directly strengthen the surveillance of the Changchun Palace and take back the authority of the Weaving Bureau.
He might even drive across the river to the Chaozhou camp to deprive the ungrateful Li Zhigao of his command over the Huaixi Forbidden Army in public.
But, what else can he say and do at this time?
He wanted to say, will the princes and ministers still listen to him?
If he wants to do something, will the princes and ministers not stop him?
Yang En, Li Pu, and Li Zhigao have all acted under the Queen Mother's secret orders. How many ministers in this palace can he truly trust?
Could it be that he convened the ministers to discuss the abolition of the Queen Mother's title of intervening in politics? It could turn into a group of ministers at any time.
The situation of inviting the Queen Mother to the court?
Yang Yuanpu was like a wolf that was severely bitten by his companions. He locked himself up in Chongwen Hall for two days in despair, smashed everything that could be smashed, killed three blind palace maids with his own hands, and killed Chen.
Ruyi, Anji Xiang, these two useless castrates who didn't even get any news beforehand, were beaten with black noses and swollen eyes. It wasn't until Feng Liao and Guo Rong went to Jinling on behalf of Han Qian to present the "Memorial to Guard Beishu" today that he was able to do something about it.
Contain your inner irritability.
Zhang Ping came over and told him that if he didn't see the ministers again, they would have no choice but to invite the Queen Mother from Changchun Palace to Chongwen Hall to listen to the memorial, and he had to summon the ministers, Feng Liao, and Guo Rong to Chongwen Hall again.
Listening to Feng Liao reading the memorial, Yang Yuanpu's eyelids kept twitching slightly.
To be honest, his suspicion and hatred for Han Qian at this moment were inexplicably not that deep. What made his hands tremble slightly at this moment was because of Li Zhigao's betrayal!
Yes, he still can't figure out why Li Zhigao followed his mother's edict behind his back?!
Even if Li Zhigao had different opinions on the arrangement of the war, why didn't he write to him?
Could it be that Li Zhigao has always been his mother's wife, and he was just pretending to obey his orders from beginning to end?
At this moment, Yang Yuanpu felt a chill deep in his bones.
For Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Han Daoming, Li Changfeng, Chen De, Zhang Chao, Guo Liang, Zhang Han and others, although their hearts were also filled with ups and downs during these three days,
But it was much easier than Yang Yuanpu.
Although after summoning Shenyang to the political affairs hall, this was the first time the Queen Mother issued an edict to interfere with the military aircraft of the foreign court, the Queen Mother said that the matter of formulating and discussing political affairs has not been abandoned.
Han Qian, Li Zhigao, Li Pu, Yang En and others acted under the orders of the Queen Mother. Although it was very abrupt and could even be said to be directly forcing His Majesty to conceive, at least it cannot be said to be inconsistent with the system.
In fact, it was the Queen Mother's timely intervention that temporarily resolved what might have been the biggest crisis since the founding of the Chu Kingdom. Deep down in their hearts, they felt lucky.
In particular, the Xuzhou water camp entered the Yangtze River in time, which relieved everyone's worries that Jinling might be directly attacked, and there was no need to worry that the main force of the Huaixi Forbidden Army might be trapped in the north of the Yangtze River and become a lone army.
It seems that the Right Shenwu Army has been severely damaged, but the current situation in Dachu is actually slightly better than when the main force of the navy was destroyed. At least there is no danger of impatiently taking dangerous measures, and the main force of the Huaixi Forbidden Army has not suffered much serious damage.
Loss, preserving the foundation of the Forbidden Army established after the Jinling Incident.
Han Qian became famous in the Battle of Xichuan. Tangyi is backed by the Yangtze River, and the possibility of defending Tangyi is extremely high. Some people even hope that the Battle of Xichuan will be repeated under Tangyi City, and the glory of Liang Jun was defeated with just one city.
Furthermore, apart from Your Majesty, the Queen Mother has no other children with the late Emperor. Even if she directly intervenes in the government this time, in the eyes of most people, it will not trigger the crisis of deposing the emperor and establishing a new one.
Most people are worried about the crisis that has been temporarily resolved. As the Liang army crosses Huainan, it may intensify again at any time. They are also worried about how they will clean up the messy situation in Huaixi after the Shouzhou army defected to Liang.
Feng Liao presented a memorial on behalf of Han Qian. Yang Yuanpu did not want to appear too passive and did not want everything to be led by the nose. The court only asked the ministers to draft a statement and consider good strategies, and did not allow everyone to immediately discuss Han Qian's memorial.
, and discuss how to deal with the subsequent current situation...