The siege of Xiangyang City has lasted for a year. Li Siye continued to recruit troops towards Nanyang. In addition to the nearly 200,000 siege troops, there were also 60,000 flying tiger cavalry who were ready to mobilize at any time. These people spent on food and grass in one day.
An astronomical figure. Li Siye asked Xu Bin and Gao Shang to be responsible for the entire logistics supply. They established several evenly distributed forage yards along the canal. The grain collected by the various states was first concentrated in Luoyang, and then traveled south to Suiyang by grain ships.
, people and animals traveled from Suiyang to Nanyang by land, and then transferred from Nanyang to the front of Xiangyang City.
In addition, Hanzhong in the upper reaches of the Han River provided half of the supply for the siege troops. All grain transport ships went down the Han River. Zang Xiyan personally sent troops to serve as escorts, and they could directly reach the vicinity of Xiangyang City, reducing unnecessary manpower consumption.
, and also reduced food loss.
Li Siye's northern regime prepared a complete logistics system to ensure that the siege could last a long time and never give Xiangyang City a chance to survive.
Guo Ziyi, who had anticipated this situation earlier, once ordered the people to tear down their houses and cultivate land in the city when food was abundant. They dug tunnels and lived underground. However, the area of the city was limited after all. Even if all the buildings were to be demolished and all the land was cultivated,
There was no food to satisfy the soldiers and civilians, and hunger eventually struck.
After discussion with Zhang Xun, Guo Ziyi and Zhang Xun concluded that farming in the city could only subsidize part of the food supply. If this continued, the people would not be able to eat, and sooner or later cannibalism would occur. Guo Ziyi decided to send someone out to ask for help from Emperor Li Yu of Jiankang, as long as
If the emperor can retake Jingmen and attack the Yong army that has been besieging the city for a year, it will definitely bring vitality back to Xiangyang City.
He organized three teams to go out to send letters for help. However, they were found and surrounded by Yong's army and had to return to the city. Zhang Xun sent his fierce general Nan Ba to lead thirteen cavalry out of the city when the moon was dark and the wind was high.
Encirclement, heading towards Jiangcheng.
Nan Ba's heart was burning with anxiety, because as time went by, groups of people in Xiangyang City would starve to death. He had no time to go to Jianjian to see Li Yu, so he had to go to Xu Shuji, the general who was stationed in Jiangcheng and was responsible for the defense of Jianghuai.
All the troops of the imperial court in the nine counties of Jingxiang were concentrated in Jiangcheng. The total number was about 90,000. The grain and grass transported by water from the entire Jiangdong were also concentrated on the docks on the river bank. There were two granaries with hundreds of thousands of dendrobium in the city.
It was in sharp contrast to the famished Xiangyang City. When Nan Ba saw these hoards of food and grass on his horse, his eyes gradually turned red.
In fact, compared to the north, which has only one canal system and the Yellow River system, the water network south of the Yangtze River is crisscrossed, and crops are harvested twice a year. The harvest is more than three times that of the fertile fields in the north. With the help of ships, food can be reached from the Yangtze River system to any strategic location.
Node has far more advantages than Yong Jun, making Li Siye jealous even after seeing it.
Originally the general in charge of Jianghuai defense was Guo Ziyi, but after Guo Ziyi took office, he immediately regarded Xiangyang as the focus of defense and set up his headquarters in Xiangyang City. As the Yong army moved south, Xiangyang City was gradually besieged, and Guo Ziyi also lost his direction.
The channel for external command was cut off from the defenders in Jiangcheng and other prefectures.
At this time, the ruling party in the court was a group of eunuchs headed by Yu Chaoen. He immediately told Li Yu: "Guo Ziyi is already in danger of Xiangyang and is located on the frontline battlefield. Once Xiangyang falls and the Jianghuai generals are leaderless, your majesty, please choose another one."
One person is responsible for the defense of the Jianghuai area.
This guy has already made plans that Xiangyang will not be able to defend it, and he has no correct estimate of the entire world situation.
A few knowledgeable people in the DPRK expressed opposition. Although Xiangyang was besieged, it could not fall into the enemy's hands. Once Xiangyang fell, Li Siye controlled the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and Jiangdong could not be defended at all. Guo Ziyi's power in charge of Jianghuai defense must not be
Strip it off, but you can send one person to stay in Jiangcheng to serve as Guo Ziyi's substitute and deputy.
As for the replacement candidate, Yu Chaoen recommended Xu Shuji to Li Yu. Prime Minister Li Kui also recommended Xu Shuji against his will because he was attached to Yu Chaoen. Prime Minister Xiao Hua, however, believed that Xu Shuji was cunning and self-interested. In a modern saying,
Exquisite egoists, sending such people to guard and dispatch Jingxiang, must only care about their own selfish interests, and it is difficult to look at the overall situation. But for the person who succeeded Guo Ziyi, they did not have a suitable candidate, but in view of Guo Ziyi's importance to the Tang Dynasty
, they recommended Guo Ziyi's eldest son Guo Yao to replace Guo Ziyi, so that he could give his father all due support from the rear.
But Eunuch Yu Chaoen once again showed his daring loyalty, shouting for everyone in the court, holding his chest and saying sadly: "Do you still remember Guo Xi's surrender of the enemy? How dare you hand over the whole Jianghuai River to the hands of the Guo family's children.
Xu Shuji is not Guo Ziyi’s old subordinate, and the decisions he made are all fair. Your Majesty, please think deeply."
Li Yu was indeed murmuring in his heart. He heard that Li Siye had appointed Guo Xi as Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, and now that the other party had the upper hand, if the Guo family and his son really surrendered, his natural security on the Yangtze River would surely be surrendered to a powerful enemy.
After careful consideration, Emperor Li Yu finally decided to appoint Xu Shuji as Guo Ziyi's deputy general and went to Jiangcheng. As a result, he lost Jingmen Pass as soon as he arrived in Jiangcheng. However, in order to shirk responsibility, he gave Li Yu a letter saying that he was only a deputy general and his name was not legitimate.
He was unable to control his subordinates because of his disobedience, which led to the fall of Jingmen and the siege of Xiangyang by the Yong army, cutting off Xiangyang's only external communication channel.
Li Yuxin believed it was true and gave all the command of Jingxiang to Xu Shuji, letting him completely replace Guo Ziyi in issuing orders. He also continued to send more troops and supplies to Jiangcheng from the rear, and ordered him to take back Jingmen and try to rescue Xiangyang.
Now Xu Shuji had received a large amount of food and strong troops, but he was squatting in Jiangcheng and refused to move until Nanba came to visit him personally.
Xu Shuji knew that he was in the wrong. He believed that the Jiangdong soldiers under his command had low combat effectiveness. How could they dare to fight against the Youyan Tigers and Northwest Canglang brought by Li Siye? It was not that he had not considered going to rescue Xiangyang, but he really did not have the courage to fight with the two
One hundred thousand northern troops did not even dare to come close to contain the enemy.
When Jingmen Pass was defeated by Yong's army, Xu Shuji had already sentenced Xiangyang City to death in his heart. No one could save it. He couldn't defend the city and dared to fight against Yong's army? His only hope was that Xiangyang City would be the best.
He could drain all the energy of Yong's army so that they would not have the energy to attack Jiangcheng. After withdrawing, he could survive another level.
It's just that Nan Jiyun, the general Zhang Xun sent from Xiangyang City, is here. This is really annoying. It's not good to just send him away. If he goes to Jiankang to find the emperor for help, he will be sent to Jiankang for help.
His passive rescue was revealed.
Li Yu had already issued two decrees asking Xu Shuji to find a way to provide assistance to Xiangyang City. He took advantage of Yu Chaoen's protection and was only doing so in disguise, finding various excuses for himself, sometimes even deceitfully. The memorials he sent to the emperor three times
Zhong said that he sent troops to attack Jingmen, but the Yong army was too powerful and failed to conquer it several times, so it retreated.
But the real situation is that the 6,000 Yong army elites stationed at Jingmen are so idle that their eggs are about to fall off. They live a boring life standing on the city wall every day. Originally, the Tang army was only a dozen miles away from their nearest stronghold, the county town.
But Xu Shuji not only ordered these soldiers not to come close for investigation, but also withdrew such an important stronghold.
He was very afraid that Li Siye would go beyond the norm and directly bypass Xiangyang to attack Jiangcheng. Faced with this situation, the only thing he could do was to stay as low as possible and not attract the enemy's attention, otherwise it would be disaster.