On the ninth day of February, the warship passed Gong'an County and was still three to five days away from Jiangling City.
Brothers Zhang Shun and Zhang Gui would climb up the mast and look out every day, looking very anxious.
On the main ship, Li Xia looked very calm on the surface, but more often than not he began to climb onto the oar and watch the situation on the river ahead.
If there are ships carrying people on the river turning back, it means that Jiangling's dock has been lost and the Yuan army has blocked the river.
This situation has not happened yet. Jiang Cai has not fallen yet, but Li Xia doesn't know what price he has paid.
He didn't want to show his anxiety, and wanted to avoid the courtiers around him and stay alone, and he didn't even want to see his concubines.
After becoming emperor, he occasionally had this habit.
"You guys wait outside."
After turning around the cabin, he left his guards outside the cabin on the top floor. Li Xia entered a cabin alone, sat down, and rubbed his forehead.
You don’t have to act like you’re supreme in front of others, it’s much more comfortable.
Considering the situation, regardless of the expression in his eyes, Li Xia cursed Lu Wenhuan to himself, scolding him for deliberately letting the Yuan army go to Jiangling.
His voice was not loud, but just after he finished cursing, he heard someone scolding: "I just think Li Xia is despicable."
The voice was neither loud nor quiet, but it conveyed a sense of magnanimity.
Li Xia opened the window and saw a corridor outside the window. A few cabins apart, there were two women standing on the railing. They were Zhao Jin and Wang Cui.
Zhao Jin heard the sound of pushing the window, turned around and saw Li Xia, put his hands on his waist, and said: "Even if the court pinches its nose and recognizes his throne, so what, do you think I have never seen the emperor?"
?Anyway, in my eyes, he just doesn't deserve to be the emperor."
Wang Cui couldn't help but gently pulled her and reminded her to stop talking.
Zhao Jin did not pretend to be stupid and said: "What are you afraid of? In the worst case, he will kill me. If a bad woman dares not to let me go, sooner or later I will piss him off and take revenge."
Li Xia's attitude was very clear. Yan Rong could take care of Zhao Jin, as long as he didn't disturb him.
Zhao Jin knew this and would deliberately make noise whenever he met him. At times like this, Li Xia would usually ignore her, turn around and walk away or let Yan Rong take her down.
Today, he did not walk away. Instead, he turned around and leaned against the window, listening to Zhao Jin's curses.
"I think Li Xia is despicable, shameless, and pretentious. He obviously has wild ambitions, and in order to confuse people, he always talks about the righteousness of restoring the Central Plains. It is simply sanctimonious. Everyone praises him like an eternal wise king.
Think of him as Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty or Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Is there such a shabby emperor? He is just like a bandit leader. He shows off all day long, but secretly he is lustful, robbing concubines, and has no conscience...
…”
The river wind blew by, blowing her words into Li Xia's ears, and they soon dissipated on the Yangtze River.
Zhao Jin said that his mouth was dry and he turned around and glanced, only to see that figure still leaning against the window, and his back was straight even when doing this kind of action, which made him look even more annoying.
However, even after scolding Li Xia for so long, there was no response.
She couldn't help but mutter to herself, she couldn't really make him angry to death.
After a while, Li Xia saw that she had stopped scolding her, and looked back, without saying anything, and quickly took her back.
However, his expression seemed very relaxed.
"What are you looking at? I'm just scolding you." Zhao Jin raised his voice.
"That's a good scolding."
"It's no use pretending to be generous. I won't admit that you, a rebel, are the emperor."
"I don't need you to admit it, and you can't change anything."
"Are you laughing? Bah, I think you are worried to death, pretending all day long."
"Yes, I'm worried to death." Li Xia responded frankly.
He wants to be the emperor of the world, but he cannot be the emperor of Zhao Jin anyway. After all, he is an enemy to her, and they have nothing to do with each other.
Then no matter how much he bears, he doesn't need to bear her expectations.
So Li Xia closed the window with a bang, which seemed very rude.
You can still hear Zhao Jin shouting: "Do you think he looks like an emperor? Po is the only one..."
The river boat continued up the river and finally received urgent news from the upper reaches.
The letter was sent out two days ago. Jiang Cai bluntly stated that the Yuan army was powerful. Ali Hague personally led the army to attack the wharf of Shashi Town. The Tang army suffered heavy casualties and was in urgent need of support.
Even Shi Jun, who had always been calm, became anxious after hearing the news.
However, Li Xia seemed to be more and more majestic as an emperor, and asked calmly: "Shi Qing, does he know how Meng Gong defeated the enemy in the battle between Song Dynasty and Meng Jiangling? Knife."
He was talking about a battle thirty years ago. At that time, the Mongolian army had captured Xiangyang. The troops were divided into two groups, fighting all the way along the Han River to Huangzhou, and attacking Jiangling directly by land.
It was Meng Gong who saved Jiangling, rescued Huangzhou, and regained Xiangyang.
Shi Jun naturally knew about this past event and immediately responded: "At that time, Meng Gong was well aware of the disparity in military strength. He first gathered troops to block the river, and then implemented a strategy of doubting the troops. During the day, he changed flags and uniforms to support Jiangling. At night, he was bluffing.
The torches were lined up for dozens of miles along the river, as if a large army was coming to help. The Mongolian army did not know the real situation and was restless. Meng Gong took the opportunity to attack and broke through 24 enemy camps in a row and took back more than 20,000 captured civilians."
After telling a short story, the civil and military officials became much calmer.
Li Xia praised: "As expected of Meng Gong, who fought against the Mongols with a lone army and became the mainstay of Zhao and Song Dynasties."
"Your Majesty, the situation is different after all. Back then, although Meng Gong's soldiers were small and Jiangling's soldiers were large, they could be rescued slowly; today's situation in Jiangling is characterized by the word 'critical'."
"Since we are in a hurry, I have sent cavalry to the shore and quickly supported Jiangling by land."
Fang Yankai was stunned at first.
There are indeed cavalry in the army, but after all, this battle is along the river to attack Ezhou. Most of the main forces are navy and infantry. The total number of cavalry is only Lu Xiaoyou's more than a thousand people.
No matter how much it is, the ships will not be able to transport it.
"Jiang Cai said that the Yuan army numbered more than ten thousand, and he sent thousands of cavalry to the shore to rescue them, but it was only a drop in the bucket."
At this point, Fang Yankai saw Shi Jun waving his hands to indicate that he didn't need to say any more.
He himself has figured it out.
As long as Lu Xiaoyou's more than a thousand cavalry can reach Jiangling first, wouldn't it be the same situation that Meng Gong encountered back then? The disparity in military strength could lead to the use of suspicious tactics.
Shashi Town Pier.
"Fire the arrow!"
"Fat hair!"
With the shouts of both warring parties, arrows and stones passed by each other in the air.
The ships carrying Tang army artillery had anchored downstream in order to attack the Yuan army attacking from the east during the first battle.
In the next two days, the Yuan army quickly moved around to the west to attack, avoiding the artillery fire. As a result, the big ship was still struggling to move up the river.
The problem is that the continuous spring rain has made Jiangzhu muddy, making it more difficult for the trackers to pull the warship.
As the fighting continued, the people hiding on the dock were crying loudly.
The Tang army was also retreating bit by bit, and the battle line was already within the range of the bows, arrows and chariots of the boats on the riverside.
The defense line on land almost collapsed.
The Yuan army also suffered casualties, but it maintained high morale.
No matter what, they grasped a good opportunity.
Li Xia broke the Song Dynasty's defense line between Beijing and Xiangzhou, and the Song Dynasty also consumed Li Xia on the Yangtze River, which was their opportunity to benefit.
When the generals of the Yuan army analyzed the situation, they mentioned the Song Dynasty and Li Xia, but rarely mentioned the word "Tang Dynasty" because for them, the one who had always been a threat was Li Xia as a general or commander-in-chief.
people.
For the time being, the Tang State has not threatened the Yuan Dynasty with the power of one country.
Therefore, they believed that getting rid of Li Xia would be equivalent to destroying the Tang Dynasty.
"Shashi Town must be captured today! Those who perform meritorious services will be rewarded heavily..."
Liu Guojie rode through the front line, raised his sword and shouted.
He was originally a subordinate of Zhang Hongfan. Although he had an ordinary Han name, he was actually a Jurchen whose real surname was Wugulun. He changed his surname to Liu after following the Zhang family.
Later, Ali Hague took over Bozhou. Liu Guojie believed that if he stayed in Bozhou and followed Ali Hague, he would have more opportunities to make achievements, so he decided to stay.
Zhang Hongfan was quite generous, so he agreed when he saw that he had this intention.
Sure enough, now Liu Guojie has been waiting for this opportunity.
He knew that he was about to capture Shashi Town.
What is annoying is the humid and rainy weather in the land of Jinghu, as well as the soft and muddy land.
From time to time it would rain, and the horses' hooves would sink into the soil and be difficult to pull out. When they fired at the Tang army's navy, the casualties were much greater than usual.
There were also many soldiers in the army who could not tolerate such conditions and fell ill.
"Warriors! Grit your teeth and capture the dock today. There are countless treasures, wine and women. We are warming ourselves by the fire and waiting for Li Xia's ship to arrive."
"Kill!"
The sky suddenly became darker, and the Yuan army maintained a frantic offensive, hoping to break through the Tang army's defense line before nightfall.
People on the pier were already frightened and began to rob the boats, screaming and falling into the water.
suddenly.
"Li Xia is here!"
A soldier from Yuan Dynasty came over on flying horse and yelled at the top of his lungs.
Liu Guojie was startled, turned around and asked: "Li Xia is here?! So soon? Have you seen his flag?"