Li Xia just got out of the warm bed and was pulled behind her.
"You are so boring." Zhao Jin muttered without even opening his eyes: "You are already an emperor, what's wrong with getting up late..."
"I went to bed early, and I don't know how long you guys kept chattering."
Zhao Jin seemed to have fallen asleep again, and he let go of Li Xia's hand, but tried his best to explain one more sentence while feeling sleepy.
"We agreed... to capture uncle alive..."
"We may not be able to win. We have already passed the decree. If we win, we will capture Jia Sidao alive."
Zhao Jin didn’t respond and was already asleep.
Li Xia got up and went to the outhouse. Miao Lan, who was sleeping outside, had already woken up and was busy dressing him.
Since Li Xia came over three days ago, she took the wrong robe today.
"Put on your martial arts training robe first."
Miao Lan hurriedly went to change it and couldn't help but sigh in a low voice.
"How can your Majesty be so diligent for more than ten years?"
"It's easier than working diligently every other day."
"Yes."
Miao Lan really got an answer from Li Xia, but she lowered her head and did not dare to say any more, for fear that Yan Rong would hear and misunderstand that she was seducing His Majesty.
…
The small palace gradually became busy.
When the morning sun broke out on the horizon, Guan De had already led his chamberlain to place a stack of memorials on the imperial desk.
Afterwards, Li Xia, who had changed into his robe, went into the side hall and looked through the memorials that he had not had time to deal with last night.
If the criterion for evaluating whether an emperor is a wise king is the number of court meetings he attends, Li Xia cannot actually be called a wise king.
He didn't hold court meetings very often, only once every four or five days. He usually let his ministers perform their respective duties, and called officials to report when something happened.
And unless there was an emergency, he generally stopped reviewing memorials as soon as the sun went down, for fear of hurting his eyes.
In short, Li Xia did not cater too much to the emperor's norms and still retained many of his own habits.
"Your Majesty, this part is the battle report sent from the south. From last night to now, there are twenty-seven letters in total, two from Huaidong and seven from Huaixi. These thirteen letters are from various states and counties in the Yangtze River..."
Guande has categorized them according to the cover of the memorial.
He studied in Lin'an Palace and was specialized in assisting the emperor in handling documents. I don't know if he would become a eunuch who would bring disaster to the country if he were around other emperors. However, Li Xia was very easy to use.
Just this morning, before the twenty-seven battle reports had been read, Gao Changshou's latest battle report had been delivered to Kaifeng immediately.
Not long after, Guan De quickly ran out of the side hall and summoned his ministers to hold a small court meeting.
…
"Gao Changshou has begun the general attack."
"Let's talk about the Song army's formation first. The Song army has lost more than half of its strength since the defeat at Jiangling. Even if it is re-recruited, it will not exceed 120,000 people."
"The Song army also suffered a lot of losses in its warships. There were no more than 2,000 warships, lying across the Yangtze River, which is a hundred miles west of Lugang."
"The Song army still has infantry stationed on the river bank. According to the military information our army has detected, there are 40,000 Song troops on the south bank. There are even 20,000 people on the north bank..."
Now that the two Huaihe Rivers were occupied by the Tang army, the Song Dynasty still dared to cross the river and set up an ambush on the north bank. Naturally, the ministers in the palace would not tolerate it, and Lu Wenhuan was the first to step forward.
"Rigid."
Lu Wenhuan pointed at the sand table and said: "Jia Sidao is too rigid in his troops. Although he said that the river must be defended on both sides of the river, he did not think that the troops stationed on the north bank would be too easily defeated by our army, thus breaking the river."
"Xiangong Lu used the word 'break the face with a point' well. Although the Song army was numerous, many of the troops were easily defeated."
"Marshal Gao only needs to send an order to Luzhou to send a cavalry force south to attack the Song army on the north bank and gain the upper hand."
"This is the right principle. The combined force of warships, infantry and cavalry, and advancing on land and water are the only way to defeat the enemy."
"I'm just afraid that the Song army is cheating."
"No." Shi Jun said with a determined tone: "Any strategy on the battlefield requires a stable military mentality and high morale. If the Song army still dares to use tactics to lure the enemy, I'm afraid that as soon as the king's division arrives, the soldiers will be in chaos..."
After talking about the Song Army, everyone talked about the deployment of their own troops.
Still using ginger rice to illustrate.
"Now we have transferred 20,000 cavalry from Shanxi to the south. After Lu Xiaoyou arrives in Luzhou, he will station his troops at these places on the north bank of the Yangtze River."
"How many ships will be able to carry people across the river after Zhao Shu surrenders?"
"Three thousand riders should be able to cross within two days..."
Lu Wenhuan's eyelids twitched.
Li Xia had previously asked him to guess which commander-in-chief of the Song Dynasty had defected to the Song Dynasty. After he excluded Xia Gui, it was not difficult for him to guess Zhao Shu.
But I'm not sure.
As the saying goes, "To accept a surrender is like being attacked by an enemy, it cannot be done easily." There have been too many examples of false surrenders on the battlefields of the past dynasties.
Even now, Lu Wenhuan has not seen the outcome of the war with his own eyes, and is still not sure whether Zhao Shu really surrendered. Maybe Li Xia was wrong.
But then, he suddenly thought of something.
Since Jia Sidao implemented the planning method, he first dealt with some dissidents, such as Zhao Kui, who was the focus of his suppression.
In the fifth year of Xianding's reign, Ma Guangzu, who had always had a quarrel with Zhao Kui, inspected the money and property in the army and found several places where Zhao Kui had overspent.
If Zhao Kui was really corrupt, he would be killed by Jia Dang's methods. However, after Ma Guangzu found out, he only allowed Zhao Kui to repay the court thousands of dollars.
It can be seen that the Zhao family really has no money, and Zhao Shu is naturally not as unwilling to surrender as the Lu family.
In other words, the Tang army not only advanced by land and water, but also attacked from both sides...
"Three thousand cavalry are enough. Sir, please see, after our cavalry crosses the Yangtze River and arrives at Jiankang Mansion, Zhao Shu will send guides to lead them westward."
"It's less than two hundred miles from Caishiji to the Lugang camp where Jia Sidao garrisoned troops."
"In other words, it will take four or five days at the earliest for the news of Zhao Shu's surrender to reach Jia Sidao's ears, and our cavalry has already crossed the Yangtze River and reached Jia Sidao's camp."
"Just imagine, our army is advancing along the waterway to attack the Song Army. Suddenly, the Song Army discovers cavalry on the south bank and rushes into the commander's camp. How can they remain undefeated?"
"If it were you, you guys, would you be able to come up with a strategy to turn the tide of the war?"
"..."
Lu Wenhuan suddenly felt that the court had speculated too much about the war.
Just such a battle was discussed over and over again, for fear of giving Jia Sidao the slightest chance.
But in fact, there is no need to go to this level at all and the Song army will definitely be defeated.
Taking into account the time it takes for the message to be transmitted, perhaps at this moment, the war has already concluded...
~~
Wuhu.
The big ship anchored in Lugang has not moved yet.
From here, we can't see the battlefield upstream.
However, the battle report sent back through the boat still made the Song Army's command platform tense.
"Report, the rebels set fire to stacks of firewood carried on bamboo rafts and burned our warships!"
"Report, the rebels have cavalry to attack our army from the north!"
"Report, there are artillery on the rebel warship."
"..."
News came one after another. Jia Sidao, who was standing high on the ship building and looking into the distance, realized that he could not see the battlefield from here, but had to have the messenger climb up the stairs to report.
"Go down."
"Quickly, help Ping Zhanggong down."
The ship building doesn't look big from a distance, but it's actually four stories high on the two-story deck.
The wooden steps were very steep and narrow, but Jia Sidao's boots were big, so he stepped sideways on the steps.
There is a small window when turning the corner, looking into the distance.
Amidst the "thumping" footsteps, Jia Sidao suddenly shouted: "Wait!"
Hu behind him never had time to stop and bumped into his back, adding a touch of panic to the already tense atmosphere.
Jia Sidao ignored this and looked out the window again, and saw cavalry running along the shore.
"Is that the east side?" he confirmed.
"Ping Zhanggong, it's the east side."
"People from Zhao Shu?"
Jia Sidao muttered to himself, doubts appearing in his eyes.
"Give me the telescope."
Not caring about being squeezed on the narrow wooden stairs, he raised his lookout tube and squinted for a while. He saw more and more cavalry appearing where the river bank meets the Yangtze River.
He aimed at the opponent's flag. When the flag grew larger and larger in his sight, it was indeed Zhao Shu's men.
Jia Sidao breathed a sigh of relief and was about to put down the telescope, but he immediately said in his heart, "No!"
How could Zhao Shu have so many cavalry?
So I looked up again, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find the Song flag I just saw.
The lookout swayed until I saw the cavalry team raising a big flag again.
Jia Sidao opened his mouth.
"Report!"
Another messenger rushed to the ship's building, crowded under the wooden steps, and shouted: "Report, the upper reaches have been defeated... the upper reaches..."
"Enemy attack!"
"Boom!"
The warning bell rang.
The ship shook violently, as it was hit by another warship.
On the steps, everyone was caught off guard and fell to the ground, tripping over a large area.
"Protect Ping Zhanggong..."
~~
"Change horses!"
"Put up the flag!"
"Blow the trumpet! Capture Jia Sidao alive!"
"Moo..."
Lu Xiaoyou kept giving orders and ordered his cavalry to attack Jia Sidao's battle flag.
In fact, Jia Sidao's warship is in the harbor and the cavalry cannot kill it.
But sometimes what is killed on the battlefield is the human heart. What Lu Xiaoyou wanted to do was to destroy the morale of the Song army.
Moreover, Zhao Shu's navy is downstream, preparing to block the Song army's retreat...
Lu Xiaoyou's troops were the first batch of cavalry to go south.
During the Northern Expedition, they were under the command of Liu Yuanli and marched all the way from Shanxi to Juyong Pass. What they faced was not the main force of the Yuan army, so the casualties were relatively small.
Lu Xiaoyou felt that the contribution of the Northern Expedition was too small, and he wanted to work harder in this southern expedition. However, once he crossed the Yangtze River, he realized that there were many rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, and there were only few battles in which cavalry could play a role.
Moreover, with Song Ting's appearance, he would have to fight one less battle.
He hoped to capture Jia Sidao alive.
The wind blew in my face, making a loud noise.
Today the wind is blowing from west to east, which will help the Tang navy to defeat the enemy, so Gao Changshou will launch a general attack today.
Lu Xiaoyou could hear the wind carrying the golden sound ahead.
Jia Sidao ordered his troops to retreat faster than he did.
But the Song army was not all on the warships. There were many infantrymen on the river bank.
Seeing the cavalry of the Tang Army suddenly attacking like magic soldiers descending from heaven, and Duke Pingzhang fleeing without a fight, the Song soldiers on the river bank were in chaos.
The defeat was almost instantaneous, so easy that even the Tang army's cavalry found it unbelievable.
Destroy and destroy.
Before the Tang army arrived, some Song soldiers dropped their weapons, squatted down and surrendered with their heads in their hands; more others turned around and fled to the warships.
"Don't leave me!"
"Let go!"
"Pick us up!"
"Quick, cut the rope..."
The panicked soldiers pulled on the ropes that tied the ship and tried their best to hold the warship. More people jumped into the water and desperately climbed onto the warship.
"Whoever captures Jia Sidao alive will be rewarded!"
When such loud shouts came from behind, the soldiers of Song Dynasty became even more crazy...