The Si River flows into the Han River from south to north.
On the river, warships were sailing down the river one after another, with military flags with the Chinese character "Tang" flying high.
"Plop!"
Another anchor was thrown into the river, and the ship's speed became slower and slower.
Ahead is Junzhou.
It was approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, and for the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty who were in a foreign land, the weather and terrain were not very good.
Moreover, both sides of the Han River are high mountains in the Qinling Mountains. They were worried about encountering an ambush by the Song army, so they had to slow down their march to allow the scouting horses to explore the road conditions first.
A spy arrived in a small boat and climbed onto the side of the ship. "Your Majesty, you have military intelligence..."
"Verify waistband." In the cabin, Li Xia was listening to Fang Yankai analyze the reactions from various places after he became emperor.
"It has been less than a month since His Majesty became emperor. This is the time when the situation is most prone to instability, but yet he immediately launched an army to attack the Song Dynasty. Naturally, there will be many people who are unwilling to immediately become enemies of the motherland."
When Fang Yankai said this, he quickly looked at Li Xia and saw that he looked calm, obviously he was mentally prepared for this.
"I know." Although Li Xia's eyes were still fixed on the official document, he seemed to know that Fang Yankai was peeking over and said: "Nothing always goes smoothly. If everyone supports me to become emperor, it won't be possible in the first place."
Reality."
"Your Majesty, please pay attention to your address."
"It doesn't matter, keep talking."
"Yes, there are officials from various prefectures and counties taking up their posts, and there are also many deserters in the military in various places."
"No martyrs?"
"Probably not." Fang Yankai sighed: "There was a promotion official in Kaizhou who hanged himself. He wanted to go back to Jiangnan, but he had no choice but to let him go. There were thirty-six people like this. As for the local area, I'm afraid some people were cheated.
The murder case has been dealt with."
"Well, is there a rebellion in the army?"
"At least there are no reports. The total number of deserters from all over the country is about 1,700. Because they are unwilling to fight with the Song Dynasty, there are nearly 3,000 people who have asked to be ordered to disarm and return to their fields."
"It's better than I expected. There was no bloodshed in the emperor's rebellion... I guess it can only be said that there was not much bloodshed. It is rare since ancient times, right?"
"It's unique." Fang Yankai's tone was conclusive. Li Xia nodded.
He knew that there must be a concealment in the local area. The truth is that when he became emperor, there were definitely people who died because of opposing him.
But local officials and generals can suppress it, which is considered good.
Not to mention the current era, even in Li Xia's previous life, there were still many people who were influenced by such deep-rooted thoughts.
He had heard that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, some great literati stubbornly ran away to foreign countries, and finally died miserably in the basement.
There must be such people.
Even if Li Xia knew a lot of more advanced things, there were only a few literate people in the world and there were not enough officials. How could he change everyone's thinking in one step?
Then universal education? But who will farm the land?
It takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to cultivate people.
Therefore, what Li Xia has been doing is to adapt to this era, rather than just follow his own ideas when he becomes emperor, and impose some institutional ideas that are hundreds of years ahead of his time on the people of the world and become a shackles for them.
"The reaction after becoming emperor this time is indeed far better than I expected. The only thing I'm worried about is Yi from Yunnan Road..."
Just as he said this, the battle report came. "Your Majesty."
"come in."
"Report, Lu Wenhuan's flag has been spotted ahead..."
Fang Yankai sighed slightly, began to sort out the books on the table, and spread out the map for Li Xia.
He has now been promoted to the position of Vice Minister of Zhongshu of the new Tang Dynasty... which is roughly equivalent to the political advisor of the Song Dynasty.
You must know that ten years ago, he was just a small county clerk, but suddenly he entered the central government.
Only the rebellion could achieve such a speed of promotion, and it was also because Fang Yankai was the first old man to help Li Xia, and he was very capable. If he was promoted normally in the Song Dynasty court, it would be useless for another thirty years. He would not be able to
Any person who participates in political affairs.
Fang Yankai had also thought about being loyal to Dog Song Sheji... Really. If Li Xia could only give him glory and wealth in a general sense, he would probably refuse it outright.
But this is to enter the ranks of rulers, which is his lifelong ambition.
When the benefits are great enough to satisfy a person's pursuit of the entire life, the rules of the ruler and his ministers can often be overturned...
"What does Fang Qing think of this battle?" Li Xia asked after hearing the battle report.
"Your Majesty has his own plan, and I will fill in the gaps." Fang Yankai was very humble, bowed, held the sleeve of the other hand with one hand, and pointed on the map.
"Lu Wenhuan personally rushed to Junzhou to defend, which shows that His Majesty's strategy is going well.
But I just want to remind your majesty that if Lu Wenhuan pretends to be defeated and tempts your majesty to pursue him, I beg your majesty not to risk going too far."
Li Xia smiled and said: "Don't worry, I promised you all before we set off. I will fight this battle in a safe way."
Fang Yankai breathed a sigh of relief, and after thinking about it, he found that Li Xia didn't answer directly at all.
So he added: "What I am worried about is not Lu Wenhuan or even Lu Wende who lures the enemy deep into the army and surrounds His Majesty. It is what happens if they remind Meng Yuan in advance."
On the map, downstream of Danjiangkou, Fang Yankai drew a circle with his finger. He also pointed at Tongguan and other defense lines and said: "Once Meng Yuan learns that His Majesty is surrounded here, he will take action to divide the victory."
"Fang Qing thinks the Lu family brothers will reveal the news?"
"When they don't have the confidence to defeat His Majesty, they must recruit Meng Yuan for reinforcements." Fang Yankai twirled his long beard and said: "I might as well put myself in the shoes of the Zhao and Song Dynasties and speculate on the current situation..."
"That's fine."
"Your Majesty is an emperor and has outstanding military exploits. Sooner or later, if you revive the Tang Dynasty, you will replace Zhao and Song Dynasties. As far as the Song Dynasty is concerned, Your Majesty is a serious problem that must be eliminated. As for the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, he is no more than a Hulu
"It's just that it's difficult for the Hulu to rule the Central Plains. At most, they will be divided into one party like Liao and Jin." Li Xia sighed slightly.
He knew that the Yuan Dynasty would destroy the Song Dynasty and unify the world. But he was the only one in the world who thought so. This was a cognitive gap that he easily ignored.
Many times, Li Xia would unconsciously think that someone from the Song Dynasty would be on his side, thinking that they would be aware of Kublai Khan's threat. But no.
The most terrifying thing is that it is very dangerous to take for granted what the ancients thought with the consciousness of modern people.
Li Xia kept reminding himself that this was dangerous, but he still forgot sometimes.
This time, he wanted to defeat Song Ting's fighting spirit as quickly as possible, let Song Ting sue for peace, recognize his emperor's title, and provide benefits... When he considered these, he took into account the mutual restraint between Song and Yuan.
However, the consideration may be biased.
Fang Yankai's reminder is indeed reasonable. "Your Majesty must not underestimate the possibility of Song and Yuan jointly sending troops. Some tactics are still risky in my opinion."
"..."
The warship sailed slowly on the Han River like this.
Li Xia, who was on the expedition himself, seemed to be more concerned about his life than before. Although he was going down the river, he didn't take advantage of the speed of going down the river at all.
By August 13th, the Tang army had not yet arrived at the battlefield at Danjiangkou. It seemed that they wanted to start the war after the Mid-Autumn Festival...
"Your Majesty doesn't want to sneak attack the Song Army's camp on the Mid-Autumn Festival, right?"
On a warship at the front, Zhang Shun looked at the river in front and asked Zhang Gui in a low voice.
The two brothers were the vanguard generals in this battle. Although they were both short in stature and only wore light leather armor, they were like nails standing on the swaying deck.
"Sneak attack on Mid-Autumn Festival night?" Zhang Gui asked back: "When my elder brother told me, I realized that there is such a way."
"It's too easy for the enemy to guess."
The next moment, a military commander caught up and handed a secret order to Zhang Shun.
Zhang Shun quickly rushed to the side, opened the military order, and looked surprised.
He thought it was inappropriate to fight like this, but without saying a word, he shouted loudly: "The general has taken the order! We will definitely defeat the enemy!"
*********
"It must be easy for Lu Wenhuan to guess the Mid-Autumn Festival sneak attack, right?"
"Yeah, they saw that I liked having sex in the past, so they thought it was easy to guess my thoughts."
After issuing the military order, Li Xia and Fang Yankai both seemed very calm when talking about the confrontation.
Fang Yankai stroked his beard and said, "Let's see if Lu Wenhuan deliberately loses the match to attract His Majesty to go deeper?"
"Well, whether he is greedy or not, whether he takes the bait or not, you can tell from this first battle..."