Li Lin finally set off, with an army of 150,000 and marching eastward with 3,000 carts full of grain. Of course Li Lin had his plan. He was the legal envoy of Jiangnan West Road. At present, he was just
He lost half of the prefectures and counties in the west, but the half in the east is still in his hands. He is now just moving the Jiedushi official office to Xuanzhou, rather than abandoning the Jiangnan West Road.
Xuanzhou is the easternmost state on Jiangnan West Road. The border of Xuanzhou is only 150 miles away from Taihu Lake. Ningguo County in the southeast is only 300 miles away from Hangzhou. Lushui County in the northeast is only 100 miles away from Jiangning County.
It can be said that Xuanzhou is a perfect springboard. His 150,000 troops stationed troops in Xuanzhou legally and reasonably, and then they can capture the core of Jiangnan East Road, from Jiangning County to Yuhang County.
Of course, this was a plan that the two military advisors had planned for him a long time ago, but Li Lin had been hesitant, and now he was forced by Li Ye to move eastward. But once Li Lin moved east to Xuanzhou, he would seize Jiangnan East Road and Huainan Road
His ambition is clearly demonstrated.
Li Lin's army left Hongzhou by land. At the same time, his water fleet also set off. There were a total of two thousand ships of various sizes. Most of them were civilian ships, but there were also 500 medium-sized fighting ships and 2,000 ships.
The ships set off in three batches. The first batch was grain and grass ships, about a thousand ships, all civilian ships. The second batch was warships carrying crude copper and silver and some civilian ships, about 700 ships. The third batch was
There are about 500 warships carrying armor and supplies.
There are a total of 2,200 ships, but only 3,000 sailors are responsible for protecting them. These 3,000 sailors are mainly aimed at fishermen and water thieves along the way, not against Li Ye's navy. Li Lin knows full well that even if 30,000 sailors are
The military escort was no match for Li Ye's navy. The difference in strength between the two sides' warships was too great.
The fleet traveled north along the Gan River and entered Poyang Lake one after another. At dawn, the first batch of ships arrived at the mouth of the lake.
At this time, Li Ye personally led hundreds of warships and was already waiting at the mouth of the lake. On the vast river, Li Ye stood on the bow of a ten-thousand-stone warship and stared in the distance toward the mouth of the lake. At dawn, there were still people on the river.
There was a thin layer of fog that loomed over the lake in the distance. In fact, his fleet was still far away from the lake's mouth. They couldn't see the lake's mouth, and the fleet coming out of the lake's mouth couldn't see them either.
The official name of Poyang Lake at this time should be Pengli Lake, but the largest county that governs it is called Poyang County, so the people in Poyang County also call it Poyang Lake, which is a folk name!
The speedboats were speeding by. A scout leader got on board and knelt down on one knee to report, "The first batch of boats has begun to leave the mouth of the lake. It stretches for nearly ten miles, and there are nearly a thousand boats. They all have flat bottoms of three hundred stones."
The cargo ships are divided into three teams, and the three first ships each have about 2,000 dan."
Li Ye got Ji Guangchen's information, and he knew many details inside. The first batch of fleets were all forage. They were actually test ships. Only this fleet passed the Hukou garrison safely, and the second and third batches followed.
Only then will the fleet continue heading north.
In fact, Li Ye was not interested in the grain and fodder of the first batch of fleets. His goal was the second and third batches of fleets.
Li Ye nodded, "Continue to monitor and report at any time!"
"Follow the order!"
The scout leader bowed and hurried off by boat.
At this time, Li Mi smiled slightly and said: "Your Highness, aren't you worried that this is Ji Guangchen's trick? Pretending to surrender, Your Highness sent a wrong intelligence, so that the fleet carrying copper and silver successfully escaped!"
Li Ye pondered for a moment and said, "How likely is it that the military advisor thinks Ji Guangchen is using tricks?"
"About 20%!"
Li Ye nodded, "In that case, there's no need to be grand!"
He immediately turned around and ordered: "General Yu Baosheng listens to the order!"
"The humble post is here!" Navy general Yu Baosheng stepped out and said,
"General Yu can lead a hundred Mongolia clippers and three thousand brothers to Pengze County, intercept the first fleet in Pengze County, and bring the fleet back to Hanyang!"
"Follow the order!"
Yu Baosheng took a command arrow and left.
Pengze County is in the east, about a hundred miles away from the mouth of the lake. Intercepting the fleet a hundred miles away will not affect subsequent operations at all.
A fleet of hundreds of warships is sailing toward the east, and they will rush to Pengze County to intercept them.
There is certainly a reason why Li Ye values Ji Guangchen very much.
Ji Guangchen was different from other governors. The other governors just acted according to the prevailing situation. Their own strength exceeded King Yong, so they changed their direction and joined him.
But once the imperial troops arrived and they withdrew, these governors would turn to serve the imperial court.
But Ji Guangchen and Liu Julin were different. They expressed their allegiance to him. If he left Jingxiang and went to Longyou or Hexi, they would also go with him.
He valued the situation, but Li Ye didn't want to take risks. Ji Guangchen was both civil and military and quite resourceful. It was indeed possible that he had faked his surrender and deceived himself so that the precious copper and silver could go east smoothly.
Now that the military advisor reminded him, Li Ye decided to take another insurance step.
Li Ye continued to wait patiently, and time passed little by little. In the afternoon, the scouts came to report that the second and third batches of fleets were approaching the lake mouth at the same time and were about to leave the lake mouth.
Li Ye immediately ordered: "The entire army is dispatched to seize the enemy's fleet. If there is resistance, we will kill them without mercy!"
Jiang Han's fleet consists of fifty large ships worth 5,000 stones and 400 Mongoose clippers. They just took away a hundred Mongoose clippers, and now there are still 300 ships.
These 350 warships are manned by 15,000 sailors, which is more than enough to deal with the enemy fleet.
The fleet was dispatched and headed towards the mouth of the lake. Sure enough, not far from the mouth of the lake, they saw the second batch of fleets, all of which were about 500 stone fighting ships. There were five or six hundred ships, and Ji Guangchen's intelligence
Exactly the same, then these bucket ships were temporarily used as cargo ships, carrying crude copper and crude silver.
Li Ye attaches great importance to this batch of blister copper. After refining 7 million jins of blister copper, 6.5 million jins of fine copper can be obtained, which can be used to cast one million coins and 400,000 taels of silver.
Now the price of silver is still very expensive, still at a high level of one to four. This is equivalent to getting 2.6 million yuan, which can support an army of 100,000 for about nine months. If this is used as the capital of official trade,
That would be even more impressive.
More than 500 warships of the Yongwang Army discovered the approaching warships on the river and immediately sounded the alarm.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!"
Wei Zichun was shocked and quickly ordered: "Turn the fleet around and sail back to Poyang Lake!"
He wanted the fleet to escape back to Ganshui or Yushui, and hide them anywhere, so that the other party might not be able to find them.
Hundreds of fighting ships began to turn around, but it was already too late. Dozens of five-thousand-stone warships came across and lined up in front of them, cutting off their retreat.
Three hundred Mongolian warships of the Jianghan Army also rushed up. The three thousand sailors on the fighting boats raised their bows and fired arrows, but it had no effect. The warships of both sides collided on the water. The Jianghan and Tang Army shouted: "If the Tang Army does not kill the Tang Army,
Those who surrender will avoid death!”
While shouting, they jumped onto the other side's ship one after another. The number was three to one. The Yongwang army was no match at all and they all knelt down and surrendered.
Wei Zichun was on the first boat. He heard screams outside. It was quiet for a moment. He stood up and walked out of the cabin tremblingly. Suddenly, several swords were placed on his neck. Wei Zichun was so frightened that he sat down again and raised his hands and shouted.
: "I surrender! I surrender!"
The Jianghan Army drove the prisoners of war onto twenty large ships and temporarily imprisoned them under the cabins. The naval forces on the large ships controlled a second batch of nearly 700 ships, including fighting boats and civilian ships.
Soon, they inspected the goods and reported to Li Ye on the flagship, "Your Highness, all of them are rough copper ingots, and some may be silver ingots."
Li Ye nodded, feeling very pleased. It seemed that Ji Guangchen had not deceived him, and that he was truly loyal to him.
At this moment, the third batch of ships, about 300 cargo ships, sailed out of the lake and appeared at the mouth of the lake. They saw dozens of large ships in the distance and were frightened to turn around and wanted to go back, but were blocked by more than 30 boats.
The warships intercepted the third batch of fleets, which had no escorts. They did not dare to disobey, so they had no choice but to come forward to join them.
Seeing that all the ships had been captured, Li Ye ordered some warships to take the captured enemy ships back to Hanyang. He himself led 30 large ships and 200 Mongolian warships to sail to Poyang Lake, carrying the
With ten thousand troops.
Two days later, Li Ye's fleet arrived in Yuzhang County, Hongzhou, and Ji Guangchen was already waiting for Li Ye's arrival at the dock.