Zhao Kai personally went to welcome Li Gang back. Looking at Li Gang who came back in disgrace, Zhao Kai didn't know what he felt in his heart.
"Is this Prime Minister Zhong so difficult to deal with?"
"...I am guilty!" Li Gang did not answer, but knelt down in front of Zhao Kai, insisting that Zhao Kai be convicted.
Not to mention that Zhao Kai was just a supervisor of the country and was on the same level as Li Gang. Even if he made Zhao Huan give in, he would not dare to really convict Li Gang.
"What do you mean by Mr. Li? Could it be that you are trying to embarrass this kid? Look at what is going on in Jiangnan!"
After hearing Zhao Kai's inquiry again, Li Gang finally couldn't hide it anymore.
"I'm guilty, I... I didn't see Prime Minister Zhong!"
After Li Gang finished speaking, he just wished that there was a crack in the ground in front of him for him to crawl into.
Before leaving Luoyang, he angrily criticized Jiangnan for spending countless dollars every year to build warships and garrisoning numerous soldiers and horses to protect the country and the people. In the end, even a small minister could not solve it.
He shouted that if he was given three months, he would be able to defeat Zhong Xiang.
But the final result...
Li Gang was not as miserable as he said. Although he failed, it was not really embarrassing.
As soon as he entered Jiangnan, he immediately adjusted his state. Although Zhong Xiang Yang Yao and others seemed to be powerful, most of them were from Yuncong. In the end, they were not determined to fight them to the end.
In this case, there is no need to worry too much about their number.
Li Gang immediately gathered all the soldiers and horses, divided them into four groups, and launched a massive four-way attack on Yang Yao. He wanted to completely defeat Zhong Xiang's right-hand man first.
Save the reputation of the Song Dynasty.
There was nothing wrong with his approach, nor was there anything wrong with his style of play. It was quite satisfactory but it hit the weak spot of Prime Minister Yang Yao.
Yang Yao is good at resourcefulness but short at attacking difficulties!
Yang Yao was indeed stuck at this moment, but Li Gang forgot that besides Yang Yao there was another Zhong Xiang.
Zhong Xiang had not taken action before because they were expanding too fast, so Zhong Xiang needed to take care of the rear, but now Li Gang has taken action himself.
Zhong Xiang naturally appeared, but he did not meet Li Gang.
He directly established himself in Jiangnan!
Zhong Xiang proclaimed himself the King of Chu, made his son Zhong Zi'ang the crown prince, established an official family, and at the same time led his troops to burn the government offices, cities, temples, temples, and many powerful homes in the south of the Yangtze River.
Don't think that he is doing this just for fun, regardless of the war ahead.
Zhong Xiang made Li Gang see what it means to see the overall situation.
Prime Minister Zhong destroyed and burned the government offices of many counties and even temples and powerful places not to vent his anger, but to let countless people see how rich these places are!
He found out countless money, silk, grain and fodder, and took out countless silks, satin, jewelry, and jade articles. These were all the people's wealth and anointing, and they were all obtained by their greed.
When these things were nakedly placed in front of them, all the people's hearts were moved.
Not just greed, but also anger after being deceived and bullied.
Prime Minister Zhong killed officials, Confucian scholars, monks and Taoists, witch doctors, fortune-tellers, and people with enemies in the land south of the Yangtze River, and then occupied all the powerful lands.
Afterwards, Prime Minister Zhong distributed all the wealth and even the land to the people below, truly achieving what he said about equalizing the rich and the poor, equaling the rich and the poor!
Zhong Xiang called the killing of officials and others "executive law", and the equal distribution of their property as "equal equality". Then he called the national law of the Song Dynasty court an "evil law". "people" will be protected.
To put it bluntly, it is to protect farmers and fishermen.
Finally, Prime Minister Zhong issued an order that anyone who joined them would be exempted from taxes and would not be bound by official laws. Countless people cheered after hearing the news.
Even taking these things for granted!
After this incident, Zhong Xiang's strength was no longer as simple as a great increase. His troops and horses were all united. Perhaps the training and baggage had not kept up.
But its troops and horses have been integrated.
Prime Minister Zhong delivered these soldiers and horses directly to Yang Yao, expressing his trust in him.
And Yang Yao did not live up to the trust of Prime Minister Zhong. He set up a general stronghold in Baotai Mountain directly in front of Li Gang. Nearly a hundred water strongholds were set up at the pass, blocking all Li Gang's marching routes.
His four-way encirclement was originally a way to use force to overwhelm others, but with Zhong Xiang Yang Yao's troubles, the four-way encirclement became a joke.
Among them, Cheng Changyu was found by Yang Yao to defeat his troops along the way. The main general Cheng Changyu was beheaded on the spot by his general Yang Zaixing.
Then Zhang Jun also attacked several times but was repelled by him. He even expanded his power to Yueyang in the east, Dingli in the west, Gong'an in the north, and Changsha in the south, sweeping across seven states and ten states in the Dongting Lake area. Nine counties.
At the same time, soldiers and horses were formally screened, and more than 200,000 elite soldiers were selected. Nearly two million people lived safely under his rule.
In this way, they completely transformed from a bandit to a real force.
After going on an expedition and finally getting such a result, it's no wonder that Li Gang looked so ugly and called him guilty.
"Hey..." Zhao Kai could only sigh at this time, "When we fought with the Jin people, we felt that the Jin people were no longer barbarians, and they had so many famous generals under their command.
Now looking at Jiangnan, it seems that Yang Yao is also a famous general.
He was supposed to be used by the Song Dynasty, but in the end he became a bandit.
This is the fault of our Song Dynasty. It failed to make the best use of materials and people, failed to make the people live in peace and contentment, and forced them to rebel.
The Song Dynasty is guilty, the boy is guilty, and the imperial brother is also guilty! "
"His Highness said this, I am ashamed of myself!"
"Li Xiang should not be like this. Victory or defeat is a common matter for military strategists. Now that Li Xiang is defeated, the affairs in the south of the Yangtze River must be carefully considered.
Guys, what can you do? "
"There is no need to send troops, cut off the roads, besiege the place, and block trade." This is Hu Yin.
"Spreading rumors undermines their original intentions. Although what Zhong Xiang wants is beautiful, it is unrealistic. As long as someone accelerates his destructive wind, they will collapse without a fight!" This is Zhao Ding.
"Dig the Yangtze River..."
"Okay Master Yuwen, I don't want to wait for the emperor brother to come back and pick off someone's head, so don't say anything else!"
Zhao Kai quickly stopped Yu Wenxuzhong's schemes. The first two were strategies, but the last one was about to overturn the table.
However, Zhao Kai could tell at this time that Zhao Ding, Hu Yin and others were all focusing on a long-term battle. In other words, they also felt that they might not be able to compete with Yang Yao in military matters in the short term. Already...
"Hey..." Zhao Kai felt a little disappointed. This was his first time to openly supervise national affairs. He thought that he had grown up after experiencing the Yanjing War and would be able to handle it all.
But the facts tell him that in front of the heroes in this world, he is really far behind.
The wilderness in the northwest is constantly spreading, and the wind and sand are constantly eroding the land. He needs disaster relief and needs to find ways to stop it.
The constant bursting of the Yellow River led to a large influx of refugees, and he needed to be comforted and resolved.
Liu Yanqing destroyed the accumulation of the Song Dynasty, and he needed to find a way to re-gather supplies.
Due to the chaos in the Bashu land, he needed to allocate heavy supplies of money and silk to supply the local area to quell the rebellion.
There are also food prices in various places, weighing the power between the courts.
This mess made him feel like he had a splitting headache. He really wanted to know how those people in the early years who could do everything by themselves did this.
Aren't they afraid of dying from exhaustion?
Now, not only did Zhong Xiang directly confer the kingship in Jiangnan, he also made it clear that he wanted to confront the Song Dynasty court. Several victories had completely laid their foundation.
This was an oversight on their part.
Although Zhao Kai had no choice but to agree.
Just when he was about to issue the decree, he rushed into Luoyang City on a fast horse, with three small flags behind him and a suit of shining armor, shouting at everyone to get out of the way.
With this appearance, it is no surprise that this is the 800-mile express.
"Now the only ones who can use the eight hundred miles to rush are General Zongze and General Yue Fei. With this posture...could it be that the Song Dynasty is really in trouble?"
At the city gate, a soldier seemed a little uncomfortable. They all knew that the outcome of the Battle of Jiangnan was not satisfactory.
Now that he saw the Eight Hundred Miles Jiji again, he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. He just felt that the Song Dynasty was in trouble.
But just after he sighed, he was slapped on the back of the head.
"You kid are just talking nonsense here, don't worry about the strong wind blowing your tongue!" The old Chengmenling cursed and walked out from behind him, while scolding several soldiers who had the same emotion as him.
"I asked you to guard the city gate and just stand there all day long, and that's how you will end up like this for the rest of your life.
When stationed here, you have to keep your eyes open. You have to know and pay attention to everyone and their posture, and you can't offend people you shouldn't offend.
You can’t put in people who shouldn’t be put in!
It's true that he was in a hurry just now, but you should take a look at his posture.
Although his outfit was a little dirty, it was from the embarrassment of a long journey, not blood stains!
Do you know what this means?
A person covered in blood means that he has suffered a defeat, while a sad expression and running in a hurry means that he is defeated but has energy to spare.
He was shouting loudly for people to get out of the way, but there was no trace of urgency on his face. I guess it was a battle report, and it was not a bad thing.
It seems that the war situation in the Central Plains has slowed down? "
The old city gate commander looked at the direction of the fast horse and couldn't help but rub his chin, seeming thoughtful.
At this time, in the palace, the speeding battle report had been sent to Zhao Kai's hands, and at the same time, the soldiers were also telling their battle situation.
"Four months ago, General Yue Fei had already defeated the Jinren general Wanyan Yinshuge's troops outside Nanle County, Daming Prefecture. He killed more than 10,000 enemies and surrendered thousands of troops.
Three months ago, General Yue Fei had joined forces with Daming Mansion guard Guo Yong and others to jointly send troops to regain Daming Mansion.
General Yue Fei had completely recaptured Daming Mansion a few months ago, and is now heading to the south of the Yangtze River. I tell His Highness, don't be anxious! "
