The news of the Suzaku Corps' failure to cross the river quickly spread throughout the river, boosting the morale of the rebels, and the pessimism caused by the defeat in the Battle of Jingkou was swept away.
Xie Bao used facts to prove that even if he temporarily lost control of the river, Jiangnan was not a paradise where the imperial army could roam at will.
Not only can the rebels defeat the main army of the imperial court, but they can also achieve the miracle of defeating more with less, completely controlling the absolute advantage on the battlefield.
And those local officials appointed by the rebels once again became confident and arrogant. They made generous speeches to the people under their rule: Li Bing is an unjust and foolish emperor, and the imperial capital is an incompetent court that looks menacing. The Shengtang Legion is nothing more than an appearance. His Royal Highness the King of Jin is as stable as Mount Tai. Sooner or later he can avenge the old prince and bring order to the Holy Tang Dynasty.
Under the instigation of the rebel government, the south bank of the Yangtze River fell into chaotic thoughts again. The people who were loyal to the imperial court were silent and did not dare to say anything more about their hope for the king's early arrival. However, those who followed the rebels or those who were afraid of the world being in chaos celebrated with their crowns and ridiculed the northern legions as idiots.
However, just when these people were getting carried away and dancing the most happily, the Zhenjiang Army, one of the idiots in their eyes, suddenly began full-scale mobilization.
Zhan Yun's behavior suddenly started, and everyone in the north and south of the country was shocked.
What the rebel headquarters was most worried about and least expected to see finally happened as expected.
The Zhenjiang Army has an armored cavalry corps, two heavy infantry corps, two mixed infantry and cavalry corps, and a light cavalry corps, with a total of 339,000 main troops. They are divided into three attack groups. On the north bank side of Jinling Waterway and Yangzhou Jingkou Waterway, large-scale formations were assembled.
Eight hundred and twenty-five warships of Kunpeng's Tenth Army, together with more than 3,600 civilian ships of all sizes, gathered on the lower reaches of the river at the same time.
Mountains and seas of grain, armor, equipment, weapons, medicines and other supplies were transported from the rear to the front line by oxen, horses, vehicles and civilian labor, filling the baggage yards of the three starting positions.
The rebels along the south bank trembled at the sight, and soon followed Ye Rongcheng's order to quickly withdraw from their respective defense areas and gather towards the second line of defense further back.
According to what was said on the scene, they wanted to concentrate their troops and form a joint force in order to launch a strategic decisive battle with the Zhenjiang Army. But the actual reason is that they don't even have the courage to resist Li Jiangyao's troops crossing the river. They are afraid that if they run slowly, they will be outflanked by the opponent in three ways, completely divided and surrounded in the river defense area.
Since the rebels were so sensible and took the initiative to abandon their positions on the south bank, the Zhenjiang Army was naturally happy to take over the defense line easily. Li Jiangyao received a report from the Pegasus scouts, saying that the hundreds of thousands of defenders had indeed been fully reduced, and there was no conspiracy to lure the enemy, so he immediately issued a general attack order:
The Eighth Army of Cold Wave and the Ninth Army of Kuangsha formed the West Road Group, crossed the river from nothing, and attacked Xuancheng!
The First Gale Army and the Second Army of Agni formed a middle group, crossed the river from Pukou, and attacked Jinling!
The Fifth Army of Jushi and the Sixth Army of Nulang formed the East Road Group. With the cooperation of the vanguard of the Fifth Army, they landed at Jingkou, attacked Danyang County, and approached Changzhou!
Kunpeng's Tenth Army dispatched 200 warships and 10,000 elite sailors from the river to Kuohai, and circled to Mingzhou to land, threatening Hangzhou's rear!
Five days later, the entire army must land on the south bank, build a strong starting position, and begin to launch a fierce attack on their respective targets at the same time!
The soldiers who had been preparing their troops for a long time finally received the order from their commander, and the entire lower reaches of the river suddenly became excited.
Hundreds of thousands of troops boarded ships one by one according to a plan that had been rehearsed many times, set sails and oars, and headed for the not far away Jiangnan.
Suddenly, the river was covered with heavy sails, giant boats cut through the waves, and small boats shuttled back and forth. Hundreds of ships plied to and from the north and south sides day and night, carrying countless soldiers, war horses, and supplies. Go to the front.
Five days later, nearly 300,000 troops successfully crossed the river. The three-pronged group aimed at three attack directions, and the personnel and equipment required for the operation were basically in place. The expedition fleet of Kunpeng's 10th Army also arrived at the sea off Mingzhou and began to prepare for the attack.
The enemy situation report from the front flew into the Jin Palace in Hangzhou like snow flakes, causing the rebel small court to almost fall into chaos.
In the direction of Changzhou and Huzhou, 280,000 soldiers and horses under Ye Rongcheng's command huddled together. It is still unclear whether they are advancing or retreating, let alone whether they can stop Li Jiangyao's invincible army;
The 90,000 recruits that Bao Yuchun's uncle and nephew had temporarily organized, plus the 100,000 combat strength of Li Zhang's Guards Corps, were all squatting in the city of Hangzhou, looking left and right, not knowing whether they should rush to reinforce the front line or go to Mingzhou immediately. Defend the rear.
Lao Jianhua appeared calm as usual, but in his heart he was already a little panicked.
To be honest, he was a top expert in conspiracy and conspiracy, but he was an amateur at arranging troops and leading them into battle. In terms of experience level, he was probably not as good as Li Yan, who had served as a Sima in the army for many years under Xie Guang.
Facing Li Jiangyao who was surrounded by soldiers, Lao Jianhua didn't know how to deal with it, so that the military order could not be issued for a long time, and both front and rear fronts were waiting at a loss.
In the end, Bao Yuchun was forced to take the initiative and expressed his hope that he would be able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of overall command to resist the Xinjiang Army.
However, in view of the disastrous failure in the Battle of Jingkou, Lao Jianhua hesitated again and again, and finally rejected Bao Yuchun's proposal, still letting him command the newly recruited 90,000 troops to help defend Hangzhou, and temporarily not allowing him to act rashly.
It can be said that Lao Jianhua's decision was tantamount to completely giving up the rebels' only hope of a desperate struggle and pushing the entire subsequent war into a situation of no return.
After two days and two nights of sleepless discussions among civil and military ministers, Lao Jianhua came to a conclusion: as long as Ye Rongcheng can have the opportunity to block the Zhenjiang Army in Changzhou, Huzhou and Taihu Lake, Bao Yuchun will limit the Kunpeng sailors to Ming Dynasty. Near the prefecture, the Jin army will be able to summon new combat forces and expand its strength by generally delaying it for three to five months.
Moreover, there may be new changes in the direction of the imperial capital, disrupting or even ending Li Jiangyao's southern expedition plan.
If there is nothing we can do about the war situation, we have to rely on the political situation.
Therefore, Lao Jianhua decided to put all his money on Li Bing, a suspicious and sensitive emperor.
Let the imperial capital influence the front line, and let the imperial court hold back the Xinjiang Army!
Unfortunately, Lao Jianhua misjudged the power of the political situation and did not understand Li Jiangyao's psychology at all. He even forgot that the suppression of the rebellion by the Xinjiang Army was never for the sake of the imperial court and would never be influenced or influenced by Li Bing.
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"Jiang Yao, today is August 14th, and tomorrow will be the Mid-Autumn Festival," Xu Youchang pointed to the map hanging on the wooden frame and said excitedly: "According to the plan, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a full-scale general attack will be launched. At present, the three groups and the Tenth The army has arrived at the designated position and has made all preparations before the attack. At this time tomorrow, fighting will begin in Xuancheng, Jinling, Danyang, and Mingzhou at the same time."
Having said this, he smiled: "The good days of Lao Jianhua and Li Zhang are coming to an end!"
Li Jiangyao stood up and walked to Xu Youchang, looked at the map in front of him, nodded and said: "Yes, the enemy is almost finished. Unexpectedly, the south bank defense line that the rebels had been operating for several years was completely abandoned overnight. When your courage and morale are so shattered, what courage is there left to speak of?”
"You can't blame them," Xu Youchang said with a smile: "We have been planning and preparing for such a long time, and we have accumulated a lot of experience. If we don't move, it will be enough. If we move, the mountains will roar, the tsunami will fall, and the earth will collapse. No one else would dare to stand up. The Suppressing Army is so sharp. Thanks to the rebels who escaped quickly, otherwise, the war would have started a few days ago, and the enemy would have suffered at least 100,000 casualties."
Li Jiangyao shook his head helplessly: "How can it be as exaggerated as you said?"
Xu Youchang raised his eyebrows: "You don't know your own soldiers? The six main forces of the army have been holding back for so long that they are almost going to have problems. Once they are all sent to the battlefield, let them let go. , do it happily, that’s 330,000 tigers and wolves! They want to eat people directly."
"You are right," Li Jiangyao nodded slightly: "Due to the objective impact of the river's obstruction, the Zhenjiang Army has indeed not launched a full-scale offensive for a long time. The heroes who swept through the ghost deserts of Western Xinjiang and beat up the Turkic cavalry back then, this time Finally, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to show off my skills.”
He paused for a moment and continued: "Friends, commander, judging from the current battlefield situation between the enemy and us, I estimate that Xuancheng, Jinling and Danyang should not have big problems in these three places. In each city, we use two If we have an army to serve, even if Roniya Helianxiong defends in person, it may be too much for him. What I am more worried about is the direction of Mingzhou, and how to fight on the front line of Changzhou and Huzhou after successfully conquering the three cities."
Xu Youchang thought about it seriously and responded: "Before Nie Xianzang led his troops, I specifically told him that the main purpose of the battle in Mingzhou was to harass and contain the rebels. We did not seek to conquer the city, but only to disrupt the enemy's position. Therefore, I think there is no need to worry too much about the situation of the Tenth Army. In the worst case, we will just withdraw to the sea."
"As for your future combat deployment in the direction of Changzhou, I have an idea. Let's take a look." Xu Youchang pointed at the map and said carefully: "Ye Rongcheng has piled all his 280,000 main troops around Taihu Lake. , obviously wanting to take advantage of the complex water network terrain there to limit the movements of our armored cavalry and heavy infantry to the greatest extent. Therefore, I suggest that after the three groups successfully occupy the established targets, they can take a short rest while adjusting the sequence, and change to Du Jian's Second Army, Xiong Yunjie's Fifth Army, and Duan Jun's Ninth Army continued to attack Changzhou."
Li Jiangyao stared at the map: "What about the First Army, the Sixth Army, and the Eighth Army?"
Xu Youchang replied: "The Eighth Army is responsible for guarding the rear and ensuring the safety of the flanks of the troops crossing the river, so as not to be attacked by enemies coming from the west. The First Army and the Sixth Army are advancing towards Huzhou and Deqing respectively, threatening Hangzhou and frightening How about working hard on Jianhua?"
