Li Jiangyao thought for a moment and said frankly: "Brother Shen, I am not as familiar with the affairs of the court as you are. Do you have any good suggestions for big scenes such as the Queen launching a coup? Including how to prevent Murong from being affected. What should I do? How to deal with it?”
Shen Lie frowned: "The most critical issue at the moment is that Cheng Wen used his status as queen to place Li Bing, who was seriously ill, under house arrest, cut him off from the outside world, and then issued an imperial edict in his name. To put it bluntly, as long as the emperor returns, If there is no death, then Li Bing still has the final say in the Holy Tang court. Anyone who dares to question or defy these will is tantamount to treason. Therefore, whether it is Tong Zhongshu's subordinate Ping Zhangshi or the commander-in-chief of the Suzaku Army, they can only If you can be obedient, you are still at the mercy of Cheng Wen."
Yuan Bin interrupted: "Then as long as we try to rescue Li Bing, or get some favorable evidence to prove that the queen put the emperor under house arrest, won't we be able to bring down Cheng Wen and his gang?"
"It's easier said than done." Shen Lie sighed: "Cheng Wen was sure that no one could catch her, let alone break through the heavy blockade of the Jinwu Guards and the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and snatch away the Emperor Li Bing, so she was so fearless and wanton But for. After all, I still underestimated this woman. She is vicious, courageous, and very thoughtful. With one move, she controlled the entire situation in the blink of an eye. "
He paused and said to Li Jiangyao: "To solve her conspiracy, unless Murong Xue dares to go all out and directly resist the order, there is no other way."
Li Jiangyao smiled and shook his head: "He? He won't do this. Besides, Murong Xue's wife and sister are in the hands of the other party. After Gong Chengze marches into Bashu, the entire Murong family will also become hostages. Under the influence of the rat, Murong Xue can only Take orders.”
Shen Lie said helplessly: "Then there is no other way. As long as the imperial capital sends an imperial decree to summon General Qinglong to return to the capital to report on his duties, Murong Xue will be finished immediately. Jiang Yao, we must prepare for the worst."
Han Wenhao listened for a long time and suddenly asked timidly: "How about raising troops to serve the king?"
Yuan Bin responded immediately after hearing this: "What Lieutenant Han said makes sense. If we lead our troops back to the imperial capital and force Cheng Wen to release Li Bing, won't the problem be solved?"
Li Jiangyao couldn't help but laugh and said: "You two guys, it's not a big deal to watch the excitement. At the moment, the main force is fighting the rebels to death. How can we be diligent for the king? Who is going to be diligent for the king?"
Shen Lie also said: "King Qin's deeds cannot be carried out overnight. There are 200,000 Forbidden Army troops near the capital, and there is also the White Tiger Army in the Central Plains. Unless the three armies of Qinglong, Xuanwu, and Suzaku can join forces with us, they will not be able to force us. The Imperial Capital. And in that case, Lao Jianhua’s rebels can get a chance to breathe again.”
"Damn it! The Demon Queen is harming the country!" Yuan Bin scolded: "We are working hard to eliminate the rebels on the front line, but she is stirring up trouble behind the scenes. This Shengtang is really hopeless! Protector, why don't you Take us back to Western Xinjiang, so we don’t have to stay here and suffer from the wrath of birds!”
Li Jiangyao was silent for a moment and said calmly: "I never thought that suppressing the rebellion would be smooth sailing, and I would never give up just because of difficulties. We are not fighting for the emperor and empress, so they can do whatever they like. I am willing to help. , then we count them as our own; if you dare to cause trouble, you are the enemy of the Suppressing Army! You don’t need me to teach you what kind of attitude you should have towards the enemy, right?"
Yuan Bin and Han Wenhao nodded resolutely without saying anything else.
Shen Lie said: "Jiang Yao, as you said, the counter-insurgency war has reached a critical moment now, and we must not fall short. And to deal with the Queen's forces, we must take a long-term approach and cannot be hasty. The most important thing now is to first To prevent the Qinglong Army from having the same mishap as the Suzaku Army, Cheng Wen could easily disrupt the army."
Li Jiangyao nodded slightly when he heard the words: "Brother Shen, Xu Youchang and I can't leave at the moment. Can you please go to Yueyang to persuade Murong Xue and let him do everything possible to delay and resist the pressure from the imperial capital? Don't be stupid. Don't hesitate to follow the false edict. I'll write him a letter and you can take it with me."
"Absolutely no problem!" Shen Lie responded: "I can leave at any time."
Li Jiangyao continued: "In addition, I will give orders to the Kunpeng Army and the Yiling Navy to re-block the river and intercept the court's messengers on the grounds of war. As long as Cheng Wen's false edict cannot be sent to the south for the time being, we can It relieves the pressure on Murong Xue and Ma Hongjie to a great extent."
Shen Lie nodded and said: "I have a similar idea. We might as well let Yuduoluo secretly arrange some people on the land to intercept and kill the imperial envoys in the imperial capital. In extraordinary times, only extraordinary things can be done."
"I agree." Li Jiangyao agreed: "The Intelligence Department must not only implement interception, but also must immediately resume intelligence monitoring of the imperial capital, keep abreast of new changes in the court, and be prepared to rescue Old Dong and others."
Shen Lie said: "You are right, we must immediately restore the power of the Intelligence Department in the imperial capital. At the same time, we must let the spies spread the news in the imperial capital that the emperor is imprisoned and the queen is treason, so as to build momentum among the people and restrict Cheng Wen from doing whatever he wants. .”
He paused here and continued: "However, these are only temporary solutions, not the root cause. The key is to eliminate the rebels as soon as possible so that you can completely escape. Jiang Yao, I am afraid that only you can quell this situation." There’s new civil unrest.”
-
Time was running out, Shen Lie and Yuan Bin had just arrived at the Yixing front line, and they hurriedly hit the road again the next day to find Murong Xue who was far away in Yueyang.
At the same time, the Zhenjiang Eighth Army finally arrived at the Zhangzishan line and began to take over from the Fifth Army to attack the rebel blocking forces. Duan Jun also received new instructions from Li Jiangyao at this time, leading the Ninth Army to turn westward and attack the rebel rear.
Faced with the strategic adjustment of the Zhenjiang Army, Li Zhang and others could not help but step up their offensive in the direction of Guangde. They once again concentrated their superior forces to suppress Xu Youchang and his First and Sixth Army.
Xu Youchang has experienced hundreds of battles. Facing the fierce main force of the rebels, he did not have the slightest fear in his heart. He calmly commanded the Gale First Army and the Nulang Sixth Army to coordinate closely, and deployed dozens of offensive and defensive troops in front of the Ancestral Hill. Giant phalanx, facing powerful enemies head-on.
Rebel leader Ye Rongcheng leaped in front of the formation and started a fierce battle with Xu Youchang, his former colleague and opponent.
Both sides have their own advantages. Although the Zhenjiang army is small in number, they have repeatedly fought against powerful enemies, are experienced, and have extremely high morale. Although most of the rebels are new recruits, they are more successful because of their large numbers, and the puppet Jin Dynasty king Li Zhang is sitting in the rear to personally supervise the battle. Therefore, in Under the command of Ye Rongcheng, their overall advance and retreat were quite organized, using their numerical advantage to offset their weak combat power.
The soldiers of the Zhenjiang Army knew very well at this time that the rebels were approaching in large numbers again because their rear was at risk of being penetrated by the Imperial Protector Li Jiangyao at any time, so they were so desperate and frantically attacked the Ancestral Hill position, hoping to Get rid of Xu Youchang one step ahead of time. Because of this, the best way to defeat the rebels is to do everything possible to delay the enemy and wait for the brother troops to arrive in time.
They built a tight formation, with the heavy infantry of the Sixth Army in the center and the main defenders, and the heavy cavalry of the First Army on both sides of the main attack. Facing the layers of rebel soldiers and horses coming like waves, the Zhenjiang soldiers fought bravely. Never retreat an inch.
Xu Youchang immediately stood on the hill and stared at the fighting battlefield not far away. The deafening shouts of killing came one after another, which made people's hearts tremble.
The deputy commander of the Zhenjiang Army, who had long been accustomed to such scenes, asked in a deep voice: "Are the 10th and 14th Battalions ready?"
"Report to Commander Xu, get ready! The 10th and 14th Battalions are ready to fight at any time!"
Xu Youchang nodded silently, reached out and took off the iron spear from the saddle hook, pointed forward with all his strength, and shouted: "Tenth Battalion, Fourteenth Battalion, follow me!"
After that, he rushed down the hill and towards the core of the battlefield. Behind him, there were more than two thousand heavy cavalry in black clothes and iron armor holding their swords high, following the general, sweeping forward like a strong wind.
As soon as this assault force, which was gathering strength to fight again, entered the battlefield, there was a burst of blood. The nearest rebel infantry and cavalry phalanx only lasted half a stick of incense before it was torn to pieces by Xu Youchang and others, and they all turned around and fled.
Without stopping, Xu Youchang led his flying cavalry to gallop past the defeated troops, and then killed another group of enemies who were furiously attacking the Sixth Army's position. Those rebels were larger than the previous mixed phalanx of infantry and cavalry, with more than 5,000 people. However, because they were concentrating on the attack, their flanks were completely exposed to Xu Youchang, so even the group of defeated troops in front were scattered in an instant.
The Gale Knights of the 10th and 14th Battalions smashed the enemy's formation with devastating force, and then started hunting on the spot.
The rebels' originally vigorous offensive was suddenly disrupted by Xu Youchang, and the enemy battalions attacking elsewhere also stopped and retreated, fearing that the new force that suddenly broke into the battlefield would regard themselves as the next target.
Ye Rongcheng, who was watching the battle from a distance, saw this and quickly mobilized his troops. Three thousand elite black armor cavalry jumped out of the formation and went straight to Xu Youchang.
The war drums of both the enemy and our side beat almost at the same time, and the shirtless drummer swung his drumsticks wildly, connecting the passionate drumbeats into one. With the loud bang-dong-dong sound, the cavalry on both sides suddenly collided together like two huge waves in the center of the battlefield.
Among the war horses, Xu Youchang brandished his spear and charged left and right among the enemy groups. It was like entering an uninhabited land, with blood splattering and corpses everywhere. The cavalry officers and soldiers of the First Army followed him to the left and right, bursting out with astonishing combat power. In just a dozen rounds of attacks, they defeated the black armored cavalry who came to intercept them, and they were defeated and miserable.
"Pass my order!" Ye Rongxing drew out the long sword from his waist and shouted viciously: "Twenty thousand reserve troops were dispatched immediately, outflanking me from both sides, and surrounding Xu Youchang to death!"
