The World Heroes 38_The World Heroes Full Text Free Reading_Chapter 38: The Wind Rises Nanjun comes from

The Sui army's grain ship was slowly stopped. Lu Zushang was extremely excited. He waved his long halberd and ordered: "Catch people by boarding the ship!"

At this time, Liu Fangzhi, the deputy general next to him, whispered to him: "Why do General Lu cause trouble for himself? If you capture the Sui army's grain ship, you will inevitably be retaliated by the Sui army, and Nanjun will be troubled."

Lu Zushang was furious and glared at Liu Fangzhi fiercely, "If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will take your head to sacrifice to the flag!"

Liu Fangzhi was about thirty years old and was also a surrendered general in Xiaoliang. He was a native of Jiangling. He had been in the army for more than ten years and had a deep experience in the Jingxiang area. He had always been dissatisfied with the young Lu Zushang riding on him. Today he was a kind-hearted person, but Lu Zushang threatened to kill him.

Liu Fangzhi was also angry. He took two steps back and glared at Lu Zushang. Lu Zushang snorted, pressed his hand on the hilt of the sword, and said coldly: "Do you want to indulge the enemy?"

Liu Fangzhi's face turned red and white. He knew that he was in the wrong, and he was afraid that Lu Zushang would take the opportunity to kill him. He had to swallow this and bow and said, "I dare not be humble!"

"Hmph! I'm sorry you don't dare."

Lu Zushang's eyes turned back to the Sui ship and found that the Sui ship was actually heading towards the south bank. He couldn't help but shout: "Stop the fleet and don't allow them to dock!"

Hundreds of warships sailed towards the Sui army's ration ships, and arrows were fired at the Sui army's fleet.

There were 1,000 Sui soldiers on the Sui army's ration ship. On average, there were ten soldiers on each ship. The leader was named Yuan Song, and he was also an experienced veteran. He was on the first big ship.

When he heard that the Tang army was intercepting him in front, he immediately ordered the fleet to dock, ignite the mast, and warn the ship behind him.

More than 100 grain transport ships were about twenty miles in the head and tail. In the dark, a ball of fire was extremely clear on the river. This was the first ship in front of him who issued an alarm. The ships behind him leaned towards the shore.

The river began to be in chaos, and large ships collided with each other. Sui general Yuan Song ran into the cabin. In the dark, he touched an iron cage on a shelf. This was a cage of letters, which contained a letters, brought from Jiangxia City.

They went smoothly and did not use the eagle. But at this critical moment, Yuan Song found the eagle cage. In the dark, the eagle's eyes flashed with a sharp cold light. Just as Yuan Song opened the iron cage, he was pecked hard by the eagle's beak, and blood suddenly flowed out of the back of his hand.

Yuan Song didn't care about bleeding. He grabbed the letter eagle, stuffed a roll of paper into the letter tube on the eagle's legs, and rushed out of the cabin. He raised his hand and threw the letter eagle into the sky. The letter eagle spread its wings and soared. He hovered for a few circles and flew eastward.

Yuan Song felt relieved. At this time, there were already shouts of killing on the river. The ships behind were leaning towards the south bank, while dozens of large ships in front were intercepted by Tang army ships and could not dock.

Countless Sui soldiers simply dived to the south bank a mile away. Tang soldiers rushed to the bow of the boat and shot arrows, and dense arrows shot at the Sui soldiers in the river.

Yuan Song ran to the stern of the boat, but the hull shook violently. He staggered and almost fell down. The bow of the boat was hit by a Tang army warship. Dozens of Tang soldiers rushed onto the first ship, waving their swords and shouting: "Everyone knelt down!"

The ship boss and a dozen crew members were so scared that they knelt down one after another. A Tang general found Yuan Song and pointed at him and shouted: "Catch him!"

More than a dozen Tang soldiers rushed towards the place with swords. Yuan Song had already rushed to the stern, picked up a driftwood, and jumped into the river...

...........

News that the Tang army navy attacked the Sui army's grain transport ships in the Jiangling section spread to Xiangyang and Jiangxia at a fast speed. Although in this incident, the Sui army lost 20,000 stones of grain and 200,000 dan of hay, and nearly 300 Sui soldiers were captured or shot, the losses were not very heavy.

But in Jingxiang, where the war was covered with clouds, this incident was like a spark bursting into a gasoline barrel, leading the Jingxiang war to Jiangling first.

In Jiangxia City, a letter eagle hovered in the sky for a few times and slowly landed on the high eagle tower. An eagle slave ran forward and comforted the long-distance eagle with fresh meat. He took a message tube from the eagle's legs and turned around and ran down the tower.

This was the fifth day after Yang Yuanqing entered Jiangxia City. Tens of thousands of civilians had just unloaded the food and supplies carried on 500 sea ships. Yang Yuanqing had appointed a new prefect, the chief of the Shishi and other Jiangxia officials to free Wei Yunqi from the heavy government affairs and concentrate on military affairs.

In the past few days, Yang Yuanqing has been busy meeting local officials who came to the south, including Changsha County, Baling County, Wuling County, Yichun County, Yuanyang County and other local officials. From the prefect to the county magistrate, more than a hundred people came to meet the King of Chu one after another.

In the government office of Jiangxia City, Yang Yuanqing met with Changsha County prefect Xiao Yanqi and Changshi Shi Han Lu in the reception hall. Xiao Yanqi said that he had met Yang Yuanqing in Dunhuang. He was the younger brother of Xiao Yinyin, the head of the Dunhuang Xiao family, and also the uncle of Yang Yuanqing's confidant Xiao Feng. After returning to Jiangling from Dunhuang, he was appointed as the prefect of Changsha County by Xiao Xian.

After the Tang Dynasty captured Jingxiang, it was also for the sake of stabilizing the south. Except for several core counties re-appointing officials, the officials from surrounding counties were not replaced. What the Tang Dynasty did not expect was that as soon as the Sui army arrived in Jiangxia, these officials rushed to express their loyalty.

"Thank you, Your Highness. My sister is not in good health in recent months and rarely goes out. However, the Xiao family has developed very quickly and is already the number one in Jiangling. She is very willing to serve Your Highness."

Yang Yuanqing smiled, "Dunhuang Xiao family is a famous family of the Great Sui Dynasty. Among the eighteen scholars I took away from Dunhuang, there were three of the Xiao family's children. Now they are all backbones of the Great Sui Dynasty. I have always been very grateful to the head of the Xiao family. After taking Jiangling, I will definitely visit and thank my old friends."

Yang Yuanqing's attention moved Xiao Yanqi, but he understood what Yang Yuanqing said, and probably wanted the Xiao family to play when attacking Jiangling. He quickly bowed and said, "The Xiao family will do their best to help Your Highness."

Seeing that he was quite agile, Yang Yuanqing nodded with a smile, turned his eyes to the Chief Secretary Han Lu, and asked, "What do Han Changshi have any ideas?"

Han Lu is a native of Changsha County and seems a little restrained. After entering the house, he said nothing. Seeing Yang Yuanqing ask him, he stuttered nervously: "I don't have any...what's thinking."

Seeing that he was quite nervous, Yang Yuanqing smiled, "I believe that Han Changshi must be good at documentary writing. I am looking forward to reading the memorials written by Han Changshi to let me understand the customs and peoples of Changsha."

Han Lu was grateful and hurriedly said, "I must write a memorial and submit it as soon as possible,"

Yang Yuanqing wanted to ask about the situation in Changsha County again. At this moment, there was a report outside the door, "Your Highness, there is military information!"

Yang Yuanqing nodded to the two of them with a smile, got up and walked to the door. A personal soldier handed the eagle letter to Yang Yuanqing. Yang Yuanqing opened the paper roll and looked at it, and his face suddenly became gloomy.

.........

In the meeting hall, Xie Yingdeng and Lai Hong lowered their heads and stood in front of Yang Yuanqing without daring to say anything. This was the first time Yang Yuanqing came to Jiangxia and got angry.

“Is this what you do?”

Yang Yuanqing slapped the table and scolded the two of them angrily: "Although he knew that there was a Tang army navy in Jiangling County, he only sent a thousand people to guard the ship. What do you think? Isn't this sending sheep into the tiger's mouth?"

Xie Yingdeng and Lai Hong were so scared that they were trembling. Xie Yingdeng whispered: "Because they were just sending supplies, they didn't want to occupy too much army. They were afraid that Jiangxia would lack troops. Moreover, we only had 300 warships, and we had to consider transporting the army across the river. We had to leave two hundred large ships. The other ship leader told me that he could pass through Jiangling at night and would not be discovered. Bei Zhi believed his words."

"Believe him?"

Yang Yuanqing sneered repeatedly: "You are the general of Jiangnan West Road and the General of Right Martial Guard. If you believe a boatman, you are a general of war!"

Xie Yingdeng knelt on one knee, "I am aware of my crimes and I am willing to bear all responsibilities."

Lai Hong also knelt down on one knee and apologized: "There is also a responsibility for this matter, so please punish him!"

At this time, Wei Yunqi next to him advised Yang Yuanqing: "Your Highness, they do have their own difficulties. They dare not disperse their troops too much, so they can only use dangerous tricks. I heard that the Tang army also added 70,000 troops to Xiangyang, and the Tang army in Xiangyang had reached 150,000. At this time, General Xie did not dare to act rashly."

Yang Yuanqing remembered Li Shimin's Battle of the Central Plains at this time. Because he did not have the right to mobilize troops, he was commanded by Li Yuan in Chang'an like a puppet. Now Xie Yingdeng should be the same. Although he gave Wei Yunqi a certain amount of power, he did not dare to make too major decisions. Thinking of this, Yang Yuanqing's anger disappeared a little, so he waved his hand, "Get up!"

Yang Yuanqing walked a few steps behind his back. He looked back at Xie Yingdeng and asked him, "If you have the right to mobilize troops, what are you going to do?"

Xie Yingdeng said in a deep voice: "Weizhi will transfer Du Fuwei's army to Jiangxia County, and then we will concentrate our forces to sweep Jingxiang ships, so that we can have an absolute advantage on the water surface, and then use ordinary soldiers to replace the cavalry of Yiling County, and use the water surface advantages and cavalry advantages to fight the Tang army to the decisive battle."

Yang Yuanqing nodded slowly and said to Wei Yunqi: "Send the order! Let Du Fuwei's army retreat south to Jiangxia County immediately."

Wei Yunqing understood what Yang Yuanqing meant, not only to accept Xie Yingdeng's suggestion, but also to withdraw the Sui army to the south of the Yangtze River and use its water advantages to launch an attack on the Tang army.

He immediately stood up and saluted, "See the order!"

.........

Three days later, a group of Sui troops retreated from the south of Yong'an County and crossed the Yangtze River by boat and gathered towards Jiangxia. At the same time, the 500 Sui ships of the Sui army were loaded with 30,000 Sui infantry and 10,000 cavalry left Jiangxia County and sailed towards Jiangling City, Nanjun.

.........

Just two days after the Jiangling grain ship incident, Xiangyang City also received an emergency report from Lu Zushang. Li Xiaogong also realized that this grain ship incident was very likely to attract the Sui Dynasty army, so he immediately sent Chai Shao to lead a 50,000 army south to support Jiangling City.

Jiangling City was in a storm, and a battle between the Sui and Tang dynasties triggered by the Sui army's ration and ship incident was about to break out in Jiangling City, which also kicked off the battle between the Sui and Tang dynasties for Jingxiang.

.........
Chapter completed!