knife

Chapter 749 Judgment
The five armies of Jiangnan, after reorganization, now have the Right Army under Zhan Zhao stationed in Nanyang.

Zhan Zhao's Right Army was mainly composed of the core forces of the Demonic Cult, and Xiao Zhongren's troops, who were entrenched in Moshan, were also placed under the command of the Right Army.

After Li Dachui and Jiang Qian joined forces, a large number of the core members of the Demonic Cult escaped from the Chu Kingdom and were temporarily settled in Nanyang. They began a vigorous movement to incite the people to rebel, and after more than half a year, they achieved remarkable results.

Cui Cheng, who was guarding the eastern capital, originally intended to seize Nanyang and make it another base for the Cui family. However, Jiang Qian used a strategy of feigning weakness to repeatedly devour his main force bit by bit. By the time Chang'an discovered the true situation, Cui Cheng was powerless to reverse the situation. Unless Chang'an could send a large-scale reinforcement, he would be unable to launch another counterattack.

At this time, due to the major defeat at Yangguan, Linghu Ye had no choice but to shift the focus of his military forces to the north. Compared to Nanyang, it was clear that the north was the place that Linghu Ye should pay more attention to, and the place he absolutely dared not abandon.

In Nanyang today, military affairs are led by Zhan Zhao, while governance is primarily handled by Ke Wuji. Once Ke Wuji finally gets the opportunity to govern, policies such as land redistribution, mutual aid groups, and free societies spring up like mushrooms after rain.

Whether it's Li Dachui or Jiang Qian, they are willing to use Nanyang as a testing ground to see whether the implementation of these policies brings more benefits or more harms.

In any case, Nanyang will definitely become the outpost for competing with Linghuye. The two sides will inevitably fight for it here. If there are any problems with the policies, it will be easy to backtrack and find excuses.

After Nanyang came Xiangyang, which was under the command of Li Xiu. Compared to Nanyang, Xiangyang was a strategic location that could not be lost.

Fang Xiaomao's left wing was stationed in Ruyin County, Lin Yunqi's rear army was stationed in Tong'an County, and Kang Zhen's central army was stationed in Yong'an County, providing support from the center.

In addition, there was the navy led by Director Wang and Yao Dali.

The naval forces of Shu and Wang Dao had been completely merged. In just three months, more than ten main warships built by the Shu shipyards had joined the fleet. The middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River were now basically controlled by the naval forces of the eight towns south of the Yangtze. They would frequently sail downstream, and the Chu court, which had no control over the waters, was helpless when faced with this arrogant force, allowing them to take whatever they wanted.

Without warships to fight the enemy, you can't just stand on the shore and throw stones.

However, the enemy can choose any landing point and attack any of the southern Chu territories along the river.

The Southern Chu court in Danyang is already feeling immense pressure from the local authorities. These regions already harbored considerable resentment towards Na Wei's current position, and if Na Wei cannot quickly devise a solution to address the current predicament, the growing discontent and disloyalty among the local population will only intensify.

This is why Linghu Ye had the confidence to step forward and organize several originally hostile parties to temporarily put aside their prejudices and unite to wipe out Jiang Qian, one of the eight towns in Jiangnan. It is also why Linghu Ye went to Xiang Zhuang first and persuaded him first.

Na Wei from Danyang was already in a state of panic. As long as Xiang Zhuang agreed, Na Wei would have no reason not to.

Overall, it seems that Nawei actually gained more benefits from this alliance.

The more severely Jiang Qian beats Na Wei, the more benefits Xiang Zhuang of Yuezhou will gain. The key to a successful three-way alliance lies not with Na Wei, but with Xiang Zhuang. Otherwise, if Na Wei assembles a large army to attack Jiang Qian while Xiang Zhuang launches a massive counterattack from behind, Na Wei will be caught in a pincer movement, and things will go terribly wrong.

Now that Xiang Zhuang has agreed and has even dispatched the naval force that Na Wei fears most, Na Wei is relieved. If Xiang Zhuang wanted to betray him, he would never have used his most valuable naval force.

The three parties reached an agreement and began military preparations.

However, this intelligence, which was originally considered top secret, fell into the hands of the Chi Qiu Institute almost immediately. Zhang Qingyun closed the dossier in his hand, looked at the group of people present, and said, "Gentlemen, this is the situation. We are likely to be attacked from two sides in the future. The intensity of the war will probably surpass any previous war. Because the enemy can see that if we do not stop our current momentum, their end will not be far away, so they will definitely do everything they can to launch a desperate counterattack."

"How many troops will Chang'an mobilize?" Lin Yunqi straightened up and asked a question that everyone was concerned about. Compared to Na Wei in the south, the attendees were more worried about an attack from Chang'an.

Na Wei is unpopular in Chu and is now essentially using the emperor to command the other prefectures. It's difficult to get everyone to work wholeheartedly for him. Plus, with a great talent like Jiang Qian on our side, we are confident that we can defeat our opponent on three fronts at the same time once again.

But the army from Chang'an was different.

"The mobilization of the enemy in Chang'an is still quite unclear!" Zhang Qingyun shook his head and said, "However, there are rumors that Chang Lei is likely to lead at least 30,000 troops to attack, of which about 10,000 are cavalry."

Everyone's expressions became much more serious.

Unlike Cui Cheng, Chang Lei was a seasoned general who had fought countless battles.

When Linghu Ye's army entered the pass, Chang Lei was always the vanguard. Chang Lei led and commanded the conquest of Chang'an and the pacification of Gansu and Shaanxi.

Chang Lei was born into the Chang clan outside the Great Wall. Linghu Ye was not comfortable letting him lead the army to deal with the Northern Protectorate, but it was highly likely that he would lead the army to deal with the southern armies.

“Previously, the Beiting Protectorate had always assumed that Linghu Ye would concentrate all his forces to launch a general offensive in the Shanggu-Yuyang area, hoping to win in one fell swoop and drive the Beiting forces out of Yangguan.” Jiang Qian frowned and said, “This contradicts the situation shown in the current intelligence report. Is Chang’an currently capable of fighting on two fronts?”

“From what we’ve overheard in the discussions at the Chang’an court, they believe that a pincer attack would allow them to defeat us quickly in a very short time, thus eliminating any worries about our rear, and then we can devote all our efforts to dealing with the Northern Protectorate!” Zhang Qingyun said.

"Is it possible that Linghu Ye is just playing a trick?" Jiang Qian said, "The so-called two-pronged attack on us is just to mislead us. His main intention is still in the north. He is using the pretext of attacking us to carry out a large-scale mobilization. In reality, these mobilized troops are not going to attack us, but to go north to counterattack Boling, Fanyang and other places?"

Zhang Qingyun took a deep breath and sat up straight: "Are you saying that Linghu Ye is carrying out a large-scale strategic deception? He doesn't care about the eight towns of Jiangnan at all. Everything he's doing now is to mislead Protector Li and his men? To make those outside the pass believe that the Chang'an court, which just suffered a crushing defeat at Yangguan, will not launch another war in the short term, but will first eliminate the threat behind them before concentrating its forces to attack those outside the pass?"

Jiang Qian nodded: "That's my opinion. If Linghu Ye's strategy succeeds, then the Beiting Protectorate will shift its focus to internal affairs, and its military will be put on hold for rest and recuperation. After all, Beiting has been at war for years, and both its civilian and military strength are stretched too thin. It's only natural that it wants to relax internally. Dean Zhang, in an emergency, how long would it take for Beiting to mobilize more than 100,000 troops for a large-scale war?"

Zhang Qingyun gasped: "Over 100,000?"

Jiang Qian nodded.

“Even with the high efficiency of the Beiting Protectorate, it would take at least half a year to mobilize more than 100,000 troops and corresponding logistical supplies!” Zhang Qingyun said.

“If that’s the case, then I’m even more convinced that Linghu Ye’s real target this time isn’t us, but the North!” Jiang Qian said. “At the very least, he wants to completely recover Boling and Fanyang and drive the Beiting Protectorate out of the pass again. If he were to seize Yangguan, it would be fatal for Beiting!”

(End of this chapter)