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Chapter 195 Li Jing's Anger

"Your humble servant takes his leave."

Wang Zhilang's face was filled with fear, and cold sweat poured down his face. He dared not say another word and hurriedly picked up the letter of peace from the ground.

Under Li Chongjin's icy gaze.

He first staggered to pay his respects, then took the reins and, escorted by several Zhou soldiers, rode away in a daze.

Chai Rong let out a cold snort and stopped looking at Wang Zhilang's disheveled departing figure.

His entire focus returned to the battlefield beneath the city walls, where the sounds of battle were deafening.

Liu Renzhan was still holding out, but Chai Rong's will was more unshakable than the solid walls of Shouchun City.

To him, Li Jing's attempt to make peace was utterly insincere. He had simply sent someone with a letter, trying to dismiss his personally led army with a paltry sum of money.

Does Chai Rong seem like the kind of person who only cares about petty gains and is short-sighted and greedy?
This is an absolute and blatant insult!

However, Li Jing's actions only strengthened Chai Rong's resolve to completely crush Jiangnan militarily.

These rebellious traitors who have carved out their own territories cannot be reasoned with; only the whipping of iron and blood can make them bow their heads and submit!
Chai Rong gazed at the city gate for a while and said, "Send down the order to Zhao Chao, who is stationed at Wokou, to cross the river and attack the enemy's Tushan camp from the north. Also, order Han Lingkun and Li Jixun to attack the Tushan camp from the east. Tell the three of them that even if they cannot take the camp immediately, they must keep the enemy inside and trap them there."

He paused briefly, then looked around at the high-ranking officials and generals who were holding their breath, and said, "The attack on Shouchun has dragged on for too long, but the overall progress of the war must not be hindered by the enemy army!"

"I trouble you, my dear ministers, to discuss this later. We will recommend among the generals who are brave and capable of fighting independently, to lead the elite troops around the military camp at Tushan, and advance along the Huai River by both land and water to attack the two prefectures of Hao and Si."

The emperor's words, spoken with absolute authority, were met with immediate and resounding agreement from all the civil and military officials.

Li Chongjin, with a solemn expression, stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty's decision is wise! If there is nothing else, I request to take my leave and go to coordinate the army's siege of the city."

Chai Rong nodded slightly, his gaze lingering on his cousin for a moment before he looked away.

He could sense the suppressed frustration in Li Chongjin's voice. The task of attacking Shouchun City had indeed placed a great deal of pressure on him.

The importance of Shouchun City is beyond doubt, but the difficulty of conquering the city is equally obvious.

If we could take it, the battle has been going on for more than two months, from the end of August to the beginning of November. At its peak, hundreds of thousands of people were besieging the city. If there had been any opportunity, the city walls would have been breached long ago.

Given the current situation, it seems the only option is to surround the city on all sides to block reinforcements and wait for the people inside to surrender when they are exhausted.

But the time it would take was unpredictable... Watching Li Chongjin mount his horse and leave, Chai Rong's gaze once again fell on the Shouchun city wall.

Therefore, the war must not be halted, and launching an offensive on the eastern front is imperative!
Hao and Si prefectures are located in the lower reaches of the Huai River, controlling the throat of the Grand Canal, and are important areas for grain production and taxation.

Once this is achieved, it will be of great significance.

This would not only sever the eastern and western arteries of the Southern Tang along the Huai River, thus disrupting its defensive system, but also open up new battlefields, preventing the Tang army in Huainan from coordinating its efforts.

Secondly, it could also advance on Taizhou of the Southern Tang, thereby threatening the flank of the wealthy Yangzhou and placing the Eastern Capital of the Southern Tang (Jiangdu Prefecture) under the attack of the Zhou army.

It created an overwhelming pressure, like Mount Tai pressing down on you!

At that time, let's see if Li Jing will still have the confidence to bargain with me.

After inspecting the area, Chai Rong prepared to return to the central command tent to plan the next battle.

However, they hadn't gone far when they suddenly saw a group of soldiers escorting a group of people away from the battlefield. There were at least a hundred people being escorted.

Ma Renyu, the commander of the inner palace guards responsible for protecting the emperor, immediately stepped forward to inquire.

The junior officer in charge replied, "These men were all soldiers sent from Qin Prefecture. We painstakingly filled in a section of the moat so they could use it to build ladders to attack the city, but they turned tail and ran away halfway through. Fearing they would be caught by the enforcement team, they fled to the western water fortress on their own. They were stopped by the officers of the water fortress and brought here for me to take to the central army for orders."

Upon hearing this, Ma Renyu glared angrily and said, "Deserters are all cowards. Why send them to the central army? The Emperor will kill them all if he finds out. Aren't you just provoking him?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the bound people were so frightened that they ran away in terror.

A man, speaking with a thick Shu accent, wailed and wept bitterly, "General, you've been wronged! Our Shu Kingdom hasn't fought a war in so many years, we've never seen anything like this before... Even if we're going to die, we should die properly! That city wall is only so big, everyone else is waiting up there. As soon as they climb the ladder, they'll pour molten gold and black oil down on us, and once it's on fire, it won't be able to be put out..."

Ma Renyu ignored his explanation, cursed him as a "coward," and turned back to report to the emperor.

As expected, Chai Rong did not hesitate for a moment after hearing this, and said coldly, "No need to send him to the central army, execute him on the spot!"

He knew that these deserters were selected by Wang Jing, the military governor of Qin Prefecture, from the surrendered soldiers in Shu and sent to the front line in Huainan to assist in the battle; there were several hundred of them in total.

But no matter where the soldiers came from, they all deserve to die if they desert in the face of battle, and there is no room for negotiation on this point.

After the minor incident, the emperor led his civil and military officials back to the central military camp.

It's approaching dusk.

The ministers finally came up with a new war plan—

Hou Zhang, the military governor of Dengzhou, was appointed as the commander of the water fortress under the city of Shouzhou, with Wang Can, the general of the Right Guard, as his deputy, to assist Li Chong, the commander-in-chief of the Huainan expeditionary force, in attacking the city.

Wu Xingde, the military governor of Xuzhou, was appointed as the commander of the vanguard in Haozhou City. He led his troops and 12,000 able-bodied men and laborers eastward along the Huai River to attack Haozhou.

Bai Yanyu, the Defense Commissioner of Yanzhou and Vanguard Commander, served as the Deputy General of Wuxingde and was appointed as the Commander of the Infantry of Haozhou City.

Han Lingkun, the commander of the Imperial Guard Cavalry, was appointed concurrently as the commander of the cavalry along the Huai River. Murong Yanzhao, the commander of the Left Wing of the Longjie Army, was appointed as his deputy. Together, they led more than 3,000 cavalry and infantry to launch a swift attack on Sizhou and to block the Southern Tang troops coming to the aid of Shouzhou from the east.

Li Jixun, the commander of the Imperial Guards Infantry, was also appointed as the garrison commander of the various military camps in Tushan, and was tasked with attacking the Tang army's camps from the west. Zhao Chao, the commander of the Left Wing of the Tiger Swift Army, was appointed as his deputy, and was tasked with attacking from the north.

Then, Shi Yanchao, the commander of the Imperial Guards, was appointed as the commander of the camp under the city of Luzhou, leading 5,000 imperial guards and able-bodied men from the surrounding area to besiege Luzhou of the Southern Tang.

Si Chao, the patrol inspector of Lu and Huang prefectures, was temporarily appointed as the vanguard commander and led troops to guard the Sheng Tang military camp.

Meanwhile, Wang Yanchao, the deputy commander of the Huainan campaign, was transferred to the position of commander of the Chuzhou campaign, and ordered to advance on Qingliu Pass in Chuzhou to attack the Southern Tang reinforcements under Huangfu Hui.

...As imperial edicts were issued one after another from the emperor's camp.

The gears of war began to turn wildly, and the armies of Later Zhou marched towards their predetermined goals. They were determined to crush the entire Jiangbei region under the iron hooves of the Zhou army with overwhelming force.

Not long after, the troops that had been sent to attack Guang and Shu prefectures also reported successive victories.

In early November, He Chao, the acting governor of Guang Prefecture, sent a messenger to report that after several days of siege by the army, Zhang Shao, the self-proclaimed governor of Guang Prefecture, had abandoned the city and fled, and Zhang Chenghan, the military commander, had surrendered the entire city.

Then came the news of victory from Pan Mei, the acting prefect of Shuzhou: Shuzhou had been captured. Furthermore, Li Fu, a military officer in Qizhou, killed Wang Chengxi, the self-proclaimed prefect of Qizhou, and the entire prefecture surrendered.

Chai Rong was overjoyed. The war in the southwest was progressing unexpectedly smoothly. Of the four prefectures of E, Huang, Qi, and Shu, two had already been captured, and the capture of E and Huang was just around the corner.

He made a decisive decision, ordering He Chao to send troops to assist in the attack on Huangzhou, and also ordered Wang Shenqi, the commander of the right wing of the Iron Cavalry, to lead more than a thousand cavalry and infantry to take over the defense of Qizhou of the Southern Tang.

……

Jinling, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Inside Qingrou Pavilion, the stove fire warmed the room like spring, and the finest silver charcoal emitted a cozy warmth.

Emperor Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty leaned back on a brocade couch, toying with a warm and smooth jade Pixiu between his fingers, trying to dispel the anxiety that had been swirling in his heart for the past few days.

At this moment, the Zhou army's offensive was so overwhelming that he could hardly breathe.

In just a few months, Zhou's army captured four prefectures, namely Guang, Huang, Shu, and Qi, and six prefectures, namely Shou, Lu, E, Chu, Hao, and Si, which were also besieged and attacked by Zhou's various armies.

The prefectures north of the Yangtze River are already in a precarious state, their survival hanging by a thread.

Li Jing couldn't understand why the situation had become so critical.
He believed that since taking the throne, he had worked diligently to govern the country, internally purging corruption and expanding the army, and externally surrendering bandits, eliminating traitors and officials, and expanding the territory.

He reversed the conservative policies of the previous emperor and began large-scale military campaigns, successively eliminating the Ma Chu and Min kingdoms, both of which were embroiled in internal strife due to succession disputes.

Currently, apart from the great dynasties of the Central Plains, our country has the largest territory, far exceeding that of the former Yang Wu, and its national strength is unmatched among the southern states.

But under the onslaught of Zhou's military might, Li Jing suddenly found himself finding it difficult to withstand the onslaught.

No! I am the Emperor of the Great Tang Dynasty!

How could you be so terrified by an adopted son of the Guo family?
Li Jing recalled the news brought back by Wang Zhilang, the military commander of Sizhou, from the front line in Shouzhou. Guo Rong had treated his letter of peace as if it were a worn-out shoe, casually tossing it into the dust at his feet!

He even threatened to "put a knife to my neck" to force me to come before him and apologize in person... I was already making a huge concession by acknowledging him as my brother and paying him a yearly allowance.

How dare he humiliate me like this!
The more Li Jing thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. He could almost see Chai Rong's disdainful eyes and the way he discarded his humble letter of pleas for peace as if it were trash, all playing out in his mind over and over again.

In an instant, the anger that had been building up in his chest erupted like a volcano.

Li Jing stood up abruptly, his eyes blazing with fury, his whole body trembling with rage, his chest heaving violently. A sense of humiliation mixed with the anger of being belittled surged within him.

Just then, a eunuch rushed in, breaking the oppressive silence in the warm pavilion.

"Your Majesty, the Duke of Chu and Minister Yin, along with several important officials, request an audience!"

"Inform them to come in."

Li Jing took a deep breath, suppressing the surging anger and worry in his heart, and sat upright on the imperial couch again, barely maintaining the dignity of an emperor.

A moment later, Song Qiqiu, the military governor of Zhennan and Duke of Chu, Yin Chongyi, the Minister of Personnel and concurrently the Privy Councilor, and several close ministers filed in.

"Your Majesty!" The men bowed respectfully, their voices heavy with undisguised sorrow.

"My dear ministers, there is no need for such formalities."

Li Jing's gaze swept over the crowd, and seeing the worried expressions on their faces, his heart sank even further. "Why are you all in such a hurry? Do you have something important to report?"

Song Qiqiu stepped forward, bowed, and reported: "Your Majesty, Zhao Renzhe, the military commissioner of Changzhou, has sent an urgent report! The Wuyue Kingdom, led by its prime minister Wu Cheng, is besieging our Jinling City in Changzhou. Zhao Renzhe claims that the Wuyue army's offensive is swift and the city is in grave danger, and urgently requests the court to send troops to its aid!"

"what?!"

Li Jing's emotions, which had already calmed down considerably, were immediately stirred up again.

However, in his anger, he suddenly remembered that his eldest son, Li Hongji, was stationed in Runzhou, serving as the Grand Governor of Xuan and Runzhou.

Changzhou was under his jurisdiction, and Jinling City was less than 100 li away from Runzhou.

If the Wu-Yue army were to besiege Jinling, and then take the opportunity to attack Runzhou from the east... Li Jing was worried that his eldest son was too young and unfamiliar with battle, and would be in danger.

He hurriedly asked, "Has news come from Runzhou that the Wu-Yue army has launched an invasion?"

"No military intelligence has been received from Runzhou yet..."

As Song Qiqiu spoke, he noticed that Li Jing's expression was unusual. After a moment's thought, he understood the crux of the matter.

He immediately advised, "Your Highness Prince Yan is stationed in Runzhou, facing the Wu-Yue army head-on. If the enemy forces break through Jinling and then turn to attack Runzhou, Your Highness's safety is truly worrisome! I dare to suggest that, for the sake of complete security, Your Majesty should issue an edict to immediately summon Your Highness Prince Yan back to the capital!"

This suggestion was exactly what Li Jing wanted to hear, and he agreed without hesitation.

A great weight seemed to lift from his heart, but the thought of Wu Yue's betrayal made Li Jing's face turn grim again.

"Qian Hongchu is truly a two-faced, opportunistic scoundrel! He previously feigned to station troops on the border and remain inactive, observing the situation. Now, seeing the Zhou army's strength, he has launched an undeclared war and invaded our dynasty. This villain is even more wicked than Guo Rong!"

"Your Majesty, please calm down!" the ministers hurriedly said.

After his anger subsided, Li Jing turned his gaze to several key ministers and asked them how to defend against the enemy given the current situation.

Song Qiqiu spoke first: "In my opinion, Qian Hongchu of Wuyue's opportunistic military campaign is merely an attempt to curry favor with the Zhou emperor and demonstrate his subservience! However, his ambition is only to seize small gains, and he would never dare to commit the full strength of his nation to a deep offensive. On the other hand, the Zhou army is at the height of its power, with the Zhou emperor personally overseeing the battle at the front lines. This is the real threat to our dynasty... The most urgent task is to order Liu Renzhan to defend the city to the death, keeping the Zhou army tied down at the gates of Shouzhou, preventing them from launching a full-scale invasion southward. Only then can we gain a respite and buy time for our army to deploy!"

"The Tushan military camp guards the vital Huai River and protects the flank of Shouzhou. It is also the key to whether our army can block the Zhou army's eastward advance. We must strictly order the more than 10,000 elite troops stationed in Tushan to hold their positions firmly, build deep trenches and high walls, and rely on the advantages of the stockade to block the Zhou army's eastward advance! Under no circumstances should we abandon the camp and engage the Zhou army in a reckless battle in the open field!"

"I hereby order Huangfu Hui to defend Qingliu Pass to the death. Chuzhou is the northern shield of Jinling, and we must not allow the Zhou army to break in from the direction of Chuzhou! At the same time, I also order Chu and Tai prefectures to send troops to aid Hao and Si prefectures."

"As for Shuzhou and Qizhou in the southwest, although they are temporarily in enemy hands, the important town of Ezhou is still under our control. We should strictly order He Jingzhu, the military governor of Wuchang, to adopt a scorched-earth policy and gather the people into Jiangxia City. The Zhou army has launched a long-distance attack, and their supplies and provisions cannot last long. We should wait until their troops are exhausted and their food supplies are depleted before they retreat on their own!"

Song Qiqiu's strategic planning was insightful, highlighting the key points with clear and logical reasoning.

Li Jing's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and he nodded approvingly, saying, "My dear minister, you are a wise and experienced strategist. Every word you utter is to the point, a perfect plan that perfectly aligns with my intentions..."

Before he finished speaking, Yin Chongyi stepped forward and added, "The threat from Wu and Yue must be guarded against. We should send a general to lead troops to reinforce Changzhou, take charge of the defense of the eastern front of Jiangnan, and protect the safety of the capital's flank."

(End of this chapter)