Chapter 209 Unspeakable
While the fierce battle of Ruxukou was going on, Li Erlang had already led his troops across the Xiaoguan Road and captured the important town of Gaoping in the northwest in just ten days.

After Li Sanlang left Longguan Road, he successively captured Wushi and Chaona. The two armies totaled more than 70,000 people and met in Linjing.

Outside Linjing City, Eastern Yan surrounded it on three sides, leaving only the south side of the city towards the Jing River unsieged.

Seeing that the Li brothers were attacking and defeating the enemy all the way, they were unstoppable. After three days of siege, the governor of Anding surrendered, and only Qi County stood in the way of the Li brothers.

After passing Qi County, you can drive directly to Jingzhao.

At this time, Li Yuan was still attacking Chencang day and night.

Li Yuan led an army of nearly 80,000 from Hanzhong, and led more than 50,000 people himself to attack Chencang. He sent his nephew Li Huaizhen as the commander of the army, and supervised Li Xiaojie, Liu Wenhui and other troops. Together, they had 25,000 soldiers and set up camps and fortifications at the southern foot of Mount Qi and the northern bank of the Wei River.

To prevent reinforcements from Guanzhong from coming.

Murong Zan sent his uncle Yuwen Chengye to rush to Chencang with an army, but he was blocked by Li Huaizhen at the foot of Mount Qishan and could not advance an inch.

On the south bank of the Weishui River, Li Yuan ordered his nephew Wang Yi to set up camp at the confluence of the Xieshui and Weihe Rivers. Since they were unable to cross the river to Weinan, they had to go around.

With Li Yuan's momentum, he will be able to break through Chencang sooner or later.

The situation in Guanzhong suddenly became clear.

In Yuzhou, Cao Xuan led his army to confront Murong Deyu's army in Ye County and was not at a disadvantage.

Even after the arrival of Wagang reinforcements, there were still not many changes in the battle lines between the two sides.

However, the change still happened.

In the 11th year of Tiansheng, Zhou Menglong, a rebel from Yuzhou who was chased all the way by Li Yuanhui and finally fled to Funiushan, sent someone to contact Cao Xuan, and accepted the title of General of Chariots and Cavalry and Duke of Weiguo. He then led thousands of people down from Funiushan, attacked Luyang, and burned tens of thousands of stones of military rations.

This was very fatal to the Eastern Yan army.

Murong Deyu's army had 60,000 men, plus the Wagang Army that came to support them, which was more than 30,000 men, which meant a total of 100,000 men. The amount of food they needed to consume every day was 2,000 dan, and with the consumption of the civilians, the amount would have to be doubled.

Luyang was originally used as a place to store military supplies because it was located north of Ye County.

Now the food in Luyang is not enough for the front line, and it will take time to transport it from Luokou Warehouse. Therefore, Murong Deyu was forced to negotiate with the Wagang Army and let them go to Kunyang for food.

Xu Maogong also knew the actual situation, so he led the Wagang Army to garrison in Kunyang, which was dozens of miles away from Ye County. After all, Murong Deyu's proposal was also beneficial to them.

Afterwards, Murong Deyu dispatched General Lu Piao to lead thousands of cavalry to guard the grain route to prevent Zhou Menglong from suddenly attacking the grain route.

In Runan County, Ding Jingzhen led 60,000 troops to garrison in Yiyang, facing the Yan army in Ancheng from a distance. Both sides were holding back and waiting for action.

On the Jianghuai side, after more than 20 days of fierce fighting, the Eastern Wei army finally abandoned the Jiangbei camp and retreated to the Wuhu line.

Seeing the enemy troops withdraw, the Yan army in Jianghuai naturally cheered.

The string that had been taut for a long time finally relaxed a lot.

Afterwards, Li Yuanhui transferred more than 6,000 Guide troops led by Xiao Shizhi to Ruxuwu, and transferred all the troops originally stationed in Ruxuwu back to the vicinity of Hefei for rest and recuperation.

After returning to Hefei, I thought I could have a few days of leisure, but who would have thought that something would come knocking on my door so soon.

Urgent news came from the beacon towers along the river at Wankou that after Cao Yuanjing withdrew from the north of the river, he rested for a few days and then went straight up the river.

Going in that direction at this time, it is obvious that the target is Pengze and Chaisang.

These two cities were originally under the jurisdiction of Yuzhang County. After Murong Jing and Shen Shangfa surrendered to Wei, the entire Yuzhang County belonged to Eastern Wei. Last year, it was ambushed by Cao Xuan of Western Wei.

When the Eastern Yan court launched a three-pronged attack, Cao Xuan chose to hand over Pengze and Chaisang to the Jianghuai side.

Li Yuanhui handed over the two counties to the Lujiang tyrants who had come to surrender to him to guard.

Now Cao Yuanjing is going up the river, he must be using the two counties to mobilize the Jianghuai forces and wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy.

Lu Qin, the general in charge of the navy, was also summoned back to Hefei for discussions.

"Pengze and Chaisang each have 3,000 soldiers stationed. I have explained before that if the Eastern Wei army approaches, we can abandon Pengze and defend Chaisang. Chaisang is opposite Xunyang, so we can go to rescue it. However, if Cao Yuanjing takes Pengze, he can enter Poyang Lake and get food and money support from Murong Jing and Shen Shangfa. Even if our army wants to block the Yangtze River, it will not be a big threat to him. General Lu, do we have a chance of winning a water battle with the Eastern Wei in Poyang Lake?" Lu Qin said proudly: "Although Cao was born by the water and is familiar with water, I believe I am not inferior to him in water battles. General, just give the order, and the 20,000 soldiers of the Chaohu Navy will be at your command."

After several years of expansion and training, the Chaohu Navy has expanded to 20,000 people, with hundreds of large and small warships, including five large Wuya ships alone.

It already has the strength to fight against the Wei army.

In addition, Li Yuanhui also sent people to Hongze Lake and Gaoyou Lake to collect boats and train the navy, preparing to use them as surprise troops at critical moments.

After receiving Lu Qin's affirmation, Li Yuanhui felt a surge of pride in his heart.

From a strategic point of view, he could actually withdraw his troops from Chaisang and Pengze in Yuzhang County and continue on the defensive.

But Li Yuanhui felt that he had to appropriately demonstrate his ambition, otherwise the large group of talented and ambitious people below would not be able to hold back.

The fight for Yuzhang wasn't really that important, but it wasn't a good idea to just keep silent about it.

In fact, Li Yuanhui wanted to be a radical and conquer cities and territories. However, he knew his own limitations.

Therefore, whether it was Cao Xuan in Jingzhou or Cao Yuanjing in Jiangdong, Li Yuanhui was thinking about restraining them.

Once dad and his brothers fight their way out of Guanzhong, won’t it be easy for them to deal with these two Caos?
Since ancient times, the unification of the North with the South was based on the fact that the North's national strength had far surpassed that of the South.

It has geographical advantages, national power, and the vigor of the emerging regime.

In this regard, this was true whether it was the Jin Dynasty's conquest of Wu, the Sui Dynasty's conquest of Chen, the Song Dynasty's conquest of Southern Tang, the Yuan Dynasty's conquest of Southern Song, or the Qing Dynasty's conquest of Southern Ming.

But only Zhu Yuanzhang could cross the river and take over Jiangdong by relying solely on Jianghuai.

So after thinking about it, Li Yuanhui decided to go to Yuzhang County to continue the confrontation with Cao Yuanjing. At worst, they would just fight a battle.

Then, let Zhu Yuanzhang lead the Huainan Right Camp, Guo Xing's Lujiang Left Camp, He Gui's Xuzhou Left Camp, Xiahou Yuanhong's Tianzhushan Camp, a total of 12,000 infantry, plus Chang Yanheng's Huaiyuan Camp Light Cavalry, to station in Liyang and wait for an opportunity to act.

Such an arrangement actually has some metaphysical elements.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that he was appointed as the military commander, he was a little surprised.

Not only was he surprised, but everyone else was also a little surprised.

However, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Since Li Yuanhui's military order has been announced, there is no reason to take it back.

Old Zhu's hair had grown long enough to be tied up, and he no longer had to wear a fu hat every day. Now he was wearing a robe, with a round face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and he looked dignified and majestic.

"Brother Zhu, this time it all depends on you. I am here to hold you back in Chaisang. If there is a chance in Liyang, take Caishiji for me. But if my estimate is correct, Cao Yuanjing should want to lure the tiger away from the mountain and let me go to Yuzhang to confront him. He can take the opportunity to send people to attack Ruxukou or Liyang."

After everyone left, Li Yuanhui kept Old Zhu and gave him some more instructions.

Zhu Deyu patted his chest and said, "General, rest assured. Liyang will be handed over to us. I dare not say that we can definitely capture Caishiji, but Liyang and Ruxukou cannot go wrong!"

Li Yuanhui nodded and said, "Okay, in that case I can go to Yuzhang and continue to fight with Cao Yuanjing without any worries."

"That." After Lao Zhu spoke proudly, he suddenly stopped talking.

Seeing this, Li Yuanhui asked, "But what's the difficulty?"

Lao Zhu said: "It's not a big problem. It's just that after this battle is over, the general may agree to a request of mine?"

Li Yuanhui asked curiously, "What's the request? Is it worth your being so upset? You and I have only known each other for a day or two."

Lao Zhu smiled a little embarrassedly and said, "We'll talk about it later, after the war is over."

Seeing his expression, Li Yuanhui suddenly had an idea and said, "Could it be that you have taken a fancy to a girl from some family?"

"Ah? How do you know that?"

(End of this chapter)