After hearing this, Qiu Yizi turned around blankly, only to see that Wen Lingjiao's whole body looked like it was carved out of ice and snow. No words in the world could describe her beauty.
At this moment, Qiu Yizhi's mind once again appeared the muscular body of Princess Yiran, but Wen Lingjiao's body seemed even more tender and full, especially the pair of plump breasts that were heavily attached to her chest, which seemed to be emitting an irresistible light...
… …
In the following days, Qiu Yizi concentrated on reorganizing the defense in Shanyin County.
The first thing is to ask Zhao Chengxiao to lead the army. In addition to allowing the injured soldiers to recuperate, they must not relax in training and must promptly repair and replenish the weapons and equipment damaged in previous battles.
Secondly, he asked Xu Rong to take the money donated by the old gentry in Shanyin County, recruit young and strong people, and add the silver that Qiu Yizhi took out from his private treasury to renovate the public buildings such as the ancestral hall, theater, and city god temple in the county, specifically to accommodate the refugees who came to seek refuge. He also asked Xu Rong to collect food, rice, flour, vegetables and meat from all over the place, carefully preserve what can be preserved, and pickle what cannot be preserved, so as to prepare for a long-term battle.
As for Qiu Yizi herself, she did not fall into the arms of love, but had long talks with Lin Shuhan and Zhao Chengxiao from time to time, summarizing and discussing the reasons for the previous defeat, trying to work out a way to deal with the King of Lingnan and the Lingnan Army.
After five or six days, except for a few soldiers with broken bones who needed to rest, most of the militiamen under Qiu Yizhi's command had recovered. The eighteen personal soldiers were already full of energy and eager to try, wanting to avenge their previous defeat.
Seeing that their morale was not bad, Qiu Yizhi ordered his personal soldiers to form groups of three and gather military and political information for one day and one night. In this way, intelligence information from the area of 200 to 300 miles around Shanyin County flowed into the small Shanyin County like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
The news is not good.
In less than a month, the King of Lingnan's offensive became more and more intense, and the situation in the court became worse and worse.
King of Lingnan Zheng Gui fought a battle under Hangzhou City, annihilated the main force of the imperial court's Wenzhou camp, killed the imperial court's left general Cui Nan, and then personally led his troops south to attack Wenzhou City. The imperial guards in Wenzhou City did not have a backbone like Cui Nan, and they held the city for only three days before it fell. At this point, the imperial court sent troops to Jiangnan Road to strictly guard the King of Lingnan's camp, but they were all wiped out by the opponent in less than ten days.
In the Jiangnan Province, the richest province in the world, there were only tens of thousands of local military governors left.
Liu Qing, who was in charge of the Jiedushi army, was a cowardly and incompetent person, but he knew that his troops were not up to the challenge. When he saw the King of Lingnan's entire army attacking, he did not have the courage to take the initiative to attack. Instead, he ordered the defenders in various places to hold the city firmly and not go out to meet the enemy, but to wait for the imperial army to come to his aid.
This extremely passive arrangement gave the Lingnan Army the opportunity to defeat them one by one. The Jiangnan Jiedu Army was not strong in combat and had fewer troops than the Lingnan Army. Under the pressure of the enemy's army, even if they had a strong city to rely on, they could not hold out for long and were easily defeated.
Therefore, several wealthy counties in the eastern part of Jiangnan Road, such as Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Mingzhou, were under the control of the King of Lingnan. He took advantage of the victory to march northwards, aiming directly at the capital city of Jinling. Fortunately, the walls of Jinling were very strong, and the governor Liu Qing blocked several riverside docks in the city, thus resisting several waves of land and sea attacks by the Lingnan army.
Seeing that Nanjing could not be taken for the time being, Lingnan King Zheng Gui thought that Liu Qing's defense was barely enough and there was no way he could come out of the city to fight back, so he was not in a hurry to capture Nanjing. So Zheng Gui ordered Yin Chengliang and Yin Tai, who had defected to him, to lead the Japanese pirate fleet to block the Yangtze River, and ordered his son Zheng Yu to lead the army to besiege Nanjing and not to attack the city easily, while he himself went south and left Jiangnan.
Zheng Gui returned to Lingnan Road and immediately organized his army to attack Yunnan-Guizhou Road. Yunnan-Guizhou Road was also a place where Han and Yi people lived together. Zheng Gui was like a fish in water when he came here. He first bribed several local chieftains with a large sum of money, and then used their troops to capture several large cities controlled by the court. In less than a month, he took Yunnan-Guizhou Road into his pocket.
Zheng Gui achieved such great results in a short period of time, but he still did not stop. After stabilizing the situation in Yunnan-Guizhou Road, he led his troops to attack Bashu Road.
The defenders of Bashu Road had long heard that the King of Lingnan was unstoppable and had captured the Yunnan-Guizhou Road and the Jiangnan Road in a blink of an eye. They were already frightened without even hearing the news. Among the local military governors, those with backbone were able to fight for a few more battles, while those without backbone simply fled or surrendered. Therefore, the King of Lingnan took over the entire Bashu Road without bloodshed.
As a result, not only did half of the court's territory south of the Yangtze River fall into Zheng Gui's hands, but he also opened up the passage to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Huguang and other places. The country was in danger.
But at this time, the Turkic Bishimi was not at peace again and began to harass the northern border. Dali Khan, the loyal king of Bohai, had difficulty coping and could only ask the court for help. As a result, the 100,000 elite troops led by the second son of the emperor, Zheng Sen, could not go south to fight and were pinned on the Youyan line.
The imperial court was short of military forces, but fortunately, the right general Wei Hu, who was assigned to Huguang Road, was skilled in defense. He took advantage of his weaknesses and took the initiative to attack and capture Diaoyucheng at the mouth of the Yangtze River. He also personally led his troops to garrison there, directly closing the door for Bashu Road to invade Huguang.
Zheng Xin, the eldest son of the emperor who was in charge of suppressing the plague in Shanxi and Shaanxi, also changed his position under such circumstances and took charge of the war on the western front. He also knew that the Jiedu Army of Shanxi and Shaanxi was useless, so he simply dismissed the troops from various places, asked for military pay from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, and recruited 20,000 to 30,000 troops to station in Hanzhong City, the throat of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and blocked the throat from Sichuan to the north.
After such a deployment, although the imperial court suffered losses on the battlefield and the initiative was still in the hands of the opponent, it finally managed to stabilize the war situation.
On the side of Lingnan King Zheng Gui, after a thunderous and lightning offensive, both his military strength and morale had reached the limit. The newly controlled areas needed to be guarded by soldiers and managed by officials. He no longer had the ability to mobilize a large army to attack strongholds such as Nanjing, Diaoyucheng, and Hanzhong.
The imperial court was unable to mobilize a large army to quell the rebellion, and the situation was temporarily deadlocked.
In addition to finding out about this situation, Qiu Yizi also tried to obtain instructions from Emperor Zheng Rong. However, Shanyin County had to pass through Jinling City to reach the capital Luoyang. Jinling was surrounded by the Lingnan Army led by Zheng Yu, and even water could not be poured in, let alone picking up a living person who was carrying important news.
Therefore, Qiu Yizi was in Shanyin County, like a small boat isolated in the sea, having lost contact with the imperial court. He could only keep his troops in place and defend the city first.
Zheng Yu, who was in charge of the military affairs of Lingnan Army in Jiangnan Road, followed the strict orders of his father Zheng Gui and only surrounded Nanjing and did not dare to expand the territory. Therefore, Shanyin County surrounded by mountains was very peaceful and quiet.
It was for this reason that people from the neighboring counties heard that Shanyin County was a relatively safe place, so they brought their families and fled here to seek refuge. Not only did they fill up all the empty rooms in the county town, but even the newly built temples and ancestral halls were filled with people. Even so, more and more refugees continued to gather here.
Qiu Yizi had no choice but to set up a camp at the foot of Shanyin City, and have his own militia patrol and guard the camp, which was a temporary residence for the refugees.
Just like this, another ten days passed, and the autumn wind suddenly rose, and the weather gradually became colder.
Qiu Yizi was a restless person. Such a precarious calm made him more and more nervous day by day. He would pull Lin Shuhan to discuss countermeasures every day.
Lin Shuhan was very relaxed and confident. He smiled and said to Qiu Yizhi: "The emperor is not in a hurry, the King of Lingnan is not in a hurry, so why are you in a hurry, my lord?"
Qiu Yizi frowned and said, "That's what I'm worried about. If the King of Lingnan makes a desperate move and mobilizes a large army to attack Luoyang, I believe that with the power of the court and the natural barriers to rely on, it will not be difficult to win. But sir, look at the current actions of the King of Lingnan. It is clear that he wants to consolidate the newly captured prefectures and counties, accumulate strength, and compete with the court. If this continues, I wonder how much time and energy the court will have to spend to quell the rebellion."
After hearing Qiu Yizhi's words, Lin Shuhan couldn't help but get nervous. He opened his newly painted fan and fanned his face a few times, but he felt cold, so he quickly put it away and frowned, saying, "Since you said that, I'm scared. This King of Lingnan is indeed a big shot who has been in charge of Lingnan for more than ten years. What he did is the strategy to take over and keep the world!"
Qiu Yizhi nodded and listened to Lin Shuhan say: "The King of Lingnan is indeed talented and knowledgeable. But there is one thing that I am not very smart about, so I can't figure it out."
Qiu Yizhi fiddled with the tea bowl on the table in front of him, but did not pick it up to drink. He asked, "With Mr. Lin's talent, is there anything he can't figure out?"
Lin Shuhan said with a serious face, "Your Excellency, think about it. The King of Lingnan has conquered Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Bashu, and has been unstoppable. With the King of Lingnan's ability, he should have raised an army to fight for the world long ago. Why did he wait until now when the Emperor has firmly sat on the throne to take such a risk?"
After hearing this, Qiu Yizhi smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "Sir, do you still remember Tianzun Sect Leader Wen Honghui? How could a shrewd and capable person like Lingnan Prince take in this extremely ambitious, perverse and violent Tianzun Sect Leader for no reason? Lingnan Prince has ambitions and abilities, but he has been dormant in Lingnan for more than ten years and has a calm mind. Why would he be persuaded by a villain like Wen Honghui to rashly raise the flag of rebellion?"
Qiu Yi was halfway through her words when Lin Shuhan had already heard the deep meaning behind them. He asked in surprise, "Could it be that this Wen Honghui could contact the cult believers in each city, cooperate with them from inside and outside, and make it easier for the Lingnan army outside the city to attack the city?"
Qiu Yizi nodded, then shook her head and said, "This is one reason, but it's not the main one."
He stood up uneasily and looked around. Seeing that no one was eavesdropping, he said, "Mr. Lin is knowledgeable and talented. He also knows that Tianzun Sect was spread from the Western Regions. Most of the people in the Western Regions are not as good as the Han Dynasty, but only their engineering construction methods are better than those in the Central Plains. One of them is that they are very good at digging tunnels. When they dig, they have special tools and methods. They dig quickly and well. When there are enough people, they can dig two or three hundred steps in one night. When besieging a city like this, they can dig through the city wall and send soldiers to sneak into the city. Then the city will fall without a fight."
Lin Shuhan boasted that he was well-read, whether it was classics, history, or miscellaneous notes, there was nothing he had not read. However, when he heard that there was such technology in the Western Regions today, he could not help but be a little surprised, and said bitterly: "These are all strange and cunning skills!"