Chapter 880 Lord Xu puts everything on the line!
After hearing Shi Youtian’s report, Xu Zhaojie’s expression did not change much, except that his eyes became slightly more dignified······························

Although things happened a little suddenly, to be honest, when Xu Zhaojie decided to send troops to Jiangnan, he had anticipated this situation!

After all, Ye Mingsheng’s best trick is to push stupid people up the wall, or give or sell some second-hand firearms to others, and then let them pull his legs back!

Ye Mingsheng used this despicable trick when he first attacked Huainan!

In order to capture Huainan in one fell swoop, he planned to let the Governor of Huainan Feng Keqin and the Inspector General of Qi and Lu Cao Changping fight each other, so that he could benefit from it later. His plan was going smoothly. Feng Keqin and Cao Changping suffered heavy losses under his instigation, and he took advantage of the opportunity to attack the wealthy Huainan.

In more than a month, he captured several prefectures and counties in Huainan, and even almost captured Kangyin, the second largest city in Huainan. For a time, Xu Zhaojie was in high spirits, and he and the Anqing army were as powerful as each other. It seemed that the whole Huainan was about to submit to his iron hoof.

If he had taken Kangyin in one fell swoop, Feng Keqin would have lost the chance to recover, and Xu Zhaojie could have continued to make progress and taken Shouchun, replacing Feng Keqin as the Governor of Huainan, and he wouldn't have to remain in a stalemate with Feng Keqin for more than a year!

However, what Xu Zhaojie did not expect was that Ye Mingsheng used his ultimate move of poking a stupid dog into a wall for the first time...

At that time, Xu Zhaojie also calculated that after Cao Changping's defeat, he would have made things difficult for himself, and he was unwilling to cut off his retreat, so Xu Zhaojie deliberately added fuel to the fire and let Feng Keqin beat Cao Changping so hard that Cao Changping would not be able to attack him when he took advantage of the situation.

But there is always a loophole in a perfect plan. What Feng Keqin didn't expect was that Ye Mingsheng had been keeping an eye on him. Seeing that Ye Mingsheng was about to swallow up Huainan, Ye Mingsheng took advantage of Cao Changping and sold Cao Changping a lot of firearms at low prices. As a result, Cao Changping, who was already unwilling to give up, cut off his retreat without saying a word after getting the Fengwu Army's firearms!
He was forced to give up Kangyin, which was about to be hiss. Although he later defeated Cao Changping and secured his retreat, Feng Keqin also stabilized the situation at this time. His plan to take over Huainan in one fell swoop was completely bankrupt, and he was forced to start a fight with Feng Keqin.

But even so, Ye Mingsheng did not let him go. He had been funding the bandits and rebels behind him, letting these people cause trouble for him and hold him back. If it weren't for these shady tricks played by Ye Mingsheng, he could have taken over Huainan two years earlier. If that were the case, the entire South would now belong to him, Xu Zhaojie!

As the saying goes, every failure makes you wiser. It was precisely because he suffered a great loss at the hands of Ye Mingsheng’s trick that Xu Zhaojie was prepared for the invasion of Jiangnan this time. He deployed an army of more than 35,000 people in the southern part of Jingchu to prevent Ye Mingsheng from using Sun Chenggong to hold him back...
At that time, many people in the Zhennan Army had doubts about this, thinking that Sun Chenggong did not have the courage to take the initiative to attack, and believed that the army of Jingchu should be used to attack Jiangnan!
But the fact proved that he knew Ye Mingsheng too well. That bastard Ye Mingsheng really used his old tricks again and used his trick of poking a stupid dog up the wall once again!
Thinking of this, Xu Zhaojie couldn't help but want to slap Sun Chenggong twice. People say that past mistakes are a lesson for future ones, but you really have no memory at all. The last idiot who was pushed against the wall by Ye Mingsheng was Cao Changping, the Inspector General of Qi and Lu. Now the grass on his grave is ten feet high!
You kid, you're still happily serving Ye Mingsheng as a gun. If your father Sun Liangyu knew your behavior, he would definitely die with regret and wish he could crawl out of his coffin and beat you to death!
Although he was extremely angry at Sun Chenggong, Xu Zhaojie also realized helplessly that the Chu army's attack was likely a fact!

Because heavy troops had been deployed in the southern part of Jingchu, to be honest, Xu Zhaojie was not too worried about Sun Chenggong's attack.

What Xu Zhaojie is really worried about is Kangyin!

He was worried that Ye Mingsheng's ordering of Sun Chenggong to attack the southern part of Jingchu was just a test of the strength of his Zhennan Army in the Jingchu and Huainan areas, and Ye Mingsheng's real killer move was to order the First Division stationed in Kangyin to launch a campaign to cross the river...

Facing the First Division, the ace of aces of the Fengwu Army, Xu Zhaojie did not dare to be careless. He had always ordered the Thousand Tiger Guards to keep an eye on the movements of the First Division and inform him of any movement of the First Division in Kangyin as soon as possible!
According to intelligence from the Thousand Tiger Guards, the First Division has been building warships in Kangyin, practicing naval battles and preparing for the river crossing campaign since the capture of Kangyin last year.

Nowadays, the First Division has built hundreds of large and small warships in Kangyin. The officers and soldiers of the First Division have been practicing water battles for nearly half a year. They have gradually formed water combat capabilities and achieved the basic conditions for launching the campaign of crossing the river!

As long as Ye Mingsheng gives the order, the First Division, which has been expanded to 30,000 people, can launch a river crossing campaign to attack Shouchun!
Xu Zhaojie felt that this was a sharp blade hanging over his head that could fall at any time!

If the First Division launched a crossing-the-river campaign to attack Shouchun at the same time as Sun Chenggong attacked southern Jingchu, the Zhennan Army would be in a very serious situation. If they were not careful, they would be caught in a dilemma and their entire army would be wiped out!

Honestly speaking, Xu Zhaojie thought about the attack on Jiangnan for a long time. He thought about the reactions of all parties, especially Ye Mingsheng. He had expected such a situation to occur, but he still decided to take the risk and attack Jiangnan...
Ye Mingsheng and the Fengwu Army were the most important reasons for making this choice. Xu Zhaojie believed that the power of the Fengwu Army had extended into Huainan and Jingchu, and Ye Mingsheng could attack him at any time as long as he wanted.

And now, due to the size of the two sides, even if the Fengwu Army only sends a small division, it can force the Zhennan Army to go all out and not dare to slack off. In this way, even if the Fengwu Army is blocked, the Zhennan Army will not be able to make any progress and can only be exhausted to cope with it!

If the Luoan court could stop the Fengwu Army, then with the Luoan court tying down most of the Fengwu Army's combat power, the Zhennan Army might be able to survive for a while!
Unfortunately, the Luoan court could no longer hold on. Under the threat of the Fengwu Army, even Jinyang, a city of great political significance, was forced to abandon. This was enough to show that the Luoan court was on the decline, and its demise was only a matter of time!
When Xu Zhaojie knew that Yang Chongqing had come out of retirement, he still had high hopes for him, hoping that he could save the Luoan court. But now it seems that Yang Chongqing can't save the Luoan court. It seems that the only thing he can do is to slow down the speed of the demise of the Luoan court!

So in view of this situation, Xu Zhaojie felt that he could no longer count on the Luoan court, the only one he could rely on was himself····························

Although enemy vassal states like Gao Zongchang and Yin Biao lost their former power to call the shots after surrendering to Ye Mingsheng, they were not liquidated by Ye Mingsheng and now live a peaceful and wealthy life.

But Xu Zhaojie knew that he was different from them. Given the deep hatred between him and Ye Mingsheng, if he was defeated, his best option would be to die on the battlefield. Otherwise, if he fell into Ye Mingsheng's hands, he would be unable to live or die!

Not only that, Ye Mingsheng will not let anyone from the Xu family go, he will kill everyone!

To be honest, sometimes Xu Zhaojie also had some regrets. He had a life-and-death feud with Ye Mingsheng in Gongdu back then. Sometimes he wondered if he could go back to that time, would he let Ye Mingsheng go, or even turn enemies into friends with Ye Mingsheng! After careful consideration, Xu Zhaojie felt that if God really gave him this opportunity and allowed him to go back to Gongdu back then, he would not let Ye Mingsheng go. On the contrary, he would kill Ye Mingsheng at all costs, kill all the members of the Ye family, and make Ye Mingsheng have no chance to rise!
But unfortunately, there are no ifs in this world, and there is no medicine for regret!
Xu Zhaojie must recognize the reality and accept it. After thinking about it, Xu Zhaojie feels that instead of dying miserably in Ye Mingsheng’s siege, it is better to fight hard while he still has the ability and grab a glimmer of hope in the danger of death...

If he could lead his troops to capture Jiangnan, then everything would become clear. By then, even if Ye Mingsheng occupied the entire north, he could rely on Jiangnan as his rear base to continue fighting the Fengwu Army in Jingchu and Huainan.
For this beautiful dream, Xu Zhaojie chose to risk his life, and the price of doing so was that now was his most difficult and weakest time, before he conquered Jiangnan!
The Shouchun Zhennan Army now has only 17,000 men, and another 10,000 are young and strong men who are still being recruited and trained. The guarding force is relatively weak.

Therefore, if Ye Mingsheng ordered the First Division to launch the crossing-the-river campaign, and the First Division crossed the Nanjiang River to attack Shouchun, then once Shouchun was lost, the Zhennan Army would collapse across the board!

But Xu Zhaojie was gambling with his own fate and the fate of all the Zhennan Army, betting that the Luoan court had tied up all the energy of the Fengwu Army, and that the Fengwu Army no longer had the ability to fight on two fronts!

He gambled that he could capture Jiangnan and become the ruler of Jiangnan before Ye Mingsheng defeated the Luoan court!
･････････････
･････････････
Luoan, Wenhua Pavilion meeting room

Shangguan Changgong and Murong Lun sat opposite each other. Looking at Murong Lun who was still as calm as water, Shangguan Changgong said calmly:

"Master Murong, I think you should have known the news that my father has passed away..."

Murong Lun couldn't help but frown slightly after hearing this. Shangguan Changgong's words caught him off guard and he didn't know how to respond!

Seeing that Murong Lun did not show any surprise, Shangguan Changgong was more certain of his answer, and then he smiled self-deprecatingly and said:

"I knew I couldn't hide it from Lord Murong. My little trick made Lord Murong laugh!"

Although he didn't know what Shangguan Changgong's special intention was in asking such a sensitive question right away, Murong Lun shook his head and said:
"Minister Shangguan, you are joking. I did have some guesses about this, but I have never been sure!"

At this point, Murong Lun sighed heavily and said with great sadness:

"The Prime Minister is the pillar of the court. If he leaves, the situation in the court will become even more difficult. Alas!"

"Shangguan Shangshu, I understand you. You are also thinking about the overall situation. The enemy army is strong right now. If the news of the death of the Prime Minister spreads, it will inevitably cause unrest in the court and make the enemy army even more rampant!"

Looking at Murong Lun acting in front of him, Shangguan Changgong sneered in his heart, but on the surface he spoke with worry:
"This is my father's last wish before he died. My father knew that Lord Murong would understand his painstaking efforts!"

After that, the two of them said some meaningless hypocritical words, and then Shangguan Changgong changed the subject and said:
"Recently, I noticed that there is an opinion in the court that Jinyang was lost, Governor Wang was killed in the battle, and the Yunbing army was wiped out. Marshal Yang should take responsibility for this. The court should send the cavalry commander of the Xuanwu Army to Yunbing to take over the command from Marshal Yang..."

"Mr. Murong, you are an important official in the court. I wonder what you think of this suggestion?"

Seeing Shangguan Changgong talking about this, Murong Lun also started thinking quickly. He found that although Shangguan Changgong was not as powerful as his deceased father Shangguan Hongyuan, he should not be underestimated!

On the surface, Shangguan Changgong's question was just a request for advice from an old minister as the actual ruler of the court. But in fact, there might be another deeper meaning. Thinking of this, Murong Lun could not help but realize that the secret contact between him and Yang Chongqing might have been noticed by Shangguan Changgong!

Murong Lun was a bit troubled by this. He didn't know whether Shangguan Changgong was really planning to replace Yang Chongqing out of suspicion, or was he testing the relationship between himself and Yang Chongqing!

After a moment's silence, Murong Lun said to Shangguan Changgong:

"Although Marshal Yang is the most outstanding general in the court, Commander Ma is also a brave general who has made countless contributions to the court. He is also a lucky general. So in my opinion, whether Marshal Yang continues to lead the troops to fight or Commander Ma takes over the command, both are good choices!"

"In the end, it all depends on what you, Shangguan, think..."

(What do you think of the recent plot?)

(End of this chapter)