The shelling took less than half a day to completely destroy the city and the city tower of Jinghai Gate. Although the Liang army warships had retreated to the north shore before dusk and the smoke and dust swept across the sky gradually settled, the devastated ruins brought the shock and fear of the officials of the Great Chu court, but they were still slow to dissipate.

Most of the court officials returned their own way, but the ministers of the various ministries and generals and ministers above the capital still remained in the Chongwen Hall in a daze.

After shelling Jinghai Gate, Liang's army withdrew to the north shore as agreed by the war letter. In addition to regaining the ruins of a land, the imperial guards did not need to board the ship to pursue them. However, three days later, the Liang army will also officially land on Caishiji and plan to build a crossing bridge between Caishiji and the north shore. At that time, tens of thousands of Liang's troops will surging south like a tide. What should we do?

Caishiji is located in Dangtu County, Jingzhao Prefecture, more than 70 miles from Jinling City in the east, Fanchang County in the west, and Wushou County in the east lake prefecture of Daliang on the north bank.

The Yangtze River waterway where Caishiji is located is bound by the low mountains and hills on both sides. Even during the flood season, the river surface is only about six or seven miles wide.

At this time, there was a sandbank about ten miles long and three or five miles wide in the middle of the river.

Excluding the sandbank and the waters on the north and south sides of Caishiji, the narrowest part is only four miles wide.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are located in an alluvial plain, and no large-scale embankments are built on both sides. During the flood season, the river water spreads to both sides, and the widest part of the river can reach hundreds of miles.

In any case, Caishiji is one of the most suitable places for big soldiers to cross the river near Jinling. Further downstream, you have to almost reach Runzhou to have a better crossing place.

Such a strategic priority was that as early as the Emperor Tianyou period, many defense barriers were built to control the Yangtze River waterway.

This time, the main force of the Liang army went south, and a large number of troops directly entered Wushou County, and even sent people to Jiangxinzhou, called "Little Huangzhou", to establish a vanguard camp.

In addition to the Sandu Imperial Guards' personal army, two days ago, the Yongjia army urgently dispatched troops from the Zuo Wuxiang Army to strengthen the defense on the Caishiji line.

Although the Liang army had only more than 20,000 troops gathered on the north shore, even if the Liang army could quickly transfer troops from other areas of the north shore to the opposite shore of Caishiji with its powerful naval warships, everyone in Chongwen Hall felt that the possibility of defending Caishiji with the existing garrison was very weak.

In the letter of war sent by Liang army on the 14th, it was also clear that before landing, it would first conduct combat arrangements to shell the Caishijizhuts at the foot of Cuiluo Mountain.

The strength of the Caishiji villages is definitely not comparable to that of Jinghaimen. Could it be that before the Liang army's artillery attack, they really wanted to withdraw the defenders from the military plugs under these Cuiluo Mountains in advance?

"The Liang army's artillery attack was destroyed within three thousand steps, but the surrounding area of ​​Cuiluo Mountain was muddy except for a few narrow rural roads. The cannons were clumsy and heavy, and they could only follow the boat to show their might, but it was difficult to land. According to my eyes, Caishiji should retreat three thousand steps away from the river bank, and deal with the Liang army, or fight with them.

!” Gu Zhilong stood up and stood in the hall, and said in a deep voice to the despaired young emperor.

After Gu Zhilong said this, several generals in the hall looked over, thinking that Gu Zhilong was really shameless. He obviously didn't want his Zuo Shenwu Army's direct troops to guard Caishiji, or he didn't want his direct troops to be the first to test the Liang army's military. The reason could be so fresh and refined. Is it really a traitor? Could it be that he forgot all the revenge of killing his son back then?

The thin boy was not as arrogant as before noon. He was like a wilted eggplant standing beside Qingyang, and he couldn't tell the truth about Gu Zhilong's words.

Although many people present could see through Gu Zhilong's thoughts, no one stood up to kill him. Even Guo Liang, deputy governor of the Guards, also stood up to echo: "What Gu Military Department said is very much. The way of using troops is to avoid the real and attack the virtual, avoid the weaknesses and play the strengths. Knowing that Caishijiji and Jishi are all within the range of enemy ships' artillery attacks, so that the generals and soldiers will only increase casualties, which is not beneficial to the overall situation."

Two of the Sandu Imperial Guards stationed in Caishiji are the direct descendants of Guo Liang. No matter where Liang Chu goes in the end, he will not see the generals who have followed him for many years and die in vain at this time.

Guo Liang and Gu Zhilong both advocated the garrison to withdraw from Caishijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijiji

"Ai's family is tired," Qingyang grabbed the silk book in his sleeves and waited for a long time. He saw that no one in the civil and military affairs in the court offered advice. He stood up impatiently and said, "How to defend along the river? Shen Xiang, Yang Hou, the Privy Council, and the Governor's Office are here to go!"

Everyone looked at Qingyang in surprise, not understanding why the empress dowager was putting on a bunch of picks at this time, or had long understood in her heart that no matter how hard she struggled, it would be difficult to resist the Liang army's crossing the river.

…………

…………

Yang En did not stay in the eunuch's mansion. When he returned to the mansion, it was dark, but there were not many servants in the huge mansion. Fortunately, the cicadas were chirping and insects roaring, but he didn't feel calm.

Yang En simply drank a bowl of medicinal porridge, sat under the lamp, spread out the defense map of Jinling City, looked at it with a frown for a while, and the old servant walked in and reported: "Mr. Cai is here!"

Yang En asked the old servant to invite Cai Chen in, but he was puzzled. Cai Chen, who had been recuperating in the house after Fan Chuanhe was defeated, ran over to him and did what he did?

Cai Chen and Yang En sat down at the case, looked at the city defense map spread out on the long case, and asked: "Even if the soldiers use their lives, they will not be afraid of death, how likely will they be to defend Jinling City?"

"The soldiers are not afraid of death. Maybe two or three out of ten will defend the city. However, Zhang Han, Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao and others have all opposed the movement of the capital before. This probably means that even if they can barely defend the city, there will not be many soldiers who serve the kings." Without guessing what Cai Chen's purpose was, Yang En was discouraged and told his judgment on the current situation, saying, "Jinling City seems to be as prosperous as before, but at this time,

It was like a rotten cargo that was so crippled that many people wanted to see it collapse so that they could join the house!”

"It is precisely because too many people see the golden jade outside of Jinling City and see through Jinling that they are not worthy of attack, so they think that they will go to the gate without any worries after Jinling City collapses. However, Jinling City collapsed, and many innocent people will be buried for it, but they have little concern." Cai Chen said.

"..." Yang En sighed softly and said without saying anything.

"Take you, the old marquis, for example, with your friendship with the Lord Liang and the ministers of the Liang Kingdom, the fall of Jinling, the king and ministers of the Liang Kingdom must treat each other with guests. Then, you will be very happy when you let the rivers and lakes and walk in rivers, but it will be better than hard work. A hundred years later, the world will remember that you are a virtuous and loyal minister of the Great Chu," Cai Chen continued, "If you advocate surrender at this time, even if you can save thousands of innocent people from unnecessary burial, you will inevitably be spit behind you by countless self-proclaimed noble people, and later generations will even think that the Great Chu will be buried alive in the hands of the Old marquis. The Old marquis may be the name of the Great Chu criminals in history, which is really not worth the loss..."

Yang En was so angry that his veins were exposed, and he wanted to reach out to drive Cai Chen out, shook his sleeves and stood up, and said angrily: "Don't use this aggressive method to attack me. Even if I don't want to use this Qingpian, I will be able to surrender if I say that there will be so many civil and military officials in the court? No matter how decayed this building is, why does it still need a last blow to shatter! "

Cai Chen sat calmly behind the desk, looked at Yang En and said, "What the old marquis said is that everything really needs an opportunity, but it must be 100,000 to die. Is it legitimate to annex my Great Chu?"

"What do you mean by hiding in your stomach when you come here? You might as well say it straight away." Yang En said with an impatient and stern look.

"When Prince Shou was planning a matter, he secretly sent someone to secretly spread the secrets of the Empress Dowager and the Lord of Liang in the streets of the city. Although these rumors were suppressed afterwards, did the old marquis ever think that there might not be such innocence between the Empress Dowager and the Lord of Liang?" Cai Chen asked.

Yang En stared at Cai Chen in confusion, not knowing what he meant when he suddenly mentioned this, or that he was unwilling to believe what Cai Chen was going to say next.

"Whether it is about falling in love early or asking for the whole world, the empress dowager married the lord and seeking the whole family. It is easier for the court officials to accept it than the collapse of the auspicious house. It is just that the reputation the advocates have to bear is even worse..." Cai Chen said.

Yang En sat back to the desk in a daze.

He guessed that Cai Chen came over at this time because he wanted him to stand up and advocate surrender, but he didn't expect that Cai Chen actually wanted him to do the leading advocate of this.

"Old Marquis, you must not respond to this person surnamed Cai..." The old servant of the Yang Mansion next to him was also shocked. He didn't care about Cai Chen's presence and hurriedly knelt down to persuade him.

The old servant followed Yang En all his life. Of course, he knew that Yang En had always been very honored. If he agreed to Cai Chen, he would live with such a bad reputation on his life, how painful would it be for a person like Yang En?
Chapter completed!