In the capital for several days, on the tenth day of September, Li Hualong officially led his troops to the expedition as governor of Henan, Nanzhi and the right assistant minister of the Ministry of War.

On the ninth day of the lunar month, Chen Yiguan assigned him the task of opening the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal channel within three months and sending the grain to the north. The grain stored in the capital and various places could only support his military supplies for three months at most. If the task cannot be completed in three months, he can do it himself.

He commanded 50,000 soldiers from Jizhen and 10,000 elite soldiers from Jingchang, totaling 60,000 troops. The troops of Henan and Nanzhi local garrisons also had to obey Li Hualong's orders, and Li Hualong could use no less than 100,000 troops.

The capital had gathered people in the Ministry of War who had experience in using troops to conduct strategic analysis and analyzed a more appropriate strategy, that is, to pretend to be the main force and go south to Yangzhou Prefecture to deter the main force of the Zhennan Army Navy, while the main force was light and simple to cross the Yangtze River from other places and directly attacked Nanjing.

This is a more appropriate tactic.

But just early in the morning of the tenth day of September, one hour before the army set off, the latest information was delivered.

The Zhennan Navy of Zhenjiang Prefecture began to attack Yangzhou Prefecture five days ago. They easily attacked the north bank of the river with the help of the navy and the firearms. Yangzhou Prefecture was in an emergency, and the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was in emergency, and Yangzhou Prefecture urgently needed support.

As a result, their strategic plan faced a major impact.

Chen Yiguan had to convene a military meeting again in panic.

"We should fight according to the original plan! Otherwise, our army will fall into the trap of the rebels! They will lead the nose! The rebels have shallow foundations in Jiangnan. If we do not take this opportunity to cross the river and destroy the main force of the rebels in one fell swoop, the situation will change fundamentally if the main force of Xiaozhei goes north quickly!"

Li Hualong insisted on his previous strategy and insisted on following the previous strategic plan, and refused to be led by the Zhennan Army. He felt that this was the conspiracy of the Zhennan Army, forcing them to concentrate their main force in Yangzhou instead of taking a detour to attack Jiangnan.

This will also buy time for Xiao Ruxun’s main force to advance.

And Tycoon Xiao was quite dissatisfied with this.

"Do you just let Yangzhou Prefecture be broken, and then the rebel navy headed north along the Grand Canal to fight to the capital? There are only 20,000 soldiers to fight in the capital! What are the remaining goods are there? You are not sure what the imperial court gave you the main force, and you are not asking you to use the imperial court as bait to attract the main force of the rebels!

Even if you recover Nanjing by then, the capital will be gone! Then what is the point of your recovery? We have all become prisoners of Xiao Zhe! What's the use of your recovery?!"

Tycoon Xiao has been angry with Li Hualong in the past few days, and it has completely exploded at this moment.

A few veins popped up on Li Hualong's forehead.

"What do you know?! This is what the rebels want us to do! If we go south to Yangzhou with the main force, we will be caught in the rebel's plan! Put the main force in Yangzhou and get entangled with the rebels there? Wait until the food is exhausted and surrendered?"

"Ten thousand rebels? Ten thousand of our army? You, General Li, hold 60,000 elite troops and countless local troops. Can't even tens of thousands of rebels do anything to you? Or is your General Li, who is just using the capital as bait, wants all of us to be in danger to fulfill your reputation?!"

Tycoon Xiao angrily scolded Li Hualong. Li Hualong's face changed, his face turned red, and he shouted angrily: "What did you say?! How dare you slander me so much! I am dedicated to the country, and you slander me so much!"

"Isn't it?! You took the main force away, and there were only tens of thousands of garrison troops in the capital, and the defense was weak. How did you know that this was not the rebels' trap? The purpose was to capture the capital in one fell swoop?! Then the chief minister is gone and His Majesty falls into the clutches of the devil. What do you want? What do you want?!"

The quarrel between Xiao and Li Hualong was so roared that they refused to give in to each other. It was not until Chen Yiguan shouted angry that the quarrel stopped.

"Enough! The current situation of the enemy is serious. Not only do you not want to cooperate sincerely, but you slander and shirke each other. What is the reason?!"

Seeing Chen Yiguan so angry, Li Hualong and Xiao Daheng didn't dare to say anything again, glanced at each other and stopped the quarrel with hatred.

Chen Yiguan then calmed down a little, thought for a while, and looked at Liu Huangshang.

"Xuanzi, what should you do now?"

Compared with Xiao Daheng who has never been on the battlefield and the arrogant Li Hualong, Chen Yichang admires Liu Huangshang, who has experienced and humbleness on the battlefield.

When Chen Yiguan asked, Xiao Daheng and Li Hualong were both staring at Liu Huangshang.

Liu Huangshang felt a strong oppressive momentum.

Li Hualong is a strong person, so there is no need to say much.

Xiao Daheng was the noble man who made Liu Huangshang successful, and Liu Huangshang could not sing the opposite tune with Xiao Daheng.

Chen Yiguan asked Liu Huangshang, but it may not be that he had no intention of asking Liu Huangshang to support Xiao Daheng's opinion.

Liu Huangshang had already guessed that Chen Yiguan's sensitive heart had already sensed a deep sense of crisis. He did not believe that the troops and towns along the canal could withstand the attack of Xiao Ruxun's naval army. If Xiao Ruxun could use the navy to capture Zhenjiang Prefecture and Nanjing, then it would be only a matter of time to capture the capital.

Similarly, Chen Yiguan didn't trust the wastes in the capital to achieve miracles.

Chen Yiguan is very sensitive and uneasy. At the moment, he may not be willing to take risks at all.

After he took the biggest danger in his life, the aftermath still has not ended and has even become more and more intense. He has a little doubt and distrust of himself.

At this moment, he needs a sense of security, not a dangerous move.

Although Liu Huangshang believed that Li Hualong's method was not impossible to try, even Li Hualong's method was right. At least he could bring the occupation back to a stalemate from Xiao Ruxun's advantage, giving the court time to mobilize troops from all over the country to serve the king, rather than being passively beaten like now, and even not even clarifying the route of the rebels' advance.

However, Liu Huangshang said what Chen Yichang wanted to hear.

"The officials thought what Xiaobutang said was very reasonable. The capital was the top priority. If the capital was not protected, everything else would be discussed."

Liu Huangshang briefly explained his thoughts: "Maybe we can use the main force to go south to Yangzhou and send a team of troops to Jiangnan to threaten Nanjing and Zhenjiang Prefecture from the side, forcing the rebels to retreat to achieve the goal of stabilizing the battle situation. In short, we must never lose control of the canal and cannot give the rebels the possibility of going north to the capital along the canal. After all, we do not have a navy who can confront the rebels on the water."

Tycoon Xiao looked at Li Hualong with a sneer.

Li Hualong looked at Liu Huangshang with anxiety and wanted to open his mouth several times, but after seeing Chen Yiguan's cold eyes, Li Hualong instantly understood what Chen Yiguan meant.

So, Li Hualong had to sigh deeply.

"Since that's the case, I will use a strong general and an elite soldier to go south and cross the river to threaten the rebels' rear, maintaining enough pressure on the rebels, otherwise the rebels will not retreat easily!"

Li Hualong can only settle for the second best.

"Yes, it's better to have one more layer of protection."

Chen Yiguan nodded directly and allowed.

Li Hualong said no more.
Chapter completed!