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In Jiangxia County, Qin Qiong led three thousand Xuanjia troops to the south along the Han River and raided into Jiangxia County. He lived up to Li Shimin's trust and defeated the eight thousand Liang troops stationed in Jiangxia with three thousand troops in the north of Wuchang County. The commander of Liang's army, Chen Liusheng, was killed by Qin Qiong in front of the formation. Qin Qiong ignored Wuchang City. He then divided his troops into three groups and occupied the entire Jiangxia mining area with a speed of thunder. He seized more than 4 million kilograms of pig iron that the Liang State's official warehouse and the mining areas had no time to transport away.

This news made Li Shimin overjoyed. He personally led an army of 20,000 to fight towards Jiangxia. The counties along the way were all surrendered. In just half a month, the Tang army occupied the seven counties in Jingbei. Li Shimin immediately confiscated more than 400 cargo ships and transported all the pig iron from Jiangxia County to Xiangyang County.

The news that the Tang army seized 4 million kilograms of pig iron in Jiangxia County reached Chang'an. The whole court celebrated. Li Yuanlong was very happy and immediately appointed Qin Qiong as Duke of Wuchang County and General of the Left Wugu.

At the same time, General Li Xiaogong led an army of 50,000 into Badong County and headed towards Yiling County. Yiling County, which is today's Yichang area in Hubei Province, has been a strategic location for Bashu to enter Jingzhou since ancient times. During the Battle of Yiling in the Three Kingdoms period, Lu Xun burned the camps and defeated Liu Bei's 600,000 troops. Liu Bei also died in Baidi City on his way back.

However, there were no troops in Yiling County. This was the consensus reached by Xiao Xian and Li Yuan last year. Both sides used Yiling County as a buffer zone and did not station troops each other. However, Yiling County itself belonged to the Tang Dynasty. Xu Shao, the prefect of the Sui Dynasty, was once a classmate and friend of Li Yuan when he was a young man. When Li Yuan ascended the throne, Xu Shao immediately expressed his loyalty to Li Yuan, making Yiling County the first county in Jingzhou in the Tang Dynasty.

As early as last winter, Xu Shao received a secret order from Chang'an. After the beginning of spring, the Tang army general launched a large-scale attack on Jingzhou, allowing him to prepare for war as soon as possible.

Xu Shao was particularly busy this winter. He did several major things in a row, renovated several important passes, built a wharf, sent people to Jingzhou to secretly buy ships, and secretly accepted two thousand Tang troops into the country in the name of recruiting county soldiers. That afternoon, Xu Shao finally received the news that 50,000 Tang troops entered Badong County, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

However, he did not dare to relax. Li Shimin sent him a letter a month ago, asking him to be careful of an elite cavalry of the Sui army, especially to protect the safety of granaries, ships and various materials. Li Shimin pointed out in the letter that the main intention of this cavalry was to delay the progress of the Tang army's eastern expedition and win time for Zhang Xuan in Jiangnan.

Xu Shao was indeed worried. First, hundreds of cargo ships in the Yangtze River were safe. The Tang army arrived at Yiling by land, but various food supplies were transported by water. Just this morning, a fleet of transport ships from Badong arrived in Yiling County. This was called before the troops moved, the food and grass came first. Xu Shao was very worried about whether his two thousand soldiers could withstand the impact of the Sui cavalry.

But no matter how worried Xu Shao was, he immediately organized thousands of civilians to transport the food back to the city. As long as the food entered the city, the danger would be much weaker.

The dock was particularly lively. Half of the 80,000 stones of grain had been unloaded, and three hill-like piles were formed. There were dock porters carrying grain. Thousands of people were carrying grain or pushing unicycle deer carts, forming two long teams with different directions. The two thousand soldiers were divided into ten teams, patrolling the dock and the county town, watching every move around them.

Xu Shao and the Central Army General Feng Tai stood on the city tower and looked at the dock in the distance. Xu Shao was very worried. He felt that the Sui army cavalry would arrive in the past few days, and Yiling had too few troops, only two thousand people. Once the Sui army arrived, can they resist it?

Feng Tai saw the worry in Xu Shao's eyes, and smiled and advised him: "The prefect doesn't have to worry too much. The road in Yiling is not good. The cavalry came from the east and could only walk the official road. I had arranged a spy on the official road ten miles away. Once the cavalry appeared, they would immediately set off smoke. We would withdraw the city in time and it would be fine. The cavalry would not attack the city. I guess our army would arrive at three days at most."

Feng Tai's comfort made Xu Shao feel a little relieved. He looked at the sky. It was already dusk and said, "I guess it will be too late to carry it before dark. I plan to not rest at night. I will move it in one breath. I think it is feasible?"

Feng Tai thought for a while and said, "Actually, the luck during the day and luck at night are the same. Since the prefect is worried, then move it overnight!"

Speaking of this, Feng Tai pointed to the civil servants under the city again, "Have the prefect of these civil servants checked the origins of these civil servants?"

Xu Shao cursed in his heart, thousands of people were working, not a few people, so he asked a little unhappy how to check it out, "General Feng asked what this is done?"

"I think they are too many and too mixed, and there are probably spies from the Sui Dynasty. I'm a little worried. I want to check them one by one."

Xu Shao was even more dissatisfied. These civilians and porters were not slaves, but came to work for the sake of money. They annoyed these people. Everyone left the burden, who would carry the food? They also checked one by one. It was so easy to say, why do they check it for you? They were simply not aware of the cost of firewood and rice.

Xu Shao curled his lips disapprovingly, "What can I do? There are six or seven thousand people inside. Finding one or two spies from it is like looking for needles in a haystack. Besides, even if there are, will they stand there waiting to die? Once you check, you will definitely slip away. In the end, you find nothing, and delay the transportation of grain."

Xu Shao emphasized his tone again, "General Feng, a few spies are not important, a thousand cavalry are our threat. We must transport food into the city before dawn and send the fleet away. This is an urgent matter. Which one is more important? Please consider it carefully."

Although Feng Tai is a military post and is not the same as a civil servant, his status is still far from comparable to that of the prefect. The prefect can directly impeach himself to the emperor, and Li Xiaogong is only his superior, let alone the emperor who is arrogant.

Feng Tai knew in his heart that Xu Shao was just asking for help, so he was so polite to himself. This prefect is really not someone he can afford to provoke.

Feng Tai immediately laughed: "That's right, moving grain is important, it's time for us to check the grain after moving it."

Xu Shao nodded, "I agree with this plan!"

There were about 6,000 porters on the dock, half of whom were recruited from the city, while the other half were porters on the dock. Most of them came from Jingzhou and came to Yiling County to make money by selling hard work. At this time, a team of more than 100 porters came out of the city, each carrying a five-foot-long bamboo tube on their shoulders. At this time, it was the guy they were eating, and they were grinding very shiny by their palms. Each of them had a pair of vests on their shoulders to prevent the bamboo tube from squeezing their bones. They were all wearing gray cloth short clothes, which looked no different from ordinary porters.

But the leader porter was tall and strong, only over 20 years old, and looked amiable. This person was Liu Lancheng, the commander of the Fenglei Army. Xu Shao never dreamed that the Sui army cavalry that he had been worried about had quietly sneaked into Yiling County half a month ago. This was a misunderstanding of Xu Shao. He always believed that the Sui army that was preparing to attack them was a cavalry, so he never thought that the Sui army soldiers had actually had already sneaked into Yiling City.

The Sui army entered Yiling City in three batches, all of which were porters at the docks. There were 500 people in total. With their strength, it was easy to kill two thousand Tang troops. However, Liu Lancheng's mission was not to seize Yiling City, but to destroy the Tang army's food, supplies and warships. After waiting for nearly ten days, the Tang army's grain ship was finally waiting for them today.

The Sui army was divided into three batches, one group transported grain in the warehouses in the city, and the other group was responsible for unloading grain on a large ship. Liu Lancheng personally led 300 people to mix with the porters to carry grain.

At this time, a soldier quickly walked forward and whispered to Liu Lancheng: "I just got the news that I will not rest tonight and will carry food all night."

Liu Lancheng thought about it and said, "The grain ship has been unloaded halfway. According to this progress, it is estimated that it will be unloaded before the fourth update. We will do it at the third update and immediately inform General Zhang and General Li!"

"Abide by the order!"

The subordinates hurried away. Liu Lancheng's two deputy generals, Zhang Li, unloaded grain on the grain ship, while Li Keshi transported goods in the warehouse in the city. They each occupied an important point.

At this time, Liu Lancheng looked back at the top of the city. A team of soldiers on the top of the city were patrolling back and forth. Liu Lancheng shook his head. There were only two thousand people in his own right and had to patrol. Isn’t this defeat for everyone? This Tang general is not smart either.

Night soon came, and the docks outside the city became more lively. Hundreds of torches were lit at the gates and at the docks, illuminating the docks and gates as daytime. Thousands of civilians and porters gritted their teeth and fought at night, looking at the double wages. Teams of civilians stretched out into the county town a mile away like a long dragon, but there were no torches on the road, which seemed a little dark. However, after walking for a while, it gradually became brighter and the team arrived at the gate illuminated by the fire.

Six thousand people were transporting food in a vast array, but there was no sign of it if there were three hundred people missing. Liu Lancheng led 300 subordinates to leave the dock. They came to a forest several miles away. They dug out armor and weapons buried there in advance, put them in grain bags, and then quietly returned to the grain transport army and easily mingled into the city.

Time gradually came to two o'clock. At this time, a thousand stone grain ship with the same Tang army flag arrived from the other side of the Yangtze River, and silently mingled into hundreds of grain ships. There was no grain in the thousand stone grain ship, but there were three hundred fully armed soldiers, and some armor and weapons were also brought. They came to pick up Zhang Li and a hundred brothers who were unloading grain on the grain ship.

Because the grain was unloaded overnight tonight, the fleet would return to Badong County tomorrow morning to continue transporting grain. The boatmen all seized time to rest and sleep. They did not know that there was a dangerous Sui cavalry nearby.

The Sui army soldiers had already begun to take action. They pretended to be Tang army to search spies and began to search one ship after another. They locked the boatmen into the cabin and locked the big ships together with iron chains. In fact, as long as more than a hundred large ships on the periphery were locked, the big ships inside could not get out.

Time gradually reached the third day, and the time for action finally came. The Sui soldiers had completed the lock of the ship and changed all the armor. Zhang Li ordered: "Driving all the boatmen down the river!"

He did not want to kill innocent people indiscriminately, but he did not want to make a mistake because of the boatman. The best way was to drive the boatman directly down the river, and life and death were from heaven.

Groups of boatmen were forced to jump into the river. At this time, the ship brought by the Sui army was ignited. There was a large amount of sulfur and tinder oil in the ship, which was the best fire-driven ship. The ship began to burn quickly and crashed into the fleet. Several large ships around were ignited at the same time.
Chapter completed!