Travel to the early Tang Dynasty and become a salted fish

Chapter 820 All parties are moving

As soon as she got the news, Chu Xin placed the target of suspicion on Li Shimin.

He had always wanted to capture Gaoguli, but Li Shimin had been obstructing it. Not only did he hoard a large number of troops on the border, he looked like he was ready to invade at any time.

They even sent people to secretly sell the eliminated arms and weapons from the sea to Goguryeo to support them in resisting themselves.

Originally, Chu Xin just thought that Li Shimin's intention was to deliberately cause trouble and prevent herself from becoming bigger.

But now it seems that I was wrong. The other party is not only preventing me from growing bigger.

The other party is obviously building the plank road openly and secretly to assassinate Chencang.

It's a good way to draw a salary from the bottom of the pot.

Chu Xin was so angry that she was ready to tear up the armistice agreement between the two sides on the spot, lead her army into Chang'an, and directly skin Li Shimin.

However, when she thought of Yang Hongyu's unparalleled military power and the rapid rise of Lingnan, she still gritted her teeth and held back.

It was at this time that news from Dengzhou City came.

When she saw that the Dengzhou Navy was defeated by a group of pirates of unknown origin, more than half of it was destroyed, and her cousin Chu Hua, the commander of the navy, was captured, Chu Xin's face was so gloomy that she almost shed tears.

However, when she saw Su Dingfang, the governor of Dengzhou who she had just promoted, using a stern boat to defeat the enemy's formation, she suddenly felt very good.

Not only did he give an order to commend Su Dingfang, but he also made him directly responsible for the bandit suppression operation. He must eliminate all these pirates and bring the head of the pirate leader to him.

As for the turmoil in Goguryeo, Chu Xin originally wanted to send Su Dingfang there, but the other party was now responsible for destroying pirates in Dengzhou, so he had to replace him.

After thinking about it, Chu Xin finally focused on one person.

This person was none other than Hou Junji, the right-hand man of the former Tang Prince Li Chengqian.

After the incident of Li Chengqian's rebellion came to light, Hou Junji directly took all his subordinates to join Chu Xin.

However, Chu Xin has always been skeptical about Hou Junji's character, so her attitude towards him has been lukewarm over the years. She only made him Minister of the Ministry of Works, without any intention of letting him have access to military power.

But now the generals in the Zhou Dynasty are basically guarding one side. If she makes temporary arrangements, she is afraid that Goguryeo will not be able to hold on for long.

In desperation, they could only restart Hou Junji and let him send troops to Shenzhou to see if he could take advantage of the chaos in Goguryeo to get a piece of the pie.

When Hou Junji received Chu Xin's request to lead 50000 infantry, 10000 gunmen, 10000 cavalry and 200 artillery pieces to attack Goguryeo, he jumped up from his seat with excitement.

Five years, five whole years, I have been waiting for this opportunity for five years.

I originally thought that I would never have contact with military power again in my life, but I didn't expect that the fall of the Goguryeo Dynasty would give me an extra opportunity.

Not caring about anything else, he immediately entered the palace and reported directly to Chu Xin. Then without any delay, he marched towards Shenzhou overnight with 70000 troops.

At the same time, Li Shimin, who was far away in Chang'an City, was not idle either.

After three years of hard work, Li Shimin had almost digested most of Tubo's territory.

So Li Jing, Li Ji, and Zhang Liang, who were guarding Tubo, were summoned back to the court to prepare for the use of troops against Dazhou and Lingnan.

It's just that people are not as good as God.

He had just recalled the three of them, and before he had time to formulate a battle plan, the coastal area of ​​​​Jiangnan East Road was attacked by pirates. Not to mention the heavy losses, even the newly built naval base was burned down by the pirates.

After hearing the news, Li Shimin was immediately furious and ignored Chu Xin and Yang Hongyu. He immediately ordered Li Jing to be appointed as the general manager of the Jiangnan East Road March and Zhang Liang as the deputy general manager.

Leading 8000 gunmen, 5000 cavalry, and 100 artillery pieces, he gathered soldiers from various prefectures in Jiangnan East Road and went to take charge of suppressing bandits.

In Li Shimin's view, although pirates looted all the coastal cities in Jiangnan East Road, it was because he did not focus on the navy before.

And because most of the disputes between himself and Zhou Dynasty in recent years have been on land, and there is basically no naval affairs, so the coastal area has been neglected to defend, which was taken advantage of by pirates.

However, according to the battle reports sent back, this group of pirates usually leave immediately after fighting, and basically never stay overnight in one place, which shows that their strength is not very strong at all.

The reason why Li Jing and Zhang Liang were asked to lead an army of 13000 men was ostensibly to destroy pirates. In fact, secretly, Li Shimin was thinking about whether they could take advantage of the situation to capture Huainan Road and catch Chu Xin off guard.

As for Li Ji, Li Shimin asked him to lead 20000 infantry, 15000 musketeers, and 8000 cavalry, and send troops directly to Puzhou, waiting for Li Jing to act, preparing for a two-pronged attack, so that Chu Xin could not take care of both the head and the tail.

As for Lingnan Road, Li Shimin sent Xiao Yu, Liu Hongji and the newly resurrected Cheng Yaojin to garrison.

Different from Li Shimin and Chu Xin's deployment of troops, when everyone in Lingnan Road learned that Zhai Changsun had plundered the coastal area of ​​Jiangnan East Road, everyone had strange expressions on their faces.

Although Lingnan Road was completely blocked by the Tang Dynasty, and the trade between the two sides was basically cut off, everyone still regarded themselves as citizens of the Tang Dynasty.

Now that Zhai Changsun is doing this, it is obvious that he is going to declare war on the Tang Dynasty. This makes them feel a little uncomfortable.

But when they reported the matter to Yang Hongyu, the other party not only did not blame Zhai Changsun, but also acknowledged his behavior.

He also directly ordered that the Lingnan fleet be allowed to go to the coastal areas of the Tang and Zhou Dynasties at will and plunder all the materials needed in Lingnan Road.

Everyone was stunned by Yang Hongyu's order.

This is exactly the order that turns the navy into a pirate.

Although everyone was surprised why Yang Hongyu would issue such an order, because the blockade of the Tang Dynasty in recent years has made the lives of the people in the territory increasingly difficult, so everyone did not express any objection and acquiesced to the order.

Not only that, Yang Hongyu also asked Xue Rengui and Zhang Chenggui to attack Bozhou and Yuanzhou, forming a coercive force on Datang, forcing Li Shimin to send envoys to negotiate with him.

But what Yang Hongyu didn't know was that Li Shimin had already been prepared for Lingnan Road at this time, and was also deploying troops and generals, ready for war at any time.