Chapter 4359 Chapter 4361 [Turn the Tide]
Xiang Nan then led the Song clan's remaining 20,000 troops to Shaoguan to challenge Li clan's 150,000 troops.
Twenty thousand versus 150,000, it seems that there is a lot of difference in strength, but Xiang Nan is very confident in himself.
But Song Yuzhi was very worried, "Kou Zhong, you must come back alive."
"Don't say such depressing words, I will definitely come back alive." Xiang Nan waved his hand and smiled.
After arriving in Shaoguan, Xiang Nan took over Song Shidao's handsome seal, "Brother, I have worked hard for you these years~"
"Kou Zhong, you are the only one who understands me." Song Shidao said with emotion.
He didn't originally want to be an emperor, but his father forced him to make progress.
"Shimin is very powerful in fighting, you must be careful." Song Shidao warned again.
Xiang Nan nodded, "Don't worry, I know what's going on."
Li Shimin was one of the few emperors in history who was very powerful in both civil administration and martial arts. He even ranked among the best among the emperors of the past dynasties. Emperor Qin, Han Wu, Tang Zong, Song Zu, Genghis Khan, Zhu Yuanzhang... were all neck and neck.
The reason why the Song clan was losing ground was because Song Que underestimated Li Shimin, thinking that he was a junior, and he did not bother to compete with him in person.
As a result, Li Shimin's military ability was by no means inferior to him, and it was far superior to Song Shidao, so the failure of the Song clan was doomed.
But Xiang Nan will not underestimate him.
As soon as he arrived in Shaoguan, he immediately used the technique of gathering animals and regulating birds to get a group of birds to serve as his own reconnaissance planes to detect the location of Li Shimin's food and salary.
That night, he went directly to Li Shimin's grain storage area, and with a flying spell, he emptied out all the tens of thousands of stones of grain in the granary. Then a "flame storm" suddenly broke out in the entire granary, and there was no way to save it. save.
After the army rations were burned, Li Shimin's 150,000 troops suddenly fell into a food shortage.
Li Shimin didn't expect that his salary would be burned so cleanly.
In fact, it's not like he didn't send martial arts masters and heavy troops to guard the granary.
After all, "The Legend of Two Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" is a world of martial arts, with many masters. While martial arts masters are not good enough to fight against the army, they are perfect for detection, destruction, and assassination.
Therefore, he specially ordered Li Jing, Hong Fu, Cheng Yaojin and other masters to guard the granary, just to prevent masters from sneaking in and destroying it. Unexpectedly, they failed in the end, and tens of thousands of stones of food and wages were burned, causing the 150,000-strong army to face the risk of food shortage.
Once the food is not delivered in time, morale will be in chaos and even the morale of the army will be disorganized. Therefore, Li Shimin urgently mobilized food and led the army to attack Shaoguan.
We are preparing to conquer Shaoguan in one fell swoop. When the time comes, we can receive military rations from the Song Army in Shaoguan and resolve the food crisis.
…
When he led his army to Shaoguan and prepared to attack the city in one go, Xiang Nan launched hundreds of giant cannons that he had prepared long ago. Previously, the artillery used by Song Shidao's army were small artillery. After all, those artillery had to follow the army. If they were too heavy, transportation would be a problem. Therefore, those field artillery weighed only one or two hundred kilograms and could be easily pulled by horses.
But the cannons in Shaoguan at this moment weigh several tons, and each shell weighs tens of kilograms. They can hit as far as more than ten kilometers. It can be said that they are much stronger than the field cannons captured by Li Clan.
Therefore, when the war started, hundreds of cannons fired a salvo, and Li Shimin's siege team was immediately overwhelmed by the bombing and could not get close to Shaoguan. In the end, they had to leave thousands of corpses behind and evacuate in embarrassment, and Xiang Nan won the first battle.
Later, Li Shimin was unwilling to fail. While he continued to pretend to attack Shaoguan, he secretly sent ships from the Haisha Gang and the Giant Whale Gang to take Li Clan's army by sea from Songjiang River to the mouth of Zhuhai.
In this way, they can bypass the mighty pass of Shaoguan, land at the entrance of Zhuhai, and directly attack Guangzhou, the headquarters of the Song clan.
However, his plan to build the plank road openly and covertly did not hide it from Xiang Nan. In fact, as long as Xiang Nan liked it, he could even live in his big tent and hear all his instructions to his subordinates.
Afterwards, Xiang Nan came to the sea with his sword, aimed at the transport ships of the Giant Whale Gang and the Haisha Gang, and used a move to "call for the wind and rain".
In an instant, the originally calm sea suddenly became violent with strong winds, torrential rain, huge waves, and rough waves. Dozens of ships saw water, collided, or capsized... No one was spared, and tens of thousands of Li clan troops were also affected by this. All fell into the water.
The Giant Whale Gang and the Sea Sand Gang were severely damaged and were unable to launch a second attack in a short period of time. After all, a sea-going ship is worth a lot of money, and it is not easy to build a sea-going ship.
…
After the sea attack failed, Li Shimin had to adopt a roundabout strategy again, preparing to invade Guizhou from Yongzhou, and then send troops from Guizhou to the east.
But his plan was still understood by Xiang Nan in advance. When Li Clan's army set off from Yongzhou and rushed to Guizhou, when passing through Lingchuan County, they suddenly encountered heavy rain, followed by landslides, cracks in the ground, and mud and rocks.
The pouring mudslides not only blocked the roads, but also buried most of Li Clan's troops alive, causing more than 5,000 casualties.
Subsequently, the grain that Li Clan transported to the front line also suffered from accidents again and again. Either they sprouted and became moldy after being wet by heavy rain, or they were set on fire... As a result, the food shortage in the army became more and more serious.
Moreover, because the soldiers in the north were intolerant of the hot and humid weather in the south, many people suffered from diarrhea, colds, fevers, chills, etc., and were suspected of being infected with the plague.
In less than half a month, Li Clan's army, which was originally high in morale and mighty, became demoralized, disorganized, sleepy, tired and sick.
Faced with this difficult situation, Li Shimin felt helpless.
He really wanted to conquer Lingnan and achieve unification. After all, he knew that the Song clan was too strong.
Their food production is high, and their equipment is also ridiculously powerful, especially steel and artillery, which are much stronger than the weapons used by their Li Clan.
Therefore, if it cannot conquer Lingnan in one go, after the Song Dynasty takes a breath, it will definitely send a large army to the north again. At that time, even if the Li clan can defeat the Song clan's conquests time and time again, they will pay a heavy price.
Even if they are unable to retreat, the country that Li Clan has worked so hard to build will likely overturn again. Therefore, Li Shimin really wanted to conquer Lingnan and eliminate the Song clan, but he was powerless, which made him quite anxious for a while.
But at this time, two more things happened, which made him even more troubled.
First, because he failed to attack Lingnan, his eldest brother Li Jiancheng took the opportunity to slander, hoping to replace him in leading the army; second, because Liu Heitai of Jizhou successfully borrowed troops from the Turks and led his army to attack the Li clan.
Li Yuan sent his fourth son Li Yuanji to lead the army to fight, but the result was repeated defeats and the loss of troops and generals, which greatly shocked Liu Heitai's reputation and caused people in other places to become ready to take action.