On the fourth day, Yue Fei, who had crossed the Yuanjiang River, did not go to Chenyang City. Instead, he ordered the entire army to mix with Huang Zuo, Yang Qin, Guo Tai and others to attack the Yuanjiang River at the same time.

He led the eight water villages, and once again led Wang Gui in the lead, marching towards Yiyang County on the banks of the water, while he continued to supervise the army behind and continued to advance.

At this time, the Song army was able to ride horses, and Prime Minister Zhang was able to fulfill his promise, sit on his horse, and march with Yue Fei's army.

It should be said that the prime minister had relaxed a lot at this time, but as news of the success of the water forts came from various places, Yue Fei once again spoke wildly:

"From this point of view, it doesn't take ten days, but seven or eight days to succeed. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we can fight decisively and defeat Prime Minister Zhong."

Zhang Jun had agreed not to take the initiative to speak, so he just frowned upon hearing this.

Of course, Yue Fei had to take care of the leader's mood, so he took the initiative to go hand in hand and gave Zhang Deyuan a brief explanation: "Zhong Xiang was originally from Dingzhou. At this time, he was in the Yuanjiang River (the name of the county, where the old Yuanjiang estuary is located, between Dongting Lake and Chiting Lake).

On the peninsula (not referring to the river), the people moved slowly. If he could not detect the actions the day before yesterday, but he should have noticed the actions yesterday, but there was no movement at all. This is something the general did not expect. Therefore, if he can sweep away eight people today

If the stronghold is successful, Prime Minister Zhong will fall into death, and we can defeat him tomorrow!"

Zhang Jun finally showed his joy: "If I can win the Prime Minister, this battle will be won!"

Yue Fei shook his head and corrected seriously:

"The prime minister doesn't know something. Even if he compares himself with the bandit leader, he will only win half the battle. It still depends on Yang Yao's movements."

Zhang Jun didn't understand anymore and couldn't open his mouth to ask, so he turned back to look at Bi Jin behind him.

Bi Jin did not dare to neglect and immediately stepped forward to be the commentator.

It turned out that Zhong Xiang was an ancestral shaman from Dingzhou, known as the Great Sage. He also established a society near Dongting Lake to collect money and food in good years and help the poor in bad years. He had a great influence and was a natural rebel leader.

The kind that can be shaken.

But to be honest, it is essentially impossible for such a person to escape from the situational mentality of a wealthy gentry and a shamanistic family... Therefore, when the rebels were at their peak, their influence once spread to more than a dozen state armies in Hunan and Hubei, but under those circumstances, he

Not wanting to make progress, he only handed over all frontline affairs to Yang Yao. Instead, he hurriedly proclaimed himself king in his hometown of Dingzhou, built a palace in Yuanjiang County, and selected a princess for his son Zhong Zhiyi, in order to find a special horoscope.

Women are used to carry on the family line, so that the inheritance of the King of Chu can be passed down from generation to generation.

Therefore, the Dongting Lake Rebellion actually had two actual leaders, one was Zhong Xiang and the other was Yang Yao.

"The Prime Minister doesn't know that we heard a joke when we first came to Hubei." Bi Jin was young after all, and he became more and more familiar with Zhang Jun. After roughly explaining Yang Yao's special leadership status, he said immediately

It goes on and on. "It is said that Prime Minister Zhong's family has a large population. After he becomes king, he must enjoy the blessings of the whole family together. The bed where the family sleeps must be inlaid with gold and jade. However, even if he conquered more than a dozen counties, he could not get it together. So,

He always asked people to search for the rebels everywhere... In the end, the rebels in the Xiangyin area were so harassed by him that they had to recruit craftsmen to collect gold and jade and build a batch of gold-inlaid jade beds for the King of Chu.

That’s all."

Bi Jin's words seemed to express his disdain for Zhong Xiang. However, when Zhang Jun heard this, he was not only unhappy but also frowned, causing the former to sneer at him for a while.

In this way, the imperial camp's front army marched forward into Yuanjiang County. Good news came almost continuously along the way. First, Huang Zuo and others were sent to the front, and the imperial camp's front army was behind. Under the mixed attack, all the people along the lake in Dingzhou were attacked.

The rebel water strongholds were unable to support each other. Three of them surrendered and the fifth was destroyed. As expected, only Yuanjiang Zhongxiang's lone army remained in Dingzhou. The lonely city and lonely stronghold remained. Yue Fei's military progress fully met expectations.

But that's not all. As Yue Fei's headquarters entered Yuanjiang County, in the afternoon, more exciting news suddenly came from Wang Gui:

The former deputy commander of the imperial camp was on the way to attack Yiyang when he suddenly discovered that the main force of the rebels in the Xiang River Basin led by Yang Yao was crossing the Zhanshui from the lower reaches, as if they were coming to aid Dingzhou and Yuanjiang. But Wang Gui pretended not to know, but clearly

He had already controlled one of the city gates, but continued to pretend that he was attacking the city. After Yang Yao crossed the river, he hurriedly led seven or eight thousand troops to aid Yiyang, but he turned around to meet him. A fierce battle broke out between the two sides in the field, and Yang Yao could only hold on.

In half an hour, the army was defeated like a mountain, and Wang Gui drove him towards Yuanjiang River.

Just now they were saying that we need Prime Minister Zhong and Yang Yao to win together to end this rebellion, but now Yang Yao has thrown himself into the trap... Naturally, everyone was excited for a moment.

On the other hand, Zhang Jun heard that the battle ahead was beyond his expectation. Not only was he not happy, but his expression became even worse, as if he had other ideas in his mind.

And soon, as Yue Fei did not take any emergency measures and only sent out a herald to ensure that the troops from all over the place were properly gathered and encircled, and no unauthorized entry was allowed, the prime minister who had not taken the initiative to speak during the whole process finally couldn't bear it any longer.

The grass was growing and the orioles were flying, the waves of Dongting Lake were swaying slightly, and on the side of an unknown acres of wide reed marsh, Zhang Deyuan suddenly reined in his horse and stopped, and then called out to the other party on the spot:

"Yue Dutong!"

"The end is here." Yue Fei seemed to have expected it, so he simply reined in his horse and turned around to hand over his hand.

"Do you know what I want to ask?" Zhang Jun's face was already ashen.

"You can probably guess."

"Tell me and listen." Zhang Jun's breath gradually became unsteady.

"There are many doubts in the Prime Minister's mind, but for now, Xiao Chu probably wants to ask why he didn't seize Yuanjiang County, but instead deliberately indulged and allowed Yang Yao to move freely within Yuanjiang territory? Da Chu, he is also the Prime Minister.

The thing that I have been enduring is that the rebels are so vulnerable and can obviously destroy everything, but why do the front troops of the imperial camp keep standing still? Why don't they put down the chaos from the beginning, instead of trying to recruit them in vain? And from the perspective of the final general

, these two..."

"Do you know that too?!"

Before the other party finished speaking, Zhang Jun was completely furious. "I have already seen it now. It doesn't matter if it's ten days, five days, or one month. What about one month? The key is that the rebels are so vulnerable, how can they be appeased?"

Necessary? Under such devastation, just ask for a pardon document when the time comes. Why do you have to submit a special memorial instead of appeasement? If you had directly entered Huxi and Hunan at that time, the chaos a year ago would have been over! The officials will treat you with great kindness.

Is this what you did to make you, a criminal soldier, a Jiedushi envoy in the past few years? I tell you, if you don’t give me a reason to convince me today, return to the center, no matter how you Yue Fei uses his power

If you win and shut up the mouths of the people in the world, no matter how the officials favor you, I, Zhang Jun, will not give up the position of prime minister, and I will drive you out of the army for playing enemies!"

The surrounding soldiers were all panic-stricken, but Yue Fei was silent for a moment, but continued to face each other, and said frankly: "Prime Minister, I have never played tricks on the enemy. As for the reason for stopping in Hubei before... In fact,

The official army cannot defeat the rebels! And with all due respect, I am afraid that not only the front army of the imperial camp, but also the other units of the imperial camp can defeat the rebels on the lake."

Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment. He didn't know if he didn't hear clearly, or if he was extremely angry, but he held the reins of his horse and said in a daze: "What did you say, say it again."

"We can't defeat the rebels." Yue Fei reined in his horse and stood, motionless. His voice was clear and unmistakable, and he said it twice. "Prime Minister, the general just said that we can't defeat the rebels!"

Zhang Jun was so angry that he simply waved his horsewhip and rebuked: "Wuling City fell in one battle, Chenyang City fell in one battle, Yiyang City fell in one battle, and the seventeen villages in Huxi were wiped out in three days. Yang Yao's main force was 8,000 people.

They were defeated head-on by your 5,000-strong siege force that was halfway through the siege. In addition, you went south from Xiangyang and won consecutive battles in various parts of Hubei... But now you tell me that the official army cannot defeat the rebels, so you

I changed my military attack to appeasement... Do you think I am blind?!"

"Prime Minister, please don't get angry." Yue Fei responded calmly, showing no fear. "Prime Minister, please think carefully. In these battles, were all the water villages near the lake really defeated by the army?"

Zhang Jun opened his mouth to reprimand, but suddenly he trembled, then pulled the horse's head and circled in a circle. After standing still, the thunderous fury just now was gone.

When Yue Fei saw that the other party had come to his senses, he also sighed, and then spoke sincerely: "Prime Minister, you can see clearly with the army that this battle went smoothly because all the land battles were fought by government troops, while all the Linhu and water villages were fought by local Dongting Lake rebels.

He conquered it... water battles and land battles are completely different. In land battles, whether Shangguan's army storms a stronghold or wins a decisive victory in the field, General Shu Mo will say that it is a matter of success;

The last general is incompetent. Since arriving at the lake last year, no matter how hard he thinks, he is not sure of victory. Even if he can break the stronghold temporarily, he cannot completely wipe out the water thieves among them. Let him come and go as he pleases from the lake, and then set up a water trap.

The stronghold is endless. Therefore, if you can't defeat it, you can't defeat it! But in the middle of the court, there are too many people who don't know how to fight. I only saw how easy it was for the last general to capture the lost territory in Hubei, so I took it for granted that fighting near the lake would be that easy.

As everyone knows, if you want to defeat the water stronghold along the lake, you have to use the water stronghold to attack the water stronghold, and use the lake people to fight the lake people. There is no other way!"

Zhang Jun didn't say a word, but after a few turns in his mind, he already believed 100% of what he said.

Because there are too many intuitive examples.

The Jin army's cavalry was invincible on the plains, but was helpless by fishermen and merchant ships in the Liangshan Po Lake and the Huaihe River. The Western army was beaten like chickens by the Jin army on the wild plateau, and turned around to hold on in the mountains of northern Shaanxi.

But he can defeat the golden man greatly.

In the past few days, he personally followed Yue Fei along the lake and saw with his own eyes that Dongting Lake was hundreds of miles away. As the water rose and fell, there were as many forks, swamps and ditches as there were, but they were just the right places where it was difficult to use troops. It's just that.

I was marching non-stop in the first two days, and I was too tired to think about it. In the last two days, the battle went so smoothly that it was dizzying, but I ignored these things.

"So, you deliberately didn't go to take Yuanjiang City, but you were hoping that Yang Yao could get in. Once he got to the city, it would be easier for you to surround him and eat him?" After thinking about it, Zhang

Jun coughed dryly and asked tentatively again.

"Yes." Yue Fei answered sincerely. "If he can enter the city, it is best not to leave even Zhong Xiang, then it will be God's help to the officers and soldiers."

"Although there were many battles in the past few days, the only critical one was whether Huang Zuo could be forced to surrender that day, and then let him lead the Lizhou rebels to attack the Dingzhou rebels? Regardless of the previous march in the rain,

Or did you linger for a few months, or did you drive all the Lizhou rebels to the Huxi area? In fact, it was all done intentionally by you so that you could work on him?" Zhang Jun continued to 'awaken', or act like he was awakening.

"Yes!" Yue Fei answered with his hands raised. "In fact, after Huang Zuo led his troops to attack other water villages that day, the general knew that the battle was already done, and the next step was nothing more than one day early and one day late.

The only thing I worry about is whether Yang Yao will escape to Yedao in the lake and resurface in the future."

Zhang Jun nodded repeatedly, then sighed, and opened his mouth to speak again, but continued to cover up his embarrassed look: "That's why Pengju delayed it again and again, from winter to spring, and then to now, in order to deliberately show the enemy

Weak, and at the same time to prevent disturbing Huang Zuo?"

Yue Fei nodded, then shook his head: "It is necessary to show weakness to the enemy, and it is also necessary to prevent Huang Zuo from being disturbed, but the reason why the general has not been provoked until today is more so that the spring plowing will not be delayed..."

"What?" Zhang Jun was stunned and ridiculous again.

But this time, when he felt that the other party's words were absurd to a certain extreme, he also felt a hint of guilt and shortness of breath.

It is said that Zhang Jun left Beijing this time because many local officials impeached Yue Fei, which triggered a political uproar. Among these reasons for impeachment and opposition, in essence, the biggest problem was that Yue Fei delayed the deployment of troops, which delayed spring plowing.

...This is an extremely fatal issue for both public and private purposes, and it is also the moral basis for Zhang Jun to be so confident and confident in front of Yue Fei, and to scold a handsome minister three times in a row.

Just now, Zhang Jun already knew that Yue Feigai did not advance as quickly as possible because there were indeed huge military risks, so he had no complaints in his heart. Until now, he simply had nothing to say to save himself from being too embarrassed.

However, now the other party actually told him that in addition to military needs, the reason for his delay in marching was also because he did not want to delay spring plowing.

what is this?

"Don't hide it from the Prime Minister."

The weather was sunny, the grass on the lakeside was growing, orioles were flying, and the blue waves were refreshing. Yue Fei glanced at the spring scenery before continuing to explain. "On Huang Zuo's side, the general was already sure at the beginning of this year. From a military point of view,

We could have used troops immediately to end this war at the beginning of the year. But spring came very quickly in the south of the Yangtze River. At that time, starting from various parts of Hunan, spring plowing began one after another around Dongting Lake. Spring plowing began in the areas under the government's jurisdiction.
To be continued...