Chapter 417

Li Jingxuan's sword was taken back.

He knew it would be taken back, but he didn't expect it to be so fast.

And to be precise, it wasn't taken, but snatched. When the Prince of Badong got off the ship, he snatched the sword directly from his hand without even saying hello.

The Yanyue Rampart was defeated, the vanguard of the navy was almost completely lost, the Prince of Badong was almost captured, and even the army attacking Lushan and Xiakou was frightened and had to withdraw in a hurry. Scout horses from each camp flew back and forth, inquiring about the news, and for a time, people were panicked, not knowing why.

The Prince of Badong forcibly restrained himself from kicking Li Jingxuan. In fact, if it weren't for Li Jingxuan arranging to change ships in advance and leaving the central army to meet them at Dunkou, they might not have been able to return this time.

Not only could he not return, but the Yingzhou navy might have taken advantage of the victory to drive straight in and defeat the entire Jingzhou navy! Fortunately, Li Jingxuan's deployment was appropriate, and it was not a total defeat.

But is this ability to prevent a great defeat from becoming a greater defeat really an ability?

The Prince of Badong watched Li Jingxuan remain calm in the face of danger, gathering the defeated army, directing the counterattack, and redeploying, not only stabilizing the situation but also blocking the Yingzhou navy, forcing them to stop, his mood very complicated.

Li Jingxuan was defeated but not chaotic, which is also rare. But this person, without comparison, there is no harm, the Prince of Badong couldn't help but think of that person.

If that person were here, would the scene today still happen?

Even if being defeated but not chaotic is fragrant, can it be more fragrant than winning directly?

Li Jingxuan's plea of guilt was very sincere, taking all the responsibility on himself and asking the Prince of Badong to punish him severely. And the staff's opinions this time were surprisingly consistent, all saying that the crime of this battle did not lie with Li Jingxuan, the enemy's water fortress was too tight, the tactics had never been seen before, especially the large connected boats since Chibi, all generals in the world have taken it as a warning, who dares to use it lightly? Unexpectedly, the enemy did not stick to old precedents, but went the opposite way, using connected boats as a crossbow city! There was no way to guess beforehand, and the enemy was cunning and despicable, setting traps layer by layer, luring them into the trap.

And in that situation, it was hard to break open the fortress gate, and they should have immediately blocked the enemy ships in the fortress, in one go, to destroy the enemy! Otherwise, wouldn't it be sitting and missing the opportunity? In a hurry, they were ambushed, so they suffered a loss, which is also understandable.

Li Jingxuan stopped his colleagues from pleading, kowtowed again to plead guilty, saying that his scheduling was improper, his estimation of the enemy was unclear, and he let the Prince fall into danger, his crime should be executed!

He also said that the previous smooth advance was deliberately done by the enemy to make them arrogant. Although he had said "do not relax preparations because the enemy is weak, do not forget danger because of a successful plan," he did not do it when facing the battle, failing the Prince's trust, and he had no face to live to see the Prince. It's just that after this battle, he knew the enemy's reality, and he couldn't die alone without telling the Prince, and then he analyzed the enemy's military characteristics and predicted the trend of the battle, and suspected that the person defending the Yanyue Rampart might not be Zhang Ji, perhaps someone else. This person and the one who planned for Kong Xiuzhi to defend Yingzhou might be the same person!

Li Jingxuan was actually guessing randomly, just to bring out a powerful mysterious person to divert attention, and at the same time make his defeat easier to accept.

But his most powerful point was not diverting the focus, but clearly pleading guilty in every sentence, dissecting his heart in every word, yet being able to make people feel that this defeat was indeed an accidental trap, even if Wang Yang were replaced, he could not avoid stepping into this trap.

The strategists also expressed their opinions, but all of them were pleading for Li Jingxuan, and not one of them was kicking him while he was down!

The Prince of Badong sneered in his heart: Are they protecting Li Jingxuan?

Maybe not?

Perhaps they just don't want Wang Yang to come back?

And Li Jingxuan, what about the previous smooth advance being deliberately done by the enemy, isn't this saying that Wang Yang's previous victories were also because the enemy's battle and defense strategies were different?

Pondering carefully, it seems not without reason?

However, Wang Yang's scheduling of the great army was not fake. Wang Yang's military orders when advancing were seen by the whole army, and his planning and command were steady, which Li Jingxuan also admired.

The Prince of Badong couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, went out of the cabin to stroll, and somehow strolled to Wang Yang's cabin. The three death warriors on night duty saw the Prince come and hurriedly bowed.

"Have you slept?" the Prince of Badong asked.

"No, there is still an hour before the shift change."

"Is there a gap between shift changes?"

"There is no gap, we only leave when the next shift comes, there are always people at the door."

"Hmm. How was the fishing today?"

Although the death warriors were responsible for monitoring Wang Yang, they only reported major events like Wang Yang wanting to get off the boat to the Prince of Badong in time, and they wouldn't touch the Prince's bad mood with trivial matters like the naval defeat today. But since the Prince asked, naturally there was no reason not to say, so they reported to the Prince of Badong that Wang Yang fished for a whole morning and caught a carp, and asked the kitchen to stew tofu and eat it fresh.

The Prince of Badong hummed after hearing this:

"He knows how to enjoy... what did he eat for the main meal?"

The guards saw the Prince of Badong standing there in the middle of the night without sleeping, just chatting, and his eyes always glancing at the door. Observing his words and expressions, and connecting it with today's battle and what Wang Yang said at dinner, they wondered if the Prince was going to re-enable Wang Yang? So they gave the Prince of Badong a step, asking if he wanted to call Military Advisor Wang out to accompany the Prince to talk.

The Prince of Badong hesitated for a moment, didn't say yes or no, paced, and asked:

"What was Wang Yang's reaction when he heard the navy was defeated?"

"Uh... no reaction..."

"Didn't say anything?"

"No. But at dinner, he specifically told the kitchen not to send wine, because there is important business tomorrow..."

"What important business?"

"He didn't say."

The Prince of Badong's face was already a bit ugly:

"What else did he say?"

"Also said... said... must sleep early tonight, maybe someone will look for him in the middle of the night..."

The Prince of Badong's face changed drastically, and he left with a flick of his sleeve!

But he soon returned, his face pale, staring at the three:

"The fact that I came here tonight must rot in your stomachs. Whoever says it out, dies."

The three hurriedly knelt to accept the order, and the Prince of Badong left in a rage.

The navy could not dominate the river, and Li Jingxuan's use of troops was even more careful. Next, they undoubtedly entered the stage of a tough battle. The Jingzhou army attacked Xiakou, Lushan, and Yanyue Rampart in three routes, all besieging from land. The navies of both sides were very cautious, and for several days, they were only probing patrols, with occasional small-scale clashes, and no one was willing to fight a decisive battle easily.

The land army fought fiercely. The Prince of Badong hated Zhang Ji for breaking his plan to "settle the Jianghan in one battle" and threatening to capture him, so he ordered Li Jingxuan to mobilize an elite army to cross the river and fiercely attack the Yanyue Rampart.

Li Jingxuan was afraid that the enemy navy would take the opportunity to invite a battle, so he exhausted his wisdom, feinting an attack on Huanggu Bay and secretly crossing the Mian River. After two small and large battles, he successfully transported the elite troops to the north bank and besieged the Yanyue Rampart from three sides.

The Yanyue Rampart attracted hatred, and Xiakou was the top priority. According to common sense, these two places had the most casualties, but no one expected that the one with the most casualties was Lushan!

Originally, Lushan's progress was smooth. The Jingzhou army gnawed down one stronghold after another and advanced to the mountain city. After attacking the city for three days, they had exhausted the defenders' arrows, and victory was in sight! The generals were patrolling the deployment, preparing to launch the final general attack, when suddenly a wave of arrows came down, wiping out half a team of officers!

The defenders rushed out and actually beat the attackers into retreat, reclaiming the strongholds previously lost in one fell swoop. The attackers prepared and went up again. After two days of tug-of-war, a batch of crossbowmen appeared at a critical moment! Shooting the attackers until they were in a mess!

It turned out that the defenders had been holding on hard, preferring hand-to-hand combat and bloody battles, pretending they had no arrows or crossbows, just specifically waiting to ambush people!

The defending general Li Dang also earned the nickname "Li the Shadowy Dog," and his head was worth one hundred thousand coins.

Because the general in charge of the Lushan attack was shot dead, Li Jingxuan had to pause the attack on the city and dispatch new generals. However, the strength of the attackers and defenders was clear, and the situation was bright. Even if there were ten Li the Shadowy Dogs, they could only delay time and could not turn the tide. The defenders were eventually compressed back into the city, fighting like trapped beasts.

Although the victory was on the land route, Li Jingxuan had always wanted to catch the flaws of the enemy navy. But after the battle of Yanyue Rampart, the enemy no longer piled large warships in the fortress, clearly showing that it was bait to lure Li Jingxuan before. What made Li Jingxuan even more heartbroken was the news brought back by the surrendered generals and captives—

It turned out that the enemy navy was only transferred to the Yanyue Rampart before the battle! Before that, they had been concentrated and parked at Huangjin and Guanchuan Pura! At that time, the garrisons along the coast were retreating in a hurry, and the situation was chaotic. It was not until the night before the battle of Yanyue Rampart that they gathered into the city and completed the defense deployment!

In other words, if they had followed Wang Yang's battle strategy at that time, they might have wiped out the Yingzhou navy long ago!

The staff remembered the words they had desperately used to persuade him, feeling their faces slapped, and dared not speak!

The Prince of Badong was furious and scolded everyone, including Li Jingxuan.

Everyone wanted to argue, but no one dared to say more after the defeat at Yanyue Rampart, fearing they would be considered shirking responsibility and used as a scapegoat, so they could only lower their heads and listen to the scolding.

Seeing that everyone didn't dare to let out a fart, the Prince of Badong felt even more that he was right to scold! The reason for losing the battle was that these people were incompetent and ruined the country!

He had already begun to regret removing Wang Yang, but he also knew rationally that Wang Yang's strategy was a risky one, and it was understandable that everyone opposed it. Gambling, victory or defeat was between two possibilities, and it didn't necessarily mean that using Wang Yang as a commander would win. But emotionally, he was already hesitating whether to ask Wang Yang to come back and take charge of the army again. Just as he was wavering, a rumor quietly spread in the army—

Jingzhou has fallen!

The rumor started in the rear army. When it reached the central army, the Prince of Badong dismissed it. Jingzhou had already been pacified, and the isolated city of Wenyang would be broken in the blink of an eye, how could it fall? He ordered an investigation into the source of the rumor while prohibiting its spread.

This prohibition didn't matter, the rumor exploded directly, and many people who didn't pay attention or believe it began to inquire about the news. The Prince of Badong was not panicked at all, anyway, once the Jingzhou supplies arrived, the rumor would be self-defeating. But he didn't expect that the supply fleet would be delayed.

And Kong Zhangyu's messenger never came again!

The Prince of Badong couldn't sit still, sending people back by water and land to question, while personally going to Xiakou to supervise the battle!

The defenders of Xiakou shouted that Jingzhou had been broken, telling the Jingzhou army to disperse and flee quickly!

The Prince of Badong was so angry that he yelled, telling the Jingzhou army to shout back that the imperial reinforcements had been defeated, telling the Yingzhou army to surrender the city quickly!

Just this night, the shooting star horse arrived, a bolt from the blue—

The Wenyang defenders and the Southern Barbarian army attacked from inside and outside, breaking Kong Zhangyu's army! Wang and Liu took advantage of the victory, launched a surprise attack, and seized Jiangling!

The Prince of Badong was hit by a ten-thousand-pound heavy hammer! His chest hurt, his eyes went black, and he was about to fall!

Li Jingxuan hurriedly went to support him!

The Prince of Badong kicked Li Jingxuan away, pressed his chest, breathed unsteadily, and roared:

"Incompetent dogs ruined me!!!! Quickly! Quickly invite Zhiyan!!!!"