In their view, they and others were also heroes of Conglong. If they had not left Caishiji, how could the Song army have helped Li Congshan ascend the throne.

As for them leaving their posts without authorization, leaving the Yangtze River defense line empty, that is even more unreasonable. They were just acting on orders.

They still don't know that Jiangning has been evacuated for a long time. Only Li Jicao knows this. But for dozens of states in the Tang Dynasty, as long as they think of a way, these hundreds of thousands of taels are not a big sum.

Early the next morning, leaving most of the people here to clean up the mess, Li Jicao led the generals and elites to Jiangning City. The entire team was no less than 10,000 people.

Li Jicao thought very clearly that the Southern Tang Dynasty was currently empty, and the imperial court must rely on them to maintain Jiang defense, and must agree to their requests.

Bringing so many people there is a way to show off your power and show off your strength.

Tan Qihan is now the highest-ranking general in Jiangning and is responsible for the defense of the entire city. All the 30,000 old, weak, sick and disabled people transferred from the Jiangbei Camp have entered the city to defend it, and thousands of young people in the city have been recruited to assist. It is not considered an empty city.

In fact, if necessary, more young people can be deployed. After all, Jiangning has a large population. However, the city's supplies have long been depleted, and it is useless to have more people.

Although there were actually 30,000 old, weak, sick and disabled people coming to the Jiangbei camp this time, there were only about 500 of them wearing armor, and most of them even had their weapons damaged.

Tan Qihan had no choice but to pick up the taller ones from the short ones, and managed to gather more than 3,000 people. Previously, he had 2,000 elite men, leaving 300 to guard the palace wall. The others mixed with these 3,000 people, and barely managed to collect 5,000 to fight.

soldiers.

Li Congshan was decisive and basically gave up guarding the palace. If Jiang Ning broke through the city again, the Southern Tang court would become a joke.

Li Jicao and Tan Qihan naturally knew each other, but they didn't have much interaction with each other. Tan Qihan's position was too sensitive, and no one dared to make friends with him, and the same was true for Li Jicao.

When Li Jicao led his men to the gate of Dinghuai, Tan Qihan stood up with his sword in hand. This was the first test he faced since he was ordered to guard Jiangning.

Looking at the slowly closing city gate, Li Jicao swaggered to a stop fifty steps away from the city gate, with his own guards surrounding him to prevent any cold arrows from being fired from the city wall.

The rest of the generals also followed Li Jicao's example, and if someone took the lead in asking for money, they had to follow behind to encourage them, so that they would be more confident in sharing money in the future.

"Your Majesty came here today with all the generals. What big thing happened? Where is General Du?" Including Tan Qihan, the court still didn't know what happened to the navy.

"General Tan, don't be rude. Now the prince is the general of our navy. As for the traitor general Du Zhen, who intended to liaise with the enemy, he was killed by the order of the late king." Lin Shiquan said immediately. Li Jicao was always there.

He has invested a lot of capital, and he is waiting for the court to allocate some silver. If he is active today, he will naturally be able to share more profits.

"Is this happening? I didn't know about it." Tan Qihan was stunned. He didn't expect that Du Zhen was actually dead.

When the Song army attacked the city, Li Yu was still wondering where Du Zhen had gone, but he didn't expect that he was dead. Of course Tan Qihan didn't believe that Du Zhen was killed under Li Yu's order, otherwise how could Li Yu not know about it.

"Does General Tan need to give his nod to the former Lord's will? I don't know." Li Jicao felt guilty, but he couldn't show it. Anyway, this matter fell on Li Yu, and no one could explain it.

"That's not true. Now the general is coming to Jiangning with his army. Why is this?" Tan Qihan was shocked by the news, but it was not up to him to make the decision. This matter had to be decided by the ruler of the country and the adults in the court.

"It's like this, I would like to

According to the order of the king, we went to Shijiu Lake to intercept the rebel general Sun Yu and his party. I never thought that this thief was very cunning. Seeing the bravery of our naval officers, he went another way. When we returned to Caishiji Water Village, the water village was actually occupied.

Burned to the ground, this cold winter is coming, and our navy has no place to live." Li Jicao specifically emphasized that Sun Yu did not dare to fight with him head-on to highlight the bravery of the navy and reflect his self-worth.

"Ahem, this, this is a serious matter. There has just been trouble in Jiangning, and you can't come in and out freely at the moment. I will send someone to the palace to report it first." Tan Qihan secretly said that he was a fool, but he didn't even look at the house.

In fact, Tan Qihan mistakenly blamed Li Jicao. He had retained his manpower, otherwise the market next to Caishiji would not have been bloodbathed. The remaining people saw that the Song army was powerful and did not dare to show up at all, so they could only let it go.

burn.

"In this case, there is General Lao Tan!" Li Jicao handed over his hand, and then led his men to retreat a mile to camp and repair.

The imperial court of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which had been idle for many days, finally started to operate again. Yan Xu, Xu Xuan and others were visiting each house, asking each family to donate generously.

In these days, we have accumulated more than 20,000 acres of fertile land, all near Jiangning, which is a huge fortune.

Land is the real hard currency in this farming era, and yellow and white things are simply incomparable. Li Congshan believes that with this land in hand, he will not worry about not having elites willing to serve.

After receiving the news from Tan Qihan, Li Congshan could no longer contain his murderous intention. He wanted to kill Li Jicao and hold the navy firmly in his hands. Otherwise, the Song Dynasty, which had Li Yu in hand, could replace him at any time. This would be better than annihilating him.

Sun Yu is even more important.

"Send the order and let them wait a moment. The treasury is now empty. I want to think carefully with the princes in the court before making a decision!" Li Jicao took a deep breath and dragged them first. Since he only led a small number of troops to Jiangning City, it was obviously

If he is extremely arrogant, then he will simply show weakness.

Li Jicao was not surprised at all by the news that asked him to wait. Such a large amount of money had to be collected from various places. It was indeed not something that he could make the decision as a newly elected leader.

"Please report back to Your Majesty. The general can wait, but he must give an explanation to his soldiers. Otherwise, if they mutiny, they may not be able to suppress it!" Facing Eunuch Gao who came to announce the decree, Li Jicao directly said harsh words.

The rest of the generals also agreed, this matter is similar to making a fuss over pay, there has to be some noise, and then the big bosses above will give generously.

The reason why Li Jicao said harsh words was because he knew very well that the Jiangbei camp was not something to be afraid of, but if he continued to delay it and waited until the elite forbidden troops returned to Jiangning, he would have no capital to threaten.

It is said that Eunuch Gao and An Jinhai have wanted to leave Jiangning for a long time, but they can't leave now. Xiao Yi is not here, and the ladies in the palace have also left. All these chores have to be left to them.

"General, please wait a moment. We will return to the palace immediately and report the exact words to His Majesty!" Eunuch Gao said with a smile to Yan Yan. He was just a mouthpiece, so he just had to do his job well.

The cold wind blew loudly, and An Jinhai coughed even more violently. In fact, it was not that severe originally. An Jinhai was anxious to get out of the palace, so the noise became louder.

"Eunuch An, drink the medicine!" Eunuch Gao brought the freshly brewed decoction to An Jinhai.

An Jinhai took advantage of the heat and drank it in one gulp. After drinking it, he picked up a small piece of pastry and put it into his mouth. The soup was too bitter and he couldn't get used to it.

"Eunuch An, right now outside the city, Li Jicao, the eldest son of Prince Jiang, is with his men and horses to pay." Eunuch Gao handed the medicine bowl to the young eunuch and dismissed them smoothly.

"Li Jicao should be a man who can't achieve anything. He is greedy for small profits and forgets the great righteousness. He wants to do big things but also cares about his own life. How can he be so cheap?" An Jinhai lay down on the couch.

, this Li Jicao is also familiar with. If he wants this throne, he should attack with all his troops, or simply write a letter to express his loyalty. It is not embarrassing or awkward to blackmail the court for money at this time. This will be possible in the future.

Good?

"This Li Jicao is friendly with all the great officials in the court, including Yan Xiang and Xu Shangshu." Eunuch Gao felt that this might not necessarily be the case. Li Jicao was usually good at making friends, and there were not a few people in the court who were willing to speak out for him.

"Prime Minister Yan is treacherous and cunning, and Shangshu Xu is just as cunning. Why do they have good relations with him? Don't give up the benefits that come to your door in vain. When you really want to contribute, haha! Why? They were originally in high positions, and they are in the current court system.

Those who benefit from it will allow Li Jicao to break all this? What can they gain?" An Jinhai sneered, the world is bustling with people just for the sake of profit, what capital do you have to make others willing to take risks for you?

"Then, Eunuch An, what should we do?" Eunuch Gao had no idea. He had thought before that if Li Jicao came in, they would take advantage of the situation and escape.

"What can I do? I work for you as a knife, and I work for the fish and meat. Do your job well and wait slowly." An Jinhai touched his neck. He hadn't lived enough yet. He had to wait until the day he was free.

In fact, An Jinhai had a good relationship with Li Congshan before, and they had a good relationship with each other. However, Li Jicao knew everything about his relationship with Sun Yu, and this was a hidden danger.

At this time, Li Congshan, Yan Xu, You Jianyan and other important ministers were discussing matters in the royal study room of the palace.

"Your Majesty, I believe that Li Jicao is rebellious and should do his best to eradicate his evil deeds." Yan Xu ignored the benefits he had received in the past and was ready to beat Li Jicao to death.

As the prime minister and the Minister of Household Affairs, his hair has turned a lot white in the past two days, just to get some money and food to resume operation of the court. As a result, Li Jicao opened his mouth and made things worse. This is not what his boss wanted.

Life.

"Your Majesty, I believe that what Prime Minister Yan said is absolutely true. This Li Jicao has no righteousness for the family and the country and is short-sighted. Keeping him here will cause endless disasters." Xu Xuan also spoke out in support. Damn it, I am now a man with only four walls and no land.

It's been a lot, and you still want to open your mouth like a lion.

You are a navy commander, and even the water village can be burned down. It is extremely magnanimous not to hold you accountable.

Everyone in the court counted one by one, whose family fortune had not been completely plundered by the Song army. They had nothing to do with Zhao Guangyi and could only blame Li Jicao for this.

"Your Majesty, I believe that what Prime Minister Yan and Xu Shangshu said is true. Li Jicao's actions are so ambitious..." You Jianyan looked jealous and wanted to eat his flesh. It would have been easy for him to save that little coffin.

What.

"His Majesty,......"

All the ministers spoke one after another, supporting Yan Xu's proposal, and eliminated Li Jicao as the first bird.

If Li Jicao is not taken care of, then all the generals who hold military power will imitate the same example. What else will they do? Aren’t they all just decorations?

If Li Jicao were here, he would be surprised to find that everyone who had been friends with him in the past seemed to have a grudge against him for killing his father.

"Everyone, I am confused about this matter. Li Jicao said that he was ordered by the emperor to kill Du Zhen and replace him. I wonder if it is true?" Li Congshan was quite confused about this. The person who colluded with the Song Dynasty was clearly Li Jicao, and he died.

But it was Du Zhen. This matter was really strange.

"Your Majesty, I remember that when the Song army approached Jiangning, the late ruler still couldn't figure out why the Yangtze River natural moat had lost its use, but he firmly believed that Du Zhen would not betray him." You Jianyan remembers this very clearly.

Things are indeed strange.
Chapter completed!