The situation in Fuzhou City, three hundred miles north of Quanzhou, is equally dangerous. Under the leadership of Qian Hongchu, the envoy of Jinghai Festival in Wuyue, one hundred thousand troops and 50,000 surrounding people continuously attacked the city. At the end of October, they successively broke through the Yingxian Gate in the west of Fuzhou and the Ningyue Gate in the south. The outer city of Fuzhou was destroyed. The deputy generals Chen Decheng and Zheng Yanhua of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who had been mentally prepared, personally led the troops to break off the attack and successfully withdrew the defenders into the inner city. They relied on the communication waterways around the inner city to resist the enemy and continued to defend. Earlier, Generals Chen and Zheng had moved all the food and equipment into the inner city. Now that they had abandoned the outer city, it became much easier for the 12,000-strong army to guard the dangerous area. However, this move was also completely Turning them into "stranded islands", without external assistance, there is only one way to die. Going further north, 10,000 elite reinforcements from Wu and Yue arrived at the gates of Wuxi in Changzhou of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Qian Wenfeng, the envoy of the Central Wu Jiedu, immediately equaled the military strength of Li Jingda, the king of E in the Southern Tang Dynasty. If you lose the opponent's strength, you can only continue the confrontation and stalemate. Going further north, the whole river in the Southern Tang Dynasty was in a state of panic: Because it was right between Yangzhou City, the eastern capital, and Nanjing City, the western capital, the navy in Runzhou was temporarily divided into three parts, and some of the most elite rushed to help. In the Western Capital, the remaining military strength was divided into three. One was mobilized to the Eastern Capital, and the other crossed the river to defend the city. They were in the center to support the east and north banks of the Western Capital. Only a few soldiers were left to defend the city. From Runzhou to the west, upstream to Hezhou (today's Hexian County, Anhui Province), and on the south bank of the river upstream and downstream of the Nanjing section of the Western Capital, there are men and women temporarily recruited from various places who are temporarily and urgently recruited. Nominally, they are set up along the river every twenty miles. Setting up defense in the camp actually means getting together for the most basic training. Most of the young companies do not have the most basic weapons and military uniforms. They can only train with bare hands or with wooden sticks and wooden knives every day. Under the severe reprimands of the leading officer, these young men were still in good spirits, and their shouts of killing were loud every day. However, once the training stopped for a while, their eyes could not help but look to the north, hoping. I can get some good news from the North Shore. Due to the extremely strict policy of closing the river, the young people and the people along the coast could only see small boats plying back and forth on the river. However, as soon as these messengers crossed the river, they were immediately protected by heavy troops and went straight to the Chinese army camp. , or escort Nanjing directly. But secretly, rumors kept coming, sometimes it was Qingliu Pass that was broken, sometimes Chuzhou was besieged; sometimes it was Haozhou that was broken, sometimes it was heard that Haozhou was still holding on; sometimes it was said that Shouzhou had been broken, and Lin Feng was dead. After a while, it turned out that nothing was wrong in Shouzhou, and Mr. Lin was still holding on. These conflicting news made Ding Zhuang and the people feel hot and cold, depressed and frightened. " However, compared to the south bank of the river, which is watching the fire from across the bank, the north bank of the river is in chaos. Especially Chuzhou, the northern throat of the Western Capital of Nanjing, was at the peak of the war. However, the generals in the army were arguing about the war almost every day and did nothing. Wang Shaoyan, the governor of Chuzhou, was a die-hard conservative. He counted over and over again, from the importance of Chuzhou's defense to the comparison of military power between the two sides, and insisted that the army should not be able to defend itself. As long as it held on, it would be victory. Wu Qing, who had been influenced by Lin Feng's special offensive thinking, naturally disapproved of this shrinking tortoise-style defense. He believed that Chuzhou was not defendable at all. Chuzhou, like other cities in Jiangbei and Huainan, had become an isolated city. If it was trapped for a long time, it would not even appear. There is no way to solve the problem of food for the soldiers and civilians. If you want to break the situation, you must rush out and defeat the enemy. He believes that Chuzhou should not be defended. With nearly 40,000 soldiers and thousands of strong men in the city, there is no need to defend it. Lonely city. Because Huangfuhui, the governor of Fenghua Jiedu who was traveling to the north to support the envoys, was accidentally captured by Zhao Kuangyin, the governor Yao Feng had to temporarily act as Chuzhou's military and political agent. He knew that he must be a transitional figure, so he naturally wanted stability in everything. The two factions of Wu Qing and Wang Shaoyan swayed back and forth, hesitating. As early as Qingliu Pass had just been lost, when the Wusheng Jiedu envoys Hou Zhang and Zhao Kuangyin of the Great Zhou Dynasty repeatedly harassed the city, Wu Qing suggested concentrating elite troops to carry out counter-night attacks. After defeating the enemy, they would then find a way to recapture Qingliu Pass. Not only would Chuzhou be able to stabilize the , and can also effectively support the Shouzhou war. However, due to repeated attacks by Hou Zhang and Zhao Kuangyin, Chuzhou City was shocked three times a day, and Wu Qing's proposition was not supported at all. When Zhao Kuangyin retreated and prepared to join forces with Guo Wei to attack Shouzhou, and Hou Zhang led the remaining Zhou troops under the city to retreat, Wu Qing requested to attack again. Wang Shaoyan insisted that this was a trick by the Zhou army to lure troops and should not be acted upon rashly. Unable to decide, Yao Feng remained silent, acquiescing to Wang Shaoyan's statement. Wu Qing was so angry that his red face turned black. He personally sneaked out of the city and lurked along the mountain road to the mountains east of Qingliu Pass. He found that the enemy troops in and under Qingliu Pass were just bluffing. The total garrison should not exceed three thousand. ??, immediately returned to the city, claiming that he dared to issue a military order, requesting to lead an army to attack, attack from the east and south, and take the opportunity to recapture Qingliu Pass. This time, Yao Feng was also moved, but he insisted that such a large-scale military operation must be reported to Nanjing City and receive instructions from the Holy Emperor and the King of Qi before attacking. Wu Qing was so angry that he almost vomited blood and could only scream in the sky. Every time he came, many fighter planes would be delayed. Three days later, on the second day of November, King Li Jingsui of Qi, who had finally managed to straighten out a lot of military affairs, was able to escape and led five thousand forbidden troops to Chuzhou City. When ten thousand soldiers left Chuzhou City and prepared to attack Qingliu Pass, they found that at least ten thousand Zhou troops had poured out of the pass. The flag in front of them was the "Zhao" flag that frightened the soldiers on their side. Li Jingsui had to lead the army in an emergency. Retreat and return to Chuzhou City. Naturally, this is the return of Zhao Kuangyin, who was defeated in Shouzhou City again. Zhao Kuangyin, who was full of evil fire, took action and put on a victorious posture. He first aggressively led 20,000 soldiers to surround Chuzhou City, which had more than 50,000 defenders, and then took some old Southern Tang military flags and human heads. Throwing it under the city, claiming that the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty personally conquered Shouzhou City, Lin Feng surrendered to the Zhou Dynasty, was immediately named deputy prime minister, and was escorted to Tokyo City, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. He ordered Chuzhou City to open the city and surrender immediately, otherwise he would wait until the Great Zhou Dynasty. Zhou Hou's army came and killed them, leaving no one alive. The whole city of Chuzhou was shocked, so Li Jingsui urgently held a meeting between civil servants and military generals. Without waiting for others to speak, Wu Qing was the first to jump out, insisting that this was a trick by the enemy. It was impossible for Lin Feng to surrender and Shouzhou City would not be lost. At the same time, he drew his sword on the spot, cut his palm open, and slashed his hand. He pressed a bloody handprint on the white paper, saying that he could issue a military order, and sneaked to Shouzhou secretly to find out the truth. Li Jingsui, of course, hoped that Lin Feng would be okay and Shouzhou City would be okay, so as to stabilize the overall situation of the war in Jiangbei. He took action and went to bandage Wu Qing himself and asked him what he wanted. Wu Qing looked around at the civil and military seats and whispered his request to His Highness King Qi: Chuzhou now has many guards and strong generals, and he is dispensable here. If he finds out that Shouzhou is safe and returns, please, please He was allowed to pick a thousand elite soldiers out of the city and use them as a mobile force on the Huainan and Jiangbei battlefields to capture fighters on his own. Regardless of life or death, he was responsible for the consequences. If anything went wrong, he would die to serve the country. Li Jingsui held Wu Qing's still bleeding palm and silently stared at his big red face with dark eyes. He found a pair of eyes full of perseverance and sincerity. He felt warm in his heart, gritted his teeth, and nodded. Wu Qing knelt down gratefully and kowtowed heavily. Xie En stepped back and left. He slipped down to the city and disappeared when the sky darkened. After a tasteless dinner, Yao Feng rushed to the place where King Qi was staying and asked whether there was an imperial edict giving Wu Qing the power to make temporary decisions. Li Jingsui raised his eyebrows and asked seriously about the details of the incident before Qingliu Pass. In the end, he waved goodbye to Yao Feng without commenting. One day later, another 20,000 Zhou troops drove out of Qingliu Pass and joined the siege team. The visitors played victory drums all the way. The cheerful drums continued, accompanied by fireworks from time to time. Afterwards, Zhao Kuangyin He and several generals threw a lot of Southern Tang battle flags and human heads at the city. Finally, they set up a banquet in front of the camp under the city, drinking and laughing wildly. Could it be that Shouzhou City had really been breached? This question slowly turned into a growing shadow, slipping into the brows of Qi King Li Jingsui and the soldiers and civilians all over the city, and shrouding their hearts. An uneasy mood was rising. Continuous fermentation. At the same time, the entire Yangzhou area, the eastern capital, was also shrouded in unrest.