Chapter 4357 4359 [The Changing Situation]
In the blink of an eye, another half a year had passed. During this period, the Li clan had annexed the Three Qins. Then they split their troops into two groups. One group attacked the Land of Abundance from Shu Road, and the other group attacked Dou Jiande of Yanzhao. They conquered cities and territories and were invincible.
Wang Shichong in Luoyang fought repeatedly with Li Mi in Wagangzhai. Although Li Mi was famous and popular, he was a little stubborn.
Moreover, after becoming the head of the family, he was afraid that his subordinates would also learn from him to fight for power, so he became timid and dared not to delegate power easily. This also led to the generals being restrained when leading the troops and unable to give full play to their strengths, so they suffered a series of defeats.
Li Mi did not reflect on his own behavior. Instead, he thought that they were deliberately lazy and dissatisfied with him. Therefore, he became more and more harsh on his subordinates, which led to the separation of the people from top to bottom in Wagangzhai, and the momentum was greatly reduced compared to before.
On the contrary, Wang Shichong gradually recovered some vitality by winning battles continuously, and even formed an alliance with Dou Jiande in Jizhou to discuss jointly dealing with the Li clan.
The Song clan tried hard to attack the Yuwen clan in order to completely eradicate Yuwen Huaji and completely occupy the southern region. After half a year of fighting, Yuwen Huaji's territory was successively conquered by Song Shidao.
Seeing that the war was not going well, Yuwen Huaji simply abolished the emperor Yang Hao he supported, proclaimed himself emperor, named the country Xu, and conferred more officials.
But in the end it turned out to be just a farce. Less than three months after Yuwen Huaji became emperor, Jiangdu City was conquered by Song Shidao. Yuwen Huaji set a big fire in the palace, and it is said that he and his concubines were burned to death.
But some people said that when the city was broken, they saw Yuwen Hua and two beauties disguised and leaving the city, so he must not be dead.
But whether he died or not, his army had been wiped out. He was left alone as a commander, and even if he had great ability, it would be difficult to save the situation.
After conquering Jiangdu, Song Shidao led his troops northward, captured Xu and Bang, and pointed his troops to the Central Plains.
…
During the past six months, Xiang Nan has been constantly honing his spirit and training his will, making his spirit stronger and stronger, which has also brought him closer and closer to the realm of "Sword Heart Clear".
However, Xiang Nan still did not slack off, but continued to practice hard to reach a higher realm.
During this period, he also helped the Song clan build several more small blast furnaces and forged more muskets and artillery, making the Song army stronger and stronger.
With the promotion of high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, peanuts, peppers, tomatoes, etc., although the Song clan has been fighting for years, not only has the country not been impoverished, but the population has increased.
After all, the hills and mountains that could not be irrigated and rice could not be grown before can now grow sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn, and the grain output has greatly increased, which can feed more people.
Moreover, the Jingxiang and Jiangnan areas conquered by Song Shidao are also lands of fish and rice, and have always been rich. Those areas have also begun to grow sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, etc., and the yields are very good.
In addition, Xiang Nan also presided over the construction of several 5,000-ton steel ships, but they were not driven by sails or manpower, but by steam engines.
This ensures that the ship is not only fast, but also stable, and can withstand even larger waves.
The ship is also equipped with dozens of cannons. Not to mention encountering pirates, even regular troops will find it difficult to escape from its artillery fire.
Xiang Nan prepared these ships. First, if Song Shidao and Li Shimin failed in their battle for hegemony, these ships would be used to carry the Song family army to Southeast Asia for development;
Second, if Song Shidao really succeeded in his battle for hegemony, these ships could also be used to transport goods. With a carrying capacity of 5,000 tons, there is no need to worry about the danger of capsizing, so the carrying capacity is amazing.
The cargo volume of the Qing Dynasty's grain transport was only 320,000 tons a year. Using a 5,000-ton ship, 64 round trips were enough, which was much better than using a grain ship with a carrying capacity of only a few dozen tons.
…
In the blink of an eye, another half a year passed. The Li clan marched from Hanzhong and conquered the Sichuan and Chongqing regions, and then took the Yangtze River to Jingxiang.
The Song clan fought with Dou Jiande in Xuzhou and Bang in the north, and had to contend with the Li clan’s army in the west, and was in a dilemma for a while.
Wang Shichong defeated the Wagangzhai led by Li Mi many times, causing the strength of Wagangzhai to further decline. In desperation, Li Mi had to accept Li Shimin’s recruitment and surrender to the Li clan with his army.
Later, Li Shimin reorganized Li Mi’s army and sent troops to attack Wang Shichong.
Wang Shichong won victory after victory against Li Mi, but lost victory after victory against the Li clan. He was beaten and could only retreat to Luoyang City. He had no choice but to urgently call for his ally Dou Jiande for rescue.
Dou Jiande put his loyalty first and led a large army to help Wang Shichong, but Li Shimin sent people to cut off the food supply, resulting in a shortage of food for the army and a loss of morale.
Li Shimin took the opportunity to attack fiercely. Dou Jiande was defeated and captured, and the rest of his troops retreated to Jizhou. Seeing this, Wang Shichong had to open the city gates and surrender to Li Shimin.
Later, Li Shimin presented Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong to his father Li Yuan. Li Yuan pardoned Wang Shichong and exiled him to Shu, but beheaded Dou Jiande.
Because in Li Yuan's view, Wang Shichong was a nobleman, had been a minister, and served in the same court. Although they served different masters, they still had some friendship.
But Dou Jiande was born in poverty and was just a mud-legged person, so he was killed. As a result, this move aroused the indignation of the remaining troops of Dou Jiande. They supported Liu Heita, a general of Dou Jiande, as the marshal, and then raised an uprising army to compete with the Li faction.
So the six major forces that once dominated the world now only have the Li faction, the Song faction and Liu Heita in Jizhou.
Among them, the Li clan occupied Qinjin, Sichuan and Chongqing, and the Central Plains; the Song clan occupied Jingxiang, Xubang, Jiangnan, and Lingnan; and Liu Heita occupied Jizhou, Qilu, and formed a tripartite alliance.
Among them, the Song clan occupied the largest area and had the best equipment; the Li clan had the most talents and was equally strong; although Liu Heita lacked strength, he had the support of the Jizhou, Qilu clans, and was also connected with the Turks outside the Great Wall, so his strength was equally strong.
…
Xiang Nan continued his cultivation, and at the same time, Song Yuzhi announced her pregnancy.
This made Song Que very happy.
Song Shidao had been fighting outside for the past few years and had no time to take care of his personal life. Therefore, this was the only offspring of the Song family so far, so how could he not be happy?
Song Yuzhi herself was naturally very happy.
But when she heard that her elder brother had fought with Li Shimin, she couldn't help but feel a little sad.
Once upon a time, she and Li Shimin and Li Xiuning were all good friends, but now they were fighting for power, which was really a pity.
"Is it really so important to fight for world domination? Why do we need to create so much bloodshed?" She looked at Xiang Nan in confusion.
Xiang Nan smiled and said, "The general trend of the world is that after a long period of division, there will be unification, and after a long period of unification, there will be division. War is not a good thing, but it is not a bad thing either. It is a law of history, so there is no need to worry about it."
"It would be great if there would be no war. I don't want my children to go to the battlefield in the future." Song Yuzhi sighed.