Thief Emperor

Chapter 136 Qiantang City Breaks
Outside the county town of Qiantang.

More than 10,000 troops surrounded the city.

At this point, the siege had been going on for two months.

In the commander's tent of the military camp outside the city, General Zhao Cheng, who was dressed in armor and looked less than 30 years old, sat in the main seat. Below him, a deputy general was trying to persuade him.

"General, it's been almost two months. We are a newly established army, and we don't have the confidence of the imperial court. Now, now..."

He lowered his voice and said, "Now the people in the army have changed their minds and morale is low!"

Zhao Cheng was handsome and was looking through an atlas. Hearing this, he looked up at his deputy and asked, "What do you mean?"

The deputy general lowered his head, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and said, "Temporarily withdraw to Yuezhou, rest and recuperate, and then make plans!"

"How long do you want to rest? One month, two months, or half a year?"

Zhao Cheng narrowed his eyes and said slowly: "Do you know that the court sent Su Jing down and has recruited tens of thousands of soldiers in Ningguo and is currently training them?"

"In two or three months at most, they will be able to form an army."

Zhao Cheng shouted in a low voice: "Will they give you time to rest?"

"Continue the attack!"

The deputy general gritted his teeth and whispered, "The casualties are too heavy, General. If we continue to fight, I'm afraid the camp will be destroyed!"

Zhao Cheng stood up, picked up the spear in the tent, and strode out of the tent: "I will personally lead the troops to attack the city. Let's see who dares to blow up the camp!"

On this day, General Zhao Cheng personally led his troops to attack Qiantang City. After a hard fighting for a day and a night, Qiantang City, which had been held out for two months, was finally broken.

When the county magistrate Liu Xiang, who was guarding the city, saw Qiantang City fall, this county magistrate, who came from a scholarly family, stood on the city wall and cursed loudly in the direction of Xuanzhou.

"Su Jing, I'll fuck your mother!"

Su Jing's army had been in Ningguo for more than a month, and County Magistrate Liu naturally knew about this. However, Su Jing was slow to act, so Qiantang could not hold on, so of course he had to curse.

After cursing for a few words, County Magistrate Liu gritted his teeth, jumped off the tall city wall and died for the city.

An hour later, the entire Qiantang County was basically occupied by the rebels. Zhao Cheng, covered in blood, also stood on the city wall, looking at the corpses scattered under the wall, and did not speak for a long time.

After a long while, he finally sat down on the main seat, breathing heavily.

"Fight... clean up the battlefield and count the casualties."

The soldiers around him immediately nodded in agreement and went down to count the casualties.

It took a long time before someone came to report.

"General, according to a rough estimate, we have suffered more than a thousand casualties in this day and night."

Zhao Cheng felt a pain in his heart, but his face showed no expression. He was silent for a while and then said, "I know."

"Go and deal with it."

"Yes!"

As his subordinates left, General Zhao sat on the city wall, looked towards Yuezhou, and cursed fiercely.

"Damn it!"

"Zhu Min, I will kill you sooner or later!"

Zhu Min was a counselor to King Qiu Dian of Yue. It was he who suggested Qiu Dian to become King of Yue, escalating the incident of killing officials and causing chaos in Yuezhou to the level of rebellion.

So when the imperial court had no one else available, it sent Su Jing, who had been unemployed for many years, to handle the affairs of Yuezhou.

This incident seriously disrupted the rhythm of the development of the Yuezhou Army. Originally, Zhao Cheng could have worn away the prefectures and counties near Yuezhou bit by bit. For example, he could even send only a part of his troops to attack the county town of Qiantang County, and the other part to take other prefectures and counties, so as to achieve the purpose of fighting and training at the same time.

But now, Su Jing was right in front of him, putting great pressure on Zhao Cheng.

To the extent that he had to spend a huge price to forcibly capture Qiantang before Su Jing arrived.

All of this is Zhu Min's fault!
This also made Zhao Cheng completely hate that dog-headed military advisor named Zhu.

During the two-month siege, his men suffered at least four to five thousand casualties. If it weren't for his great prestige and the fact that some men were transferred in from other places, he would have been unable to control the people under him!

After resting for an unknown amount of time, Zhao Cheng stood up and looked towards the other side of the city wall.

That is the situation in Qiantang County.

Qiantang County has been a prosperous place since ancient times, and it is still the same now. However, after the rebels entered the city, the city has begun to fall into chaos. The shops on both sides of the street were forced into by the rebels, and it was a mess.

Many people broke into private homes and robbed the daughters of wealthy families, and the screams were heard everywhere.

Zhao Cheng frowned and clenched his fists.

He knew very well that if he wanted to achieve great things, he must never do such despicable things, otherwise he would lose the support of the people.

But at this time, he couldn't stop it.

Because of the huge casualties in the past two months, the people below have been too depressed. If they are not allowed to do evil and vent the depression in their hearts at this time, there is a real possibility of a mutiny and a camp-breaking incident!
General Zhao was silent for a long time, closed his eyes, called his deputy general, and ordered in a deep voice: "Pass on my order."

"Take a three-day break." He was silent for a long time before continuing, "No...try not to kill or injure the civilians."

The deputy general bowed his head respectfully: "I obey your command!"

The deputy general paused, then bowed his head again and said, "General, just now the Linshui army came to report in a hurry that the imperial army had broken through the Linshui County and that the Linshui County had been occupied by them."

Zhao Cheng raised his eyebrows and cursed: "How could a thousand people guard Linshui and it was occupied without any warning? How many people are there? What is He Mazi doing for a living!"

"General, I don't know the details yet, but..."

He smiled bitterly and said, "But it was indeed occupied by the government troops."

A strong sense of powerlessness surged in Zhao Cheng's heart. He sighed and said, "Forget it. Let's wait three days before we discuss everything. Send someone to Yuezhou to report the fall of Qiantang City to the king as soon as possible."

"Yes!"

The deputy general lowered his head and was about to leave, but suddenly stopped and said, "General, I was short-sighted before. I didn't realize that the Qiantang defenders were already at the end of their strength. I shouldn't have dissuaded you from attacking the city."

Zhao Cheng stood on the city wall, his eyes filled with the chaos in Qiantang City. He was silent for a long time, then said, "Maybe... maybe you are right."

The deputy general was stunned and wanted to speak, but Zhao Cheng waved his hand and said, "You go and do your work. I'll be alone and calm down."

The deputy general bowed his head silently.

"Yes!"

After he retreated, Zhao Cheng looked towards the distant direction of Ningguo with his fists clenched.

His father was originally under the command of General Su.

"Su Jing, Su Jing..."

Zhao Cheng let out a long breath.

"I'll wait for you..."

…………

Linshui County.

Li Yun was following Su Sheng to deploy defenses in the county. Li Zheng, who he had sent out as a scout, hurried back to Linshui County. When he came in front of Li Yun, he first looked at Su Sheng, then clasped his fists and said, "Captain!"

"Qiantang was breached by the rebels!"

Su Sheng exclaimed and asked, "When did it happen?"

"Just yesterday."

Li Yun frowned and asked, "You went to Qiantang? How did you know?"

"No, I was only patrolling near Linshui to investigate the situation. I didn't go to Qiantang."

Su Sheng wanted to ask something, but he heard Li Yun continue to ask: "Is it... Is it that someone from Qiantang fled to the west?"

"Yes."

Li Zheng paused and continued, "A lot!"

"On the way to Linshui alone, we saw hundreds of people, all with their families, and some even carrying a lot of property."

"When I approached and asked, I learned that Qiantang City had been breached and the rebels had entered the county town, burning, killing and looting. They managed to escape Qiantang County with great difficulty and fled all the way west."

Li touched his chin and asked, "Are there any pursuers behind us?"

"did not see."

Li Zheng replied: "Even if there are, there won't be too many."

Su Sheng at the side finally got a chance to interrupt and said, "Qiantang is a rich place, and most people can't escape. It's enough to feed the rebels, and they won't waste their energy chasing them out."

Li Yun nodded, looked at Su Sheng, and said, "Major General, please send the cavalry out of the city and inform General Su immediately."

Su Sheng patted his chest.

"I'll do it right away."

Li Yun looked at Li Zheng again, sighed and said, "Choose two hundred people, come with me out of the city, help those who are fleeing, and let them all go west."

Su Sheng hadn't had time to leave yet. Hearing this, he shook his head and said, "Where can they go?"

"Let them go to Qingyang."

Li Yun narrowed his eyes and said softly, "Xue County Master is a pretty good official. He should be able to take care of them."

After saying that, Li Yun strode out of the city and said loudly.

"Let's all get moving."

"Everyone does their own thing!"

(End of this chapter)