Thief Emperor

Chapter 157: Drought
As a captain of the imperial court, actually a captain, besides leading troops, there are some other benefits, such as being able to share intelligence with the official army.

In the past, although Li Yun had one or two hundred people under his command, his intelligence ability was extremely poor, and many things required Li Zheng to lead people to investigate and inquire.

What you ask may not be the truth.

And now, as a general in the imperial court who is suppressing the rebellion, Su Jing would regularly send people to communicate with him about the military intelligence on the front line, as well as to obtain the situation on Li Yun's side, and then report it to Su Jing, so that General Su could control the overall situation.

This allowed Li Yun to see almost the entire situation of the war.

Even as an "outsider" like him, he could see the decline of Yuezhou Group.

At the beginning of the rebellion, King Qiu Dianqiu was very powerful and swept across several states. He defeated the governor Zheng Fudu and defeated him step by step. After occupying Yuezhou, he had tens of thousands of soldiers.

But... the foundation is still too weak.

The imperial court did not even mobilize troops on a large scale. It only sent an old general who had been unemployed for many years to recruit soldiers locally. Even with the recruitment, it took less than half a year to force the rebels to struggle.

It is conceivable that if it was Su Jing from more than ten years ago, who brought his battle-hardened army to Yuezhou to quell the rebellion, even if he only brought 5,000 or even fewer troops, he could easily sweep away these rebels.

It is only a matter of time before Qiu Dian is defeated.

For Li Yun, the development trend of Yuezhou Group is a very typical negative example.

The lesson is very simple. Although the current imperial court is old and decadent, it still has a foundation of more than 200 years. Even if it is an old house that may collapse if anyone kicks it, not everyone is qualified to give it a kick.

Therefore, Li Yun’s strategy now is also very simple.

Stay and develop!

Before he becomes strong enough, he should be as honest as possible, at least in public, so that the court will not notice him as much as possible.

But now, for Li Yun, the Yuezhou Rebellion is actually a good opportunity for him. If the Yuezhou Rebellion ends completely before the New Year, then Li Yun's development time will be greatly shortened.

And if Qiu Dian could hold on longer, for example, two years or three years.

Mr. Li will be able to grow slowly under the "protection" of this King Qiu.

…………

In the blink of an eye, another month has passed.

During this month, Li Yun and his subordinates traveled almost all of Shan County, and also found out the strengths and weaknesses of Shan County.

Although Shan County was the place where Qiu Dian started his rebellion, after Qiu Dian conquered Yuezhou, he took away most of the men from Shan County. Now in this important city of Shan County, the garrison in the city is estimated to be only five or six hundred people.

With Li Yun's current military strength and combat power, plus the low walls of the county town, with only five or six hundred people, he could have taken it down long ago if he wanted to attack by force. The reason why he had been dragging his feet and not moving was that he was waiting for movement from Yuezhou.

If General Su in Yuezhou City does not take action, Li Yun would not be able to act rashly because it is likely to attract reinforcements from the rebels.

Only after Su Jing started to take action, could Li Yun take action.

At this time, the camp of Li Yun and others had been set up less than 20 miles away from Shan County, and they had made all preparations for the siege. They were just waiting for Li's order to start attacking Shan County.

That afternoon, Li Yun was sitting in the big tent, and Li Zheng was sitting opposite him. After drinking a sip of rice wine, he shook his head and said, "This weather is getting hotter day by day. I can't stand it. It's much cooler in the mountains."

As he said that, he looked at Li Yun and asked, "Second brother, what are you looking at? You haven't moved for a long time."

"The accounts sent from Wuzhou."

Li Yun put the accounts aside and sneered, "At first these people were honest, probably because they were afraid that we would use force against them, but after we left Dongyang County, Wuzhou's accounts became more and more outrageous."

"If the food and other supplies had not been delivered in time, I would have taken two hundred people back to settle accounts with them."

Li Zheng curled his lips and said, "Second brother, not all officials are like this. This is not the first time I have seen this."

"That lousy county magistrate of Ningguo raised money to suppress bandits in our name, but we haven't seen a single penny so far, have we?"

"Ningguo County Magistrate Luo Sheng."

Li Yun laughed: "I asked someone to find out about that guy. He still has two or three years left in his term in Xuanzhou. We have plenty of time to settle old scores with him."

"There's no rush for this."

Li Yun was about to say something when the big tent was opened and Chen Da hurried in. He clasped his fists and said, "Boss, General Su has surrounded Yuezhou City and is ready to start the siege!"

Li Yun raised his eyebrows and asked, "Is the news reliable?"

"Of course it's reliable, it's the news sent by General Su!"

Li Yun nodded and said with a smile: "Then we have to start working. We have been in Shan County for a month and we can't have no achievements at all, otherwise it will be difficult to get benefits from General Su later."

Chen Da grinned, clasped his fists and said, "The brothers below have been wanting to attack Shan County for a long time, and are just waiting for the leader's order!"

Li Zheng on the side wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked at Li Yun and said, "Second brother, let's do it at night. It's too hot during the day and we can't fight." Li Yun thought about it and looked at the sky outside.

It's just the beginning of summer and it's already incredibly hot.

He thought for a moment and said, "Well, let's start tonight. You and Uncle San will each select 200 people. I will lead them myself to attack Shan County."

"what?"

Li Zheng scratched his head, a little embarrassed: "Second brother, I just said it casually..."

Li Yun said seriously: "We have to consider the weather when fighting. We are the siege party. We really can't fight if it's too hot."

"That's no problem, just do as I say."

Li Zheng stood up, answered, turned around and walked out.

Li Yun looked at Chen Da who was still in the tent and said with a smile: "Brother, do you want to fight tonight?"

Chen Da was startled, and quickly stood up straight, shouting: "I will fight with the boss!"

"Well, go get ready too. Remember to put on your armor."

Chen Da responded and left happily.

…………

That night, Li Yun led 400 people as the vanguard of this siege, and the remaining 600 people were on standby at the back.

Because they prepared for a month, although they did not make things like catapults, they did make a lot of ladders and the like.

At midnight, a group of people brought more than a dozen ladders and followed Li Yun to attack the county seat of Shan County.

After a month, the defenders of Shan County had naturally discovered the existence of Li Yun's troops. As soon as Li Yun and his men arrived at the foot of Shan County, they were discovered by the defenders on the city wall, who immediately shouted.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

"The government troops are coming, get ready to fight!"

After a few shouts, the soldiers on the city wall were immediately mobilized.

Li Yun had never thought of launching a sneak attack. He laughed loudly and said in a heroic voice: "Brothers, charge forward with me. What we see in front of us is all credit!"

He tied his spear behind his back, grabbed a ladder, and climbed up the city wall with all his might, facing the sparse arrows from the tower.

He was tall, with long arms and legs, and was very flexible and quick. Plus, the county wall was low, probably less than ten feet high. The defenders on the tower only had time to shoot an arrow and throw a stone before Li Yun had already climbed onto the tower!

This is the disadvantage of a county town. In such a town, the defenders don’t have much advantage!
Li climbed up the city wall, drew his sword and forced back the defenders with one strike, making some space for himself. Then he sheathed his sword and took out his big spear from behind.

Under the moonlight, the tip of the spear gleamed silver. Li, holding the spear, charged into the crowd like a god with a majestic voice.

"Abandon your weapons and surrender, and no one will be held accountable!"

"If you resist stubbornly, you will be charged with treason!"

He shouted loudly and waved his gun. In just a moment, more than a dozen people fell under his gun.

At this time, the soldiers under his command also took this opportunity to climb onto the city wall. Soon the number of people on the city wall was equal, and they fell into a chaotic battle.

Li Yun and Zhang Hu were both very comfortable in this kind of battle. The leader of the village, Li, who had not fought in person for more than a month, finally let out the ferocity hidden in his heart and killed people to his heart's content.

The battle did not last too long. In less than an hour, Li Yun personally opened the city gate and let the main force outside the city enter.

By the time it was almost dawn, the battle was basically over. Hundreds of his men marched into Shan County in a mighty force. The Shan County defenders were defeated, with half of them killed, half surrendered, and a small number escaped and disappeared.

When the first ray of sunlight shone on the city wall, a man named Li on the wall looked towards the rising sun in the east. Sweat was steaming from his body, and his body was red under the sunlight.

Li Zheng walked up to him and asked, "Second brother, are you okay?"

"It's okay, just a small scene."

Mr. Li took off his helmet, looked towards the rising sun, and felt something was strange.

It was the rising sun, but it was already a bit hot.

This year was the fourth year of Xian De.

That year, there was little rain in the world and there was a severe drought in the Central Plains.

(End of this chapter)