Thief Emperor

Chapter 163 Li Yun's Transformation

Su Jing’s military orders were simple and clear.

Now, in order to save Yuezhou, Zhao Cheng forced his way out of Qiantang City and went to Yuezhou to join forces with Yue King Qiu Dian.

Whether he did this for the sake of the war or to show loyalty, he did it.

In fact, it is not entirely unreasonable. If Yuezhou is lost, Zhao Cheng will actually have no rear. He is now defending a city, without his own territory and no money or food supply. Although Qiantang is rich and has no shortage of money, there is not much food in the city. If he stays there any longer, he will just eat up all the food.

Rather than coming out after becoming an isolated force, it is better to break out and join the main force while the rear is still there.

Zhao Cheng was confident that after the reunion, as long as there was enough food in the city, he would be able to keep Su Jing's troops outside Yuezhou City.

After all, in terms of military strength alone, the gap between the two sides is not that big.

So he did it, and the deputy general Jiang Yan was unable to stop him.

It has to be said that this young General Zhao is indeed a rare talent. Under the premise that the overall combat effectiveness of the rebels is inferior to that of Su Jing's troops, the army under his command is not inferior to the government army, at least in frontal combat effectiveness.

Even more so.

Or, let’s put it another way.

King Qiu has been rebelling for only half a year, and up to now, most of the people under his command are still a mob and cannot be called an army.

Only Zhao Cheng's group was trained into an army by him.

At this time, Zhao Cheng has sent out all his main forces, wanting to go to Yuezhou to join up with the Yuezhou rebels, but Su Jing will never let him join up with the Yuezhou rebels, and there will definitely be a fierce battle between the two sides.

At this time, Su Jing had already estimated that he would win, so he sent Li Yun to station in the east of Qiantang City to prevent Zhao Cheng's defeated army from returning to Qiantang.

But Li Yun only has a thousand people.

If Zhao Cheng was defeated and failed to cooperate with the main force, and returned to Qiantang as Su Jing expected, even if only 30% of the defeated troops were left, Li Yun could only rely on human lives to buy time for the pursuers behind him if he wanted to stop them.

While Li Yun was staring at the order in a daze, Li Zheng had already called Zhou Liang, Deng Yang, Chen Da and others over. Li took them to his tent, spread a rough map on the table, pointed to the location of Qiantang, and said, "The general ordered us to reach this location within five days to stop the remnants of the rebels who may withdraw from Yuezhou."

Li Yun glanced at the four people and said, "Let's prepare today and set off early tomorrow morning to Qiantang."

Zhou Liang looked at the position of Li Yun's finger, thought for a while, and nodded slowly: "It will be there in three or four days."

He was born a soldier, so even though Li Yun had some doubts about the order, Zhou Liang did not. He would do it conscientiously because he knew very well that in such a large-scale march and war, if one disobeyed the order, it would be a capital crime and no one could afford it.

Li Yun thought for a moment and made arrangements.

"Shouhou, take those scouts and a hundred brothers with you and set off now to check the situation east of Qiantang."

"Once you have the details, report back to me immediately."

After Li Zheng nodded, he stood up immediately without any delay, turned around and trotted out.

He also understood Li Yun's intention, which was to take a hundred people to follow the twenty scouts sent by General Su and learn all the skills of these scouts.

After Li Zheng left, Li Yun asked the other three to sit down, then looked at Zhou Liang and said, "Uncle San, if we stop the enemy's fleeing army here, we may not be their match. Even if we can stop them, I'm afraid we will suffer huge casualties."

He pointed at Qiantang City and said, "So I thought, while Qiantang is empty, can we just capture it? Then when the rebels come back, we can still stop them by defending Qiantang City."

Zhou Liang heard this, first looked up at Li Yun, then shook his head and said: "No way."

He looked at Deng Yang and Chen Da and said, "You two guys go out for a walk first. I have something to say to the captain."

Zhou Liang is Li Yun's elder and also a person with more experience. Chen Da and Deng Yang looked at Li Yun, and seeing that Li Yun had no objection, they both stood up and ran out.

After they left, Zhou Liang looked at Li Yun and said, "Captain, since the general has issued an order, if we don't follow it, you will be punished for disobeying the order and you will not be able to escape the sword."

"I know this, so I think you guys should lead the troops there first tomorrow, and I will go to the camp alone to report this matter."

Zhou Liang still shook his head: "I'm afraid it won't work."

He pointed in the direction on the map and said, "Since the general has determined that the enemy will return to Qiantang, it is probably because Qiantang is still in the hands of the rebels."

"If we occupy Qiantang City, will the rebels still come to Qiantang?"

"If the enemy changes direction, all the general's arrangements may fail."

"Then you, the village chief, will be guilty of a serious crime. Even if you ask for instructions in advance, you may anger the general."

After listening to Zhou Liang's analysis, Mr. Li touched his chin and thought: "After hearing what Third Uncle said, it turns out that I didn't think enough."

"Then let's drive to this location first. As for how to attack later, we'll make plans after we get there and see the terrain."

Zhou Liang nodded first, then opened his mouth and seemed to be about to speak.

His demeanor was noticed by Li Yun. The village chief Li smiled and said, "Uncle San, just say whatever you want to say. You know I am the type who listens to advice the most."

Zhou Liang looked strange, then smiled and replied: "Before the village chief got hurt in the brain that time, he was the last to listen to advice."

"But after I got the hang of it, I did feel a lot better."

At this point, he became serious and said, "I have a few words to say to the village chief." He looked at Li Yun and said, "In the past few months, especially after the village chief has been in charge of a thousand people, I can see that the village chief really wants to train these people under his command into an army."

"For now, the brothers can be considered a qualified army, but you, the village chief, still have the village mentality. This mentality must be changed."

"Leading an army is different from leading bandits."

Mr. Li touched his chin and nodded, "Tell me more."

"If you are the village leader and you are in charge of the village, we are not many in number and we all know each other and have connections. So when we are working, if it is too dangerous, we should consider giving up the work or finding another way to do it."

"But fighting a war is actually different. If some battles are very important, even if you know they will be tough and people will die, you still have to fight them."

"It's not feasible for you to be so hesitant and worried about too many casualties like you are."

He looked at Li Yun and said something that was very thought-provoking.

"With the thousand men you are leading now, at least half of them will die, or even 70% of them. Only the elite soldiers will remain."

He paused and continued, "This is how the army works. When you run out of supplies, you fight again and again. After a hundred battles, the elite troops are left."

"Master, a newly built army like yours cannot be trained without fighting a few tough battles."

"So you can feel pain, but you can't be soft-hearted. You have to fight the tough battles that need to be fought. If you don't fight them now, you will have to fight them sooner or later in the future. When you meet a strong enemy in the future, there will be nowhere to hide."

Li Yun was stunned for a long time, then came back to his senses, feeling much more awake. He looked at Zhou Liang, slowly exhaled and said: "I originally thought that Third Uncle was just a soldier, but now it seems that he must have led troops."

Zhou Liang remained silent.

Li Yun took a step back, clasped his fists and bowed his head, saying, "Thank you for your advice!"

Zhou Liang quickly clasped his fists and said, "I dare not."

"I am just expressing my opinion. It is up to the village chief to decide whether to listen or not."

Li Yun took a deep breath and gritted his teeth and said, "Then fight!"

"I'll give you the compensation you deserve. If you're dead, ask Su Jing for more!"

He clenched his fist fiercely: "I just don't believe that I can't lead a group of elite soldiers!"

…………

Four days later, Li Yun brought his "main force" to a mountain more than 20 miles east of Qiantang City and set up camp there.

After they were stationed, Li Zheng led Li Yun up a high slope, then pointed to the path below and said, "Look, second brother, this is the official road leading to Qiantang. Although there are other small roads to Qiantang City, if a large army is moving, they must take the official road."

"We have been wandering around the east of Qiantang City for two days, and this is the only suitable place."

Li Yun has few soldiers and the best way to stop the enemy's superior forces is to attack instead of defend, and the first wave of attack must be a sneak attack to catch the enemy by surprise.

Only then can we achieve extraordinary success.

Li Yun had already discussed this with Li Zheng in advance, so in the past few days, he had been looking for a suitable terrain for an ambush.

The two brothers took Deng Yang and others to climb the mountain and investigate. They finally determined that this place was good. Li Yun patted Li Zheng on the shoulder and said, "I will camp nearby. You take the brothers in the scout camp to explore the Yuezhou direction. If you find a large number of rebels approaching, report immediately!"

Li Zheng patted his chest and said with a smile: "Second brother, don't worry, I am now very good at being a scout, and I will definitely complete the task you asked me to do."

After saying that, he strode away.

"Deng Yang."

Li Yun called out, and Deng Yang hurried forward, lowering his head and saying, "Boss!"

"Send more crossbow arrows, ten more per crossbow!"

"Also, prepare more torches and other things, maybe they will be useful in the future."

Deng Yang responded and went downstairs to do his work.

Li Yun began to discuss the issue of site selection for camping with Zhou Liang.

……

On the other side, Zhao Cheng led his troops to attack Yuezhou City, but was blocked by General Su who led his troops himself. The two sides fought fiercely for nearly ten days, and both sides suffered casualties.

As Zhao Cheng was unable to break into the Yuezhou defense circle and only had a few hundred men entering the city, he cursed loudly in the direction of Yuezhou City, accusing the treacherous ministers around the King of Yue.

Because at this time, he was sending troops to rescue Yuezhou. There was a fierce fighting outside the city, and people in the city could not have been unaware of it. If the troops in Yuezhou were willing to march out of the city to welcome him into the city, he would have been in long ago!

You won’t be stopped outside!
The reason for the retreat was that the morale of the army was low, and if they didn't retreat they might be defeated!
After cursing for a while, Zhao Cheng made his own decision.

"Retreat temporarily, rest and fight again!"

(End of this chapter)