Thief Emperor

Chapter 232: Keep in touch!

To be honest, this battle only caused Zhao Cheng some serious injuries, and was far from costing his life. However, it had a considerable impact on the morale of the rebels.

With almost no geographical advantage, these government troops only spent a little over a hundred men to defeat more than three hundred of them!

Almost two and a half times the ratio!
Even higher.

This is even more exaggerated than when Su Jing was here.

In this situation, even if Li Yun was in Zhao Cheng's position, he would not be able to control the people's hearts, and morale would definitely drop to freezing point.

If Zhao Cheng was rational enough, the first thing he would do after returning to Wuzhou would be to gather his subordinates, leave Wuzhou and Jiangdong as soon as possible, and find another place to settle down in order to become stronger.

It was because of seeing all this that Li Yun ordered the subsequent reinforcements to go directly to Wuzhou.

Zhao Cheng's troops had few cavalrymen and were basically all infantry. It would take time for them to return to Wuzhou from Dongyang. After returning to Wuzhou, even if Zhao Cheng immediately ordered a retreat, they would still need time to regroup.

As long as Li Zheng and others move fast enough, it is possible to surround them in Wuzhou City.

The messenger sent by Dongyang quickly found Li Zheng who was still halfway on the road on horseback. After receiving Li Yun's order, Li Zheng did not hesitate and immediately passed the order down, preparing to go straight to Wuzhou City.

Among the entourage was Du Qian, who was in charge of logistics. After hearing Li Zheng's order to change the route, Du became curious, so he found Li Zheng while he was still there and asked, "Captain Li, was this change of route to Wuzhou an order from Sima Li?"

Li Zheng clasped his fists and saluted Du Qian. He nodded first, then thought carefully. There was nothing worth hiding about the war in Dongyang, so he lowered his head and said, "Envoy, Li Sima is in Dongyang, leading 500 vanguards of our Yuezhou Army, fighting the rebels all night and killing hundreds of enemies. Now the rebels have withdrawn to Wuzhou. Li Sima is worried that they might escape, so he asked us to go directly to Wuzhou."

"Encircle Wuzhou to prevent the rebels from escaping."

Du Qian was stunned for a moment, then he said with emotion: "Sima Li... is really brave. He has won a great victory before we even reached Wuzhou."

At this point, Du Qian sighed and said, "Then Captain Li, don't delay any longer. You should hurry to Wuzhou as soon as possible. I will be responsible for escorting the subsequent food and supplies."

"Yes."

Li Zheng bowed his head, clasped his fists and said, "Your Excellency has worked hard."

"It should, it should."

Du Qian waved his hand and smiled, then left with his hands behind his back.

After Li Zheng led the faster vanguard troops straight to Wuzhou City, Du Qian, who was following in the army, thought for a while. He first instructed the team escorting the food and supplies to escort the food and supplies to Dongyang County, and then he found a horse and mounted it.

Although he was a young man from an aristocratic family, there were few young men from aristocratic families in the capital who could not ride horses. Not only did they know how to ride horses, but most of them were also excellent horsemen.

After all, it is common for rich young men to ride horses together outside the city. If you don’t know how to ride a horse, you would be out of place.

Du Laian looked at his son and asked in astonishment, "Sir, where are you going?"

"I'll go to Dongyang first to take a look."

Du Qian glanced at Du Laian and said with a smile, "Are you going?"

Du Laian looked around and saw that there were still many Jiangdong soldiers nearby. He was afraid and said quickly, "I will go with you, young master."

"Mount."

Envoy Du looked into the distance and said with a smile, "Let's go and see what the battle situation is like at the front."

"I still…"

Du Qian paused and said slowly,

“I have never seen a real battlefield.”

…………

On the morning of the second day after the Battle of Dongyang, Du Qian came to Dongyang on horseback with his entourage from Lai'an. At this time, the soldiers stationed in Dongyang County were still the Yuezhou Army who were resting. The captain Yang Xi who was guarding the city gate recognized Du Qian. He hurriedly stepped forward to salute and led Du Qian all the way to the county government office of Dongyang County.

In the back hall of the county government, Li Yun was lying on a recliner, with many bandages on his body, looking very scary.

But in fact, his real injury was only his swollen right arm, which would take ten days to half a month to go down, and the rest were just superficial injuries.

Once you are on the battlefield, fighting for life and death, getting injured is inevitable. Even if you are wearing armor, you will still suffer skin injuries.

Originally, these did not need to be bandaged, but after the doctor came, he forcibly bandaged Li Yun.

Du Qian was shocked. He bowed from a distance and said, "Sima Li, what are you doing..."

Li Yun's biggest problem at the moment was the swelling and pain in his right arm, and the soreness of his muscles all over his body due to the huge consumption. There was nothing else. After seeing Du Qian, he was also stunned, and then smiled bitterly and said, "I won't salute you if you are injured."

"Why is the envoy here?"

Du Qian looked at Li Yun and said, "I followed Lieutenant Li to support the army. I heard about the great victory in Dongyang, so I came to take a look."

"What a great victory."

Li Yun shook his head and said in silence: "It was just a small victory. The two sides had less than 2,000 people in total. How can it be called a great victory?"

He paused and asked, "Has the army rushed to Wuzhou?"

"Captain Li is leading the way and they are all heading to Wuzhou one after another."

At this point, Du Qian said, "I wrote a note about the great victory in Dongyang and had someone pass it back to Shan County and give it to Duke Zheng. Sima Li did something a little out of line in Shan County, so we need a good report to stabilize Duke Zheng and the Sima of the various states in Shan County." Li Yun nodded and said with a smile, "Your Excellency is wise."

Du Qian looked at Li Yun and couldn't help asking, "Sima Li, is your injury serious?"

"Not heavy, not heavy."

Li Yun smiled and said, "There are almost no sharp injuries. The most serious one is that my right arm was hit by a hammer. It will take ten days to half a month for the swelling to go down. Everything else is fine."

Du Qian nodded slightly and sighed, "Just now, all the way from the outside of Dongyang County into the city, all I saw were corpses, hundreds of corpses, it was shocking."

"Seeing these corpses, it is clear that the battle in Dongyang was fierce."

Li Yun nodded silently without saying anything more.

His subordinates also suffered heavy casualties.

Although the number on the surface was only over a hundred, among the five hundred people guarding Dongyang this time, at least three hundred were veterans who followed him, and only two hundred were new recruits.

Among the more than one hundred people who died in the battle, he was familiar with half of them and could even call out their names.

but…

War is so cruel, there is no need to be pretentious.

This is a process of tempering steel. Only after going through more battles will the Yuezhou Battalion become a truly elite force.

"Sima Li, how are you going to fight next?"

Du Qian looked at Li Yun and asked, "Are you going to attack Wuzhou City?"

Li Yun shook his head.

"Let's see if Li Zheng can surround him. If he can trap Zhao Cheng in Wuzhou City, then my opinion is that we should surround him for a while first."

"If we attack at this moment, facing a group of helpless soldiers, the casualties will probably be unacceptable."

At this point, Mr. Li glanced at Du Qian and said with a smile, "Sir, to celebrate Dongyang's great... um, great victory, I want to prepare some meat and send it to each army to give the soldiers a taste of meat."

Du Qian lowered his head and thought for a while, then asked, "Should we only give it to the soldiers of our Yuezhou Camp, or should we also give it to the guest troops from other states?"

"They came from so far away. Although they are not supporting Yuezhou, Zhao Cheng and these rebels are all from Yuezhou. They are also working for Yuezhou. If we want to have a feast, we should have a feast. If we favor one over the other, there might be trouble."

Li Sima smiled and said, "Is that right, sir?"

Du Qian had a complicated expression and nodded, "That's right, but the meat of thousands of people..."

"Not much."

Li Yun said, "I've calculated that one pound of meat per person is just a few dozen pigs and sheep. I can pay for it."

Governor Du smiled and said, "That's not necessary. It should be paid from the Yuezhou government account."

"Dongyang is relatively safe. I plan to bring all the food and supplies to Dongyang and send them to the frontline from Dongyang. What do you think, Sima Li?"

Li Yun nodded readily: "Just do as you wish."

"Then Sima Li, have a good rest. I'll get busy now."

Li Yun stood up and said with a smile, "I will see you off, sir."

"no, I'm fine."

Governor Du waved his hand and said, "Sir Li, have a good rest. I'll take my leave."

The two men greeted each other, Du Qian turned and left, and Li Yun walked him all the way to the door, then watched his departing back, as if thinking about something.

…………

Two days later, when Li Yun was still resting in Dongyang, Meng Qing trotted up to Li Yun and said, panting, "Sima...Sima, Lieutenant Li asked me to come over and report that our army of several thousand has surrounded Wuzhou City, and not a single enemy has escaped!"

Li Yun was overjoyed when he heard this.

Zhao Cheng has fallen into his trap. How to catch him next is just a matter of technique.

After a burst of joy, Li Yun quickly regained his composure. He touched his chin, pondered for a while, and then spoke.

"Go and convey my order to Li Zheng. After you surround Wuzhou, do not move your troops for the time being. I will be there in a few days. Before I arrive, no one is allowed to act rashly."

"Let him have nothing to do these few days..."

Li Yun narrowed his eyes and laughed.

"Talk more with friendly troops from other states."

"Get to know each other, communicate, and keep in touch."

(End of this chapter)