Thief Emperor

Chapter 355 Kill their whole family!

It was not until near noon that Zhao Cheng, whose armor was stained with blood, met Li Yun again. He bowed his head and clasped his fists towards Li Yun, and said, "Envoy."

Seeing that he looked pale, Li Yun helped him sit down and asked, "Where are you hurt?"

"I was stabbed in the back."

After Zhao Cheng sat down, he smiled bitterly and said, "If I hadn't been wearing armor, you wouldn't be able to see me now."

Li Yun walked behind him and saw that the seams of his armor were already bright red.

Fortunately, the wound was not very deep. In the military, it could only be considered a flesh wound.

This is the difference between generals and ordinary soldiers.

Even if they charged into battle together, the generals had their own guards and excellent armor, so their chances of survival on the battlefield were much greater than those of ordinary soldiers.

"It's just a superficial wound, nothing serious."

After Zhao Cheng sat down, he looked at Li Yun and said in a low voice: "Sir, we just captured a few prisoners, beat them up, and asked them about their origins. The leader of this army is Zhou Chang, the son of Zhou Xu, the governor of Pinglu."

Li Yun was startled, then narrowed his eyes: "I have seen this person in Jinling."

Zhao Cheng added: "Because it is the Major General of the Pinglu Army who leads the troops, the 5,000 men he led this time are all elite soldiers of the Pinglu Army. Among the tens of thousands of soldiers in the Pinglu Army, only 20% to 30% are of this level."

At this point, Zhao Chengzhang breathed a sigh of relief, looked at Li Yun and said, "Fortunately, they are the elite of the Pinglu Army. If they were ordinary soldiers of the Pinglu Army, we would be in such a mess. We would be sorry for the money you spent on us!"

Li Yun closed his eyes, thought for a while, and then asked: "Have the casualties been counted?"

"I made a rough estimate."

Zhao Cheng said in a hoarse voice, "Including the envoy's guards, we have a total of more than 2,800 people."

"The number of casualties alone may be over 500."

"Including the seriously injured."

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and smiled bitterly, "Probably around 800 to 900 injuries, with more minor injuries."

In this era, there is actually no difference between being seriously injured and being killed in action for the military, both are losses in combat effectiveness.

If you are seriously injured, even if you survive, it is basically impossible for you to become combat-ready again.

Therefore, casualties are counted together.

Li Yun's face also looked a little unhappy.

This number of casualties can be said to be the highest since his debut.

But there is no way.

This tough battle must be fought. If we raise an army but don't fight, and just worry about the casualties, it would be better not to raise an army.

"Where is the Pinglu Army?"

Hearing this question, Zhao Cheng regained some of his composure. He clenched his fists and said in a deep voice, "Your Excellency has given good command. We have been well prepared and have waited for the enemy to tire themselves out. This time, the Pinglu Army has suffered a great loss. Just from a rough calculation, their casualties on the battlefield are more than 1,500, and there are dozens of prisoners."

"Including the enemies that were robbed and seriously injured, as well as the enemies that my subordinates killed in the pursuit this morning."

He lowered his head slightly and said, "Although there is no way to know the exact number, I estimate it."

"I'm afraid that the combat effectiveness of this 5,000-man Pinglu Army will be reduced by half!"

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and said slowly, "Even their horses have suffered hundreds of casualties. The only pity is that their cavalry hardly participated in this battle. The overall loss is probably only about a hundred horses."

When talking about cavalry, Zhao Cheng's eyes light up.

He was also born into a military family, so he was naturally very envious of the cavalry. It was a pity that with Li Yun's current conditions, he was unable to train cavalry.

The main reason is that war horses are difficult to deal with.

Li Yun also sat nearby, closed his eyes and thought for a while, then said silently: "If it was an ordinary army of the Pinglu Army, we would have lost this battle. Since it is the elite of the Pinglu Army, we can still win with fewer troops."

"It's just a small victory."

Li exhaled a breath of foul air and said in a deep voice: "Clean up the battlefield, organize the army, and prepare to enter Yangzhou City."

This battle was just a trial for Li.

Taking this opportunity, he was able to test out the quality of the Pinglu Army.

In terms of combat effectiveness alone, the combat effectiveness of this elite Pinglu Army is definitely stronger than the Jiangdong soldiers he brought with him.

If they met during the day, both sides would be in full condition. Even if the numbers were equal, it would be difficult for Li Yun's troops to win if the enemy had cavalry.

However, we can wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, with a killing god like Li Yun, and the enemy underestimating us.

This encounter was a narrow victory.

Although there were heavy casualties, this was the first tough battle Li Yun had experienced since he had raised his troops.

This tough battle will not only bring some combat experience to the army, but also squeeze out some water.

After all, this was an army that Li Yun had spent a lot of money to raise. Their physical fitness would not be bad in any aspect. As long as they fought for a few years, they would definitely be able to hone a strong army. Zhao Cheng responded and was about to get up and go down to make arrangements. Yang Xi strode in front of the two of them, bowed his head and clasped his fists, looking a little anxious: "Envoy, Lieutenant Li!"

He lowered his voice and said, "Enemy cavalry has been spotted on both wings of our garrison!"

Zhao Cheng's face changed when he heard this. He looked up at Li Yun and said slowly, "Envoy, they...have reacted!"

This Pinglu Army has 800 cavalrymen. Although they are all light cavalry and cannot attack Li Yun’s camp, they can harass the two wings continuously.

As long as the time is long enough, the few hundred of them can easily kite to death the remaining two thousand people of Li Yun.

Li Yun stood up and said, "Yang Xi, order the brothers to pack up immediately and rush to Yangzhou City."

At this time, they were only twenty miles away from Yangzhou City. At this distance, these light cavalry could only harass at most and could not cause too many casualties to Li Yun's troops.

Yang Xi responded and quickly went downstairs to pass on the message.

Zhao Cheng sat next to Li Yun and suddenly whispered, "Sir, if Yangzhou doesn't open the city gates for us..."

"These few hundred cavalrymen of the Pinglu Army will be a huge trouble..."

Li Yun also frowned.

At a distance of twenty or thirty miles, cavalry is not enough to rely on, but if the gates of Yangzhou are not opened, Li Yun can only continue to camp outside the city of Yangzhou. Although these hundreds of cavalry cannot attack the camp, even if they just harass nearby, as Zhao Cheng said, it will cause a lot of trouble to Li Yun.

“Only half a day…”

Li Yun looked up at the sky and whispered, "They reacted immediately. It seems that there are people who know what's going on around that young general."

"However, we can't do anything to their cavalry. Their cavalry may not be able to do anything to us in a short period of time. As for the Yangzhou city gate."

Li Yun stood up and said expressionlessly, "You'll know after you go there."

Yangzhou’s gates are closed. With Li Yun’s current military strength, it is not realistic to storm a big city like Yangzhou.

Even if there were only 500 defenders in Yangzhou City, it would probably be difficult to take it down.

…………

Half a day later, Li Yun's troops arrived at the city of Yangzhou.

For twenty or thirty miles along the way, the harassment by the Pinglu cavalry continued almost non-stop.

Along the way alone, another twenty or thirty people were killed or wounded by the arrows of these cavalrymen.

This was because the Pinglu cavalry were not very good at archery. They did not dare to get too close, and they could not shoot accurately if they were too far away.

If it were those foreign cavalrymen who grew up on horseback outside the northern pass, the casualties of Li Yun's troops in these twenty or thirty miles would probably have increased several times or even ten times!

Outside the city of Yangzhou, Li Yun stood on a rock, pulling the bow in his hand to its full extent. As the arrow flew, he shot the nearest Pinglu cavalryman off his horse and he fell to the ground.

Immediately, the soldiers of the Jiangdong Army rushed forward, hacked the man who had fallen off his horse to death, and then pulled the horse back.

"Good archery skills!"

Zhao Cheng praised sincerely, "Your Excellency's archery skills are amazing!"

Li Yun handed the ox-horn bow to Zhang Hu to put on his back without answering. After Zhang Hu took the bow, he smiled and said, "Among us brothers, only the second brother is good at archery. In the past, when he was in the mountains, the second brother shot and killed many wild boars."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "In the mountains, if you don't know how to cook, you won't be able to eat meat."

At this point, he looked at Zhang Hu and corrected him, "Erlang is the most accurate archer."

Zhang Hu shook his head: "His arrows are weak and powerless."

Li Yun shook his head and stopped arguing with him. Instead, he said to Yang Xi, "Go to the city gate and knock on the door. Tell the people in Yangzhou City to do this."

He pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Just say that I am Li Yun, the commander of Jiangdong. I heard that the Pinglu Army in the north had made unusual moves and intended to invade Yangzhou. I am preparing to rebel against the court, so I sent troops to rescue."

"And defeated the Pinglu rebels outside Yangzhou."

Li Yun put his hands behind his back, looked towards Yangzhou City, and said in a hoarse voice: "Tell them that our army is going to rest in Yangzhou City now, and ask them to open the city gates immediately and let us in."

Yang Xi nodded first, then stopped and asked, "Sir, if they don't open the door, what should I say?"

"If you don't open the door, you are an accomplice of the Pinglu Rebellion Army."

Li Yun said expressionlessly: "I will kill their entire family."

Yang Xi nodded obediently and was about to knock on the door when he was stopped by Zhao Cheng.

Zhao Cheng coughed.

"Captain Yang, tell the people in the city that if they don't open the city gates, it will be considered treason and the entire family will be exterminated."

Yang Xi was born a bandit and had little education. He scratched his head and said, "Captain Li, what does Yi San Chu mean?"

Zhao Cheng was stunned by the question. After thinking for a while, he said helplessly.

"Just kill their whole family."

(End of this chapter)