Thief Emperor

Chapter 362: Unlimited Military Regions

In Qingzhou city.

General Zhou was bathing with a beautiful woman in the hot spring. One of his subordinates came running over in a hurry, but he did not dare to enter the pool. He could only kneel outside the pearl curtain and bow his head deeply.

"General."

General Zhou, who was in the pool, was enjoying himself. He frowned when he heard this, and stood up from the pool. He walked out of the bead curtain naked, frowning and saying, "What's going on recently? Why do you always come here to disturb my mood when I'm relaxing?"

It was common knowledge among the people of Qingzhou and the ten nearby states and counties that General Zhou was lustful. Therefore, when people gave him gifts, they preferred to send him beautiful women.

However, although this great general was fond of beautiful women, he still had a clear mind and did not slack off in handling military and local affairs.

However, recently, as he has grown older and his energy has been reduced, he has delegated a lot of military and government affairs to his subordinates. It was for this reason that he let his eldest son Zhou Chang lead the troops.

Normally, when General Zhou was "doing things" with the beauty, he would never allow outsiders to intrude. After all, at his age, it was not easy for him to get into the mood.

The last time he was interrupted by his son Zhou Chang. This time, when he was about to hang out with a few beauties, he was interrupted again.

General Zhou was in a bad mood and very unhappy.

"Reply to the General."

The person who reported the news was naturally Zhou Xu's confidant, otherwise he would not dare to come in. He knelt on the ground, bowed his head and kowtowed, saying: "The young general sent someone to deliver an urgent letter, saying..."

"explain…"

He hesitated and didn't dare to finish.

Zhou Xu was furious. After putting on his robe, he kicked his confidant to the ground and cursed: "You are so nagging. Are you still a man?"

"Just finish the fucking sentence!"

"Yes Yes."

The man climbed up and said with his head down: "The young general's troops had just occupied Chuzhou. When they heard that an army from the south of the Yangtze River had arrived in Yangzhou, the young general was anxious and immediately led his troops to Yangzhou. Unexpectedly, the bandit army from the south of the Yangtze River set up an ambush outside the city of Yangzhou. A fierce battle broke out between the two sides, and the young general..."

"I suffered a small loss."

Zhou Xu frowned slightly when he heard this and asked, "Soldiers from Jiangnan? Could they be sent by Li Zhao? How many people are there?"

Although Li Yun has changed his name, it is currently only known in a few states and counties near Jinling. People in more distant places still know him as Li Zhao.

"He is a subordinate of Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy. He said...he said..."

The confidant knew that the general would be angry, so he lowered his head in advance and said, "It is said that there are about 3,000 people."

"Three thousand people?"

Zhou Xu was stunned.

He sat on the chair and didn't speak for a long time. After a long time, he exhaled and said, "Three thousand people dared to cross the river to Jiangbei to embarrass me. This Li Zhao is really brave."

He closed his eyes and didn't speak for a long time.

As the second generation Jiedushi, although he did not have the ability of the previous generation, he had led troops for so many years and experienced many ups and downs, so he had a clear grasp of the situation.

According to the intelligence obtained by the Pinglu Army some time ago, the number of troops under Li Zhao of Jiangdong has reached nearly 10,000, which is actually a very large scale.

Looking at the whole world, there are actually not many people who have more than 10,000 soldiers under their command.

As for the rebel army, although it was claimed that they had hundreds of thousands of people, not many of them could truly be called an army.

For example, the Pinglu Army had an official establishment of 50,000 men, but its actual strength in the first ten years might not even be 50,000.

Although the Jiedushi had military farms, collected taxes and maintained his own troops and was responsible for his own profits and losses, his territory was limited after all. If General Zhou wanted to live a good life, he could only maintain fewer troops.

It was not until the last two or three years that the Pinglu Army had replenished its 50,000 troops and even raised some extra soldiers.

But even so, the number of people in the entire Pinglu Army who can be called elite is only more than 20,000, or maybe even less.

"Tell me about the battle situation."

General Zhou opened his eyes, looked at his confidant in front of him, frowned and said, "I want the number. If you keep covering up for that little bastard, I will kill you as a sacrifice!"

The confidant wiped the sweat from his forehead.

His words just now were indeed to cover up for Zhou Chang. After all, Zhou Chang was the future Jiedushi of Pinglu, and this was already decided.

Moreover, these people have watched Zhou Chang grow up, and they have some desire to protect him.

"In the first battle, due to an ambush set by the locals, the Major General killed and wounded about a thousand enemies, and his own casualties... were about two thousand."

"After the fight broke out, the Major General used cavalry to harass them, which was very effective. However, the enemy pretended to retreat at night, and Captain Shen insisted on attacking the camp. He led more than 300 cavalrymen to attack the enemy's camp at night, but was ambushed by those cunning Jiangnan soldiers. Of the 300 cavalrymen, only more than 50 escaped."

Having said this, he looked at General Zhou carefully before adding: "Captain Shen also died in the enemy camp..."

Hearing this, General Zhou became furious, slammed the table angrily, and cursed: "Fuck you!"

"Is this called a small loss?"

Captain Shen was an old friend of General Zhou's father's generation. When General Zhou was young, he would call him Uncle Shen. Later, after he inherited the position of Jiedushi, he changed his name to Old Shen. The death of Captain Shen was certainly bad news, but the battle report made General Zhou even more angry. This was not a small loss, but a big defeat.

"What about Yangzhou City?"

The confidant swallowed his saliva.

"It was...occupied by those Jiangnan soldiers."

"General, should we send more troops to Jiangbei to recapture Yangzhou and avenge this blood feud..."

General Zhou glanced at him and said expressionlessly, "How many people do you plan to send, 20,000 or 30,000?"

"With only 10,000 people, we can surround Yangzhou City."

"If we send more troops, won't Li Zhao send more troops as well?"

"What a fool."

General Zhou cursed, "Get out of here."

"Yes Yes."

The confidant lowered his head and turned away quickly. General Zhou sat on the chair with a gloomy face.
At this time, if he sent more than half of his troops south to Yangzhou, he could indeed recapture the city of Yangzhou, but the problem was that there was more than one governor in the east of the Great Zhou.

To the north of the Pinglu Army, there was also a Fanyang Jiedushi.

The Shuofang Army is now in Guanzhong and has become so chaotic that all the military governors are watching with concern and are ready to make a move.

Who knows whether the Fanyang Jiedushi has this idea?
"General~"

While General Zhou was thinking, two beauties wearing only a light gauze came out of the water, snuggled up to him, and said in a sweet voice, "Keep washing."

When Zhou Xu was talking to others before, these two beauties didn't dare to come over. Now that they saw that the matter had been discussed, they both came over.

Zhou Xu stood up, a flash of cruelty passed through his eyes, he pressed his hand on the head of a beauty, and was about to speak when another voice came from outside.

"General, the imperial edict has arrived!"

Zhou Xu frowned and exhaled: "Change my clothes."

The two women then hurriedly helped the general to put on his clothes. Not long after, General Zhou walked to the front yard of the general's mansion, only to see two eunuchs waiting in the front yard with the imperial edict in their hands.

Zhou Xu raised his eyebrows and pretended to salute. The two eunuchs waved their hands and said, "General, there is no need to be polite. Just stand there and listen."

You must be kidding. The imperial court is now in name only. If they still ask the general to kneel down and receive the imperial edict, he may only be able to leave the general's mansion but not Qingzhou!

Zhou Xu was not polite, he clasped his fists and said calmly: "Two angels, what is the decree of the court?"

The eunuch handed the imperial edict directly to Zhou Xu and said respectfully: "General, there is a turmoil in Guanzhong. The court requests that you send troops to Guanzhong to rescue the king."

General Zhou thought for a moment, then suddenly asked with a smile, "Is this imperial edict only for Zhou, or for all the major military governors?"

"The servants don't know."

The eunuch shook his head and gritted his teeth and said, "It should be...it should be the governors of various places who have issued imperial edicts."

"it is good."

Zhou Xu nodded, turned around to look at his family behind him, and said in a deep voice: "Give the two angels some money for tea."

Soon, a servant came over with two pieces of gold and handed them to the two eunuchs. General Zhou put his hands behind his back and asked, "Two angels, how is the court doing now?"

The two eunuchs took the money and naturally dared not remain silent. They lowered their heads and said, "They should be on their way to Sichuan. This imperial edict was issued before leaving Beijing. We also set out from Beijing and traveled all the way to Qingzhou."

"We servants are really unaware of the current situation of the court."

Zhou Xu nodded slowly and said, "Zhou knows."

"Since the imperial court has issued an edict, Zhou must immediately mobilize the troops and come to the king's rescue."

"but…"

"Now there is a big thief in Jiangdong."

General Zhou thought about it for a while and said, "If our Pinglu army comes out in full force, I'm afraid this traitor will take the opportunity to go north to Qingzhou and occupy our ten states of Zibo and Qingzhou."

The two eunuchs looked at each other and exclaimed, "How could such a thing happen?"

"For the specific matters, Zhou will write a document, and the two angels will take it back to the court and give it to His Majesty for decision."

Having said that, General Zhou asked his men to send the two eunuchs away. Then he looked to the north and muttered.

"Fanyang Army..."

"I'm afraid it's time to move."

(End of this chapter)