Thief Emperor

Chapter 380: Reminiscence of the Old Great Zhou

"Captain Zhou."

After the tone was set, Li Yun began to issue specific tasks. He looked at Zhou Liang and said in a deep voice: "Within three days, you must mobilize as many civilians as possible and tell them that we are the imperial army. They are here to help us. The imperial court will provide them with food and drink, and they don't need to fight the enemy in battle."

When it comes to defending a city, the most important thing is mobilization capability.

If all the people in the city are willing to help, if every household contributes their own oil to be used as boiling oil for defending the city, it will be a great help.

And many of the supplies for defending the city need help in carrying.

Zhou Liang nodded slightly, then looked at Li Yun and asked, "Sir, should we close the city gates immediately?"

If the city gates were closed at this moment, the people in the city would not be able to leave and would naturally have to help Li Yun defend the city.

Li Yun thought about it, shook his head and said, "I still have the original idea. The city gates will be closed in three days. During these three days, people in the city will be allowed to go out if they want to, but notices must be posted to tell them clearly."

Li lowered his voice and said solemnly: "It must be much safer to stay in the city than to leave the city at this time!"

Zhou Liang opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't say it. He nodded, stood up, bowed his head and clasped his fists, saying: "I'll do it right away."

Li Yun nodded and added, "Zhou Bi has been with my uncle for a while. He probably knows many of the generals in the Duwei Camp. I need to keep in touch during this period. Let him stay with me and run errands for me temporarily."

Zhou Bi was Zhou Liang's only son. During this period, Zhou Liang set up the Duwei Camp, and Zhou Bi had always been by his side. He knew most of the captains and brigade commanders in the Duwei Camp under Zhou Liang.

At this critical moment, having someone who is familiar with the place will indeed increase efficiency a lot.

"Yes."

Zhou Liang bowed and said, "Tomorrow morning, I will ask Zhou Bi to report to you, Your Excellency."

After saying that, he retreated and went to do his work.

After Li Yun assigned tasks to everyone, only he and Du Qian were left in the main hall. Envoy Du looked at Li Yun and said with a smile, "If Erlang doesn't give me some tasks, I will appear to be a useless person."

Li Yun shook his head and said, "Brother Shouyi is good at internal affairs. After Yu Cong and others were dealt with, Yangzhou has not been in chaos for a period of time. This is Brother Shouyi's ability. Just for this point, Brother Shouyi has done enough."

Du Qian lowered his head to drink tea, and suddenly said: "The food in Yangzhou City is estimated to be enough for two or three months. In these three days, even if Xu Ziwang took drastic measures, at most he could still get food in the city. It is unlikely that he could get food from outside the city."

"At most, we can only take one month's worth of food from the big households."

He looked at Li Yun and continued, "Plus, Erlang deliberately let the people in the city go. If 30% of the people in the city can leave in these three days."

"Then Yangzhou City can hold out for about half a year."

Hearing this, Li Yun looked at Du Qian and said with a smile, "Brother Shouyi is very perceptive. He figured out at a glance why I didn't close the city gate at this time."

A big war is about to break out, this is an obvious fact. At this time, no matter how good the government's slogans are, or how much they promote the safety of Yangzhou, it is impossible for the people in the city to believe them all.

There will definitely be a large number of people fleeing Yangzhou overnight.

Li Yun could allow them to leave Yangzhou, but he would never allow them to take food and supplies out of Yangzhou.

In this way, some food consumption can be saved.

In fact, at this time, the outside world was in such chaos that unless these people who fled could cross the river and go to the south of the Yangtze River, it would be safer for them to stay in Yangzhou.

However, at this time, not many people would believe in Li Yun.

Most of those people released by Li Yun will flee to the west, and some may even flee to the north. After all, General Zhou's fame and strength are greater than those of the newcomer Li Yun.

For these people, their situation would definitely be much more dangerous than staying in Yangzhou City.

Li Yun paused and continued, "I have already posted a notice telling them that it is safer in the city. If they still want to leave the city, then no matter what happens, it will be my fault."

Du Qian sighed: "At this time, if this notice is not posted, there may be fewer people leaving the city."

He turned his head to look at Li Yun, who had a calm expression and shook his head slightly, saying, "At that time, there will be more people blaming me. Once the notice is posted, it will not be my business whether I leave the city or not."

Envoy Du thought about it and did not continue to insist. Instead, he slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air: "It seems that Erlang wants to fight a protracted war with the Pinglu Army in Yangzhou."

"It's not what I want to do."

Li Yun was also somewhat helpless: "This is the only way to fight now. If I had twice the number of troops I have now, I would lead them out of the city and fight them head-on."

"We don't have enough troops now, so we can only drag the battle out."

Li whispered, "The Pinglu Army can't hold out for too long."

"As the fight goes on, they will get anxious."

Du Qian hesitated for a moment, and then said, "If we get them angry, they might abandon Yangzhou and go to Jiangnan." "Jiangnan has Li Zheng and Su Sheng."

"If they want to bypass Yangzhou, they need to leave at least 10,000 people outside Yangzhou to keep an eye on us."

Mr. Li knocked on the table lightly: "At that time, there is no other way but to fight them!"

"Conscript soldiers."

Du Qian looked at Li Yun and said, "Let General Su and Zhuo Guangrui forcibly recruit a group of soldiers from Jinling and nearby prefectures and counties to guard the Yangtze River."

"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."

Li Yun did not hesitate too much. He just thought about it for a moment, then nodded slowly and said only one word.

"it is good."

…………

Three days later, the gates of Yangzhou slowly closed.

During these three days, at least tens of thousands of Yangzhou residents left the city. Li Yun only left them with a few days' worth of food to house their loved ones. No other food was allowed to be taken out of the city.

However, Li Yun did not confiscate the gold, silver, copper coins and the like. He allowed people to take as much as they wanted.

These things are useless to the current Yangzhou city.

In the blink of an eye, it was the fourth day since Li Yun returned to Yangzhou, and the gates of Yangzhou finally closed slowly.

The drawbridge over the moat was also slowly lifted up.

The last time Li Yun entered the city, the drawbridge over the moat was lowered, and together with the help of a surprising tactic, they were able to enter Yangzhou by surprise.

In fact, just the moat alone would require many lives to fill.

At this time, the vanguard of the Pinglu Army in the north had also arrived near Yangzhou.

General Zhou, riding on a tall horse, looked at the Yangzhou City from afar. After looking for a while, he couldn't help but look back at his son.

"Such a big city, you led 5,000 people to Jiangbei, but it was occupied by Li Yun with more than 2,000 people!"

Zhou Chang lowered his head, not daring to retort, and just explained: "Dad, when we went south, you told me to take it slow, so I occupied Chuzhou first, which took some time."

"That's why Li Yun took the lead..."

"He is in Jinling, which is too close to Yangzhou."

"All right."

General Zhou shook his head and said, "Don't say any more. Explanations are useless. Give the order to set up camp."

"Tomorrow morning, we will start cutting down trees nearby to build siege hammers, catapults, and ladders."

At this point, General Zhou glanced at Yangzhou City and sneered, "Although this kid Li Yun is somewhat smart, he is a layman after all and does not know how to defend a city. We gave him three or four days to prepare, but he did not even cut down all the trees near Yangzhou."

Most siege equipment of this era was made from local materials and built on site. After all, without large-scale transport equipment, it was too difficult to transport those heavy objects.

If the defenders are sure that they are at a disadvantage, they will often destroy nearby trees in advance to avoid leaving any raw materials for the enemy to use for siege.

However, although there were not many trees near Yangzhou, they were enough to suppress the Lu army and build siege equipment.

Zhou Chang lowered his head and answered yes, then turned around and gave a few instructions to the two captains. The two captains answered yes and turned away.

After giving instructions, Zhou Chang stood behind his old father again and asked, "Dad, what are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at the city of Yangzhou."

General Zhou, who had some background, stared blankly at the big city in front of him, and sighed softly: "When your father was young, he slept drunk in a brothel in Yangzhou for several months. Your grandfather sent someone to come and put him in a prison car and brought him back to Qingzhou."

Zhou Chang was startled for a moment, then gave a thumbs up: "Father is so handsome."

General Zhou smiled silently and looked towards Yangzhou again, as if he was remembering things from his youth. After a long while, he let out a long sigh.

"I was thinking, the days back then were actually pretty good, and everywhere was bustling, but this Great Zhou..."

He shook his head and let out a long sigh.

"How can you say it's defeated?"

(End of this chapter)