Thief Emperor

Chapter 383 Coming out in full force
After only one day of fighting, Zhou Xu gave up the idea of ​​capturing Yangzhou.

Because he already had his own assessment of Yangzhou City and its defenders. According to the current situation in Yangzhou, if he wanted to capture Yangzhou City, he would have to mobilize all the Pinglu troops and then attack day and night without stopping. Only then would he be able to capture Yangzhou City in a short period of time.

This means huge sacrifice and huge casualties, which Zhou Xu cannot accept.

By then, even if he captured Yangzhou, he would most likely not be able to continue moving south in a short period of time.

What really surprised Zhou Xu about the Battle of Yangzhou was that the defenders under Li Yun seemed... not like new recruits at all.

According to his intelligence, except for the troops that were first recruited in Yuezhou, most of the troops under Li Yun's command were only recruited in the past one or two years, or even in the past year. According to General Zhou's experience, these new recruits have little experience in war and will panic once a fighting breaks out.

At that time, the elite troops of the Pinglu Army might be able to find an opportunity. Even if they could not capture the city in one battle, they only needed to cause certain casualties to the defenders and there would be a possibility of taking down Yangzhou City.

But after a day of fighting, the defenders of Yangzhou City defended in a very organized manner. He deployed a total of 5,000 troops, lost more than 1,000 people, and hundreds were injured, but he couldn't even set up a ladder!
We can't fight any further. If we continue to waste our energy, the evil spirit in the city might rush out to fight us.

On the next day, General Zhou ordered his 20,000 troops to surround the entire Yangzhou.

In fact, this method of attacking a city is the mainstream of siege warfare. Unless the disparity in military strength is too great, siege will be the main method. After a year or two of siege, when the food in the city runs out, the city will naturally be breached.

This is the reason why some sieges often last for half a year or even more than a year.

After besieging Yangzhou City, General Zhou gave orders to his deputy generals, ordering them to harass Yangzhou from all sides when the opportunity arose.

What this means is that they should fight from time to time to keep the defenders in the city in a state of high mental tension. After all, the initiative is now in the hands of the Pinglu Army, and maybe one day they will find an opportunity to attack Yangzhou City.

After the tactics were deployed, General Zhou set up camp outside Yangzhou City and ordered his men to take over various counties within Yangzhou.

There will be almost no resistance. The Pinglu Army has declared itself outside and has now surrounded Yangzhou. It is obvious that it wants to dominate the entire Huainan Road. Of course, no county town under it dares to resist.

In less than ten days, General Zhou's subordinates took over the entire Yangzhou except for the city. However, the general was still not very happy and looked gloomy in the big tent. Even the few beautiful girls who came with him lost interest in fighting.

Major General Zhou Chang also noticed that his father was not in a good mood. He asked people to prepare wine and food and brought them to his father's tent. After setting up the table, he asked General Zhou to take a seat and then said carefully, "Father, you seem to be in a bad mood recently?"

"Of course it's not good."

After General Zhou sat down, he raised his head and took a big sip of wine, then exhaled the alcohol: "It feels like a lump in my throat, like a lump in my throat!"

"How can I be in a good mood?"

Zhou Chang naturally understood what his father was talking about, so he lowered his head and said, "Dad, Li Yun in Yangzhou City dares to hide in front of you. Yangzhou City is so big, there are naturally many people, and the daily consumption of grain and rice is not a small amount. How long can he hold on?"

"Father has some patience. When Li Yun can no longer hold on, he will naturally break out of the city or open the city to surrender."

"Li Yun was too arrogant. After occupying Yangzhou, he was also in the city and was surrounded by my army. As long as Yangzhou is destroyed, even if he still has troops in Jiangnan, they will be leaderless. Then father can take Jiangnan."

General Zhou said silently: "It will take at least half a year to besiege Yangzhou. If it takes only one or two months, the news will spread all over the country."

"As for the saliva of this turban, I don't really care. I'm just worried about the Fanyang Army..."

"Will the Fanyang Jiedushi give us more than half a year to besiege Yangzhou?"

Zhou Xu sighed silently: "I, the father, am unsure."

He drank a sip of wine and sighed, "If we had occupied Yangzhou earlier, we wouldn't have these troubles now."

Zhou Chang's face flushed when he heard this, and he lowered his head and said, "It's my incompetence that has caused trouble for my father."

"That's all."

General Zhou drank by himself and said slowly: "Let's surround them first and send more spies, especially to the north."

"If there is any movement, report it to me immediately."

Zhou Chang nodded his head and said yes. After thinking for a while, he asked, "Dad, how about we leave some people outside Yangzhou City, and the rest of us just ignore Li Yun and go south to Jiangnan..."

"After we take Jiangnan, it will be too late for the Fanyang Army to intervene. By that time, Yangzhou will be our hinterland. We can surround it however we want and for as long as we want."

"Stupid."

General Zhou cursed, "If you want to go south, how many people are you going to leave in Yangzhou? Ten thousand or twenty thousand? If the army really goes south and goes too far, Li Yun will come out of the city and cut off our food supply."

"The army can still survive..."

Before he could finish his sentence, General Zhou suddenly froze. He reached out and patted his son on the shoulder, muttering, "Maybe you can give it a try, maybe you can give it a try..."

"Chang'er." Zhou Chang immediately stood up and said with his head down, "The child is here!"

"Send a message to Qingzhou."

General Zhou said slowly: "Only 5,000 men will remain in Qingzhou, and all the rest of the troops will go south to Huainan Road!"

Zhou Chang perked up and bowed his head and said, "I obey your command!"

He just stood up, turned around and walked out.

General Zhou, on the other hand, just sat there, drinking by himself with a low voice.

"Given another two years, I'll really give you the upper hand!"

"so far so good."

The great general raised his head and drank the wine in the glass.

"Now, I can still use my power to suppress you."

…………

In Yangzhou City, Li Yun looked down at the documents sent from various places. After reading for a while, he looked up at Liu Bo in front of him and asked, "How did the news get in?"

At this moment, Yangzhou City had been under siege for half a month. Moreover, although the Pinglu Army outside the city would not move most of the time, they would come from time to time to pretend to attack the city or pretend to fight.

This actually caused a lot of trouble for Li Yun and the defenders of Yangzhou City.

More importantly, under such circumstances, Li Yun had basically lost contact with the outside world. He could only stay in Yangzhou and fight with the Pinglu Army.

Let’s see who spends more money than whom.

And now, Liu Bo actually received news from outside Yangzhou City. The content of the news was very simple. The Pinglu Army in the north was still being mobilized on a large scale and was sending reinforcements to the south.

Liu Bo lowered his head slightly and said, "Although the Pinglu Army has surrounded Yangzhou, there are some places where only locals know how to get in. It's not difficult for one or two people to sneak in. It just so happens that we have recruited a local from Yangzhou some time ago."

"He made his way to the city of Yangzhou, wrapped the intelligence in stones and threw them up."

Having said that, Liu Bo looked at Li Yun.

"This time, you have to give him 20 strings of cash, otherwise he won't come."

"Give."

Li Yun said decisively: "Of course, this kind of money should be given, Lao Jiu..."

"Can you spread the news for me?"

Liu Bo scratched his head, thought seriously, and then said seriously: "Second brother, in the current situation, I dare not give you any guarantees. I can only say that I will try my best."

"Second brother..."

He looked at Li Yun and asked, "Who do you want to send the message to?"

"Zhao Cheng."

Li Yun put his hands behind his back and said slowly: "I need to get in touch with him and let him know what the current situation is in the city. At the same time, I also want to know the exact situation outside the city through him."

If the Pinglu Army wanted to send more troops to Huainan Road, then according to Li Yun's understanding of the Pinglu Army, it could be said that General Zhou had almost sent out all his troops.

As for the siege of Yangzhou, whether it was 20,000 people, 30,000 people, or even more people, the difference would not be particularly great.

Liu Bo lowered his head, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Second brother, the 20,000 Pinglu troops are almost enough to hold Yangzhou. They can also have more than 20,000 troops. If they cross the river and go south..."

“I’m afraid it will be difficult for us to cope with it.”

"That's what I'm worried about."

Mr. Li stood with his hands behind his back and frowned slightly.

"We have too few soldiers."

(End of this chapter)