Thief Emperor

Chapter 387 Gambling and Betting

Just when Li was still thinking whether he would have to charge into battle like he did in the past, General Zhou, who was sleeping in the tent of the Pinglu Army camp, was awakened from his sleep.

He sat up somewhat displeased, frowned and asked, "What's the matter? You come to disturb me in the middle of the night, don't you know I have something important to do tomorrow night?"

"General!"

The man knelt on the ground, lowered his head and said in a trembling voice: "I don't know where an army came from, attacking our northern camp. Then the northern gate of Yangzhou City suddenly opened, and the defenders in the city rushed out. Our northern defenders were attacked from both sides..."

"It's already defeated!"

These two sentences, like a sledgehammer, hit General Zhou on the head. He almost instantly lost his sleepiness, sat up directly, and stared at the messenger in front of him: "You..."

"say what?"

The messenger bravely repeated the news. General Zhou sat silently beside the bed and did not speak for a long time. After a long while, he waved his hand and said, "You... go down."

"Yes Yes."

The messenger also realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere, so he stood up hurriedly and trotted away from the general's tent.

General Zhou Xu was still in a trance. After a long time, he stood up and let out a long sigh.

At this moment, he already felt a little regretful.

This Li Yun is far more difficult to deal with than he had imagined, and much more difficult to deal with.

If I had known that I would be trapped here, I would have stayed in Qingzhou and not gone anywhere, conserving some energy so that I could at least continue to be my own local emperor.

And now, after suffering heavy casualties in Huainan Road, if he were to return to Qingzhou in disgrace, where would General Zhou put his face?

If I meet other Jiedushi, I'm afraid I'll be laughed at from head to toe!

Just as General Zhou was thinking about something, footsteps were heard outside the tent, followed by Zhou Chang's voice: "Dad, Li Yun broke through in advance!"

General Zhou put on his clothes and walked out of his tent. After taking a look at his son, he snorted, "Bullshit, breaking out in advance? You still think that Li Yun is going to break out tomorrow night!"

Zhou Chang was startled and scratched his head: "Dad...?"

General Zhou glanced at him and didn't want to say anything. He just sighed and said, "Prepare the horses."

"I'm going to the north gate to take a look."

Zhou Chang responded and immediately went to prepare the horses. After both father and son were on their horses, Major General Zhou Chang said, "Dad, don't worry. After I learned about the situation, I immediately sent reinforcements. Li Yun can't make any waves."

General Zhou looked at his son with worried eyes, then sighed and comforted himself in his heart.

The child is too young.

It would be better if it were bigger, it would be better if it were bigger...

After reciting a few sentences in his mind, General Zhou couldn't help but have a question pop up in his mind.

Was I also this stupid when I was young?
He thought about it seriously, then shook his head slightly.

do not know.

Because when he was Zhou Chang's age, he slept with prostitutes every day, and all he did every day was sleep with women and think about how to sleep with women. He was far from being as "career-oriented" as Zhou Chang is now.

But sometimes, for some people, being ambitious is not necessarily a good thing.

……

Although Yangzhou City is not small, it is still far behind the huge modern cities in another world. After the father and son got on their horses, it only took them a little more than an incense stick of time to reach the north gate.

At this time, the fighting at the North Gate had basically come to an end.

It was not because the battle was over, but because Li Yun's troops had already driven away all the defenders outside the city, but there was no time to chase them far away. At this moment, thousands of soldiers were neatly lined up and were preparing to enter Yangzhou City.

General Zhou, who was not far away, saw this scene and his face turned blue with anger. He turned his head to look at Zhou Chang and said coldly: "Did you see that? After the fight, they went straight into the city!"

“Is this a breakout? Is this a breakout?!”

Zhou Chang was also stunned. He looked at his old father and whispered, "Dad, it will probably take some time for our reinforcements to arrive..."

"It's too late. They've already started to enter the city."

General Zhou said expressionlessly: "If we want to chase them, we have to attack Yangzhou. Can you do it?"

He angrily cursed: "Catch a few messengers from the city, and you believe everything they say! The man you arrested that day told you some so-called bullshit intelligence, and now you are still feeding him with good food and drink!"

Zhou Chang now understood that the news of the breakout tomorrow was a complete hoax. He lowered his head and gritted his teeth, saying, "I'll go kill him right now!"

"is that useful?"

General Zhou stared at Yangzhou City intently. After a long while, he let out a long sigh: "You can see that the defenders in the city are not weak at all. Our defenders in the north of the city are not much less than those in the south."

There are 4,000 troops stationed in the north of the city, and the number of troops stationed in other directions is not actually much different. It’s just that relatively speaking, the Pinglu Army currently stationed in the south is more elite.

"That is to say." General Zhou put his hands behind his back, turned around and stopped looking at Yangzhou City.

"If Li Yun chooses to break out, it will be difficult for us to stop him with the siege we are using, unless we keep all the people in Qingzhou in Yangzhou."

"If we really do this, we don't know whether we are keeping an eye on Li Yun, or Li Yun is keeping an eye on us!"

General Zhou walked away, cursing, "Before dawn, I want to see the number of casualties, otherwise they will all be punished by military law!"

Zhou Chang and his deputy general Gongsun Hao both bowed their heads in greeting.

"Yes!"

After General Zhou left, Lieutenant General Zhou Chang could not help but look towards Yangzhou and muttered, "This Li Yun is really a freak."

"They have broken the blockade in the north, but have returned to Yangzhou."

Deputy General Gongsun Hao stood behind Zhou Chang, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered: "Young General, I'm afraid the general..."

"I don't really want to continue fighting."

"If you don't fight, what should you do?"

Zhou Chang turned around and looked at Gongsun Hao, frowning and saying, "If we go back to Qingzhou like this, the three generations of the Zhou family will lose all their reputation!"

"Instead of attacking Yangzhou, we can attack other prefectures and counties in Huainan Road."

"When we occupy all the prefectures except Yangzhou, we will have the face of the general and the deputy general."

"As for Yangzhou..."

Gongsun Hao stroked his beard and said, "It can be put aside for now."

"Or, talk to this Li Yun."

"A strong attack... has little hope. If we continue to surround them like this, the cost will not be small."

"Young General, you should think more about the current situation and think more from the perspective of the general."

If there are always only two forces in a world, then the smaller side will basically have no chance of development or possibility of a comeback.

By the same token, if there were only two forces left in the Great Zhou, Li Yun and the Pinglu Army, even if Li Yun was now, no matter how he moved, it would be difficult for him to turn things around.

If they send all their troops to Yangzhou and besiege you for a year or two, they will kill you.

But the current situation is that there are far more than just these two forces in the world. Not only are the major military governors fighting each other in Guanzhong and the Central Plains, but other local forces are also ready to make a move.

At this time, General Zhou naturally did not want to do too much useless work in Yangzhou.

Zhou Chang looked thoughtfully at the direction his old father left, and sighed softly: "Before, I always thought that my father was lustful and unmotivated, but now it seems..."

"It seems that he has seen and thought about more things than I have."

Gongsun Hao shook his head and said with a smile: "If he really only cared about women's bellies, how could he have sat firmly in the position of Jiedushi for twenty years? The ability of the general is comparable to that of the old general."

"It's just that I don't show off on weekdays."

"Major General, there are still many things you need to learn from the general."

Zhou Chang nodded first, then turned to look at Gongsun Hao and said with a smile: "Uncles, you should also teach me more."

"Don't dare."

Gongsun Hao quickly bowed his head and said, "If you have any questions, General, I will tell you everything I know."

…………

The sky gradually became brighter.

On the tower of Yangzhou City, Li Yun watched the wounded being carried together for treatment. He then looked at the Pinglu Army outside the city, which seemed to have no reaction. Then he turned his head to look at Du Qian and said with a smile: "This time, I have regained some ground. I fought for a while last night. Although I failed to surround them, the Pinglu Army still suffered more than a thousand casualties."

In a war, if you just rush against and defeat the enemy without forming an encirclement around the enemy, it is actually very difficult to kill a large number of the enemy.

Once they run in all directions, there is no way to catch up with them.

This was the situation last night. Once the enemy was defeated, Li Yun had no space to pursue them. It was already very difficult to keep more than 20% of the enemies alive.

Du Qian's gaze was also looking outside the city. After hearing Li Yun's words, he first smiled, praised Li Yun a few words, and then looked at Li Yun.

"Ji Lang, I want my family to..."

"Come here some more."

"I live in Jinling City."

(End of this chapter)