Thief Emperor

Chapter 388 Zhou lost his deer!

Li Yun was quite surprised.

He looked at Du Qian and said with a smile: "Although there was a lot of noise tonight, the results were not fruitful."

Tonight, although Li Yun calculated the time for six or seven days, but as he said himself, limited by the combat time and the enemy's support speed, although this battle was a great victory, the result was only a few thousand people.

For the Pinglu Army, it could only be said that they suffered some minor scrapes.

Du Qian looked outside the city and said with a smile, "Erlang underestimates me. If everything is judged by immediate gains and losses, I would not have planned a business with Erlang in the first place."

Du Qian's support is very important for Li Yun's growth, because until now, Li Yun's understanding of this world is not very comprehensive.

After all, he had only been here for two or three years, and the other Li Yun could not even recognize a few words. All that was left to him was a village and a powerful force.

Du Qian can give Li Yun some advice or relatively good suggestions in many aspects.

This made him grow a lot.

So far, a "superior-subordinate relationship" has not been established between the two.

Now, he suddenly said such a sentence. It was obvious that in the eyes of this Qilin boy, Li Yun's victory in today's battle was very important.

In other words, in his opinion, Li Yun seemed more worthy of "investment".

Until now, the Du family has always had Du Qian's small family following Li Yun to do things together, and the main branch has hardly participated. But now Du Qian wants to get some people from the main branch to come over as well.

This means that the entire Du family may begin to lean towards Li Yun.

This kind of inclination is not as simple as just a few people coming over. All the resources of the Du family may begin to be invested in Li Yun.

This is quite important.

After all, all things are difficult at the beginning. With the Du family taking the lead, perhaps more forces will turn to Li Yun, which will be extremely helpful for Li Yun's current development.

Although Li Yun did not like these aristocratic families very much, if he had the ability in the future, he would not allow those aristocratic families with hundreds or even thousands of years of history to continue to be the superior people from generation to generation. However, based on the relationship with Du Qian alone, he was willing to reach a certain degree of cooperation with the Du family.

At least for now.

Du Qian paused for a moment and continued, "Also, Erlang said something wrong."

"Today's battle has yielded fruitful results."

Du Qian smiled and said, "After this battle, the shrewd General Zhou immediately realized that he couldn't surround Erlang."

One army was trapped in a city by another army. The premise was that the strength of the army in the city was too disparate from that outside the city. They were surrounded in the center and had no chance of getting out.

And the battle tonight proved that the Pinglu Army could not surround Li Yun, at least not completely.

Even now, the four walls of Yangzhou disappeared without a trace. Li Yun only needed to lead all the soldiers in the city and break out in a direction with relatively weak defense.

The Pinglu Army could not stop Li Yun's breakout.

Even if Li Yun's troops suffered heavy casualties in the end, the main force would definitely be able to leave the encirclement, and after a fierce battle, the Pinglu Army would not be able to remain unscathed.

Li Yun seemed to be thinking about something, then nodded gently: "Now, my scattered soldiers outside the city have also entered the city. The number of soldiers in the city alone is close to 7,000. It is not difficult to break out now."

"But I don't want to give up Yangzhou City."

It is not difficult for Li Yun to lead his troops out of Yangzhou now. Even after tonight's battle, the Pinglu Army may not stop him again. However, it is easy to leave, but it is extremely difficult to come back.

Leaving Yangzhou City, it will be equally difficult for the Pinglu Army to capture Yangzhou now, and it will be even more difficult for him to come back in the future!
Even in the future, it will be extremely difficult to cross the river to Jiangbei.

Li Yun's strategic goal was to push his northern "border" to the edge of the Huai River, that is, to occupy Chuzhou and use the Huai River as the boundary. In this way, with the Huai River as a natural barrier, his defense pressure would be sharply reduced.

You can rest assured and do what you should do in Jiangnan and Huainan.

Even now, without the conditions to fight a decisive battle with the Pinglu Army and drive them back to the north of the Huai River, Li Yun still wants to leave a base in Huainan Road.

After all, if he wanted to push the front line to the Huai River, if he gave up Yangzhou now, he would have to fight Yangzhou again in the future!
At that time, it was him, Li Yun, who filled this city with human lives.

Du Qian nodded slowly: "Erlang's idea is right. Even if the battle is a little harder now, as long as we can gain a foothold in Yangzhou, everything will be worth it."

"But I think..."

Envoy Du looked into the distance and said with a smile, "I think General Zhou will not continue to fight with us."

Li Yun was curious and asked, "Why?"

"He made a big fuss all the way to Huainan Road, so it's impossible for him to stop so easily."

"First, General Zhou is a smart man."

"It's more important."

Du Qian turned around and looked at Li Yun, and whispered, "The Hedong Jiedushi and the rebel army formed by the court should be about to enter Guanzhong by now. Wei Quanzhong can no longer drag his feet and do whatever he wants like before."

"According to the news my father sent before the siege of Yangzhou, the chaos in Guanzhong may come to an end around the end of this year. Whether the court returns to Guanzhong or the world is completely divided, the Pinglu Army has the Fanyang Army to the north. At this time, Zhou Xu will not fight to the death with Erlang just for Yangzhou, which is already difficult to conquer."

Li Yun was thoughtful after hearing this.

The reason why he couldn't see this level was not because he was dumber than Du Qian, but because there was still some information gap between him and Du Qian. At least regarding the information about the court, Li Yun still didn't know much.

Moreover, his information channels are much behind Du Qian's.

"Brother Shouyi, do you think the imperial court can return to Guanzhong?"

"Most likely."

Du Qian said without hesitation: "Although Xichuan is a good place, most people in the court are not used to it. More importantly, once the various Jiedushi and the various righteous armies have wiped out the rebels and cleared out the capital, even if the court does not want to go back." "What excuses should be found?"

At this time, the court's situation was already very clear.

Although the imperial guards are still there, once the imperial court is taken back to Guanzhong by the major military governors and the rebel army, will the imperial guards still be under the control of the emperor?

It's hard to say.

Even if it is possible, the prestige and influence of the imperial court will be reduced to the lowest point after this incident. In the past, the imperial court's decrees were at most lip service to the local governments.

And from now on, Yang Feng may not be willing to serve.

After suppressing the bandits and quelling the rebellion, it is natural to reward people according to their merits. If several military governors, especially Wei Quanzhong, the military governor of Shuofang, are unwilling to leave, the court really does not know how many benefits they should give them before coaxing them to leave.

Or, some military governors simply stayed in Guanzhong and refused to leave, and the imperial court was probably powerless to do anything about it.

Simply put, the imperial court in the future will most likely be just a stamp.

Li Yun put his hands behind his back and said with emotion: "Everything has changed dramatically in just one or two years."

"Brother Shouyi, do you think the imperial court can continue to control the imperial guards if it returns to Guanzhong?"

"That depends on how they fight."

Du Qian said softly: "Based on the current situation, General Wei Quanzhong probably wants to..."

"He should be made the Grand General of the Imperial Guards and concurrently the Jiedushi of Shuofang. Or his son should take over as the Jiedushi of Shuofang."

"Will the other Jiedushi agree?"

"So, it depends on how they fight and how they negotiate. If General Wei wants to achieve his goal, he will definitely give benefits to other Jiedushi."

"According to Brother Du, these people are clearly preparing to divide up the imperial court."

Li Yun made a "tsk" sound.

"Zhou has lost his deer."

Du Qian was stunned when he heard this. After a long time, he slowly nodded and sighed.

"Yes, Zhou...lost the deer."

…………

For the next two or three days, Yangzhou City was peaceful, as if the night attack that night had never happened.

On the morning of the third day, a middle-aged man stood alone at the foot of Yangzhou City and shouted, "I want to see Li Shijun! I want to see Li Shijun!"

There was no one behind him, and no Pinglu army came near.

So, after a series of confirmations, he was let into Yangzhou City by the garrison, and around noon, he successfully met Li Yun in a house in the city.

After seeing Li Yun, the middle-aged man bowed his head deeply: "Zhou Gui greets the envoy!"

Li Yun glanced at him calmly: "We meet again."

"Last time, Brother Zhou came to me and said, I occupied Yangzhou, and your Pinglu Army occupied Chuzhou, and we lived in peace. But not long after you went back, the Pinglu Army marched south and surrounded me."

At this point, Li Yun narrowed his eyes and said, "Brother, you have done such a thing, but you still dare to come to see me. Are you taking advantage of the sword in my hand?"

Zhou Gui bowed his head slightly and said, "Your Excellency is joking. Last time, I agreed with you not to offend each other, but you led people into Chuzhou a few days later."

"If there is any breach of contract, it is you, my lord, who has broken the contract."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "You are still as sharp-tongued as ever."

"Why, you come to see me again today?"

Mr. Li lowered his head to drink tea and said, "What can I say?"

Zhou Gui smiled and said, "Envoy Li, my general does not want to embarrass you, so he is going to let you leave Yangzhou and return to Jiangnan."

"To show our sincerity, my army has already begun to withdraw from the vicinity of Yangzhou. You can leave the city and return to Jiangnan at any time."

Li Yun looked at him and said with a smile: "What if I don't leave?"

"It's true."

Zhou Gui looked at Li Yun and said, "My general has already led his troops to clean up the entire Huainan Road. If the general cleans up the entire Huainan Road, the envoy will still stay in Yangzhou."

"At that time, the feud will be settled."

Li Yun still lowered his head to drink tea, but the smile on his face had slowly faded. He looked up at Zhou Gui and said slowly: "Brother, you are really good at talking. Your Pinglu Army went south to besiege Yangzhou, and we fought a few battles."

"The feud was formed long ago."

Li Yun put down the tea bowl and looked at Zhou Gui.

"Go back and tell General Zhou that if he wants to attack other states and counties, then he should attack other states and counties first."

"I'm Li Er."

Mr. Li said expressionlessly.

"I'll wait for him to come back in Yangzhou."

(End of this chapter)