Thief Emperor

Chapter 451 Li Yun's Growth

Outside Liuhe County, five thousand elite Pinglu troops were stationed in the east of Liuhe City.

Li Yun and Chen Da stood on the tower together, looking at the Pinglu Army garrison outside the city from afar. Chen Da stood behind Li Yun and shook his head and said, "Strange, strange, envoy, these Pinglu troops have been outside the city for a day and a night, and up to now, there is no sign of attacking the city."

Li Yun, with his hands behind his back, was also watching the Pinglu Army outside the city.

This Pinglu army, with more than 5,000 people, arrived outside Liuhe County and settled down without moving.

"It seems that they are not going to attack the city."

Li Yun frowned slightly and sighed: "You have learned to be smart."

Originally, according to Li Yun's idea, he occupied Liuhe County and had a stronghold. Even if it was not a high city, he could defend the city and fight a war of attrition with the Pinglu Army.

Liuhe is not very close to Yangzhou City. Even if the Pinglu Army wants to send large-scale support, it will take at least one or two days. Li Yun has about 3,000 people in Liuhe County. No matter how great the pressure is, it will not be a problem for him to hold out for four or five days.

These four or five days are enough time for Su Sheng to provide support, at least Su Sheng’s head troops can provide support.

In this case, even if Li Yun's troops in Liuhe would suffer certain losses, he would be able to consume the Pinglu Army's manpower to the greatest extent.

Subsequent wars will be much easier to fight.

However, the Pinglu Army did not do as Li Yun thought. After their troops arrived outside Liuhe City, they simply stopped. Their intention was self-evident.

They were not prepared to expend their military forces on attacking Liuhe County, but simply wanted to stop Li Yun in Liuhe County to prevent Liuhe's Jiangnan troops from reaching Yangzhou City.

Apart from this, the Pinglu troops had no other ideas.

Mr. Li looked at them for a long time before he sighed and said, "Since these people don't take the initiative to attack the city, we don't have any better solution. We can only wait for General Su's troops to arrive here, and then advance towards Yangzhou little by little."

Chen Da thought for a moment and whispered, "Sir, our troops are obviously insufficient. Why are these Pinglu soldiers so cautious?"

"I don't know, but what I do know is that this is General Zhou's last attempt."

Li Yun raised his head and looked into the distance, and said slowly: "This battle in Jiangbei will determine the ownership of Huainan Road. If we can occupy Jiangbei."

Li Yun looked back at Chen Da and said with a smile: "You and I are brothers, at least we will be rich and prosperous for the rest of our lives."

In the current southeastern territory, although there are still many places in the south and the western part of Jiangnan that have not been incorporated into Li Yun's rule, the truly important one is actually the Huainan Road south of the Huai River.

With Huainan Road in his hands, Li would be the real governor of Jiangnan. Even if he wanted to go a step further and ask the court for a king title, it would not be difficult.

Becoming an emperor and establishing a country on the spot is a foundation for at least two generations.

Chen laughed and said, "Boss, you will definitely be able to do it. I saw it two years ago in Qingyang. Boss, you will definitely be a great man in the future."

"You do know how to talk."

Li Yun took one last look at the Pinglu Army camp outside the city and said calmly, "Since they are not moving, I will leave this place to you. No matter what the enemy does, you must focus on defending the city. If there is any disturbance, report it to me immediately."

Chen Da responded and lowered his head.

Before leaving the tower, Li Yun looked at the Pinglu Army camp outside the city. He touched his chin and suddenly said to Chen Da: "You said, I will lead people to attack the camp at night and harass them. As soon as they move, I will withdraw."

"Can we provoke them and lure them to attack Liuhe?"

Chen Da was shocked by this and waved his hands quickly, saying, "No, no, how can you take such a risk?"

He pushed Li Yun down the tower and said with a wry smile: "There are so many prefectures and counties in Jiangnan, and they are all on your shoulders!"

Li Yun was startled when he heard this, and thought of a weightlifting champion, so he smiled dumbly and said, "This is nonsense. If I don't occupy Jiangnan, someone else will take it, and this burden will also be carried by someone else."

Chen Da said solemnly: "There is no other hero in the world who cares about the people like you do."

"Great hero..."

Li Yun pondered over these two sentences, then looked up at Chen Da and said with a smile: "Chen Da, do you know my origins?"

Chen Da hesitated for a moment and whispered.

"know."

He looked at Li Yun and said, "The envoy is from Cangshan Village."

Mr. Li was somewhat stunned: "How did you know?"

"Guessed." Chen Da laughed and said, "I'm not a fool. I've followed you for so long, so I can guess a little bit. Have you forgotten when you led us, the anti-theft team, to fight bandits everywhere?"

"You know those bandits and the village very well."

At this point, he seemed to remember something, and quickly lowered his head and said, "Don't worry, sir. I will keep this to myself. No matter who asks, I won't tell anyone."

"I will never let anyone record it in the book and tarnish your reputation."

Li Yun was stunned again when he heard this, then he smiled and said, "You kid, you really think a lot every day."

Indeed, the current Li Yun is fully qualified to be recorded in history books. Even if he does not improve at all from now on, even if he dies now, it will be difficult to avoid Li Yun when history books record the period of the end of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

If he could go one step further and formally establish his own regime in Jiangdong, he might be recorded in history books as a "aristocratic family".

After saying goodbye to Chen Da, Li Yun stayed in the city, handling urgent official business while looking through various detailed maps of Jiangdong.

In this way, another four days passed, and the Pinglu Army outside the city remained motionless.

However, in the county town of Liuhe County, Su Sheng arrived, exhausted.

Su Sheng entered Liuhe County and was soon brought to Li Yun. After seeing Li Yun, he clasped his fists and said, "Envoy, most of the Qiantang garrison troops are already on their way to Liuhe. The front troops will arrive the day after tomorrow. At the slowest, they will all arrive in about four or five days."

Li Yun nodded first, then pulled Su Sheng to sit down, sighed and said: "Brother Su, you came at the right time. I have some doubts and want to ask you for advice."

Su Sheng was pulled by him to sit down, and said with a smile: "Erlang is so smart, do you have anything else to ask me?"

Li Yun placed the map of Jiangdong in front of him and told him the general situation of Liuhe County. Then he rubbed his brows with a headache and said, "This is the general situation of Liuhe County."

"The enemy suddenly stopped moving and defended on the spot. I didn't know where to start."

"I have been thinking about this for the past few days, trying to come up with a powerful method to defeat the Pinglu Army again, but after thinking about it, I can't think of any particularly good method."

Su Sheng first looked at the map, then looked at Li Yun, and shook his head: "Erlang is completely wrong."

"There are strange troops and strange strategies on the battlefield, but the way of marching is always to use the right way as the main method and the strange troops as the auxiliary method, such as the current situation in Jiangbei."

Su Sheng pointed at the map and said, "Our spies have already discovered the enemy's position and strength."

"On the contrary, the enemy probably treats us the same way. Erlang was able to capture Liuhe County by surprise, which was actually a surprise victory."

"The only remaining military path is the orthodox one. If we want to come up with a surprise tactic, we have nowhere to start. The only thing we can do is to cooperate with the county town in Yangzhou City and attack from both inside and outside."

"As for the rest of the war, it has nothing to do with strange strategies or surprise attacks. After all, this is actually a fight between the two sides for territory. It's not a pursuit, and it's not a field battle. The territory is right here, so how can there be any surprises?"

Hearing this, Li Yun lowered his head in thought, as if he understood something.

Even though he has been leading troops for a long time, Li Yun is still somewhat of an outsider when it comes to some military concepts.

For example, he always wanted to use some strange ideas or some clever tricks to gain an advantage in the war.

But in reality, most wars are not that fancy.

Su Sheng looked at Li Yun, then at the map, pointed at the location of Liuhe Ferry, and said in a deep voice: "Erlang, the day after tomorrow, after my troops are basically gathered, I will lead the troops to attack Liuhe Ferry directly."

"Once we take over Liuhe Ferry, the Pinglu Army's blockade of the Yangtze River will collapse."

Li Yun nodded. He looked at Liuhe Ferry on the map and said slowly, "I'm afraid it will be a tough battle."

"It's a tough fight."

Su Sheng looked at Li Yun and said seriously, "When the time comes, Erlang, you will be in charge of the central army and wait for my good news!"

"War, in the final analysis, is still a wrestling match. The stronger one wins. We must fight these Pinglu troops head-on with real swords and guns!"

Li Yun thought for a moment, then said, "Shall I go with Brother Su?"

Su Sheng thought for a moment and said, "If Erlang wants to supervise the battle, then there will be no problem."

Mr. Li looked at the map, lost in thought for a moment, and finally said softly, "Okay."

"I'll go supervise the battle."

Mr. Li said softly, "It's time to see who is stronger in a head-on confrontation!"

(End of this chapter)