Thief Emperor

Chapter 460: Make a feint to the west and attack the north!

General Zhou had no expression on his face, except for a twitch in the muscles on his cheeks. After a pause, he looked up at the soldier who reported the news and asked, "Have you seen Li Yun?"

"Yes."

The soldier bowed his head deeply and said, "I, I met him on the battlefield, he said, he said he was Li Yun..."

He swallowed and continued, "General, I didn't even see the man clearly before he subdued me. This man... this man is extremely powerful on the battlefield..."

Zhou Xu heard this, looked back at Luo Zhen behind him, and said calmly: "That's most likely Li Yun. This guy has always liked to charge into battle. He's already a tyrant in Jiangdong, and now he's still carrying a gun and charging into battle. He doesn't care about his dignity at all."

Luo Zhen thought about it and said with a smile: "This kind of person is suitable to be a fierce general, but not suitable to be the leader of a region. If he is so reckless, he will die on the battlefield sooner or later."

Zhou Xu frowned upon hearing this, then shook his head slightly and said, "This Li Yun is quite powerful. In the past six months, I have sent people to investigate him thoroughly and read his experience in detail. If I were in his shoes, I would be far inferior to him."

"If he hadn't died on the battlefield."

General Zhou exhaled a breath of foul air: "In the future, he will definitely be a very powerful figure."

Luo Zhen leaned forward and said, "Even now, he is already very powerful. With his bare hands, in a few years, he has accumulated a fortune that can be passed down to his descendants."

Starting a business to the point where it can be passed down from generation to generation, whether it is a business or an entrepreneur like Li Yun’s, is actually not small.

Even now, when history books write about weekends in the future, Li Yun will definitely be among them.

General Zhou said "hmm", looked at the soldier, waved his hand and said: "You are lucky to see that he is not dead. You can go down and rest."

He paused and added: "Don't tell anyone about this."

"Yes Yes."

The soldier got up from the ground, turned around and ran away.

Zhou Xu continued to look in the direction of Chuzhou City, rubbed his temples, and murmured, "This young man really gives me a headache."

Luo Zhen was also looking at Chuzhou City. After thinking for a moment, he said, "General, Li Yun's battle may seem very impressive, but in fact, our casualties are at most one or two thousand. We just need to reorganize the army and we can fight again."

"One or two thousand people, is that a small number?"

Zhou Xu looked back at Luo Zhen and snorted, "Before the siege of Yangzhou, Zhao Cheng had ambushed and injured more than a thousand of my soldiers. Previously, Li Yun had surrounded more than a thousand of my Chuzhou defenders. Now, another 1,000 or 2,000 have been injured. The battle hasn't even started yet, and we've already suffered at least 5,000 casualties."

The loss of 5,000 men is no small number for any force. Even for the imperial court, the loss of 5,000 men would be painful.

More importantly, these 5,000 Pinglu troops were not new recruits. Most of them were former veterans of Qingzhou. Especially those who died outside Chuzhou city today were the elite among the Qingzhou troops!
Once these elite troops are damaged, it will take three to five years for them to recover.

After hearing what General Zhou said, Luo Zhen lowered his head and dared not express his opinion.

Zhou Xu looked at Chuzhou City and didn't speak for a long time. After a while, he turned back to look at Luo Zhen and asked, "Do you think Li Yun will have such a weird thing?"

Luo Zhen considered it seriously.

Although he didn't want to admit it, he had to tell the truth: "General, as soon as our army started to encircle us, Li Yun immediately responded and led his men back to occupy Chuzhou. At that time, he had enough time to withdraw from Chuzhou and retreat to Luzhou."

"But when he arrived in Chuzhou, he stopped directly, as if... as if he was waiting for us to surround him."

Zhou Xu put his hands behind his back and said, "That is to say, he was waiting in Chuzhou on purpose. He had a lot of these things in his hands, and he was sure that we couldn't break into Chuzhou City."

Luo Zhen nodded and said, "If you really want to defend a city like Chuzhou, you must seal the city gate with stones. If you want to break into the city, you can only climb the city wall first. We have been fighting in Chuzhou for two days, and the city gate has been broken, and the city gate is not sealed. It is obvious that this Li guy has calculated today's situation and wants to use that weird thing to fight with our army."

Seeing Zhou Xu didn't say anything, Luo Zhen could only continue, "General, I have seen this thing. As long as we separate them when attacking the city, it may not be that powerful."

"Tomorrow, I will personally fight on the battlefield and will definitely help the general to capture Chuzhou."

"Now it's not a question of whether Chuzhou can be taken, but how long it will take and at what cost."

Zhou Xu put his hands in his sleeves in front of him, feeling quite helpless: "I'm afraid Zhao Cheng in Yangzhou is ready to make a move. If Chuzhou delays for too long, there is a Jiangdong army of about 10,000 people in Dantu, Runzhou, and they will probably also cross the river to the north."

"At that time, we will be the ones who are caught in the middle."

Luo Zhen stood there in a daze, unable to say anything.

He didn't have any good solution.

In the final analysis, it was because the actual strength of the Pinglu Army was not much different from that of the Li Yun Group. Even if Li Yun was slightly weaker, he was only a little bit behind. The two sides were at the same level, and it was impossible for Li Yun to lose the city and territory as soon as the Pinglu Army moved.

This has often been the case in history. The strength of the two sides is similar, and when they really fight, they can only win or lose. Therefore, they can coexist for many years until one side becomes completely powerful, or one side encounters a loser and begins to decline.

"It's difficult, it's difficult."

General Zhou sighed and said helplessly, "I was too hasty this time. Not only did I not gain any advantage, but I also got an excuse from this fellow."

"do not care."

General Zhou put his hands behind his back and said slowly, "It's okay to be wrong. Even if we can't take over Yangzhou, even if we suffer a small loss in Jiangbei, we must show Li Yun some strength, so that he won't think that I, Zhou, am weak and easy to bully."

"Luo Zhen."

Deputy General Luo bowed his head and said, "I am here!"

"We'll stop here today. Starting tomorrow, you'll be in charge of the siege of Chuzhou. Remember to be careful of that weird thing in Li Yun's hand. If he wants to fight, give him a good fight."

"I will lead some soldiers and lie in wait in Liuhe County to see if Zhao Cheng in Yangzhou will send troops to rescue Chuzhou. If he does,

General Zhou said, with his hands behind his back, "I will make sure he never comes back."

…………

In Yangzhou City, Zhao Cheng looked at the pigeons and Liu Bo in front of him and asked again: "Brother Liu, is the news confirmed?"

Liu Bo nodded and said, "Two carrier pigeons brought the news one after another, and someone from the Nine Departments also delivered a letter into the city. There is no mistake, it is the envoy's intention."

Zhao Cheng stared at the contents of the note in front of him for a long time before he let out a long breath: "I originally thought that I was very courageous, but I didn't expect that the envoy was even more courageous. I didn't even dare to think about such a thing before."

Liu Bo also looked at the document and said slowly: "Since he was young, the envoy has always been very courageous."

If it were a normal time, Zhao Cheng would probably ask Liu Bo a few more questions, asking about Li Yun's childhood, but now, he had no intention of doing so at all. Looking at the two slips of paper in front of him, he was still very excited.

Both of these notes were sent into the city by Li Yun using carrier pigeons. The contents on them were all some jumbled numbers, and they were Arabic numerals, which most people could not understand at all.

Even Zhao Cheng couldn't understand it.

This is mainly because, although carrier pigeons can indeed achieve long-distance communication, they are not very safe and there is a high possibility that they will be shot down by the enemy or fall halfway and fall into the hands of the enemy.

Therefore, Li Yun personally prepared a secret code for the Nine Departments, writing the contents of the communication in Arabic numerals, and then using these numbers to match the corresponding contents in the secret code book.

The contents of these two notes have been translated by Liu Bo, and they are exactly the same.

They all asked Zhao Cheng to send two to three thousand men to break out from Yangzhou!

However, after breaking through, this part of the troops did not go to support Chuzhou, nor did they launch a surprise attack on the Pinglu Army, but went directly north to capture Chuzhou!

Chuzhou, located just north of Yangzhou, is the only barrier between Yangzhou and the Huai River. Taking over Chuzhou means that Li Yun has opened up the Yangtze River and the Huai River, and has taken his idea of ​​temporarily using the Huai River as the boundary a big step forward.

At this time, Yangzhou had been under siege for more than a month. According to normal people's thinking, at this time, they would either protect themselves or break out. No one would think of using the Yangzhou garrison to take the initiative to attack.

But Li Yun thought of it.

Moreover, he had been planning for a long time, and he was certain that the Pinglu Army had already deployed most of its forces, at least most of the forces in Jiangbei, between Chuzhou and Chuyang!

The defense in Chuzhou must be weak!
Zhao Cheng was amazed for a long time, then looked at Liu Bo and asked, "Brother Liu, who do you think is better to send?"

Liu Bo thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "Didn't the envoy send a young man to follow the general for training some time ago?"

"Meng Qing?"

Zhao Cheng frowned: "He is too young."

Liu Bo smiled.

"The envoy is also very young."

　I'll upload a map of Huainan Road later!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)