Thief Emperor

Chapter 463 General Xiao Meng!

There are indeed not many troops left in Chuzhou now.

It was not because Li Yun was a wise man, but because the Pinglu Army’s military strength was indeed not enough.

After all, there is a vassal state to the north of the Pinglu Army, and it is the powerful Fanyang Jiedushi. Although Fanyang Jiedushi Xiao Xian himself is not in Fanyang, Youzhou still has at least 40,000 to 50,000 or even more combat power.

In particular, after General Xiao entered Guanzhong and the capital, the court naturally rewarded Fan Yang again and again. After all, General Xiao had a very important say in many matters in Guanzhong.

Even though General Xiao was not at home, he still added several prefectures and counties to the Fanyang army, including Pingzhou, Yingzhou, Zhaozhou, Shenzhou, etc., and directly granted Fanyang as a military farming prefecture.

In this way, the military farming state of Fanyang Army was already bordering Qingzhou, and the imperial court granted Dizhou to Fanyang Army as a military farming state, which means that the territories of the two military governors were already "bordering" each other.

Under such circumstances, even if Xiao Xian was not at home, the Qingzhou Pinglu Army would not dare to come out in full force. They would have to leave a part, and a considerable part, behind to guard near Qingzhou.

Their family has been operating in Qingzhou for many years, so the importance of the base camp to them is self-evident. If Qingzhou is lost, they can only go south and completely take over Jiangnan Road before they can regain their foothold.

With this division of forces, the Pinglu Army's strength in Jiangbei was obviously not enough to not only besiege Chuzhou, but also watch over Yangzhou, Chuzhou and other states.

In fact, when Meng Qing led his troops to the city of Chuzhou, the Pinglu Army defenders in the city were less than 500 people, and these 500 people could not be considered the main force.

After leading his troops to within a hundred feet of Chuzhou City, Meng Qing looked up at the city in front of him and turned around to call a captain under Zhao Cheng.

"Captain He!"

Captain He immediately stepped forward, bowed his head and clasped his fists towards Meng Qing, saying, "Young General Meng!"

Meng Qing didn't say much about this title. He walked forward and said in a deep voice, "There won't be too many defenders in Chuzhou City. They can't defend the city from all sides. I will lead a thousand people, light torches and attack the city from the south. You lead a thousand people, extinguish the torches and go around to the north of the city!"

At this point, Meng Qing looked up at the sky and said in a deep voice: "Let's agree to fight until dawn. At dawn, no matter whether we have taken Chuzhou or not, we will meet up first and make plans later!"

Captain He looked at Meng Qing, thought for a moment, and said, "General Meng, I will lead the troops to attack the front!"

Meng Qing said firmly: "Time is running out, go quickly!"

"We will try to capture Chuzhou City in one night. After we capture this city, we still have a lot of things to do. Don't waste time!"

Captain He nodded, turned around and greeted a familiar captain, then took their respective captain camps, extinguished their torches, left the team, and detoured to the north city.

Meng Qing, on the other hand, was wearing armor and rushing to the front.

With so many torches, the defenders on the tower naturally couldn't fail to notice them. Meng Qing hadn't taken a few steps forward when arrows flew down. Meng Qing was not afraid of danger and shouted, "Shieldmen, rush to the front, block the arrows diagonally, speed up, charge, charge!"

In this era, archers usually shoot arrows by projectiles because they can shoot farther.

Holding a shield in front of you is of little use, as arrows are likely to fall from the sky.

Even if you block the arrow at an upper corner, it won't be of much use.

Fortunately, the defenders of Chuzhou City, either because there were too few archers or because they had not anticipated a sudden attack, did not have many archers actually shooting arrows, and the arrows were sparse, which could not be called a rain of arrows at all.

Even so, Meng Qing's troops suffered more than a dozen casualties before they finally approached the Chuzhou city wall.

Meng Qing said loudly: "Put up the ladder, climb the tower, climb the tower!"

"The first one to reach the top will be rewarded with 100 strings of cash and promoted by two ranks!"

The so-called first to climb the city wall is naturally the warrior who is the first to climb up the city wall and can stand on the city wall and lead friendly troops to climb up the city wall. If Li Yun was here, in such a small-scale battle, basically no one could snatch the credit of being the first to climb the city wall from him. However, Li Yun is not here now, so everyone can only rely on their own abilities.

At this time, Meng Qing still had too little experience, so he didn't dare to ask for too much money.

After all, in his eyes, one hundred strings of cash was already a considerable sum of money.

If Li Yun was here, he would be able to shout out, not to mention one hundred strings of coins, one thousand strings of coins, or even two thousand or three thousand strings of coins. After all, for Chuzhou City, a few thousand strings of coins are really too insignificant!
But even so, Meng Qing's shouting still played a certain role, and with him leading the way, the morale of the soldiers under him was high, and they all rushed towards the city wall with a roar. You know, these are the soldiers in Yangzhou City.

The Jiangdong soldiers in Yangzhou City are all the first batch of Jiangdong soldiers, because when Li Yun expanded the army last year, Zhao Cheng, who was guarding Yangzhou, had no way to expand the army.

In other words, the treatment of these soldiers was two strings of coins per month for combat soldiers, and there was no time to classify their treatment like the new recruits from Jiangnan who came later.

Of course, there was gold and silver everywhere in Yangzhou City, so there was no need to mistreat them financially. After all, during this period of time, it was very difficult for Li Yun to transport the property out of Yangzhou.

The army was willing to pay them, and these people had all followed Li Yun, so they would naturally not be afraid of fighting. They followed Meng Qing, and climbed up the city wall despite the falling rocks and arrows.

Meng Qing, wearing armor, was about to use the crude ladders to climb up the city wall, but was stopped by a man in his twenties behind him. Meng Qing looked back and saw that it was Captain Sun Ying, one of the four captains who came with him this time.

Captain Sun was the oldest among the captains, already 28 or 29 years old. He pulled Meng Qing aside and said with a smile, "Little General Meng, we still need you to take charge of the situation here. You can't rush forward. Leading the troops is more important. The army can use a brave warrior who can charge into battle."

Meng Qing frowned and said, "This is how the envoy led the troops to charge."

Sun Ying was from the anti-theft team. Upon hearing this, he shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying, "General Xiao Meng, the envoy is a god who has descended to earth. With his physique, it is unlikely that anything will happen to him. He is very different from us."

Those who came from the anti-theft team have followed Li Yun to fight bandits for more than half a year. During that half a year, everyone has witnessed how powerful Li Yun is.

This kind of strength was deeply imprinted in their minds. Until now, any old member of the anti-theft team would not have the slightest thought of resisting when facing Li Yun.

It can be said that he was in awe.

Meng Qing looked up at the Chuzhou City and finally gave up the idea of ​​climbing the tower. He narrowed his eyes and said slowly: "Be careful. As long as there is a vacant position on the ladder, send someone to fill it immediately. In the first hour of the siege, at least half an hour, we must fight hard and fiercely!"

Several captains knew that Captain He was leading his troops to take a detour, so they naturally had to fight more fiercely at the South Gate, at least to attract most of the defenders in the city here, so as to create opportunities for the friendly troops who were taking a detour.

Sun Ying didn't hesitate and said, "I obey your command!"

He strode forward, rushed to the front, and shouted: "Fill in the back, everyone, fill in the position!"

"Remember, as long as you get on the tower and hold the enemy back for a while, you will be a great hero to Jiangdong. Charge!"

A thousand soldiers, under the command of Meng Qing, Sun Ying and others, rushed towards the city wall one after another.

In just half an hour, at least two to three hundred people fell, most of them were injured and had lost their combat effectiveness.

After all, the attacking party was at a huge disadvantage, and even a small city like Chuzhou would be quite dangerous.

Finally, the hot-tempered captain Sun Ying could no longer bear it. He put on armor himself, stepped on the ladder, and strode up to the city wall. As soon as he climbed up, he saw several steel knives chopping at his head!

Sun Ying was startled, but luckily he was smart. He rolled on the ground and not only dodged the knife, but also moved himself further inward to avoid being kicked off the city wall.

After he rolled over, he did not stand up immediately, but rolled again on the spot. When he squatted down, he swung the knife in his hand and forced back two Pinglu army defenders who were rushing up.

At this time, soldiers from the other side also climbed up to the city wall!
Sun Ying held the knife in both hands, and when he saw the opportunity, he hacked and killed a Pinglu Army defender with one blow. Then, with bloodshot eyes, he shouted loudly: "Chuzhou has been broken, Chuzhou has been broken!"

He had a very loud voice, and this shout inspired the friendly troops and frightened the enemy. Soon, more and more soldiers climbed up to the Chuzhou city wall.

Another incense stick of time passed, and the other army had not yet reached the north gate, but the south gate had already been opened. Meng Qing, with sweat on his forehead, strode into Chuzhou City without looking back, and his voice was hoarse.

"Clean up the battlefield and properly place the wounded!"

"Control the gates of Chuzhou as quickly as possible!"

Meng Qing stepped into Chuzhou City, looked back at the city gate, and let out a long breath.

"Close the city gates and prepare supplies for defending the city!"

(End of this chapter)