Thief Emperor

Chapter 519: Breaking the Enemy’s Courage

If the 5,000 men of the Pinglu Army occupied a provincial capital, neither Li Yun nor Su Sheng would have used a force of just over 10,000 to storm the city.

Unless Li Yun uses the firearms in the workshop to achieve a surprise victory, it would basically be a waste of manpower.

Geographical advantages are extremely important in the era of cold weapons. There are many examples in history of one or two thousand people, or even a few hundred people, defending against attacks by tens of thousands of people.

Although Li Yun's thunder bomb has made some progress, it has not yet been fully weaponized and cannot be used on the Qizhou battlefield at this moment.

If the 5,000 elite soldiers of the Pinglu Army were guarding here, Li Yun would only have two choices: either to surround Qizhou or to give up directly and think of other ways.

Or, find a way to lure them out.

However, the Wuchang Army is not the Pinglu Army. During the previous battle, Li Yun fully felt the weakness of this army.

Ever since Li Yun cleared out the local armies in various prefectures and counties in Jiangdong, he has rarely seen an army with such poor combat effectiveness.

And how strong was the combat effectiveness of the Jiangdong local army? At the beginning, Li Yun's guards of more than 100 people fought against the more than 400 local troops of Wujun, not only winning easily, but also with almost no casualties on their side.

Although the Wuchang Army is slightly stronger than the local army in Jiangdong, it is not much stronger. This is also the kind of army that will be defeated and surrender if it encounters headwinds.

That's why Li Yun had the idea of ​​attacking Qizhou City by force.

After receiving Li Yun's order, Su Sheng turned around and went directly to the military camp to prepare for the siege. Li Yun, on the other hand, was still sitting on this high place, looking at Qizhou City not far away, without moving for a long time.

He knew what wars in this world were like. Many times, human lives were sacrificed without reason. Sometimes, before the battle began, the generals could even estimate how many of their men would have to die before they could win.

If it were the Li Yun who had only a few hundred or a thousand men under his command in the past, he would not be able to accept this kind of war at this time. However, in this era, if you want to occupy territory, you have to capture cities and strongholds.

This is how you attack a city and capture a stronghold.

You have to adapt even if you are not comfortable with it. If you don't adapt, you will be trapped in Jiangdong for the rest of your life, or just go back to your hometown to farm or become a bandit.

If it was Li Yun from another world, he probably would not be able to bear it at this moment. After all, in that world, he had never had to worry about food and clothing since childhood. Not to mention killing people, he rarely even saw blood.

But Li Yun at this time not only inherited the martial arts of Li Yun in this world, but was also somewhat affected in his personality, and his heart had become hardened.

After sitting in silence for a moment, he stood up, put his hands behind his back, strode towards his own tent, and returned to the general's tent.

In the general's tent, a map of Huainan Road was hung high. Liu Su, dressed in cloth, was helping to sort out the documents on his desk. When she saw Li Yun coming back, she stood up quickly and said, "My husband is back."

Li Yun sat down, looked at the haggard Liu Su, and sighed: "I asked you to stay in Yongning City, but you insisted on coming to the army."

Liu Su sat next to Li Yun and said softly, "I followed my husband to help, not to show off. Although my husband has been fighting all the way, every day the Nine Departments will send a lot of documents to him, right?"

"I want to help my husband sort out these documents so that he won't be too tired."

This is true.

Li Yun is undoubtedly the backbone of Jiangdong. Although he is not in Jinling, where he is is the core of Jiangdong. Every day, various places will send some important documents to him through the communication system initially built by Jiusi.

Including Du Qian, who also sent letters every day.

Li Yun had to decide the strategic direction of the army and deal with the important matters in Jiangdong.

And it has to be dealt with.

If we don't deal with it, it's like handing over the supreme authority to others. There may not be any problems for one, two, three or five days, but over time, big problems may arise.

And Liu Su, who follows him, can help him reduce the intensity of this work by at least half.

After Li Yun sat down and started to deal with the documents, Liu Su was beside him, grinding ink and adding tea for him.

When half of the work was done, Li Yun stood up and stretched his body. While taking a short break, Liu Su said softly, "I just saw the news sent by Jiu Si. It seems that Liu Si is about to come to my husband."

Li Yun was a little surprised and asked, "When?"

"Tomorrow, it should be here tomorrow."

Li Yun said "hmm", kept it in mind, and then sat back in his seat. After reading the remaining documents one by one, he stood up, gave up his seat, and asked Liu Su to write a letter for him, one for each of Du Qian and Zhao Cheng.

After the two letters were finished, it was already very late. Li Yun stood behind Liu Su, looked at the beautiful handwriting on the paper, and after praising it, his hands became a little dishonest.

The secretary looked up at Li Yun, then ducked down and got out of Li Yun's arms. She shook her head firmly and said, "Husband, please rest early."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "What's the matter?"

Liu Su looked at Li Yun and said, "This is on the battlefield, in the military camp, my husband can't...can't waste his energy."

"Wait...let's talk about it after the war is over."

Hearing this, Li Yun nodded silently.

There was no doubt that this little secretary of his was a good woman who truly cared about him. If she were an ordinary woman, and became his concubine and was not pregnant yet, it would be unlikely for her to refuse at this moment.

And Liu Su was considering everything for him.

Mr. Li stepped forward, took her hand, and whispered, "Let's sleep together."

Liu Su nodded, sealed the two letters, wrote the destinations and handed them out, then returned to the big tent and fell asleep in Li Yun's arms.

…………

The next day, before it was fully light, Li Yun got up early and came to the high slope where he was yesterday.

At this time, Su Sheng's 2,000-man vanguard army had begun to line up in an orderly manner, preparing to attack Qizhou City.

In one night, the siege ladders were ready and several catapults were made. This was the basic skill of a qualified army. In this era, all armies made siege equipment as needed. Few people would carry siege equipment with them during marches, as it was too heavy and inconvenient.

As soon as the sky brightened, Su Sheng, wearing iron armor, personally took command of the battle. Two thousand soldiers rushed towards Qizhou city like wolves and tigers.

For a moment, the sound of killing was loud.

Only one hour later, corpses were everywhere on and under the city walls.

Li Yun sat quietly on the high slope, watching the battle, until noon, when Liu Su brought him food, and he came back to his senses.

In the afternoon, Liu Bo rushed to the military camp and was led to the high slope by Liu Su. Liu Bo and Li Yun grew up together. After seeing Li Yun's back from afar, he and Liu Su bowed their heads and clasped their fists, then trotted to Li Yun's side, sat down, and looked in the direction Li Yun's gaze.

As far as the two men could see, a fierce battle was taking place in Qizhou City. Waves of Jiangdong soldiers rushed towards the city wall and fought fiercely with the Wuchang soldiers on the city wall, and then were knocked off the city wall again and again.

Liu Bo took out a telescope from his pocket, handed it to Li Yun, and said, "Second brother, use this to look."

Li Yun glanced at him, reached out to take the telescope, looked around, and then asked in surprise: "Liuli?"

"Ah."

Liu Bo smiled and said, "The workshop has produced decent colored glass. The first batch produced 20 telescopes, and I brought 10 of them here."

Li Yun took it and used the monocular telescope to look at the Qizhou battlefield again. The effect was almost the same as his previous crystal telescope.

"nice one."

Li Yun felt better: "Go back and give one to each of the generals."

Liu Bo nodded first, then looked towards the Qizhou battlefield, somewhat curiously: "In a battle like this, if it had been in the past, my second brother would have been unable to resist and joined the battle. How could he hold back this time and just watch from here?"

“I’m training myself.”

Li Yun's gaze was still on the battlefield.

Liu Bo was curious and asked, "What are you exercising?"

"To exercise a heart of stone."

Liu Bo looked at Li Yun's expression. For some reason, he suddenly felt a little scared. He whispered, "Second brother is a man who values ​​friendship. Why did he become so hard-hearted?"

Li Yun looked back at Liu Bo and smiled dumbly: "What are you thinking about? I won't change."

At this point, he looked towards the battlefield in Qizhou and let out a long breath: "It's just that it's really hard to lead troops in battle without training a heart of stone."

Li's eyes fell on Liu Bo and asked, "Why are you not in Nanjing and running to the front line?"

"Mr. Du said that Huainan Road needs me more right now, so I came here and escorted a batch of supplies."

Liu Bo looked at Li Yun and was still a little worried.

"Brother, don't be too stressed."

He paused, and then said, "Don't become so hard-hearted, or I won't dare to call you second brother anymore."

Li Yun patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "I'm talking about leading troops to fight, which has nothing to do with daily life."

"From childhood to adulthood, you are the only one who has wild thoughts. We will always be brothers."

"I will always be your second brother."

Liu Bo nodded, looked towards the Qizhou battlefield, and said, "General Zhao Cheng, there was a fierce battle with the Pinglu Army in Gushi, and the Pinglu Army sent another 5,000 reinforcements to reinforce Jiangbei."

"I saw this news before."

Li Yun stood up, looked towards Qizhou, and said slowly: "As long as we can take Qizhou as soon as possible, Shuzhou will also be in our hands. By then, most of Huainan Road will be in our hands. Even if the Pinglu Army moves south in larger numbers, the worst that can happen is that we will be in a stalemate with them."

"Sooner or later he will be unable to hold on and will withdraw from Huainan Road."

Having said that, Li Yun stood up, let out a long breath, and then cursed fiercely.

"Damn it."

"Once I occupy the entire Huainan Road, I will have a big drink with him and sleep with him for three days and three nights!"

…………

On the city wall of Qizhou.

Lu Yunzhang, dressed in armor, walked with heavy steps.

After all, he was not a warrior, and after putting on the armor, he found it difficult to walk.

But I have to wear it, otherwise I can't even see the battlefield.

As soon as he climbed onto the city wall, stones from catapults outside the city came whistling and hit General Lu Jie less than ten feet away. He looked down at the city and saw the Jiangdong soldiers organizing the next wave of offensive.

Marshal Lu Jie looked at the corpses of his soldiers on the city wall again and felt his scalp tingling. He turned his head to look at the servant beside him and tried to lower his voice and suppress the trembling in his voice.

"Go find Zhou Gui, go find Zhou Gui and tell him that I agree to his terms!"

"I agreed!"

(End of this chapter)