Thief Emperor

Chapter 520: Conquering Huainan

In the Battle of Qizhou, the Jiangdong Army launched a fierce attack for three consecutive days.

Li Yun only read it for two days and couldn't bear to continue reading it.

After all, he couldn't turn a blind eye.

During the three days, the Qizhou city tower was occupied several times and then recaptured several times by the Wuchang army in the city. The battle was extremely fierce and both sides suffered heavy losses.

However, after a few days, the Wuchang Army must have suffered more casualties than Li Yun's Jiangdong Army. Even though the Wuchang Army had the advantage of geographical location, the two sides were no longer armies of the same level.

On the morning of the fourth day, Li Yun was sitting in the commander's tent, looking through the documents sent by the various states and counties, when Liu Bo strode in. He walked all the way to Li Yun, lowered his head slightly, and said, "Second brother, the reinforcements of the Pinglu Army are on their way to Qizhou."

Li Yun stopped writing with the brush in his hand, looked up at Liu Bo, frowned slightly and asked, "What direction?"

"Huangzhou, west of Qizhou."

Li Yun had memorized the map of Huainan Road. He frowned slightly when he heard this: "Isn't this also the base of the Wuchang Army? The Pinglu Army actually came here from Huangzhou..."

He stood up, looked at the map, and then asked, "How long will it take them to get to Qizhou?"

Liu Bo thought for a moment and said, "If nothing is done to stop them, they will probably be near Qizhou City tomorrow afternoon."

He looked at Li Yun and asked, "Second brother, should we tell General Su to speed up the siege?"

Li Yun shook his head slightly and did not answer. His eyes fell on the map. After carefully looking at the map, he suddenly smiled and said, "Old Nine, do you know why Qizhou City is so difficult to attack?"

Liu Bo was startled for a moment, then replied: "The walls of the state capital are high, and the defenders in the city are numerous. It is of course impossible to take it down in a few days."

Li Yun shook his head slightly: "Because we only attack during the day and withdraw at night. If we attack fiercely during the day, Qizhou will already be shaky. If we attack the city again at night, Qizhou probably won't last until today. Even if it can, it won't last until reinforcements arrive."

Liu Bo seemed to understand something. He looked at Li Yun and whispered, "Second brother wants to attract reinforcements from the Pinglu Army?"

Li Yun looked at the spear in his tent and said slowly, "What is the terrain in the north of Qizhou? Old Nine, do you know?"

"Yes, it's in the mountains."

Liu Bo replied: "The mountainous area that spans several states is called Dabie Mountain."

Li Yun said slowly: "We all grew up in the mountains, and this place is perfect for an ambush."

Liu Bo shook his head slightly: "If they come from the north to support us, it would be easier to ambush them. But they come from Huangzhou to support us, and there are no particularly large mountains along the way."

"It's still easier to hide than in the plains. Now do you know how many people the Pinglu Army has sent?"

Liu Bo looked at Li Yun and replied, "I estimate that there are about four to five thousand people."

"Four or five thousand people..."

Li Yun clenched his fists and said in a deep voice: "Then this battle can determine the situation in Huainan Road!"

"Laojiu, send someone to write a letter to Chen Da in Luzhou, asking him to withdraw from Shuzhou, go west from Shucheng County, occupy the southern part of Shouzhou, and then move from the mountainous area to Qizhou!"

"Let him...let him bring at least half of the troops here."

Chen Da's troops in Luzhou were not one of the four armies, and their number was not particularly large, originally only 3,000 people. However, during this period of time, all the armies under Li Yun were recruiting and expanding their forces.

The Luzhou Army now has a size of 5,000 people.

Half of them were left behind to prevent Shuzhou or other forces from launching a surprise attack on Luzhou. The other half, more than 2,000 people, were enough to support Qizhou and help Li Yun complete the subsequent interception mission.

Liu Bo quickly responded and said in a deep voice: "I'll do it right away."

Seeing that he was about to go out, Li Yun shouted again: "Tell Zhou Bi at the door to call General Su over. I have something important to discuss with him."

"it is good."

Liu Bo strode out of the big tent and soon saw Zhou Bi, who was guarding not far from the door of the big tent. He stepped forward, patted Zhou Bi on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "Little guy."

Zhou Bi quickly lowered his head and called out "Ninth Brother".

Both of them grew up in Cangshan Village, but Zhou Bi was six years younger than Li Yun and the others, so the three brothers were not very willing to take him to play.

But familiarity is still familiarity.

"My second brother told you to go find General Su and invite him to the big tent to discuss matters."

Zhou Bi lowered his head: "I'll go right away."

Without thinking, he turned around and left. Liu Bo patted him on the shoulder again and said with a smile: "You are much more skillful than when you were in the village before. Not bad, not bad."

"Follow your second brother well, and you will definitely have a bright future in the future."

Zhou Bi took a deep breath and said, "Brother Jiu, I have to go do my errands first. When I'm free, I'll buy you a drink and we can talk slowly."

"Go ahead, go ahead."

Seeing Zhou Bi striding away, Liu Bo looked at his back and couldn't help but sigh: "We are a small village with only fifty people at most. There will be many figures in the future." He turned around and looked at Li Yun's tent, muttering: "Could it be that my second brother is really destined to be here?"

After muttering a few words, he went to look for people from the Ninth Department and arrange their tasks.

…………

More than half an hour later, Su Sheng hurried back to the camp from the front line and came to Li Yun's tent. He took off his helmet, and the hair inside the helmet was completely wet with sweat, but there was no blood on his body.

At his level, it is not surprising for him to personally command the troops on the battlefield, but he no longer needs to fight in person.

"Mr. Fu, what's the matter?"

"Pinglu Army reinforcements have arrived."

Li Yun didn't waste any words and went straight to the point to tell Su Sheng about the situation. After listening, Su Sheng frowned and said, "Sir, how long will it take for the Pinglu Army to reach Huangzhou?"

"At this rate, we will definitely be there before sunset tomorrow."

Su Sheng immediately patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, my lord. I will lead the troops to attack the city tonight and we will definitely capture Qizhou City before the reinforcements from the Pinglu Army arrive!"

Li Yun shook his head slightly: "I asked you to come here not to ask you to sign a military order, nor to ask you to speed up the siege. How many troops do we have now?"

Su Sheng took a deep breath and said, "There are still more than 8,000 people who are not injured at all. If all the combat forces are counted, there are still more than 9,000 people who can be used."

There were originally over 11,000 Jiangdong soldiers outside Qizhou City, which means that in three days, two thousand combatants had been lost.

It’s not that two thousand people were killed, but that these two thousand people could not continue to fight in a short period of time.

According to the proportion calculation, the number of Jiangdong soldiers killed in three days should be around a thousand.

"That's it."

Li Yun reached out and knocked on the table, then slowly said, "Give me six thousand."

He looked at Su Sheng and said, "I will go and take care of the reinforcements from the Pinglu Army. Brother, you can continue to attack Qizhou with the rest of the men."

Su Sheng was stunned: "Master, you just said that the reinforcements of the Pinglu Army also have 4,000 to 5,000 people. The number is equal, how...how to eat them?"

"ambush."

Li Yun answered straightforwardly: "War is not about who has more people. If it were a comparison, no one would have rebelled against the court in the first place."

"Besides, our Jiangdong soldiers are not necessarily worse than their Pinglu Army."

"Also, I have transferred some troops from other places."

Seeing that Su Sheng wanted to speak, Li Yun made the decision and said, "It's settled. Don't stop the offensive in Qizhou, lest the Pinglu Army become suspicious. As soon as it gets dark today, I will lead my men out of Qizhou City and ambush the Pinglu Army on the road they must take to support me."

"The Pinglu Army doesn't have much spare strength right now. They have to deal with the Fanyang Army in the north, and Zhao Cheng is also fighting with the Pinglu Army."

Li Yun looked at Su Sheng and knocked on the table: "If they eat up these 5,000 Pinglu troops, they won't be able to mobilize their forces. At that time, all the arrangements made by Zhou's father and son in Huainan Road will be wiped out."

Encircling a point and attacking its reinforcements is a tactic that works in every situation, and Mr. Li has now learned and put it into practice.

Su Sheng heard this and said nothing more. Instead, he looked up at Li Yun and said in a deep voice, "My Lord, this is dangerous. You stay and command the battle of Qizhou, and your subordinates will go to stop these reinforcements!"

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "Since the attack on Qizhou, I have not participated at all. Brother wants to steal my credit?"

Su Sheng said helplessly: "The Lord of the Mansion is the ruler of the Southeast, what else do you want?"

"I am the boss, so I deserve more credit."

Mr. Li stood up and said with a smile: "Otherwise, how can we convince the public?"

Since ancient times, the achievements of entrepreneurs must usually exceed those of their subordinates, otherwise it would be difficult to subdue these arrogant and powerful generals.

Although Li Yun does not particularly need any merit to consolidate his position now, he cannot rely on others for everything.

The two men sat down in the big tent and discussed in detail the specific rules of this operation.

The discussion lasted for an hour. In the afternoon, Su Sheng returned to the battlefield to command the Battle of Qizhou.

It was evening when he returned to the camp. At that time, Li Yun had already assembled ten battalions of colonels and was ready to set off at any time.

The generals of the colonel camp were all very excited when they knew they were going to follow Li Yun to fight.

After it got dark, Li Yun put on his armor and bowed to Su Sheng in farewell.

After they exchanged greetings, he held up his spear and said with a smile, "Brother, go ahead and attack Qizhou."

"I'm going to Huainan!"

(End of this chapter)