Thief Emperor

Chapter 523: Collaboration of the Nine Departments!
In the past few years, things have been going too smoothly for Li Yun, causing him to feel a little complacent.

For example, in this blocking operation, although he did not underestimate the 5,000 men of the Pinglu Army, he did not think highly of their individual combat effectiveness. Simply put, he felt that few of them could fight.

There are even few people who can hurt him on the battlefield.

As for the shooter.

Li Yun was wearing a fine armor. Ordinary arrows would have no chance of breaking his armor from thirty steps away. But once the arrows were twenty or thirty steps away from him, the guards around him would not sit idly by.

As for getting closer, Li Yun has not encountered an opponent yet.

But today, I taught him a lesson.

Li Yun personally helped Yang Xi back to the rear and watched the army doctor cut open his flesh, remove the arrow, apply medicine to him, and then bandage him neatly.

There was no such thing as anesthesia in that era, and Ma Fei San had long been lost.

Most arrows are made into a barb shape. When taking them out, unless they are not deeply embedded in the flesh, if they are pulled out forcibly, a large piece of flesh and blood will definitely be removed. The only way is to cut open the skin and take the arrow out.

During the whole process, Yang Xi fainted several times. When he woke up, his whole body was soaked with sweat and his face was pale.

Li Yun looked at him and asked, "How is it?"

Yang Xi's face was covered with sweat. He shook his head slightly: "No...it's okay."

This kind of injury is very common in the army. In the wounded soldiers' camp, there are many soldiers whose arms have been removed, some have had a leg chopped off, and some have even had arrows pierce their shoulders.

The doctors accompanying the army are no longer surprised.

Li Yun nodded, and after a moment of silence, he said, "The man today was fifty steps away from us."

"It can penetrate armor at this distance. He is using either an ox horn bow or an iron bow."

Li Yun said slowly: "I was careless."

After all, Li Yun is not the only powerful person in this world.

Before today, Li Yun knew that he was the only one who could pull a heavy bow and maintain accuracy, but today, he saw a second one.

This person today may not be as strong as Li Yun in terms of strength, but he may be better than Li Yun in archery.

Yang Xi took a deep breath, looked at Li Yun, and said, "The Duke of Fu is alone now, affecting millions of people... millions of people..."

After all, he had no education and could not utter a word.

Li Yun sat next to him and said, "Destiny."

"Yep."

Yang Xi nodded quickly, then took a deep breath and said, "Your subordinate, I think I need to rest for a month before I can recover. From now on, please don't rush forward again."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Don't worry, I won't charge into the battle formation myself again until I catch that guy."

Now that he knew there was a sharpshooter on the battlefield who could snipe him, no matter how arrogant Li Yun was, he had to cherish his life at this moment.

Not to mention such empty talk as doing it for the sake of the people of the world, or for the sake of the people of the southeast, he now has a family and a son. Even for the sake of his wife and children, he can no longer take risks.

Li Yun is the pillar of the family. He cannot fall down. Once he falls down, Du Qian will not be able to maintain the situation, and Li Zheng, Zhou Liang and other members of the Cangshan Dazhai may not be able to maintain the situation either.

By then, Li Yun's family might face a very bad end.

Yang Xi finally breathed a sigh of relief and lay down on the bed.

Li Yun stood up, looked at him, and said, "You should have a good rest and recover soon."

Yang Xi grinned: "Don't worry, Master Fu, I won't die."

He was obviously in a good mood because he still clearly remembered that when they were on the battlefield, Li Yun told him something like "thank you for saving his life".

Yang Xi, who was chosen as Li Yun's chief of personal guards, might not have much ability, but he must be smart and loyal.

After following Li Yun for such a long time, he has also gained some understanding of the current situation in Jiangdong.

With Li Yun's words, Yang Xi might be able to live comfortably for the rest of his life!

Even, even more than one lifetime! As long as the Li family does not fall, his descendants can follow behind the Li family and continue to eat for many lifetimes!

After Li Yun stood up, he went to visit other wounded soldiers in the wounded camp, and then looked at Yang Xi for the last time before leaving.

Yang Xi's injury was not particularly serious, but the arrow had penetrated deep into his flesh. In order to remove the arrow, a small hole was almost dug at his wound.

This kind of injury would be nothing in another world, but in this world, tetanus could potentially kill him.

In fact, most casualties on the battlefield are caused by wound infections. Whether you can survive depends on how strong your life is.

However, distilling liquor is not difficult. The Jinling workshop has already distilled a batch of high-concentration liquor, which has been used for military purposes and can barely be used for disinfection. There is no need to worry about Yang Xi's life safety.

After leaving the wounded camp, Li Yun called the people around him from Jiusi and said in a deep voice, "Report the battle situation on the front line once an hour. Also, send people on fast horses to cooperate with He Jun, Yu Ye's troops, and Chen Da's troops."

"Let them cooperate with each other as much as possible to stop this Pinglu Army!"

Because instant communication is impossible, in this era of war, cooperation between friendly forces can almost only rely on prior agreements, and it is difficult to adapt to circumstances.

When Li Yun founded the Nine Departments, one of the responsibilities he assigned to them was to coordinate information.

After all, at that time, the troops under Li Yun had actually been divided into four parts.

Now, it's time to fight in coordination, and whether Jiusi can coordinate with both sides will also be confirmed in this battle!
Following Li Yun's order, the people of the Nine Departments immediately took action. Dozens or even hundreds of people began to move in batches, going back and forth between Yu Ye and He Jun's troops and Chen Da's troops to deliver messages.

Li Yun did not stop there. Although he no longer fought on the battlefield, he was still in charge of the central army, leading He Jun and Yu Ye to pursue the reinforcements of the Pinglu Army.

…………

When two armies fought, especially when the number of people reached thousands, it was usually unlikely to end in a short time in the era of cold weapons.

Now, although Li Yun's ambush was successful and he had the upper hand, the combined forces of both sides had already made it a large-scale battle involving more than 10,000 people, and it was impossible to finish it within a day or two.

In fact, if one side is fleeing and the other is chasing, it is quite normal even if the pursuit lasts for ten days or half a month. Even after ten days or half a month, it is difficult to achieve any results.

Three days passed quickly as the two sides chased and fled.

In three days, Li Yun's casualties amounted to nearly 400 people, and the Pinglu Army had already suffered more than a thousand casualties after being ambushed.

If it were a useless army like the Wuchang Army, they would have been routed by now and would have collapsed thousands of miles away.

But the Pinglu Army was different after all. At this moment, their formation was basically not scattered, and they retreated towards Gwangju in an orderly manner.

Now, most of the Pinglu Army’s reinforcements are in Gwangju.

In fact, at this time, even if they were allowed to withdraw to Guangzhou, the Jiangdong Army's action in Huainan Road this time could be said to be a great victory. After all, the Pinglu Army went south this time to support Qizhou.

Now that they have failed to provide support and have fled in a panic, it means that most of the territory of Huainan Road has now fallen into Li Yun's hands.

However, if these people were allowed to withdraw almost completely to Guangzhou, it would mean that the Pinglu Army would still be able to compete with Li Yun in the Huainan Road area, and at least it would not be a problem at all to hold on to the remaining territory.

By defeating these five thousand people, the initiative of the entire Huainan Road will be in Li Yun's hands!
Just as Li Yun was leading his troops in pursuit, Chen Da on the other side had already led more than 2,000 soldiers from Shuzhou Tong'an, along the Dabie Mountains, and traveled hundreds of miles to the border of Huangzhou Macheng.

During this process, more than twenty people from the Nine Departments came continuously every day to correct the positions of Li Yun's troops and the Pinglu Army.

This was the only coordination method Jiusi could come up with when communication was poor.

That night, two more people from the Nine Departments came over, spread the map in front of Chen Da, pointed at the map of Huangzhou, and said, "General Chen, the Pinglu Army is now in Macheng, near Guifeng Mountain."

"It's only fifty or sixty miles away from the general's troops!"

He looked at Chen Da and said slowly, "The Duke said that this army has been fleeing all the way and is now exhausted. He wants General Chen to intercept this Pinglu army near Guifeng Mountain before dawn."

"At least two hours."

Chen Da looked at the map and frowned slightly.

With such a long distance, even if he led his men there overnight, they would certainly be exhausted when they arrived there.

But thinking of Li Yun, he didn't say much, just nodded slowly: "Tell the Lord of the Mansion."

"I will definitely complete the Lord's military order!"

The people from Jiusi quickly bowed their heads, said goodbye and left.

Without hesitation, Chen Da called all his soldiers and shouted, "March in formation!"

The two thousand men under Chen Da's command had just rested not long ago, but these Luzhou soldiers brought by Chen Da were basically not new recruits. They had been trained by Li Yun for a long time. After hearing Chen Da's order, they had no complaints and followed Chen Da obediently, marching all night and rushing to Guifeng Mountain.

The mountain road was difficult to travel on. When Chen Da and the Luzhou soldiers arrived near Guifeng Mountain, the Pinglu Army had already begun passing through Guifeng Mountain.

In other words, they were unable to stop the retreating head of the Pinglu Army. At least a part of the Pinglu Army had already passed Guifeng Mountain and headed towards Gwangju.

Without hesitation, Chen Da drew out his sword and shouted, "Brothers, the credit is right before our eyes. If we don't charge now, when will we charge?"

“Kill the enemy, kill the enemy!”

"Stop them!"

Chen Da became anxious, and took the lead, striding towards the Pinglu troops.

"Follow me and charge forward!"

(End of this chapter)