Thief Emperor

Chapter 604: United Front
Zhou Xu watched Li Yun's power grow before his eyes. Because of this, he knew even more how terrifying Li Yun was.

When the two sides first came into contact, Li Yun was only the Recruiting Envoy of the East Road of Jiangnan. With Jinling Prefecture as its center, he occupied several states and counties. He had only tens of thousands of men under his command, and they were only tens of thousands of men who had been formed not long ago.

At that time, not only Zhou Xu did not take Li Yun seriously, even Zhou Chang did not take Li Yun seriously.

However, after the two sides came into contact, Jiangdong's strength swelled like a balloon, and later it was able to directly compete with the Pinglu Army. It even took over Jiangbei from the Pinglu Army, and later took over the entire Huainan Road!
The speed at which this power was expanding was such that even the Emperor in the capital felt terrified and wanted to divide and devour the outlier Li Yun, not to mention the nearby neighbor Zhou Xu.

He really had no other good ideas, so he could only pretend to be deaf and dumb, and even tried to make peace with Li Yun.

Now that the emperor is taking the lead, Zhou Xu will of course be tempted, because if he allows Jiangdong to continue to develop in this way, there will sooner or later be another battle between Jiangdong and the Pinglu Army!
But the situation at that time will be very different from the last time.

General Zhou looked at Pei Huang with a gloomy look and said slowly, "Mr. Pei, besides me, who else is there? We can't rely on the Pinglu Army to go against Jiangdong alone, right?"

Pei Huang smiled and said, "Li Yun is going to take Jingxiang. There is also a Jingnan Jiedushi there. He needs at least 50,000 troops to take Jingxiang. In this way, at least half of Jiangdong's troops will be gone."

"There is such a large area south of Jiangnan East Road that needs to be guarded by troops, at least 10,000 or 20,000 people are needed. In addition, troops are also needed near Nanjing. How many troops can he have left in Jiangbei?"

"The governor of Jingnan in Jingxiang, this matter concerns his life and death, he will definitely participate in the war. The governor of Lingnan has always been ordered to participate in the war. There is no need for the general's troops to enter Nanjing. The general's Pinglu army only needs to capture Jiangbei, and Jiangbei will belong to the general. Isn't this a good deal?"

Zhou Xu looked at Pei Huang and sneered, "Master Pei, don't try to fool me. Li Yun took the initiative to attack Jingxiang, not being attacked by Jingxiang. His 50,000 troops can advance or retreat. It's not like he can't retreat. He can retreat to support Jiangbei at any time."

"If there are no other people involved in this matter, Zhou will not accompany you."

Pei Huang sighed silently and said, "General, you should know that our Pei family's ancestral home is in Hedong. After leaving here, I will return to Hedong and go to Taiyuan."

Zhou Xu narrowed his eyes and smiled: "That old man has a turtle-like personality. He was willing to be the first to leave the capital. After returning to Taiyuan, he never moved again. Can you convince him to join the war?"

Pei Huang smiled and said, "As long as the general joins the battle, General Li will definitely join the battle as well."

"This battle is for the court, for the sake of the Great Zhou to eliminate the traitors, and secondly, for all of you. Li Yun has just taken over the Three Daos, and now he is marching into Jingxiang. The next step is the Central Plains. If we sit back and do nothing, will he stop after he takes over the Central Plains?"

"He will definitely continue to fight. At that time, General, you and General Zhou will not be able to stay out of it. Instead of fighting with Li Yun at that time, it is better to fight him now."

"I will tell you something that your majesty forbids you to say."

He looked at Zhou Xu and whispered, "Even if we don't win over Southeast China in this battle, if we can knock out Li Yun's spirit and make him stay in Southeast China, it will be a great benefit to the general, our neighbor in Jiangdong."

Zhou Xu looked at Pei Huang and said silently: "What good will this do for the court?"

Pei Huang sighed softly: "General, since the death of the previous emperor, forces from all over the country have emerged, especially after Wang Junping's rebellion, all of them refused to submit to Zhou's rule, but none of the forces have the potential to swallow up the world, except this Li Yun."

"He has made Your Majesty sleep uneasy."

Zhou Xu asked with a smile: "Why is that? Although Li Yun is quite amazing, in terms of military strength, he does not have much more troops than the military towns in other places, and his combat effectiveness is not much stronger."

Pei Huang shook his head and said, "It's not a question of how many soldiers we have."

"For example, if the general has 100,000 soldiers and loses half of them, the general will be seriously injured and it will take a long time to recover. But Li Yun is different."

"His Jiangdong has already started self-governance a long time ago. From the highest level people like Du Shiyi to the prefectures, states, and counties below, they are all Li Yun's people. Li Yun even dares to conduct the imperial examinations, select talents, appoint officials, and govern the country on his own!"

"What's more terrifying is that this person governs the southeast very well."

At this point, even Pei Huang couldn't help but sigh and said, "According to the report from the Imperial City Department, Li Yun's popularity in the southeast is far better than that of the Great Zhou Dynasty which lasted for 200 years. If the people's popularity can be used, it means unlimited military strength!"

“He has an incredibly solid backfield.”

Pei Huang was in charge of the Imperial City Bureau and saw a large amount of intelligence every day, especially intelligence about Jiangdong. He saw too much of it.

He summed it up very well.

Li Yun only has about 100,000 troops, not because he can only have 100,000 troops, but because at present, while maintaining the current welfare benefits, he can only support 100,000 troops.

You know, even now, there are still many ordinary people in the southeast who are trying to collect money and use the back door to send their children to serve in Li Yun’s army!
This kind of mobilization power is one of the real reasons why Li Yunbing was able to march to the southeast.

Pei Huang looked at Zhou Xu and said softly, "General, I once took the intelligence from the Imperial City Bureau and asked the Ministry of War to deduce what the result would be if your Pinglu Army and the Jiangdong Army went to war and fought to the death."

Without waiting for Zhou Xu to answer, Pei Huang said directly: "In the first half year, you two may be evenly matched, but after half a year, the Pinglu Army will be at a great disadvantage."

“Without interference from external forces, the Pinglu Army will be wiped out in one and a half to two years at most. By then, the 100,000 troops of the Jiangdong Army will not only not be less, but may even be more.” Zhou Xu felt a chill on his back when he heard this.

Pei Huang's words were terrifying, but if you think about it carefully, you can't find any logical problems with them.

Zhou Xu sighed and said, "I was harmed by Gu Wenchuan."

Pei Huang said softly, "Gu Wenchuan and Li Yun have a history. In his early years, Gu Wenchuan had helped Li Yun. When Gu Wenchuan was sent by the court, he was also sent to Jiangnan East Road to monitor Li Yun."

"Why did he come to Qingzhou for no apparent reason? Why did he come to provoke the general? Why did he prepare his last poem and have it announced before provoking the general?"

Pei Huang said softly: "Has the general never thought about this?"

Zhou Xu was stunned for a moment. He was silent for a long time before he slowly said, "At that time, Li Yun was only the Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy..."

Pei Huang said confidently: "At that time, he was already plotting against the general, his future neighbor."

Zhou Xu sat in his seat, silent for a long time, then said: "If you can persuade Li Tong, I will do it!"

Pei Huang shook his head slightly. He looked at Zhou Xu and said in a hoarse voice, "It was the general who agreed first, and then I could persuade General Li."

Zhou Xu smiled and said, "Just tell him that I have already agreed. After all, if we don't fight this battle now, we won't be able to escape it in the future."

At this point, General Zhou was silent for a while, and then continued: "If I don't fight, my son will not be able to escape in the future."

"it is good."

Pei Huang bowed deeply to Zhou Xu and said, "Your Majesty asked me to bring ten beauties to the general. They have already entered Qingzhou City and will be delivered to the general's mansion tonight."

General Zhou smiled and said, "I don't want anything that's not good-looking."

Pei Huang also smiled and said, "I personally selected them for you, General. They are all virgins. You must believe me..."

"The vision of a thousand-year-old family."

General Zhou laughed, stood up and patted Pei Huang on the shoulder: "Okay, okay, I will treat Mr. Pei to dinner today, and we won't stop until we are drunk."

Pei Huang shook his head and said, "General, please accept my request. I will return to my hometown in Taiyuan immediately. Time waits for no one."

"Li Yun may make a move at any time."

Pei Huang bowed to Zhou Xu and said, "Take care, General. I'm leaving now."

After saying this, he bowed his head and took his leave. After walking out of the study, Pei Huang saw a young man in his twenties or thirties who was looking at him.

Pei Huang seemed to be thinking about something. He stepped forward and saluted, "Is it the young general?"

Zhou Chang nodded silently and asked, "From the capital?"

Pei Huang shook his head and said with a smile: "I am Pei Huang of the Hedong Pei family, from Taiyuan."

After that, he added, "I have something important to do, so I dare not disturb you. I will take my leave first."

After saying that, Pei Huang turned and left, while Zhou Chang looked at his father's study and remained silent for a long time without saying anything.

After a long while, he walked into his father's study and let out a long breath.

"father."

Zhou Xu looked at him, then motioned for him to sit down. After he sat down, General Zhou told him the general situation, then looked at Zhou Chang's expression, frowned and asked, "Why, have you developed feelings for him after spending some time with him?"

Zhou Chang shook his head slightly, thinking of Li Yun, who was like a god of war on the battlefield, and he sighed.

"I'm worried... that I can't beat him."

(End of this chapter)