Thief Emperor

Chapter 625: Xiangzhou City is Conquered
"Ascend."

On top of the Chuzhou city wall, Feng Qi put down the telescope, turned his head to look at Li Yun, and whispered: "In the past few days, the intensity of the Pinglu Army's attacks has obviously decreased a lot. Even if they come to attack, at most a thousand people will attack at a time."

“They’ve learned their lesson.”

Feng Qi paused and continued, "Moreover, some of my officers and brigade commanders have been using telescopes to observe the number of enemy tents outside the city these days. Although we cannot be sure, we estimate that some of the Pinglu Army should have left."

"It is very likely that he went to Yangzhou."

Li Yun said "hmm" and nodded, "I understand."

His eyes looked into the distance.

At this point, he had done almost everything he could.

The last time he used himself as bait, in a fierce battle, he consumed 20 to 30 percent of the Pinglu Army's southward forces. Now he is trapped in Chuzhou. There are at least 10,000 to 20,000 Pinglu Army soldiers in the outer city of Chuzhou.

Otherwise, Li Yun could easily break out, and Deng Yang from Fengyang could easily provide support.

In other words, Li Yun's Chuzhou alone has already drawn at least 30,000 troops from the Pinglu Army.

As for Yangzhou...

Li Yun has already used carrier pigeons to deliver messages and deploy troops.

Because of the boast he made in Yangzhou last time, Li Yun definitely did not want the Pinglu Army to go to Yangzhou.

Wherever the army of this era went, it was a disaster for the local people. Even the soldiers from Jiangdong could not avoid some dishonest ones sometimes.

After they arrive in Yangzhou, whether they can capture the city or not, it will be a disaster for the people in Yangzhou.

but…

For Li Yun, it wasn't that bad.

Yangzhou is located directly south of Chuzhou, which means that if the Pinglu Army failed to capture Chuzhou and turned around to attack Yangzhou, then...

They went deep into the heart of Jiangbei.

Li Yun was naturally uncomfortable being trapped deep in the enemy's hinterland, but it also meant that it would be difficult for these Pinglu troops to escape easily!
Even if Yangzhou is captured, it would not be a big loss if the Pinglu army can be crippled.

At worst, Li Yun will never go to Yangzhou again in his lifetime!

Thinking of this, Li Yun looked in the direction of Jingxiang again and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
"I don't know what the situation is like in Jingxiang now."

…………

Outside Xiangzhou City, there is a mountain called Xian Mountain.

This mountain is not particularly high, but it is very close to Xiangzhou City. If you climb up the hillside and the weather is fine, you can see half of Xiangzhou City.

At this time, halfway up the hill, Major General Li Hao and several followers were leading Pei Huang up the mountain.

Li Hao's family is a family of military generals. He has been practicing martial arts since childhood, so his physique is naturally good. However, Pei Huang is not so strong. He was originally a civil servant and had not exercised much. He was already out of breath.

There are no steps in this wild mountain, and when they encounter some steep places, Li Hao needs to reach out and pull him up.

After climbing for a long time, Pei Huang finally couldn't hold on any longer. He looked up at Li Hao, his face flushed from exhaustion. "Major General, you still have the energy to climb a mountain at this time!"

Li Hao ignored him and just said to the person leading the way, "How far is it?"

The leader was a dark-skinned man. He lowered his head slightly and said, "Major General, we are only two or three hundred steps away."

Li Hao said "hmm" and followed with big strides. After more than two hundred steps, they indeed came to an open space with a relatively wide view.

The leader pointed to the distance and said, "Look, General, that's Xiangzhou. Now..."

"The Jiangdong soldiers are attacking the city."

Li Hao quickly raised his head and looked into the distance.

He had excellent eyesight and could see things far away. He saw that in the distance, under the city of Xiangzhou, teams of Jiangdong soldiers were attacking the city one after another.

Someone set up a ladder and climbed up the city wall desperately, but was hit by falling rocks and fell down.

There were also people who were shot by arrows and fell from the ladder.

The leader pointed at Xiangzhou City and said, "Look, Major General, the Jiangdong soldiers now have a new thing, a kind of inconspicuous iron pipe. They use a wire to lead it out, and then light the fuse. After throwing it out, this thing will explode with a bang."

"The subordinates have seen this many times in the past few days."

Li Yun has nine departments. Old-established vassal states like the Pinglu Army naturally have their own intelligence organizations. Previously, the number of spies in Qingzhou was even far greater than that of Li Yun's nine departments.

The man leading the way was a spy from Qingzhou, who came to inquire about the situation in Jingxiang.

Li Hao looked for a long time, but could only see an outline, not a clear one. The spy lowered his head and said, "Major General, we all looked at it from close up, but you are too precious to be close to the battlefield."

"This is the safest place, and it's also the closest place." Li Hao looked into the distance and said, "I heard that Jiangdong has developed a telescope that can see far away. It's amazing."

"It would be great if I could have a mirror like this at this time."

After Li Yun distributed telescopes on a large scale and then gave away some of them, this thing was no longer so mysterious. At least the son of a military governor like Li Hao had heard of it.

It's just that it's hard to get.

At this moment, Pei Huang finally caught up. He was short-sighted and couldn't see the battlefield in the distance clearly, so he frowned and said, "Major General, you stationed your troops 200 miles away and brought me to Xiangzhou on horseback, just to see this?"

Li Hao looked back at him, then said in a deep voice: "Our brothers in Qingzhou have deduced that Xiangzhou will be captured in the next two days under the fierce attack of the Jiangdong Army, so we have to come here to take a look at the enemy situation in advance."

"As for you, Third Young Master, you came here on your own initiative."

"Two days?"

Pei Huang was stunned for a long time when he heard this. He also stepped forward from the crowd and squinted his eyes, as if he could see the battle situation below clearly, but unfortunately, he could see nothing.

Just as a few people were talking, a bright fire appeared in the distance. Li Hao looked up quickly and saw that there was already smoke at the gate of Xiangzhou City, and it seemed that some fire could still be seen.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

By the time everyone looked towards Xiangzhou City, the sound of the huge explosion had just reached here, several breaths slower than the fire.

At this time, it was Su Sheng who was commanding the battle. He turned around and looked at the gunners who were controlling the catapults, and shouted, "Can you throw the thunder bomb onto the city wall?"

The driver nodded in a daze, and then heard Su Sheng shouting, "And all these catapults of yours, ten thunder bombs for each car!"

"Give it to me, throw it onto Xiangzhou City!"

A group of catapults immediately started throwing thunder bombs at the city walls.

This thing has to be ignited before it can be used, so if it is controlled by a catapult, it is difficult to guarantee when it will explode. Out of ten attacks by the catapult, eight out of ten thunder bombs did not work.

Either it was an airburst or the throw was too early.

But even so, some of the thunder bombs still exploded on the city wall of Xiangzhou, making the Xiangzhou defenders terrified.

When another thunder bomb exploded on the tower, Chen Da, who had been commanding from below the city, could no longer hold back. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Charge! Let's go up to the tower!"

At this moment, the attack on Chuzhou had actually lasted for quite a long time, and the Jiangdong soldiers had suffered some losses. Even someone as honest as Chen Da couldn't help but get angry at this moment.

The battlefield is the place that can best inspire passion.

No matter how honest and peaceful a person is, when he is on the battlefield and his blood is aroused, he may turn into a bloodthirsty monster.

Chen Da put on armor and personally led the team to set up ladders to attack the city!

Under the cover of artillery fire, they quickly climbed up to the Xiangzhou city wall. Chen Da drew his sword, killed a Xiangzhou defender with one blow, and then shouted loudly.

"Xiangzhou has been breached!"

His voice was like thunder, resounding throughout the entire Xiangzhou city wall.

"Xiangzhou has been breached!"

At this moment, the city was far from being breached, but such a shout did make the Xiangzhou defenders feel disheartened.

In addition, something inexplicable exploded on the city wall, and the morale of the Xiangzhou defenders became even lower.

As a result, more and more Jiangdong soldiers appeared on the city wall.

Chen Da blocked the spear of a Xiangzhou defender with one blow. Just as he was about to strike forward again, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. Looking back, he saw a Xiangzhou defender standing behind him.

There was a long cut on his back, and blood was dripping.

Chen Da felt no pain. He just shouted angrily, strode forward, and stabbed the Xiangzhou defender to death with one knife.

Then he shouted angrily: "Brothers, stand firm first, stand firm first!"

"Once we have gained a firm foothold, we will go down the tower and open the gate of Xiangzhou!"

……

On the hillside of Mount Xian in the distance, Li Hao withdrew his gaze. He turned back silently and looked behind him, seeing Pei Huang looking confused due to his nearsightedness.

The young general had a strange expression on his face. He looked at Pei Huang and said softly, "Third Young Master."

Pei Huang looked at his expression and seemed to understand something. He slowly exhaled: "Xiangzhou..."

Li Hao nodded slightly.

"Today, the city will most likely be breached."

(End of this chapter)