Thief Emperor

Chapter 631 The real collision!
In the previous stage, Li Yun's strategy in Jiangbei was a strategy of overall contraction.

Therefore, whether it was the Jiangdong soldiers or the Nine Departments, their range of activities became much smaller, and they basically stayed in the city and did not move much.

In this situation, the Jiusi could naturally feel the retreat of a large group of Pinglu troops to the north, but it was difficult for the Jiangdong army to sense the small group of Pinglu troops operating in the north of the Yangtze River.

Jiusi is also difficult to sense.

This is the counterattack launched by General Zhou in Jiangbei.

With the existence of things like the Thunder Bomb, Zhou Xu was very clear that unless he and Li Yun were at a point of life and death and risked everything to attack Nanjing, it would be difficult for him to cause any harm to the Jiangdong Army.

However, the reinforcements coming from Jingxiang to support Jiangbei are not in the city, and they may not have any thunder bombs!

Even if he cannot gain any advantage in Jiangbei, even if he is destined to return to Qingzhou, or even hand over the baton to his son to take over the Pinglu Army, he cannot lose face as General Zhou, and he must make Li Yun suffer a loss in Jiangbei!

So, General Zhou broke up into small groups and headed westward from Chuzhou. He also monitored the reinforcements coming from Jingxiang along the way and successfully blocked Meng Qing's troops near Gushi!
By the time the people from Jiusi discovered Zhou Xu, Zhou Xu's troops were only twenty miles away from Meng Qing's location!
Meng Qing jumped up from the bed with a start. While putting on his clothes, he shouted, "How many enemies are there? Where are they from?"

"How far are we from here?"

The guard said quickly, "The intelligence sent by the Nine Departments says that there is a Pinglu Army heading towards us. Now they should be less than thirty miles away from our camp!"

"Less than thirty miles..."

Meng Qing took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "Drum beat, drum beat!"

"Have everyone put on their armor and get ready immediately!"

The cruising distance of the military scouts is generally within ten miles, and at most twenty miles. At this distance, if it weren't for Jiusi, Meng Qing would have discovered it even later.

By the time all the generals in the army gathered in front of his tent, Meng Qing's heart had already begun to pound.

Although he has a calm temperament, he can't help but feel a little nervous at this moment!
Because since the establishment of the Jiangdong Army, it has only had one direct encounter in the field with the Pinglu Army. On that occasion, Li Yun personally led his troops north and fought a battle with the Pinglu Army led by Zhou Xu outside the city of Yangzhou.

Even in that battle, Li Yun launched a surprise attack first and gained some advantages.

And now, he, Meng Qing, is going to officially fight against the Pinglu Army!

At this moment, it is impossible not to be nervous. Even if Li Yun was here in person, he would probably be feeling uneasy.

But at this point, there is no way out!

The enemy is right in front of us. Even if we turn around and run now, we will probably be caught up by the enemy!

He looked at the generals and officers above the rank of colonel in front of him and said slowly: "The Pinglu Army is attacking us to the east. They should be only a dozen miles away at this time!"

"At this distance, we can run if we want, but the enemy must have cavalry. If we turn around and run at this time, some of our brothers will inevitably be caught up by these cavalry."

"Bros."

Meng Qing said expressionlessly, "I just received information from the Ninth Division that this Pinglu Army has about 10,000 men, which is about the same number as us. We are not much different."

"Since the forces are equal, there is nothing to be afraid of. It takes a thousand days to raise an army and only a moment to deploy it!"

Meng Qing said in a hoarse voice: "The Pinglu Army came south for no reason and now they are blocking us here. It's time to fight them!"

"Whether you can win or not, you won't know until you fight!"

Meng Qing said in a hoarse voice: “We can’t bring shame to Jiangdong and our superiors!”

All the generals and officers were so excited that their blood boiled and they all responded loudly.

"General Meng, give the order!"

"General Meng, give the order!"

"it is good."

Meng Qing said slowly: "Let's line up to meet the enemy!"

"Before you meet the enemy, I have one thing to tell you. Do not be afraid."

"Captain Chen is one step ahead of us, only one day's walk away. I have already sent someone on horseback to inform him. Even if the enemy is numerous and strong, we can only hold out for one day and one night at most before we can wait for reinforcements."

"So there's no need to worry."

Meng Qing said in a deep voice: "Just think of it as us having a serious fight with the Pinglu Army!"

"Whether you win or lose, as long as you don't get promoted and don't embarrass our Jiangdong Army, I won't blame you. If anyone does something embarrassing."

Meng Qing clenched his fist and said, "Don't blame me for being cruel when the time comes!"

"All right!"

He looked up at the sky and said in a deep voice, "Return to your camps and fight!"

"Yes!"

…………

Chuzhou. Li Yun frowned slightly as he looked at the obviously increasing number of Pinglu troops outside the city.

Something's not quite right.

These Pinglu troops retreated too quickly.

He originally wanted to withdraw part of the troops from Jingxiang and give the Pinglu Army a severe blow before they could withdraw.

It would be best to injure the Pinglu Army so badly that Li Yun would not be threatened for a long time in the future.

Moreover, because it was the Pinglu Army that came to cause trouble this time, Li Yun could also use this as an excuse to take advantage of the Pinglu Army's weakness and attack Qingzhou in the north, thus completely swallowing up this neighbor with some hidden dangers.

Thus, occupying the entire eastern region.

But now, the movements of the Pinglu Army are very wrong.

Although Chuzhou was still in a blockade state and Li Yun had no way of knowing the situation outside, he could clearly feel that the number of Pinglu troops near Chuzhou had increased.

In other words, the Pinglu Army in Yangzhou only stayed in Yangzhou for a short period of time before withdrawing from Yangzhou.

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They gave up Yangzhou, and gave up quite decisively.

"It's really weird."

Li whispered to himself: "This doesn't seem like Zhou Xu's character."

Just as Li was thinking, Meng Hai, who was currently following Li Yun, trotted over, bowed his head and said to Li Yun: "Take the position!"

His voice was somewhat hurried: "The Pinglu Army is dispersed!"

Li Yun came back to his senses, looked at him, frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

"The Pinglu Army that surrounded Chuzhou has dispersed!"

Meng Hai said in a deep voice: "There are no Pinglu troops in the south of Chuzhou. Captain Zhang went out for a run and found that the south of Chuzhou City is unobstructed!"

Li Yun narrowed his eyes, still feeling something was wrong. He whispered, "Go, contact the Nine Departments, and send someone to Fengyang to check out the situation there. Also keep a close eye on the movements of the Pinglu Army outside the city."

Meng Hai lowered his head and said, "Yes!"

He turned around and went back to work.

Li Yun thought for a while, then shouted: "Su Zhan!"

Su Zhan trotted over and said with his head down, "Go up!"

"Go prepare my horse and call Yang Qi and the others. I may have to leave the city today."

Su Zhan lowered his head quickly: "Yes!"

After about another hour, Li Yun finally confirmed that the Pinglu Army had given up the siege of Chuzhou. He immediately called two captains, Feng Qi and Zhang Bai, and instructed them to guard Chuzhou and not leave without permission.

After arranging matters in Chuzhou, Li Yun took his guard camp and left Chuzhou on horseback. After leaving Chuzhou, he ran towards Fengyang without hesitation.

During this period, Fengyang also faced siege from the Pinglu Army, but the intensity was far less than that of Chuzhou. Later, the Pinglu Army even gave up attacking Fengyang, so Fengyang was able to allocate troops to support Chuzhou.

Now, as a central area, Fengyang has become the "news distribution center", and a lot of news is transferred in Fengyang.

Before Li Yun arrived in Fengyang, as soon as he arrived in Haozhou, he received news from the Jiusi.

The messenger of the Nine Departments knelt in front of Li Yun, bowed his head and saluted respectfully, saying: "Sir, Commander Meng Qingmeng, who came from Jingxiang to Jiangbei for support, was blocked by the Pinglu Army in Gushi and is currently in a fierce battle."

He paused, lowered his head and said, "It seems that the Pinglu Army still wants to send reinforcements to Gushi. The specific situation of the battle is still unknown."

Li Yun sat on the horse, frowned slightly, then nodded and said, "I understand."

The messenger bowed his head again and said, "Captain Chen's troops are on their way to provide support. At this time, the reinforcements of the two captains have probably already joined them."

"understood."

Mr. Li sat on his horse and murmured, "These old military governors really can't be underestimated."

"Yang Xi."

He shouted, and Yang Xi immediately stepped forward, lowered his head and said, "Take the position!"

"Don't take a break, let's just go straight in one go."

"We'll talk about it after we get to Fengyang."

Yang Xi responded quickly.

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)