Thief Emperor

Chapter 637 Heavy losses!

The sky will be bright.

The Pinglu Army’s granary in Bailian Township was engulfed in flames.

At this time, the war had come to an end. With eight hundred troops against one thousand, the Jiangdong Army had almost won this small-scale war with a complete victory.

Of course, it was impossible for Li Yun to wipe out all the defenders of the granary because of insufficient troops to surround it. In fact, after the granary caught fire, the defenders of the Pinglu Army had no will to fight anymore.

It wasn't long before the men began to flee.

However, Li Yun fought more fiercely, and with the Jiangdong soldiers' great momentum, they destroyed at least half of the army of a thousand men in one night, killing 500 of them.

The casualties under Li Yun's command did not even exceed a hundred.

This is a big win from any perspective.

Mr. Li stood at the door of the granary, looking at the raging fire, and shook his head slightly: "What a pity."

Li Yun estimated that there were about two to three thousand dan of grain in this granary. This amount of grain was enough to feed an army of 10,000 people for several months.

In other words, this amount of food is basically enough for the people in a small town to eat for a whole year.

Su Zhan was standing next to Li Yun at the moment. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Sir, these are the enemy's food and fodder. They should be burned. I don't think it's a pity at all."

Li Yun glanced at him, shook his head slightly and said, "You have never been a household tyrant."

Li Yun, who used to be a bandit, might not have such a "pity" thought, but now he is the head of Jiangdong. After becoming the head of the family, he realized that firewood and rice are really damn expensive!
If Li Yun had enough troops this time, and if he was not behind the Pinglu Army, he would most likely transport the food back to his own home and not leave a single grain for the Pinglu Army.

But now, since there is no condition to transport it back, Li Yun would choose to burn the food without hesitation even if it happened ten thousand times.

"Okay, it's almost dawn."

Li looked up at the sky and said, "It's almost time for us to retreat. We are too close to Huoqiu. The Pinglu Army also has cavalry. Who knows, they may provide support at any time."

Having said that, he thought about it for a moment, then picked up a burnt stick from the side of the granary, found a wooden sign, and used the burnt stick to leave two lines of words for General Zhou.

After writing these two lines, Li Yun stood up and said in a deep voice: "Mount your horses and withdraw your troops!"

At this time, only a little over 700 people were left out of the 800, and dozens of horses were damaged. Fortunately, there were more horses than people, and everyone quickly got on their horses and left Bailian Township, this troubled place.

After Li Yun and his group left, around noon, a group of two or three hundred riders finally arrived at the granary.

At this time, the fire in the granary had not yet been extinguished and was still burning fiercely. The piled up grain was burned red by the fire, and in the firelight, you could still see the burnt red grains.

General Zhou was riding on his horse, looking at the burning granary with a gloomy face.

Behind him, Gongsun Hao jumped off his horse and limped to the granary. He looked up and saw more than a dozen small granaries on fire. He sighed slightly.

After walking for a while, he saw the wooden board left by Li Yun on the ground. After glancing at the content on it, Gongsun Hao frowned slightly. He subconsciously wanted to throw the board into the fire. This action was seen by General Zhou who also dismounted. Zhou Xu had a gloomy face and shouted, "What are you doing!"

Gongsun Hao stopped what he was doing, turned around to look at Zhou Xu, and said, "General, I'd better not read the dirty words."

Zhou Xu strode forward and almost snatched the sign from Gongsun Hao. After taking a look at it, his expression became even gloomier.

"During the Fengyang Alliance, my brother burned books to offer sacrifices to the heavens. You and I reported to the heavens and pledged to be brothers. Now my brother has violated the alliance, so I burn grain to offer sacrifices to the heavens."

"Also inform God of the agreement with Fengyang."

"It doesn't count anymore."

Seeing the last four words, General Zhou silently clenched his fists, then turned his head to look at Gongsun Hao and said coldly: "What kind of dirty words are these! What are you trying to cover up for Li Er?"

Gongsun Hao looked calm and said, "General, Li Yun is treacherous. This is obviously his trick to confuse you. General, don't be fooled."

At this point, Gongsun Hao paused and said, "General, the Jiangdong Army has blocked the north of Shouzhou. Now there are Meng Qing's troops in the east and Fengyang garrison in the west. Now Li Yun has brought his troops here and burned down our army's granary. It is clear what he is thinking."

He paused, and continued, "Back then, Pei Huang was so smooth-talking that he said many parties were fighting against Li Ni together. Now that the war has been going on for nearly two months, the many parties that Pei Huang mentioned are only our Pinglu Army."

"With the battle in Jingxiang like this, Li Yun has the spare capacity to withdraw troops from Jingxiang at any time."

Gongsun Hao took a deep breath and said, "General, make a decision early! At this time, move the troops eastward to join the army of Chuzhou, and then find an opportunity to return to Huaibei."

"If the dispute continues, the longer it takes, the more disadvantageous it will be for the general."

General Zhou was silent for a while, then slowly said, "The Huai River is not only a natural boundary between Huainan and Huaibei, but also an obstacle. It is not easy for us to cross the river from the north to the south. We were blocked by the Jiangdong soldiers and suffered heavy losses."

"Will they not stop us if we withdraw?" Upon hearing this question, Gongsun Hao lowered his head slightly and said, "General, we have been deceived by the court. We have to bear this loss regardless of whether we can bear it or not."

"The court, the court."

Hearing the word "imperial court", General Zhou gnashed his teeth in anger. He clenched his fists and said angrily: "The imperial court is simply untrustworthy. I, Zhou, suffered such a big loss this time, and more than half of it was caused by the imperial court."

"Let's see which Jiedushi is willing to pay attention to the court from now on!"

After saying this, General Zhou raised his head again and looked at the granary with flames rising to the sky. After a moment of silence, he shook his head and sighed, "It's no use regretting."

When crossing the river, the Pinglu Army suffered thousands of casualties, and when besieging Chuzhou, the casualties exceeded ten thousand. Up to now, even in the head-on battles with the Jiangdong soldiers on the Huoqiu and Gushi fronts, the Pinglu Army has not been able to gain any advantage.

In other words, up to now, the losses of the Pinglu Army in Jiangbei have reached 20,000 people!
Moreover, at least half of these 20,000 people are not new recruits.

Even for old military towns like Fan Yang and Shuofang, this kind of damage is unacceptable. For the Pinglu Army, it is not just a matter of breaking bones, but breaking arms and legs!

After suffering such a huge loss, if we could get some rewards, such as taking over a few prefectures in Jiangdong, we could barely make up for it. Now...

Not only will he be unable to recover his health, but even if he retreats to Huaibei in disgrace, he might still be chased by Li Yun and bitten hard.

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How can I swallow this?

But what can I do if I can’t swallow it?

General Zhou was silent for a long time, then he looked down at the sign that Li Yun left for him, and remained silent for a long time without saying anything.

After a long while, he looked at Gongsun Hao and sighed: "Gongsun, tell me your specific opinion."

Gongsun Hao bowed his head deeply and said, "Yes, General."

"General, there are many Jiangdong soldiers in the west and north, and they may increase in number. It is impossible to go in these two directions, so we can only turn back."

"Go back to Chuzhou and join the large army."

At this point, Gongsun Hao paused, looked at Zhou Xu, and whispered, "General, victory and defeat are common in the military. Throughout history, there have been many examples of troops withdrawing after a defeat. General, please don't take it to heart."

"At this time, as long as we can bring back most of the main forces, it will be acceptable to Qingzhou."

He paused again and sighed: "No matter what, after this battle, the imperial court has lost its credibility and it will be difficult to contact local forces to form an alliance. From now on, Li Yun's Jiangdong Kingdom will be completely formed."

Gongsun Hao whispered: "No one can shake him."

Zhou Xu looked at Gongsun Hao silently, his voice a little hoarse: "Do you think he can succeed?"

Gongsun Hao shook his head slightly and replied, "It's hard to say whether he can succeed, but I'm afraid it will be difficult for anyone to get involved in Jiangdong in the future. Even if Li Yun can't succeed, no one else can take Jiangdong from him, or the entire southeast."

"Without the southeast corner, there is no way to talk about unification."

General Zhou nodded silently and said, "This Li Er..."

"It really got him up."

…………

In the next few days, the Pinglu Army launched an extremely frenzied attack on Meng Qing's troops, forcing Meng Qing's troops to retreat step by step and at one point began to ask for help from Chen Da's troops.

However, Li Yun discovered something completely different from the apparent battle situation.

"Zhou Xu is going to run away."

Li Yun pointed at the map and said slowly.

Yang Xi scratched his head and asked, "Superior, how do you know that?"

"If he doesn't run, he's going to die."

Li narrowed his eyes and whispered, "The crazy attack to force Meng Qing back is to avoid being bitten by Meng Qing when retreating eastward."

Mr. Li's eyes fell on the map and he murmured.

"Can you run?"

(End of this chapter)