Thief Emperor

Chapter 682: Sniper confrontation in Central Plains!

Mr. Cui stretched out his fingers and calculated silently.

"Li Tong died not long ago. His eldest son, Li Zhen, is not a very powerful person. It will take at least a year, or even longer, for him to completely take over the Hedong Army."

Minister Cui exhaled and continued, "Although Xiao Xian of Fanyang can move now, the Khitans are watching closely, so he won't move easily."

"So this time, the only ones who can participate, besides Li Yun and Wei Quanzhong, are Pinglu Jiedushi Zhou Xu and Shannan West Jiedushi Chen Bingyi."

"There are also the Jiedushi of Zhaoyi, the Jiedushi of Xuanwu, the Jiedushi of Zhongwu of Xuzhou, and other Jiedushi."

Cui Shao shook his head slightly and said, "Uncle, the latter batch of Jiedushi, who only have 10,000 or at most 20,000 people under their command, are no longer qualified to leave."

He looked at Cui Yuan and said silently: "These Jiedushi were unable to defeat even Wang Junping in the past. Now they are at most used to guard the city. They don't even have the qualifications to enter the battlefield. If we expect them to fight against Li Yun, every one of them will die."

"At present, the only ones who can enter the Central Plains battlefield are the four families that my uncle mentioned."

"In addition to General Wei and the thief Li, there is the Li family of the Hedong Jiedushi, and the Zhou family of the Pinglu Jiedushi."

"At most, we can add Chen Bingyi, the governor of Shannan West Road. Chen Bingyi has always been a golden man. He did nothing when Li Yun was doing all this in Shannan East Road and occupying Jingxiang. He will most likely not make any moves in the Central Plains War. In my nephew's opinion, the Central Plains War should be divided into two battles."

He looked at Cui Yuan and whispered, "The first battle is between General Wei and the thief Li. In this battle, no matter how fierce the fight is, the other two families will not be defeated. Only when these two families fight to the end, the Jiedushi of Hedong and the Jiedushi of Pinglu will be able to move and fight the next battle."

Cui Yuan looked at Cui Shao and said silently: "Li Yun is now entrenched in the southeast. According to the information sent by the Imperial City Bureau, he has become an independent force in the southeast and is quite popular among the people. Now, he, Li, has a huge rear base with millions of households under his rule."

Cui Xianggong narrowed his eyes and whispered, "Do you know what this means?"

"What else could it mean?"

Cui Shao whispered, "It means that the Jiangdong soldiers have lost their lives, and the man surnamed Li can replenish them from the rear at any time. It means that he has the qualifications to lose the battle and can be defeated but not defeated."

Throughout history, there have been countless recorded wars and forces. These forces are different. Some of them seem to be powerful and seem to be able to sweep the world, but as long as they suffer a major defeat, they will immediately collapse and turn into ashes.

However, there is another group of forces that are extremely resilient. No matter how unfavorable the war is, no matter how difficult it is, and no matter how many defeats they suffer, they can always persevere and eventually achieve something.

This is the difference between having a rear and not having one.

With a rear base and a piece of territory of one's own, after a defeat, as long as one retreats, the enemy will not dare to pursue them, and one will have enough time to recuperate and recover.

The reason why Li Yun had the confidence to establish a country and become the king of Wu was because he actually already had a national-level rear base, and he was able to survive defeat.

We have enough confidence to confront and fight any force in the world.

Cui Xianggong looked at his nephew and shook his head slightly, saying, "It means that if Li Yun gets angry, he can forcibly recruit another 200,000 or even 300,000 troops in a few months."

"Can the Shuofang Army do this?"

Cui Shao looked at Cui Yuan and whispered, "Lingzhou is too far away from the Central Plains. Even if General Wei has a rear base, he can't supply the Central Plains, so..."

He said softly: "This time, after the general has gained a firm foothold in the Central Plains, he will not go back. By then, the Central Plains will be the general's rear area."

Cui Yuan was silent for a while, then said expressionlessly, "It seems that Wei Quanzhong is going to make a desperate bet."

"In this world, except for that thief Li, most people have to take a gamble."

Cui Shao took a deep breath and said, "At this time, courage is needed."

Prime Minister Cui narrowed his eyes and said, "What Wei Quanzhong did during the time he occupied Guanzhong was seen by the people of the capital and Guanzhong. Can such a person turn the Central Plains into his rear base after occupying it?"

"To occupy a territory and manage the rear is not something that can be achieved by simply conquering it. Back then, Wang Junping almost occupied the Central Plains, but in the end, he didn't even have a rear."

"That's why the general would use the child so highly."

Cui Shao looked at Cui Yuan and whispered, "That's why I'm telling you all this, uncle. You've been a prime minister for many years and have many students and former officials..."

Cui Xianggong said coldly: "I have no right to control what you are going to do, but I will never cooperate with Wei Quanzhong in my lifetime. Besides, students and old officials are useful in times of peace."

"In this world today, which student or former official would do such a thing just because of what an old man like me says?"

Cui Shao was silent for a long time before he sighed and bowed to Cui Yuan, saying, "Since you said so, I won't say much. I just want to say one last thing to you." "I will not bring disgrace to the Cui family. If I have the opportunity in the future, I will definitely bring glory to the Cui family."

After saying this, he bowed deeply to Cui Yuan and kowtowed to the ground.

"Goodbye, kid."

He retreated cautiously.

Cui Xianggong sat alone on the chair, silent for a while, then slowly closed his eyes and sighed: "The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit, the fight will never end, the fight will never end."

…………

Junzhou City.

At this time, Li Yun had already come down the mountain from Wudang. He actually stayed on Mount Wudang for seven days.

During these seven days, in addition to learning about the origin of Wudang Taoism, Li Yun also learned some techniques from the Taoists on Wudang Mountain.

He himself has a very high level of internal martial arts skills, and breathing has become his instinct. In this case, Li Yun's "hardware" foundation must be excellent.

It can even be said that it is the most advanced hardware.

Even for a master like Pei Zhuang, who has practiced martial arts since childhood and has developed internal strength, it is extremely difficult to withstand Li Yun's brute force head-on, especially on the battlefield, the gap is even greater.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Pei Zhuang met Li Yun on the battlefield, and both of them were wearing armor, and both were fighting to the death, Li Yun could kill Pei Zhuang with minor injuries or even no injury.

Now, after communicating with the Taoists of Wudang Mountain for a few days, Li Yun also learned some Wudang methods of exerting force. Vaguely, he has already seen the threshold of stepping from external strength to internal strength.

At this time, in a house in Junzhou City, Zhao Cheng, who had just arrived from the neighboring Fangzhou, stood beside Li Yun and listened to Li Yun talking about Kung Fu. After listening, he smiled and said, "When I was young, I heard that there were some very powerful martial artists in my father's army. Some of them could kill people with their palms through armor. I'm afraid that the king is now more powerful than those people."

Li Yun waved his hand and said with a smile: "I don't know if this thing will be useful in the future."

He had heard about some levels of Kung Fu and knew about the so-called Hua Jin, but no matter what, these were just pastimes in his spare time. He couldn't and would not devote all his attention to them.

Real martial arts are always the skills to defeat ten thousand enemies on the battlefield. Mr. Li is now able to defeat ten thousand enemies, or even one hundred thousand enemies. Apart from having fun, the only use of practicing martial arts is to maintain health.

After all, there are actually old Taoist priests in Wudang Mountain who are over 90 or almost 100 years old and are still very brisk.

After chatting with Zhao Cheng for a while, not long after, Meng Qing also trotted over. After seeing Li Yun, he first saluted Li Yun with a fist and called out "Your Highness", then saluted Zhao Cheng with a fist and called out "General".

After paying his respects, he began to report on his work.

"Shangri-La, Junzhou has been cleaned up inside and outside, and officials can be sent to take over the people's livelihood affairs."

Li Yun nodded and motioned Zhao Cheng and Meng Qing to sit down.

"After you set out from Xiangzhou, I suddenly had an idea and asked Huang Chao, the governor of Xiangzhou, to attack Tangzhou. I didn't know that he was very good at this. Tangzhou was almost conquered in one battle. Now, after reporting to me, he has already marched into Yuzhou."

"If we can take over Yuzhou, then we will be close to the capital."

At this point, Li Yun looked at the two of them and asked with a smile: "If this is the progress, it seems that we don't need to continue operating in Shannan East Road. We can consider directly marching into the Central Plains."

Zhao Cheng was thoughtful after hearing this, and then whispered: "Sir, as long as the food and supplies can keep up, our Jiangdong Army can go anywhere in the world now."

Meng Qing also spoke up, "I have met Envoy Huang several times. He is indeed a capable commander and well versed in military affairs."

"Well."

Li Yun narrowed his eyes and said softly, "You all go back and think about this matter and write a set of rules. When General Su finishes handling military affairs, we will discuss the matter of going straight into the Central Plains."

Having said that, he paused and spoke softly.

"The Shuofang Army... has already moved south."

(End of this chapter)