Thief Emperor

Chapter 706: Breaking the Five Mansions

"Ascend."

Zhao Cheng looked at Li Yun, hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke: "The eastern part of Henan Road is now under the command of the Pinglu Army. There are no Pinglu Army in Yingzhou and Haozhou, but Xuzhou has been occupied by the Pinglu Army. If we want to take Xuzhou, I am afraid we will have a conflict with the Pinglu Army. At that time, the Shuofang Army and the Pinglu Army will attack us from both sides, and our army may be attacked from both sides."

Li Yun smiled and said, "I know this."

He said softly: "We don't have to take Xuzhou. We just need to take Yingzhou and Bozhou, and then march to Xuzhou. We need to see the attitude of the Pinglu Army at this time."

"It's impossible that if they don't move, we will just pretend they don't exist."

"it is good."

The Pinglu Army can be said to be Li's old rival. The last time the Pinglu Army fought with the Jiangdong Army, it was basically half-destroyed by the Jiangdong Army. However, Zhou Xu is still there, the foundation of the Pinglu Army is still there, and their base in Qingzhou has not been lost. Now, more than half a year has passed, and they have recovered some vitality.

However, it is difficult to restore combat effectiveness in such a short time.

More importantly, in the last battle in Jiangbei, regardless of who was right or wrong, the Pinglu Army suffered a great loss in the end. Since they suffered a great loss, they created a great hatred.

It is hard for Li Yun to say whether the Pinglu Army will take action now, but if the Pinglu Army has enough ability to give Li Yun a hard blow at this time, they will definitely not hesitate at all.

This is the worry.

If there were no worries about the Pinglu Army, Li Yun could have deployed his troops in the Central Plains and fought the Shuofang Army with guns and swords. If he won, he could enter the Central Plains. If he lost, he could return to Jiangdong to lick his wounds and fight again after he recovered.

However, Li Yun had to be concerned because there was the Pinglu Army behind him. If he was attacked from behind, even if he could retreat to Jiangdong in the end, it would probably take him three to five years to recover.

It just so happened that the Shuofang Army had already stopped at this time, planning to digest the Central Plains territory and strengthen itself. Li Yun could take this opportunity to test the attitudes of the two men in Qingzhou.

If the Pinglu Army exploded at any moment, Li Yun would have to argue with them and explain the "reason" to them.

Zhao Cheng asked a few more questions, and after confirming the general rules, he lowered his head and said, "Then I will rest for a while, and then lead the troops to the east."

"it is good."

Li Yun nodded and smiled, "General Su will also come to Chenzhou to see me in the next few days. Then the three of us will sit together and discuss the subsequent regulations, and more."

Mr. Li chuckled and said, "Didn't some of your subordinates have a problem with the military merit title? It just so happens that the victory in Yuzhou this time was all due to the merits of General Zhao's troops. Send the merit list to me in the next few days and I will arrange it for you as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Zhao Cheng was shocked.

These were the words he said to his subordinates before the battle in order to boost morale. Unexpectedly, they had reached Li Yun's ears verbatim.

Seeing Zhao Cheng's expression, Li Yun was startled, then smiled and said: "General Zhao, don't misunderstand me, I also heard it. You know, the soldiers are all rough and talkative, and they like to talk nonsense everywhere."

Zhao Cheng lowered his head slightly and said, "The superior has clear rewards and punishments, and the brothers are all convinced. As for the disagreements, some people drank a little and talked nonsense. The superior must not take it to heart."

Li Yun waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, don't worry."

He said calmly: "Whether it is your troops or General Su's troops, many of them were brought up by me, and they are all brothers of me, Li. This time, I also personally commanded part of the Yuzhou command."

"The soldiers led by General Zhao are now able to fight on equal terms with the Shuofang Army. I am very satisfied."

"This time, there will definitely be a lot of military merit titles distributed."

At this point, Li Yun also said helplessly: "It's just that it's difficult to be the head of a family. Many times, what I see, the subordinates can't see, so they will complain that I am biased. You have more than one captain battalion under your command, so you should be able to understand what I mean."

Zhao Cheng lowered his head quickly and said, "Yes, I understand, I understand..."

He also sighed and said with a wry smile: "I also deeply understand this."

"All right."

Li Yun waved his hand and said, "That's all for today. When General Su arrives in a few days, the three of us can get together and have a drink."

Zhao Cheng thought for a moment, then bowed his head and said, "Master, I would like to ask for leave from you for the next few days."

Li Yun was startled, then smiled and said, "What's the matter?"

"My family was destroyed because of my father's affairs. I am the only male left, but my two sisters...both sisters have married and were not affected. One of them should be in Chenzhou."

"Now that Chenzhou has been conquered, I want to go look for her. If she is still alive, I will try to let her live in peace no matter what."

Li Yun looked up at him, then stood up and shook his head slightly, saying, "I neglected this matter. I was too busy these years and completely forgot about it. I should have taken Sister Zhao to Jinling a few years ago. General Zhao has been working under me for the past few years, and I can no longer hide it from others. Your sister... has not been affected, right?"

Zhao Cheng was silent for a while, then lowered his head and said, "After my father got into trouble, my two brothers-in-law's families changed their names to avoid disaster, and I have only used the name Zhao Cheng in the past one or two years. In the past one or two years, the imperial court was weak, so my sister was probably not implicated."

"Anyway, I will go and look for it."

"Okay, okay." Li Yun said, "Then General Zhao will go look for you. I will ask Chenzhou Governor Liu Zhiyuan to look for you later. He has been in Chenzhou for several years. With his help, it should be easier to find you."

"I've been living in Chenzhou during this period. If you find them, bring them to my place and I'll treat them and their family to a meal."

If it were an ordinary person, inviting him to dinner would just be an invitation, but Li Yun is now the King of Wu, and when he invites him to dinner, he really wants to give this family a bite to eat.

Long, long meal.

Although Zhao Cheng's current status and position are enough to provide food for his sister's family, Li Yun is an "official" in Jiangdong after all, so the nature of the situation is completely different.

Zhao Cheng knelt on the ground and bowed his head: "Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you, Your Majesty."

Li Yun helped him up and said with a smile: "It's been so many years, and you're still so distant."

"When we succeed, the first thing I will do is to redress the injustice done to General Su and General Zhao."

…………

Lingnan, Xunzhou.

Li Zheng, dressed in armor, arrived at the front line.

On the front battlefield, thousands of Jiangdong soldiers were majestic. Gongsun Hao, who was also in armor, bowed his head slightly, clasped his fists and said to Li Zheng: "General, the battlefield has been cleaned up. Our army has won a great victory!"

"Now, the Lingnan Army has retreated to Guangzhou. I will lead the troops westward and attack Guangzhou immediately after the general's order!"

Li Zheng looked at Gongsun Hao with a complicated expression.

About two or three months ago, he was ambushed on the road and was seriously injured. Gongsun Hao was also injured, but the injury was minor and he recovered quickly.

Therefore, in the past two months, most military affairs were handed over to Gongsun Hao.

It has to be admitted that for Li Zheng now, there is still a certain gap between him and Gongsun Hao in terms of military capabilities.

And the gap is not small.

Li Zheng also has more than 10,000 and close to 20,000 Jiangdong troops under his command. In terms of combat effectiveness and equipment, these Jiangdong troops are not much worse than those under Zhao Cheng. When they are in Li Zheng's hands, he and the Lingnan army can only be in a stalemate, with both sides winning and losing.

Now, after only two months in Gongsun Hao's command, he has achieved a great victory over the Lingnan Army.

This can’t be blamed on Li Zheng.

After all, the appearance of Li Yun was actually an accident. We can't expect that there are rare geniuses around him. In fact, it is quite a coincidence that he has a brother as meticulous as Liu Bo.

As for Li Zheng, he is just an average person. He has improved a little over the past few years following Li Yun, but he is still above average at best. Moreover, he has only been exposed to military affairs for a few years.

In terms of experience, he is far inferior to veteran generals like Gongsun Hao. Of course, there is a gap between him and people like Gongsun Hao.

After a moment of silence, Li Zheng asked, "General Gongsun, how much damage was done?"

Gongsun Hao bowed his head slightly and said, "Our army suffered more than a thousand casualties, and the Lingnan army suffered at least five thousand casualties. In addition, we captured the son of Lingnan Jiedushi Yan Ji alive, named Yan Cong."

Gongsun Hao bowed his head slightly and said, "General, you have trained your troops well. Our army is much stronger than the Lingnan army. In two months at most, I will be able to take over the five prefectures of Lingnan. By the end of the year, I will have taken over most of Lingnan Road!"

Hearing this, Li Zheng was silent for a while, then he said with deep emotion: "In terms of marching and fighting, General Gongsun is far better than me. In the future, General Gongsun must teach me more."

Gongsun Hao shook his head and whispered, "General, you must not say that."

"To march and fight, one does not necessarily have to be able to command troops on the battlefield and charge into battle. These are the duties of a general. A true commander only needs to know how to use people."

"In the future, the general will be a talented general."

Gongsun Hao forced a smile towards Li Zheng and said, "General, I and all the officers in our army, our future all depends on you."

"General, you just need to plan your strategy, and leave the rest to me."

Li Zheng fell silent again. After a while, he sighed and said, "Please report in writing. Treat Yan Cong well. We are not familiar with Lingnan and will govern it in the future."

"It still depends on him."

Gongsun Hao bowed his head and clasped his fists, looking respectful.

"I will obey your orders!"

(End of this chapter)