Thief Emperor

Chapter 725 Forty days!
"Brother."

In the Hedong Jiedushi Mansion, he almost looked up at the elder brother of the family and asked, “What’s the matter? Why are you so anxious?”

"Sit down and talk, sit down and talk."

Li Zhen pulled Li Hao to sit down. He looked at the brother in front of him who was only in his early thirties, and was a little dazed.

At the beginning, when their father, General Li Tong, led his troops to Beijing to defend the king, the only qualified son he brought with him was not him, the eldest son, but his brother Li Gao.

Li Hao was the most beloved son of General Li among his peers in the Hedong Li family.

In fact, if the world had not been in turmoil, General Li would have wanted to make the power inheritance of the Hedong Army as smooth as possible before his death. Otherwise, it would be difficult to say who would become the Hedong Jiedushi at this time.

However, even so, Li Hao is still the most outstanding among his brothers of the same generation, surpassing his brothers in both leading troops and talent.

At this time, Li Zhen, who received Wei Quanzhong's letter, immediately called Li Hao over without thinking.

"look by youself."

Li Hao took the letter with both hands, took a look at it, and sneered, "Brother, this Wei guy wants both Guanzhong and Central Plains, and he is reluctant to give up both. He is using us as a pawn! He is counting on us to defend Central Plains for him, so that the entire Central Plains will not fall into Li Yun's hands!"

Li Zhen lowered his head and drank a sip of tea, frowning and saying, "But this Li Yun... shows the nature of a tiger and a wolf."

"You may not know that his Jiangdong Army is not only fighting in the Central Plains, but also in Lingnan Road at the same time, and has already defeated the Lingnan Jiedushi Yan Ji. At this time, most of Lingnan Road is estimated to have been taken over by him."

"Most of the South has adopted the surname Li because of him!"

Li Hao looked calm and said calmly: "Brother, don't we also have the surname Li?"

"Since ancient times, the key to fighting for the world has never been in the south, but in the Central Plains. The Jiangdong Army has never fought a major battle with the Shuofang Army. Moreover, they have more people and their combat effectiveness is by no means weak."

"At this time, if we get involved, it will be exactly what Wei Quanzhong wants!"

"That guy surnamed Wei has surrounded the capital now. He might announce his throne to the world in a few days. Now he writes a letter saying this. If we stop Li Yun for him, will they give us half of Guanzhong?"

"Moreover, this Li Yun is much more powerful than he appears to be."

Li Hao whispered, "Jiangdong now has only a few hundred thousand soldiers on the surface, and Li Yun brought a hundred thousand into the Central Plains. It seems that it is nothing special, but big brother, think about how big Li Yun's territory is now."

"Our Hedong Province, plus the Xiao family's Hebei Province, plus the Zhou family's territory of the Pinglu Army, and even the Central Plains, is probably only about the same size as Li Yun's territory."

"That is to say, if Li Yun wants to recruit soldiers, it would be very easy now. He can pull out an army of 200,000 to 300,000 people."

Li Zhen frowned and shook his head, saying, "Not really. He has only been in charge of these places for a short time. If he forcibly recruits troops, it will be like sending a silver-plated spear to the front."

"and."

Li Zhen said in a low voice: "Now, each family claims to have an army of 100,000 at any time, but how many families actually have 100,000 people fighting?"

"Li Yun's 100,000 troops are real. If we include the people who transport food and supplies, it is estimated that there are far more than 100,000 people."

If you don't run the household, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. Although he has outstanding abilities, he is not in charge of the household and does not manage the accounts. He does not quite understand how expensive it is to support an army.

Take Li Yun's current situation for example. If he stays in his original territory in Jiangdong and raises an army of hundreds of thousands of people, it will probably not be difficult. However, once these hundreds of thousands of people are mobilized and leave their original places, the food needs to be transported, which will be a huge expense.

Jiangdong cannot afford this expense at present.

And those who always claim to have an army of hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of troops are just claiming to have such an advantage.

In another world, Boss Cao claimed that he had an army of hundreds of thousands, and he must have included civilians and their followers.

The two brothers sat together and discussed for a long time. Finally, Li Hao looked at his elder brother and said, "Brother, I will go to Jinzhou and take over the army of Jinzhou. No matter what problems occur in the Central Plains, please allow me..."

"According to circumstances."

Li Zhen heaved a sigh of relief, a smile appeared on his face, and he said with a smile: "I called you over here just for this matter. I have arranged for the manpower in Jinzhou to go there a long time ago, just for you."

"Brother, after you arrive in Jinzhou."

Li Zhen patted Li Hao on the shoulder and said, "The decision of the Central Plains is entirely up to you. Just write back and ask the Hedong Army to join the war, and I will lead the army to the battle immediately."

Li Hao stood up and saluted his brother. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Brother, can the Jinzhou army move forward? I want to station in Zezhou!"

At this point, Li Yu said softly: "Or Jiangzhou, Puzhou."

"If I go to Jiangzhou, I will station troops in Wenxi."

Li Zhen thought about it seriously and said, "It's up to you. It's up to you."

At this point, he was quite emotional: "This Li Yun is really amazing. It hasn't even been ten years yet, but he has already made such a big name, and he has the same surname as us..." Li Yu said calmly: "People with the same surname may not be from the same clan, but I also want to meet this person and see what's so special about him."

The two brothers had a secret discussion that lasted for more than half an hour. After more than half an hour, Li Hao left Taiyuan with the corresponding seals and documents and rode his horse straight to Jinzhou.

……

At the same time, the Jiangdong army had stationed troops outside Luoyang City and almost surrounded the city.

To be precise, they surrounded the city on three sides except the west of Luoyang. One reason was that there was not enough time, and the other was that they wanted to see if the defenders in Luoyang could break out from the west of the city and join up with the Shuofang Army in Guanzhong.

If this is the case, it would be a huge bargain for Li Yun.

It's like getting a capital city for free.

But obviously, the Shuofang Army was not so generous, nor could they be so generous. After all, General Wei's ambition was no less than Li Yun's, and even exceeded Li Yun's by a lot.

And just after the siege stabilized, Li Yun himself led the follow-up troops all the way to the camp outside Luoyang City.

At this time, although the two armies were stationed in the south and north of Luoyang City and had not joined forces, the distance between them was already quite close.

Therefore, Zhao Cheng and Su Sheng all came together to welcome Li Yunsheng to the tent.

Even Meng Qing rushed to Luoyang to welcome Li Yun. Li Yun was welcomed into the general's tent and sat down. He held a brief meeting with the generals above the rank of captain in the army.

After a military meeting, each general returned to his own camp, but Zhao Cheng and Su Sheng stayed behind tacitly.

Meng Qing stood up to leave, but was stopped by Li Yun. The three of them sat together in the general's tent.

Li Yun was sitting at the main seat, knocking on the table and saying, "I have some news to share with everyone."

“They were all just received.”

Li Yun looked at the three people and said, "The first news is that Yang Hou, a subordinate of Liang Wen in the capital, has led his troops out of the city and surrendered to Wei Quanzhong."

Having said that, Li Yun frowned subconsciously.

This incident made him feel quite bad.

Because according to his previous plan, even if the remaining troops of Liang Wen could not stop the Shuofang Army, they should be able to cause some trouble to the Shuofang Army, or at least consume some of the Shuofang Army's strength.

At worst, we cannot be of any help to the Shuofang Army.

However, the worst situation still happened. Liang Wen's subordinates were not as loyal as Li Yun imagined.

Li looked at the expressions of the three people and continued, "The good news is that not everyone has surrendered to Wei Quanzhong. There seems to be some unrest in the capital, and now Liang Wen's subordinates are fighting each other in the city."

"The Shuofang Army has almost entered the capital."

Mr. Li paused and continued, "This matter will not have much impact on us or the Luoyang battle situation in the short term. You don't have to consider it in the Luoyang battle situation. I just told you about it so that you can be mentally prepared."

"There is one more thing."

Li Yun whispered, "The informant from Hedong Road sent a message that the old Jiedushi's son, Li Hao, has left Taiyuan and headed for Jinzhou. There are a large number of Hedong troops stationed in Jinzhou, so we have to take the Hedong army into consideration in this battle."

"Moreover, the Hedong Army is quite important and may even become a key factor in this war."

"These are the two most important things."

Li Yun looked at everyone and said silently: "On the way here, I have already estimated that if we can take Luoyang in half a month, the Hedong Army will have almost no impact on us. If we can take Luoyang within a month, then the impact will not be great."

"If it's more than a month."

Li Yun shook his head and said, "We have to fight the enemy on both sides, and there is a possibility that the Luoyang defenders will break through from the middle."

"The worst case scenario is that the Pinglu Army is likely to take advantage of the opportunity to take action."

“So I set a time.”

"Forty days."

Li Yun stretched out his finger, slowly and firmly.

"From today on, if we fail to take Luoyang within forty days, we will turn around and leave the capital!"

(End of this chapter)