Thief Emperor

Chapter 731: Bombardment
"Sir, Luhun, Yique, Shou'an, Xin'an, Yingyang and other counties that are relatively close to Luoyang have all been taken."

"Heqing, Huaizhou and other places are still under attack. General Su is preparing to march towards Ruzhou, which is a little further away."

Li Yun sat in the commander's tent. Meng Hai reported to him the current situation of each army and the real-time progress on a daily basis. While Li Yun was listening, he looked at the detailed intelligence sent by the Nine Departments and the various armies.

Meng Hai handed over a map with both hands, placed it in front of Li Yun, and said with a smile: "Look, sir, this is the marching diagram drawn by Jiusi."

Li Yun took it and took a look. He saw the positions of the Jiangdong Army marked on the map, with arrows indicating their marching directions, as well as the discovered positions of the Shuofang Army and the direction of the Shuofang Army's movement.

For places where the Shuofang Army was suspected to be present, a circle was drawn and a cross was put in the circle.

At the top of the map, the words "March 5th, the sixth year of Zhaoding" were written.

This was what Li Yun personally instructed Liu Bo to do, requiring the Nine Departments to draw real-time maps every day based on the real-time situation they had.

This idea has never been implemented because the situation on the battlefield is ever-changing and there was no particularly suitable map before.

At this time, Jiusi had recruited some very skilled woodblock printmakers, so re-engraving the maps was no longer a difficult task. In addition, most of Jiusi's manpower was now concentrated in this area, so Li Yun's vision could finally be realized.

After Li Yun looked at it carefully, he nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "Draw several copies of this map every day. At least I will send one copy to Generals Zhao and Su."

Maps can be printed using woodblock printing, but the marching routes on the maps change every day, so they can only be drawn every day. The number cannot be too many, three or four copies are enough.

There's not much use in having too much.

Meng Hai bowed his head and said yes. He was about to go down to do his job when he was stopped by Li Yun. Li looked at him and ordered, "Remember, when distributing this map, explain to Generals Zhao and Su that this is only the Nine Departments' judgment of the battlefield. It is for their reference. You cannot follow the map, and you cannot fight the war completely according to this map."

"Remember not to be rigid and stereotyped."

Meng Hai lowered his head and said with a smile: "I understand. I will definitely pass on the message to my superiors."

Li Yun said "hmm" and waved at him. Meng Hai lowered his head and left carefully. As soon as he came out of the tent, he saw Meng Qing walking towards him. The two brothers met each other. Meng Qing lowered his head slightly and said, "Fifth brother."

Meng Hai just patted his shoulder, smiled at him, and said, "Be careful and safe."

After saying that, the two people passed each other.

Meng Qing looked back at the direction where Meng Hai went, and was stunned for a few breaths. Then he turned around and went into Li Yun's tent to report to Li Yun.

He is now the commander-in-chief of the siege of Luoyang, and has a lot of things to deal with every day. After reporting a few things, Meng Qing sat next to Li Yun and said, "Sir, the defenders in Luoyang are getting restless every day. In the past five days, they have made three breakouts with a scale of a thousand people."

"It would be difficult to stop them from passing on information."

Meng Qing whispered, "Moreover, the Shuofang Army has been in the Central Plains for some time. They probably have their own spies in the various counties in the Capital Region. By now, Wei Quanzhong has probably received the news from the Capital Region."

Li Yun nodded, handed him a document, and then slowly said: "Not only did the Shuofang Army receive the news, the Hedong Army probably also received the news. At this moment, the Hedong Army has once again marched south and stationed troops in Zezhou."

Li Yun paused and said silently: "I'm already face to face with Zhao Cheng."

Zezhou borders Huaizhou, and from a military perspective, the two sides are indeed face to face.

Meng Qing looked at Li Yun and smiled softly, "General Zhao, you don't have to worry about your position. After the military merits of the higher-ups are implemented in the army, other military subordinates don't know about it, but everyone under General Zhao's command dares to fight, and even everyone wants to fight."

"The morale of the army is intact. Even if we encounter the Hedong Army, we will not suffer any loss."

Meng Qing looked at Li Yun and continued, "However, we need to speed up the process of occupying cities. For example, places like Ruzhou, which are far away from Luoyang, I think we can even give up temporarily."

Li Yun looked at him, thought about it seriously, and then nodded and said, "It's been almost twenty days, so we have to speed up the progress."

Mr. Li looked down at the documents on the table and thought for a long time. Then he looked up at Meng Qing and said slowly, "Xiao Meng, I have an idea."

Meng Qing immediately lowered his head: "The superior has given orders."

Li Yun lowered his voice and whispered a few words in his ear. Meng Qing was startled, then hesitated: "Is it necessary to do this?"

Li Yun looked calm and said, "I think it is necessary. At least we need to scare the guy named Wei. We can't let him come out whenever he wants. Besides..."

"It's almost Qingming Festival, and it will definitely rain. We are stationed in the wild, and many firearms are difficult to preserve." Meng Qing took a deep breath, clasped his fists and bowed his head: "I will prepare it right away."

"Ah."

Li Yun looked at him and said with a smile: "Boy, the battle in the Central Plains has reached the most critical moment."

"When we were in Shidai, I'm afraid neither you nor I could have imagined that this day would come."

Meng Qing stopped and said with a smile: "At that time, we were taken to the Ten Kings Village by our superiors and raised. My fifth brother and I all thought that our superiors were human traffickers and wanted to sell us brothers out."

“I never dreamed that this day would come.”

Li Yun laughed and waved his hand, saying, "Go and get busy. Go and get busy."

Meng Qing bowed his head and clasped his fists: "I will take my leave."

…………

Two days later, the west gate of Luoyang City was opened again.

Hundreds of cavalrymen were the first to rush out of Luoyang. Behind them, there were organized infantrymen in neat formations, following them out of the Luoyang city gate.

Breaking out has almost become a routine military operation of the Shuofang Army.

It was not for training troops, but mainly for distributing information and contacting the outside world. In addition, it was to find out the specific combat effectiveness of the Jiangdong Army.

After leaving the city, the Shuofang troops did not head west, but instead broke out to the south. After a fierce battle for half a night, a dozen riders successfully broke out, and the rest retreated to Luoyang one after another.

On the city wall, Wei Yao looked at the Shuofang Army that had successfully returned with a calm expression, but there was a hint of pride in his eyes.

He knew that the Jiangdong army outside could not trap him at all, and he could break out at any time.

Moreover, he has basically figured out the combat effectiveness of the Jiangdong Army. In some occasions, the combat effectiveness of the Jiangdong Army is not inferior to that of the Shuofang Army, but overall, it is still slightly inferior to the Shuofang Army.

Especially the cavalry.

With good visibility, the elite cavalry of their Shuofang Army could escape unscathed from the siege of a group of Jiangdong Army with almost no casualties.

These are the valuable experiences accumulated by this major general. In the future, he can rely on these experiences to defeat the enemy.

Just as Wei Yao was watching his soldiers returning to the city, suddenly, a faint fire appeared in the distance.

Immediately afterwards, there was a faint sound of thunder.

If Wei Yao had never come into contact with firearms, he might still be a little confused at this moment, but at this moment, he knew very well what was happening!

His expression changed a little.

"Go and see what happened!"

As he spoke, he descended the tower and rushed towards the direction of the fire. Just when he was halfway there, a messenger came running over, almost fell in front of him, and bowed his head: "Major General, Major General!"

"The Jiangdong Army is attacking the east gate of Luoyang fiercely. They are attacking the east gate of Luoyang fiercely!"

"Too many firearms, too many firearms!"

The man was so flustered that he stuttered when he spoke.

"The East Gate is already crumbling!"

“Crumbling!”

(End of this chapter)