Thief Emperor

Chapter 769 Shocking Change
After Su Sheng's troops entered Hebei Road, they did not encounter any obstacles along the way. After marching for more than half a month, they crossed Dezhou from Bozhou and arrived in Cangzhou.

After entering Cangzhou, the Jiangdong Army stationed its troops in Leling and rested there for a few days. They began to contact the Jiusi and the Pinglu Army which had marched north ahead of them.

On the second day after Su Sheng stationed his troops in Leling, a group of more than ten riders came to the gate of Su Sheng's camp and asked to see him. Su Sheng invited the riders into his tent. After seeing Su Sheng, the riders immediately bowed their heads and saluted: "I am the messenger of the Pinglu Army, and I have been ordered to deliver a letter to General Su."

Su Sheng looked at the person who came, nodded slightly, and then said, "Where is your army now?"

The messenger lowered his head and thought for a moment, then replied, "General Su, it's in the Lucheng area, more than 200 miles away from here!"

Su Sheng looked at him and asked softly, "After our army went north, we have been sending people to look for your army's traces, but we haven't found them yet. Your army is very fast in finding our traces."

Although Su Sheng did not say it explicitly, he almost made it clear.

He suspected that after his army crossed the river, some members of the Pinglu Army had been following them all the way, and were keeping an eye on them all the way.

Although the scouts never stopped during the march, there were still spies from the Pinglu Army who sneaked in.

The messenger did not understand what Su Sheng meant. He just lowered his head and said, "General Su, my major general said that this is a very important matter. Please open the letter immediately after receiving it!"

Su Sheng frowned, but still opened the letter sent by Zhou Chang. After just a glance, Su Sheng's expression changed drastically. He looked at the messenger from the Pinglu Army, squinted his eyes, and asked, "Go back and tell General Zhou that I want to find an opportunity to meet him."

The messenger immediately bowed his head and saluted, saying, "I obey your command!"

Su Sheng was silent for a moment, closed his eyes, and said, "There is nothing else, you can go back."

"Yes!"

The messenger bowed his head and saluted, saying, "My young general has another message for you, General. He reminds you to be careful of the Fanyang Army in Hebei Province!"

After saying this, the messenger lowered his head, turned around and left.

Su Sheng held the letter in his hand and didn't say anything for a long time.

Chen Da, who was standing near him, was a little curious and asked, "General, what happened?"

"General Xiao died in battle."

Su Sheng looked at Chen Da and said slowly, "Just a few days ago, he led his troops out of the city and fought against the Khitans. He was defeated and surrounded, and died in the enemy's camp."

At this point, Su Sheng paused and added, "It is said that he was beheaded and displayed to the public."

Hearing this news, Chen Da's expression changed slightly. He looked at Su Sheng and said, "General, isn't that Youzhou?"

"Youzhou is…safe for the time being."

Su Sheng said softly: "General Chen Shang of the Fanyang Army is still defending Youzhou, but he... doesn't seem to have many troops. I don't know how long he can hold out."

Upon hearing this, Chen Da frowned and whispered, "General, this is really weird. The Fanyang Army marched south on a large scale, with a portion of the troops guarding Youzhou, but they took the initiative to seek a fight..."

"What's even more bizarre is that the one who went into battle was not General Chen Shangchen, but General Xiao himself..."

Su Sheng looked at Chen Da and smiled softly, "Brother Chen has made great progress now."

Chen Da was a latecomer. He had not learned any military tactics before and had never even come into contact with this profession. He learned how to lead troops bit by bit through practice.

It is serious "learning by doing".

It is also for this reason that his military level is still somewhat inferior to those of Su Sheng and Zhao Cheng, who are "professionally trained".

At least the level of military theory is a little lower.

And now, even he has noticed the problem, so people like Su Sheng will naturally be able to see it.

Zhou Chang asked Su Sheng to be on guard against Fangyang Army, probably because he noticed something was wrong.

"Let's slow down our progress northwards and send more people to gather information in Hebei Province. At the same time, report this news to Luoyang and inform the superiors as quickly as possible."

Chen Da first responded with a "yes", then clasped his fists and said, "I'll contact the people from the Ninth Division right away."

"Ah."

Su Sheng put his hands behind his back and nodded silently.

After Chen Dayuan left, he looked outside the tent with a deep gaze.

"Xiao Xian...Xiao Xian..."

…………

Songzhou, Songcheng.

A group of dozens of riders entered Songzhou City. Anyone who knew the subject could tell at a glance that these riders were wearing the uniforms of the Pinglu Army.

It is completely different from the Jiangdong Army.

Now, Songzhou is the territory of Jiangdong Army, and these Pinglu Army still entered Songzhou City unimpeded. When these dozens of people arrived at the gate of Songzhou Governor's Mansion, the leader, an old man in his fifties, jumped off the carriage, turned around and told everyone to wait at the gate, while he entered the Governor's Mansion alone.

At the same time, a tall man in black clothes came out from the governor's mansion. He saluted the old man from a distance and said with a warm smile: "Brother, thank you for your hard work on the journey. Thank you for your hard work on the journey."

The man who came out to greet them was naturally the King of Wu, Li Yun.

The only person Li Yun could call his elder brother, apart from his elder brother-in-law Xue Shou and his adopted brother in Jinling whom he had not had time to recognize, was Zhou Xu, the governor of Pinglu.

General Zhou looked up at Li Yun, clasped his fists in return, and said with a smile: "My dear brother, you are still as elegant as ever."

Li Yun pulled his sleeve and said with a smile: "You are still as handsome as ever. We just arrived at Songzhou City last night. We rode all the way. Now we are exhausted."

Zhou Xu, led by Li Yun, entered the main hall and sat down. After the tea was served, he drank a sip of tea, looked at Li Yun, and said with a smile: "My dear brother, why did you call me to meet you so anxiously? I wonder what's the important matter?"

"It doesn't matter if you say it matters."

Li Yun lowered his head and drank a sip of tea, then said, "It's just that this matter needs the approval of my elder brother. Only when my elder brother approves can I feel relieved."

Mr. Li is a man of his words. Last time he sent Yao Zhong and said that he wanted to restore the Fengyang Alliance, he meant to restore the Fengyang Alliance.

Before they had another quarrel, he called him "big brother" affectionately.

Moreover, the Pinglu Army, or the Qingzhou forces, were close to surrender at this time. In this situation, Li must of course be tolerant and tolerant. All the things that happened in the past are already a thing of the past.

Besides, if you look closely, in the conflicts between Qingzhou and Jiangdong over the years, it was mostly Jiangdong who took advantage, and a lot of it.

Zhou Xu admired Li Yun's attitude of keeping his word and said with a smile, "Now, our Zhou family basically lives with you, my son is still fighting for you in Hebei Province, and my eldest grandson is working for you, so we are considered a family."

"Brother, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Li Yun put down the teacup and said with a smile: "Then I'll speak frankly."

"My general Su Sheng's trip from Jeju to the north was facilitated by you, my elder brother. You naturally know this, but this army is on a long expedition, and it is difficult for me to send a lot of supplies. I want to use Qingzhou's territory to transport supplies."

At this point, Li Yun added: "Don't worry, brother. Our two families are now one family. I will never covet the territory of Qingzhou."

Borrowing a road has always been a very sensitive matter.

Especially in this situation, if you use the road to allow other people's troops to pass, who knows if the team transporting food and supplies will suddenly turn into a ferocious army and start killing, burning and seizing territory on the spot?

No one can say for sure.

Things like using a false pretext to destroy Guo actually happened.

Precisely because this matter was sensitive, Li Yun came out from Luoyang to discuss it with Zhou Xu in person in order to show his sincerity.

Zhou Xu frowned immediately after hearing Li Yun's words. He looked at Li Yun, thought for a moment, and said, "Brother, my army also needs to deliver supplies to Chang'er. Why don't we join forces? You hand over the Jiangdong Army's supplies to me, and I will deliver them to you at any cost."

"This way, you can also save some manpower for transporting food."

Li Yun looked at him with a smile and said, "Brother, you don't trust me."

Zhou Xu also smiled and said, "My dear brother, you don't want me to transport the food for you. Don't you think you don't trust me?"

Li Yun lowered his head to drink tea and continued talking slowly.

Zhou Xu was also a seasoned man. He responded to every word Li Yun said without losing out at all.

The two talked for half an hour without reaching any substantive terms. Li sighed, stood up, and said, "Brother, it's time. I've prepared a banquet for you."

"Let's drink and talk."

Zhou Xu was not afraid of the stage either. He stood up and said with a smile, "Lead the way, my dear brother."

Li Yun nodded, and just as he stood up and walked to the door, Zhou Xu's eldest grandson Zhou Luo came towards him, handed a document to Li Yun, and said with his head down: "My lord, urgent report from the Nine Departments!"

Li Yun frowned and reached out to take the document.

Zhou Xu, on the other hand, looked at his grandson, thoughtfully.

Zhou Luo also saw Zhou Xu, and immediately knelt on the ground with his head bowed deeply: "Greetings, Grandfather!"

Zhou Xu reached out his hand and helped Zhou Luo up, then looked up at Li Yun and said with a smile: "Brother, what happened?"

Li Yun stood there, his face extremely ugly. He looked at Zhou Xu, was silent for a long while, and then sneered: "Xiao Xian is dead."

Zhou Xu's expression also changed immediately.

"That guy is dead!?"

(End of this chapter)