Thief Emperor

Chapter 811 The opportunity has come!

End of March.

Meng Qing led more than 20,000 Jiangdong troops and stationed them in Jingcheng, Cangzhou. After a short rest, they marched westward to Yingzhou.

After entering Yingzhou, Meng Qing divided his troops into two groups and captured Shucheng and Hejian in Yingzhou respectively.

Meng Qing personally led 10,000 troops and headed straight for Hejian.

The army drove all the way to the city of Hejian. The defender of Hejian stood on the city wall and cursed the Jiangdong army under the city.

"You traitors! Traitors!"

"My great general sacrificed his life for the country and for the Han Dynasty. He died outside the Great Wall, and you traitors are just sitting back and reaping the benefits!"

"Now, they are attacking our Fanyang Army!"

"You have wolfish ambitions, worse than pigs and dogs!"

He had a very loud voice and cursed the Jiangdong army below the city gate. At the beginning, his curse was reasonable and well-founded, but later on, he began to insult Li Yun himself, and his curses were extremely ugly.

"The Xuanzhou bandits also want to take over the world!"

"You are so foolish and treasonous!"

"You have committed such an unjust act today. Everyone will be able to punish you in the future. Sooner or later, the thief Li will be found dead in the wilderness!"

After cursing for a few times, he started to curse Li Yun's family without any logic, starting from this generation and going on to several generations ago.

Meng Qing, who was not far away, looked through a telescope at the Fanyang garrison commander who was cursing on the city wall, and his eyelids twitched.

For Meng Qing, whether he is an official or not, whether he is rich and glorious or not, is actually not that important.

His goals in joining the army were, first, to serve Li Yun, and second, to overthrow Wu Zhou and avenge his family.

Since joining the Jiangdong Army, he has been promoted many times under Li Yun. At this stage, although he cannot say that he regards Li Yun as a god, he has already regarded Li Yun as the most respected person in his life.

At this moment, hearing Li Yun being abused like this, even Meng Qing could no longer suppress the murderous intent in his eyes.

He took a deep breath, then called a captain under his command and said, "Take a few captain battalions and surround Hejian."

"After the city is captured, not a single Fanyang soldier will be allowed to escape."

The captain immediately bowed his head and clasped his fists: "As you command!"

After arranging the siege of Hejian, Meng Qing called a leader of the Nine Departments and said to him, "Use the Nine Departments' channels to immediately report the situation in Hejian to Jinling and General Su. Tell General Su that our troops have encountered the enemy in Hejian."

"The number of defenders in Hejian City is unclear at the moment, but it is estimated to be around 5,000."

The head of the Nine Departments immediately bowed his head and responded, "Don't worry, General Meng. We will send the news out immediately."

Meng Qing nodded slowly: "Thank you for your hard work."

"Tell General Su that I will take Hejian within ten days, and occupy the entire Yingzhou within a month."

The leader of the Nine Departments responded with a "yes", then bowed his head, turned and left. He quickly found several other members of the Nine Departments in the army, and after giving them a few instructions, one of the members of the Nine Departments immediately set off, left Yingzhou on horseback, and rushed back to Cangzhou.

Jiusi acted extremely quickly. In just one day, he rushed back to the Jiangdong Army camp in Cangzhou. However, he did not go directly to see Su Sheng. Instead, he found Jiusi’s headquarters in Cangzhou and reported the news.

This news went around inside the Nine Departments and was finally handed to a slightly fat little man. The little fat man flipped through a few documents in his hand, frowned slightly, and finally stood up and walked towards Su Sheng's tent.

He quickly arrived at Su Sheng's tent, and when he saw Su Sheng, he politely clasped his fists and saluted: "Greetings, General Su."

Su Sheng was talking to a young man in the tent at this time. When he heard the little fat man's voice, he quickly looked up, took a look, and immediately stood up, clasped his fists in return, with a smile on his face: "Why is Liu Sizheng here?"

Liu Bo looked at Su Sheng, then at the young man next to Su Sheng, smiled, clasped his fists and saluted, "Brother Su."

This young man was none other than Su Zhan, who had "graduated" from Li Yun. He quickly bowed his head and saluted, saying, "Greetings, Si Zheng."

Liu Bo shook his head slightly, then looked at Su Sheng. Su Sheng pulled Liu Bo to sit down and asked, "When did Liu Sizheng arrive?"

Liu Bo smiled and said, "I came from Jinling and arrived at the army yesterday. However, because the Ninth Division had a lot of internal affairs to deal with, I did not come to disturb the general."

Su Sheng personally poured tea for Liu Bo and said with emotion: "Si Zheng has arrived in person. It seems that the superiors attach great importance to the affairs of Hebei Province."

"It's natural."

Liu Bo smiled and said, "Once Hebei Province is pacified, the whole world will be almost settled. This great achievement will surely fall into the general's pocket."

At this point, Liu Bo coughed and said seriously, "There are two things I need to report to the general."

Su Sheng looked at Su Zhan who was standing beside him and was about to speak when Liu Bo smiled and said, "Brother Su is one of us, there's no need to avoid him."

He paused and continued, "First of all, General Meng is in Yingzhou, and his troops are surrounding Hejian and Shucheng. He said that within a month, Yingzhou can be pacified, but according to the intelligence from our Nine Departments."

"There is a high probability that Hengzhou will send reinforcements to support Yingzhou and fight against General Meng in Yingzhou."

Su Sheng narrowed his eyes upon hearing this and said softly, "It seems that the Fanyang Army intends to confront us head-on."

"Su knows about this." He said with a scorching gaze, "Su will make proper arrangements."

Liu Bo nodded and continued, "The second thing is more important."

"General Su may not know that the more important thing for me to do on this trip to Hebei is to manage Youyan. I just received news from Youzhou that the Khitans in Youzhou have sent a cavalry unit southward. I don't know the exact number of people, but it's probably more than 5,000."

“It may even approach 10,000 people.”

Liu Bo whispered, "They are heading south from Youzhou, and may already be in Cangzhou at this time. The Nine Departments have not been able to find out what they are going to do. Now we can only... let the general be careful."

"Khitan cavalry..."

Su Sheng took a deep breath and whispered, "Maybe ten thousand people."

There were not many Khitans to begin with, and even when they attacked Youyan before, their military strength was at most 100,000.

Among them, there are also some infantry, and about 60,000 to 70,000 cavalry.

If the Khitans really sent out 10,000 cavalry, this would be a very terrifying force, even a force that could determine the situation in Hebei Province.

Su Sheng only thought for a few breaths before he clasped his fists towards Liu Bo and said, "Thank you, Liu Sizheng, for reminding me. I know about this matter now."

He stood up and strode out of the tent: "Su will make the arrangements right away."

After saying that, he left the general's tent directly.

In the commander's tent, Liu Bo looked at Su Zhan and said with a smile, "Brother Su, are you used to being in the army?"

Su Zhan clasped his fists and said with a smile: "Si Zheng is the brother of the higher-ups, you can't call him that."

Liu Bo smiled and said, "Then I'll call you Su Zhan?"

"it is good."

Su Zhan lowered his head slightly and said with a smile: "Replying to Si Zheng, I am quite used to being in the army, but sometimes I miss my position."

Liu Bo patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "If you are not used to being in the army, find someone from the Ninth Division and ask them to bring you to me. I will lead you into the Ninth Division."

"In the future, my position will be given to you."

Su Zhan blushed when he heard what he said, and quickly shook his head and said, "Si Zheng is making fun of me..."

"No joke."

Liu Bo laughed: "Seriously, I'm looking for someone to take over my job."

After saying that, the little fat boy shook his head and left the commander's tent with his hands behind his back.

Su Zhan looked at his back, took a deep breath, and didn't speak for a long time.

…………

As the war on the front line broke out, military reports were sent back to Nanjing by the Nine Departments and landed on Li Yun's desk.

As for Li Yun, the first thing he does when he wakes up every day is to read the military reports from the front line, as well as the relevant intelligence and news sent by the Ninth Division.

Sometimes, he would call Deng Yang, Zhou Liang, Qian Zhong and some relevant generals to come and advise on military affairs on the front line.

On this day, Li Yun was meeting two famous scholars who were about to hold high positions in the new dynasty.

The meeting lasted for an hour. After seeing the two men off, Li Yun rubbed his brows, feeling quite helpless.

Dealing with these people every day is really tiring. Sometimes I have to wonder what every word they say and even every expression means.

After the two great scholars left, Du Qian, who was "interviewing" with Li Yun, stood beside Li Yun and asked with a smile: "Sir, what do you think of these two people? I think it should not be a problem for them to serve as assistant ministers in the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works."

"One of these two was originally the Minister of Works of the old Zhou Dynasty."

Li Yun took a deep breath and was about to speak when someone hurriedly handed him a document. Li unfolded it and immediately frowned.

Seeing this, Du Qian hurriedly asked, "Sir, what happened?"

Li Yun handed him the document, squinted his eyes, and looked to the north: "The Fanyang army is coming from the west of Cangzhou, and the Khitans are coming from the north of Cangzhou, and they are ready to attack."

Du Qian took it and read it carefully, then he handed the document back to Li Yun and said softly, "Go ahead, your chance has come."

Li Yun looked at him and asked, "What opportunity?"

“An opportunity to write an article.”

Du Shouyi also looked towards the north and spoke slowly.

"This move will destroy Xiao Heng's reputation to ashes."

(End of this chapter)