Thief Emperor

Chapter 832: Managing Hebei!

Li Yun glanced at Meng Hai and a smile appeared on his face.

"General Zhong!"

Li shouted in a low voice. Zhong Fan was not far from Li Yun at this moment. He immediately rode over on horseback and saluted with his fists, "Your Majesty!"

Li Yun looked at him and said in a deep voice: "This place is less than 40 miles away from Zhou Chang's troops. You lead the brothers to join Zhou Chang's troops. I will be there soon."

It is hard for others to say after this period of contact, but Zhong Fan has already leaned towards Jiangdong. After all, for the attack on Zhending this time, Li Yun promised him a seventh-class military title of a military lieutenant.

After hearing Li Yun's order, Zhong Fan saluted without hesitation: "I obey your command!"

Li Yun looked at him and ordered, "Jiu Si should have informed Zhou Chang of the situation of the Fanyang Army. When you meet Zhou Chang, tell him to prepare to fight against the Fanyang Army. His flank will be reinforced in two or three days at most!"

"Yes!"

Zhong Fan saluted with his fists, then led thousands of cavalrymen towards Zhou Chang's camp.

Li Yun and his guards slowed down their pace. Li himself jumped off his horse and looked at Meng Hai who also got off his horse and asked, "Tell me more."

Meng Hai followed behind Li Yun and answered yes, then bowed his head and clasped his fists and said, "After the Fanyang Army received the news that Zhending was attacked, a part of the Fanyang Army immediately separated from the main force of the Fanyang Army and returned to Zhending."

"The rest of the Fanyang Army was stationed in Mozhou, fighting with Meng Qing's troops. However, they were clearly not willing to fight, and they did not help the Khitans at all."

Li Yun nodded slightly, thought for a while, and said, "How is General Su doing?"

"The main force of the Jiangdong Army in Cangzhou has advanced to within a hundred miles of Zhigu. A large number of Khitans are trapped within this hundred miles. General Su reported that the war there will come to an end in three to five days at most."

Hearing this, Li Yun took a deep breath. Before he could speak, he heard Meng Hai continue to report: "Now, this part of the Fanyang army that came back to support has almost run into the ambush set by the superior in Dingzhou."

Hearing this, Li Yun looked in the direction of Dingzhou, squinted his eyes, and said softly: "It's a pity that they are not the main force, otherwise it would take some trouble."

Meng Hai smiled and said, "It's almost the same if it's not the main force. The Fanyang army ambushed by Dingzhou this time should be more than 30,000 people. As long as we can eat up this Fanyang army, the rest of the Fanyang army will no longer be a force to be reckoned with."

He clasped his fists and saluted Li Yun: "Congratulations on taking the throne and pacifying Hebei Province!"

"It's still very early."

Li Yun looked at Meng Hai and said softly, "The real Hebei Province not only includes Youzhou, but also Jizhou, Pingzhou, Yizhou and even the entire Liaodong. The current Hebei Province can only be regarded as the southern part of Hebei Province."

"Only half."

The division of the Fanyang Army was not good news for Li Yun, but it was not bad news either.

If the main force of the Fanyang Army ran into the ambush set by Zhou Chang, with the troops Zhou Chang had in Dingzhou, even if he could stop them, he would probably suffer heavy losses.

The only advantage of this is that the entire Fanyang army can be swallowed up in one bite.

But now, only half of them have been captured. The disadvantage is of course that the Fanyang army will be eaten up in two bites, but the pressure on Zhou Chang will suddenly decrease.

Li sat under a big tree, closed his eyes, and went over the situation of the entire Hebei Province in his mind. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Meng Hai, and ordered: "Jiu Si, immediately send a message to Su Sheng, Meng Qing, and Zhao Cheng, and tell them that from now on, the strategy of the entire Hebei Province can be changed from annihilation to conquest."

"No matter how many captives or surrendered soldiers the Fanyang Army has, we will take them all in, and give clear orders to all the armies."

"Soldiers who surrender will not be killed."

The situation has come to this point, and the entire Hebei Province has come to the stage where Li Yun has to clean up the mess. After the Battle of Dingzhou, I am afraid that the morale of the Fanyang Army will drop to an unprecedented level. At this time, there is no need to rely solely on brute force.

If we can capture one enemy soldier, the Jiangdong Army might suffer one less death.

Even now, a large part of the Jiangdong Army is still composed of soldiers from the three provinces of Jiangnan. These soldiers are Li Yun’s real "sons and daughters of the family", and many of them were brought up by him.

It is true that a kind person cannot command an army, but if there are really heavy casualties, Mr. Li is not really heartless and he will inevitably feel sad.

Moreover, he didn't have much energy left to continue fighting.

Meng Hai bowed his head and clasped his fists, saying yes. He was about to go down to do his work when he heard Li Yun continue to say, "If Meng Qing still has some strength left, ask him to support Dingzhou."

He said softly: "The Pinglu Army... performed well. We cannot let the Pinglu Army fight this war independently, otherwise it will be difficult to talk about it afterwards."

If the entire Fanyang army returned to Zhending this time, Zhou Chang's troops, who would be the first to bear the brunt of the attack, would have suffered heavy casualties, without a doubt.

But now, there is some room for maneuver.

Meng Hai nodded his head, then looked at Li Yun and said, "Does your superior have any other instructions? If not, I will go and do the work."

Li Yun looked up at Meng Hai.

After a few years, the young men from Hexi had grown up, and Meng Hai, the oldest among the young men from Hexi, had also grown up. He was not as tall as Meng Qing, but was thinner, with dark circles under his eyes and faintly visible bloodshot.

Obviously, as the bridge and middleman between Jiusi and Li Yun, he would be very busy once the war broke out.

"I'm done with this period of time."

Mr. Li sighed and said, "You should take a break too. Don't hurt your body. In the future..."

"There's more to do."

Meng Hai took a deep breath and bowed his head deeply: "Thank you for your concern, I'm fine."

Li Yun said "hmm", and suddenly remembered something, and asked, "By the way, how is the contact with the person I want to meet going?"

"Reporting to the Master, the man is now near Lucheng in Shenzhou, under the protection of the Nine Officials, less than a hundred miles away from here. If the Master wants to see him, we can bring him here tomorrow."

At this point, he paused and continued, "Or should I wait until... after the battle of Dingzhou is over and then see him when I ascend to the throne?"

"Please invite him to the Dingzhou military camp to see me. The battle of Dingzhou has already taken shape."

"There's not much left for me to worry about."

As the commander-in-chief of the entire battlefield, Li Yun's job was to take charge of the overall situation. On the Dingzhou battlefield, when the Fanyang army rushed in, for Li Yun, his job, or his mission, was over.

The rest depends on how Zhou Chang and the Pinglu Army perform and to what extent they perform.

However, in this kind of battle, unless the gap between the two sides is too big, Li Yun can't think of how he will lose.

It’s just a matter of the size of the results.

"Yes."

Meng Hai bowed his head deeply: "Shall I arrange it right away?"

…………

The next afternoon, in the Dingzhou camp.

On the front battlefield, the sounds of killing were deafening. The coalition forces, mainly composed of the Pinglu Army and a part of the Jiangdong Army, fought a fairly good ambush under the command of Zhou Chang. As soon as the enemy came into contact, the Fanyang Army suffered a great loss.

However, the Fanyang army was too large, and even if it suffered a setback at the beginning, it would not be able to be defeated in a day or two. It would take at least seven or eight days, or even longer, for the Dingzhou battlefield to come to an end.

This is also the reason why Li Yun asked Su Zhan to guard Zhending for ten days.

After ten days, the war in Dingzhou was almost completely over.

While the battle was going on fiercely at the front, a middle-aged man in the rear camp, under the guidance of Meng Hai, came to Li Yun's tent. After entering the tent, he looked up at Li Yun for several times before taking a deep breath and bowing: "Lu Shen of the Lu family, meeting the King of Wu."

Li Yun stopped writing with the brush in his hand, then looked up at Meng Hai and motioned him to leave. After Meng Hai left, Li Yun stood up, looked at the handsome middle-aged man in front of him, and smiled: "No need to be polite, sit down and talk, sit down and talk."

"Yes."

Lu Shen took a deep breath and sat down in front of Li Yun.

Li Yun looked at him, thought for a moment, and asked, "Two years ago, Xiao Heng brought a daughter of the Lu family to Jinling. Later, she became his wife in Jinling. Is she related to you, sir?"

Hearing this, Lu Shen looked strange. He raised his head and looked at Li Yun again. After a long while, he said in a deep voice, "It is my daughter."

Li Yun was startled, then he clasped his fists in return and said with a wry smile: "I have been so busy lately that I have forgotten a lot of things. I am sorry."

Lu Shen stood up and returned the greeting, saying sternly, "King Wu is too polite. Although my daughter has married into the Li family, legally speaking, she is, after all... after all, a concubine."

He took a deep breath and said, "King Wu is not being rude."

Although the two are father-in-law and son-in-law, they cannot be considered as such according to etiquette and law.

Li Yun was a little embarrassed. After thinking for a while, he smiled and said, "Yuzhen will follow my royal carriage to the north. After a while, she will be reunited with you, sir."

Lu Shen nodded slowly, looked at Li Yun, and asked, "The king wants to meet with our Lu family. What instructions do you have?"

"I need to take control of the states in Hebei Province as soon as possible, at least to make Hebei Province in the future..."

He looked at Lu Shen and spoke slowly.

"It can support my garrison in Hebei Province."

(End of this chapter)