Thief Emperor

Chapter 834: Treacherous Li Er
Dingzhou battlefield.

After the Fan Yang army was ambushed, it suffered thousands of casualties on the first day. By the time they came to their senses and reorganized their formation, the overall combat effectiveness had been reduced to six or seven thousand people. For a time, the entire Fan Yang army was in a panic.

At this time, the one who led this part of the Fanyang Army was none other than Xiao Heng, the current leader of the Fanyang Army. At this moment, this Master Xiao was sitting in his own tent. In front of him were a piece of women's clothing and a jade plate.

These are the prisoners sent back by the Fanyang Army under the order of Jiusi.

After seeing these two things, Xiao Heng was already in great confusion.

He couldn't wait to return to Zhending, but ended up running headlong into the arms of the Dingzhou Pinglu Army. It was already the third day of fierce fighting.

At this time, Xiao Heng had already reacted and realized that he had fallen into Li Yun's trap, but it was too late to regret.

Xiao Heng stroked the jade pendant and thought of his eldest daughter. He let out a long breath, then coughed violently several times.

Because of heartache.

His eldest daughter, Xiao Shu, had obviously fallen into the hands of the Jiangdong Army. This also meant that a large part of the Xiao family might have also fallen into the hands of the Jiangdong Army and Li Yun.

In this era...in this situation, it is difficult for his family members to have a good ending.

Xiao Heng closed his eyes, his mind full of confused thoughts. After an unknown amount of time, he finally opened his eyes, called over a confidant, and gave the confidant a few instructions. The confidant immediately nodded, then retreated cautiously.

Not long after he left the tent, someone outside the tent came to report: "General, there is someone outside claiming to be the envoy of the King of Wu, and wants to see you!"

Xiao Heng raised his head, his eyelids twitching. He clenched his fists, took several deep breaths, and said in a hoarse voice: "Bring him in."

Not long after, a young man in a robe, who looked to be about 24 or 25 years old, was brought to Xiao Heng. After seeing Xiao Heng, he bowed and said, "Jiangdong Qian Sheng, greetings to General Xiao."

Xiao Heng raised his head, looked at the scholar in front of him, and sneered: "You are really brave, you are really not afraid of death."

"What role do you play next to Li Yun?"

Qian Sheng looked calm and said, "Your Majesty, there are more than ten clerks accompanying you, and I am one of them."

"I volunteered to be the envoy this time."

Qian Sheng looked up at Xiao Heng and said sternly, "I have three brothers. If I die in the Fanyang Army camp, I still have two brothers. The king will protect my family's future."

At this point, he even showed a smile on his face: "General, if you find me annoying, just kill me with a knife now, and I will have no complaints."

Xiao Heng looked up at Qian Sheng, his eyes were bloodshot and his face looked somewhat ferocious.

Qian Sheng was also startled by his appearance, but after taking a deep breath, he quickly regained his composure and clasped his fists towards Xiao Heng and said, "General, if the battle of Dingzhou continues, the outcome is obvious. My king is kind-hearted and cannot bear to see the lives of the people destroyed after the two armies fight, so he sent me here to negotiate with you."

"General, you are leading the Fanyang army to surrender now. My king is willing to forgive all your mistakes and not hold you accountable for the past."

"The general's family is safe and sound."

Xiao Heng raised his head, looked at Qian Sheng viciously, and sneered, "Li Er is only capable of using others' tricks to blackmail you."

Qian Sheng heard this and shook his head slightly: "General, you still misunderstood. My king did not threaten the general's family. He just explained to the general the situation that the general's family might face."

Xiao Heng continued to sneer.

At this point, Qian Sheng seemed to realize that he had said something wrong. He shook his head slightly and said, "General, this is all I have to say. It is up to you to decide. If you want to kill me, General."

Qian Sheng closed his eyes and stretched out his neck: "I will be killed."

This action of stretching his neck made Xiao Heng furious. He slammed the table fiercely and was about to give orders when someone came over to report, lowering his head and saying, "General, General Li Hao is here!"

After hearing this, Xiao Heng calmed down. He stood up and glared at Qian Sheng first. When he was about to walk out of the general's tent, he suddenly stopped and spoke to Qian Sheng in a low voice with a hoarse voice.

"Go back and tell the King of Wu that I want..."

"I want him to meet me in person."

After saying this, Xiao Heng strode out of the general's tent.

Not long after, Li Hao, who had just dismounted, came towards him. As soon as he approached, he almost stepped forward and patted Xiao Heng's shoulders with both hands, saying in a low voice: "Hengzhou and Zhending have both fallen!"

"Brother Xiao Shi."

Li Hao took a deep breath, patted Xiao Heng on the shoulder, and said in a hoarse voice: "Now, we must make a prompt decision and don't think about supporting the Khitans. Those Khitans, all fucking die!"

"Our two families are still the most important."

"My people are attacking Zhending and will do their best to help you bring the Xiao family members out of Zhending."

"As for you, your troops will only be able to hold out against Li Yun for another six or seven days in Dingzhou at most, then you can prepare to retreat!"

Xiao Heng looked at Li Hao and was silent for a long time before he asked, "Li Yun is pressing us step by step. Where can we retreat to?"

"Yizhou."

Li Yu answered without hesitation. It was obvious that he had already thought about it.

Yizhou is located directly north of Mozhou, west of Youzhou, and slightly south.

Seeing that Xiao Heng didn't say anything, Li Hao continued, "Your army is temporarily stationed in Yizhou. I have received accurate information that the Jiangdong small court is moving to Luoyang little by little!"

"Li Yun is very likely to be crowned emperor in Luoyang. He can no longer fight." Li Yu said in a deep voice: "Brother! As long as we hold on for a while, everything will turn around."

"You are in Yizhou. We in Hedong will do our best to help you. With the enemy at hand, under pressure from Li Yun, the Khitans in Youzhou will not make things difficult for you."

"Anyway, I survived after all."

Xiao Heng clenched his fists, looked up at Li Hao, and asked, "Brother Li Shi, I want to ask you a question."

Li Hao was stunned and said, "You say."

"Are you attacking Zhending for Hengzhou or for my family members of the Xiao family?"

"What do you mean, Brother Xiao? Hengzhou is in Hebei Province. We have come all the way here..."

"Then why didn't you come earlier?"

Xiao Heng finally exploded. He glared at Li Hao and gnashed his teeth, "Even if you attack Zhending now, my family is only a hundred people, and the Jiangdong Army can easily kill us!"

"Can you save it?"

"Brother Xiao Shi."

Li Hao frowned and looked at Xiao Heng, whose eyes were red. He said in a deep voice, "Don't worry. There will always be a way to solve the problem."

"Li Yun has always been a hypocrite. He would never dare to kill the entire Xiao family like this."

Xiao Heng had a blank expression on his face and stopped talking.

Li Hao looked at him with a frown. After a while, he said helplessly, "Well, Brother Xiao Shi, calm down. I'll come find you later."

"I'm going to take a look at the front line of the Dingzhou battlefield."

After saying that, Li Hao clasped his fists, turned around and left with his personal guards.

Not long after he left, someone came up to Xiao Heng with a document and said, "General, the envoy from King Wu has left. Before he left, he left a letter for you."

Xiao Heng took the letter, took a deep breath, and opened it.

There were only a few simple lines in the letter.

"My king will not meet with the general. Whether you surrender or not, you will have only three days to decide."

"Only the general."

Seeing this, Xiao Heng's face suddenly turned red.

The content of this letter is very simple. Qian Sheng came here not to negotiate, but to "persuade surrender."

Since it's not a negotiation, there's no need for Li Yun to meet Xiao Heng.

"Too deceiving."

Xiao Heng clenched his fists, crunched the letter into a paper ball, and gnashed his teeth, "This is too much!"

…………

At the same time, in the Jiangdong Army camp.

Li Yun and Zhou Chang sat face to face, with a map in front of them. Li Yun pointed at the map and said softly, "In the next two days, the actions of the Fanyang Army may be hesitant. This is also an opportunity for us to attack."

He pointed his finger at the map and continued, "At this moment, Meng Qing's reinforcements have already arrived at Yifeng in Dingzhou and will be able to join the battlefield tomorrow. If we seize the opportunity and fight well tomorrow, we may be able to defeat the Fanyang army in one fell swoop."

Zhou Chang looked at the map and said with emotion: "General Meng is really amazing. He has held back so many enemies in Yingzhou and even sent troops to help."

"With this force, my army can launch a full-scale attack tomorrow."

The two of them gathered together to discuss the specific tactics for tomorrow. When they were almost done discussing, Zhou Chang suddenly remembered something. He looked up at Li Yun and asked curiously, "Sir, how do you know that the Fanyang Army will fight more hesitantly tomorrow?"

Li Yun smiled mysteriously: "Because Xiao Heng is a person who is obsessed with power and extremely selfish."

“There is no decisiveness at all.”

Li Yun's eyes fell on the map, and he said softly, "At this moment, he must be torn between heaven and man."

Zhou Chang still didn't understand and asked, "Why?"

"because…"

Mr. Li laughed and said, "I sent someone to persuade him to surrender."

Zhou Chang was stunned when he heard this. After a long time, he stretched out a finger and exclaimed in admiration.

"Higher..."

"What a traitor... you have great insight."

(End of this chapter)