Chapter 289 One of our own!
The direction of events was still very different from what Li Yun had previously estimated.

Although he didn’t know why this group of rebels came here from far away from Henan Prefecture and did these things, Li Yun didn’t need to find out the purpose of these rebels now. He just needed to kill them.

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and said, “I have set up three temporary camps along the way to gather the defeated soldiers. There are nearly a thousand defeated soldiers who are not injured or only slightly injured in these three camps. Including the thousand soldiers brought by the general, we still have three thousand soldiers available in Luzhou.”

Zhao Cheng looked at Li Yun and whispered, “These days, I have ambushed and killed several scattered rebels, about one or two hundred people, and I have some understanding of their combat effectiveness. If the four thousand rebels in Luzhou are all of this combat effectiveness.”

Zhao Cheng said confidently: “As long as we can enter Luzhou City, I will be able to defeat them head-on.”

At this point, Zhao Cheng glanced at Li Yun, hesitated for a moment, and continued: “If the general… can serve as the vanguard, my subordinates will have a better chance of success.”

As an opponent who had fought twice, no one knew better than Zhao Cheng how terrifying Li Yun was on the battlefield, especially on small-scale battlefields or battlefields with low intensity. The help of Li Yun’s presence to the army was unimaginable.

Apart from its role in boosting one’s own morale, such a war beast can also be fatal to the enemy’s morale.

Zhao Cheng had been defeated by Li Yun twice before, largely because after Li Yun joined the battlefield, he raised the army to a new height that was originally impossible to reach.

Li Yun was stunned at first, then he smiled dumbly: “General Zhao even used me.”

“Don’t dare…”

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and said, “It’s just a word of advice. Whether or not to join the war is up to you, General.”

Li Yun looked at him for a few times, then touched his chin and said, “Then do as you wish, General Zhao. I will take advantage of the battle in Luzhou to see how General Zhao is able to fight a tough battle.”

He said in a deep voice: “I will be your pioneer for once.”

Zhao Cheng was excited. He bowed deeply to Li Yun and said, “Thank you for your trust, General. I will fight this battle well!”

Li Yun just smiled and didn’t respond. Instead, he changed the subject and said, “Those defeated troops who were gathered together have just experienced a great defeat and may not be willing to go to the battlefield again. If we use their words, they must be willing to do so. Otherwise, they will be a burden on the battlefield.”

“Moreover, when they go to the battlefield, they cannot fight independently. They must be dispersed into various brigades.”

Zhao Cheng bowed his head deeply: “I obey your command!”

…………

For the next four days, Li Yun was in Luzhou, working with Zhao Cheng to arrange the attack on Luzhou City.

In addition to dispatching troops into Luzhou, Li Yun and Zhao Cheng also disguised themselves and watched near Luzhou City.

Just as Zhao Cheng said before, not all of this rebel army was stationed in Luzhou city. There were at least more than a thousand of them roaming around the entire Luzhou territory, burning, killing and looting.

At dusk on the fourth day, 20 miles outside Luzhou City, Zhao Cheng stood behind Li Yun and whispered, “General, we have captured three groups of people, and the information we got from them is almost the same. This rebel army is led by a man named Hou Liang under Wang Junping. He is one of the eight generals among the four tigers and eight generals under Wang Junping. He was named General Zhenwei by Wang Junping and his nickname is General Monkey.”

Li Yun said “Hey” and sneered: “The Four Tigers and Eight Generals have all come out. Wang Junping is quite powerful.”

“He’s always been very vocal.”

Zhao Cheng said, “Otherwise, the court would not be helpless against him.”

Having said that, Zhao Cheng paused and continued.

“Hou Liang had about 10,000 soldiers under his command. Most of them were lost in the battle with General Su, leaving only 4,000 soldiers. It was probably because of this reason that he was angry and chased all the way to Luzhou.”

“It is probably because of this reason…”

Zhao Cheng paused and whispered, “The power under his command has weakened, and he doesn’t dare to return to Wang Junping’s command, so he ran to a place so far away from Luoyang.”

Li Yun nodded gently, then rubbed his brows and said slowly: “I always feel that it is not that simple, but it is useless to study these things now, let’s think of a way…”

Having said that, Li Yun snorted.

“Go into Luzhou City and beat this shit monkey general to death!”

“I have already made a plan.”

Zhao Cheng looked up at Luzhou City and whispered, “A small part of their troops are not in Luzhou City, but outside, collecting money, food, women, and capturing some young and strong men to fill their army.”

“This army does not yet have a uniform.”

Zhao Cheng said softly: “As long as we pretend to be rebels going out, even if we can’t trick the city gate open, at least we can get to the city safely. Once we get to the city gate, things will be much easier.”

Li Yun rubbed his brows and looked at Zhao Cheng: “General Zhao wants me to pretend to be these rebels?”

“No, it’s not.”

Zhao Cheng shook his head and said, “If you are pretending to be a rebel, you cannot wear armor. General, you must wear armor to serve as a vanguard.”

“I will pretend to be a rebel, and the general will wear armor and sit in the carriage. We will also get some women into the carriage and pretend that they are the women we found outside.”

Li Yun then glanced at Zhao Cheng and said with a smile, “So, General Zhao has made all the arrangements?”

“almost.”

Zhao Cheng took out a rough map of Luzhou from his pocket, pointed to the location of the governor’s mansion on the map, and said, “According to the confession of the captured rebels, the man surnamed Hou lives here. General, these rebels are not an army, nor are they elite.”

“As long as we can rush to the governor’s mansion in one fell swoop and kill Hou Liang, the remaining thousands of rebels will be scattered. Then we can defeat this rebel army at the lowest cost!” Li Yun looked at the map carefully, closed his eyes and thought seriously for a moment, then nodded slowly.

“Then… let’s do this.”

…………

The sky quickly darkened.

Zhao Cheng, dressed in plain clothes, led only a hundred people along the official road, driving several horse-drawn carriages all the way to the city of Luzhou. Before the carriages got close, a shout came from the city wall: “Where are you from!”

Zhao Cheng raised his head and said calmly, “From the Jiazi Camp, we are under the order of our leader Chen to bring back some goodies for the general!”

After saying that, Zhao Cheng opened the first carriage, and there were seven or eight women crammed inside, all tied up tightly.

The rebel on the tower could only vaguely see the figures of several women by the light of the torch. He rubbed his eyes, coughed, and said, “It’s dark now, no one can open the city gate, come back tomorrow morning!”

“No.”

Zhao Cheng was a little anxious. He pointed at the carriage and said, “General Hou urged us to bring these back. We spent a lot of effort to tie them back. Please, after we enter the city, I will let you pick one first!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the leader guarding the city gate was immediately moved. He smiled and said, “Brother, you are sensible!”

Having said this, he walked down the tower, came all the way to the city, and came out from the gate with a crack opened. As soon as he came out, he frowned and said, “What are you all standing there for? Open the city gate!”

The gate of Luzhou city slowly opened.

Two carriages arrived at the city gate one after another. The leader lifted the curtain of the first carriage and looked at the seven or eight women of different ages who were tied up in the carriage, his mouth watering with greed.

Zhao Cheng smiled and said, “Don’t worry, brother. There are more in the carriage behind.”

The leader nodded repeatedly, came to the second carriage, opened the curtain, and only a tall young man was sitting in the carriage.

He was wearing iron armor and holding a spear.

Under the light of the torch, he could clearly see that the young man was smiling at him in a very kind manner.

Before he could react, the tip of the iron spear was already handed over to him. He felt a chill in his heart, followed by a sharp pain, and then he lost consciousness.

At this moment, Li Yun’s carriage was less than three meters away from the Luzhou city gate.

After he shot the leader dead with one shot, he jumped off the carriage swiftly and shouted to Zhao Cheng: “I will go into the city first, and you follow with your men!”

Zhao Cheng quickly lowered his head and answered loudly, “Yes.”

Li Yun shouted angrily, and his guards immediately followed him and rushed into Luzhou City.

Li Yun was fully armored and had guards around him. Even the most elite troops in the border army might not be able to stop him at this moment, not to mention these rebels who were only half an army.

Soon, Li Yun used a big gun to fight his way out of the city.

After Zhao Cheng’s subsequent reinforcements arrived, the rebels in the city could no longer hold on and retreated again and again.

This fierce fight lasted for more than an hour. In the early morning, Li Yun finally arrived at the governor’s mansion. He took the lead and broke into the mansion. It only took him an incense stick of time to pull out the “Monkey General” Hou Liang from the back court.

What surprised Li Yun was that even though he was captured, the monkey general was not panicked. He looked at the bloody Li Yun and the soldiers behind him, and suddenly asked, “Are you the imperial army?”

At this moment, although the battle in the governor’s mansion has come to an end, there are still at least two thousand rebels in the entire Luzhou city. Li Yun frowned, stepped forward and said: “I am Li Zhao, the governor of Wuzhou.”

“Envoy Li.”

Hou Liang struggled with the rope, but found he couldn’t get it free, so he shouted, “Can you spare me a step?”

“I have something important to tell you!”

Li Yun thought for a moment, waved his hand to signal everyone to retreat, and came to Hou Liang alone, saying calmly: “If you have any last words, tell me.”

“Li… Li, Governor, don’t you think it’s easy for you to fight your way here?”

The “Monkey General” whispered, “Of the 4,000 men under my command, only less than 60% are stationed in Luzhou Prefecture, and the defenses are set up very haphazardly.”

Li Yun frowned: “What do you mean?”

“We are one family.”

Hou Liang grinned, with blood still in his mouth from the beating he had just received: “I accepted the amnesty early in the morning.”

Li Yun was startled, then raised his brows and asked, “You mean that you condoned the actions of your subordinates in Luzhou, Guangzhou and Shouzhou, and that was arranged by the court?”

“Yes.”

Hou Liang nodded as a matter of course and whispered.

“If not, how could the rebels lose the support of the people?”

(End of this chapter)