The days are shorter in winter, the sky is gloomy on this day, and it gets dark earlier.
The 50,000 infantrymen behind him had been marching day and night but had not been able to catch up. Li Yi, who had been in a hurry to leave Shouzhou, only brought 10,000 vanguards. He did not dare to travel rashly at night for fear of being ambushed by the bad guys, so he ordered them to set up camp and rest on the spot.
Li Yi was still anxious.
An aide comforted him: "Master, please be patient, the army will catch up tomorrow."
Another person also said: "After another four days of marching, we will be able to meet up with the 80,000 troops ahead. It won't take long then to reach Yangzhou."
Previously, Chang Kuo had assembled 100,000 troops to support Hezhou, but except for the 20,000 vanguard troops taken away by Chang Kuo, the remaining 80,000 troops were instructed by Li Yi to "take advantage of the opportunity to capture" Yangzhou.
Naturally, the 80,000-strong army never actually engaged in a large-scale battle with Xu's rebel army. At this time, they were camped 200 miles away from Yangzhou and were "wait and see".
The deputy general Yu Zai who led the army was Li Yi's confidant. He knew that Li Yi was on his way to Yangzhou and was just waiting to meet Li Yi.
The staff said: "When the front and rear divisions meet, the commander-in-chief will have 140,000 troops under his command, and he can discuss the conditions of cooperation with Xu Zhengye."
This vision of the near future is certainly tempting, but Li Yi's mind is now filled with the thought that Chang Kuo will come to kill him, and he has no time to imagine anything else.
He simply gave the order: "…Send a message to Yu Zai, tell him not to just wait there, but to lead his troops to meet me as soon as possible, just in case!"
Since it was only a four-day journey, if he went forward and Yu Zai came to meet him, then they would only need two days to meet - after all, running in both directions was the fastest.
The staff thought about it and felt that this two-way rush was not necessary and wasted manpower and resources, so they advised: "If Deputy General Yu and his men want to break camp and come to meet us, they will need to prepare a lot, and it will take time to send a message. I'm afraid it won't be much faster."
"Who asked them to break camp? Well, tell Yu Zai to lead the light cavalry here, and the rest of you will stay where you are to guard the camp!" Li Yi insisted on letting Yu Zai come to pick him up. Yu Zai was his most trusted confidant, who had followed him for many years and was loyal to him.
At the beginning, he reluctantly let Yu Zai lead the troops out in order to prevent the 80,000 troops from disobeying his military orders.
When people are afraid and uneasy, they always want to have someone they can trust around them.
Li Yi had an urgent intuition deep in his heart that he wanted Yu Zai to pick him up, and soon he would find that his intuition was correct - it was just too late.
The staff could not persuade him, so they obeyed his order and sent someone to send a message to Yu Zai overnight.
Li Yi paced back and forth in the tent, asking his staff whether the army in the rear could catch up tomorrow, and then asking Yu Zai where he could be met as soon as possible.
He calculated again and again, asked again and again, but he was still uneasy until a secret letter was delivered to his tent.
It was a secret letter from Chuzhou.
After reading the letter, Li Yi was overjoyed. He felt that the sharp sword that was always hanging above his head suddenly disappeared.
"...Chang Kuo is finally dead!" he said in great surprise.
Died in Chuzhou! Xu Zhengye said that he would help him reach Yangzhou smoothly, so he set up an ambush to kill Chang Kuo along the way. Chuzhou Governor Wei Jun was Xu Zhengye's man, and Xu Zhengye had already told him this in the letter.
Wei Jun had also had someone send him a letter, so they kept in touch with each other, and could be considered to have met each other through letters.
Upon hearing this, the two aides hurried to read the letter.
"That's great!" Li Yi felt that happiness came too suddenly, and he was a little scared: "He really wants to kill me, and he has even led his army to Chuzhou..."
Chuzhou is only two days away from where he is now!
Fortunately, Wei Jun was reliable and prevented Chang Kuo from dying in Chuzhou!
Now that he thought about it, Chang Kuo only had a few wounded soldiers around him. What could he accomplish? He had always been too afraid of the other party, which was why he was so uneasy and regarded the other party as a big threat.
But no matter what, if the person dies, everything will be fine! "This Governor Wei also said in the letter that he learned that the commander-in-chief only had 10,000 vanguards to protect him, and he was willing to lead the Chuzhou army to escort the commander-in-chief to Yangzhou. He is on the way now..." An aide looked at the letter and asked in confusion: "Is this also Xu Zhengye's arrangement?"
"Not necessarily." Li Yi laughed, "What do you mean by escort me? I think he clearly wants me to escort him to Yangzhou—"
"My 140,000-man army is about to meet up, and we still need his Chuzhou army to escort us?" Li Yi said, "If he kills Chang Kuo, it will be equivalent to breaking off relations with the court. If the matter is exposed, he will naturally not be able to deal with it alone."
His analysis was very logical and consistent with the current situation and human nature: "So he wanted to go to Yangzhou to ask Xu Zhengye for credit and seek asylum at the same time!"
"Didn't the letter say that he would bring Chang Kuo's head with him?"
If this isn't asking for credit, what else could it be? Out of caution, the two staff members took out the letter from Wei Jun last time and carefully compared the handwriting and seal, but found nothing unusual.
Li Yi no longer had any doubts and felt at ease, and even had people prepare wine to celebrate.
As he raised his glass, the staff member did not forget to ask, "Since that's the case... then according to the commander-in-chief, should the letter that was just sent to Deputy General Yu be retrieved?"
"No need." Li Yi said, "Let him come. It's better to be prepared."
Even without Chang Kuo, there will still be other threats. He has heard that the imperial envoy of the court has arrived in Jiangnan, and there will definitely be action soon.
But this did not affect Li Yi's good mood at the moment. In his opinion, no one would be more difficult to deal with than Chang Kuo. Chang Kuo was dead, so why would he be afraid of a mere imperial envoy?
All the tension and anxiety that had been building along the way was relieved at this moment, and Li Yi drank happily.
His staff advised him not to drink too much, but he listened and did not allow himself to get drunk.
But under the influence of alcohol, he slept very soundly, and when he opened his eyes the next day it was almost noon.
Without the threat of Chang Kuo, Li Yi was no longer panicked. Following the advice of his staff, he decided to wait for the 50,000 troops behind him to arrive before setting off together, which would be safer.
When it was getting dark, Li Yi finally received the news that the army had arrived.
In order to catch up with him, the army had been traveling for many days since Shouzhou and was already exhausted, but Li Yi had rested here for a day and a night and was now full of energy. Regardless of the soldiers' fatigue, he only ordered the army to rest for an hour on the spot on the grounds that "military matters cannot be delayed" and then continued to travel overnight.
This continued until noon the next day, when the soldiers were resting and eating, a scout suddenly came to report that traces of the Chuzhou army were discovered from the right side.
Li Yi's staff asked seriously, "Are they really the Chuzhou Army? Have you found out?"
The soldier nodded: "They are indeed from Chuzhou. The military flags and uniforms cannot be fake. They are indeed soldiers from Chuzhou. The leader is wearing the uniform of the governor."
Li Yi said: "In that case, let's wait for them here for a while."
He had no interest in the Chuzhou army, and at this moment he did not take the governor Wei, whom he had never met, seriously, but he obviously wanted to see Chang Kuo's head with his own eyes.
The army took the opportunity to rest here. After waiting for more than an hour, they saw the Chuzhou army arriving.
Li Yi then got off the carriage and, accompanied by two aides, came to the front of the army to meet the governor of Chuzhou.
"I am Wei Jun, the governor of Chuzhou. Nice to meet you, General Li!" The middle-aged man in the governor's official robe saluted towards Li Yi.
Li Yi looked at him and nodded, his eyes quickly moving to the box held in the hands of the soldier beside him.
The middle-aged man understood and said hurriedly: "This is my first visit to you, so I have prepared a small gift. Please have a look, General Li..."
As he said this, he personally took the heavy box and walked towards Li Yi.
But when he was about to get close to Li Yi, an aide raised his hand to stop him.
The aide smiled and said, "Why not let someone watch it first—"
The middle-aged man readily agreed: "Please."
The aide looked at the box carefully again before opening it.
At the moment, Li Yi was surrounded by his trusted confidants, so there was no need to worry that Chang Kuo's head appearing here would cause unrest in the army.
After all, it was impossible for Li Yi to announce the news of Chang Kuo's death in such a way at this time.
Just check it out.
When the box was opened, it was indeed a head with its eyes open.
The aide's eyes suddenly changed, and he immediately looked up at the "Chuzhou Governor" holding the box: "I'm afraid Governor Wei has recognized the wrong person!"
Upon hearing this, Li Yi immediately took a step forward, but immediately frowned.
Although he didn't recognize who the head belonged to, it wasn't Chang Kuo at all! What did the Chuzhou governor mean? Did they kill the wrong person? What about Chang Kuo? Did he escape? ! Li Yi had already sensed something was wrong, and his staff pointed directly at the "Chuzhou governor" and said, "Capture this man!"
I'm afraid there must be something fishy going on here!
This aide was very alert and resolute. He slightly modified his description. Lieutenant General Jin, who was disguised as Wei Jun, cursed "bad luck" in his heart, and immediately threw the box at Li Yi, while pulling out the long sword under his cloak.
The girl said that if they could seize the opportunity to capture Li Yi first, that would be great! But the girl also said that if the situation was not good, they would not have to force themselves to do it, and they would have to protect themselves first.
In order to check the head of "Chang Kuo", Li Yi was accompanied by only dozens of his trusted confidants, and the other soldiers were guarding ten steps away. Before more soldiers surrounded him, Lieutenant General Jin and the soldiers beside him drew their swords and retreated while fighting.
Not far away, Chang Suining, who was wearing Chuzhou military uniform, saw the situation and immediately led his men on horseback to rescue them.
Li Yi was protected and hid in the back, while angrily ordering: "... these people are Xu's accomplices, kill them quickly!"
The deputy generals and captains in the army were unable to react in time after hearing this.
Why did they suddenly start fighting?
Aren't they the Chuzhou army? How did they become the accomplices of the rebels? However, when the military order came, the army, which was still resting, immediately stood up and took up their weapons and rushed forward in formation.
Suddenly, a loud shout rang out from the enemy army: "General Chang is here! Are you going to commit treason and kill the deputy commander?"
General Chang?! When everyone was puzzled, they saw a man on horseback from the enemy army approaching the front of the battle formation. He had a burly figure and a dignified look. It was undoubtedly Chang Kuo!
"It's the deputy commander!"
"Deputy Marshal Chang is back!"
There will be more updates later!
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