Gu Yuzhi blinked, looking bewildered, and said, "What do you mean we can counterattack? Aren't we already counterattacking?"
Having successfully entered Huizhou, and now having taken Houhu Island, isn't this a counterattack?
Mr. Huo laughed and said, "What I mean is that we can attack Jiangzhou, Yangzhou and other places."
Xie Changshi, standing to the side, stroked his beard and smiled, "I also agree with Mr. Huo's idea. Once we take over the several prefectures in Jiangnan, His Majesty's reinforcements should arrive as well."
Once the Emperor's reinforcements arrive, they can immediately set off from the canal with the reinforcements to intercept the King of Chu and his navy!
Gu Yuzhi had just put his pants back on when he looked back and forth between Mr. Huo and Chief Secretary Xie. He then scratched his head and said, "But we only have a few hundred people! Yangzhou and Jiangzhou are both large prefectures, and the number of troops guarding them will not be small."
The imperial court stipulated that for large prefectures like this, the garrison could number up to 1,500 men.
The Prince of Chu's brother's palace is in Jiangzhou. He can raise a private army, so he will definitely expand the size of the city's guards. They only have a few hundred men and no weapons. How can they launch a counterattack?
Xie Changshi and Mr. Huo exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with smiles.
Mr. Huo said, "Your Highness, rest assured, I was just about to say this."
It turned out that before leaving, the King of Chu thought that Jiangnan was his territory, so he did not plan to leave too many people behind.
The Duke of Qi himself bypassed him and went to Lingnan, while Qi Chenglang protected Gu Yuzhi and eliminated his influence in the northern desert.
Qi Chengjun went even further, forcefully intervening in Huizhou, impossible to kill and infuriating.
It can be said that the entire Qi State Duke's family were people he hated very much.
With both old and new grudges weighing on his mind, the King of Chu truly wished he could leave not a single soldier in Huizhou and send them all out to intercept the Duke of Qi.
How many soldiers did Lingnan have? His navy and private army totaled 150,000, which was enough to completely overwhelm the Duke of Qi in terms of numbers.
Therefore, he was not concerned that the emperor would send troops to Huizhou, because he was confident that he could first wipe out the Lingnan garrison, and then turn around to deal with the troops sent by the capital.
Furthermore, since Qi Chengjun's previous investigation of the private army had always focused on the mountainous areas, he had no idea that the other party had begun to suspect Houhu Island. Therefore, in the final negotiation, the King of Chu left a total of 10,000 troops in Jiangnan. Apart from the 4,000 troops surrounding Huizhou, 6,000 troops were left on Houhu Island.
These 6,000 people may have been living in comfort for too long, or perhaps they thought no one would guess that there were soldiers on Houhu Island, plus the time of Chou Shi (1-3 AM) is a time of hardship for the people.
When Mr. Huo and his troops landed, even the soldiers on the watchtower were dozing off, and they didn't even open their eyes when the elite soldiers slit their throats.
In contrast, Mr. Huo and his men, though only a few hundred elite troops plus the Huizhou city guards, had more than two thousand men when they added the naval forces that had previously surrendered.
On one side were two thousand spirited men, and on the other side were a group of exhausted private soldiers who didn't even notice the other side sneaking in.
At the start of the battle, it was practically a one-sided massacre!
Mr. Huo's smile never faded, clearly very satisfied with tonight's gains: "Your Highness may not know, but all the elite soldiers are good swimmers, so at the beginning, I had Commander Zhu lead the elite soldiers ashore."
On the one hand, it was to be able to cleanly and efficiently eliminate the soldiers on the watchtower and the patrolling soldiers, and to try to annihilate as many as possible without alerting the enemy.
Another reason is naturally to prevent these naval forces from defecting at the last minute.
Therefore, the first group of people to land were all their own people.
Commander Zhu and Guard Zhang led their elite troops cautiously toward Houhu Island, while Mr. Huo led the surrendered navy to the rear. The ship stopped halfway through its journey.
The moon was bright tonight. Guard Zhang and his men thought they would be discovered if they didn't reach the shore, but to their surprise, even after several hundred of them had gone ashore, there was still no sound on the island.
Guard Zhang was momentarily confused and exchanged a silent conversation with Commander Zhu: "No sound, no movement, could there be no one on the island?"
Could it be that the King of Chu was so arrogant that he took all his private soldiers with him, leaving no way out?
Zhu Shoubei's eyes lit up: "If that's really the case, then we'll be lucky."
The captured generals confessed that their privately built armory was located on Houhu Island.
So the thought of opening the armory without firing a single shot made Zhu Shoubei almost go crazy with joy.
Heaven knows that the number of times the garrison commander of that prefecture has been on the battlefield these past few days has almost matched the number of times the garrison troops have been stationed.
Guard Zhang rolled his eyes at him, pointed to a figure on the watchtower, and indicated that he was overthinking things.
Zhu Shoubei looked up and saw that there were people on both watchtowers, but from the blurry shadows, it was clear that the two people were standing against the pillars.
He covered his mouth and exclaimed silently, "Could it be that they've discovered us and are just waiting for us to come ashore so they can catch us all?"
Zhu Shoubei couldn't think of any other reason, otherwise why would these two soldiers remain motionless?
Guard Zhang shook his head and said, "I don't think so."
If they had really noticed them, why haven't these two made a move even though they've been ashore for so long?
He turned and glanced at Jiang Kangming, pointed to the two men on the observation platform, and gestured to indicate that each of them was one of the two soldiers.
Jiang Kangming nodded blankly.
The two of them stood up at the same time and walked lightly and silently to the watchtower. Then they grabbed the watchtower and quickly climbed up.
If they weren't afraid that using their strength would alert the two soldiers, Guard Zhang and Jiang Kangming would never be so cautious.
Under the watchful eyes of Zhu Shoubei and the others, who dared not even breathe, Zhang Shiwei and Jiang Kangming successfully reached the watchtower.
At this moment, Guard Zhang finally understood why the two men hadn't noticed them.
Because if you get a little closer, Guard Zhang can hear the person in front of him breathing evenly and snoring softly.
Guard Zhang...
Although he felt a little embarrassed, Guard Zhang still swiftly and decisively slit the other man's throat. Then he looked at Jiang Kangming and saw that Jiang Kangming had also clearly taken down one person.
With the watchtower secured, the two turned around decisively, pushed off hard with their toes, and leaped into the military camp, opening the camp gate.
Upon seeing this, Commander Zhu quickly lit a lantern, covered it three times, and then extinguished it. After that, he saw the lights on the lake surface light up, which were also covered three times and then extinguished.
Zhu Shoubei then waved his hand and led his elite troops quickly through the door.
Guard Zhang glanced at the entrance to the military camp, which was almost identical to the one on the previous map. So he pointed to Jiang Kangming and Commander Zhu, indicating that they should follow their agreement before setting off, with each person leading a team and entering the camp from three directions.
Kill as many as you can without alerting the enemy.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
