The rise of the prince

Chapter 304 Offensive and defensive swap
In less than a month, Xu Guo and Luzhou completely switched offense and defense.

Xu Guo had previously stationed 5 troops on the border of Huaihua Prefecture, and then transferred troops from the southeast to make up another [-] troops. Back and forth, there were more than [-] troops, and now only a few thousand are left in Linyang City.

Ding Yi woke up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. The first thing he did was to ask about the battle situation.

The floor is paved with red felt, silk quilts inlaid with gold edges, ancient wooden carved windows, official hat chairs with yellow pear heads, and official seals inlaid with gold and jade on the side of the desk.

Linyang is not an ordinary county town, it is the northern gateway of Xu State, and it is close to Luzhou City, so it has long been a pioneer town of Xu State, where the elite are stationed and become Ding Yi's second important office.

And his ambition is silently imprinted in this house that belongs to him.

The officials waiting at the door all lowered their heads and did not dare to speak, the fire was burning outside the house, and people's voices were noisy.

Ding Yi seemed to understand something, and finally asked weakly: "Is this Lin Yang? How many defenders?"

Linyang County Magistrate Zhong Li cupped his hands and said: "Your Excellency is in Linyang City, with six thousand guards."

"Hehe, hehehe." Ding Yi smiled bitterly: "Xu Guo's [-] army, there are still [-] now, hahaha, in less than a month, there are only [-] left of the [-] army!"

"The enemy general is cunning and treacherous, and he can use sorcery and sorcery. According to the officials, it is not a crime of war," an official said hastily.

"Yes, yes, the war is unpredictable. Our army of Xu State even defeated the imperial court's imperial army at the beginning. They are all brave men. This time, they were nothing more than being dazzled by the enemy's demons. After returning to Suzhou, we will recruit village heroes and make a comeback. Take precautions and win.”

"It makes sense. According to the current situation, go back to Suzhou first, and be prudent."

"Your Excellency is in poor health, and it's time to go back to recuperate. At the same time, you will have a chance to fight again. Your Excellency is a hero if you can bend and stretch. Besides, Your Excellency has won every battle before, so losing for a while is nothing."

"In ancient times, Yunyu could not be crafted, but now he retreats to Suzhou to regroup and wait until the end"

Ding Yi endured the discomfort and listened to these people's comfort, but the more he listened, the more uncomfortable he became.

Since he was a child, he was intelligent, quick-witted, and highly savvy. He knew a lot of things with three-pointers. These people all spoke in a high-sounding way, as if they were comforting him, but none of them were putting pressure on him, wanting him to withdraw to Suzhou!
They are just afraid of themselves.

In all fairness, he also began to be afraid. There are more than 5 troops in less than a month, and there are only a few thousand left. Who can not be afraid.

How sacred is the other party!

But no matter whether he is afraid or not, he has no way out, even if he is sick in bed, he still has a clear mind.

After giving up Linyang City, Luzhou's army can drive straight into the hinterland of Xu State without any hindrance, and they can go wherever they want in the northern counties of Xu State, like fish entering the sea, no matter how elusive they are.

Xu Guo's concentrated force is still unable to resist, once they go deep into the hinterland, scattered villages and towns, how can the county resist it!

This is completely feeding wolves with their bodies. Idiots think that if a wolf bites a bite of meat, they will let go if they endure the pain so that the wolf has something to eat, but a wolf is a wolf after all.

Lin Yang must not let it go!He knew it.

"That's enough, I'm tired, you go back." Ding Yi interrupted them, then waved his hands weakly to let everyone back down.

It is impossible for him to retreat, absolutely impossible, once he retreats, he will be lost forever.

Outside Linyang City, Li Xingzhou looked at Jiancheng under the night, with a few guards behind him. They carried a bunch of red and yellow flags, and lit torches as they shuttled through the forest in the dark night.

On a summer night, the moon was bright, and Linyang City was on high alert, and the city could be seen from a distance from the hillside.

"My lord, what are we doing climbing the mountain at night?" The young guard asked puzzled, most of them were from Luzhou.

"Hahaha, of course I come out at night to catch ghosts." Li Xingzhou joked.

"Ah!" The guard was startled, "."

The people around laughed. After all, there have been a lot of death experiences recently. It is true that many people have some taboos and fears in their hearts, but when the prince said it so straightforwardly, everyone felt a lot more relieved in an instant.

Tonight's trip has a purpose.

After walking for a while, Li Xingzhou gestured at the head of Linyang City with his thumb, and used his foot to open an open space, "Put the red flag here."

The guards were ordered to plant a red flag, and to prevent the strong wind at night, they picked up a few large stones from the surrounding fallen leaves and pressed them on the roots, and shook the flagpole with their hands, which was very stable.

With the light of the torch, Li Xingzhou continued to lead them to stop and go, shuttling through the woods. The forest was full of the smell of burning rosin. With the torch in hand, there were so many people that even the birds and beasts screaming in the woods did not dare to approach. .

They worked for more than two hours overnight, and finally planted all the flags all over the hills on both sides.

After the busy work, the whole body is weak. After all, after fighting hard all day and climbing up at night, everyone will be tired.

Li Xingzhou led everyone to sit in the bushes on the top of the hill, looking at the busy Linyang City under the moonlight.

Now that things have come to this, he is bound to win this city.

Although I don't know if Yang Hongzhao has made any moves, but as long as Linyang is captured, his army will be able to drive straight into the hinterland of Ansu Mansion. Even if the rebel army cannot be completely defeated, the rebel army will still be in fear all day long.

Today, the initiative has been switched.

"My lord, we can take that city anytime." Someone asked.

Li Xingzhou smiled: "What do you ask me for? I'm not a god in the sky, how would I know when it will be taken down?"

Everyone laughed, talking to the prince is the most relaxing.

"If the prince wants someone to go to the city, call me. I will be the first to attack." A thin guard who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old said, about his age.

"Aren't you afraid of death?" Li Xingzhou asked curiously, and then pointed to Linyang City: "The city wall is more than three feet high, not to mention that there are guards on it, even if you fall down, you will die."

The young guard also looked at Rinyang City: "Don't be afraid, my father said that being a man is not to be afraid of death, but to be afraid of death being boring. If you die there, death is also interesting." He even laughed, clearly saying death, But he could laugh, and this smile made Li Xingzhou feel mixed.

Li Xingzhou finally laughed along with him, patted him on the shoulder and said: "Your father is right. People are not afraid of death, but they are afraid of death. From now on, under my command, even if you have to die, I will I'll try to make death as interesting as possible."

The boy smiled even more happily, because King Pingnan, who is admired by thousands of people, actually approved his words.

At the end of April, the scorching heat completely enveloped the earth, April [-], the last day of April.

Luchun County, the easternmost county seat of Huaihua Prefecture, Luchun is only a small county. There are less than a thousand households in the entire county, including the surrounding villages. However, because it is close to the mountains, many people live by hunting and live relatively well-off.

In this era, hunting is not simply equal to eating meat, animal fur is often more valuable.A piece of good adult tiger skin can feed a commoner's family for two years.

And other leather is also the main material of many armors, and the imperial court and the government will buy them.

Capable hunters have a much easier life than ordinary people.

Early in the morning, some hunters rushed to the county yamen, saying that they had something important to report to the county magistrate.

But the county magistrate had a quarrel with his newly married concubine last night, slept late, and was too old to wake up.

The county magistrate was still angry when he got up, and no one dared to call. It was not until noon, when the county magistrate in his 60s slowly got up, washed his face, and had a meal, that no one dared to report.

Orion hurriedly met with the county magistrate, saying that he was hunting overnight in the mountains last night, but he saw figures covering several hills in the mountains, and he was afraid that the ghost soldiers would make an excuse.

The county magistrate was old and unresponsive. He didn't understand what was going on for a while, and he didn't care after he understood it. He just scolded Orion for being dazzled.

Until the afternoon, his own brother-in-law, the captain of the county guard, brought Yang Hongzhao, the commander in front of the palace, to look for him, followed by a densely packed and well-armored army and went straight into his compound.

"You, what are you?" The county magistrate was dumbfounded at this moment.

His young brother-in-law lowered his head and said, "He said he was a court general, and if he wanted to see brother-in-law, I would bring him here."

In this way, Luchun County, the easternmost gateway of Xu State, fell under the vanguard of Jing State's army.
In the next few days, Yang Hongzhao's [-] troops advanced to the northwest, and wherever they went, they surrendered.

Almost without bloodshed, more than ten counties in the east, large and small, were taken down, because the defenders in these counties were transferred to the north. Even if they wanted to resist, the hundreds of militias formed temporarily had no chance of winning against the well-equipped [-] imperial army.
(End of this chapter)