Chapter 1 The Mandate of Heaven

At this moment,

Zheng Fan truly felt like he had the mandate of heaven!

If it weren't for Li Fusheng above him, and even further up were the Marquis of Zhenbei and the Marquis of Jingnan, and then there was the Yan Emperor, and Wei Gonggong,

If it weren't for the fact that he only had two thousand five hundred men under his command,

If it weren't for so many ifs,

Commander Zheng could really give Blind a "meaningful look,"

And then smoothly put on the yellow robe himself.

However, Zheng Fan, always cautious, immediately asked:

"Could it be a trap?"

Liang Cheng shook his head and said, "They can't afford to play tricks."

To feign surrender, lure the enemy in deep, and then counter-attack, you have to see what level the opponent is at.

The local garrison of Qingshan County, plus a group of deserters, plus a bunch of local county residents,

Can these people pull off such a sophisticated trick as a feigned surrender?

Just like the tactic of "feigned defeat" was rarely used in ancient times, because many times, a feigned defeat would turn into a real rout.

Hearing Liang Cheng's answer, Zheng Fan was relieved.

Although he didn't plan to attack this city, since they had already opened the city gates, he couldn't just not go in, right?

Could he possibly say to them:

No, you go back first and continue to guard the city, and I'll come back to attack next time!

Zheng Fan wasn't Li Fusheng, he didn't have such a strong desire for slaughter. At that moment, the cavalry began to move forward, and the entire army pressed forward.

"This humble one, Kong Mingde, the registrar of Qingshan County, pays respects to you, sir!"

"This humble one, Zhang Hongqi, the commandant of the Imperial Guards, pays respects to you, sir!"

One was the local registrar,

The other was a commandant of the Imperial Guards,

The one in the lead who was tied up like a dumpling should be the magistrate of Qingshan County.

This magistrate had his mouth stuffed, and he was struggling and writhing, his eyes filled with indignation. When he looked at the two men beside him and the Yan soldiers, his expression was extremely hateful!

Zheng Fan pointed to the magistrate,

And said:

"Behead him."

The magistrate struggled even more violently when he heard this order!

Zheng Fan smiled, even though he felt that smiling at this time was inappropriate.

Because no matter what, since this magistrate had been押出来 (yā chū lái - escorted out) by his subordinates to surrender, it was clear that he had intended to defend the city and had no intention of surrendering.

He was a man of unyielding spirit and integrity, and also a person worthy of respect.

He should have resigned himself to his fate, but he was probably still preparing that after the thing stuffed in his mouth was taken away,

When facing the Yan soldiers' persuasion to surrender,

He would spit on the ground,

And shout:

"Bah, Yan dogs, I, xxx, will never surrender!"

As a result, Zheng Fan skipped a step.

Liang Cheng stepped forward and killed the magistrate with one stroke.

In fact, this magistrate probably only had integrity left, because since he intended to defend the city, he still used deserters to defend it, and at the same time, he couldn't control the local forces in Qingshan County. This proved that this magistrate's professional ability was indeed poor enough.

Kong Mingde and Zhang Hongqi knelt on the ground, trembling.

Obviously, skipping a step would make both sides a little uncomfortable.

"My lord, shall we enter the city?"

Liang Cheng asked.

"Enter, then come out."

"Your subordinate obeys."

Next, a scene that surprised the people of Qingshan County appeared.

The Yan army rushed into the city with great momentum, and then circled around the city. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, they drove out of the city again.

The people were dumbfounded,

The guards were dumbfounded,

Kong Mingde and Zhang Hongqi were also dumbfounded,

Zheng Fan rode his horse to the two men,

The two naturally knew that the young man in front of them was the leader of this Yan army, so they quickly lowered their heads.

Zheng Fan untied his saber and threw it directly in front of the two men,

And said:

"My surname is Zheng, and my name is Zheng Fan. I don't know if you've heard of me. Well, today I think you two are pleasing to the eye, so I'm giving you this saber."

Zheng Fan pointed to Kong Mingde and said:

"You, be the magistrate of Qingshan County."

Kong Mingde looked at the saber on the ground, then looked up at Zheng Fan, a little surprised, but he quickly reacted and kowtowed, saying:

"Thank you, sir."

Zheng Fan pointed to Zhang Hongqi again and said:

"You, be the garrison commander of Qingshan County."

"Thank you, sir."

"Send someone to Chuzhou City to deliver a message to Wen Sutong, saying that you have already归附 (guī fù - pledged allegiance) to my Great Yan."

"This humble one obeys."

"This humble one obeys."

After saying that,

Zheng Fan waved his hand,

The soldiers followed Zheng Fan around Qingshan County and left.

Zhang Hongqi and Kong Mingde, who had been kneeling on the ground for a long time, exchanged glances,

They both saw the doubt in each other's eyes,

What exactly was the Yan army playing at?

In fact, Zheng Fan didn't know what he was playing at either.

Yes, he had just said that this place was suitable for development, but he had never thought of taking this city today.

And now, the Yan army hadn't even left a single soldier in Chuzhou City, so how could they possibly divide their forces to guard this Qingshan County?

If Zheng Fan really dared to leave troops here, if he left too few, it would be useless, if he left too many, then he would definitely be severely punished by Li Fusheng. This was disobeying military orders. Such mistakes on the battlefield wouldn't work, no matter who Zheng Fan was favored by or whose man he was.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about leaving a Demon King here to watch the place, just as an early梳理 (shū lǐ - organize/sort out) of the area.

But firstly, there might still be changes here in the future, and it might even change hands. Every one of the seven Demon Kings was more important to Zheng Fan than thousands of troops.

Secondly, he still had to continue south. Everyone had agreed to play together, so it wouldn't be appropriate to leave one of them here, because the person left behind would have to worry about whether they would suddenly die.

Most importantly, whether he would be assigned to Qingshan County in the future was still up in the air!

Therefore, he could only casually bestow two official positions and then leave directly.

The matter of bestowing official positions wasn't a big problem. According to the style of the Yan country's upper echelons, they would definitely understand. After all, there was no reason for people to open the city and surrender, but you just ignored them.

However, because of this delay, Zheng Fan's troops didn't catch up with the main force until late at night.

As soon as Zheng Fan entered the camp, he received a military order saying that Li Fusheng was already angry because he hadn't returned for so long.

Helpless, Commander Zheng couldn't care less about resting, so he had to go to the army camp immediately. As soon as he finished reporting and entered the military tent, Li Fusheng, who was sitting on the blanket, directly cursed:

"Damn it, returning to the camp so late. This general asked you to keep an eye on Qingshan City. Could it be that you went and took down Qingshan City?"

Zheng Fan was stunned for a moment and asked:

"Sir, you already know?"

"Huh? What do I know?"

"Qingshan City was taken down by your subordinate."

"............" Li Fusheng.

It took Li Fusheng a while to recover before he said:

"Explain in detail."

Zheng Fan explained the whole process, of course, skipping things like the Crouching Dragon and the land for development.

After listening to Zheng Fan's account, Li Fusheng patted his thigh and said with emotion:

"Commander Zheng, your luck is really unmatched."

"Actually, it's still because of the battle that you, sir, fought the other day, which shattered the courage of the Qian people. The Qian people fear your martial prowess, sir, and that's why they lost their will to defend the city and surrendered directly."

"Stop with the pretty words. Although there's no difference between taking this city and not taking it, this general will record it on your merit book."

"Thank you, sir!"

"Alright, alright, let's talk about serious matters."

"Serious matters?"

"We received a military report at night that Li Bao's half-zhen army, in Beihe County, had broken the eighty thousand garrison troops personally led by the Jiedushi of Beihe County."

When Li Fusheng said this, his expression was somewhat angry.

Because of the Chuzhou City incident, his troops were delayed for a few days, which meant that they still hadn't left the territory of Chuzhou County and hadn't entered Beihe County yet.

As a result, Li Bao's troops had already entered Beihe County, not to mention fought a major battle.

"The Qian Dynasty's garrison troops are useless anyway," Zheng Fan said.

Most of the Qian Dynasty's garrison troops were better at farming than fighting, so such a force really had no combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the garrison troops of Beihe County had been screened before, and the soldiers and generals who could be considered somewhat decent had been selected by the Jiedushi of Beihe County and handed over to his son-in-law, Han Wu, to lead north, which was part of the Qian army that Li Fusheng had defeated the other day.

This was enough to show what rubbish was left in the garrison troops of Beihe County.

"They're all trash, I defeated thirty thousand trash, and Li Bao defeated eighty thousand. He still stole the limelight!"

So,

What Li Fusheng was unhappy about was this,

The competition within his own group.

"What are General Li Bao's troops doing now?"

"They didn't rest, they continued south."

Hiss, so anxious.

Zheng Fan thought about what Blind had said in the afternoon, combined with the fact that the General Li Bao that Li Fusheng mentioned only had a half-zhen army under his command.

It seemed that the Marquis of Zhenbei and the Marquis of Jingnan were holding nearly two hundred thousand troops, constantly wandering and hiding in the territory of Chuzhou County, waiting for the Qian Dynasty's border troops to return for reinforcements.

And the ones who were really going south from Chuzhou County were Li Fusheng's half-zhen and Li Bao's half-zhen.

The role of these two troops was to go south, south, and south again, all the way into the heart of the Qian people, forcing the Qian Emperor to issue an edict urging the border troops to return for reinforcements.

This was the overall strategy, but on a smaller level, it was Li Fusheng and Li Bao racing to see who could reach the foot of the capital first.

This wasn't just about competing for a breath, but also about deeper political and future development implications.

Since the Zhenbei Army had gone south, it was impossible to pull them all back to Beifeng County. It was destined that a large part of the Zhenbei Army would continue to stay behind.

To put it bluntly, fools could make the choice of where it was more comfortable and where they could live a better life. Even if these generals didn't care, and even if someone like Li Fusheng probably preferred to be in the desert where he could indiscriminately exterminate tribes, what about the soldiers under his command?

Sometimes, as a leader, you represent not only yourself, but also the collective interests of the people behind you.

It was just that Li Bao's troops were really living up to their name, their speed was astonishingly fast. It would probably be impossible to catch up.

"Sir, your subordinate has a plan."

"Oh? Tell me about it."

Li Fusheng had obviously held meetings with his subordinates before, and there must have been no solutions, so he came to ask Zheng Fan.

After all, Zheng Fan's military level in the battle the other day had been recognized by Li Fusheng.

Zheng Fan took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. This time, there was no outside connection, so he had to rely on himself. However, he really had a solution.

"Sir, we can go even slower, and we'll be able to reach the capital faster than General Li Bao's troops."

"Go even slower?" Li Fusheng looked at Zheng Fan with some confusion.

"Sir, General Li Bao's troops have already entered the hinterland of Beihe County, and it's only a matter of time before they enter Xishan County. But after entering Xishan County, even the Qian people will know what General Li Bao is going to do. Therefore, they will definitely summon all the available fighting forces that can be mobilized from the capital area and nearby. For the sake of their own face, for the sake of their imperial court's face, they will definitely try to stop General Li Bao from driving straight to the capital from Xishan County.

The Qian people absolutely don't want our Great Yan's iron cavalry to appear outside the capital."

"You mean, let me deliberately lag behind, and let Li Bao face the pressure from the Qian people alone?"

The Qian Dynasty had a large number of troops, and the number of troops on the military registers was even enough to scare people to death.

Of course, in reality, although the number of troops was greatly reduced, it was still not small compared to the Yan Dynasty.

Although many of the troops weren't very good at fighting, there were always a few that could be of some use. No one would doubt this.

The eighty thousand garrison troops that Li Bao had previously defeated could only be said to be miscellaneous soldiers of the Qian Dynasty and were not worth mentioning. However, when he led his troops to continue to penetrate deeper, the Qian Dynasty court, upon receiving the news, could immediately mobilize as many elites as possible from the surrounding areas to defend in Xishan County or even in Bianzhou County.

If Li Fusheng's troops didn't provide reinforcements or help to share some of the pressure, it would probably be really difficult for Li Bao to break through the Qian people's defenses.

Of course, if the Qian people were really too useless and Li Bao broke through, then there was nothing they could do.

"Commander Zheng, although the six zhen of my Zhenbei Army have always been competing with each other and no one is convinced by the other, we never do things that hurt our own people and please our enemies on the battlefield."

Li Fusheng's expression and words began to become serious. Obviously, Zheng Fan's suggestion had touched Li Fusheng's reverse scale (sensitive spot).

Zheng Fan immediately replied:

"Sir, with General Li Bao's troops taking the lead in attracting the Qian people's attention, luring the few combat-capable troops near their capital area to General Li Bao,

Our army will have the opportunity to find gaps in the Qian people's defenses, directly penetrate through, and rush straight to the capital!

The sound of our military's presence alarming the capital is the real purpose of our army's southward march this time.

Your subordinate believes that General Li Bao knows the greater good and is willing to provide cover and diversion for our army, helping our army to go south to the capital.

In fact, General Li Bao's troops are marching so urgently precisely to create an opportunity for our army, it can be said that he is deeply concerned and knows the greater good!"

"Hmm........"

Li Fusheng was thoughtful,

The image of Li Bao's face and that mouth that always had a strong garlic smell immediately appeared in his mind.

Li Fusheng had said long ago that he was a rough man and a bit stupid.

But in front of Li Bao, Li Fusheng had always had a psychological advantage, because among the seven chief generals of the Zhenbei Army, the most憨 (hān - simple/foolish) one was Li Bao.

He liked to eat the most, liked to steal food the most, liked to steal military merits the most, liked to steal opportunities the most, liked to steal everything the most, and his eating habits were the most ugly!

But Li Fusheng still said with emotion:

"Yes, yes, I have always admired Li Bao's character."