Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 3: Galloping Through Bingzhou, Troops Depart Hedong Chapter 78: Each with Their Own Thoughts

Belonging to the book:


Can a strategist not ascend the throne?

Chapter 78: Each with Their Own Thoughts

If you get beaten and can’t fight back, naturally, you’d want to find your big brother to get your face back.

At the very least, you need to find a backer.

This was exactly what Li Le thought after being caught off guard by the pre-dawn sneak attack.

Regardless of whether this big brother is their nominal leader Guo Tai or the de facto most powerful among the four, Yang Feng, he was heading to the same place.

He pondered that he couldn’t just flee over in such a disheveled state.

Given their competitive relationship, such a落魄 appearance would only give the other party a reason to吞并 him.

He quickly straightened his somewhat askew attire and had his subordinates, who had retreated with him through the tunnel, tidy up their appearances, especially dusting off their clothes, making the thousand or so people look much more presentable before heading towards Yang Feng’s camp.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to麻烦 like Qiao Yan spying on their tracks; they had informed each other when they moved, otherwise finding someone would be a big problem.

This necessary情报 under mutual assistance obviously couldn’t be lied about.

Having混迹 in the mountains for quite some time, Li Le could navigate the hills around Xiangfen with his eyes closed, so he arrived at the outskirts of Yang Feng’s location before noon.

Unsurprisingly, he was stopped by the patrolling Xu Huang.

Yang Feng wasn’t like him, focused on hiding methods, as he had a subordinate that even Li Le envied,足以让他在此地立足.

To Li Le, Xu Huang这家伙 was clearly using his brains for defense and偏偏 had great武力. If it weren’t for Yang Feng’s恩情 towards him in the early years, this guy could have led his own group of White Wave bandits.

But now, saying this was meaningless; after all, this guy was loyal to Yang Feng and had拱卫 this easily defensible camp very well.

However, considering he could intercept them so quickly, he must also be able to quickly detect the Marquis of Leping’s来袭, thus ensuring his safety.

Li Le, forced to flee until now, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Commander Li, what brings you here?” Xu Huang looked at the group behind Li Le with a狐疑 expression.

Despite Li Le tidying up his and his subordinates’ appearances before coming, Xu Huang knew their capabilities and素质; this欲盖弥彰的方式 couldn’t hide their惊惶逃难之态.

This was clearly the look of someone who had lost their根据地 and was being chased.

His gaze was too sharp, and with the immediate follow-up, “Commander Li brings a thousand men; we dare not招待. If you just want to discuss matters with Commander Yang, bring ten亲卫,” Li乐梗塞 for a while before不得不将实情相告.

But upon仔细一想, he felt he didn’t need to be so畏缩.

They had lost to the Marquis of Leping’s subordinates, didn’t gain much advantage at the陉口, and it wasn’t just his situation.

Now that the Marquis of Leping亲自带人前来, it was too normal that he didn’t fare well.

At least he had侥幸逃脱 by leaving himself a退路, even preserving more than half of his forces.

After极力给自己挽尊的说辞, Xu Huang抓住他话中的关键词问道: “You mean, the Marquis of Leping亲自带人来了?”

He glanced at Li Le and his subordinates’ situation, not as乐观 as him, but after getting a肯定答复, he had them安排在外围住下 and immediately went to report to Yang Feng.

But before he could finish, they received news that Han Xian had also arrived.

Compared to Li Le’s situation, his was even more惨淡.

In Qiao Yan’s attack on Li Le, Dian Wei didn’t even出手, acting as a合格保镖, but Zhao Yun,负责进攻韩暹营地, didn’t show such手下留情.

He and Xu福先让人去通知韩暹.

Unfortunately, Han Xian, who considered his势力仅次于杨奉, didn’t hide like Li Le and even had a坚守的营盘, so if someone attacked, he could fight back,不必如此担心.

If it weren’t for the言之凿凿 report, he wouldn’t even have set up an extra防线.

But Zhao Yun and Xu福商定后,直接选择了对方在用早膳的时间动手,来得让人着实意外!

With Zhao Yun having previously交手 and极尽勇武的率队先行, this防线更像是形同虚设, at most giving Han Xian some逃命的时间.

Han Xian一边念叨着悔不听人言,一边收拾着残部投奔杨奉而来.

Since he usually didn’t get along well with Yang Feng, he made himself look slightly惨, so if Yang Feng didn’t收留 him, he had a谴责的理由.

Who knew that upon arriving, the first person he saw wasn’t Yang Feng but Li Le, who was setting up camp.

They面面相觑 for a while before仿佛对暗号一样地问道: “Leping?”

Seeing each other’s表现, they guessed they were indeed同道中人.

However, they soon realized that although they had损兵折将 and almost lost their lives, they were still比下有余.

When another残兵 arrived, they received a令人惊诧的消息:

Hu Cai had died at the hands of Chu Yan.

After Hu Cai’s death, the part of the White Wave bandits that勉强逃脱 from the混战, under the guidance of a小头目, chose to come here.

“幸好我多挖了一条地道…” Li Le couldn’t help感慨,无比庆幸 his two opponents were still young and lacked some本事.

“幸好我因招募的部从而有同乡报信…” Han Xian almost simultaneously said.

They looked at each other again, seeing the庆幸 in each other’s eyes.

With three of the four White Wave leaders attacked by Leping, the pressure无疑给到了杨奉.

Due to the different situations the three encountered, Yang Feng完全没意识到韩暹和李乐的前来 was a trap set by Qiao Yan. He just asked Xu Huang: “In your opinion, will the Marquis of Leping attack us?”

Xu Huang thought and replied: “I don’t think so.”

“We have over four thousand men. Due to the不便 of河谷山道作战, we’ve been limited by the opponent. But to攻破我方营寨, even if we were毫无防备, they would need over five thousand men. Do you think Leping really has that many?”

Yang Feng shook his head.

Leping is just a county with ten thousand households. Even if they容纳了黑山贼, the actual战斗力 would be at most three thousand.

Moreover, most of these people must have had their武力装备卸去 to prevent them from regrouping and posing a threat to Leping’s safety.

And any normal person wouldn’t use too many bandits from another group while清剿 one group of bandits.

After all, in these times, being a bandit is stronger than being a civilian; who knows if the two groups might联合到一处去.








So the number of people is at most three thousand.

This is a number that is extremely difficult to launch an attack towards their side.

Yang Feng felt a bit more at ease and asked Xu Huang, “Then do you think we should take in Han Xian and Li Le, or let them go and rebuild their camp?”

Xu Huang did not answer this question directly.

He just said, “Such important matters should be decided by the leader himself.”

From Yang Feng’s previous attitude, his inclination had already been expressed.

Xu Huang saw clearly that when Hu Cai’s troops arrived, Yang Feng’s behavior was more about coveting these people rather than sympathizing with the plight of another leader from the same camp.

At this time, although Xu Huang intuitively felt that keeping everyone here was not a good choice, it was also not appropriate to say it out loud.

All he could do now was to strengthen the camp’s defenses, on one hand to guard against Li Le and Han Xian, and on the other hand to be wary of any miscalculation regarding the Marquis of Leping, in case he really led troops here at this time.

When Yang Feng heard Xu Huang’s answer, he laughed and patted his shoulder, saying, “You’re not being honest.”

But even so, he was still very satisfied with Xu Huang’s tactful attitude.

He was confident that he had the ability to swallow Hu Cai’s troops, and even further, to take in Li Le and Han Xian. With an absolute numerical advantage on their side, it was perfectly fine to keep them.

Moreover, the location where Xu Huang settled these people was also the barrier of their camp.

If the Marquis of Leping, emboldened by the success of the previous three-pronged attack, chose to attack them, these people would just become his “helpers.”

Or, as Qiao Yan would say, they would be more like cannon fodder.

But in this alliance that is more about common interests than bonds of friendship, if he coveted Hu Cai’s troops who fled here, wouldn’t others have the same idea?

Li Le and Han Xian had just suffered losses and wanted to replenish their numbers.

They knew that after a defeat, it would be quite difficult to recruit new people.

So they both turned their attention to Hu Cai’s subordinates.

One side lost their leader, the other needed to replenish their manpower, it was a perfect match.

However, they also knew that they were currently in a dependent state, and with competitors around, they couldn’t reveal their intentions too quickly.

Besides these two, there was another person eyeing these people, the nominal leader Guo Tai.

How did he become the leader? It was because when these people first gathered, each had only about a thousand men, and no one would submit to anyone else, so they pushed him up.

But Guo Tai, who could rally a few hundred people at that time, was not completely without ability.

However, these people obviously didn’t want a real powerful leader above them, so in the past two years, they had limited his development, at most giving him a nominal leadership position.

As a result, while these people had each developed a thousand subordinates and further expanded their numbers with their families, he was still stuck with a pitiful thousand or so.

Now that Hu Cai was dead, shouldn’t his subordinates belong to him, the leader of the White Wave?

Guo Tai couldn’t help but have some thoughts.

He even started to think of a more dangerous idea.

If he, Li Le, Han Xian, and Hu Cai’s troops were combined, they would have a numerical advantage over Yang Feng, and from such a close distance, even with Xu Huang’s great skills, it would be hard to defend against.

He didn’t expect to swallow everyone at once, but with Hu Cai gone, if he could become a real leader and even kill Yang Feng, who had never shown him much respect, how wonderful that would be!

But before achieving this goal, these people with their own thoughts had to face a more real problem.

Their food was not enough.

If only Yang Feng’s people were stationed here, their planning for food and supplies would be no problem at all. With Xu Huang taking care of security, Yang Feng even put more thought into internal affairs, fearing that the upcoming winter might bring food shortages.

But now with two more, or rather three more groups, it became troublesome.

To share the supplies, Yang Feng couldn’t help but feel heartache, and it might even put his own side in a difficult position, but if not?

Everyone is a thief!

When it comes to not having enough to eat, the common practice is to steal, and even complain, as allies, why can Yang Feng’s people still eat and dress warmly, but not care about the lives of those who suffered from Leping’s attack.

Logically, if there’s not enough, just go down the mountain and steal.

But then they received some news.

After the three-pronged attack, which was successful but not fully effective, the Marquis of Leping did not return to Leping as a nobleman out for a stroll should, but instead stationed himself outside Pingzhou County.

This was a position that, although still a bit distant, could launch an attack on them at any time.

In this situation, if they set their sights on the Zhi Pass, it would be somewhat inappropriate.

So, could they only look towards Hedong Commandery?

Compared to the frustration of these people, Qiao Yan was undoubtedly much more comfortable.

Pingzhou belonged to Xihe Commandery, and due to the Protector-General of the Southern Xiongnu, the military authority of the Xihe Commandery’s Prefect was greatly constrained. At least, Qiao Yan, the Marquis of Leping, openly stationed troops here, and he could do nothing about it.

Complaining was out of the question. Didn’t you see that Qiao Yan attacked a Governor and didn’t receive much punishment, even causing the original Governor Zhang Yi to flee to Xuzhou? What if she attacked him again?

Last time it was for the sake of locust plague and people’s livelihood, this time it was to suppress the White Wave bandits, which was a very justifiable reason.

He could only pretend not to see this overstepping behavior.

With this tacit approval, and the fact that Qiao Yan could easily bring military rations from Leping without affecting Pingzhou’s grain reserves, and even acted as a bodyguard outside the city, if it weren’t for estimating the Xihe Prefect’s bad mood, the Pingzhou County Magistrate would have brought something to reward the troops.

Unaware of what the “neighbor” was thinking, Qiao Yan was staring blankly at the paper and brush in front of her.

Although the three-pronged attack was completely according to her plan and achieved the expected results, any battle would inevitably have casualties.

This was completely unavoidable.

Moreover, the numbers on all three sides were above the number of people she sent, and the advantage of her side’s strong and healthy soldiers was balanced by the numbers…

In short, each side lost more than a hundred people.

Although they killed about four hundred and captured six or seven hundred, it was already an obvious victory, but any force at the beginning cannot take the loss of life in such battles lightly.

But perhaps, this was also a good opportunity for her.

She could also take this battle to establish the military reward and punishment system and the compensation for battle deaths.

However, just as she was holding the brush and struggling with the regulations, she suddenly heard Xu Fu’s voice outside the tent.

“Lord Marquis, the Wei family from Hedong has sent someone to request an audience.”