Chapter 180 Battle of Liyang - Part 10 (2/2)
Tong nodded and read the letter.
[Greetings, I am Li Ru, the advisor of lord Dong Zhuo, your ally.
We received your letter many days ago, but we could not reply to you as we have circumstances.
We've agreed that we will help you in this fight by withdrawing our force from the battle and steal some of the Imperial army's supplies.
However, we have a condition. We want Henei City that you are planning to occupy.
Although it sounds overbearing, we will give you another help. We shall dispatch an additional unit to help you occupy Shangdang City.
Occupying Henei City will put you in an awkward situation because the city will be isolated from your bases as well. On the other hand, Shangdang connects directly to Ye City through the main merchant roads.
Henei City is vital to our Lord while Shangdang is more beneficial for you in the long run. We want to initiate this trade as our condition for the cooperation.
I'm looking forward to your reply.]
Tong read the letter with a frown. He closed his eyes to picture the map of Shangdang and Henei regions.
Henei City was indeed not an ideal city to occupy at the moment as the distance between Ye City and Henei was too long. Henei City also nether connected to Julu nor Jinyang. Comparing to Shangdang City, it was closer to Ye City, and the roads from Shangdang connected to Jinyang to the north, which made it a more desirable strategic city. Although the roads from Shangdang to Ye City was slightly bumpy and dangerous for a large army to pass through, the roads were commonly used by merchants and logistic caravans.
Also, there was Hu Gate in between Ye City and Shangdang City. By taking Shangdang, they would save the resources for not having to siege this pass. Also, the soldiers on this check-point had to surrender to Tong once Shangdang City fell as no neighbor city would supply them food anymore.
With Shangdang, Jinyang, Ye, and Julu, the four regions would form a square formation. With ally cities connected, there would be two ally regions that could send supports to each other.
Tong snapped open his eyes and wrote two letters. One was the reply letter, and the other one was for Zhang He and Ju Shou.
…
…
7.30 AM.
The reply letter from Tong arrived in the hands of Dong Zhuo, who was mockingly laughing after he read the letter.
”Damn brat! He wanted me to send 50,000 men to siege Shangdang for him? Who am I? His sugar daddy? In his dream!”
Dong Zhuo passed the letter to Li Ru. After Li Ru read all of it, he burned the letter.
”My lord, I think we should do as he asked.”
”Huh? What!? Why do I have to waste my soldiers for him!? I said I would help, but I didn't specify how many soldiers I will send! As a matter of fact, I plan to send ONE soldier to monitor the siege! BAHAHAHA!”
Li Ru shook his head and bowed again. ”Lord, I believe we will gain more profits from this siege rather than letting Zhang Tong taking all the treasures.”
The ears of Dong Zhuo perked up when he heard the word, ”Treasure.”
”Explain!”
”Yes, lord. You should aware that Liu Ping will be moving pass Shangdang, correct?”
”Yes. So?”
”It is likely that he will recruit Zhang Yang and all his men into this crusade as well. Rather, Zhang Yang and all of his subordinates will volunteer to join him. Those guys will bootlick the Emperor to get more achievements for their career! Once they moved out, the city will be lightly guarded. If Zhang Tong sieges the city, he can steal all the treasures inside the city!”
”What!?”
”That's why we should siege the city for them so that we can take some of these treasures back to our bases first. Then we let Zhang Tong take our leftover.”
Dong Zhuo slapped his knee and burst into laughter. ”Dammit! I haven't thought that far! You've enlightened me, Wenyou!”
Li Ru just bowed and stopped speaking. He had advised Dong Zhuo with all the ideas he had. He did not have any other suggestion anymore because he was tired from the lack of sleep.
Dong Zhuo also did not bother speaking. He quietly walked toward the wall and gestured Hua Xiong, who was standing guard in front of the tent, to follow him.
The two ignored every soldier and stopped at a distance away from the wall. Dong Zhuo looked at Hua Xiong and asked, ”Do you have an arrow?”
Hua Xiong took out an arrow from his quiver and gave it to the fat lord.
Dong Zhuo took the arrow. He coughed to clear his throat for a while before he put the head of the arrow under his armpit with its tail feathers pointing at the wall. He closed his armpit and shouted.
”OH NOEZ! I HAZ BEEN HIT BY AN ARROW! SAAAAVVVEEE MEEEE!”
Hua Xiong stared at his boss in shock for a second before he realized what Dong Zhuo was trying to do. He also shouted.
”OH NOEZ! OUR LORD HAZ BEEN HIT! TAKE OUR LORD BACK AND RETREAT!”
For the sake of realism, Hua Xiong cut a wound on his arm and soaked Dong Zhuo with his blood.
Dong Zhuo shouted again. ”RETREAT! I NEED A DOCTOR IN HENEI!”
The nearby soldiers did not everything from the beginning. They panicked and escorted Dong Zhuo and Hua Xiong over.
Li Ru looked at the two and sighed. If they wanted to retreat, they could have said the word directly without this farce.
”Signal all troops. We shall withdraw back to Henei!”
Li Ru's aide looked at him in confusion. He asked, ”Sir, what about Zhu Jun and our initial plan?”
”Forget it. We've done everything we need. For the intel documents we have about Henei and the false Bao Xin unit, burn it.”</your>