Before the man could recover from the beauty and smile of the girl opposite him, when he heard these words, he felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured down on his head, and he instantly sobered up.
The man's expression changed, he pulled the reins and took two steps back, and said sternly: "Who are you?!"
Luo Junyao sneered and said: "You are so smart that you know how to run away in advance. How could you not guess who we are? Pretending to be stupid will not save your life."
The man's expression changed, and he finally no longer hesitated, picked up the knife, and urged the horse to rush towards the opposite side.
The people blocking him immediately dispersed, and the shadow beside Luo Junyao jumped up from the horse and landed on the man's horse.
After a few rounds, the man rolled off his horse in embarrassment and fell to the ground, causing dust to fly.
Dieying sat on his horse and opened the leather bag he put on the horse. It was full of various jewelry, emeralds, and even silver notes and gold ingots.
Duoying looked at it, tied the bag casually, and said: "How can you carry so much money with you when you run for your life?"
The man fell into the dust in embarrassment, struggled to get up and begged for mercy, "Please forgive me, sir! These things... these things can be given to you, I just ask you to let me live."
"You have good intentions. How happy have you been all the way south? Now you know how to beg for mercy."
Luo Junyao smiled and no longer wanted to pay attention to this clown.
He picked up the reins and ran forward, "Die Ying, I leave it to you. Don't let him die. It's still useful."
"Yes." Duiying responded respectfully.
Compared with Yanzhou, the entire Gaoyu army only had tens of thousands of troops, while the Qingzhou rebels were much more powerful.
It claims to have more than 300,000 troops. Although the imperial troops have won many battles, half of Qingzhou is still in the hands of the rebels.
On the other hand, the Cao family took advantage of the emptiness of Yanzhou and took the opportunity to go north and occupy part of southern Yanzhou. Because Yanzhou was originally vast and sparsely populated, the area under its control was even larger than before.
But despite this, the Cao family also understood that their situation was not that good.
Everything started when Cao Mian went to Yingzhou but never came back. The Cao family's disobedience was discovered by the court in advance, and they had to raise troops in advance. Everything seemed very hasty, and without Cao Mian in charge, it was even more chaotic.
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Although Cao Jie has always had great ambitions, he is still just a young man who has never entered official circles.
The difference between raising an army and rebelling is not small between Cao Mian and him.
Fortunately, the Cao family also had many capable people to help them, and they were able to stabilize the situation after Cao Mian disappeared. However, it can be said that none of the routes and processes they originally planned for raising troops over the years have been realized.
The original plan of the Cao family was to take advantage of the fact that most of the imperial troops and Xie Yan and Luo Yun were at the border, to suddenly raise troops and quickly occupy several states near Qingzhou. With the help of overseas Yingzhou, they could easily transport from Qingzhou to Dongzhou.
With the strength of the army, even if you want to cover Shang Yong from both sides, it may not be impossible.
However, the war between Dasheng and the Qi tribe ended too quickly. Before they had time to react, Xie Yan not only returned to the capital, but also killed Prince Ning's party at an extremely fast speed, and even had a close relationship with the Cao family.
Ruan Ting was also imprisoned in the sky prison.
Coupled with the great purge at the end of last year, the Cao family's power in Shangyong was almost completely lost.
This was originally not a good time to raise troops, but what happened at Yunhai Academy made them very uneasy. What happened after Cao Jie went to Shangyong made Cao Mian suspect that they had been targeted by the court.
At this point, even if you don't want to, you can't do it anymore.
Cao Mian thought he had arranged everything, but he underestimated the speed of the court's actions, so he set himself up in Yingzhou.
Nothing goes smoothly from beginning to end, and the result after raising the troops is naturally unsatisfactory.
Therefore, now it is not that the Cao family wants to tear up their alliance and go north to seize territory from Gaoyu, but that they have no other choice but to go north.
If they do not capture the northeastern region of Yan quickly, they will be trapped in the eastern part of Qingzhou by the imperial troops.
Once the war in Gaoyu goes bad and they are driven out of the pass by the imperial court, they will be surrounded on three sides and have nowhere to escape but to jump into the sea.
The Cao family's staff made a good plan. Now that Yanzhou is empty of troops, it is indeed the best time to capture it. The Cao family assigned 150,000 troops on horseback and occupied a large area in Yannan in less than ten days.
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But this does not mean that they can sit back and relax. They have also received the news that the Gaoyu people failed to capture Jianling, and they will have a head-on confrontation with the imperial troops in the north.
In the rebel camp in Yanzhou, Cao Jie looked solemnly at the embarrassed-looking middle-aged man in front of him, with a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
"Do you know where my father is? Why should I believe you?" Cao Jie asked, "You said that you were originally the guard of Chixia Pass. Chixia Pass is on the northeastern border of Yanzhou. You are just a border guard. How do you know that?
What’s the whereabouts of my father?”
The middle-aged man in front of him was none other than Wu Yi, the traitor general who had been missing for several days.
Wu Yi silently took off a ring from his hand, and then took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Cao Jie: "This is the token and secret letter of the Marquis. Please check it, the eldest son."
Cao Jie took the ring and the secret letter, opened the letter and read it for a while before raising his head and looking at Wu Yida: "Are you the adopted son that my father adopted in his early years?"
"Exactly." Wu Yidao.
Cao Jie sneered and said, "That Cao Ying back then, my father also said he was an adopted son at first."
Wu Yi didn't know who Cao Ying was, but that didn't mean that he couldn't understand the meaning of Cao Jie's words.
At that moment, his face turned gloomy and he said: "The eldest son is worrying too much. The Marquis has a life-saving grace for Wu, and Wu is willing to serve him. If the eldest son doesn't believe it, then that's it. The news about the Marquis has been sent to me, believe it or not.
Young master, please do as you please."
Seeing him like this, Cao Jie put away his contemptuous expression, and his young face became more solemn and said: "General Wu, please don't be angry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me, General."
Cao Jie sighed and said, "It's true that my father is not around these days, and things at home are complicated and confusing, which makes me a little dizzy. General Wu has traveled thousands of miles to bring back the news about his father. I and the entire Cao family are very grateful. General, please
Sit down and talk in detail."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Seeing his sincere words, Wu Yi's expression softened a little, and he walked to the side and sat down.
"General Wu said he knew his father's whereabouts, but I don't know where he is now. Is he still okay?" Cao Jie asked.
Wu Yidao: "The prince was imprisoned by the regent in Wanhu City in Bingzhou, a county not far from the border between Qingzhou and Bingzhou. But..."
Wu Yi hesitated for a moment, and Cao Jie quickly asked: "But what?"
Wu Yidao: "There is a secret camp under the command of the Zhenguo Army. The Marquis is imprisoned there. The defense is very tight, and no one can enter it at all."
Hearing this, Cao Jie couldn't help but frown.
That place was not far from Qingzhou, but he had never heard of any secret camp there.
Either Wu Yi was lying, or the place was really secretive so even the Cao family had never heard of it, or it was just built recently.
But no matter what it is, it is obviously not an easy task.
Cao Jie thought for a moment, then raised his head and said, "No matter how difficult it is, my father still needs to be rescued. General Wu, please tell me all the news you know, so that we can discuss how to rescue my father."
Naturally, Wu Yi would not refuse. The two of them sat in the big tent and chatted for a long time, until the guard's voice came from outside the door, "To inform the eldest son, someone outside has sent a secret letter."
Cao Jie frowned and said, "Secret letter? Who is it?"
The guard said: "It is said that the Yanzhou Army was originally stationed at Chixia Pass. After the rebel general Wu Yi surrendered to Gaoyu, they were also forced to serve under the Gaoyu people. However, the Gaoyu people suppressed them in every possible way. The Yanzhou Army was already in the area a few days ago.
Lead Sun Liang to break away from the Gaoyu people and go south. They want to seek refuge with the Young Master and hope that the Young Master will take care of them."
Cao Jie raised his eyebrows slightly and glanced sideways at Wu Yi.
Wu Yi frowned slightly and said, "I did have a general named Sun Liang under my command. After all, those soldiers and horses should be following his orders now."
"General Wu is really ruthless." Cao Jie said with some unclear meaning.
Wu Yi lowered his eyes and said: "I am just serving the Marquis. My life was saved by the Marquis, let alone others."
Cao Jie did not comment, but just smiled and said: "Since it is Wu Jianjun's old department, it will be easy to handle. Send the letter in. How many troops do they have?"
"I reported to the eldest son that there were originally more than 20,000 people, and some more were collected along the way, about 50,000 people."
"Oh?" Cao Jie suddenly became interested. Fifty thousand soldiers and horses is not a small number.
He reached out and took the letter and read it carefully. After reading it, he handed it to Wu Yi next to him, "General Wu, is that Sun Liang's handwriting?"
Wu Yi looked at it carefully and said: "It does look like it." Sun Liang was just a partial general. Wu Yi didn't pay much attention to him in the past, so naturally he wouldn't make a special trip to remember his handwriting, but he just looked at it.
It looks familiar.
"Yes or no, you can't be sure just by handwriting."
Cao Node nodded and said: "What the general said is to invite the envoy in."
