The next morning, before midnight, the summer sky was already completely bright and even slightly hot.
Liu Yu's army has finished its meal and is ready to go.
Standing on the high platform set up in the camp, Liu Yu was wearing a bright military uniform, and his tall and burly figure exuded a majestic demeanor, which caught the eyes of the soldiers in the audience. Liu Yu raised his head and looked around, very satisfied with the admiration in everyone's eyes.
Originally, Liu Yu wanted to wear bright armor, but the weather was too hot, so it was more comfortable to wear a military uniform.
Immediately, Liu Yu loudly ordered the entire army, announcing that the entire army would continue to advance westward today, because he wanted to take advantage of the empty enemy troops in Mi City and cooperate with the Tianshi followers there to take Mi City in one go.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Yu told the whole army about the benefits of Xiami City. This city is the first important place from the Donglai Mountains and Hills to the west and the Qingzhou Plain. The city has a large amount of armor, weapons, food, gold and silver stored in it. Pearls, jade, money, cloth, silk and satin, the wealth in Xiami City far exceeds those remote towns in the mountains and ravines of Donglai County.
Therefore, Liu Yu announced that for the raid, he would travel lightly. Except for the necessary weapons and rations, he would give up all the stolen gold, silver, jewelry, silks, silks and other trophies and leave them all in the Jiaoshui River camp. The next hundred people were used to guard the belongings left by everyone and to guard the ferry pontoon.
Two-quarters of an hour later, Liu Yu led the re-equipped army and began to leave the camp and march toward the southwest.
At this time, Liu Bogen's confidants Zhang Hu and Tan Xu were also forced to follow the army. They originally clamored to stay at the pontoon camp, but how could Liu Yu not know what they were thinking.
Zhang Hu and Tan Xu would definitely look for an opportunity to report to Liu Bogen and rob Xia Mi City. If Liu Yu succeeded, Liu Bogen would not be able to do anything to him.
But if Liu Bogen led an army to suddenly appear before Liu Yu succeeded, then even if Liu Yu captured Xia Mi City later, he would only be making a wedding dress for others.
Therefore, although Zhang Hu and Tan Xu repeatedly shied away from staying, they immediately changed their minds when Liu Yu showed his shining blade.
Although the number was only two thousand, the length of the marching team could still stretch several hundred meters on the narrow road.
Liu Yu immediately picked up the bridle and looked at the rows of soldiers and auxiliary soldiers passing by, feeling a generous and heroic mood. Thinking that these are just a thousand soldiers, what would it be like if there were ten thousand soldiers, and how powerful it would be if there were an army of one hundred thousand or hundreds of thousands.
After the whole army marched for a while, the scouts from the front came to report that they were about to pass by Xu's manor.
Liu Yu immediately led his guards, rode forward, and came to the front of the team.
Turning around a large mulberry forest, Liu Yu looked up, and sure enough, a manor covering a large area came into view. The walls of the manor were tall, made of bricks and stones in some places, and rammed earth in others. It was obvious that it was not built in a moment, but should have been accumulated by generations of Xu family members over hundreds of years.
There are often watchtowers and arrow stacks not far apart on the wall, showing that this is not just a manor, but also has the power to drive away wolves.
Liu Yu looked at this manor. It was obvious that in Qingzhou, where there were relatively few wars, the military role of the powerful manor here was obviously much weaker than that of Wubao in Hebei and Henan.
But it was these militarized manors and Wubao that roamed the north. After the Western Jin Dynasty fell to the Central Plains, they maintained the survival of tens of millions of Han people, and did not allow the Han people in the north to completely become slaves of the barbarians. In the next hundred years or so , these Wubao with their population, land and military strength are the targets of the Hu and Han forces from all sides.
Of course, thousands of Wubao in history were the refuges of the Han people during the five chaotic times.
But today's Xu family still has the possibility of threatening Liu Yu.
So Liu Yu passed by this place and decided that he still needed to flex his muscles to prevent Xu from doing some dangerous behavior that tried to offend him.
Liu Yu waved his hand and led Dong Ping, Tian Jin, Li Feng and other personal guards and scouts, galloping back and forth in front of the marching team, doing various acrobatics such as charging, fighting for weapons, etc. to show off their strength. In exchange for bursts of cheers from the soldiers in the marching column.
Liu Yu then ordered the brigade commanders to shout marching orders in sequence, and the shouts were louder and louder.
At this time, on the tallest watchtower of the Xu family's manor not far away, the two brothers Xu Yan and Xu Guang, the heads of the Xu family in Xiami County, silently looked at the Donglai rebels passing by not far away.
"The thief is indeed bluffing. There are only two thousand people at most." Xu Guang said.
"So what if it's two thousand? The combined strength of my clan's disciples and tribes is only five hundred." Xu Yan replied calmly.
After a while, the Donglai Army, which was getting closer and closer, began to have cavalry showing off their equestrian skills, and started another round of chanting in unison, but it was a bit far away, and the Xu brothers could not hear it clearly.
"Humph, even a stableman is so smart."
Xu Guang sneered at the equestrian skills shown off by the Donglai thieves.
"This is intimidating us. It seems that this group of Donglai thieves are still afraid that we will cut off their escape route." Xu Yan was noncommittal about his brother's words, and then expressed his conjecture.
"If you don't take advantage of small things, you must have a bigger picture. I guess this group of thieves want to go to Secret City."
"Ah, how can we attack the city with less than 2,000 men? I heard that there are nearly 3,000 young soldiers in Xiami City now." Xu Guang felt that it was impossible for only 2,000 men to capture the city.
"Military affairs are treacherous, and sometimes victory or defeat cannot be traced or known," Xu Yan said.
"The secret order was issued by the lackeys of King Gaomi. He has repeatedly made things difficult for our Xu family. If the Donglai thieves really attack Xiami City, it will be dog bite dog. Whoever wins can lose." Xu Guang thought of the Xiami County magistrate. After making things difficult again and again, I wished that this group of Donglai thieves would really break through the secrets and chop off the head of the county magistrate.
"If this group of thieves is really going to attack Xia Mi City, then as you said, whoever wins and who loses will be beneficial to our Xu family." Xu Yanxu said thoughtfully.
Xu Yan thought that it would be best for this group of Donglai thieves to turn Xiami City upside down. Even if Xiami City was captured, it would not matter to the Xu family.
As long as the people and land of the Xu family are still there, the Xu family's 200-year-old foundation will be saved.
And even if the Donglai thieves really become the masters of Qingzhou in the future, they will still need someone to farm the land, spin cloth, pay taxes and pay grain, and they will still need the support of a powerful person like the Xu family.
If the Donglai thieves failed to attack Xia Mi City, the Xu family could also unite other powerful forces to send troops to help the Jin army defeat the drowned dogs.
Xu Yan wants to be invincible, which is the highest road.
