Chapter 59 How the hell did you manage to win?

Ouyang Fang knew the current situation; the rebels were facing a life-or-death crisis.

After a day of forced marches, defeats and resistance, and desperate attempts to break out of the encirclement, the soldiers, who had not eaten a single grain of rice all day, were utterly exhausted.

The rebels' physical strength is rapidly declining, and their morale is low.

If there is still no food to eat by tomorrow, then it will be almost too late to save the day.

The only chance is to take advantage of the remaining energy we have tonight and launch another breakout attempt!

But now the army has suffered a new defeat, losing more than 30,000 men, and has not eaten for a day. These soldiers are unwilling to continue fighting.

Ouyang Fang was helpless, because the injury to his shoulder was not optimistic, and he was currently unable to personally command the rebel army.

For him now, everything has become a dead end...

All of this was exactly what Liu Fu wanted.

Liu Fu never intended for these 20,000 Han soldiers to fight the rebels head-on.

The Han army divided into four routes, forming an encirclement of the rebels.

This fragile encirclement successfully provoked Ouyang Fang's disdain and anger. Could an encirclement of 20,000 men really contain his 130,000-strong army? Was it even possible?

Liu Fu successfully misled Ouyang Fang into believing that he was a good-for-nothing who couldn't command troops and fight battles.

This led to Ouyang Fang's underestimation of the enemy and reckless advance, resulting in Liu Fu ambushing him in a brilliant attack on the Qipanling mountain road.

Now, Liu Fu only needs to do one thing: "wait".

Once the rebels fall into internal strife, the trap can be set in motion and the perpetrators can begin to fall.

What Liu Fu didn't know was...

In the Liao capital, thousands of miles away, after sending away this plague god, the Liao emperor ordered people to set off fireworks for three days and three nights to celebrate Liu Fu's departure from the Liao capital.

For this matter, the Liao emperor even held a grand banquet, feasting and drinking with his civil and military officials for several meals.

But when the Liao emperor finished his grand celebration and began receiving reports, his hard-won good mood plummeted to rock bottom.

"Your Majesty, 200,000 shi of military rations have been stolen from our secret outpost in the east. The rations bear the inscription 'Liu, Prince of the Later Han Dynasty'."

"Your Majesty, our armory has been emptied! Ten thousand suits of armor, twenty thousand waist swords, and one hundred thousand arrows are missing!"

"Your Majesty... Something terrible has happened! Liu Fu has emptied your imperial treasury!"

…………

When the Liao emperor heard that his private treasury had been emptied, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot!

"Investigate immediately!"

"Immediately investigate for me. Thoroughly search all the military depots, medicine depots, granaries, and silver treasuries of the Liao Dynasty to find out exactly how much has been stolen."

After several days of investigation, the Liao emperor's face turned ashen.

Later, his face turned green, and finally, his face turned black...

Finally, the Liao emperor, unable to bear it any longer, drew his imperial sword and cleaved the dragon-shaped desk in two:

"Liu Fu, you parasite, you rotten rat! You've gone too far! You've absolutely gone too far!!!"

Let alone the Liao emperor.

In the Liao Dynasty, Liu Fu emptied the homes of any ministers or wealthy merchants who had any money.

The Liao Dynasty now resembles a magnificent palace, seemingly endlessly impressive from the outside, but from the inside, it has lost much of its splendor after Liu Fu moved out most of the furniture and furnishings.

And in the capital of the Later Han Dynasty.

Liu Laowu has already received news that Liu Fu has been sent back to the Central Plains, and that the Liao Emperor has exempted the Later Han from paying more than ten million taels of tribute annually.

Holding the secret report sent back by the spies, Liu Laowu read it three times and could hardly believe it. His eyes widened like eggs with excitement!

"What's going on with our eighth son?"

"Paying tribute to the Liao Kingdom again after 100 years? Hahahaha, why 100 years? Just give us 30 years, and we will definitely govern the Later Han Dynasty well and make it strong and powerful. Then we will completely crush that damned Liao Dynasty."

"Tribute? You think I'd pay you tribute even if I came up behind your grandma's feet?"

In his excitement, Liu Laowu even swore. Overjoyed, he began to ponder what official position to bestow upon Liu Fu.

“Prime Minister, we have made our sons kings and given them fiefdoms. The eighth prince is going to Liao as a hostage, which is risking his life.”

well……!

Thinking of this, Liu Laowu sighed again:

"The fifth son was our youngest son. He was only a few days old when the rebel army killed his wife and parents, forcing his father to rebel. The eighth son lost his mother at a young age, and we have always felt guilty about it."

Thinking of this, Liu Laowu decided to grant Liu Fu the most fertile land in the entire Later Han Dynasty, the Jiangnan region, as his fiefdom.

But just then, Prince Liu Dai of Fu ran back, covered in sweat:

"Father, Father, please save the eighth son!"

"Old Eight is in grave danger!"

Liu Laowu was taken aback, helped up Liu Dai, whose throat was already hoarse, and hurriedly asked:

"Second brother, what happened to your eighth brother?"

"What happened?"

Liu Dai immediately recounted Liu Fu's troop deployment.

Liu Laowu already knew about the troop mobilization under the emperor's very nose a few days ago, but the battle reports from the front lines of suppressing the rebellion had not yet arrived.

Upon hearing the news that Liu Fu had surrounded 130,000 rebel troops with 20,000 men, Liu Laowu was completely dumbfounded.

"This old man, there has never been a war like yours before!"

"Even if you have 200,000 men, you can't surround 130,000 rebels. Once you mobilize your troops to surround them, your army will be scattered. The rebels will gather 130,000 soldiers together to break out. How can you stop them?"

Liu Laowu hurriedly found the map, took a look, and slapped his forehead in anger:

"Eighth Prince is in grave danger! Quickly, gather 100,000 troops! I will personally lead the army to rescue my Eighth Prince!"

Upon hearing this, Prime Minister Jiang Zhengren immediately stood up, knelt down, and reported:

"Your Majesty, you mustn't! The empire has just been pacified, and the people's hearts are still unsettled. If Your Majesty leads the troops into battle now, the capital will be left undefended. At that time, those with ulterior motives will seize the opportunity to storm the palace, grab the imperial seal, and declare themselves emperor. What will become of Your Majesty's empire then?"

Liu Laowu was furious. The Later Han Dynasty was short of soldiers, and that was the critical issue.

Prince Liu Dai immediately said:

"Father, the seventh brother is a master of warfare. Let's send him to rescue the eighth brother."

Liu Laowu sighed:

"Alas, there's nothing we can do now. We'll leave 30,000 troops to guard the capital, and take the remaining 70,000 to rescue our eighth son. Heavens!"

"My child's mother!"

"Ancestors of the Liu family, please protect Fu'er so that nothing bad happens to him. Hopefully, it's not too late!"

Liu Laowu's heart was in his throat.

Upon receiving the imperial edict, Liu Jia, the seventh son, dared not delay and immediately set out with his troops to Dongjun, accelerating their march along the way.

However, he was dumbfounded when he got halfway there.

"Report!"

"This humble servant greets Your Highnesses. His Eighth Prince decisively defeated the rebel army at the Battle of Qipanling in Dongjun, killing over 30,000 people, capturing 500,000 shi of grain, 27,000 warhorses, and countless weapons. It was a great victory!"

Upon hearing the battle report, Liu Dai and Liu Jia looked at each other with puzzled expressions, then immediately took the report to read it.

"This... Eighth Brother defeated 130,000 rebel troops with only 20,000 Han soldiers?"

Is this true?

Seeing the disbelieving looks on the two princes' faces, the soldier who delivered the good news immediately knelt down and said:

“Every word the petty man said is true.”

Liu Jia and Liu Dai were still not quite convinced, so they ordered the army to set up camp on the spot and personally rode to Dongjun to check.

When the two men and a few light cavalry arrived at Qipanling, they were stunned to see the rebel corpses scattered all over the mountain path.

The two, true brothers, both gaped in astonishment and exclaimed in unison:

"Holy crap, how did they even win?"