Thief Emperor

Chapter 100 Murderous Intent Revealed!
After the first grain cart was robbed, no grain carts came out of Xuanzhou City for several days.

However, from time to time, soldiers would go out of the city to patrol, and the patrol range of these soldiers was not very far. They would often return after walking ten or twenty miles out of the city.

After waiting for several days, Li Yun lost his patience. He called Li Zheng and said, "Come on, Skinny Monkey, let's go to Xuanzhou to take a look."

Li Zheng had just participated in robbing a grain truck a few days ago, and he had not yet gotten rid of his identity as a bandit. Hearing this, he was a little stunned: "Second brother, it is not appropriate for the two of us to go into the city, right? If we want to go into the city, we should go together as brothers..."

Li Dazhaizhu glared at the fellow and scolded him with a smile: "What are you thinking? Can I still drag you to take down Xuanzhou City?"

He patted Li Zheng on the shoulder and said calmly, "I am Li Zhao, the head of Qingyang, and you are Li Zheng, the anti-theft team of Qingyang. We are upright and aboveboard, so what's wrong with going for a stroll in Xuanzhou City?"

Li Zheng finally reacted. He slapped his forehead and said with a smile: "I have been preparing to fight with the government troops here every day these days. Damn it, I almost forgot that I am also a government soldier!"

"Come on, second brother, let's go into Xuanzhou City and take a look. I have never been to a provincial capital in my life."

The two changed their clothes, said goodbye to Liu Bo and others, and walked along the official road towards Xuanzhou City.

Because the last grain cart robbery took place dozens of miles away from Xuanzhou city, Xuanzhou was not on high alert at the moment and the city gates were still open. Li Yun and his companion walked in swaggeringly, and the soldiers guarding the gate didn't even look at them, let alone check their ID cards.

In fact, it is impossible for the clerks working in these yamen, especially the soldiers guarding the city gates, to check the identity of every passer-by. All they can do is to conduct random checks, and only stop and check if they see someone with suspicious behavior.

If a person feels guilty, his expression and walking posture will be different from those of ordinary people. Some old city gates can even tell the occupation of passers-by at a glance.

Li Yun and his companion have been hanging out in Qingyang for so long that they can be said to be very confident now, so naturally no yamen runners would stop them.

After entering Xuanzhou, Li Zheng couldn't help looking left and right, pulling Li Yun's sleeve from time to time, and exclaimed: "Look, second brother, what a big lantern! I have never seen such a big lantern!"

"And the pair of stone lions are also huge."

Li Zheng said with a click of his tongue: "The stone lions in our Qingyang County Government Office are not this big."

Li Dutou glanced back at Li Zheng speechlessly and said in a muffled voice: "Keep your voice down. Look at your useless look."

At this moment, Li Yun was also secretly looking at the city.

As the capital of more than a dozen counties, Xuanzhou City is naturally much larger than Qingyang. Not only is the city larger, but there are also a lot more people.

More importantly, the city wall of Xuanzhou is relatively complete, which means that it can be defended as a proper city. Unlike the county towns such as Qingyang Shidai, the city walls are basically just for show. Even bandits may not be able to be stopped here, let alone regular troops.

"This Xuanzhou City is really nice."

Li Dutou bought some food on the roadside and gave some to Li Zheng. He said calmly: "With a little more construction, it will be a very solid city."

Li Zheng was eating at the moment. Hearing this, he looked up at Li Yun and said with a smile, "Second brother, are you interested? Let's go back and discuss it with Lao Jiu and the others. They will attack from the outside, and we will take a few people inside the city to act as internal support. Together, we can seize the city!"

"Given the moral character of the Xuanzhou soldiers, they may not be able to defeat us!"

Li Yun glanced at this guy.

“It may not be too difficult to take it down, but it is very difficult to keep it.”

Li Zheng coughed violently, almost spitting out all the food in his mouth. He looked around carefully and whispered, "Second brother, you... you really want to fight?"

"Why don't you want to?"

Mr. Li was very calm: "The fighting in Yuezhou is so fierce, maybe it will affect our Xuanzhou at any time. If those rebels mess up Xuanzhou, we will need a larger city as our base."

Li finished the last bit of food in his hand and said, "This Xuanzhou is very good."

"The only problem is that the terrain nearby is not very good, and it is easy to be surrounded."

Li Zheng glanced at Li Yun. He thought Li Yun was just bragging, so he concentrated on eating.

The two men walked around Xuanzhou City and it was getting dark. They found an inn in the city to rest. When they went out again the next morning, they happened to see a wide and tall carriage passing by the main road in the city.

The carriage was made entirely of purple wood, which gave it a noble feel. It was carved with cloud patterns everywhere, making it look extremely extraordinary.

Li Yun looked at the carriage curiously for a few times, then smiled and asked the passers-by who were also watching, "Whose carriage is this? It looks very valuable."

"Who else could it be?"

The person he asked was a middle-aged scholar. He smiled and said excitedly, "Of course it is the carriage of our new governor of Xuanzhou, Cui Shijun. Cui Shijun comes from a famous family, so he can afford such a carriage. Unlike the previous governor Tian, ​​he came from a poor family and rode in an ordinary carriage. He has no other ability except to extort money from the people."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "Tian Shishi's carriage is not good, how can it be said that he can plunder the people?"

"Because they come from a poor family, they would plunder more ruthlessly. Hasn't the Tian guy been arrested by the imperial court?"

The scholar looked at the passing carriage with envy and said, "These noblemen from wealthy families look down on the money of us common people."

Li Yun frowned slightly.

In this era, people still seem to revere the aristocratic families and regard them as superior aristocrats.

After all, this concept has been around for hundreds or thousands of years and has long been deeply rooted in people's minds.

While Li Yun was thinking, a scholar beside him patted Li Yun on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Brother, judging from your accent, you seem to be from Qingyang. I just heard that Envoy Cui is going to Qingyang when he leaves the city this time."

Li Yun came back to his senses, thanked the scholar, then turned around, patted Li Zheng on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go."

The two of them left the crowd. Li Yun looked at the direction where Governor Cui's carriage was going. After thinking for a while, he said, "This Cui guy is probably really going to Qingyang."

Li Zheng said, "We all have our men here, brother. Why don't we tie up this Cui guy? I want to see if the blood of these nobles is red, and how they compare to the uncle and nephew of the Gu family." Li Yun shook his head, "This is not the right time."

"This is the Prime Minister's nephew."

Chief Li said slowly, "It's not difficult to kidnap him, but if we anger the prime minister in the capital, maybe the imperial guards will come to suppress the bandits. We can't stay in Xuanzhou anymore, at least we have to leave."

At this point, Li Yun narrowed his eyes and said softly: "Let Lao Jiu continue to watch outside Xuanzhou City for a few days, and we will go back to Qingyang to see what the situation is."

"If this man is really asking for death, let these nobles see how powerful we bandits are!"

………………

After leaving Xuanzhou City, Li Yun and Li Zheng quickly found Liu Bo. After explaining some things to him, they rode their horses back to Qingyang.

Although they started out slower than Cui Shao, the speed of riding horses was much faster than that of carriages, and they still returned to Qingyang County the night before Envoy Cui arrived in Qingyang.

Because it was getting late, the two men did not return to the county government office, but went back to their own residence to take a shower and rest.

The next morning, not long after the two men returned to Qingyang County Office, they had just greeted several brothers from the anti-theft team when a guard at the gate of the county office walked in. When he saw Li Yun, his eyes lit up and he hurried forward and said, "Boss Li, someone just came over and said that the envoy was coming and asked me to inform the county lord to go out of the city to welcome him."

This gatekeeper is not a member of the anti-theft team, but because Li is generous, he is very popular in the Qingyang County Court, and now everyone is willing to call him the leader.

As the head of the city, he could have managed them.

Li Yun nodded and said with a smile: "I understand. I will go to see the county lord. You don't have to worry about it."

After that, Li Yun kept Li Zheng and walked to the back hall. He came to the door of Master Xue's study, knocked on the door, and said, "Your Excellency, Envoy Cui is coming to Qingyang. Do you want to go out of the city to welcome him?"

Soon, Magistrate Xue opened the door of the study. He looked Li Yun up and down and asked, "When did you come back?"

"last night."

Li Yun smiled and said, "I just reported to the county government office."

"I thought you were gone forever."

Magistrate Xue snorted, "Yun'er came to see you twice."

"I'm out on some business."

Li Yun smiled and asked, "Will the county lord go out to see Envoy Cui?"

"He's so arrogant."

Master Xue curled his lips in disdain: "He came to Qingyang, but it was not me who invited him. If he wants to come to the city, he can come. If he doesn't want to come to the city, that's up to him."

Li Yun gave a thumbs up.

"The county lord is tough!"

Mr. Xue turned around and walked into the study, leaving Li Yun with only his back and a firm voice.

"No desire, no request!"

Li Yun followed him in with a smile, and chatted with the county magistrate who was in a bad mood. While the two were talking, Chen Da hurried over and said, "County magistrate, captain, Envoy Cui has entered Qingyang and is almost at the gate of the county government."

Mr. Xue then stood up and said calmly, "Let's go out and take a look."

Li Yun followed Magistrate Xue all the way to the gate of the county government office. At this moment, Envoy Cui's carriage had already stopped at the gate of the county government office, but the people had not yet got off the carriage.

Master Xue only took one look and knew what the new governor meant. Although he disliked Cui Shao, he still held back his temper and stepped forward to bow to the carriage: "Your humble servant Xue Song, I pay my respects to the governor."

At this moment, Tian Xiancheng, Wang Zhubu, and Jiang Dianshi of Qingyang all ran out. They all knelt on the ground to welcome Governor Cui.

After Master Xue bowed and saluted, a maid in the carriage lifted the curtain after a long while. Envoy Cui leaned half of his body out and said slowly, "County Magistrate Xue is really arrogant."

Master Xue raised his head and said, "There is no explicit provision in the Great Zhou law that the county magistrate must go out of the city to welcome his superiors."

Cui Shao said "Hey".

"I really don't know whether you are old and your mind is not clear, or whether you have some grudge against me. I really don't know how someone with a temper like you can survive in the officialdom."

Magistrate Xue said calmly, "So I have been an official for twenty years and am still a seventh-rank official."

"I'm too lazy to argue with you."

Governor Cui finally got off the carriage and revealed his full figure. He looked at the tall Li Yun behind Xue Song and asked, "Is this Li Zhao, the head of Qingyang?"

Li Yun looked at Master Xue, and after he turned around, he stepped forward and saluted, "It's Li."

Cui Cishi looked Li Yun up and down, with great interest in his eyes. He turned around to look at the two followers beside his car and gave them a look.

The two followers understood immediately, and without saying a word, they rushed towards Li Yun from the left and right, punching Li Yun in the face!

Li Yun was stunned at first, then he realized what Envoy Cui was going to do.

He wanted to test his abilities!
However, this kind of attempt without any communication is really too damn disrespectful!
How could Chief Li endure this? He took a step back with his left foot, squatted slightly with his right leg, clenched his fists, and then looked up at the two people rushing towards him.

There was murderous intent in his eyes!
(End of this chapter)