Thief Emperor

Chapter 108: Grassroots is formed and power emerges!
Xuanzhou Tomorrow Tower.

The newly arrived envoy Fan Zhao sat in the main seat and clinked glasses with Cui Shao, his face full of smiles.

Although his rank as a recruiting envoy was much higher than Cui Shao's, he was only responsible for suppressing local bandits, unlike the inspectors or governors who were responsible for local government affairs. Therefore, there was no superior-subordinate relationship between him and Cui Shao.

In addition, Cui Shao had a powerful background after all, so Fan Zhao was quite polite to him.

After the two men clinked glasses, Fan Zhaocai smiled and said, "Chengzong just said that the bandit situation in Xuanzhou has improved a lot. What does this mean?"

"Before I came here, I looked through the relevant documents of Xuanzhou and nearby prefectures and counties. Xuanzhou is mountainous, and banditry has been rampant for the past 20 to 30 years, especially in recent years. Wasn't the magistrate of Shidai County, Zhang, stabbed by bandits as soon as he took office?"

"Your Excellency is unaware of this."

Envoy Cui smiled and said, "When I first arrived in Xuanzhou, banditry was rampant. Even the money and grain that I was going to transport to Yuezhou were robbed by a group of bandits and disappeared without a trace."

"Later, I heard that Qingyang was doing well in suppressing bandits, so I appointed Qingyang's chief Li Zhao to suppress bandits in Xuanzhou. Now, two months have passed. According to the documents sent to the prefecture by Shidai, Li Zhao has already eliminated seven villages in Shidai in less than two months."

"I can't say about other places in Xuanzhou, but at least in Qingyang and Shidai counties, the bandit situation is much better now."

Fan Zhao touched his chin, thought for a moment, and then said, "It seems that Li Zhao is a rare talent."

"It's hard to say whether he is talented or not, but he is indeed brave. The two followers I brought from the capital have practiced martial arts since they were young and have quite some skills. After fighting with him, they were knocked to the ground in just a few breaths."

"To this day, one of them is still taking medication, and may not be able to recover."

Fan Zhao praised him, "He is indeed very brave to beat Cui's guards like this. I must meet him in a few days."

"Your Excellency."

As soon as Cui Shao opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Fan Zhao. The general waved his hand and said with a smile: "No need to address me like that, let's just call each other brothers."

This time, it was Governor Cui's turn to frown.

What is your background? How can you call me your brother?

However, he only frowned slightly, and immediately returned to normal, forcing a smile on his face, and said, "Brother Guangxian."

"That's right."

Fan Zhao smiled and said, "What did Chengzong want to ask just now?"

"I would like to ask, how did the court deal with the former governor Tian Jing? Is there any result?"

"No."

Fan Zhao shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Gu Wenchuan was too reckless. He insisted that Tian Jing set the fire to the imperial envoy, so he arrested Tian Jing and his men. Later, although it was found that Tian Jing and his men had arbitrarily increased taxes and forced the people of Shidai to revolt, Tian Jing insisted that Gu Wenchuan had set the fire on his own to frame the local officials."

"Originally, the court was going to send someone to the Gu family to find out what happened that night, but for some reason, no one has been sent down until now."

Cui Shao lowered his head to drink, then slowly said: "It seems that the dispute is very fierce. Your Majesty has not expressed his position?"

Fan Zhao glanced at Cui Shao and smiled: "This year has been the fourth year of Xian De. From the Guang Ye era to now, it has been more than ten years. When has Your Majesty ever expressed his views?"

"Your Majesty will not express his opinion unless a result is reached."

Cui Shao opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he couldn't get the words out because he was not very familiar with Fan Zhao.

The current Majesty has become mysterious since about ten years ago. Everything he says is vague and not a single word is true.

Therefore, the people below him could not figure out his thoughts, which made him seem a bit unpredictable.

However, in recent years, some people in the court have figured out His Majesty's attitude. In the final analysis, it is because the prince has grown up and his power has been growing since he established his own government.

Therefore, the emperor would condone court disputes, wanting to have a force in the court that could check and balance the prince, thereby consolidating the emperor's own power.

It is also because of this reason that there have been endless struggles in the imperial court for more than ten years.

Fan Zhao picked up his wine glass, clinked it with Cui Shao's, and asked, "I'm new here, and I have something to ask Brother Cui."

Cui Shao came back to his senses and said quickly, "Brother Guangxian, please speak."

"Yuezhou's anti-sentence, how is it now?"

Fan Zhao put down his wine glass and said slowly, "Before leaving the capital, His Majesty summoned me once and told me about the situation in Yuezhou. He asked me, the Recruiting Envoy, to help Duke Zheng of Jiangnan East Road to eliminate the bandits. But it took another month or two to get here. I wonder what the situation is like with the bandits in Yuezhou now?"

"It was a big fight."

Cui Shao lowered his head slightly and sighed, "That rebel named Qiu has already captured Yuezhou City. He now occupies a state and several counties. He is very powerful and claims to have tens of thousands of soldiers under his command."

"Mr. Zheng was completely helpless against him for a while."

Fu Gong is a respectful title for high-ranking officials such as the Inspector General and the Jiedushi.

Upon hearing this, Fan Zhao frowned slightly and said, "The people in Jiangnan have always been docile. I thought it was just a little trouble, but I didn't expect it to get bigger and bigger."

He looked at Cui Shao and said, "It seems that both of us cannot escape the Yuezhou Rebellion this time, and we have to put in more effort." "For the sake of the court, we should put in more effort."

Cui Shao sighed and said, "I am only worried that the Jiangnan East Road will not be able to hold on, and the war will spread and endanger Xuanzhou."

"I am the chief officer of Xuanzhou. How can I bear to see the people of Xuanzhou..."

"Chengzong has a heart of a bodhisattva."

Fan Zhao toasted him a glass of wine and said with a smile: "Admirable."

"When you are in a position, you should naturally do your job."

Cui Shao looked up at Fan Zhao and said with a smile: "Speaking of which, Xuanzhou is located in the south of the Yangtze River after all, and there are still a few beautiful women. I found a few for Brother Guangxian and sent them to Brother Guangxian's room tonight."

Fan Zhao stroked his beard and laughed.

"Yes, I mean it."

………………

Shidai, at the foot of Heilong Mountain.

Li Zheng clasped his fists to Li Yun and grinned, "Second brother, there are more than 40 brothers who have volunteered to climb up from the back mountain. Now they are almost reaching the Black Dragon Village."

Hearing this, Li Yun looked at the hundred or so people in front of him and smiled, "Go to work. Once we take down the Black Dragon Village, we'll have almost wiped out the larger villages in Shidai."

Li Zheng responded, waved his hand, and led this group of "bandit soldiers" to rush up the mountain.

Every one of these people were born bandits and were very familiar with the village. In addition, their numbers were overwhelming, so they quickly rushed into the Black Dragon Village and wiped out the village in just half a day.

The more than one hundred ferocious bandits scared the bandits in the Black Dragon Village so much that most of them chose to surrender, so the number of this bandit army increased a little.

After occupying Black Dragon Village, Li Yun ordered people to buy pigs, cattle and sheep, and took them directly to the mountain to slaughter them. By night, Black Dragon Village was full of the smell of meat and the aroma was fragrant.

Li Dadu sat at the head seat of a table with his legs crossed, looking at his subordinates in the Black Dragon Village who were eating big chunks of meat and drinking big gulps of wine, with a smile on his face.

Although there are only more than a hundred people, they are very different from the villagers he recruited in Lijiazhuang.

In their hearts, they had no respect for the laws of the imperial court, but were only intimidated by Li's own authority.

In other words, these people are lawless.

Li Zheng sat next to Li Yun, holding a beef bone in his hand. After taking a big bite, he grinned and said, "Second brother, I finally understand why you said you are half a governor. Now the people under our command are not even as good as that Governor Cui!"

"Hey."

He put down the bone and said, "I heard that the rebels in Yuezhou are getting more and more violent. If they come to Xuanzhou, then there will be no need for Cui the governor."

"Second brother, you are Governor Li!"

Li Yun glanced at him and scolded him with a smile: "Drunk?"

Li Zheng blushed, stretched his neck and shouted: "How could I drink too much? I'm not drunk!"

Li Yun kicked him and ignored him. Instead, he looked at these relatively tough subordinates and rubbed his eyebrows.

Zhou Liang was beside him, and seeing this, he smiled and said, "With more people, there are more troubles, right, village chief?"

"Yes, not to mention the daily rations, it's also troublesome to manage them. They are born as bandits, and they are all unruly and difficult to tame. You never know when they will cause trouble."

"When I'm here, I can keep them under control. If I'm not here, something might go wrong."

Zhou Liang raised his head and took a sip of wine. He was silent for a while, then said, "So, we need to give some of them some benefits now, and let them know the real identity of the village leader, so that they will not be sent to the government in the future."

"In this way, you don't need to be present in person, they will take care of these people on your behalf."

Li Yun's eyes lit up, he patted Zhou Liang on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "This is a good idea. I will start looking for suitable candidates among them in the next two days."

Zhou Liang smiled and said nothing.

This is actually the grassroots organizational structure of the military.

The third village chief raised his head, took a sip of wine, and looked at Li Yun.

He knew in his heart that as grassroots organizations were formed, power...

Began to appear.

　I overslept my nap...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)