Thief Emperor

Chapter 154 The War Cannot Be Finished

Half a month was not a long time, and Li Zheng and his men only had time to wipe out two villages, and they had to divide their forces to do so.

Fortunately, the foundation of Li Yun's team is actually the bandits he has subdued, that is, the hundred or so people in the anti-theft team. Among this group of people, anyone who has some ability has become a team leader.

They themselves were born bandits. Firstly, they knew what the mountains and the mountain strongholds were like. Secondly, this group of bandits had a bandit spirit in them, so only Li Yun could control them.

What kind of people you are, what kind of soldiers you will bring out. When the new recruits follow these "bandit captains", they will unconsciously develop some bandit spirit and become more heroic.

What’s even more bizarre is that the first hundred or so people in the anti-theft team were actually not very rule-abiding.

After all, this group of people actually came from the mountains as bandits. Some of them might have been forced into banditry by the government, but most of them were still criminals in the final analysis.

After all, if a good person is forced into a state of no livelihood by the government, the most he would do is go into the mountains and become a savage or a fugitive, but he would not become a bandit.

These people are restrained by Li Yun and will not do anything out of line for the time being, but there are still some hidden dangers after all.

But these new recruits they brought out had clean backgrounds and were all rule-abiding people. Now, they had some fierce bandit spirit but would not do anything out of line. It was a wonderful chemical reaction.

Along the way, when Li Zheng talked about this, Li's eyes lit up.

Although the original anti-theft team was powerful, they were small in number and most of them had personalities that were not worthy of being used. But now, the "second generation" they have trained is likely to have some useful talents.

When they arrived at the border between Dongyang and Yuezhou, Li Yun began to take care of this matter. He asked Li Zheng and Deng Yang to count all the merits of this bandit suppression, and then took the two of them together to start arranging personnel.

"Deng Yang."

Li Yun flipped through the rough account book in his hand, called out, and said, "From now on, whether it's fighting bandits or suppressing rebels, as long as you kill the enemy, the credit will be recorded and sent to me."

Deng Yang responded first, then sat opposite Li Yun and said with a wry smile: "Boss, although I know a few words and can remember simple things, I am afraid that I will make mistakes if there are too many accounts."

Li Yun frowned.

"Are there any scholars in the two villages you are suppressing?"

"Have."

Without waiting for Deng Yang to answer, Li Zheng replied: "Second brother, you also know that basically every village has one or two scholars. In these two villages in Dongyang, there are scholars who can write and speak."

The illiteracy rate in the mountain village is extremely high. Most people cannot read and cannot even write their own names.

However, although counterfeiting is a business with no capital, it is still a business after all. Since it is a business, someone must keep accounts.

Even if there were no scholars in the village, scholars would be taken to the mountains during robbery and left there. This was basically the unspoken rule in the underworld.

For example, in Cangshan Dazhai, the second in command, Yuan Zhengming, was actually a literate person, and he wrote quite well, it could be said that he had a great handwriting.

Shiwangzhai and Tianmu Mountain both have their own scholars on the mountain.

Li Yun touched his chin and continued, "Send someone to tell Uncle San that when we suppress the bandits, keep some of the literate people and send them to the army to serve as my clerks."

"Send another person to Dongyang County to take out those bandits who can read and write from the county jail and take them to the army to work as clerks."

At this point, Li Yun looked at Li Zheng and Deng Yang, coughed, and said, "When those scholars arrive, I will assign one to each of you. Pay attention and learn to read and write from them."

If you want to become big and strong, you can't just rely on fighting skills, you must develop in many aspects. When Zhu Taizu was young, he might not know many words, but by the time he ascended the throne, he could already write well.

At that time, his cultural level was definitely not low.

How much effort was put into this is unknown to outsiders.

Li Yun is now facing the same problem. If he were not at war, he would even want to hire a few teachers to launch a literacy campaign among his subordinates.

Deng Yang lowered his head quickly and said, "Boss, I will definitely learn to read and write well."

Li Yun patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "You go and do your work first. I will talk to Shou Hou a few more words."

Deng Yang responded and turned away.

Li Yun sat in his tent and said, "Do you think we should call Lao Jiu?"

Li Zheng looked at Li Yun and whispered, "Second brother, Lao Jiu is here, who will take care of the Ten Kings Village?"

"We can't let Yuan Zhengming go to the Ten Kings Village to manage things, right?"

"Of course not."

Li Yun said in a deep voice: "Until we have established a firm foothold, we cannot let Second Uncle come out to manage things again."

Yuan Zhengming is a relatively smart person with good business skills, but he and Li Yun may not agree with each other.

The more than one hundred people in Shiwangzhai seem not so important to Li Yun now, but in fact, they are Li’s "talent reserve base". The young man from Hexi Village is still training in Shiwangzhai.

“We are really short of people.”

Li let out a long breath and said, "Send a letter to Lao Jiu and ask him to invite Uncle Wu to join my army, and then send Meng Hai from Hexi Village to me."

"Also, ask him to find a teacher to go up the mountain and teach the children in the village, especially the young people in Hexi Village, how to read and write." "It doesn't require them to be very knowledgeable, but they must recognize most words, be able to write, and be able to count."

Li Zheng wrote them down one by one.

After writing it down, he looked up at Li Yun and suddenly said, "Second brother, there is no room for us in the mountains now."

“We need a place to stand.”

A mountain stronghold in the mountains is at most the size of the Ten Kings Stronghold, with more than a hundred bandits and one or two hundred family members.

If there are more people, it will be difficult to support them.

Even the Shiwang Village can only afford to support so many people by "doing business" with the wealthy families in the city.

Now, Li Yun has more than a thousand people under his command. If he wants to maintain this scale and go back to the mountain, it is no longer realistic.

Li Yun touched his chin and said slowly: "Our foothold still depends on the Yuezhou Rebellion and General Su."

Li Zheng chuckled and said, "Let Marshal Su get you a job as a state commander, and then we will all be in harmony."

Li Yun glanced at him and said, "You think a lot, kid."

"Not as much as I thought."

Li Zheng smiled and said, "It was you who did it. It makes people think too much. When we were in Dongyang a few days ago, Chen Da asked me to drink. This kid was very cunning and asked me all kinds of questions. Although he didn't ask you directly, he always asked me secretly..."

He scratched his head and said, "What else..."

Mr. Li glanced at him and smiled dumbly: "Indirect attack."

"Yes, indirect approach."

Li Zheng said with a smile: "This kid probably wants to follow his second brother to the end."

"Let him train with Uncle San first."

Li Yun thought about it and continued, "When the time is right, we will get him to join us."

"Leave this to me."

Li Zheng patted his chest and said, "I will make sure he follows Second Brother wholeheartedly!"

"Come on you."

Li Yun laughed and scolded: "Maybe they are much smarter than you."

After the two brothers chatted for a while, Li Yun suddenly looked outside the tent and muttered something.

"I don't know what the battle on the front line is like."

…………

Yongxing County, Yuezhou.

King Qiu Dian of Yue personally led 8,000 troops to garrison in Yongxing, where he fought against General Su Jingsu.

However, Yongxing is a county town with low city walls, so General Su did not tolerate these rebels. In this battle, Su Jing personally commanded the troops, and Major General Su Sheng also went into battle.

The battle of Yongxing lasted less than two days, and General Su led his troops into Yongxing County and defeated the rebels.

Of the eight thousand rebels, more than two thousand surrendered, and the rest fled in all directions. Only two or three thousand remaining soldiers protected Qiu Dian, broke out of the siege, and fled back to Yuezhou in a panic.

General Su, standing on the Yongxing tower, looked towards Yuezhou and said calmly, "Advance to Yuezhou."

Deputy General Jiang Yan clasped his fists respectfully and said, "I obey your command!"

After saying this, General Jiang led his troops and began to march into Yuezhou.

Su Sheng stood behind his old father and couldn't help but say, "Dad, this battle seems to be too easy."

"It wasn't a difficult battle to fight."

Su Jing snorted and said unhappily, "Your father fought against foreign tribes and was still invincible. Most of these rebels are civilians, and they have only been rebelling for a few months."

"Of course it won't be too difficult."

At this point, General Su narrowed his eyes and said, "By the end of the year, the battle of Yuezhou will probably be over."

Su Sheng said, "With their behavior, I think we can finish this battle before the end of the year."

Su Jing narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.

"The battle doesn't have to be fought completely..."

(End of this chapter)