Thief Emperor

Chapter 156 Hold on a little longer!
"Is it Li...Li Zhao?"

Xue Yuner asked.

There were more and more refugees coming from Qingyang in the past few days. Naturally, she heard that it was Li Yun who led people to Qingyang, and most of these refugees were rescued by Li Yun.

After some calculations, it is impossible to guess who saved Miss Liu.

"Ah."

Miss Liu said softly, "We were almost caught up by the rebels that day, but fortunately General Li arrived and killed several rebels by himself, scaring away all the rebels who were chasing us."

Hearing Miss Liu address her like that, Miss Xue snorted and said, "Sister Su, that man is not a general, let alone a hero."

"He...he's just aggressive."

Miss Liu was a little curious and asked, "Sister Xue, do you know him?"

"I recognize it."

Xue Yuner said softly, "He was not a good person in the past. Because he had some martial arts skills, my father hired him as the head of the county government. Later, when the imperial court suppressed the rebellion, the state called him to recruit soldiers."

Miss Liu nodded slightly, and then said, "After he rescued me, I arrived at Linshui. He now has hundreds of people under his command, and he is worthy of being called a general."

"During the few days I was in Linshui, I inquired about some of his affairs. General Su originally sent him to the vicinity of Linshui to gather information. He brought more than a hundred people and captured Linshui County, killing hundreds of rebels."

Hearing this, Miss Xue couldn't help but exclaimed.

That thief...

Why are you so reckless?
Her heart began to pound. On the one hand, she was a little worried about Li Yun's safety. On the other hand, she felt that Li Yun was working so hard because he wanted to have a good identity so that he could propose to the Xue family in the future.

Thinking of this, Miss Xue couldn't help but clench her hands.

"Is he…is he okay?"

Miss Liu nodded gently: "General Li is very powerful. I saw him kill several bandits in one go, and he was not hurt at all."

Xue Yun'er then breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little.

"He is a reckless person."

Xue Yun'er shook her head and said, "Forget it. We are two sisters. Why would we mention such a stinky man?"

She looked at Miss Liu and asked, "Does Miss Su have a place to go?"

"I have a sister and an aunt, both of whom are married. I don't know where they live, and I don't know if I can go to them."

Xue Yun'er took her hand and said, "Come on, go to my room, write a letter to each of them, have someone take it to the place and ask around. You can always find out."

"During this time, Sister Su will stay in my yard. Let's have a good talk. When your sister or aunt has definite news, we can make plans."

Miss Liu lowered her head and said, "I'm afraid I've disturbed Mr. Xue and Sister Xue."

Xue Yun'er quickly shook her head and said, "My father admires Magistrate Liu very much and told me to take good care of Sister Su. You can stay here for as long as you want."

Miss Liu nodded gently and thanked him. Then she thought of Qiantang's parents and started to cry again. After crying for a while, she sobbed, "Sister Xue, I want to buy some paper money tomorrow to burn for my parents. I wonder if anyone has taken care of their bodies now."

"Of course there is."

Xue Yuner comforted him, "Liu County Magistrate is a man of high moral character and popular with the people. Someone will definitely collect the body. My father said that the rebels will not be able to stay arrogant for too long. When Qiantang is restored, I will go to Qiantang with my sister to take a look."

Miss Liu stood up to thank him, and the two people of the same age talked for a long time. After they had dinner together, Miss Liu looked at Xue Yun'er and asked, "Sister Xue, is General Li from Qingyang?"

"Yes."

Xue Yuner replied: "I grew up in the mountains, so I am very wild."

Miss Liu said "Oh" and lowered her head again. She didn't speak for a long time. After a while, she said softly: "Next time you see him, you must thank him well..."

Xue Yuner looked at Miss Liu and felt something was wrong, but she nodded and said, "When he comes back, I'll take my sister to see him."

"okay."

Miss Liu lowered her head, and no one knew what she was thinking about.

Xue Yun'er was standing aside and couldn't help but think of Li Yun's appearance in her mind. She clenched her fists and cursed in her heart.

Damn thief!
………………

Li Yun, who was in Shan County, naturally had no idea what had happened in Qingyang County. He had long put the matter behind him and was concentrating on training his troops.

He now has thousands of people under his command.

Although the starting point of his 1,000 men was better than the rebels and the new recruits trained by General Su due to the presence of the anti-theft team and himself, the starting point of the other new recruits was still very low except for the anti-theft team and Li Yun himself. Fortunately, after a period of suppressing bandits and with the leadership of the anti-theft team, after a month, these new recruits had already become somewhat well-rounded and had a slightly more sturdy aura.

Of course, this is also inseparable from Li Yun’s food supply.

In this era, more than half of the people do not have enough food to eat, and they eat just enough to avoid starving to death.

Li got a lot of food from Dongyang County or Wuzhou, and all the money he earned from suppressing bandits was used for military expenses. As a result, the people under Li Yun's command were able to have a full meal every time and even have some meat from time to time.

Mr. Li put a lot of effort into this matter. He specially selected 10% of his manpower to form his own team of cooks.

That is the cooking team.

After more than a month, some of the new recruits who were skinny when they first joined the army have become visibly stronger, and everyone is becoming more and more convinced of Li Yun.

At this age, it is not easy to follow a superior who can provide me with enough food, not to mention that he also pays me a salary!

No matter what industry you are in, eating and dressing are the most basic things. Only when you are well fed and warmly clothed can you be combat-ready.

In this way, after Zhou Liang brought the other half of his men to meet up with Li Yun, the thousand men under Li Yun's command had already taken shape.

At least the spirit is there.

Soon, they set up camp twenty miles outside of Shan County.

The garrison point was carefully selected by Li Yun according to military books. It was also a way for him to put the knowledge he had learned from reading books during this period into practice.

After setting up the camp, Li sat in his own tent, looking through the accounts sent by Wuzhou, and said, "Uncle San, you need to sort out the books of bandit suppression during this period and hand them over to me as soon as possible."

He paused and continued, "At the end of this month, we will be making personnel adjustments in our army. Those who have made contributions will be promoted, and those who have not done anything will continue to be soldiers."

"Also, we need to compare the number of people we have suppressed with Li Zheng's. What I said before still counts. Whichever side loses will have their meat cut in half."

Zhou Liang nodded and said with a smile: "According to the order of the village chief, after we suppressed the bandits, I have directly kept those scholars in the village as clerks in the army. They should have sorted out these things and will send them to the village chief tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

At this point, Zhou Liang sat down next to Li Yun and said, "Captain, we are still about 20 miles away from Shan County. How are you going to fight?"

"I'm not going to fight for now."

"Let's get familiar with the situation in Shan County first. I have sent someone to report our location to General Su."

"Yan County is where Qiu Dian started the rebellion. We are still unclear about how many people he left behind and whether he considered this place his base. We will wait until General Su starts attacking Yuezhou City before we start to take action."

Zhou Liang thought for a moment and said, "That will take at least a month. What are we going to do here during this month?"

"Suppress bandits and train soldiers."

Li Yun yawned and continued, "Also, Shan County is not just a county town. There are also towns and villages under it. We should occupy whatever we can. The harvest will be in a few months, and at least we won't be short of food by then."

"There are a thousand of us."

Mr. Li lowered his head to think, then knocked on the table and continued: "To become an elite soldier, you must become the elite among the elite soldiers in the future."

Li Yun now has no territory and no high enough official position. Before he raises the flag of rebellion or strikes out on his own, there will not be much room for promotion for the staff under him.

In other words, there can only be one thousand people in the open.

Since it is difficult to increase the quantity in a short period of time, we naturally have to pursue quality.

Of course, this is only a temporary situation.

After all, what limits the number of people is never the damn court organization, but real resources, such as food, cotton yarn, territory, and weapons and equipment!

When Li Yun has gained a firm foothold and has enough resources to support enough people, there may still be only a thousand people on the surface, but he can get as many as he can secretly!
Zhou Liang nodded and looked at Li Yun: "I understand."

"Uncle San, train them well."

Li Yun stood up, patted Zhou Liang on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "If we can get these 1,000 people, we will have a lot to do in the future, at least in Jiangdong."

Zhou Liang bowed his head deeply: "I obey your command."

After saying this, he retreated respectfully.

After dealing with the matter, Mr. Li left the tent with a spear in his hand. After walking to the open space used for training, he swung the spear and stabbed the straw man firmly in the forehead.

"Qiu Dian..."

Li put away his gun and muttered to himself.

"Hold on a little longer."

(End of this chapter)