Thief Emperor

Chapter 168 The remnants of the rebels!

The rebels occupied Qiantang City for more than a month, almost two months.

Because the battle of Qiantang was very difficult, Zhao Cheng did not impose too many restrictions on his subordinates after entering the city. This resulted in the people of Qiantang living a miserable life for the past two months.

Naturally, those big households will not have an easy time either.

Those who were able to escape have already escaped. The large clans that did not have time to escape but are still safe and sound must have reached some kind of deal with the rebels, or even surrendered to the rebels.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of "surrender".

If Li Yun was a member of a prominent family in Qiantang, under such circumstances, he might also pretend to be friendly with the rebels in order to save the lives of his entire family.

But after all, the butt determines the head, and people in different positions have different views on the same thing.

Now that Qiantang is under the management of Li Yun, he no longer sits with these big families.

Li Yun was not in a hurry to meet these people. Instead, he changed into black clothes and then met with these local big families of Qiantang in the government office of Qiantang County.

Qiantang has been a prosperous and wealthy place since ancient times. Even though it is experiencing a disaster now, there are still some wealthy people in the local area. After Li Yun sat down, about five or six people came in one after another. After seeing Li Yun, they all bowed politely.

"Gao Zheng from the Qiantang Gao family greets General Li."

"Ding Hui from the Ding family of Qiantang, meeting General Li."

"Xu Jun of the Xu family..."

The fact that they were able to find this place showed that they had done their homework and naturally knew Li Yun's last name.

Mr. Li did not move from his seat. He smiled and pressed his hands together, saying, "Everyone sit down and talk."

Seeing Li Yun's kind face, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, no one was in a hurry to sit down. Instead, they each took out a gift list from their hands and handed it to Li Yun, saying with a smile: "General Li defeated the rebels and saved the people of Qiantang from danger. He is a great benefactor to us Qiantang people. This small gift is to thank General Li for saving us and to reward the soldiers under his command."

Soon, six gift lists were placed in front of Li Yun. Li still had a calm expression on his face. After motioning everyone to sit down, he unfolded the gift lists and took a look.

The Gao family gave the most expensive gifts. Although most of the items written on the gift list were objects, even with Li Yun's eyesight, they should be worth tens of thousands of strings of cash.

The gift lists of others pale in comparison.

The one who gave the smallest gift was Zheng from Qiantang. There were only four or five items on the gift list, and they didn't look like expensive things.

Li Yun read it carefully, then looked up at the seven people and suddenly smiled: "Everyone, when the Zhao thief entered the city, did you also send him off in this way?"

This sentence made the seven people's faces change suddenly.

Xu Jun stood up, looked at Li Yun, and gritted his teeth and said, "General Li, I don't know what you mean by this. Please explain it to me, General Li!"

"Are my words difficult to understand?"

Li Yun smiled and said, "I see that no one of you has any doubts on your face."

The seven people looked at each other, and no one dared to reply for a while because they didn't understand what Li Yun meant.

Mr. Li lowered his head to drink tea, and then said: "Everyone, Qiantang has just been restored. If you have not done anything wrong, you should stay at home and wait for the court to restore your livelihood, instead of coming to me to seek connections like you do."

"First, you want to get back the property you gave to the rebels, and second, you want to spend some money to shut me up, right?"

The head of the Zheng family took a deep breath, looked up at Li Yun, and said, "General Li, you have no evidence, don't talk nonsense!"

Li Yun took a look at the somewhat fat Zheng family patriarch and said with a smile: "I have looked through the gift lists you gave me just now. The Zheng family gave the least, so it is not difficult to guess."

"It should be that the Zheng family has the highest position in the court, so your family is not afraid of me. They just send some gifts to get rid of me as a token of their appreciation."

"is not it?"

The head of the Zheng family said in a muffled voice: "My Zheng family does things with a clear conscience. What does it have to do with the high position of the official?"

Li Yun continued, "I heard that the Zheng family of Xingyang is well-known throughout the world. Is your Zheng a branch of the Zheng family of Xingyang?"

The head of the Zheng family raised his head slightly and glanced at Li Yun, but did not answer.

The smile on Li's face disappeared.

He knocked lightly on the table and said, "Someone, send the head of the Zheng family out."

Zheng Ming, the head of the Zheng family, looked at Li Yun, but was not afraid. He just turned around and left.

After he left, Li Yun looked at the head of the Gao family and asked with a smile, "What rank do the people of the Zheng family hold in the court?"

Gao Zheng replied tremblingly, "Third... third rank."

Li Yun said "Oh" and said, "Then I really can't afford to offend him. Even if I charge him with colluding with the rebels, I'm afraid it won't be easy to place him on the spot." Li Yun smiled kindly, looked at the rest of the people, and said, "Do you have any third-rank officials in your families? If so, you can leave now."

The other families were eager to make a move after hearing this, but they still stayed patiently. After a few polite words, they asked, "General Li, what are our respective families' assets?"

"Not urgent."

Mr. Li clapped his hands and said, "This matter is complicated and confusing. I can't figure it out for the time being. You all go back first. I will check it out in a few days. Whoever it belongs to will still own it. There is no mistake."

"As for the gifts."

Li Yun glanced at the gift list and waved his hand, saying, "I never accept anything. Take them all back."

Although these wealthy families felt that it was a bit strange, they were still driven out by Li Yun. After they all left, Li called Li Zheng and said, "Go and ask if the Zheng family in Qiantang has colluded with the rebels."

This kind of thing is easy to find out. After all, it was only a few days since the rebels left, and there are many people who know what happened in the city.

Only one or two hours later, Li Zheng came back to report the results. Mr. Li picked up the records handed over by Li Zheng and read them through.

Li Zheng lowered his head slightly and said, "Second brother, the Zheng family is the softest. As soon as the rebels entered the city, they began to send money, goods, and women to the rebels."

Li Yun said "Hey" and said, "Then why did you suddenly become hard when facing the government troops?"

Li Zheng curled his lips and said, "Aren't all those aristocratic families like this?"

"They are afraid of the rebels because they will really kill them with one blow. They are not afraid of us because they know we can't do anything to them."

Mr. Li nodded slightly: "That makes sense."

"As an official army, I really can't do anything to them. After all, they have the support of a third-rank official at home. If they tell the court that they were coerced by the rebels, it will be very difficult for General Su to sue them."

"Fortunately..."

Mr. Li looked up at Li Zheng and smiled: "We are more than just government troops."

Li Zheng rolled his eyes and immediately understood what Li Yun meant. He blinked and asked, "Second brother, what should we do about this? Please tell me."

Li Yun tapped the table with his knuckles and said slowly, "The rebels in the city just escaped a few days ago, so it's normal that there are still some remnants left."

Li Zheng patted his chest and grinned: "Second brother, I will play..."

"I'll be the remnant!"

Li Yun thought for a moment and said, "Choose someone from the thief hunting team."

…………

That night, dozens of remnants of the rebel army hiding in Qiantang City suddenly rose up and broke into the Zheng family's house, killing people and setting fire. The fire spread and almost burned the Zheng family down.

Fortunately, Captain Li learned the news in time, and quickly arrived with his men. He killed several remnants of the rebels on the spot and captured the rest together.

By the time it got light, the fire at Zheng's house was finally put out.

After Lieutenant Li entered the Zheng family amidst the smoke and dust, he was deeply saddened by the sight of the Zheng family's miserable condition. He scolded his subordinates and then gnashed his teeth and said, "Take these traitors to the street corner and kill them all!"

Li Zheng, who had just changed his clothes, stood behind Li Yun, also with a dark and gray face, and shouted loudly: "Yes!"

As a result, dozens of rebel prisoners in Qiantang Prison disappeared overnight, and they were all taken to the streets for execution!

Just when these traitors were about to be executed, Li had already returned to the yamen and was looking through the books in the yamen.

Meng Hai, who was serving as Li Yun's follower at the moment, walked cautiously in front of Li Yun and said with his head down: "Village...Village leader, there is someone outside who wants to see you. He was like a madman and insisted on breaking into the government office. We almost couldn't stop him."

Li Yun glanced at him and asked, "Who are they?"

"It seems that those wealthy people who came yesterday were crying and shouting to see you. They couldn't be driven away, and now they are about to break in."

Mr. Li said, "Go out and tell them that there are remnants of rebels in the city. I will focus on eliminating them in the next few days to prevent the tragedy of the Zheng family from happening again."

"I don't have time to see them yet. Tell them..."

Li Yun touched his chin, thought for a while, and said, "In a few days... well, three days, I will treat them to a meal after three days."

Meng Hai nodded first, then looked at Li Yun who was leisurely flipping through a book, and couldn't help scratching his head.

He didn't understand.

The village chief now...

Aren’t you very free?
(End of this chapter)