Thief Emperor

Chapter 184 We must fight this battle well!
After arriving at Yuezhou City, Li Yun held a brief meeting and assigned the outline tasks. Then, the next day, he began to look for a place to live.

Although the Yuezhou Governor's Office was destroyed by the rebels, it is still habitable. However, Li Yun is not the Governor of Yuezhou after all, so it is not suitable for him to live in the Governor's Office.

As for Sima, although his office was also in the yamen, he was not the chief official after all, and usually found a place to live by himself.

At this moment, Zhou Liang took his men out of the city for patrol, and Li Zheng also took his men to the counties below to notify them. Only Liu Bo followed Li Yun to find a place to live in the city.

After walking around, Liu Bo suggested, "Brother, isn't that Yue Palace empty now? No one lives there anyway, so why don't you just move in there?"

"Anyway, there's a big place there, so a lot of people can live there."

Li Yun rolled his eyes at him and said unhappily, "That's where the rebels just lived. Are you crazy?"

Qiu Dian's palace was obviously oversized, and not only that, it was also not very grand. To be honest, Li Yun didn't think much of it.

It doesn't look good, and it's taboo to live in it. For Mr. Li who is currently trying to grow up, it is very inappropriate.

The two searched around Yuezhou City and finally found an ownerless mansion.

Because Yuezhou City had just experienced war, there were many ownerless mansions, especially those of wealthy families, more than half of which were vacant out of ten.

These are the "property" that Li Yun has not had time to count. In the future, they will all be cleared out bit by bit and returned to their original owners. If they are truly ownerless, they will be handed over to the government for handling.

This empty house was only across a street from the governor's office and was located in the very center of Yuezhou City. More importantly, he was almost certain that it was an ownerless house.

After choosing the house, Li Yun asked people to go in and clean up the village. He took Liu Bo and sat down at a newly reopened restaurant on the roadside. After the two of them had taken a few bites of food, Li Yun clinked glasses with Liu Bo and asked, "Old Nine, you have been managing the Ten Kings Village for a while, and you know the internal affairs inside and out. Tell me, what do we lack the most after arriving in Yuezhou?"

"of course."

Liu Bo reached out to pour wine for Li Yun and said with a smile: "Of course I'm short of money."

"Second brother, you have to repair the city wall, recruit a thousand soldiers, and exempt the entire state from taxes. Not to mention how to support these thousand people, even the support of the government officials has to be paid for by us ourselves."

Li Yun touched his chin and thought for a while.

"Last time in Shan County, I got tens of thousands of strings of cash. It won't be a problem to spend a few months or half a year on it. As for the follow-up..."

Mr. Li looked at Liu Bo and asked, "Old Nine, what business do you think can make the most money?"

"Salt, iron, copper."

Liu Bo thought for a moment and added, "Silk cloth can barely be counted."

Li Yun gave him a displeased look.

Except for the cloth, none of the first three were sold by the imperial court!
However, Mr. Li now holds great power in Yuezhou, so it shouldn't be a problem for him to tinker with salt, iron and copper himself.

However, for Li Yun, these businesses still make money too slowly.

He stroked his chin, trying to think of other ways to make money quickly.

Ideally, it would drive the development of the entire Yuezhou and turn Yuezhou into a prosperous commercial port.

Going out to sea for trade is naturally an option. However, although Yuezhou is close to the sea, Li Yun is still a long way from developing to the point of large-scale going out to sea.

There is no way to consider it for the time being.

He stroked his chin and thought for a while, but couldn't think of a suitable answer, so he coughed and continued, "In addition to making money, there is another more important thing."

Liu Bo scratched his head and asked, "What is it?"

"We are still lacking a scholar who is well versed in the court's official system and rules, can handle government affairs for us, and whom I can trust."

Li Yun couldn't say that he couldn't handle internal affairs, but he was certainly not very good at it.

Moreover, his business has grown bigger now. Apart from other things, the food, drink, and defecation of hundreds of nearly a thousand Yuezhou soldiers is a considerable expense every day.

Not to mention the accounts of the entire Yuezhou. After taking power, there will probably be a lot of messy things sent to Li Yun every day. If Li Yun has to handle all the matters himself, then he can only transform himself and become the governor of Yuezhou.

I simply don't have the energy to do anything else.

“This is difficult.”

Liu Bo scratched his head and asked, "Which serious and capable scholar would be willing to follow us?"

"When we were bandits, naturally no scholars would be willing to follow us. But now, we are part of the court and dominate a state."

Mr. Li narrowed his eyes and whispered, "I heard that Yuezhou is a place where there are many mentors. When the order in Yuezhou is restored, we will definitely find one or two suitable ones if we work harder."

Liu Bo lowered his head and took a big mouthful of rice, his words becoming a little unclear.

"I hope so."

………………The capital city.

In the Council Hall, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince looked at the documents in his hands with a look of disbelief on his face.

After a long while, he put down the document in his hand, looked up at the prime ministers in front of him, and said through gritted teeth: "After suppressing Qiu Dian, here comes Wang Junping. Qiu Dian's rebellion only affected one or two states. How could Wang Junping conquer so many states in such a short time? How could the Central Plains fall so quickly!"

The ministers looked at each other, and Wang Du closed his eyes without saying a word.

Cui Yuan looked at him and saw that he had no intention of speaking, so he could only say helplessly: "Your Highness, the drought in the Central Plains has lasted for two years. There are hundreds of thousands of refugees alone. The thief Wang doesn't even need to deceive the people. He can gather a large number of refugees by distributing the looted food along the way."

“That’s why states fell so quickly.”

At this time, Wang Du, who had been silent, said in a cold voice: "Based on the current situation, the rebels will reach Luoyang in at most one month. If Luoyang falls, it will be a great shame for our Great Zhou."

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had a dark face.

He felt very uncomfortable at the moment.

It can even be said to be very uncomfortable.

Because this matter had nothing to do with him. Although he was the crown prince, he was actually the emperor's political enemy, and in many cases, the biggest political enemy.

For a long time before, the current Emperor did not allow him to participate in political affairs. Even after he came of age, he rarely had access to the Council of State.

Until the past one or two years!

It may be that His Majesty the Emperor is old, or it may be that the world has been in turmoil in recent years and His Majesty the Emperor no longer has the energy to take care of it.

It is more likely that His Majesty the Emperor is not in good health...

Anyway, since the Yuezhou Rebellion began, the emperor began to frequently let the crown prince participate in state affairs, and even instructed the Council of State to go to the crown prince for advice on some issues.

But it's just a matter of making a decision.

His Majesty the Emperor still holds the core powers of the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Revenue, and Ministry of War firmly in his own hands and has never lost these core powers.

And some other difficult problems were all thrown to the prince.

For example, the previous Yuezhou Rebellion, and this time's Central Plains Rebellion.

For this kind of problem, or this kind of project, His Majesty the Emperor himself is too concerned about his reputation to get involved, but he lets the Crown Prince come out and make decisions for him and the court.

In this way, if something goes wrong on the battlefield, it will not be the Emperor's responsibility.

This is also the reason why His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is not very emotionally stable.

He has already felt a strong sense of crisis from his father.

After taking several deep breaths, he finally calmed down and asked, "Where is Su Jing now? Has he reached the front battlefield?"

Cui Yuan, the Prime Minister, bowed his head and said, "Your Highness, General Su's army has already set out and is heading to the Central Plains battlefield."

"In addition, the Political Affairs Hall also received a letter of recommendation from General Su."

The prince asked without hesitation: "Who do you recommend?"

"Captain Li Zhao made great contributions in suppressing the rebellion in Yuezhou this time."

Cui Yuan looked at the other prime ministers and continued, "General Su's meaning is that although the rebels in Yuezhou have been dispersed and Qiu Ze is on his way back to the capital, there are still remnant rebel forces in Yuezhou, and we need to leave an army to garrison there."

"It just so happens that Yuezhou has no more soldiers. General Su left a battalion of commanders in Yuezhou, which is temporarily led by Lieutenant Li Zhao. General Su recommended Li Zhao to be the Sima of Yuezhou."

"Complete the subsequent bandit elimination and cleanup work for him."

The prince frowned, then relaxed and said, "Does your majesty know about this?"

Cui Yuan shook his head and said, "Your Majesty has rarely appeared in public recently. If General Su had not made a secret report to Your Majesty, Your Majesty probably would not have known about it."

The prince reached out his hand and took Su Jing's recommendation document. After reading it once, he slowly closed it and said, "My opinion is that it should be approved."

"Give some money to this Li Zhao in the name of the court."

Having said that, the prince took a deep breath and looked at the prime ministers.

"At the same time, all the gentlemen, in the name of the Political Affairs Hall, write a letter to General Su, asking him to prepare it well..."

The prince murmured.

"Fight the battle in the Central Plains well!"

(End of this chapter)