Thief Emperor

Chapter 187: Old business!
This meeting lasted for a full hour. After an hour, Li Yun finally said roughly what he wanted to say.

The various tasks he assigned were actually far beyond the standards of officials of that era. To complete them, not only personal ability was required, but also certain moral standards.

In fact, this was also a test that Li Yun gave to the six of them.

He currently has no staff available for internal affairs, so these six existing subordinates will become his tools for governing the country.

If one of these six people performs well and successfully becomes Li Yun's own person, he may be able to develop into a role like the internal affairs director around him in the future.

This kind of gradual promotion and selection is much more reliable than searching for talents everywhere.

Of course, Li Yun’s predicament of lacking “civil officials” is only temporary.

As the world gradually becomes chaotic, as long as his power expands and his fame grows, he won't have to recruit talents. Naturally, civil and military officials will come to him and serve him, Li.

After arranging the matters, Li Yun coughed and said, "All the counties in Yuezhou have been ravaged by the rebels. At present, the county offices are probably short of manpower. For the stability of each county, I am going to send some people to each of you to temporarily serve as the county errand boy to maintain the law and order in each county."

As soon as these words were spoken, the six people showed strange expressions.

All counties were indeed short of manpower, but it was not difficult to recruit officials. Not to mention that most of the previous officials had simply escaped and not all died. Even if they all died, it would not be difficult to recruit another batch.

But now, Li Yun is going to send people to them. There is no doubt that they are sending people to keep an eye on them.

Although General Li is young, he has troops in his hands and sends people to keep an eye on them, so they really have to do things according to General Li's requests.

At least, that was the case before the new governor arrived.

Zhuo Guangrui, the most senior magistrate of Shan County, was the first to stand up. He saluted and said, "After the general led his troops away last time, Shan County was short of manpower. I have been worried about this matter. Now that the general has sent someone over, it is really great."

"Thank you General Li."

He was the first to express his opinion, and naturally the others did not dare to refuse. They all stood up and thanked Li Yun.

Li smiled and said, "Okay, now that we have finished our business, I will treat you all to a drink."

Zhuo Guangrui smiled and said, "General Li, it's time to take a look at the appointment document given to you by the court."

Li Yun slapped his forehead and said, "If Magistrate Zhuo hadn't told me, I would have almost forgotten. Li Zheng, bring the document over."

Li Zheng had been waiting outside. Upon hearing this, he quickly handed an exquisite wooden box to Li Yun. Li Yun opened it and took out a document.

Originally, this kind of official appointment should have been accompanied by an imperial edict, but the court was now extremely busy, so only documents from the Political Affairs Hall and the Ministry of Personnel came.

However, this kind of local Sima was just an inconspicuous minor official in the court, and being able to give two documents was already a great respect to Li Yun.

The one on top is the document from the Political Affairs Hall, and the one on the bottom is the document from the Ministry of Personnel.

The Sima official was theoretically a military position, but he was not part of the military system and was a local officer and soldier. Therefore, he could be said to be a military officer or a civil official.

Generally speaking, the position was held by either a military officer or a demoted civil servant.

However, in the Great Zhou Dynasty, this official position still belonged to the civil service system, so the documents were sent by the Ministry of Personnel.

The document from the Ministry of Personnel was very simple, just an ordinary appointment, appointing Li Zhao, the former military captain, as the Sima of Yuezhou.

After reading the document from the Ministry of Personnel, Li Yun handed it to Zhuo Guangrui and asked everyone to pass it around.

Then he opened the second document from the Political Affairs Hall.

The content of the documents from the Political Affairs Hall was also very simple, and its general meaning was similar to that of the documents from the Ministry of Personnel, but the last sentence was very different from that of the documents from the Ministry of Personnel.

"You were originally a minor official in Qingyang. You made great contributions in suppressing the rebellion in Yuezhou. With the recommendation of General Su Jing, I have specially ordered you to lead troops to garrison Yuezhou and quell the remaining rebellion. You are also the Sima of Yuezhou."

"If you can prevent unrest in Yuezhou, it will be a great achievement."

The signature is Cui Yuan, and the seal of the Political Affairs Hall is stamped on it.

Li Yun looked at the document in a daze for a while, then a smile appeared on his face.

A big smile.

These two men from the Cui family...are really destined to be with me!
Thinking of the document on suppressing bandits written for him by Cui Shao, who was then the governor of Xuanzhou, Li Yun's smile became even brighter.

Although the Cui family didn't get along well with him, they had helped him a lot due to fate. One day in the future...

Mr. Li laughed in his heart.

I have to thank them properly.

While Li Yun was lost in thought, the document from the Ministry of Personnel had been passed around by everyone, and Zhuo Guangrui handed it back to Li Yun. Li took it, and everyone bowed their heads and said, "Congratulations, Sima Li!"

Li Yun waved his hand and said with a smile: "Here is a document from the Political Affairs Hall. You can all take a look at it, so that you won't be accused of being dishonest in the future."

Zhuo Guangrui was startled, a little confused. In his opinion, there should be no difference between the two documents. With this in mind, he took the document handed over by Li Yun, glanced at it, and his expression changed slightly.

According to the Council of Political Affairs, Li Yun was first a general stationed in Yuezhou to suppress the rebellion, and then the Sima of Yuezhou!

Although the former has no rank, he has great power. With this document, even if the governor of Yuezhou arrives next year...

It is hard to say whether we can have the final say.

At least, the new governor would never be able to "instruct" Li Yun.

In other words, no matter how incompetent Li Yun is, the two sides are not subordinate to each other.

Thinking of what General Li had said to him a few days ago, Zhuo Guangrui thoughtfully handed the document in his hand to the next county magistrate, then looked up at Li Yun and said with a smile: "Congratulations, General Li."

He only said these five words and didn't say anything else, but the meaning of his words was very clear.

At least half of the magistrates of Shan County have sided with Li Yun.

After seeing this, the other people also figured out something and came forward to congratulate Li Yun again.

Li waved his hand and said calmly, "There is nothing to congratulate. When the thief Qiu was in Yuezhou, he gathered tens of thousands of rebels. After the failure, at least several thousand of them escaped. They may be hiding somewhere. This matter of suppressing the rebellion is very dangerous."

"but…"

Li Yun showed a faint smile on his face: "Since the court trusts me, I will naturally try my best to do these things well."

Having said that, he glanced at a few people again, his expression still calm.

"Please give us your support."

"Don't dare, don't dare."

Everyone bowed their heads quickly: "We will definitely do our best to assist General Li!"

……

That night, Li Yun invited these county leaders to have a meal. The next morning, he asked them to return to their respective counties. Before they left, Li Yun promised them that the promised yamen runners would be sent to them in a few days.

After sending these people away, Li Yun immediately found Li Zheng, pulled him to sit down at a table, and said, "Now, I need a hundred smart people to be dispersed to the five counties below. I will choose from you. Can you pick them out?"

Among the six counties in Yuezhou, one of them is located under the city walls and is right under Li Yun's nose, so naturally there is no need to send more people there. As for the other five counties, Li Yun has to send twenty people to each county to serve as temporary yamen runners.

The reason why Li Yun attached so much importance to this was that this was the first time he started to set up his own "intelligence department".

Although it is just a prototype within a prototype and has no system at all, it is definitely a beginning.

If a force is compared to a person, if he wants to become powerful and accomplish something, he naturally needs to be strong and healthy. However, compared to being strong and healthy, it is more important to have sharp ears and eyes.

If a person is deaf and blind, even if his fist has the power of a thousand pounds, he can only swing it randomly.

And intelligence agencies are a person’s eyes and ears.

However, with Li Yun's current size, he cannot support a large-scale intelligence agency, but it is not a problem for him to create the prototype of an intelligence agency.

Li Zheng thought about it and nodded: "There shouldn't be any problem."

Li Yun knocked on the table and said softly, "There are a few conditions."

"Send twenty people from each of the five counties. These twenty people must be as smart as possible, and the leader must be literate and able to write and remember."

Li Zheng touched his chin and said, "Then I will go and choose in person in the next few days."

Li Yun added: "Among the 20 people in each county, at least two should be from the anti-theft team."

Li Zheng nodded again and agreed.

He sat in front of Li Yun and whispered, "Second brother, this way, we will have even fewer people to use in Yuezhou. We already have less than a thousand people. Should we recruit some soldiers to fill in?"

"Also, I've been spending more and more money recently..."

“There is no income.”

"There is no rush for conscription, let's wait a little longer. As for the money..."

Sima Li sighed: "I've been thinking about this too, Shouhou, what do you think..."

He narrowed his eyes and whispered, "Can we send some people to the wealthy areas of Jiangnan to look for those rich families..."

"Do your old job?"

(End of this chapter)