Thief Emperor

Chapter 197 General Tianbu!
"Salt and iron have always been the exclusive business of the imperial court. I am only the Sima of Yuezhou, at best a military officer leading troops. I am not involved in the salt affairs of Yuezhou, let alone the salt of Mingzhou."

Li Yun's face was warm and he smiled and said, "So, if the court asks, Yuezhou can report to the court that a group of salt robbers entered Yuezhou, but also what happened in Mingzhou and how much loss there was."

Mr. Li looked up at Zhu Tong and said with a smile, "It has nothing to do with Mr. Li."

"besides."

His face became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "The map with the rebels' hiding places marked on it is the result of months of hard work by Mr. Li. If the suppression of the bandits goes smoothly, Mr. Li will naturally have nothing to say. If it does not go smoothly, the court will ask about it."

"Envoy Zhu, you can't blame me for telling the truth to the court."

Zhu Tong's face turned dark and he began to grit his teeth in his heart.

This Li guy has clearly become dependent on Mingzhou.

But at this time, he had no other choice. Anyway, if the court questioned him, he would have something to explain. So after taking a deep breath, he said in a deep voice: "The traitors in Yuezhou have nothing to do with Mingzhou."

After saying this, Zhu Tong bowed his head slightly and continued, "However, if Sima Li is willing to speak to the court on behalf of Mingzhou, our cooperation will be concluded. After this is accomplished, I will send someone to give Sima Li a gift."

After that, he raised the chicken soup, looked at Li Yun and said, "Let's say we didn't know each other until we fought. Sima Li, I toast you a glass."

Li Yun smiled and drank the wine in his glass, then asked, "With so many bad debts in the salt fields of Mingzhou, Envoy Zhu must have made a lot of money, right?"

Zhu Tong glanced at Li Yun and saw that there was no one in the box. He didn't hesitate to say anything. He hummed and said in a low voice, "To put it bluntly, this is the oil and water on the salt road. We local officials can only smell it at most. Most of those salt merchants have people behind them. They all want to make money. The officials on the salt road also want to make money."

"Don't the big guys in the capital want to make money?"

"Local officials like me can only get a little bit of meat, but when something goes wrong, we have to run around for them."

Zhu Tong narrowed his eyes, obviously a little dissatisfied: "For this official position, the higher the better."

Li Yun lowered his head to drink, his eyes slightly focused.

The affairs of the officialdom were more complicated than he had imagined. Perhaps, the seemingly elegant observer Zheng Yu also made a profit on the salt road.

The roots are intertwined, you are in me and I am in you.

Not to mention that Li Yun was just a Sima of Yuezhou, even if he was the emperor of Da Zhou, it would be impossible for him to completely sort out the salt roads and put all the income from the salt roads into his own pocket.

However, even if the emperor is not capable of this, Li Yun may be able to do so.

Great Zhou...

Need to be broken down and started over again!

After finishing a glass of wine, he smiled and asked, "Then there should be many wealthy businessmen in Mingzhou."

"They are all in Jiangning."

Zhu Tong also drank a glass of wine, looked at Li Yun, and sighed: "Those people are living a life like gods, how can they look down on Mingzhou?"

Li Yun said "Oh" with some regret.

"I was originally thinking about going to Mingzhou to take a look. Since Mingzhou is not as good as Jiangning, I really want to go to Jiangning to take a look when I have time."

After the two chatted for a while, Zhu Tong's attitude towards Li Yun became much friendlier. He smiled and said, "That place is a den of money. No matter how much money you spend in Jiangning, there won't be much left. Now that we know each other, I will take Brother Li to Jiangning to have a look when we have time."

Li Yun glanced at him and forced a smile.

He could see that this Zhu had no good intentions.

The biggest weakness of young people is that they cannot control their lower body. The reason why he took the initiative to show goodwill and invited Li Yun to Jiangning was that he might have set a trap to lure Li Yun into it and avenge today's revenge.

Just like this, the two people, each with their own thoughts, finished the meal with smiles on their faces. Although it was already afternoon, Zhu Tong insisted on leaving, and Li Yun did not keep him. He smiled and sent him out of Yuezhou city. The two waved goodbye outside the city.

After watching the Mingzhou troops leave with Li Zheng and others, the smile on Li Yun's face slowly faded. He looked at Li Zheng and said calmly, "Send a few brothers to keep an eye on them and see if they go back to Mingzhou."

Li Zheng responded and waved to call two people over. After giving a few instructions, the two immediately followed in the direction of Zhu Tong.

After finishing, Li Zheng looked at Li Yun and scratched his head in confusion: "Second brother, when we first met this morning, you and that Zhu guy looked like you were going to fight. How come you two have completely changed like good friends just now?"

Li Yun smiled and said, "He can't control us, and we can't keep them in Yuezhou. No one can do anything to anyone, so it's natural, but..."

Li Yun looked in the direction of Mingzhou and said calmly, "There are more than a dozen salt fields in Mingzhou. After so many years, the local officials should have become very wealthy..."

He stopped talking here.

Judging from the current situation, when the situation becomes more chaotic, each region will inevitably act on its own and no longer pay attention to the court, and the court will be unable to take care of the local regions.

At that time, there would be no need for Li Yun to talk about the court rules with these parasites.

They are fat, and Li Yun will also become fat. At this point, Li turned around, looked at Yuezhou City, and said in a deep voice: "Okay! This matter ends here. Before the New Year, we will mainly build Yuezhou Camp. After the New Year, we will recruit at least 500 new soldiers to train in Yuezhou Camp."

"Li Zheng."

Li Zheng lowered his head quickly: "I'm here."

"The food in Yuezhou Camp can't be bad. From now on, we must follow the established rules and have meat at least once every three days, and each person must have at least half a bowl of meat."

"If you need money, just tell me. As long as you list the details of your expenditure, I will sell everything I have to give it to you. But if I conduct a random check and find that someone has deducted money from their food."

Li Yun's voice and expression were stern.

"No matter who it is, don't blame me for not remembering our old friendship!"

This is an era without faith and also an era of scarce material resources. Li Yun does not have the ability to cultivate a cohesive army on the spiritual level in a short period of time by himself, but he can start from the material level.

They eat well, get money, and receive pensions when they die. Once they join the Yuezhou Camp, it is not easy for them to want to leave. Such an army is much better in combat effectiveness and cohesion than the forcibly recruited army of this era.

So, food is a crucial part.

Of course, the cost of doing so will also increase accordingly, so Li Yun will have to try every possible means in the future.

Make money, make money, and make money!

Seeing Li Yun's serious expression, Li Zheng hurriedly bowed his head and clasped his fists, saying, "Subordinate, I obey your command!"

…………

Another month has passed.

The time has come, it is December of the fourth year of Xian De, less than a month away from the end of the year.

Outside the city of Luoyang in Henan Province, tens of thousands of troops were densely packed.

These troops did not even have neat uniforms, and most of them were skinny, but they were so large that you could not see the end of them at a glance, just like ants, with no end in sight.

A middle-aged man in yellow clothes, who looked very ordinary and even a little wretched, and wearing bright armor, was riding on a big horse, looking at the Luoyang city in the distance with a burning gaze.

They had besieged Luoyang for more than a month but had not been able to capture it.

But the Luoyang before him was full of temptations for him.

This is the ancient capital of several dynasties. Although the Great Zhou Dynasty is not here, Luoyang is still one of the largest cities in the world.

More importantly, Luoyang City has extraordinary significance in the hearts of people all over the world!

If they had not captured Luoyang, they would still be just a bunch of bandits, or at most a rebellious army. But if they had captured Luoyang, they would have been able to become a powerful force. At that time, both the nobles in Luoyang and the nobles in the world would look at them differently.

At that time, they were qualified to sit at the table and allow "gamblers" to place bets.

More importantly, there are ready-made palaces in Luoyang City. After entering Luoyang, all you need to do is "decorate" it and you can move directly into the palace. By then, becoming king or emperor will be just a matter of a word!

In addition to these, the long siege of Luoyang also hurt morale, and the rebels feared low morale the most.

With these thoughts in mind, Wang Junping, the general of the Junping Tianbu, raised his arm and shouted, "From now on, we will attack Luoyang fiercely!"

"As long as Luoyang is not conquered, the siege will not stop!"

Following the order given by the "General Tianbu", tens of thousands of rebels rushed towards Luoyang City like ants.

This siege lasted for a full seven days.

Seven days later, Luoyang City fell. Wang Junping entered Luoyang in high spirits and ordered rewards for the three armies.

As the rebels entered Luoyang City, the setting sun shone down, illuminating only the mountains of corpses outside the city.

This is particularly ironic compared to General Tianbu who was drinking and having fun.

Not long after the fall of Luoyang City, news of Luoyang also reached the capital and reached the ears of His Majesty the Emperor.

The Emperor, who had done nothing in recent months except personally ordering the lingchi execution of Qiu Dian's family, flew into a rage upon hearing this and slammed the table hard.

"Let the Council of State and the Crown Prince go!"

"Come see me immediately!"

(End of this chapter)