Thief Emperor

Chapter 204: Two Sets of Public and Private Accounts

Even Li Yun was a little surprised when he heard the news.

It’s the first month of the lunar year now!

The imperial court in the capital is on holiday. They will not stop until after the Lantern Festival and start working. You are an expatriate governor, the chief judge of a local government, and the highest leader of an office!
The man who didn't even need to punch in, hadn't even arrived on the tenth day of the first lunar month, and he was already riding a horse to inspect various counties?
Li Yun sighed and said, "What a dedicated guy."

Hearing his words, Liu Bo patted Li Zheng on the shoulder, winked at Li Zheng, and said with a smile: "See, I told you that the second brother knew and had to swear, and you said that the second brother had changed and didn't swear anymore."

Li Yun glanced at them and said unhappily, "This is just an interjection, not a curse."

At this point, he looked back at Meng Qing and grinned, "Boy, you've been very tired these past few days. Go back and take a rest. I'll give you a few days off."

Meng Qing lowered his head, feeling a little depressed: "Yes..."

Li said with a smile: "Come back to see me after the 15th. You can run errands for me with Meng Hai in the future."

Meng Qing was overjoyed when he heard this, bowed deeply in salute, and then left happily.

Li Zheng looked at Meng Qing's back as he ran away and said with a smile, "It can be seen that the second brother likes him very much."

"This kid is very spiritual."

Li Yun thought for a moment and continued, "He has great ambition and courage. If I lead him for a few years, he might achieve something in the future."

Li Yun remembered Meng Qing.

If I remember correctly, he was the one who beat the Shidai County Magistrate to death with a stick in front of the gate of Shidai County Government Office.

This young man, from Hexi Village, has always been full of energy in his heart. He is also very courageous and has a heroic spirit.

If you train him well, he might become a useful person in the future.

However, at this time, neither Li Zheng, Liu Bo, nor Li Yun himself took the young man Meng Qing seriously. After all, at this time, Meng Qing was just a little guy in their eyes.

Even Li Yun only asked him to run errands for him and observe him.

After sending Meng Qing back, Li Yun brought a group of people to his residence. After entering the house and lighting the stove, Li Yun took off his thick coat and threw it on a chair beside him. Then he stretched his body and said, "During the time I was away from Yuezhou, has there been any changes in Yuezhou?"

"What did that Du do?"

At this point, Li Yun looked at Liu Bo and asked, "You guys didn't make things difficult for him, did you?"

Three questions in a row made everyone stunned for a while. Finally, Liu Bo, who was more organized, coughed and answered: "In the past ten days, the people of Yuezhou have been busy celebrating the New Year. There is nothing big happening in Yuezhou City. Oh, by the way..."

Liu Bo remembered and said, "Before you left, you had people post a notice to rent out ownerless fields to tenants. Before and after the New Year, many people came to the government office and said they wanted to rent these fields to farm."

Li Yun said "Oh" and said, "This is not surprising. The 10% rent and tax is equivalent to the government giving them the crops for free. Naturally, there is no reason not to grow crops."

At this point, he asked, "Although this matter is not big, it is very troublesome. It must be completed before the spring so as not to affect the spring planting. How are you doing?"

Liu Bo looked up at Li Yun, scratched his head, and said, "Second brother, this matter has basically been handled in the government office, and all the documents that should be issued have been issued."

Li Yun was a little surprised, then smiled with relief: "It seems that people are forced to do things. Lao Jiu, you have improved a lot. You can handle such a complicated matter so smoothly. I thought this matter could only be done after I came back."

Liu Bo looked even weirder.

He looked at Li Yun and reminded him, "Second brother, it was that Governor Du who took over all the documents after arriving in Yuezhou. It took him a few days to sort them out. I took it and took a look..."

“It’s all very organized.”

Liu Bo coughed and continued, "He went to the counties yesterday, apparently because of this matter. He said he wanted to go to the counties to check whether these fields were really unclaimed, and whether the counties really distributed the fields to tenants according to the state's requirements."

"Ouch."

Li Yun was stunned for a while, and murmured: "Here comes a powerful person."

Li Zheng looked around and whispered, "Second brother, as soon as he came here, he tried to grab power from us. If you didn't come back, we would have no backbone. Now that you are back, do you want to give him some warnings?" "Nonsense."

Li Yun looked at Li Zheng and said sternly, "I was the one who made the decision to rent out the land to the tenants. If he was just trying to fight for power, the first thing he should have done after taking office was to deny the decree. That would be more straightforward. Why did he have to go to such great lengths to do this?"

At this point, Li Yun touched his chin and muttered softly: "But by doing this, he has also taken back some of the power of the governor."

After muttering this, Li Yun stopped thinking about his new boss and asked, "Shou Hou, how is the construction of Yuezhou Camp outside the city going?"

At this time, there were only three people present: Li Zheng, Liu Bo and Zhou Liang, all of whom were old people from Cangshan Village. Therefore, Li Yun still used their previous names. However, if there was an outsider present, he would change to his real name.

This is actually not easy. Habits are often subconscious behaviors. If you want to correct your subconscious, you need to keep yourself focused at all times.

Li Zheng quickly lowered his head and replied, "Second brother, it will be completely completed in another month. Now most of our brothers have moved into Yuezhou Camp."

Li Yun nodded and asked, "Uncle San, the rebels..."

Zhou Liang lowered his head silently and replied, "There are fewer and fewer. At the beginning, we could often see Qiu Dian's troops gathered together, but in the past one or two months, we can only capture a few sporadically."

Li Yun thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "Since there are not many people left, there is no need to rush to capture the rebels in the future. Those who are captured do not need to be sent to the Yuezhou Camp. Wait for another month, when the weather is warmer, and we will start recruiting new soldiers directly."

Li Yun's organization consisted of a thousand people, but when he separated from General Su's troops, he had only more than 600 people because he had just experienced a great war. He could legitimately recruit soldiers.

In recent months, the Yuezhou Camp has expanded to more than 900 people after taking in the remnants of the rebels. With just one more conscription, the Yuezhou Camp will be able to reach the size of 1,500 people that Li Yun expected.

And as long as these 1,500 people can be formed into an army and reach the combat effectiveness of a normal army, then in the entire East Jiangnan Road, except for the Observer Zheng Yu, Li Yun will be the most powerful man in terms of military strength!

Zhou Liang responded and bowed his head, saying, "I obey your command!"

Because he would be away from Yuezhou for more than ten days, Li Yun needed to discuss many things in Yuezhou with his confidants first. Therefore, on that day, he discussed with Li Zheng, Zhou Liang and others for nearly two hours, and only said goodbye to each other after dinner in the evening.

For the next few days, Li Yun did not go to the governor's office again, but all the important documents were delivered to his desk.

On this day, a letter from Shan County was delivered to Li Yun's desk. The person who sent the letter from Shan County was naturally none other than Zhuo Guangrui, the magistrate of Shan County.

The outstanding county magistrate did not say anything too sensitive in the letter. He just greeted Li Yun and mentioned in the letter the situation of the governor Du Qian in Shan County.

This County Magistrate Zhuo was also a shrewd man. Although he did not ask Li Yun any questions directly in the letter, it looked like an ordinary greeting letter, but in fact, while notifying Li Yun, he also asked Li Yun about his attitude towards the new governor.

Thus, he would determine his attitude towards the new governor.

This kind of behavior is both mature and cunning, but it is also one of the essential survival skills in officialdom.

Li Yun thought for a moment before writing a letter back to Zhuo Guangrui, saying that everything was fine with him and asking him to handle Shan County affairs as usual.

After processing one document after another, Li Yun saw a piece of news from the public, which roughly said that the imperial guards were ready and were ready to go out at any time to suppress the rebels.

Li Yun currently does not have many official information channels, so he can't get much information, and there is no guarantee that all of it is true. But no matter what, this information has given him some reference.

After processing the paperwork, Li Yun asked someone to call Liu Bo over. After pulling Liu Bo to sit down, Li Yun went straight to the point without saying anything more.

"Old Nine, after the 15th, you will go out and do business for us in Yuezhou."

"From now on, you will have a separate account, and Yuezhou will have another public account."

Li Yun mentioned this matter last year. Liu Bo was not surprised and nodded immediately, "Okay, second brother, I will prepare and leave in the next few days."

Li Yun patted his shoulder again and said slowly, "Be smart."

Liu Bo chuckled and said, patting his chest.

"Don't worry, second brother. We can do business without capital, so how can we not do business with capital?"

(End of this chapter)