Thief Emperor

Chapter 223 Zheng Guancha

When Li Yun saw the box of manuscripts, his first reaction was naturally joy.

At first, he knew almost nothing about military affairs, and when he led the anti-theft team, he had no tactics to speak of. He basically just rushed forward and relied on brute force to solve all problems.

It was not until he joined Su Jing's army that Li Yun began to understand a little about the deployment of troops and the methods of leading troops in this era, but his understanding was still somewhat superficial.

With these manuscripts of General Su, Li Yun will not be inferior to any general of this era in leading troops in the future, at least in terms of theoretical knowledge.

But after a moment of joy, he looked at the box of manuscripts again and his emotions became somewhat complicated again.

This is the result of more than ten years of hard work at home by Su Jing after he was laid off in his prime. You can imagine how precious it is.

And now, Su Jing chose to entrust these manuscripts to Li Yun. Although there was no other word or other, it was obvious that General Su was very pessimistic about his own ending... and even the ending of the entire Su family.

In other words, the entire Su family is now on the brink of despair. As the situation evolves, it is very likely to be doomed.

Only in this situation would General Su hand over his more than ten years of hard work to Li Yun. And his purpose in handing it over to Li Yun was probably not to accept Li Yun as his disciple, but to let Li Yun, a rebellious man who "disapproved" of the court, preserve his more than ten years of hard work for him.

After all, if the war in the Central Plains fails and the Su family is convicted, their property will most likely be confiscated. At that time, these manuscripts will most likely be lost in the process.

As for Li Yun, let's not talk about whether Li Yun has the energy and perseverance to organize these manuscripts into a volume and then actually write a book in the future. Even if Li Yun does not have this energy, relying on the good relationship between Su Jing and Li Yun, Li Yun will help him keep these manuscripts properly and find a successor for them in the future.

It would be great if it could be passed down to future generations.

Looking at these manuscripts, Li was filled with thoughts.

After a long while, he came back to his senses, looked at the Su family member in front of him, and asked, "May I ask your name?"

The Su family member lowered his head and said in a hoarse voice: "I am Su Fu, a lowly man."

Li Yun hummed, and said silently: "I accept these manuscripts. No matter what, I will keep them for the general. I will return them to him when I see him again in the future."

The last sentence can only be Li Yun’s good wish.

Because as far as the current situation is concerned, the Shuofang Army will be defeated soon, and General Su will probably find it difficult to gain any credit from the Shuofang Army. By then, the dominant power on the battlefield will all fall into the hands of the Shuofang Army.

Under such circumstances, it would be a rare achievement for General Su to have no merits or faults, let alone achieve any great military achievements.

Su Fu knelt down in front of Li Yun with a plop and kowtowed, saying, "On behalf of my master, I would like to thank Sima Li for his kindness!"

Li Yun helped him up and asked, "What's the current situation of the Su family?"

Su Fu lowered his head and replied: "The master is fighting, the eldest master..."

He did not continue speaking, but just sighed and said: "My family is fine for now, thank you Sima Li for your concern!"

In addition to Su Jing and Su Sheng, father and son, there are many other people in the Su family. Not to mention that Major General Su Sheng has already married and had children, General Su has been unemployed at home in recent years, but he is not idle either. General Su also has a pair of underage children in Su's hometown, which is a son that the general had in his old age.

Li Yun learned all this from Su Sheng early on.

Hearing this, Li Yun knew that the Su family should not have had any problems at present. He patted Su Fu on the shoulder and said lightly: "I am grateful to the general for his kindness. If the Su family has any problems, please write to me. If I can help, it is my duty."

Su Fu bowed and was quite moved.

After the eldest son Su Sheng was imprisoned by the emperor, everyone in the court and the country knew that the Su family might not have a good ending. During this period, even in his hometown, Su Fu had somewhat experienced the fickleness of the world.

Now, Sima Li in front of him didn't care about these things, and Su Fu was naturally moved.

"Thank you, Sima Li. I will report Sima Li's words to the general truthfully."

Li Yun wanted to keep this Su family member in Yuezhou to rest for a few days, but Su Fu shook his head and refused, saying, "Sir Li, I have to leave immediately and go to the master's military tent to report to him about the family affairs. There is no time to delay."

Li Yun did not stop him. He wanted to write a letter to Su Jing, but after thinking about it, he did not start writing. After all, the content of the letter he wrote to Su Jing would not be much different from the reply letter.

Although the Su family member in front of him who was carrying Su Sheng's manuscript was unlikely to be a spy for the court, such things could not be put on paper.

Mr. Li thought for a while and said in a deep voice, "Please tell the general that we must not be rigid at this time and must be flexible."

This is a double entendre and can be applied to leading troops or to being a person.

In terms of leading troops, Li Yun naturally had nothing to teach General Su, but in other aspects, Li Yun could teach him, such as the word "flexibility".

As long as Su Jing could be more flexible now, he could go anywhere in the world with the 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers in his hands. Why should he suffer the humiliation of that weak imperial court?
As for the life of Major General Su Sheng... as long as Su Jing behaves strongly enough, the imperial court will not dare to harm Su Sheng's life, and will even treat him politely.

By that time, the Su family will have occupied several states in the Central Plains. If they were not military governors, they would be military governors. In troubled times, they would have a place!
This is Li Yun’s “flexibility”.

But this was all he could say.

A general like Su Jing, who has led troops for decades, has a strong will and cannot be persuaded by just a few words from others. Li Yun cannot influence what he wants to do.

In fact, he sent someone to deliver the manuscript to Li Yun, which means that this great general might have made up his mind to die...

Su Fu looked up at Li Yun, then lowered his head again.

"I've made note of it."

After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave. Li Yun poured him a bowl of wine, clinked the bowls with his, and they each raised their heads to drink it all in one gulp. Then Su Fu turned around and left Yuezhou Camp. Li Yun was very considerate and rode his horse to accompany him for several miles.

In the following month, Li Yun focused his main energy on expanding the Yuezhou Army. After a month of hard work, the current Yuezhou Camp has a population of about 2,400 people. Although it did not reach the "double" level that Li Yun had previously planned, there were not many people in a state, and the conscription was done secretly, so it was not easy to get 800 to 900 new soldiers in a month.

This is because the treatment in Yuezhou Camp is good, otherwise, this would be something that I would never even dare to think about.

During this month, Zhao Cheng also completely established his foothold in Wuzhou and faced Li Yun across the state.

At this time, it was March of the fifth year of Xian De.

Li Zheng, who was stationed in Shan County, also rushed back to Yuezhou Camp. After meeting Li Yun, he told Li Yun about the situation in Wuzhou, then sighed and said, "It will be more than a month before my second brother gets married. The brothers wanted to give you a grand wedding, but who knew that Zhao Cheng would suddenly show up."

"If we don't deal with Zhao Cheng, I'm afraid you will be in a hurry when you get married, second brother."

Li Yun was not in a hurry and said with a smile: "It shouldn't be a problem. Lord Zheng will come to Yuezhou this afternoon."

"In a month, I think he will be ready."

Mr. Li stretched and said, "Besides, as long as Yuezhou is safe and sound, Zhao Cheng can occupy Wuzhou. It won't affect my marriage."

"correct."

Li Yun smiled and said, "There are a lot of new recruits recently, so you don't have to go back to Shan County. Let Deng Yang take over your job in Shan County, and you stay here to train the new recruits with your uncle."

Li Zheng nodded first, then smiled and said, "I just met Deng Yang in the camp. He told me a lot about Xiangshan. My second brother made a fortune in Xiangshan this time."

The incident in Xiangshan happened just as Li Yun had expected. After it was reported to the imperial court, the court had no energy to take care of it. They only ordered the bandit leader Guo Ming and others to be escorted to the capital for questioning, and left the rest to the local government to handle.

As for the stolen goods during the house search.

The court gave a discount according to the amount reported by Li Yun and handed it over to the local government for processing.

In this incident, Li Yun, who "plundered" almost all the wealthy families in Xiangshan, naturally made a fortune.

It can even be said that this is the biggest deal he has made in all these years!

The total value of the harvest is definitely over 100,000 strings of cash!

Combined with the food obtained from Mingzhou, he really made a fortune.

Li Yun stood up, glanced at him, and scolded with a smile: "Deng Yang is a tight-lipped kid. It seems that I can't take him with me on such things in the future."

After that, Li Yun walked outside: "It's almost time. I'll go meet Zheng Wei. You and Uncle San will make arrangements in Yuezhou Camp and distribute the manpower. If Zheng Wei comes, don't let him know that we have so many more people."

Li Zheng grinned and said, "I will ask them to guard the four gates of Yuezhou in a while to make sure there are not many people left in the camp."

Li Yun didn't even turn his head, but just waved silently, strode out, arrived at the gate of the camp, rode his mount, and soon came to the east gate of Yuezhou City.

As soon as he arrived at the East City Gate, he saw Yuezhou Governor Du Qian and his follower Du Laian, already waiting at the East City Gate.

To welcome Shangguan, as the governor, he naturally had to take the lead here to welcome him.

Li Yun dismounted, threw the reins to the soldier guarding the city gate, smiled and clasped his fists, saying, "Your Excellency is here very early."

"We have to be early to welcome our superiors."

After the two of them exchanged greetings, Du Qian smiled and said, "Recently, Sima Li has been very busy. I haven't seen Sima very often even though we are both in Yuezhou."

"Busy."

Li Yun sighed: "The war is imminent, so I can do my part for the people of Yuezhou."

Du Qian laughed and looked at Li Yun and said, "It's almost time, let's go out of the city to welcome them."

Li Yun nodded, and just like that, under the leadership of Du Qian, Li Yun, the Sima of Yuezhou, and a group of officials including the magistrate of Shanyin County went two or three miles out of the city to welcome Zheng Ju, the Observer of Zheng.

After waiting for nearly half an hour, Zheng Yu's procession finally appeared on the official road. A group of Yuezhou officials stepped forward and, led by Du Qian, bowed their heads and saluted Zheng Guancha.

"Your subordinates and others are here to greet Lord Zheng."

The carriage stopped and Zheng Wei quickly got off. He walked to Du Qian in two or three steps and helped him up with a smile on his face.

"Nephew, there is no need to be so polite. There is no need to be so polite."

After saying that, he looked at Li Yun and others with a faint smile on his face.

"You're all very welcome."

"Let's go into the city together."

After that, he pulled Du Qian's sleeve and said with a smile: "My dear nephew, get in the car. Let's ride together and reminisce about the past."

Du Qian glanced at Li Yun, and when he saw that Li Yun didn't look angry, he breathed a sigh of relief and forced a smile.

"My nephew obeys your command."

(End of this chapter)