Thief Emperor

Chapter 239 Jiangdong Event
At this moment, a bandit and a rebel were sitting face to face.

The rebel was dressed in plain clothes and looked miserable.

Although the bandits were not wearing official uniforms, they were already dressed in a respectable manner.

Zhao Cheng stared at Li Yun for a long time before he digested some of the information in Li Yun's words. After thinking for a while, he silently said, "Li... Sima Li, what do you want to do?"

This question stumped Li Yun. After thinking for a while, he said, "To put it simply, I think the court is now terminally ill and beyond redemption."

"The building is about to collapse, and everyone has their own calculations. What I want to do is to accumulate strength to face the coming chaos."

Zhao Cheng seemed to be thinking about something, and after a while he asked, "Does Li Sima want to compete for the throne?"

Li Yun was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It's too far to talk about this now. Think about things that are relevant to your current situation."

"I am only thinking about doing the things in front of me well now. As for the future, we can only think about it in the future."

Last year, Li Yun was just a captain in Qingyang, and at the beginning of this year, he had just taken office as Sima of Yuezhou.

No one could adapt to the rapid change of identity. Moreover, the world now belonged to the imperial court, Wang Junping, and the major military governors. For Li Yun now, it was too early to talk about competing for the world.

Moreover, Qiu Dian’s lesson is right before our eyes. At this time, we must not be too ambitious but must take one step at a time.

Zhao Cheng narrowed his eyes and continued, "If Li Sima's ambition is just to survive in one place, even if the Zhou Dynasty falls in the future, Li Sima will only be devoured by others. In the end, he will just be a wedding dress for others."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Then I am determined to sweep across the world now. Should I issue a proclamation to conquer the Great Zhou and become the King of Yue tomorrow?"

Zhao Cheng was choked and frowned without saying anything.

"General Zhao."

Li Yun said calmly, "I saved you because I heard about your family background from General Su and thought you were worth saving. I also heard that during my time in Yuezhou, you were relatively restrained in your behavior when you followed the traitor Qiu Dian, and you didn't do evil like Qiu Dian and his people."

"Third, I am impressed by General Zhao's ability to train and lead troops, and I want to work hand in hand with General Zhao."

Zhao Cheng looked up at Li Yun and gritted his teeth and said, "King Qiu..."

"He's a shit king."

Li Yun interrupted him coldly.

"Qiantang County was conquered by you, General Zhao. After you entered Qiantang, many people in the city died and many decent women were raped. I don't need to say more about this matter."

"Just talking about Yuezhou."

Li Yun said expressionlessly: "I have seen the household registration of Yuezhou. Before the change in Yuezhou, there were 150,000 households. When I took over Yuezhou, there were less than 100,000, 50,000 households left!"

"Where have everyone gone?"

Li Yun sneered, "If you don't shout out a slogan to equalize the rich and the poor and kill a few officials, you will really become a hero who saves people from danger. Qiu Dian deserves to die."

"How dare he be called the King of Heaven? How dare he advance to the position of King of Yue! How ridiculous!"

Zhao Cheng opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he had no way to refute.

After the Battle of Qiantang, he lost his fighting spirit, largely because of the tragedy in Qiantang City, which tormented his conscience.

After occupying Qiantang, for several days the city was like hell on earth, where the evil of human nature reached its extreme.

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and remained silent.

Li Yun put his hands in his sleeves and said, "General Zhao, I won't talk to you about the righteousness of the country, let alone saving the people. I know that your family has an irreconcilable hatred with the court. If the conditions are ripe in the future."

Mr. Li said slowly: "It is up to you to add the last rubble of earth to the Great Zhou Dynasty."

Zhao Cheng suddenly raised his head and looked at Li Yun. After a long while, he said in a hoarse voice: "Sima Li is still an official of the Great Zhou. I, a criminal traitor, can do nothing under Sima Li's hands."

Li Yun smiled.

"Zhao Cheng is dead."

"The head has been sent to the capital along with the petition from the local government. From now on, all your previous cases will be uncovered along with this head."

"When the limelight of this incident has passed, you only need to change your name, and you don't even need to change your surname. Then you can still walk in the sun with integrity, even if you are recognized by people from the past."

"Others just think they look alike."

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and pondered for a long time before he said silently: "Sima Li, do I have any choice in this matter?"

Li Yun thought for a moment and replied, "If you don't work with me, I won't kill you. I'll just lock you up for two or three years. When this incident is over, if you do a few things for me to repay my kindness in saving you, I'll let you go."

Zhao Cheng whispered, "Sima Li, Zhao needs a few days to think about it."

Li Yun nodded, turned around and walked away. After reaching the door, he looked back at Zhao Cheng and said with a smile: "Since you can't use this name anyway, why don't you stick with the surname Zhao and have the same name as me."

Zhao Cheng frowned: "Zhao Zhao... doesn't sound good."

Li Yun laughed: "It's my other name."

"Forget it, just kidding."

Li hesitated for a moment, then took out two manuscripts from his bosom and handed them to Zhao Cheng: "Here, General Zhao, you can take a look." Zhao Cheng took it first, read it once, and then looked up at Li Yun again: "This... what is this?"

"General Su's manuscript."

Li Yun said silently: "I am still a layman in military affairs. If you are unwilling to follow me, you can help me compile these manuscripts into a book in a few years."

Zhao Cheng lowered his head for a while before he said in a hoarse voice, "How come General Su's manuscript is here with you?"

"Did he accept you as his student?"

"It's not stated clearly."

Li Yun thought for a moment and replied, "But I think that's probably what he meant. Or, he wanted me to find a successor for him."

"General Su...why would he hand all these over to you?"

Zhao Cheng murmured, "These should be the fruits of his life's hard work..."

"The war in the Central Plains has reached a point where it is out of control. The imperial court is probably not confident about either side now. Can General Su escape unscathed from this turmoil..."

"I can't say for sure."

Li Yun said silently: "I guess even the general himself can't say for sure."

"That's why these manuscripts were sent to me."

"All right."

Li Yun patted Zhao Cheng on the shoulder and said calmly, "I still have a lot of things to deal with, so I won't talk to you any more. The young man guarding you at the door is my brother of the same generation. If you have figured it out, ask him to come find me."

"If you don't want to."

Li Yun smiled carefreely: "Then you have repaid my favor, and we will part ways."

After saying that, Li Yun put his hands behind his back, walked out, and never looked back.

Zhao Cheng looked at Li Yun's receding back, then looked down at the manuscripts in his hand. After carefully putting away the two manuscripts, he walked into the yard and looked at the young man who was guarding him outside the yard.

After a while, he asked, "Young man, what is your name?"

"My name is Zhou Bi."

Zhou Bi was also looking at Zhao Cheng with a wary look on his face.

Seeing his appearance, Zhao Cheng smiled and said, "Go get me some food. I'm hungry."

After a pause, he added: "Bring two more books. It's really boring to be a prisoner here."

Zhou Bi thought about it, nodded, and ran away.

Zhao Cheng came to the yard, sat under a tree, looked up at the sky outside the yard, a little absent-minded.

"Fill in... the last shovel of soil..."

………………

In the following few days, Li Yun stayed in the Yuezhou camp, sorted out the merit book of the Wuzhou battle, and then began to reward people according to the book.

The Yuezhou Camp was established with a staff of one thousand people, but in reality there were more than two thousand people. Because there were so many new recruits, many positions were vacant.

Originally, Li Yun was worried about how to promote generals so that the people below would be convinced. Now with the merits calculated from the Battle of Wuzhou, this problem has been easily solved.

Many soldiers who followed him to fight in Dongyang were promoted, and those soldiers who had killed people also quickly received the reward money that belonged to them.

Although these tasks are insignificant, they are the cornerstone of an army's construction and the most important moment in determining the future style of the army.

You must lay a solid foundation when you first establish it. Otherwise, when the team expands to a certain size, it will be extremely difficult to reverse the trend.

A few days later, it was almost May. Li Yun called all the generals of Yuezhou Camp and said to them with a smile, "Tomorrow, I will go back to Qingyang to prepare for the wedding. You need someone to stay and guard Yuezhou Camp. Who is willing to stay?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Zhou Liang.

Zhou Liang, who was always calm, shook his head rarely at this moment. He looked at Li Yun and said, "I must go to the general's wedding."

Li Yun looked at him with some surprise.

Seeing that no one was willing to stay, Li Yun could only point out the generals and said with a smile: "Deng Yang, you stay and look after the house."

Deng Yang wailed and was about to object when Li Yun patted him on the shoulder.

"What the hell are you yelling about? It's settled."

Mr. Li stood up and looked at Qingyang.

"Skinny Monkey, start sending out invitations."

(End of this chapter)