Thief Emperor

Chapter 256 Sima Li takes up a new post!
Li Yun looked in the direction of Du Qian's finger, and saw that the imperial envoy's ceremonial procession was faintly visible at the end of his sight.

Du Qian stood up and said, "Let's go and greet the imperial envoy, so as not to be punished."

After that, he took the lead and walked forward. Naturally, all the Yuezhou officials followed him and stood up. However, as they stood up, they all looked at Li Yun at the same time. Li Yun also stood up, patted Liu Bo on the shoulder, exhaled silently, and said, "I know about Songzhou's affairs. Lao Jiu, you have worked hard all the way. Go and take a rest first. When I'm done with my work these two days, we brothers can have a good chat."

As Li Yun was speaking, he walked towards the imperial envoy's procession. Liu Bo lagged behind him half a step and followed behind him. The two of them talked as they walked.

The people nearby were very considerate and did not come over to disturb the two of them.

Liu Bo nodded, then looked at Li Yun and said, "Second brother, we made a lot of money this time. Although we didn't buy any food, we did buy a lot of cloth. It should be shipped to Yuezhou soon."

After Liu Bo received Li Yun's letter, he immediately prepared to set off for Songzhou. However, it was impossible for him to bring all the goods he had with him to Songzhou as he had been doing business for several months. So he immediately cleared out the goods on hand, almost all of which were used to buy cloth and sent to Yuezhou.

Because the delivery speed of goods is slow, he has returned from Songzhou, but the purchased goods have not yet been delivered to Yuezhou.

Cloth is also one of the hard currencies.

No matter gold, silver or copper coins, they are just symbols of wealth. This kind of hard currency is the real wealth itself. Obviously Liu Bo also knows that it is useless to save money in this kind of world, so he exchanged it all for cloth.

Li Yun nodded, patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "Well done."

He paused, then continued, "Skinny Monkey should be back in the next two days, and he will probably bring back a lot of stuff. He's not very good at handling these things, so you can take a rest for a day or two, and help him with the work for a few days to handle the things."

Liu Bo was stunned for a moment, then he chuckled: "Second brother asked him to go out to work?"

“It’s not really work.”

Li looked up at the imperial envoy's procession approaching, and said calmly, "It's just to collect the money."

Because he had sent people to follow Zhu Tong several months in advance, Li Yun's plan to rob Zhu Tong's property went very smoothly. Zhu Tong's belongings packed in more than a dozen cars were all taken away by the one hundred or so "Hexi thieves" led by Li Zheng.

It is worth mentioning that this group of "Hexi bandits" were not part of the Yuezhou Army. They were the people who had followed Li Yun to Mingzhou to rob the salt field. After the robbery in Mingzhou, these people became independent from the Yuezhou Army and are now temporarily under the command of Li Zheng.

There were about one hundred and twenty people in total.

These people are called Hexi bandits externally, but internally they are a non-staff group under Li Yun's command.

According to Li Yun's idea, this group of Hexi bandits are currently here to help him do some dirty work that the Yuezhou Army is not convenient to do. In the future, this group of Hexi bandits can become the prototype of his intelligence agency.

The reason why they were separated from the Yuezhou Army was that if those who went out to do the dirty work returned to the army, it would easily distort the atmosphere in the army, which would be detrimental to Li Yun's construction of the army.

Most of the successful people throughout history have had another hand to do the dirty work.

Of course, Li Yun was relatively merciful in dealing with Zhu Tong's family. He only robbed them of their belongings and tied them all to a tree, but did not kill them.

In Li Yun's eyes, Zhu Tong may have already met his end, but his family members have not.

As for this "black hand", Li Yun has not yet decided whether it will be managed by Li Zheng or Liu Bo in the future. However, as the Li Yun Group grows stronger, these things will be clarified one by one in the future.

Liu Bo smiled and said, "Don't worry, second brother. I'll go back and have a good sleep first. I'll go find Shou Hou early tomorrow morning and take care of things."

Li Yun said "hmm", and then looked up. The imperial envoy's procession was only a few dozen feet away from them. Li Yun looked back at Liu Bo and said, "You go ahead. I have to deal with this noble from the court."

Liu Bo nodded again, then looked up at the procession not far ahead and said, "Tsk, who is this person? Why is there such a big procession?"

"My Lord."

Li Yun put his hands in his sleeves and said with a smile, "You haven't seen it before?"

Liu Bo blinked and said, "I've never seen it before."

"Go! Go! Go."

Li Yun waved at him and said with a smile: "You go and do your work first. When I'm free, I'll take you to see him properly."

Liu Bo smiled, saluted to Li Yun, then quietly retreated and left the team that was welcoming the imperial envoy.

Li Yun also looked up. The imperial envoy's carriage was less than ten feet away. Li Yun approached Du Qian silently. Envoy Du looked back at him and asked, "What's the matter? Have you been talking about it?"

Li Yun hesitated for a moment, then said, "I sent a brother to Songzhou."

Du Qian was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Sima really values ​​friendship."

"Can't talk about it."

Li Yun shook his head and said, "I just went to ask if there is anything I can do to help. General Su has helped me a lot. I feel guilty for turning a blind eye to it at this time."

Du Qian looked at the imperial envoy's guard of honor and asked, "What did the general say?"

Li Yun shook his head.

"There's nothing I can do to help."

Du Qian sighed and shook his head slightly. He said nothing but stepped forward and bowed to the oncoming carriage: "Du Qian, the governor of Yuezhou, greets His Royal Highness the King of Chu." Li Yun stood behind him and bowed: "Li Zhao, the Sima of Yuezhou, greets His Royal Highness the King of Chu."

Behind the two of them, a group of Yuezhou officials knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the carriage: "Greetings to His Majesty the King of Chu."

The carriage finally stopped. A young face lifted the curtain, stretched his head to look at the Yuezhou officials on both sides of the road, then looked up at the sun. After sighing, he ordered the horses to stop and got off the carriage.

Li Yun then took a closer look at him. He saw that this Prince of Chu had a decent appearance, but the skin on his face was not very good, with some pits. He was wearing a thin purple robe and looked to be in his early twenties, but not very tall. He was of medium to short stature, a full head shorter than the tall Li Yun.

Perhaps because of his height, after he got off the car, he subconsciously looked up at Li Yun, the tallest person present. Then he frowned slightly, looked at Du Qian, sighed, and said, "I don't want to see you here, Du Shiyi."

Du Qian cupped his hands and said with a smile, "I didn't expect to see Your Highness here."

The Jingzhao Du family is now considered a prominent family with many branches and leaves. Du Qian is the eleventh among his cousins.

However, because his father was the Minister of Six Ministries of the court, Du Qian had a very high status in the Du family and knew most of the sons of high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital.

King Wu Yuanyou of Chu is 23 years old this year. He left the palace and built his own residence at the age of 16. He has been hanging around in the capital for many years, so it is natural that the two of them know each other.

Wu Yuanyou chatted with Du Qian for a while, then looked at Li Yun and said, "Are you the Sima of Yuezhou?"

Li Yun clasped his fists and said, "That's right, your humble servant."

Seeing that Li Yun was taller than him even with his fists clasped, His Royal Highness the King of Chu frowned again and couldn't help but sigh, "How tall."

After saying this, he looked at Du Qian again and looked around: "Where is Zheng Wei? Why didn't he come to see me?"

Du Qian lowered his head slightly and said, "I don't know either. It may be because Your Highness came too hastily and Duke Zheng was in Wu County, so he didn't have time to rush over."

"I'm afraid you don't want to come to see me."

Wu Yuanyou groaned, and said with his hands behind his back, "His term as an inspector is almost over, and he will be leaving Jiangdong soon. At this time, I was ordered to inspect Jiangdong and investigate the salt road. Naturally, he avoided me like the plague."

Du Qian rolled his eyes and looked at Li Yun beside him.

What the second prince said was absolutely correct, but it was a bit inappropriate to say it so directly.

Many things, especially when one does not have sufficient ability, are not suitable to be put on the table directly. His Royal Highness the King of Chu, although he has a noble status on the surface, has no strength at all now, and is not in the capital, and there is no strong enough court behind him to rely on.

Now he is not being careful, but being so careless.

how to say?

Short life.

After saying this, the Prince of Chu stretched his waist, patted Du Qian on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "He can avoid it, but you, Du Shiyi, who just arrived in Yuezhou, can't avoid me."

Having said this, Wu Yuanyou turned around and looked at a white-faced, beardless eunuch behind him. The eunuch immediately understood and took out a flat wooden box from the carriage and handed it to Wu Yuanyou.

Wu Yuanyou took the box and threw it directly to Li Yun.

"Big guy, this is the document that the Political Affairs Hall asked me to bring to you."

At this point, he looked up at Li Yun, put his hands behind his back, and said with a smile: "From now on, you are no longer the Sima of Yuezhou."

After saying this, His Royal Highness the King of Chu got back into the carriage without even looking at Li Yun.

"Let's go into the city. It's so hot that I'm going to die."

The carriage set off again, heading towards Yuezhou City, passing Li Yun and other Yuezhou officials, leaving these Yuezhou officials behind the carriage.

On the official road, a group of Yuezhou officials looked at the carriage going away, all of them a little confused.

You’re really good at pretending!

Li Yun complained in his heart.

Du Qian looked at his expression, smoothed things over, and said with a smile, "Congratulations, let's take a look at what kind of appointment it is."

Li Yun did not rush to open the box, but looked at the King of Chu's carriage and clicked his tongue.

"As expected of a prince, you have such a high attitude."

Du Qian didn't take it seriously: "Most of the royal family members are like this."

Li Yun then opened the box and took out the documents from the Political Affairs Hall. He took a quick glance at it and saw a line of keywords.

The Yuezhou Sima Li Zhao...

Temporarily acting as the governor of Wuzhou.

(End of this chapter)