Thief Emperor

Chapter 261 It’s so unfair!
The governor of Mingzhou, Zhu, still has a few months before he leaves office, but he is still working in Mingzhou. He definitely cannot withstand investigation.

As long as you are not a fool, you will be able to find him after arriving in Mingzhou, but...

He had just been robbed by a gang of thieves.

Li Yun nodded and said with a smile: "I have heard about this too. This group of thieves seems to be called the Hexi Bandits."

At this point, Li Yun paused and continued, "Speaking of which, there is a county called Shidai County next to my hometown Qingyang. When I first served as the head of Qingyang, there was a riot in Hexi Village, Shidai County, where officials were killed and rebelled. I was ordered to go and take a look."

Li Yun sighed and said, "At that time, most of the villagers in Hexi Village were burned to death by the order of Xuanzhou Governor Tian Jing. Only a few dozen people escaped and began to oppose the government, calling themselves Hexi bandits."

Li Yun looked at Du Qian and said with a smile: "If it is really them, they are my fellow countrymen."

Hearing what he said, Du Qian stroked his chin, looked at Li Yun thoughtfully, then smiled and said, "I heard that Zhu Tong transferred the proceeds of corruption over the years and got more than a dozen trucks. No matter who robbed them, he deserved it."

Envoy Du stood up, stretched his body, and said, "Zheng Yu has been dragging his feet and refused to come to Yuezhou to meet the King of Chu. Now is a good time. He doesn't need to come to Yuezhou. We can directly send him an official document and ask him to go to Mingzhou to meet the imperial envoy."

Li Yun also stood up and said to Du Qian with a smile: "Brother Shouyi, do you think Zheng Guancha will go to Mingzhou or Yuezhou after receiving the documents from us?"

Du Qian was startled, then he smiled dumbly: "So, I will have to receive this Mr. Zheng in a few days."

Li Yun said, "Hey!" "He has been in Jiangdong for several years. He must have had many connections with salt merchants, salt roads, and other places. Let's take this opportunity to bring him down!"

Du Qian nodded slightly, looked at Li Yun, and said with a smile: "Erlang seems to hold a grudge."

"I don't hold grudges."

Mr. Li brushed the dust off his clothes and smiled heartily: "I am doing justice for the heavens."

…………

The next day, Li Yun went out of the city, gathered 500 men, handed them over to Deng Yang, and asked him to follow the King of Chu to inspect the south of the Yangtze River.

After counting all the people, Li Yun called Deng Yang into his tent and motioned for him to sit down.

After Deng Yang sat down, Li Yun smiled and said, "Do you know what I'm asking you to do this time?"

"know."

Deng Yang lowered his head and said, "The general asked me to take a battalion of lieutenants to protect the safety of the imperial envoy."

"It's good to know."

Li Yun coughed and said softly, "There are a few things I want to remind you of."

Deng Yang lowered his head: "The general ordered."

"First, a guard is a guard. Don't do anything other than guarding, and don't take the initiative to attack anyone or any force."

"Don't get involved in arresting people. Let the people from the imperial court do it. Do you understand?"

"My subordinate understands."

Li Yun nodded and continued, "The second thing is also the most important thing. Once there is a riot in the area and they start to attack you, no matter how strong the enemy is or what their weapons and equipment are, as long as the number of people exceeds five... well, more than two hundred, you must remember this."

"You should only defend and not attack."

Li Yun lowered his voice and said, "Even if you can win, don't fight. Just protect the imperial envoy's safety, and then send someone back to report to me and ask for help!"

"do you understand!"

This is the most important thing.

It is also the key to whether the Yuezhou Army can march out of Yuezhou.

Originally, Li Yun was going to hand this matter over to the more steady Zhou Liang, but Deng Yang was a person with great potential for training, and this was a good opportunity to train his ability to stand on his own.

Deng Yang bowed his head deeply: "I will remember this."

"the last point."

Li Yun patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "You and the lives of our five hundred brothers are the most important. If you really encounter a large-scale danger, run away if you can."

"If you can bring the imperial envoy with you, then do so. If you can't, then just run away on your own."

"Understand?"

Deng Yang lowered his head: "I understand."

"Ah."

Li Yun patted his shoulder, making his armor rustle, and then said with a smile: "That's all I have to tell you. You can handle the rest on your own. Remember, you must be flexible and not rigid."

"This is the first time you've left me and done something on your own."

Li Yun said seriously, "You need to be more careful."

Deng Yang stood up, bowed to Li Yun and said, "Thank you for your training, General!" "Okay, go and get ready. You will leave Yuezhou tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

"Yes."

Deng Yang took a deep breath, turned around and left.

After he left, Li Zheng and Liu Bo came in with a smile. After they entered the big tent and met Li Yun, Li Yun poured them some tea and scolded them with a smile, "What are you standing there for? Sit down and talk."

The two of them sat down with laughter. After they sat down, Liu Bo couldn't help but say, "Second brother, the business that Shou Hou did this time was really fucking huge. It took me several days to count everything with him."

Li Zheng took a big sip of water and said with a smile: "If it weren't for Brother Jiu, I would probably need a few more days to finish it myself."

Li Yun smiled and said, "How much is it worth?"

Liu Bo thought for a moment and said, "Among these goods, there are quite a few antiques, calligraphy and paintings, as well as a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, and a lot of miscellaneous things. If it were a few years ago, they would probably be worth more than 100,000 or 200,000 strings of cash. But now the world is getting more and more chaotic, and apart from food, other useful things have gone up in price, so these formerly valuable things are no longer worth much."

He lowered his head and calculated for a while, and estimated: "But even so, after selling the stolen goods now, it can be worth at least 70,000 or 80,000 strings of cash. If it is polished, it can probably be sold for more than 90,000 strings of cash."

Li Zheng, who was standing by, nudged him with his elbow and reminded him, "It's not selling stolen goods, it's selling them."

Li Yun smiled dumbly and said, "Tsk!" "When we went down the mountain, I counted the money left in the old village. Our fathers had been running the village for twenty years, and at that time, there were only about one or two thousand strings of money left."

"How many years has Zhu Tong been an official in Mingzhou?"

Mr. Li shook his head and said, "It's still the damned way to make money as an official."

Liu Bo and Li Zheng agreed deeply and kept nodding their heads.

After Li Yun looked at them, he suddenly remembered something and said with a smile: "But this Zhu guy will be in big trouble soon."

At this point, he changed the subject and said, "By the way, the people that Skinny Monkey led to work before..."

He looked at Li Zheng and Liu Bo and asked slowly, "Who of you wants to lead?"

After a pause, he added: "These people will not be incorporated into the army in the future."

Liu Bo was a smart man. Hearing this, he almost immediately understood what Li Yun meant. He lowered his head to think about it, then looked up at Li Yun and took a deep breath: "Second brother, I...I'll do it."

"It would be better to let the skinny monkey stay in the army with you."

Li Yun looked at Li Zheng, and when he saw that the latter did not express anything, he slowly nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take you to meet them later."

At this point, Li Yun poured Liu Bo a glass of water and continued, "Old Nine, don't think too much. Go lead these people. If I become prosperous in the future, you will naturally have a future too."

Liu Bo smiled and said, "I didn't think much about it, second brother. I'm fat now and can't serve in the army."

Li Yun smiled.

"Well, that's settled."

Li Yun said solemnly: "Only the three of us know about this now, so don't tell others."

"Yes."

Liu Bo and Li Zheng nodded in unison.

…………

The next day, Deng Yang led 500 people to escort His Royal Highness the King of Chu out of Yuezhou. Li Yun and Du Qian accompanied them all the way, ten miles out of the city.

Before leaving, His Royal Highness the King of Chu waved to Li Yun and Du Qian, indicating that he would definitely come to Yuezhou again before returning to the capital.

Under the protection of the Yuezhou soldiers, this imperial envoy arrived safely in Mingzhou City. After arriving in Mingzhou, he immediately set out to investigate the bad debts of the Mingzhou Salt Road.

Because there had been too many accounts to settle in Mingzhou in the past two years, and because someone had taken the initiative to submit evidence to the imperial envoy and report the officials of Mingzhou, the King of Chu found some clues just a few days after arriving in Mingzhou.

As a group of Mingzhou officials were imprisoned, after a great memory recovery technique, they began to blame a large number of officials one after another. Mingzhou Governor Zhu Tong naturally could not escape the blame of Mingzhou officials and was arrested and imprisoned.

After that, after several days of interrogation and checking the accounts, it was discovered that during the more than two years that this Mingzhou governor had been in office, he had embezzled more than 200,000 strings of cash on the books alone!

However, when Zhu Tong's house was searched, not much valuables were found.

His Royal Highness the King of Chu was furious. He personally came to the prison, holding a purple-gold whip, and severely whipped the stubborn Mingzhou governor, gritting his teeth and saying, "Tell me, where did all the money you embezzled go?!"

At this moment, Zhu Tong could no longer bear the beating and confessed all his crimes. Upon hearing the words of the King of Chu, the governor Zhu was filled with grievance and his eyes immediately turned red.

"Being robbed..."

As soon as he said these two words, he felt even more aggrieved, and coupled with the pain in his body, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

"I was robbed!"

(End of this chapter)