Thief Emperor

Chapter 266 Ambush and Turmoil!
Although it was a neighboring state, only a few hundred miles away, Li Yun's travel speed was still much slower because he was carrying his family. It took him four or five days to reach Wuzhou City after starting from Yuezhou.

Li Yun is quite familiar with this place.

He had stayed in Wuzhou during the Qiu Dian Rebellion. Last time, because of Zhao Cheng's incident, he fought in Wuzhou for nearly a month.

After arriving outside Wuzhou City, because the local officials of Wuzhou were not informed, only Li Zheng, Zhao Cheng and other people who had arrived earlier came to greet them.

After Li Yun got off the carriage, he looked at Li Zheng and Zhao Cheng and asked with a smile, "How many days have you been here?"

Li Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Today is already the fourth day."

He looked at Li Yun and said with a smile: "Over the past few days, Lieutenant Li has been running around with his subordinates and taught them a lot of things. Now the location of the Wuzhou camp has been almost chosen, and we are just waiting for the second brother to arrive to finalize it."

Li Yun said "Hmm", and then asked: "Brothers from Yuezhou, how many have arrived?"

"There are a total of twenty brigades, and eighteen have arrived. Captain Li and I have roughly settled them in the past few days."

"Captain Li", also known as Zhao Cheng, said, "We have sent people to inquire about the two brigades that have not arrived. It seems, it seems..."

He looked up at Li Yun, then lowered his head and said, "It seems that we encountered a mountain stronghold on the road, and the two brigades went to suppress the bandits along the way."

Li Yun was stunned, then frowned and asked, "Who are the two brigade commanders?"

Li Zheng replied: "Sun Hanzi, and Guo Zhen."

Li Yun rubbed his eyebrows, feeling helpless.

They were indeed two old subordinates from the anti-theft team.

He now has a total of twenty-four brigades under his command. Except for the four brigades recruited by Zhao Chengxin, most of the brigade commanders of the other twenty brigades were from the anti-theft teams, or to put it bluntly, were bandits.

These people can follow the clues they see on the road to find the bandits' lair.

"They acted on their own without reporting in advance."

Li Yun said in a muffled voice: "Wait until they come back and let them come find me."

Mr. Li was still furious: "Fine me half a year's salary!"

Li Zheng quickly lowered his head and replied yes.

Li Yun looked at Wuzhou City and said slowly: "I will go into the city first today to settle my family. I will leave the city in two days and we will take care of the affairs of Wuzhou Camp."

The two of them bowed their heads and responded.

Li Yun looked at Zhao Cheng again and said with a smile, "Captain Li, what do you feel when you visit the old place again?"

Zhao Cheng looked up at Li Yun, then looked at Wuzhou City, and sighed silently.

"Thinking of my former subordinates, I can't help but feel uneasy, but..."

"I was always uneasy when I was stationed in Wuzhou before, but now I feel much more at ease under the command of the general."

Li Yun patted his shoulder and smiled softly, "Train well. If there is a war in the future, I will lead your troops to quell the chaos."

Zhao Cheng bowed his head and clasped his fists: "I understand!"

After saying this and giving a few more instructions, Li Yun looked up at Wuzhou City and said calmly, "Let Yang Xi lead two brigades and enter Wuzhou with me."

Yang Xi was originally the captain of the Yuezhou Army. After the last battle of Wuzhou, he was promoted to brigade commander.

Li Zheng lowered his head: "Yes, I will go find him now."

Li Yun then returned to the carriage and entered Wuzhou City with his family.

When they arrived at Wuzhou City, the scene was quite different from that of Yuezhou City. After the efforts of Li Yun and Du Qian, Yuezhou City had now returned to its pre-war appearance. It was even more prosperous than before the war because of better public security.

However, the situation in Wuzhou City was completely different.

Originally, Wuzhou was not much different from Yuezhou. After the last major turmoil, many officials in Wuzhou city died or fled.

After Li Yun recaptured Wuzhou, the place was handed over to Zheng Yu to deal with the aftermath, but the Duke of Zheng's house apparently did not take it too seriously. At this time in Wuzhou city, broken bricks and tiles were still everywhere on the streets, and there were almost no pedestrians to be seen.

Xue Yun'er and Dong'er both stretched their heads out to look, then retracted their heads and frowned slightly, saying, "Husband, this Wuzhou City is much more desolate than Yuezhou."

Li Yun looked at her and said with a smile: "When I first arrived in Yuezhou last year, Yuezhou was not much better than Wuzhou now. After all, there had just been unrest."

At this point, he also looked at the street outside and said slowly: "As long as order is restored, everything will slowly get better."

Soon, the carriage stopped in front of the Wuzhou Governor's Office. Li Yun and Xue Yun'er got off the carriage. They looked up at the somewhat dilapidated Governor's Office in front of them, and Li frowned again.

That guy Zheng Wei is really unwilling to do anything. He even didn't repair the governor's office for him!

"Yang Xi."

Commander Yang immediately stepped forward, clasped his fists towards Li Yun and said, "I'm here!"

"Take some people in and tidy up this government office."

"At least it should be habitable."

Yang Xi bowed his head and said respectfully: "I obey your command!"

Having said this, he waved his hand and led dozens of his brothers into the governor's office. Not long after they entered the office, a dozen clerks were startled by them and ran out. When they came to Li Yun, they all bowed to Li Yun and saluted: "I pay my respects to you, sir."

"Greetings to the envoy."

Li Yun put his hands behind his back and looked at these minor officials who were between 20 and 40 years old. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Are you the officials here?"

During this era, there were very few officials. In a governor's office, there might be only about ten people with official rank. However, for the normal operation of the office, more than a dozen people were not enough, so there would be many clerks to help.

Among these people, a middle-aged man in his forties stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Sir, we are the clerks of the governor's office."

Li Yun looked up at the somewhat dilapidated government office and asked, "You guys are living here instead of going home?"

The middle-aged man forced a smile and said, "After Wuzhou was restored by the imperial court, we have been waiting for the new envoy to come..."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "Are you worried that the government will not let you serve?"

"Yes...and no."

The middle-aged man raised his head cautiously, looked at Li Yun, and then said carefully: "Sir, we...we haven't received monthly salary for several months."

Li Yun's face darkened.

It turns out that he was asking for salary from himself!
Xue Yun'er, who was standing by, was laughing so hard that she was shaking. If she hadn't been holding on to Li Yun, she would have almost fallen down.

Li Yun looked at the group helplessly, shook his head and said, "Write down your names first. When I have sorted out the situation in Wuzhou, I will give you the monthly wages I owe you."

"Yes Yes."

A dozen people bowed their heads and said, "Thank you, Your Excellency! Thank you, Your Excellency!"

They were very happy.

They were already prepared for not getting these unpaid wages, so it was rare that the new envoy was willing to acknowledge the old debts!

Li Yun looked at the middle-aged clerk in the lead and asked, "What's your name?"

The man bowed his head and said, "My surname is Feng, and my humble name is Youlu."

"I was originally a clerk in the provincial government."

Li Yun touched his chin and continued, "You go back first. When I have cleaned up the yamen, you can take the remaining documents and come back to the yamen to serve me."

Feng Youlu and others hurriedly bowed their heads, bowed to Li Yun, and then dispersed.

After they left, Xue Yun'er walked to the gate of the yamen and found the plaque at the gate a little crooked, which she found a little funny.

"It's not as good as Qingyang County Government."

Li Yun stepped forward, held her hand, and said with a smile: "It's always better than Cangshan."

Hand in hand, the couple took Dong'er into the governor's office. After walking around the office, they came to the back hall.

The back hall was not damaged much and was completely habitable. Several soldiers quickly moved all of Li Yun's family belongings to the back hall.

Xue Yun'er took Dong'er with her and started to clean up the back office together.

Li Yun, on the other hand, went to the front office with his hands behind his back. After looking around, he went to the study, picked up a pen and wrote a notice. Then he called Meng Qing and Meng Hai and ordered them, "Take the others and ride on horseback to inform the county magistrates of each county in Wuzhou to come to Wuzhou to see me within three days."

The two brothers nodded their heads in agreement and went downstairs to deliver the letter.

The next day, Li Yun officially began to clean up this already somewhat dilapidated provincial capital. He first asked the clerk in the yamen to post a notice to inform the whole city that the yamen had returned to normal.

In the following few days, he temporarily appointed his two brigades, a total of 250 people, as yamen runners to restore the public security in Wuzhou City.

After the county magistrates arrived, Li Yun ordered the counties to resume production according to the story of Yuezhou, and at the same time began to count whether there were any unclaimed idle fields.

Unfortunately, the Wuzhou Rebellion was not as serious as the previous Qiu Dian Rebellion, because Zhao Cheng only took the state capital at that time, and the turmoil in the counties was not too great.

In the entire Wuzhou, only a small number of people escaped. Although there was still land to be distributed equally, it was only on a small scale. It was impossible to complete a large-scale equal distribution like the previous Yuezhou.

Fortunately, Li Yun had more manpower this time than last time, and he sent a brigade to each county below.

With absolute violence, he seized the administrative power of Wuzhou in the fastest time.

Just as Governor Li was preparing to start vigorously governing Wuzhou, several urgent reports were delivered to his desk.

The content of the urgent report was both within Li Yun's expectations and beyond his expectations.

After the King of Chu finished his inspection of Mingzhou, he went from Mingzhou to Yuezhou and then to Wujun. Just a few days after arriving in Wujun, riots broke out in Wujun. The rioters ambushed on the road where Wu Yuanyou was passing and hid archers.

The second prince was almost killed by one arrow.

Immediately afterwards, large-scale unrest broke out in Wu County.

When Li Yun saw these urgent reports, he was looking through the documents from Wuzhou. After reading the urgent reports, he put down the brush in his hand, frowned and sighed.

"It would be nice if there was another Du Shouyi..."

(End of this chapter)