Thief Emperor

Chapter 268: Pacification of Jiangdong
When Magistrate Zhuo heard the call of "Envoy", his expression changed drastically. He strode forward, bowed to Li Yun, and said with a wry smile: "Envoy, you are making fun of me, Envoy, you are making fun of me."

Li Yun smiled and said, "This is not a joke."

Li Yun welcomed him into the Wuzhou camp and said with a smile, "I have something important to do and I have to leave Wuzhou for a while. However, Wuzhou is in a state of disrepair and I cannot do without someone for the time being. There is not even a private carriage in Wuzhou now, and I don't have anyone I know well. I have no choice but to invite Brother Zhuo to come and serve as the governor of Wuzhou for me for a few days."

Zhuo Guangrui rode all the way here on horseback, and his buttocks were still hurting. Hearing this, he bowed repeatedly and said with a wry smile: "Your Excellency thinks too highly of me. Although I have been an official for more than ten years, the highest position I have held is only a county magistrate, in charge of a state. I..."

"I'm afraid I've delayed your business."

Li Yun pulled his sleeve and led him into the big tent. After they sat down, he smiled and said, "As for my qualifications as an official, two years ago I was a captain in Qingyang, and I had never even been a county magistrate. Now, am I forced to become the governor of Wuzhou?"

"You are naturally different from me."

Zhuo Guangrui smiled and said, "Your Excellency is very intelligent and many things are self-explanatory. How can an ordinary person like me compare to you?"

Li Yun deliberately frowned and said, "Brother Zhuo, are you unwilling to help?"

In fact, the fact that Zhuo Guangrui followed Meng Qing and rode his horse to Wuzhou eagerly showed that his attitude was already very clear.

Both of them knew this very well, so what they said now were just polite words.

Upon hearing this, Zhuo Guangrui bowed his head and said, "How dare I? Since the envoy thinks highly of me, I will bite the bullet and do this job for you. It's just that my job in Shan County..."

"Don't worry about this."

Li Yun smiled and said, "When I wrote to Brother Zhuo, I also wrote to Envoy Du. He already knew that Brother Zhuo came to me. Brother Zhuo doesn't have to worry about Shan County anymore."

"Envoy Du will make proper arrangements."

County Magistrate Zhuo then bowed his head deeply and said, "I will do my best to complete the task assigned by the envoy."

Li Yun motioned him to sit down. After County Magistrate Zhuo sat down again, Li smiled and said, "I have already arranged the general affairs of Wuzhou. During this period, Brother Zhuo only needs to deal with some daily affairs and make sure that the political affairs of Wuzhou do not deviate."

"Brother Zhuo, please pay more attention. If things in Wuzhou are done well, when I come back from my business trip, I will find a way to transfer Brother Zhuo to Wuzhou to be the deputy driver."

Li Yun himself did not have many connections in the court. At most, he had some friendship with Pei Huang. Before Pei Huang returned to the capital, the two of them had formed a good relationship, which at least made Master Pei believe that Li Yun was willing to side with the prince.

However, there is no need to rely on Pei Huang's connections to transfer Zhuo Guangrui. Li Yun will soon go to see King Wu Yuanyou of Chu and let the king of Chu do the matter. He is an imperial envoy and his recommendation of Zhuo Guangrui can be said to be a sure thing.

Upon hearing this, County Magistrate Zhuo was overjoyed and stood up again to salute, saying, "Your subordinate, I will do my best."

Li Yun smiled and motioned him to sit down, then changed the subject and said, "I talked to Brother Zhuo last time and learned that his family is a wealthy businessman in Jiangnan, but I didn't ask clearly, which state or county is his family in?"

Zhuo Guangrui was startled, then seemed to understand what Li Yun meant. He looked up at Li Yun and gritted his teeth and said, "If you are short of money and food, please ask for it. I will do my best to help you!"

Li Yun smiled dumbly and shook his head, "Brother Zhuo, who do you think I am? How can I keep asking Brother Zhuo for money? This time, not only do I not want to ask Brother Zhuo for money, but I have some benefits to give Brother Zhuo."

Zhuo Guangrui hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and said, "My family is in Wu County."

"Wu Jun..."

Li Yun smiled and clapped his hands, "That's great."

"I remember Brother Zhuo saying that your family was originally an official on the salt road, but later on they had nothing to do with the salt road?"

"It's not that I don't want to get involved."

Zhuo Guangrui bowed his head and smiled bitterly, "We were pushed out by others. After several elders resigned from their official positions, our family could no longer stand on the salt road. Later, even the position of salt merchant was coveted by others. In order to avoid disaster, the elders in the family took the initiative to withdraw from the salt road."

"Fortunately, my father had some business sense, so after leaving the salt road, our family never fell into decline. Through doing other businesses, our family is not much worse off than before."

"well."

Li Yun said hello twice, then smiled and said to Zhuo Guangrui: "Brother Zhuo, there has been unrest in Wu County recently. Some people have tangled together and even assassinated the imperial envoy of the court. This matter..."

"Did your Zhuo family participate?"

Zhuo Guangrui lowered his head and thought for a while before he shook his head slightly: "I don't know, but he probably didn't participate. My father is a very cautious person and would not do such a dangerous thing against the Yi San tribe."

"That's even better."

Li Yun clapped his hands and smiled, "Brother Zhuo, I just happened to be going to Wujun to quell the rebellion. Please write me a letter home and I will take it back to Wujun for you and give it to your father."

Zhuo Guangrui looked at Li Yun thoughtfully.

Mr. Li looked calm and said softly, "The unrest in Wu County is closely related to the local forces in Wu County, especially the forces on the salt road. I am going there to eliminate the evil spirits and restore peace to Wu County." At this point, he looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said with a smile, "Perhaps, this is also an opportunity for your Zhuo family to return to the salt road."

The words were so clear that Zhuo Guangrui, a man in officialdom, would naturally understand them. His eyes almost lit up, and he looked up at Li Yun, surprised and happy.

"Envoy, this..."

Li Yun poured him a cup of tea and said with a smile, "I won't tell Brother Zhuo about this matter in detail. When I get to Wu County and finish what I need to do, I will go to your father to discuss this matter in detail."

"well."

Zhuo Guangrui nodded repeatedly and said happily: "I am not as good at business as my father. I need to discuss this matter with him."

No one knows more about the benefits of the salt road than County Magistrate Zhuo.

After their family withdrew from the salt road, even though their business gradually expanded thanks to his father's brains, in terms of financial resources and influence, their Zhuo family was still slightly inferior to the salt merchant in Wujun.

It is even worse than the Zhuo family decades ago.

The Zhuo family forced Zhuo Guangrui to become an official because of the lesson they learned back then. They knew that if there was no official in the family, no matter how much money or how good the resources were, it would be difficult to keep them.

If they can return to the salt road, the Zhuo family will undoubtedly become glorious again.

Thinking of this, Zhuo Guangrui looked at the young man in front of him.

During this period, he had analyzed the situation in Jiangdong and even the world many times. He knew very well that the young man in front of him definitely had...

The ability to change the old pattern of Wujun!
Thinking of this, Zhuo Guangrui lowered his head slightly and his expression became more respectful.

"I'm leaving Wuzhou tomorrow."

Li Yun looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said with a smile: "I will take Brother Zhuo into the city in a while. We will go to the governor's office and get familiar with your future duties."

A smile appeared on Zhuo Guangrui's face.

"I obey your orders."

…………

On that day, Li Yun returned to Wuzhou City with Zhuo Guangrui. Li Yun roughly handed over some important matters to him, such as resuming production, exempting taxes and grain, and restoring the most basic policies such as order in Wuzhou.

And that was actually all he wanted to teach Zhuo Guangrui. After all, in terms of experience in being an official, this County Magistrate Zhuo had far more experience than Li Yun himself.

After arranging matters in Wuzhou, the next day, Li Yun took Zhao Cheng and a thousand soldiers and set out from Wuzhou and headed straight for Wujun.

Wuzhou and Wujun are separated by Yuezhou. When passing through Yuezhou, Li Yun simply let the soldiers rest outside Yuezhou city for a day, while he himself went into the city and came to the governor's office and called Du Qian who was handling official business.

After the two of them exchanged greetings, Du Qian looked at Li Yun and took a deep breath: "Erlang is going to Wujun? How many people are you taking with you?"

"Well, this is not on the way to Wujun. We just happened to pass through Yuezhou, so we stopped to rest."

"We didn't bring too many people, only a thousand, which was the number of soldiers from the entire Wuzhou."

"One thousand people..."

Du Qian was a little worried and shook his head slightly, saying, "I'm afraid it may not be enough. I heard that the number of people causing trouble in Wu County has exceeded 3,000."

Li Yun smiled and didn't care. He just asked, "Brother Du, do you know why there was a commotion?"

Du Qian sighed and whispered, "It is said that the people of Wu County heard that the imperial envoy was going to Wu County to increase taxes, and some said he was going to kill people. There were many different opinions, and someone deliberately instigated the chaos."

"In the final analysis, the problem lies in the Central Plains."

Du Qian said slowly: "In the past, even if the imperial envoy rode on their heads, they would not dare to make such a fuss."

Li Yun smiled and continued, "Zheng Yu is right. The local government's voice is not in the hands of the court."

He lowered his head to drink tea, his voice calm: "However, this also gives me an opportunity. Li wants to..."

Having said that, Li Yun looked at Du Qian and laughed.

"We have pacified Jiangdong."

(End of this chapter)