Thief Emperor

Chapter 297 Save your life!
In the governor's mansion, Xu Ang handed another document to Li Yun's desk and said with his head slightly lowered, "Sir, this is a document from the Gao family, the richest family in Dongyang. I have been investigating this Gao family for some time. They have been colluding with the Dongyang County Magistrate and local bandits to forcibly buy people's land and run rampant in the countryside. There are six or seven murders that we can find."

"The rest of the sins are too numerous to mention."

Li Yun took the document, took a look at it, and asked, "How much land does his family have?"

“Nearly a thousand hectares.”

Xu Ang lowered his head and said, "Someone from the Gao family is an official in the court, so they can do whatever they want."

Hearing the word Qianqing, Li Yun waved his hand and said, "Then Brother Xu, you can take people to Dongyang to investigate the matter and arrest those who should be arrested."

"remember."

Li Yun ordered: "Be fair and strict. Post a notice afterwards and investigate all the crimes committed by the Gao family."

Xu Ang bowed his head and said, "I obey your command."

After saying that, he turned and left.

When Xu Ang walked out of Li Yun's study, he happened to meet Zhuo Guangrui walking towards him. The two of them had naturally gotten to know each other during the past month. Zhuo Guangrui was holding a document in his hand. When he saw Xu Ang, he subconsciously frowned slightly, then lowered his head slightly: "Brother Bo'an."

Xu Ang stopped and looked up at Zhuo Guangrui. He was also holding documents in his hands, but he also bowed his head slightly and saluted: "Brother Zhuo."

The two greeted each other, then passed each other in silence without saying anything.

Obviously, they didn't get along very well, especially in the past month, some of Xu Ang's methods of doing things were too harsh, which made Zhuo Guangrui a little unhappy.

Xu Ang, on the other hand, was only focused on doing his work and had no other thoughts, let alone the leisure time to interact with Zhuo Guangrui.

After Zhuo Guangrui and Xu Ang passed each other, they quickly came to the study room. After placing the documents on Li Yun's desk, he bowed slightly to Li Yun and said, "Envoy, these are some matters that need to be handled by you personally."

He paused for a moment and continued, "Envoy, the convoy from Wujun that is carrying money and grain will arrive in Wuzhou City tomorrow."

Li Yun nodded and said with a smile: "Although Master Zhuo is not young anymore, he is very decisive in doing things. If I go to Wu County later, I will definitely treat him to a meal."

This sentence is not all praise, it is more of a fact.

Although Li Yun had not been away from Wujun for long, the Zhuo family had already begun transferring the income from the salt road in Wujun to Li Yun.

And the number is not small.

Although Li Yun was quite sensitive to data, as soon as he saw the numbers, he knew that although the Zhuo family did not lose money, they probably put in some money.

From this point of view, Mr. Zhuo, the head of the Zhuo family, is impeccable in terms of courage and ability to get things done.

In comparison, he is even more capable than his son Zhuo Guangrui, and is worthy of being the "leader of the revival" of a big family.

Hearing Li Yun praising his father, Zhuo Guangrui quickly bowed his head, thanked him, and then said with a smile: "This is something that the Zhuo family should do. My father said that if the envoy is short of manpower, the Zhuo family still has some young people who can come to the envoy to help."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Brother Zhuo, you decide on this matter."

"correct."

Li Yun remembered something and said, "In a few days, our Wuzhou's main force will be back. Um... Brother Zhuo, go and make arrangements and prepare more meat for them."

"The money comes from the governor's mansion."

Zhuo Guangrui blinked.

"Sir, how many people are there?"

Li Yun paused.

He really didn't know about this. When he left Luzhou, he left only about a thousand men of his own to Zhao Cheng. However, during the time in Luzhou, Zhao Cheng gathered all the defeated troops he could, and added the surrendered troops of the rebel army.

The current scale is already quite large.

At least over three thousand people.

"Let's just get 4,000 kilograms of meat."

After thinking about it for a while, Li Yun ordered: "It's about this number."

Zhuo Guangrui bowed his head slightly and said, "I will arrange it immediately."

He paused for a moment and continued, "Sir, nearly a thousand acres of land have been confiscated in recent days. These fields..."

"It will be temporarily handed over to tenants for farming, but the land will remain in the hands of the government and cannot be sold."

Li Yun looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said in a deep voice: "I still have great use for these fields."

Zhuo Guangrui just nodded, and then he heard Li Yun say: "The rent should be collected according to the normal land tax, and no more should be collected."

"Yes."

Zhuo Guangrui looked up at Li Yun, coughed, and talked about the main business of coming here today: "Envoy, there is one more important thing."

"It's almost autumn now, this year's autumn tax..."

He looked up at Li Yun and whispered, "Do you still want to take it? Do you still want to... do you want to hand it over?"

The Great Zhou Dynasty had a two-tax system, which was divided into summer tax and autumn tax. Summer tax had to be paid in full before June, and autumn tax had to be paid in full before November. And now, it was almost October of the fifth year of Xian De.

Li Yun had already thought about this matter. He looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said with a smile, "We in Wuzhou have just experienced a great turmoil. I will write to the court to request a one-year tax exemption."

"As for whether we will accept it in our own territory..."

Li Yun pondered for a moment and continued, "I'll go over there in a few days to see if I can collect the money, or how much I should collect."

It is impossible to come up with any good solutions while sitting in the yamen, so Li Yun must go to the field to conduct research, at least to find out the actual situation.

Under the current circumstances, it is impossible to exempt taxes forever. Sooner or later, Li Yun will have to start collecting taxes. If it is possible to collect them this year, it may be difficult to collect them next year.

"I will give Brother Zhuo an answer before October."

Zhuo Guangrui bowed his head deeply and said yes. He was about to continue speaking when the voice of the yamen runner came from outside the door: "Sir, there is an old man outside. He said he is an old acquaintance of yours and wants to see you."

Zhuo Guangrui immediately bowed his head and said, "Sir, I am going to get busy."

Li Yun nodded, and Zhuo Guangrui immediately retreated.

Governor Li then looked at the yamen runner and asked, "What does he look like and how old is he?"

"He looks to be in his 50s or 60s."

Li Yun thought about the appearance described by the yamen runner, but couldn't remember it. However, he didn't think much about it, but walked out directly: "I'll go take a look."

He followed the yamen runner all the way to the gate of the governor's mansion, and sure enough, he saw an old man in green waiting at the door. When he saw this old man, Li Yun was stunned for a while before he remembered who he was.

"Mr. Gu."

Li Yun strode forward, clasped his fists and saluted with a smile, "Why is Mr. Gu here?"

The person who came was Mr. Gu Wenchuan.

Gu Wenchuan was an imperial censor of the Censorate. He had a great reputation among the officials and was known for his integrity. When the rioters in Shidai County, Xuanzhou, were plotting a rebellion, Pei Huang came over, took some money and two dogs, and then turned a blind eye to the incident in Shidai.

In the end, it was Gu Wenchuan who came to Xuanzhou, found out the truth about Shidai, and brought Xuanzhou Governor Tian Jing and Sima Cao Rong to the capital to be punished.

Later, Tian Jing and Cao Rong both died in the Ministry of Justice prison, and the matter was left unresolved.

As a result, Gu Wenchuan offended the prince's party. After the prince came to power, his career went increasingly unsuccessful. Now he was kicked out of the court and sent to Jiangnan to investigate the affairs of Wuzhou.

Seeing Li Yun coming towards him, Gu Wenchuan couldn't help but look up and look at the young man in front of him. He couldn't help but shake his head and sighed: "It's really you. I thought there was someone with the same name."

He looked at Li Yun and said with emotion: "When I arrived in Xuanzhou two years ago, you were still a captain in Qingyang, right?"

Li Yun smiled and said, "Sir, you have a really good memory. You even remember me. At that time, I was indeed the head of Qingyang. I was taken to Shidai by you and almost died there."

"Fortunately, I was appreciated by General Su later on, and luckily got a position."

Gu Wenchuan looked at Li Yun and said silently: "The position you mentioned is probably something that ordinary people will never be able to achieve in their lifetime."

Gu Wenchuan looked at Li Yun and said with emotion: "Back when we were in Shidai, I felt that you were brave and resourceful, and that you would definitely achieve great things in the future. I never thought that in just two years, you would transform yourself into..."

He looked at Li Yun with a fierce look and shouted, "You have become a traitor!"

Li Yun had a smile on his face, but after hearing that, his smile froze for a moment, then he smiled and said, "Why do you say that, sir?"

"Some time ago, soldiers from Wuzhou appeared in Luzhou City and repelled thousands of rebels in Luzhou. I want to ask you, who transferred you to Luzhou?"

"How many people did you take to Luzhou?"

Gu Wenchuan looked at Li Yun with a sharp gaze: "I have been in Wuzhou for four or five days. I took a quick look around your Wuzhou camp that day and knew that your Wuzhou soldiers must be more than a thousand!"

"You are still recruiting soldiers in the counties of Wuzhou!"

Gu Wenchuan shouted in a stern voice, "You even promised to give land to the new soldiers. You are just a governor of a state. What right do you have to give land to the new soldiers?"

Li Yun looked calm, and said to Gu Wenchuan with a smile: "Sir, were you sent by the court to arrest me?"

Gu Wenchuan took a deep breath and looked at Li Yun with a sharp gaze.

"Li Zhao, we have known each other for a while. Now I can pull you back from the wrong path and save your life."

Mr. Li smiled.

"Appreciate further details."

Mr. Gu put his hands behind his back, looked at Li Yun, and said in a deep voice: "You just need to send troops to the Central Plains and cooperate with the court to eliminate the rebels."

"But if you have merit, you can make up for it immediately."

Li Yun stood there, looking at Gu Wenchuan quietly.

The smile on the face...

Even brighter.

(End of this chapter)