Thief Emperor

Chapter 299 Big Upgrade!
Gu Wenchuan stood on the top of the city wall, looked at Li Yun, then looked at the soldiers below the city, opened his mouth, but said nothing.

After a long while, he said silently: "Your behavior would have been considered a traitor by the court in times of peace. I cannot possibly be in cahoots with you, let alone write this letter of recommendation for you."

"The master also said it was a time of peace."

Mr. Li looked calm and said, "In times of peace, I will just live my life in Qingyang. Why would I bother to do all these things?"

"Sir, you probably don't know that doing these things is very tiring."

Li Yun stretched himself and smiled, "If I could become a governor in times of peace, I would be a corrupt official in Wuzhou, bullying the people and living a happy life."

"It's nothing like now, where we're busy all day long."

This is true.

Li Yun has been very busy during this period.

In the past, when he was the leader of a mountain stronghold, he only had to consider the food, drink, defecation and urination of dozens or at most a hundred people. In the past month, after serving as the governor of Wuzhou for a month, he realized that there were too many things to worry about.

It is not difficult to be a governor, but it is not easy to be a good governor.

The people of a state all depend on one person. There are too many things to do every day, not to mention that Li Yun has to take care of the food, drink, defecation and urination of thousands of people.

There are thousands of people just to take care of their shit, which is a very troublesome thing every day.

Gu Wenchuan snorted. He wanted to criticize Li Yun, but after thinking it over, he didn't know where to start.

At this time, under Wuzhou City, the vanguard led by Zhao Cheng had already arrived outside the city. Li Yun looked at Gu Wenchuan and said calmly: "If you are unwilling to write a letter recommending me as the Recruiting Envoy, then you should look around Wuzhou more and write to the court what you see and hear in Wuzhou."

"I'm going down to greet the soldiers, so stay with me."

Gu Wenchuan's pupils trembled slightly, and he looked at Li Yun: "Aren't you afraid?"

"What are you afraid of?"

Li Yun smiled and said, "Doesn't the court already know that my troops are overstretched? Since they know, there is no point in hiding it. Sir, just read it carefully, write it down, and then report it to the court."

Mr. Li laughed and said, "It doesn't matter if you write more."

Du Qian had made it very clear before. If Li Yun wanted to get the "title" to control Jiangnan now, he needed to fight a big battle, a big and beautiful battle, to show it to the people of Jiangnan and the people in the court.

To put it bluntly, the purpose of doing this was to show off one's muscles and tell the court that one was very powerful, thereby forcing the court to appoint Li Yun as an official when there was no other way to regain control of Jiangnan, and to continue to rule Jiangnan by "control".

And if the imperial court could give Li Yun the title of ruler of Jiangnan, Li Yun actually wouldn't mind paying tribute to the imperial court every year.

It’s perfect to spend some money to buy time for development.

Now, the next big battle has not been decided yet, and the battle in Luzhou can only be regarded as a small test, so using Gu Wenchuan to show off his muscles to the court is actually a shortcut.

Mr. Gu was very angry at Li Yun's arrogant attitude. He wanted to argue with Li Yun, but Li Yun ignored him and went down the city wall and walked out of the city.

At this moment, Su Sheng was also watching at the city gate. After seeing Li Yun, he hurried over and pointed at the soldiers who were arriving one after another and said with emotion: "Erlang, what a great momentum."

Li Yun was also looking at these soldiers, then turned to look at Su Sheng and said, "Brother Su, you will be able to see your acquaintances in a while."

He paused and added: "Probably a lot of acquaintances."

At this point, Li Yun had already seen Zhao Cheng coming. He pulled Su Sheng's sleeve and said with a smile, "Let's go and greet him."

Su Sheng seemed to be thinking about something, but he still followed Li Yun and took two steps forward. At this moment, Zhao Cheng and Deng Yang and others were riding horses in the front. After seeing Li Yun from a distance, he immediately turned over and dismounted, took three or two steps forward, half-knelt on the ground, clasped his fists and saluted: "Subordinate Li Xiao, greetings to the envoy!"

"Your subordinate Deng Yang greets you, Your Excellency!"

Li Yun reached out and helped him up, then turned to look at Su Sheng and said with a smile: "Brother Su, take a look, do you know him?"

Su Sheng was stunned, then looked at Zhao Cheng with a frown. After a long while, he was suddenly stunned and stood there.

Zhao Cheng was also looking at him. He bowed his head silently and clasped his fists. After taking a deep breath, he slowly said, "Greetings, Big Brother."

The word "brother" made Zhao Cheng himself shed tears.

Their two families were old friends. When Zhao Cheng was young, General Su liked him very much and the two families often visited each other.

Later, Su Jing offended the emperor and was demoted back to his hometown to become unemployed. General Zhao was sent to the border, and the two families gradually lost contact.

Later, something happened to the Zhao family, but unfortunately Su Jing was no longer in the court at that time. He was powerless and could only watch the Zhao family decline.

When we met again, the Yuezhou Rebellion had already begun.

During the Yuezhou Rebellion, the army led by Qiu Dian himself was not the main force, but the army led by Zhao Cheng was the main force.

At that time, although General Su repeatedly said that he wanted to capture Zhao Cheng alive and bring him to the capital to be punished, the final result was that Qiu Dian was captured alive by Su Jing, while Zhao Cheng took advantage of the chaos to escape with thousands of people.

It is hard to say that General Su had no selfish motives at that time.

The word "brother" made Su Sheng stand there without saying anything for a long time. After a long time, he turned his head to look at Li Yun. Li Yun looked calm and said, "Brother, I am here to help you through all the hardships."

"Now, the two of you are reunited as old friends."

Zhao Cheng knelt on the ground again, kowtowed to Su Sheng, and said with tears in his eyes: "I have been in Luzhou for a while, and I have sent several brigades to search for the general's body, but there has been no news. Please forgive me, brother."

Su Sheng was silent. He helped Zhao Cheng up, patted his shoulder, and sighed: "Before in Yuezhou, I didn't quite understand why you were associated with those bandits. Now my family has encountered the same thing..."

Su Sheng couldn't say any more after this, and his eyes became red.

Zhao Cheng pulled Su Sheng's sleeve and said, "There are some other people who I think you want to see."

At this point, he looked at Li Yun again. Li Yun stepped forward and said softly, "Let's go and see him together."

The three of them came to the middle of the team together. Zhao Cheng asked people to call out a few times, and soon, a dozen men in their twenties to thirties were called out. When they first came out of the line, they were still a little confused, but after seeing Su Sheng, they were stunned for a moment, then they all strode up, knelt on the ground in unison, and cried.

"Major General!"

"Major General!"

Those who could call Su Sheng "Major General" were naturally the old subordinates of General Su and the generals of the Jiangnan soldiers under General Su. After the army was surrounded, they broke out separately, then were defeated and were gathered up one by one by Zhao Cheng.

Someone knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face: "Major General, I am incompetent and failed to protect the general!"

He kowtowed and said, "Please punish me, Major General!"

Su Sheng stood there, unable to hold back tears.

Seeing them meet again, Li Yun and Zhao Chengdu silently stepped back more than ten steps. Zhao Cheng stood behind Li Yun, bowed his head slightly and clasped his fists, saying: "Envoy, including the troops we brought to Luzhou, this time I brought back a total of more than 4,370 people."

"Among the defeated soldiers, most of them were slightly injured, and now they have almost recovered. However, most of these defeated soldiers do not want to join the army again and only want to return to their hometowns. The reason they followed me back is that they are worried that the court will investigate their crimes of desertion."

Li Yun nodded first: "This is also normal."

Zhao Cheng took a deep breath and continued, "But since they recognize the eldest brother of the Su family, most of them should be able to stay. After all, if they return to their hometown, the court will most likely really investigate their crimes."

"This doesn't matter."

Li Yun said calmly: "You can't force it."

"I have asked people to prepare meat, as well as some wine and food. They will camp outside the city and I will reward them."

"Eat meat for a few days first."

Li Yun smiled and said, "We still have to leave when the time comes. We won't keep them. We will just let them go. There is no use for people who have no fighting spirit to stay in the army."

Tens of thousands of these defeated soldiers were taken to the Central Plains, but only two or three of them finally returned.

Even the proportion is lower.

Such casualties will leave psychological trauma for most people.

It would be great if you can stay, but if you can't, there is no need to force it.

Zhao Cheng nodded his head.

At this time, a gust of wind blew. Li Yun put his hands behind his back, felt the autumn wind blowing towards him, and slowly looked up at the sky.

"You should also take a few days' rest. In a few days, you, Brother Su, Li Zheng, Deng Yang and others will start to reorganize the army in Wuzhou. First, report the specific number of people to me, and then..."

"Re-disband and reorganize."

At this point, Li Yun paused and continued, "Wuzhou will set up a Duwei camp."

In the past, the highest rank under Li Yun was a colonel, and there was no captain. One reason was that the military force was not sufficient, and the other was that there were no qualified candidates for captain.

Now that we have generals and sufficient troops, the organization must naturally be raised to complete a comprehensive system upgrade.

Zhao Cheng nodded silently: "I obey your command."

Li Yun looked at him and asked, "How did it feel to fight the rebels in Luzhou this time?"

"Commonplace."

Zhao Cheng also glanced at Li Yun and continued.

"I really don't know the Imperial Guards..."

"How did you lose?"

(End of this chapter)