Thief Emperor

Chapter 331: Sending Armor
Li Yun hasn't fought a tough battle for a long time.

It’s not that he is so invincible that there are no battles to fight, but there are really no good opponents in the area of ​​Jiangnan.

Thinking back to the last battle, it was the one against the rebels in Luzhou, and even in that battle, the opponent was not that strong.

In the area of ​​Jiangnan, sometimes in a small-scale or even medium-scale battle, Li Yun could lead his men to charge into a few battles and break up the enemy formation, thus deciding the outcome of the battle.

The intensity is too low.

This is the disadvantage of starting out in the Jiangnan area. Compared with the northern army and the border army, the soldiers in the Jiangnan area still lack some bravery. Therefore, since ancient times, it has not been easy for the south to defeat the north or the east to defeat the west.

But this place naturally has its advantages. There is more money and food, and it is easier to start a business.

Otherwise, it would not have been possible for Li Yun to achieve what he has today in more than two years.

And now, Li Yun urgently needs a war to establish... or to completely consolidate his position in Jiangnan.

If Li Yun is now qualified to fight with the Pinglu Army and can win, then the best goal of this battle to establish prestige would naturally be to choose the Pinglu Army.

Unfortunately, the chance of winning if we go head-on with the Pinglu Army is too low.

On the city wall, a bone-chilling cold wind blew. Li Yun looked back at Du Qian and said, "It's too cold on the city wall. Let's go down the tower. We have a lot of things to do later. Don't let Brother Du get sick at this moment."

Du Qian shook his head and smiled, "You can't say such things."

The two of them walked down the tower one after the other. As soon as they walked down the tower, Zhao Cheng came towards them. He looked up at Li Yun, then looked at Du Qian behind Li Yun, bowed his head and clasped his fists, and said, "Envoy, the eight gates of Jinling City have all been taken over by our army."

"The original garrison in the city numbered more than one thousand, nearly two thousand people."

Zhao Cheng paused, lowered his head and said, "Now, we have temporarily let them rest. The subsequent arrangements will depend on the orders of the envoy."

Upon hearing this, Li Yun turned around and looked at Du Qian. Two words were revealed in the eyes of both of them.

lucky.

The Jinling City is different from the Gusu City and the Qiantang City. Although the latter two are also big cities, they definitely do not have eight city gates. The original garrison was only about a thousand people, and was not even fully staffed.

However, the city defense forces of Jinling City alone numbered nearly two thousand people.

If Li Yun had not taken Jinling by trickery, but had relied on force to win the city, he would have needed at least 10,000 troops to be qualified to have this idea.

And even if we can take it down, there will probably be heavy casualties.

Li Yun took a deep breath, looked at Zhao Cheng, and said in a deep voice: "Who is in charge of these city defense troops?"

"Sima Tianheng."

Zhao Cheng lowered his head and said, "I have already asked, and the garrison said that this Tian Sima has been captured by you, my Lord."

Li Yun was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses.

He indeed arrested most of the officials of Jinling Prefecture in a swift and lightning speed.

It is also because Sima Tian is too honest.

If Li Yun were in this position, with two thousand soldiers under his command and in charge of the city defense, who would dare to attack me?

Of course, there are mainly two reasons for this. The first is that because of the two hundred years of accumulated power of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Sima Tian did not dare to have any messy thoughts.

The more important reason is that as the Sima of Jinling, he certainly cannot be like Li Yun, the Sima of Yuezhou, who leads all the soldiers under his command. Even if Sima Tian wants to fight to the death, the Jinling government troops under him may not be willing to follow him to do such a thing that would cost them their lives.

"It will be morning soon."

Li Yun looked up at the sky and said slowly, "Ask the generals of the Jinling garrison to come to the Recruiting Envoy's Office to see me."

Zhao Cheng nodded his head and after thinking for a moment, he asked, "Sir, do we need to close the city gates?"

Soon it was daybreak and it was time to open the city gates. In fact, great changes had taken place inside the city of Jinling over the course of one night, so it was reasonable to close the city gates for a while to "digest" the changes.

Li Yun thought about it and shook his head, saying, "Don't close the city gates. We are taking over the city defense, not robbing Jinling. Why close the city gates? Everything in Jinling City remains the same."

Zhao Cheng nodded his head and went downstairs to get busy.

After Zhao Cheng left, Li Yun turned back to look at Du Qian, his tone already unable to conceal his excitement: "Brother Du, we are rich!"

He was excited not because he had captured the city of Jinling, but because of the defenders of Jinling.

These defenders have now been taken over by Li Yun on the surface, but whether they can be used directly is still unknown.

What Li Yun meant by "developed" was that there were as many as two thousand city defense soldiers in Jinling City.

Even if none of these two thousand men can be used by Li Yun, since they have given up resistance, simply stripping off their armor will be a huge improvement for Li Yun now!

Li Yun had seen what the armor of the Jinling city defense soldiers looked like.

Although there is no heavy armor, they are all light armor, and there will not be too many iron plates on a set of armor. However, compared with the equipment of Li Yun's subordinates now, this kind of armor is already at an "excellent" level.

Compared with other armies, it is not much inferior.

You know, even among the border troops, only the elite are qualified to wear armor, and ordinary cannon fodder are not even qualified to wear armor.

Du Qian nodded slightly and said, "There are too many things to do in the future."

He whispered, "The news of the rebels attacking Guanzhong will soon reach Jiangdong. There may not be much movement before the New Year, but after the New Year, chaos will definitely break out in the places that are supposed to be in chaos."

Du Qian followed Li Yun, and the two of them walked in Jinling City in the early morning, talking as they walked.

"If there is unrest in Jiangdong, it must be quelled as soon as possible so as not to affect next year's spring planting."

"There is also the issue of equal distribution of land."

Du Qian continued slowly, "Yuezhou and Wuzhou have both divided the land equally, but for the other prefectures and counties in Jiangdong, I think we should not make any major moves for the time being." "Everything should be done after Erlang has firmly established his position in Jiangdong, and then we can think of a way to start making moves."

Li Yun nodded silently, motioning Du Qian to continue.

"Also, a big city like Jinling has no shortage of craftsmen, but we need to find a way to get the raw materials. For example, things like iron ore need to be delivered to Jinling City continuously, which is quite troublesome."

"Although the internal affairs of Jinling City are complicated, I can handle them, but other things."

Du Qian said silently: "We can only rely on Erlang to do it."

Li Yun nodded silently. When he reached the gate of the government office, he looked back at Du Qian and said with a fist: "Then the entire Jinling political affairs will be handed over to Brother Du, and the rest will be left to me."

Du Qian nodded first, then smiled and said, "Erlang needs to get more people. If anyone wants to come and join us in the future, you can stay as appropriate."

Li Yun rubbed his brows and said slowly: "I will go to Song Zhen for this matter. He has been an official in Jiangdong for many years and has served as the Yin of Jinling for almost two terms."

"I'll have to have him write a list and give it to me."

Du Qian smiled dumbly: "This way, he will probably be in trouble."

"That depends on him, whether he is willing to die or not. If he is not willing to die, no matter how difficult it is..."

“You have to write it too!”

…………

During the day, Li Yun met with two captains and four colonels of the Jinling garrison and temporarily stabilized them.

Li Yun does not plan to continue using these generals.

In other words, at least you have to examine it before considering using it.

The lower-level officers and soldiers won't have any big problems, but these captains and lieutenants are all corrupt.

If it were a simple moral issue, it would be fine, but these generals and officers are drawing salaries without doing any work and taking advantage of loopholes.

Personal ability is also questionable.

But before completely breaking them up and mixing them up, Li Yun still had to try his best to stabilize them to prevent any more trouble from happening in Jinling City.

For several days in a row, Li Yun, Du Qian, and even Li Zheng, Zhao Cheng and others were all very busy.

Taking over a big city and the subsequent stability maintenance work are really too heavy.

If it weren't for the help from officials like Du Qian and Song Zhen, Li Yun, Li Zheng and others would probably be in a real mess.

But the good news is that with Li Yun's best efforts to maintain it, although Jinling City has actually changed hands, on the surface it is no different from before.

The only difference is that at this time of year in previous years, the streets would have been decorated with lights and lanterns, but this year, the Emperor had just passed away, and white banners were still hanging in the streets and alleys of Jinling City, and the red lanterns could not be hung up.

Fortunately, all the gates of Jinling City were open, and the sounds of hawking could still be heard on the streets. People were coming and going, and it was quite lively.

On the surface, everything in Jinling remains the same as before.

And the changes began quietly at the end of the fifth year of Xian De.

…………

In Qingzhou City, 600 miles north of Jinling City.

General Zhou's second son, Zhou Chang, rode a fast horse and hurried into the city.

Arriving at the gate of the general's mansion, Zhou Chang jumped off the horse, threw the reins to the servant at the door, and then rushed into the mansion. Soon, he saw General Zhou Xuzhou who was listening to music in the warm room in the backyard.

At this time, General Zhou was lying on the chest of a plump girl, with his temples gently rubbed by the girl. Another girl took a sip of wine and passed it into the general's mouth.

General Zhou half-closed his eyes and looked at the four or five women dancing in the warm room, looking leisurely and contented.

"father."

Mr. Zhou Er rushed in, knelt on the ground, kowtowed and said, "My son is back."

As the second young master walked in, the musicians stopped playing and the dancers also stopped. General Zhou could not help but frown.

"Why are you so rude? Who let you in?"

Zhou Chang was the legitimate son, so he was not very scared. He just lowered his head and said to himself, "Dad, I saw the man surnamed Li."

"Oh?"

General Zhou glanced at Zhou Chang and asked, "What does it look like?"

"He's very tall."

Zhou Chang thought for a moment and continued, "It's hard to say. He wants three thousand pieces of armor."

"Three thousand pieces of armor..."

General Zhou said "tsk", then smiled: "Very good."

"Since he wants it."

"After a few days, when things in the west have a conclusion, I will send someone to take these three thousand pieces of armor..."

The smile on General Zhou's face faded and he spoke in a more serious tone.

"Send it to him."

(End of this chapter)