Thief Emperor

Chapter 333 First and Last

There were four or five carriages in total, slowly approaching.

Because the world was in turmoil, the Du family would naturally not let Du Qian's wife and children travel alone, but instead sent more than a dozen guards to escort them along the way.

After arriving in Luzhou, Li Yun's troops also sent some personnel over to provide support to prevent any accidents.

Soon, several carriages approached, and a young woman in her twenties got off the first carriage. She looked around and soon saw her husband, and her heart immediately calmed down a lot.

She had been feeling uneasy all the way here.

It’s not that she was afraid to come to Jiangnan, but she knew that her husband was the governor of Yuezhou. Logically, her family should also go to Yuezhou. However, after arriving in Luzhou, a group of soldiers suddenly came and told them that her husband was now in Jinling Prefecture.

Let them go to Jinling Prefecture.

If it weren't for the handwritten letter from her husband, she would never have come to Jinling Prefecture. After all, they were an orphan and a widow, so they had to be careful wherever they went.

Now that she saw her husband, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. She turned around and picked up her son from the carriage, then turned to look at Du Qian and gently called him "husband".

At this moment, Envoy Du had already approached, his eyes reddened: "Madam, you have had a hard journey."

In another carriage, a young woman got off the carriage with two children in her arms. After she put the children down, she bowed to Du Qian and said, "Master."

This is Du Qian's concubine.

He has a wife, a concubine, two sons and a daughter, a total of six people in this small family.

Du Qian smiled at her, then turned to look at Madam Du and asked, "What took you so long?"

"Xuan'er fell ill on the way and was delayed for some time."

Mrs. Du put her son down. The child, who was only five or six years old, bowed to Du Qian politely and called him "father" in a crisp voice.

Li Yun, who was standing by, was amazed at what he saw.

The rules of this aristocratic family are so strict that even a young child like this has already started to "know etiquette".

After Du Shijun talked to his family for a few words, he remembered Li Yun who was standing beside him. He quickly turned aside and said to his wife, "This is Li Shijun, the Recruiting Envoy of Jiangdong. He is also a good friend of mine who I made in Jiangnan."

Li Yun stepped forward and saluted, saying with a smile, "Meet my sister-in-law."

Madam Du quickly returned the greeting, then smiled and said, "I heard from my husband in his letters that he mentioned Li Shijun. He was tall and majestic, and didn't look like a governor at all."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "I was the governor of Wuzhou for only a year or so, and I didn't really work properly."

"Sister-in-law and um..."

Du Qian's concubine stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Sir, my surname is Su."

Li Yun nodded and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law and Madam Su, you have worked hard on the journey. It is cold outside. Let's go into the city quickly and warm up. I have prepared a banquet in the city."

Du Qian, who was standing by, had already frowned and said in a deep voice, "Xuan'er and Lin'er, why don't you kowtow to your uncle Li?"

The two little kids were about the same age, one was six years old, and the other was only four or five years old. They both came forward politely, kowtowed to Li Yun, and called him uncle.

Li Yun laughed, and without waiting for them to kneel down, he reached out and picked up the two little kids, holding one in each arm, and strode towards Jinling City.

He was so strong that he held the two babies without any effort, which made Mrs. Du marvel at him.

"Husband, this Uncle Li is really a strange man."

Du Qian looked back at his wife, then at his two sons held in Li Yun's arms, and suddenly whispered, "In the future, if I have not made the wrong bet, these two children will probably remember this day forever."

Mrs. Du didn't understand what he meant, and didn't think much about it. Instead, she asked, "Will my husband not go to Yuezhou in the future?"

"almost."

Du Qian looked up at Jinling City and said with a smile, "This is a very prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River. Madam, don't you like it?"

Mrs. Du shook her head slightly. She also looked at Li Yun, who was walking in front and talking and laughing with the two little kids of the Du family, and seemed to be thinking about something.

"correct."

Du Qian remembered something and asked, "Is everything okay with my father-in-law now?"

Du Qian came from a big family like this, so his wife would naturally not be of commoner origin. She was also a well-known and wealthy family in the capital.

"I am still in the capital. I have been traveling all the way and have only received a letter saying that the late emperor has passed away."

"Otherwise, there is no news."

Du Qian heard this and sighed silently, "I hope both families in the capital can be safe."

Madam Du glanced at her husband and asked softly, "My husband, do you think Jiangnan is safer than the capital?"

"Yeah." Du Qian looked at Li Yun in front of him and said with a smile: "Madam, you haven't seen him fighting. If you had seen him..."

“You’ll feel safe.”

Du Qian was with the army in the battle of Wuzhou to pacify Zhao Cheng. He had seen Li Yun's appearance on the battlefield. Although he could not see it clearly due to his nearsightedness, it was shocking enough.

"Envoy Li's family will also come to Jinling City after the New Year."

Du Qian paused and continued, "Madam, if you have nothing to do, you can visit each other more often."

Mrs. Du quickly understood and nodded slightly.

"My concubine understands."

…………

The end of the fifth year of Xian De passed quickly.

Because his family was not around, Li Yun did not have a very lively New Year. He devoted most of his time to work.

In fact, Li Yun did not have the workaholic attribute that is common among founding monarchs, but now was the most critical moment of laying the foundation, and he could not slack off at all. Even Li Yun had to devote himself to his work.

After all, now is the time to race against time.

Now, Tongguan has not been breached and the imperial court still has a little deterrent power. Therefore, Li Yun, the general, can sit firmly in Nanjing City, and there will not be too many forces that will disobey him.

Once Tongguan is lost, or even the capital city is lost, the majesty of the court's laws will immediately be completely destroyed. At that time, others will not be able to tolerate Li Yun occupying Jinling City.

It's hard to tell.

Therefore, just a few days after the New Year, Li Yun took Zhao Cheng and began to recruit soldiers near Jinling City.

At this time, a middle-aged man in ordinary clothes, accompanied by two followers and wearing winter clothes, entered the territory of Jinling Prefecture.

Before he even got close to Jinling City, he saw people outside the city, braving the cold wind and lining up in a long queue. There were soldiers beside them, constantly beating gongs: "Line up! Line up!"

"Anyone who cuts in line will be sent back to line up again!"

The middle-aged man frowned, turned around and looked at his followers, and asked, "Isn't Jinling famous for its wealth? Could it be that they're already distributing porridge just a few days after the New Year?"

As soon as he said this, an attendant beside him looked over and said, "Master, the people in the queue seem to be young people, not like they are distributing porridge. I'll go over and ask them."

After saying that, he walked into the team, patted a young man on the shoulder, and asked a few questions with a smile. The young man was reluctant to answer when he saw that he had a foreign accent.

But after seeing a row of copper coins, he immediately took the coins and started to tell everything he knew.

After a while, the attendant had asked enough questions, so he trotted up to the middle-aged man and said, "Master, we are not distributing porridge, we are recruiting soldiers."

"Recruiting soldiers...?"

The middle-aged man was stunned on the spot, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. He said in shock: "In other places, recruiting soldiers would almost go to the villages to conscript men, but in Jinling, the queue is so long?"

"How queer, queer!"

The attendant bowed his head and said, "The people in the queue said that they were recruiting soldiers to quell the rebellion. The treatment was good, two strings of cash a month, and the salary was never delayed."

"The Recruiting Envoy..."

The middle-aged man seemed to be thinking about something. He looked up at the Jinling City in front of him, his expression becoming more solemn.

"Hurry up and get into the city before dark."

"Yes."

The two followers nodded in agreement, and the three of them, one after the other, entered Jinling City before dark. As soon as they entered the city, the middle-aged man saw many notices posted on both sides of the street.

Some of these notices announced that a curfew would begin on the 16th day of the first lunar month.

Some were conscription notices.

Others are notices to maintain law and order in the city.

However, most of the notices, without exception, were signed by the Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy’s Office.

Even the Jinling government office had very few notices, and the few notices that did appear were all wanted notices for bandits.

The more the middle-aged man looked, the uglier his expression became. By the time he returned to the inn, his face was already gloomy.

"Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy..."

"What a huge momentum!"

(End of this chapter)