Thief Emperor

Chapter 347 Heaven’s retribution!

Outside Jinling City.

The Jiangdong Army camp has now begun to take shape. Compared with Li Yun’s previous camps in Yuezhou and Wuzhou, this camp is built against the mountain and occupies a larger area, but it does not occupy much arable land.

Governor, in the commander's tent of this camp, Li Yun was sitting in the main seat.

The four captains under his command, Zhou Liang, Li Zheng, Zhao Cheng, and Su Sheng, were all present.

Among them, Su Sheng had just dealt with the riots in Shezhou and Muzhou, and had just arrived in Jinling to report the situation in these two states to Li Yun.

"In my opinion."

After giving a general account of the situation in the two states, Su Sheng lowered his head slightly and said, "Perhaps there are local forces involved."

"I have already executed the leaders of the rebellion, and all the people involved have been thrown into the prisons of the two states, waiting for your punishment."

In private, the two of them addressed each other as brothers, and Su Sheng was still Li Yun's elder brother. However, they were discussing matters in the big tent at this moment, and Su Sheng knew the rules very well and gave Li Yun enough face.

Li Yun nodded first, then asked Su Sheng to sit down and said, "Someone will deal with those people in prison."

Fei Xuan, the Lord of the Fei Mansion, has already started handling the case in Changzhou. Given his temper, if Li Yun sends him a letter asking him to go to the remaining two states, he will most likely go.

Even if it is not for the purpose of upholding justice, we must go to the other two states to check whether the rumors in Changzhou are true.

If the rebellion in the three states was really instigated by Li Yun, there should be some clues in the other two states as well.

Even if he found out, it would be useless, as no one in Jiangdong could do anything to Li Yun. But given Mr. Fei's temper, he would definitely investigate.

This saved Li Yun a lot of trouble. Otherwise, the only person who would be idle under his command would be his father-in-law, Mr. Xue, who could investigate.

After arranging the matters of the two states, Li Yun looked at the four people and his expression became serious.

"Now, let's start discussing some important matters."

"Your four battalions are basically expanding their forces. The number of troops you each lead now far exceeds the number of troops a battalion should have."

"I have also visited the new recruits from each battalion in the past two days. Some of them have been trained very well, but there are others whose training is not very adequate."

Having said that, Li Yun glanced at Li Zheng.

Among the four captain camps, Li Zheng's captain camp was the worst. In addition to his personal reasons, another reason was that the assistant Deng Yang assigned to him by Li Yun had been in Yian County, Xuanzhou for a long time and had not been able to come back, so he could not help him much.

Li Zheng also noticed Li Yun's gaze, lowered his head slightly, and his face flushed a little.

In fact, he has tried quite hard.

In the past, he was almost always by Li Yun's side. He followed Li Yun wherever he went, like a little follower. However, in recent times, this job has gradually been replaced by Meng Hai, Yang Xi and others.

This is because, since taking office as the captain, Li Zheng has devoted most of his energy to his own captain camp, but there is nothing he can do about it, after all, he is born with deficiencies and now has too many things to learn.

There is still some gap between me and the other three.

Li Yun did not call his name, but paused, and then continued: "The number of troops in each battalion has increased. I have checked the food and other things in the past few days. There should be no major problems. If there is anything in short supply, please tell me now."

Mr. Li knocked on the table and said, "I will try my best to solve it for you if it can be solved."

"Let me remind you again."

Li Yun took a deep breath and said, "Our vision cannot stop at Jiangdong. Maybe this year, or even in the first half of this year, there will be a fierce battle to fight."

Hearing Li Yun's words, Zhou Liang frowned, while Zhao Cheng and Su Sheng both looked up at Li Yun at the same time.

Su Sheng asked, "Sir, who are you fighting against?"

The purpose of holding a meeting here today was to inform the public of the situation. Li Yun naturally had no intention of hiding it from these captains. He said directly, "It could be... the Pinglu Army."

"It could also be other enemies coming from the Central Plains."

Mr. Li whispered, "Tongguan has been breached, Guanzhong has been attacked by the rebels, the capital is in danger, the imperial court will soon be destroyed in name only, and fighting in various places will soon begin."

"We may only have one or two months to prepare."

Hearing his words, Su Sheng and Zhao Cheng looked at each other, and there was some...excitement in each other's eyes!
Both of them have grudges against the imperial court.

Zhao Cheng had a grudge against the imperial court because he killed his father and exterminated his entire family. Although General Su did not die directly at the hands of the imperial court, he was also closely related to the court.

Zhao Cheng's eyes lit up. He looked up at Li Yun, took a deep breath, and said, "Sir, my troops are short of armor!"

Su Sheng also said: "My troops are also short of armor. In addition to armor, we are also short of bows, crossbows, arrows, and marching tents!"

Zhou Liang and Li Zheng probably also lack these things.

Li Yun nodded silently and said, "I have been trying to find a solution to the armor issue. As for the arrows."

Arrows may not sound impressive, but they are not cheap. After a war, the number of arrows consumed is often a considerable amount. The victorious side needs to "clean up the battlefield" afterwards. In addition to burying corpses and preventing epidemics, another task is to recover equipment.

The equipment includes armor, arrows and everything else that can be used.

After thinking about it, Li Yun continued, "During this period of time, I will let the people in the workshop start working on it."

Since entering Jinling, Li Yun has been busy doing some work to lay a solid foundation. In fact, his workshop already has one or two hundred people, and he is still recruiting people.

Originally, the government could directly recruit some craftsmen to do work every year, for example, have them work for the government for one or two months a year for free without being paid. However, this time, Li Yun recruited craftsmen and paid them on time every month.

Therefore, the workshop went smoothly.

Li Yun also often hangs out in the workshop, trying to come up with something new.

Now, the main work of this workshop is still the weapons workshop.

Yes, we only produce weapons, and armor and the like in very small quantities.

Because weapons are relatively easy to make, and for an adult, you only need to give him a weapon and he can go to the battlefield.

Although it sounds cruel.

However, in this era when productivity is lagging behind, it is impossible for the entire army to be fully armored. Even for the border troops, if about 30% of the soldiers are fully armored, they can be considered elite.

In addition to the workshop, Li Yun originally planned to set up an agricultural institute to specialize in agricultural research, cultivate new crops, or discover new varieties.

It would be great if in the future we could produce a book like a "planting manual" to increase agricultural output.

After all, agriculture and handicrafts are the industries that truly produce means of production.

Unfortunately, Li Yun’s time was too tight. So far, he had only built a workshop, and the agricultural institute was nowhere in sight.

"I will send more people to the workshop to make as many things as possible. At the same time, I will try to get some armor to Jiangdong through other channels."

Su Sheng nodded first, then smiled and said, "Your Excellency, don't worry too much. The north of Jinling is the Yangtze River, which is a natural barrier. Almost all the soldiers from the south of the Yangtze River can swim, but those soldiers from Qingzhou under Zhou Xu may not be able to swim."

"If they really want to go south, we can defend the river and resist them easily."

"That's what I was going to say."

Li Yun looked at everyone and said, "Brother Su, you will continue to guard Qiantang to prevent the enemy from entering Jiangdong from the west. Captain Zhou will follow..."

At this point, Li Yun looked at Zhao Cheng and smiled: "General, do you want to change your surname to Li or back to Zhao?"

Zhao Cheng was startled, then asked, "Can it be changed?"

"Why can't it be changed?"

Li Yun said calmly, "Does the imperial court still have the leisure to take care of this matter?"

Zhao Cheng thought about it seriously, then shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, I will keep my surname Li for now. Although the court cannot control it, if it gets out, other local forces may use it as an excuse to attack you."

Li Yun nodded and continued, "Captain Zhou and Captain Li, one is stationed on the riverside north of Jinling, and the other is stationed on the riverside north of Changzhou to prevent the enemy in the north from moving south."

"Li Zheng stayed in Jinling."

At this point, he looked at the four people and said in a deep voice: "The so-called chaotic times are nothing more than fighting for territory first, then comparing size. Now we have entered the stage of fighting for territory."

"Our first priority is to defend Jiangdong by relying on the natural barrier of the river."

"Then the next step..."

Li Yun clenched his fists and gave a strategic task: "Next, I plan to push north to the Huai River. Once we get here, Jiangdong will be completely our territory."

The four of them stood up and saluted: "We understand!"

Afterwards, Li Yun made some detailed arrangements. After more than half an hour, the four captains left in pairs.

Zhao Cheng and Su Sheng walked out of the general's tent one after another, both of them were a little excited.

After walking out more than ten steps, Zhao Cheng couldn't help but clench his fists and looked up at the sky.

"Brother, retribution from heaven has arrived!"

Zhao Cheng looked at Su Sheng and laughed out loud. His laughter was very happy, but also a little pitiful.

"We are waiting, there is hope for revenge!"

Su Sheng was silent, then murmured.

"God will punish you, God will punish you..."

(End of this chapter)