Thief Emperor

Chapter 364 Injustice and Development!
Jiangdong is nearly two thousand miles from south to north, so it is impossible for all the people to surrender just because Li Yun won a battle.

In fact, even the original Jiangdong Surveillance Commissioner only had the power to manage the disciplinary issues of officials in the various prefectures and counties of Jiangdong, and to temporarily mobilize troops when encountering problems, but it was impossible for him to administratively manage the twenty prefectures and counties of Jiangdong.

Now, they delivered documents to Nanjing, expressing openly and secretly that they would surrender. In addition to the few prefectures and counties originally owned by Li Yun, there were Shezhou and Muzhou that Su Sheng had just conquered, and the remaining prefectures and counties included Mingzhou, Huzhou, Quzhou, Taizhou and other prefectures and counties.

There was no news from the states and counties further south.

In fact, these states and counties are almost the territories that Li Yun’s current military strength can radiate. If he can take over Chuzhou in Huainan Road, Yangzhou and several other states and counties, plus his hometown Xuanzhou, he can form a sphere of influence with Nanjing as the core.

What he needs to do next is to defend the existing territory first, and then take over this territory. His power will immediately expand rapidly.

After reading this letter, Li Yun knew that his trip to Yangzhou was not in vain.

Even if we withdraw from Yangzhou now and give up this big city that we have already taken, the profits from Jiangdong alone will be huge!

The smile on Li Yun's face only flashed for a moment and then quickly disappeared.

For a leader, it is very important to not show your emotions on your face. At least, you should not let others guess what you are thinking through your facial expressions.

He glanced at Lu Yan and said slowly, "Later, Lu Biejia can hand me a list of the confiscated property."

Lu Yan nodded first, then bowed and said: "Sir, if these properties are not sent back to Jiangnan, then... my family..."

Li Yun waved his hand in a casual manner: "I just happen to have some documents to send back. Lu Biejia's family members can go back with these documents. I will arrange for your family members to live in Jinling City."

At this point, Li Yun thought for a moment and asked with a smile, "Lü Biejia said earlier that he wanted to take his family property with him when he left Yangzhou. I wonder if the family property is large. Do you need me to send more people to you?"

Lu Yan stood there, stuttering a little.

He had naturally made a lot of money in the past few years in such a lucrative place as Yangzhou. He originally thought that if Li Yun escorted the money across the river to the south of the Yangtze River, he could just take a ride on a boat and take the money along with him.

But now, Li Yun has made it clear that he will not take these properties back to Jiangnan, at least for the time being, so it will not be easy for him to take them with him.

After thinking for a long time, this Lu Biejia gritted his teeth and lowered his head and said, "Your humble servant... Your humble servant does not have much valuables at home, so you can take them with you!"

"Well."

Li Yun said with a smile: "Tomorrow, I will ask someone to contact Lu Biejia."

Lu Yan took a deep breath, bowed his head, and left silently.

Nothing is more important than life. At this time, being able to protect the family is already the best fortune, not to mention the wealth accumulated here.

Just pretend that you have never been greedy!

After Lu Yan left, Li Yun returned to his residence in Yangzhou City.

This is the villa of a salt merchant in Yangzhou City, who offered it to Li Yun to live in, very politely.

After returning to his residence, Li Yun first wrote letters to several important subordinates in Jiangdong and his family. After writing the letters, he walked out of the study and handed the letters to Meng Hai.

"Send it out as soon as possible."

After Meng Hai took it, he lowered his head and said, "Sir, the man imprisoned in the backyard has been clamoring to see you these past two days..."

Li Yun frowned at first, then nodded: "I understand, in a moment..."

"I'll go and see him."

Meng Hai then lowered his head and went downstairs to deliver the letter.

Li Yun washed his face and came to the backyard of the villa, to the door of a separate small courtyard.

The people guarding the door were all members of Li Yun's guards. When they saw Li Yun, they all bowed and saluted: "Envoy."

"Open it, and I'll go in and take a look."

The two men opened the door for Li Yun, and Li Yun stepped in. It was not until he pushed open the door to the inner room that he saw a middle-aged man with disheveled hair, unshaven beard, and a slightly fat figure locked in the room.

When the middle-aged man saw someone coming in, he was frightened at first, but when he looked up and saw Li Yun, he became quiet again.

"You, you are..."

Li Yun found a chair and sat down, saying calmly, "Didn't you ask to see me? Talk about something."

"If you don't want to live."

Mr. Li said calmly: "You can die today."

"It's really you, it's really you..."

The middle-aged man muttered a few words, then suddenly fell to his knees and kowtowed to Li Yun, saying, "Envoy Li, Envoy Li..."

"I am innocent! I am innocent!"

Li Yun smiled: "I know."

This person was none other than Sima Mo Daozheng from Yangzhou.

After he was captured by Li Yun's men, he was thrown into prison. Then the next day, two groups of people in the prison wanted him dead.

If he hadn't been alert, he would have died in prison.

At that time, Li Yun realized something was wrong, so he took him out of the prison and locked him up here alone, but he still didn't see him.

Mo Daozheng knelt on the ground and gritted his teeth and said, "Envoy Li, although I am the Sima of Yangzhou, I have only been here for two or three years, while Envoy Yu has been in Yangzhou for five years!"

"How can the crime of Yangzhou resisting Sima Li be blamed on me alone?"

He felt very aggrieved: "Not opening the city gate for you that day was the result of a discussion among the three of us. Who would have thought that afterwards, it would all be the fault of this humble official alone!"

"I heard it, I heard it!"

"My family members have all been arrested, and the city is still arresting my accomplices. They have already arrested two to three hundred people!"

He bowed his head and kowtowed, shedding tears, saying: "Envoy Li, I have been wronged greatly!"

"It was not me who decided not to open the city gates for you that day!"

"I said, I know."

Li Yun glanced at him and said calmly: "Otherwise you wouldn't be alive today." "Let me ask you."

Li said expressionlessly: "You are imprisoned here with me, and everyone inside and outside is my people. How did you "hear" about what happened outside?"

"The maid who delivered the meal said so."

Li Yun said "Oh" and chuckled, "It seems that the servants in this courtyard also have their own masters."

Up to now, Li Yun has been in the city for six or seven days.

During the past six or seven days, because the Pinglu Army had retreated to Chuzhou and there was no sign of the Pinglu Army sending reinforcements to Huainan Road, the Yangzhou City he occupied became more and more stable.

And the causes and consequences of everything that happened on the day the city was captured gradually became clearer.

The three main officers in Yangzhou City originally tended to favor the Pinglu Army because it was obviously stronger than Li Yun's Jiangdong soldiers. This is understandable.

No one would entrust Yangzhou City to a rising young man like Li Yun from the east of Jiangnan.

But later, Li Yun won two battles in a row.

Something is not quite right.

Although at that time, the three chief officers in Yangzhou City all felt that the government troops in Yangzhou City could most likely defend Yangzhou and prevent Li Yun from breaking into the city, Yu Cong, the envoy, was still a little scared after seeing the battle situation outside the city.

He was worried that Li Yun might break in and take his life.

Especially the part about the three Yi tribes, it really makes me sleepless.

As a result, this civil servant in Yangzhou, together with his deputy Lu Yan, developed some clever ideas.

After their discussion, Lu Yan went out of the city to meet Li Yun and offered to help Li Yun break the city.

In fact, given the circumstances on that day, if there had been no gunpowder, even if Lu Yan had ten or even twenty strong men from the Jiangdong Army following him, it would have been unlikely that they would have been able to open the city gate.

In other words, this is a plan that has virtually no chance of success.

However, he was able to transfer all the conflicts to Sima Mo and at the same time show goodwill to Li Yun.

In this way, if Li Yun failed to capture Yangzhou, the one who would bear a grudge against him in the future would naturally be Mo Sima, after all, it was Mo Sima who did not open the city gate, and the two civil servants only "helped".

After Yangzhou is captured, it will be Mo Sima who will bear the grudge.

After all, it was Mo Sima who stopped Li Yun, and it had nothing to do with the two civil servants.

Naturally, this matter was kept secret from Mo Sima from beginning to end. On the day when Lu Biejia left the city, Mo Daozheng thought from beginning to end that Lu Yan was going out of the city to negotiate with Li Yun.

Therefore, the two civil servants Yu Cong and Lu Yan used just this little trick to shift all the responsibilities off of themselves. In this way, whether it was the Pinglu Army that took over Yangzhou City or the Jiangdong Army that really captured Yangzhou City, they were not only not at fault, but had made contributions.

Of course, this method requires a little courage.

Lu Biejia is that very courageous man.

Li Yun had already figured out about 70% of this matter two or three days ago.

However, Yangzhou City needs stability, and Li Yun cannot kill people and rob things everywhere in Yangzhou. It is more appropriate to let Yu Cong, Lu Yan and others do these dirty things.

"You're clamoring to see me, just to complain about your injustice?"

Mo Sima knelt on the ground and said in a trembling voice: "They sent a message, saying that I should die here..."

"I don't want to die."

"It doesn't matter whether you live or die."

Li Yun stood up and walked out with his hands behind his back: "If you don't want to die, live first. If you want to die."

"Just die."

None of the three officials in Yangzhou City is clean. Mo Daozheng is dead...so he is dead.

If Li Yun wants to cure people, he doesn't need this evidence to be alive.

Mo Daozheng knelt on the ground and said in a sad voice: "Envoy Li, my family..."

Li Yun stopped and looked back at Mo Daozheng.

"They should...not be guilty of the crime that deserves death, right?"

…………

Two days later, two people from outside Yangzhou came to Li Yun's residence.

One of them was Xu Ang, dressed in green.

The other is Li Yun’s good brother Liu Bo.

The two of them walked into Li Yun's study, one in front and one behind, and bowed to Li Yun.

"Your Majesty."

Because it was in private, although Liu Bo bowed and saluted, he called out "Second Brother" with a smile.

Li Yun motioned for the two to sit down, then looked at Xu Ang and said with a smile, "Brother Xu, you must have had a hard time on the journey."

Xu Ang bowed and said, "It's my duty."

Li Yun looked at Liu Bo again and said with a smile: "Old Nine has worked hard too."

"I asked Brother Xu to come to Yangzhou to help me handle the affairs of Yangzhou."

"Let Lao Jiu come..."

Li Yun lowered his head to drink tea and said softly: "Our news network..."

"We have to set up the plan in Jiangbei."

(End of this chapter)