Thief Emperor

Chapter 366: What a character!
The current imperial court is still the imperial court in name only.

Even the six ministries and nine ministers in the court were still there, and everyone still followed the rules in the capital, maintaining the only decency they had.

But everyone knows that the current court's words are probably only effective within Xichuan.

Even this last bit of authority depends on whether the Jiannan Jiedushi is sensible or not.

Fortunately, Jiannan Road was the retreat route for the Great Zhou court, and the Jiannan Jiedushi had always been a trusted member of the royal family. In addition, the Jiannan Jiedushi only had tens of thousands of troops, and the number of imperial guards brought to Xichuan by the court far exceeded the troops under the Jiannan Jiedushi.

Therefore, in theory, it was not difficult for the imperial court to control Xichuan.

But can the imperial court still manage matters outside of Xichuan? Will others still listen?

Everyone knows it.

The reason why there is still a "Political Affairs Hall" discussing the affairs of Jiangdong Road and Huainan Road is nothing more than everyone wants to maintain their only decency and pretend to be in charge of the situation in Xichuan.

The new king, Wu Yuancheng, knew this very well, so he simply gave up and ignored everything.

Because he knew in his heart that there was no point.

The imperial court was on the road of "escape". Not only was the Council of Official Affairs in name only, but the Six Ministries had naturally become nominal units as well. As the Minister of Rites, Du Shangshu naturally had nothing to do in the short term.

In fact, Shangshu Du once wanted to resign and live his own life with his family, but at this critical moment for the court, if he resigned, he would be regarded as a coward who was afraid of death and sought profit and avoided harm.

That’s why Du Shangshu has been following me until now.

Soon, Du Shangshu came to the study room called Zhengshitang. After bowing to Pei Huang and several ministers, he said in a serious tone: "Mr. Xiang, the Pinglu army has evil intentions and has begun to lead troops southward to annex Chuzhou and Yangzhou."

He paused and continued, "Li Yun, the Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy, is also plotting something bad. He is aggressively expanding the army in Jiangdong and even led his troops to fight a battle with the Pinglu Army in Yangzhou!"

The ministers looked at each other.

Pei Huang stroked his chin and said softly, "Minister Du, shouldn't the Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy be called Li Zhao?"

"He changed his name."

Minister Du said sternly, "Some time ago, he posted a notice in Jinling, changing his name to Li Yun. Because of this, some rumors similar to "Yun Conglong" spread in Jinling City, and the momentum was very large."

Upon hearing this, Pei Huang took the document signed jointly by Li Yun and Yangzhou Governor Yu Cong and took a look at it.

The document is still signed by Li Zhao.

When writing this document, although Li Yun was already in Yangzhou and had changed his name, since it was a document to the court after all, he still used the name Li Zhao so that the court would not forget who he was.

After all, in this era, information spreads extremely slowly, and changing one's name is still a rather troublesome thing.

It will take at least several years before Li Yun’s “new name” is accepted and recognized by most people.

Pei Huang turned to the last page of the document, but did not see the words "Li Yun". He could only look at Du Shangshu and said indifferently, "Du Shangshu is very sharp-eyed and sharp-eared."

"It's not that Du has sharp ears and eyes."

Minister Du sighed, "You should know that my son Du Qian was sent out to other places two years ago, and was appointed as the governor of Yuezhou by the Ministry of Personnel. Later, Li Yun was appointed as the Jiangdong Recruiting Envoy by the court. In addition, he had a strong army, so my son had to be under his control in Yuezhou."

"It was my son who sent a letter to Mr. Du, explaining the situation in Jiangdong one by one, so Mr. Du could learn something."

Pei Huang and Cui Yuan looked at each other and asked, "Why did Minister Du come here this time?"

"My son said in the letter that the Pinglu Army is strong and powerful. If we let them occupy Yangzhou and then Jiangnan, it won't take long before the Pinglu Army will be the most powerful force in the east of the entire Great Zhou."

"By then, even if the imperial court recovers Guanzhong and then the Central Plains, it will probably be difficult to recover Jiangnan Road and Huainan Road."

Cui Xianggong had been silent until now. He looked at Du Shangshu and said, "Brother Du, what do you mean?"

"Prime Minister Cui, what's the point of following the court all the time?"

"But, I think the imperial court must do something in Jiangnan Road and Huainan Road. Otherwise, if we just sit back and watch the Pinglu Army grow stronger, the situation will probably get even worse!"

Cui Xianggong frowned and sighed, "But now, what can the court do?"

"Support the small and weak to check and balance the feudal lords."

Minister Du said in a deep voice: "We cannot sit back and watch the local vassal states become stronger. Even if we cannot send a single soldier, we must at least make the Pinglu Army lose its legitimacy."

Pei Huang thought for a moment and asked, "Is it useful?"

Without waiting for Du Shangshu to answer, Cui Xianggong on the side slowly said: "As long as the Pinglu Army does not directly raise the flag of rebellion, it will be of some use."

Master Pei thought seriously, then said silently: "Then let's discuss what the court can do."

Several people looked at each other, and actually they already had an idea in their minds.

After all, the official position of the imperial court is actually...

It's worthless.

…………

Qingzhou City.

The somewhat embarrassed Master Zhou Chang knelt in front of his old father and bowed his head and said, "Dad, although I suffered such a big loss because of my carelessness, those Jiangnan soldiers are indeed not weak when fighting."

"Especially Li Zhao." Zhou Chang looked up at his father and said in a deep voice, "I heard from the soldiers who came back from the battlefield that Elder Shen was almost one-on-one with Li Zhao, and he was killed by him within ten rounds."

"Moreover, those Jiangnan soldiers showed no signs of cowardice when fighting. They charged forward without regard for their lives..."

Mr. Zhou lowered his head and said, "It's not the child..."

"All right."

General Zhou frowned and interrupted his son. He said coldly, "What's the point of saying this now?"

"I am asking you now, what should we do about the Huainan Road issue? Should we just keep the stalemate going, or should we send 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers to surround Yangzhou and cut that Li guy into pieces!"

Zhou Chang felt a little guilty at the moment, stammering and unable to speak.

Over the past month, General Zhou has been thinking about this issue: whether to maintain the status quo in Jiangbei, or to take Yangzhou in one go and occupy the entire Jiangbei.

If we really want to send a large number of troops south, the cost seems to be even higher.

After all, the Li guy has occupied Yangzhou for a month, and most of the money he could have plundered has already been taken away. Now that he has occupied Yangzhou, it's nothing more than taking over more cities and more territories.

But if I don't fight, it will be hard to calm down the anger in my heart!
Zhou Chang knelt on the ground and suddenly whispered, "Dad, we have already crossed the Huai River. As long as we occupy Chuzhou, we can cross the river whenever we want. There is no need to rush."

"But if you plan to attack Yangzhou now, I think there is no problem. Take back Yangzhou and give that Li a heavy blow. Only then will the world know how powerful your father is!"

General Zhou's face darkened. He stood up and kicked his son, cursing, "Did I ask you to say these repetitive words?"

Zhou Chang was kicked. Although it hurt, he lowered his head and dared not speak because he felt guilty. He knelt upright again.

"General!"

Someone rushed in from outside, bowed his head and clasped his fists, saying, "General, there's an old man outside, saying he's an imperial censor from the court and wants to see you!"

"Imperial censor?"

General Zhou Xu was startled, then he looked outside, glanced at his son, and cursed: "You useless thing, I will deal with you when I come back!"

After saying that, he put his hands behind his back and strode away.

Zhou Chang looked back at his father's leaving figure, then looked at the servant who brought the news and gave him a thumbs up.

He knew in his heart that if it wasn't for the purpose of rescuing himself, a crappy censor would not even be qualified to be notified.

The servant chuckled and went forward to help Zhou Chang up.

"Are you okay, sir?"

"fine."

Zhou Chang stood up, patted the servant's shoulder, and took out a jade token from his waist.

"Thank you."

…………

"General!"

In the main hall of the General's Mansion, an old man with gray hair and shabby clothes bowed to Zhou Xu and said in a deep voice: "When the country is in danger, how can the general wantonly dispatch troops to the south and fight with the soldiers from the south of the Yangtze River to grab territory?!"

"At this moment, the general should quickly send troops westward to relieve the siege of the imperial court!"

General Zhou frowned, looked at the old man in front of him, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Gu Yuan."

The old man stood up straight and said, "I am the Censor of the Censorate, and I have been ordered to inspect the place!"

"Oh."

General Zhou said calmly, "It turns out to be Mr. Wenchuan."

"Mr. Wenchuan, have you told Li Zhao from Jiangnan what you just said?"

"I cannot enter Yangzhou City and cannot see Li Zhao, but I have spoken to the person in charge of Jinling."

"It's the same rhetoric as today!"

"it is good."

General Zhou clapped his hands and praised: "Mr. Wenchuan has great character."

"Someone is coming."

The general called his servants and waved his hand calmly: "This man is pretending to be an imperial censor. Take him away..."

"killed."

After that, he didn't even look at Gu Wenchuan again. Instead, he turned around and kicked the servant next to him, cursing, "What the hell, you're reporting this too."

"I am interrupting my son's training."

(End of this chapter)