Thief Emperor

Chapter 374: Pinglu Envoy

The situation suddenly changed.

But the impact on Li Yun was not particularly great.

Because he knew very well that he was not yet qualified to join this competition.

At present, he can only watch those "big guys" fighting in Guanzhong and on the court stage, and it is impossible for him to get involved.

In this chaos, as long as Li Yun can preserve his territory, he will be considered successful.

Only when you have all your minions in the future will you be able to participate in the game of scrambling for supremacy.

Du Qian looked at Li Yun and said, "Erlang is right. Right now, Wei Quanzhong's biggest goal is to occupy Guanzhong and the Central Plains. If this goal cannot be achieved, he will most likely seek to enter the court and become a powerful official in the court with his powerful military power. He may even use the court to suppress or even eliminate other Jiedushi."

"When the remaining vassal states in the world are no match for him, then he will usurp the throne."

“And the other Jiedushi will not sit idly by.”

“There’s going to be a fight.”

Du Qian slowly exhaled: "The court wants to hide in Xichuan and let these Jiedushi fight each other to the point of bloodshed. But if these Jiedushi clear out Guanzhong and then welcome the court into the pass, the court will be caught in a dilemma."

"Once the imperial court is welcomed back to Guanzhong..."

"The imperial court will become an object of contention."

Li Yun smiled and said, "You can use the emperor to control the princes. The governors will soon understand this truth."

"Holding the emperor to order the princes?"

Du Qian repeated it, and then said with emotion: "This is a brilliant sentence, which sums up the current situation in one sentence."

Mr. Li touched his nose, feeling a little embarrassed.

He forgot that this world seemed to... have no Boss Cao who loved someone else's wife.

"Brother Du."

Li Yun quickly came back to his senses and said softly, "For the current situation in Guanzhong, we can only sit back and watch. We have no ability to intervene, so we just need to take a look at these things."

"While they are fighting in Guanzhong, the stronger we become, the more we will gain in the future."

Du Qian nodded, looked at Li Yun, and said, "The whereabouts of the Pinglu Army are unknown now. I'm afraid Erlang is worried about leaving Jiangbei?"

"If you don't want to leave Jiangbei, then recruit troops in Jiangbei."

Li Yun said calmly: "Throughout the ages, the soldiers in the Jianghuai area are much more fierce than those in the south of the Yangtze River."

He looked at Du Qian and continued, "If we consider the long term, we can only maintain our military strength between 15,000 and 20,000 at most to maintain it. But now the situation has changed dramatically, so we don't need to consider the long term."

“If we only consider the next two years…”

Mr. Li looked at Du Qian and said in a deep voice: "We can recruit more soldiers!"

Du Qian was startled, then whispered: "In this case, if we can't win a big battle within two years, or if we can't make further progress, we will be at the end of our rope."

Li Yun smiled cheerfully: "With the current situation changing like this, if we can't make further progress within two years, we should just go our separate ways!"

In the process of team development, many times, you must have the courage to take a gamble!
If you win the bet, the sky will be the limit. If you lose, you will all go your separate ways.

Li Yun's current military force can only control a dozen states and counties in the south and north of the Yangtze River. If it goes further, he will not be able to reach them.

These dozen states and counties can only support more than 10,000 full-time soldiers at most.

If it develops steadily, although the risk is small, I am afraid that the growth rate will become extremely slow!

Instead of this, you might as well give it a try.

Li Yun did what he said. After a brief discussion with Du Qian, he picked up the pen and wrote the conscription order himself.

He wants to recruit soldiers in Jiangbei!
However, his treatment could no longer match the wealth he had received in Jiangnan. At this time, the salary he received in Jiangbei was one string of money per month, which could still be exchanged for rice at the market price.

But even so, it is attractive enough.

Not long after the notice was posted, many young men from Jiangbei came to join the army.

Li Yun handed the task of training these new soldiers to Zhao Cheng, who was stationed in Yangzhou. At the same time, he began to recruit a large number of craftsmen in Yangzhou in the name of the three recruiting envoys.

Especially the blacksmith.

Because he urgently needs a large number of weapons now.

After this conscription order and the notice for recruiting blacksmiths were posted, the finances of Li Yun Group officially turned from profit to loss.

In other words, from now on, Li Yun once again put money into it. The income he earned within his sphere of influence was no longer enough to feed more soldiers.

But this year's summer taxes are already being collected, plus the autumn taxes, and the windfall he made in Yangzhou.

It is enough to support his losses for a long time.

…………

Within only five or six days after Yangzhou's recruitment order was issued, nearly a thousand young and strong men had joined the army and were arranged by Zhao Cheng one by one into the newly built barracks.

At this time, Zhao Cheng also gradually became excited.

When he served under Qiu Dian in his early years, he led more than 10,000 soldiers. Although the quality was not very good, being able to command tens of thousands of men was truly an unforgettable experience.

So much so that later, after he joined Li Yun's army, he was initially in charge of only 500 people, which made him a little discouraged for a while!

And now, including these new recruits, the number of troops under his command has exceeded 4,000. Although it is still less than the number of troops he had when he was under Qiu Dian's command, it is somewhat similar to that of the past.

Moreover, in terms of combat effectiveness, the four thousand men under his command now far exceed the original ten thousand!

While General Zhao, who was born in a military family, was training new soldiers outside Yangzhou City, Zhou Liang, dressed in black, bowed his head and clasped his fists to Li Yun in Li Yun's study in Yangzhou City: "Envoy!"

Li Yun looked up at him and said with a smile, "Uncle San is no longer the village leader?"

Zhou Liang shook his head slightly and said, "The Cangshan Stronghold was a long time ago. Now the envoy has become a great figure, and the matter of the Cangshan Stronghold should be kept secret."

After a pause, he continued, "I have told the people from the old village to be careful not to mention the old village again."

Li Yun thought about it and smiled, "I don't really care about these things. Otherwise, I would just change my name to Li Zhao. Why would I have to go through so much trouble to change back to my real name?"

Zhou Liang lowered his hands and did not answer.

Li Yun also skipped this topic and said, "Zhao Cheng's army has already recruited a thousand new soldiers. Starting tomorrow, all the new soldiers who sign up will be incorporated into the Third Uncle's army. The new soldiers will also be handed over to the Third Uncle for training."

He looked at Zhou Liang and said in a deep voice: "Uncle San's men must also be replenished with 4,000 men as soon as possible. I want to have 8,000 garrisons in Yangzhou."

Zhou Liang bowed and said, "As you command!"

Li Yun nodded first, then continued: "My hometown Xuanzhou has basically been taken over, but I want to transfer Deng Yang back to use him. There is no suitable candidate to station troops in Xuanzhou for the time being. Uncle San, do you have a suitable candidate?"

Zhou Liang thought about it seriously, then shook his head slightly: "Except for the skinny monkey, no one from the old village can take on this important task. General Xiao Su has many trustworthy generals under his command. You can select suitable people from them to garrison Xuanzhou."

Although the defeated troops of General Su, who were gathered by Li Yun, were mixed into various armies, several Jiangnan soldiers and generals who were familiar with Su Sheng were all taken away by Su Sheng.

The reason was that Su Sheng didn't have a single capable person under his command at that time, and he needed a general to help him set up his own captain's camp.

It now seems that apart from the first batch of backbones that Li Yun forcibly recruited, the most suitable ones are those generals trained by General Su himself.

At least, they have experienced large-scale army battles, witnessed big scenes, and encountered many things, and they are able to keep their composure.

In the team led by Li Yun himself, the second batch of "backbones" have not yet emerged. Even if there are emerging newcomers, they are not qualified to guard a state for the time being.

"What Third Uncle said makes sense."

Li Yun touched his chin and said, "It seems that I have to poach some people from Brother Su."

Just as he was about to continue speaking, Meng Hai, who was guarding outside the door, lowered his head and said, "Sir, someone has entered Yangzhou City and came all the way to the gate of the Governor's Mansion. He said he was an envoy from the Pinglu Army and asked to meet with you to discuss important matters."

"At the gate of the governor's mansion?"

Li Yun frowned.

He did not live in the Governor's Mansion. The Governor's Mansion was now used as an office by Du Qian and Xu Ang, while Li Yun himself had been living in the villa provided by the Qin family.

It is worth mentioning that the Qin family has now completed cooperation with Li Yun at all levels. Liu Bo has even lived in the Qin family for a long time and is working hard to expand Li Yun’s intelligence network.

"What is your name?"

Meng Hai outside the door quickly replied: "It is said that his name is Zhou Gui."

"Zhou Gui..."

Mr. Li stood up, stretched his muscles, then looked at Zhou Liang in the study, and said with a smile: "Uncle San, go and get busy first, and do what we agreed on."

"I'll go meet this Pinglu Army envoy."

Zhou Liang lowered his head quickly and said yes. He looked at Meng Hai who was guarding outside the door and suddenly said, "Sir, my son Zhou Bi has grown up. Can he follow you and run errands for you?"

Li Yun stopped and thought for a while, then said only one word without any nonsense.

"Row."

(End of this chapter)