Thief Emperor

Chapter 375 Trap!

Zhou Gui's journey to Yangzhou can be said to be very smooth.

He came from Qingzhou, went south through Chuzhou, and then all the way to the outskirts of Yangzhou City, bringing with him the will of General Zhou to negotiate with Li Yun.

Because the gates of Yangzhou were not closed, the envoy entered the city smoothly and found his way to the governor's mansion.

As soon as he arrived at the gate of the governor's mansion and stated his identity, he was arrested by several soldiers guarding the gate and taken directly to Li Yun's residence, where he successfully met Li Yun.

At this moment, in the main hall of Li Yun's residence, Master Li was looking at the Pinglu Army envoy in front of him leisurely, and asked with a smile: "Judging from your name, are you a servant of General Zhou?"

Zhou Gui's expression froze, he looked up at Li Yun and explained, "He is a retainer."

"It's pretty much the same."

Li Yun looked at him and asked, "Marshal Zhou Jie sent you here. What's the matter?"

Zhou Gui glared at Li Yun, and Li Yun finally reacted. After a look, the soldiers on both sides who were escorting him let go.

Li Shijun waved his hand and said, "Go down."

Zhou Gui finally stood up. He first looked at Li Yun, then saluted and said, "My general sent me to congratulate Envoy Li on his promotion."

Li Yun was a little surprised and smiled, "The general is worthy of being a general, he is very magnanimous. We just fought a battle and he sent someone to congratulate me."

"It was all a misunderstanding before."

Zhou Gui shook his head and said, "During the battle of Yangzhou, the general thought that Li Shijun was a traitor to the court, so he went to war. Now that Li Shijun has been promoted by the court, it means that Li Shijun is still a loyal minister of the court."

"It was a misunderstanding before."

Li Yun glanced at him and said slowly: "The court promoted me, which naturally means that I am a loyal minister of the court, but it does not necessarily mean that the previous battle in Yangzhou was a misunderstanding."

"Let's not talk about why your Pinglu Army suddenly went south to Huainan Road. Let's just talk about what happened a while ago. I heard that General Zhou killed Mr. Gu Wenchuan, the censor sent by the court to our Jiangnan East Road!"

Li Yun said coldly: "This is a huge matter, almost the same as raising the flag of treason!"

"General Zhou, what explanation do you have?"

Zhou Gui didn't panic when he heard this. He just smiled and said, "As the saying goes, rumors stop at the wise. My general is a loyal minister of the Great Zhou. How could he kill the imperial censor?"

"Earlier, the general did kill a lunatic who pretended to be an imperial censor, but that lunatic could not be Mr. Wenchuan."

"Mr. Wenchuan was ordered to monitor Jiangdong. Logically, he should be in Jiangdong. How could he suddenly go to Qingzhou, which is thousands of miles away?"

"Moreover, after the impostor died, rumors suddenly spread everywhere. Who knows if someone is behind this to instigate trouble and discredit our great general?"

"Envoy Li is a smart man. How could he not see through such an obvious trick?"

Li Yun said calmly: "But Mr. Gu is indeed missing from Jiangdong."

“That’s exactly the problem.”

Zhou Gui said in a deep voice: "The Jiangdong Censor has disappeared in Jiangdong, so we must naturally blame the local officials of Jiangdong. Maybe Mr. Gu offended a high-ranking official in Jiangdong and died inexplicably in Jiangdong!"

"Then, this mastermind sent an impostor to Qingzhou, pretending to be Mr. Wenchuan. After being executed by our general, this mastermind used the method of discrediting our general to wash away his own guilt!"

Li Yun was stunned by what he said, and then he said in silence: "What a sharp tongue, whether the one who died in Qingzhou was Mr. Wenchuan or not, you Zhous should know it."

"Just making excuses will only hurt your virtue."

Zhou Gui looked at Li Yun and said calmly, "Envoy Li, I came all the way here not to discuss Yin De with you."

"Originally, after the battle in Yangzhou, our two families had a great feud. Given the temper of our general, this vengeance must be avenged."

"We will have to fight a battle sooner or later, and it may even be a life-and-death battle."

At this point, Zhou Gui's face became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "But my general received an imperial decree not long ago, asking my general to lead the troops westward and enter Guanzhong to rescue the king."

"Now that the rebels have occupied the capital, the sacred artifacts have been covered in dust. This is a matter of great importance. As a minister of the Great Zhou, the general has received the imperial edict and immediately decided to send troops to Guanzhong to protect the king!"

At this point Zhou Gui looked at Li Yun and said loudly: "Public affairs come first, and the personal grudge with Li Shijun should be put aside. Therefore, the general sent me to meet Li Shijun to temporarily resolve the old grudge with him!"

He took a deep breath and continued, "My general means that Yangzhou will be temporarily given to Li Shijun, and the several counties under Yangzhou occupied by my Pinglu Army will also be returned to Li Shijun!"

"Our two families will use Yangchu as the boundary and will not offend each other!"

Zhou Gui said in a deep voice: "If Envoy Li can stop offending us, then the old feud outside Yangzhou City will be written off."

"If you still can't forget it, I beg you to wait until the Guanzhong King's affairs are settled before we compete again!"

Hearing this, Li Yun became interested. He looked at the Pinglu Army envoy in front of him and said calmly, "So, General Zhou has decided to send troops to support the king?"

"of course."

Zhou Gui raised his head and said, "My Pinglu Army has assembled 30,000 troops and is ready to leave Qingzhou and march west to Guanzhong to defend the king!" Then he looked at Li Yun and said, "Envoy Li, this is a time of national crisis. My general hopes that Envoy Li can also send troops to Guanzhong to help the court suppress the rebels!"

What a great way to wipe out the rebels!
Li Yun sneered in his heart.

The Shuofang Army alone was enough to defeat the rebels, and now all the military governors in the world are sending troops into Guanzhong.

If these Jiedushi really went to fight Wang Junping, I'm afraid even ten of them would not be enough to fight the newly enthroned "Emperor of Qi" in the capital!
Moreover, this Zhou Gui in front of him had never told the truth since the moment they met.

Li Yun expressed deep doubt about his words.

Although he thought so in his heart, Li said calmly: "Li and General Zhou are different. General Zhou is a military governor. All affairs in Tuntianzhou are under the control of General Zhou. Li is only a military governor. He is only responsible for conquering bandits in the area under his jurisdiction and has no right to lead troops out of the country."

"What's more, Li has not received an imperial edict, so he cannot mobilize troops without authorization."

"But go back and tell General Zhou to put his mind at ease."

Li Yun said softly, "If he really leads his troops to defend the king, I promise that I will not harm the Pinglu Army during his expedition."

"Let's each stay in our own place."

Zhou Gui looked at Li Yun for a long time, then bowed his head and saluted: "Envoy Li is righteous."

"In that case, I will go back and report to the general."

Li Yun looked at him and said with a smile: "You can go back by yourself. When you go back, tell General Zhou to be careful and safe on the way."

"Don't die at the hands of the rebels."

Zhou Gui's face turned dark, but he still suppressed his anger, bowed to Li Yun, then turned and left.

Mr. Li looked at his leaving back and narrowed his eyes.

Not right.

Nine out of ten something is wrong.

This bastard came to see him this time. On the surface, it seemed that he was negotiating with him, but in both openly and covertly, it seemed that he was seducing him...

Seduce him to take advantage of the internal emptiness of the Pinglu Army to attack Chuzhou! Take the opportunity to push the front line to the Huai River!
Once the battle line is pushed to the Huai River, the entire Jianghuai area will be Li Yun's territory. At that time, Li Yun can be called the real Little Overlord of Jiangdong!
No, it should be the Overlord of Jiangdong!

I have to say, this is quite tempting.

If he could take Chuzhou and then Luzhou, the current Li Yun would not be far behind the blue-eyed girl in another world in his core sphere of influence.

There may even be one more Hefei than him.

However, there was something wrong with this tempting opportunity.

Li Yun thought for a long time, and finally called Meng Hai and ordered: "Go find Liu Bo and ask him to come see me immediately."

"Yes."

Meng Hai nodded his head and trotted off to find Liu Bo.

After more than half an hour, Liu Bo appeared in front of Li Yun, bowed his head and said, "Second brother, what's the urgent matter that you want to talk to me about?"

Li Yun was still thinking about what Zhou Gui said. After hearing Liu Bo's words, he came back to his senses and said in a daze, "Oh, Lao Jiu is here."

"Sit down and talk."

Liu Bo responded and sat opposite Li Yun. Li Yun looked at him and asked, "Can we send spies to Qingzhou now?"

Liu Bo thought about it and shook his head slightly: "I'm afraid it's difficult."

Li Yun frowned and said, "I don't need particularly accurate information. I just need to know whether the Pinglu Army in Qingzhou has made any large-scale moves."

Liu Bo breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, "That's no problem. An army of tens of thousands of people, any action would be like an earthquake. No one can hide it, and it's easy to find out."

Li Yun nodded, and after thinking for a while, he continued to ask: "What about farther away?"

"For example...Fanyang Army."

Liu Bo was stunned.

"Why are you asking about Fanyang? It's so far away from us, it's useless even if you find out."

"useful."

Li Yun shook his head slightly and murmured: "If the Fanyang Army moves..."

"We are afraid that we are about to face a great war..."

(End of this chapter)