Thief Emperor

Chapter 501: The Mighty
Xue Yun'er had recognized Liu Su as her sister early on. Having received education of this era since childhood, she did not mind sharing a husband with Liu Su. In fact, because of this sister, she had someone extra to talk to.

After all, as the mistress of Jiangdong, it is not easy for her to go out and make friends with those "noble ladies" in Jinling on a daily basis. In the whole of Jinling, Xue Yun'er currently only interacts with Madam Du.

Ladies from other families usually came to visit her, but she would not visit others.

With Liu Su around, Xue Yun'er has someone to talk to at home and she won't be bored.

However, Lu Huan, this sister, inexplicably appeared after Li Yun went to Luzhou.

Although Xue Yun'er knew that Li Yun needed more concubines and helpers at this time, she still felt a little strange.

With Liu Su following him, he would not bring one or two women back home on this trip.

Li Yun also understood the meaning of his wife's words, and immediately said with a smile: "I have no problem, but I will probably have to ride a horse on this trip."

He looked at Liu Su and asked with a smile, "Can Sister Su bear it?"

Liu Su thought about it and nodded, "Husband, I can ride a horse."

In this era, people's customs were relatively open, and there was no such thing as not leaving the house. Women were not particularly weak. Xue Yun'er, who came from an ordinary aristocratic family, did not have many opportunities to ride a horse, but Liu Su was the daughter of a county magistrate and could be considered to be from an official family.

She has a horse to ride and has been able to do so since she was a child.

Hearing this, Li Yun's chopsticks froze in mid-air, and he smiled bitterly, "Are you really going?"

Liu Su looked at Xue Yun'er, and the two exchanged glances. Then she looked at Li Yun and said with a smile, "Don't worry, my husband. I won't delay your business."

Li Yun looked at her, then at Xue Yun'er, and after thinking for a while, he nodded and agreed, saying with a smile: "Okay, tomorrow I'll get you a set of men's clothes, and you can dress up as a man and stay with me."

At this time, Li Yun most likely would not have to go to the battlefield in person, or in other words, as long as he did not want to, he would not have to go to the battlefield. The most important thing for this trip was actually to supervise the battle and, when necessary, to "communicate" with the Jiedushi of Wuchang Army.

Having Liu Su around won’t cause too much trouble.

After this matter was settled, Lu Huan on the side hesitated to speak, then looked at Xue Yun'er, lowered her head and said: "Sister..."

Xue Yun'er was drinking tea after dinner. After she called out, she suddenly remembered something, so she smiled softly and said, "My husband is here. Just tell him about your own affairs."

Lu Huan lowered her head and said sensibly, "After all, it's not all a family matter."

Li Yun was confused and asked, "What's going on? Why is it so mysterious?"

"Sister Lu's uncle came to our house during the day and wanted to see her and you, my husband."

Li Yun frowned and thought for a long time before he remembered this person and asked, "Lu Zhen?"

Lu Huan nodded gently and said, "Uncle Jiu, come here and apologize to me. He also wants to see my husband, apologize to him, and ask for his forgiveness."

Li Yun smiled and said, "He occupied the Lu family's property. I just took it back and didn't cause any trouble for him. What does he want me to forgive?"

Lu Huan blinked and asked, "Didn't my husband take away Uncle Jiu's post as the governor of Hezhou?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yun frowned at first, and then he remembered that this Lu Zhen was the governor of Hezhou in the Great Zhou court.

Because of the lack of manpower, even if Li Yun occupied the prefectures and counties, Li Yun basically used the original officials as long as they were willing to obey his orders. Therefore, after the Battle of Jiangbei, Jiangdong took over Hezhou, and Lu Zhen was still the governor of Hezhou.

But some time ago, at the Jinling Literary Competition, Li Yun selected Xu Shen as the champion. In order to demonstrate the value of the Jinling Literary Competition and to recruit more talents for the next competition, Li Yun directly appointed this champion as the Governor of Hezhou.

It just so happened that Lu Zhen’s position was replaced.

This hat was not a big deal, but it scared the governor Lu half to death. He knew that he had offended his niece and was afraid that his "niece-in-law" would take revenge and his family would be in danger. So after being dismissed from his post as governor of Hezhou, he brought his family to Jinling, wanting to meet Li Yun and admit his mistake.

After roughly understanding what happened, Li Yun smiled dumbly: "If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten about this. It was indeed me who sent Xu Shen, the leader of the Jinling Literary Society, to Hezhou as the governor, but at that time, I had already forgotten about this Envoy Lu."

Xue Yuner looked at Lu Huan and asked with a smile, "Sister Lu, can we talk about what happened today?"

Lu Huan took a deep breath, her face flushed a little: "That's what my sister said."

Xue Yuner then continued, "My husband removed his position as governor, which frightened him to death. He came to our house during the day, and when he saw Sister Lu, he knelt on the ground and burst into tears."

"When he saw me later, he kept crying."

Upon hearing this, Lu Huan's face turned even redder, and she obviously felt ashamed of this spineless Uncle Nine.

But it is not surprising when you think about it. The Lu family had suffered great disasters because of the Central Plains rebels and the Pinglu Army. The main branch was almost wiped out, leaving only three sons and nephews. Lu Zhen did not want to return to the Lu family to take charge of the situation and prop up the Lu family again, but directly began to encroach on the family property of the main branch.

Such people have very bad character and naturally have no backbone.

"I have a lot of things to prepare these two days, so I probably won't have time to see him."

Li Yun thought for a moment and said, "Well, Huan'er, it's up to you as Uncle Nine to decide how to deal with them. You can either punish them, or make them commoners, or wait for me to come back..."

"Give them some minor official positions."

"It's up to you."

Lu Huan let out a long breath, and the blush on her face due to embarrassment faded a little. She whispered, "Thank you, my husband. I...I will go out to meet their family in the next few days."

"it is good."

The meal was almost finished now. Li Yun stood up and said with a smile, "It's settled then. I'll go to the study to work. You guys can go about your business."

He stretched and went to the study with his hands behind his back.

Xue Yun'er looked at Lu Huan and smiled softly, "If you are too embarrassed to quarrel with them, I will come to discuss the matter. I will definitely punish them severely."

Lu Huan bowed her head and said, "Thank you, sister."

"I…I told them."

"That's fine. It's up to you." After she said that, she pulled Liu Su to the backyard to talk.

"My husband is going out this time, so you have to keep an eye on him to see if he brings another woman back."

Liu Su was a little curious: "Sister, Sister Lu is a very nice person."

"Not her."

Xue Yun'er pulled Liu Su aside and started whispering to him.

"Sister Du told me to be careful of those aristocratic families who send their daughters to their husbands. They are families with hundreds or thousands of years of history. If someone really enters our family."

"Who can compare to the maiden families of the three of us?"

Liu Su was startled, then nodded slightly and said softly: "I'll remember it."

She thought about it, looked at Xue Yun'er again, and said softly: "Sister is not afraid of anything."

"You're not afraid either."

Xue Yuner smiled and said, "He likes you, and you can help."

The two sisters held hands and chattered about their boudoir secrets.

…………

In a blink of an eye, two days passed. Li Yun had arranged everything in Jinling, and his guards were already waiting at the west gate of Jinling City.

The horses are all ready.

In the backyard of Li Garden, Liu Su had already changed into a set of green men's clothes.

She was tall and her breasts were not as magnificent as Xue Yun'er's. She did not look out of place in men's clothing, but because she was not in disguise, she could not fool anyone with a discerning eye.

With sharp eyes, one can tell at a glance that it is a woman.

Li Yun prepared a large chestnut horse for her, and he himself rode a black horse. The two of them led the horses and left Li Garden. Li Yun climbed on the horse, and Liu Su also got on the horse very swiftly with skillful movements.

Li Yun looked at her in surprise, then said with a smile, "Not bad, let's go."

The two men said goodbye to their families, Li Yun urged his horse to start, Liu Su took a deep breath, shook the reins, and followed behind him.

Afterwards, Zhou Bi and Meng Hai also caught up on horseback. They had become Li Yun's "personal followers". Meng Hai was responsible for contacting the Nine Departments, while Zhou Bi was more responsible for daily errands.

Soon, the group arrived outside the city and met up with the guards led by Yang Xi. Since the journey was quite long this time, they did not waste too much time and set out directly from Jinling, heading upstream along the river.

Li Yun wanted to control Ezhou because Ezhou was located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. By controlling Ezhou, he could control most of the waterway of the Yangtze River and ensure the safety of Jiangzhou, Xuanzhou and other prefectures along the way.

Starting from Jinling and tracing the source all the way upstream, within a few days, they arrived at the territory of Xuanzhou.

After arriving near Shidai County, Qingyang County, Xuanzhou, everyone camped in the wild and couldn't help but feel deeply moved.

Among them, many are from Xuanzhou.

Li Yun himself is from Xuanzhou. Zhou Bi, Meng Hai, Yang Xi, and even many of Li Yun’s personal guards are also from Xuanzhou.

After following Li Yun, they haven't returned for two or three years.

After setting up camp, Yang Xi roasted two rabbits on the campfire and handed one to Li Yun carefully. After hesitating for a moment, he handed the other one to Liu Su who was beside the campfire.

Li Yun took it with a smile and motioned Liu Su to take it.

Yang Xi squatted beside Li Yun and smiled: "My Lord, do you still remember that I was a bandit in Taiping County, Xuanzhou, and you led the anti-bandit team up the mountain, and in half a day, you flattened our village."

"At that time, I thought that I had reached the end of my career as a bandit. I would definitely be reborn as a good person in my next life and never be a bandit again."

He scratched his head and said, "Who would have thought that the Duke not only didn't kill us, but now he has made a name for himself with us."

Li Yun took a bite of rabbit meat and smiled: "Of course I remember, you were still called Xidan at that time."

Yang Xi's face turned red, and he quickly turned his head away, hesitating: "That, that was all in the past."

Hearing him say this, everyone around the campfire burst into laughter, even Liu Su couldn't help but chuckle.

"My husband also had a wonderful experience when he was in Xuanzhou."

"of course."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Back then, I led a group of brothers to wipe out all the bandits in the counties of Xuanzhou. Do you know the name of the most powerful bandit I wiped out?"

Liu Su shook his head: "I don't know."

"It's called Cangshan Village."

Speaking of Cangshan Dazhai, Li Yun first took a big bite of meat, then became a little absent-minded and forgot to chew the meat in his mouth.

After a long while, he came to his senses, chewed a few times, and then swallowed the meat in his mouth.

"I'll take you to have a look if I have a chance."

When Liu Su met Li Yun, Li Yun had already been officially "whitewashed" by following Su Jing. Naturally, she didn't know about the past experiences of the great leader Li, so she nodded softly and lowered her head to eat a piece of meat.

"it is good."

(End of this chapter)