Thief Emperor

Chapter 541 Assassinated!

Originally, there was no need to pay for conscription. The army held the power of violence in its own hands. All one had to do was go to the villages with swords and guns to capture able-bodied men and bring them into the army.

However, Li Yun was recruiting soldiers and paying them salaries, and the two sides had come into contact many times, capturing countless prisoners from each other. It was impossible to keep such a thing secret.

As a result, there were complaints within the Pinglu Army. After that, the war in Huainan Road did not go well, and there were considerable problems within the Pinglu Army, especially among the new recruits.

If General Zhou had not personally taken charge of the army, there would have been a big problem.

Up to now, although Zhao Cheng has not taken over Guangzhou, the banks of the Huai River have been blocked by Meng Qing and his men, making grain transportation a problem.

Simply put, up to now, although the Pinglu Army can still hold up in terms of combat effectiveness, they can no longer hold up in terms of logistics such as food and fodder, as well as the economy.

The reason why they asked Li Yun for salt was not because they were short of salt, but because the price of Zhou currency had dropped and the original money was not very useful.

To put it in a more fashionable way, the collapse of the Zhou Dynasty's national credit led to inflation.

However, the salt in Jiangdong is hard currency. Even if the soldiers are paid directly with salt, they will definitely take it.

Precisely because they could no longer fight, Zhou Chang made this trip to Nanjing. They said they were coming for negotiations, but in fact they were already preparing to withdraw from Huainan Road, shrink relatively, and consolidate their territory.

But he couldn't quit for nothing, so he wanted to get some benefits from Li Yun.

"Isn't it natural for soldiers to eat food?"

Li Yun looked at Zhou Chang and said with a smile: "You soldiers of the Pinglu Army had a very hard life before."

Zhou Chang looked at Li Yun and said, "We are the Pinglu Army, a legitimate army, but we are not as good at winning people's hearts as you, uncle."

Li Yun understood what he meant and smiled: "I understand. You have occupied many states and counties, but no civil servants are willing to help you, and even no scholars are willing to join you. Therefore, it is difficult to get corresponding returns from these occupied states and counties, right?"

When Mr. Gu Wenchuan died in Qingzhou and his last poem spread throughout the world, Li Yun talked to Du Qian about the fact that General Zhou Xu would be eliminated from the competition early.

People always have to pay the price for the mistakes they have made.

He offended the scholar badly at once.

As a result, now those civil servants are unwilling to associate with him for the sake of their own reputation, and even some scholars are not willing to work for him.

Now, the Pinglu Army has occupied many places, but there is no way to establish administration.

As a result, if they want to make money from the occupied territory, they have only one way.

That means just robbing and killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

If he really did this, it would be no different from Li Yun's original occupation. He was an official and degenerated into a bandit.

If one does not hold an official position and becomes a robber or a bandit, then he is committing depravity.

Moreover, being an official actually makes money much faster and more skillfully than being a bandit.

Given General Zhou's vision, he naturally does not want the Pinglu Army to become a bandit army, so he is currently working hard to set up his administrative team.

As a result, the Pinglu Army was unable to continue, which led to the current meeting in Nanjing.

Zhou Chang just lowered his head and drank tea without saying anything.

At this time, Xue Yun'er walked in, looked at the two people, and said with a smile: "Husband, Major General, the banquet has begun, and Mr. Du and others have also arrived."

Li Yun then reached out and patted Zhou Chang on the shoulder, smiling and saying, "Nothing is more important than eating. Let's eat first, and we can talk about everything slowly after we eat."

Zhou Chang nodded and followed Li Yun to the dining room where Li Yuan entertained guests. As soon as he walked in, he saw a middle-aged man in cloth clothes sitting quietly in the corner without saying a word.

It was Gongsun Hao,

Zhou Chang hurriedly stepped forward and took big strides. He first looked the middle-aged man up and down. After not seeing any signs of torture on his body, the young general frowned inwardly.

A general of Gongsun Hao's level is already the highest-ranking general in the Pinglu Army, and can even be said to be at the decision-making level. He knows almost all of the Pinglu Army's troop deployments, as well as the list of senior generals, and even where the senior generals live and who's in their families.

It stands to reason that a general of this rank would be interrogated if he was captured in the middle of a battle. It makes no sense that he would not have any injuries on his body, unless...
Although he thought so in his heart, Zhou Chang showed no sign on his face. He walked up to Gongsun Hao, half-knelt down, and said, "Uncle Hao."

Gongsun Hao naturally saw Zhou Chang as well. After hearing this, he wanted to stand up and salute, but his leg hurt, so he sat down again and sighed, "Young General, how is the war going in Huainan Road?"

Zhou Chang smiled bitterly and said, "If the war goes well, my nephew will not see Uncle Hao in Jinling."

"Don't worry about me."

Gongsun Hao looked at Li Yun who was talking to Du Qian not far away, and said silently: "My personal life is not worth mentioning. The interests of our Qingzhou are more important."

Zhou Chang said softly, "Don't worry, Uncle Hao, my father asked me to take you back to Qingzhou."

Hearing this, Gongsun Hao was stunned at first, then nodded silently and said nothing.

On the other side, Li Yun was sitting in the main seat, also talking to Du Qian. He smiled and said, "This guy is here to negotiate. Let's have a meal together today. Tomorrow, Brother Du will bring people from the government office to talk to him." Du Qian also looked at Zhou Chang and smiled and said, "Did Erlang find out his background just now?"

"It seems that they are planning to withdraw from Huainan Road, but they are unwilling to withdraw like this and want to come to Nanjing to gain some benefits."

Li Yun also lowered his head to drink tea, then continued with a smile.

"There are still four states in Huainan Dao that they control. I can pay a little bit and consider it as buying them, but the price cannot be too high. If it is too high, we will have to fight for another year or two and eventually wear them out."

Du Qian lowered his head to drink tea and said with a smile: "I understand. I will come and talk to him tomorrow."

The two little foxes from Jiangdong were whispering to each other, looking at Zhou Chang from time to time. In just a few words, they had already figured out the young general's plan clearly.

The dinner went smoothly. Accompanied by Li Yun and others, Zhou Chang got drunk.

The next day, Li Yuan no longer received Zhou Chang and others. All negotiations were handled by the civil servants of Jinling Prefecture headed by Du Qian.

In fact, this is a relatively normal procedure. As the lord of the southeast, Li Yun no longer needs to be responsible for any specific project.

He only needs to distribute the tasks, then do the final review and make the final decision.

Of course, as the first generation, he has the power not to ask about specific matters, and he also has the power to ask about everything.

The key is whether he wants to or not.

For Li Yun now, there is no need for him to personally handle the negotiations with Zhou Chang.

Only if General Zhou Xu came in person would he be able to participate in the whole process.

…………

Soon, three or four days passed. During these three or four days, Du Qian had been in personal contact with Zhou Chang. After the two sides had three rounds of talks, on the fifth day, they finally got a preliminary result.

That afternoon, Du Qian took the organized documents and went all the way to Li Garden. After meeting Li Yun in Li Garden's study, he smiled and said, "That young general is very capable of holding on. I negotiated with him for several days and finally managed to get him to stop."

Li Yun was looking through the information about Guanzhong sent by the Ninth Division at this moment. Hearing this, he put down the document in his hand and said with a smile, "What are the conditions?"

Du Qian sat opposite Li Yun and said with a smile: "The Pinglu Army agreed to withdraw from the entire Huainan Road before the end of the year."

"In addition to asking us to fulfill the promise Erlang made to them, they also want us to take Gongsun Hao away."

Li Yun nodded and asked, "Any other conditions?"

“They don’t want to mint coins anymore.”

Du Qian said softly: "But they want salt, and they want to exchange grain for some copper ore from us."

At this point, Du Qian looked at Li Yun and said with a smile: "It seems that Qingzhou also wants to start minting coins."

Minting money is a great business.

Ever since Li Yun took control of the Yian Copper Mine and started minting his own coins, he basically never suffered from a large-scale shortage of money again.

Because after this thing is mixed with money and used to mint coins, the cost is not that high.

Now, as long as Li Yun can prevent the price of money from falling, there will be no major problems with Jiangdong’s economy.

And Qingzhou has obviously also started to think about this matter.

Li Yun thought about it and nodded, "We can sell them some copper mines. After we get the food, we can store it directly in the granaries along the Huai River as military rations for the future Huai River garrison."

Du Qian nodded and smiled: "This way, we can even save the cost of transporting food to Huaishui."

While the two were discussing, they were interrupted by a rapid knock on the door.

Li Yun frowned and asked, "Who? Don't you know I'm in a meeting?"

His study was so spacious that no one could get close to it.

Zhou Bi's voice soon came from the door: "Sir, something big has happened!"

Li Yun stood up, walked to the door in two or three steps, opened the door, frowned and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Mr. Zhou...Mr. Zhou was stabbed and injured!"

Zhou Bi swallowed and his voice sounded a little flustered.

"I don't know whether I am alive or dead!"

(End of this chapter)