Thief Emperor

Chapter 548 A resounding name!
The four generals under Li Yun's command all received appointment documents from the court one after another.

Among them, because Deng Yang was stationed in Jinling Prefecture, he received the imperial edict from the court the latest. The other three received the imperial edict from the court one day before him.

However, he was closest to Li Yun and was the first to arrive at Li Yuan.

After hearing what Li Yun said, Deng Yang's face flushed, and he lowered his head and said, "Master, please don't make fun of me."

He waved his hands and said, "Your subordinate, I can follow you to kill people, but I can never be an official..."

Among the generals, Deng Yang was undoubtedly the one with the lowest origin. He was one of the more than one hundred bandits subdued by Li Yun in Xuanzhou.

At the same time, he was also the best performer among the more than one hundred people at the beginning, and now he has become the first-tier general under Li Yun.

Although he is still a little immature and has basically never been in charge of any major wars, he has achieved such success. In addition, he came from an anti-theft team, so he can be said to be loyal to Li Yun.

In Li Yun's heart, his loyalty is second only to that of his brother Li Zheng.

Li Yun patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "This official position given by the court is neither too high nor too low, it is just right for you, you don't have to refuse, just do this job."

Deng Yang hesitated and explained to Li Yun for a long time. Li Yun looked at him and asked, "I heard that you brought two imperial envoys with you?"

"Yes, right outside."

Deng Yang lowered his head quickly: "Sir, do you want to meet them?"

Li Yun was about to nod when Liu Bo, who had stayed overnight at Li Garden last night, came jogging over from not far away.

When Deng Yang saw him, he bowed his head and saluted: "Liu Sizheng."

Only then did Liu Bo see Deng Yang. He bowed his head in return and called him General Deng.

After both parties exchanged greetings, Liu Bo took out a document from his sleeve and handed it to Li Yun, whispering, "Sir, according to the news from the Nine Departments, General Zhao and General Su are already on their way to Nanjing. According to their speed, they will be able to return to Nanjing tonight or tomorrow."

Hearing this, Li Yun frowned slightly and said helplessly: "It's really troublesome."

As he said that, he sighed Liu Bo and asked with a smile: "Where is Li Zheng? Has he come back?"

Liu Bo shook his head slightly, with a smile on his face: "He probably won't rush back, maybe he won't come back at all."

When it comes to belief, the two brothers Li Yun and Li Zheng naturally believed it 100%.

At this stage, even if Li Yun gave the position of Lord of the Southeast to Li Zheng, Li Zheng would never do it, and he might not be able to do it.

Therefore, when faced with this crisis of trust, Su and Zhao had to rush back to explain things to Li Yun and clear themselves of suspicion, but Li Zheng did not have to do so.

After looking at the documents in his hand, Li Yun looked at Deng Yang again and said with a smile: "You two seniors will arrive in Jinling tomorrow. You don't have to stay here. Go back to the barracks. I will hold a banquet in Li Garden at noon tomorrow and invite you three to drink."

Deng Yang responded quickly and retreated with his head down.

Li Yun went with Liu Bo to see the two angels from the court that Deng Yang brought back.

The two angels sent to Jinling were also eunuchs, but at this moment, although both of them were tied up, they looked calm and did not show any fear.

After seeing Li Yun, the two of them just glanced at Li Yun at the same time and then stopped talking.

Li Yun stroked his chin, looked at the two men, and asked, "Who asked you to come to Jinling? Was it the court or His Majesty?"

The two refused to answer. One of them looked up at Li Yun and shouted, "Li Er, if you are envious, we can go back and report to the court. Then, the court will definitely appoint you as the governor of Jiangnan!"

"Ranked above the four generals!"

Hearing him say this, Li Yun knew that this man, in addition to being a eunuch, was most likely also an official from the Imperial City Bureau, because an ordinary eunuch would probably be frightened by now and would not dare to say a word.

Li touched his chin, thought for a while, turned his head to look at Liu Bo, and said with a smile: "Assassinate these two people pretending to be angels. Send these two people to the residence of His Royal Highness the King of Chu and hand them over to His Royal Highness the King of Chu for disposal."

Liu Bo was stunned at first, then he couldn't help but give Li Yun a thumbs up.

King Wu Yuanyou of Chu now basically leans towards Li Yun's political stance, but his identity is ambiguous.

At this moment, sending these two eunuchs over will help determine the position of the King of Chu.

If these two eunuchs died, the King of Chu would naturally stand on Li Yun's side, and there would be nothing that could be done.

It would be even more interesting if these two eunuchs were not dead or were missing.

Liu Bo quickly took the two out of Li Garden and escorted them to the residence of His Royal Highness the King of Chu.

After arranging the two people, Li Yun went back to sleep. In the afternoon, he dressed up and left Li Garden in person. He went all the way to the Jinling government office and met Du Qian who was dealing with the autumn grain affairs. After seeing Li Yun, Du Qian stood up quickly and said with a smile: "Why did the superior come here in person?"

He pulled a chair and asked Li Yun to sit down, then continued: "The autumn grain has been collected for the most part, and Yao Zhong went down to inspect and achieved some results."

Du Qian poured tea for Li Yun and said with a smile: "Yao Zhong and Master Fei have not finished their inspection of Changzhou yet, but they have already confiscated the land of more than a dozen families, with a total area of ​​70,000 to 80,000 acres."

As he spoke, Du Qian found the case file and handed it to Li Yun: "Please take a look, Your Excellency. This is the case file signed jointly by Yao Zhong and Master Fei. Every one of these wealthy families whose properties were confiscated has committed heinous crimes."

He thought for a moment and continued, "According to this progress, after Changzhou is completed, there may be about 100,000 acres of public land."

"If all the prefectures and counties in Jiangdong follow this approach, even if the land is not divided for the time being, these public fields will be enough to rent to tenant farmers for cultivation."

Li Yun took the case files handed over by Du Qian and read them one by one. After seeing the evil deeds of some landlords and wealthy families in the case, he couldn't help but frowning.

After a long while, he put down the case files and said slowly, "More than a dozen wealthy families have nearly 100,000 acres of land. They are so rich, yet they are so unkind."

Du Qian stood aside and said slowly: "To rise to the top, in this world, you can't get rich without being bad."

Li Yun smiled dumbly, turned his head to look at Du Qian, motioned Du Qian to sit down as well, and then said, "If there are no outsiders, don't keep asking for a higher position."

"Brother Du has done a great job with the autumn grain issue."

"Go down and inspect the state and county..."

At this point, Li Yun looked at the case file again and couldn't help but frowned and asked, "Did a lot of people die?"

"Yes."

"I compiled this case file myself. According to the detailed report, it has only been a month, and both Master Fei and Yao Zhong have narrowly escaped death several times."

"Two of the followers we brought with us were also killed."

Li Yun shook his head slightly and said in a deep voice: "We must support them in doing this. Even if my army is dispatched in the end, we must plow these people through!"

"If you don't plow this land well, the soil will be too hard and no new, healthy crops will grow!"

Ploughing the fields means plowing the solidified land again to make it fluffy so that new crops can grow.

The same principle actually applies to local governance.

The local situation cannot become too rigid, otherwise, if the conflicts are not resolved, chaos will soon arise again, and it will be a big chaos.

Du Qian nodded his head and then sat opposite Li Yun. He smiled and said, "Erlang, what's the matter that made you come here in person?"

Only then did Li Yun pat his thigh and remember the serious matter.

"If Brother Du hadn't told me, I would have almost forgotten."

He smiled at Du Qian and said, "The court has granted official titles to our four generals, according to the news we have received so far."

Mr. Li lowered his head to drink tea and said with a smile: "There are already two marquises."

"One is the Huainan Provincial Observation Commissioner, and the other is the Huainan Provincial Recruiting Commissioner."

Du Qian stroked his chin, pondered for a while, and said slowly: "This is... Pei Huang's work."

Li Yun was a little surprised and asked, "How did Brother Du know that?"

"I have known Pei Huang for a long time. He is very good at talking big, but he only studies books mechanically and does not know how to adapt."

Du Qian smiled and said to Li Yun: "This method of differentiation has been used many times by many people in history books, and the effect is very good. He thought that it would be very effective on Erlang as well."

"This inflexible method is 99% likely to have come from him."

Li Yun sighed and said, "Brother Du is amazing. He can see this."

"We've known each other for so long, so I can naturally guess some of it."

As he said this, he looked at Li Yun and smiled: "However, with this incident, it will be difficult for you to stay in this white body for long."

"To be in a high position... you need to have a resounding reputation."

(End of this chapter)