Thief Emperor

Chapter 561 Emperor Taizu Gao

Last year's Jinling Literary Festival, which seemed insignificant at the time, gave Jiangdong a huge shock.

To be precise, it gave the Jiangdong scholar circle a huge shock!

Xu Kun from Changzhou, who was born in a common family, was appointed as the governor of Hezhou in a blink of an eye because he won the first prize in a literary competition!
Moreover, this is not an appointment just for show. It has been a year now, and the envoy Xu Kun is still in Hezhou, working diligently as a governor!
This incident alone is enough to drive these Southeast students crazy.

What made them even more crazy was that this Lord Li from Jiangdong was very generous in giving official positions. Of the 170 people who stayed behind from last year's literary meeting, nearly 100 were eventually given official positions. Among them, a dozen were even directly given official positions at the county level.

This is even more crazy.

Because this is unprecedented!
In the past, if a commoner wanted to become an official, there were only two ways. The first way was to submit an investment proposal to aristocratic families or high-ranking officials and be recommended by these high-ranking officials.

Alternatively, one could take the examinations at the prefecture or county level, and then be recommended to the imperial court to take the imperial examinations at the court level.

However, the previous imperial examinations were not very formal, and basically, those who were qualified to take the imperial examinations did not really need to take them.

Even those great writers who have left their names in history, most of them chose investment banks to pursue a career in politics.

But it is different here at Li Mansion in Jiangdong. Currently, there is almost no threshold for taking the entrance exam. As long as you sign up, you can take the exam directly.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this system cannot last long. Once Jiangdong's imperial examination system is established, it will be impossible to directly participate in the examinations!
Therefore, for this second Jinling Literary Festival, even though it was just after the Chinese New Year, many people had already arrived in Jinling in advance, eager to try.

Li Yun invited the two people to his study. After they were seated, Li Yun said in a deep voice, "If there are too many people, the work of Jinling Prefecture will be much heavier. At that time, it will be important to hold the Jinling Literary Conference, but it will be even more important to maintain order in Jinling."

As he spoke, he looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said, "Now most of the daily chores of Jinling Prefecture are in charge of Brother Zhuo, right?"

"Yes."

Zhuo Guangrui lowered his head and said, "Mr. Du has a lot of things to do, so I will be responsible for all the miscellaneous matters."

Du Qian put down his teacup, glanced at Zhuo Guangrui, and then said with a smile: "Brother Zhuo, you and I are of similar age, and you are even a little older. Don't mention the name Du Gong anymore. Just call him by his title or his courtesy name."

Du Qian is already in his early thirties.

At his age, and with his previous prestige in Jiangdong, many people now called him Lord Du.

Including himself, in fact, they all acquiesced to this title.

But... you can’t shout like that in front of Li Yun.

A cautious person like Du Qian naturally knew the sensitivity of the matter, and he even suspected whether Zhuo Guangrui did it on purpose.

"Yes."

Zhuo Guangrui lowered his head quickly and said, "I'll take note of this."

Li Yun witnessed the entire conversation between the two people. Seeing this, he smiled and said, "It doesn't matter what you call me. Let's talk about serious matters."

"The literary gathering is coming up soon. If you are too busy at this moment, you can put the things in Xincheng on hold for now. This literary gathering should be the last one in Jinling."

Du Qian was a little surprised and looked at Li Yun.

Li Yun said softly, "There are many people who signed up this time, so we will take 300 people."

"Three hundred people are enough. We can't expel all the old officials of the old Zhou Dynasty at once. We need to leave some room for them."

"In this way, people will join us in the future."

These were all things that Li Yun had planned in advance. He could say that he was telling the story in a leisurely manner: "So after this literary gathering, the next one will be three years later."

"And three years later, this event should no longer be called the Jinling Literary Gathering."

Du Qian immediately understood, then looked at Li Yun and said softly: "Three years..."

"It seems that the superiors are very pessimistic about the current situation in Da Zhou."

“There’s no way to be optimistic.”

Li Yun exhaled a breath of foul air and smiled bitterly: "When we first occupied Yuezhou, I thought that the Great Zhou should still have ten or twenty years of national prosperity, and we still have a lot of time to do things."

"Later, we occupied the East Road of Jiangnan and part of the West Road of Jiangnan. At that time, I thought that it would not be difficult for such a large court to support another seven or eight years."

He looked at Du Zhuo and the others, shook his head slightly and said, "Now, you two have also seen that after Wang Junping's disturbance, in just two years, the Great Zhou... has become a mere shell."

"Too fast, too fast."

Mr. Li whispered, “Whether there will be three more years, I can’t even say for sure.”

Du Qian looked at Zhuo Guangrui, thought for a moment, and then said, "Brother Zhuo, there are many things to do in the government office. You go back first. I will discuss some things with my superiors."

Zhuo Guangrui quickly stood up, answered yes, and then bowed to Li Yun and said, "Master, I will take my leave."

Li Yun stood up and walked with Du Qian to the door of the study. He thanked Brother Zhuo for his hard work and then followed Du Qian back to the study.

After both of them sat down, Du Qian looked at Li Yun.

"Erlang, I heard that you are going to lead the troops north personally."

Li Yun looked at him and said with a smile, "Who is gossiping with Brother Du?"

"No one."

Du Qian said helplessly: "I also receive and send documents there, and I noticed some movements in Youzhou, so I went to ask General Zhou."

"General Zhou refused to say anything at first, but I tricked him into telling me."

Li Yun just said "hmm" to show that he understood, then looked at Du Qian and asked with a smile: "Brother Du won't let me go either?"

"That's not it."

Du Qian said, "Erlang is the ruler of the southeast, so he will make his own decision. I just want to hear the reason. After all, even if we need to send someone over to Youzhou, we in Jiangdong don't have more than one general who can be used now." Li Yun was silent for a while, then he sighed and said, "I know, we can send someone over."

"But I always want to see what's going on in the north. Moreover, this time we are going to resist the Khitans, so I also want to see what the Khitans look like."

"Besides, it's better for me to go by myself for such a show of face."

Seeing that Du Qian didn't respond, Li Yun put down his teacup and said silently, "Then I can't stay in Jinling forever and be buried in the documents, right?"

Du Qian said softly, "That's exactly what I want to do."

"We are now quite large."

"At this time, we can assign tasks that can be assigned to others. The superior only needs to wait in Jinling for news of success or failure. That's enough."

Du Qian paused and continued, "Even the founding emperors of all dynasties were like this."

At this time, the conversation between the two no longer avoided the topic of founding a nation.

After all, this matter is no longer far away, it can even be said to be just one step away.

Sometimes, even when the two of them were chatting, they would talk about future rules and regulations, and what to do in the future.

"I still want to go out and see it with my own eyes."

Mr. Li looked at Du Qian and said, "While I can still move and my eyes are not blind or deaf, I must go to the north to see what the Khitans look like. I have a hunch."

“Even if we establish our own country in the future, we will probably still have to deal with these people.”

"Even if I really become the emperor in the future and cannot go out, that is a matter for the future."

"Now."

Li Yun said seriously: "I want to go out for a walk."

Seeing that Du Qian still didn't respond, Li Yun smiled and said, "Don't worry, Brother Shouyi, I will lead tens of thousands of troops out. As long as there are not five or six times as many enemies as me, I can retreat unscathed."

"If something unexpected happens, it won't be difficult for 10,000 people to find a random city and defend it for a while. Jiusi can run back and forth from here to Youzhou within ten days now."

"Nothing will happen."

Du Qian looked at Li Yun for a long time before he shook his head helplessly and said with a smile: "When Erlang becomes emperor in the future, when future generations judge Erlang, he will definitely be called Emperor Wu."

"The word wu doesn't sound nice."

Li Yun half-jokingly said, "I want to be the Emperor Taizu Gao."

"Emperor Taizu..."

Du Qian repeated, looked at Li Yun, and said with a smile: "Erlang is only one step away from these five words."

As long as a country can be founded, there will probably be an Emperor Taizu Gao!

Although Li Yun now only occupies the southeast, he is actually only one step away from founding a country.

To be precise, the other Jiedushi can be said to be just one step away.

But this step may be much more difficult than all the previous steps combined.

This step can only be taken by stepping on the heads of all other competitors.

Li Yun was also moved when he heard this. It took him a while to come back to his senses. He smiled and said to Du Qian, "Have you met the people from the Zheng family in Xingyang, Brother Shouyi?"

Du Qian nodded and said, "Yes, that guy from the Zheng family is buying land in the new city now."

Li Yun looked at Du Qian and said with a smile.

"Cui Lu, Li Zheng, I've met them all."

"These noble families benefited from it, brother..."

"Hold them down for me."

Du Qian nodded first, then sighed and smiled bitterly.

"I have no choice but to be the bad guy."

……

ps: Let me talk about the plot. (The following is not included in the word count)
Yesterday I wrote a story about the protagonist leading troops to fight, and many people said it was wrong and not good, saying that the protagonist was courting death. Some also said they wanted to abandon the book. After reading the comments, the author was in a very low mood until midnight yesterday, and didn't know how to write anymore.

This chapter spends a lot of time explaining this matter.

Talk about it here.

It is very normal for a founding lord to lead troops to fight, and they are generally quite powerful.

There is no need to mention the two Li and Zhu emperors and the two Taizong Wen emperors. (The following content is in this chapter due to word limit.)
　Let’s not even talk about the short-lived dynasty like Liu Yu’s.

　　Even Zhao Da is actually quite good at fighting!

　　As the founder, he must have a pioneering heart. As the protagonist, he is actually a template of a fierce general. It is extremely normal for him to go out and lead troops to fight.

　　As for the danger, a hero conquers the world by taking risks. There is no such thing as staying at home and having everything ready!
　　One more thing is.

　　No matter what era, no matter success or failure, the generals leading the troops are not actually particularly dangerous. The truly dangerous ones are the soldiers who charge into battle, ordinary people one after another.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)