Thief Emperor

Chapter 564 Fish leaps over the dragon gate
Even in the current situation, most Jiedushi still feel that the world will be divided among military leaders in various places and this will last for a very long time.

It was also for this reason that when something happened in Youzhou, the two nearby Jiedushi chose to stand idly by. In essence, everyone wanted to preserve their own strength and did not want to suffer any damage and be taken advantage of by others.

However, Li Yun was willing to respond to General Xiao's call for help, and even led his troops across the Pinglu Army's territory to the north.

This shows that his ambition is not just Jiangdong.

"Let me pass, let me pass..."

General Zhou repeated it twice silently and sneered, "Young people are mostly like this, full of ambition and like to make trouble. If he wants to make trouble, let him make trouble."

Zhou Chang looked at his father and asked, "Dad, do you mean to let him go?"

"Haven't you and I suffered enough from Gu Wenchuan's mistakes?"

Zhou Xu said expressionlessly: "At this time, we can only let him pass. If he doesn't, and he spreads the news, our Qingzhou will not only be criticized by scholars."

Zhou Chang thought for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "Dad, Li Yun has taken advantage of us in Huainan Road. This time he wants to borrow the road to go north. Can we do something about it?"

Zhou Xu glanced at him and said expressionlessly: "What article do you want to write?"

"He wants to lead 10,000 people north, so he must have a food supply route. Let's have people pretend to be bandits and cut off his food supply route!"

Zhou Chang looked at his father and whispered, "When the time comes, he will be thousands of miles away from the rear, unable to advance or retreat, and will definitely come to us for help."

"And this time it's Li Yun who's leading the troops himself. If we can manage things properly, we might be able to keep him in Qingzhou!"

Zhou Xu looked at his son silently and said, "Now we all know Li Yun's ability. He is a fierce general who can defeat a hundred people alone."

"It's easy to cut off his food supply, and it's not difficult to even think of a way to kill most of his 10,000 men. The blame can be completely put on the Khitans, but..."

Zhou Xu looked at his son and asked, "Are you more than 50% sure that you can keep Li Yun here?"

In this day and age, instant communication is difficult and there are no photos to speak of.

No matter how many people chase and block us, once we go deep into the mountains, it will be difficult to find us.

Even if the emperor wanted to capture a specific individual, he would have to spend a lot of manpower and resources, search the mountains and seas, and still might not find him.

For an individual with extremely strong combat capability like Li Yun, unless you are absolutely sure that you can kill him with one strike, otherwise, there is a high probability that he will be able to escape.

Once he breaks through on horseback and escapes back to Jiangdong, the two sides will immediately engage in a fight to the death.

At this time, the Pinglu Army was affected by the death of Gu Wenchuan. Although they controlled the eastern part of Henan Province on the surface, after the defeat in Huainan Province, the overall strength of the Pinglu Army was not much stronger than before.

Zhou Chang didn't say anything.

He had no confidence in accomplishing this. After all, the area under their actual control could not completely block all the roads that Li Yun took to return to Jiangdong. Li Yun could even take the route from Hedong to return to the south.

"Dad, you make the decision."

Zhou Xu was silent for a long time, then looked at Zhou Chang and said, "When he really arrives in Qingzhou, I will give you 5,000 soldiers and horses, and you will also lead the troops and follow him north to support the Fanyang army."

Zhou Chang was startled: "Dad?"

General Zhou looked calm: "After all, General Xiao is your uncle. We are closer to him than Li Yun is to him."

"If he can make a fuss about this, then we can too. When the time comes, you...just follow Li Yun. Wherever he goes, you should follow him."

The major general widened his eyes and exclaimed: "Dad, this..."

Seeing his son's expression, General Zhou was silent for a while before he slowly said, "Li Yun has already established a firm foothold in Jiangdong, and we in Qingzhou are burdened by the old thief Gu."

He simply said directly: "It is not advisable to make the relationship with him too awkward. If he cannot be defeated in the future, my son still has a way out."

Zhou Chang completely understood his father's thoughts. He smiled bitterly and said, "Dad thinks that I am no match for him."

Zhou Xu did not deny it, but said silently: "Father no longer has any intention of fighting."

"As for you."

He said in a deep voice: "Ask yourself if you can start from scratch and reach Li Yun's current level in three or four years?"

Zhou Chang shook his head and was silent for a long time before he spoke: "I will remember what my father said, but even if I have to bow to him in the future, I will have to fight with him first."

…………

At the end of February, Jinling City was overcrowded.

Li Yun and Du Qian walked on a newly built section of the city wall in Jinling New City, inspecting the progress of the new city. Zhuo Guangrui, the person in charge, accompanied the two and inspected the city wall together.

After walking for a while, Li Yun picked up a brick, looked at it, squeezed it hard, and then knocked it against the city wall, making a crisp sound.

"nice."

Li Yun looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said with a smile: "Although Brother Zhuo comes from a wealthy family, he has quite a talent for engineering work."

Zhuo Guangrui also smiled and said, "When you are in a high position, you are in charge of people. Doing business is actually also about managing people. In addition, I have been a county magistrate for quite a while, so doing these small things is not difficult."

Except for Du Qian, many of the civil servants under Li Yun were former county magistrates, including Zhuo Guangrui, Xu Ang, and some other civil servants.

Compared with those high-ranking officials in the court, these grassroots officials know better what life is like at the grassroots level and are more down-to-earth.

Li Yun looked at Du Qian thoughtfully, then said with a smile, "Brother Du, I have an idea."

"If future officials in Jiangdong want to be in the central government, they must have served as county officials and prefecture officials for at least one term."

Du Qian was startled, then smiled and said, "Over the years, the distinction between Beijing officials and local officials has been clear, and I have never heard of such a rule."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Beijing officials may never have been out of the capital, so they don't know what it's like down there. Even if they have the intention to do good things, they may end up doing something bad."

Seeing that Li Yun didn't seem to be joking, Du Qian also became serious and asked, "Are you serious about taking the position?"

"I always mean what I say."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Write this down and make it a precedent in the future."

Du Qian is now in charge of Jiangdong's personnel affairs. Hearing this, he slowly nodded and said, "Okay, I've remembered it. I'll write it down in the book when I get back, and it will serve as a precedent in the future."

The three people were talking as they walked. After walking a little further, Li Yun saw a lot of bedding at the corner of the new city's wall. There were at least twenty or thirty of them at a glance.

Looking further away, you can see some people walking nearby.

It was still early spring and the weather was still a little chilly. Li Yun was startled and frowned, "Are those the craftsmen who are repairing the city wall? Why are they sleeping under the wall?"

Zhuo Guangrui was startled by Li Yun's words, and followed his gaze. After looking for a while, he breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head slightly, and said with a smile: "Your Excellency has misunderstood. The craftsmen who are building the city wall of our new city all have places to live. Those who live in the corners of the wall are not the craftsmen who are building the city. They should be the scholars who came to participate in this year's literary meeting."

Li Yun looked at Du Qian, who smiled bitterly and said, "That's probably the case. The superior may not know yet that the Jinling Literary Conference is coming soon, and the prices of hotels in the city have skyrocketed. Some have increased seven or eight times, or even ten times."

"The temples outside the city are all full of scholars, and the dilapidated temples are probably also full of people."

At this point, Du Qian looked at Li Yun and said, "Jinling City is too small."

"This corner can at least provide some shelter from the wind..."

At this time, Nanjing had not yet truly served as the capital of a proper dynasty.

This place used to be a county, but was only promoted to a prefecture in recent decades. The city of Jinling is only slightly larger than an ordinary prefecture or county.

Du Qian smiled bitterly and said, "This year, there are at least 7,000 to 8,000 scholars who came to Jinling to participate in the literary gathering."

Li Yun thought about it seriously and said, "So many scholars have come here to show their support for us. We cannot let them live here. I will send a note to Deng Yang and ask him to bring some marching tents and set them up on the open space in the new city for these scholars who come to participate in the literary gathering to live in."

"besides."

Mr. Li said in a deep voice: "Those shops that have raised their prices wildly, Jinling Prefecture should also send people to take care of them and ask them what's going on!"

Zhuo Guangrui quickly bowed his head and admitted his guilt: "This is my fault. I will go and look into this matter this evening."

As a deputy, of course, he couldn't let Du Fuyin take responsibility for such a small matter.

Li Yun nodded and patted Zhuo Guangrui on the shoulder: "I know Brother Zhuo is working hard. No matter what, let's get through this period first."

Du Qian, who was standing by, put his hands in his sleeves and said with a smile, "Last year, Xu Kun and Yao Zhong were both very successful and established the Dragon Gate. This year, they really rose to prominence and attracted so many talented people from Jiangdong."

Li Yun looked at the bedding under the city wall and felt quite happy, and said with a smile.

"Once you jump over this dragon gate, you will be within my grasp!"

(End of this chapter)