Thief Emperor

Chapter 588 Li Yunlong

Capital city, Cui Mansion.

Pei Huang sat in front of Cui Xianggong. After a long silence, he asked, "Cui Xianggong, what do you think of Liang Wen..."

"Is it useful?"

Prime Minister Cui sat on the recliner, looked up at the sky, and said calmly: "I have already submitted a letter of retirement, and you, Pei Sanlang, have never been appointed as prime minister. The government is not in our hands, and the imperial guards have nothing to do with us."

"Whether Liang Wen is useful or not is not up to you and me to decide."

Pei Huang whispered, "You have retired, but His Majesty has not approved it yet."

"I have been at home for half a month."

Cui Xianggong smiled and said, "What difference does it make whether it is approved or not?"

Pei Huang understood what Cui Yuan meant. He whispered, "Mr. Cui thinks that Liang Wen..."

"I didn't say anything, but there are some things I want to talk to Sanlang about."

At this point, Cui Xianggong's tone also dropped. He said silently: "This Liang Wen was from Wang Junping's army. Later he escaped from Guanzhong and occupied Ruzhou. Because he was recruited, he was appointed as the Defense Envoy of Ruzhou."

"Ruzhou used to have 50,000 to 60,000 households, so it was a big state."

At this point, Prime Minister Cui couldn't help but clench his fists slightly: "Before this, Liang Wen reported to the court that there were less than 20,000 households in Ruzhou."

Pei Sanlang was stunned and muttered: "This... This may be because of the chaos in the Central Plains."

"It's because of the chaos in the Central Plains."

Prime Minister Cui said expressionlessly, "But the chaos in the Central Plains was caused by the rebel Wang Junping. Liang Wen was Wang Junping's subordinate. The previous chaos in the Central Plains was caused by these people."

"Later, Liang Wen arrived in Ruzhou, and his subordinates' style did not change."

Cui Xianggong sighed deeply: "In the past year, I have collected information about the situation in various prefectures and counties. Although they have also experienced war, the population of Jiangnan Road has increased instead of decreased."

At this point, Cui Xianggong continued, "Earlier, the court sent Eunuch Gao to Ruzhou, and that Eunuch Gao received a generous gift list from Liang Wen."

"Where did he get his money from during these troubled times?"

Prime Minister Cui sneered and said, "This time, when he came to the capital, many officials in the capital also received Liang Wen's gift list, and they were all quite heavy."

"Even an old man like me who is unemployed at home received a gift list."

At this point, Cui Xianggong looked at Pei Huang and gave his own inference: "Whether this man is a capable and loyal minister, I can't say, but he must be a traitor to the people."

Pei Huang remained silent.

"Since Lord Cui knows so much, why doesn't he explain it to His Majesty?"

Cui Xianggong looked up at Pei Huang and smiled dumbly: "Mr. Pei, how come you haven't made any progress in these years?"

"The Imperial City Division has always been here."

Minister Cui said slowly, "If this old man knows about this, how can Your Majesty not know about it?"

At this point, Cui Yuan closed his eyes and sighed, "Your Majesty will know more."

Pei Huang stood up, and after a long time, he slowly sat down again, without speaking for a long time.

He has seen a lot of corruption and bribery, and he has done it himself.

In the early years, when the current emperor was still the crown prince, Pei Huang was one of the helpers who helped the crown prince make money.

As for giving money and women, it was something Pei Huang was accustomed to in the past.

However, Pei Huang still had some ambitions. He followed the prince in the hope that one day he would be able to enter the government hall and become a prime minister, so that he could display his talents and go down in history.

To the extent that even now, he is still thinking about saving the Great Zhou and restoring the imperial court.

But he was also very clear that if he wanted to restore the court, using people like Liang Wen would be like drinking poison to quench thirst.

"Sanlang."

Cui Yuan looked at Pei Huang and said softly, "You are smart, but you were born and raised in the capital. You have never experienced any setbacks or failures since childhood, and you have never seen the sufferings of the people."

"You take a lot of things for granted."

"Look for an opportunity to leave the capital."

Cui Xianggong sighed silently and said, "Go outside and take a look, then think about what to do in the future."

"Otherwise, Sanlang will be neither high nor low in his life, and will achieve nothing in the end."

Pei Huang stood up, sighed deeply to Prime Minister Cui, then bowed his head deeply and saluted.

"I have remembered what Mr. Cui said, but it is still hard to say whether I can leave the capital."

"Don't argue with your majesty."

Seeing that he was about to leave, Minister Cui reminded him of the last sentence.

"Let's keep some of the incense and friendship." Pei Huang bowed deeply to Mr. Cui and saluted.

"Teachable."

…………

While a group of people in the capital were scheming against each other, a fierce battle was going on outside Jizhou City.

Two days ago, two thousand cavalrymen of the Fanyang Army came to support Jizhou. Li Yun did not hesitate and led five thousand soldiers out of the city to fight against the Khitans.

This war is different from the previous two.

The previous two times, either the camp was attacked in the middle of the night or the attack was carried out under the city, which were unconventional battles. But this time, basically no one could hide the truth from the other. Both sides set up their battle lines in Jizhou City and started fighting back and forth.

The lengthening of the battle line means that the progress of the war cannot be as fast as before. After all, on such a large battlefield, both sides have plenty of space to retreat and transfer.

Over the course of two days, Li Yunzheng only fought two battles with the Khitans. Both were small-scale conflicts, and the combined casualties amounted to just over three digits.

At this moment, Li Yun was sitting in the general's tent. Major General Xiao Heng stood in front of Li Yun, bowed his head slightly and saluted, saying, "Sir, I just received news from Youzhou. Yesterday, my father and the Khitans had another great battle, with more than 10,000 people involved."

When both sides deployed more than 10,000 troops, it would be a super large-scale battle. In comparison, the war in Jizhou seemed a bit small.

Li Yun was looking at the map of Jizhou at this moment. He pointed to Pingzhou in the east of Jizhou and said, "The Khitans don't have many places to retreat to. If they retreat any further, they will retreat to Pingzhou."

"If they really retreat to Pingzhou, Major General..."

Li Yun looked at Xiao Heng and said, "I think this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At that time, as long as your army dispatches 20,000 to 30,000 people to Jizhou, we can block the Khitans' retreat route and even trap and kill their main force in Youzhou."

Xiao Heng thought about it, shook his head slightly and said, "My father will not allow you to beat me like this."

The trapped beast still fights.

The main force of the Khitans must be around 50,000 now. If we really want to surround them and prevent them from breaking out, God knows what the price will be.

By then, even if the Fanyang army could win, they would be crippled and would completely lose the "qualification to win" in the subsequent internal fighting among the Han countries.

You may even be disqualified from the competition.

Xiao Heng knew his father very well, and he was aware that General Xiao would never deploy his troops at the risk of crippling the Fanyang army.

Even if doing so might wipe out the main force of the Khitan, he would not do it.

To put it bluntly, the foundation of the Xiao family is not how many Khitans they killed or how many military exploits they made, but these living Fanyang soldiers. These people are the Xiao family's greatest wealth.

Naturally, Xiao Xian was reluctant to work so hard that he would spend all his family fortune.

Li Yun nodded to show his understanding, and then said in a deep voice: "Then we have no choice but to find a way to annihilate the enemy in Jizhou."

The two men talked in detail about specific strategies and tactics, and then Major General Xiao said goodbye and left, returning to his tent to write a letter to his old father.

A little later, a guest who was very familiar to Li Yun came to his tent.

Liu Bo, dressed in ordinary clothes, dusted off his dusty body in front of Li Yun, then shook his slightly fat body, looked up at Li Yun, and said with a smile: "Second brother, you didn't expect me to come, right?"

Li Yun put down the brush in his hand and said with a smile: "I didn't expect it. Didn't I ask you to deploy the Nine Departments to the west? Why did you come to Jizhou?"

"I was worried about the front line, so I came to take a look."

At this point, Liu Bo smiled and said, "My three sisters-in-law and Mr. Du are worried about my second brother, so they asked me to come over to help."

Liu Bo sat next to Li Yun and said with a smile: "Second brother, you and Shou Hou are here, of course we, the Three Heroes of Cangshan, must reunite."

Li Yun joked with him for a few words, then motioned him to sit down and asked, "You came here in person, is there something important you want to tell me?"

"there is."

Liu Bo looked at Li Yun and said with a smile: "There are two things I need to tell my second brother."

"A lot of things have happened in Guanzhong Capital recently."

Liu Bo told Li Yun about what happened in Guanzhong. After listening to him, Li Yun curled his lips and said disdainfully, "What a bunch of bastards."

"When I get back, I'll start preparing to deal with them."

At this point, Li Yun looked at Liu Bo and asked, "What's the second thing? What is it?"

"This is what Mr. Du told me."

Liu Bo looked around and whispered, "Mr. Du is going to get a stele and then carry it out on the giant turtle's back."

"Write something on it."

Li Yun smiled and asked, "What word?"

"I don't remember clearly, but if you say that you are not a human being, second brother."

Li Yun glared at him, Liu Bo quickly shrank his head and forced a smile: "I remember, Mr. Du wanted to carve something like Li Yunlong on it..."

(End of this chapter)