Thief Emperor

Chapter 601 Huang Chao Joins the Army
At this time, Li Yun already had enough conditions to leave the southeast and develop in other directions.

Just as he had planned before, he would first take Jingxiang and then enter the Central Plains from Jingxiang.

But there is a hidden danger in doing so.

The person who can sit in the position of Jiedushi in the world may not be smart, but the one who can sit in the position of Jiedushi must be a smart person.

Not only Li Yun was observing the world situation, these people were also standing on a high place, overlooking the world and foreseeing the future.

For example, General Xiao Xian, the Jiedushi of Fanyang, accurately pointed out the only two options for Li Yun.

Go north or west.

At this time, you should keep a low profile if you can.

After all, Li Yun's westward expansion plan has a fatal weakness, that is, once he deploys most of his troops to Shannan East Road or the Central Plains battlefield, Jiangbei will inevitably be empty. At that time, the Pinglu Army in the north may not necessarily come to attack his Nanjing, but may go south to retake Jiangbei.

When it comes to interests, all those calls of brother and uncle are lies, Li Yun is very clear about this.

Even the Pinglu Army's march south to take Jiangbei was not really for the purpose of taking Jiangbei, but to restrain Li Yun and prevent him from going north to annex Qingzhou after becoming powerful.

Life and death are at stake. If they are sure that Li Yun will go west, they will almost certainly go south, at least to cause some trouble for Li Yun.

Li Yun left Deng Yang's Jinling Army and Li Zheng in Jinling to prevent such a situation from happening.

Now, in front of Xiao Heng, of course he had to deny it if he could.

Xiao Heng looked at Li Yun and said with a smile: "If the Lord really wanted to be a local emperor, why did he travel thousands of miles north a few days ago?"

He paused and continued, "To be honest with you, if you don't accept the beauties I brought with me, I will go north immediately after getting the telescope and tell my uncle that Jiangdong will soon make a big move."

Not accepting women means he is not greedy for beauty, or at least he is not greedy for pleasure, so he must have great ambitions.

Li Yun looked at Xiao Heng and said in amazement, "So there is such a detail."

At this point, without waiting for Xiao Heng to speak, Li Yun asked: "The world is changing drastically, and it will soon be a situation where many heroes will compete for supremacy. Have you ever thought about conquering the world, father and son?"

"Of course I have."

Xiao Heng answered straightforwardly. He looked at Li Yun and said silently, "Otherwise, my father wouldn't have traveled so far to the capital to join in the fun and give the Khitans an opportunity to take advantage of him."

"But, with the Khitans making such a fuss, it will be very difficult for our Xiao family to compete with others for the world."

He looked at Li Yun and sighed, "Earlier, there was a scholar named Fan who suggested to my father that he should not worry about the Khitans in the north, but lead the troops to withdraw from Fanyang and head south. By then, with a large number of troops in hand, he can go anywhere, even directly occupy the Central Plains. It can be said that the world is vast and the sky is the limit."

Hearing this, Li Yun was a little curious: "What happened next?"

“Then the man died.”

Xiao Heng replied: "My father beat the thief to death with his own hands."

"it is good."

Li Yun clapped his hands and said with a smile: "If someone says such stupid things to me, I will beat him to death myself."

This suggestion is quite stupid.

Not to mention how much public pressure Xiao Xian would have to bear if he really did this. Even if he didn't care about his reputation, the Fanyang Army's roots were in the Youzhou area, and most of the soldiers in the Fanyang Army were locals. Would those soldiers be willing to abandon their hometowns, give their hometowns to the Khitans, and then follow General Xiao to the vast sea and sky?
Most likely they would not be willing to do so.

If they really did this, the foundation of several generations of Fan Yang would be destroyed in an instant.

Although the presence of the Khitans did hold the Fanyang army back, there was no other way. If you wanted to gain a foothold there, you had to bear this risk.

I can only say it was bad luck.

Xiao Heng looked at Li Yun and said, "This time, Lord Li went north and helped Fanyang a lot. My father is very grateful and wants to make friends with Jiangdong in the future."

Li Yun looked at him and immediately understood what he meant. After thinking for a while, he looked around and saw a tea stall on the roadside. He took Xiao Heng to sit down. The two sat face to face. Li Yun ordered tea and then asked with a smile: "How do you plan to make friends, young general?"

Xiao Heng replied: "Whether the Lord moves west or north in the future, Fan Yang will not interfere."

"If the Lord gains control of the world in the future, the Xiao family of Fanyang will surrender to him. If the Lord fails to do so and retreats to Jiangdong, then our two families can become allies and help each other in the future."

Xiao Heng's words were quite sincere.

Of course, the main reason for this is not because Li Yun went north to help their family, but the more important reason is that with the presence of the Khitans, the Xiao family father and son have indeed lost the ability to compete for the world.

Even if they controlled Hebei Province, the best outcome would be that they would become independent lords like Zhou Xu.

It was under this premise that Xiao Heng came to Jinling and spoke to Li Yun.

Of course, how much you can believe this depends entirely on what Li Yun thinks.

Mr. Li lowered his head to drink tea, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Is this what the young general meant, or what the general meant?"

Xiao Heng replied, "It should be my own idea. My father asked me to go south just to let me see what Jiangdong is like now and let me learn from the Lord. If I want to govern a place, it would be best if I can be like the Lord, set up my own court and conduct my own imperial examinations." "Otherwise, it's just for me to get along well with the Lord."

At this point, he looked at Li Yun and said with a smile: "But after I arrived in Jiangdong, my horizons were really opened. From what I have seen and heard in the past few days, Jiangdong is much more prosperous than our Hebei Province and Henan Province where Qingzhou is located."

“This is something a military town cannot achieve.”

Li Yun sighed and said, "It's rare for a major general from a military town to say something like this."

"In the final analysis, it's because we are not strong enough."

Xiao Heng sighed and said, "To be honest. If Fanyang has a strong army and is capable of unifying the world, no matter how prosperous Jiangdong is, in my eyes, it will only make me want to send troops to Jiangdong, and I won't have any other thoughts."

Li Yun stretched out his hand and said with a smile: "Then consider it as an agreement between me and the Major General. If the day that the Major General said really comes in the future, we will sit down and talk."

Xiao Heng high-fived Li Yun and said with a smile, "The Lord of the Mansion really wants to leave the southeast. Tell me quickly, is the Lord of the Mansion going to take Qingzhou?"

Li Yun still shook his head and said with a smile: "In this world, if I don't hit others, others will hit me. Sooner or later, there will be a day when we will attack each other. Who knows when I say the future will happen?"

The two looked at each other and laughed.

…………

In early July, Su Sheng arrived in Luzhou with a group of personal soldiers. As soon as he arrived in Luzhou City, he saw Chen Da and Huang Yong and others waiting outside the city to greet him. After seeing Su Sheng, everyone hurried forward and bowed, "Greetings, General!"

Su Sheng helped everyone up and said with a smile, "We are all soldiers, there is no need to be so polite. Hurry up and stand up, hurry up and stand up."

After Chen Da stood up, he smiled at Su Sheng and said, "General, I received a letter from my superiors, asking the Luzhou soldiers to follow you and obey your orders. General, where are we going to attack this time?"

The plan to attack Jingxiang is currently only circulating among the highest decision-making level in Jiangdong. Second-tier generals like Chen Damengqing are still not aware of it.

Su Sheng looked at him and said with a smile: "Don't worry, brother. I will count the number of Luzhou soldiers in the next few days and then we will make arrangements. As for where to fight, don't ask."

"You'll know after a while."

Chen Da knew that it was probably some secret operation, so he did not ask any more questions. He just turned aside and said, "I have prepared wine and food to welcome you, General. Please come into the city."

Su Sheng followed Chen Da into Luzhou City. As soon as he entered the city, he waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about eating. Find me a place to stay. I'll change my clothes and go to see Master Xue."

Chen Da finally reacted and said with a smile: "Okay, General, just follow me."

Su Sheng followed him and asked, "Brother Chen, how have you been getting along with Master Xue during your time in Luzhou?"

Chen Da turned around and smiled at Su Sheng: "General, you probably don't know that I used to be a yamen runner in Qingyang. At that time, Master Xue happened to be the county magistrate of Qingyang. We have known each other for a long time."

“Naturally we get along well.”

"I remember now."

Su Sheng patted his forehead and said, "The one who came to power was also a yamen runner from Qingyang."

Chen Da nodded and said with a smile: "The one in the upper position is our head."

General Su patted Chen Da on the shoulder and said with emotion: "Then the relationship is very close. If he becomes the emperor in the future, brother Chen, you will be one of the first ministers to follow him."

Chen Dalian waved his hands and said he didn't dare. After taking Su Sheng to change clothes, he took Su Sheng to the Luzhou Governor's Mansion and soon met Master Xue Song.

Su Sheng clasped his fists and bowed politely: "Su Sheng greets Mr. Xue."

Xue Song hurried forward, helped Su Sheng up, and shook his head, saying, "General Su, what are you doing? Please get up quickly."

After helping Su Sheng up, he invited Su Sheng to the governor's house for tea, and then asked, "Why did General Su come to Luzhou? Is there something wrong?"

The old man paused, then asked, "Is there anything you need my cooperation with?"

“There is no place for cooperation.”

Su Sheng smiled and said, "I came here on orders to call on the Luzhou soldiers."

"By the way, there's one more thing."

He looked at Master Xue and said with a smile, "Last time when we recovered Jiangnan West Road, there was a Magistrate Huang in Luzhou who was quite brave. I told my superiors that I was going to bring him to the army this time, firstly to find a counselor for me, and secondly to see if he was suitable for leading troops."

"Huang Chao."

Mr. Xue nodded and said, "He is still the county magistrate of Shucheng County. He refused to be transferred to be the deputy governor and insisted on serving as the county magistrate of Shucheng for the whole term."

"General Su wants to transfer him. I will send him the official document and ask him to come to Luzhou."

Su Sheng thought about it, nodded and smiled.

"Thank you, Mr. Xue."

(End of this chapter)