Thief Emperor

Chapter 658 Military Merit

Li Yun's attitude towards the aristocratic families is very simple.

Use it if you can.

However, this usage is somewhat different from that of Du Qian, Xu Ang, Yao Zhong and others.

People like Du Qian are Li Yun's own people and are part of his team. Li Yun can trust them generally speaking. He uses them not only because of their abilities, but also because of some emotional factors.

For example, some of the current officials in Jiangdong were officials who served in the county government under Yuezhou when Li Yun was the Sima of Yuezhou. The county magistrate of a county under Yuezhou is now serving as the governor of Changzhou.

However, for these aristocratic families, Li Yun is more out of the perspective of utilization. Using them now will be beneficial to Jiangdong, so Li Yun will use them.

And in the future, when major events are set, Li will definitely take drastic measures to discipline these aristocratic families and put an end to these so-called thousand-year-old families that have a home but no country.

At the moment, of course, we should borrow strength if we can. Those aristocratic families are also very interested in cooperating with Li Yun. For example, the Zheng family of Xingyang has taken the initiative to approach Li Yun.

Xingyang is also in the Central Plains, and basically in the heart of the Central Plains. At this time, the people from the Nine Departments had already contacted the Zheng family of Xingyang and began to make plans in the Central Plains.

Hongnong is located in the western part of the Central Plains, close to the Guanzhong area. This is where Li Yun will go sooner or later. Now that he has captured the legitimate son of the Hongnong Yang family, there is naturally no reason not to use him.

As for military reform, it is the first thing that must be done. Otherwise, even if the Jiangdong Zhongshu is established, the rank of the generals below will remain stagnant, and the people in the army will also have opinions.

You know, Su Sheng and Zhao Cheng had been trying their best to push Li Yun to become king as soon as possible.

That day, Li Yun and Su Sheng sat together and discussed for nearly an hour, exchanging views in depth. The two had a meal together that day, and then Su Sheng said goodbye and left Qianyuan.

In a blink of an eye, another ten days passed.

At this time, it was already the end of the fourth year of Zhaoding, and in a few days it would be the end of the year.

After the New Year, Li Yun will offer sacrifices to heaven and be proclaimed king. However, before the New Year, there are still many things that need to be finalized so that after being proclaimed king, the imperial edict can be announced immediately to avoid confusion when the time comes.

On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, the long table in Qianyuan was used again.

Senior generals from the Jiangdong army arrived one after another.

After everyone entered the meeting room, they soon saw the long table. Li Zheng stood next to Zhou Liang and said with a low laugh, "Uncle San, Brother Er still remembers the days in the village. Look, this is no different from the chairs in our Juyi Hall before."

Zhou Liang glanced at him and said in a deep voice, "Be more serious."

After a pause, he said, "This is not just the seat in the village. Every position here today is different."

The most senior veteran in the Jiangdong Army whispered: "I wonder how many heads the future generations will have to step on before they can climb up."

While the two were talking, Liu Bo cautiously pushed open the door. He saw Zhou Liang and Li Zheng at a glance, and quickly came over and called them Uncle San. Zhou Liang was a little curious and asked, "Aren't we discussing military affairs today? Why are you here too, Lao Jiu?"

Liu Bo scratched his head and shook his head: "I don't know either. Meng Hai went to notify me to come over, so I came."

As the few people were talking, Su Sheng came over with a smile, pointed to the first seat on the left of the main seat, and said with a smile: "General Zhou, it's almost time to take your seat. Please sit here."

Zhou Liang shook his head and said, "General Su, you should take this seat."

Su Sheng said sternly, "We are all newcomers. General Zhou is the founder of our Jiangdong Army. You have to take this position."

"Zhou has no military merits at all. If he can sit in this position just because of his old age and seniority, it would be totally unfair."

Zhao Cheng also came over and said with a smile: "Brother Su is sitting first on the left, and General Zhou is sitting first on the right."

At this point, Zhao Cheng lowered his voice and said, "Just now, Su Zhan came over and said that the superior would not come until we all sit down. If you don't sit down, we can't discuss this matter today."

Su Sheng heard this and smiled bitterly, "That boy has been with the upper echelons for a long time and has become mysterious now. He refuses to say anything no matter what you ask him."

Several people argued for a long time, and finally Su Sheng sat in the first seat on the left, Zhao Cheng sat behind him, and then it was Deng Yang, the general of the Jinling Army.

On the right, the first person is Zhou Liang, followed by Li Zheng, and Liu Bo.

These are the people attending the meeting today.

The main reason is that what is being discussed today is the framework content, and Meng Qingchen is usually not in Jinling, otherwise, Gongsun Hao, Qian Zhong, and the four deputy generals Meng Chen would probably also be present.

After everyone sat down, Li Yun, dressed in a black robe, finally arrived. When he arrived, everyone stood up, bowed their heads, and saluted: "Take your seat!"

Li Yun sat down in the main seat, then clasped his hands and said with a smile: "There are no outsiders here, so sit down and talk. Sit down and talk."

After everyone sat down, Li Yun looked at Su Zhan who was waiting on the side and said with a smile: "It's cold, go light up two stoves, don't let everyone get frozen."

Su Zhan quickly lowered his head, responded, and went downstairs to prepare.

Li Yun looked at Su Sheng on his left and said with a smile, "Brother, you won't feel bad when you see me ordering you around, will you?"

Su Sheng grinned and said, "At his age, we should use him more. The higher-ups may not know that this little guy has grown up. A few days ago, I asked him to have dinner with me and tried to get some information from him, but he refused to say a word. He was very mysterious."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "He has a very good relationship with Zhou Bi now. I heard that the two of them often go out drinking together."

Su Sheng looked at Zhou Liang and said with a smile: "My sister seems to have some contact with Brother Zhou, but I have not been in Jinling for a while, so I don't know what these young people are doing."

Zhou Liang didn't say anything, but just turned his head and looked at Li Yun.

Li Yun lowered his head to drink tea and smiled faintly: "If both parties are willing, I will ask my wife to mediate this marriage for you later."

If it were an ordinary lord, he might be worried that this marriage would result in the two families becoming too powerful after the combination, but Li Yun did not have this worry.

Even if these two families are tied together, their influence is far less than that of Li Yun alone. Moreover, Zhou Liang and Zhou Bi are both Li Yun's direct descendants, so there is no such concern.

As for the future…

Sooner or later, those people around Li Yun will marry each other. If everyone is marrying each other, it is the same as no one is married.

For the Lord of Creation, there is no need to worry about these messy things. If you really worry about them, it means you lack magnanimity and cannot accomplish anything great.

Zhou Liang finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It would be great if the Zhou family could marry into the general's family."

"All right."

Li Yun smiled, tapped the table with his hand, and said, "It's a rare opportunity for us to get together today, let's discuss business."

"First, let's talk about the situation in each area briefly. When we summarize it together, we will have a general idea of ​​the situation. Let's start with General Su." Su Sheng nodded. He looked at Li Yun and asked, "Sir, do you want to stand up and speak?"

"Just sit down and talk."

Su Sheng then nodded and gave a brief account of the situation in Jingzhou and his troops.

Next came Zhao Cheng, and after Zhao Cheng it was Zhou Liang. Zhou Liang gave a brief account of the situation of the Military Inspection Office, and then came Deng Yang and Li Zheng.

Li Zheng spoke last. After looking at Li Yun, he said, "Master, we have fought with the Lingnan Army dozens of times, and it was basically a even fight. Before I came back, the Lingnan Army still did not retreat."

"But after the New Year, I will be able to completely repel the Lingnan Army."

Li Yun said "hmm" and asked, "Have you seen Gongsun Hao?"

Gongsun Hao was the deputy general assigned to Li Zheng by Li Yun. Having such an experienced general was a reinforcement for Li Zheng.

"See you."

Li Zheng quickly said, "In the past two days since I came back, I have met with General Gongsun twice."

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“It’s been a great benefit.”

"That's good."

Li Yun retracted his gaze, looked at the people present, and once again reached out and knocked on the table, saying, "Today, there are two main things to discuss."

"The first thing is how the troops should be deployed and distributed in the future."

"The second thing, everyone should know, is that in the spring after the New Year, I... will take a step further and rectify my position for myself, for Jiangdong, and for the position of the Lord. After rectifying the position, how should your official positions and the official positions of the generals in the army be arranged?"

"First things first."

After thinking about it, Li Yun continued, "I have thought about this for a long time. In the future, in addition to the garrisons in important towns across the country, most of our Jiangdong troops will be distributed near Jinling. In the future, they will be stationed near the capital."

"The capital is tentatively set in Jinling, but it is hard to say where it will be in the future. Anyway, this is what I mean."

"Just like the imperial guards of Wu Zhou, they guard the capital. If war breaks out, they will mobilize the troops, assign generals, and mobilize the army."

"Do you have any opinions on this matter?"

From a practical or actual combat perspective, it is definitely better to station troops in various places, because the troop transportation capacity in this era is really too poor.

Only when there are troops stationed in various places can we respond more quickly when something happens.

However, there is also a problem at the level of human hearts, that is, once military forces are concentrated in local areas, over time, they will inevitably form feudal lords.

Just like the Tang Dynasty in another world and the Wu Zhou Dynasty in this world.

The answer given by the Song Dynasty in another world was to select all the best troops from the local armies to join the central imperial guards, which led to the weakness of the local areas and their inability to fight against foreign enemies.

The only ones capable of fighting are the border troops and the imperial guards.
Just like a hard-shelled egg, once the enemy breaks through the border troops which serve as the eggshell, only the imperial guards will have combat effectiveness, and the local troops in various places will not even have the ability to resist.

Li Yun would certainly not do something so extreme, but the situation of separatist regimes was right in front of him, so at this time, he had to consider this aspect.

Everyone looked at me and I looked at you, but no one said anything.

Li Yun looked calm and continued, "Of course, this is a matter of the future. We are still in the development stage. Next year we will march into the Central Plains. I may lead the troops myself by then, and..."

He looked at everyone and said with a smile: "If we really want to gather troops to form the Central Imperial Guard, the generals who will command the Imperial Guard will most likely be among you present."

Su Sheng thought about it seriously, and then said, "If you take the throne, setting up the Imperial Guard is something that must be done. We have no objection, but if the troops enter the Central Plains next year..."

Li Yun smiled and said, "That's not the topic for today. Let's talk about it later. I can only tell Brother Su."

"I will personally lead the troops into the Central Plains. We will discuss who to lead and how to fight later."

"How to set up the Imperial Guard, how to divide the military system, and what the specific rules are, we will discuss the general outline today, and then I will make arrangements and do some preparatory work later."

Su Sheng responded with a yes, and then everyone began to discuss the matter.

After this discussion, it was already afternoon.

In the afternoon, we started discussing another matter.

As the backbone, Li Yun set the tone for this meeting. He first lowered his head to drink tea, then coughed and said, "At present, the military system has been basically perfected. The question is whether to add the position of general."

He said softly: "If the position of Grand General is established, the four generals today will be promoted to Grand General, and the four deputy generals will serve as deputy generals beside the Grand General."

"You can consider promoting a number of the captains below to generals."

Su Sheng frowned and did not express his opinion, while Zhao Cheng quickly shook his head and said, "Sir, since the establishment of our Jiangdong Army, we have always emphasized clear rewards and punishments."

"If we promote them without any clear reason, it's not appropriate. Those who were promoted to generals for no reason will no longer have the desire to climb up the ladder."

"My opinion is that we can promote General Su to the rank of general, and the rest of the army will remain unchanged for the time being, focusing on subsequent military achievements."

"If you have military merit, you can get a promotion."

He said slowly: "Anyway, we still have many battles to fight in Jiangdong, and there will be no shortage of military merits in the future. If you want to be promoted, you have to earn it yourself."

Su Sheng frowned and waved his hand, saying, "There is no such thing. If no one is promoted, I can't become a general."

Li Yun thought about it and said calmly: "Then let's set up a military merit title."

"We can set nine levels of nobility, provide benefits based on military merit, and award land. This way, we can also distribute the land at the same time."

"The highest level can be determined as a marquis."

"Officials and rank are divided into two categories: an official is an official, and a rank is a rank."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Otherwise, if the civil officials are promoted, the brothers in the army will be dissatisfied."

(End of this chapter)