Thief Emperor

Chapter 676: Passing and Cleansing

Hedong Road, Taiyuan City.

The old general Li Tong, who had been bedridden for a long time, suddenly became energetic. On this day, he rarely stood up from the bed, asked the maid in the mansion to help him take a bath and change into new clothes.

After changing his clothes, the old man asked someone to call all his sons over.

Li Tong has six sons. The eldest son, Li Zhen, is over 40 years old, the fourth son, Li Hao, is in his early 30s, and the youngest son is not yet 20 years old.

Among General Li's six children, the second one unfortunately died a few years ago, leaving five. They were all in Taiyuan City at this time. Not long after, they all gathered in front of Li Tong.

The eldest son, Li Zhen, looked at his father and said with a smile, "Dad, you look much better today. When you get better, I will ask all the old men in the army to come home and have some fun together."

Li Tong raised his eyelids and looked at his eldest son. The old man laughed at himself and said, "If I were to get better at this moment, I'm afraid you wouldn't be too happy."

Li Zhen immediately knelt on the ground, lowered his head and said, "Father, what are you saying? You are embarrassing me..."

General Li took a deep breath and said, "Don't talk nonsense. I asked you to come here today to arrange my funeral."

"You brothers are all here, so you can witness it for each other."

Hearing his words, the five sons knelt on the ground. The fourth son, Li Hao, immediately burst into tears and said, "Father, please don't think like that. We brothers all hope that you will live a hundred years."

General Li was silent for a while, sighed silently, looked at the children, and said: "I have seen all the ups and downs in my life, and it has not been in vain."

He closed his eyes and continued, "I have been a minister of Zhou all my life. Now the Great Zhou... is in turmoil. I don't know when it will end."

"As a father, it's time for us to be in a precarious situation."

The old man sighed and said, "According to our family's previous rules, the position of Jiedushi should be taken over by the eldest brother. He has been doing this for the past few years, so there shouldn't be any big problems."

At this point, the old man coughed and continued, "Now, it's not a peaceful time. If things go wrong, there will be a war. Nothing can happen in Hedong. You brothers, you have to help the boss and take over this class."

Several sons knelt before General Li, all with tears in their eyes and their heads bowed in response.

The eldest son, Li Zhen, also burst into tears and bowed his head and said, "Don't worry, father. I will definitely do what you have asked me to do."

Li Tong closed his eyes and continued, "I heard it all."

"The Central Plains has always been a battleground."

Li Tong said slowly: "Right now, Li Yun in the southeast is eyeing the Central Plains, and Zhou Xu in Qingzhou is probably also eyeing the Central Plains. If Xiao Xian in Fanyang had not been restricted by the Khitans, his troops might have already gone to the Central Plains by now."

"Now, Guanzhong is closed off, and Liang Wen's main force is no longer in Luoyang, which is in the capital. In the next one or two years, the Central Plains will surely be engulfed in war."

The old general looked at his eldest son Li Zhen and said slowly: "Boss, remember one sentence, whoever controls the Central Plains controls the world."

Li Zhen seemed to be thinking about something, and whispered, "Father, do you mean that we should also fight for it?"

"Hedong Road is next to the Central Plains, there is no reason for us not to fight for it. If you don't fight for it, and don't dare to fight for it, then you brothers should not expect anything else. Just stay in Taiyuan and wait for the future to be decided by others."

Li Zhen took a deep breath and bowed his head, saying, "I have memorized all of my father's instructions."

The old general seemed a little tired. He paused for a long time before continuing, "The so-called ruling the Central Plains means that as long as the Central Plains are firmly occupied, it is only a matter of time before the world is conquered. Most of the major military governors will not sit idly by in this battle in the Central Plains. Among them, there are two people that my son must be careful of."

"One is Li Yun from the southeast, who has the appearance of a tiger and a wolf."

General Li was silent for a while, and then continued: "The other is Wei Quanzhong, who is ambitious and has been accumulating strength."

He looked at his sons and said slowly, "At present, these two people are the most powerful, but every time at this time, the world changes unpredictably. This year it is one way, and next year it may be another way. No one knows if anyone will take advantage of the situation and rise up."

"No one can tell for sure who will truly change the dynasty in the future."

At this point, Li Tong glanced at his fourth son, Li Hao, and his voice was a little hoarse: "Fourth son."

Li Hao knelt on the ground, lowered his head and said, "The child is here."

"I will give you my father's guard camp. In the future, in the future..."

"If Taiyuan is in trouble in the future, you can separate and start another branch to preserve the Li family's incense."

Li Tong's guard camp had a thousand men, and each man was equipped with a horse, so they were all elite soldiers.

Simply put, this is a cavalry of thousands of people.

General Li's attitude was very simple. If the Hedong Army was about to fail in the future, he would let Li Yu take these thousand men as capital and bet on another wise leader, so that a branch of the Taiyuan Li family could survive.

Li Yu knelt on the ground, shedding tears, and said, "Father, I am willing to fight against the foreign enemies with you, and live and die together!"

General Li looked at his favorite son and said expressionlessly, "Are you going to disobey your father's orders?"

General Li's descendants all knelt on the ground, crying and saying they dared not. Li Tong then took a deep breath and said slowly: "Let the grandchildren come in."

Several members of the Li family kowtowed in response.

A few days later, Li Tong, the governor of Hedong, who was almost the most affectionate towards the Great Zhou and relatively loyal to the Wu Zhou among this generation of governors, died of illness at home.

The obituary was sent to the capital by flying letters and spread throughout the country.

…………

At about the same time, Liu Bo from Jiangdong Jiusi had already rushed to Zhangzhou City on horseback day and night.

In the current Zhangzhou city, the Nine Departments have deployed at least two to three hundred people. As soon as he arrived at the gate of Zhangzhou city, people from the Nine Departments came out to greet him, bowed their heads and respectfully called him "Si Zheng".

Liu Bo got off his horse. He was a little fat, and he had been traveling day and night. His legs went weak after he got off the horse, and he almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, his subordinates next to him were quick to support him.

"Si Zheng, are you okay?"

"fine."

Liu Bo took a deep breath, stood up straight, untied the water bag from the saddle, took a big gulp, and said without any nonsense, "Take me to see General Li."

"Yes."

Led by his subordinates, Liu Bo traveled through Zhangzhou City and soon arrived at the gate of a big house. As soon as he arrived at the door, he was stopped by several soldiers in armor. The people from Jiusi hurried forward and said a few words to them. Then the soldiers under Li Zheng made way and let Liu Bo and others in.

Soon, Liu Bo arrived at a room in the backyard that smelled of medicine. Zhang Hu was guarding the door of the room and no one was allowed to approach except the doctor.

Liu Bo stepped forward and called out "Mynah". Zhang Hu was very happy to see Liu Bo: "Old Nine, why are you here?"

Liu Bo looked at him and said with a smile: "In this case, of course I have to come."

Zhang Hu talked with Liu Bo for a while, then said, "I'm afraid someone will harm him again, so I stay here every day."

"Go in and have a look at him."

Liu Bo patted Zhang Hu on the shoulder and nodded silently: "I'll talk to Bage later."

After saying that, he walked past Zhang Hu and entered the room.

I met Li Zheng. At this moment, Li Zheng was bandaged tightly all over his body, but his mental state had recovered a little. At least he was conscious.

Liu Bo stepped forward and stood in front of the bed, looking at Li Zheng for a long time before he sighed: "Why are you so careless?"

Li Zheng was lying on the bed. When he saw Liu Bo, he was about to sit up, but Liu Bo stopped him: "Just lie down and talk."

Li Zheng continued to lie there, smiling bitterly, "Why did you get here for such a small matter?"

Liu Bo said silently: "If my second brother was still in Jinling instead of going to Jingxiang, I'm afraid he would come."

"Second brother, very angry."

Li Zheng was also touched when he heard this. He looked at Liu Bo, thought for a while, and then said, "I have been fighting with the Lingnan Army for so long, it is not surprising that they would do something dirty. In the past, when our two villages were fighting to the death, it was common for them to do something dirty on the roadside."

"But now, we are not in the village."

Liu Bo said silently: "There is a traitor in your army. There are people from the Imperial City Bureau in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou."

"Zhou Bi is already on his way. That boy is now an official of the Privy Council's Inspection Department. You should know why he came to the south."

"My second brother told me to clean up the south. If I don't, I will no longer be the Chief of the Ninth Department."

At this point, Liu Bo looked at Li Zheng and continued, "Second brother also said that you were too lenient towards your subordinates, which led to such lax military discipline in the army this time."

"This time, you have to do some serious cleanup in your army."

He paused and added: "I'm afraid it will implicate many people."

Li Zheng was lying on the bed, looking at the bed board and muttering.

"I'm not dead, why is there such a big commotion..."

"You are the only brother with the same surname as my second brother."

Liu Bo said with a smile.

"If you died, he would probably go crazy."

(End of this chapter)