Thief Emperor

Chapter 683 Must be included in this Chronicle
With the cooperation of the Nine Departments and the various armies, Su Sheng soon received news from Li Yun. It happened that at this time, his war in Shanzhou had also ended, so he temporarily handed over the military affairs to Chen Da, and he also rode a fast horse with a small entourage and headed straight for Junzhou.

Two days later, Su Sheng arrived in Junzhou and sat at the conference table with Zhao Cheng and Meng Qing.

This is the tradition in Jiangdong, to hold a meeting before doing anything.

Of course, other forces would most likely have such a meeting to discuss things before doing anything, but Li Yun, comparatively speaking, would hold meetings more frequently, and he was better at listening to the opinions of front-line personnel.

After all, at his level, he can no longer see many relatively basic things.

After Su Sheng sat down, Li Yun hung up the map. He pointed at the map and said calmly, "Right now, Huang Chao's troops are here, near Langshan County in Yuzhou. The Ninth Division just received intelligence yesterday that he has encountered the enemy here."

"The flag has a character called Zheng, so it should be..."

Li Yun pointed his finger at a point on the map and said slowly, "It should be the troops of Zheng Can, the loyal and martial governor of Xuzhou."

Su Sheng smiled and said, "Wasn't the Zhongwu Army disbanded by Wang Junping a few years ago? Now it has revived. Judging from the name of this Jiedushi, he should be from the Zheng family of Xingyang."

Li Yun nodded and said, "He is from the Zheng family of Xingyang."

Su Sheng touched his chin and said, "Hasn't it because of Wang Junping that many people from the Zheng family in Xingyang have already surrendered to the upper class? Can we ask the Zheng family in Jinling to send a letter to this Zheng Can and persuade him to surrender?"

Li Yun shook his head slightly and said, "Brother Su should know what these noble families are like. They never put all their eggs in one basket."

Having said that, Li Yun sneered.

"Qinghe Cui, someone came to visit me a few days ago and said that they have a direct descendant and want to join Jiangdong and obey my orders."

"You call me Your Majesty all the time, it's quite affectionate."

Although these noble families have made bets in many places, they are very disciplined. After joining various parties, they really serve their own masters and usually will not collude with each other. When they really come into conflict with each other, they may really fight to the death.

This is their survival logic.

You must be sincere in your service to ensure that this "multi-party betting" is effective. If you collude openly or secretly, the final winner may liquidate your entire family.

Su Sheng nodded silently, and then said softly: "The Zhongwu Army has only 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers. They can't defend the Central Plains, and they can't even defend Xuzhou and Yuzhou. On our way here, the local troops took the initiative to retreat or even withdraw their troops when they saw the banner of the upper position. This Zheng..."

"Could it be that someone instructed him to do so?"

Li Yun spoke calmly, "No matter who ordered him, we have to face these obstacles. My opinion is that since we have to fight sooner or later, it's better to fight early than late."

He looked at everyone and continued, "In the Jinling Workshop, the outsiders tried every possible means to infiltrate. From the second half of last year until I left Jinling, at least 20 people died in the homes of the craftsmen in the Jinling Workshop."

"There are countless other methods."

Li Yun knocked on the table and continued, "Let me tell you the truth. I have been keeping the gunpowder, the thunder bomb, the telescope, and the other things in the workshop. I can keep them secret for one or two years, or two or three years, but I can't keep them secret for five or ten years."

"Almost all forces will try every possible means to get these things, especially gunpowder. The recipe was researched by Taoists and is also recorded in some ancient books. In addition to the clues they got from the Jinling workshop, I guess..."

Li Yun knocked on the table and said softly, "I guess someone has already figured it out, but it has not been used on the battlefield yet. With our success story, it won't take too long for their gunpowder to be used on the battlefield."

It is difficult to create something out of nothing, but it will be much easier if you copy others.

For example, if you give a gunpowder recipe to a force that has never come into contact with gunpowder and let them research it on their own, it may take them decades to turn the gunpowder into a weapon.

But Li Yun has already made the thunder bomb. As long as others have gunpowder, they can probably make something similar to the thunder bomb in a year or two.

After all, in this era, there are no patents to speak of, even if there are...

Patents also do not apply to the military.

Li Yun has just finished rewarding the troops, and the military merit system has basically been implemented. Now is the time to boost the morale of the troops, so the pace of progress cannot be stopped at all. If it stops for two or three years, the previous first-mover advantage may be gone.

Zhao Cheng stood up and bowed his head deeply to Li Yun, saying, "Since I have been following Your Majesty, Your Majesty's judgment has never been wrong. Your Majesty, just give the order!"

Li Yun smiled and said, "That sounds good, but I have made a lot of mistakes, but they are not too big."

He glanced at the three people and said slowly: "Okay, then I'll tell you my opinion."

"Brother Su."

He looked at Su Sheng, who immediately stood up and bowed his head deeply: "The superior has given the order." "Your troops will immediately march north from Shanzhou, pass through Jingzhou and Xiangzhou, and then march into Dengzhou. After taking Dengzhou, together with the five states of Jingzhou and Xiangzhou, most of the eastern part of Shannan will be our territory."

"When the time comes, I will send officials to take over these places and turn Shannan East Road into our military rear base."

"General Zhao, Meng Qing."

Zhao Cheng and Meng Qing both stood up and bowed their heads and said, "The king has ordered."

"Let's start from Junzhou and ignore Dengzhou. Instead, we will go directly to Tangzhou from Xiangzhou to support Huang Chao and try to attack the Central Plains from the Zhongwu Army's defense line."

At this point, Li Yun pointed to the map and continued, "According to the intelligence deduction of the Nine Departments, the Shuofang Army should have reached the vicinity of Jinzhou at this time, and is only a few hundred miles away from Yuzhou."

"And this force is probably the main force of the Shuofang Army. That means we will encounter the Shuofang Army in about a month, or at most two or three months."

Li Yun said softly: "We all know the Shuofang Army's record. I am only 40% to 50% sure of a head-on collision with them at this time. However, even if I am 40% to 50% sure, I will still give it a try."

"Even if we can only draw, as long as we have a firm foothold in the Central Plains, things will get easier and easier later on."

"Two years. Two years."

Li Yun stretched out two fingers and said calmly: "In two years, we will try our best to take over the Central Plains, as long as we can do this."

Mr. Li smiled and said, “Then within five years, we will be able to determine the general trend.”

"By then, founding a country will be a natural thing. If the war in the Central Plains does not go well this time, the previous advantages will no longer exist, and we will have no choice but to retreat to our current territory..."

Li Yun took a deep breath and continued, "Develop national strength and wait for the opportunity."

Until this point, Li Yun had never made any final statements, because in his heart, he was not at all sure that he could decide the outcome of the war with one battle.

For example, this time, if he did not win a great victory on the Central Plains battlefield, or failed to gain a firm foothold and was forced to retreat to his existing territory, then he would have to be relatively conservative in military affairs for at least the next three to five years.

At that time, you can only rely on "farming" to slowly grow yourself stronger and then wait for the opportunity.

But after a few years, will the army still have such spirit? What will the officials of Jiangdong become? What will the world situation be like? Can military weapons such as gunpowder still be so effective? These are all questions.

Li Yun was not sure.

It is possible that he had no way to change the chaos that followed the fall of the Zhou Dynasty for decades, and it is possible that he could only be a monarch in Jiangdong.

But no matter what, you have to give it a try.

As long as he can achieve a great victory on the battlefield in the Central Plains, then after this great victory, he, Li, can start to envision founding a country.

If we don't win this battle, everything will be in vain. We can only return to Jiangdong and work hard to govern the country for the future.

The three people were very excited after hearing what Li Yun said. Su Sheng took a deep breath and bowed his head to Li Yun and said, "I will send a letter to Chen Da and ask him to go north."

Zhao Cheng and Meng Qing also clasped their fists and accepted the order, then went down to do things according to Li Yun's instructions.

After the three people left one after another, Li Yun sat alone in the main seat and remained silent for a long time.

After a long while, he looked at the young man sitting beside him and asked with a smile, "Did you write it down?"

The young man, Zhang Sui, who was working as a clerk beside Li Yun, said immediately, "Your Majesty, I have written down every word of it."

Li Yun smiled and said, "Just write it down. When people write history in the future, they will probably rely on what you write down today."

Zhang Sui heard this, looked at Li Yun, then bowed his head slightly and said: "What I wrote down is the real record of Taizu."

Li Yun laughed.

"It could also be Thief Li's Diary."

Zhang Sui was stunned for a moment, then he smiled as well.

"I believe that what I have recorded today will certainly be included in the annals in the future."

(End of this chapter)