Thief Emperor

Chapter 851 Returning Messenger

"Second brother."

Li Zheng found a chair next to Li Yun and sat down. He looked at the gift list on the table and said, "I'm not that stupid."

He paused for a moment and continued, "What I mean is that my second brother is short of money now. Can we use the government property in Luoyang City to exchange for some money to use as military expenses?"

Li Yun was looking down at the gift lists at the moment. After flipping through them for a while, he shook his head and said, "We can think of a way to sell off the government properties in Luoyang City, but not in the way you're selling them. We have to do it in a proper way."

“Put up a notice and invite all parties to bid, and explain the details.”

Li Yun said with a serious face: "At present, the court does not accept money, but only accepts grain, rice, silk and other physical objects. The bid will be based on these physical objects."

"The value is converted according to the market price."

Li Zheng thought about it and nodded, "This seems to be better, but if we post the notice and let everyone in the city know about it, will the people in the city think that we are selling off the city's property and assets..."

"If it gets out, the impact won't be good."

Li Yun shook his head and said, "Write it down clearly, to raise food and fodder for the purpose of conquering the enemy army."

"There is nothing to hide about this kind of thing. It should be what it is. But you should pay attention to not selling things that should be sold at a high price at a low price, otherwise people will think that our Li family is a one-time business."

"We need to continue doing business in Luoyang."

"also."

Li Yun knocked on the table and reminded: "Sell it at the price you want. If someone offers an outrageously high price, then these people are not here to buy anything, so there is no need to sell them anything."

"Take him directly to see Du Qian and Yao Zhong. They will know how to deal with it."

Li Zheng nodded. He looked at Li Yun and whispered, "Second brother, should we treat customers from Jiangnan better?"

"As you wish."

Li Yun waved his hand and said dumbly: "For matters like this, you Luoyang Prefecture should make your own decisions. You don't need to ask me. Just read and learn more about everything. There is nothing you don't understand."

Li Yun smiled softly and said, "Go ask Zhuo Guangrui and Du Yao, but remember, don't ask Xu Ang."

"If you really did something wrong, he would probably file a complaint against you here. It would be a tough situation if things were handled in a fair and just manner."

Xu Ang also arrived in Luoyang this spring. His arrival in Luoyang meant that the main body of the small Jinling court had basically arrived in Luoyang.

Speaking of Xu Ang, Li Zheng smiled and said, "I heard that this cold-faced gentleman has been active recently. Some time ago, he took the maid who had been serving him for a long time into his room."

Hearing this, Li Yun coughed, clasped his hands and said, "Don't say it, don't say it, just pretend you don't know. If you really tell everyone and let him know about it, he might be embarrassed and ignore the woman again."

At this point, Li Yun said with emotion: "It has been so many years, and he should get over what happened back then. Otherwise, it will be difficult for him to start a family in the future."

Li Zheng was a little surprised when he heard this. He smiled and said, "I can't believe that my second brother cares about him so much."

"He's a poor fellow."

Li Yun shook his head and said, "Over the years, he has been here with me and has done his best. I want him to have a better life, right?"

"That's the truth."

Li Zheng told Li Yun some more things about Luoyang Prefecture, and then he remembered the serious matter and said, "Second brother said before that Luoyang Prefecture needs some of its own people. How many people are there? I plan to select some from my army."

"Let's start with two captain battalions."

Li Yun looked at Li Zheng and said slowly: "These soldiers are not only responsible for the public security in Luoyang City, but also the public security of the entire Luoyang Prefecture. Two thousand people are definitely not enough. It will probably take some time to slowly test out the exact number of people."

Today, there are Jiangdong troops stationed near Luoyang, and they are very large. The main force of Zhao Cheng's troops is currently near Luoyang, with a strength of nearly 100,000 people.

With a military force of this size, there will definitely not be major unrest in Luoyang.

Previously, when Yao Zhong was in charge of the entire Luoyang, he selected two captain battalions from the garrison and temporarily loaned them to Luoyang Prefecture to be responsible for the public security of the entire Luoyang.

But this situation will not be the norm after all.

It will be impossible for the number of troops near Luoyang to remain at this level forever in the future. After it stabilizes, the total number of troops around Luoyang will be around 30,000 to 40,000, which will be enough to deal with all emergencies.

In the end, local security will ultimately be in the hands of local authorities.

The Jiangdong Army cannot keep its hands out like this forever.

Because the future emperor of the Xin Dynasty cannot be like Li Yun, the founder of the Jiangdong Army.

The military's authority, or scope of activities, must be standardized.

In fact, what Li Yun is doing now is to establish a relatively reasonable basic rule so that the entire new dynasty can run smoothly. This sounds difficult, but the Jiangdong court has been operating normally for many years. In addition, Li Yun has the memory of another world in his mind, plus some lessons learned from this world, so it is not particularly difficult to do it.

Completely controlling Luoyang Prefecture is also one of Li Yun’s current goals, otherwise he would not be in such a hurry to call Li Zheng to Luoyang.

The two brothers chatted in the study for more than half an hour before Li Zheng said goodbye and left. Before leaving, he looked at Li Yun and suddenly said, "Second brother, I may not lead troops to fight in the future, but the soldiers under my command are all good, especially General Gongsun."

He whispered, "General Gongsun is a very powerful general. I hope my second brother will use him."

Li Yun smiled dumbly: "Do you still need to worry about these things?"

"Don't worry. I can't say what others will do, but I will definitely use Gongsun Hao."

Gongsun Hao was a somewhat special general.

Just like Liu Zhiyuan, the governor of Chenzhou who surrendered the city, as the first civil official to surrender the city, Liu Zhiyuan had been promoted by Li Yun to the position of Surveillance Envoy of Shannan East Road and took office immediately.

A horse bone costs a fortune.

By the same token, as the first general to surrender and as a link that can communicate well with the Pinglu Army, Li Yun will definitely make use of Gongsun Hao, even if it is just to show off to the outside world.

What's more, Gongsun Hao's military capabilities are indeed not weak.

"For the upcoming Western Expedition, I plan to have Gongsun Hao follow Zhao Cheng and accompany the army."

Li Yun patted Li Zheng on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I will make proper arrangements for your former subordinates. When they climb to higher positions in the future, they will have to politely call you General when they see you."

After hearing these words, Li Zheng seemed to have seen his future. He was also somewhat happy. He clasped his fists towards Li Yun and strode away.

Li Yun looked at his leaving back, stood in a daze for a while with his hands behind his back, and then returned to his study with his hands behind his back.

After that, Li Yun had been dealing with government affairs. It was finally evening, and he had finished dealing with most of the things at hand. He stood up and prepared to go out and stretch his body. As soon as he walked out of the study, Liu Su came towards him with a bowl of soup in her hand. She looked up at Li Yun with a smile on her face: "Your Majesty, have you been busy until now today?"

Li smiled bitterly and said, "All kinds of things happen every day, there is nothing we can do."

He was about to hold Princess Liu's hand and say a few words, when a palace servant came running over from a distance and bowed his head to Li Yun and said, "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Du sent a document saying that Du Tong is back and asked when you are free to meet him..."

Li Yun was startled and asked, "When did you come back?"

"It's noon."

Li Yun rubbed his brows and nodded, "I see. Go and tell him to come to the palace to see me in a moment."

"Yes."

As the palace servant left, Li Yun looked at Liu Su and said helplessly, "Look, things are happening again."

In the past few years, when the Nine Departments were slowly expanding and becoming more and more powerful, Li Yun became curious as to why some emperors were kept completely in the dark and knew nothing about it.

By now, he had become an emperor in training and finally understood this doubt.

Because, sitting in this position, you need to receive too much information every day. Except for some particularly important messages, it is impossible to read all the other messages one by one. Even if you read them, it is impossible to remember them all in your heart.

You can only select a portion of the messages to read and process.

After all, the emperor is also a human being.

Even if the emperor was not a human being, he would not be able to read all the news from all sides if he read it day and night for twelve hours a day.

For example, Li Yun had no idea that Du Tong had returned to Luoyang.

Or maybe someone below reported it, but he has no memory of it at all.

When it was getting a little dark, Du Qian brought Du Tong to the study in the palace, and the two of them bowed to Li Yun politely.

Li Yun raised his hand and said, "It's so late, don't be polite, sit down, sit down."

After expressing their gratitude, the two brothers each found a chair and sat down.

Li Yun looked at Du Tong and asked, "How do you feel about this trip to Xichuan?"

Du Tong lowered his head slightly and said in a deep voice.

"Back to the king, the small court of Shu."

"It's almost time to die."

(End of this chapter)