Thief Emperor

Chapter 856 Settlement of Accounts
After Du Qian and Yao Zhong finished the written examination, they looked at each other.

Du Qian quickly expressed his opinion. He put down the documents from the Nine Departments in his hand, looked at Li Yun, and said, "I will take care of the money matters, but I want to ask the superior for some authority."

Li Yun smiled and said, "You tell me, you tell me."

Du Qian bowed his head slightly, smiled bitterly and said, “Please take the throne and allow me to borrow money in the name of the new dynasty.”

Li Yun touched his chin, thought for a while, and asked, "With whom?"

"The gentry, the landlords, the noble families."

Du Qian said in a deep voice: "I will find a way to deal with these specific matters. No matter what, I will definitely collect enough money to pay for Jiannan's military expenses."

It was the Du Qian brothers who brought up the idea of ​​stirring up Jiannan. Du Qian naturally knew the importance of Jiannan Dao.

The location of Jiannan Road is naturally suitable for separatism. If we don't take it down at this opportunity, Xichuan may really become an independent country in the future, even if we can take it down in the future.

The price to be paid is probably many times higher than it is now.

More importantly, the Wu Zhou Emperor was in Xichuan.

It is hard to say whether we can capture the emperor after conquering Jiannan Road, but we will definitely make the Wu Zhou court have no escape.

If they flee again, they can only flee back to Guanzhong, and Guanzhong is in the hands of Wei Quanzhong, not to mention whether the emperor will flee back to Guanzhong.

Even if she escaped back, the Wu Zhou court would become a laughing stock in the world and would no longer be orthodox.

Moreover, even if he fled to Guanzhong, after taking over Jiannan Road, it would not be difficult for Li Yun to attack Guanzhong again.

Du Qian naturally supported Li Yun from the bottom of his heart in conquering Jiannan Road, so he was also willing to do his best in this matter.

Li Yun thought about it, nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, okay, Brother Shouyi will go and borrow money. How much do you want? We will pay it back slowly in the next two or three years."

As he said this, he looked at Yao Zhong.

Yao Zhong immediately bowed his head and said, "Master, I have the money and food. I will find a way, but I need the cooperation of Master Xue."

The Second Master Xue he mentioned was naturally Xue Fang.

Xue Fang is still engaged in grain trading. He may not have a lot of grain in his hands, but he must have many channels to purchase grain.

Li Yun nodded slowly and said, "Okay, then I'll leave this matter to you two."

"But don't force it."

Li Yun reached out and knocked on the table, and said slowly: "If it really doesn't work, I can accept it. Just take Jianzhou and the rest of Jiannan Road, and we will take our time."

Jianzhou is the gateway to the eastern part of Jiannan Road. Taking Jianzhou means controlling the door to Jiannan Road. From now on, you can enter whenever you want, and no one can stop Li Yun.

Du Qian bowed his head slightly and said, "Don't worry, my Lord. We two will definitely get these things done."

As he spoke, he looked up at Li Yun and said with a smile: "If we can invite the emperor of the old Zhou Dynasty to Luoyang before the end of the year, and hold the coronation ceremony next year, it would be reasonable."

"No one can say what the upper position is."

Li Yun smiled and said nothing.

"There's no need to say more about these things that don't exist. Today's incident happened suddenly, and I guess you two haven't had enough rest. Go back and rest first."

"Within three days, transfer at least one month's worth of military rations to the front line."

The two men bowed and said yes, then retreated cautiously.

After the two prime ministers left, Li Yun was no longer sleepy. He lowered his head and looked through the documents for a while, then wrote two letters and arranged some things before returning to his bedroom to take a nap.

He slept until almost noon the next morning, when he slowly woke up. When he woke up, he found that Meng Hai had been waiting for him for a long time. Li Yun then got up, changed his clothes, and washed up.

He did not go to meet Meng Hai, but asked someone to prepare a small table of wine and food, preparing to have a meal with Meng Hai.

The meal was held in a side hall. Li Yun arrived first. After waiting for a while, Meng Hai was led here. Seeing Li Yun at the table, Meng Hai quickly stepped back and prepared to wait outside. Li Yun waved at him and said with a smile, "It's noon. I asked you to come for dinner. Why are you running?"

Meng Hai then hurried forward, walked in front of Li Yun, bowed his head and saluted: "Greetings, my Lord."

Li Yun waved his hand, motioning him to sit down opposite. After Meng Hai sat down, Li Yun asked, "I have been informed of the situation in Jiannan Road last night. What is the matter that has you come to see me so early in the morning?"

"It's mainly about Jiannan Road."

Meng Hai lowered his head slightly and said, "Zhang Qiong's eldest son Zhang Han and second son Zhang Shen have both learned about their father's assassination, and have each taken action, especially Zhang Han..."

"He has troops stationed in Jianzhou."

Meng Hai whispered, "As long as his troops leave Jianzhou, the difficulty of our army taking Jiameng Pass will be greatly reduced. These few days may be a good opportunity to take Jiameng Pass."

At this point, Meng Hai looked at Li Yun and continued, "Yesterday, General Zhao led General Gongsun Hao as the vanguard and several thousand elite cavalry to Jiameng Pass. Commander He Jun led the infantry and followed closely behind to Jiameng Pass."

"General Gongsun, we should be able to reach Jiameng Pass within two or three days." Li Yun nodded slightly and said, "Zhao Cheng moved just in time."

Meng Hai reported the situation of Jiannan Road in detail. After he had explained everything about Jiannan Road, he looked up at Li Yun, coughed, and said, "Master, there is one more small matter that I want to report to you."

Li Yun glanced at him and scolded him with a smile: "Why are you keeping me in suspense? If you have something to say, just say it."

"Five days ago."

Meng Hai reached out to add more wine to Li Yun and chuckled, "Five days ago, my Hebei Dao army successfully invaded Yizhou and defeated the remnants of the Fanyang Army in one fell swoop. The 30,000 to 40,000 Fanyang troops in Yizhou either fled or surrendered on the spot. They have been completely dispersed."

"Fanyang Army leader Xiao Heng and his generals were captured by our army when they were fleeing in panic. They have been locked up and are being taken to Luoyang to be handed over to the higher-ups for questioning."

Upon hearing this, Li Yun was stunned at first, then stared at Meng Hai.

“Is this a small matter?”

Meng Hai chuckled: "Compared to what happened in Jiannan Road, it's certainly not a big deal."

Li Yun was smart. When he saw Meng Hai like this, he almost immediately understood what was going on. He laughed and scolded, "Meng Qing is leading the troops, isn't he?"

Meng Hai chuckled, lowered his head slightly and said, "My Lord, please understand."

"It's not right for me to brag about what my brother has done."

Li Yun glanced at him and said unhappily, "You separated this matter from the matter of Jiannan Dao and made it so mysterious..."

He did not continue.

Everyone has selfish desires, and Meng Hai is no exception.

Meng Qing had made such a great contribution that he should have been praised in great detail, but the situation in Jiannan Road was urgent and he could not take the spotlight, so he had to use this method to highlight the contribution of his brother.

The matter is still the same, but sometimes it is just the way of expressing it, or the timing, that makes the final effect very different.

There is a lot of knowledge here.

Meng Hai obviously already understood a thing or two.

Li Yun naturally allowed these little thoughts, and he didn't mind them at all.

After all, the Meng brothers were brought up by him.

A smile soon appeared on his face. He poured a glass of wine for Meng Hai himself and said with a smile, "You have been with Liu Bo for a long time, you are very cunning."

The two men clinked their glasses, and Li Yun asked some more about the situation in Hebei Province before he burst into laughter.

"Damn it!"

Mr. Li stood up, spat on the ground, and cursed: "The Xiao family father and son have disgusted me for a year or two. Now the debt has finally been settled. When Xiao Heng is brought to Luoyang, I will settle this debt with him!"

At this point, he turned his head to look at Meng Hai, and said with a smile: "When the military report from the front line is officially delivered, I will reward the soldiers on the front line, as well as Meng Qing!"

"That's right, that's right."

Li Yun suddenly remembered something and said with a smile: "You should immediately send a letter from the Ninth Department to General Su and Meng Qing. After Meng Qing has dealt with the affairs of Yizhou, ask him to go south and return to Luoyang."

"I will reward him personally."

Li Yun laughed and said, "Find him a beautiful wife."

Meng Hai was also overjoyed. He stood up, clasped his fists and saluted Li Yun, and said with a smile: "I am Meng Qing's subordinate. Thank you for taking the position!"

"Thank you for nothing."

Li Yun pulled Meng Hai to sit down and said with a laugh, "If anyone wants to thank someone, I should thank him."

The two of them clinked their glasses.

On this day, Li Yun was so happy that he got about 60% to 70% drunk. He lay in bed in a daze for the whole afternoon.

While he was dozing on the bed, in Jiannan Road, among the three Zhang brothers, Zhang Han who was stationed in Jianzhou, had almost mobilized all the troops in Jianzhou and rushed to Chengdu.

However, although Zhang Han was furious, he did not completely lose his mind. He knew that Jianzhou was the gateway to Jiannan Road, so he left a thousand troops garrisoned at Jianmen Pass and Jiameng Pass respectively.

After leaving behind two thousand soldiers, Young Master Zhang waved his hand and shouted to his generals.

"I don't know whether my father is alive or dead. As a son, I have to go."

"Let's march into Chengdu!"

(End of this chapter)