Thief Emperor

Chapter 945 passed!

Meng Hai is not only one of the nine departments, he is also the current director of Jingzhao Department, and a close aide to the emperor.

His status is basically equivalent to that of the deputy director general of the Ninth Department.

The Jiusi has made great contributions in the conquest of the world in recent years. In addition, it is mysterious and unpredictable. As a result, now, whether it is the generals in the army or the local officials, they all have to respect the Jiusi.

In addition, this time, Meng Hai was holding the emperor's edict, and he himself was the imperial envoy sent by the emperor to Lingnan.

Chen Xuan naturally had nothing to say after hearing his words. He bowed his head respectfully and replied with a "yes".

Meng Hai was able to successfully control the Lingnan local army.

Immediately afterwards, the nine local departments of Lingnan were also directly taken over by him, and a heroic purge of Lingnan Road began.

Jiusi was already well-informed, and Meng Hai brought some of his own direct subordinates from Luoyang. After taking full control of Lingnan, it only took five or six days of investigation to find out some clues.

On the seventh day, Meng Hai personally led the local garrison into Longzhou to capture people. They surrounded the local wealthy Longzhou Chen family. Almost no one in the entire Chen mansion had time to escape, and they were all captured.

After taking down Chen, Meng Hai only made some minor adjustments before preparing for another move. However, a nobleman in his thirties hurried to Longzhou from Guangzhou and asked for a meeting at various levels. It was not until dark that he finally met Meng Hai.

After seeing Meng Hai, the nobleman lowered his head and politely saluted, saying, "Yan Cong greets the envoy."

Meng Hai was looking at the newcomer at this moment. After looking at him for a while, he finally remembered and said, "You are the son of Yan Ji, the governor of Lingnan in the old Zhou Dynasty."

"Yes."

Yan Cong took a deep breath, lowered his head and smiled bitterly: "The envoy still remembers the next family..."

Meng Hai looked at him and frowned, "What position do you hold now?"

Yan Cong bowed his head and said, "I am here by your order, and I am now the governor of Guangzhou."

Meng Hai snorted when he heard this, and said, "Back then, you Lingnan Dao sent people to attack and kill Prince Jin, but you were eventually captured by Prince Jin and sent to Jinling for questioning. I didn't expect His Majesty to spare your family."

Yan Cong bowed his head and smiled bitterly, "Your Excellency has misunderstood. It was not our Yan family who sent people to assassinate the King of Jin, but the Imperial City Division of the old Zhou court. This humble official and my father can do nothing about it."

"Later, when I met His Majesty, my father and I explained everything to him."

He bowed his head and said, "Even so, my father was demoted to a commoner by His Majesty. It was only because my family was familiar with the situation in Lingnan that I was sent back to Lingnan to help the court officials and restore the administration of Lingnan."

Meng Hai looked at him, thought for a moment, and asked, "Envoy Yan is not in Guangzhou, why did he come to Longzhou?"

"I came here on orders."

Yan Cong took out a document from his sleeve, handed it to Meng Hai with both hands, and whispered, "Ten days ago, I received a secret decree from His Majesty forwarded by the Nine Departments, ordering me to come and assist the envoy. Please have a look at it."

Meng Hai took the document with both hands and looked at it, only to see that it was indeed Li Yun's order.

The general meaning is that the affairs in Lingnan are of great importance, and they are worried that after Meng Hai arrives in Lingnan, he will be unfamiliar with the place and may mess things up, so they send Yan Cong, a native of Lingnan, to be Meng Hai's deputy.

After Meng Hai finished reading, he bowed to the northwest, then turned back to look at Yan Cong and breathed a sigh of relief: "Since it is the decree of His Majesty, Envoy Yan will stay by my side from now on and serve as my deputy envoy."

Yan Cong lowered his head and replied yes.

He hesitated for a moment and said, "My Lord, after I arrived in Longzhou, I heard that you have captured the Chen family of Longzhou?"

"Yes."

Meng Hai narrowed his eyes and said slowly: "This time the rebellion in Lingnan is closely related to these local tyrants. The Chen family of Longzhou has been entrenched in the area for many years and has occupied countless lands. They must be dissatisfied with the new taxes of the imperial court."

"Their shadows are behind the rebellion in Lingnan this time."

Meng Hai said in a deep voice: "If we don't take ruthless action and deal with a few families severely, these people will not behave themselves, and the chaos in the area will never stop."

Yan Cong looked at Meng Hai, shook his head slightly and said, "Your Excellency, the Longzhou Chen family is one of the three major families in Lingnan. Once something happens to them, the other two families will get the news immediately, and then they will most likely resist the court with force."

"Maybe it will cause even bigger trouble."

Meng Hai frowned and asked, "Does the imperial court still fear them?"

He said angrily: "At worst, we can just attack Lingnan again!"

Yan Cong quickly shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, that is not what I meant."

"That's what I mean."

Yan Cong looked at Meng Hai and said slowly: "The Feng family of Gaoliang, the Chen family of Longzhou, and the Ning family of Qinzhou."

"These three families in Lingnan are probably closely related to this unrest. If the envoy wants to take action, he should take action against these three families together. If they are arrested, other forces in Lingnan will not dare to cause trouble again."

"When the time comes, the envoy can investigate however he wants."

Meng Hai frowned when he heard this: "Now that the people from Longzhou Chen's have taken it, isn't it too late to talk about this?"

"Not too late, not too late."

Yan Cong took a deep breath, smiled at Meng Hai, and said, "Your Excellency, our Yan family has been the governor of the five prefectures in Lingnan since my grandfather's generation. My father was appointed as the governor of Lingnan by the old Zhou Dynasty. Our family is very familiar with the local families."

"Now, I have turned from evil to good and am serving as an official in the new dynasty. As long as I go to see the Chen family and tell them that I am willing to be a peacemaker and help them get along, as long as they pay some money to settle the matter, everything will be fine."

Yan Cong looked at Meng Hai, lowered his head slightly and said: "As long as we ask for enough money, they will not be suspicious, and then the rebellion of the other two families will come to an abrupt end."

Yan Cong paused and continued, "There is one more thing. The people the envoy has brought are not enough. We need to continue to dispatch reinforcements. We will use three methods to capture these three families in one fell swoop. At least 10,000 people will be needed."

Meng Hai looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Do you need so many people?"

Yan Cong whispered, "These three families have been entrenched in Lingnan for generations. If they were willing to contribute manpower, money, and effort when the imperial court attacked Lingnan, it would probably take another two or three years for Lingnan to surrender."

Meng Hai thought about it carefully and said, "Okay, let's do it this way."

"Yanshijun."

He looked at Yan Cong and said slowly: "You stay in Longzhou and appease the Chen family, and also appease the other two families. I'm going to go out for a while."

"Send more troops here."

Yan Cong bowed his head respectfully and replied "yes".

Meng Hai was very efficient. After making the decision, he simply said a few words to Yan Cong, handed his badge to Yan Cong, and then hurried away to dispatch troops.

Only Yan Cong was left standing there. He looked down at his hands and narrowed his eyes.

"I just stood by and watched."

Envoy Yan looked up at the sky and spoke in a calm voice.

"Now the retribution has come."

After saying this, he took the badge given to him by Meng Hai and came to the Chen family smoothly and met the head of the Chen family smoothly.

At this time, Envoy Yan's face had turned cold. He looked at the middle-aged man in front of him, then smiled and said in Lingnan dialect: "Uncle Chen, do you still recognize me?"

The head of the Chen family had already suffered a lot at this moment. After hearing Yan Cong's voice, he first looked up at him, and then was a little shocked: "Yan...Yan..."

Yan Cong put his hands behind his back and smiled at him.

"Uncle Chen, I'm here to rescue you."

Patriarch Chen was overjoyed and was about to speak when he heard Yan Cong continue, "But it's very expensive."

The smile on Patriarch Chen's face froze. After a moment of silence, he sighed and said, "I have guessed it. Such a big show is nothing more than seeking wealth."

He lowered his head and said, "No matter how much, I will accept it."

"Thirty percent."

Yan Cong said with a smile.

Patriarch Chen gritted his teeth and nodded, saying, "I accept it."

Envoy Yan put his hands behind his back and continued, "For the sake of our past friendship, I will leave 30% for Uncle Chen."

The head of the Chen family stood there in a daze, his face suddenly turning pale.

…………

In November of the first year of Zhangwu.

After a full month of encirclement and annihilation of the Shuofang Army, General Su finally defeated the Shuofang Army in the northern part of Guanzhong Road and wiped out the main force of the Shuofang Army. The Wei father and son only brought a few hundred trusted men with them, and did not even care about their families and wives and concubines. They directly abandoned the camp and fled into the mountains.

The main force of the Shuofang Army in Guanzhong, which numbered nearly 60,000, was directly defeated and torn apart at this time. Except for more than 10,000 people who directly surrendered and were captured, the rest of the Shuofang Army were all wiped out on the battlefield.

The blood almost dyed the earth red.

This was also the fiercest battle fought by the New Tang Dynasty, or the Jiangdong forces since their establishment. If the casualties of the Hedong army and the consumption of civilians were counted, the number of people who died directly in this war was probably close to 100,000!

This was the largest and most intense war in the past twenty years.

After Wei Quanzhong and his son fled, the war finally came to an end. Su Sheng personally led people to pursue Wei Quanzhong and his son, and sent people to Chang'an to report the victory.

When the news was delivered to Chang'an City, Emperor Li was looking through the list of officials in Guanzhong Road with Prime Minister Du. After hearing the news of the great victory on the front line, Li Yun just glanced at Yang Xi who came to report the news, then looked at Du Qian beside him and smiled.

"Today is a really good day. Just now, news came from Lingnan Road, and now General Su has received another victory report."

Du Qian stood up, bowed to Li Yun, and said respectfully: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, now the four seas have finally been unified and the world has been united."

Emperor Li stood up and waved his hand, saying, "Brother Shouyi, there is no need to say such things. Not to mention that Youyan is still a thorn in our side and cannot be unified, and..."

Li Yun said calmly: "The territory in my mind is much larger than Wu Zhou."

As he spoke, he put his hands behind his back, looked up at the sky, and his voice was calm.

"We are only barely passing the test now."

(End of this chapter)