Thief Emperor

Chapter 985 Free!

His Majesty, the Emperor finally softened his heart a little.

In fact, this is his character. Although he is not as generous as Zhao Da, he is far less mean than Zhu Taizu.

He has never thought of killing meritorious officials, at least at his current age, he has not considered this matter.

In the eyes of the current Emperor Li, he will not do such a thing in the future.

Firstly, it is true that he was the core in these years of conquering the world, and most of the brothers around him did their best. For example, although the Wujun Zhuo family is a little rampant now, in the beginning, to be precise, before the old man of the Zhuo family passed away, the Zhuo family could be said to have bet everything on Li Yun.

Not only the initial investment and the house in Jinling, but also the income from the Jiangdong Salt Administration in the first ten years after the founding of the country also provided great help to Li Yun.

Therefore, Li Yun returned the favor and prepared to hand over the Jiangdong salt administration to the Zhuo family.

After all, they did contribute and bet on the right thing. As the emperor, Li Yun must of course "reward" these heroes.

The same was true for most of the other loyal ministers.

Moreover, the biggest reason why founding emperors settle accounts with their meritorious officials is often not because they are stingy or narrow-minded, but more because they feel that these meritorious officials may pose a threat to the imperial power, or a threat to future imperial power, that is, a threat to future rulers.

Therefore, these founding emperors would rely on their unparalleled prestige to carry out ruthless purges and pave a smooth road for the imperial power and future generations of imperial power.

Of course, in another world, there is another reason for this reckoning, which is the story of a certain old thief who swore an oath by the Luo River, making it difficult for the founding emperors of later generations to sleep peacefully.

But now, Emperor Li is in his prime, and even if the civil officials in the court are combined, they cannot pose much of a threat to him.

As for the military generals group, most of the senior members are his confidants, while as for the middle and senior levels, most of them are from the anti-theft team.

In addition to the Privy Council, the Inspection Department, the Nine Departments, and the careful arrangements made by Emperor Li over the years.

People like Zhou Bi, Su Zhan, Xue Gui, and Zhou Luo will gradually become the backbone of the army in the future.

Needless to say, most of the generals of the Twelve Guards of the Capital's Imperial Army were direct descendants of Emperor Li. Among them, people like Yang Xi and the future father-in-law of the emperor, Qian Zhong, had already been closely tied to Li Yun.

This kind of binding is not only a binding of personal relationships, but also a deep binding of interests.

In other words, the power and wealth of these people have nothing to do with the imperial court.

It only has something to do with Li Yun as an individual and the future emperor.

All loyalties may deteriorate, but this kind of interest binding will not change unless the interest relationship changes.

Under Li Yun's careful design over the years, the current court structure can ensure that these meritorious officials are unlikely to cause any impact on the imperial power, so there is naturally no need to liquidate them.

unless…

Unless they did something that violated Li Yun's principles, such as taking human lives lightly, killing and abusing the people, or being disloyal and colluding with foreign countries.

It was precisely because of Emperor Li's mentality that he chose to handle this matter, which could have been a big deal or a small one, lightly, and only cut off some of the interests of the Wujun Zhuo family.

Otherwise, this mistake alone would be enough to cost Zhuo Guangrui his life.

Because it involves a major scientific expedition case, Li Yun's killing of Zhuo Guangrui would not even have any negative impact on public opinion. On the contrary, those who are learning new things might even applaud.

Zhuo Guangrui knelt before the Emperor and bowed his head respectfully: "Thank you very much for your forgiveness, Your Majesty."

His Majesty the Emperor sighed, but still reached out and helped him up, saying, "Brother Zhuo, we have known each other for almost twenty years."

"There are not many twenty years in a lifetime."

Li Yun motioned him to sit down, then looked at him and said, "Now, you and I can both be considered successful and famous, and our descendants will most likely not be unknown and will have their own future. Now that this is the case, the so-called court struggles, interests, and power are actually not that important."

"Why not lower your head and take a look at the common people below."

Emperor Li's words may sound a bit hypocritical, but they come from his heart.

Because he has already stood in the human world...at least the highest position in Kyushu, there is nothing more to pursue in terms of power.

Now, there are only two things that His Majesty the Emperor can pursue.

One is to expand territory, and the other is to improve people's livelihood.

He actually did not care much about even the empty reputation that other emperors longed for, such as the tribute from all nations and the Fengshan ceremony at Mount Tai.

Because he has a special soul, to him, it is better for all nations to submit to him than for all nations to come to him.

If it weren't for the poor transportation capacity and traffic conditions of that era, Emperor Li would even want to turn his attention to the whole world.

But there is no way.

Even the territories outside the Liaodong Pass are easy to conquer, but establishing effective administration is extremely difficult.

There was no other way, so his strategic goal had to become to improve people's livelihood as much as possible while ensuring the submission of the four barbarians.

This is a political ideal.

Li Yun has communicated this political ideal with Du Qian more than once, and Du Qian also agrees with Li Yun's ideas. The two have been working together for so many years and have been moving towards this goal.

But it was the first time that Li Yun told Zhuo Guangrui. Zhuo Guangrui lowered his head and said in a deep voice: "I understand your majesty's painstaking efforts."

He bowed his head deeply and said, "Your Majesty, you believe in me."

"I admit that I failed in my duty in the imperial examination last year, but I really did not intend to form cliques."

"it is good."

Emperor Li stopped him from continuing and said, "Let's not talk about this matter anymore. Du Shouyi is investigating this matter in Luoyang City. Before he finds out the truth, you and I should pretend to be ignorant and continue to inspect the disaster area."

At this point, His Majesty the Emperor said meaningfully: "This time, you and Yao Juzhong will accompany me on my eastern tour. We can also go back to Jiangdong together to take a look."

Zhuo Guangrui did not understand the implication of Li Yun's words, he lowered his head and said: "Yes, your Majesty..."

"It's been a while since I've been back to Wujun."

...............

After walking out of the Emperor's temporary study, Prime Minister Zhuo wiped the sweat from his forehead and felt a chill on his back. When he reached out and touched it, he found that his back was completely wet with sweat.

Zhuo Xianggong took several deep breaths and was about to leave when he saw a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties walking towards him. Zhuo Xianggong recognized the man and hurriedly stepped forward to bow and say, "Prime Minister Yao."

Yao Zhong was holding a pile of documents in his hands and was about to give them to Li Yun. When he saw Zhuo Guangrui, he bowed his head and said with a smile, "When did Prime Minister Zhuo come?"

"It's only been a while since I got here."

Zhuo Guangrui looked at the document in Yao Zhong's hand and said with emotion, "Prime Minister Yao, you have worked hard."

"Don't say it."

Yao Xianggong smiled bitterly and said, "I followed His Majesty out this time, thinking that we were going back to our hometown to visit relatives, but I didn't expect that every day there would be no less than when I was in Luoyang."

At this point, he asked, "Is Prime Minister Zhuo traveling with Your Majesty?"

Zhuo Guangrui nodded and said, "Your Majesty ordered me to go with you."

"That couldn't be better."

Yao Xianggong was overjoyed. He stepped forward and pulled Zhuo Guangrui's sleeve with one hand. He looked at Zhuo Guangrui and said with a smile: "Then there is someone to share these things with me."

He complained, "Prime Minister Zhuo doesn't know. These are all confidential books, and no one can help."

As the prime minister of the Council of State, he is qualified to read all the documents in the court, except for the secret documents sent to the emperor by the Nine Departments.

As the prime minister, Zhuo Guangrui could naturally read these confidential documents.

After saying this, Prime Minister Yao smiled and said, "I will go and deliver these documents to Your Majesty first. After I finish today's work, I will treat Prime Minister Zhuo to a drink."

Zhuo Guangrui took a deep breath, responded, and said, "It is better to obey than to be respectful."

…………

The next day, the emperor's ceremonial procession left Xingyang and headed eastward until they arrived at Bianzhou.

Bianzhou has been a floodplain of the Yellow River since ancient times.

As long as the river bursts its banks, it is basically difficult to escape, and this time is no exception.

This time when the river burst its banks, Bianzhou was one of the states hardest hit by the disaster. Zhuo Guangrui had been busy for a month or two before, and most of the time, he was busy in Bianzhou.

This time, before the emperor's procession arrived in Bianzhou, a group of more than a hundred riders left the emperor's procession and headed straight for the disaster area in Bianzhou.

Among the more than one hundred riders, the leader was a tall and strong man wearing a black robe, looking very majestic.

Behind him, the general in armor looked miserable and kept shouting, "Move up, move up, go slower!"

“Don’t get too far away.”

He shouted: "Otherwise, when we return to Luoyang, the censors will report me to death!"

The tall man in the lead was riding his horse at gallop, enjoying this rare moment of freedom. Hearing the general's shout behind him, he turned around to look at him, then shook the reins and ran faster.

"It's been more than ten years. I finally got out of the cage. Leave me alone, leave me alone!"

He was an excellent rider, and his horse was a fine horse that could run a thousand miles a day. It ran faster and faster, like a sharp arrow.

The general in black armor and black face turned pale with fright and looked back at his subordinates behind him.

"Hurry, keep up, keep up!"

Behind him, everyone responded in unison.

"Yes, Lord Marquis!"

(End of this chapter)