Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 353 A good thief can steal a country
Liu Taozi did not continue fighting. They sped up and began to retreat to their own border.

As for the enemies behind him, what they would think, whether they would retreat or continue to wait and see, Liu Taozi had no control over it.

The situation along the road was very chaotic.

Many counties and prefectures were out of control. Officials fled when they learned that the Southern Dynasty had sent troops, resulting in no one in the city to take care of things. Robbers and thieves emerged and killed people everywhere, and the situation was completely out of control.

Liu Taozi could not remain indifferent. As he moved forward, he killed bandits when he met them, rescued the dead when he met them, restored public order, and pointed out the way forward.

The weather is getting colder and colder.

Snowflakes had already started falling before we even got close to Gwangju.

This year, God was extremely harsh on the Chen people, and the snow fell much earlier than usual.

Snow gradually appeared on the road, and the army's advance slowed down again.

After walking for a long time, the exhausted army finally arrived at Dong'an County. From here, they could see Nanqing and Guang and other states in the distance, and officially arrived at their own sphere of influence.

The heavy snow still did not stop, and everything was white. Many soldiers did not dare to open their eyes. Looking at the heavy snow for a long time made their eyes hurt.

There were countless corpses hidden in the snow, and starving people were everywhere.

Of course, there were also survivors. On the official road, the fleeing crowds connected with each other, forming a long dragon with no visible beginning or end. They kept moving forward in the wind and snow. Some fell down, while others could still hold on.

When they passed Dongping County, there was already a large group of people waiting for them on the official road leading to Guangzhou.

The leader was Zu Ting.

Zu Ting was riding a mule, wearing thick clothes that made the mule look very small. His face was red, and it had begun to become round at some point, developing in the direction of Yang Dadu.

Around him, there were many officials shivering in the cold wind.

They were not riding anything, they just stood beside Zu Ting.

"Grandfather, the weather is cold, please allow us to light a bonfire to keep warm."

Zu Ting raised his head and said unhappily: "If you don't know the suffering of winter, how can you treat those who are suffering with your heart?"

"No."

The officials had no choice but to continue shivering and moving lightly to keep themselves warm.

Zu Ting only stayed for a moment, then turned around and walked back to the carriage not far away.

The officials stared at him as he went into the carriage to keep warm, looked at each other, and muttered something.

Suddenly a knight rushed over and said, "We have spotted the general's troops!"

"The General is back!!"

Hearing this, Zu Ting, who had just entered the carriage, suddenly rushed out. He turned around and looked at the servant, "Drive the carriage back quickly!!"

He quickly got on the mule, walked in front of the crowd again, rubbed his face hard, and then looked into the distance with a smile.

The officials just lowered their heads but cursed in their hearts.

The army slowly appeared in the distance. Zu Ting could no longer stay still and hurriedly rode his mule forward.

Zu Ting was extremely fast, and rushed all the way to the front of the army, and hurriedly asked: "Where is the general?!"

"In the center of the army!"

"it is good!"

Zu Ting continued to move forward. After walking for an unknown amount of time, he finally saw Liu Taozi leading the army from afar.

Zu Ting hurriedly jumped off the mule, led the mule and ran quickly towards Liu Taozi.

"Your servant Zu Ting greets the lord!!"

Zu Ting loosened the reins and knelt in front of Liu Taozi.

Liu Taozi reined in his horse, "Grandfather is here."

"Get up and mount your horse."

Zu Ting then stood up and got on the mule, followed Liu Taozi, and looked around, "My lord is blessed by God, that's great, that's great. When we were in Guangzhou, we heard that my lord had killed Wu Mingche and defeated Huang Fachu, and we couldn't believe it. My lord's bravery is really rare in the world, and the officials all praised him."

"I also wrote three poems in praise of the Lord, which are being recited everywhere in the city."

Zu Ting praised him earnestly, but Liu Taozi felt something was wrong. He slowly turned his head and stared at Zu Ting, "Grandpa, you haven't made any mistakes in these days, right?"

Zu Ting is good at flattery, which is nothing, but today he flattered too much. Did he do something that made him afraid of being punished?

Zu Ting hurriedly shook his head, "How dare I? I have always remembered the instructions of my lord and dare not make any mistakes. You see, I now ride a mule and travel in a simple way. I am imitating my lord."

As Zu Ting was speaking, he suddenly looked at the army in front and behind him.

"My lord, where did these people and horses come from?"

"It was the defeated soldiers I accepted."

"Rushed soldiers? I see their morale is good and their marching is very strict. They don't look like defeated soldiers."

Liu Taozi didn't say anything, but Zu Ting continued his words, "The defeated soldiers can be transformed into such a mighty elite in the hands of the lord! You are worthy of being the lord!"

Liu Taozi didn't like flattery, so he asked directly, "What's the situation in Guangzhou and Qingzhou?"

Speaking of this, Zu Ting was not panicked at all. He pinched his long beard proudly.

"My lord, you don't know that the situation is very good."

"The former governor of Guangzhou accumulated a huge amount of wealth for us. After the lord left, I began to use this money to appease the people. Many people came from Qingzhou and Guangzhou, and the population increased dramatically. I sent people to attack from three sides to guide more homeless people to the two states. There were also many scholars and craftsmen. I also sent people to contact the surrounding counties."

"Guangzhou is rich in resources and has a large population. Even at its current size, it can be called the number one state under the lord's command."

"We have everything, including money, food, weapons, scholars, and craftsmen. We only need to operate it for a few years and it will become a large base for us to capture Henan!"

When Liu Taozi led the Mandrill Camp here, he had only one goal, which was to take over Guangzhou, a city with a large territory, a large population and a prosperous economy.

Guangzhou in Qi State was definitely the place with the most arable land and the richest land in the country. There were thirteen large ports in Guangzhou alone, and the docks were almost always full.

However, because the enemy suddenly attacked, Liu Taozi had to lead his troops to rescue, leaving Zu Ting here to clean up the mess.

While Liu Taozi and others were sleeping in the open and fighting extremely hard at the front line, Zu Ting was having a very comfortable time here.

The governor's office had originally plundered enormous amounts of wealth, which were all under the control of Zu Ting. However, the north and the south were both at war, people everywhere were in panic, and the government had lost control. Zu Ting immediately began to use his traditional skills.

His first step was to steal people.

Thanks to Liu Taozi's benevolent act of killing King Nanyang in Qizhou, Liu Taozi's reputation around Guangzhou became better and better. Zu Ting deliberately guided him and spent money to buy fame and rumors.

In the past, many people in Hebei fled to the south of the river, and their lives were not very good. When they learned that they could get relief in Guangzhou and Qingzhou, they began to run to these two places.

Both places have to accommodate many outsiders every day, but Zu Ting doesn’t feel it’s troublesome or stressful at all. We have plenty of money and food!
Then he began to steal talents. He issued a notice in Gwangju, claiming that he would conduct an examination, and went to the local Confucian Temple in person to offer sacrifices.

He welcomed scholars from all over the country to take part in the examination, and those who passed could hold official positions in Xinguangzhou and Qingzhou, thus attracting a large number of scholars to come and join him.

Then we recruited craftsmen and provided them with special placements.

Finally he reached out to merchant ships, further south and east.

Zu Ting squandered the money that the governor of Guangzhou had worked so hard to save, but the effect was truly astonishing.

Zu Ting had never fought such a prosperous battle.

Zu Ting worked hard to introduce his achievements to Liu Taozi and simply ignored the rest of the people.

Soon, Liu Taozi met the other officials.

These people were much more normal than Zu Ting. After paying their respects, they followed Liu Taozi. Seeing that they were trembling, Liu Taozi asked them to follow in the car.

The officials thanked him repeatedly.

Liu Taozi had not seen any other results of Zu Ting's governance of Guangzhou, but he did see the population.

People, people everywhere.

There were huge crowds of people at the city gate, just like when Cheng'an first accepted the deceased. Perhaps it was even more exaggerated than that time. The soldiers clearing the way could feel the pressure.

This was especially true in the city, which was crowded with people everywhere.

Liu Taozi didn't know how Zu Ting was able to arrange so many people. He didn't look tired at all, but full of energy and had even gained a lot of weight.

As soon as Liu Taozi arrived at the government office, Zu Ting pulled him into the inner room, leaving a large group of officials looking at each other in bewilderment.

Sitting in the house, Zu Ting's face became very serious. He took out a document from his arms and handed it to Liu Taozi.

"My Lord, I just received three documents the day before yesterday."

“Something big happened in Hebei.”

"I haven't announced it to anyone yet. There were so many people around, so I didn't dare to reveal it."

Liu Taozi took the letter and started reading it. The more he read, the gloomier his face became.

"Duan Shao."

The content of the document was very simple. It told the "small" story of how Duan Shao killed the emperor, pretended to collude with the Zhou people, then attacked the Zhou people, played a trick on Yao Xiong, and finally ran to Heluo to collude with Dugu Yongye.

Zu Ting just shook his head, "Stupid."

"He was able to escape even with this. It seems that Yao Xiong and his men do not have the ability to guard a place."

Zu Ting didn't think Duan Shao was smart, he just thought his teammates were all idiots.

He sighed, "The situation is different now. The emperor was trapped in Jinyang by us, and his imperial edict could not reach the south. There is no one in the south who can rally the people. We can completely defeat them one by one and slowly recover the area."

"But now Duan Shao has brought the emperor to the Heluo Daoxingtai, and Dugu Yongye has elite troops to help him."

"It can be said that he has both fame, troops, and power."

"In the name of the emperor, with Duan Shao's prestige, and with Dugu Yongye's strength, they can easily take back the prefectures and counties south of the river without any military force, integrate them, and confront us across the water."

Zu Ting pondered and said, "Duan Shao is still a bit troublesome. It's not easy to defeat him. If he joins forces with Zhou and Chen, it will be even more troublesome."

"We will be attacked from all sides, and our troops are seriously insufficient."

Liu Taozi's rise was too fast, he occupied too much territory, and his battle line was too long, which resulted in his military strength failing to keep up with the development of his power, and he was always at a disadvantage in terms of military strength.

Liu Taozi listened to Zu Ting's words and slowly put the document aside.

"What do you think we should do?"

Zu Ting looked helpless, "Since Duan Shaodu has left Jinyang, killed the emperor, established a false emperor, and issued an edict to dismiss us, then the lord must of course fight against the enemy for the world."

"I think the lord can return to Jinyang immediately."

"After Duan Shao left, Jinyang had no chance of survival. After the Lord arrives, Jinyang will definitely surrender. Perhaps it has already surrendered now."

"We are short of soldiers, but Jinyang is not short of soldiers."

"Jinyang still has about 40,000 elite troops. 40,000 people. And they are all elite."

Zu Ting's originally sad face turned into ecstasy at this moment, and he couldn't even hide his joy. "We are training new troops in various places. If we can distribute these 40,000 people to each prefecture army as a skeleton, the speed of training will definitely be accelerated. The originally scheduled three years may be shortened even more. By then, our ten prefecture soldiers will have completed their training and have an army of more than 100,000. Even if the three families join forces, what can they do?"

"In addition, after recovering the Jinyang troops, you can also establish a new ruler."

"Oh? Shin-kun?"

"The emperor died tragically at the hands of Duan Shao, and the Prince of Langya was taken away by him. Gao Zhan was cruel, and his son was even more incompetent."

"My lord, do you still remember that we still have someone in our hands?"

"What the grandfather said is true."

"The Crown Prince of Emperor Xiaozhao, Gao Bai Nian."

Zu Ting narrowed his eyes. "Gao Zhan wanted to kill him at first, but before he could do anything, many wars broke out. Then we rescued him and he has been in our hands ever since. Duan Shao was able to establish Gao Yan, so naturally we can establish Gao for a hundred years."

Liu Taozi frowned slowly.

Zu Ting noticed this and said hastily, "I know that the Lord was against this kind of thing at first, but the situation now is completely different from before."

"At first I said that we should hold the emperor hostage and then easily take over other places, but now the north is completely under our control. It has been cleaned up and all the people from top to bottom are new people arranged by us."

"It's not like we're accepting dirty houses, it's just that we need a name."

"I know that my lord is always open-minded and doesn't like the methods of villains."

"But the villain's method also has its subtlety."

"The royal family of Qi is not famous, but we still have many members of the royal family under our command. If we cut off our ties with Qi and then fight Duan Shao, who has the title of legitimacy, how will these people cope?"

"There are still a lot of places in Qi that we need to take over. Having the name of Qi will make it easier for us to do many things."

"The Xingtai is still the Xingtai after all, but the temple is different."

"We can establish an emperor, but he won't have any power. Everyone from top to bottom will be ours, and the lord will still be the lord of the north. It will be more convenient for us to do things, so why not do it?"

Liu Taozi looked at Zu Ting and asked, "Grandpa, do you think that the position of Chief Clerk is too low?"

Zu Ting raised his head and asked, "If one can become the prime minister, who would want to be the chief secretary?"

"My lord, this is the common mentality. I dare not lie to you. Please be honest. Even Yao Xiong and others whom you trust the most, would they like to be just a general of the four towns or four expeditions?"

"If we control the government, we can do a lot more than we do now. Everything will be on the right track. We can manage the affairs in the north with peace of mind, then go south to defeat Duan Shao, and then get the entire Qi State. At that time, whether it is abdication or something else, I am willing to do it for you, my lord!"

"The Gao family members under your majesty will not object. Abdication is a much better thing than overthrow. If they abdicate, they can still maintain their titles in the future, their descendants can still be taken care of, and the sacrifices to the Shenwu Emperor will not be missing."

Liu Taozi did not give a decisive answer. "Let's talk about this matter after we have collected the Jinyang troops."

"The Jinyang soldiers are not as easy to deal with as Grandfather thought."

"They belong to different military leaders, have always been unruly, and are attached to Jinyang. It will be difficult to disperse them. Forcibly dispersing them will not only not be beneficial to local military training, but may also become a disaster for various places."

“It must be handled with caution.”

Zu Ting lowered his head quickly and said, "My lord, you are absolutely right."

Liu Taozi said again: "And Duan Shao is here."

"I have seen Dugu Yongye a long time ago. He is ambitious, power-hungry, and greedy."

"Duan Shao wants to use him to help the Pseudo-Qi, but I'm afraid it won't be easy."

"Dugu Yongye is willing to surrender, probably just to get the land south of the river through Duan Shao and the emperor. Once they are firmly in power, I am afraid the two will have disputes and start killing each other."

Zu Ting smiled and said, "My lord knows what kind of person he is. Duan Shao must know this. Perhaps Duan Shao has already made arrangements. However, this man is good at fighting, but he is still very rough in government affairs. If my lord agrees, I am willing to add some fuel to their fire and let them fight earlier."

"We have been fighting for too long. Let's sort out our domestic affairs first."

"only!!"

Zu Ting lowered his head, but he had already determined in his mind that the lord would most likely agree with his decision. Even if he didn't consider others, he had to consider the Gao family. Although the lord was open-minded, he was not pedantic.

Once the emperor is established, we can first seek some important official positions for our lord.

The Grand Prime Minister and Grand Marshal and Recorder of the Secretariat, and then promoted to the title of Prince?

King of Dai? King of Jin? King of Tang? Or King of Han?

Well, you don’t have to bow when entering the court, you don’t have to name your name when praising or bowing, and you have to wear a sword and shoes when entering the palace.

As for myself, I don’t have so many ideas. I just want to be given the simple title of Shizhong and Zhongshu Ling.

(End of this chapter)