The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 195 The First Meeting

Li Keyong had fallen silent, melancholic and helpless. After a moment, he said, “There is no need to mention the past, what should I do now?”

Huiming was about to talk when the curtain of the internal tent was opened, and a young woman walked in. Before she had appeared, her voice could be heard, “Naturally, you should wait for your opportunity.”

After seeing this young woman, Huiming got up and put his palms together devoutly.

The young woman was not what you would call beautiful, but she had bright eyes and gentle manners. And she was obviously from a large, noble family, and a pure-blooded Han.

Having returned Huiming’s courtesy, she said to Li Keyong, “There’s only one person, my husband, who can defeat Huang Chao in the whole world. The rebels would not be kept at bay unless my husband joins the battle. It is better to train the troops and accumulate strength rather than begging for food. If someday the imperial court gets anxious, they will naturally clear the obstacles for my husband. That would be the time when my husband will pacify the rebels and become famous.”

Liu Yun, the young wife of Li Keyong was quite strategic and often had great ideas. When Li Keyong went on an expedition, she would stay around the military camp giving advice. She had earned the respect of Li Keyong’s advisors.

Li Keyong and Liu Yun were serenely in love, and he was very respectful to her in private. Li Keyong immediately got up and took Liu Yun to sit with him and seriously thought about what Liu Yun said.

Huiming added, “Mrs Li has taken the words right out of my mouth. General, please do think twice.”

Li Keyong glanced at Huiming defiantly and thought, “What do you think I’m doing?”

Soon, Li Keyong made up his mind and decided to do what Liu Yun and Huiming advised.

Since he was not in a rush to send his troops to the Central Plains, Li Keyong did not have to worry about the food problem. When he was training the soldiers, he did not forget to recruit and buy horses. It was widely known that Huang Chao had a million soldiers. When the time came, he did not want to face him in the Central Plains with just 100,000 soldiers.

...

Dengzhou.

Zhu Wen was not very happy currently, which made him look calm when he was inspecting the city defenses. When the soldiers who followed Zhu Wen saw him like this, they dared not disturb him, so the team was very silent.

Wuyazi had come back, albeit with only one arm. This time though, he did not fly in and out of the city as per usual. He just walked in from the city gates and fainted to the ground after entering the city.

After Zhu Wen went to see him, he learned that the Zhongnan Four Swords would not come back. And the news of Prince An’s arrival in Xuzhou. Zhu Wen did not care at all about the deaths of Zhongnan Four Swords. He never liked those old Taoist priests.

The Zhongnan Mountain Taoists had helped a lot during Huang Chao’s conquest of the North and the South. They helped with the strategizing and often headed the charge, but still, Zhu Wen never felt their importance.

At bottom, Zhu Wen did not like the way Huang Chao was absolutely obedient to the Taoist. In his view, a great hero made meritorious deeds for the sake of respect and power. How could he then be subservient to a bunch of enigmatic Taoists?

Zhu Wen was worried about Li Ye the most.

Wuyazi did not know how Li Ye came to Xuzhou, and what Li Ye was going to do. However, Zhu Wen knew. As an experienced general, he had his own way of thinking about problems. As Pinglu commissioner, Li Ye appeared in the hinterland of the Central Plains. There was only one possibility that was to lead the troops to attack Huang Chao.

Zhu Wen had heard about Li Ye’s prestige.

Before Huang Chao revolted, he was a scholar. Zhu Wen was still a ruffian, hunting in the countryside. Li Ye’s heroic deeds of killing Wei Baoheng and eunuch Liu Xingshen were spread in the world.

At that time, Zhu Wen was very excited to admire these characters and other deeds which heard from Mr storytelling. After all, they were about the same age. He discussed in high spirits with his second brother Zhu Cunxing for many days. In words, they both believed Li Ye was an outstanding man.

Zhu Wen told his second brother that before Prince An gained fame and fortune, he could not practice for twenty years, and also be called a waste. Now, although they had no reputation, who could guarantee that they would not be as amazing as Prince An in the future?

Zhu Wen did not know the word “idol”. If he knew, he would understand that he had already regarded Li Ye as an idol.

Since fought with Huang Chao, Zhu Wen had never heard of Prince An. Sometimes, Zhu Wen heard that the official army’s general had changed. He also thought about was there any chance to change Prince An to lead the army? After all, the older Prince An Li Xian, who used to lead the soldiers when he was young, but it did not happen. Zhu Wen could not tell that was regrettable or glad.

Later, Zhu Wen saw the report, knowing that Li Ye went to Pinglu, he had secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The prestige of the two Princes An was really too big.

Unexpectedly, this time Prince An arrived in Xuzhou, and according to the words of Wuyazi, he still came for the Zhongwu Army. What was he going to do? Obviously, he was going to attack them.

It was very stressful to play against idols.

Zhu Wen stopped at the gate in the east of the city. He looked at the northeast direction. For a moment, he suddenly asked, “Did the spy to Henan come back?”

Zhu Zhen, his trusted follower answered, “Not yet.”

Zhu Wen had his own rules to settle things. Since Prince An had been here, it was impossible to escape. The only choice was to fight. At this time, it was very important to find out the ins and outs of Prince An. At least he had to know how many soldiers and horses the Prince An brought.

Although Zhu Wen was the favorite general of Huang Chao, he was made the general from the chief of the Trusted Army for a short time and there were not many soldiers and horses. After the bad failure of battle in Dengzhou, he only had 50,000 soldiers.

It was all fake that Huang Chao had more than one million soldiers. It was all for ensuring momentum. Most of them were coercing civilians, including old men, weak women, and children. The real soldiers were about 500,000 with only a few elites.

At present, the main force of the Rebels was in Guanzhong—in the hands of Huang Chao. Zhu Wen did not bring out a lot of soldiers and horses. He also thought that if he took over Dengzhou, he would be able to open the situation with the opportunity to recruit soldiers or to annex the town and expand the forces.

There was basically no rebel general in the east of Tongguan. Zhu Wen was alone, and it was not easy to hold Dengzhou.

Zhu Wen glanced back and looked around. Many of these soldiers and horses in Dengzhou were his trusted army, and they were truly elites who were his foundation to build his reputation. It was uneasy for him to keep the troops since he had followed Huang Chao for years.

“OK! Send more spies to Zhongwu, Henan, Xuanwu to inquire about the news. They must find out how many soldiers and horses the Prince An brought!” Zhu Wen finished the order, feeling a bit upset, not willing to stay in the city. He went down the ramp, turning over to get on the horse, taking a team of soldiers out of the city, running along the eastern official road.

Zhu Wen wanted to change his mood and see the scenery along the way.

When he heard that Emperor Taizong took the troops to fight, he would like to take more than a hundred soldiers to go to the enemy’s territory to explore the military situation. He had been chased many times, but he never changed. Sometimes he also used this method to lure the enemy and played many wins.

Zhu Wen didn’t want to go to Xuanwu Army, but he could also walk there to see what the message was like along the way. At times, the news brought by the refugees was also useful.

After running for a long time, it was almost a hundred miles away from Dengzhou. There were not many pedestrians on both sides of the official road. Zhu Wen stopped to get off the horse and prepared to go back. After all, it was wartime now. He could not spend the night in the wild. Although he was courageous and had nothing to fear, he was also very cautious.

However, before turning back, he saw there was a tea-shed at a corner of the official road. There were still a few people drinking tea in the tea-shed. Zhu Wen turned to think about it was fine to drink a bowl of tea. By the way, chatted with the people and checked their attitude of the volunteer army and the Tang Empire.

Since Huang Chao had announced that he had established the Qi Empire, he wanted to know people’s thought.

Zhu Wen asked the soldiers to wait for this. He only took Zhu Zhen and several others to trot their horses to the tea shed. The owner of the tea-shed was a skinny old man with thin clothes, and he was afraid of seeing them.

Zhu Wen stepped into the tea-shed after getting off the horse and smiled heartily. He said, “Don’t be afraid, I just come to drink a few bowls of tea. Relax, you won’t get less money!”

After Zhu Wen sat down, he was interested in looking at the table by the side. He was about to talk to the other person. When he took a serious look at them, he couldn’t help but feel a bit dumbfounded. They were a few very rarely beautiful ladies who had white skin and good body shapes.

The one on the left looked mature and charming. Her eyes were fascinating. The one on the right looked young and short. She had a head of purple hair, with a veil covering her face. Although her face could not be seen clearly, people could tell that she was extremely gorgeous. Her eyes were big, bright, and very clear. The one whose back was facing him was wearing a black-red robe. Even though she was sitting in a chair, she could be seen that she was very tall.

Unexpectedly seeing three such beautiful women, the average person might be surprised. Zhu Wen was not dysfunctional. He could tell that they were cultivators in Jianghu. Maybe they were from some huge sect. Otherwise, he could not see so many ladies at one time.

Such cultivators in Jianghu, wherever there was excitement, they would go there. When they were in trouble, they would call friends to solve it. He should not offend them.

That might be a little exaggerated. Zhu Wen didn’t intend to provoke them. Although they were very beautiful, he had never been able to kidnap women, and he did not covet their beauty at all because there was someone in his heart!

Zhu Wen looked at them up and down, then regained his eyes to drink tea. At this time, he noticed that a childe in robe slid out from behind the tea-shed and sat down at that table. It looked like he was with them and he went to the latrine.

Li Ye saw Zhu Wen, and also saw a hundred rides that stayed far away, but he didn’t care.

Now the Central Plains was messed up like this, from Bianzhou to Xuzhou, everywhere were soldiers and horses. They had met too much along the way since they got into the Dengzhou border from Xuzhou. These people right here, at most, seemed to be more sophisticated. Although the other party was dressed in the Rebellion Army costumes, Li Ye did not intend to kill them as long as he saw them. It did not make sense.

However, since he saw the Rebellion Army, it was very likely to be the army of Dengzhou. Li Ye needed to accost anyway and spy on the situation in Dengzhou. He took a sip of tea and cleared his throat to reveal a kind smile.

“This general...”

“This childe...”

Zhu Wen also intended to make a conversation with him to see where Li Ye and others came from, whether there was any news worthy of attention, or whether these cultivators in Jianghu had any views on the newly established Qi Empire.

The two people spoke together, and the words hit together.

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