Chapter 804: Several Floors High

Li Yun stood up and left. His Royal Highness the King of Chu escorted him all the way to his doorstep, and the two of them bowed to each other and said goodbye.

Li Yun smiled at him and said, “Your Highness, the Imperial City Bureau has basically ceased to exist. Even if it does exist, Jinling at this moment is not a place they can influence. Your Highness does not have to stay at home all day. You can take care of the children and live a normal life.”

His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu looked up at Li Yun, sighed and said, “To be honest with you, Brother Li, what I’m afraid of now is no longer the Imperial City Division.”

If they are not afraid of the Imperial City Bureau, then they are naturally afraid of Li Yun.

After all, the identity of King of Chu is too sensitive. He is the second son of the previous emperor, and like the Emperor Wu of Zhou, he is the legitimate son of the previous emperor.

After the current emperor ascended the throne, he almost destroyed the Wu Zhou country in just a few years. By this time, the people had already lost their hearts, so it was natural that his branch would not be popular.

Comparatively speaking, Wu Yuanyou is currently more popular than his emperor brother. Anyone who is still loyal to the Wu Zhou Dynasty and has some hopes in their hearts will most likely count on Wu Yuanyou rather than Emperor Wu Yuancheng.

After all, the Wu Zhou Dynasty lasted for more than 200 years, and people with this kind of thinking were everywhere in the world.

Apart from anything else, there must be quite a few of them in Jinling City. Even among the civil servants who have defected to Li Yun, many of them may have these thoughts.

Once Wu Yuanyou resumes normal activities, someone will definitely come and contact him.

Wu Yuanyou is a smart man. At this time, he probably won’t be so foolish as to do something he shouldn’t do. However, he is still worried that he will violate Li Yun’s taboo and cause the death of his family.

Therefore, the King of Chu, who was the most active, lively and least restrained among all the princes, locked himself up in a mansion. For several years, he hardly went out and never met any guests.

Seeing that he was being frank, Li Yun smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Your Highness. You and I can barely be considered friends. As long as I can achieve something, your branch will be a guest of our Li family.”

“If you don’t go too far, I won’t say anything.”

Wu Yuanyou bowed deeply to Li Yun and saluted: “Thank you, King Wu.”

Li Yun just nodded slightly and left with his hands behind his back.

After Li Yun left, His Royal Highness the King of Chu staggered back to his main hall. He could not walk steadily and almost fell to the ground.

His princess came over to support him and was also very frightened: “My Lord, what happened to you?”

His Royal Highness the King of Chu sat in the main seat, looking at the door, his voice trembling a little: “Close the door, close the door.”

When the door closed, he could no longer bear it and burst into tears: “I don’t know how many members of the Wu royal family died because of what I said today.”

Princess Chu asked a few questions, and after she got the general idea, she began to persuade: “Your Highness, we are a family, and we are all under the same roof. This fellow clan member is not in your hands. If the King of Wu wants to kill or chop him up, we have no right to interfere.”

“It’s out of my control.”

His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu wiped his tears and sighed, “When he asked me, he probably already had an idea in mind.”

At this point, His Royal Highness the King of Chu looked outside the palace blankly, muttering: “Even if I speak up to protect him, it will be useless, and it may even put our entire family to death.”

Princess Chu thought for a moment, then shook her head and said, “Your Highness, the King of Wu… doesn’t seem to be a cruel person. We have all seen in the past few years that the people of Jiangdong… are living well.”

“Treat the people and officials as you would the royal family of the previous dynasty.”

The King of Chu was silent and said, “It’s not the same thing.”

At this point, he sighed and said, “Forget it, I won’t think about it anymore. In this chaotic world, it’s already not easy for our family to survive.”

Princess Chu thought for a moment and asked, “My Lord, can we go out now?”

“If you want to go out, go out, but if anyone talks to you, ignore them.”

“If you hear something you shouldn’t hear.”

The King of Chu said silently: “Report directly to the authorities, report to Jinling Prefecture.”

…………

Li Yun knew that Wu Yuanyou was a cunning person, so he didn’t say much to him. He just said hello and left.

He didn’t even have to ask Wu Yuanyou how to deal with those royal family members, because he naturally had ways to deal with them.

There are too many ways to deal with it.

If you are tougher, just hack him to death.

If all else fails, they can just say they were hacked to death by a group of bandits on the way to the destination, which is also reasonable.

In comparison, how the King of Chu should arrange it is indeed a problem.

Because the Nine Officials reported that there was indeed a group of people, or a force, in Jinling City who were trying to contact the King of Chu.

Some so-called “righteous men of the Great Zhou”.

After leaving the “Prince of Chu’s Mansion”, Li Yun walked around the street again before returning to the palace. Not long after he returned to the palace, someone came to report that it was Liu Bo, the Chief of the Ninth Department, who had been waiting for a long time. Li Yun had Liu Bo brought to his study, and then he changed his clothes and went all the way to the study. After seeing Liu Bo, Li Yun stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder, then smiled and said, “Old Nine has been running around during this period, and you have worked hard.”

Liu Bo bowed and saluted, then said with a smile: “After I took this job, I have been running around all the time, and I have long been accustomed to it.”

Li Yun pulled him to sit down, and the two brothers chatted for a few words. Then Li Yun mentioned the affairs of Hebei Province to him, and also talked about sending people to the Khitan tribes to contact the leaders of the Khitan tribes.

Liu Bo nodded repeatedly and said, “Don’t worry, second brother. The people in Jiusi are now heading to Hebei Province. It will probably take one or two months for them to reach Hebei Province. As for the Khitan tribe, I will make arrangements myself. If the time is right, I can go outside the Great Wall and meet with the people from the Khitan tribe.”

The Nine Departments have become quite large by now. Even if one only counts the staff directly under the Nine Departments, there are probably already three to four thousand people. If some non-staff personnel are included, the number will be even larger.

Among them, some people were arranged to lurk in various places.

Those who already have a fixed identity and have settled down are dead pieces and cannot be moved for the time being.

Those who are relatively flexible or have completed their tasks are called live ones.

Li Yun nodded and chuckled, “Tell the leaders of the Khitan tribe that the Central Plains Dynasty will soon be unified. As long as they cooperate, they will be the new Khan recognized by the new dynasty.”

“it is good.”

Liu Bo took a deep breath and said, “This matter will be the most important matter for the Ninth Division from now on. I will personally oversee it.”

At this point, Liu Bo looked up at Li Yun and said with a smile, “There is one thing I would like to ask my second brother to agree to.”

Li Yun said without hesitation: “You say.”

Liu Bo thought for a moment and said, “When the Ninth Division was first established, there were only a few dozen people at first. Later, my second brother repeatedly invested money and recruited people. Now the Ninth Division has become quite large. I roughly calculated it a few years ago. There are almost 4,600 people directly under the Ninth Division.”

At this point, Liu Bo took a deep breath and said, “This number is already quite large.”

Li Yun lowered his head and drank tea: “I can afford it.”

Liu Bo smiled and said, “Of course I know that my second brother can afford it, but if it continues like this, I won’t be able to manage it anymore.”

“Until now, the Ninth Department has been divided into several departments according to regions. My second brother knows about this.”

Within the Nine Departments, there are now indeed close to nine departments.

In addition to the Duzhi Department which is responsible for finance, there is also the Law Enforcement Department which is responsible for discipline. The others are divided according to regions, including the Zhong Department, Hedong Department, Zhongyuan Department, Hebei Department, etc.

If this continues, I’m afraid even nine departments may not be enough.

“The chiefs of the five departments of Zhongyuan, Hedong, Hebei, Lingnan, and Jiangnan have all arrived in Nanjing.”

Liu Bo smiled and said, “Second brother also said that the Nine Divisions have made great contributions in the past two years. Can you spare some time to meet them? It would be best if you could give them some rewards, so that their efforts in the past few years will not be in vain.”

Hearing this, Li Yun sighed slightly and said, “Brothers, do we still have to think about this?”

Li Yun had never delayed the rewards given to the Nine Departments. Liu Bo’s request was obviously not for the sake of asking for rewards, but to allow Li Yun to have direct contact with some of the leaders under the Nine Departments, so as to control the Nine Departments more directly.

In order to prevent the increasingly large Nine Departments from getting out of control.

At this moment, many discerning people in the world have already seen the momentum of the new Jiangdong Dynasty. Liu Bo, who is on the front line, naturally cannot fail to see it.

At this time, it was already the preparation stage for establishing a new dynasty, and the various makeshift teams that had previously formed had to gradually become formalized.

In the past, control relied on personal connections, but in the future it will need to be systematized and standardized.

Otherwise, it won’t last long.

This is what Liu Bo meant now. Simply put, he wanted to hand over the Nine Departments, which he had created and were basically complete, to Li Yun.

From now on, he is still the Chief of the Nine Departments, but compared with before, there are some differences.

“Second brother, we are brothers, but there are too many people in the Nine Divisions, and when there are too many people, their thoughts become complicated.”

“I don’t know what the people below think.”

Liu Bo smiled openly: “Besides, I can’t do this forever.”

“I was afraid you would be embarrassed to bring it up, so I just brought it up myself.”

Li Yun sighed and patted Liu Bo’s shoulder gently.

“In less than ten years, Lao Jiu, you are really…”

“It’s several stories high.”

(End of this chapter)