Tang Dynasty.
Outside the Tai Chi Hall.
Zhou Yu had just followed Li Lizhi here when he heard Li Er's roar coming from inside.
"I have already issued a clear decree. How dare those people do this? Are they planning to rebel against my Tang Dynasty?"
Seeing this, Li Lizhi hesitated in her steps forward.
But Zhou Yu didn't take it seriously and followed Zhang Ananda in.
When he entered the store, Zhou Yu discovered that there were quite a few people there.
Li Chengqian, Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Ma Zhou, Wei Zheng, Cheng Yaojin, Yuchi Gong...
Anyway, almost all the people Zhou Yu knew were here.
Generals like Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Gong were all furious and murderous.
People like Fang Xuanling, Ma Zhou and others had serious expressions on their faces, and no one knew what they were thinking about while frowning.
When they saw Zhou Yu appear, the officials were obviously stunned.
But then, he revealed an expression as if it was natural.
Everyone knows the name of Mr. Zhou Xiaolang nowadays.
Although he refused the reward from the Prince, who in Chang'an City today would dare to look down on him?
Seeing Zhou Yu coming in, Li Er, who was still angry, although his face was still gloomy, temporarily suppressed his anger.
He first pointed to the seat next to Li Chengqian, and then said to Li Chengqian, who had a serious expression on his face, "Gao Ming, tell him what happened first."
Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian nodded quickly and then began to tell the story in a low voice.
Through Li Chengqian's narration, Zhou Yu also understood the whole story.
It turned out that after Li Er decided to conquer Japan, he ordered shipbuilding in Jiangnan.
Originally, this was a good thing for Jiangnan.
After all, once large-scale shipbuilding begins, it will definitely drive local economic development.
Not only the craftsmen involved in shipbuilding, but also the related industries will benefit from it.
Normally speaking, this is definitely a good thing that benefits the country and the people.
However, the aristocratic families in Jiangnan were not satisfied with this little bit of benefit.
As soon as the talents sent here to build ships arrived in Jiangnan, they began to divide and win over others.
Some people could not resist the temptation of money and beauty, and soon fell into the web woven by the other party.
Another group of people who stick to their original intentions and just want to work hard encounter all kinds of difficulties.
Those aristocratic families used their influence in the local area to prevent anyone from reporting the news back to Chang'an. On the other hand, they constantly instigated those officials who had been won over to delay the progress of shipbuilding under various excuses and put pressure on the court to take over the shipbuilding matters.
Li Er, who came from a prominent family, naturally could not agree to such a request.
Not only that, he also specially sent an imperial envoy to Jiangnan to collect evidence of those aristocratic families obstructing shipbuilding.
The people sent out lived up to expectations and actually found out a lot of evidence of illegal activities of the Jiangnan gentry.
Although Li Er was very angry, now was not the best time to destroy these clans.
After weighing the pros and cons, Li Er finally decided to give the Jiangnan clans a severe punishment based on the illegal activities they had committed.
I thought the next step would be to arrest people and try the case according to the procedure, and then make a warning.
Who knew that after they arrested someone based on the evidence they had, they were unable to file a case.
Because the victims related to the case either disappeared for no reason or insisted that nothing happened at all.
Some people even turned around and complained that the officials handling the case were meddling in their affairs.
In this way, all the evidence obtained through preliminary investigation is useless.
Even because they had arrested the suspect in advance, the officials handling the case were threatened by the aristocratic families.
That’s not all.
Although the shipbuilding work has been delayed, it is progressing slowly.
However, after this incident, the shipbuilding work was completely halted.
A lot of boatmen and civilians had been recruited before.
After this incident, everyone gave up and ran away.
Even the craftsmen affiliated with the imperial court refused to work due to illness for various reasons.
Even if the salary doubled, still no one was interested.
At this point, even the most slow-witted people knew that all of this was the work of the Jiangnan clans.
Those people wanted to use this incident to tell Li Er that even if the emperor came, it would be useless in the Jiangnan area.
Faced with such a threat, if Li Er had not met Zhou Yu, he might have chosen to endure and wait for the right time to act.
But now that he has Zhou Yu's support, there is no way Li Er would compromise.
After receiving Jiangnan's memorial, he directly ordered to continue digging deeper into the evidence and make sure to make it a solid case.
However, the imperial edict had just reached Jiangnan when the official sent to investigate met with an accident.
First, the official in charge of the investigation accidentally fell off his horse and was injured, and then a fire broke out in the official's residence.
Normally, no matter how serious the fire is, people in the house have a chance to escape.
But not only did no one escape from the fire, even the evidence collected previously was burned to ashes.
Not only that, several officials who did not originally live in that residence were also inexplicably burned to death in the fire.
This was clearly an act to give Li Er a hard time, so how could he not be angry?
After Li Chengqian finished describing what had happened, Li Er angrily said, "Boy, I want you to get another batch of those things. This time, even if the Jade Emperor comes, I will send troops to Jiangnan."
After saying this, he glanced at Wei Zheng in the crowd.
Seeing this, Wei Zheng raised his eyebrows and was about to step out immediately.
But before he could take a step, Zhou Yu spoke first: "I have no objection to sending troops to Jiangnan, but the previous batch of materials cannot be used."
"Why?"
Li Er's face was gloomy and his tone was full of hostility.
That look seemed to be saying, if you Zhou Yu can't give me a reasonable explanation, don't blame me for being ruthless.
Zhou Yu didn't take Li Er's expression seriously.
He first glanced at the officials present, and then said in a calm tone: "Those things need to be kept confidential."
After saying this, without waiting for Li Er to speak again, he pointed outside the palace and said, "Today's Tang Dynasty has many Japanese envoys.
Once those things are used, the news cannot be concealed at all.
By that time, your fleet for going out to sea may not have been built yet, but Japan may have already made preparations in advance.
Don’t fool yourself with nonsense like we are a tiny country and it is impossible for us to do so.
You should know that the word "Wokou" first appeared in the Han Dynasty.
For thousands of years, that tiny country never stopped harassing.
Unless such a nation is crushed to pieces, it will cause endless troubles.”
Zhou Yu's tone was very firm, leaving no room for negotiation at all.
Others may not know what kind of nation the Japanese are, but he, a modern man, knows it very well.
For thousands of years, the desire to conquer the land of China has been ingrained in their nature.
Otherwise, how could it be possible to enshrine those war criminals at the national level?
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