The bright moon shines on the river.

The three-masted ship serving as Chen Sheng's temporary command flagship was quietly moored at the dock in Linjiang County.

It stands to reason that he personally led the army into Yizhou this time to take advantage of Liu Bang's unpreparedness to outflank his retreat. He should use his troops quickly and at all costs to catch up with Liu Bang in Hanzhong before he could return to Chengdu. He could advance to Chengdu with his infantry and fight

Seize Liu Bang's foundation in Yizhou!

But after Chen Sheng set foot in Yizhou, he uncharacteristically slowed down his marching speed. He was like an old man going out for a walk. He was unhurried and steadily marched upstream along the river. Every time he encountered a huge city,

The fleet will stay for a day or two...

It has been almost ten days since they set foot on the border of Yizhou.

But it was only yesterday that they finally arrived in Linjiang County (now Zhongzhou, Qingqing, Xiaolou's hometown).

There are still at least five or six days of waterway from Jiangzhou, the intended destination.

This is very unreasonable...

But Chen Sheng naturally had his reasons for doing this.

It should be noted that although Yizhou has nominally surrendered to the Han Dynasty, it is still the territory of the Han Dynasty.

But in fact, because the Northern Expedition was imminent, the Han Dynasty simply had no time to take over the rule of Yizhou.

Therefore, the ruling power of Yizhou is actually still controlled by Liu Bang's confidants, Ji Zhou's old ministers, as well as Yizhou's local aristocratic families, Nanman chieftains and other powerful classes.

Chen Sheng knew very well that among these people, there were probably many who were opposed and hostile towards him, Chen Sheng, and the big man!

If these people want to achieve anything, they are definitely lacking!

But in their land, it is not easy to do anything bad!

Unfortunately, they were marching alone, with no support or support, and even the food and fodder they carried with the army was extremely limited...

Under such circumstances, how can we underestimate the enemy and advance rashly?

According to Chen Sheng's intention, of course he would take advantage of this rare opportunity to move forward while wiping out the Yizhou dignitaries on both sides of the river who had accumulated evil deeds and hard-to-change old habits, and at the same time implemented the national policy of land reform on a large scale to sow the seeds of the Han Dynasty...

Fortunately, they can also replenish a wave of food and grass on the spot, which can save a lot of food from transportation losses alone!

What?

A decisive battle with Liu Bang? A quick battle?

Chen Sheng does not need to take the initiative to find Liu Bang for a decisive battle.

He is the one coming now!

It's Liu Bang's turn to come to him for a decisive battle!

Although Chen Sheng was not sure whether Liu Bang had the courage to fight with him and die together.

But that doesn't matter.

Anyway, if Liu Bang dares to come, let him be dealt with first, and then continue to accept Yizhou.

If Liu Bang doesn't dare to come, then he should first take over Yizhou, which has not been devastated by the war, and then go north to kill Liu Bang and Ying Zheng!

This is leaving your own family to fight.

No matter what pots and pans were broken, he, the head of the family, would have to pay for it in the end!

So of course the negative impact of the war should be suppressed as low as possible!

…

"Your Majesty, please come to dinner."

A short soldier carried two food boxes, bowed into Chen Sheng's cabin, cupped his fists and saluted.

"let it go!"

At the other end of the cabin, the dim light of the oil lamp made Chen Sheng's figure sitting on the floor very long. He sat in front of a short table, holding the oil lamp with one hand, and pointing the other hand on the file lined with white silk.

Read down one word at a time.

Files like this were piled as high as a hill on the table in front of him. Sitting behind the hill, he was almost overwhelmed by these files.

These files are the directories of officials who were involved in the reform of the Three Provinces and Six Ministries system between the DPRK and China and were delivered to Li Si today through the information transmission channel of the Special War Bureau.

The information of every official on the list is recorded in detail, from the official's name, origin, knowledge, to past political achievements, as well as the moral character investigation issued by the Special War Bureau... There are all detailed records...

What a character report looks like!

But that’s not what surprised Chen Sheng the most!

What made him even more curious was that Li Si's personal letter that was sent along with these files clearly mentioned that these official lists were a first draft that he came up with after repeated discussions with Fan Zeng.

However, the signature at the back of the file only contains Li Si's name, not Fan Zeng's.

Chen Sheng thought at first that this old guy was trying to steal credit.

But after carefully reviewing some files, I felt that it was not the case...

In these files, the number of officials who came from Jixia Academy was too large.

The names of Li Si's "favorite disciples" are all listed.

Chen Sheng never denied the excellence of the students at Jixia Academy.

Jixia Academy is the cradle of Han talents that he built with his own hands and put a lot of effort into.

He knows better than anyone else what advantages and strengths the students of Jixia Academy have...

But here, it is not at all a question of whether the students of Jixia Academy are excellent or not.

It is a question of whether Li Si, as the host responsible for reforming the system and laws, should avoid suspicion!

Of course, Chen Sheng would not feel grudge just because Li Si recommended one of his "favorite students".

With Li Si's experience and wisdom, Chen Sheng also believed that he must understand that he would not care about this trivial matter.

After all, Grandpa Taizu once said: Political power comes from the barrel of a gun!

Chen Sheng holds the sword handle of two million Han troops in his hand. Who needs to be afraid of forming a clique in the court for personal gain?

But whether he cares or not is one thing.

What Li Si did is another story.

Just like the materials written by subordinates for their superiors, there are always a few extremely obvious typos left in the speeches for the superiors to point out and modify.

Even if Chen Sheng, as the king, doesn't care about Li Si promoting his favorite disciples, Li Si, as a subordinate, should not take advantage of this stock trend to promote his favorite students without any scruples, and even bother to pretend to be recommenders.

Obviously he shouldn't do this, but Li Si just did it.

And he did it so openly and blatantly.

'Does this old guy want to retire and return home?'

Chen Sheng slowly figured it out, thinking that he hadn't criticized the old guy recently. Even when the old guy returned from his mission to Yongzhou without success, he had never said a harsh word to him. Why did he do that?

Thinking of retiring and returning home?

Then, he thought of Han Fei, whose presence in the court was getting lower and lower. He was the right minister of the Han Dynasty, but now even he, the great king, often couldn't see him for several months.

, even if the king summoned him to the palace to discuss matters, the man would always refuse the king's order on the grounds that he was in pain and had difficulty moving...

With Han Fei as an example, Chen Sheng had a sudden realization in his heart: 'Retreat bravely from the rapids? Is this necessary?'

From this perspective, he could somewhat guess what Han Fei and Li Si were thinking.

Of these two people, one is the leader of the Han judicial system, possessing both legislative and law enforcement powers. His followers of Legalism can be found in all states, prefectures, counties, and towns of the Han Dynasty, and their number is still increasing to this day.

On the turn.

The other is the leader of the administrative system of the Han Dynasty. In addition, he was the dean of the Jixia Academy of Literature for four years. It can be said that the entire civil servant system of the Han Dynasty is deeply imprinted with his Li Si, and now he is fully responsible for the reform of the system.

thing……

What's more important is that the two of them are still brothers!

Even though the two of them had always been at odds with each other, they were ministers in the same palace and the number of times they met in private could only be counted on one's fingers.

But in the eyes of the people below, that's not the case at all...

As the saying goes, three people make a tiger, and a common voice makes a gold.

Chen Sheng estimated that if he didn't suppress these two people, they might even think that he was really cultivating his wings and waiting for the opportunity!

'I believe you, but you still believe something is wrong?'

Chen Sheng put away the files in front of him without laughing or laughing, thinking that after the matter in Yizhou was settled, he would have to take some time out and go back to Jinling to have a good chat with the two senior brothers.

The revolution has not yet succeeded. Comrade Mule... cannot run away with a bucket!

He stood up, picked up the sword on the weapon rack and tied it around his waist, preparing to go out for a patrol as usual.

At this moment, an officer from the Special Operations Bureau quickly walked in, took out a bamboo tube with a pheasant tail attached to it and held it in his hand: "Your Majesty, an urgent message from Jinling Headquarters!"

Chen Sheng frowned, took the bamboo tube, crushed it, shook out the silk book inside, and quickly browsed it.

As soon as he saw it halfway, he lost his voice in astonishment: "When did I give Liu Bang the royal order to go south to Baiyue?"
To be continued...