Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1071 Annan Council

"You, I...you!"

Li Li was shocked. He looked at Cao Yuan, then at the cold and shining blade stuck in his stomach. He still couldn't believe that Cao Yuan would come in from the front door and kill him.

When describing a person who kills without blinking an eye, it is often said that this person will kill someone if they disagree with him. But I clearly haven't said anything yet! How did I get stabbed?
Anyway, at least tell me why...

Seeing that Li Li had a look of pain and confusion on his face, with his mouth still open, as if he was about to say something, Cao Yuan glanced at him and said, "Hey, it seems he is not dead yet."

Then he twisted the handle of the knife, pushed it forward, and pulled it out. A puff of extremely bloody mist instantly splashed out. Cao Yuan threw the knife away, turned around and smiled at the doorman with white teeth: "Look, he is really dead now."

"You, you, you, you guys..." The doorman looked terrified as if he had seen a ghost.

It was not until then that he remembered that it was not Le Loi who first killed Deng and started the rebellion in Thanh Hoa City.

But it’s the General Cao in front of him!
When General Cao killed the high and mighty Deng, it was as easy as killing a chicken.

The same thing will happen if we kill King Li now!
Behind Cao Yuan, the two Zhou Wangwei had already calmly controlled the gatekeeper and Li Li's newly-acquired concubine in the house, and then ordered a subordinate, "Go and call the other people in charge in the city."

"Let's say that the Pan, Zheng, Ding, and Zhao families wanted to start a rebellion and divide power, and they secretly killed King Li, and we discovered it."

"...General, we are just the thief crying thief." The Zhou Wangwei who was ordered looked at Cao Yuan speechlessly. Cao Yuan was taking off his blood-stained coat with a calm face, as if he was trying to cover up the evidence of the crime. "When we came here, we didn't hide our tracks. I don't know how many eyes saw us coming here at night."

"As soon as we arrived, Le Loi died. How could we throw dirty water on others? No one would believe us."

"Don't go back and call people over, or we'll just be surrounded and killed ourselves."

"Do you think I didn't think of this?" Cao Yuan smiled mysteriously, feeling the pleasure of showing off in front of others. "It is precisely because we came here openly, who would believe that I stabbed Le Loi to death in one glance?"

"Besides, we are not the only ones who came to see Le Loi. People from Pan, Zheng, Ding and Zhao, these four families just left." Cao Yuan blinked.

"General, you mean..." King Zhou and his guards looked at each other with a look of sudden realization and excitement.

"They just left and we just arrived. They killed Le Loi and we found them. This is reasonable." Cao Yuan spread his hands like Zhu Su did every day and said, "If we go to these four families later and find that they are gathering assassins and sharpening their knives, it will be more reasonable to say that they want to cause chaos in the city."

"General, is this the strategy left by His Highness?" asked a Zhou Wangwei in surprise.

Cao Yuan nodded and said, "What else? Do you really think that I, your general, am a fool?"

"During the military meeting, he pointed at Le Loi's nose and insulted them as a mob. With Le Loi's mentality of a poor man who suddenly became rich, how could he tolerate my humiliation of him like this?"

"Plus, since only the lackeys of the four families Pan, Zheng, Ding and Zhao are left, it's obvious that he is planning to kill me. If he wants to kill me, the four families will definitely prepare assassins when they return."

"When the time comes, we will catch these assassins and accuse them of trying to cause chaos and seize power in the city. Since they wanted to cause chaos, could I have killed Le Loi?"

The Zhou Wangwei suddenly understood what was going on and couldn't help but exclaim in amazement. Since there was already a rule, we just had to follow it step by step. Cao Yuan sent people to invite the leaders of other families in the city. When the leaders arrived at Deng's mansion, they were shocked to see that it was in a mess and Li Li's body had been cleaned up and placed aside.

"This...what's going on?" someone asked in surprise.

Most of the leaders in the city were former students of the Wuqu Academy. Like Cao Yuan, they were the first members of Le Loi's uprising. However, during the uprising, partly because they were friends of the same generation as Le Loi, and partly because there were not many scholars who could be used, most of them became the second or even third batch of leaders in Le Loi's forces.

Seeing this tragic scene, their first reaction was to ask Cao Yuan who was already at the scene. However, few people suspected that Cao Yuan was the murderer at the first sight.

"Pan, Zheng, Ding and Zhao were greedy. When they heard that Le Loi was going to attack Thang Long City, they thought it was like hitting a rock with an egg, so they secretly killed Le Loi and prepared to take control of Thanh Hoa City with their death squads tonight so that they could surrender the city to the Hu bandits." Cao Yuan said.

"I got the news and rushed over, but I didn't expect to be a step late."

Everyone was shocked and whispered to each other. Cao Yuan was originally the second in command of Le Loi's forces, but because he was not from Annam, he was still a guest army in name, so he usually did not take care of things. Now that Le Loi was dead, he took up the burden and said, "Now is not the time to hesitate."

"The Pan, Zheng, Ding, and Zhao families have evil ambitions and must be doing something shameful right now."

"Quickly mobilize the troops and surround these four families. If we act too late, the four families will put their knives on our necks, and then everything will be over!"

As he spoke, he began to mobilize his troops. The group of people were skeptical, but if the situation was really so urgent, there was really no time for them to hesitate or doubt. So Cao Yuan took over the power in Qinghua Prefecture smoothly and mobilized troops to surround the houses of the four heads of the Pan, Zheng, Ding, and Zhao families.

The heads of the four families were secretly gathering their assassins in their houses, preparing to take action at night to help Li Li kill Cao Yuan. However, they did not expect that just as they had gathered their assassins, their houses were surrounded. Cao Yuan personally commanded the assassins, and the assassins of the four families were soon killed or injured.

Finally, the heads of the four families, Pan, Zheng, Ding, and Zhao, were dragged out of their houses and brought before Cao Yuan. The head of the Pan family was originally a bandit with the most violent temper. Even with his hands tied, he still struggled. When he saw Cao Yuan, he cursed, "Cao, why do you want to harm me?"

"Why?" Cao Yuan sneered, "You killed King Li, so you shouldn't die?"

"Kill King Li?" The head of the Pan family was stunned for a moment, and then he became furious and said, "King Li is dead? I once tried to kill King Li!"

"If you don't want to kill King Li, why are you gathering the assassins?" Cao Yuan sneered. "Come on, chop off the heads of the four of them and offer them as a sacrifice to King Li!"

The four people were all held by Cao Yuan's subordinate Zhou Wangwei. Upon hearing this, they took out something that looked like a smelly sock and stuffed the mouth of the head of the Pan family. The head of the Pan family screamed and screamed, but he couldn't say a word, and was dragged out.

After a while, the sound of beheading was heard and the night became quiet again.

Everything is settled.

At this point, some people still hadn't reacted yet, confused and unaware of what was going on. Even if some people came to their senses, it was already too late.

"Now that the four evil thieves have been surrendered, Le Loi can finally rest in peace." Cao Yuan said with a compassionate look.

This style was learned from Yao Guangxiao. That monk was best at chanting sutras to pray for the souls of the deceased after killing someone.

"We have suddenly encountered such a big change. King Li is dead. What should we do next?" Someone said with a worried look on his face.

"We can't live without a leader. The most urgent thing is to decide on a new leader." Someone secretly glanced at Cao Yuan and suggested. Cao Yuan was a Ming Dynasty man and could not be their leader. As long as he became the leader and inherited Le Loi's legacy, he would be a big man who could shake the Annan country. Many people were eager to try.

"Le Loi's position was appointed personally by His Royal Highness Prince Zhou of the Ming Dynasty. You want to choose a leader but don't ask His Royal Highness Prince Zhou. Do you think the Ming Dynasty is nothing?" Cao Yuan's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over these people's heads, and they immediately became uneasy.

Everyone knows that in this team, Cao Yuan and his Ming guest troops are second only to Le Loi. Now that Le Loi is dead, and the four most trusted family heads under his command have also been wiped out, Le Loi's forces are now in disarray.

In such a situation, if Cao Yuan is unwilling to nod his head, no one can become the leader.

"General Cao, please calm down... We don't look down on His Royal Highness King Zhou." Someone came out to smooth things over. "It's not that we covet the position of leader. The truth is, after King Li's death, we are now in danger. Those bandits and nobles who have not yet been completely convinced are fine, but if the Hu family knew that we are now leaderless, they would be happy to eat us up and turn us into food for their family."

"What's more, His Royal Highness King Zhou wants us to lead the poor to rise up and purge those greedy nobles in Annan. If we don't have a leader, we won't be able to continue doing this. His Royal Highness King Zhou will surely be disappointed."

"Or... General Cao, are you planning to be the leader yourself?" the man looked at Cao Yuan with an unfriendly look.

Cao Yuan was an outsider, and not from a humble family in Annan. It was not right for him to do this. The Annan people were very xenophobic. How could they accept a Ming Dynasty leader ruling over them?
I am afraid that once Cao Yuan does this, Hu Jinyi and Nguyen Duofang will turn their guns around and first deal with Cao Yuan's force that is clearly aiming to erode the Annan state.

Even if the Ming Dynasty is watching covetously from behind, we will not hesitate.

Cao Yuan looked calm, but he didn't say anything. The man continued, "General Cao is loyal to His Majesty the King of Zhou, so he naturally wouldn't have such thoughts. But even if we send an urgent letter to His Majesty the King of Zhou, it will take a lot of time to go back and forth."

"If we miss any opportunity, it would be putting the cart before the horse. Why don't we first appoint a leader to take charge of the affairs temporarily, and after His Royal Highness King Zhou gives instructions, this temporary leader will return the power to the leader instructed by His Royal Highness... General Cao, what do you think?"

"Hey, do you think that I, Old Cao, am illiterate and can be bullied at will?" Cao Yuan said with a sneer.

"If this is really done, how can the interim leader be willing to simply give up the power that has already been obtained?"

"If we take this foundation and invest it in Hu Jinyi, wouldn't all our efforts be in vain? No! It definitely won't work!"

Under Cao Yuan's firm opposition, the group made many suggestions, but all were rejected. Someone was so anxious that he asked Cao Yuan, "This is not allowed, and that is not allowed. What does General Cao want to do?"

"If we fail to achieve our mission due to the lack of a leader, can General Cao afford it?"

"Who said that without a leader, nothing can be accomplished?" Cao Yuan "suddenly" "had an idea", as if he had thought of something, he stood up and said: "When I was fighting in the west with Your Highness, I heard that some countries in the west did not have a ruler or anything like that."

"Their national affairs are decided by a group of people in a place called 'parliament' who vote on them."

"Since King Li is dead and His Royal Highness King Zhou has not yet arranged a new candidate, we will also follow the example of those western countries and set up a 'council' to handle all major matters."

"Isn't this solved?"

"Council?" A group of people frowned. In Asia, where monarchy is deeply rooted, they have never heard of such a political system.

But after listening to Cao Yuan’s brief explanation, their first reaction was to think...it seems that this is not a bad idea?

Indeed, what they hope most is to become the new "leader", take over the legacy left by Le Loi, and leap to the pinnacle of power in their own force.

But this kind of thinking is not very practical. There are dozens of competitors, and if you fail, there will be no benefit.

But this "council" was different. It was equivalent to dividing the power originally concentrated in Le Loi's hands into dozens of parts and distributing them equally according to the number of people.

Everyone gets a share of power, although it's not much, there's no risk.

Immediately, many people who originally had little power and thought they had no chance of winning the leadership position expressed their agreement with the "council's" approach.

"But... government affairs can be handled in this way, but what about military power?" Someone hesitated and raised an objection.

Yes, government affairs can be voted on, but military power cannot. When the troops are stationed at the front, do they have to wait for the troops in the rear to vote on how to use the troops and how to deploy them?

"Each family should share the military power, that's it." Cao Yuan was well prepared and said calmly. Although Le Loi had a lot of military power, if it was distributed evenly, these troops would immediately become a mess.

No longer a problem.

Everyone was silent in tacit agreement. Being able to share the military power equally was another good thing that would benefit everyone steadily. However, a few people were still thinking about the big things and asked cautiously, "If we share the military power, how can we fight against the nobles and the Hu bandits?"

"After the division, our army's strength will inevitably be greatly reduced..."

"It's okay." Cao Yuan said with a smile. "There is a helper, and he is on the way..."

(End of this chapter)