The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 214 Everything Must Be Repaid

Last time we talked about how Li Yi took great pains to finally deal with Cui Zhi, so this time the great talent Li should do something serious, as he has not forgotten the agreement he made with Jing Ling San Ren.

The next day, the recovered Li Yi was going to talk to Zhen Dexiu about the search of Ye Mao Mountain, but he was interrupted by the eunuch who was delivering the imperial edict. He had to go to the palace to meet Xiao Yongming first. The Emperor Liang had nothing else to do, but to ask Li Yi to raise money again! Why? Because they didn't do a good job and damaged the Mausoleum of King Yu. The aristocratic families in Yangzhou were not happy about it, and they jointly wrote a letter asking Xiao Yongming to punish Li Yi.

Upon hearing this, Li Yi exclaimed, "Your Majesty, this is unjust! This is too unjust! In order to eradicate the Shura Palace, I have gone through all kinds of hardships, and I was seriously injured in the battle with the Shura King's possession, and I was almost disfigured. How can you still say that I have bad intentions!"

Xiao Yongming waved his hand and said, "I know how much you have paid, but how can they know? How about I tell them that you have already joined the army?"

"No, Your Majesty, absolutely not! If I tell them, the matter will surely spread to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and my family will be in danger." Li Yi said this to test him. He wanted to see whether it was Xiao Yongming or Shen Yue who wanted to harm his family.

Xiao Yongming frowned and said, "Well, if that's the case, I'll help you block it again! But you have to give them an explanation."

Li Yi bowed and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, but I don't know how to give them an explanation."

Xiao Yongming said, "You don't need to worry about tracking down the remnants of the Shura Palace. Just leave it to Zhen Dexiu. Yesterday he reported that government offices at all levels are actively searching for them. Twenty of the Ye Maoshan have been arrested. The rest is just a matter of time. As for you, you should find a way to raise money to repair the Yu King Mausoleum."

Li Yi cursed in his heart: I have already cut a wave of leeks in order to help the victims and ask you to send troops to clear out the Shura Palace. Do you still want me to cut them? This is embarrassing! This is not my fault alone. Why don’t you let your son go? And Liu Hong!

Seeing that Li Yi had not replied, Xiao Yongming said sternly, "You are responsible for raising money, Zong Ji is responsible for repairs, and Liu Hong is responsible for appeasing the descendants of King Yu! I only let you raise money, that is the easiest job, I am not partial to you at all!"

Li Yi said in embarrassment: "Your Majesty, I am not afraid of your favoritism, but the clans just donated money for the Jinghong Banquet in Huaguang Palace. I am afraid it will not be so easy to raise money again."

Xiao Yongming said coldly: "You think you are the only one who has a hard time? I have no hard time! In order to appease those clans, I stripped Zong Ji of his title and gave him a beating!

Liu Hong was also demoted and suspended from salary but retained temporarily. If he fails to appease the descendants of King Yu, I don’t know how to punish him!

As for you, not only can I not punish you, I have to find a way to protect you! You still have the nerve to complain to me!"

What else could Li Yi say after all this? However, this also meant that his strategy of alienating Liu Hong had worked. Xiao Yongming's punishment on Liu Hong was the heaviest, and the task he was given was the most difficult. So Li Yi bowed and said, "I wonder how much it will cost to repair the Yu King's Mausoleum?"

Xiao Yongming said: "The Ministry of Industry has checked it out. It should be at least 50,000 taels!"

"Fifty thousand taels? Your Majesty, please punish me! If it was ten or twenty thousand taels, I could still think of a way, but fifty taels is simply impossible!"

Xiao Yongming said unhappily: "I didn't ask you to raise that much money! You find a way to raise 20,000 taels, and I'll find a way to raise the rest!"

Li Yi bowed and said yes. Before leaving, Xiao Yongming said, "Don't forget our agreement. The three-month deadline is already halfway through. You better hurry up."

Xiao Yongming's words made Li Yi understand one thing: it was not him who wanted to harm his family, but Shen Yue. Xiao Yongming was actually reluctant to marry his daughter to him, so he urged him to hurry up and do the right thing.

After leaving Jiankang Palace, Li Yi went to find Zhen Dexiu. It was quite difficult to chat with this great scholar, because he was a reincarnated argumentative person! Maybe that was why he was good at debate. Li Yi told him to forgive others when he could, but he said that good and evil cannot coexist, and then he gave Li Yi a long speech to educate him.

Li Yi was no match for him in eloquence, so he took advantage of Zhen Dexiu's love of argument and did the opposite, using counterattack and flattery to encourage him to kill them all and not leave any trouble. This trick worked well, and Zhen Dexiu gave Li Yi a profound ideological education.

Finally, Li Yi proposed to use Mao to cure evil, and suggested that the court set up an agency specifically to manage Ye Mao Mountain, which would be under the Jingfa Division, and also bring in Di Zong to be responsible for supervision. If any problems arose, the court and this agency would solve them together.

This proposal was approved by Zhen Dexiu. After the two of them discussed the general idea, Zhen Dexiu was about to draft a memorial. The key point was that Li Yi recommended Zhang Hongchen to be the first person in charge of this organization.

At the beginning, Zhen Dexiu was against it. He advocated that a Buddhist monk should be appointed. However, Li Yi gave the reason that Buddhism needed more rectification. At the moment, he had no suitable candidate, so he could only decide on this.

In addition, Li Yi reminded Zhen Dexiu that he should now focus on rectifying Buddhism and sealing up the Shura Temple Ji Fa Tang, because Xiao Yongming was always short of money! Later, Zhen Dexiu did a good job in sealing up the Ji Fa Tang and collected a lot of money for the court, so Xiao Yongming transferred him to the Ministry of Revenue. Five years later, he became the Minister of Revenue, the highest-ranking official of the Zhu Xi School in the court.

Zhen Dexiu did a lot of good things during his tenure, such as punishing evildoers, fighting corruption, abolishing harsh taxes, and building warehouses for disaster relief. But he didn't live long enough to live longer than Xiao Yongming. He only served as Minister of Revenue for seven years before he died of overwork. He really died young.

Well, the matter of Zhen Dexiu ends here, and we are on the right track. In this way, the agreement between Li Yi and Jing Ling San Ren has become clear. The rest depends on whether Xiao Yongming agrees, how to persuade Zhang Hongchen not to kill innocent people, and how to manage those Ye Maoshan.

Li Yi asked Zhou Mo to help deliver a letter to Zhang Hongchen, asking her to help deal with some problems. Since Zhou Mo had been assigned a task, Miao Miao naturally couldn't be idle, so Li Yi took her back to the inn to guide her practice and rehearse the repertoire.

Three days later, Xiao Ruoping came to see Li Yi. In the reception room, Cui Zhi stood behind Li Yi, staring at Xiao Ruoping with a wary look. The latter did not dare to recognize Li Yi, who had changed his appearance. She also recalled that Li Yi had pulled up his pants and left before, so the atmosphere was a little awkward.

Li Yi cleared his throat to break the silence: "Hey, what do you want to talk to me about, Princess?"

Hearing Li Yi's unfamiliar yet familiar voice, Xiao Ruoping exhaled and said, "You and Xiao Yongming have a three-month agreement. The guards who sneaked into the Northern Wei will take action when your three-month agreement expires. When the King of Zhenbei celebrates his birthday, your good brother Dugu Yu will invite Bailing to sing at his mansion, and they will set an ambush on the way back to capture Bailing first.

Zhao Hanfeng and your two sisters will be poisoned, and then the blame will be put on the Yuwen family. As for Shiyu, they have arranged people in the Imperial College, and as for how to act, our people don’t know, we only know that they will point the finger at the Nangong family. We have already revealed this information to Tao Zhongwen, and now we can talk about cooperation. "

After hearing this, Li Yi clenched his fists so hard that they made a clattering sound. Shen Yue's move was truly vicious. Not only did he want to kill Li Yi's family, he also wanted to frame the four major families of the Northern Wei Dynasty. This was his return gift to the old silver coin.

Cui Zhi saw Li Yi's angry face and quickly comforted him: "Sir, with Master here, Sister Shiyu and the others will be fine! Master will definitely protect them."

Li Yi exhaled a breath of foul air and stood up to leave, saying as he walked: "Let's talk about cooperation after I make sure my family is safe. Xiao Ruoping, I have something to tell them. If anything happens to my family, Shen Yue will not be the only one to die!"

Five days later, Lu Yu came to Li Yi with Tao Zhongwen's secret letter. Li Yi breathed a sigh of relief after reading it. Shiyu and the others were safe. Tao Zhongwen had captured those guards and, with the help of the Anti-Liang faction, eliminated the Southern Liang's spy network in Shangjing City.

Tao Zhongwen also said in the letter: "It is impolite not to return the favor. Since Lord Shen has given me a surprise, if I don't return the favor, won't the people of Liang laugh at me, the people of Wei, for not knowing etiquette? Just go ahead and do it! If you need help, go to Linjiangxian by the Qiantang River. They will do their best to help you."

After reading the letter, Li Yi asked Cui Zhi: "Linjiangxian was opened by old silver coins. Did you know this?"

Cui Zhi shook her head and said, "It's impossible! It is said that it has always been in the Wei style since it was built, and it has always been watched by the guards, but after watching for several years, no abnormalities were found. I got to know Shen Lu because it was renamed Linjiangxian from Beiwenzhai last year, so Shen Yue sent Shen Lu to check it out.

When my identity was exposed, Linjiangxian was not affected at all and continued to open its doors to welcome customers. So how could Linjiangxian be opened by you, sir? It's impossible!"

Li Yi stroked his chin and said, "Interesting. I want to see what tricks Old Silver Coin has. Let's go! It's time for us to take action. Let's go to Linjiang! By the way, do you want to vent your anger?"

Cui Zhi asked in confusion: "What are you angry about?"

Li Yi smiled and said, "Tomorrow morning, you and Sister Hongyu will go to Tongxin Temple to tell Xiao Ruoping a message for me. First, let Sister Hongyu find a way to get rid of her maid, because she is Xiao Yongming's spy."

"Oh, what did you want me to say?"

Li Yi reached out and pulled Cui Zhi's sleeve, picked up a pen and wrote four words on her arm: "Follow orders." Cui Zhi smiled proudly and said, "Thank you, sir. I will definitely piss her off to death this time!"

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "That's enough. This time we have to deal with the largest family in Nanliang. We can't do it alone. There are many people to unite with. Don't make it difficult for me."

Cui Zhi bowed and said, "Don't worry, sir. I know what to do."

Li Yi asked: "By the way, I plan to start with Shen Lu, do you mind? After all..."

Cui Zhi said coldly: "Shen Lu doesn't care about our old friendship at all. Even if I lied to him, I still served him! But he is determined to kill me. If I have the chance, I would like to kill him with my own hands."

Li Yi nodded and smiled: "That's good, I was worried that you might have some psychological burden, it seems that I was overthinking."

Cui Zhi said sternly: "The game between nations, the struggle between the light and the dark, the conspiracy and intrigue, all depend on one's ability, how can there be any personal feelings."

Li Yi asked in confusion: "So, do you have a private affection for me, or what?"

Cui Zhi pushed Li Yi and said shyly, "Young Master, you ask even though you already know the answer!"

Li Yi curled his lips and said: "I guess, you and I don't have any private feelings, you are simply conquered by the things on my body!" The next part is the playful part, which we will just skip over.

After discussing the follow-up plan with Tuoba Li and Lu Yu and making preparations, Li Yi went to the palace to bid farewell to Xiao Yongming, saying that he was going to Linjiang to raise money. Then he took Cui Zhi, Jiang Hongyu, Yu Jiu, Yin Miao and Zhou Mo to Linjiang. On the way, Li Yi also guided Yin Miao and Zhou Mo in their practice.

Cui Zhi and Jiang Hongyu skipped the carriage and returned to Linjiang again, full of joy. Li Yi chartered a big boat for a cruise on the river. The group talked and laughed, and there was singing and dancing, making it very lively.

At this joyful moment, Zhang Hongchen, wearing the outfit designed by Li Yi for her, came walking on the water with an umbrella, with a light figure, a sweet smile, and her every move showing her enchantment and charm. Everyone on the boat saw that the person coming was a beautiful young woman in strange clothes. Zhou Mo, Jiang Hongyu, and Yu Jiu all looked at Cui Zhi.

Cui Zhi naturally recognized whose words were written on the umbrella. She lived up to everyone's expectations and stood in front of Li Yi, saying sternly, "Who are you? How dare you break into my master's boat?"

Li Yi reached out and pulled Cui Zhi aside and said, "It's okay, we're on the same side, let's continue!"

"One of our own?" Cui Zhi stared at Zhang Hongchen, watching her walk step by step to her side.

Zhang Hongchen chuckled and said, "The number one singer in Qiantang is just so-so, but this blind girl has something special." Zhang Hongchen doesn't judge people by their appearance, he looks at their spiritual power.