The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 238 Killing and Punishing the Heart

Last time, we talked about how Emperor Xiao Yongming of Liang started to wink at his younger brother. Fortunately, Li Yi pushed Xiao Yonghong, who had fallen asleep while standing, awake, and the latter saw it. So how will the story develop next? Let's read on.

Xiao Yonghong looked at the stage and nodded, and was about to start the performance. Li Yi took the lead and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, I think that as long as the two countries complete the marriage as soon as possible, your majesty will withdraw his troops."

Xiao Yongming shouted, "Shut up! Li Yi, this incident is all because of you. I will punish you later! Humph, don't think you're safe!"

"Oh, yes, yes, my brother is right! This matter was caused by you. Li Yi, do you admit your guilt?"

Li Yi asked in surprise: "Your Highness? What crime have I, a foreign minister, committed?" As he said that, he curled his lips towards Shen Yue.

Xiao Yonghong finally reacted, walked up to Shen Yue, pointed at him and asked, "And you, Shen Yue! Why did you disregard the emperor's will and order the guards to kill Li Yi's family?"

Shen Yue was surprised and said, "Why do you say that, Your Majesty? I have already reported the actions of the guards to Your Majesty!"

"Nonsense!" Xiao Yongming shouted, "Shen Yue, I told you clearly that if Li Yi's family planned to flee the Wei State, the guards should protect them in secret! It was you who ordered that no one should be spared! You put me in an unjust position! Li Yi!"

"The foreign minister is here!"

"I called you to the palace today to clarify this matter in front of all the ministers and you! I never ordered the killing of your family members and framed others! All this was done by Shen Yue on his own!"

Shen Yue then realized the problem. Xiao Yongming wanted him to take the blame for him! At this time, he made the mistake that everyone would make, which was to defend himself. Although it was to help the leader take the blame, most people were still unwilling to do so.

Of course, Shen Yue also had his reasons for not taking the blame. It was too big a blame for the diplomatic relations between the two countries, and too dark a blame for the reputation of Emperor Liang. Shen Yue was afraid that he would not be able to turn things around if he took on this dark and big blame.

Shen Yue repeatedly defended himself, and Xiao Yongming became more and more angry. He directly called the two guards who had returned from the Northern Wei Dynasty to confront him in public. What else could this result be? Shen Yue did give this order, and the two guards just chose to ignore the sentence "Your Majesty has approved it."

In this way, the blame was truly placed on Shen Yue. Xiao Yongming immediately issued an order to remove Shen Yue from all official positions and confine him to his palace, waiting for the negotiation between Liang and Wei to be concluded before making another decision. When the imperial guards dragged Shen Yue out of the hall, he was still shouting that he was wronged.

Li Yi immediately bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"

"Li Yi! Don't be so naughty! Now it's your turn! As an envoy, you dared to assassinate an important official of Daliang outside the palace. You are clearly disrespecting Daliang! Forget about the marriage. I will never marry Qizhen to your barbaric land or marry her to you, the Sogdians!"

Li Yi was surprised and said: "Your Majesty, since the culprit has been found, the marriage between the two countries should continue. How can we regret it?"

"Marriage alliance? What the hell! Go back and tell Xiao Yongxin to stop thinking about my Qizhen! I would never let her marry into the Northern Wei Dynasty even if I kept her by my side! She should experience the feeling of leaving her hometown by herself! But you dare to tease me. Do you really think I dare not kill you?"

Xiao Yongming mobilized the righteousness and dragon energy, and then used the martial arts qi base to integrate the three into one, and pressed them all on Li Yi, trying to force him to give in. Qi base and righteousness were fine, but resisting the human emperor dragon energy at such a close distance was quite strenuous even for Li Yi, a third-level cultivator.

But Li Yi's sleeves were fluttering, his teeth were clenched, veins on his forehead were bulging, and his right hand was supporting the ground, but fortunately his knees did not fall to the ground. When he withstood the sudden pressure, and then mobilized his own righteousness, Buddhist teachings and spiritual power to resist it, Xiao Yongming saw the golden-horned blue dragon phantom around Li Yi.

As the golden-horned blue dragon looked up at Xiao Yongming on the dragon throne, the emperor's dragon energy retreated, and the remaining righteousness and qi base naturally could not suppress Li Yi. He slowly stood up, straightened his body, raised his hand to salute, and said solemnly: "Your Majesty, if you want to punish me, I have nothing to say, but I beg Your Majesty to release Su Xiao and let her and the envoys return to Wei. I am willing to stay and wait for your punishment."

Xiao Yongming also knew that he could not suppress Li Yi, so he stopped while he was ahead and asked seriously: "Are you admitting your guilt?"

"Foreign ministers plead guilty!"

"Okay! Come, lock up Li Yi and put him in the prison!"

Several imperial guards locked Li Yi with iron chains. When they were about to carry him out, they could not lift him. Li Yi asked, "Your Majesty! Where are Su Xiao and my Wei envoys?"

Xiao Yongming said: "I will not break my promise! Let the guards send Su Xiao back to the delegation, and then drive them out of Liang State!"

Li Yi was tied up with iron chains all over his body, and he couldn't even raise his hands. He could only nod and salute, saying, "It's inconvenient for an outsider to salute, but thank you very much, Your Majesty!"

Xiao Yongming waved his hand and said, "Take him away!" Six imperial guards lifted Li Yi up and walked out of the hall.

At this time, someone stood up to plead for Shen Yue. Xiao Yonghong stepped forward and scolded him, "How dare you plead for Shen Yue? If it weren't for him, how could the young emperor of Northern Wei lead the army in person and mobilize 200,000 troops to march south! For his own selfish interests, he disregarded the trust of his brother and made his brother bear the infamy. Shen Yue should be executed! The brother is kind-hearted and took into account their old friendship. He only dismissed him from office. If it were you, you would definitely throw him out and chop him off!"

After scolding the officials who pleaded for Shen Yue, he stood in front of all the officials, under the high platform, and gave them another round of PUA, saying that they did not care about government affairs, were just sitting there doing nothing, and only thought about how to get benefits! The scolding was so harsh! Xiao Yonghong's performance can be said to be quite hard, and Xiao Yongming was also very pleased when he saw it.

Xiao Yonghong finally asked: "None of you know how to share the worries of your royal brother! Now the army is approaching, do you have any plan to repel the enemy?" No one among the civil and military officials dared to speak.

At this time, Xiao Yongming said, "What King Linjiang said may be a bit harsh, but it is not disregarding the facts! Now I have a plan to repel the enemy, but the treasury is empty and there is a lack of food and silver. I wonder if you have any good ideas?"

Zhen Dexiu in the corner came out to report: "Your Majesty, when the Jingfa Division cleared out the Shura Palace and Jifa Hall, they seized a lot of property. Roughly calculated, it is no less than 100,000 taels of silver, which can be used as military funds to solve the urgent problem."

"Okay! Send an imperial decree to appoint Zhen Dexiu as the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, with full authority to allocate food and military pay for the battle against the Wei army. My dear, please do not let me down!"

Zhen Dexiu bowed and said, "I will do my best!"

Xiao Yonghong glanced at all the ministers and said, "Although the Jingfa Department has taken out so much silver, it is far from enough. Do you have any other ideas?" Then they were supposed to discuss countermeasures, but it turned out that Xiao Yongming asked all departments and offices to contribute money and manpower. Those who had no money and no manpower should save on expenses and return some silver to the court anyway. In this way, they barely raised 200,000 taels as military expenses. With the money, the next step was to mobilize troops to prepare for war. After all, they had to be prepared for both situations.

When it comes to military command and responding to the enemy, Xiao Yongming is definitely unique among the kings of Liang, Chu and Wei. Although he was defeated by Tuoba Jun's father, Emperor Chengwu of Wei, Tuoba Tao, when he was young, he was still very immature at that time. Although he may not be a match for Tuoba Tao in his heyday now, he is still very confident facing Tuoba Jun who has never experienced a real war.

Xiao Yongming began to deploy troops. His strategic thinking was simple. He let the Wei army go deep into the city, and then used the Changhong natural moat as a barrier, using the absolute advantage of the navy to block the Wei army from crossing the river, and then outflanking from both wings to block the Wei army's retreat, gradually forming a siege and trying to wipe out the Wei army. Military orders were sent from Jiankang to various parts of Southern Liang, and troops were assembled and urgently mobilized. Although the war machine of Southern Liang was not ready, it began to accelerate. Officials from all over the country were busy allocating food and military supplies, and the garrisons in various places took action, wearing armor and leading soldiers to the Yangtze River.

Our great talent Li was imprisoned in the prison, with iron chains around his body and chains around his feet. Although he was unable to move, he did not feel any discomfort and regarded it as weight training. That night, Zhen Dexiu brought Tuoba Li, Lu Yu and Su Xiao to visit the prison. Seeing Li Yi in prison uniform, Tuoba Li and Lu Yu were full of emotion, but Cui Zhi was no longer calm.

Looking at Cui Zhi who was wiping tears, Li Yi smiled and said, "Why are you crying? Isn't this all expected? Are you leaving tomorrow?"

Tuoba Li nodded and said, "Well, we will leave early tomorrow morning. Li Yuefu, you...we will wait for you to come back!"

Lu Yu bowed to Zhen Dexiu and said, "Minister Zhen, may I ask if we can let Miss Su and Li Yuefu chat alone for a while? I'm afraid they won't be able to chat well with us here."

Zhen Dexiu nodded and smiled: "Okay, okay, I'll go tell them, we'll wait outside."

Zhen Dexiu said to the guards watching over Li Yi, "You all go out and let them talk here."

"My Lord, this is not possible. Li Yi is a wanted criminal appointed by His Majesty!"

Cui Zhi said unhappily: "You are the one begging for food, your whole family will be guilty!"

Zhen Dexiu waved his hand and said with a smile: "Miss Su, please be patient. Little brother, let me ask you, do you know what level of cultivation Li Yi is?"

"It is said that he is the second Third Cultivator. He is very powerful. Even the two Generals Chen are no match for him."

"Well, do you think you can stop him if he wants to escape?"

"Of course, it can't be stopped."

"So don't worry, he wants to stay here. Let's go and let them have a good chat."

Cui Zhi and Li Yi bowed and thanked them, and then they left, leaving only the two of them in the prison.

Li Yi reached out to help Cui Zhi wipe away her tears and said with a smile, "Why are you crying? Didn't I tell you it would be like this?"

Cui Zhi murmured, "I agreed not to cry before I came here, but seeing you like this, my eyes just can't hold back."

Li Yi looked at the door and said in a low voice: "Okay, let's cut to the chase and don't make it difficult for Master Zhen. You leave Jiankang and cross the river as soon as possible. After crossing the Yangtze River, it will be too late even if Xiao Yongming regrets it. You hurry up..."

After listening to Li Yi's arrangement, Cui Zhi nodded and said, "I understand. I will tell the prince and Lord Lu."

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "Okay, go ahead." Cui Zhi bowed and was about to leave, but Li Yi shouted again, "Wait! Give me a kiss!"

Cui Zhi covered her mouth and said, "No way! You stink, I don't want to kiss you!"

Li Yi said contemptuously: "Are you sure? If you don't kiss me now, forget it in the future!" Cui Zhi was still hesitating, Li Yi reached out and pulled Cui Zhi to the front of the cell and kissed her directly. After finishing, he licked his lips and smiled: "Well, the taste hasn't changed!"

Cui Zhi wiped her mouth and said unhappily: "You are already like this! And you are still so unruly!"

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "Go!" Cui Zhi left with a smile...

Five days after the Wei envoys crossed the Yangtze River, Xiao Yongming received three military reports on his desk, the first two from Liu Hong and Xiao Zongji, and the last from Shouyang King Xiao Yonghui. Liu Hong did not find the Wei cavalry in the north of the Yangtze River, so the battle did not succeed; and Xiao Zongji wandered on the river for three days, not to mention the speedboat, he did not even find the shadow of the Wei army.

Xiao Yongming frowned and opened the third military report, which roughly meant that Tuoba Jun's army had stopped in Sizhou because the heavy rain had destroyed the roads and bridges. It was initially estimated that it would take at least half a month to build bridges and roads after the heavy rain. Xiao Yongming did not think that Tuoba Jun did not understand the importance of speed in war. The previous 200 speedboats and Dugu Long's surprise attack had already shown that the Wei army knew how to attack by surprise, but he still couldn't figure out why Tuoba Jun stopped.

"Your Majesty, there is a letter from Nangong Guan, the commander of the Dingnan Army!" Eunuch Xu handed the letter to Xiao Yongming, who opened it with a surprised look. The content was very simple. As long as Liang released Li Yi, the Dingnan Army would withdraw. Just when Xiao Yongming was hesitating whether to release him, Zhen Dexiu and Yu Quan suddenly asked for a meeting. Both of them came to impeach Shen Yue and the Shen family.