Chapter 209 Preparing to Leave Beijing
"Brother, if there is a first time, there will be a second time, a third time... countless times." Li Heng sighed, "Just take care of yourself. I hope to see the high-spirited brother in the future."
Li Heng left with a depressed and lonely look.
Li Yuan watched Li Heng leave with a hint of solemnity in his eyes.
Isn't this the sixth child really the sixth child?
"Your Highness, am I too popular and causing mistakes in your plan?"
At some point, Ah Qing had arrived behind Li Yuan. Li Yuan turned around and saw an annoyed look on Ah Qing's face.
Ah Qing just heard what Li Heng said to Li Yuan in the lobby, and suddenly felt that he had made a big mistake.
Today I feel comfortable, but I don’t think about what His Highness is thinking. If Emperor Yao is really afraid of His Highness again because of her own reasons, leading to a change in Lingzhou’s great situation, how will she face His Highness, and how will she face those people in Lingzhou who are fighting together? colleagues.
"It's okay. Just listen to what Li Heng said just now. If you take it to your heart, you will lose." Li Yuan smiled, turned around and walked back to the lobby.
"Then what should we do now?" Ah Qing asked.
Oh, Li Yuan glanced at Ah Qing in surprise. Ah Qing had never asked him what he was going to do before, but now she was asking him what he was going to do next.
It seemed that Ah Qing was really nervous and felt that she had done something wrong.
What a kind-hearted Ah Qing.
"Ah Qing, don't worry. I and Prime Minister Li have already anticipated this and have prepared a way to deal with it." Li Yuan strode to the desk, looked at Ah Qing with a smile and revealed a little bit of his plan.
"Really?" Ah Qing's eyes lit up.
"Of course." Li Yuan nodded seriously, picked up the brush and lowered his head to write a letter on the desk.
After receiving Li Yuan's confirmation, Ah Qing felt much better.
"Ah Qing, didn't you say that there is something in the East that attracts you? You have been with me for so long, you shouldn't drag it on any longer."
"Ah? Isn't it the time when Your Highness needs me the most in Lingzhou?" Ah Qing frowned slightly. She has an indifferent nature, but that doesn't mean she is stupid. Lingzhou is about to be in chaos, and Your Highness is in urgent need of top combat power.
"It's okay, do you think you can come back after three months away?" Li Yuan continued to ask as he wrote a letter without raising his head.
"I will definitely be back in three months!" Ah Qing said with firm eyes.
"Okay, Ah Qing, you have a night's rest tonight, and will return to Lingzhou from Kyoto tomorrow. Give this letter to Prime Minister Li, and then go find your opportunity."
Li Yuan put down the pen, waved his palm, and blew his true energy over the letter. The handwriting dried instantly, and he gently folded it and handed it to Ah Qing.
Ah Qing took the letter with a blank look on his face: "Your Highness, should I leave first? What about you?"
"I can leave in three days. You go back first."
……………………
Prince Heng's Mansion, Li Heng has returned to the mansion.
In the lake pavilion in the back house, a man in his thirties in light blue robe was fishing leisurely.
This person's name is Dong Ke, a counselor Li Heng found by chance. In just half a month, he has been reused by Li Heng.
Li Heng strolled up behind him and looked at the empty basket beside him with interest. There was not a single fish in it. He shook his head and said with a smile: "Dong Ke, the fish in the lake here are fed every day. I'm afraid you won't be able to catch one in a day." A few fish.”
"Your Highness was joking, as if I could catch something by fishing on the river." Dong Ke said with a calm mind and a very calm smile.
Seeing Li Heng arriving, he put down his fishing rod and saluted.
"Your Highness, how do you feel about seeing King Chu again today?"
"Fifth brother has changed a lot." Li Heng's smile gradually faded and he sighed.
"That's natural. King Chu was able to capture Lingzhou beyond everyone's expectations. Don't underestimate him." Dong Ke's smile remained unchanged, but there was a hint of solemnity in his eyes.
The King of Chu was the most peculiar prince among the four kings of the Yu Dynasty.
"Does Your Highness think you can win over King Chu?"
"It's difficult, Gu, the fifth brother, is a master who doesn't see rabbits and doesn't let go of hawks. It's impossible to make him turn to Gu with just these few words."
Li Heng shook his head and smiled. He repeatedly checked the information on Li Yuan's capture of Lingzhou and had a certain understanding of Li Yuan.
"Oh? Judging from His Highness's expression, it seems that we don't need to alienate the relationship between King Chu and Emperor Yao." Dong Ke's eyes flashed when he saw Li Heng's expression.
"Haha, of course not, Dong Ke, do you know what Li Yao said to Fifth Brother today?" Li Heng looked at Dong Ke with a smile.
Only a few people knew that Li Yao was preparing to declare Li Yuan the governor of Huanzhou when he left Beijing, and the time was so short that it was impossible for the news to leak out.
I only got the news on the way to Prince Chu's Mansion, and it was at that time that I temporarily changed my original purpose.
Li Heng wanted to test the great talent he had conquered.
Dong Ke's eyes moved slightly and he was deep in thought. He didn't even notice the slight movement of the fishing rod in his hand. He pondered for a moment and then looked up at Li Heng with a look of surprise:
"Isn't it because Emperor Yao has appointed King Chu as the governor of Huanzhou ahead of schedule?"
"It shouldn't be. Even if Emperor Yao is mentally ill, it's impossible for Prime Minister Lin and Shangshu Lu to be like this!" Dong Ke's frown deepened. "Now the imperial army is preparing to attack Qingzhou, why bother to make the King of Chu angry?"
Dong Ke thought for a while and overturned this idea, but felt that it was wrong, because this was the only thing that could easily make King Chu angry, otherwise he would not have let King Chu give Aqing to Emperor Yao.
"Dong Ke, you guessed it right. Li Yao did this just now."
"I was shocked when I got the news and was thinking about this issue." Li Heng looked at the palace with a cautious expression. He was not afraid of Li Yao, but Lin Xiang was an old fox who could count ten steps at a time.
It's a pity that he was just one step away from being able to win over Prime Minister Lin.
"How is King Chu feeling?" Dong Ke asked.
"Although Fifth Brother tried to cover it up again and again, the gloominess in his eyes could still be seen."
"Your Highness, during this period of time, I think we need to continue to lie dormant and wait until Li Yao's true purpose comes out before making a decision."
"Of course, Gu thinks so too."
Li Heng faced the lake, stood with his hands behind his back, and let the breeze blow his sleeves.
"Second brother and third brother hope that Gu can bring trouble to Li Yao and implicate Li Yao, instead of solving Li Yao and taking that seat, so what they most want to see is that I am a prince who is as stupid as Li Yao! "
"And fifth brother is the same!"
"Then why don't I just do what they want!"
…………………………
The next day, in the court square, all civil and military officials gathered together. The arena was still there, with pens, inks, paper and inkstones placed, as if they were preparing for a literary fight.
Li Yao sat high on the throne, looking as if he didn't know that the dynasty mission was planning to admit defeat today.
Yi Ning stood on the ring, about to announce the start of the fight.
The audience around them are also looking forward to it, with smiles on their faces and great confidence.
"Master Yi, wait!"
Within the dynasty's mission, a voice suddenly sounded.
Everyone looked around and saw a tall, yellow-haired figure from the Meade Dynasty standing up.
The other members of the envoy seemed to have expected it and watched him appear quietly.
But An Zhe could barely conceal the pride in his eyes, and looked straight at Li Yao, looking like you are all trash.
Li Yuan saw An Zhe's expression and shook his head. It was so unprofessional.
How can such acting skills survive in the palace?
Not to mention anything else, I would just say that Master Park, my envoy, just died yesterday. The body may still be warm... uh... no, the body is gone.
It doesn't matter if you're not sad. If you still act like a villain, aren't you clearly telling others that I want to trick you?
"What else do you want?" Yi Ning looked back at the Mid Dynasty and said with a frown.
Did you interrupt yourself at the beginning to cause trouble?
The envoy from the Meade Dynasty smiled and said: "We and other envoys proposed to compete with your dynasty this time just for exchanges and discussions, with no other intention. We have already competed four times, and we really don't want to cause any trouble to your dynasty."
The officials frowned upon hearing this, don't you want to cause trouble to me? Doesn’t the underlying meaning of this statement mean that you don’t want to compete?
Especially the civil servants, all of them suddenly stared angrily!
What do you mean, there were four martial arts competitions, why not a literary competition?
If we don't fight, how can we pretend... how can we promote our dynasty's literary talent!
"Hush!"
The children of the aristocratic families in the audience naturally followed the message of the Meade messenger and booed one by one.
Especially the literati who were all dressed up beautifully and handsomely today. They originally thought that if the contestants sent by the imperial court couldn't answer the question today, they would have the opportunity to answer the questions. Then they could be like Lu Junyi, Zhu Yang and others in the previous games. The world is under heaven.
The most important thing for a literati is reputation!
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Gone!
I didn’t expect to just admit defeat.
unlucky!
What a damn unlucky thing, especially the intellectuals and talents in the front row who were bought at a high price just to get one ten thousandth chance to play. Their faces turned red and they shouted angrily:
"Why, you have failed to compete with the envoys from different dynasties, so you just want to admit defeat?"
"You were the first to propose literary and martial arts competitions. Things should have a beginning and an end!"
"Literature men should be proud. If they don't even compete, they just admit defeat. Wouldn't it be ridiculous!"
…………
Everyone in the missions shrank when they saw the angry eyes of the white-clothed scholars in the audience of Dayu Dynasty.
Fortunately, fortunately, they took the initiative to admit defeat.
Even some people who didn't want to admit defeat before saw the angry expressions of the scholars of the Yu Dynasty, and they were happy.
They had to be unhappy when they gave up, and even scolded themselves for not giving up. From this kind of character alone, we can see how noble the spirit of the literati of the Yu Dynasty was. With so many literati and lofty ideals, their problems may not be difficult for the Yu Dynasty. .
The first four warrior competitions had already wiped out the self-confidence of the dynasty envoys. Facing the Yu Dynasty, they could not raise their confidence to win.
Facing the angry literati in the audience, Messenger Meade smiled and said: "Winning or losing is actually not important. This competition was originally for exchange and learning. If we insist on distinguishing ourselves, we have lost the original intention." .”
"Haha, you keep losing, so of course it doesn't matter whether you win or lose."
"Since winning or losing doesn't matter, why don't you compete?"
"Tch! Aren't you afraid?"
Messenger Meade's face froze.
Yi Ning on the ring had already received a response from Li Yao. He glanced at the envoys and finally looked at the Meade envoy and asked coldly:
"So what do you want now?"
The Meade envoy swallowed his saliva and looked back at a young man in the Meade envoy. Seeing him nodding firmly to him, the angry voices of the literati around him still rang in his ears, but he found it difficult to speak.
They originally thought that the Yu Dynasty would be very happy if they surrendered voluntarily, and then they took advantage of the situation and put forward a condition.
But anyone can see the current angry mood of the Yu Dynasty, so they still want to impose conditions?
How dare you!
"Huh? What do you want?" Yi Ning's face turned cold when he saw that he didn't speak.
"This..." Cold sweat broke out on Messenger Meade's forehead.
"His Majesty Emperor Yao, our missions have seen how powerful the Yu Dynasty is. We feel ashamed, admit defeat, and leave the Yu Dynasty immediately!"
A young man stepped out from the Meade Dynasty envoy, walked to the top of the ring, and bowed his hands to Li Yao and all the officials.
He was the one who came up with that question. This question was thought up by his master, who was also the most prestigious wise man in the Meade Dynasty. He believed that no one except his master could solve this difficult problem.
With confident eyes, the young man said to Li Yao again:
"However, our dynasty envoy has a small request, and we hope that the distinguished Yu Dynasty can agree to it."
"Oh? What's the condition?" Li Yao's eyes showed a trace of teasing. He fully cooperated with their performance today.
Seeing Li Yao speak, everyone in the square fell silent.
When the young man saw Li Yao speaking, his eyes lit up and he quickly said:
"We have a large number of envoys. We have stayed in Kyoto for a long time and have exhausted all our expenses. We only ask His Majesty the Emperor to give us some food to allow us to go back."
"Then how much food do you want?"
Li Yao changed his sitting posture and raised his eyebrows at Li Yuan beside him.
The young man didn't notice Li Yao's movements. The Meade messenger on the side had already drawn sixty large grids on the ring.
He pointed at the big grid and said: "Your Majesty, Emperor Yao, the mission does not need much food. All you need is His Majesty Emperor Yao to send people to put food in these grids. Put a grain of rice in the first grid, and put a grain of rice in the second grid." Two grains, four grains are placed in the third grid, and each subsequent grid is twice the size of the previous grid, and so on, until the sixty-fourth grid is completed."
"That's it?"
Sure enough, after hearing this, all the officials looked at the young Meade man.
Tsk tsk tsk, let’s go down the stairs.
Each dynasty has been planning this competition for an unknown amount of time, and now it hastily ended it. It seems that they are afraid of our Yu Dynasty.
If they really had to fill sixty-four boxes of food to go back, they might have starved to death before they even arrived, right?
This is the first thought of many people. They think that the missions of various dynasties are just to find a way to get off, so they can make a decent request at will.
Li Yao did not reply immediately, but looked at the officials around him.
"What do you think, sir?"
Many officials did not take it seriously. Although some officials suspected that the mission was fraudulent, they could not see any tricks when looking at the sixty-four grids.
Isn’t it just a few bags of grain?
However, many officials did not speak because they had noticed that Li Yao's eyes were on Chen Hai, the minister of household affairs.
Sure enough, the next moment, Li Yao asked Chen Hai directly:
"Chen Aiqing, what do you think?"
Li Yuan raised his eyes, Chen Hai and Li Heng were too close.
When Li Yuan looked into the distance, sure enough, Li Heng was looking at the sixty-four grids with a frown.
Hearing this, Chen Hai glanced at the sixty-four grids on the arena and said:
"Your Majesty, since the envoys are so short of food, we naturally cannot refuse. We cannot let the envoys of each regiment starve. This is not in line with etiquette. I think it is okay to give it."