The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 170 Battle

Last time, we talked about Li Yi finally arriving in Jiankang. After meeting up with the envoys, he learned that Emperor Xiao Yongming of Liang had become a monk again! So can Li Yi complete the task assigned by the envoys and Empress Dowager Xiao this time? Let's read on.

Li Yi and Tuoba Li found Lu Yu, and the three of them went to the Ministry of Rites to inquire about the news. As a result, the official of the Ministry of Rites used the same old trick again, asking Li Yi to prove that he was himself. This made Tuoba Li very angry, and he almost lost his temper on the spot. Fortunately, Li Yi and Lu Yu suppressed him, so that there was no tragedy like the Honglu Temple in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Li Yi said to the reception official from the Ministry of Rites: "The Third Prince Xiao Zonggang and the Minister of Rites Yu Feng can both prove that I am Li Yi. We only need to ask these two to come and identify me and we will know the truth."

Unexpectedly, the official from the Ministry of Rites replied, "The third prince is not in the capital, and Minister Yu has taken leave to return to his hometown in Kuaiji. What should we do?" Upon hearing this, Tuoba Li wanted to draw his sword and kill him, but Lu Yu fought hard to stop him.

Li Yi asked again: "How can I prove that I am Li Yi?"

At this time, Zhang Deyuan, the Minister of Rites of the Southern Liang Dynasty, happened to pass by. Seeing Tuoba Li drawing his sword and ready to kill someone, he wanted to come over and tease him and humiliate these Northern Wei Suolu. Zhang Deyuan shouted, "Who dares to be so presumptuous in my Ministry of Rites!"

Upon hearing this, several people immediately bowed and greeted him. Zhang Deyuan said sternly, "It turns out to be the Prince of Ping'an of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Your Majesty, you are not waiting for the emperor to summon you at the posthouse. Why are you causing trouble in my Ministry of Rites?"

Tuoba Li said unhappily: "What the hell are you calling him? Your emperor has become a monk, how can you call him?"

Zhang Deyuan flicked his sleeves and said angrily, "Humph, vulgar! I never thought that you, a prince and the envoy of a country, would be so rude! No wonder people say that you, the Northern Wei..."

Li Yi reached out to interrupt Zhang Deyuan's words. He knew that this great scholar would probably give a long speech next, arguing one by one about the faults of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Li Yi was in no mood to waste time with him, so he interrupted his spell even if it was rude. He saluted and said, "May I ask Minister Zhang, how can you prove that you are Minister Zhang Deyuan?"

Zhang Deyuan rolled his eyes at Li Yi and said, "Everyone in the Ministry of Rites can prove this!"

Li Yi nodded and said, "Oh, so if everyone in the Ministry of Rites says that Zhang Shangshu is the next emperor, then you are the next emperor?"

Zhang Deyuan pointed at Li Yi and cursed, "How dare you! Who are you to say such treasonous words! Someone, come here! Capture this villain for me!"

Several bailiffs came over upon hearing the noise and were about to arrest him, but Li Yi rushed to Zhang Deyuan's side and ignited the Red Lotus Fire with his left palm, threatening him, "Minister Zhang, do you think these people will take me down first, or will I take you down first?

Hey, Zhang Shangshu, you'd better not say anything now. I know that words can be followed by deeds. If you say one more word, I can't guarantee that there will be wind to blow this fire to you. This is the red lotus karma fire of Buddhism. If it burns Zhang Shangshu, I'm afraid there won't be even a bone left."

The official from the Ministry of Rites immediately shouted, "How dare you! How dare you threaten the Minister of Rites in my Daliang Ministry of Rites! Don't you want to live?"

Li Yi smiled and said, "Sir, to be honest with you, it is a pipe dream for you to think that you can stop me, Li Yi, with your officers and soldiers from the Ministry of Rites. I'm sure you all know my achievements..."

At this time, only a hearty laughter was heard: "Li Lefu, I haven't seen you for a long time. It seems that Lord Lefu has become more and more proficient in using the Red Lotus Karma Fire!" This person was none other than Liu Hong, the current Vice Minister of Works.

Li Yi put away the Red Lotus Karma Fire and saluted, saying, "I thought it was someone else, it turned out to be Minister Liu. I actually forgot about Minister Liu. The Third Prince and Minister Yu are not here, but I still have Minister Liu to prove my identity."

Liu Hong waved away the yamen runners and saluted Zhang Deyuan, saying, "Liu Hong greets Minister Zhang. Li Yuefu has always acted as he pleases. He ordered the ships to charge the enemy in the northern border, but disappeared before reaching Shouyang. This is not something that can be guessed by common sense."

Zhang Deyuan said coldly: "Humph, forget it. Li Yuefu, a talented man from the Great Wei, behaves in this way. It can be seen that being coarse and mean is the style of the Wei people. As the Minister of Rites of Daliang, how can I have the same opinion as these Suo captives?"

Tuoba Li got angry and said, "What did you say! Say it again! Don't think that I won't dare to take action in front of your Nanliang. Today, I..." Li Yi stretched out his hand and pressed heavily on Tuoba Li's shoulder. The latter was startled and looked at Li Yi.

Li Yi raised the corner of his mouth and bowed to Zhang Deyuan, saying with a smile: "I am sorry for offending you before. I would like to apologize to Minister Zhang."

As soon as Li Yi finished apologizing, he immediately added: "I just didn't expect that Liang State, which is known as the orthodox state of the Nine Provinces and the orthodox Confucianism and Taoism, would be so ignorant of etiquette. My Wei delegation has been in Jiankang for nearly ten days, but the Emperor of Liang neither held a banquet nor summoned them. I don't know if it's the Ministry of Rites that doesn't understand etiquette, or if it's someone else who doesn't understand it?"

Zhang Deyuan said angrily: "Are you trying to humiliate the Emperor of Daliang? You are so bold! Minister Liu is here, do you think no one can stop you?"

Li Yi looked at Liu Hong and said with a smile: "Minister Liu, remember when we fought last time, you said that the day we fought again would be the day when the two countries would go to war. Could it be that you are going to start a war? Well, then there is no need to welcome this bride. We will go back home now. What comes next is the declaration of war from my Great Wei. Your Majesty, the Southern Liang wants to start a war, let's hurry back and prepare for it!"

Zhang Deyuan just said the word "you" when Liu Hong stopped him. He waved his hand and smiled, "Why is Li Yuefu so excited? You know that something has happened here. His Majesty went to Tongde Temple to practice, so he didn't summon the delegation. We are helpless about this. Today I came to the Ministry of Rites to discuss a way with Minister Zhang to invite His Majesty back to the palace."

Li Yi sneered, "That's your Liang State's problem, what does it have to do with us? When our delegation came here, Minister Zhang refused to entertain us because I was not in the delegation, and only put the delegation in the inn. Now that I'm here, he asked me to prove that I am who I am. Is this the Liang State's way of entertaining guests?"

Zhang Deyuan snorted coldly: "My Liang State has always been courteous to its guests. Treat me with courtesy, and I will return the courtesy. As for you, hmph!"

Lu Yu, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up: "I originally thought that Confucianism was flourishing in Liang State, and everyone knew etiquette and kept chastity. Now it seems that I thought too much. The dignified Ministry of Rites is full of hypocritical hypocrites. Prince, Li Yuefu, let's go quickly. There is nothing to say to these untrustworthy, disloyal, unfilial, unkind and unjust villains."

Minister Lu started cursing directly, and the officials of Southern Liang naturally refused to show weakness. An official from the Ministry of Rites shouted, "Who are you calling a hypocrite, you Suolu? How dare you cause trouble in Daliang? Do you really think this is the land of the barbarians in your northern border?" After that, Tuoba Li and Li Yi watched Lu Yu cursing with four or five Liang officials.

Although these intellectuals cursed at each other without using any dirty words or relatives, it was still very enjoyable to watch. Lu Yu and the officials of the Ministry of Rites cursed each other face to face and nose to nose, spitting at each other. Tuoba Li whispered to Li Yi: "I didn't expect that Minister Lu is so good at cursing."

Li Yi smiled and said, "I guess he has stayed in Jiankang for too long and wants to vent all the resentment he has accumulated over the past few days. Alas, it's a pity that this insult is not just insulting someone's mother, and it doesn't have a core verb, so it always feels a little meaningless."

Tuoba Li looked at Li Yi with strange eyes, and the latter waved his hand and laughed: "Your Highness, don't worry about me. I have intermittent neurosis, and sometimes I have convulsions, hahahaha."

Zhang Deyuan saw that the people were cursing more and more fiercely. It was not a good idea to continue to make a scene in the Ministry of Rites. He gathered his righteous spirit and shouted, "Shut up!"

With the help of the Confucian and Taoist method of stopping, the quarrel finally stopped. Zhang Deyuan looked at the three people from the Northern Wei Dynasty with contempt and said, "It is disrespectful to continue to curse like this! Since we are all Confucianists and gentlemen, why don't we argue about who was disrespectful first!"

Lu Yu said sternly: "Okay, then let's have a debate. Debating etiquette in the Mingtang is exactly what I want!"

Tuoba Li stepped forward to stop them and said, "Minister Lu, this is in Southern Liang, there are only a few of us, and we will probably suffer a loss if we have a debate with them in the Mingtang."

Zhang Deyuan laughed and said, "Why, are you scared?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yi stepped forward and said, "No, no, no, in my opinion, just the etiquette debate is not enough. Since Minister Zhang said that everyone considers themselves a gentleman, then we should compete in a few more items. How about the six arts of a gentleman? The etiquette debate is one of them."

The six arts of a gentleman are etiquette, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. Confucius and Mencius, three generations of sages, relied on these six arts to break through to the extraordinary realm. Li Yi proposed to compete in the six arts because he knew that he had no chance of winning in the etiquette debate alone. Not to mention others, Zhu Xi's school was known for its etiquette studies.

In Li Yi's opinion, even if he lost in the three of the six arts, namely, etiquette, archery and charioteering, he would still be invincible. And King Ping'an Tuoba Li was a Xianbei, good at bows and horses. If he could win one of the two arts, archery or charioteering, he would win. In this way, he could suppress the arrogance of Southern Liang and enhance the prestige of Wei.

When Zhang Deyuan heard what Li Yi said, he looked at the officials from the Ministry of Rites and burst into laughter. One of the officials from the Ministry of Rites mocked him and said, "Li Yuefu, are you really going to compete with us in the Six Arts of a Gentleman?"

Li Yi asked sternly: "Why? Don't you dare?"

Lu Yu pulled Li Yi's sleeve and said, "Li Yuefu, you are confused. If you were to compete with them in poetry or fighting, I believe you would win. But if you were to compete in the six arts of a gentleman, I'm afraid something bad would happen!"

Li Yi asked in confusion: "What could possibly happen?"

Lu Yu whispered, "There are many people in the Southern Liang Dynasty who are good at both Confucianism and martial arts. When they get together, they often discuss the six arts of a gentleman in addition to writing poetry. If you compare the six arts, then aren't you..."

Zhang Deyuan on the other side interrupted, "Okay, okay, since Li Yuefu, the most talented scholar in the Northern Wei Dynasty, proposed to compete in the six arts of a gentleman, then it's settled! We will build a competition stage outside the Bailuzhou Academy on the Qinhuai River. Five days later, we will compete in the six arts of a gentleman in front of the people of Jiankang!"

Li Yi bowed and said, "May I ask Minister Zhang, what if we are lucky enough to win this competition of the six arts of a gentleman?"

Zhang Deyuan said disdainfully: "Win? Hahaha, you're just dreaming! Li Lefu, if you can win, you can do whatever you want!"

Li Yi said sternly, "Minister Zhang, don't be so confident. If we win, I will marry Princess Huaxuan and bring her back to the country immediately. Can you make the decision on this matter, Minister Zhang?"

Zhang Deyuan said solemnly, "If it's a competition of poetry talent, I'd still be a little timid, but in a competition of the six arts of a gentleman, we Daliang Confucian scholars will never lose! How about this, if you really win by chance, within the scope of my authority, you can propose any conditions you want!"

Li Yi smiled and said, "Okay, since Minister Zhang has said so, then I will not be polite. If we win, please ask Minister Zhang to arrange for me to go to Tongde Temple to pay homage to Emperor Liang."

Zhang Deyuan hesitated after hearing this, and Li Yi added: "I am a lay Buddhist disciple. I went to Tongde Temple to worship Buddha and discuss scriptures. I think your Majesty will not mind. In addition, as a special envoy of Wei, it is in accordance with the rules to pay a visit to Emperor Liang. This request is not excessive, right?"

Zhang Deyuan thought for a moment and replied, "Well, this is within my authority. But what if you lose, Li Yuefu?"

Li Yi said solemnly: "If we lose, I am willing to wear Xianbei clothing and walk around Jiankang City, letting the people of Liang laugh at me and call me Suolu. How do you think?"

Zhang Deyuan smiled and said, "Okay! It's a deal!"

Li Yi said sternly: "Minister Zhang, a gentleman should keep his word!"

Zhang Deyuan said coldly: "Humph, of course! When the time comes, I will gather all the people in the city to appreciate the style of Wei's most talented scholar." Li Yi laughed and bowed to say goodbye...

When they returned to the inn, before Li Yi even sat down, Lu Yu lamented, "Li Yuefu, you are fooling around!"

Li Yi consoled him, "Minister Lu, among the six arts of a gentleman, we are sure to win in music, calligraphy, and mathematics, so we can be said to be invincible. Why are you so nervous?"