Xu Caihou was sitting on a chair in his regular clothes, his fat face full of gloom, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

The candlelight flickered in the room, and Li Yi walked in quickly, "I'm a greedy person. I just woke up at this time. It's troublesome to wait."

"What are you talking about, Master? I just waited for a while, it's no big deal."

Li Yi smiled and nodded, waving his hand, "Sit down, what do you want to say when you come so late?"

Xu Caihou sat down with a naive smile on his face. With his slightly plump figure, he looked very honest and honest, without any hint of the cold air of an intelligence agent.

"Tell me, what's going on?"

Xu Caihou said respectfully: "I came here this time because I have something important to inform you. Just three days ago, the imperial court ordered Zhang Heng, the censor of Qiandu, to serve as an imperial envoy to inspect the floods in Henan. The most important thing is to settle the situation because

Hundreds of thousands of victims were displaced by the flood. Now the victims are all under the care of the Young Master, but Zhang Heng has a grudge against the Young Master, so the person who came here must be evil. The Young Master had better make plans in advance."

Li Yi listened quietly to Xu Caihou's account of this information without saying a word.

Xu Caihou looked up at Li Yi's expression, lowered his head and stopped talking.

"When I helped the victims and resettled them, didn't the imperial court already acquiesce? Why did I send Zhang Heng here at this time?" Li Yi asked softly.

This is something Li Yi has never understood. When he was settling the refugees, Sima Lin Zongming wanted to control Fuguoshe, and this unknown force of sergeants tried to assassinate him.

As a result, he escaped death and suppressed the matter. The imperial court also gave him and Sun Cerium official positions, which was a kind of appeasement. He thought that the imperial court had acquiesced in settling the refugees, but he did not expect that now, the imperial court would have a grudge against him.

Zhang Heng was sent over.

What exactly does the imperial court want to do? Li Yi can't figure it out.

Xu Caihou hesitated slightly, and then said: "Sir, this time it was reported by Nan Juyi, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, saying that you used personal gain to win over the victims and were very dissatisfied with the court's inability to provide disaster relief, so this happened."

"Nan Juyi?" Li Yi didn't expect that he would be targeted at him just after he escaped from the deficit case. It seemed that he was responsible for the death of his boss Ma and others because of his suggestions for Lu Qianhu.

Thinking of this, he asked: "The victims of the disaster are the most important thing. The court itself has no money to provide food relief, so we can't let others talk about it? Is the court so shameless?"

"My dissatisfaction, young master, actually has another aspect, that is, before the court meeting, I don't know who wants to inform the emperor about installing a new railway brigade so that the emperor knows about it."

Hearing what Xu Caihou said, Li Yi finally understood that someone must have deliberately framed him this time.

You must know that it is a good thing for the Ministry of Revenue and Chongzhen to help the victims by themselves. Although some people in the court wanted to control Fuguoshe before, they did not counterattack after the failure in order to stabilize the situation.

But at this juncture, someone leaked the news that Anxin had its own armed forces. You must know that Anxin Iron Soldiers have nearly two thousand people, which is too huge. Imagine that hundreds of thousands of disaster victims are under control. This is terrible.

It is a threat that cannot be ignored.

Baoding Mansion is the south gate of the capital, but except for Cao Minglei's three thousand soldiers, there is no one with any real power. If you encounter an ambitious person, you can climb up and make a call, and you can capture Baoding Mansion in the blink of an eye, and then

It can threaten the capital from the north and attack Kaifeng from the south. If it becomes a threat, it will cut off the connection between the north and the south of the capital.

How could Chongzhen not be frightened that such an important force was hiding in such an important place?

Under Xu Caihou's reminder, Li Yi finally understood why Chongzhen reneged on his previous prudent attitude and risked the threat of riots by the victims to let Zhang Heng come. He wanted to prevent himself from winning over the victims and allowing hundreds of thousands of victims to be used by him.

"Someone must have deliberately framed me behind the scenes. What did you find out?" Li Yi asked: "Who instigated this Nan Juyi?"

Xu Caihou is also a smart man. He understood that this opponent hiding in the dark made Li Yi a little panicked, and immediately said: "It's not clear who instigated my subordinates, but..."

"But what?" Li Yi asked.

"But now everyone in the court says that An Xin has tens of thousands of gold, so the young master has the strength to help the victims. Now that the national treasury is empty, the court may have this idea."

The emperor eliminates worries and the court searches for wealth. This is a thief who never gets away with anything.

"Tell me, since you are guarding against me this time, there must be an arrangement, right?" Li Yi knew it well and did not hide it, signaling Xu Caihou to speak frankly to his face.

As expected, Xu Caihou did not hide anything: "Young master is really a man of heaven. This time Zhang Heng came not only to take charge of all the relief work for the victims, but also brought 3,000 officers and soldiers from the Beijing camp. And he got the token, even Cao Minglei

You must also be controlled by him.”

Hearing this, Li Yi had already guessed it and nodded immediately.

It seems that the group of ministers in the imperial court are not incompetent. Zhang Heng did not spread the news until he left the capital, and sent the Beijing camp to assist. At the critical moment, Cao Minglei's camp was able to be mobilized. Now he was surrounded on all sides.

Looking up at Xu Caihou, Li Yi paused and said in a cold tone: "Is this all there is?"

Xu Caihou nodded and replied, "That's probably it. If there is any news, I will definitely report it to the Young Master."

Looking at Xu Caihou with a simple and honest smile, Li Yi sneered: "Report this news as soon as possible in the future, don't delay things."

The fact that Zhang Heng was coming to Baoding Mansion was very important, but Li Yi knew about it from Li Wensheng first. How could he not be dissatisfied with Xu Caihou's slow motion?

After beating Xu Caihou for a while, Li Yi asked him to step down.

The next day, Li Yi was still handling accumulated affairs in Anxin, when he saw Sun Ce rushing in in a hurry.

Li Yi did not expect that Sun Cerium would come to An Xin, asked him to sit down, and asked: "What happened? How come it's in such a hurry?"

Sun Ce did not bother to rest and said directly: "Zhang Heng, the censor of Qiandu, has come to Baoding Prefecture. He will enter the territory of Baoding Prefecture this afternoon. Officials from all walks of life in Baoding Prefecture will go to greet him. You and I are going too."

Li Yi looked indifferent and said: "I see, then I will prepare now."

Just as he was about to clean up, he saw Sun Ce grabbing him and saying with sharp eyes: "Zizheng, do you know why Zhang Heng is here this time?"

Li Yi stood still, looked at Sun Ce with a solemn face, nodded and said: "I heard that the emperor ordered him to be an imperial envoy to inspect the disaster areas and comfort the victims."

Seeing that Li Yi was not panicking, Sun Ce said anxiously: "Zizheng, you also know. Zhang Heng must have come here with bad intentions. Now that the situation of the victims has just stabilized, the court sent him here. This time

I'm afraid something big will change."

Li Yi knew that Sun Cerium was anxious, so he comforted him immediately and said: "No matter what, since Zhang Heng came here on the emperor's order, it is useless no matter how anxious you and I are. In times of crisis, we can only take one step at a time to see what happens to him."

How to deal with us."

After hearing this, Sun Ce couldn't think of a good way, so he could only let out a long sigh and let go of Sun Ce.

In the afternoon of the same day, Li Yi and Sun Ce rushed back to Baoding Mansion with their entourage, then changed into official offices and went outside the city to meet the upcoming imperial envoy Zhang Heng.

Li Yi was dressed as an official, with a tooth tag hanging on his leather belt, then got on a carriage and went to meet the team outside the city.

In order to welcome the imperial envoy, most officials from various government offices came this time, so the surroundings of the pavilion were crowded with officials, all whispering to each other and chatting.

Although the imperial envoy was sent by the imperial court to manage the disaster this time, anyone with a discerning eye would know at a glance that it was not that simple.

The imperial court had turned a blind eye to the floods before. Now the floods have gradually receded and the victims have been settled by Fuguoshe. It was during the calm time that they sent an imperial envoy to Baoding Prefecture. Moreover, it was Zhang Heng who had a history with An Xin and Li Yi. Needless to say,

, which definitely has what meaning.

When they walked into the pavilion, except for some Yamen magistrates, they were all old acquaintances. Naturally, they chatted together when they met. Li Wensheng and Wang Zhixian even held Li Yi's hand one after another, telling him to calm down and not leave any room for the imperial envoy.

Tell the truth.

Li Yi naturally understood, and immediately thanked the two of them and waited quietly for Zhang Heng in the crowd.

After waiting for three quarters, Zhang Heng's motorcade arrived belatedly.

I saw officers and soldiers clearing the way in front of this group of people, a guard of honor in the middle, and hundreds of well-equipped cavalry behind them.

There were five to six hundred people in the entire team, and the momentum was so huge that the officials present were shocked.

When the magistrate of Gaoyang saw this, he couldn't help but wonder: "Since you are here to appease the victims, why did you bring so many cavalry?"

The rest of the people kept silent, but their eyes fell on Li Yi unconsciously.

They understood that when Zhang Heng came this time, he would definitely not be able to forgive Li Yi, who had sinned against him before.

A moment later, the honor guard finally stopped in front of everyone, and a middle-aged civil servant with a ruddy complexion and a goatee came out of the carriage.

All the local officials, led by the prefect Li Wensheng, walked forward to pay their respects to Zhang Heng.

Zhang Heng came down with a smile on his face, held Li Wensheng's hand, and said, "Brother Li, we haven't seen you for a long time."

Li Wensheng and Zhang Hengnai were Jinshi in the same year, but one of them stayed in the capital to serve as a capital official because of his own family background, while Li Wensheng was transferred to the local area to serve as a local official. Now ten years have passed, although both of them are full-ranking officials.

, but there is a hierarchy between Beijing officials and local officials.

Li Wensheng bent down slightly and said with a smile: "Master Zhang is still talking about my brother. I think we were all young scholars in the junior court at that time, but now we have all gray hair."

Everyone exchanged a few words to congratulate Zhang Heng for inspecting the disaster area and observing the people's sentiments on behalf of the emperor.

After that, Zhang Heng said a few words in front of everyone, and finally ended the meeting with Li Yi.

At this time, Zhang Heng did not show any fangs. Instead, he was chatting with the officials of Baoding Prefecture with a friendly expression, as if he had come to observe the public sentiment.

In this way, everyone began to return to Baoding Prefecture. There were many people on the roadside who came to serve as officials, and they were finally dispersed by the officers and soldiers.

When Li Yi and Zhang Heng had Liang Zi, they naturally didn't go to see him, so they kept hiding.

Just when he was taking a break, Li Wensheng rushed over, grabbed Li Yi's arm and led him away.

Li Yi quickly said: "Master Fu, why are you doing this?"

Li Wensheng's face was full of anxiety. He glared at Li Yi and said, "The imperial envoy is looking for you. It seems that he has something to explain. Please be careful."

The two of them crossed the yard and arrived at a quiet room.

At this time, a group of soldiers stood outside the door. One of the soldiers in iron armor came up to stop Li Yi and asked, "Who is this person?"

Li Yi was very conspicuous in his official uniform of Chengfeng Lang. The soldier also blocked the interrogation, obviously deliberately looking for trouble.

Li Wensheng looked ugly and shouted: "This is Cheng Feng Lang Li Yi. He is the person Mr. Zhang wants to see. Please leave quickly."

After hearing this, the soldier looked at Li Yi with a sneer, and said with contempt on his face: "I heard how great An Xin Li Yi is, but when I saw him today, it was nothing more than that."

Such obvious hostility made Li Wensheng even more angry, and he was about to yell loudly.
To be continued...