The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 128 Road to Promotion

Last time, we talked about Li Yi presenting three songs and two poems in Yongle Hall to amaze everyone, and then he turned on the pretentious mode and left first. So who will win and who will lose in the bet between him and Princess Longyun Tuoba Ziyi? Let's read on.

As soon as Li Yi walked out of the hall, everyone began to recall whether they had lost their composure when Li Yi sang the last song, whether they had sang along and waved their hands, or jumped up excitedly, but they could not remember anything.

Tuoba Jun coughed and said, "That's all for today. If you haven't heard enough, there will be another chance in the future. Go back. I still have something to discuss with Li Yuefu." Everyone dispersed, and Tuoba Jun came to Empress Dowager Xiao and saluted, saying, "What do you think, mother?"

Empress Dowager Xiao sighed, "Li Yi is really good. He is a scholar, but how can he sing in such a style? Alas, maybe I am too old to keep up with you young people?"

Tuoba Jun smiled and said, "How can the Queen Mother be old? Among the young generation, only Li Yi has such ability."

Queen Mother Xiao stood up and said, "Forget it. I am going back now. If Li Yi had been born a few years earlier, maybe I could have become good friends with him. Jun'er, you should also be careful when getting along with him. You can't just let him add icing on the cake, you have to help him in times of need." Tuoba Jun nodded and bowed to see the Queen Mother off...

Now only Tuoba Jun and Tuoba Ziyi were left in Yongle Hall. Ziyi rested her chin on the table with both hands. Tuoba Jun asked with a smile: "What happened to my sister?"

Ziyi said calmly, "Brother, I suspect that Li Yi has two identities. During the day, he is the famous Yuefu Ling in Shangjing. At night, he puts on night clothes and becomes a knight who punishes evildoers. What do you think, brother?"

Tuoba Jun smiled and said, "Sister, you really know how to think about it. Okay, when you see Li Yi later, just ask him in person."

Ziyi shook her head and said, "No, I won't accompany my brother to see him. I'm going to find a master to practice martial arts."

Tuoba Jun was surprised and asked, "Did the Queen Mother agree to let Chief Zhou teach you?"

Ziyi nodded and said, "My mother said that this trip to the Western Regions will be dangerous, so she asked me to learn more skills to protect myself."

Tuoba Jun affirmed: "Well, what mother said is true, you really need to learn some skills! Wait, are you agreeing to go to the Western Regions with Li Yi?"

Ziyi stood up and saluted, saying, "Then go meet him yourself, brother. I still have to practice, so I won't chat with you guys any more."

Tuoba Jun smiled and said, "Well, sister, practice hard and you will definitely be stronger than Li Xiuyuan."

Zi Yi snorted and said, "Just wait, I will definitely beat him to a pulp!"

Tuoba Jun came to the imperial study, where Li Yi was lying on his side on a blanket, with one hand resting his head and the other holding a wine glass. When he saw the emperor coming in, he did not stand up to greet him, but just said in a loud voice: "I want to ride the wind back, but I am afraid that the jade buildings and jade palaces..."

Tuoba Junhe said: "It's lonely up there! Dancing with shadows, how can it be like being in the human world? Okay, I know you have talent, no need to pretend to be a master anymore, my sister is not here."

Li Yi turned his head and saw that Ziyi was indeed not there. He sat up and asked, "Where did Ziyi go?"

Tuoba Jun sat opposite Li Yi, poured a glass of wine and said, "My sister said she wants to go practice martial arts, and she doesn't plan to see you until she can beat you to pieces."

Li Yi said with relief: "That's right, this is the right reaction!"

Tuoba Jun took a sip of wine and asked, "How can you, a scholar, write such a chivalrous song? I wonder if you put on your nightgown and went around doing justice at night."

Li Yi laughed out loud when he heard this: "She's right to think so!"

Tuoba Jun asked: "Are you really that?"

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "How is that possible? The three ladies at home are keeping a close eye on us. Not to mention traveling at night, even if we go out during the day, we have to let someone know. The family discipline is very strict."

Tuoba Jun laughed and said, "Don't lie to me. Which of your three wives is not submissive to you? How dare they control you? Besides, if you, Li Yi, were a henpecked man, would you have married a third wife?"

Li Yi shook his finger and said, "It's not being afraid of your wife, it's respecting your wife!"

Tuoba Jun rolled his eyes at Li Yi and said, "Alright, I know I am no match for you in a verbal duel, and I am too lazy to argue with you. You should tell me about Sun Ce's death. It is too unreasonable that a great hero known as the Little Overlord died in an assassination." The two of them started talking about the Three Kingdoms again...

Li Yi really didn't rest during the Spring Festival holiday. He went to the Imperial Study every afternoon to talk about the Three Kingdoms with Tuoba Jun. Fortunately, Yi Zhongtian's Three Kingdoms on the Hundred Schools Forum was very popular, and Li Yi read it a lot. He also played the Three Kingdoms series of games a lot, so his analysis was very logical and reasonable. But to be honest, Li Yi really didn't expect Tuoba Jun to love reading this novel so much, because in the context of this era, Romance of the Three Kingdoms was just a fight between mortals.

There is no such magical power of flying and hiding in the ground in the book. Except for a few chapters, such as Zhang Fei's river backflow at Dangyang Bridge and his roar that scared Xia Houjie to death, and Zhao Zilong's seven ins and outs of Changbanpo, it really doesn't look like a general of this era. You should know that the extraordinary realm can fight against an army alone, and even Zhai Baishan can stop thousands of soldiers by himself. Since Tuoba Jun likes to read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Li Yi tells him everything he knows, and the two of them become good brothers who can talk about anything because of this book.

The Spring Festival passed like this. When the court was reopened, Li Yi received some rewards, which were considered overtime pay from Tuoba Jun. Although it was not much, it was enough for the family to splurge for a while. The mahjong business of the Li family was also temporarily put on hold, because the Imperial College would officially open after the Lantern Festival. Li Yi and Shiyu were busy again. Xing'er returned to the Li family, and everything returned to work.

Lin Fan was not idle during the Spring Festival. He re-read the history books according to Li Yi's ideas, found out the events worth pondering, and wrote down one by one. He wrote dozens of pages of questions after reading "Spring and Autumn Annals". He took these questions to Li Yi, but Li Yi didn't even look at them and told him to discuss with others.

Li Yi didn't want to answer his questions, but he simply couldn't answer them. He was afraid of misleading his students, so he gave him a new topic called debate! He asked him to take his questions to his colleagues for debate, that is, to ask the other party to answer, and then refute the other party's answer, and find the real answer through repeated debates. I don't know if Lin Fan understood it wrongly, or if Li Yi designed it this way. Lin Fan debated with his colleagues one by one, and finally it reached the point where others would hide when they saw him.

Now his colleagues didn't want to play with him anymore, so he went to find Li Yi. Li Yi was so lazy that he sent him to Shangshu Kong to ask for advice. This idiot was also a bit impatient. At first, he went to see Shangshu Kong once every three days, then once a day, and then twice a day. Shangshu Kong was irritated and scolded him, "I am not your teacher. I have many things to do. How can I have the time to answer your questions all day long? Don't come to me again!"

If we say that Li Yi is really bad, why? He introduced Lin Fan to Yang Hua and let Lin Fan debate history with Yang Hua. Everyone may have forgotten Yang Hua, the former number one talent in Shangjing, who lost to Li Yi, Yang Hua, in the contest of literature and poetry. You should know that Yang Hua became famous for his debate ability and defeated all the talented people in Juxian Hall by himself.

However, this time Li Yi found the right whetstone for Lin Fan. The two debated privately at first, and then publicly. Many times, Lin Fan invited Yang Hua to the Imperial College to debate in front of many colleagues. The two arguments had their own supporters, and gradually developed into a large-scale debate. In the end, Li Yi asked Minister Kong to come forward and set up debates as a daily task in the Imperial College, held every seven days.

Unknowingly, Lin Fan made friends with many colleagues and Confucian scholars who had the same critical style. Later, Lin Fan absorbed them into Li Yi's Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism school. Li Yi appointed Lin Fan as the head of the Dialectical Hall, and those people naturally became the disciples of the Dialectical Hall.

Later, the Dialectical Hall began to debate with other Confucian and Taoist factions. Compared with other factions, the Dialectical Hall had fewer people, and its reputation and status were also much lower. Naturally, they lost more than they won in debates. But they were not discouraged because Li Yi gave them the greatest comfort with his philosophical theories. The first was the theory of qualitative and quantitative change; the second was the theory of contradiction, which means that contradiction is the driving force for the development of things; and the third was the theory of dialectics.

Li Yi finished explaining the three theories to the group of people, and they were all stunned. For a moment, Li Yi was no longer just a romantic and talented scholar, but had the style of a great man! The Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism also emerged and began to be known by other factions. To be promoted to a fourth-rank Confucian scholar, one can establish a school or write a book, and Li Yi did all this to pave the way for promotion. In addition, he was still busy with the affairs of the Imperial College.

The Imperial College officially opened after the Lantern Festival, but the start was not ideal. The College only recruited a dozen children, all of whom were children of court officials. Later, some scholars who came to Beijing to study came, and the total number of people was less than 30.

This is normal. In this era, ordinary people could not afford to go to school. In order to expand enrollment, Li Yi allowed merchants' families to send their children to study in the Imperial Academy. However, these merchants did not buy it. Although fifty taels of silver per year in tuition was no big deal for them, they did not believe that fifty taels of silver could allow these arrogant literati to teach their children well.

Li Yi put on a sullen look and took Shiyu with him to visit those merchants with whom he had connections. The most talented man in Wei personally went to their homes to beg them to send their children to study at the Imperial College, which instantly brought Li Yi's reputation down from the altar.

Some people said that he was the most talented person in Wei, but no one was willing to send their children to study with him; some people said that this was because Li Yi had bad behavior and everyone was afraid of raising their children into playboys; others said that Li Yi was too young to be a role model; Li Yi ignored all the criticisms and still did things according to his own ideas.

In short, Li Yi went around and begged for help to recruit a few more children. Finally, he had 20 children and was able to open an enlightenment class. Li Yi asked Lin Fan to lead the class while he continued to find ways to recruit students. Tuoba Jun once asked Li Yi why this happened. He gave more children the opportunity to study but no one was willing to come. Li Yi replied that the poor could not afford to study and the Imperial College could not provide free classes for children. If it was free, there would be no shortage of students. In the final analysis, the people had no money.

Li Yi did some calculations for Tuoba Jun. Even if a farmer with four mu of land lived frugally, his annual income would be less than ten taels of silver. He simply could not afford the tuition of fifty taels of silver a year. The teachers hired by the wealthy merchants to teach their children were all well-known and famous teachers. The tuition fee was over a hundred taels a year. People would definitely not believe in your fifty taels of silver a year school. The court now had no money for compulsory education, so it was stuck here. Tuoba Jun asked Li Yi if he had any countermeasures, but Li Yi did not give a direct answer, but asked the emperor to give him more time.

On the other side, Li Yi assigned tasks to Lin Fan, Bailing and Qin Chao. Within a month, Lin Fan had to teach the twenty children in the enlightenment class to recite the first half of "Three Character Classic" and five poems; Bailing and Xing'er had to teach the children to sing three songs and rehearse the chorus; Qin Chao had to teach the children to skip rope, and if the children were nimble, he would also teach them several fancy skipping techniques.

At this point, everyone must know what Li Yi is going to do. In order to recruit students, he was forced to use the most helpless method, the performance report. In order to attract more people to send their children to the Imperial College, it is definitely not enough to rely on the performance of the children. Li Yi gave three music scores to Xing'er and asked Bailing to guide her to practice more and sing with the children during the performance report.

In addition to Xing'er's appearance, Li Yi also arranged a debate. The topic was whether emotion comes first, reason or reason comes first, and he gave the topic to the people in the Dialectical Hall in advance and asked them to divide into teams to prepare their speeches.

In the next month, everyone in the Imperial College was very busy. Shiyu led the logistics staff to prepare for the costumes, props, and stage layout. The supervisors were busy teaching. Li Yi and Han Feng also had to organize the children to rehearse. In the words of Minister Kong, "Li Yi is such a troublemaker. He doesn't even go on stage to perform himself, but pushes the children on stage. I don't know what he is thinking."