Chapter 98 Classmates [ask for monthly tickets! ]

Eighteen miles south of the city is Wangshan Pavilion.

This is a small pavilion located in an open area at the top of the mountain. It is not big, but it lives up to its name. You can overlook the mountains at a glance.

The strong mountain breeze blows in your face, carrying the moist scent of the Shenjiang River hundreds of miles away.

Bai Zhishan brought Liang Yue here, looked at the distant mountains, and said with a smile: "This is the place where he asked me to meet. Our academy is halfway up the opposite mountain. It is called Banshan Academy. It has been closed now. I went to see it once three years ago. It was overgrown with weeds."

Liang Yue looked at the pavilion next to him and said, "It doesn't look like there's anything that can be hidden here. If someone could see the contents of his letter, this place would have been searched."

"Not here." Bai Zhishan smiled as if he was immersed in memories.

"At that time, we were the two best students in the academy. We admired each other, but we also competed with each other. We always competed for the first place in the academy exams." He narrated slowly: "We often joked and encouraged each other to study less and play more."

"Banshan Academy is not as good as Kendo Academy. There are very few people who can practice Confucianism and Taoism. There are only a few of us. We often make appointments with each other to practice wind control. We start from this Wangshan Pavilion and go forward along the mountain road. There are vast fields. It won't hurt if you fall there."

"Once he invited me to come to the Wangshan Pavilion to play in the wind, and he also said he would wait for me here. When I arrived, I found that he was not there. After waiting for a long time, I went to find him angrily, only to find that he was secretly hiding on the top of the hill behind the academy, reciting classics and history articles. How cunning he was."

"Heh." Liang Yue also smiled when he heard it.

It turns out that we were classmates.

The noise of my friends playing puts me to sleep peacefully, but the faint sound of them flipping through books keeps me awake all night.

"This incident has become a small anecdote between us, and we often talk about it. During the days at Banshan Academy, we were all high-spirited and full of ambitions, and we lived a happy life." Bai Zhishan's smile slowly faded, "But when the imperial examination was approaching that year, he was exiled to Yuezhou because his family was convicted."

"Because I refused to take the exam for the children of the rich and powerful, I was directly accused of plagiarism, expelled from the examination room, and never hired again."

"Tomorrow, across the mountains, the world will be confused."

The wind on the mountain top ruffled his hair, and there were faint sparkles in his eyes.

It was as if the person in front of him was no longer Bai Zhishan, the leader of the Leopard Hall of the Longya Gang, but Bai Zishan, a young and talented student from the Banshan Academy. Together with his close friend who shared a deep understanding with him, they were preaching their ideal of saving the world and the people to the mountains in front of this pavilion.

The young man was angry and scolded Fang Qiu.

"Xingkai." Bai Zhishan sighed, "We never met again after all. I stayed in Shendu and he went to Yuezhou. But more than ten years have passed. It was only after you, Lord Liang, reminded me that I realized... It turned out that I was the one who went far away, and he was the one who stayed where he was and did not move. He still remembers the story, but I almost forgot it."

Liang Yue remained silent.

Those two people were the same age as he is now, and probably had similar ideals as he did.

They all hit their own wall.

The living one has changed, and the unchanged one has died.

My future journey will probably be similarly difficult.

Then will I change?

Maybe we won’t know until the moment of decision.

He also let out a long sigh and said, "Then the thing he left for you should be where he secretly endorsed it, right?"

"Let's go and take a look." Bai Zhishan stood up and flew into the air.

Liang Yue rode on the Snow Dragon Horse and caught up with him without any effort.

However, Dahei still looked listless and seemed to move his legs casually. Although he would not be left behind, he did not have the power of running at full speed.

Liang Yue was a little puzzled. Wasn't he interested in galloping in the wilderness?

So where do you like?

All the way to the opposite mountain.

There was indeed an abandoned academy site halfway up the mountain, which was in a state of disrepair. On the top of the hill behind the academy, there was a smooth green boulder that was big enough for three or four people to sit on.

"It's right here." Bai Zhishan pointed.

Liang Yue stepped forward and pushed it, and found that the boulder was indeed a little loose and its foundation was unstable.

He exerted all his strength and pushed the boulder away with a rumbling sound. There was a small square pit underneath. In the pit lay a jade slip and a letter!
There were a few lines of bony handwriting on the letter.

"You are my good friend."

"It's been more than ten years since we last met. You and I have changed so much that I don't know how you feel."

"If you are still sincere in your intentions for the Lu family, you can give them the things in the storage jade slip in exchange for a lifetime of prosperity. If you remember what we said in front of the Wangshan Pavilion, you can make this thing public for me, and then you can get what you want."

"Forgive me for going through so much trouble. Times are tough and I don't know whether I will live or die tomorrow. I hope we can meet again someday."

"Zhang Xingkai stays."

……

"It seems that President Zhang faked his death to escape because he anticipated the danger. Although he was not 100% sure about this plan, he still chose to trust his wife. Before that, he decided to entrust the evidence to you." Liang Yue said slowly: "But he didn't expect that his wife was also helpless in that organization." "Alas." Bai Zhishan stared at the letter in a daze for a long time before picking up the jade slip again.

He took out the items stored in the jade slip and found it was a thick stack of books.

Liang Yue looked through it with him.

The above records that the Lu family embezzled the construction funds in Yuezhou, which resulted in the embankment being weak, the river flooding every year, and the people on both sides of the river suffering greatly. However, the Ministry of Works was able to allocate funds for the construction of the embankment every year, which became a continuous source of funds.

The same is true for building roads and repairing official roads. The companies that build official roads are all selected by the Ministry of Works. Once the money is paid, 70% will be returned to the officials immediately. The companies keep 10% for themselves and use the remaining 20% ​​to build roads. Naturally, they only have a superficial appearance and are damaged every year. This way, they can keep repairing roads as long as they are damaged, and the money will never run out.

When Yuezhou built a new city, it forcibly conscripted the old people of Nanxiang State and embezzled the money that should have been paid to them, which caused the old people of Nanxiang to be resentful and rebelled many times over the past ten years, resulting in the death of many innocent people. Because of the frequent troubles of the people, the progress of the city construction was delayed for several years, and the court repeatedly increased the funding.

There are countless crimes, one after another. In Yuezhou alone, the crimes committed are too numerous to list.

But these may not be enough to bring down the Lu family. After all, the emperor controls the horse drinking supervisor, and it is hard to say how much he has been deceived about what happened in Yuezhou. It can only be said that if someone else took charge of the Ministry of Works, it might be even worse, and Lu Yuanwang would not be able to sit safely for these years.

The most damaging thing should be the flow of money recorded later.

The Lu family reaped a lot of benefits, and used them to pass them on to officials in the court, asking them to speak well of the Sixth Prince, stir up public opinion, and fight for the throne. Many officials wrote letters to the emperor, which was considered deceiving the emperor.

I think what the Lu family fears most is the last one.

As a relative of the emperor, if everything is stable, the emperor will not be afraid of your corruption. But if you can influence the opinions of the court and the public and deceive the emperor, then it is very dangerous.

Bai Zhishan said: "Xingkai seems to have left me a choice, but I have no choice at all. Whether for him or for myself back then, I have to hand over this evidence."

Liang Yue nodded in agreement.

If Bai Zhishan had found the evidence here by himself, he might have hesitated a little. But I was watching here, and if he wanted to hide the evidence and hand it over to the Lu family, he had to get through me first.

What's more, the Ministry of Works is now on the verge of collapse, and it just needs the final push. Bai Zhishan is a smart man. He is still loyal to the Lu family at this time, which is somewhat like entering the palace with a castrated body when the country is about to perish.

"Does this count as a contribution on my part? When the Lu family falls, the Longya Gang will certainly be liquidated." Bai Zhishan looked at Liang Yue, "Lord Liang, I hope you can save my life when the time comes."

"I will explain this matter." Liang Yue said.

He certainly would not produce this evidence in his own capacity. The Lu family has deep roots in the court, has spent money for many years, and has countless relatives and friends. If a small follower of his confronts others head-on, it would be purely asking for trouble. Even if the Lu family falls, someone might avenge him.

He was not going to hand it over to the crown prince, because there were too few people around the crown prince, and it would be easy for them to target him. Moreover, the crown prince was young after all, and his skills were far inferior to those of the old foxes in the officialdom.

He planned to hand over this evidence to the Ministry of Justice and to the Left Prime Minister Liang Fuguo.

He didn't want to take credit for it. As long as the Ministry of Works fell and the Enlightenment Tree was protected, it was fine. So it didn't matter if all the credit went to Bai Zhishan.

Bai Zhishan put all the evidence back into the jade slip and then handed it to Liang Yue.

"Since Master Bai has made the decision today, why don't you cooperate with me from now on? If there is any new evidence from the Ministry of Industry or any new operations assigned to the Longya Gang, please inform me in time." Liang Yue tried to win him over again.

"Let me be your spy?" Bai Zhishan smiled.

Liang Yue smiled back, "For Zhang Xingkai."

……

After obtaining the evidence, Liang Yue rushed straight back to the city and headed for the Ministry of Justice.

When we arrived at Chaotianfang in the north of the city and outside the Ministry of Justice, we could see from afar that the place was crowded with people. Many of them were holding large banners and shouting, cursing "dog officials" and "cruel officials", and some were throwing rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs at the gate of the yamen.

Liang Yue looked outside the crowd and saw that the door of the Ministry of Justice was closed tightly and there was no reaction to these troublemakers.

"what happened?"

He was slightly puzzled.

You know, "the Ministry of Justice is ruthless" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in Longyuan City. Now, not only have so many people dared to come and cause trouble, but the Ministry of Justice dared not respond.

It's really strange.

Soon, a large number of Imperial Guard troops emerged from the street in another direction. They were numerous and all armed with swords and spears.

The demonstrators were not afraid at all and still gathered together. They did not attack the government offices or soldiers. As soon as the Imperial Guards arrived, they surrendered and allowed them to take them away one by one.

There were about a few hundred people in this group. They were arrested by the Imperial Guards and taken away one after another.

Liang Yue frowned slightly, and waited until the situation calmed down before he came to the outside of the yamen and knocked on the door to report.

After waiting for a while, he entered and found Ling Yuanbao's seat. He saw Captain Ling sitting there with his eyes bulging and looking angry, looking very indignant.

"Captain Ling." He greeted with a smile.

Unexpectedly, when Ling Yuanbao saw him coming, not only did he not smile, but he turned his face away angrily and uttered a heavy snort: "Hmph!"

(End of this chapter)