Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 252 Not many treacherous villains are left for the talented woman! [Seeking monthly votes]

Among the six traitors of the Northern Song Dynasty, the name of eunuch Li Yan is relatively unfamiliar, and even in historical records, there are only a few sentences about him. However, the evil deeds he committed were by no means few.

Historically, after the death of Grand Eunuch Yang Jian, Li Yan succeeded him as Grand Eunuch and began to forcibly seize land in Hebei.

In just a few years, he seized more than three million mu of fertile land... This number seems to be not much different from that of ordinary corrupt officials, but the land under the names of Song Dynasty officials was generally just nominal.

The land was still cultivated by farmers as usual, but a portion of the harvested grain was collected as land rent.

But Li Yan was different. He directly seized farmland from farmers, and many people who were landlords in the morning had to beg for food by nightfall.

Some commoners went to the government to file complaints, but were beaten to death by Li Yan's men. During the entire land requisition process, more than a thousand people were beaten to death... It can be said that none of the evil deeds committed by the six traitors of the Northern Song Dynasty were minor.

Li Qingzhao asked:
"Is Li Yan still a lowly eunuch? How did he end up in your hands?"

Li Gefei unscrewed the bottle cap, poured himself a small glass of plum wine, and sighed softly:

"Didn't His Majesty recently move to the temporary palace? Li Yan is a steward in the palace. He secretly sold off most of the flowers, plants and trees there. He also used the royal name to requisition a lot of fertile land outside the city. When your cousin-in-law was inspecting the estates outside the city, some farmers blocked the road and cried out for justice. That's how this parasite was arrested and brought to justice."

Upon hearing that someone was blocking Cai Jing's path and pleading for justice, Li Qingzhao felt a sense of temporal and spatial dislocation.

The six traitors of the Northern Song Dynasty have actually started fighting amongst themselves.

She thought for a while and said:

"Then I'll go to the Ministry of Justice tonight and kill Li Yan. That will be equivalent to completing the task assigned by the Immortal Master."

Since she had official business to attend to that evening, Li Qingzhao refrained from drinking and obediently ate her meal.

Li Hang sat beside her, stammering and struggling for a long time before finally asking pointedly:

"Sis, now that you have an electric scooter, is that bicycle just sitting there unused?"

Li Qingzhao glanced at him sideways:
"What? You're planning to let me list it on Zhuanzhuan to sell secondhand?"

This girl has been watching a lot of short videos lately, and she's even become very familiar with some of the embedded ads.

Li Hang had prepared a whole speech, but before he could utter a word, his older sister's words left him bewildered:
"What's 'zhuanzhuan'? I mean..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Qingzhao pointed to the backpack hanging to the side:
"There are more than ten sets of fifth-grade math test papers inside. If you can get a perfect score on one test, the bicycle is yours. If you can't, I'll take it to Hunyuan Palace and give it to people in other worlds."

Upon hearing this, Li Hang's fighting spirit for studying was instantly ignited. He hurriedly finished the rice in his bowl and rushed back to his room to study, even forgetting about his nightly reading of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

After the meal, Li Qingzhao boarded a carriage and followed Li Gefei to the Ministry of Justice prison, where all the instruments of torture for interrogation had been prepared. From the depths of the prison, cries of agony and pleas for mercy could still be heard.

Soon, Li Yan was escorted to the interrogation room by two officers from the Ministry of Justice.

Li Gefei asked:
"Li Yan, who exactly instructed you to seize the people's fertile land?"

When Li Yan was arrested, he readily admitted to the land grabbing, but he remained silent about who had instructed him behind the scenes.

Such a thing is definitely not something a lowly eunuch like him could do at this moment. There must be someone instigating it. We must find a way to dig them out and bring those behind-the-scenes manipulators of the Song Dynasty to the forefront to face trial.

Li Yan lowered his head and said:

"No one instructed me; it was all due to my own excessive greed. I beg Vice Minister Li to give me a swift end."

Li Gefei would not grant his wish. He immediately ordered his men to tie Li Yan to the water torture chair, then covered Li Yan's face with layers of wet Xuan paper, and slowly poured water onto his face with a water jug.

In less than a minute, Li Yan began to struggle frantically, feeling as if his lungs were about to explode, his mental defenses instantly shattered.

As soon as Li Gefei lifted a corner of the Xuan paper, Li Yan couldn't wait to utter a single word:

"Procedure……"

Li Gefei removed the Xuan paper, turned on the DV camera set up beside him, and, looking at Li Yan who was breathing heavily, said slowly:

“Continuing from the character ‘程’…”

This time, Li Yan didn't pretend to be tough and blurted it all out.

Li Qingzhao, who was playing on her phone nearby, was stunned. She never expected that the "Cheng" that Li Yan mentioned was actually the "Cheng" in "Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism".

No wonder Dad's so enthusiastic; he's met a political enemy with differing ideologies.

When Zhao Xu first came to power, Empress Dowager Gao Taotao held power, and the old party was dominant. However, not long after, the old party split. The Luoyang party, led by the Cheng brothers, and the Shu party, led by Su Shi, were incompatible with each other and fought each other more fiercely than the new and old parties.

Now that Su Shi is about to return, Li Gefei, as his disciple, naturally wants to find a way to deal with the Cheng brothers and, ideally, completely eradicate their doctrines.

The Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism has brought harm to China for hundreds of years. If we could nip it in the bud, it would be a great achievement.

Li Gefei asked very detailed questions, covering every single detail. After asking everything, he checked the DV playback to confirm that it had been recorded. Then he waved his hand and ordered someone to escort Li Yan to the courtyard.

Now it was the turn of the talented woman to step in. Without a word, she summoned divine lightning and swiftly pulverized Li Yan into charred remains.

The next day, Li Gefei took the video materials and rode in a carriage to court, intending to thoroughly impeach the Luoyang Party.

Inside the Hunyuan Palace, Zhou Yi looked at the newly appeared two ounces of merit and muttered to himself in surprise:

"This talented woman is just taking advantage of the six traitors, isn't she? We need to compile a proper list of the treacherous officials of the Song Dynasty... No, they are not only treacherous officials, but also a treasure trove of merit!"

Just as he was about to close it, he saw that his merit had increased again:
[Xi Shi draws out the evil creature from the Yangtze River, merit +20]

What's going on? Is the number one beauty up to something again?
Master Zhou was delighted to receive two acts of merit as soon as he opened his eyes in the morning. He didn't bother cooking; instead, he rode his motorcycle down the mountain to town and ordered a super deluxe mutton soup and half a pound of fried dough.

Just as I sat down with my mutton soup and fried dough sticks, Brother Wang brought over a bowl of mutton offal soup:

"Xiao Yi, did you plant those potatoes? The last batch wasn't enough, so I found some more for you. Do you want them?"

Zhou Yi nodded and said:

"Yes, I didn't have time to plant them last time, and a lot of the potato seeds rotted. Could you get me some more?"

Wang Ge made an OK sign and said:
“Okay, no problem. I’ll get more this time, and I’ll also get you some sweet potato vines. It’s a bit late to plant sweet potatoes now, but we can plant some that grow leaves specifically so we can eat the leaves.”

Zhou Yi picked up a piece of fried dough and dipped it into the mutton soup, then said to him:

"You can decide what to do. As long as that land isn't left idle, it doesn't matter what you plant."

Wang Ge eats quickly, finishing his meal in a flash. He also settled Zhou Yi's bill, then rode his electric scooter to the shop. Several farmers were going to spray pesticides that morning, and he needed to prepare the drone.

As Zhou Yi was slowly eating, he saw the blind man get out of the project department's vehicle, tap the road with his cane, and walk unhurriedly toward the mutton soup shop.

He sat down in front of Zhou Yi with a thud:

"A bowl of mutton soup, half a pound of fried dough sticks, extra cilantro, and no chili."

Zhou Yi gestured to the left with his lips:

"The shop owner is over there; you ordered the wrong food."

The blind man put away his folding cane and said slowly:
"You didn't order the wrong thing, I asked you to treat me to a meal... That tomb raider's merits are quite considerable, aren't they?"

Zhou Yi felt that some elderly people had no sense of boundaries. At first, they acted all high and mighty, readily pulling out their money when it came to dining out. Now that they've become more familiar with the situation, they've developed the bad habit of freeloading.

This is not good!

However, that tomb raider did bring good karma, and even provided clues about Mangshan, so he really deserves a bowl of mutton soup.

The shop owner of Zhouyichong waved his hand:

"A large bowl of mutton soup and half a pound of fried dough!"

The shop owner quickly brought it over, and the blind man didn't mind that there wasn't enough cilantro, and happily began to eat.
"What did you see in that tomb raider?"

The Book of Changes says:

"Those who do many evil deeds will surely perish... This guy can actually control a dog's soul, he's got some skills."

The blind man, exasperated, put down his chopsticks.
"Isn't it strange that you didn't notice those dogs?"

The Book of Changes: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Is this implying that there are wandering ghosts in Mangshan?

Old Han, your signal delay is way too long... It's been almost forty-eight hours, and you still don't know that all the wandering ghosts in Mangshan have been cleared out?

Zhou Yi took a sip of mutton soup from the bowl and mumbled:

"I think those dogs are quite affectionate. They've been around for over a thousand years and they still know how to rub against my pants leg."

These words enraged the blind man so much that he almost poured mutton soup on the boy's head:
"There are wandering ghosts and spirits in Mangshan, didn't you notice at all?"

The Book of Changes says:

"They're gone now. My men cleaned them up the day before yesterday... What happened to those wandering ghosts? Did someone release them on purpose? Or did the tomb raiders just happen to be there?"

The blind man stared intently at Zhou Yi for a long while before asking, as if to confirm:
"They're all...gone?"

Zhou Yi nodded:

"It's completely clean. If it reappears in the future, it will be removed immediately. Don't worry."

The blind man, who had been exchanging witty remarks for so long, was surprised to find that he himself was the clown. He shook his head, gave a bitter laugh, and muttered a complaint under his breath:

"You cleaned it all up without even telling me. You brat, are you trying to make fun of me?"

He ate a few pieces of mutton, still not satisfied, and then said:

"The tomb raiders in Mangshan were instructed by several merchants from the north to dig up the tombs of famous Han Chinese figures, release the evil spirits in the tombs, and wreak havoc on the world."

Wow, even modern society has its treasures of merit... Zhou Yi asked:
"Who is such a bad person?"

The blind man made a flicking motion with his braid:
"They're all wearing money-tail hair, I won't go into details, it's easy to cross the line..."

While an old man and a young man were exchanging information at the entrance of a mutton soup shop, in the world of the Tang Dynasty's Zhenguan era, the grand court assembly of the month was held as scheduled. All officials of the fifth rank and above in Chang'an City were present, filling the entire Taiji Hall to capacity.

As soon as the court assembly began, Li Shimin keenly noticed that several officials from other ethnic groups secretly took off their official robes, revealing their ethnic costumes underneath.

Seeing this, Old Li sighed inwardly and then grabbed the black iron token on the imperial desk.

The breeze is gentle and the sun is shining brightly today—perfect for a quick and easy day!

(End of this chapter)