Since five years ago, Wu Zetian has rarely appeared in the imperial study. She is nearly eighty years old, but due to her excessive indulgence in lust, her health is deteriorating and she can no longer bear the heavy court affairs. Except for the important court affairs, Shangguan Wan'er presents them to In addition to reporting, she handed over the rest of the daily court affairs to Konghe Mansion and asked Er Zhang to handle it for her. As a result, Er Zhang became so powerful that Konghe Mansion was able to compete with the Government Hall.
Wu Zetian happened to be in the imperial study today, listening to Shangguan Wan'er report to her on some important military and state affairs. At this time, a eunuch reported in a low voice at the door: "Your Majesty, he is here."
"Inform him to come in!"
Wu Zetian has always had a good impression of Li Zhen. In addition, Li Zhen was not in the capital a few years ago and did very well in the Guanzhong area. It was due to his efforts that the Long March Athletes Project advocated by Wu Zetian was finally completed. Mainly people from Guanzhong, more than 100,000 families went to the Western Regions to settle down, which gave the Anxi Army a stable source of troops.
After the completion of this plan, which took nearly six years, Li Zhen was transferred back to Luoyang and served as the general of Qianqiying. He was in charge of the 25,000 cavalry of Qianqiying and belonged to the military's real power group.
Li Zhen quickly walked into the imperial study. Shangguan Wan'er turned around and stood behind Wu Zetian, looking at Li Zhen with a calm expression. Shangguan Wan'er was still unmarried, and her appearance was basically the same as it was ten years ago.
Shangguan Wan'er has long been unable to control Li Zhen, but the relationship between the two is not too cold. They can treat each other with courtesy when they meet by chance. After all, Li Zhen holds military power, and she does not want to make this enemy.
Li Zhen stepped forward, knelt down on one knee and said, "The humble minister Li Zhen is here to plead guilty to His Majesty!"
Wu Zetian was startled, and asked with a puzzled smile: "What crime is Li Aiqing guilty of?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, I was impulsive and beat up Zhang Changyi. I was afraid that I might have offended Duke Ye, so I came here to apologize."
Wu Zetian's face was a little unnatural. She immediately thought of Di Renjie. Di Renjie was insulted by Zhang Changzong and was so angry that he fell into coma. Li Zhen beat Zhang Changyi. The two incidents must be related.
Wu Zetian originally wanted to wait for Di Renjie to wake up and ask Zhang Changzong to apologize. When Zhang Changzong refused to go, Wu Zetian was in trouble, but this happened, which gave her a headache, so she asked: "Li Aiqing, tell me first, what happened?" What happened? Why did you beat Zhang Changyi?"
Li Zhen recounted what happened outside Xiping Gate in detail, and finally said: "Weichen didn't want to cause trouble, but Zhang Changyi became lustful and insulted Weichen's wife. Weichen couldn't bear it, so he ordered to take action. I am willing to bear all the responsibilities for beating up powerful people.¡±
Wu Zetian really couldn't bear it. Zhang Changyi was so audacious that he dared to insult the minister's wife. This was not a question that should be beaten, but should be killed. Wu Zetian was really angry. Not only did Zhang Changyi cause him countless troubles, but now even their The family is getting themselves into trouble, too.
Wu Zetian held back her anger and said slowly: "General Li does not need to take responsibility for himself. As long as what you say is true, I will never blame you."
"What I say is true. Your Majesty can ask the garrison at the city gate. They all witnessed it with their own eyes."
Wu Zetian nodded. She suddenly felt very tired, so she waved her hands and said, "Please step back first!"
"Wei Chen resigns!"
Li Zhen did not raise his head to look at Shangguan Wan'er, and slowly retreated. When he walked away, Wu Zetian sighed slightly and asked Shangguan Wan'er, "How should I handle this matter?"
Shangguan Wan'er whispered: "Wan'er heard that Prime Minister Di's situation is not good. If your Majesty punishes Li Zhen again, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the Di family and the officials. Wan'er suggests that this matter should be treated as if it never happened."
Wu Zetian smiled bitterly and said: "You are right. If Li Zhen is punished, I really can't explain it to the Di family. I hope God will bless Prime Minister Di and let him recover as soon as possible."
Wu Zetian was exhausted and had just returned to the palace when she saw Zhang Changzong and Zhang Yizhi kneeling at the gate and crying: "Your Majesty, you must make the decision for us!"
The two of them had just received the news that their brother Zhang Changyi was severely beaten by Li Zhen outside Xiping Gate. All his limbs were broken. It was extremely painful. The two of them were going crazy. They vowed not to be human unless they killed Li Zhen.
Wu Zetian¡¯s anger, which had just calmed down, burned up again when they made trouble. She pointed at the two of them and angrily yelled: ¡°Shut up!¡±
The Zhang brothers were immediately startled. They had never seen the Holy One lose such a temper. Neither of them dared to say anything anymore. Wu Zetian pointed at Zhang Changzong and cursed angrily: "You are so audacious that you dare to go to the political hall and make a scene. You have ruined my reputation and insulted my Prime Minister. I haven't come to you yet? You came to complain first. I tell you, if Di Xiangguo is fine, that is your luck. If Di Xiangguo has three shortcomings, let's see how I deal with it. You guys, get out of here!"
The two were so frightened that they rolled away and ran away. Wu Zetian was furious.He rushed towards his palace, and when he ran outside the palace, Zhang Changzong stopped Zhang Yizhi, "That's strange! The old beggar seems to know about this."
Zhang Yizhi also felt strange. Just as Xia Zhong, the eunuch of the Imperial Study Room, was walking towards him, Zhang Yizhi rushed up and grabbed him by the lapel of his clothes, "Say quickly! Who did the Lord see this afternoon?"
Xia Zhong was frightened and trembled, and said quickly: "The old slave was about to report to the two generals. Not long ago, the Holy Lord met Li Zhen, as if Li Zhen came to plead guilty."
Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong looked at each other. As expected, Li Zhen complained first, confusing the old beggar. Zhang Yizhi pulled Zhang Changzong, and the two quickly returned to the Yaoguang Palace. Zhang Yizhi took all the palace maids and eunuchs They all rushed out, closed the door, and whispered to Zhang Changzong: "Something is not good!"
Zhang Changzong understood what he meant. If Di Renjie did something good, Li Zhen would never let them go. Zhang Changzong gritted his teeth and said: "I wanted to kill him back then, but the damn old beggar stopped me and let him live freely for eight years. If I don't kill him again, , When the old beggar dies, he will kill us, we can¡¯t delay it any longer.¡±
Zhang Yizhi scratched his head and said with some worry: "But he holds military power, so it is not that easy to kill him."
"Yes! We can't rush this matter, we have to think about it in the long run. I suggest you ask Wu Sansi for help."
"But he doesn't have many connections in the military. Why not find Wu Yizong? This man controls the prison guards and has tens of thousands of troops. Wouldn't it be easy for him to kill Li Zhen?"
"But after all, Li Zhen is not a dog or a cat. He can't just kill him with one knife. If you ask the Wu family to kill Li Zhen, do you know what conditions they will impose?"
Both of them were silent. In fact, it goes without saying that they also knew that what the Wu family wanted was the country and the country. Wu Zongyi was listening to Wu Sansi's command. In the end, he still had to go to Wu Sansi. After a moment of silence, Zhang Changzong said: "If you don't kill him, Li Zhen, we will definitely die in the future. If we don¡¯t do this, we have to do it. I¡¯ll go find Wu Sansi and talk to him. I¡¯ll get to know him first and then we¡¯ll see what happens.¡±
"Go to Wu Sansi, go to Cao Wen."
"I know!"
Zhang Changzong replied impatiently, turned and left the room.
In the past few years, Wu Sansi had been really frustrated. In Wu Zetian's words, he suddenly came to his senses. He did not enter brothels or drink wine. He set strict house rules for his children and servants. Last year, a domestic slave molested a woman in the street and was arrested. Wu Sansi ordered him to be beaten with two hundred sticks and paraded in Luoyang for three days.
Not only that, Wu Sansi also spent tens of thousands of shi of food in recent years, helping people who had fled to the capital after disasters every day on the streets. He also demolished all the houses he had occupied over the years, returned the land to the original owners, and it is said that he even visited the house in person. apologize.
He was even more respectful to the ministers of the DPRK. He lived with his tail between his legs all day long. Even when a carriage of a sixth-grade official was approaching, he had to stop and give way.
Several years of hard work have paid off. Wu Sansi's reputation is no longer as ugly as before. Flattery scholars began to write articles praising him. Last year, the Holy Emperor praised him for turning back the prodigal son and restored his title to the king, becoming His Royal Highness the Prince of Liang again.
Although Wu Sansi has lived a very hypocritical and miserable life in the past three years, he has also gained a lot. At the beginning of the year, when the Wu family held a family sacrifice banquet, the Holy Master also came to attend and said in front of hundreds of Wu family members, "If The Wu family is an heir, so you have to think twice. ¡¯
This gave Wu Sansi a small seedling of hope in his originally despairing heart. Perhaps he still had hope of ascending to the top of the Ninth Five-Year Plan.
Another thing that made Wu Sansi happy was that Wu Chengsi finally died of illness last year. He died of excessive drinking and debauchery. Once Wu Chengsi died, the other faction of the Wu family lost their backbone and expressed their allegiance to him. Now only Wu Youning and Wu Brother Youji has remained silent because of Princess Taiping.
As usual, Wu Sansi sat in his jade room and carefully admired the various jade articles he collected. He was polite and decent, so he would not go out to drink and have fun at night, so playing with jade at home has become a habit for him in the past few years. A major hobby.
At this time, the voice of son-in-law Cao Wen came from outside the door, "Father-in-law, my son-in-law has something important to report."
What satisfied Wu Sansi the most was that he got this son-in-law. Not only was he his military adviser, he taught him how to pretend to be noble, fish for fame, and forcefully reversed his reputation. He was also a representative of power in the court. For three months, Before that, Cao Wen served as the powerful Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and became a high-ranking official in Wu Sansi who could compete with Yao Chong, Zhang Jianzhi and others in the court.
Furthermore, Cao Wencheng had a deep government, high attainments in calligraphy and literature, and was shrewd and capable. Even Di Renjie praised him for his qualities as prime minister, so Wu Sansi planned to recommend him to replace Yang Zaisi as prime minister in two years.
Wu Sansi never allowed anyone to enter his jade room, not even Cao Wen, so he said: "Go to my study room first, I'll come right away."Come. "
Wu Sansi changed his clothes and walked out of the study calmly.
Walking to the outer study, Wu Sansi smiled and said, "How is Dingxiang doing now?"
"She is very good. Originally, she wanted to come to visit my father. Because I had business, I didn't let her come."
Wu Sansi nodded, "I think since I have no children, I might as well adopt one. Are none of your nephews suitable?"
Cao Wen smiled bitterly, "My son-in-law has no nephews."
"Oh - I forgot. In fact, even if you don't have a nephew, you can adopt one from the clan. As long as your surname is Cao, I think it will be fine."
Originally, Cao Wen was going to marry Wu Sansi, but in order to win over this capable general, he agreed that Cao Wen would adopt a son from his own family instead of from the Wu family.
Cao Wen was overjoyed and said, "Thank you very much, father-in-law!"
Wu Sansi smiled and said, "Let's get down to business! What's important?"
Cao Wen's face became solemn and he whispered: "Zhang Changzong came to see me just now."