Crown Tang emperor

Even in order to prevent the prime ministers from waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, Wu Zetian should not lay a dead hand on Qiushen at this moment.

The previous small actions were just to abolish Qiu Shenji's Nanya military power, so that he could no longer use the power of the left Jinwu Guard to put pressure on his family.Regardless of whether Wu Zetian believed Li Tong's crimes against Qiu Shenji, depriving him of the military power in Nanya was a basic operation.

Thinking of this, Li Tong couldn't help but secretly sighed, his foundation was still too shallow, and his business time was too short.Otherwise, just because he leaked the fact that Xu Jingzhen went north in advance, there is still a lot of potential to be tapped, and even created a situation where everyone betrayed his grandma and no one could believe it.

As for the moment, although he has ignited this trigger, but what the specific effect is, he can only stand sideways and wait for the further development of the situation.

Of course, the basic goal of getting rid of Qiu Shenji must be achieved.With such a good opportunity, if he does not take any action at all, he is no longer called calm and indifferent, but cowardly and incompetent. I am afraid that his grandma Wu Zetian will not think highly of him.

Sometimes, proper tossing will not make the situation more dangerous, but it can show that he has no city, and all his small thoughts are on the surface, so that people can see through them at a glance.

Of course, there must be a certain degree of tossing, otherwise you will fall into the situation of not doing anything and not dying.

In the evening, a Chinese envoy entered the square to inform that Xue Huaiyi, the chief executive of Xinping Road, had made great achievements in the frontier, the army returned triumphantly, and his return to Luo was imminent. North Korea, and a congratulatory table to celebrate this achievement.

Li Tong naturally understood Xue Huaiyi's so-called meritorious deeds on the frontier.But it has to be said that this bluff under such a situation has a great effect on stabilizing the hearts of the people in the city.

Among other things, the people in the Three Kings' Mansion were all very happy when they heard the news.After all, Xue Huaiyi and the young king have a long friendship, and the three kings have been taken care of by each other in many ways after they left the cabinet.When he returns home after victory, the corresponding three kings will be able to take advantage of more opportunities, and the situation will become better.

Li Tong also complied with the favor, had extra meals at the palace to celebrate at night, and took advantage of this occasion to give the servants another reward of wealth.

Of course, his main intention was to thank the servants for being able to stick to their brothers in the past two months, under the pressure of Qiu Shenji step by step.

Regardless of whether these people can feel Li Tong's true intentions, at least sending out the goods can strengthen people's hearts and tell everyone that the palace may have many shortcomings, but at least it is very good in terms of welfare.

As for the so-called congratulatory form, Li Tong didn't waste his energy on copying the essays, but asked Liu Youqiu, who was born as a Jinshi, to write three enthusiastic congratulatory essays for him.

In addition, he ordered Liu Youqiu to draw up a watch, and asked Li Guangshun to enter the forbidden center and supervise the construction of Ciwutai in the tone of his elder brother Li Guangshun: "Our brothers are not young, and we are all sensible. There was a lot of noise last night. I don't know what's going on, but I hope that I can stand up for grandma with my thin strength, so that you can sleep soundly and remember my father by the way.

Wu Zetian announced the news of Xue Huaiyi's triumphant return in advance, and it is conceivable that he is a bit poor at facing this intricate situation.If the accident is triggered in advance, it must be a great suspicion, and it will cause suspicion to the group of people around.

This kind of mentality of "there are always people who want to harm me", Li Tong often has it, let others be judged by himself, although their brothers may not be trustworthy, but at this time, they stand up and say a few cheap words, they have both favor and face, even It won't do much good, but it's not a bad thing either.

Moreover, the three of their brothers are Wu Zetian's grandsons, and they are also the representatives of the current Li clan king, so their sense of existence will not be lost just because they are immersed in being ostriches.

Rather than being worried about being conspired in the dark room, it is better to simply stand in the open: Grandma, you go forward boldly, and your grandson will stand for you, even if you are not capable and have a good attitude, I will never hold you back!

As for why Li Guangshun was asked to write the letter on behalf of the three brothers, the reason is also obvious. Li Shouli is obviously not good enough, and Li Tong still has to stay outside the palace to do some plotting.

If the brothers wrote the letter together, he was afraid that his grandma would be too touched, so he would directly take all three brothers back to the prison. His career here has just started to improve, so why would he be willing to be brought back to the prison to be raised again.

The next morning, the sun still set off before dawn.Without the Jinwu Guard rangers gathered outside the square, the surrounding area of ​​the remote Luxin Square seemed even more deserted, so much so that Li Tong felt a little nostalgic.

The three brothers rode their horses into Dingdingmen Street, and obviously felt that the atmosphere was different.The torches on both sides of the broad Tianjie Street are brightly lit, and there are many cavaliers and infantry cruising back and forth. I don't know if it is for patrolling and demonstrating, or to celebrate military achievements.

However, for a person like Li Tong who has a bright heart, such an atmosphere still makes him feel a little at ease. Anyway, he is not the one who will be unlucky next.As for saying that he lacks sympathy, it doesn't make sense, after all, their brothers have been blocked by the Jinwu Guard for two months, and no one has come out to speak out.

Duanmen lined up, and then the officials went to the big insiders, but this time they didn't go straight to Mingtang, but stopped outside Zetianmen.The front of Zetian Gate is also brightly lit, and the Emperor Yijia has already arrived at the top of the city tower. In front of the city tower, the generals of the guards stand here with spears and halberds. The atmosphere is solemn and majestic.

Seeing this scene, Li Tong couldn't help but sigh with emotion, his grandma's bluff skills are really not weak.If he wasn't the mastermind behind the scenes, and he knew how profoundly the turmoil the night before had shaken the situation, he might really be fooled by the situation in front of him, thinking that the turmoil the night before was just a general emergency.

Under the guidance of the ceremonial officer, the officials shouted long live outside the Zetian Gate and presented congratulatory forms.While saluting, Li Tong's thieves' eyes were still wandering around, and soon found Qiu Shenji, who was also wearing armor and standing solemnly, among the generals of the guards.

However, at this moment, Qiu Shenji is completely lacking in the prestige of Dajiu's armor at the beginning of the year. Although the armor is still bright, it is obvious that he is full of frustration, like a pair of fine armor. The body under the clothes was completely lifeless.

As if to conceal Qiu Shenji's frustration, his position was arranged in two slightly dark areas on the edge of the lights.Standing in front of the left side of his position is another burly figure, who is the new Zuo Jinwu Wei Yifu Zhonglang Wu Youji.

Among the Wu Clan's sons, only Wu You has an excellent appearance, and at this moment he deliberately attracts attention, and his appearance completely conceals the existence of Qiu Shenji.

But since Qiu Shenji was still able to attend this solemn occasion, it can be seen that Wu Zetian still relied on and pampered him.At the very least, she had to rely on Qiu Shen's long-standing prestige of the left Jinwu Guard to give her nephew Wu Youji a ride.

However, Li Tong wasn't worried about this either. Putting aside his plan of cheating, instigating Qiu Shenji's subordinates to report and expose him was in itself to make his grandmother feel that Qiu Shenji was incompetent, and his professional ability was obviously not good enough.

Forcibly stuffing those forbidden weapons into Chen Mingzhen's house in the street means that this old boy's skill tree is wrong, and his subordinates are all-powerful, and even steal and eat.

Even if it cannot be proved that these palace goods were stolen by Qiu Shenji from the forbidden area, but he is a real palace man, and there will be nothing to hide under strict investigation.

Xu Shi and the old eunuch Yang Chong have collected a lot of black materials in this regard. It may not have had much effect before, but now it may form a fatal blow.

Chapter 0154

In front of the gate of Zetian, a group of officials came in to offer congratulatory forms, and a courtesy officer entered the class to collect them.

The amount of this project is by no means small, because all those in the capital who are above the fifth rank of Juesan Xun need to participate in today's court meeting.Everyone was neatly crowned and banded in front of Zetian Gate. Li Tong took a rough look and saw that there were at least 2000 people present, or even 5000 people.

Among them, the most watery ones are naturally honored officers. Since Li Tang founded the country, there has been a problem of indiscriminate awarding of honored officers.

The second is scattered officials. After the restructuring of Zhenguan, official ranks are determined by scattered ranks.Since Empress Wu came to the court, there has been a flood of rewards, among which the most generous ones are scattered orders.Just now, Li Tong saw the order of trains in front of the gate, and there were as many as two or three hundred fifth-rank military officials and guerrilla generals alone.

With so many people gathered in front of Zetian Gate, each person has a congratulatory form, which is thousands of copies.Thousands of people gathered together and competed to present rainbow farts. Such a wonderful scene also opened Li Tong's eyes.It took more than half an hour for the ceremonial officer to collect the congratulatory forms, and the healthy soldiers were already panting from exhaustion carrying the collected congratulatory forms.

Of course, the officials couldn't just wait for such a long time, and there were officials in front of Tianmen who read out the imperial edict, and what they said was all about the Turkic war.

Li Tong was also extremely bored, he lowered his head and listened carefully to the ceremony officer's reading, and gradually he heard something.

The imperial edict first recalls the background and causes of the Turkic frontier troubles. Since Jieli Khan was captured in the fourth year of Zhenguan and the Eastern Turks perished, the frontier has remained stable in the following decades, and all Turkic tribes were unified under Shanyu Dadu. House.This situation continued until the first year of Gaozong Tiaolu, that is, in 679 AD, when the Turks began to rebel.

Li Tong could tell that the reason why the imperial edict traced back these stories was nothing more than his grandmother Wu Zetian's intention to throw the pot away, declaring that the Turkic border troubles in the world were not caused by her heroine, but a problem that already existed in Gaozong's time .

Although Li Tong didn't have a good impression of his grandfather Li Zhi, after hearing these smells, he couldn't help but feel that his grandma was a bit out of place.

You must know that when Li Tang's clan rebelled last year, Wu Zetian still hugged Emperor Yu Yun tightly, and even moved back to Zhenguan Hall in the forbidden center to handle political affairs.But this year, the situation is different, and they immediately began to de-Gaozong.

Of course, there is not much reason to talk about political propaganda. In addition to throwing the blame at the beginning, the content of the following edict focused on praising the battles against the Turks such as the Battle of Montenegro and the Battle of Yunzhou.

These victories also took place in the later period of Gaozong, but the so-called long-term illness of the emperor and the emperor's military administration have nothing to do with Emperor Gaozong.When Li Tong heard this, he couldn't help but feel secretly happy, so he wanted to ask his grandfather if he had a spirit in the sky, would he be happy or unhappy to hear his daughter-in-law arrange it like this?

Later in the imperial edict, Pei Xingjian and Xue Rengui were named General Dukes of the state after their death, and each of them chose an heir to inherit the title.Among them, Xue Na, the heir of Xue Rengui, was directly awarded by Sima of Waizhou as the general of Youweixun's mansion, and he was able to enter the forbidden center.

Hearing this, Li Tong couldn't help but feel the embarrassment of his grandmother Wu Zetian coming to court as the heroine. Teeth and the like.

It is not a political norm for a heroine to come to the court, and the general guarding the border is different from the prime minister in court, who can control and check and balance through power tactics.Once too much honor is given to them, the popularity will naturally belong to them, and once they raise their arms, it will directly shake the central power structure.

When the edict was read out, the congratulatory forms of the officials had not been completely collected.But the scene did not stop there, and then began to read the congratulatory form of the ministers.The first thing to be read out was the internal history of Fengge, and the congratulatory form of Cen Changqian, the newly appointed Deng Guogong.

When the ceremonial officer began to read, Li Tong clearly felt that Cen Changqian in the prime minister's train not far away was full of negative energy.

The reason is also very simple. The so-called congratulatory form is nothing more than a rainbow fart for the scene. This thing is over once you write it. There are officials in the academy who directly write these things on behalf of senior officials.

It's all about the scene. Whether these congratulatory forms are good or not is second to none, but one thing is certain, that is, there will inevitably be many ostentatious and beautiful words and sentences in them.It is harmless for everyone to circulate such words in private, but if they are read out in public, it will inevitably be embarrassing, prime ministers are shameless?

In particular, Xue Huaiyi's military achievements this time were already full of moisture and were blown out by force.Maybe ordinary officials didn't know what it was, and they would mistakenly think that it was some great military exploit, but how could the prime ministers not know the truth?The rainbow fart I shot out of conscience was read out to everyone, so you can imagine how it feels.

Cen Changqian was not alone in this kind of treatment. None of the prime ministers refused, and even Zhang Guangfu, who was absent due to illness, had his own Fengge Sheren to draw up a congratulatory form for him, which was also read out in public.

After such a lot of tossing, the time soon reached noon, and then Shen Huangyi drove down the Zetianmen tower, returned to the Ming Hall under the guard of the officials, and gave him food.

It was not until the evening that the officials dispersed separately.

After the day's ceremony was over, Wu Zetian had no time to rest.After initially stabilizing the hearts of the people in the city, the next step is to raise the butcher's knife high.

The Qiuguan Criminal Department and the Sixing Temple are not within the scope of today's ceremony. The main task is naturally to interrogate a group of criminals overnight, but things are not going well.

Xu Jingzhen was secretly escorted back to the capital last night, but the situation in Guinea is different.In particular, Luoyang Ling Gong Siming knew the truth about Xu Jing in advance. Although he had been arrested and sent to the inner prison, he refused to cooperate with pulling more people out. Ask to confront Qiu Shenji.

Therefore, although Xu Jingzhen's confession has been obtained, due to the lack of testimony from the key witness Gong Siming, Qiu Guan Shangshu Zhang Chujin refused to enter the case, but repeatedly asked for witnesses to testify.

"The Gong clan thieves insisted on refusing to make a confession. They just intended to delay the time, imagining that they would win escape for the people from other states, but they didn't know that all the people from other states had been arrested."

He was in charge of going to Xiuzhou to introduce Xu Jingzhen to the Wu Yi sect, traveling thousands of miles. His short and fat body seemed a little sluggish, but his spirit was still high. The confessions he took from Xu Jingzhen's mouth mostly involved famous figures in the sect at home.He couldn't help being excited when he thought that he could catch so many people in one fell swoop for such a big event.

Wu Zetian raised his eyes to look at this nephew, and after a moment of silence, he said again: "Xu Jingzhen's confession will not be shown to the public for now."

The matter of mentioning Xu Jingzhen was leaked in advance, making the situation extremely passive.In particular, Zhang Guangfu, her biggest target this time, was stunned. Although she didn't make any moves on the surface, she was also making efforts in private.

Since the accident happened the night before, the Left and Right Suzhengtai has accumulated hundreds of copies of memorials, [-]% of which are impeachment of the Beiya imperial army for overstepping their duties, rushing into the public and abusing their power, requesting that Qianqi envoy Wu Youning be held accountable.

"The use of this matter is to make a quick decision. If it is postponed, everyone is prepared, and I am afraid that we will not be able to eradicate all evil!"

When Wu Yizong heard this, his small eyes widened, worried that the thing that he had wasted so much energy would end without a problem.

Wu Zetian didn't understand this truth, she was a decisive person, and she never hesitated when it was time to do it.But even if it is killing, there must be a scale.

In particular, the scope of the attack this time is too wide, not only concentrated in the center of Taiwan Province, but also many governors from other states. Everyone is at risk.And no one dares to predict what kind of turmoil will arise under such a situation of general anxiety.

The reason why she spent so much effort to bring Xu Jingzhen back, using it as an excuse to cleanse, is to avoid this from happening.Let the governors from other states understand that these people died for a reason, and those who are outside the matter can stay in their posts without worrying about being affected.

"The first plan at the moment is to take Zhang Guangfu first, Luantai and Fengge will be unified, and the imperial edicts are all justified."

Wu Youning opened his mouth and said: "Zhang Guangfu plundered Yuzhou in the past, accumulating public grievances, and then slandered Di Renjie with bad words. Renjie had been impeached many times before. This time, citing his previous arguments, let Zhang Guangfu retreat to avoid suspicion. Autumn official Zhang Chu Jin entered the political affairs hall first, deprived him of the power to push cases, and let Zhou Xingli go to the Gong family..."

Wu Youning's suggestion was somewhat constructive. Wu Zetian nodded slightly as she listened. After Wu Youning finished speaking, she said again: "Zhang Chujin is not suitable for paying homage to the prime minister. He will be transferred to the position of Spinqing and reward the army ambassador. He will go to Hebei to meet the triumphant army." .As for Zhou Xing..."

Speaking of this, Wu Zetian pondered, the matter of Xu Jingzhen is top secret and not many people know about it.Although she suspected that her nephews were greedy for Zuo Jinwuwei's military power and deliberately leaked the news in order to affect Qiu Shenji, she did not rule out the possibility that someone else would leak it.

Although Zhou Xing did not know exactly about Xu Jingzhen, Wu Zetian secretly ordered Zhou Xing to sort out the criminal files related to Xu Jingye's rebellion case in Chui Gong before, and implicitly hinted at reorganizing the content related to the Gong family.According to Zhou Xing's scheming, it is not difficult to deduce some inside information from this.

"Wenchang Zuocheng Li Yuanyuan was transferred to Si Xingqing, and Zhou Xing jointly promoted the case."

Even without considering Zhou Xing's suspicion, Wu Zetian also understood that Zhou Xing's reputation was really bad, even if he deduced the facts of the case, he could not fully convince the public.

Li Yuanyuan was born in the Li family of Zhao County, and he is the younger brother of the former Prime Minister Li Jingxuan, and his younger brother He Gong Ling Li Jingyi has had a lot of grievances with the Gong family recently, so he is a suitable person to investigate this matter, and the case deduced is also more convincing.

Thinking of this, Wu Zetian asked again: "The master of the palace who is being held in the Luoyang county prison..."

"His name is Fu Youyi."

Hearing Wu Youning's answer, Wu Zetian nodded, and asked again: "Why did that Fu Youyi die? What kind of crimes did he have that made Qiu Shenji take the risk of telling Gong Shi?"

After Wu Youning heard the words, he said with a bitter expression: "At that time, I really didn't know that Fu Youyi was taken into the Luoyang County Sheriff's office. Qianqi was newly created, and the officers and men were inevitably unfamiliar. The incident happened suddenly. After entering the workshop, he might have selfish motives, so we can't find out. Who will kill it? Under strict push, the fear of thousands of knights will inevitably panic."

Hearing what Wu Youning said, Wu Zetian sighed helplessly.Before Xue Huaiyi's army returned to the capital, the forces she relied on most in Jinai were the Beiya Yulin Army and Qianqi, so naturally she would not shake her confidant forces at this time.

But once that Fu Youyi died, things related to Qiu Shenji became confusing.Although Qiu Shenji kept saying that he didn't know Fu Youyi at all, didn't know the truth about Xu Jing, and didn't send a letter to Gong Siming, everything was an innocent disaster and was framed by others.

But now that there is no proof, Wu Zetian will not fully trust Qiu Shenji's one-sided remarks.After all, Qiu Shenji was just talking, and both Gong Siming and Jin Wuwei Street envoy Chen Mingzhen vowed to accuse Qiu Shenji.

Especially that Chen Mingzhen, who was originally recommended by Qiu Shenji to be introduced into the Nanya Forbidden Army, and who also had the evidence of Qiu Shenji's murder in Bozhou last year. It's not that it doesn't make sense.

"Chen Mingzhen's family's palace goods come from, have you found out?"

Wu Zetian asked another question, and Yubayashi General Wu Youyi stepped forward and replied: "The people involved are Sigongtai Su Jiancheng, Shanggongtai Sibu Zhang, etc. All of them have confessed. Forbidden..."

Speaking of this, he paused and then added: "In addition, Su Jiancheng also confessed. Qiu bribed him to arrange for people to make offerings in the mansion of King Siyong in private, and his son Su Liang is still working in the mansion of King Guanghan..."

After Wu Zetian heard the words, his face immediately turned into fury: "These lowly slaves, how dare they! The palace officials involved will all be tortured!"

Wu Sansi, who was also in the hall, heard Wu Youyi's words, and was about to open his mouth to speak, but when he saw that the emperor was so angry, he was a little flustered for a while, and obediently swallowed back the words that came to his mouth.

In the next few days, Wu Zetian has been busy.With Di Renjie's old theory temporarily seizing Zhang Guangfu's position, and after Zhang Chujin, the Minister of Qiuguan, was transferred from the Criminal Division, things gradually got on the right track.

In particular, Zhou Xing, Qiu Guan's assistant, obtained key evidence during the interrogation process. Zhang Guangfu's private discussion of prophecies and yin and yin in the battle against Li Zhen, the Yue king of Yuzhou last year, completely sent Zhang Guangfu to a dead end.

Because of this charge, two key witnesses were also involved, that is, Qu Chongyu, the chief of the Chinese army who was also in charge of countering the rebellion at the time, and Cen Changqian, the chief of the rear army.

These two men were General Nanya, General Zuowuwei, and the internal history of Fengge, neither of them could or dared to cite evidence of Zhang Guangfu's loyalty to the king at that time.In this way, even if someone excused Zhang Guangfu, they would not be able to come up with a strong argument at all.

After winning this most critical goal, Wu Zetian breathed a sigh of relief, and was in the mood to care about the rest.

After that, Wu Youyi sent the testimonies of the court officials. Wu Zetian looked at the evidence of the eunuch Su Liang who was placed in the mansion of Guanghan King Li Guangshun, and found that Su Liang had been hiding in the mansion for several months. There was not a single case where the eldest grandson was out of order in his daily life.

Seeing this confession, Wu Zetian was naturally very satisfied.

In the past few days, she was so busy that she didn't have the time and energy to care about the grandchildren who left the cabinet. Today, when she was in a mood, she found the palace official Yuzheng and asked what the three kings were up to recently, and then got Knowing that in the past period of time, the three kings have not been idle, in addition to the earlier congratulatory form, there are also several memorials accumulated on the case.

Among them, in the name of King Siyong Li Shouli, he said that the Ciwu Terrace was about to be built, and he hoped that Buddhist scriptures could be presented to Taiwan for worship.

"These children live in fear."

Holding this memorial book in hand, Wu Zetian said something casually, and then flipped through another copy of the third grandson King Hedong's memorial book, and saw that it was the same kind of content, except that besides asking for Buddhist scriptures, there was also a talk about his recent visits to the State of Wei. Temple, it is often seen that rich and powerful people in the city borrowed scriptures from Weiguo Temple but did not return them for a long time. I hope the court can face up to and solve such a bad habit.

Wu Zetian didn't doubt that he was involved in such trivial matters, so she readily approved them, and when she turned to the memorabilia written by Li Guangshun, the king of Guanghan, who was in the dormitory, her face showed a bit of relief, her demeanor became more formal, and she took up her pen seriously. Give a reply.

Chapter 0155

In the afternoon, Li Tong was still chatting and spanking with the monk who lived in Weiguo Temple in the mansion. Suddenly, his family came to tell that the Chinese envoy had arrived at the palace and informed the three kings to enter the mansion immediately to accept the order. He was also a little surprised.

As soon as he walked out the door, he saw his second brother Li Shouli standing in front of his mansion with a serious expression, so he casually asked, "Why doesn't second brother come into the mansion?"

Li Shouli motioned for him to come closer to him, and whispered, "I haven't had time to tell you that the day before yesterday when the palace was tidying up the backyard, I deliberately asked people to leave a canal mouth without setting up a fence at the bottom of the water. This is for the brothers to retreat. Brother today The second is that I can’t escape, I will stay in the mansion to take care of the empress, and after the Chinese envoy declares his crime, I will stop them in the front hall, Xunnu, you should escape from here quickly..."

Li Tong glanced at the nervous Li Shouli: "Didn't you say that fat fish would come in and out for you to fish?"

"This kind of calculation, how can I tell others clearly? Before the palace envoy arrested the eunuch Su Liang, I knew... you were the one who was worrying about family affairs earlier, this time, the second brother paved the way for you to retreat."

Li Shouli frowned, with a slightly sad expression: "Don't worry, Sunnu, even if you are arrested immediately, I will bite the bullet and buy you time to escape. Fang Zhengtian Dasheng has lived in your house for a long time, and he often discusses things in your door. I know you can do it..."

What do you understand?

After a moment of silence, Li Tong said: "Second brother, what do you mean, let me sneak into Yiqu from the garden, float out of the workshop, and cross Yongtongmen Street? Not to mention whether I will be seen in broad daylight, you Do you think I have such exquisite water skills?"

"Your house has such a big garden, why didn't you practice water skills well in advance?"

Li Shouli glanced at Li Tong with an unbelievable expression on his face, and said in a low voice, "Oh, the three brothers can't be captured together! You stay and let me do it! But I, alas, also It's just a gamble, maybe I can..."