Start with detective Li Yuanfang

Chapter 251 Invite the prince to supervise the country!
Li Yan came to the Zichen Hall where he had been away for a long time.

There was no change in the hall, but he sniffed slightly with his nose and his brow moved slightly.

This taste...

But Li Yan didn't say anything, and walked in at an ordinary pace.

When I came to the steps, there was no place to sit this time.

Li Zhi's voice was weaker than before, and his tone became extremely harsh: "Li Yuanfang, you didn't get the edict and returned to Beijing without permission. Do you know that this is a serious crime?"

Li Yan didn't even make an excuse, and said directly: "I am guilty!"

Li Zhi stared at him: "Why did you come back?"

Li Yandao: "Heavenly power of the Tang Dynasty, the three armies were effective, the foreign army suffered a disastrous defeat, the Tuyuhun royal city was destroyed, but there was no order from the sage, and there was no supply of food and grass. I also heard that the disaster in the pass was getting worse. Unavoidably, the morale of the army was fluctuating. The ministers could not sleep and eat well, so they returned to Chang'an. .”

Empress Wu suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Yuanfang didn't tell anything about Qiu Ying and Jia Sibo.

Although she knew very well that her position as queen would not be abolished, she really couldn't add fuel to the fire at this time.

"Chen Gui" is still useful.

Li Zhi snorted coldly: "You are young and frivolous, there is no one else in the army, and you are the one to come out?"

After finishing speaking, his tone softened a little, and he sighed: "Yuanfang, the court system must not be messed up. Once you come back, the contribution of this trip to Tubo will be halved!"

Li Yan fell silent, there was a three-point regret in his brows, and a faint seven-point determination, which was very interesting.

Li Zhi didn't mention this matter anymore, and suddenly asked, "What are you wearing on your arm?"

Li Yan showed the pulu armband, and the big rustles inlaid on it showed luster: "Tubo Zanpu feels the grace of His Majesty, and the vassal is Zanpu Zhong, which means Zanpu's younger brother."

Li Zhi laughed: "What kind of etiquette is this? Besides, you are a deputy envoy, so if you want to be granted the title, you should also be granted the title of Duke Li?"

Li Yandao: "I am young and Li Gongde is highly respected, how can I recognize Zanpu as my brother?"

Li Zhi was stunned: "That's right, how can Mr. Li be sealed by him, it's interesting, take it down and let me see!"

Li Yan took off the pulu armband, and the servant handed it over to Li Zhi.

"Zamp Bell... Zamp Bell..."

Li Zhi stroked so many big thurs, his heart was happy, and he felt that his body was getting stronger.

It is true that the Zanpu Bell was not granted casually. It was also granted to the King of Nanzhao in history, which shows that the two countries are brothers, which is of great significance.

But now it is granted to a courtier of the Tang Dynasty, which greatly satisfies Li Zhi's vanity.

Although there is no actual power, it is pure name, but for this name, how many overjoyed emperors even did not hesitate to launch wars.

Li Yan asked Wang Xiaojie to give him this name, the first is that the tea is better sold, and the second is that he is going to come back to coax the emperor to play.

Li Zhi was conquered by Da Sese, and after playing for a long time, he said: "Grand Li has reported to me what you did in Tubo. Although the Gar family is weak now, it has a deep foundation and may repeat itself. Pu Yinren is also a formidable enemy, you must guard against it!"

Li Yan thought to himself that even Li Yiyan dared not tell you the truth, what are you doing: "Your Majesty is wise!"

Li Zhi thought to himself that the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Dafeichuan was really just a fluke, and I was really wise: "Give me a seat!"

Hao Chujun and Yin Zhongyan did not leave, they were still in the hall.

The two waited outside for nearly an hour, and stood inside for another half an hour, but they could only watch the latecomers sit down, feeling miserable in their hearts.

Your Majesty, we are also loyal ministers!

But the loyal ministers in Li Zhi's eyes were obviously not divided in that way. He didn't even look at the two of them, and continued to ask: "Since the royal city of Tuyuhun has been breached, in your opinion, can Tuyuhun be turned into the prefecture of Tang Dynasty?"

Jimi Prefecture was established in the Zhenguan period, a special governance method for the surrounding counties of foreign races.

It's a bit like the autonomous regions of later generations. The administrative organization is based on the Tang Dynasty, but the officials are headed by foreign leaders, and hereditary is allowed.

They have financial autonomy, but they must accept the supervision of the Protectorate. The management policy is loose, but it can be slowly absorbed and digested.

Li Yan frowned slightly: "I'm young and talented, I'm afraid such a big event..."

Li Zhi said: "It's okay, just say it, I just listened to it as a reference."

Li Yan thought for a while and said: "I feel that the time is not yet ripe. Tuyuhun has been fighting for years, the people are suffering, and the Qiang people have resentment towards our Tang Dynasty, and it is difficult to obey the control in a short time..."

Li Zhi said coldly: "The barbarians are afraid of power but not virtuous, and refuse to obey the rules? There are ways to make them submit!"

Li Yan went on to say: "The key is the land of Tuyuhun. It has also been hit by a catastrophe recently. Before that, it was plundered by the Tibetan army. If we want to set up Jimi Prefecture in Tang Dynasty, we must first rescue the ministries. I am afraid that Longyou will not be able to afford the food expenditure. .”

As soon as Li Zhi heard it, he knew that there was nothing to do, and said angrily: "Let Princess Guanghua and the Lord of Qinghai return to the country and serve as a barrier for my Tang Dynasty!"

Re-establishing a vassal state, although it is a barrier of the Tang Dynasty and has to pay tribute every year, it is not in the territory after all, the emperor who enshrined Zen on Mount Tai can't help but feel regretful.

Li Yan shook his head secretly.

It is certainly a good thing to continue to expand the territory, but the ruling ability of the imperial court must be taken into account.

The agrarian dynasty already had its limit of dominance, and blindly expanding was equivalent to getting fatter, eating more and more, and people getting weaker and weaker.

When you can't get enough to eat, if others don't come to cut the meat, you have to cut it yourself.

During Li Shimin's Zhenguan period, the national power gradually recovered compared with the end of the Sui Dynasty. After the destruction of Tuyuhun, he did what he could and did not directly swallow the territory.

When it came to Li Zhi, although the starting point was much better than when the country was first established, and the territory expanded to an unprecedented level, the control strength also declined.

If the national power is strong, it is not impossible to win Tuyuhun and Tubo, but if the domestic struggle is like this, how can they swallow foreign territories?
Li Zhi was also aware of this problem, took a deep breath, and began to ask: "Yuan Fang, you came back from Tuyuhun, passing through Longyou and Guannei, what happened along the way?"

Li Zhi had already made some psychological preparations, but as Li Yan narrated, the saint's complexion became more and more ugly.

Because Li Yan specifically picked out what he couldn't stand: "I returned to the Tang Dynasty from Tuyuhun, and traveled all the way without going to Liangzhou. The first city I entered was Lanzhou. There are few people there, and the price of food has risen to a hundred dollars."

"Outside the city, there are even more children and daughters sold. There are people from Longyou who come to buy women from the pass to take back as wives, but they only want wives, but they don't want babies. One can imagine the fate of those babies..."

"The envoys were in the royal city of Tubo, and the ministers also saw these refugees. The Nagar family let the refugees ignore them. Instead, they selected powerful ones from them and trained them as spy assassins. They also abducted women from Sun Boru's land. In the end, he reaped the consequences and was retaken by Zanpu."

"What I saw and heard in Lanzhou is similar to what I saw in Tubo, and the degree of misery is even worse. Although it was caused by natural disasters, I can't accept it!"

Li Yan's tone became more and more high-spirited, and his words became more intense later on.

There are many things in Li Yiyan's report, and Li Zhi knows it is true, but he hates it the most.

How could the Tang Dynasty he ruled be inferior to Tubo, a land of barbarians?

Li Yan went on to say: "At the beginning of my official career, what I saw was starving and dying everywhere. The victims were begging during the day and sleeping outside at night. Many people were spitting yellow water in their sleep and laying dead bodies beside the road."

"I really didn't want to see the disaster victims, so I took the wild roads in the mountains. But there are many beasts in the wilderness, and there are hungry wolves and wild dogs everywhere. These beasts are not afraid of people at all. They not only attack people in the wild, but also dare to run into the villages. Treat the villagers as rations."

"The land of Tuyuhun was hit by a disaster, and there were still Buddhist monks who gave porridge to save people and saved all sentient beings. When I returned to the Tang Dynasty, I saw few temples that did disaster relief. The gates of the temples were all closed, and they swept the snow in front of the gates... ..."

Li Zhi's mental strength disappeared just now, and he became more and more depressed. He took a breath and said in a low voice: "Okay, why is the disaster in the pass so serious?"

Li Yan said without hesitation: "It's not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster!"

He looked at the other person on the imperial tent with shining eyes: "It is because the queen only cared about fighting for power that countless people died!"

The atmosphere in the hall was quiet.

Empress Wu was furious: "Li Yuanfang, you are presumptuous!"

"Chen Gui" is a free gift!

Li Yan held his head high and held his chest high, confronting him tit for tat: "I'm going to be presumptuous today!"

"I want to ask the empress, the price of rice in Chang'an is [-] cents a bucket, obviously some thieves deliberately deceived me, does the empress know nothing about it?"

"Even if I didn't know it at the beginning, why didn't I check afterwards, did I let the treacherous ministers harm the country and the people?"

"The minister has been waiting to be summoned at the mansion, but the queen doesn't care about the disaster and only knows how to seize power. You know how many people are dying outside the city every moment!"

"The disaster in Tuyuhun is not as embarrassing as my Tang Dynasty. If this continues, the customs will be desolate and Chang'an will be in turmoil. How can the empress see the ministers and the people of the Tang Dynasty?"

Yin Zhongyan was dumbfounded, and suddenly felt that this person should sit down.

Hao Chujun was also stunned, even he used general words like "greed for power and selfishness".

This one is good, pointing at the nose and scolding directly!
Empress Wu was so angry that her chest heaved, but she was speechless.

What she did was clear at a glance. Now that she meets someone who dares to speak out, but she can't drag it down and chop it into meat, she can only bow down to Li Zhi: "Your Majesty, please be the master of my concubine!"

Li Zhi was watching the play beside him, staring at Empress Wu coldly.

He knew that Empress Wu could no longer be in power. Obviously, this person had committed public outrage.

Even if the other courtiers were not as young and energetic as Li Yuanfang, and dared to speak out, there would be no less resentment in their hearts.

When there is a catastrophe, there will be disharmony between the upper and lower levels, and the center will not be peaceful, and there will be big troubles.

It's a pity that my body...

Unfortunately, this period of time is disappointing!
Li Zhi closed his eyes, and his tone became serious: "Li Yuanfang, the queen was deceived by traitors, it was definitely not what you thought, and she deliberately ignored the victims! You grew up in Liangzhou, and you miss the people. I am really pleased, but respect There is no difference between humility, are you trying to offend the queen by scolding the queen like this?"

Li Yan accepts it when he sees it good: "I dare not!"

Li Zhi made a punishment: "Punish the salary for half a year, it's not an example!"

Empress Wu trembled, only half a year's salary, what kind of punishment is this?
If this matter gets out, what majesty will she have to govern in the future?
Li Yan said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your generosity!"

Li Zhi was exhausted and felt that he couldn't hold it anymore, so he didn't say any more, and asked directly: "The matter has come to this, how to relieve the disaster, do you have an idea?"

Hao Chujun and Yin Zhongyan cheered up, and silently cheered on the sidelines: "Take advantage of the victory to pursue, abolish the empress! Abandon the empress!"

Empress Wu became tense, her body tensed up, her hands were bulging with veins, and she held them tightly: "Li Yuanfang! Li Yuanfang!!"

Li Yan lowered his head and sniffed.

After confirming that guess, he resolutely and forcefully said:

"Your Majesty, please allow the crown prince to supervise the country and provide disaster relief!"

(End of this chapter)