Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 128 Visiting Zhou Zheng

It took Gao Ming two days to popularize radio gymnastics in the East Palace. After Li Mingda learned radio gymnastics, he took the initiative to teach Li Shimin radio gymnastics. Li Shimin thought this exercise was very good, so he taught it to Li Shimin. Ministers.

Radio gymnastics is not like those violent martial arts. Its movements are softer, and at the same time, it is easy to learn and can be quickly mastered by men, women and children.

Therefore, in less than a week, all civil and military officials of the Tang Dynasty, including their family members, could do radio gymnastics, and everyone gave it a nice name, "Prince's Play"!
When Gao Ming received the news, he burst into laughter from ear to ear.

"I didn't expect this radio gymnastics to become a set of exercises like Wu Qinxi. When this radio gymnastics spreads all over the world, wouldn't I become a master-level figure? Hahahaha..."

At this time, Gao Ming had already started to feel ecstatic, so he had been in a good mood for the past few days, until Hegan Chengji returned to Chang'an.

After Hegan Chengji returned to Chang'an, he immediately reported to Gao Ming how he went to investigate Zhou Zheng, and told Gao Ming all the results of the investigation like beans pouring out of a bamboo tube.

After hearing Hegan Chengji's investigation results, Gao Ming suddenly fell silent.

Judging from Hegan Chengji's investigation results, Gao Ming discovered that Zhou Zheng's case was not a simple power struggle, or in other words, it was not Changsun Wuji who wanted to mess with Zhou Zheng, but Li Shimin who wanted to deal with him!

If Zhou Zheng was a corrupt official, then Gao Ming would not have to be so troubled. The problem is that Zhou Zheng is indeed an upright official, and he is the kind of upright official who is quite famous in the local area. According to Hegan Chengji, when he was inquiring about Zhou Zheng When the news came out, no one said a bad word about Zhou Zheng!
There is no doubt that Zhou Zheng is indeed a good official, but it is a pity that he offended someone, and what he offended was not a single person, but a group. The name of this group is the Shandong gentry.

In the Tang Dynasty, the Shandong gentry refers to the powerful gentry in the vast area east of the Taihang Mountains, mainly including the gentry with the five surnames Li, Cui, Lu, Zheng, and Wang, which is the "five surnames and seven Wangs" in the Tang Dynasty.

Among them, the Li family is Li Yuan's lineage, and now it is the royal family. The reason why Li Yuan was able to rebel and successfully establish the Tang Dynasty was because of the power of these powerful families. piece of cake.

Aristocratic clans have deep roots in the imperial court. The important members of these clans are basically in important positions, and this is only on the surface. The intertwined interpersonal relationship established by intermarriage in private will be even more amazing.

And Zhou Zheng offended such a behemoth.

Zhou Zheng is the governor of Jinzhou. Jinzhou's grain production has been reduced for two consecutive years, so he planned to write a letter to reduce or exempt farmers from taxes, but what he didn't expect was that the Jingzhao government beat back the book before it arrived in Chang'an, and sent it back. Leave him business as usual.

This is obviously tricky. If you are a smarter person, you should stop when you realize that something is wrong, but Zhou Zheng is not. He directly sent someone to bring the booklet to Chang'an, intending to send it directly to Li Shimin.

And this time Zhou Zheng not only asked Li Shimin to reduce or exempt the taxes of the people in Jinzhou, but also impeached the Zheng family for occupying farmland, raised the land rent, and asked Li Shimin to punish them.

Zhou Zheng's idea was very good, but the result was very regrettable. After his memorial was submitted, there was no news, and the Zheng family was not punished.

After that, less than two months later, the "Golden Pill Case" that shocked Chang'an occurred. Not only many alchemy priests were killed, but also many officials were sacked, and Zhou Zheng was one of them.

Jinzhou has a new governor, while Zhou Zheng was locked up in Beijing and locked up in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. Although the verdict has not been announced yet, it can be foreseen that there will be two outcomes waiting for Zhou Zheng. One is They will be cut after autumn, and the second is to be dispatched to remote places such as Lingnan.

It can be said that no matter what the outcome is, waiting for Zhou Zhengshi will be a cruel ending.

After learning about Zhou Zheng's story, Gao Ming's good mood for the past few days was instantly swept away, and his heart was instantly filled with gloom.

After a long silence, Gao Ming let out a long sigh.

"Sigh... At first I thought it was the old fox's tricks, but I didn't expect it to be my old man's tricks. No wonder I told him about it last time. There is no news until now. The water in Tang Dynasty is too deep. , Where is the most basic trust between people?"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Hegan Chengji standing next to him couldn't help grinning, but he didn't dare to speak out, but Gao Ming also expected him to speak out, and after talking to himself, he sighed again .

"Hey... It seems that I can't control this matter. Zhou Zheng is really kind this week. Even a powerful family like the Zheng family dares to offend. Aki, let's go and accompany me to the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. I want to see Let's see who this Zhou Zheng is."

"Yes!"

Gao Ming and Hegan Chengji went to the prison of the Ministry of Justice together, but just after they left, someone told Li Shimin the news.

Li Shimin frowned when he heard the news.

"What? They went to the prison of the Criminal Ministry?"

After thinking about it for a while, Li Shimin simply put down the government affairs in his hands, and then called Liu Bing to go to the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

At this time, Gao Ming was already chatting with Zhou Zheng in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

Zhou Zheng was imprisoned for a month, and he looked a little unkempt. After Gao Ming saw him, he stood at the door of the prison and spoke.

"Zhou Zheng, do you know me?"

Hearing Gao Ming's voice, Zhou Zheng, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, suddenly raised his head to look at Gao Ming's face, and then shook his head with a miserable expression.

"The guilty minister just impeached His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in January this year, and asked His Majesty to depose the Crown Prince. It has only been two months now, so how come he doesn't know the Crown Prince? Could it be that His Highness the Crown Prince came to see the criminal's jokes?"

"..."

Upon hearing his words, Gao Ming suddenly showed a face of astonishment.

Damn?There is still such a thing, how come I don't know?
Seeing Gao Ming cast his eyes on him, Hegan Chengji immediately bowed to him with a wry smile.

"His Royal Highness, His Royal Highness was furious because of this matter two months ago, have you forgotten, Your Highness?"

"..."

Hearing what Hegan Chengji said, Gao Ming was at a loss for words. He couldn't possibly say that he wasn't Li Chengqian, so he didn't know about it at all, right?

Thinking of this, Gao Ming could only shrug his shoulders and then spread his hands.

"I did forget."

Hegan Chengji: "..."

Zhou Zheng: "..."

Seeing the stunned expressions of the two, Gao Ming laughed again, then turned to look at Zhou Zheng.

"Old Zhou, I didn't expect you to be really kind. It's okay to offend me, and you also offended the Zheng family. Do you think everyone is as easy-talking as I am?"

As soon as Gao Ming finished speaking, he immediately noticed that Zhou Zheng was looking at him like an idiot. Looking at Zhou Zheng's eyes, Gao Ming suddenly remembered that Zhou Zheng's opinion of him was still at the stage of Li Chengqian.

To put it bluntly, even in Zhou Zheng's view, he was not much better than the Zheng family or the eldest grandson Wuji.

After thinking about this, Gao Ming touched his nose in embarrassment, and then smacked his mouth at Zhou Zheng.

"Tsk tsk... well, I won't talk nonsense, let's get straight to the point, Zhou Zheng, do you have a daughter named Zhou Hong..."

Before Gao Ming finished speaking, Zhou Zheng suddenly raised his head, and then rushed towards Gao Ming like a madman. Fortunately, Gao Ming reacted and dodged in time, otherwise he would have been caught by him.

Zhou Zheng didn't grab Gao Ming as soon as he grabbed onto the prison railing with both hands, and then stared at Gao Ming with red eyes.

"Naughty beast, you have the guts to come at me and embarrass my daughter. What kind of gentleman are you? If you dare to touch a single hair of my daughter, I will not let you go even if I am a ghost! Ah..."

Seeing Zhou Zheng roaring wildly, Gao Ming immediately covered his ears helplessly, and he sighed helplessly after he finished yelling.

"Hey, I said, can you wait for me to finish talking? Why do I have nothing to do with your daughter's hair? If you want to move, you will move her whole body. When she gives birth to all the dolls, I have to call you old man." no?"

"you……"

Seeing that Zhou Zheng was showing signs of getting angry again, Gao Ming didn't dare to tease him anymore, so he immediately waved his hand at him.

"Okay, okay, I was just joking with you just now, I really didn't do anything to your daughter, on the contrary, I saved your daughter, otherwise she would have fallen into prostitution."

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Zhou Zheng suddenly showed a face of astonishment, and stared at Gao Ming blankly, as if analyzing the authenticity of his words.

Looking at Zhou Zheng's suspicious eyes, Gao Ming suddenly smiled wryly.

"It seems that my prince seems to have failed quite well. Even a prisoner has begun to doubt my words."

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Zhou Zheng woke up suddenly.

"Yeah, I'm just a prisoner right now, no matter what the crown prince does, there's no need to lie to me."

Thinking of this, Zhou Zheng immediately saluted Gao Ming.

"I hope that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will clearly say that the guilty minister is very grateful!"

Seeing Zhou Zhengchao salute himself, Gao Ming pouted his lips immediately, then shook his head again.

"If you're in a bad mood, call me an evil animal. If you're in a good mood, call me His Royal Highness. It seems that it's true that people say official characters twice."

"..."

Zhou Zheng also heard the sarcasm in Gao Ming's words, and immediately blushed, showing embarrassment. He opened his mouth and didn't know what to say, so he just knelt down for Gao Ming with a "plop".

"The guilty minister is rude, and I hope His Highness the Prince will forgive me!"

Seeing that Zhou Zheng had knelt down, Gao Ming couldn't hold on to this any longer, so he simply waved his hand at him.

"Okay, okay, we can't kneel down in Tang Dynasty, you should get up first, can't I tell you about Zhou Hong?"

As soon as Zhou Zheng heard that Gao Ming agreed, he immediately stood up with joy on his face, and then cupped his hands towards Gao Ming.

"Thank you, Your Royal Highness!"

Seeing this scene, Gao Ming nodded immediately, and then began to tell Zhou Zheng how he met Zhou Hong.

"At that time, I went out of the palace to see my teacher Wei Zheng, and then I passed Wanhualou..."

(End of this chapter)