Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

"So that's it!" Li Hong said with a smile: "Since Sanlang has already planned it, I can rest assured!"

"Your Majesty, I hope no one else will know what I told you today!" Wang Wenzuo said.

"Don't let other people know? Can't you do it too, Shizhong Pei?" Li Hong asked curiously.

"That's right!" Wang Wenzuo looked serious: "Your Majesty, you should also know that although the Guanzhong Prefecture soldiers have not been able to field many soldiers in recent years, they still have what they should have in the books. There are too many people profiting from it. . If my plan is leaked, I will immediately become the target of public criticism, so——"

"I understand!" Li Hong nodded knowingly: "Don't worry, Sanlang, I won't let a third party know about this!"

When Wang Wenzuo left Tai Chi Palace, it was already dusk.He moved his shoulders, only to feel that the area around his shoulders and neck was sore, numb, and uncomfortably tight.Alas, no matter how much Li Hong trusts him, the emperor is the emperor, no longer the prince.Naturally, more and more people want to kill themselves so that they can be replaced. Sometimes when I think back to those famous traitors in history such as Li Linfu, Cai Jing, Yan Song and others, many of their actions were actually out of necessity.These few people may have had the original intention to do something good when they first came to power, but it is not easy to hold a position above ten thousand people under this person. If you fall down, not to mention saving your head, your family might also be involved.

In order to protect ourselves, many things have to be done.Take myself as an example. If I don't really have no desire for power and have a way out, the worst I can do is run away to the Northeast and become the local emperor. Pei Judao, who secretly gave me eye drops, will definitely find a way to kill him. If Pei Judao dies, the queen will definitely have to be replaced.In order to avoid a similar situation from happening again, the eunuchs and palace maids around the emperor must buy a batch; a batch of meat horns from the Yushitai must also be bought; there are also indispensable cronies in the court who have taken refuge under his sect; those who are upright and refuse to sell If you can kill a gentleman of your own honor, you will kill him. If you can't kill him, you will rush to the southwest prefecture and exile him in disguise.After this complete set, in the future, his biography in "Tang Shu" will most likely be juxtaposed with that of Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong, and Lu Qi.

"Hey, this Chang'an is really not a place for people to stay!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "I am such a good person, but I was forced to be like this. I was tortured when I was alive, and after my death I was listed in the history books and whipped by future generations. Corpse, I really don’t know when it will be dead!”

Back at his residence, Wang Wenzuo was thinking about asking a maid who was good at massaging to relax himself, but he saw Li Bo coming up to him: "My lord, Zhou Xing is dead!"

"What? He's dead, how did he die?" Wang Wenzuo was stunned. He was so busy and dizzy during this period that he had forgotten about this man, but he didn't expect to hear that he was dead suddenly, and he couldn't help but be shocked.

"Sick and dead!"

"Died of illness? Why did he die of illness? He had a serious illness before? Why didn't I hear about it?" Wang Wenzuo frowned. He originally wanted to have the opportunity to meet this cruel official who "left his name in history", but he didn't expect that anyone would Before I saw him, I suddenly heard the news of his death.

Seeing that Wang Wenzuo was so concerned about Zhou Xing's death, Li Bo was a little flustered. He thought that such a small person might just mention it casually, and maybe the Lord would have forgotten it.He could only answer carefully: "That's what happened. After the Lord established His Highness the Crown Prince and ascended the throne, that fellow was imprisoned. Because the case was serious and involved many things, the Third Law Division never opened a trial, and that fellow was imprisoned. In the prison cell of the Criminal Department. Maybe he was detained for too long and the guy couldn't bear it anymore, so he died of illness!" At this point, he looked at Wang Wenzuo's face carefully: "Then do you want someone to send Zhou Xing's body to him? Come, let me do some inspection?"

"No need! If you die, you will die. Just restrain yourself and leave it to his family!" Wang Wenzuo pondered for a moment and waved his hand.At this time, he had already smelled an ominous breath from the words of his subordinates: Zhou Xing was in the prime of life, and he had not heard of any serious illnesses. For an official of his level, even if he was imprisoned, the conditions would not be too bad, so how could he go to jail for so long? Died within a month?Considering what he did before he was imprisoned, it's a bit too late for him to die now. I can only say that those people are really patient, and I can't afford to seek justice for such scum.

"Yes!" Li Bo breathed a sigh of relief when his master said no, and was about to leave when he was stopped by Wang Wenzuo.

"Li Bo! This is Chang'an!" Wang Wenzuo paused for a moment: "Some things must be done in a systematic way. Don't let others catch you, otherwise I won't be able to protect you!"

Hearing what Wang Wenzuo said, Li Bo trembled and lowered his head: "My subordinates know!"

"Go!" Wang Wenzuo waved his hand and looked at the back of his subordinates leaving. Wang Wenzuo sighed. Of course he had no real evidence, but with his status and experience, many things did not require real evidence and could be guessed based on feeling. Come and go.Zhou Xing will die sooner or later, and he will die now; others will not tell you, but you will report it. This in itself can explain a lot of things.As they become more powerful, these subordinates have more thoughts, but there is nothing they can do about it.This is Chang'an City, not Baekje, the Japanese Kingdom, or Anxi Longyou. It is useless to only hold a spear and draw a bow. You must be active in thinking and be able to take the initiative to find trouble and do dirty work. But this kind of person's thoughts must be a lot of.They are as cunning as a fox and as ferocious as a wolf to their enemies, but as simple and gentle as a sheep to themselves. It cannot be said that there are not such people in the world, but there are too few of them.

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political affairs hall.

"Wang Wenzuo stayed at the Holy One's place for more than two hours today? What did he say? What? You don't know? No one knows. The Holy One dismissed everyone else? This, does this Holy One belong to Wang Wenzuo alone? What's going on? It was decided after a discussion between him and the Holy Emperor, so why do we still need the rest of us? We might as well just let him be the prime minister!"

Pei Judao sat in front of the desk, calmly flipping through the documents sent by the various states and counties in front of him. He heard the complaints from his colleagues from outside. His expression was as usual, as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Shizhong Pei, Shizhong Pei!" An angry man in scarlet robes came in from the outside and said to Pei Ju: "You are the father-in-law of the emperor. You have the highest official position among us. You can't just ignore everything! Wang Wenzuo doesn't care about everything. They discussed directly with the emperor, and no one knew what they discussed. If this is the case, then what is the need for the political hall? What else are we doing here? Just let Wang Wenzuo open the government, and everyone can work for Wang Wenzuo as officials. , anyway, in the end we have to talk to the emperor through him!"

"Liu Shilang, why are you worried?" Pei Judao put down the document in his hand and said with a smile: "If you have anything to do, please tell me slowly!"

"Tell me slowly?" the scarlet-robed man said angrily: "You also know the past events of this dynasty! During the reign of Emperor Wen, the three provinces under Zhongshu's sect were supposed to work in separate offices. However, if these three provinces had different political views, they would argue and prevaricate each other. , spoiled the state affairs. So Emperor Wen ordered the three high-ranking officials to work together, and only reported to the emperor when they encountered difficult matters. But this Wang Wenzuo was originally a military man, and it was just a matter of entering the political hall. He actually regarded the old rules as nothing and did not bother him when something happened. Discuss it first in the Political Affairs Hall, and then report it directly to the Emperor, or meet alone. Then what else can others disagree with what he says in the future? Who knows whether he will tell the Emperor directly? In this way, he will be the only one to say it in the Political Affairs Hall. Forget it? Aren’t we all his subordinates?”

"Haha!" Pei Judao laughed twice: "What you said, Minister Liu, makes sense. But having said that, the Holy Sage is willing to see him and listen to him, so what can you do? You can't say that he is not allowed to meet the Holy Sage, right? I can You don’t have this ability!”

"It's not that I won't let the Holy One see him, but there has to be a limit, right?" The scarlet-robed man smiled bitterly: "Look, every afternoon, rain or shine, Wang Wenzuo's motorcade goes to Tai Chi Palace, and there are two or three people there. For an hour, they often meet alone. It’s good that we can meet His Majesty once every five or six days. Isn’t this His Majesty being too partial?” At the end of the sentence, the man was already lamenting.

"Then there's nothing we can do!" Pei Judao said with a smile: "Who told Wang Wenzuo to achieve unparalleled achievements? To His Majesty, all of us are just villains who follow the crowd, but Wang Wenzuo is the only one who knows the power of the wind. Loyal ministers know how to be loyal. Without Wang Wenzuo, where would your Majesty be today?"

"This -" Liu Shilang was speechless, and after a moment he said: "It's difficult, are you also -" "What about me?" Pei Judao said with a smile: "You think my daughter will be different from you after entering the palace? Don't tell jokes. Well, the night His Majesty ascended the throne, I was just like you, sleeping so hard that I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know until early the next morning that the throne had changed hands.”

"Then your daughter is now the master of the harem after all!" Liu Shilang said.

"The princess your Majesty chose was not my daughter, but the daughter of the Yang family!" Pei Judao glanced at his colleagues meaningfully: "Do you understand?"

"Then, there's nothing we can do about that guy?" Liu Shilang almost wailed.

"What do you mean by that guy? After all, he is also a colleague of mine!" Pei Judao said with a smile: "Besides, in my opinion, this Wang Wenzuo is also a loyal minister of His Majesty!"

"Loyal minister?" Liu Shilang's face turned red, as if he had eaten a fly: "Is he considered a loyal minister?"

"Of course!" Pei Ju said: "You should still remember the original situation, right? What did the Queen Mother do after He Lanmin's incident? She used Zhou Xingxing Prison and brought the two nephews who were exiled to the southwest back to Chang'an. One of them also became the leader of the left guard of the East Palace, and he clearly wanted to attack the prince. If Wang Wenzuo hadn't suddenly had a sudden attack and brought order to the chaos, I don't know how many people in the court would have their families destroyed!"

"Okay! I admit that Wang Wenzuo did a good thing at that time!" Liu Shilang nodded very reluctantly: "But what is the difference between what he does now and what he did back then?"

"You said bad things about him in the political hall, and he has not sent you, Liu Shilang, to prison now!" Pei Judao's words were like a bucket of cold water being poured on his head, leaving Liu Shilang speechless. After that, Pei Judao patted the other party on the shoulder: "That's it! Your Majesty is still young after all, and he still doesn't understand some things. The emperor cannot appoint one person exclusively. This is not only for the country, but also for Wang Wenzuo's good. Just wait a little longer. , His Majesty will always understand!”

Liu Shilang nodded silently and retreated.Pei Judao picked up the document again and started reviewing it carefully.After a while, a eunuch entered the political hall and bowed his hand to Pei Judao: "Shizhong Pei!"

Pei Judao stood up and said, "Young Master Xu, is there something going on in the palace?"

"That's right!" Xu Xuwen took a step forward and lowered his voice: "Your Majesty ordered that the affairs of Hebei Xiawang Temple should be handled in accordance with the wishes of General Wang, just don't be too showy!" After saying that, he cupped his hands and Turned and left.

Pei Judao was stunned for a moment, feeling a rush of breath in his lower abdomen, rushing straight to the top door. He was so uncomfortable that all the words he had originally said to comfort Liu Shilang came to his mind. He subconsciously swept his right arm and wiped out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the desk. and documents were swept to the floor.

"Nu Langya is rude! He will be punished in the future!"

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At the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, on the banks of the Weishui River, Wuzhangyuan.

"Ahead is Wuzhangyuan!" Zhuge Wen pointed to the raised platform in front and smiled: "After Wuzhangyuan is the Wei River, then turn east, and we will reach Chang'an in a few days!"

"Wuzhangyuan?" Cai Dingshan, who was already tired and taking a nap on the back of a mule, suddenly woke up: "Is this the Wuzhangyuan where Ge Gong passed away?"

"Yes, that's it!" Zhuge Wen said with a smile: "Mr. Cai, do you want to stop and take a rest?"

"Yes, yes, of course I want it!" Cai Dingshan turned around and said to the people behind him: "After passing Wuzhangyuan, if we Shu people don't show our condolences, won't we be ridiculed when we return?"

"Correct!"

"Yeah, it won't happen even if you guys find out!"

"Yes, we and the Shu people will definitely pay homage to the place where the Prime Minister died!"

"My parents had already prepared it for me before I went out!" One person simply took out the paper money for incense candles from the package next to the saddle: "I was afraid I would miss it on the way, but fortunately Brother Zhuge also remembered it!"

"His surname is Zhuge, and the prime minister's surname is also Zhuge. They were the same family 500 years ago! How can we not come down to pay homage?"

A group of travelers chatted and laughed, driving their pack animals along the mountain road toward the mesa ahead. The orange-red sunset was slowly sliding over the fields and mountains. The world turned from light to dusky, and from dusk to indigo at their feet. Finally turned into darkness.The streams gush out from the ridge and begin their long journey straight down the hillside. The waves hit the rocks, splashing white mist and staining the clothes of the travelers.

"It's such a peaceful season!" Cai Dingshan sighed: "From Chengdu to Chang'an, thousands of miles of mountain roads, but I didn't encounter a few bandits on the way. It reminds me of when I was a child-"