People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1415 Wu Chengsi’s funeral, the meaning of the emperor and Empress Wu

Pei Shitong, wearing a green undershirt, walked quickly into the central hall.

Liu Jinyu was wearing a lavender skirt, sitting on a short couch, holding an official document in her hand. When she saw Pei Shitong arriving, Liu Jinyu handed over the official document in her hand: "The Duke of Zhou is dead."

Pei Shitong was stunned for a moment, then took the official document in disbelief and read it carefully: "The Anton Governor's Office reported that Duke Zhou was ill in Liaoxi in March. It was not serious at first and he only took a short rest. After half a month, he became seriously ill and found it difficult to get up, so he invited The famous doctor gave me lots of treatment, but unfortunately, he died on June 16th."

Raising his head, Pei Shitong still looked at Liu Jinyu with some confusion: "Duke Zhou, it's just gone."

"Yes!" Liu Jinyu nodded calmly, and then sighed: "Zhou Guogong, the nephew of the Queen of Heaven, assisted the Prime Minister in fighting for the crown prince's position with the Beimen bachelor, and later served as the governor of Fenzhou, the Minister of Rites, Henan and Hebei Inspector Anton died of illness in western Liaoning."

Wu Chengsi's influence in Chang'an was far greater than that of Wu Sansi now.

Especially when he was competing for the title of Minister of Etiquette, he wanted to tear anyone in front of him.

Even Li Xuan had more than one overt and covert fight with Wu Chengsi back then.

Especially when Li Xuan first became the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple, some people said that Li Xuan would definitely serve as the Minister of Rites in the future.

Even if something would happen decades later, it still aroused Wu Chengsi's vigilance and conspiracy.

But fortunately, Li Xuan later entered the army and fought on the Western Front, otherwise the conflict between him and Wu Chengsi would have broken out fiercely.

The most intimidating thing about Wu Chengsi was the period before he became the Minister of Rites.
Later, although Wu Chengsi successfully transferred from the governor of Fenzhou to the minister of rites, he was unable to find the rhythm of his actions for a while, and achieved nothing for several years.

After that, Wu Chengsi turned his attention to the underground world and began to fight for power and wealth in the underground world. However, he never expected that he would be plotted and linked to the rebellion of Yue King Li Zhen, and was eventually sent to Anton.

Liu Jinyu glanced at Pei Shitong. These were things that Pei Shitong knew, but Pei Shitong didn't know at all that Wu Chengsi had died long ago, three months ago.

Liu Jinyu raised her head and looked in the direction of Luoyang. Although Li Xuan didn't tell her any news later, Liu Jinyu knew in her heart that Li Xuan had been sending people to keep an eye on it.

Although the Life-Extension Pill being refined there is just a variant of Five Stone Powder, who knows if there will be other variables in the process?
So Li Xuan was always keeping an eye on it. If something happened to Xia'er, he would be able to solve it as soon as possible.

There was also the Songshan fire that just happened. Liu Jinyu had a feeling that it was Li Xuan's reminder to her.

The King of Yue is gone too.

Liu Jinyu's eyes fell on the official document in Pei Shitong's hand. Wu Chengsi died in March, but it was now June, and the emperor and Empress Wu announced her death.

The same thing happened to the King of Yue now.

King Li Zhen of Yue is dead, but the news of his death will not be announced to the public until three months later.

Liu Jinyu felt a little funny for a moment. The Emperor and Empress Wu were far more cautious in this matter than most people imagined.

……

The expression on Liu Jinyu's face instantly calmed down. She had almost no room to interfere in this matter.

Even in this matter, she could not interfere at all.

Li Xuan is three thousand miles away and can avoid all suspicion, but if Liu Jinyu takes action rashly and draws suspicion to Li Xuan, it will be troublesome.

Thinking about this, Liu Jinyu said, "After all, Duke Zhou is the nephew of the Queen Mother. His body is already on the way back. No matter what, we should go visit Madam Zhou."

"Okay." Pei Shitong nodded, but then she suddenly added: "Third sister, let's try not to go by ourselves. It's best to call someone else, such as uncle!"

Liu Jinyu looked at Pei Shitong in surprise, then nodded and said, "Yes."

Zhao Gong is the cousin of Empress Wu, the cousin of Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi, and he is also the cousin of Li Xuan.

The relationship between Prince Peng's palace and the Wu family is more complicated than ordinary clans.

But it doesn't matter. There are many similar situations. For example, the mother of King Yue, Concubine Yan De, is also Empress Wu's cousin.

The marriage relationship between aristocratic families is a mess, and these do not represent the true relationship between the two parties.

Not to mention, there are Li Hong, Li Xian, Li Xian and Li Dan.

Every prince has a different relationship with the Wu family.

He Lanmin was concerned with Li Hong, Wu Chengsi was concerned with Li Xian, and Wu Sansi was concerned with Li Xian.

When Li Xuan was teaching in the East Palace at the beginning of the year, he was severely questioned by Wu Sansi, but later Wu Sansi was defeated by Li Xuan with his words.

"The funeral should be held in Chang'an, right?" Liu Jinyu suddenly thought of a question and looked up at Pei Shitong.

Pei Shitong's brows suddenly furrowed. She shook her head and said, "The Queen is in Luoyang, and Wu Sansi is also in Luoyang. Wu Chengsi's funeral cannot be without the Queen. The funeral cannot be held in Chang'an. The Queen must also come back."

"So it must be in Luoyang." Liu Jinyu's face suddenly darkened.

If Wu Chengsi's funeral was held in Luoyang, it meant that she had to take Xia'er and Zhao'er to Luoyang.

She is most worried about Xia'er appearing in front of the emperor.

"Wait a minute, the body of Duke Zhou is still on the way. The court also announced the death of Duke Zhou, but did not announce the time and place of the funeral." Pei Shitong also had worry on her face. Of course she also knew that Xia'er might go to Luoyang. It brings hidden dangers, but there is no way but to take a chance.

"You are right, the body of Duke Zhou is still on the way." Liu Jinyu suddenly smiled and said, "Maybe the Queen of Heaven doesn't need us to go to Luoyang?"

"Oh?" Pei Shitong looked surprised and asked in a low voice, "Why?"

"Keep it simple." Liu Jinyu smiled and said calmly: "It has been less than ten days since the flood, the Weihe and Luohe rivers are still being cleaned up, and the roads on both sides of the bank are muddy. If Your Majesty and the Queen of Heaven really plan to make a big deal, there is no doubt that chaos will happen again. ”

"Autumn harvest?" Pei Shitong took the topic astray. Liu Jinyu smiled and did not explain further.

Wu Chengsi apparently died in Songshan, and his body was also in Songshan.

Even if the emperor brought his body down from Songshan Mountain, once others discovered that Wu Chengsi's death appearance was completely different from that of a person who had just died a few days ago, there might be big trouble, especially when there were Di Renjie and Yao Chong in the court. These people are here. Therefore, this matter must not be taken seriously.

In this case, maybe the emperor would only call Li Xian and Li Dan to Luoyang and escort Wu Chengsi's widow there. As for the others, they would not pay too much attention to them.

"Chang Shi should be back after a while. Let him go to Luoyang for a trip." After a slight pause, Liu Jinyu said: "There is also the matter of Chang'an. That matter should also move to the next step. ”

That matter is naturally the matter of Cui Ming, the captain of Wannian County.

In fact, in this matter, if Cui Ming was not in Wannian County, then Li Xuan and Liu Jinyu would not take too much action, but who asked him to choose Wannian County.

Kaihuafang, where Prince Peng's Mansion is located, is under Wannian County.

If anything happens in the future, the aristocratic family will inevitably become a key factor hindering Prince Peng's actions.

This hindrance must not be allowed to exist, especially now.

Not to mention, this incident also caused the Emperor and Empress Wu to dislike the family.

The emperor and Empress Wu themselves suppressed the family. When the emperor was seriously ill, the Cui family got the Wannian County Lieutenant, which really makes people think too much.

Lu Xu's transfer to Guozi Siye is proof of this.

If Prince Peng's palace took action in Chang'an, it might not escape the sight of the emperor and Empress Wu, but they acquiesced.

All states and counties are even required to crack down on human traffickers.

Therefore, it is most appropriate for Prince Peng's Mansion to take action at this time.

Li Xuan asked Li Zhu to bring back the intelligence and general plan. Liu Jinyu and Pei Shitong were in charge of the palace, while Li Zhu and Li Bi were acting outside.

……

Every New Year, especially the New Year's Eve lantern festival, has always been the hardest hit area for missing children all over the world.

Li Xuan has to be careful every year.

Later, they intervened in the investigation several times, but always escaped at the last moment.

After this, he immediately understood that the person hiding behind all this was definitely an aristocratic family.

Only aristocratic families have the ability to carry out things in Chang'an for so many years without being noticed behind the scenes.

He steadily stole people out of Chang'an every year, and then persuaded various checkpoints to let him go. No one turned back for decades.

In recent years, there have been officials from Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment who were as capable as Li Xuan and Di Renjie, but in the end they were either complicit or failed to find out anything.

The Pei family is also one of the aristocratic families, and Pei Shitong knows the hidden story behind it better than anyone else.

So Li Xuan started to make a trap. First, she found someone to hand over the disappearance case for which clues had been found to Cui Ming, and then went deeper to seduce him step by step.

Soon someone began to tip off the news, and the Cui family soon realized something was wrong, and the progress of the case slowed down.

"Ask Li Zhu to send the news about the person who was connected to the Du family to the Wannian County Office and see what our Wannian County Lieutenant will do." Liu Jinyu's face was cold.

In recent years, even though the Liu family is the prime minister's family, it is not that there are no children who have almost fallen.

Pei Shitong nodded, and then asked: "What about next, let Yao Chong come forward to impeach?"

"No." Liu Jinyu waved her hands and said: "With the temperaments of people like Yao Chong and Di Renjie, they may have already focused on this case. If the palace does not take the initiative, they can do whatever they want. If they do, , then let Chang Shi follow suit."

"Yes, the Chief Secretary also serves as the Imperial Censor." Pei Shitong immediately remembered that Li Zhaode was still the Imperial Censor.

"When the time comes, let's take it as the attitude of our royal family." Liu Jinyu's eyes were cold.

Although the targets behind this time were more than one aristocratic family, the first one they attacked was the Cui family.

The Cui family was engaged to Wu Niang Qiongyu earlier, but regretted it.

For some things, if you regret it, you will have to pay the price.

The emperor wants to deal with the Cui family, and Prince Peng's mansion will naturally follow the emperor.

However, Li Xuan also had his own purpose in this matter.

……

Luoyang, Duke Zhou's Mansion.

The black carriage slowly stopped in front of Duke Zhou's mansion, and Wu Sansi got out of the carriage wearing white linen and plain clothes.

He had just come out of the palace, and there were still many things that Empress Wu needed to explain about the details of Wu Chengsi's funeral.

Standing under the gold-painted plaque on a black background, Wu Sansi raised his head and looked at the words Zhou Guogongfu.

After chewing indifferently for a long time, he walked into the house.

There was finally a trace of sadness on his calm face.

In the corner of the street opposite, a figure was watching this scene with a frown.

This person turned out to be Li Zhaode.

(End of this chapter)