Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 323 It’s settled

As Xu Jingzong was the head of the prime ministers, the information that Chen Qingsi could obtain naturally could not be hidden from him.

Hearing the reason for Empress Wu's punishment, Xu Jingzong's expression changed slightly and he cursed: "You don't know how high the sky is and how high you are."

He followed Li Zhi for a long time. When Li Zhi was just appointed as the prince, Li Shimin moved him to the right concubine of the prince and became one of the core officials of the East Palace.

At that time, the person in charge of the East Palace was not the Crown Princess, but the two wet nurses, Ji Jiechi and Lu Congbi.

Xu Jingzong is one of the few who knows Ji Jiezhi's position in Li Zhi's heart.

Punishing Empress Wu is only the first step. The Wu family will suffer revenge from the petty emperor for some time in the future.

After thinking about it, Xu Jingzong immediately called for Xie Chunlei, the censor.

"Keep Zhao Chi alive and change his sentence to exile..."

Xu Jingzong was the best at protecting oneself wisely. No matter which scholar was instructed by Yang Lao or Wu Shun, or the subordinates acted spontaneously in order to please the Wu family, the Wu family had to bear this responsibility.

Who made the Wu family become so powerful these years? In order to gain fame and win people's hearts, they invited scholars from all over the world and organized banquets...

Li Zhi was about to convict the Wu family, and if he wanted to execute Zhao Chiman for the sake of the Wu family, it would be bad if Li Zhi knew about it.

He could kill Zhao Chiman to make Empress Wu owe him a favor, but he didn't dare to leave Li Zhi with the idea of ​​helping the Wu family to do evil for the sake of the Wu family.

only……

In this way, the two idiots from the Wu family were offended.

The reason why Xu Jingzong lived longer than Li Yifu was that he did not want to offend others easily.

In fact, with his current status and power, he doesn't need to care about Yang Lao and Wu Shun. Even Queen Wu has to be polite when facing him.

But he knew that he would rather offend a gentleman than a villain, let alone a woman, especially a woman who could often appear next to the emperor. Maybe one day it will fly up the branches, and at special times, it will touch your waist and vest.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Jingzong immediately thought of a way to deal with it, and asked his wife to call him and give him a few words of advice.

The back garden of the palace.

Compared with the previous Queen Wang, Queen Wu obviously has to do a better job in the aspect of caring for the world. Although she was punished and still walked with a limp, she still fulfilled her duties and fulfilled the Queen's obligation to control the noble women. .

The task is simple, that is, doing some household chores or organizing a few polo matches.

Empress Wu was very good at doing these things. It was through their mouths that the reputation of Empress Wu as a virtuous person spread outward.

However, because Li Zhi took the blame, the style of the painting changed drastically...

Many ministers who had changed their attitudes towards Empress Wu once again maintained their original views. In their eyes, Empress Wu had revealed her true colors...

Empress Wu didn't care about this. In her opinion, being able to take the blame for Li Zhi was far more important than the reputation she had accumulated over the years.

If you lose your reputation, you can accumulate it bit by bit and save it. But the opportunity to help Li Zhi is rare. What's more, if you can't even do the most basic "taking responsibility", why should you get Li Zhi's favor?

But even if Xian Ming is gone, Empress Wu remains the same as before.

"Your Highness the Queen!"

When Empress Wu saw that it was Mrs. Liu of Gaoyang County, she smiled gently and waved, "Quick, come forward and talk."

Xu Jingzong was promoted to the title of Duke of Gaoyang County three years ago, and this Gaoyang County lady was naturally his second wife.

Since Li Yifu fell out of favor for no reason and could not stand up, the only person Empress Wu could control was Xu Jingzong. However, compared to Li Yifu's obedience, Xu Jingzong, who was only loyal to Li Zhi, was obviously not so easy to use and needed her constant reinforcement. relationship with each other.

Xu Jingzong loved money, so Empress Wu often used Liu's hand to give some rare things.

There was close contact between the two.

After a brief exchange of greetings, Mrs. Liu said softly: "Your Highness the Queen! Previously, the royal family came to the door with the order of the queen, saying that Zhao Chiman was going to be executed..."

Queen Wu's expression did not change, but she clenched her fist in her sleeve. She meant to teach her a lesson.

The lesson is to establish authority and make people respect their martial arts family.

But the meaning of execution is completely different, it will make people fear them and even disgust them.

Who dares to associate with them if something as trivial as a petty thing can cost someone's life?

"madness!"

Empress Wu cursed secretly, but thinking that it was her mother, there was no other way, and she still had a kind smile on her face.

Mrs. Liu continued: "My husband said that everything will be done according to Her Highness the Queen's wishes. The evidence of Zhao Chiman's crime has been drawn up, and I have specially asked my concubine to report to Her Highness."

Empress Wu immediately said: "My mother has made a mistake about this matter. I originally planned to punish her with a small punishment, but I don't want to make a mistake. Let's just let Mr. Xu watch and deal with it. My mother will take care of it. Explain."

For some time to come, life for the Wu family will not be easy.

If word spread at this time that the Wu family would kill people just for a small conflict. It is hard to say that he will not anger the admonishment officer and make the matter known to everyone.

Empress Wu immediately understood what Xu Jingzong meant.

In this current situation, trouble cannot happen again.

So at the end, Empress Wu added another sentence, saying: "I would like to thank Xianggong Xu on my behalf, and I would also like to tell you that Your Majesty is very resentful towards Prince Teng."

Xu Jingzong understood what Empress Wu said and he liked to deal with smart people.

Li Yuanying, the king of Teng, was the youngest son of Li Yuan and the most favored one. He was arrogant, extravagant and extortionate. Everywhere he went, he would build large-scale construction projects and build the pavilion of Prince Teng for his own entertainment, which aroused the anger of heaven and the people.

Regarding Li Yuanying, Li Shimin had no way to deal with him, and the same was true for Li Zhi.

Seven years ago, Li Zhi demoted him to the south of the Yangtze River and punished him. As a result, he hired skilled craftsmen on the bank of the Gan River and spent several years building a pavilion that towered into the sky...

Li Yuanying is like a piece of brown sugar, relying on his status as the son of a dragon, he is arrogant and indulgent.

For his youngest uncle, Li Zhi has always been tolerant and suppressed all kinds of impeachments, so that so far, no one has impeached him again.

However, due to the tight financial situation of the imperial court, Li Yuanying still spends extravagantly, which makes Li Zhi a little intolerable. However, no one has ever impeached him, leaving him unable to deal with it.

Xu Jingzong will never let go of relieving your worries. Chen Qingsi has been paying attention to the situation of the Wu family.

As expected, Li Zhi's punishment of the Wu family followed one after another.

As the emperor, Li Zhi would not take action himself, but as long as he showed that he no longer protected the Wu family, he would have his own admonishers to impeach the Wu family based on the Wu family's domineering attitude over the years.

Even the Qingliu lineage has many people taking action.

The originally majestic Wu family has become a lost dog that everyone wants to beat.

As the culprit that caused all this, Chen Qingsi completely stayed out of the matter and acted as if he had nothing to do with it.

Chen Qingsi, who returned home that day, gathered with Zhao Renben, Wang Dezhen, and Zhang Daan at the Chen family residence, drinking and talking about temple affairs.

What they were talking about was not the Wu family, but Changsun Wuji.

Just when the Wu family was being denounced, Changsun Wuji's "crime" was also confirmed. He was found guilty of rebellion, was stripped of his official position and fiefdom, and moved to Qianzhou. His sons were dismissed from office and exiled to Lingnan. Others may Removal from office or exile was the punishment one by one.

The turbulent situation in the temple finally came to an end due to the execution of Changsun Wuji and his party.

"This matter is finally over."

Faced with the temple regaining its calm, Zhao Renben's words had mixed feelings.

Li Zhi has been acting very hurt these days, as if he is devastated by the betrayal of his own uncle. But when Xu Jingzong compiled the case files and put them on the table, their emperor Li Zhi didn't even look at them. He even skipped the process of review and confrontation and directly issued an edict to finalize the case.

Li Zhi's coldness made Zhao Renben feel a little chilled. After all, he was his own uncle and a veteran of three dynasties. It was really unjustifiable to be so careless.

Zhao Ren was originally an idealist, and his biggest dream was to become a great minister, like Jiang Xiaobai and Guan Zhong, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, Li Shimin, Fang Xuanling, and Wei Zheng, who could have good stories about emperors and ministers that could be passed down through the ages.

But Li Zhi's character obviously didn't have the slightest bit of benevolence.

Chen Qingsi is very tolerant and has a certain understanding of Li Zhi's character.

This third-generation emperor of the Tang Dynasty was not a benevolent king. From the beginning, he was defined as a promising king who was scheming and difficult to get along with.

Therefore, Chen Qingsi never thought about achieving anything good with Li Zhi, but more about mutual success and utilization. Let Li Zhi use his talents to make this prosperous Tang Dynasty even better, and he also uses the platform of the Tang Dynasty headed by Li Zhi to realize his ambitions.

As for the future, Chen Qingsi doesn't think about it for the time being. He knows that the turbulent years ahead will be the time to really show off his talents, but what he has to do now is to develop and cultivate his team in a low-key manner, accumulate strength, and prepare in advance.

Wang Dezhen prefers to be practical, and the position of Minister of Rites has not yet been decided, but Gao Zhizhou's voice is the loudest. And Li Zhi's attitude towards them is also obvious.

The Qingliu faction has regained its splendor since the three of them unified internally.

The most complicated among the four is Zhang Daan.

He had already received the news that Zhao Chiman walked out of Dali Temple safely: he was punished by dismissal from office, but was not exiled. He still stayed in the capital, waiting for the opportunity to recover.

In order to prevent the Wu family from being criticized more, Empress Wu showed mercy to Zhao Chiman.

Zhang Daan has been paying attention to Zhao Chiman's affairs and knows why Zhao Chiman was rescued.

But he didn't know whether this was a coincidence or whether it was the young man in front of him who was much younger than him.

If it was a coincidence, it would be fine. If it was really planned by him, then this calculation would be terrible.

"Brother Da'an, what are you thinking about? Drink..."

Zhang Daan looked at the leader who was smiling and persuading him to drink, and felt inexplicably safe in his heart. Everyone around him belonged to him, so why should he care about this? It was all a coincidence.

Zhao Zhai.

Zhao Chiman, Wang Fangyi and Yin Ming also gathered together to drink.

Zhao Chiman thought about his experience in prison and was filled with emotion. He held up his wine cup and said, "Without these two brothers, I would have been doomed."

Wang Fangyi looked guilty and said: "I am really ashamed. Since my brother was imprisoned, I have gone around in many places to try to understand the situation, but to no avail. I learned from Brother Yin that my brother was in danger, so I visited Xianggong Xu with a heavy gift, but he was rejected. Outside the door, there is really nothing to be said for it.”

Wang Fangyi used his own power in the military and the Taiyuan Wang family, but it had no effect.

Wang Fangyi also thought about looking for Chen Qingsi, but he respected Chen Qingsi very much. Chen Qingsi was also involved in what happened that night and was a player in the situation. He was afraid that the innocent Chen Qingsi would be dragged into it, so he endured it.

Zhao Chiman said with a smile: "Brother Yi has good intentions, which is a credit. Not to mention that during the time when Brother Wei was in prison, the Zhao family was grateful to Brother Yi for helping him. Brother Wei believes that even if Brother Yi gets through this difficulty, with Brother Yi here, I, Zhao Every home is here."

Zhao Chiman said this firmly.

This is also true. Historically, Zhao Chiman died in this disaster, leaving behind a heroic saying that "the body can be killed, but the words cannot be replaced", which made everyone in the capital regret it.

However, the Wu family and Xu Jingzong were so powerful that relatives of the Zhao family did not dare to collect the body. Wang Fangyi resolutely took care of his funeral and took care of his family.

Someone wanted to involve Wang Fangyi in this way, but Li Zhi was able to figure it out and exempted Wang Fangyi from the unwarranted crime.

Yin Ming said: "Brother Wang can still find some people, but I am blind. Most of the people I know are people in the market. How can I find him in front of the prime minister? In the end, I have no choice but to find the newly appointed Sima of Yongzhou." Zhang Daan worked hard to convince him and get him to agree to rescue him."

Zhao Chiman said: "So, it was Zhang Sima who came to the rescue?"

Yin Ming shook his head and said: "Zhang Sima said that his identity made it difficult for him to take action, and that he would find someone to rescue him. I don't believe in these upper-class people. They are a group of people who do one thing in front of others and another behind others. They are very hypocritical, secretly Someone was sent to keep an eye on Zhang Sima. Zhang Sima immediately went to Chen's residence to find Chen Shilang. It is unclear whether he asked Chen Shilang for help. Anyway, the Wu family suffered a disaster not long after, and everything went wrong. Brother Zhao was unexpectedly Rescued.”

As a bad commander in Chang'an County, Yin Ming's information is very popular in the market, but it is extremely difficult to find out the inside story of the temple.

So I don’t know that Queen Wu was punished, nor why the Wu family suffered.

Wang Fangyi was a leader of the Wang family in Taiyuan and knew a little bit about it, so he said: "I originally didn't want to involve Chen Shilang in this matter, but now it seems that he is secretly helping. It's just..."

He carefully placed the wine glass on the table, looked at Zhao Chiman and Yin Ming and said: "This matter must not be spread to outsiders. Chen Shilang is different from us. Our humble lives as warriors can be sacrificed on the battlefield at any time. But Chen Shilang is not Likewise, he has great wisdom, and his virtues and talents are comparable to those of ancient sages. Whether he is a minister or a prime minister in the future, he can take care of the world. Having him in the court is a blessing to all people. We must not drag him into disaster because of our negligence. .”

Zhao Chiman said solemnly: "This is natural. Not to mention the kindness of saving my life today, even the love of protection in the Furong Garden is worth sacrificing my life to repay. In my situation, it is inconvenient to interact with him, so I would like to take the trouble to take a look. I, Zhao Chiman, There is nothing else, only a bow and a sword to save my life. If I can use it, I can send someone out at any time."

Yin Ming also followed: "I don't want to interact with officials the most, but the person is Chen Shilang, so it doesn't matter."

(End of this chapter)