When Zhao Heng just passed away, because Zhao Zhen was young, the Song Dynasty was in a turmoil. When the empress dowager Liu E took over government affairs, even the ministers below did not take her seriously. Ding Wei and others wanted to change the way of governing the country from behind, thus completely undermining Liu E.

However, no one expected that in just a few years, Liu E not only demoted Ding Wei to Hainan, but also firmly held the imperial power in her hands. A group of her promoted confidants appeared in the court. It can be said that Liu E's grasp of imperial power is even better than Zhao Heng at the time. Except for a few people such as Lu Zongdao, no one in the court dared to disobey Liu E's intentions.

It was also under this situation that the direction of the court gradually began to change. After all, there are villains everywhere. Some people even began to encourage Liu E to become emperor for their own future. For example, the palace chief Fang Zhonggong suddenly wrote a letter two days ago, asking Liu E to "the story of the Empress of Martial Arts", which was actually blatantly encouraging Liu E to become emperor.

The Palace was originally in charge of the emperor's clothing and imperial affairs. For example, the Shang Food Bureau and the Shang Qi Bureau were all under the jurisdiction of the Palace Province. However, during the Song Dynasty, the powers of the Six Shangshu Bureau were independent of the Palace Province, so the Palace Province became famous and unreal. Fang Zhonggong, the Palace Chief, was only from the fifth rank, and was not of high level. In addition, he did not have real power, so he was always an optional little person in the court.

But no one expected that this little man would be so bold and asked Liu E to proclaim himself emperor. He probably wanted to take the opportunity to take a chance. If Liu E agreed, he would have made a contribution to supporting him. It would not be impossible to be a marquis and prime minister in the future. It can be said that Fang Zhonggong was a speculative villain who bet on the rest of his life on this memorial.

In fact, there were speculative villains like Fang Zhonggong who wrote a letter to ask Liu E to be emperor, but Liu E usually tore the memorial directly. However, after Fang Zhonggong's memorial was sent to Liu E, Liu E did not tore it up after reading it, but did not refute it. Instead, it was placed on his own desk. This abnormality also attracted the attention of some people.

What was even more unexpected was that another major event happened in the court today, and Li Zhang, the initiator of this incident, also knew that it was Cheng Lin, the prefect of Kaifeng who had previously wiped out the ghost beggars. Cheng Lin was also Liu E's confidant, otherwise he would not have been in such an important position as the prefect of Kaifeng. This time he presented a picture to Liu E.

"The picture of Empress Wu's arrival in the court?" When Li Zhang heard this name from Zhao Zhen, he couldn't help but frown. Cheng Lin was a capable official. He was well-organized for the last time to clear out the ghost beggars, but he didn't expect that he was also a flattering villain. He even encouraged Liu E to be the emperor at such a critical moment.

You should know that Cheng Lin is not Fang Zhonggong. The prefect of Kaifeng not only has real power, but also has a very high rank. Only under the prime minister and the six ministers, he is a first-rank official. It can be said that Cheng Lin is much stronger than Fang Zhonggong's fifth-rank official. The idea of ​​Empress Wu's arrival in the court was actually the same as Fang Zhonggong, and he advised Liu E to imitate Wu Zetian and become emperor.

"Cousin, what should I do now? After Cheng Lin presented this picture today, the ministers in the court did not dare to speak. In the end, it was thanks to Lu's loyalty and loyalty who scolded Empress Wu as a sinner of the Tang Dynasty. This made the eldest lady throw away this picture. But I feel that the eldest lady is just testing the attitude of the ministers, but except Lu's loyalty, everyone else remained silent. This has already made the eldest lady achieve her goal!"

Zhao Zhen shed tears while saying that he always remembered Li Zhang's advice. He was tolerant of Liu E everywhere and never touched the affairs of the court. However, he did not expect that Liu E's ambitions became increasingly greater and now he exposed his ambition to be the emperor. If she became the emperor, what should Zhao Zhen do, the emperor? Especially Zhao Zhen's thoughts on the sons Wu Zetian who died tragically at the hands of his mother in history made him feel even more frightened.

"Don't cry for now. The aunt uses this method to test the attitude of the ministers, and at the same time it may be testing your attitude. If you lose your limits, it will be more likely to have problems!" Li Zhang could only persuade him at this time.

When Zhao Zhen heard Li Zhang say this, he hurriedly wiped his tears. In fact, when he heard that someone wanted Liu E to become emperor with martial arts, he was already scared. Now he doesn't care much about the throne. He just thought in his mind that if Liu E was elected as emperor, would he survive?

Li Zhang was very calm at this time because he knew that although Liu E had the intention to be emperor, she had not been able to be emperor in the original history. Of course, he has changed a lot of history now, so it is still unknown whether Liu E would be emperor. However, in Li Zhang's opinion, the possibility of Liu E being emperor is not very high. In addition to the pressure inside and outside the court, the most important thing is that although Liu E was ambitious, she did not have the courage and decisiveness of Wu Zetian. As the saying goes, it is said that he has a thief heart but no courage.

"Cousin, you said something. The eldest lady's ambition has been exposed. Although it was stopped by Lu's political participation this time, what should I do if there is another next time?" Zhao Zhen said anxiously when he saw Li Zhang silent.

"Don't worry, since the aunt threw away the painting in front of the ministers, I guess she knew that it was impossible. Moreover, there were people like Lu Zheng in the court, so they would not let the aunt do anything randomly, so you can completely keep your heart in your stomach. After all, time is on your side." Li Zhang immediately advised again,

"But I always feel uneasy. This matter is like a knife hanging over my head. God knows when it will fall?" Zhao Zhen said with a sad face again. He was not a brave person at first, and now he wanted to seize the throne again. This made him feel even more uncomfortable.

Seeing Zhao Zhen's fearful look, Li Zhang could only try his best to persuade him, but Zhao Zhen couldn't listen at all. Finally, he thought about it and said, "Let's do this, Wang Xiang and I are also acquaintances. In the past two days, I will ask him about the situation in private and see what their plans are?"

When Zhao Zhen heard that Li Zhang wanted to contact Wang Zeng in private, he thought it was a good idea. He didn't dare to contact the ministers in the court at all, mainly because he was afraid that Liu E would be too careless. After all, if Liu E became suspicious and used some fierce means, it would be even worse by then.

Wang Zeng was the prime minister of the Song Dynasty. Although Wang Zeng did not speak out when Cheng Lin presented the map of Empress Wu to the court before, Li Zhang knew that Wang Zeng was a person with a bottom line. The reason why Wang Qinruo recommended him was to let Wang Zeng restrain Liu E. Otherwise, Lu Zongdao alone would not force Liu E to give up the idea of ​​becoming an emperor. Therefore, Wang Zeng can be said to be the backer behind Lu Zongdao. Wang Zeng does not need Wang Zeng to come forward in person in this way. After all, he is the prime minister. If he publicly opposes Liu E, it may cause unstable courts.

Facing the uneasy Zhao Zhen, Li Zhang persuaded him for a long time, and finally let Zhao Zhen calm down slowly. Li Zhang should not stay with him for a long time, so he said goodbye and left, and promised Zhao Zhen that he would find an opportunity to contact Wang Zeng in the next two days.

However, when Li Zhang left Jingfu Palace, he couldn't help but sigh. As the saying goes, the country is easy to change, but his nature is difficult to change. Although he always wanted to change Zhao Zhen's cowardly personality and did a lot of things for this, Zhao Zhen's personality still did not change much, especially when encountering such a big event, Zhao Zhen would be confused and not as calm as an emperor at all.

"He is still young and has not taken power. Maybe he will look like an emperor when he takes power in the future." Li Zhang said to himself immediately, and then he stepped away from Jingfu Palace.

After returning home, Li Zhang did not go to find Wang Zeng immediately. After all, such a big thing had just happened in the court, and he went to Zhao Zhen again. This must be hidden from Liu E. If he went to see Wang Zeng immediately, with Liu E's suspicious personality, he would definitely guess something. Therefore, he would never make any statement about Wang Zeng, or even let anyone notice it.

If there was enough time, Li Zhang could make arrangements slowly. Now he is no longer alone. With Huozi and others' growth and the layout of various industries, Li Zhang also has a considerable force in the capital. It is difficult to hide Wang Zeng from Liu E's eyes and ears, but it is not completely impossible.

Unfortunately, Li Zhang promised Zhao Zhen to see Wang Zeng within two days, so he didn't have much time to arrange it. In the end, he could only use the most primitive and rough method, which was to find the wild dog the next night, and then take advantage of the night to let the wild dog take him away from home.

Wang Zeng's Prime Minister's Mansion is also in the west of the city, not far from Li Zhang's house. It is now the second day of the year. Most of the families have already gone to bed early and the streets are very deserted. Apart from the occasional patrol guards, there is no one else to see.

The wounds of the wild dogs have almost healed. Now he is carrying Li Zhang on his back and running in the streets and alleys of the capital like playing. Sometimes he even runs on the eaves on the road and on the undulating roofs, just like walking on the ground. In a short while, he took Li Zhang to Wang Zeng's mansion.

However, after coming to Wang Zeng's house, Li Zhang was stunned. Because Wang Zeng's mansion was very large, he had no idea where Wang Zeng lived. If he searched for one room at a time, it would probably be bad if he met the female relatives in Wang Zeng's family.

Fortunately, Li Zhang was smart. Now it was over the second day, and it was about to be the third day. Most of the rooms in Wang Zeng’s mansion had turned off. And that big thing happened in the court yesterday, so Li Zhang concluded that Wang Zeng would not have rested so early. There are not many rooms in Wang Zeng’s mansion that are still on, so they just need to look for these rooms with lights on.
Chapter completed!