The carriage walked along the bustling streets of Tokyo, but there were fewer and fewer pedestrians on the streets. Finally, they came to a quiet residential area. When the carriage stopped in front of a gate with the plaque "Lufu" hanging high, Li Zhang also walked out of the carriage, but saw a long queue in the gate. Although today was ten days, there were still people coming to ask for a meeting in front of the prime minister.

Looking at the crowd waiting for a visit in front of the door, Li Zhang shook his head secretly, and then asked someone to send his famous post to him. After a while, Lu Yijian went out to greet him in person. When he saw Li Zhang, he laughed and said, "The arrival of Li Duwei is really making the humble house shine!"

Those who were waiting to ask for a meeting saw Lu Yijian, who was the prime minister, go out to greet him personally, and each showed a surprised expression. When they heard that the person coming was Li Zhang, they also showed a natural expression. Although Li Zhang was not at a high position, he was not inferior to any minister in terms of power, and even no one could match his influence on His Majesty.

"Lu Xiang is polite. If the grand prime minister's mansion is also a humble house, then my family can only be called a thatched hut." Li Zhang also joked at this time. He and Lu Yijian had a good relationship, and it would be harmless to joke occasionally.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Lu Yijian laughed again, and then pulled Li Zhang into the mansion intimately. The people outside the mansion who were waiting to see each other showed envious expressions, but they also knew that compared to big figures like Li Zhang, they were really not worthy of being watched by Lu Yijian. Even if they wanted to see him, they just went in to have a tea, and few people could see Lu Yijian.

At that moment, Lu Yijian invited Li Zhang to sit in a small hall in the front yard. Li Zhang did not directly explain the purpose of the visit, but chatted with the other party for a few gossips. Lu Yijian also specifically asked him about going to Luoyang to check the hat demon. Although Li Zhang had already said it in the palace before, he only briefly explained it and did not mention many details at all, and Lu Yijian was quite interested in it.

However, after a while of conversation, Li Zhang suddenly changed the topic and asked, "Lu Xiang, I heard that the candidate for the new queen is what you strongly recommend?"

When Lu Yijian heard Li Zhang suddenly ask about this, he was stunned. Then he replied: "It cannot be said that I recommend it. The rear position in the palace has always been hanging in the air. It is not a solution, so we must choose a suitable woman. The best way was to choose from the current concubines, but Your Majesty has a deep affection for Queen Zhang and has no special preference for other concubines. So it is better to choose a virtuous noble woman from outside the palace, so that it can also deepen the connection between the royal family and the nobles."

"Oh? I wonder why Lu Xiang recommended the woman from the Cao family?" Li Zhang asked again at this time, looking into Lu Yijian's eyes as he spoke. One thing he had been unable to understand was why Lu Yijian had to recommend a woman from a second marriage to Zhao Zhen. Didn't he know that doing these things was thankless?

"The Duwei Li said this badly. It was not that I recommended the women of the Cao family. But among the selected women, the women of the Cao family performed the best and were most suitable to enter the palace to serve His Majesty. Even the Empress Dowager and the Concubine agreed very much. In the end, His Majesty also agreed. Therefore, the women of the Cao family were not recommended by me, but the result of everyone's agreement." Lu Yijian denied at this time.

Li Zhang was staring at Lu Yijian at this time, but he did not see any abnormality from the other party's expression. However, this is normal. As the prime minister of a country, Lu Yijian's cunning is naturally not comparable to ordinary people, and his thoughts would never be revealed from his face. At least Li Zhang could not see whether Lu Yijian's words were true or false.

However, Li Zhang did not give up at this time. He was silent for a moment and suddenly stared at Lu Yijian again and said, "Since Lu Xiang, you all think that the women of the Cao family are most suitable to enter the palace, then you must have investigated her in advance and know her situation very well?"

"Of course!" Lu Yijian nodded immediately. He could not deny this. After all, as the candidate for the queen, he would definitely be strictly investigated and nothing could happen.

"Then Lu Xiang should also know that this Cao family woman had married?" Li Zhang stared at Lu Yijian's eyes and asked again. Originally, Li Zhang was worried that her time travel might affect the fate of Empress Cao, so he specially sent someone to Yongcheng to inquire two days ago. It turned out that he had been married once, and her husband was Li Zhi, the son of the famous minister Li Shiheng.

There are few records of Li Shiheng in history books, but there is a very famous story. Li Shiheng used to be an envoy as an envoy, and another military officer was his deputy. When he came back, Goryeo gave two envoys a lot of gifts, and Li Shiheng handed all the gifts to the military officer for processing. So the military officer was foolish. He put Li Shiheng's gifts underneath and his own gifts on it. In this way, if water enters the cabin, the one that is soaked is Li Shiheng's gifts.

But man's calculations are not as good as heaven's calculations. The fleet of the mission encountered great storms on the sea. Seeing that the ship was dating too deep, the ship workers threw away the goods on the ship to reduce the burden on the ship. As a result, all the gifts of the military officer were thrown away, and Li Shiheng's gifts were preserved. However, after Li Shiheng found out, he not only did not blame the military officer, but also distributed his gifts to the other party.

It is unknown whether the above story is true, but it is widely circulated, because this story fully reflects the noble character of civil servants and highlights the greed and stinginess of military officers. In the overall atmosphere of civil servants suppressing military generals in the Song Dynasty, such a story is naturally the most in line with the wishes of civil servants, so many books record this story.

Later, when Wang Qinruo was tyrannical, Li Shiheng was also implicated, so he was demoted from the capital. However, Li Shiheng was a man with a weak sense of fame and fortune. After not becoming an official, he studied and wrote, and indulged in the mountains and rivers. He also liked to study some Buddhist scriptures, which could be said to have lived as a hermit.

As Li Shiheng's son, Li Zhi was extremely intelligent since childhood. Influenced by his father, he also developed a deep interest in Taoist thoughts. It is said that he was familiar with Taoist Zang at the age of ten and became a famous Taoist master at the age of twenty. This is very similar to Cao Qi's, and the two have a good relationship. It is probably because of this reason that Cao Qi's sister, the future Empress Cao, married Li Zhi. Li Zhang believed that Lu Yijian must know about this.
Chapter completed!