What a genius Li Zhi is. Of course he knew that at this time Yunchu said that the Ice Age caused climate variability, and finally used the unprecedented drought in the Tang Dynasty to get out of his embarrassing situation.
As an emperor, how could Yun Chu take away the initiative and say so easily?
He immediately said with a smile: "The queen is to blame for this severe drought!"
Yun Chu asked in surprise: "What does the natural disaster have to do with the Queen?"
Li Zhi said with a smile: "The sky is moving vigorously, a gentleman should constantly strive for self-improvement, the terrain is weak, and a gentleman should be generous and virtuous."
Yunchu still couldn't understand, and then asked: "What do you mean?"
Li Zhi pointed to the sky and said: "I am the sky and the Queen is the earth. There is a drought on the earth and no crops can grow. This is because the Queen has lost her virtue."
After hearing Li Zhi's blame-blaming fallacy, Yun Chu widened his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, if it doesn't rain today, how can you let the Queen grow crops on this land?"
Li Zhi said angrily: "Are you looking down on me for not entering the queen's palace? You are also a person who is familiar with history books. Look, which queen can give birth to four boys and two girls in one breath?"
Yunchu couldn't answer the conversation, so he sighed and said, "We are talking about natural disasters."
Li Zhidao: "You should first think about how to get out of a lot of trouble. The old lady of Zhaojun Wang's family heard that you beat Li Yuance to death in the court hall, and now she is still kneeling outside Ziwei Palace, waiting for me to chop her down.
Where is your brain?
Not only that, the officials are afraid of being beaten by you, but the family members of the officials who were beaten by you are not afraid of you, the general. They also guard in front of the Ziwei Palace with knives, waiting for you to go out and beat you.
If you have the ability, beat up all those women and children.
If you can beat up Li Xiaogong's eighty-four-year-old wife, and then use your bravery to beat up the wives and children of Baiguan, how about I let you leave the prison?"
Yun Chu rubbed his chin and said, "It's not impossible."
This time it was Li Zhi's turn to stare wide-eyed, pointing at Yun Chu in horror and saying, "Are you really not planning on leaving anyone alive?"
Yun Chu bared his white teeth and said with a smile: "I also have the title of Two Hundred and Five, which was given by the Emperor. It is really not good for Yun Chu to do such things as abusing women and children. The Two Hundred and Five who were given by His Majesty did this."
It makes sense.”
Li Zhi looked at Yun Chu and said, "It seems that you are planning to hide in Chang'an from now on?"
Yun Chu smiled and said: "When the ministers raise the level of Chang'an by one or two levels, Your Majesty will definitely return to Chang'an to live happily. When that time comes, they won't besiege me, but they will watch my face."
As for people, let them know the majesty of Bailihou of the Tang Dynasty."
Li Zhi asked curiously: "What's the plan?"
Yun Chu said calmly: "Chang'an City now produces hundreds of thousands of kilograms of fresh feces every day..."
Li Zhi retched and said, "It's getting more and more despicable."
Yun Chu said: "I actually have no interest in being a bad person. If you treat me well, I will repay you a hundredfold. If you treat me badly, I will repay you a hundredfold."
Hearing what Yunchu said, Li Zhi immediately became interested. He came to a small pavilion, pointed to the salted vegetables, tofu and other things on the table and said, "Hurry up, I'm a little hungry."
Yun Chu took one look at the ingredients and knew what the emperor wanted to eat.
"After eating salted vegetables and boiled tofu, the emperor is not as good as me. Is this saying also coming from your house?"
Yunchu quickly lit the red clay stove and placed a small iron pot on it. First, he stir-fried the pork belly prepared by the cook to get the oil. Then he added onions, ginger, and chilies. He then used the rice wine on the table to stimulate the aroma, and then poured in the salted vegetables.
Go in and fry together. After the fat from the pork belly has soaked into the salted vegetables, pour some fresh tea into it. Finally, add a lot of water to cover the salted vegetables and wait for the pot to boil.
Li Zhi took it upon himself to put in the tofu cut by the cook, and the two of them made a meal together.
When the pot boiled, Li Zhi smelled the salted vegetables in the pot and frowned: "It's not as pleasant as the legend says."
Yun Chu said: "This thing needs to be set off by artistic conception."
"What kind of artistic conception?"
Yun Chu spoke in a clear voice: "The small red clay stove, the green ants' newly fermented wine, it's getting snowy in the evening, can I have a drink?"
Li Zhi looked at the gloomy sky and said: "There is a small red clay stove, and the tofu is boiled with salted vegetables. It is going to rain in the evening. Can I have a bite? The mood is wrong. Green ants' new fermented wine is better. The tofu is boiled with salted vegetables and cannot be put on the table."
.”
Yun Chu smiled and said: "Just like Luoyang cannot compare to Chang'an after all."
Li Zhi raised his eyes and looked at Yun Chu and said: "I'm not in Chang'an, wouldn't you be more comfortable?"
Yun Chu said: "Your Majesty is not in Chang'an, so I have become so flattering and boring. If your Majesty were in Chang'an, you should have seen how arrogant and domineering Yun Chu is."
Li Zhi took a bite of the hot tofu and poured it out laughing for a while before eating it. He wiped away the tears caused by the scalding and nodded: "That's right. Things change after a while."
Yun Chu added: "The autumn scenery in Chang'an is coming soon. Don't you want to go to Longshou Plain to ride a free horse?"
Li Zhi said: "The autumn breeze is blowing, it is really pleasant to undress, puff out the sleeves of the robe, and see the mountains all over the place in red."
Yun Chu continued to encourage: "Go if you want. Chang'an is rich and prosperous, and arrangements have been made for the drought. Your Majesty will not be able to see the victims. When the time comes, you will see prosperity everywhere, and your mood will feel better."
Li Zhi looked at Yun Chu in surprise and said, "If I can't see the victims, that means there are no victims in the world, right?"
Yun Chu said: "It's not like your majesty has never seen the disaster victims. They are dirty, tattered, and full of poverty and weirdness. After seeing them, people can lose several years of their lives."
Li Zhi took a mouthful of salted vegetables and said, "You insist on talking about the Ice Age today, right? If I don't make you happy, you don't want to make me happy, right?"
Yun Chu shook his head and said: "That's not the case. At this moment, Your Majesty should be at ease, and it is the ministers of the Tang Dynasty who should be busy."
Li Zhi stared at Yun Chu fiercely and said: "Speak out the truth. If you can't explain the truth, you won't be able to get through this matter."
Yunchu took a mouthful of tofu and said, "Does the Tang Dynasty's current grain reserves be enough to feed all the people for a year?"
Li Zhi took a look at Hanjiacang in Luoyang and said: "The grain stored in Hanjiacang at this moment is far more than that of the previous Sui Dynasty."
Yun Chu gave the emperor a bowl of salt vegetable soup, put two pieces of soft boiled tofu in the soup and said, "Your Majesty, you are planning to personally distribute food to the victims?"
Li Zhi said: "This is naturally impossible."
Yunchu said again: "Your Majesty has provided enough food for the people of the world. This is your Majesty's merit. It is the business of all officials to accurately deliver food to the victims through allocating what is available.
At present, this severe drought caused by climate change requires the concerted efforts of the entire Tang Dynasty to survive. If it is not done well, dust and smoke will spread everywhere, but if it is done well, the country of the Tang Dynasty will last for at least a hundred years.
Therefore, at this time, Your Majesty cannot be the center of the storm. On the contrary, you should step out from the center of the storm and watch with a cold eye, so that you can clearly see the nature of this disaster."
Li Zhi frowned and said, "First tell me why you always mention the Ice Age."
Yun Chu whispered: "He Jingxiong thinks that my talents are enough to become the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty."
Li Zhi said: "That's not bad."
Yun Chu added: "He Jingxiong thinks that the current crown prince is too strong, Yong Wang Xian is too smart, Ying Wang Xian, and Yu Wang Dan are the good candidates for the emperor."
After Yun Chu finished speaking, he thought Li Zhi would be furious, but he didn't expect that his expression was very calm. He ate the salted vegetables in the pot bite by bite, and after a long time he said, "How do you think I got my position as the prince?"
Yunchu looked at Li Zhi in shock.
Li Zhi said slowly and calmly: "To be honest, by nature, I am not as talented as Cheng Qian, Qing Que, or Wu Wang Ke, and even compared with the other brothers, I don't have a big advantage.
The King of Shu you saw in Shu was Min, and even he had good martial arts skills.
But, to put it bluntly, no matter if any of them becomes the emperor, it is impossible for them to achieve where I am now.
Eliminate the strong and leave the weak, this is the method of pruning fruit trees. Do you know the reason why branches that are too vigorous will not bear fruit?"
Yunchu nodded to show his understanding.
Li Zhi added: "You are not a prince, and you have no experience of being an emperor, so you don't know what method the emperor should use when choosing a successor.
Let me tell you, it's not about the strength of the branches, but whether it can bear fruit.
If there are many large fruits on the strong branches, there is no need to prune them off. If the fruits on the weak branches are small and weak, they should be pruned off.
The current situation of the Tang Dynasty is very clear. The branch of the prince is already full of huge fruits. This is a great thing for me and you ministers, so you don’t have to choose a tree to live on.
Furthermore, ministers and kings themselves are not masters and slaves, but enemies.
It is only natural for the king to try his best to restrain his ministers, and for the ministers to use any means to resist the king. As you mentioned in your previous memorial, either the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overwhelms the east wind.
This is what it is and there is no way to change it.
I know your purpose in telling this. You want me to be wary of these people, and you also hope that I can choose the best successor so that the prosperous Tang Dynasty in your eyes can continue.
But let me tell you, there is nothing I can do.
The reason why He Jingxiong dares to talk to you about this matter openly is because people have concluded that it is impossible for me to clean up the court because of this matter.
Because there was no way to clean it up, all the ministers hoped that the person sitting on the dragon throne would preferably be a baby. This was not the idea of one or two, or some of the ministers, but the idea of almost everyone.
There is no way to suppress this kind of thing. We can only rely on the royal family to be vigilant. It will even test the emperor's wisdom, and it also depends on the fate of the royal family."
It took Yunchu a long time to digest what Li Zhi said, and finally said: "Destiny?"
Li Zhi nodded and said: "When manpower is limited, victory or defeat is determined by God."
Yun Chu said with some sadness: "Is the end of all knowledge the destiny?"
Li Zhidao: "In the past, when Liu Bang was revolting in Mangdang Mountain, he was blocked by a big python. The python was cut into two parts by Liu Bang. Then the country of the Han Dynasty was divided into two parts for 400 years, the Western Han Dynasty for 200 years and the Eastern Han Dynasty for 200 years.
The man who cut off the great Han Dynasty——Wang Mang.
In the past, Liu Bang won the kingdom from Qin Prince Zi Ying. Two hundred years later, Wang Mang's new dynasty won it from Ru Ziying.
The Shu Han kingdom of Emperor Zhaolie of the Han Dynasty was destroyed by Jin King Sima Zhao. After that, all the kingdoms with Jin as their country name were destroyed by the Liu family. Liu Cong destroyed the Western Jin Dynasty, and Liu Yu destroyed the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
There are many more examples like this. Can you say that these are all coincidences?