When Xu Jingzong, Yang Jixing and other backbone members of the rear party heard about the Queen's decree, they all hurriedly entered the palace.
Seeing a group of close ministers arriving, Wu Zetian said to them.
"The emperor wants to make me regent, but many ministers in the court are opposed to it. You can have a plan to silence the ministers who are dissatisfied with my regency."
When the ministers heard what the Queen said, it was Xu Jingzong, an old man who had been immersed in officialdom for many years, who came out and spoke.
"Tianhou, I think this matter is easy to handle. If you want to deal with officials like Hao Chujun who respect Confucianism in the court, you have to start from the cultural perspective, find arguments, and treat others in their own way. These officials are not easy to deal with.
Do you want to adhere to the rules left by our ancestors? Then we will have people compile books and articles such as - Biography of Martyrs - Official Guidelines - New Precepts for Hundreds of Officials - Book of Music - and let's see how the ministers in the DPRK respond."
Xu Jingzong's move was nothing more than to build momentum in public opinion so that Wu Zetian's regency would be able to stand up in terms of etiquette and law. His intention was simply to use cultural erosion to create an atmosphere among the court ministers that was favorable to Wu Zetian's rise to power.
Upon hearing this, Wu Zetian thought this plan was feasible and handed over the compilation of books and articles to Xu Jingzong.
After the external affairs were properly arranged, Wu Zetian made another plan and discussed political affairs with Li Zhi in the harem. She said that the military and political affairs of the empire could not be left to the prime minister's disposal. This deceived the emperor and made the emperor not understand the process of the incident but only the result of the disposal.
Because of the shortcomings of the imperial military administration, it was suggested that the emperor should decide and review the official reports, and then let the prime ministers discuss and deal with them, so as to achieve the purpose of decentralizing the power of the prime ministers.
Li Zhi heard what the Queen said and thought it was reasonable. However, his body could not bear the energy of reviewing a large number of reports every day, so he came up with the method of having the prince supervise the country and the Queen participate in the decision of hundreds of officials.
This was Wu Zetian's cleverness. She knew Li Zhi's current physical condition, and making such suggestions at this time would undoubtedly give her the power she wanted.
Wu Zetian obtained the emperor's permission to participate in the decision of the Hundred Officials. This great power meant that although she was unable to become the regent of Jinluan, she actually had the power to deal with major military and political affairs of the empire.
Li Zhi's proposal to make the queen regent was opposed by many ministers. After temporarily shelving the proposal, the decision to let the queen participate in the decision of hundreds of officials was undoubtedly a change of the soup without changing the medicine. It only prevented Wu Zetian from truly sitting alone in the golden palace to receive the imperial examination.
The courtiers are just paying homage.
At the court meeting that day, Li Zhi spoke to the ministers again in the hall.
"Due to my health, I have asked the new crown prince Li Xian to carry out the important task of supervising the country in Chang'an. All ministers should do their best to help him."
It was Emperor Li Zhi who made the prince supervise the country, but secretly allowed the queen to participate in politics, so that the prince Li Xian and his mother finally started a fierce struggle for power.
At that time, Prince Li Xian summoned the empire's outstanding literati and Confucian scholars to annotate the obscure "Book of the Later Han Dynasty". He used his talents to personally comment on many details in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty". After reading it, the literati and Confucian scholars all praised and praised it.
It was called "Zhang Huai Zhu". For a time, the government and the public respectfully called Li Xian "Prince Zhang Huai", which made the ministers in the court recognize Li Xian's ability to supervise the country and govern. They often praised Li Xian's successors, which stole the limelight of Empress Wu Zetian.
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Wu Zetian got Li Zhi's permission to decide on the official sparse report. It was a time of political success. How to allow the prince to win the support of the ministers threatened the power that he had finally obtained. From then on, the mother and son began to be suspicious of each other and had a lot of rifts.
The queen repeatedly reproached the prince in letters in Luoyang Palace, scolding him for supervising the country, acting arbitrarily and arbitrarily, and blocking officials from sending memorials to Luoyang.
Soon after the conflict between Li Xian and Wu Zetian gradually escalated, rumors spread in the palace that he was not the biological son of Empress Wu, but the son of Empress Wu's sister, Mrs. Han Guo, and Li Zhi.
Even when rumors were spreading in the palace, Prince Li Xian was known for his generosity and shrewdness in governance and his fair handling of military and political affairs, which earned him praise from Li Zhi. In order to cultivate the prince's ability to control central government affairs and courtiers, Li Zhi also
Some adjustments were made to subordinate officials and important ministers of the imperial court, so that the four prime ministers Dai Zhide, Zhang Wenguan, Hao Chujun, and Li Jingxuan were all promoted and concurrently served as subordinate officials of the East Palace.
The four prime ministers, Dai Zhide, Zhang Wenguan, Hao Chujun, and Li Jingxuan, were once ministers of the late Crown Prince Li Hong. Before Li Hong's death, they had a tense relationship with Empress Wu Zetian. After they were re-appointed as Li Xian's East Palace ministers, their relationship with the empress naturally continued.
The tense relationship made it possible for the seven prime ministers of the Tang Dynasty to dominate the powerful ministers loyal to Wu Zetian.
On this day, the seven prime ministers who gathered the power of the Tang Dynasty accompanied Li Zhi to see the newly completed "Mirror Palace" in the Luoyang Palace. After seeing it, the right servant shot Dai Zhide and knelt down and said exaggeratedly.
"Your Majesty, I thought that there are no two days in the sky and no two masters in the country, but just now I saw several emperors appearing on the walls of the Mirror Palace. This is an ominous sign!"
What this guy played was obviously based on the topic. It was aimed at Wu Zetian's assumption of power. It was seconded by Zhang Wenguan, Hao Chujun, Li Jingxuan and other officials. However, Xu Jingzong, Wei Yuanzhong, and Yao Chong who heard the words on the side had angry faces, and Xu Jingzong also played.
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"Master Dai's words are a crime of deceiving the emperor. Although the person in the mirror appears from different angles, he is originally caused by one person. How can he come up with the theory of numbers? Such a simple truth, as your right servant, Master She, I don't know.
It can only mean that adults are suspected of provoking trouble, or that adults have common sense that is known to the world and are not as good as children!"
When Li Zhi heard this, he didn't know the reason why the ministers on both sides were contradictory, but he acted as if he hadn't heard anything and didn't make any statement.
This is also the emperor's balancing act, and he will not allow one side to become stronger.
Seeing that the emperor was silent, all the ministers were elites among the people. How could they not know what the emperor was thinking, so both parties gave up.
Shortly after this incident, the books and articles compiled by Wu Zetian Angel Xu Jingzong were already widely circulated in the government and the public. A cultural trend in the Tang Dynasty was set off to praise the martyrdom women and the role of women. However, the rumors about Li Xian's life experience in the palace became more and more popular.
He spoke so clearly that Li Xian himself felt suspicious and fearful, fearing that his status as prince would not be guaranteed.
Prince Li Xian was very disturbed by this matter. He knew that he had just ascended the throne and although he had won the favor of his father with a series of political deeds such as being marked as "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", he felt that his reputation and connections were still not as good as those of his elder brother.
Compared with the former prince Li Hong, he then came up with the idea of ​​gathering talented people as his own personal team, and ordered the prince's concubine Zhang Da'an, the prince Xi Ma Liu Nayan, Luzhou Sihu to join the army Ge Xixuan, and the bachelor Xu Shuya to be the backbone of the East Palace.
Recruit talents from all over for your own use.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Wu Zetian soon learned about Li Xian's recruitment of talents. The queen laughed at her son for being so young and impatient, secretly thinking that his son dared to go against his mother, and he really didn't know how to live or die.
When her son acted like this, Wu Zetian thought that Li Xian was not successful, so she relaxed her mind and tried to calm down the fight between mother and son. However, she unexpectedly learned that the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" marked by Li Xian contained a description of the imperial power falling into the hands of relatives, which made Wu Zetian furious.
"You are not kind to me, don't blame me for being unjust to you!"
Li Xian heard the detailed report arranged in the palace and knew his mother's hateful remarks. He was very afraid of this mother who was seriously ill and was most taboo about others talking about her relatives. He knew her methods well and thought of her.
He shuddered when dealing with the former prince Li Hong.
Just when the prince Li Xian was uneasy and acting cautiously, one of Wu Zetian's favorites or her confidante Ming Chongyan was killed by thieves, causing an uproar in the court.
Chongyan of the Ming Dynasty was a native of Yanshi, Luozhou. He became an official in the early years of the Qianfeng reign of the Tang Dynasty and was awarded the title of Huang'an County Magistrate. When he was young, he learned the Taoist method of summoning gods and ghosts. Li Zhi heard about his skill and was very impressed.
Appreciate it and promote it to the literature of Yiwangfu.
In the second year of "Yifeng" in the Tang Dynasty (677), Ming Chongyan was promoted to the official admonishment officer of the imperial court, and Li Zhi specially ordered him to serve in the cabinet.
Every time this guy went to court, he used Shinto to comment on the pros and cons of current affairs, which Li Zhi agreed with very much. Moreover, this guy even used special techniques to treat the emperor's wind disease, which was very effective. Both the emperor and the queen were very happy with him.
, Over time, Ming Chongyan fell into the eyes of Wu Zetian, and often summoned this guy to the harem to discuss current affairs and the ways of ghosts and gods. As for whether the two of them had anything to do with each other, heaven knows, earth knows, and Wu Zetian's personal maid knows.
They both knew it.
After Ming Chongyan was killed, the emperor and the empress were furious and ordered the Yamen to search for the thieves. However, there was no trace of the thieves, so a group of officials responsible for investigating the matter were ordered to arrest their heads.
Not long after Li Zhi gave Ming Chongyan the title of servant and appointed his son Minggui as secretary, rumors spread again in the government and the public, indicating that Chongyan's death was closely related to the prince Li Xian, putting the prince Li Xian at the forefront of the storm.
above.
At that time, there were rumors in the government and the public that Li Xian was dissatisfied with the Queen's pressure, and that his favorite minister Ming Chongyan was falsely accusing the prince's parentage behind his back, which led to the murder. This rumor was so mysterious that it seemed that the person who made the rumor was involved.
This matter is normal.
When Prince Li Xian heard these rumors, he became even more nervous about his mother. He was afraid that her mother would resort to any means to deprive him of the crown prince's position that day.
Cui Mi, the censor Zhongcheng, was ordered to investigate the case and was very illegal. He arrested many innocent people and beat them. The intention was to quickly finalize the matter and put an end to it. However, because the prisoners' confessions could not withstand scrutiny, they were forced to do so.
The case went on for a long time and even though he searched all over Luoyang City, he still could not find any trace of the real murderer.
The news of soldiers and arrests going back and forth to search for the murderer caused the city of Luoyang to rumble, and the people and merchants stayed behind closed doors to avoid disaster. For a while, the huge city of Luoyang was not peaceful, and there was no half of the prosperity of the capital city.
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In such a strange environment like Luoyang City, many courtiers began to be dissatisfied with the Queen's insistence on going her own way and the government's decision to arrest the murderer at all costs. They wrote to the Emperor one after another and put forward suggestions that took into account the livelihood of the people.
In the court hall, Li Zhi read the memorials from all the officials, pondered for a while, and then sent an order to have Di Renjie, the law keeper of Bingzhou, be promoted to the post of Prime Minister of Dali Temple to take over the Ming Chongyan case, so that he could secretly investigate the case so as not to interfere with the normal life of the people.
Di Renjie accepted the order and took office, so he asked his subordinates to arrest the head and launch an investigation into the Ming Chongyan case. He ordered to focus on all the whereabouts of this person before he was killed, as well as his close relatives and friends, in order to discover clues to the case.
This Master Di is a master in solving cases. He is from Jinyang, Bingzhou, and was born in the Di family of Taiyuan. He participated in the imperial examination as a young man and passed the Ming Jing Ke examination. He was awarded the title of judge of Bianzhou. Because he acted appropriately, he was recommended by the official and was promoted to the governor of Bingzhou.
Dharma trough.
When he took office in Bingzhou, Di Renjie adjudicated the case and won the trust of the court and the people. This time, the emperor appointed him as the Prime Minister of Dali Temple. It was precisely because of his recognition of his ability that the controversial Ming Chongyan case could be resolved under his supervision.
Close the case as soon as possible.
In the Yamen of Dali Temple, Di Renjie carefully screened the prisoners previously arrested by Cui Miyin, the censor Zhongcheng, and released all those who were not suspected, allowing them to live their own lives. This move was highly supported by the people of Luoyang.
Jinwu Guard has the important task of guarding Luoyang City. Soldiers often patrol the city and have a better understanding of the situation in Luoyang City. Di Renjie and his number one master Li Yuanfang went to the Jinwu Guard barracks to meet with General Xu Xiaole.
When Qin Xiaole heard that his army had reported that Di Renjie, the Prime Minister of Dali Temple, was visiting, he ordered his army to introduce the people into the military meeting hall.
When Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang came in, Qin Xiaole politely invited them to sit down and talk. Di Renjie thanked him and sat on the upper left side of Xu Xiaole's seat, while Li Yuanfang stood silently behind Di Renjie.
Qin Xiaole was not surprised and said "haha" with a smile.
"I wonder if Mr. Di is looking for Xu's advice here?"
When Di Renjie heard this, he leaned over and said.
"The general's words are serious. I am here today to ask the generals and soldiers who are in charge of patrols in Luoyang City. Around the time when Ming Chongyan was killed, they could find anything unusual or disturbing in the city during their patrols.
I hope the general will understand."
Knowing Di Renjie's purpose of coming here, Qin Xiaole ordered the sergeant on duty outside to ask the veteran general Liao Huan to come, because Liao Xing was responsible for the patrol in Luoyang City.
After a while, Liao Huan entered the room, and Qin Xiaole informed Di Renjie of his purpose.
After the ceremony, Liao Huan and Di Renjie sat down and said.
"Although the last general was ordered to patrol Luoyang City, except for discovering that the market has been depressed recently, he did not listen to the soldiers patrolling the city to report anything unusual in the city when Lord Chongyan was killed. I am afraid that Lord Di will be disappointed. After all,
The sergeants of the Jinwu Guard are not as good as the yamen officers who are responsible for public security in the city. The sergeants' patrols are only to guard against major emergencies in the city, to protect the environment and the people, and do not participate in the government affairs of the yamen."
Di Renjie heard what Liao Huan said and agreed. He came here just hoping to get some clues from the soldiers and try his luck.
Without getting any useful clues, Di Renjie and Qin Xiaole stood up to leave after chatting in the camp. Before leaving, they said to Liao Huan again.
"General Liao may wish to inquire among the soldiers and ask them if they have noticed any abnormalities during the patrol. If any soldiers think of anything, please let the general know to Di."
When Liao Huan heard this, he cupped his hands and said calmly.
"If there is any discovery, Liao will definitely have someone report it to Mr. Di as soon as possible."
After Di Renjie left, Liao Huan said to Qin Xiaole.
"This Master Di is quite brave. He dares to go to the Jinwu Guards camp to investigate the case. What does the general think should be done?"
Qin Xiaole said with a smile.
"The first thing to do when a new official takes office is that Mr. Di wants to speed up the investigation of the case. I understand his mood of meritorious service. However, as an army to defend the capital, we must not participate in the power struggle of the imperial court. No matter how he investigates the case, the soldiers
Regarding the discovery of the Prince's subordinates outside Chongyan's residence in the Ming Dynasty, it would be best for us to say less to avoid getting involved in unnecessary disputes."