Li Zhi rubbed his forehead and said calmly: "Okay, I think Hong'er and Xian'er have a good relationship, so let them get along. Let's stop deceiving ourselves. You and I are aware of Hong'er's illness."
"If it's Hong'er... Sigh! Letting Xian'er participate in politics can be considered a precaution."
Wu Meiniang replied: "It's not that I don't consider Xian'er, but he can't ask for this kind of opportunity. He can only ask for it if we give him the chance! If we don't give it to him, he can't ask for it!"
"If we deal with things like this, how is it different from the prince's fight back then? I must find an opportunity to teach him a lesson, otherwise who else will he see in his eyes!?"
Li Zhi slowly lay down on the bed: "Forget it, if Hong'er is in better health and has a child under his knees, I won't be so easy to talk to."
"Since Hong'er can't have children, why don't you consider Xian'er? You can do it if you want, but remember not to go too far, so as not to make others jealous."
"He dares!" Wu Meiniang shouted out.
Li Zhi shook his head and said nothing.
The family relationship between the royal family has been different from that of the common people since ancient times. To put it bluntly, it is all because of power.
What Li Xian said today would be more taboo for him, Li Zhi, than Wu Meiniang.
But what is he going to do? To imitate his father, directly favor another child, and directly fall out with Li Xian?
What if Hong'er really dies and Xian'er holds a grudge against him?
Looking for the ridiculous and playful Li Xian, or Li Dan who follows Li Xian around every day?
Wu Meiniang finally followed Li Zhi's persuasion and did not pursue the matter further.
How could she pursue the case? It would be easy to kill the servant who was serving Hong'er, but Liu Shenwei was an imperial physician and had superb medical skills, which she might be able to use in the future.
Finally the incident passed.
In autumn, Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang led dozens of officials to the eastern capital.
In name, it's a patrol, but in fact everyone knows that it's just to hide outside.
On the surface, it was announced that Prince Li Hong was left in Chang'an to supervise the country, and King Pei Li Xian participated in politics. However, in fact, Li Yifu and the new prime minister Di Renjie were in charge of all affairs.
Li Yifu was in a bad situation. He was originally at odds with Di Renjie, but he had something in his heart but couldn't say it out.
He really wanted to say that the emperor and empress asked him to do many things before, but he couldn't do anything about it.
But Di Renjie is too smart, and he is afraid that after saying something, the matter will be drawn to his own commander.
So now he avoids Di Renjie. Except when they go to court, the two never discuss political affairs, and they don't even look at each other when they meet.
Strange things happened. After Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang moved into the East Palace, within half a year, the situation began to stabilize.
At the beginning of spring, many refugees returned to their hometowns and built their homes. The natural disasters stopped pouring, and things began to improve everywhere.
Another year has passed.
This year, Princess Chengyang and Prince Consort Xue both died of illness.
The only children left by the eldest grandson Wugou are Li Zhi, Li Chengqian and Li Lizhi.
Prince Consort Xue worked conscientiously, sympathized with the sufferings of the people, and led officials to personally distribute disaster relief food.
Naturally, Princess Chengyang would not see Prince Consort Xue working too hard alone, so she followed him around to patrol.
But they didn't expect that Princess Chengyang fell ill and died before being treated.
Prince Consort Xue had such deep feelings for Princess Chengyang that he could not swallow food and water for several days. On the fifth day, he died in the palace while holding the memorial tablet of Princess Chengyang.
After Li Zhi learned about it, he was extremely sad and mourned for him personally. He transported the two people back to Chang'an and buried them with Zhaoling.
Before the matter was over, another letter came from someone. Almost all the ministers who had helped Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang died of illness one after another within this year.
These blows one after another made both Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang sigh, life is short.
But the deceased has passed away, but the affairs of the court cannot be ignored.
Wu Meiniang and Li Zhi returned to the political affairs of the DPRK without much mourning.
....
Luoyang.
As the princess and ministers died one after another, Wu Meiniang took on the responsibility of commemorating them.
There were many Taoist temples along the way. Everywhere she went, Wu Meiniang would go in to pray.
When she came to the door of a Taoist temple again, there was sudden restlessness in the distance.
I saw an old man who looked to be sixty or seventy years old, dressed in official uniform, waving his arms in this direction, and shouting something, obviously wanting to say something.
Wu Meiniang just glanced at him lightly and said to Gao Lishi: "Tell him to leave his official name. If anything happens, wait until I return."
Gao Lishi nodded and turned around to handle it.
But before he could get closer, the man pulled his neck and shouted: "Luo Governor, Jia Dunshi, please see me! I hope Her Majesty the Queen will give you a lesson!"
After Wu Meiniang heard this, she paused slightly and looked back at Gao Lishi: "Bring him here."
Gao Lishi was startled: "Do you know this person?"
Wu Meiniang said angrily: "Nonsense! When you passed by, didn't you see the monument to virtue and politics erected by the people?"
Jia Dunshi, a fourth-rank official, may not be very conspicuous near the capital, but among the people, he is definitely a well-known figure.
Even his name is not inferior to Di Renjie at all.
The common people built a monument for him because Jia Dunshi's family was known as an upright official.
He punished powerful people and cared for the poor, and everyone knew about him. For such a person, she, Wu Meiniang, would not ignore him.
Gao Lishi came to Jia Dunshi, bowed, and then took him to Wu Meiniang.
Jia Dunshi straightened his clothes, stepped forward and saluted: "I am a humble minister, I have disturbed the Holy Master, but I hope that your Majesty will take care of you."
Wu Meiniang took a closer look at it first.
I saw that although he was old and thin, the spirit in his eyes was very solid.
When she saw his hands, Wu Meiniang couldn't help but be startled. She slowly stepped forward to help him up, then held his hands and watched.
"Queen! This! There are differences between men and women, there are differences between kings and ministers. What are you doing!"
Jia Dunshi wanted to withdraw his hand with a look of panic, but something happened that he couldn't believe. Although he didn't practice martial arts, he often followed the people to do farm work, so he still had some strength.
But he pulled it back a few times, but it didn't even sway, it didn't move at all!
Wu Meiniang looked at her carefully for a while before slowly letting go. Then she looked at Jia Dunshi and asked, "It's not easy for you to be an upright official."
Jia Dunshi's hands were broad and covered with calluses. They did not look like the hands of an official, which was so rare.
Jia Dunshi smiled lightly when he heard this: "Wei Chen just works together with the people. In recent years, there have been frequent disasters. As an official of the Tang Dynasty, Wei Chen should be like this!"
Wu Meiniang nodded: "Ai Qing is so charming, I wonder why you came to me?"
When Jia Dunshi heard this, he put away his smile and took out a memorial from his arms.
"Wei Chen implores you to remove the Luoyang Order, Yang Deqian!"
Wu Meiniang was shocked when she heard this name.
Yang Deqian was a member of the Xuantian Sect who had been inserted decades ago and had a long history. How could he offend Jia Dunshi?
"I have read your memorial before."
Jia Dunshi wondered: "So that's the case, then why doesn't the empress change this person? How can this person stay for a long time when he is ruthless and harsh in his rule?"
Wu Meiniang said calmly: "Yang Deqian has good political achievements and is an upright official like you."
Jia Dunshi frowned and retorted: "Queen, this person is a treacherous minister. You only saw his political achievements, but not his daily virtues!"
"This man spared no effort to collect taxes and established his authority by killing with a stick. There is a folk saying that he would rather eat three bushels of garlic than meet Yang Deqian. How can such people be officials in the Eastern Capital!?"
Wu Meiniang smiled lightly and asked: "If so, what you did was different. Not only did you confiscate the land, but it also destroyed thousands of hectares. If you decide based on this, aren't you being a little harsh?"
