"Duke Zhou!"
"General Wang, are you still there?" Wu Minzhi glanced at Wang Wenzuo in surprise: "Is there something wrong?"
"Not bad!" Wang Wenzuo nodded: "Can I take a step to speak?"
Wu Minzhi frowned: "My cousin values you so much. If you ask him for anything, what can't be done? Why bother me?" After that, he left. But Wang Wenzuo grabbed his arm and said, "I don't bother you with anything. This matter only concerns you. I won't bother His Royal Highness!"
It is said that a person can achieve enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven. Since the Wu clan was granted the title of empress, Wu Minzhi has also been blessed with favors, wealth and honors. Not to mention the honors of court officials, even the members of the Li clan are few who can match them, wherever they look. They were all greeted with smiles. I have never seen anyone as strong as Wang Wenzuo. Suddenly he said angrily: "How brave, don't let go!" He struggled hard, but he only felt that Wang Wenzuo's right arm was made of iron and he could not move anywhere. The guards of the East Palace not far away heard the noise and ran over, but when they saw it was their immediate superior, they immediately backed away, pretending not to see him.
"My lord, please let me finish what I said. It only takes a few words to make it so ugly!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile.
"伱——" Wu Minzhi looked at Wang Wenzuo fiercely, but the other person's expression remained unchanged and he was smiling as usual. Wu Minzhi couldn't express his anger, but he felt timid in his heart. He paused and said: "Okay, what's the matter? That’s what you say! Put your hands down!”
"Yes!" Wang Wenzuo let go of his hand and said with a smile: "I have a friend who accidentally offended the Duke and has been taken away by the Yamen. He is a useless scholar, and I ask the Duke to show his kindness and let him live. Wen Zuo Please take this opportunity to apologize to the Duke!" At this point, Wang Wenzuo bowed to Wu Minzhi.
"Your friend offended me? Was he taken away by the Yamen?" Wu Minzhi frowned: "What's his name?"
"My surname is Lu and my name is Zhaolin. I am from the Lu family of Fan Yang. I can also write a few acid poems!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "He is a family friend of Shan's wife!"
"Lu Zhaolin?" Wu Minzhi burst out laughing when he heard the name: "Wang Wenzuo, do you think I'm a fool? He can't just write a few acid poems, right? And he didn't just offend me. So simple!”
"Oh? It's not that simple?" Wang Wenzuo thought: "But I heard from the news that Lu Zhaolin just judged a book you compiled. At best, it would be enough to expel him from Chang'an, right?"
Wu Minzhi looked at Wang Wenzuo again and sneered: "General Wang, for the sake of His Highness the Crown Prince, just pretend that what happened today never happened. I would like to advise you, the water in Chang'an is very deep and you shouldn't get involved. Don't get involved in things, otherwise you will only lose your own life!" After saying that, he tossed his sleeves and walked away.
"This Wu Minzhi is really not that simple!" Looking at the other person's retreating back, Wang Wenzuo twirled the beard under his chin and said to himself: "But what he said is right. The water in Chang'an is indeed very deep. I It’s better to be careful!”
After leaving the East Palace, Wang Wenzuo did not go home, but took Sanqiu to the British Duke's Mansion. Since Li Jingye's father died early, after Li Ji died of illness, Li Jingye directly took the title of the British Duke and became the young servant. Sir. Although the British government at this time was far less powerful than when Li Ji was alive, he was still the first-class nobleman in Chang'an. Wang Wenzuo came to the door and asked Sanqiu to send his famous assassin in. After a while, he saw Li Jingye hurriedly came out and laughed loudly: "It's been so long since Sanlang returned to Chang'an to come to my house. It really shouldn't be done. Wait." You will have to drink alcohol as a fine at the meeting, and you won’t come back until you’re drunk!”
"There are important things in the East Palace these days, so I really have no time to come! After this period of time, I will buy a drink and apologize to Brother Jingye!" Wang Wenzuo said in a deep voice: "Brother Jingye is free, I have one thing to ask you!"
"That's easy to say!" Li Jingye saw Wang Wenzuo's solemn expression and stopped teasing him. He led Wang Wenzuo directly to a side courtyard, entered the main room and sat down among the guests and host, and said with a smile: "This was originally the residence of one of my father's concubines. The first two She passed away in 2011, so it was vacated. Few people come here on weekdays, it is very secluded, and there is no need to worry about the ears on the wall!"
"It's nothing, I just bumped into someone today, there may be some trouble!"
"You bumped into someone? What's there to worry about!" Li Jingye laughed when he heard this: "It can't be some of the royal highnesses in the palace, right? Even if it is those several highnesses, with the favor of the crown prince for you, go It’s just a crime to accompany you!”
"It's not the royal highnesses in the palace!" Wang Wenzuo shook his head: "It's Zhou Guogong Wu Minzhi!"
"Is it him?" Li Jingye's face changed drastically: "My dear, how could you offend this person? This is going to be troublesome!"
Seeing Li Jingye's expression, Wang Wenzuo's heart tightened. He knew the courage of this man very well. If he could utter the word "trouble" in his mouth, it would be really troublesome.
"Is this person so troublesome?"
"Yeah!" Li Jingye nodded: "Let's put it this way? You have this big flag under the East Palace to protect your body, and everyone you meet in Chang'an City will give you some face. But only this person, he has no face for anyone. If he doesn’t sell, he doesn’t care about anyone, he’s not afraid of anyone, there’s nothing he dares not do, and he’s just a live Tai Sui!”
"You don't sell anyone's face? Are you too old to live?" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "Where are your two majesties? You wouldn't say that he doesn't sell their two majesties' faces, right?"
"No, he really won't sell it!" Li Jingye said with a smile: "Let's put it this way, he is not afraid of your majesties, but your majesties are a little afraid of him!"
"How is this possible?" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "Leave aside the saint, will the Queen be afraid of him? He is what he is today, but it is all thanks to the Queen! His surname is not Wu!"
"Haha!" Li Jingye laughed twice: "This is a long story!" At this point, he glanced at Sanqiu on the side. Wang Wenzuo smiled knowingly: "Sancho, you go and wait outside. Stay here and don’t let anyone else get close to the house!”
"Yes!" Sancho responded and exited the room. When the door closed, Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Brother Li, it's just you and me now. If you have anything to say, you can speak out!"
Li Jingye saw that Sangqiu had gone out, and there were only Wang Wenzuo and himself in the house. He smiled, stood up, took out a bottle of wine and two wine glasses from the cabinet next to him, filled them for himself and Wang Wenzuo, picked up the wine glasses and drank. One mouthful: "Okay, I have nothing to do tonight anyway, so I will tell Saburo about this scandal in the palace, but I won't recognize him outside this room!"
"That's easy to say!" Wang Wenzuo also picked up the wine glass and said with a smile: "I left this room and I didn't even acknowledge it!"
The two looked at each other and smiled, and both drank the wine in their glasses. Li Jingye coughed: "Sanlang, you should know the life experience of the current queen, right?"
"I have heard about it! But it should not be as detailed as Brother Li!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile.
"Haha!" Li Jingye smiled: "The father of the current queen is named Warrior Xun. He was a good friend of Emperor Gao of this dynasty when he was young. The two have known each other for many years. When Emperor Gao raised troops from Taiyuan, Warrior Xun supported him with all his family. One of the seventeen heroes of the Yuanmou in Taiyuan. In the eighth year of Wude, someone reported that Li Xiaogong, the king of Zhao County in the south, had rebelled. Emperor Gao ordered him to return to Chang'an for trial, and it was this man who succeeded Li Xiaogong in guarding Yangzhou."
Hearing this, Wang Wenzuo nodded: "So, the Queen's father and Emperor Gao have a deep relationship!"
"Haha! That's not the case!" Li Jingye said with a smile: "How can the person who can succeed Prince Zhao Li Xiaogong be an ordinary person?"
At this point, the two of them looked at each other and smiled. It turned out that Li Yuan came from the Eight Pillar Kingdom of the Northern Wei Dynasty. There were many military and political talents in the clan. So after he started the army, there were many people in the clan with the same surname who had made military achievements. Among them, the one with the first military merit was Li Shimin, the second is Li Xiaogong. This person is Li Yuan's nephew and Li Shimin's cousin. In the war for hegemony at the end of the Sui Dynasty, he conquered Bashu, destroyed Zhu Can, destroyed Xiao Xian, and conquered the Lingnan states. He led his army to attack Fugong Er and pacified the south of the Yangtze River. He almost pacified the entire south by himself. Although many people at the time said that he was successful because of others and relied entirely on the planning of Lieutenant General Li Jing, and he was just a boss. But victory is victory. Being able to adopt the strategies of talented generals and then resolutely implement them is also the talent of a great commander.
The north and south had been separated for hundreds of years in the early Tang Dynasty. The south, especially the southeast and Chang'an, had a strong centrifugal tendency. However, Li Xiaogong had great achievements and was of the blood of the Li family. Therefore, no matter whether someone accuses him of treason or not, Li Yuan will not let him stay in Yangzhou for a long time, and the successor can only be someone whom Li Yuan absolutely trusts. This shows the close personal relationship between Li Yuan and the warrior Xun.
"The warrior Xun married two wives. The first one he married was Xiangli, and they had two sons. The elder was named Wu Yuanqing, and the second was named Wu Yuanshuang. After the death of Xiangli, the warrior Xun took the title of Yang, and the Yang family gave birth to two sons. They have two daughters. The eldest daughter is a Korean lady. She married Helan Anshi, who joined the army in Yuzhou. They have a son and a daughter. The son is Wu Minzhi, the current Duke of Zhou, and the daughter is Helan, the wife of Wei. Yang's second daughter is the current queen. After the death of the warrior Xun, the two sons left behind were quite unhappy with their stepmother Yang and were very disrespectful. At that time, the queen had not yet ascended the throne and was helpless in the palace, so she treated the two half-brothers She was quite unhappy. So after the Queen ascended the throne, not only did she not benefit the two brothers, but she demoted them to the southwest and treated her sister’s son as her own nephew!"
"Could the palace scandal you just mentioned refer to the queen's family affairs?" Wang Wenzuo asked: "But if the queen treats Wu Minzhi like this, why is she a little afraid of him?"
"Haha!" Li Jingye said with a smile: "Sanlang, please listen to me. As I said just now, the queen was not on good terms with his two half-brothers, so there were only two relatives left, mother Yang and sister. So Yang and Mrs. Han often brought their children to the palace to visit the queen. As time went by, there were rumors in the palace that the saint was having an affair with Mrs. Han. There were even rumors that the saint was not only having an affair with Mrs. Han, but also with Mrs. Han. The wife’s daughter also had an affair. This was a serious matter. A few years later, Mrs. Han passed away, and His Majesty named her daughter the wife of the State of Wei. It was rumored that she wanted to enter the palace. In this way, where would the Queen’s face be? Three years after he was granted the title of Zen, the saint was enshrined in Mount Tai. Mrs. Wei also accompanied him. When he returned to Chang'an, he died of a sudden illness. At that time, Wu Minzhi went to the palace to express his condolences because of his sister's funeral. When the saint saw him, he cried sadly: "I have been there all morning." It looked like she was fine from the front, but I didn't expect that she died after retreating from the court. How could it be so sudden?' After hearing this, Minzhi just cried and didn't answer!"
Wang Wenzuo took a breath and asked: "Then the death of Mrs. Wei was caused by the Queen?"
Li Jingye smiled but did not answer.
"This Wu Minzhi probably had a mental breakdown because of this incident! That's why he acted wildly. The emperor probably also knew that it was the queen who did it, so he felt a little guilty towards Wu Minzhi, so he deliberately favored many things to make up for the guilt in his heart. "The Queen is probably like this too!" Wang Wenzuo thought to himself, and suddenly a thought flashed through his mind:
"No, Wu is not such a person. Even though she felt a little guilty for poisoning her niece, Wu Minzhi's behavior at the time proved that he probably already knew that it was the Queen's aunt who did it, and he still had resentment. Then Wu's most likely reaction is not guilt, but fear. If it were someone else, family affection and guilt would make them compensate, but Wu is definitely not that kind of person. Her most likely choice is to eliminate the root cause to avoid future troubles! The reason why she hasn’t made a move yet is not because she doesn’t want to, but because she is still looking for a good excuse!”
"Sanlang, you understand!" Li Jingye saw Wang Wenzuo silent and thought he had been convinced: "This Wu Minzhi is not something you can afford to offend, so be it! I will find an opportunity to talk to him for you tomorrow. Let’s make peace with him and let’s get over the conflict with him. As for the rest, let’s end it here, okay?”
"Well, let's trouble Brother Li!" Wang Wenzuo made up his mind and smiled: "By the way, what does Zhou Guogong like this time? Since I bumped into him, I have to give him a gift to express my apology!"
"That's right!" Li Jingye smiled and raised his thumb: "If you have this attitude, this thing will definitely happen. Let me think about what he likes!"
"How about the falcons?" Wang Wenzuo recalled the old incident of meeting Wang Bo and Lu Zhaolin on the way to Chang'an: "I heard that falcon hunting is very popular in Chang'an recently, and I brought a few good ones over there in Haidong!"
"Falcon? Are you top-grade?" Li Jingye's eyes lit up.
"I dare not say that it is a top grade one, but it is definitely better than what you can see in Chang'an!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile.
"Okay, this is good!" Li Jingye slapped his thigh: "Chang'an is indeed very fashionable recently. Even if he doesn't particularly like it, it's not bad to give it to others!"
"Okay!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Tomorrow I will send four pairs to my house. Brother Li, give him two pairs. Please keep the other two pairs!"
"How embarrassing!" Li Jingye laughed.
"Brother Li told me stories for half the night tonight. Shouldn't I get two pairs of hunting falcons?" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile.
(End of chapter)
