Li Chen distributed the lotus roots in the huge artificial lake of Buxian Garden to the long-term workers of Buxian Garden, which was just a drop in the bucket for the famine year. Despite this, it left a good impression on her in the hearts of the people of Chang'an. Everyone said that the princess was unspeakably expensive, and she didn't know the suffering of the world, but Princess Yongchang saw the long-term workers digging wild vegetables on the mountain, and she couldn't bear it, so she distributed the lotus roots in the lake to the long-term workers of the Buxian Garden.

Some people were not convinced, and jumped out and said that the princess closed the household for 500 and gave the lotus root in the lake to Changgong? If you really have a heart, you should also distribute the grain handed over by the closed households to the people.

Someone retorted that a group of Diao people still have to make inches, opening a warehouse and distributing food is a major matter of the country, and the princess is just doing a good deed every day, so should you still think that is what she should do?

Anyway, in the year of famine, everyone was hungry, and the nobles in Chang'an City saw that Princess Yongchang had good deeds, but they didn't, for fear that public opinion would say that they were not as good as the little princess under the age of six, so they had to endure the heartache and distribute a little bit of the food in their private warehouses to the hungry people. The so-called accumulation of small amounts has also slightly alleviated the famine around Chang'an.

The surroundings of Chang'an have been slightly relieved, but the place has not been relieved. The reports of famine in various places, as well as the reports of hungry people rioting and grabbing food in a few areas, still flew to the Taiji Palace like snowflakes.

At this time, the people also began to complain about the imperial court, thinking that Wu Zetian had been in politics all these years, and the rumors that the great rebellion angered the heavens intensified, and the people of the Tang Dynasty, who originally loved the queen very much, at this time, because they couldn't eat enough, where could they still care about how much the queen assisted the saints in the past to do things that were beneficial to them, and asked the saints to depose the queen to calm the anger of the heavens.

Seeing this, Wu Zetian knelt down in front of the ministers on the first day of the 11th lunar month and asked the emperor to depose her as empress in order to appease the people's grievances.

"If the saint deposes the concubine, he can earn the people of the Tang Dynasty to live and work in peace and contentment, and the concubine is willing to abdicate the throne."

Although some of the ministers were anti-martial parties, whether they were pro-armed parties or anti-armed parties, they did not expect Wu Zetian to make this move, and everyone was in an uproar.

Seeing this, Li Zhi was shocked and angrily reprimanded him for making nonsense.

"If the Empress of Dongfeng Taishan did not preside over the Asian sacrifice that day, it was also my fault, the queen just listened to my instructions, what is the crime? Since the queen presided over the harem, the mother has been the world, and she has held three silkworm ceremonies to set an example for my Tang women. The catastrophe that fell from heaven on the Tang Dynasty is a test for me, why do you Aiqing and the people blame the queen for the natural disaster? Don't mention it again in the future! ”

Li Chen was not too surprised to learn that Wu Zetian had asked to abdicate his position.

Naturally, she would not think that her mother was afraid of folk rumors, nor would she think that her mother really didn't want to be a queen. What my mother did was just retreating into advance.

On the second day after Wu Zetian asked to abdicate the throne, Wu Zetian's mother, Rongguo's wife, Yang, hurriedly entered the palace to see Wu Zetian.

At this time, Yang was already an eighty-year-old man, but his mental state was still very good.

Mrs. Rongguo is old, and she has not often walked around the palace in the past two years, if she wants to see her grandson and granddaughter, Wu Zetian will arrange a guard of honor to send the princess and princess to visit her in the palace of Zhou Guo, and when the two little guys Taiping and Li Xian are bored in the palace, they often go to the palace to play.

What's more, since Helan Minzhi inherited the title of Duke of Zhou, he lived in the Duke of Zhou's mansion, and often went to serve her old man, coaxing her to be happy.

When Li Chen went to the Zhou Guogong Mansion to play, he also heard a maid whispering that Mrs. Rongguo had not been able to walk around the palace in the past two years because of Helan Minzhi, saying that now Helan Minzhi is Mrs. Rongguo's little lover. Helan Minzhi died of poisoning in the palace because of his sister Mrs. Wei Guo, and he had a lot of words about his aunt Wu Zetian, and Mrs. Rongguo doted on her grandson and little lover, and rarely went to the palace to see Wu Zetian, saving the little lover from being unhappy.

Li Chen, who overheard the corner of the wall, was dumbfounded, and his grandmother and grandson were ...... It's too heavy-mouthed. Then I remembered that when my mother was in her old age, she would also raise a room of male pets, and later generations were amazed at her energy. Now it seems that there are genes in it.

When Mrs. Rongguo entered the palace, it can be seen that she was also shocked by Wu Zetian's self-request to abdicate the throne, so she entered the palace in a hurry.

"Her Royal Highness the Queen, how can you ask yourself to abdicate the throne?"

Zhou Guogong died of illness in the field that year, Mrs. Rongguo took several daughters to live in the martial family, and later Wu Zetian entered the palace to become the queen, among which various things are indispensable Mrs. Rongguo planned for it, and its ability should not be underestimated. It's just that over the years, Wu Zetian's strategy has become more and more sophisticated and mature, and Mrs. Rongguo also feels that she doesn't need to worry about this daughter. If it weren't for hearing that Wu Zetian asked to abdicate herself, she wouldn't have bothered to run to the palace.

After all, if Wu Zetian really abdicated the throne, it would be related to the future glory and wealth of the martial family.

Wu Zetian asked the people on the left and right to retreat, and then sat on the kang with Mrs. Rongguo, "Mother, I have to do it." ”

Mrs. Rongguo frowned, and said lightly: "Over the years, your limelight has been too strong, and there are more than one or two people in the court who are against you, and there have never been less than one or two people in the sage who have seriously injured you by slander, and you rashly asked to abdicate the position, if the saint is caught between the minister and you, and sees that you take the initiative to abdicate the position, he will push the boat down the river, what should you do?" ”

Wu Zetian smiled, and his eyelids didn't lift, "Mother, I have been married to the Lord for many years, if you talk about his temperament, who can compare with me?" Folk rumors are spreading, natural disasters are continuing at this time, and although the general trend in various places is stable, there are already signs of riots. The Lord seems to defend me on the surface, but in fact he has been overwhelmed by ministers and famine. If I don't ask myself to abdicate the throne at this time, I'm afraid that it won't be long before I, the queen, will not be able to sit steadily. ”

Fortune and misfortune have always depended on each other, she has been out of the limelight over the years, the people of the Wu family have been promoted to knighthood, and Li Zhi's health is not as good as before, although Li Zhi's condition is severe zhòng During the period of taking medicine, the prince was ordered to supervise the country, but many political affairs had to pass through her. Li Zhi trusts her, and he doesn't trust her.

The Sacred Heart is unpredictable, and the turmoil after the abolition that day was that her methods were too rigid and she refused to let Li Zhi in political affairs, which made Li Zhi have the idea of abolishing the post-abolition. From then on, she told herself that Li Zhi might indeed like her maturity and general knowledge, and also admired her ability to take charge of herself, but he did not like his wife to be too tough. For him, the queen must be graceful and strong, but the queen must also show weakness at the right time, so that he feels that he is the one who holds the imperial power.

In fact, today's imperial power is indeed in the hands of Li Zhi.

Therefore, in the face of natural disasters** and rumors among the people, she will show weakness in front of Li Zhi.

Since some people said that the drought was caused by her and that the queen was to be deposed, she took the first action and asked herself to abdicate the throne. The same is not the queen, whether she takes the initiative to ask or is proposed by the ministers, those are two completely different results.

Mrs. Rongguo said, "Even so, you should have spoken to me beforehand. "Mrs. Rongguo is now old, not as ambitious as before, not to mention that in Mrs. Rongguo's view, their ultimate goal is to make Wu Zetian the queen. This ultimate goal has already been achieved by Wu Zetian, and the martial arts family is now prominent, and there is nothing better than now.

Mrs. Rongguo only hoped that Wu Zetian could keep her position in the palace and in Li Zhi's heart, instead of taking the risk of losing the position of queen.

Wu Zetian raised his eyes, glanced at Mrs. Rongguo, and said, "Mother is old now, I shouldn't let my mother worry about it anymore." ”

When Mrs. Rongguo heard this, she was slightly stunned. This daughter has been smart since she was a child, and when she entered the palace, she was not favored by Taizong, but she didn't expect the later crown prince Li Zhi to be infatuated with her. Mrs. Rongguo thinks that Wu Zetian is very capable, very clever and full of tricks, as long as the current saint is still the emperor, she can easily play the harem without a little trouble.

But in the past two years, Mrs. Rongguo has rarely come to the palace to walk around, and she can hear all kinds of rumors outside, and there is even a little lover Helan Minzhi muttering a few words about her aunt intentionally or unintentionally, and she doesn't want Wu Zetian to cause any more trouble.

After Wu Zetian talked to Mrs. Rongguo for a while, he sent Mrs. Rongguo away.

When Mrs. Rongguo left the palace, Wu Zetian didn't say anything more, just quietly watched her leave.

Mrs. Rongguo left Qingning Palace surrounded by a group of maids, Wu Zetian looked at his mother's back and felt that his mother was really old now.

She was immersed in her own thoughts, and she didn't even know that Li Chen was coming, Li Chen stood in front of her mother, tilted her head to look at her for a long time, and didn't see her come back to her senses, so she had to pull her wide sleeves, "A-Niang." ”

"Huh? Yongchang, why are you here? Wu Zetian bowed his head and looked at his little daughter.

Li Chen smiled: "I originally came with Sister A, but when I came, A-Niang was talking to my grandmother, I waited with Sister A-I for a long time, and before you and my grandmother finished speaking, I went back to the princess's courtyard with my sister." But when I went back, I still wanted to see you, so I came back again. ”

In fact, it wasn't that she came back after she went back, but after Taiping left, she ran over again. Liu Chun was not there, and the ordinary maids didn't dare to stop her, so they could only watch her enter the inner room lightly. When Wu Zetian and Mrs. Rongguo were talking, Li Chen had been squatting in the gauze tent indoors.

She thought it would be harmless anyway, but when her mother found out, she said that she was playing hide and seek with Sister A again, and she had been in for a long time.

However, Li Chen felt that his luck was very good today, because after his mother sent his grandmother away, he was a little distracted, and he didn't even notice that she was standing in front of her.