Chapter 511: The Political Situation Changes

There is no doubt that the authority of the eldest grandson Wuji, as the chief minister, is not insignificant, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as powerful. At the court meeting, it is often the things that the eldest grandson Wuji agrees with, and no one dares to oppose them, and no one dares to agree with the things he opposes. A recital, as long as the eldest grandson Wuji passes it, it is equivalent to Li Zhi and the ministers passing it.

Although he is powerful, so far, he has never done anything out of the ordinary, but has done his best to control everything in the Tang Empire.

Whenever he remembered that Li Shimin handed over Li Zhi to himself before he died, the eldest grandson Wuji felt the weight of the burden on his shoulders. Don't dare not do your best.

However, as time passed, the feeling of the eldest grandson Wuji's opponent holding power gradually became addicted. Although he has the final say in the court, the eldest grandson Wuji still decided to exclude some eyesore.

In the fourth year of Yonghui, Fang Xuanling's second son Fang Yiai and his brother Fang Yizhi competed for the Fang family's property. According to Tang Law, Fang Xuanling's title and property should be inherited by Fang Xuanling. However, before Li Shimin passed away, Fang Yiai relied on Li Shimin's favor for him and began to compete with his brother for family property. Before Fang Xuanling passed away, Li Shimin personally ordered Princess Gaoyang to love Fang Xuanling.

Therefore, Fang Yiai relied on the favor of the royal family, and did not give an inch when competing with Fang Yizhi for family property.

This rivalry soon turned into a clique fight. Fang Yizhi is a gentleman, serving as a seven-rank petty official in the court, but there are a group of like-minded people such as Wei Shuyu, the son of Wei Zheng. And Fang Yiai, as a former member of the Wei Wang's party, has a close relationship with Chai Lingwu and other Li Taiyu parties.

At a meeting, Fang Yiai and others inadvertently said some words that were dissatisfied with today's saints, and then remembered the situation when they were working under the King of Wei, which immediately attracted the attention of those who were concerned.

Someone reported the matter to the eldest grandson Wuji. When the eldest grandson Wuji heard this, he smiled coldly. He knew his chance had come.

Under the operation of the eldest grandson Wuji, some officials impeached Fang Yuai's rebellious words and was suspected of rebellion. Li Zhi had no choice but to ask the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple to investigate the matter thoroughly.

As the investigation gradually deepened, several witnesses came forward to testify against Fang's bereavement. At this moment, Fang Yiai and others couldn't get out of it.

And the eldest grandson Wuji continued to torture everyone, instructing those who were imprisoned in the prison to bite indiscriminately, and a large number of royal relatives such as Li Ke, Li Daozong, Li Daoxuan, and Li Yuanjing were all bitten by these people.

Faced with this situation, Li Ji was silent and did not care. Zhang Yunwen finally couldn't sit still, and after visiting the eldest grandson Wuji but was turned away, he immediately went to the palace to discuss the matter with Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang.

Although the eldest grandson Wuji has not yet reported the matter, Zhang Yunwen has already learned about it.

Zhang Yunwen said to Li Zhi: "Wu Wang Yingguo is always jealous of the eldest grandson; Daozong and Daoxuan, the two princes, are the generals of the country, and His Majesty is on his deathbed, and Weichen and others are in charge of the army of the Northern Ya to ensure the peace of the pass, how can they move lightly? And the two of them have a gap with the eldest grandson, which is a disaster today, and they cannot be left unattended! ”

Wu Meiniang next to her also followed to help. After Li Zhi nodded, Zhang Yunwen used the means of the investigation institute to destroy all the confessions that were indiscriminately biting, and quietly sent a message to Fang Yiai, Chai Lingwu and others, saying that if you want to live, don't bite indiscriminately.

Hearing this, these people couldn't help but hesitate.

Later, when the people in Honglu Temple played the results of the investigation, they found that the confession was not there, and the perpetrator retorted. The eldest grandson Wuji's face sank like water, and he said openly: "There are still doubts in this case, how can such people rebel alone?" There must be collusion with the party! Wechen suggested that the case be retried to set the record straight! ”

As soon as these words came out, Li Zhi's face suddenly sank, and he said in a deep voice: "Lord Eldest Sun, I don't need to investigate this matter anymore!" Since this is already the case, then so be it! ”

And Chu Suiliang hurriedly came up to help the eldest grandson Wuji, and said: "Your Majesty, Weichen also thinks that there are still unsolved points in this matter, such as how to launch it when the rebellion is launched, who will respond, etc., so please also ask Your Majesty to order a retrial of this case!" “

Seeing this situation, Zhang Yunwen had no choice but to let Wang Xuance, Zhang Wenqian and others come forward to refute the eldest grandson Wuji and Chu Suiliang. Because Li Zhi listened to Zhang Yunwen's words first, Li Zhi disagreed with the words of the eldest grandson Wuji and Chu Suiliang.

In the end, Fang Yiai and others were sentenced to exile in Lingnan, which was far from achieving the effect that the eldest grandson Wuji wanted.

At this point, the eldest grandson Wuji hated Zhang Yunwen and the people around him, and attacked him whenever he had the opportunity.

A year later, Li Zhi proposed to establish Wu Meiniang as the queen at the court meeting. This suggestion was fiercely opposed by the Shandong scholars and the eldest grandson Wuji, represented by the officials of the Wang family. In the DPRK, only Zhang Yunwen, who is Wu Meiniang's brother-in-law, clearly supports it. Even Zhang Wenjun's attitude is ambiguous.

However, there is Zhang Yunwen in the foreign court, and in the harem, Wu Meiniang's means are not said, and after a few times, Li Zhili Wu Meiniang is the heart of the queen, and he is more determined.

At the beginning of the sixth year of Yonghui, Li Zhi finally ignored the advice of the ministers and pushed Wu Meiniang to the position of queen, and demoted the original queen to a concubine.

And those ministers who opposed Li Zhili, Chu Suiliang and other eldest grandson Wuji's henchmen were exiled to Lingnan by Li Zhi, cutting off the eldest grandson Wuji's right-hand man.

When the edict was issued, the eldest grandson Wuji looked at Li Zhi with a trace of sadness and relief in his eyes. Since that day, the eldest grandson Wuji has gradually relinquished some of his power, watching the cronies he promoted being transferred by Li Zhi one by one, and some young and strange people have been transferred from outside to enrich various departments.

Two years after Wu Meiniang ascended to the throne of the queen, she ordered Xu Jingzong and other cronies to frame the eldest grandson Wuji Wuji and others, preparing to wipe out the eldest grandson Wuji's henchmen.

At this time, Zhang Yunwen came forward again and protected the eldest grandson Wuji in front of Wu Meiniang. said that killing the eldest grandson Wuji has a hundred disadvantages and no benefits for Wu Meiniang, after taking the throne, that is, killing the eldest grandson Wuji, let Li Zhi and the courtiers think, wouldn't they think that she Wu Meiniang is just a narrow-minded person, and when the time comes, there will be more dissatisfied people! Rather than this, it is better to let it go and leave a good impression on the courtiers and all the families in order to stabilize the queen's position. Anyway, now the power of the eldest grandson Wuji is being taken back by Li Zhi little by little. Finally, I also asked Wu Meiniang to follow the example of Empress Changsun and be a generation of virtuous queens.

After listening to Zhang Yunwen's words, Wu Meiniang pondered for a while, and finally agreed.

As a result, the eldest grandson Wuji finally left a life.

After the fall of the eldest grandson Wuji, a large number of young officials were promoted, and many officials were left to Li Zhi by Li Shimin. When Li Shimin was alive, he often mentioned certain officials in front of Li Zhi, although at that time they were only minor officials in the prefecture and county, but Li Shimin pointed out one by one that those officials could do anything, and any position, just wait for Li Zhi to succeed to the throne and promote them.

Therefore, so far, a large number of officials promoted by Li Zhi are all capable officials who are no more than 40 years old and have been trained in the prefecture and county for several years or decades. With the support of these people, Li Zhi managed this empire, and he was even more handy. A sense of vitality has only spread in the government and the opposition, just like the Tang Dynasty that has lasted for three generations and is less than 50 years old.

Then the opportunity for the eldest grandson Wuji to fall, Wu Meiniang began to participate in court politics. Zhang Yunwen knew that it was impossible for a person with a strong desire for power like Wu Meiniang to stay out of the government like Empress Changsun, so Zhang Yunwen did not admonish Wu Meiniang and did not let her participate in court politics. Moreover, this Wu Meiniang has extremely keen insight, and her sense of smell is very sensitive to handling state affairs, and she is familiar with it, and many problems are handled extremely appropriately. Its evaluation of "political enlightenment and enlightenment, governance and chastity" is not false.

Li Zhi has his own wife to help deal with political affairs, and he is a lot more leisurely.

In order to better and more efficiently handle the government affairs, a large number of officials who were inclined to Wu Meiniang were promoted. Most of these people are from the Han family, such as Li Yifu, Xu Jingzong, Cui Yixuan and others. This directly dealt a blow to the power of the Shi clan gate lords.

But all this has nothing to do with Zhang Yunwen. After Wu Meiniang became the queen and protected the eldest grandson Wuji, he rarely participated in the affairs of the court. Now, his attention has fallen on a man who has come all the way from the West.