Everyone is looking forward to the fallen leaves to return to their roots, and there was one thing that Li Zhi never forgot before his death, that is, he hoped to return to Xijing with one breath, and he would die in Chang'an, the hometown where he was born and raised.

A few months after Li Zhi's death, the new monarch Li Xianfu returned to Chang'an with the coffin of Emperor Xian, which finally allowed Li Zhi under Jiuquan to have some peace of mind.

Now the government and the opposition know that when he first ascended the throne, Li Xian once made a fierce struggle to take back the supreme imperial power that belonged to him. One of the most important moves was that he wanted to promote his brother-in-law Xue Shao into the cabinet as a relative opponent of Pei Yan, but failed.

The result of the defeat was quite dangerous, and it almost forced Li Xian to depose Empress Merriam, and even threaten his own throne.

In fact, the loss of a woman is like the loss of a piece of clothing for a common man for a person like the emperor, and it doesn't matter. But for a new monarch like Li Xian, who had just ascended the throne, if he was forced to depose the queen under pressure from powerful ministers, it would be tantamount to kneeling on the ground and slapping himself in front of the whole world. If he does this, if he sits on the throne in the future, it will be just a puppet at best.

So Li Xian, who was not reconciled, made a move that made the Empress Dowager Wu quite angry and helpless - from then on, she couldn't get out of her illness and asked the Empress Dowager to come forward to manage the government.

Empress Dowager Wu had no choice but to listen to the government again. The throne of the dragon chair of the Tang Dynasty has been vacant for more than two months.

The emperor has retreated like this, and of course it is not good for Empress Dowager Wu and Pei Yan to press forward step by step. Therefore, Li Xian's queen was finally saved. But his move of "preferring beauty to the country" made many courtiers and ordinary people quite disappointed in him.

Li Xian's popularity was not high, but now it has almost fallen to the bottom.

This time, the coffin of the first emperor returned to Xijing, and Li Xian, who was a filial son, could not be absent again. So the Empress Dowager Wu personally went to tell Li Xian and asked him to take the opportunity of returning to Beijing this time to make a comeback.

Pei Yan, the minister of Gu Ming, also brought the prime minister and important ministers to invite Li Xian and asked him to come back to preside over the matter of returning to Beijing.

Li Xian was surprised and delighted, and at the same time a little worried-why did the queen mother and Pei Yan suddenly become so kind, is there a conspiracy in it?

After thinking about it again and again, Li Xian couldn't understand it.

However, the matter of returning to Beijing was not pushed by him. So whether he was happy or worried, Li Xian finally walked up to the court again, sat on the dragon chair, and personally presided over the return of the coffin to Beijing.

After returning to Chang'an, the wind and waves were calm. Thus, more than a month passed.

Li Xian, who was like a frightened bird, finally gradually relaxed. The "emperor" heart in his body slowly recovered. He often involuntarily raised his eyes to look at the government and the opposition, from the prime minister of the cabinet to the state officials and county orders, and almost none of them were his Li Xian's right-hand men.

He's been completely hollowed out.

Li Xian was restless because of this, and he was thinking about how to cultivate his henchmen and improve his humerus day and night.

On this day, Wei Xuan, the secretary of the Ministry of Shangshu and the third product (prime minister) of the Tongzhong Shumen, wrote the same book, saying that Xue Shao, the governor of Xiazhou, had the above table, listing many crimes of Shi Xu Changqing, the governor of Suizhou, and Yang Dong and Liu Yuan, a local hero. Among them, Liu Yuan has been killed on the spot for rebellion, and Yang Tong has been imprisoned and sent to Chang'an for trial and sentence. Because Xu Changqing had a meritorious service for his crimes, Xue Shao asked the imperial court to allow Xu Changqing to temporarily join the army in Suizhou Assassin's Mansion as a guilty person, and assist Wu Yanzhang to deal with the aftermath of Liu Hongbao.

This matter is earth-shattering in Suizhou. But when it comes to the court of the Tang Dynasty, it seems very ordinary. Except for Liu Yuan's rebellion and being suppressed, which is slightly noticeable, other things are not worth mentioning.

The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty thought that since it was the prime minister's "polite" performance, the emperor Li Xian would also approve it out of "politeness" as before. Unexpectedly, Li Xian's mind opened up at this moment.

He said: "After Xue Dudu took office, he not only resisted the frequent reports of foreign enemies, but also repeatedly eliminated harm for the people and protected the peace of the party. I thought that the imperial court should give Xue Dudu a reward and promotion. ”

The ministers couldn't help but be stunned, and they all thought to themselves, did the emperor want to retell the story again? The lesson from last time, isn't enough?

"Pei Zhongshu, what do you think?" Li Xian asked about Pei Yan.

Pei Yan stood up and said lightly: "If you have merit, you will be rewarded and punished, which is a matter of course." It's just that I don't know, how will His Majesty reward and promote Xue Dudu? ”

Everyone heard it, Pei Yan expressed his attitude and did not express his position, but still threw the hot mountain stick back to the emperor.

Li Xian didn't panic at this time, but said with a smile: "The ministry has its own assessment method of four virtues and twenty-seven most, and I will not overstep the system." Xue Du made a decision on how to reward the merits, and asked Pei Zhongshu and Wei Shangshu to discuss and decide according to the laws and regulations of our dynasty. Once you have a decision, you can report to me that you know. ”

Even Pei Yan was stunned for a moment, since it was for us to discuss and decide, what was the purpose of saying such a big nonsense?

At this time, Li Xian said: "The former had the rebellion of Bai Tieyu, and later the Turkic rebels sacked the Helong Horse Husbandry. Fortunately, Xue Dudu, who was both civil and military, immediately set out to eliminate Yang Tong and Liu Yuan, who were evil gentry in the township, and saved and benefited the people. Especially the removal of Tang Huaibi, a criminal official who derelicted his duties and brought disaster to the country, is really happy! ”

Pei Yan sighed in his heart - everyone knows that Tang Huaibi was picked up by me, and it turns out that the emperor is targeting me!

After a pause, Li Xian observed the reaction of the courtiers, and then said: "Now that Xue Dudu has to use troops in the front and manage the government in the rear, I am really worried that he will work too hard and will not be able to bear it!" Tang Huaibi deserves to be beheaded, but as the governor of Xiazhou, he is the governor of Xiazhou, and he is missing an important adjutant when he dies. Therefore, I want to promote Wei Xuanzhen to be the governor of Xiazhou, and go to assist Governor Xue. So that he can free up his hands to concentrate on leading his troops and defending against the Turks! ”

The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were in a collective uproar - after such a big detour, it turned out that the emperor was going to promote his father-in-law!

Wei Xuanzhen is the biological father of Empress Wei Xiang'er, and he was only a mere eight-rank soldier who joined the army before. After Li Xian ascended the throne, he was exceptionally promoted to the history of the Sipinzhou Assassin. Now Li Xian wants to stuff Wei Xuanzhen into the Xiazhou Governor's Mansion, undoubtedly he still wants to work hard to catch Xue Shao's line, and wants to borrow a little momentum in the army!

Pei Yan's face had changed.

The emperor's intentions, Pei Yan is clear at a glance. In fact, as early as before, Pei Yan himself took advantage of Wang Fangyi's expedition to the Western Regions and sent Tang Huaibi to sit in Xiazhou, didn't he hope to take this opportunity to cultivate one or two cronies in the army?

After all, the Xiazhou Governor's Mansion was one of the most important military towns in the Tang Empire. As long as Tang Huaibi can sit firmly in the Governor's Mansion, he will be able to choke the lifeblood of the Shuofang army.

But Pei Yan's idea fell through with Xue Shao's knife, and it came to naught.

What I didn't expect was that Emperor Li Xian would actually look at this "financial road". Because of Tang Huaibi, Pei Yan couldn't come forward to stop it. Otherwise, Emperor Li Xian shook Tang Huaibi's details in the court, wouldn't Pei Yan himself have to bear the joint and several crime of "employing people without knowing and disadvantageous"?

"Emperor, this is clearly blackmailing!" Pei Yan felt a little itchy with hatred in his heart, but his face was expressionless and did not move.

Wei Xuan and the others were very surprised when they heard the emperor's words, how could the personnel appointments in a place like the Xiazhou Governor's Mansion be the same as child's play? This is especially true of the crucial position of the Governor's Governor. This time, Xue Shao has already mentioned in the table that "Liu Youqiu is quite competent to act as the governor of the capital", although it is an understatement, but what he means is not that he hopes that the imperial court can officially appoint Liu Youqiu as the chief historian?

Now that the emperor is playing such a hand, how can Xue Shao be satisfied?

Moreover, Wei Xuanzhen has been an official for many years, has never had outstanding political achievements, and has no special strengths, at best, he is just a mediocre official and a layman. With his ability, how can he take on the heavy responsibility of the governor of Xiazhou? When he took office in Xiazhou, he couldn't do things because he occupied a position, and even messed things up, causing the Shuofang army to be discordant and out of tune, wouldn't it ruin the major affairs of the military state?

At that time, with Xue Shao's temper, he would be lucky not to cut Wei Xuanzhen with a knife.

In short, no matter how you look at it, appointing Wei Xuanzhen as the governor of Xiazhou is an extremely absurd move!

As a result, Wei Xuan and the others all waited for Pei Yan, the minister of Gu Ming, to be the first to stand up and speak out against it. This is a common rule in the court. Pei Yan was silent, and the other prime ministers didn't dare to be in the limelight casually.

But after waiting for a long time, Pei Yan was indifferent.

Li Xian, who was sitting on the dragon chair, smiled.

"Since all the secretaries have no objections, then let's do this matter quickly!"

"Majesty, wait!" Wei Xuantong couldn't help it, and hurriedly went out of class to invite, "The minister thinks that this matter is not okay!" ”

Li Xian's face suddenly showed displeasure, "Pei Zhongshu didn't say anything against it, why can't you speak alone?" ”

"The minister is the secretary of the ministry, and His Majesty uses me as the prime minister, and the minister's duty is to fight for it!" Wei Xuantong said.

"If you want to fight, you prime ministers go to the cabinet to fight." Li Xian was a little impatient and got up, "Fight clearly, and then report back to me!" ”

After that, Li Xian brushed his sleeves and left, "Retreat!" ”

The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were all stunned. They all wondered in their hearts, how could the emperor be so arrogant today, could it be that he couldn't get sick these days, and he had eaten enough bear heart and leopard gall?

Pei Yan was still silent, just coldly watched Emperor Li Xian walk out of the court, and said secretly in his heart: Emperor, it is a long time!

The hundred officials retreated in turn with suspicion. Wei Xuantong and Cen Changqian, the prime ministers, walked up to Pei Yan and said in surprise: "Why didn't Pei Ge say a word today? ”

"Your Majesty's holy will has been decided, how can I say more?" Pei Yan replied lightly.

Wei Xuan and the others looked at Pei Yan in amazement, speechless for a while.

"It's according to the meaning of His Majesty...... Let's get things done! ”

Throwing down these words, Pei Yan Shi walked out of the court.

Wei Xuan and others watched Pei Yan walk away in surprise, and secretly said in their hearts: The emperor has just come back, and he is fighting with Pei Yan again!

The only thing that's different is ...... This time, the emperor actually had the upper hand!