In the next three days, Xue Shao basically didn't wake up much. Even an iron-clad brother like Xue Chuyu "defected" to bully the groom official at this time, and came to pour wine with others.

The day before the wedding, the palace sent someone to take Xue Shao and his brother Xue Yi into the palace, and Emperor Li Zhi and Wu Zetian met the brothers in the Daji Hall of Taiji Palace. The purpose is mainly to make final arrangements and explanations for the process and various matters of the wedding.

I spent the whole morning deliberating on this matter.

Wu Zetian was extremely active and basically dominated the meeting. According to her idea, tomorrow all the farmers and industrialists in Chang'an City will be closed for one day, and the officials will also have a holiday, requiring them to come to watch the ceremony on both sides of the streets of Chang'an City. Officials with higher rank of five or more will also be invited to participate in the banquet. In addition, Wu Zetian prepared more than 100 carts of dowries such as gold, silver, thick satin, and treasures and antiques for her baby daughter, Princess Taiping, which have all been decorated today, and will only be shipped out together when she gets married.

Just transporting these dowries requires the use of thousands of foot wives.

In addition, in order to maintain the security of the wedding site, General Cheng Wuting, the general of Zuo Yulin Wei, led the entire Yulin Army of more than 3,000 people to go out together to escort the wedding. This is not counting the Jinwuwei soldiers who were under martial law in Chang'an City and the officials dispatched by the county government and Lifang.

According to the process of the wedding, Xue Shao will set off from his home Xue Mansion, ride a tall horse and lead the greeting team into the palace, pass through the Taiji Palace into the Daming Palace, and greet Princess Taiping in the Penglai Palace, where the heavy sacrifice ceremony will be held. Then the young couple will take a huge wedding party out of the palace, through most of Chang'an City, and marry Princess Taiping to Xue Shao's house, where a traditional wedding will be held - worship the ancestors of heaven and earth, thank relatives and friends.

Finally, the wedding procession will be transferred to Princess Taiping's Mansion. Here again, a heavy wedding ceremony arranged by the imperial court was held. At that time, the invited civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty will be present, and the crown prince Li Xian will act as the officiating person on behalf of the two saints. The wedding feast had been prepared since three days in advance. It is conservatively estimated that there will be a thousand tables of banquets in Princess Taiping's mansion at that time, and the grand occasion is unprecedented!

After hearing this, Xue Shao was really amazed at the wealth of the Tang Dynasty and the generosity of the two saints. How many times can you see such a grand wedding that shakes the whole city and is watched by tens of thousands of people in a hundred years?

After the matter was settled, the two brothers had a meal.

Perhaps because people are in good spirits on happy occasions, Li Zhi's body seems to be much better than a while ago. During the banquet, he laughed all the time, and his eyes seemed to have recovered a little. Wu Zetian kept persuading him to drink a few less, but Li Zhi didn't listen, saying that I would marry a daughter in this life, how could I not be happy?

Wu Zetian heard this and fell silent.

Li Zhi's words obviously had some thorns. The couple only gave birth to two daughters in this life, and the former one died in infancy, leaving a historical mystery of Brown Wu Zetian's murder of a daughter, which became a heavy stain on her life. In addition, Wu Zetian had other concubines who gave birth to two daughters, but they were kept under house arrest in the palace until they were twenty or thirty years old before they hastily married a low-level military attache with an average background, so naturally it was not a glamorous marriage.

Maybe the speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional. Xue Shao faintly felt that under the harmonious appearance of the two saints respecting each other, there might have been a deep contradiction, and he didn't know when there would be an outbreak of resounding.

Li Zhi's health is very bad, and his control over the imperial court has become weaker and weaker over the years. But the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, as long as Li Zhi is alive for a day, whether it is Wu Zetian or Pei Yan, it is impossible to completely cross him and elevate him.

Halfway through the banquet, Li Zhi struggled to get up as if he was going to change his clothes. Wu Zetian was about to get up to help, Li Zhi waved his hand on crutches, "Sit down for a while, accompany Xue Gong to the banquet - Xue Shao, change clothes with me!" ”

"Yes." Xue Shao agreed and hurriedly stepped forward to help Li Zhi.

Li Zhi laughed twice, glanced meaningfully at the banquet, and walked forward.

Wu Zetian always smiled and didn't say a word, but a sharp light flashed faintly in his eyes. Xue Yi, who was so frightened that he was sitting at the bottom, almost fell off his chopsticks.

"Xue Gong, come, I respect you!" Wu Zetian obviously noticed the change in Xue Yi's expression, and immediately hit the snake with a stick, or knock on the mountain and shake the tiger.

"Thank you! Queen of Heaven, please! Xue Yi almost didn't dare to look up at Wu Zetian, so he hurriedly picked up a glass of wine and drank it all first.

"Xue Gong drinks a lot!" Wu Zetian smiled, then covered his face with his sleeves and drank a cup.

"Massive divas!" Xue Yi hurriedly poured wine and raised his glass in return, "Weichen respects you!" ”

"Wait!"

Wu Zetian suddenly raised his hand, and Xue Yi's movements suddenly stagnated, stunned.

"Queen of Heaven, what are the admonitions?" Xue Yi asked cautiously.

"You and I are in-laws, what kind of admonition do we talk about?" Wu Zetian said with a smile, "However, I do have some homely words that I want to pull with you." ”

"Diva...... Please! ”

……

On the other side, Xue Shao helped Li Zhi out of the dining hall, and when he finished cleaning his hands at the back, Li Zhi did not mean to return to the banquet immediately, raised his finger and pointed to the garden, signaling Xue Shao to help him go there and sit down.

There were a few eunuchs and palace maids around him, and Li Zhi reprimanded them far away, and asked Xue Shao to help him sit in a pavilion.

It was late autumn, and the garden was full of foliage and trees, but there was also a blooming autumn chrysanthemum.

Li Zhi is not only the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but also a "literary youth" who loves literature. Like many poets, he has sad autumn feelings, especially now that he is old and in poor health, seeing the autumn scene in front of him, he looks a little withered and depressed.

"Your Majesty, what's the matter?" Xue Shao stood beside him and asked in a low voice.

"Spring flowers and autumn moon, heaven and earth are natural. Life and death, sickness and death, mortal mortal number. Li Zhi said leisurely, "I am old, just like the flying flowers and fallen leaves in this garden." But you are young and strong, like this blooming autumn chrysanthemum. I really envy a young man like you! ”

"Your Majesty is as strong as the sun is in the middle of the day, why do you say this?" Xue Shao said.

According to the general situation, Li Zhi, who is only in his fifties, is indeed in the heyday of a man. Although physiologically not as robust and energetic as young people, they have reached the pinnacle of wisdom, experience, and talent. However, the Li family has a family genetic disease of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as "wind disease", but few family members who have this disease have a long life, and they are already good in their sixties. Li Zhi's father, Li Shimin, died even in his early fifties. Over the years, Li Zhi suffered from wind diseases, often dizzy and painful, and sometimes temporarily blinded. With such a disease, there is no need to talk to Li Zhi about being aggressive.

This may be an important prerequisite for Wu Zetian's rise. No book is written without coincidence, and history is always accompanied by many accidents.

Listening to Xue Shao's words, Li Zhi waved his hand with a smile, "I know how my body is." You don't have to coax me. ”

Xue Shao had nothing to say.

"That's right." Li Zhi changed his words and asked in a gossipy tone, "I haven't heard from you for a while since I met you with the Queen of Heaven at the Hanbing Palace last time. How are you doing? ”

Xue Shao felt that Li Zhi's question was general, but it was definitely not talking nonsense with me when he had nothing to say, it was obviously implicitly referring to what he was asking?

After thinking about it for a while, Xue Shao replied, "Thanks to Your Majesty's care, the minister has always been very good recently. ”

"Hmm......" Li Zhi held his hands on crutches, squinted his eyes slightly and nodded, and then said, "Have you encountered anything unpleasant recently?" ”

Xue Shao's heart froze, was he inquiring about the conflict between me and Wu Youning, or about my martial arts being cut off, or whether he was inquiring about my unpleasant quarrel with Pei Yan?

Seeing that Xue Shao didn't answer immediately, Li Zhi smiled, "What, you still can't trust me, your father-in-law and uncle?" ”

"Don't dare!" Xue Shao hurriedly clenched his fists and said, "It is inevitable that there are some trivial troubles in life, and the minister doesn't know for a while, whether he should talk about it to His Majesty." ”

"Aren't we gossiping now, what can't we say?" Li Zhi seemed very generous and easy-going, and said with a smile.

"Yes." Xue Shao responded to a promise and said, "Not long after returning to Beijing, the minister had some small misunderstandings with Wu Youning, a member of the Zhongshu House, because of some trivial matters. But now, things have settled down. ”

"Hmm......" Li Zhi nodded noncommittally, "Is there anything else?" ”

Xue Shao felt that Li Zhi clearly intended to let himself find him to "sue the emperor". Moreover, Li Zhi seemed to want to know the reward and treatment of Xue Shao by the imperial court after the Northern Expedition.

Because last time, Li Zhi had personally said to the queen of heaven three times in a row that he would "reuse" Xue Shao!

Xue Shao hesitated. No matter what, suing the queen of heaven in front of the emperor always has a little unjustifiable feeling......

Seeing Xue Shao's hesitation, Li Zhi smiled indifferently as if he had insight into the heavens, "What is your official position now?" ”

Xue Shao's heart sank, he didn't know anything about my official appointment? …… Well, since you took the initiative to ask, I have no choice but to say it!

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister is now in the position of a member of the military department." Xue Shao replied.

Li Zhi waited for Xue Shao's next words, and when he saw that he had no words, he seemed to be a little surprised: "What else?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, no."

"Gone?" Li Zhi's tone was obviously raised, and he looked more surprised and surprised.

"Yes, it's gone."

Li Zhi took a "sizzle" breath, his eyebrows furrowed deeply, pondered for a moment, and then nodded slowly, "I, I know." ”

Xue Shao's heart thumped, did I sue Wu Zetian? …… I believe that Li Zhi will not be so confused, because of this matter, go to trouble with Wu Zetian, right? Otherwise, I'm really not human inside and out!

After a while, Li Zhi waved his hand and motioned for Xue Shao to help him up, "Go back, don't let the queen of heaven and your brother wait for a long time." ”

"Yes." Xue Shao stepped forward to help.

When he was close, Li Zhi suddenly grabbed Xue Shao's arm and made him cling to him, and then said in a deep voice: "Calm down!" ”

"Yes!"

Then, Li Zhi quickly pushed Xue Shao away a little. Xue Shao understood and walked slowly with him.

At this moment, Xue Shao's expression was very calm, but his heart was tumbling.

The three words "calm down" contain how much affection and intentions do Li Zhi have? !