"Hmph, I haven't provoked you yet, you actually took the initiative to provoke me, since that's the case, then don't blame me for being polite." Li Xian sneered in his heart, but on the surface, he was kind, patted his chest and promised: "Imperial brother, please rest assured, the junior brother promises that within a month, that guy will never be proud again." ”

"Hehe, if you can get such a guarantee from your brother, you can rest assured that you are a brother, and it is nothing if you offend your brother. But he offended Brother Xian, it was simply a way to kill himself, okay, it's not too early, it's time for Brother to go back, stay for a month, wait for the good news of Brother Xian. Li Hong saw that the goal had been achieved, and he didn't say anything more, so he prepared to go home.

"Hehe, it's nothing to mess with you, if you mess with me, you're killing yourself, don't you say that you're not as good as me as a dignified prince?" Li Xian naturally heard the provocative meaning in Li Hong's words, so he said in fear: "Brother Huang's words, the younger brother is really panicked, the reason why that guy dares to **** the royal brother and is afraid of the younger brother is really because the imperial brother is benevolent and the younger brother is not broad-minded enough, by the way, the younger brother still wants to ask the Pope brother." ”

"Oh? What does the seventh brother have to say? But it doesn't hurt to talk about it, you and my brother still need to be so polite? Li Hong's clever plan was sold, and he was praised by Li Xian for a few words, and he was proud in his heart, and he was polite to Li Xian.

But I heard Li Xian say: "The younger brother heard that day in the court, the elder brother fought with the younger brother for the sake of the younger brother's affairs, and once said that if the war stopped, the food used in the war could be used to help the affected people, but is there such a thing?" ”

"Huh? How do you say this? Li Hong thought that Li Xian was pursuing him for conspiracy to participate in the framing of Li Xian, his face suddenly changed, fortunately Li Xian did not find out, and he fixed his mind and said: "Don't hide it from the virtuous brother, this is actually what Dai Gong said, Brother Wei did not have such remarks at that time, Brother Wei was just worried about the hard work of the seventh brother, and at the same time worried that the seventh brother had made great contributions, and would be feared by some people, which was not good for the seventh brother, so he persuaded the saint to decree a truce." ”

"Hehe, the royal brother doesn't have to explain, the royal brother has a heart of love for the younger brother, can the younger brother not understand? What the younger brother wants to say is that the Holy Lord had agreed to it at the beginning, but now that the younger brother has returned, has the food saved from the war been delivered to the affected people? If the grain can really be delivered to the people, the truce of the younger brother can be regarded as a benefit to the people. ”

"It turns out that what the seventh brother said is this, the seventh brother is in adversity but is still concerned about the affected people, I am really ashamed to be a brother, alas, don't hide it from the seventh brother, the princes of the Manchu Dynasty were all to pull the seventh brother back, who really thought of ordinary people? But please rest assured, this time for the brother, he is doing his best, and he must also talk about this matter to the saint, and he must satisfy the benevolence of the virtuous brother who loves the people, and he must deliver food to the people. ”

Li Hong arched his hand at Li Xian, and then left in a hurry.

However, Li Hong's heart was very proud, his trip to the Zhou Wangfu was really not in vain, not only solved Helan Minzhi's house, but also framed Li Xian, making him even more suppressed by the Empress Wu, and at the same time got a good idea from Li Xian, that is, to save the food of the war that he said in the court before, to help the people affected by the disaster, and earn enough reputation for himself.

But Li Hong didn't want to think about it, how could Li Xian be so kind to give him such a generous gift? It is really because Li Xian knows the Empress Wu too well, and he believes that as long as Li Honglai comes out like this, he will definitely be more jealous of the Empress Wu, so as to put the contradiction between Li Hong and Empress Wu at the top, so as to reduce the suspicion and prevention of himself and resolve the pressure from the Empress Wu.

As for what Li Xian promised about Helan Minzhi, Li Xian didn't have to worry about it, because he knew that Mrs. Yang would kick her legs in a few days, and when Mrs. Yang died, she didn't have to do it herself, and Helan Minzhi would be finished.

So this time, Li Xian didn't have to pay any price at all, he could easily resolve the crisis, and transfer the contradiction to the Empress Wu and the prince, which was really a big profit.

Li Hong didn't know Li Xian's calculations, he returned to the East Palace in a hurry, discussed with Dai Zhide, of course, did not mention Li Xian, and then asked the emperor to go to the emperor, and carefully calculated the grain used by the army for a month, and then asked for hundreds of thousands of grains from the treasury to help the people affected by the disaster.

Li Hong's superiority was really praised by Gaozong, and the ministers of the court and the central government also praised the prince's benevolence and benevolence, and he thought about the people wholeheartedly.

In addition to Gaozong and the ministers, the people also praised Li Hong's benevolence, and even the local people who were favored by Li Hong wrote thousands of words to the emperor, thanking the Son of Heaven and the crown prince for their benevolence.

The common praise between the government and the opposition has brought Li Hong's prestige to a new height, which made Li Hong proud in his heart, and secretly thought: "The reason why I can have today is thanks to the reminder of this good seventh brother, if it weren't for his unintentional words, how could I have gained the common praise of the government and the opposition, hehe, I believe that after this time, my prince's status must be as stable as Mount Tai, although my mother is ambitious, but it is difficult to check and balance." ”

And the fact is indeed as Li Xian expected, the rapid expansion of Li Hong's prestige also immediately aroused the vigilance of the Empress Wu, although the Empress Wu also praised his son on the surface, but the hatred for him in his heart was already very strong, so he ordered to find the fault of the prince, in order to take the opportunity to teach him a lesson, but he did not expect that the prince was very obedient, and the Empress Wu and her henchmen have never grasped their mistakes after more than ten days of hard searching.

However, no mistake does not mean that Empress Wu has no way to deal with him, she secretly ordered her confidant, Si Yuan Taichangbo (Hubu Shangshu) Wang Dejian, so that he secretly hindered him, unable to deliver food on time, so that Li Hong's promise could not be fulfilled.

Wang Dejian this person is cunning and wise, and there is a tumor on his neck, so people give the nickname "think tank", this person did not wait for the order of the Empress Wu to be issued, he has already secretly prepared, and after receiving the order, he immediately went to the emperor, saying that the treasury is urgent, and because of the severe drought this year, the imperial court has released a lot of grain and grass, coupled with the rebellion of the remnants of Goguryeo some time ago, the imperial court has also spent a lot of grain and grass in order to quell the rebellion, so the major granaries have long been unable to make ends meet, if the prince needs the grain and grass outI'm afraid that there will be no more grain for next year.

Gaozong was furious when he heard the news, but if this is the case, what can he do even if he is in a hurry? had to order Wang Dejian to first scrape together tens of thousands of hus of food from all over the place for emergency use, but Wang Dejian said that he couldn't even take out a thousand hus, and proposed to resign and leave it to the emperor.

Seeing this, Gaozong had no choice, so he had to order thousands of grains to be transferred from the palace and handed over to the prince for emergency, but the prince could not meet the needs of the people in the disaster area, which made the people very disappointed. Gaozong had no choice but to order Zhao Renben to be demoted to the Yazhou Assassin History, so as to calm down the people's anger.

At the same time, the Empress Wu took the lead in cutting down on food and clothing, and greatly reduced the salary of the eunuchs in the palace, saying that it was because the crown prince asked for help to the people and the palace allocated food, which caused the palace to complain, and everyone resented the prince, causing Li Hong's reputation to plummet, and he had to donate a large amount of money and silk from the treasury of the East Palace in fear to fill the vacancy of food donated by the palace before.

Li Hong did not fall into a good reputation this time, but lost a lot of property, which was really worth the loss, but Li Hong did not expect that Li Xian was calculating him, but he was even more resentful of Empress Wu.

And at this moment, a sudden news came that his grandmother, that is, the biological mother of Empress Wu, Mrs. Rongguo, died of illness in Jiucheng Palace last night at the age of ninety-one.

This news temporarily suspended the struggle of all parties, but made the contradictions of all parties unanimously aimed at the powerful Helan Minzhi.

Rongguo's wife, Yang, was born in the Sui Dynasty clan, her father's name was Yang Da, and she was the general of the right Wuwei during Emperor Yang's conquest of Goguryeo, and was promoted to the left Guanglu doctor; Uncle Yang Xiong was the king of the Sui Dynasty. At the age of forty, Yang remarried Wu Shiyi, who was the secretary of the Ministry of Industry at the time, and gave birth to three daughters, the eldest daughter was the Korean lady Wu Shun, the second daughter was the Empress Wu, and the third daughter was unknown, married to Guo Xiaoshen, the brother of the famous general Guo Xiaoke.

In the process of the Wu family seeking the position of empress, the Yang family went from place to place, asking to see the founding fathers of the country, Changsun Wuji, Li Ji and others, asking for their help, although the eldest grandson Wuji refused, but was accepted by Li Ji, and as a result, Li Ji's sentence of "His Majesty's family affairs" prompted Gaozong to decide to abolish Wang Liwu.

It is precisely because of the role played by her mother in the process of Empress Wu's advancement that Empress Wu was deeply grateful to her mother, first named Mrs. Daiguo, and then renamed Mrs. Rongguo, and at the same time stipulated that Mrs. Rongguo's grade was the first grade, above the prince's mother and wife.

It is precisely because of the benefits of her mother that Empress Wu has always tolerated Helan Minzhi's misdeeds, no matter how many people expose and report his crimes, they don't care.

Now that Mrs. Yang has passed away, it means that Helan Minzhi's umbrella has been lost.

But Helan Minzhi didn't seem to realize this, and he didn't even listen to his mother Wu Shun's advice, and he was still acting recklessly and boldly. Even on the night of Mrs. Yang's death, he actually spent all day drinking in Kangpingfang, drunk and dreaming of death.

"Seventh brother, you promised to eradicate Helan Minzhi that day, now is the opportunity, don't miss the opportunity." Li Hong, who had had enough of the hardships of the Empress Wu, temporarily died down, and did not dare to go against the Empress Wu openly, and even knew that the Empress Wu was extremely disgusted with Helan Minzhi, but he did not dare to come forward, so he had to resort to the plan of killing people with a knife and pushed this task to Li Xian.

I saw Li Xian nodded and said: "Brother Huang, relax your mind, the younger brother has his own measure, at most twenty days, and it will be difficult to escape from the disaster." (To be continued.) )