Datang's system of three provinces and six ministries is very complete, with clear responsibilities of each department, and departments cooperate with each other and contain each other; The division of labor among the various officials is meticulous and their duties are clear. The province formulates policies and drafts edicts; The provincial audit recital; Shangshu Province issued and executed. If there is any impropriety in the edict drafted by the Zhongshu Province, the Ministry has the right to refute it and request a redraft. For the important chapters submitted by various departments, they must be submitted to the Menxia Province for review by the Shangshu Province, and after the approval of the Menxia Province, they are allowed to be sent to the Zhongshu Province to be submitted to Gaozong for approval; If it is considered inappropriate, the amendment may be rejected.

Therefore, Li Hong had to inspect the various departments at the Guangshun Gate, handle and decide on some small matters, and the main place he went to was the Menxia Province, which was responsible for correcting the courtiers' chapters and reviewing the edicts of the Chinese letters.

Among the servants of Menxia Province was Dou Dexuan, who was one of the close associates of Empress Wu.

When he saw Li Hong arrive in Menxia Province, he knew that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had resumed the previous practice of Gaozong ordering him to go to Guangshun Gate every five days to inspect the performances of various departments, so he hurriedly got up and saluted Li Hong, and invited Li Hong to sit down on the main seat, so he instructed a Zuo Sancai attendant to put the two pieces in front of Li Hong and said, "Your Highness, this is the music sent by Shangshu Province today, some of which have been deliberated, and some of which have not yet had time to be seen, please review them." ”

Li Hong came to Menxia Province today, mainly for the sake of Jiang Renji, the young secretary of Honglu Temple, and as for the recitals presented by other officials, he didn't have time to read them and didn't want to read them. Because no matter what he reads and what instructions he makes, as a close confidant of the Empress Wu, Dou Dexuan will inform the Empress Wu of what he has done in Menxia Province word for word, and some of the small things he decided in Menxia Province are just to familiarize himself with government affairs, and have little practical significance, in this case, why does he have to do this to provoke the attention of Empress Wu?

Therefore, he didn't look at the two pieces of music that were placed in front of his case, but asked, "Dou Xiang, have you reviewed the music sent by Jiang Renji, the young secretary of Honglu Temple, today?" ”

Dou Dexuan was quite surprised, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had just arrived in Menxia Province, and he didn't look at other people's recitals, but specifically asked Zhao Renji about charging envoys from various countries who lived in Honglu Temple for food and lodging, could it... Suddenly, he thought that in the past few days, in order to prepare for the reception of the Tibetan mission, wasn't Honglu Temple listening to the dispatch of His Royal Highness the Prince? Thinking about it like this, Dou Dexuan suddenly understood why Zhao Renji, the young secretary of Honglu Temple, dared to be so bold and had such a controversial performance at the meeting.

It's just that Zhao Renji's recital has a lot to do with it: first, let the envoys of various countries live in Honglu Temple for free food and lodging, which was set in the place where the Tang Dynasty was founded, and it was also the will of Taizong himself; Second, it is necessary to charge the envoys of various countries who live in the Honglu Temple, which will inevitably affect the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the surrounding countries. So Dou Dexuan did not decide whether to deliberate or reject it privately after reading it, but took it out and put it aside separately, preparing to invite Xu Jingzong and Dai Zhide and other prime ministers to Menxia Province in the afternoon, and everyone discussed it together before making a decision.

Now seeing Li Hong ask, he took out this piece from the other side of the desk, put it in front of Li Hong respectfully, bowed down and replied, "Your Highness, the content of this piece is too involved, and Wei Chen doesn't dare to make a rash decision, so it has not been reviewed. ”

Li Hong opened the recital and began to read quickly.

Zhao Renji did not write much about the content of the recital, except for Zhao Renji's suggestion that he made yesterday, Zhao Renji only added a little specific plan on how to charge the envoys and envoys of various countries living in Honglu Temple, which made his suggestion much fuller.

Li Hong had already finished reading the above content after a few simple glances, he put the piece on the table, and asked Dou Dexuan, "What do you think of this piece of music Dou Xiang?" ”

Dou Dexuan had long known that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would ask him this, so he pondered for a while, and replied, "Your Highness, let the personnel of the missions of various countries stay in the Honglu Temple and provide them with free food and lodging, which was set during the Taizong period, and now it is not appropriate to change the rules set by Taizong!" Moreover, rashly charging room and board fees from the envoys of various countries staying in Honglu Temple may also cause dissatisfaction among the envoys of various countries, and it will affect the relationship between Datang and the surrounding states at that time! ”

"The envoys who can go to Chang'an City to meet them, they don't lack these few dollars, but Honglu Temple has to provide food and lodging for hundreds of people from dozens of state missions every year, and the cost of this year will be tens of thousands, and no matter how abundant the Datang treasury is, it can't be squandered like this, right?" Li Hong said unhappily, "Besides, in recent years, Datang has continued to use troops in the Western Regions and the Northeast, and the military expenditure is very large. ”

Dou Dexuan, as the secretary of the household department, is in charge of managing the tax and financial household departments of the Tang Dynasty, and he naturally knows how much money and grain have been consumed in the treasury in the past few years because of the continuous use of troops in the Western Regions and the Northeast by the Tang Dynasty, and how much money is left in the national treasury now.

Therefore, when Li Hong questioned him like this, he didn't know what to say for a while.

Li Hong saw that Dou Dexuan was silent, so he no longer paid attention to him, but picked up the pen and wrote the word "pass" on it, and then said to Dou Dexuan, "This suggestion is good, don't refute it anymore, and present it to your father today!" ”

Dou Dexuan already knew that this was a recital that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked Zhao Renji to perform, and as a courtier, he had already advised the Prince, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince still insisted on doing so, he knew that if he disagreed with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince on this recital, there would be no good fruit to eat, so he bowed down and said, "Since His Royal Highness said so, the old minister will do it." ”

As a servant of the province under the door, if Dou Dexuan forcibly refutes this recital, Li Hong knows that even if he is the prince, he can't do anything with him. Fortunately, Dou Dexuan was not Wei Zheng, a provincial servant in the Taizong period, and unlike Wei Zheng, he had the habit of refusing Taizong's request without fear of death, so seeing that Dou Dexuan no longer insisted, but agreed with his own opinion, Li Hong couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

After doing this, Li Hong was not going to look at any other concerto, he got up and said to Dou Dexuan, "Let's stop here today!" I was a little tired alone, so I went back to rest first. ”

Seeing that the prince only gave instructions on Zhao Renji's recital, and did not look at other people's recitals, Dou Dexuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he is a servant of Menxia Province and a confidant of Empress Wu, he is a minister after all, and Li Hong is the prince and the prince of the Tang Dynasty.

Dou Dexuan sent Li Hong out of the door to the province, and as soon as the two of them walked to the door, Li Hong suddenly remembered something, so he stopped and asked Dou Dexuan, "Dou Xiang, when it came to taxes and treasury money just now, I don't know much about it, so I want to know about this situation, you see, can you send someone to send the tax accounts of the Tang Dynasty in the past two years to the East Palace for Gu to understand?" ”

Li Hong said this on purpose, he didn't want to bother to understand the tax situation of Datang, but Zhang Cambodia and Li Qiao wanted to investigate the tax problem of the East and West Cities, so they needed to check the accounts of the taxes collected by the Ministry of Household in the past few years, and he said this in order to hide people's eyes.

Because Li Hong mentioned the tax and treasury savings of the Tang Dynasty just now, and now he proposed to check the tax accounts of the household department, Dou Dexuan didn't think much about it, but said heartily, "Your Highness, rest assured, Weichen will send someone to send the accounts to the East Palace in the afternoon." ”

"Then thank you Dou Xiang!" Li Hong said politely, and strode out of Menxia Province.

When Li Hongyi left Menxia Province, Dou Dexuan hurriedly returned to the study, quickly wrote a few words on a piece of paper, and instructed a confidant scribe to send the paper to the Zichen Hall of Daming Palace.

In the Xuanzheng Palace, Empress Wu was reviewing the chapter, and suddenly saw the note sent by Dou Dexuan, knowing that Li Hong frowned slightly when he went to Menxia Province to inspect the performance today, and couldn't help but snort coldly. But when she quickly read the contents of the note, a faint smile appeared on her face, and she handed the note to Zhang Ying, the attendant who was serving on the side, and said in a flat tone, "It's not a big deal for Honglu Temple to charge the envoys of various countries who live in the museum!" Since it's in Honglu Temple, if you want to toss, let you toss! ”

Obviously, Empress Wu was quite satisfied with Li Hong's practice of not reviewing other people's recitals in Menxia Province today, but only instructing Zhao Renji of Honglu Temple to perform them.

Zhang Ying is one of the confidants of the Empress Wu, who was disgraced because of her childlessness, and the Empress Wang tried to attack her rival Xiao Shufei with the Empress Wu, and he has been following the Empress Wu since he was included in the palace from the Ganye Temple, and it has been fourteen years since then.

Therefore, there are many things that Empress Wu will not hide from him, and he also pretends not to hear what Empress Wu says. He just respectfully took the note, walked quickly to the brazier, put the note in it and burned it, and then returned to the side of the martial queen.

Empress Wu glanced at Zhang Ying, who had returned to her side, pondered slightly, and then asked, "Yesterday, you sent the maidservant to the East Palace, does the prince have any opinions?" ”

"Nope! However, he just left Zhao Hongskirt by his side, and the other maidservants all asked Yan Zhuang to arrange for them to go to various places in the East Palace. Zhang Ying replied respectfully.

"It's worthy of being the son of this palace, and it's not stupid to do things!" Empress Wu said lightly, he couldn't tell whether he was happy or angry in his tone, "During this time, the people of those families have begun to be restless again, you let the 'Qiu Pavilion' keep an eye on it." Also, you 'Qiu Pavilion' still have to be measured in doing things, this palace has endured them for so many years, and I don't mind enduring them for a few more years. Of course, sooner or later, what they call today, this palace will definitely make them pay a heavy price. ”

"No!" Zhang Ying bowed and replied, and quickly exited the Zichen Palace.

At this time, Empress Wu did not continue to review the chapter, but put down the pen in her hand and walked to the door of Zichen Palace, her deep gaze looked in the direction of Lin De Palace, and a trace of mockery appeared on her slightly tired face. And in the apse of the Lin De Palace, Gaozong was singing and dancing with the niece of the Lady of Wei State, that is, the Empress Wu, Helan Minyue.