As soon as Li Duoqi left, Yan Zhuang hurriedly walked in and reported to Li Hong, "Your Highness, I am happy to see you!" ”

"Is it Le Yanwei?" Li Hong frowned. At this time, what did Le Yanwei suddenly come to see him?

"Yes, that's him." Yan Zhuang replied, "He said that he wanted to discuss with His Highness about how to receive the Tibetan mission. ”

"Oh!" After Yan Zhuang reminded Li Hong of this, didn't Empress Wu take the opportunity to ask Le Yanwei to assist him in receiving the Tibetan delegation when he was assassinated before? Thinking of this, he hurriedly said, "You let him go to the Chongjiao Hall and wait for Lonely!" ”

"No!" Yan Zhuang was ordered to leave.

Li Hong also strode out of the study and came to the Chengen Palace.

"See Your Highness!" Zhao Hongskirt was practicing the piano in the hall, and suddenly saw Li Hong, and hurriedly got up to salute.

"No need to be polite, you can serve the lonely bath and change your clothes!" Li Hong stared at Zhao Hong's skirt and said hurriedly. Although Zhao Hongchuan has been serving Li Hong for a while, she was stared at by the prince like this, and the prince said it so eagerly, which made her face full of shyness, so she could only bow her head and whisper, "No!" ”

Because Le Yanwei was always on his side when discussing politics, Li Hong didn't want to snub him, and after bathing, he didn't tease Zhao Hong's skirt anymore, but hurriedly changed his clothes and came to the Chongjiao Palace.

"Weichen Le Yanwei, see His Royal Highness the Prince!" Seeing Li Hong, Le Yanwei hurriedly got up and saluted.

"No need to be polite, please take a seat!" Li Hong said enthusiastically, then walked straight to the main seat and sat down, and asked, "Le Xiang suddenly visited the East Palace today, I don't know what happened?" ”

Li Hong had something to say, that is, he complained that Le Yanwei did not come to see him after he was promoted to prime minister.

How could Le Yanwei not understand the meaning of the prince's words, this was complaining that he was not close to him? He smiled quite embarrassedly, "His Royal Highness was assassinated a few days ago, and Niangniang asked the minister to be responsible for assisting His Highness in the task of receiving the Tibetan mission, and the minister came to discuss with His Highness today." ”

"This-" To be honest, Li Hong didn't think of what to do about this matter, because the purpose of the Tubo delegation to meet Gaozong this time was very impure, but they hadn't arrived in Chang'an City yet, and he couldn't guess what they would do, and what they could do was that he didn't want the other party to pick out the problem in terms of etiquette, so he asked lightly, "What about Lexiang's opinion?" ”

"If according to the rules of previous years, this time we still receive them with the courtesy of a vassal country, I'm afraid it will not be appropriate." Le Yanwei said.

"What do you mean?" Li Hong asked puzzled.

Le Yanwei opened his mouth and said, "Weichen thinks that he will receive them with the courtesy that the two countries are the same status, right?" ”

Seeing that the prince was a little puzzled, Le Yanwei opened his mouth and said, "According to the news, in addition to the Tubo ambassador An Lai, there are also Princess Gesang, the sister of Mangsong Mangzan, who came to Chang'an City this time, so..."

Seeing that Le Yanwei wanted to speak and stopped, Li Hong said unhappily, "If there is anything unspeakable about Lexiang, just say it!" ”

"This time the Tibetan delegation has arrived in Chang'an City, will His Highness be able to go out of the city to greet him at that time?" Le Yanwei said.

There is a princess among the envoys of the other party, and since he wants to greet him as an equal between the two countries, he must at least have the prince come forward. Among Gaozong's heirs, only the crown prince Li Hong can represent the Tang Dynasty, not to mention that this matter is also under the control of the prince!

In fact, Le Yanwei is not stupid, he also knows that if he does not receive the Tibetan delegation well, let the other party catch the handle, and use it as an excuse to threaten the imperial court, he knows very well what kind of consequences he needs to bear, so he will let Li Hong come forward.

Li Hong didn't rush to answer Le Yanwei, but thought about it for a while, and then asked, "When will they arrive in Chang'an?" ”

At present, he has two problems to solve, the first is the Huaxian tragedy, he was not in a hurry to solve the case before, because he took the opportunity of the Huaxian tragedy to let Di Renjie achieve a higher position in Dali Temple, and now he knows that the former head of Chang'an County Bo died in Liujia Village, Huaxian County, he faintly felt that the Huaxian tragedy may not be as simple as he saw, the murderer killed Liu Zhubo just to cover up the truth of tax corruption in Xishi, he guessed that there was a bigger secret in it, so he didn't want to wait any longer. The second thing is that although Helan Minzhi has been arrested and the evidence has been conclusive, he knows the ability of the people around Helan Minzhi, and the Yang family, Helan Minyue and the Empress Wu are not willing to let He Lanminzhi fall like this, so the longer Helan Minzhi's case drags on, the more beneficial it will be to Helan Minzhi, and the more unfavorable it will be to him, so he wants to close the case urgently.

Therefore, for Li Hong now, his time is very short.

"I can't say, their trip is fast and slow, it's hard for us to guess, it's estimated that it's only these three or two days!" Le Yanwei replied.

"Time is a little tight!" Li Hong sighed. However, he thought about it a little and agreed to Le Yanwei. After all, he also had a part in the task of receiving the Tibetan delegation this time, and secondly, it would not be beneficial to him if Le Yanwei was because of this matter.

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Le Yanwei saw that the prince agreed, so he hurriedly thanked him.

Being able to let the crown prince personally come forward to greet the Tibetan envoy is enough to give the Tibetan envoy face in terms of etiquette, presumably they will not be picky in this regard, right?

"You're welcome, this is also a lonely thing!" Li Hong said, "However, this period of time is a little busy, and the task of receiving the Tibetan mission is a lot of trouble. ”

"The minister understands!" Le Yanwei took the order.

He was not familiar with Li Hong, and the matter was already over, so he said goodbye and left.

As soon as Le Yanwei left on the front foot, Zhang Ying, the personal attendant beside the Empress Wu, arrived at the East Palace on the back foot. Empress Wu ordered Li Hong to enter the palace to meet her quickly. Li Hongneng judged from the tone in which Zhang Ying conveyed Empress Wu's words how angry Empress Wu was at this time.

"Father-in-law Zhang, you wait a while, and then go to bathe and change clothes." Li Hong was very polite when facing Zhang Ying, Zhang Ying was the personal attendant of the Empress Wu, not an ordinary eunuch who could compare, and this thing was also in charge of the secret guard system of the Empress Wu, and he was the mastermind who monitored every move of the East Palace, Li Hong did not dare to be careless about Zhang Yingke at all.

"Your Highness, hurry up, Niangniang is very angry." Zhang Ying said in a low voice.

"Why is the queen mother angry?" Li Hong asked pretendedly. When Zhang Ying heard Li Hong say this, she couldn't help muttering in her heart, isn't it because of your trouble? But he didn't dare to say anything, so he could only say apologetically, "The old slave doesn't know, Your Highness should hurry up and enter the palace, and it will naturally be clear when you see Niangniang." ”

"Thank you, Grandpa Zhang!" Li Hong said politely, and strode out of the Chongjiao Hall. He had already changed his clothes, and when he told Zhang Ying, he just wanted to go to the study to get the confessions of Zhang Cambodia and Li Qiao. When he walked out of the Chongjiao Hall and came to the study, Zhang Cambodia and Li Qiao were already waiting for him, and when they saw Li Hong, they were about to give a salute, but Li Hong had already spoken, "How is your interrogation?" ”

"Your Highness, this is Mr. Zhao's confession, this is Zhang Xiancheng's confession, this is Helan Minzhi's own confession, and this is the testimony of Hu Shang in the Western Regions." Zhang Cambodia took out a few pages of paper and handed them to Li Hong and said, "The evidence is conclusive, enough to convict He Lanmin of corruption." ”

Li Hong took a few confessions, he just glanced at Mr. Zhao's confession a few times, his face became very gloomy, he didn't expect Helan Minzhi to have such a big relationship with his assassination, but his anger was only a flash, and then he asked again, "Is there a confession from Wu Youzhi?" ”

Helan Minzhi's embezzlement of the West Market's taxes, this is not a big crime in the eyes of Empress Wu, as long as she is willing, she can pardon Helan Minzhi with any excuse, and just the fact that he was assassinated in Mr. Zhao's confession is not enough for him to bargain with Empress Wu, and Wu Youzhi has three hundred private placement dead soldiers for Helan Min, which is the bargaining chip for Li Hong and Empress Wu!

"Nope." Li Qiao said, "Wu Youzhi's mouth is very hard, and he refuses to admit that he is working for Helan Minzhi. Therefore, even if we have Mr. Zhao's confession, we cannot conclude that he privately kept the dead in captivity and has a direct relationship with Helan Minzhi. ”

"Your Highness, I'm afraid it will take some time to want Wu Youzhi's confession." Zhang Cambodia said with deep meaning.

"What do you mean?" Li Hong asked.

"Wu Youzhi is a fierce man, and the ordinary criminal law of Chang'an County has no effect on him at all, and if you want him to speak, you have to harshly extract a confession, which will take time." Seeing that the prince was puzzled, he added, "We have to find someone who is proficient in torture." ”

As soon as Zhang Cambodia explained this, Li Hong understood.

Indeed, since Wu Youzhi can be valued by Helan Minzhi and let him train and lead the dead, it is enough to show that his force is not weak. And such people are often more able to extract confessions by torture than ordinary people, so if you want this kind of person to speak, you have to torture to extract confessions. And whenever there is any major case in Chang'an City, Dali Temple and the Criminal Department will immediately accept it and will not leave it to the Chang'an County Ya for inquiry, so all the Chang'an County Ya usually judges are just some trivial cases, and there are naturally no convenient masters in the prison.

"We are really short of talents in the East Palace!" Li Hong sighed. Because at this moment, he thought of Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen, the cool officials in the post-martial period, if one of these two people was by his side now, he felt that this trial of Wu Youzhi would not be so troublesome.

"Your Highness, rest assured, one night, as long as you give the minister one night, the minister guarantees that he can get a confession from Wu Youzhi." Seeing that the prince frowned, Zhang Khan immediately assured.

"Zhang Siyilang is lonely, rest assured!" Li Hong said, "You two can do it with confidence, no matter what happens, Gu will support you." ”

When Zhang Cambodia and Li Qiao heard Li Hong say this, they were very moved, so they bowed down and said, "Your Highness Xie!" ”

Because Zhang Ying was waiting for him in the Chongjiao Palace, Li Hong didn't say anything more to Zhang Cambodia and Li Qiao, but put these confessions in his sleeves, went to the Cheng'en Hall to change a set of clothes, and came to the Chongjiao Hall to leave with Zhang Ying.