Li Zhen returned the seized letters from Lin Qing and Zhao Wenchu to them, and the two were very grateful, not only did they have nothing to do with Li Yuanjia's rebellion, but they would be rewarded for their meritorious service in protecting Yangzhou.

A few days later, Lou Shide and Wu Yizong led an army of 30,000 to Yangzhou and began to clean up the sequelae of Li Yuanjia's rebellion.

The time has gradually arrived in June, and the weather is getting hotter and hotter day by day, but the big court case set off by Lai Junchen has begun to cool down, under the instruction of Wu Zetian, the cases investigated by Lai Junchen have been closed one by one, Li Dezhao was demoted to the lieutenant of Nanbin County, Su Wei was demoted to Jizhou Taishou, Sun Yuanli was demoted to Zhaozhou Taishou, Xue Yuanzong was demoted to Suizhou Taishou, only Su was executed for colluding with Li Yuanjia to rebel.

The rest of the middle- and low-level officials were released one by one by Wu Zetian's order due to insufficient evidence, the officials were reinstated, and all the confiscated property was returned.

At noon, Wu Zetian woke up from a nap, and finished a ** with the imperial doctor Shen Munan, the palace maids waited for her to wash her body and change into a loose colorful silk dress, Wu Zetian suddenly felt happy, she handed a flattering look to Shen Munan, who looked slightly tired, and pointed to her shoulder, Shen Munan understood, and immediately knelt behind her and gave her a massage meridian.

Shen Munan is more than forty years old, in order to satisfy Wu Zetian's ** in the past few months, he has exhausted his mental strength, although he is well maintained, he is also a little unbearable, he knows in his heart that if he continues like this, he will be squeezed by the saint sooner or later, more importantly, his daughter is young and his wife is virtuous, he must think about it for his wife and daughter

"Your Majesty, Weichen has one thing that I would like to implore Your Majesty to agree. ”

"What's the matter?" Wu Zetian gently held his hand and asked softly.

Wechen thought...... In the middle of the year, I returned to my hometown to worship my ancestors, and I implore Your Majesty to agree. ”

"You haven't been back to your hometown before, why do you want to go back to your hometown now?"

Wu Zetian stared at his slightly flustered gaze, and remembered his struggle on the bed, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but bend the corners of his mouth, and said with a smile: "Do you feel too tired and want to find a chance to rest?"

Shen Nanmu didn't expect the saint to be so shrewd, he saw through his heart at once, his face was flushed, and he knelt down to plead guilty, "Weichen deserves to die"

"It's nothing, you serve me so hard, you haven't even had sex with your wife for a few months, I know it in my heart, so you come to serve me every three days, and you don't have to go back to your hometown, and it's the same to worship your ancestors in the capital." ”

Shen Nanmiao wept and kowtowed: "Weichen is grateful to His Majesty for his thoughtfulness"

At this time, Wu Zetian looked at Zhong Leak, and the time to deal with court affairs in the afternoon was about to come, so he nodded, "You go, I'm going to the imperial study." ”

The two palace maids hurriedly stepped forward to help her up, Wu Zetian went out and got into the car, surrounded by the palace maids and guards, and went to the imperial study.

"Your Majesty has arrived"

The eunuchs on duty shouted, the eunuchs who were resting in the corner stood up one after another, lowered their hands and bowed their heads, and Shangguan Wan'er, who was sorting out the documents in the imperial study, also stood up, at this time Wu Zetian walked into the room, Shangguan Wan'er hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "Wan'er see Your Majesty"

"Are there any arrangements for the afternoon?" Wu Zetian asked as he sat down in front of the imperial case.

"Back to Your Majesty, I will report to Your Majesty on the progress of the investigation of the Xingtang Hui case later. ”

A subtle sneer appeared at the corner of Wu Zetian's mouth, he didn't say anything, and asked again, "What else?"

Shangguan Wan'er hesitated for a moment, and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Li Zhen's report has been delivered at noon, and the search list and the heads of Li Yuanjia's father and son have also been sent. ”

Wu Zetian suddenly perked up, this was the report she had been looking forward to, and she immediately said, "Give it to me."

Shangguan Wan'er took the report sent by Li Zhen from the small table next to her day and night, and presented it to Wu Zetian, she felt a little uneasy, she had read this report at noon, in the report, Li Zhen said that the most critical evidence, that is, the list of the Xingtang Society and the oath list, was not found, it may have been destroyed by Li Yuanjia in advance, and the correspondence has not appeared.

Shangguan Wan'er knew Li Zhen, she suspected that Li Zhen didn't tell the truth in this matter, so she didn't know what the saint would think?

But Wu Zetian was expressionless from beginning to end, and he really couldn't see her inner thoughts, Wu Zetian finished reading Li Zhen's report, pondered for a moment, and said, "Take the search list and show it to me." ”

Shangguan Wan'er hurriedly presented the search list to Wu Zetian, Wu Zetian took it and looked at it, with a rare smile on his face, which was expected by Shangguan Wan'er, the harvest was really amazing, more than 90,000 taels of gold, 200,000 taels of silver, more than 300,000 taels of money, cloth and silk were piled up, these treasures could just solve the urgent need of insufficient military spending in Liaodong, and the saint was of course overjoyed.

Wu Zetian put down the list and sighed: "I have long heard that Li Yuanjia is rich and rivals the country, and the most profitable business in Yangzhou has been occupied by him

"Your Majesty, there are also celebrity calligraphy and paintings collected by Li Yuanjia here, and there are also authentic works of Wang Youjun's "Seventeen Stickers" and "Huang Tingjing", which is something that Your Majesty can't think of."

Shangguan Wan'er had to secretly praise Li Zhen's ingenuity, and specially put the celebrity calligraphy and paintings into another volume, which is obviously to be dedicated to the saint, Wu Zetian finished reading the list of calligraphy and paintings, and suddenly the dragon heart was overjoyed, and said with a smile: "Li Zhen plans to dedicate these calligraphy and paintings to me?"

"It should be"

Wu Zetian nodded happily, "It's rare that he takes care of both public and private affairs, and he thinks very thoughtfully, it's good that he went to Yangzhou this time, dealt with it calmly, quelled Li Yuanjia's rebellion in time, and saved Yangzhou, he didn't disappoint me."

Shangguan Wan'er was deeply surprised, Li Zhen didn't get the list of the Xingtang Society, and the saint praised him so much, could it be that Shangguan Wan'er slowly woke up a little now, and the saint may not really want the list of the Xingtang Society.

At this time, Wu Zetian asked again: "Commander Li said in the report that he also sent evidence of Li Yuanjia's conspiracy and the heads of their father and son, where is it?"

Shangguan Wan'er hurriedly walked to the door and ordered, "Bring things in."

Several eunuchs carefully carried a large sandalwood box and stele in and placed them in the imperial study, Wu Zetian slowly stepped forward, pointed to the stele wrapped in cloth, and "opened"

A guard opened the cloth, and there were 'Ordered by the sky, Yuanjia is the king, eight words, Wu Zetian sneered, and pointed to the wooden box, "This one is also opened"

The guard opened the wooden box, only to see that the boxes were full of dragon robes, jade seals, crowns and other imperial things, and there were three small boxes, and the guard said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, these three boxes should be the heads of Li Yuanjia and his son, should they be opened too?"

Open

The first small box was opened, and inside Huo Ran was Li Yuanjia's head, white and pale, with angry eyes, as if he was not blind, Li Zhen said in the report that Li Yuanjia and his son died in the chaos.

Wu Zetian shook his head, "Such an old man still has the ambition to be the emperor, I think he is really old and confused." ”

Shangguan Wan'er stood aside and bowed her head silently, at this time Shangguan Wan'er had completely understood the mood of the saint, although she wanted to wipe out the Li royal family in the name of the Xingtang Society, but she finally realized that the consequences of doing so were very serious and unrealistic, so this Yangzhou rebellion evolved into a one-man show by Li Yuanjia alone, and it had nothing to do with other members of the Xingtang Society.

This is also the real reason why she doesn't care about the destruction of the Xingtang Society's list, but Shangguan Wan'er doesn't quite understand, how can Li Zhen understand the mind of the saint, or ...... Just a coincidence?

The guards carried the box and the stele down, Wu Zetian sat back in his seat, and smiled slightly at Shangguan Wan'er: "This time Li Zhen has made great contributions in Yangzhou and saved Yangzhou, how do you say I should reward him?"

Shangguan Wan'er smiled and said, "Didn't Your Majesty plan to let him succeed Wu Youxu as the commander of the internal guard? ”

Wu Zetian nodded, "His ability is enough to prove that he can take on this position, and I can agree to him to take the position of commander of the internal guard, and in addition, I plan to remove the post of deputy commander of the internal guard, and he will directly govern the eighth captain." ”

Shangguan Wan'er understood the sage's distress, she originally planned to let the Wu clan and the Li clan each have the position of deputy commander, but now it seems that it is not very realistic, so she simply removed the deputy commander and directly put Li Zhen in charge.

In fact, Neiwei originally did not have the position of deputy commander, but because she Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping each took half of the power, two deputy commanders were set up, and now it is just to restore the original state.

Shangguan Wan'er smiled: "I think he will be grateful to His Majesty for his imperial grace." ”

At this time, a eunuch reported outside the door: "Your Majesty, come to Zhongcheng to wait outside the palace"

Wu Zetian stopped talking about Li Zhen, and said coldly: "Announce him to see him"

"Your Majesty has a decree, and the Emperor will come to see the ministers in the history of Xuanyu"

With the guards shouting, Lai Junchen, who was standing at the foot of the steps of Zhenguan Palace, hurriedly tidied up his coat and hat, lifted his robe, and walked quickly to the palace.

The emperor's mood is ever-changing and unpredictable, and at first he wanted to investigate the Xingtang Society violently, but as Li Yuanjia's rebellion was suppressed, the matter of tracking down the Xingtang Society cooled down again.

In particular, many middle and low-level officials were acquitted, reinstated, and their property returned, which means that Lai Junchen must take out a lot of property that has been embezzled by him, but this is not a headache, and what is worse is that he has occupied the wives and concubines of many officials, how to deal with this?

Lai Junchen has been like an ant on a hot pot for the past two days, so anxious that he can drag it out, but he can't drag it all the time, it seems that there is no other way than to deny it.

Lai Junchen came to the outside of the imperial study, and after waiting for a while, a eunuch walked out of the study and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty is waiting, come to Junchen, please come in."

Lai Junchen walked into the imperial study nervously, only to feel that the atmosphere in the imperial study was cold, his heart suddenly jumped, and he quickly knelt down and saluted: "The minister came to Junchen to meet His Majesty the Emperor, I wish Your Majesty long live."

His three calls for long live had no effect, so he only heard Wu Zetian ask coldly: "Hou Sizhi and Wang Dazhen died in Yangzhou, come to Junchen, you give me an explanation." ”