The first day of the first month is also called Dan Day, which is the beginning of the new year, and this day is usually held to hold the New Year's court, and the officials and ministers congratulate Wu Zetian on the New Year, and Wu Zetian will also express the New Year's message, and at the same time promulgate an amnesty.

The early dynasty ended after dawn and officially began a five-day vacation, which was also the most longed-for time of the year for the Tang Dynasty ministers.

But for the palace guards, the impact of the New Year's holiday is not great, they still report as usual, but in less than two months, the annual polo tournament is about to kick off, and each polo team is training hard, hoping to get a good result in the tournament.

In the morning, in the vast polo field of the palace, at least seven or eight polo teams were actively training, and the polo team led by Li Zhen began training before dawn, in fact, while Li Zhen was busy with the Weish plan, the training of the polo team still did not stop, and everyone held their energy in the hope of finishing in the top ten.

There is one more person in today's training, Li Zhen also pulled Zhang Li into the polo team, Zhang Li is also a well-known polo master in Dunhuang, he is the main force of the Shazhou polo team, but because he wants to participate in martial arts and quit the Shazhou polo team, he was pulled into his polo team by Li Zhen.

'Bang!'

With a crisp hitting sound, Li Linfu swung his club and hit the polo, the polo flew out of a diagonal line to the right, Zhang Li urged the horse to gallop, and a backhand volley from forty steps away, Pei Kuan, who was defending, was transferred to the left, he couldn't save it, and the polo shot accurately into the hole on the wooden board.

"Good ball!" the guards around the audience burst into applause.

"Good fight, come again!"

Li Zhen threw the polo far away to Jiuzhi, "This time the fat man organizes an attack!"

Everyone didn't react, Li Zhen was stunned, looked back, and saw a large group of palace maids and eunuchs standing by the court, surrounded by two women in the middle, an elderly man wearing a phoenix crown was the Tang Emperor Wu Zetian, and he was accompanied by Shangguan Wan'er.

Li Zhen was startled, hurriedly turned over and dismounted, took a few steps forward and knelt down on one knee, "Humble Li Zhen to see His Majesty the Emperor!"

Wu Zetian smiled gently: "I happened to talk about the polo tournament with Shangguan, so I came over to take a look, Commander Li, you played very well." ”

"Thank you for your compliment, I dare not be ashamed. ”

Wu Zetian nodded, "I remember that you are from Dunhuang!"

"Exactly, he was born and raised in Dunhuang. ”

"Dunhuang is good, the atmosphere of Buddhism is very strong, I also want to go and see it!"

At this time, Li Zhen suddenly remembered the matter of the Maitreya statue, he wanted to find an opportunity to tell Gao Yanfu in the past two days, after all, Gao Yanfu was in charge of this matter, but at this time, he met Wu Zetian, and it seemed that she was in a good mood, can he mention it by the way?

He hesitated for a moment, then said cautiously: "Your Majesty, I went to the Pure Land Temple yesterday to make a vow, but I accidentally met the abbot of the Dayun Temple in my hometown. ”

"Really, what is he doing in Luoyang?" Wu Zetian asked lightly.

Shangguan Wan'er next to her also felt strange, how could Li Zhen suddenly mention the abbot of Dunhuang Dayun Temple, is this a bit abrupt?

She interrupted Li Zhen's words and said with a smile: "Commander Li, there are two months left before the polo tournament, and the Holy Lord hopes that you can make it to the top ten, and there will be a heavy reward at that time." ”

"The humble position will not disappoint His Majesty and Shangguan Sheren!" "Having said that, he was a little disappointed in his heart, and Shangguan Sheren didn't give him a chance to talk about Dayun Temple.

But Wu Zetian was so shrewd, she actually saw the disappointment in Li Zhen's eyes, she was a little interested, so she asked with a smile: "Just now you said that the abbot of Dunhuang Dayun Temple came to Luoyang, why did you mention him?"

Li Zhen hurriedly hugged his fists and said: "Because this matter has something to do with His Majesty, in fact, it is also related to his humble position, and he has not been in the office for a long time, and he doesn't know the rules very well, so I really don't know if I should preface this matter in front of His Majesty?"

"Oh, it has something to do with me, Commander Li should tell me, what's the matter?"

Li Zhen donated his stone wall to the Dayun Temple, and the Dayun Temple built the Maitreya statue, and now because of the shortage of resources and forced to stop work, he finally said sincerely: "The construction of the Maitreya statue is the wish of all Dunhuang people, but because Dunhuang suffered from military disasters and droughts this year, the people are poor, and Master Lingyin can't bear to increase the burden on the people of Dunhuang, so he traveled thousands of miles to Luoyang to raise donations."

Wu Zetian was a little displeased and said: "Why didn't he go to the government, didn't the local government refuse to contribute?"

"Qi Yu Majesty, the construction of the Maitreya statue costs a lot of money, and the government wants to help the people, but it really can't take out too much money and food. ”

Wu Zetian pondered for a moment and said to Shangguan Wan'er: "It's a good thing to build a Maitreya statue, so I will take the lead and donate 3,000 yuan in my personal name, and Wan'er will spread this matter again, so that those rich clans can express their hearts." ”

Li Zhen was overjoyed, and took the opportunity to say: "Back to Your Majesty, if the money raised exceeds the cost of building the Maitreya statue, can you use the remaining money to repair the dilapidated Buddha caves in Mogao Caves?"

Wu Zetian smiled, "Being able to do a little bit for the Mogao Grottoes is also my merit!"

Wu Zetian slowly left surrounded by the palace maids, but Shangguan Wan'er stayed, and she blamed Li Zhen a little: "Why did you say this to Your Majesty?"

Li Zhen sighed and said: "Born and raised in Dunhuang, I know that it is not easy to build and protect the Mogao Grottoes, if I can take this opportunity to contribute a little to the Mogao Grottoes, even if I offend the saints, I am willing to take responsibility." ”

Shangguan Wan'er stared at him for a long time, and said with a dumb smile: "Open your mouth to raise money from the saint, you are the first, even Xue Huaiyi doesn't dare to be so direct, count you lucky, the saint is in a good mood today, go and do the right thing for me, don't think about this crooked way again." ”

"Shangguan Sheren, how can this be a crooked and evil way? At most, he is not doing his job. Li Zhen said with a grin.

Shangguan Wan'er dealt with a group of old-fashioned people all day long, and few people were flamboyant in front of her, and she was quite happy in her heart, pretending to be angry and said: "If you dare to be so flamboyant in the future, see that I don't cut your tongue with a knife." ”

As she spoke, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh, glanced at Li Zhen, turned around and walked away, Li Zhen looked at her back and walked away, and couldn't help but sigh lowly, "Duanli is the best, I see you pitiful!"

Li Zhen turned around and saw that everyone was looking at him blankly, he couldn't help but laugh and scolded: "What stupid, just now the saint said, there is a heavy reward for reaching the top ten, give me good training, it's the turn of the fat man, Xiao Ye will kick him off!"

When everyone thought of the holy promise, they were immediately refreshed and threw themselves into the hard training.

They practiced until the afternoon, and Li Zhen saw that everyone was a little tired, so he said loudly: "That's it for today, continue training tomorrow!"

Everyone turned over and dismounted one after another, and walked towards the side of the court, at this time, Li Zhen saw Zhang Xi waving to him on the side of the court, looking quite nervous, so he urged the horse to meet him, "Brother Zhang, is there something wrong?"

"Childe, something happened to your eldest sister!" Zhang Xi said anxiously.

Li Zhen was shocked and asked urgently, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know the specifics, Qiu Niang came to me just now, let me find you back, she is waiting for you outside Xuanren Gate!"

Li Zhen was suddenly anxious, and turned back to everyone: "Everyone, I'll go first." ”

Everyone gathered around, "Lao Li, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, it seems that something has happened to my eldest sister, and I have to go back immediately. ”

Jiuzhi was also anxious, "Lao Li, I'll go with you." ”

Li Zhen didn't have time to say more, turned the horse's head and ran towards the outside of the imperial city, Jiu Zhi also turned over and got on the horse, followed closely, and after a while, they went out of the imperial city from the Xuanren Gate in the east, and saw Zhao Qiuniang from a distance.

Li Zhen urged the horse to rush up, "Sister Qiuniang, what happened to my eldest sister?"

"Let's talk as we go, let's go to Lintoe Temple!"

"Lintoe Temple?" Li Zhen was stunned, how could it be Lintoe Temple, could it be related to Aunt Meng?

They urged the horse to go to Linzhi Temple, and Zhao Qiuniang said to Li Zhen: "Your housekeeper came to me early in the morning, saying that Aunt Meng didn't come back last night, and your eldest sister and brother-in-law went to Linzhi Temple to ask for someone, but your brother-in-law was beaten by them, and your eldest sister was also arrested by them and entered the temple, saying that they wanted 3,000 yuan to ransom people, I have asked Zhang Wei to negotiate, let them not mess around!"

Li Zhen's eyes suddenly rose with murderous intent, his legs clamped the war horse, and galloped towards Lintoe Temple, Hanoi Lao Ni dared to catch his eldest sister, he was really tired.

Lin Toe Temple is located in Lide Fang, the temple is close to the high wall of the imperial city, Li Zhen has been to this temple many times, Wei Tuan'er's treasure is in this temple, at this time Li Zhen has calmed down, he knows that Hanoi Lao Ni is Xue Huaiyi's lackey, and the contradiction between him Li Zhen and Xue Huaiyi has intensified, could it be that Xue Huaiyi used Lin Toe Temple to attack him?

More than 20 of Zhao Qiuniang's subordinates have been assembled outside the Lintoe Temple, all of them are internal guard soldiers, they all changed into the black gold-edged guard uniforms of the internal guards, and they are wearing leather armor outside, when Li Zhen arrived, Zhang Wei took the lead to greet him, he hugged his fists and saluted: "Participate in the commandery!"

"How's it going?"

Li Zhen restrained the anxiety in his heart and asked, "Have you seen my eldest sister?"

"I have already met with the abbot of Linzhi Temple, and they said that they have no intention of violating the laws of the Tang Dynasty, but it is a matter of course to repay debts, as long as we can hand over the three thousand yuan to the temple in time, they promise not to hurt Sister Quan. ”

"Who is their abbot?"

"No! It's her apprentice, a middle-aged nun, called Zhiwen. ”

"Follow me!"

Li Zhen turned over and dismounted, and led more than 20 internal guard soldiers to walk towards the gate of the temple, there were several young nuns hiding in the gate, and when they saw their large group of people coming towards the gate, they were so frightened that they ran towards the temple, "Master, they are here!"

With a loud bang, the gate of the temple was slammed open, and Li Zhen led a large group of internal security soldiers to break into the temple with murderous spirits, and they strode towards the inner courtyard, at this time, a middle-aged nun with a group of nuns, old and young, blocked their way.

"You guys. What do you want to do?"

The middle-aged nun seemed to want to reprimand them, but when she saw a gold medal appearing in Li Zhen's hand, with the famous double-headed eagle logo on it, her tone immediately softened, and the other party came to someone they couldn't afford to mess with.

Li Zhen withdrew the gold medal and squinted his eyes at her, "You are the abbot of this temple?"

"Old Ni Zhiwen is the abbot. ”

She hurriedly took out a pledge book, "This is your family's promise to pledge 3,000 yuan, in black and white."

Without waiting for her to finish speaking, Li Zhen snatched the pledge book, tore it to shreds, and said coldly: "I just got the news that the nuns of Lintoe Temple are planning to assassinate the saint, take it for me!"

Several internal guards rushed up, like an eagle catching a chicken, pushed the old nun to the ground, tied it with ropes, and strangled the old nun like a pig, shouting: "Let them go! Release them quickly." ”

In just a moment, Li Quan was taken out by several nuns, she saw her brother, cried and ran over, Li Zhen saw that she was not injured, but her expression was frightened, and soon, Aunt Meng was also carried out on a stretcher by two nuns, she was not in a good condition, her cheeks were high and swollen, and she seemed to have been beaten.

Li Zhen was not sympathetic to Aunt Meng's self-inflicted suffering, but this gang of bastards dared to arrest his eldest sister, which made him angry, he slapped the abbot nun twice, and shouted: "Take her back and torture her!"

A group of nuns were so frightened that they fled far away, and no one dared to come forward, only to hear the old nun crying and wailing, "Go find the master to save me!

At this time, another group of young nuns came out, surrounded by an old nun wearing a golden silk robe and a golden crown, I saw that she was about sixty years old, but she was extremely well maintained, her skin was white and red, and a pair of thick ears occupied half of her face, which looked a bit precious.

"Amitabha, why are you innocent in Lintoe Temple, why do you want to arrest people?"

Li Zhen knew that she was the Hanoi demon nun who was making a lot of trouble in the city, so he stepped forward and said coldly: "We are the internal guards of the Tang Dynasty, and we got a secret report today that the nuns of Lintoe Temple plotted to assassinate the saint, and we must thoroughly investigate this matter." ”

Hanoi's face suddenly changed greatly, this crime was too big, they couldn't afford it, she hurriedly clasped her hands together and said: "Amitabha, the donor has no evidence, why is he lying nonsense?"

"No evidence?"

Li Zhen sneered, pointed at the old nun who was arrested, and said: "Take her back to torture, do you think she will not confess?" As for the evidence, in the afternoon, the internal guards will thoroughly search the Linzhi Temple, and I believe that they will definitely find conclusive evidence. ”

Li Zhen turned around and waved his hand, "Take it away!"

Everyone walked quickly towards the gate, and Hanoi Lao Ni was so frightened that his voice trembled, "Commander Li and stay!"

Li Zhen stopped and looked back at her strangely, "You actually know me?"

"At the foot of the imperial city, how can you not know Commander Li. ”

Hanoi Lao Ni was completely convinced, she didn't dare to mention Xue Huaiyi, and stepped forward to beg bitterly, "I beg Commander Li to give us a chance to make up for the mistakes we have committed." ”

Li Zhen knew that Lintoe Temple had a deep relationship with Xue Huaiyi, and he didn't want to startle the snake for the time being, and the stabbing charge was just to scare and threaten them, so he muttered and said, "If you can explain the situation, maybe I will give you a chance." ”

He then turned back and ordered, "Let her go, let's go!"

The internal guard left the abbot Lao Nun and left the Linzhi Temple quickly, several nuns hurriedly stepped forward to untie the rope on the abbot's body, and the old nun was so frightened that she couldn't say a word.

Hanoi Lao Ni was in a very heavy mood, he used to have Xue Huaiyi's support, who dared to offend Linzhi Temple, the officials of Jingzhao Mansion would be respectful when they saw her, and now the internal guards actually hit the door, which shows that Xue Huaiyi began to lose power.

"Master, what should I do?" a disciple asked in a low voice.

"You discuss with the abbot, try your best to settle this matter, I am going to go to the White Horse Temple now, prepare a carriage for me!"

Hanoi Lao Ni sighed, turned around and walked towards the inner courtyard.

Li Quan went home like a dream, and until today she didn't know that her brother was a great official, and he was actually called Commander Li, and even the old nuns of Hanoi who were flying in Luoyang City did not dare to provoke, which made her proud and confused in her heart, she heard that after being favored by the female emperor, she would be promoted overnight, is it a brother

But she didn't have time to ask about her brother's situation at this time, her husband and mother-in-law were beaten, and she was so busy that she was dizzy, asking for a doctor, and buying medicine, but at this time, Zhao Qiuniang found her.

"Qiu Niang, what do you say is the matter with Ah Zhen, when did he become an official?" asked Li Quan with doubts.

Zhao Qiuniang said with a smile: "Sister Quan, don't think about it, Ah Zhen is because he saved Shangguan's life, and the saint is very grateful to him, so he promoted him, didn't he still get the title?

Li Quan also knew about his brother getting the knighthood, but she didn't understand the use of the knighthood, so she didn't take it to heart, as soon as Zhao Qiuniang reminded her, she suddenly remembered, and she was a little relieved in her heart, it turned out that she saved people, not

Zhao Qiuniang said again: "Ah Zhen's identity is still relatively secret, Sister Quan should not publicize it outside, otherwise it will be unfavorable to him, in addition, Ah Zhen will arrange a few people to protect Sister Quan, such as being a partner in the wine shop, and being a coachman at home, in the future, Sister Quan will try to take the carriage as much as possible, don't ride a donkey anymore, it is not safe." ”

Li Quan's heart was in a mess, and she didn't understand what Zhao Qiuniang was talking about, she only remembered one sentence, don't promote the matter of brothers outside, she nodded again and again, "I know, I won't trouble Ah Zhen." ”

At this time, a maid came running and said, "Madam, there is an ox cart at the door, saying that it is Lintoe Temple that is here to send money, and they have all sent back the money donated by the old lady." ”

Li Quan was suddenly surprised and delighted, he came to give money on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which is a good sign!

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