Hearing Empress Wu ask like this, Li Zhi suddenly smiled and said:

"The queen mother's words are beyond her words, and your subordinates will take care of it! Shang Fangjian is intended to maintain the personal safety of the royal family surnamed Li, and it is also based on the premise of the normal and benign operation of the imperial power and government affairs of the Tang Dynasty. And the Queen Mother, you are the only guardian of the imperial power, and your qualifications and influence are above the new emperor, with the Queen Mother's great achievements and virtues in the current dynasty, the Tang Dynasty will definitely be the party of the country's wealth and people's security, and the characters Kangfu will level the world, but I will save more of my self-power. So in the next year or two, I will be able to immerse myself in selfish thoughts, and the formal meaning of Shang Fangjian will naturally fade a lot! ”

This promise, which is not a promise, comes from a year or two of effectively avoiding political affairs, in fact, this is already in his plan, and it is also within Gaozong's calculations.

According to the perspective of the world after Li, it is an excellent hidden period, during which there will be two regime changes of the abolition of the emperor and the establishment of the emperor, and then Wu Zetian came to the fore from behind the scenes.

It is the past two years that she has been a critical transitional period for her to win the hearts of the people and recruit cronies, and the suppression of the royal family surnamed Li has not really begun, and there will even be a deliberate attempt to win over her.

Therefore, Li Zhiwei better weakened the martial queen's defense against himself, and the stealth during this period undoubtedly played a huge role.

But compared to Li Zhi and Gaozong's plans, Empress Wu did not have the advantage of foresight, no matter how wise she was and strategic, it was impossible for her to know the next series of changes in the situation in advance.

Therefore, she naturally accepted the superficial fact that Li Zhi really had no intention of getting involved in political affairs, although the caution in her heart did not disappear because of this, but at least she knew that Li Zhi did not take this opportunity to deliberately cling to the new emperor's plan.

This alone can meet her minimum purpose today, so after Li Zhi's words, a smart and alert person like Empress Wu who is so calculating can hardly suppress a touch of satisfaction.

Although she hid it very well, she couldn't hide Li Zhi, whose insight was always open.

Because Empress Wu's attitude of not leaving a trace was relaxed, Princess Taiping and Shangguan Wan'er, who had been waiting in the side room, also appeared.

Taiping is pregnant because she is pregnant, and if she is in the mourning hall, she will violate some royal taboos, so she will stay outdoors outside the mourning hall at most, so her main duty is to take care of the martial queen.

Empress Wu's face was haggard and full of sadness but not pretending, perhaps as she herself said, since Gaozong's real death, her heart sensed some kind of epiphany.

In short, the current state of the Empress Wu is more affectionate as a wife and a mother, even if the funeral is over, it may make her previous ambition more irrepressible.

As for Shangguan Wan'er, she is not qualified to kneel in the mourning hall, although she is a popular person around the Empress Wu, and her symbolic status is afraid that she is not even as good as a concubine of the first emperor and harem who is about to be expelled.

The purpose of the second daughter's appearance here is naturally to accompany her closely around taking care of Empress Wu, and when she heard Li Yitong's words, Wu Zetian's mood was lifted, and she knew that the two of them should appear.

Because of the delicate moment before the new emperor succeeded to the throne, all the idle people around Empress Wu had already drunk and retired in advance, so the second daughter temporarily took on the close service of serving tea and pouring water.

Princess Taiping is okay to say that Shangguan Wan'er is not her real body at present, and inside her body is the wild fox demon Xiu Mei'er with the same ability.

Because she was afraid of the special true element aura on Li Zhi's body, she seemed to deliberately avoid it, which was also the psychological characteristic that her identity should have.

And because Li Xian had an affair with him at that time, her vague and timid attitude could not hide her attention to the people she secretly paid attention to.

In such a situation, Princess Taiping, who had the most abnormal reaction, did not cause Ren

Who's attention, although she has not recovered from the grief of losing her father a few days later, Li Zhi's fainting for five consecutive days still worries her.

At this time, seeing Li Zhi, who was once again spiritually rich, there was more or less deliberate attention in Taiping's eyes, but fortunately, under the dim candlelight and bleak expression, he could still cover up the past intact.

Empress Wu was in a good mood, so she left her second daughter to serve the tea closely, and the core of her topic at this time also temporarily turned to the issue of inheriting the emperor's throne before the coffin of the day after tomorrow.

As early as more than a year ago, Gaozong was critically ill, in view of the fact that the crown prince Li Xianchong had only been in the East Palace for three years and lacked experience in handling state affairs, Gaozong ordered his trusted prime minister Pei Yan and two chamberlains Liu Qixian and Guo Zhengyi to be the ministers of Gu Ming, "Ping Zhangshi in the East Palace" to assist the prince in ascending the throne.

And left in the edict the words "If there is an indecision on major military affairs, the queen of heaven will be taken into account", that is, Wu Zetian was specially authorized to make decisions as the queen mother.

Although in those edicts, Wu Zetian was not given carte blanche to manage state affairs, but when there were particularly important military affairs, and the emperor and ministers were "indecided", her decision could be taken at the same time.

Later, because of Pei Yan's truthful advice, Li Xian reported that Li Xian had no intention of acting on behalf of the government during that period, and he only knew greed and luxury all day long, and was recalled to Luoyang City, at that time the prince Li Xian was already dissatisfied with Pei Yan.

So her first targeted topic focused on Pei Yan: "Mr. Li, have you ever known Pei Yan?" ”

Li Zhi nodded, Pei Yan had approached him half a year ago because of the design and pattern of the warship, and he knew that he couldn't hide it from someone with a heart, so he told him the only chance to meet.

Empress Wu immediately reminded Li Xian:

"Pei Yan is currently the only auxiliary minister, and because he has a biased perception of your ability, it is very likely that there will be restrictions on your imperial power at the edict ceremony the day after tomorrow, and you must have a clear understanding of this! When the new emperor first took the throne, even if he had all kinds of grievances in his heart, he should not question it at the first time, and he should take the initiative to show the generosity of a generation of kings to look positively at the possible restraining measures of this person! ”

Hearing this, Li Zhixin nodded secretly, the martial queen was worthy of the future empress, and the accuracy of judging the problem was as accurate as his prophetic prescience.

Historically, Pei Yan really said on the third day after Gaozong's death and the second day after the crown prince ascended the throne in front of the coffin that the heir had not yet been officially canonized as the emperor, nor had he listened to the government, so it was not appropriate to "issue an order to declare the edict", and suggested that "the decree of the Empress Dowager should be implemented under the door", that is, all decrees should be issued in the form of the Empress Dowager Wu Zetian's decree.

With Pei Yan's suggestion, Wu Zetian naturally obtained the right to dispose of state affairs before the new emperor succeeded to the throne.

Therefore, at this time, Empress Wu's seemingly pointing concern concealed her huge ambition, and she was also taking advantage of this early warning to lower Li Xian's vigilance, so as to take the real imperial power into her own hands as soon as possible.

It can be said that this is the careful calculation of the Empress Wu with one stone, but Li Zhi knows this, and he does not plan to help secretly.

Because Li Xian's current situation does not have the strength to compete for power with the Queen Mother, let alone the ability to control the world, it is undoubtedly the only good choice to give power to the Queen Mother.

As he expected, Li Xian was not aware of Empress Wu's plan at this moment, but expressed his heartfelt gratitude to his mother for her concern.

Li Zhi especially noticed that Li Dan's eyebrows jumped for a moment at this moment, but they were very quickly covered by Mu Ran's expression.

Pei Yan's unprecedented suggestion was too timely for Wu Zetian.

It has been more than 20 years since she became the queen and she has gradually grasped the power to participate in the decision-making of the court, and her desire to control the fate of the country and the people has become stronger and stronger.

And now the cowardly and sick husband is gone,

Although the edict gave her some power to decide on state affairs, it clearly stipulated that those who were not "undecided in military affairs" could not intervene, which greatly limited the power she had previously enjoyed.

However, she is about to take advantage of Pei Yan's suggestion to logically obtain the right to dispose of state affairs, and in the future, the crown prince will officially be registered as the heir and respect her as the queen mother, she will be able to dominate the power and not let go, and have no intention of returning to the government, so that from then on, "political affairs will be decided".

It is conceivable that at that time, except for Prime Minister Pei Yan, no one else dared to put forward this kind of suggestion, and without Pei Yan's suggestion, it would be difficult for Wu Zetian to find any reason to obtain the right to make decisions on state affairs.

Later, with the passage of time, the new emperor's control over political affairs was gradually consolidated, and Wu Zetian could only reluctantly fade out of the political arena to live her rich and noble life as a queen mother, and the history of the Tang Dynasty would naturally be different.

However, Li Xian was already an adult when he ascended the throne, and it was not easy for him to completely influence him as a courtier, so Pei Yan wanted to increase the power of the empress dowager to balance the emperor and use it for his own use.

Obviously, he thought that "Empress Dowager Xuan's order to be implemented under the door" was only nominal, although Wu Zetian was capable, but after all, he was just a woman, and he was easily affected by the important ministers, and even if he didn't succeed, it was easy to restrict.

Therefore, the deeper hidden style of the Empress Wu is to take this opportunity to plant the seeds of hatred for Pei Yan in Li Xian's heart.

In fact, after the Empress Dowager took power, Pei Yan and Empress Wu cooperated very well.

In the first year of the heir, Zhongzong Li Xian proposed to appoint his queen's father Wei Xuanzhen as a servant, and also gave the son of the queen's nurse a five-grade official, but Pei Yan thought that these two people were not qualified enough and resolutely disagreed.

The abolition of the emperor this time was an opportunity for Wu Zetian to get rid of the heir emperor who was dissatisfied with his autocratic power, so as to deter future emperors and civil and military ministers, so as to achieve his goal of manipulating the monarchy for a long time.

As far as Pei Yan is concerned, of course he knows that this is just an impulsive remark by Zhongzong, and he can't take it seriously, as the prime minister who is alone under the edict and auxiliary government, he should not participate in the conspiracy to abolish the emperor because of this.

But he took the initiative to participate in the action of abolishing the emperor, obviously he thought that Zhongzong was difficult to restrain it, so it was better to abolish it as soon as possible and replace it with a new emperor who was more affected by himself, and at the same time, he could also make Wu Zetian, who asked to abolish the emperor, grateful to himself.

However, the self-righteous Pei Yan did not expect that this move would make Wu Zetian's position more stable and lay the real bane.

This bane was the seed of hatred that first existed in Li Xian's heart, and after the emperor was deposed, the seed of hatred was transplanted to the ministers of Li Xian's family.

After Wu Zetian began to promote the long-term prominence of the dynasty, and the contradictions between the two slowly emerged, through several contests, Pei Yan had an understanding of Wu Zetian's unrestrained nature and ambition to covet imperial power.

Knowing that there was no hope for her to take the initiative to return power to the government, then she regretted the move of suggesting that all political affairs should be "ordered by the Empress Dowager to be implemented under the door", in order to atone for his crimes, Pei Yan secretly looked for an opportunity, because he did not want the heroine to be in power.

At this time, the grandson of Li Ji, the founder of the Tang Dynasty, Xu. Dedicated to his work, he launched a mutiny against Wu Zetian in Yangzhou, declaring that he wanted to protect the king of Qin.

Pei Yan was quiet on the surface, and he did not actively participate in the discussion of crusading against the rebels, wanting to wait for Wu Zetian to force her to return to politics when he was anxious.

When Wu Zetian heard about it, he secretly sent the superintendent of the imperial history Cui Jing to accuse Pei Yan, and arrested him and imprisoned him on the pretext that "Pei Yan was entrusted with his life and was in power, and he did not try to seek peace when he rebelled, but wanted to force the Empress Dowager to return to power, and there must be a conspiracy in it".

and took the opportunity to unite with the ministers of Li Xian's family, and tried their best to convict him of "rebellion" against public opinion, and finally beheaded him on the street.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. m.