Uncle Detective Di Renjie, I build a crime-solving team

Chapter 261 Wu Zetian blocks the way

The two held hands, looked at each other, and sighed.

In the current court, another force has been uprooted.

The death of Princess Taiping symbolized the demise of one of the three major royal power-grabbing forces.

The only remaining Crown Prince Li Xian and Prince of Xiang Li Dan did not have much ability, but after all, they had both been emperors and crown princes and had prestige in the court. However, if the two did not join forces, there was a high chance that they would be overthrown.

The person who wanted to seize power from the Wu family has made no comment. The two princes, Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi, were fighting for power, one secretly and the other openly.

Li Cunxi, the descendant of the Li family and the descendant of an exile, had no right to dream of that position, but Wu Zetian gave him too much. Even if Li Cunxi just wanted to be a Di Renjie at the beginning, after a long time, he might want to become the next Li Shimin.

"Brother Jian, the old ministers of the Li family are now divided into two parties. One party supports the current emperor, and the other party always hopes that the emperor will still be the crown prince."

"Di Gong helped Your Majesty deal with important matters openly and secretly, and hoped that Your Majesty would remain on the throne of the Crown Prince, but Your Majesty was unwilling to give up power, and Di Gong had no other choice."

"At this point, I, Li Huaiyuan, have no choice but to choose a new route."

Li Huaiyuan rubbed his red eyes.

An old minister of the Li family, a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty, an important minister of the Zhou Dynasty, so many labels were attached to him, but they were of no use.

The prince no longer has much chance in this battle for the throne. If the winner must be on the side of the Wu family, then he would rather change a master with the surname Li.

"You, you are the prince's guest. Wouldn't it be inappropriate to do this?"

Zhang Jianzhi saw what Li Huaiyuan was thinking and frowned.

"Brother Jianzhi, didn't you make your own choice?" Li Huaiyuan asked, "We both saw the abilities of the Crown Prince and the Prince of Xiang during their time in power, didn't we? Li Zezhou, he is the heir of the Li family, the youngest son of Duke Huang, the nephew of Lord Di, and the disciple of the Prince of Wei. He only turned fourteen today, and at such a young age he has already held the position of Shao Yin of Henan Prefecture, a rank of Fourth Rank. What are you still thinking about?"

"What you said does make some sense, but before things come to the final stage, I still think that assisting the Crown Prince is what I should do."

Zhang Jianzhi smiled casually, and then said solemnly: "Now that the path of brotherhood between you and me has been determined, let's give it a try in this court. I will do my best to protect the crown prince, and you stay by the crown prince's side to protect Li Cunxi. We will work together to make sure that His Majesty returns the throne to the Li family."

"That's settled, Brother Jianzhi." Li Huaiyuan withdrew his hand, "See you at the grand court meeting."

"See you at the grand meeting."

……

Outside Luoyang City, on the bank of Luo River.

It was almost dawn and Li Cunxi was riding in a horse-drawn carriage along the Luo River. Ma Rong, who was driving the carriage, suddenly let out a long sigh. Qiao Tai and Lu Dayou, who were guarding the carriage on both sides, pulled the reins and looked towards the people in front.

The person in the lead was Wu Zetian, who had left the palace at some unknown time.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

Ma Rong rolled off the carriage, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed to Wu Zetian on the dragon chariot.

Qiao Tai and Lu Dayou followed suit, kneeling on the ground and shouting "Long live the king!"

Li Cunxi lifted the curtain and saw Wu Zetian standing not far away. He quickly pulled Wu Yanhao out and knelt on the ground.

"I, Li Cunxi, Shao Yin of Henan Prefecture, pay my respects to Your Majesty!"

"Your Highness, I, Tongzhilang Wu Yanhao, pay my respects to Your Majesty!"

Wu Zetian got off the dragon chariot, helped Li Cunxi and Wu Yanhao up, and said with a gentle expression:

"My two beloved ministers, I am here to see you off and to share some of my inner thoughts with you."

Li Cunxi felt that something was not good, because Wu Zetian's inner thoughts were not something that ordinary people could hear.

Di Renjie was often demoted because he listened too much to Wu Zetian's inner thoughts many years ago.

"Don't worry, it's just a few words."

Wu Zetian looked back at Xiao Qingfang who followed her and waved her hand.

"Qingfang, don't follow me."

Xiao Qingfang: “Yes!”

The three of them walked along the Luo River, and Wu Zetian's expression became more and more peaceful. This most noble woman in the world who held the power of life and death over countless people looked at the Luo River with a hint of tenderness in her eyes.

"Before Ling Yue died, he wrote a letter to give you a push. I think the relationship between you two should be very good, right?"

Wu Zetian asked a random question, and Li Cunxi almost suffocated on the spot.

"Your Majesty, this..."

"I am not Yang Guang of the previous dynasty. You have no chance to hide it from me. Although I did not force Lingyue to death, think about it, I am also inseparable from Lingyue's death. However, I did not expect that she would give you a push before she died."

Li Cunxi struggled for a long time, gritted his teeth, and said, "I secretly let my cousin's children go. Maybe it's because of this that my cousin wrote to Your Majesty."

"I guess that's probably the case. Lingyue is a vindictive person, and she's the most likely to be the real one. Her style of doing things is similar to mine, and she treats her children in a similar way to me. I was in my 60s when I ascended to the throne. If I hadn't wanted to consolidate my position, I might have been a very good mother."

"Your Majesty is the best mother in the world. I once heard that when my cousin was young, Tubo asked for a marriage, and Emperor Gaozong wanted my cousin to marry, but Your Majesty sternly refused."

"Yes, but I have come to this point with her in the end. I have thought about it more than once. All my capable children have died, but my incompetent sons are still alive. The only one who is most like me is Lingyue. I wanted to pass the throne to her, but she turned out to be a woman." Wu Zetian sighed.

"Your Majesty is also a woman." Li Cunxi said in a low voice.

"Do you think I can still be considered a woman?" Although Wu Zetian said this, there was still a hint of smile on her face.

"Throughout history, there has only been one female emperor like your majesty." Li Cunxi said sincerely, "Your majesty's ability is known to the world. It really proves the saying 'Who says women are inferior to men'."

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, great, great, what a great line, 'Who says women are inferior to men?' Cunxi, I am increasingly optimistic about you. At the very least, you will be a capable minister who can govern the country."

"I dare not. I do not want to be Cao Mengde."

"Then what are you going to do?" Wu Zetian turned around with interest and looked at Li Cunxi who kept his head down.

"If there is such an opportunity, I would like to be Zhuge Kongming."

"No, you won't be Zhuge Kongming. Your character determines that you will never be Zhuge Kongming."

"That's probably it."

"On your way to Jiangzhou, you can pay more attention to the officials in the world and see if they have done anything they shouldn't have done. Record it and send it to me at the grand court meeting at the beginning of next year."

"I understand."

"By the way, Li Gui is still alive, right? Where is he now?"

"I don't know. We haven't seen each other since we parted in Huzhou."