People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1593 The Prince Arrives in Yangzhou
On June 24th, the weather was clear and there was a light breeze.

A huge team came out of Taiji Palace, passed through Jinguan Gate, and headed towards Qian County.

Hundreds of officials in the court and countless soldiers escorted the coffin of Emperor Gaozong from Chang'an to Qianxian Liangshan.

Liangshan is 130 kilometers away from Chang'an City. When the officials left Chang'an, their speed was slow, but after leaving Chang'an, their speed gradually increased.

This evening, Emperor Gaozong will be buried in Qianling Mausoleum.

The emperor's body rests for seven months.

From December 24th last year to today, it has been exactly seven months.

Finally buried.

In addition to officials from the court and the government, the families of officials outside the city of Chang'an, ordinary people, and foreign envoys who were able to follow would also follow to Qianling Mausoleum.

If there is someone lurking among them, it may not be possible to find him out.

……

On the Wei River, black-sailed boats sail quietly along the shore.

Li Xuan, dressed in a black Taoist robe, sat calmly in the cabin, watching the long team moving forward.

The sound of funeral music came with the wind, but he remained seated motionless.

After a long time, a figure flashed up from the shore.

"Master!" Su Lianyu carefully entered the boat and knelt down at Li Xuan's feet.

Li Xuan raised his hand and put a cup of tea into his mouth, listening to Su Lianyu's report on what happened in the court yesterday.

When Li Xuan heard what was happening in the court, it always sounded a little slow.

After all, no one knew that he was right next to Chang'an.

As for Yuchi Xunyu, whom he had just helped yesterday, there was no channel for him to communicate with him at all.

Li Xuan had left Chang'an yesterday, when Empress Wu had just returned to Chang'an and before Yuchi Xunyu met her. His attitude towards Yuchi Xunyu was clearly visible.

It was not until last night, when all the officials talked about the affairs of the court at home and their children spread rumors in Pingkangfang, that the matter reached Li Xuan's ears.

As for the officials going to Pingkangfang themselves...

Unless you don't want to die.

Emperor Gaozong was to be buried in Qianling Mausoleum the next day. If he was caught making trouble in Pingkangfang at this time, he would be courting death.

……

After listening to Su Lianyu's detailed account of what happened after Su Liangsi returned to Beijing, Li Xuan nodded calmly.

Now that Li Xian is dead and Li Dan has succeeded to the throne, with Li Chongzhao missing, even Su Liangsi can't do much.

He could only acknowledge Li Dan's position.

However, he asked to confirm Li Dan's position and guarantee Li Dan's position.

With this premise, Su Liangsi and people like Fan Lubing and Dou Xuande could coexist peacefully and even assist each other.

Because they now have a common enemy.

This enemy was naturally not Empress Wu, but Wu Sansi.

With such a threat, Su Liangsi has value in the court.

Li Dan and those around him would hope that Su Liangsi could keep a closer eye on Wu Sansi.

As the Imperial Censor, he has the right to exist.

In this way, the group of people left behind by Li Xian will continue to exist around Su Liangsi.

In fact, they only had one mission, which was to keep an eye on Wu Sansi.

At this time, he wanted to have more control over government affairs and strive for more power in order to stabilize his own survival and allow himself and his family to survive.

In this way, the entire court situation has become clear.

Empress Wu, the Scholar of the North Gate, and other civil and military officials surrounding her are the core group of people.

Li Dan, Dou Xuande, Dou Lu Qinwang, Dugu Qi and others are secondary core figures.

But at the same time, I don’t know how many people hope that Li Dan can go one step further and become a real emperor like Li Xian.

This is the idea of ​​people like Li Dan, as well as other people who are outside the core of Empress Wu.

The first group of people were mainly Wang Dezhen, Ouyang Tong, Wei Xuantong, and Cen Changqian.

Of course, Lu Yuanfang has to be added now.

Because Lu Yuanfang had taught Li Xian in Taozhou for two years, he was basically considered the emperor's teacher.

However, due to his scholarly nature, after Li Xian became emperor, although he was transferred to the position of Minister of Personnel and the emperor trusted him extremely, he still had a steady temperament and was not too close to Li Xian.

Therefore, after Li Xian was deposed, he was not implicated too much.

However, he lost his position as the Minister of Personnel and became the Prince's Left Secretary. The only consolation was that he was able to become the third rank official of the Secretariat and the Prime Minister.

Now, for various reasons, he is closer to Wang Dezhen, Ouyang Tong and others.

Although Empress Wu did not trust this group of people too much, she still used them and was also on guard against them.

After all, they are more of a model for the world's literati, and they do not get too involved in the royal struggles, but they also maintain orthodoxy.

If Empress Wu wants to do something drastic in the future, these people will definitely be her opponents.

It’s just that the nature of scholars is such that they are really hard to deal with unless their backbones are broken.

Moreover, Empress Wu has many opponents now, and it is not the time for her to target these people, at least not in the next few years.

After all, it's not easy to move them.

Wang Dezhen, Ouyang Tong, Wei Xuantong, Cen Changqian, and Lu Yuanfang, except for Cen Changqian who was the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Wang Dezhen was the Palace Attendant, Ouyang Tong was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Wei Xuantong was the Minister of the Left, and Lu Yuanfang was the Prince's Left Assistant, all of them were the third rank officials of the Secretariat and were prime ministers.

Even this time when Empress Wu returned to Chang'an, she did not allow Ouyang Tong and Lu Yuanfang to accompany her. This was the reason.

However, as intellectuals, the threat has never been the biggest.

One level further out are people like Liu Rengui, Wei Daijia, Huang Rensu, Chen Guang, and Lin Renji. They may have become tired of the endless struggles between the government and the opposition, or they may want to find a way out. In any case, they don't want to stay in the center any longer.

Although these people were not Wu Zetian's confidants, or even Li Dan's confidants, they were all important officials in the court.

Shangshu Zuo Pushe, Minister of Rites, Minister of Works, Minister of Guanglu Temple, Minister of Taichang Temple, etc.

Even if these people asked to retire, Empress Wu did not dare to agree to all of them at once, because doing so would have too great an impact on the court and the country.

By the way, we also have to add Pei Yan.

Because of Su Liangsi's sudden return, Pei Yan was no longer at the top of Empress Wu's list of targets. In addition, he took the initiative to request retirement, so the rest depended on when Empress Wu would find the time to get rid of him.

The last group of people was Su Liangsi, the person Wu Zetian disliked the most.

The Tang Dynasty lasted for three generations, and Wu replaced Tang.

What a beautiful sentence! However, it was all exposed by Su Liangsi today, who even forced her to kill Wu Sansi on a false charge.

The Wu family members held a very important position in Empress Wu's power balance. How could she possibly kill Wu Sansi?

After all, he was her nephew, and he was her concern for winning the hearts of the Wu family.

One was Su Liangsi, one was Duan Baoxuan, and the other was Li Zhaode, all of whom were people that Empress Wu wanted to kill very much.

In addition, there are people like Wang Jishan, Yao Lingzhang, and Du Shenyan.

However, Wang Jishan was left in Luoyang by Empress Wu, while Yao Lingzhang and Du Shenyan were imprisoned and executed at a later date.

And the last one is Li Xuan.

Li Xuan was the heir to the throne. Except for those people in Empress Wu's core circle, he had a good relationship with Li Dan, Ouyang Tong, Liu Rengui and Su Liangsi.

Although the royal family does not care about the change of emperors, you cannot threaten them to kill Li Xuan, otherwise there will be chaos.

Nowadays, the royal families in the world are not just the princes and dukes on the surface, there are many more marquises, earls, viscounts and barons serving in the world.

The Longxi Li family is one of the five surnames and seven families. Even if we put aside the power of the royal family, they still have a huge influence at the grassroots level.

Not inferior to any family in the world.

Therefore, it is not easy to deal with Li Xuan. Luring him back to Chang'an is the first step. Also, it is the same reason why we cannot deal with Su Liangsi.

Because of Su Liangsi's death, it would be difficult to get Li Xuan to come back peacefully.

……

Looking at the slowly flowing river in front of him, Li Xuan said softly: "Su Liangsi is dead."

Su Lianyu knelt on one side, silent.

Li Xuan turned sideways and asked, "How are the arrangements going at Wu Sansi's residence in Luoyang?"

Su Lianyu bowed and said, "Last year, when Wu Sansi just returned to the court, we took advantage of him to recruit people and our people sneaked in. However, because we were not from his hometown of Bingzhou, he did not trust us very much. But fortunately, he is flexible and familiar with Luoyang, so he is considered the most trusted one."

Li Xuan nodded gently and said, "Don't worry, it will be soon. It won't be long before Wu Sansi starts recruiting more people. He will gradually enter the core, and more of our people will also enter."

"Yes!" Su Lianyu nodded.

Li Xuan took a deep breath and said, "This time, Wu Sansi was exiled to Gongling to supervise the repair of Emperor Zhongzong's tomb. I think he will not be willing to be lonely, and he will definitely drink..."

"Yes!" Su Lianyu bowed immediately. She already understood what Li Xuan was going to do.

Li Xuan nodded slightly and looked at the river in front of him. He inexplicably thought of Su Liangsi again.

Shaking his head, Li Xuan collected his thoughts and continued, "Notify the people in Jizhou and Bingzhou and have them hide completely. These two places have attracted Empress Wu's attention, and it's time to stop the action.

The troops in Chang'an have also stopped, but Luoyang can move. If Empress Wu is in Chang'an, we will move in Luoyang, and if she is in Luoyang, we will move in Chang'an."

Avoid the strong and attack the weak.

Li Xuan has always been best at this kind of method.

"Yes!" Su Lianyu bowed again.

"In addition, Jiangnan, Jiannan, and Shasu areas should also take action. It's time for Eastern Tuyuhun to make some trouble." Li Xuan's eyes were cold.

"Yes!" Su Lianyu nodded slightly, still avoiding the real issue.

You are here, and I am there.

Who made you unable to take care of the whole world?

This is the biggest sequelae of Empress Wu's usurpation of power.

Li Xuan took a deep breath and said, "Finally, let's talk about Yangzhou. Where is Duke Jiang now?"

"Kaifeng, we'll be in Luoyang soon." Su Lianyu's expression became serious.

Li Xuan said softly: "Let him go back to Yangzhou, it's time."

"Yes!"

Li Xuan raised his head and saw that in the distance, Li Zhi's coffin had gradually disappeared from his sight.

In the end, Li Xuan did not get up to see Li Zhi off for the last time.

……

As the night deepened, a long procession slowly entered the city of Chang'an.

The emperor was buried in Qianling Mausoleum on the 24th.

On the night of the 24th, Empress Wu stayed overnight in Jiucheng Palace.

On the 25th, we returned to Chang'an.

In the Liangyi Hall, Empress Wu calmly flipped through the memorials, which were filled with what had happened in Jizhou and Taiyuan Prefecture in the past month.

The secret guard was intercepted and killed.

The rumor that "Tang lasted for three generations, and Wu replaced Tang" spread widely.

Even during the reign of Empress Wu, the Wu family of Taiyuan got involved.

With a bang, Empress Wu closed the memorial, looked at Qiu Huan, and asked, "Who is in charge of the Demon Cult now?"

Qiu Huan bowed his head slightly and said, "Your Majesty, I don't know either. I just noticed from various traces that there are too many traces of the Demon Cult in the current events, so I guess that they might have rescued the prince."

After a brief pause, Qiu Huan continued, "Ever since Yun Hebi of the Demon Sect was severely injured by King Peng, the Demon Cult has kept a low profile. After that, except for a branch of the Eastern Turks, there has been no news about the others... However, there are rumors that Yun Hebi is dead, but no one has seen his body, and no one knows who will replace him."

"So, they were the ones who rescued the prince. Where would they go?" Empress Wu looked up at Qiu Huan.

Qiu Huan looked thoughtful and said in a low voice: "Someone is taking action in Jizhou and Bingzhou now, and someone was also acting in Tianshui before. If these are all cover-ups, then it is very likely..."

"Yangzhou?" Empress Wu's expression became extremely solemn.

At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded outside the palace, and a eunuch quickly appeared outside the palace, bowed and said: "Empress, General Zhao Gong of the Left Thousand Bull Guards wants to see you!"

Empress Wu's expression was terribly ugly.

But then, Empress Wu took a deep breath and said, "Call the son-in-law Xue Shao to settle the matter of Prince Peng first."

"Here!"

(End of this chapter)