Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 168 The Third Sister of the Wu Family
There were seven days of holiday on Zhengri Day. After the holiday, officials returned to their offices and began their busy post-holiday work.

The governors from all over the country began to return to their bases. Pei Xingjian went to Anxi, and Xue Rengui went to Yanran Protectorate.

Su Dingfang also got a new position, serving as the Grand Protector of Hanhai Protectorate and concurrently as the Governor of Yingzhou.

The Hanhai Protectorate was in charge of the Eastern Turks. Since they were still relatively honest for the time being, Su Dingfang went to Yingzhou to take charge and monitor the three countries on the Korean Peninsula.

The former governor of Yingzhou, Cheng Mingzhen, was transferred to be the governor of Anzhou.

Li Zhi appointed Su Dingfang as the governor of Yingzhou in order to intimidate Goguryeo and Baekje.

Since the Tang Dynasty eliminated the Western Turks, these two countries withdrew their troops and kept an eye on the Tang Dynasty, fearing that the Tang Dynasty would attack them.

Li Zhi's current strategy is to allow Hebei to recuperate and naturally he will not attack Goguryeo again.

Then after these two countries discovered this, they would definitely attack Baekje again.

Therefore, Li Zhi let Su Dingfang stay in Yingzhou in order to put pressure on them so that they would not dare to take action.

Li Zhi did not intend to help Silla, but he also did not want Goguryeo to annex Silla. Maintaining the situation of the Three Kingdoms was good.

Wang Xuance also led an envoy delegation to India.

He only made one request to Li Zhi, hoping that Jiang Shiren would continue to serve as his deputy envoy.

Because this time they needed to go around the Western Regions, he set off very early. On the afternoon of the fourth day of the New Year, he led the Tang Dynasty envoys and envoys from various countries to the west.

After being busy for several days, Li Zhi finally had some free time.

That morning, he went to the Hot Spring Palace to soak in the hot springs and returned to Chang'an in the afternoon.

In the evening, he came to Lizheng Hall to have dinner with Wu Meiniang.

During the meal, a loud baby cry was heard.

The one who cried was Li Xian.

It turned out that when Li Zhi was eating, Li Xian had been staring at Li Zhi's bowl, and when he picked up some food, his little head would move along with him.

Normally, babies will become interested in what adults eat when they are three to five months old.

Li Xian was born not long ago, but he was curious about what Li Zhi ate, which surprised Li Zhi very much.

Li Zhi then held Li Xian in his arms, and when they ate, he would deliberately pick up some food and pretend to feed it to him, teasing him so that when his little mouth chewed the air, he would stuff the food into his own mouth.

After playing for a while, Li Xian started crying.

Wu Meiniang took the crying Li Xian, coaxed him softly, and looked up at Li Zhi with a glare.

"Your Majesty, you are like a child."

"Don't you think Xian'er is weird? He's so young and already craves adults' food." Li Zhi made an excuse for himself.

Wu Meiniang said, "Every child has his own unique characteristics. Your Majesty, do you remember that Xian'er could say 'ye ye' when he was only three months old?"

Li Zhi turned to look at Li Xian, only to see him eating Yingtao Linglong Soup being fed by his tutor.

The little guy just needed to open his mouth, so he looked around while eating. When he saw Li Zhi looking at him, he smiled brightly.

Li Zhi patted his head and said with a smile, "Yes, Xian'er will definitely be very smart when he grows up."

The weather had been bad in the past few days, but today the sun came out for a rare occasion, so Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang took their two babies and strolled in Qiumi Garden.

When they were strolling to a pavilion, they suddenly saw Princess Gao'an and Princess Yiyang coming from another road.

The two women came quickly and greeted Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang.

A group of people sat in the pavilion in the garden and chatted.

Princess Gao An saw that Li Xian was small and very cute, so she said to Li Zhi, "Yes, can I hold Qilang for a moment?"

Li Zhi smiled and said, "Then hold me for a bit, just be careful."

Princess Gao An said, "Son, be careful." She went over, held Li Xian in her arms, and kissed his little face.

Two bodyguards squatted on both sides, reaching out to catch him from below to prevent Li Xian from falling.

After all, Li Zhi still had official business to attend to, so after sitting for a while, he got up and left.

When he arrived at the Lizheng Hall, there were already quite a few imperial edicts piled on the desk, most of which had been reviewed, and only a few needed Li Zhi to deal with.

Li Zhi quickly finished all the work and came to the side hall. Looking around, he saw Gao Youdao and the other four people concentrating on reading official documents with great skill.

Yuan Wanqing was the first to notice Li Zhi. He quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you."

The others also quickly stood up and saluted.

Li Zhi leaned on the table and raised his hand, saying, "No need to be so polite. I came here to instruct you on one thing: from now on, any imperial edicts regarding the construction of palaces and temples should not be reviewed. Bring them to me for approval."

The five people accepted the order and agreed.

In the harem, after seeing Li Zhi leave, Wu Meiniang took Li Xian and Li Xian back to Lizheng Hall.

On the day of the ceremony, the ladies of the capital would also send New Year's greetings to the Queen.

Wu Mei Niang would usually review all of them, never missing a single one. Just as she was reading a visiting card, Zhang Duohai suddenly came to report, happily saying, "Your Highness, the Lady of Liucheng County has entered the palace, and she has brought her third wife with her."

A glimmer of joy flashed in Wu Meiniang's eyes. She stood up and walked quickly to the door of the palace.

After a while, Wu Shun and a young woman came over.

The woman looked 50% like Wu Meiniang, except that her frame was more delicate, she had beautiful eyes, a rosy face, and a slender waist.

As she approached, the woman's eyes turned slightly red, and she seemed to want to throw herself into Wu Meiniang's arms, but she finally held back and bowed.

"I pay my respects to Her Majesty the Queen."

Wu Meiniang walked over quickly, helped her up, held her hands, stared at her for a while, and said, "Little sister, I banished your husband from Chang'an. You don't blame me, do you?"

Wu Ruyi smiled and said, "Sister, you are doing this for your husband's own good. I know everything."

Wu Meiniang smiled slightly and took her hand into the house.

Wu Shun followed behind and said with a smile: "Little sister, I didn't lie to you, did I? Your second sister misses you so much that she never comes out to greet me when I come."

Wu Ruyi smiled and said, "That's because I'm young, and my two sisters take care of me."

Wu Meiniang snorted, "Although you are young, you are much more reliable than your elder sister."

Wu Shun sighed, "Oh, this family is unbearable."

Wu Ru was very happy to see the two sisters joking with each other and not being distant because of their status, and she smiled with her hands covering her mouth.

The three girls entered the room, two of them sat on the couch, and Wu Ruyi moved a chair and sat between her two sisters.

Wu Meiniang ordered her bodyguard to bring out Li Xian and Li Xian and have them recognize her aunt.

Li Xian just stared with his big eyes and didn't recognize anyone at all.

Although Li Xian could speak, he only knew a few words. After teaching him for a long time, he only knew to call "Empress, Empress", but could not call "Auntie".

Wu Meiniang said: "Hong'er has gone to Chongwenguan to study. When he comes back, let him greet you."

Wu Ruyi sighed, "I really envy my sister for having so many children."

Wu Meiniang frowned and said, "You've been married into the Guo family for over three years, how come there's been no news? Is it because Guo Xiaoshen treats you badly?"

Wu Ruyi waved her hands hurriedly: "No, no, he treats me very well, it's my own fault."

Wu Shun said solemnly, "Little sister, why don't you ask Mei Niang to send an imperial physician to take a look at you? You can't avoid seeing a doctor for this kind of thing."

Wu Meiniang said, "That's easy. When you leave, I'll send a message and have the imperial physician Qin go with me to the Wu residence and secretly treat my younger sister."

Wu Ruyi blushed and whispered, "Thank you very much, Second Sister."

Wu Meiniang asked Wu Ruyi about her life in Bingzhou, and Wu Ruyi answered her one by one.

Wu Shun suddenly said, "By the way, Mei Niang, Xiao Siye came to our house today to congratulate us on the New Year's Day and brought a lot of gifts."

Wu Meiniang's face darkened and she glared at her, as if to say, "How could you let someone from the Xiao Mansion enter the house?"

Wu Shun said with a bitter face: "I don't want to either. It was Guo Langzi who invited them in."

Wu Ruyi hurriedly said, "Sister, that Minister Xiao has come to apologize, and his attitude is sincere. My husband said that he is different from other members of the Xiao family and did not oppose your decision to establish a queen."

Wu Meiniang said, "Forget it. Since your husband has come forward to mediate, we cannot refuse his respect. When Minister Xiao comes again in the future, we will treat him as a guest."

Wu Ruyi said happily, "Thank you, sister."

Wu Meiniang took her sister to her private storehouse and selected many rare treasures for her, as well as some tributes for praying for a child.

"Ruyi, you can go to Da Ci'en Temple more often to pray for a child. It was built by His Majesty's imperial decree. It is blessed by heaven and presided over by Master Xuanzang. It is quite effective."

Wu Ruyi agreed.

"Little sister, I will definitely go there often in the future."

Wu Ruyi was a well-educated person. She felt that as the queen's sister, she should not be arrogant, so she proposed to pay her respects to Concubine Zheng and several concubines.

Wu Meiniang smiled and said, "Go ahead. Xu Chongrong loves poetry as much as you do. You two should have a lot to talk about."

After Wu Ruyi left, Wu Meiniang took Wu Shun to the inner room and said, "Sister, you need to be cautious about Xiao Siye's affairs."

Wu Shun was stunned and asked, "You still don't trust him?"

Wu Meiniang looked at her sideways and said, "The Xiao family is a wealthy and powerful family, and they were once royal. Do you think Xiao Siye alone can change the attitude of the entire family?"

"That's true." Wu Shun nodded.

Wu Meiniang said, "Your Majesty now trusts Xiao Siye very much. We can deal with him, but we must distinguish him from the Xiao family."

Wu Shun said, "I understand."

An hour later, Wu Ruyi returned to Lizheng Hall. At the time of Shen, Li Hong also returned from Chongwenguan.

After everyone had dinner together, the Wu sisters left the palace.

(End of this chapter)