Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 242 Empress Wu holds a palace banquet
"You said this case is related to Xue Rengui?"

Inside Ganlu Palace, Li Zhi looked at Di Renjie in surprise.

He recently asked Di Renjie to investigate the canal boat capsize case, but Di Renjie has not taken any action.

Just when he couldn't help but want to summon Di Renjie into the palace for questioning, Di Renjie entered the palace himself and said something shocking.

Di Renjie hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, what I mean is that the Xue family was involved in this case, not because of the people behind it, but because someone wanted to frame them."

Li Zhi's face darkened: "Who is it?"

Di Renjie said, "I'm not sure at the moment, but I have a clue. I'll definitely be able to solve this case within three days."

Li Zhi was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Di Qing, do you think this case is related to the Tibetan spies? They have a motive to frame Xue Rengui."

Di Renjie said, "I don't think this was committed by an outsider. Tibetan spies don't have the ability to rob such a large amount of property in the heart of our dynasty."

Li Zhi nodded and said, "That's true. If that's the case, the Inner Guards have failed in their duties."

Di Renjie said, "I suspect the mastermind behind this is not one person, but two parties working together."

"Oh, why?"

Di Renjie said, "These people first blamed the Xiao family, and then blamed General Xue. Their methods were not unified, and it doesn't seem like it was done by one person."

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Di Renjie bowed and said, "I would like to ask Your Majesty for an order."

"What's the purpose?"

"Transfer a brigade commander from the Songzhou Zhechongfu to the Jinwu Guard."

Li Zhi asked curiously, "Brigade Commander?"

Di Renjie then told the story that General Duan was ordered by Xue Rengui to transport a batch of property to the capital, and that he had a letter in his handwriting imitating Xue Rengui's.

Li Zhi pinched his chin and said, "No wonder you said someone was trying to frame Xue Rengui. This person is indeed suspicious since he is carrying a fake letter. Do you want to transfer him to the Jinwu Guard and arrest him for interrogation?"

Di Renjie said, "Yes, it would be inappropriate to take him directly from the Xue Mansion, so I want to transfer him out of the Xue Mansion first and try not to let General Xue's family know about this."

"You have considered it very carefully. I approve it." Li Zhi waved his hand.
Di Renjie thanked him and left.

It started snowing outside again. Li Zhi didn't like rain, but he liked snowy days, especially this kind of light snow.

He was wearing a mink cloak and strolling in the harem. The scenery that he usually got tired of looking at was now covered with a white coat like him, which made it more interesting than usual.

As Li Zhi was walking, he suddenly heard a silver bell-like laughter. He turned his head and found several young women walking towards him from a certain direction, talking and laughing.

These women wore cloaks of different colors. Each of them had a beautiful appearance and charm, and they were all strangers.

Li Zhi tilted his head and asked, "Fu Sheng, who are these women?"

Wang Fusheng said, "To everyone, they are all relatives of the Queen, and they came to Chang'an to celebrate the New Year at the end of the year. The Queen held a banquet at Ziyun Pavilion today and invited them all to the palace, including the Third Lady of the Wu family."

Li Zhi had only heard of Wu Ruyi's voice, but had never met his wife's sister. He immediately became interested and said with a smile, "I'll go talk to them. Don't follow me."

The women in the palace were all respectful to him, but after a while, they found it boring, so he wanted to talk to the women outside the palace.

After saying that, he walked over.

As soon as he approached, he was discovered by the women. One of them was startled and bowed down.

"My name is Wu, and I pay my respects to Your Majesty."

As soon as Li Zhi heard her voice, he knew that this woman was Wu Ruyi. He frowned secretly and wondered, "How did this girl recognize me?"

When the women heard that he was the emperor, they all bowed down and saluted.

Li Zhi suddenly felt bored and raised his hand and said, "Everyone, get up."

The women all stood up, their expressions varied. Some lowered their heads, not daring to look at him, some looked at him secretly with a slightly red face, and a woman with thin lips and an oval face smiled sweetly at him.

Li Zhi was looking at Wu Ruyi's face carefully. This woman was extremely beautiful and somewhat similar to Wu Meiniang, but with a more delicate temperament.

When he looked at Wu Ruyi, the women also plucked up their courage and looked at him secretly. They all felt that the current saint was elegant and handsome.

Li Zhi suddenly noticed a young girl standing next to Wu Ruyi.

This girl is only twelve or thirteen years old, but she is already a real beauty. She is extremely pretty. In a few years, she will definitely be a beauty who is no less beautiful than Wu Meiniang.

Li Zhi asked her, "What's your name?"

The girl bent her knees and said softly, "I am Helan, honored to meet your Majesty." Her voice was soft and pleasant.

Li Zhi thought to himself, "So she is Mei Niang's niece Helan. No wonder Mei Niang sees her as a threat."

Li Zhi smiled and said, "Were you all invited into the palace by the Queen?"

Wu Ruyi said, "Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Queen has hosted a palace banquet in Ziyun Pavilion and has granted us permission to join in."

Li Zhi said "hmm" and was about to ask another question when he suddenly saw a woman trembling all over, as if she was extremely frightened.

"Am I scary? Why are you trembling?" he asked curiously.

The woman was shocked and fell to her knees, shaking even more violently.

Li Zhi didn't even have the interest to ask questions. He waved his hand and said, "You guys go." Then he walked away.

After he walked away, the women still looked in the direction he left, and no one moved.

Helan said softly, "Aunt, is this your first time speaking to a saint?"

Wu Ruyi smiled and said, "Yes, I have only seen the Saint from afar in Lizheng Hall before. I never thought the Saint would be so approachable."

The oval-faced woman suddenly glared at the trembling woman, her eyes blazing with fire. She gritted her teeth and said, "Yang Min, the Saint speaks gently and peacefully. What are you doing? Are you going to drive the Saint away?"

Another woman said coldly, "She's a married woman and has no hope to begin with, so she wants to ruin our plans. How despicable!"

The third woman snorted coldly, "Even if she's not married, even a saint wouldn't look down on her with her looks."

The girls were relatives, so they shouldn't have spoken so harshly to each other.

However, many of them are still unmarried and rarely enter the palace. They are extremely eager to meet the emperor and marry into a wealthy family.

Now that a good thing has been ruined, how can I not be angry?
Wu Ruyi frowned and said, "You're going too far. Sister Yang is just timid, not as bad as you think. Go see Her Majesty the Queen."

None of the women dared to offend her and had to suppress their anger in their hearts.

The women walked forward and soon arrived at Ziyun Pavilion.

This is a three-story pavilion, close to the mountain, water and pond pavilion. There is a large hot spring on the first floor, where concubines in the palace often come to bathe.

The second floor is a warm room. The inner wall has hot air wafting from the hot spring pool, making the building extremely warm and more comfortable than a charcoal-fired warm room.

The third floor is the viewing tower, which has no doors or windows on all four sides. You can fully enjoy the scenery of the palace and even see the scenery of the Forbidden Garden.

It is winter now, and the third floor is obviously not suitable for entertaining guests, so Wu Meiniang's palace banquet is held on the second floor.

When the women arrived on the second floor, the palace maids asked them to take a seat first, saying that the queen was taking a hot spring bath and would arrive later.

The women sat in the warm room, chatting about family matters, not mentioning what had just happened, and were quite happy. Not long after, Wu Meiniang came to the second floor in a bright yellow palace dress, and the women all greeted her.

Wu Meiniang smiled and raised her hand: "Today is a family dinner, everyone, don't be restrained, just enjoy the feast."

The women agreed and took their seats.

Wu Meiniang asked Wu Ruyi, "How is my elder sister's condition?"

Wu Ruyi said, "She's much better now. She just ate too much and got an upset stomach. Don't worry too much, second sister."

Wu Meiniang clapped her hands, and the palace servants came in one after another and brought delicious dishes to the table.

During the banquet, Wu Meiniang asked about the family situation of each relative with great concern, which made the women flattered.

However, when Yang was asked about her, she was just as frightened as before, stammering and speaking incoherently.

The oval-faced woman immediately became annoyed and said, "Yang Min, it's a rare occasion for Her Majesty the Queen to host a banquet for us today. It's such a blessing for us, yet you're constantly spoiling the fun. It wasn't enough to spoil the Saint's fun just now, but now you're not letting Her Majesty the Queen off either."

Wu Meiniang frowned and said in a deep voice, "What's the point of spoiling the Saint's fun?"

The girls then told what had just happened.

Wu Meiniang felt something was wrong and said calmly, "Yang Min, you are my guest, but you made His Majesty unhappy. Doesn't this make His Majesty angry with me?"

Yang was startled and knelt on the ground, saying in a trembling voice, "Your Highness, I, I have absolutely no such intention."

She was the daughter of Yang Sijian, the governor of Suzhou, and married to the Lu family of Wujun.

Yang Sijian and Madam Yang were cousins, so Yang could be considered Wu Meiniang's distant cousin.

Wu Meiniang stared at her and said, "I'll give you one more chance. If you continue to lie, don't blame me for disregarding our family's feelings."

Yang gritted her teeth and said, "Your Highness, I can tell you, but I can only tell you this to you."

The oval-faced woman angrily asked, "Are you going to kick us out?"

Wu Meiniang waved her hand and said, "You guys go to the first floor to take a shower first. Let me talk to her alone."

After hearing what she said, the women had no choice but to leave. Before leaving, many of them glared at Yang.

Wu Meiniang stared at Yang and said, "Can you tell me now?"

Yang bit her lip and said, "Your Highness, I, I...if I tell you, can you forgive my husband?"

Wu Meiniang frowned and said, "What happened to him? Please explain it clearly."

Yang took a deep breath and said, "This matter is related to the capsizing of the canal boat..."

A quarter of an hour later, Wu Meiniang hurriedly left Ziyun Pavilion. After ordering people to find out that Li Zhi was in the Plum Garden, she quickly headed towards the Plum Garden.

Arriving at the plum garden, we walked along the flower path and soon found Li Zhi under a plum tree.

Li Zhi was staring at the plum blossoms in a daze, not knowing what he was thinking. Wu Meiniang walked lightly behind him and called softly, "Your Majesty?"

Li Zhi finally came back to his senses, turned his head and looked over, then said with a smile: "Mei Niang, aren't you entertaining your relatives? Why are you here?"

Wu Meiniang's expression was serious. She said, "Your Majesty, I know who was responsible for the canal boat capsize incident."

Li Zhi's heart trembled, and he asked, "Who is it?"

Wu Meiniang said, "The Suzhou Gu family and the Suzhou Zhechong Mansion worked together to do this."

"Gu family? Zhechong Mansion?" Li Zhi frowned and asked, "Mei Niang, how did you know this?"

Wu Meiniang asked, "Your Majesty, do you remember that among those women you just met, there was one who was very afraid of you?"

Li Zhi was stunned and said, "Yes, there is one person."

Wu Meiniang said, "She was the one who told me."

After the boat capsized in the canal in Jiangnan, the Lu family had been investigating the matter.

After all, it happened in Jiangnan, and they were worried about being affected.

After some investigation, they found out that the matter was actually related to the Gu family.

Following Gu's clues, they found Suzhou Zhechoufu and realized that the two sides had worked together.

Although Lu found out about this, he did not report it because of his century-long friendship with Gu.

After Yang accidentally learned about this, she was very worried, thinking that she would be implicated, and could not sleep well every night.

After being invited into the palace this time, Lu was worried that the matter would be exposed and she would be charged with knowing the truth but not reporting it, so she was very frightened and lost her composure.

Li Zhi suddenly realized and said, "No wonder she was so scared. It turned out to be because of this."

Wu Meiniang said softly, "Your Majesty, Yang's report was meritorious. Can you please absolve Lu of her guilt?"

Li Zhi waved his hand and said, "Then I'll do as you say. Let the merits offset the crime and don't punish Lu." He immediately sent someone to tell Di Renjie about this.

With this important information, Di Renjie solved the case in less than a day.

Just as Yang said, this case was a joint effort between the Jiangnan Gu family and the Suzhou Zhechou Mansion.

The commander of Zhechoufu was Yuan Xiuye, the former governor of Songzhou.

Because he did not cooperate with Xue Rengui in his military campaign against Tubo, he was later demoted to Jiangnan by Li Zhi and served as the commander of the Zhechoufu in Suzhou.

In the past few years, he had seen Xue Rengui rise rapidly from a small General of the Central Army to a general and was granted the title of Duke of Liang, and his heart was filled with resentment.

While he was in Suzhou, he naturally had to deal with the Gu family. Under the financial offensive of the Gu family, he quickly became friends with them.

If the Gu family commits any illegal acts in Jiangnan, he will use his influence to smooth things over for the Gu family.

Later, the Gu family came to him and wanted to hijack a ship to confiscate the Xiao family's property. Yuan Xiuye ​​resented the injustice of the court and agreed without much hesitation.

After several months of planning, both sides relied on Yuan Xiuye's connections in the military to gain a clear understanding of the canal boat routes and finally accomplished the task.

The two also knew that the court would not let them off easily after this incident, so they both wanted to find a scapegoat.

The Xiao family did not help the Gu family back then, so the Gu family wanted to blame the Xiao family, but Yuan Xiuye ​​wanted to blame Xue Rengui.

After discussion, both sides decided to take a two-pronged approach.

The Gu family spread rumors in the streets of Chang'an, saying that this was done by the Xiao family.

Yuan Xiuye ​​went to Songzhou in person and found an old subordinate of his in Songzhou who was loyal to him. He brought a forged letter and asked him to take part of the stolen money to Xue Rengui's mansion.

In addition, he was asked to deceive Cui Shenqing and steal the urgent report from the Ministry of War.

If this old subordinate is found, Xue Rengui can be implicated and made to take the blame.

This case is not complicated, it is only a little troublesome because it involves Xue Rengui.

In any case, the case was finally solved on the day before.

Chang'an City is also about to usher in the new year.

(End of this chapter)