Li Shimin faked his death? Then I will be powerful enough to conquer the world!

Listening to Li Zhi's chatter and looking at her current appearance.

Wu Meiniang couldn't help but have red eyes.

In the blink of an eye, everything is over.

The wind blew dead leaves against the carved window lattices of the Liangyi Hall. The ambergris in the bronze crane incense burner mixed with a strong medicinal smell, forming a thick mist in the hall.

Wu Meiniang knelt in front of the table, stirring the dark brown medicine in the medicine pot with a silver spoon. Looking at the instant noodles floating on the surface of the soup, she seemed to find that they overlapped with the rotten algae in the ancient well of Ganye Temple.

"Coughing up blood again."

Li Zhi's voice was hoarse, as if squeezed out from the deepest part of his chest.

His pale fingertips were pinching a blood-stained handkerchief, and the embroidered carp was blurred by the blood.

Wu Meiniang hurriedly put down the medicine bowl, and the moment the handkerchief touched the corner of his lips, she felt a chill.

Memories suddenly flooded back.

On a snowy night in the Zhenguan period, the bluestone slabs of Ganye Temple were covered with thin ice. She knelt in front of the Buddhist temple and copied scriptures. Her frozen fingers could hardly hold the pen.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound. Turning around, I saw a young man in white climbing over the wall. He was holding a heater in his arms, and the frost on his temples had not yet melted. "Sister, I brought you some candy."

His eyes were surprisingly bright at that time, not like now, covered with a layer of cloudy film.

"Why does your majesty worry about everything?"

Wu Meiniang handed the medicine bowl over, the steam blurring her vision. "In the past, His Majesty Taizong still had the legacy of Zhenguan, and Emperor Gaozong also had the Qianwu strategy. Now, Your Majesty..."

"I am not the Emperor!"

"Not even my royal brother!"

Li Zhi suddenly had a violent cough.

"My father has Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui... My brother has Mr. Qi, Lin Dafu, Zhang Xianhuai, and Qin Ruzhao... What about me? The West is not yet pacified, there is a locust plague in Henan, and the court is full of civil and military officials..."

His voice suddenly dropped, and his skinny hand suddenly grabbed her wrist, "Mei Niang, I'm afraid my rheumatism won't be cured."

"It will be fine, Your Majesty!"

Wu Meiniang comforted.

"Your Majesty, you simply have an overly heavy sense of responsibility. Nothing in this world is perfect."

"Your Majesty, you are a holy monarch. Just stride forward, regardless of whether it's with the current or against it."

Li Zhi smiled and shook his head.

"Mei Niang, first it was Father, then it was Brother. I am under too much pressure."

"I'm not in good health, so I can only share this pressure with you, causing you to receive so much criticism for no reason."

"Have you ever blamed me in your heart?"

When Wu Meiniang heard Li Zhi's words, her nose felt sore.

"If it weren't for your Majesty's broad-mindedness, how could Mei Niang have seen the beauty of this world?"

Li Zhi closed his eyes and nodded.

"You have been subjected to so much infamy over the years..."

Outside the hall came the sound of palace maids sweeping fallen leaves, and the sound of bamboo brooms scratching across bluestone bricks hit the eardrums again and again.

Wu Meiniang looked at the mountain of memorials on the desk. The one on top impeached her for appointing cruel officials. The cinnabar annotations still had Li Zhi's handwriting.

Since the "Two Saints came to power", she has helped him to rectify the administration of officials, but in return she was branded as the "evil queen who disrupts the government".

"Hong'er, it's time to learn some real skills."

Li Zhi suddenly let go of his hand, leaned back on the armchair, and looked at the dragon-shaped caisson ceiling above his head. "Starting tomorrow, let him sit in on the court meetings."

"Pei Yan and Wu Tianyan are both loyal ministers. It's time to teach him how to recognize people."

These words were like a dagger, piercing Wu Meiniang's heart.

She stared at Li Zhi's sunken eye sockets, remembering how he held her hand and said, "Mei Niang understands me best" three years ago.

Recalling the handling of Shangguan Yi's treason case last year, he tacitly allowed her to use cruel officials to intimidate the ministers.

"Now, she has to hand over everything she has worked so hard for into the hands of that legitimate son.

"Your Majesty, Hong'er is only eight years old..."

"I lost my mother at the age of eight and was crowned the Prince of Jin at the age of nine."

Li Zhi interrupted her, his voice filled with undeniable coldness, "Some burdens are better to be shouldered sooner rather than later."

"And those..."

He glanced at the secret report on his desk, "It's time for Zhou Xing, Lai Junchen and his ilk to stop."

Wu Meiniang felt cold all over, and the gilded armor dug deeply into her palms.

Which of these cruel officials dared to act without his tacit approval?

Now they want to get rid of her, but they are throwing dirty water on her.

The wind outside the hall suddenly grew stronger, rustling the window paper and casting flickering shadows on her face.

Li Zhi stood up with the help of the handrail, his black dragon robe dragging on the blue bricks.

When he reached the entrance of the palace, the moonlight fell right on him, painting his outline into a cold golden color.

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something and turned to look at Wu Meiniang who was kneeling in the shadows.

The moment their eyes met, Wu Meiniang seemed to see the young man holding the candy twenty years ago, overlapping and separating with the emperor with a distant look in front of her.

The young slave who once called her "sister" now only had the emperor's calculations in his eyes.

The old dragon looked back, his eyes as cold as frost.

It turns out that on the chessboard of power, there are never childhood sweethearts, only chess players and chess pieces.

The sound of the palace door slowly closing startled the crows under the eaves. Wu Meiniang looked at the gradually disappearing dragon shadow, her nails piercing her palms without her noticing.

The dusk outside the window was getting darker and darker, and she suddenly remembered the prophecy in the "Dayun Sutra": "A woman will be the king of the country."

The night wind blew up the memorial on the desk, and the words impeaching her flickered in the candlelight, and in a trance, they turned into snow all over the sky of Ganye Temple.

The next day, Li Yifu, the head of all officials who held the position of Sikong in the Tang Dynasty, was imprisoned.

This made everyone's heart tremble, but many people were also very happy.

The fall of Li Yifu indicates that His Majesty is weakening the power of the Empress.

In addition, a number of cruel officials including Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen were dismissed from their posts.

As for Li Yifu's crime, it was corruption.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards seized one million taels of silver from his home.

Everyone knew that Li Yifu had fallen from power.

He was on the wrong side. After the Queen Mother came to power, she took Li Yifu as her confidant.

Li Yifu was responsible for much of the work related to the clean-up of the bureaucracy.

I don’t know how many people are waiting for his downfall.

Li Yifu’s current status is inseparable from the promotion of the Queen Mother.

The arrested Li Yifu said nothing.

……

In the Jinyiwei prison.

Li Yifu was wearing prisoner uniform and sitting on a chair.

The prison door was opened quickly, and Wu Meiniang and Shangguan Wan'er slowly walked into the cell.

Li Yifu looked at the Queen Mother who came in very calmly.

He had expected this day to come.

He had once been loyal to His Majesty, but His Majesty was in poor health and the Empress was a capable woman.

Many of the powers he holds were bestowed upon him by the Queen Mother.

If it weren’t for Wu Meiniang, he wouldn’t have been able to reach the highest position in the country.

Unfortunately, he was loyal to a woman and could not be the ruler of the world. He had done so many things that offended people and would be easily brought down.

In the final analysis, Li Yifu is nothing more than a knife of imperial power.

But he has no regrets.

After the Western Expedition ended, he was not successful.

I thought my life would just pass like this.

However, it was the woman before him who gave him the opportunity to realize his ambitions.

A worthy death.