Wu Mei, who had been silent the whole time, looked at Li Zhi when she heard his words. She thought for a moment and said, "Helan Minzhi has always been very close to his uncles Wu Yuanshuang and Wu Yuanqing. I'm afraid this was not done by Helan Minzhi alone. Wu Yuanshuang and Wu Yuanqing must have instructed them. Otherwise, how could Helan Minzhi enter Hong'er's strictly guarded restricted area by himself?"

This was Wu Mei's backup plan, a perfect way out for herself. It was also something she had been planning to do for many years, and it was also something that had always been misunderstood by Li Zhi.

Wu Yuanshuang and Wu Yuanqing were her half-sisters. When their biological mother, Yang, was still alive, and before she became the queen, they had always been very mean to their mother.

She had long wanted to find an opportunity to exile them, but when she was first crowned empress, in order to deal with the criticism of her lack of family affection by court officials and to consolidate her position as empress, she temporarily needed these two brothers who were the Junior Supervisor of the Imperial Household and the Junior Minister of the Imperial Clan to help her eliminate dissidents, so she kept them until now.

This gave Li Zhi the illusion that Wu Mei valued Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang very much, so much so that he could completely rely on these two people to treat Wu Mei.

At this moment, for Wu Mei, who has completely controlled the harem, the two are no longer of any use to her. On the contrary, if they continue to stay in the Shaofu and Zongzheng Temple, they will only hinder her actions everywhere.

Moreover, Wu Yuanshuang's insatiable character had already made her extremely unhappy. Many of the rare treasures in the palace were embezzled by him, but Wu Mei was unable to effectively stop him.

Wu Mei looked at Li Zhi, who seemed a little confused, and continued, "I hope Your Majesty can give Hong Er justice in this matter."

After hearing what Wu Mei said, Li Zhi knew that he was totally wrong and had completely misjudged the relationship between the queen and her two siblings.

...

...

Li Zhi never expected that the queen would make a desperate move. In this way, the queen would be giving up all her close relatives and ministers, which would greatly weaken her presence and also make him lose some interest.

He didn't know yet that Wu Mei had thought it over carefully because of Li Hong's strong rise and the inherent advantages of being the crown prince, which had gradually made her ambitions more fragile. If she tried to force her way into the court to discuss matters at this time, she would most likely be accused of interfering in government affairs.

Besides, she was not completely without rivals in the harem. Xu Hui, who was selected into the harem with her by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, was also canonized as a "Fifth Rank Talent" at the same time.

However, she had never been appreciated by Emperor Taizong since she entered the palace. Apart from the title given to her by Emperor Taizong: Wu Mei (later erroneously called Wu Meiniang), there was nothing else. If it were not for Li Zhi, she would probably have spent the rest of her life in Ganye Temple.

However, Xu Hui was deeply favored by the previous emperor and was successively conferred the titles of Jieyushi and Chongrong. After her death, she was posthumously conferred the title of Xianfei.

Li Zhi not only followed the rules of the emperor in politics and completely inherited the style of Zhenguan, but also showed the "same ideals" between father and son in the selection of concubines in the harem.

Needless to say, Wu Mei was a typical example of Li Zhi "following her father's footsteps". Xu Yingying, the younger sister of Li Zhi's father, Consort Xu Hui, was also taken into the harem by Li Zhi and was canonized as a concubine.

Now that Wu Mei had focused most of her attention on the harem, she naturally noticed the existence of Concubine Xu. Moreover, because of the involvement of the little bastard Li Hong, the bitch Xiao Shufei was still lingering in the harem, which forced Wu Mei to temporarily give up the idea of ​​contacting the court.

After Wu Mei denounced Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang, she made it clear that she would retreat to the harem and watch the situation between the father and son.

Li Zhi suddenly lost interest in testing Li Hong. Rather than saying that Li Zhi wanted to test Li Hong more, it would be better to say that he later enjoyed it and wanted to continue participating in the three-way battle with great interest, mainly because of Wu Mei's participation.

Wu Mei's participation inspired him to find some new ways to entertain himself and Wu Mei, to add some new fun to their relationship.

From this, we can see that Li Zhi's love for Wu Mei reached a new level of despicableness. If Wu Mei was weaker and had no ambition for power, it is estimated that Li Zhi and Wu Mei would have played out a Tang Dynasty version of the story of King You of Zhou and Bao Si playing with the princes by lighting beacons.

So there is no "if" in history, but Li Zhi has some "ifs" in his heart that he can't bear. If he loses Wu Shun and her daughter like this, Li Zhi will feel reluctant and unwilling to do so.

Concubine Xiao Shu and Queen Wang, one was deposed as a commoner and imprisoned in the deep palace, and the other was already a pile of bones. For Li Zhi, although he loved the queen deeply, if there were other women besides the queen who could receive his love, it would be the best way to replace Queen Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu in his heart.

Li Hong originally thought that the deadlock between the three people could not be solved, but he did not expect that because his mother gently stepped aside, the royal struggle disappeared without a trace.

He was the happiest person at the moment. He immediately grabbed Wu Mei's arm and hugged her in his arms and began to say: "Mother, I will bring you some good things in a few days. Taiyi City is speeding up the production now. There are still some technical defects, but I estimate that it will not be long before I can present it to you."

Li Zhi saw that the mother and son had already stood on a united front and were very likely to unite against him. If he didn't make a decision quickly, the mother and son might not take him out to play in the future.

He was also fascinated by Li Hong's unconventional, casual and natural way of getting along with others, which added a bright spot to their boring and dull life in the palace.

What's more, the most important thing is that Li Hong was the crown prince. Through his observations over the past few years, he found that everything Li Hong did was done in the open. There was never a single thing that was quietly carried out under the shadow of the sun. Everything he did was the candid and gentlemanly behavior.

Even for the Lijing Gate guarded by Jingzhe, Liebao, Yangwu and others, Li Hong always asked them to filter the information first, and then he would look for the useful ones himself.

Over the past few years, Li Hong had never touched upon a series of issues concerning court politics, factions among officials, etc. He handled the difficult line between the crown prince and the emperor with ease and never overstepped the line.

As for Bai Chun, who had always helped him manage and operate Taiyi City, Li Zhi believed that Li Hong must know who Bai Chun was working for. However, Li Hong had no need to be secretive about him, so he didn't care who Bai Chun was loyal to.

After thinking through all these, Li Zhi suddenly regained an expression that he hadn't had in years. He rubbed his hands together tightly and said, "How about this, Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang, their crimes are not punishable by death. In my opinion, how about demoting them to provincial governors?"

Wu Mei and Li Hong, mother and son, snuggled together, their two pairs of silent big eyes looking at him, waiting for his next words.

"Okay, Lady Wu Shun of Korea and Helan Minyue are ordered to return to their hometowns from today because of the incident of stealing from the Prince's Mansion. They are not allowed to enter Chang'an without being summoned." Li Zhi said with a sneer.

"Hong'er, send your father back to the palace. Your mother is tired today..."

"Father, please."

"You little bastard, are you just listening to your mother? Father will stay here tonight, so hurry back to the East Palace."

"That won't do. Mother has already said that you should go. Mother is very tired today." Li Hong smiled and pushed Li Zhi's reluctant body to walk out.

"Be careful, don't push your father down." Wu Mei said with a soft and gentle smile on her face.

"Yes, don't worry, your husband will be fine. I am not that strong, but I only worry about my husband and not my son... Oh... Mother, I know I am guilty."

Li Hong rubbed his ears and sighed, walking with Li Zhi on the quiet road of the palace. In the end, both father and son were driven out.

"What will you do next?" Li Zhi stopped and looked at Li Hong, who was scratching his ears like a monkey.

"Nothing. I have discussed this with my mother, and I also intend to tell you that Sujie, Shangjin, and Li Xian will all go to Chongwenguan to study together. As for my uncles from the royal family, I will inform them to go to Taiyi City in a month, and then I will allocate some property to them."

Li Zhi touched Li Hong's head and motioned him to talk while walking. Yang Wu, Xia Zhi and others stayed far away from him, knowing that this was a rare time for the father and son to spend time together, and no one knew whether they should listen to their conversation.

"I have thought that, apart from the foundation of our Great Tang, the other industries can be fully expanded. One is to hand over some to the royal family. Secondly, I also plan to vigorously support private merchants. As for how to do it, I only have a simple outline in my mind, which has not yet been fully formed. But I know that one thing must be followed, that is, there must be competition between merchants. Only with competition can there be development. This is also the method I can think of now to prevent the industries handed over to the royal family from being monopolized by them."

"What you mean is that you will also give the property given to your uncle and others to private merchants? Salt and iron are the foundation of the country. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to do this." Li Zhi said worriedly. Today in Liangyi Hall, the royal family repeated Li Hong's original words, so he naturally knew what Li Hong was going to give to the royal family.

"That's definitely not right. Salt production needs to be popularized, just like sugar. Only when the people can make full use of the new law can the Tang Dynasty and you really benefit. Enriching a country and strengthening its army also starts from small things. The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty cannot be just the prosperity of the royal family and nobles, but the differential prosperity based on the people. The royal family and nobles are allowed to be wealthy, but they are never allowed to monopolize the industry to squeeze and suck the hard-earned money of the people, and even to threaten the royal family with the economy. Therefore, I need to form a relationship of mutual restraint and competition between them. In this way, the development of my Tang Dynasty can be faster. After all, there is no development without competition."

At the end of his speech, Li Hong pretended to be Shangguan Yi in front of Li Zhi, with his hands behind his back, his head tilted slightly to the side, and his feet turned inward, which made Li Zhi laugh.

Over the past few years, only with Li Hong could he feel the true father-son relationship, just like when he lived with his father, accompanied him to court and left court, and slept on the same bed with him.

Thinking of this, Li Zhi couldn't help but stop and looked at Li Hong, who was still imitating Shangguan Yi without realizing it. He secretly made a decision in his heart. Back then, he could let his father take him to court, so why couldn't he take Hong'er to court? ?