A makeup mirror and the jewelry box that Li Hong promised, especially the perfume and soap that Li Hong told Wu Mei would be delivered to the palace soon, made Wu Mei full of anticipation.
As for the matter of punishing Xia Zhi, after being scolded a few times, it was hastily dismissed. Although Wu Yuanshuang raised his injured wrist, and Wu Yuanqing and Helan Minzhi knelt on the ground, begging Wu Mei to help them, they were all ignored by Wu Mei.
She even warned the three of them in front of the crown prince, saying that Wu Yuanshuang and Wu Yuanqing were her half-sisters and she had long been dissatisfied with them.
Therefore, Wu Yuanshuang and Wu Yuanqing's purpose of taking this opportunity to make Wu Mei revoke her decision to exile them to various states in Lingnan as governors was naturally not achieved. Instead, it accelerated their pace of leaving.
As for Helan Minzhi, after being severely reprimanded by Li Zhi in front of Wu Mei, he left the palace in disgrace.
Among them, Li Zhi was also unhappy. He sat here for half a day but didn't get any benefits. The makeup mirror and other messy things were all used by the little bastard to please his mother. None of them were prepared for him.
But thinking of the perfume that Li Hong mentioned, Li Zhi couldn't help but think of Wu Shun and Helan Minyue. No matter what, he had to keep a few bottles of this thing and give them to them mother and daughter privately.
In the following period of time, every time the court was in Taiji Hall, after the ministers entered, or even when the court was halfway through, a figure would be seen riding a skateboard, followed by panting palace maids and eunuchs, rushing into the Taiji Hall in a panic.
The East Palace is separated from the Taiji Palace by a wall. There is a special gate leading to the East Palace prepared for the emperor, but it will only be opened when the emperor comes in person.
...
...
When Li Hong was late for one visit, he wanted to take a shortcut there, but was coldly rejected by the Qianniu Guards. From then on, the Minister of Revenue had no choice but to continue running to Jiafu Gate and then enter the palace through Chengtian Gate.
"Huff...Huff...I am late. Please punish me, father." Li Hong bent over and gasped, speaking intermittently.
The court officials had long been accustomed to it. Every time the Chief Censor attended a court meeting, when Li Hong rushed in, he would turn his mouth and nose to the sky, as if everything happening before his eyes had nothing to do with his Censorate.
What else could he do? The memorials impeaching him, Li Hong, were piled up higher than him, but none of them had been approved by His Majesty. If he continued to submit memorials in accordance with his duty, it would only be a waste of paper and pen.
"The Minister of Revenue has arrived just in time." Li Zhi sat on the upper steps, looked at them expressionlessly and said, "The Ministry of Rites and the Honglu Temple jointly applied to repair the envoy's residence for the Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty. Why is the Ministry of Revenue making things difficult for them?"
"My father... I am wrong. Your Majesty, since I took charge of the Ministry of Revenue, I have fulfilled my duties every day, checking all the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue and the use and expenditure of various funds. Finally, I have checked everything clearly before going to court today. The Ministry of Revenue does not have extra money to repair the envoys' residence for Japan and other countries. At the same time, I believe that the renovation of the envoys' residence should be paid by their own countries in the future, rather than by the Tang Dynasty."
Li Hong spoke with a stern face and righteousness, not caring at all about Dai Zhide, whose face was as black as coal, and the indignant expression of the Minister of the Ministry of Rites behind him.
"Your Majesty, I request you to issue an order to the Ministry of Revenue to immediately allocate funds to repair the Japanese envoy's residence. Otherwise, the efforts of our Great Tang to spread its prestige and virtue to all quarters will be wasted overnight." Dai Zhide stepped forward and saluted.
Without waiting for Li Zhi to speak, Li Hong casually said, "No money."
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, by not allocating funds, do you know that your willful behavior will hurt the surrounding countries and make them dissatisfied with our Tang Dynasty? Not only do you not allocate funds for the repair of the envoy's mansion, but since you took office as the Ministry of Revenue, you have ordered to stop paying the expenses of Japanese students sent to the Tang Dynasty. As a minister of the Tang Dynasty, I just want to ask you a question, Crown Prince, have you ever thought about what consequences it will bring to our Tang Dynasty by acting so recklessly?" Dai Zhide's face was full of grief and indignation, but he didn't know if he had the same upright temper as Wei Zheng, and whether he dared to make the emperor and the crown prince lose face together.
Li Zhi rubbed his aching head. It seemed that these two people would not get along well today. He had already made excuses for the situation several times. If he continued to make excuses, who knew what outrageous actions Dai Zhide would take in the court today.
But the perpetrator was calm. He turned around and looked at Dai Zhide quietly. He did not speak until Dai Zhide felt a little uncomfortable.
"Minister Dai, do you know how much money our Tang Dynasty has lost because of your frankness and acceptance of advice? Stop, listen to me first and then you can say something else. Don't always say that I stink of money, that's biased." Seeing that Dai Zhide was about to refute, Li Hong quickly stretched out his hand to signal.
"Okay, today I will listen to your advice, Your Highness the Crown Prince. In front of Your Majesty and all the ministers, I hope that Your Highness the Crown Prince can give me a satisfactory answer. Otherwise, I will never give up today." Dai Zhide also said in a tough attitude.
All the ministers thought at the same time: "It seems that these two are determined to fight to the death today."
Li Hong thought about it and decided not to use data first. At this moment, using data would not be convincing. Besides, Dai Zhide was already confronting him emotionally. He had to prove that Dai Zhide was not right before he could use data.
So Li Hong sorted out his thoughts and said, "Minister Dai, can I ask you a question first?"
"I, an old minister, will tell you everything I know." Dai Zhide looked righteous.
"Okay, then please tell me, how many troops does our Tang Dynasty have now to help defend Baekje? How many casualties were there in this year's battle?" Li Hong asked.
"This is the Ministry of War's business. I am only responsible for the Ministry of Rites..."
"The left and right ministers are in the court, so they naturally have the answer, but I think many people in the court know this answer. I can tell you that my Tang Dynasty sent a total of 100,000 soldiers to help defend Baekje, and more than 37,000 people were killed or injured in battles of all sizes, but... do you know why my Tang Dynasty paid such a high price to deal with a small Baekje and Goryeo? That's because the Japanese responded to the envoys sent by Baekje King Buyeo Feng and brought their troops to fight against my Tang Dynasty and Silla. Otherwise, my Tang Dynasty wouldn't have lost so many soldiers! The Japanese were so treacherous. My Tang Dynasty helped him build the envoy's mansion and helped their students for free, but after they returned to Japan, they took up swords and guns to deal with my Tang Dynasty soldiers! Do you think I still need to pay him? No, the king of Japan has done his best, why should I pay for their repairs?"
Looking at Dai Zhide's dark face, Li Hong continued slowly: "Liu Renyuan and Sun Renshuai have returned to the court, but why does General Liu Rengui dare not come back? Because General Liu is deeply afraid that the land stained with the blood of our soldiers will be snatched away by Japan, Goryeo, and Baekje again. In that case, the lives of more than 37,000 of our soldiers will be sacrificed in vain!"
Li Hong glanced at the ministers in the court. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He couldn't do such cowardly things anymore. He had to speak out. Even though the current national policy of the Tang Dynasty couldn't skillfully use diplomatic means as bargaining chips, he had to sound the alarm for the current national policy of the Tang Dynasty at this time.
"Perhaps the ministers think that there will be casualties in a war, and there is no need to make a fuss. If there are no casualties, then don't send troops. This will lose the purpose of establishing prestige for our Tang Dynasty and winning the hearts of the people with virtue. But colleagues, do you know that if the Japanese do not participate in the war, how many soldiers can we kill and injure? If these soldiers were placed in Tubo, Tuyuhun, and Daqin, our four towns in Anxi would not be lost and robbed again. Our Tang Dynasty would not have to send troops everywhere and be overwhelmed, and the soldiers would have enough manpower and energy to continue farming when they are not sending troops, which will also prepare for the year of famine for our Tang Dynasty..."
The ten-year-old boy stood in the middle of the silent court, but spoke earnestly like an old scholar: "The chain reaction caused by a war is not something we can see right now, but it will take time to ferment. Today's peace does not mean permanent peace. Today's decisions may seem correct, but we may regret it ten years later. We can only hope that the many colleagues in the court will use their years of experience, knowledge, and knowledge to help us make a stable Tang Dynasty!"
Li Hong still didn't mention the "chaos theory" such as the "butterfly effect". What kind of chain reaction would happen if it was applied to Datang? He frowned and thought for a while and said, "All of you ministers are well-educated and well-read. Here, I hope that after leaving the court, you will study the "Chawei" chapter (Battle of Jifu) in "Lüshi Chunqiu". What it is about, I believe everyone knows, but a Chu woman and a Wu woman were picking mulberry leaves on the border between the two countries. When they were laughing and playing, the Chu woman's finger was accidentally injured. However, the Chu border city Beiliang brought people to the Wu woman's family to argue. The two sides could not agree, and the Chu people killed one person from the Wu woman's family and then left. After the Wu people knew about this, they ran to Chu and killed the woman's family. The doctor of the Chu city Beiliang was furious: How dare you kill my Chu people. So he sent troops to attack Wu and killed the woman's entire village. After hearing this, the King of Wu was furious and led his troops to invade Chu..."
The more Li Hong spoke, the lower his voice became. The court was not like the New Year's Day court meeting. Only officials above the fifth rank participated in this meeting. He would not dare to say that everyone knew this story, but at least everyone should have heard of it.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Hong said in a low voice, "Reading history books, compiling history books, reading history books, and revising history books, Grandpa Huang once said: 'Use copper as a mirror to correct your clothes. Use people as a mirror to know gains and losses. Use history as a mirror to know the rise and fall.' But we have never studied that such a small and trivial thing will trigger a major change, even a major change of life and death! Therefore, as court officials, whether it is my father, or me, or the second- and third-rank officials, or as small as the eighth- and ninth-rank officials, when you make a decision, have you ever thought about taking responsibility for it? Instead of shirking the responsibility of others? Have you ever thought that your words will be like what the Chu woman said to her family after returning home, and in the subtle, it will produce a shock that causes the two countries to go to war! The Japanese sent troops to help, this is their cause, so they must bear their consequences! Because no one knows that if we help the Japanese today, will there be a day when the Japanese use the knowledge we taught them to oppress us? Who of you dares to guarantee it?!"
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