The Tang Dynasty Book records: In the third year of Longshuo (663 AD), the palace of Chang'an was sunny and the sky was clear. In the gentle breeze: the sound was miserable, like crying and complaining, the wailing and howling echoed throughout the harem, the sound was sad and painful, the "cuckoo" was weeping blood, and everything was harmonious.
Prince Hong: tears streaming down his face, begging for mercy in agony. Queen: red hands, fragrant body. Emperor: relaxed and contented, lost in obsession.
In Wu Mei's palace, Wu Mei had just finished bathing and changing clothes. After all, she was exhausted and panting, sweating profusely, and her palms were red and painful, but! It had been a long time since she had such a good fight.
Wu Mei was very satisfied with the smooth feeling the soap brought to her skin when bathing. The faint fragrance still remained on her skin after bathing. After spraying the perfume, her whole person seemed like a delicate flower, exuding fragrance that was intoxicating.
The person being beaten was now lying on her breast, and Xia Zhi was applying medicine to someone's swollen buttocks. Occasionally, he would use a little more force and touch the most swollen area. Li Hong would immediately make a cool sound to remind him, saying it was really painful.
At the edge of the bed, Li Zhi sat face to face with Li Hong with a look of deep thought on his face. A desk was placed between them, on which was a chess set, which was not even available in that era!
At this time, the chess game was extremely unfavorable to Li Zhi. Under Li Hong's step-by-step and high-profile offensive, Li Zhi's situation had turned from offense to defense, and even the defensive position seemed extremely passive.
Neither of the father and son who were playing chess cared about Wu Mei, who was showing off her faint fragrance. Wu Mei looked at the chess situation and sighed. From Li Hong's expression, she knew that His Majesty was going to lose again.
So he sat down on the edge of the bed, took out the last few papers from Li Hong's backpack, and after reading them carefully, he patted Li Hong, who looked relieved, and urged his father to move the chess piece faster.
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"Why are you urging me? Don't you want your father to think about it? Let me ask you, is this what you want to build by insisting that your father and the Ministry of Works reserve a place for you in Daming Palace?"
"Hmm." Li Hong nodded nonchalantly to Wu Mei. He watched Li Zhi secretly put a eaten chess piece back on the chessboard, and stretched out his arm with great effort to push the chess piece away.
Wu Mei was not annoyed by Li Hong's carelessness. She bit her red lips and thought carefully for a while, then asked again: "What is the name of your building? How can the water be transported to a height of dozens of feet?"
"This is easy. Yuwen Rong, Liang Xiaoren and the guy named Lou Yu have almost finished their research. As long as the water level of Taiye Lake is not lower than the average, getting water will not be a problem. The flowers will wither in winter anyway, and for some cold-resistant trees, occasionally watering them will be enough." Li Hong put the horse in his hand next to Marshal Li Zhi. In two more steps, he would kill the opponent.
"Li Hong, please pay attention. What's your name?" Wu Mei looked at the careless Li Hong and raised her hand to slap his red and swollen buttocks, but after looking at it, she couldn't bear it and patted him on the back and asked.
"It's called: Sky Garden. After it's built, it should be the tallest building in the palace. There will be trees, flowers, pavilions and terraces standing on it. When you and your father admire the beautiful scenery of Chang'an or relax, it will be more artistic conception. Check." Li Hong's last sentence was to Li Zhi. After the cannon sank to the bottom, Li Zhi's old general was completely unable to move because of the horse's trough. Li Zhi had to resign and admit defeat.
"When will you go to Taiyi City?" Wu Mei put down the drawings in her hands. She still couldn't form a specific image of the building in her mind, so she simply gave up thinking about it. She believed that after the little thing was built, it would not disappoint her.
"You have to ask my father. He wants me to wait for Liu Renyuan and Sun Renshuai to come back before going to Taiyi City." Li Hong took his chess pieces and began to prepare for the next game with Li Zhi.
"This is the last round. Father will use two chariots. Liu Renyuan and his men have escorted back a strange man this time, a surrendered general from Baekje. He is over seven feet tall, brave and resourceful. According to Liu Rengui, this man's martial arts skills are no less than Xue Rengui's, and he is even more skilled in using troops than Xue Rengui." Li Zhi explained while setting up the game skillfully without even raising his head.
"No, one chariot and one horse, no more. That's not necessarily the case, if Zheng Rentai hadn't misjudged the situation when the Nine Surnames Tiele were preparing to surrender, this battle could have wiped out the Nine Surnames Tiele in one fell swoop. But Xue Rengui, knowing that Zheng Rentai was wrong, still took a woman from the Nine Surnames as a concubine, he deserved it." Li Hong, who had set up the chessboard, said calmly.
Li Zhi rolled his eyes at him, obviously dissatisfied with Li Hong's excuse for Xue Rengui. Besides, he himself did not hold Xue Rengui responsible.
"Hong'er, that Baekje general who surrendered wanted to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, but I was afraid that he would be too proud of his martial arts, so..."
"Thank you, father, for your kindness." Li Hong leaned on the bed and clasped his hands together to thank him, "I already have a suitable candidate for the Sixth Commander's Left Guard General. I don't need him."
Li Zhi held a chess piece in his hand and stopped it in the air. Then he smiled meaningfully, looked at the little thing's nonchalant face, and continued: "All capable people are quite conceited. I am worried that after he comes to Chang'an, the Ministry of War will not be able to completely subdue him."
"Do you want me to give it a try? No problem, let me see how I can deal with him. Even with his great martial arts skills, he can't withstand the sharp blade in my hand. It's just that Xue Rengui has been kept at home by you, otherwise, Xue Rengui would definitely be able to deal with him." Li Hong said.
Li Hong couldn't say why he gave up Heichi Changzhi. Perhaps it was because he hated Koreans so much in his previous life, or maybe he was afraid that his father would think he was overreaching.
In the end, Li Hong was taken back to the harem again, and was given special permission to skip court for a few days. After he recovered, he could go to Taiyi City after Liu Renyuan returned to the court and met the surrendered general of Baekje.
Because the head of the Ministry of Revenue was ill in recent days, most of the daily government affairs were moved from the Ministry of Revenue in front of the Taiji Hall to the Eastern Palace.
Basically, after leaving court, the Left Vice Minister Li Yiyan and the Right Vice Minister Jing Hui would rush to the East Palace to listen to the Crown Prince's instructions before returning to the Ministry of Revenue to handle government affairs.
With the help of Li Hong, all the Japanese students sent to Tang Dynasty began to prepare to charge per capita. Li Hong also instructed Jinghui to discuss this matter with the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial College. In short, Japan would no longer be allowed to take advantage of Tang Dynasty for nothing.
Yan Liben's mood these days was like a roller coaster. The excitement of regaining what he had lost made him look very happy in the court, as if he had married a concubine.
Li Zhi actually returned the Huangting Sutra to Yan Liben, which made Yan Liben immediately grateful to Li Zhi and excited. He wanted to ask Li Zhi to send him to the Western Regions or Baekje as soon as possible, ready to die to repay the emperor's kindness to him.
The Taiji Palace's martial arts arena was surrounded by civil and military officials. A tall man in black with disheveled hair was kneeling in the center of the arena. Li Zhi stood on the high steps of the Linde Hall, looking down at the man.
"Your subject Heichi Changzhi greets His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty." The stiff Chinese sounded a bit awkward.
But for the Tang Dynasty, none of this was surprising. The Tang Dynasty was confident and calm, and tolerance ran through its blood.
Besides, Heichi Changzhi was not the first foreign official to defect to the Tang Dynasty, so no one would find his stiff Chinese strange.
With a horizontal sword in hand, Heichi Changzhi started practicing in the martial arts field after getting Li Zhi's approval. His vigorous and powerful killing moves and mighty and domineering aura before the battle were truly eye-catching. He danced with the horizontal sword with great vigor, as if wrapping his whole body tightly.
Liu Renyuan seemed like a gangster. He threw a piece of wood about a foot long and as thick as a child's arm that he had prepared beside him into the field. With a flash of a knife, each piece of wood was split into two accurately and sharply by Heichi Chang.
Seeing this, the crowd couldn't help but burst into cheers. Li Hong, who was also standing on the high platform of the Linde Hall with Li Zhi, couldn't help but curl his lips and whispered: "Liu Renyuan is showing off his martial arts like a street performer."
"Hong'er, what do you think of this man?" Li Zhi asked with a smile as he looked at Heichi Changzhi's thunder-like skills.
"Very good, Yangwu. Haven't you been wanting to compete with Cheetah and Jingzhe recently? They are too lazy to pay attention to you. How about that stick guy down there? Go compete with him... Ouch." Before Li Hong could finish his words, Li Zhi slapped him on the head.
"Yangwu's martial arts are about fighting, not battle formations. The martial arts honed on the battlefield of life and death are incomparable to those of Yangwu and his men. In a one-on-one fight, even if they were two Heichi Changzhis, Yangwu would not take them seriously. But if the two were put on the battlefield, it is not certain who would pose more threat to the enemy." Li Zhi explained to Li Hong.
"Thank you for your teachings, father." Li Hong naturally understood the logic behind this, but he had to give his father a little face occasionally, after all, he was the emperor.
After Heichi Changzhi finished chopping the wood, he took out a bow and arrow and started shooting. A wooden stake was nailed there a hundred steps away, and it looked as thick as a small wooden stick.
Li Hong watched at ease, and began to brag again: "Tsk tsk, this guy seems to be really good." Then he turned around and said to Yang Wu: "Have you finished checking? If you have, please return it to me quickly, because I need to compete with the Koreans later."
"Bangzi?" This was the second time Li Zhi heard Li Hong call Heichi Changzhi Bangzi. He didn't pay much attention to it the first time, but when he heard it the second time, he immediately asked, "What does it mean?"
"Oh, this is the nickname I gave to Heichi Changzhi. How about it? It sounds nice, right? Ouch." Li Hong was slapped again.
Although Li Zhi didn't know why he called Heichi Changzhi "Bangzi", he knew from the literal meaning that the little bastard had bad intentions. No wonder he was not interested in Heichi Changzhi, who was a martial arts master.
Xue Rengui, the master of "Three Arrows to Conquer Tianshan", was not there, so naturally, everyone started to discuss who was better at archery between Heichi Changzhi and Xue Rengui, and who could pull the bow with greater force.
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