From the depths of his soul, Li Shimin truly did not want to carefully dig into the whole matter of the empress proclaiming herself emperor.
Sure, Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling had written records over there, and pulling them out to short out and organize them would not be difficult at all.
But the moment he thought about how Wu Zetian went from his concubine, to his son's empress, and then straight to founding her own Zhou dynasty as emperor, plus all the messy bits in between involving crown princes and close ministers rebelling one after another, Li Shimin's head immediately started to swell.
Forget it. Let it go.
This was the decision Li Erfeng made for himself.
Even when the matter occasionally floated back into his mind, Li Shimin would instinctively drag out Han Guangwu Emperor as a reference, convincing himself that it was probably just some descendant who happened to have the old Former Han spirit, someone like Liu Xiu reborn, waving an arm and restoring Great Tang.
Who could have expected that even the surname Li almost got snatched away.
He had thought this so called "Hundred Years of Taixuan Prosperity" would be as steady and reliable as Early Tang conquering the four directions.
Turns out it was a heart stopping obstacle course.
Shaking his head, Li Shimin slumped back onto the bed, staring into space.
At that moment, a hand reached over from the side.
Li Shimin was instantly moved.
As expected, the empress is the best.
Only after grasping it did he realize the texture was completely wrong. He looked up and met Sun Simiao's deeply disdainful expression.
"Your Majesty. Cooling Heat Pill."
"Oh. Oh, right."
Under Empress Zhangsun's barely contained laughter, he swallowed it with water.
Once the bitter pill entered his mouth, Li Shimin's mind calmed down a little, and his annoyance immediately shifted back toward that group of monks.
"A bunch who sit around talking emptiness. Catering to tastes and fabricating Buddhist scriptures like this. Quite a match, really."
Though he said that, a thought still crept into his head, and he added,
"Keming, when you have time, repackage this matter and tell it to those Wa monks."
Du Ruhui's mouth twitched.
Your Majesty curses them with one breath and then orders him to carefully teach the Wa monks how to do this sort of thing with the next. That is really… practical.
This kind of planning did not need much explanation. He understood immediately, and in the blink of an eye had already thought of several methods.
For example, back in the Former Sui and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, welcoming and enshrining eminent monks' relics was extremely popular.
Now Guanzhong and Luoyang were full of temples. It would be appropriate to select a few sets of high monk relics and send them east to civilize that barbaric land. Presumably the masters would have no objections and would even be delighted.
By now, Du Ruhui and Li Shimin had gradually realized something.
Whether Great Tang needed the temples was debatable.
But the temples absolutely needed Great Tang.
At the end, staring at those few lines about requesting the imperial surname, Li Shimin still could not swallow his anger and cursed again,
"Imperial clansmen, the four barbarians, monks, Daoists. Heh. You lot are all so warm hearted."
This time Empress Zhangsun reached out with both hands, wrapping Li Shimin's palm, and said with a smile,
"Using such ghostly tricks to seize the state is naturally no match for everyone winning the realm on horseback
"No wonder later generations say that Wu Zhou returning to Tang was simply the natural course of events."
Comforted by the empress, the Emperor of Great Tang finally sighed,
"Indeed. Even with such chaos, there were still loyal and upright men who upheld the court."
"I only wonder. That Di Renjie. Was he from Taiyuan?"
The surname Di was uncommon. When Li Yuan served as the Sui dynasty's Jinyang Governor, Li Shimin had followed his father to Taiyuan many times on campaign and was familiar with the local customs. He vaguely remembered a Di clan there.
At this moment, Li Shimin was genuinely curious what kind of talent this Di Renjie possessed.
[Lightscreen]
[In the eighth year of Zhenguan, Li Erfeng sharpened their blades, preparing to strike at Tuyuhun, who had been diligently courting death for quite some time.
At the same time, internal governance was not neglected. This year, Brother Li, in order to broadly gather public opinion and rectify official conduct, dispatched thirteen Censorial Commissioners to tour the empire in one go.
"Censor" meant demotion. "Promotion" meant advancement. These personally appointed commissioners pushed central supervision over local governments another step forward.
Previously, in Sui and early Tang, supervision relied on Censors doubling as inspectors, who could only submit reports. Their authority was narrow.
The Censorial Commissioners were high ranking and powerful, with temporary decision making authority. They could promote, dismiss, imprison, or even execute local officials on the spot.
In mid to late Tang, this office became more refined, its powers split and renamed through various evolutions such as Inspecting Envoys, Surveillance Envoys, Investigative Commissioners, and Observation Commissioners.
Multiple supervisory systems cross monitored one another, preventing the center from falling into information blind spots. It was, overall, a fairly sound arrangement.]
Empress Zhangsun turned her head and saw Li Shimin already lifting his chin impatiently, yet still wearing an expression that said this was nothing worth mentioning.
She had originally wanted to praise him, but burst out laughing instead and directly exposed him.
"This office was only established three years later. Why are you feeling proud now?"
Li Shimin waved it off.
"According to what they say, our Tang campaign against Tuyuhun would also need to wait another four years."
"But now the war has already begun. At most by the eighth month, Yaoshi will bind Fu Yun and present him before the hall."
His words were firm. Li Shimin now understood the authority of everything produced by the Thunder Bureau better than anyone, and his confidence was overflowing.
For him, one of life's greatest pleasures was borrowing the light screen to compare himself with the Li Shimin recorded in later history.
Faster conquests. Richer people. Broader borders. More loyal ministers.
He was also very curious just how far this Zhenguan ship of his could sail.
[Li Erfeng]
[Anyway, the establishment of the Censorial Commissioners was successfully passed down.
When Li Zhi became emperor, Yan Liben, thanks to his achievements painting in Lingyan Pavilion, caught the High Emperor's eye and was appointed as a Censorial Commissioner, leaving the capital to inspect the realm.
Yan Liben served as Commissioner of Henan Circuit. When he reached Taiyuan, he gave Di Renjie a top tier evaluation purely based on appearance.
"You may be called the bright pearl of the eastern seas, the lost treasure of the southeast."
Extremely high praise. He then directly appointed Di Renjie as Legal Officer of the Bingzhou Governor's Office.
This post marked Di Renjie's takeoff, and also fixed his later image in history. A master at judging cases.
Di Renjie performed brilliantly in Bingzhou and soon, with Yan Liben's recommendation and solid achievements, was directly promoted to Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
After taking office, he cleared seventeen thousand accumulated difficult cases within a single year, without a single wrongful conviction. His ability was self evident.
After arriving in Chang'an, the "rebellious bones" in Di Renjie also began to show.
During the Yifeng era, Li Zhi's health had already declined severely. In contrast, Empress Wu Zetian was absurdly healthy.
The drawbacks of the Two Saints governing together began to appear. After all, once Li Zhi, this "Saint", was gone, who could restrain the robust, energetic Wu Zetian?
Moreover, by then, the big locust tree on Changsun Wuji's grave was already thick as a man's waist. With their common enemy gone, the imperial couple naturally turned to internal power struggles.
Thus, for officials in Chang'an at the time, choosing sides became unavoidable.
Which side was Di Renjie on?
From Li Zhi's perspective, there was no doubt he was on the empress's side.
The matter was simple. After clearing the backlog at the Court of Judicial Review, Di Renjie could not sit still and began frankly impeaching guilty officials.
During this period, Di Renjie successively impeached General of the Guards Quan Shancai, Minister of Agriculture and Works Wei Ji, and Left Bureau Gentleman Wang Benli. These were all Li Zhi's trusted aides, and all had charged at the front lines against Empress Wu.
And to outsiders, Di Renjie and Wu Zetian were both from Bingzhou. Fellow townsmen. If you said he was not Empress Wu's man, who would believe you?
In truth, Di Renjie was wronged. It was not that he did not want to stand with His Majesty.
It was just that, Your Majesty, why do you only favor crooked melons and cracked dates?
Unfortunately, Li Zhi did not give Di Renjie a chance to prove his loyalty. A few years later, he passed away, and Wu Zetian officially took power as Empress Dowager, ruling from behind the curtain.
For Di Renjie, the most obvious change was that his official career suddenly took off.
He successively served as Prefect of Ningzhou, Right Deputy Minister of Wen Chang, and Prefect of Yuzhou. Everywhere he went, he earned a reputation for virtue.
After all, Wu Zetian's true faction in the localities often either demolished thousands of ancestral halls or casually implicated and executed thousands of people.
Compared to that, Di Renjie was lenient whenever possible and broad minded whenever he could be. Side by side, he looked almost like a saint.
Naturally, this made him incompatible with the Great Zhou Female Emperor.
So in the end, being framed by the Wu clan with a charge of rebellion and tossed into prison was hardly surprising.
In order to avoid being tortured into a false confession and dying unjustly in jail, Old Di was extremely cooperative.
"Yes. I really did rebel."]