Li Zhaode was wearing a brown robe and a pair of shoes. He didn't even wear a crown on his head. He stood outside the palace gate with a bald head.
Hearing the servant's words, Li Zhaode stood there in a daze, his face stupefied.
He had come today to take a step back in order to advance. Although the Emperor had already shown that he was partial to him in court yesterday, he still wanted to go one step further.
Therefore, he dressed himself like this and walked to the Palace, pretending to be asking for forgiveness and resignation. According to his expectations, the Emperor would certainly treat him well. He would invite him to a banquet or send him back to his mansion in an imperial carriage. The news would spread all over the city in an instant. Those who saw the wind blow would naturally know what to do, and the situation would not be peaceful.
Who would have thought … the Emperor's words seemed to be comforting, but the Emperor's actions clearly had a kind of coldness. At this moment, he deeply regretted his actions. This time, he had outsmarted himself. Who would have thought that the Emperor would be so fickle?
After the young servant finished passing on the oral order, he smiled politely at him and returned to the palace.
Li Zhaode stood in a daze at the palace gate for a long time until he discovered that the warriors standing at the palace gate were looking at him with sympathy. This deeply hurt his self-esteem. Li Zhaode suddenly turned around and walked out of the palace with large strides.
He walked with his chest out and his head held high. But his straight back, no matter how you looked at it, revealed a sense of sorrow.
Prime Minister Li, dressed in a coarse robe, took off his hat and tied up his hair, and went to the palace to ask for forgiveness, but the emperor did not see him. The news of his fruitless return quickly spread throughout the city, and the officials immediately smelled something different. Some of them immediately went to the study, dismissed the page boys, and began to write a secret memorial.
Some people began to burn the letters and poems exchanged with Prime Minister Li, or they took down the inscribed board that Li Zhaode had written before. They had their families take it to the backyard and hide it in the woodshed. If the situation turned bad, they would immediately chop it into firewood.
The next day, when the court met again, the winds had changed.
Although most of the officials adopted a safe position, waiting to see what would happen or submitting secret memorials of impeachment, there were still some bold opportunists who openly joined the impeachment of Li Zhaode. As always, Li Zhaode went out without a hat and bowed to listen to the memorials. When the officials finished impeaching him, he asked to leave.
This time, Wu Zetian did not ask him to stay and coldly agreed to his request.
Li Zhaode temporarily left the government hall and returned to his mansion to wait for the memorials.
The impeachment was not only an opportunity to express their stance and fight for a higher position. It was not only a way to vent Li Zhaode's merciless humiliation, it was also a way to of of of their own.
Impeachment wasn't just a chance to express their stance and fight for a promotion. It wasn't just a way to vent Li Zhaode's merciless humiliation and reprimand. It was also a way for them to clear their names.
Frankly speaking, Li Zhaode was not a treacherous official. Admittedly, he was passionate about power, and for this reason, he excluded and suppressed those who might threaten him. The Prime Ministers that he pulled into the Political Affairs Hall were all people who could not stand shoulder to shoulder with him and could not fight against him. Furthermore, he was arbitrary and tyrannical, but when it came to major issues of right and wrong, he was still able to control himself.
Although Wu Zetian was the only Empress who had never been before or after, she still had many of the characteristic of a woman. "When she trusts a person, it will be absolute. Even if this person does something wrong, she will be extremely lenient and even show a biased attitude.
Although Wu Zetian was the first and only female Empress in history, she still had many unique characteristics of a woman. When she trusted someone, she would trust them absolutely. Even if that person did something wrong, she would be extremely lenient and even show favoritism towards them. In fact, this was not a characteristic of a woman. Many wise rulers had similar characteristics. Perhaps this characteristic came from their extreme self-confidence. Therefore, before this self-confidence was broken, they could blindly trust a person. Once this self-confidence was broken, they would be extremely lenient and even show a biased attitude.
In fact, this could not be considered a woman's characteristic. Many wise rulers had similar characteristics. Perhaps this characteristic originated from their extreme self-confidence. Thus, before this self-confidence was broken, they could blindly trust a person. Once this self-confidence was broken, they would feel that they had been deceived and would hate a person to the extreme.
Li Zhaode could not sit still. He could see the changes in the Emperor and the officials clearly. He knew that if he continued to sit and wait, it was the same as waiting for death. He made one last effort. He did not try to win back the Emperor's favor. Instead, he once again retreated in order to advance, hoping to save himself.
He submitted a letter of ten thousand words to carry out self-blame and self-impeachment, reflecting on his arbitrary and domineering behavior during the period of assisting the government, and asked for forgiveness from the emperor.
Once the Empress was disgusted with a person, she wouldn't even bother with superficial courtesy. She immediately accepted Li Zhaode's impeachment, and issued a decree to demote Li Zhaode to the Assistant Minister of the Phoenix Pavilion. Li Zhaode would be promoted to the Nanbin County Magistrate of Qinzhou, Lingnan West Road. She ordered him to take up the post in the Shiwan Mountains of Guangxi.
After receiving the Empress's decree, Li Zhaode seemed to have aged ten years all of a sudden. He sat in a daze for a long time, and then gave a long sigh. He ordered his family to pack up and prepare to take up the post.
At this time, the number of impeachment memorials didn't decrease, but increased day by day. At this time, there were no more people from Wu Sansi or Princess Taiping secretly adding fuel to the fire. Instead, the accumulated resentment of the civil and military officials against Li Zhaode was like a flood that broke the dam, and finally broke out.
The impeachment memorials were sent to Wu Zetian like snowflakes. Because these memorials were impeaching officials, Shanghai Wan'er had no power to deal with them. They were all handed to Wu Zetian for her to read personally. The more Wu Zetian read, the angrier she became. Yesterday, he was still an important official that she praised endlessly, but today, he was a deadly tumor.
There were memorials to defend and appeal for Li Zhaode, but they had long been annihilated in this snowflake of impeachment memorials. Li Zhaode hadn't packed up and prepared to take up the post in the Shiwan Mountains when the Empress issued another imperial decree. She removed Li Zhaode from the position of Nanbin County Magistrate and exiled him to Lingnan Prison Prefecture.
…
Young Master Jiang felt that his black and glossy hair that even women would be envious of was about to turn white.
He couldn't understand the series of changes in the court at all.
It wasn't that Young Master Jiang was stupid, but that everything that was happening in the court really couldn't have any positive connection with what Yang Fan should be doing. On the contrary, looking at the current situation, this storm could only be harmful to Yang Fan without any benefit.
After Yang Fan submitted his preliminary list, there weren't many descendants of aristocratic families on it. Instead, Li Zhaode's party and Wu Sansi's party made up the majority. This list incited a strong backlash from Wu Chengsi. Even the Zhang brothers of the internal court were very dissatisfied, so they launched a counterattack against Li Zhaode.
The reason Wu Sansi wasn't the target of their counterattack was because Wu Sansi was Wu Zetian's nephew. For Wu Chengsi, strengthening Wu Sansi's party was a great harm to him, but for Wu Zetian, as long as the Wu family's power grew, it was beneficial to her. She was happy to see this happen, and attacking Wu Sansi wouldn't have much of an effect.
In the end, Li Zhaode wasn't good at managing his own power. His seemingly powerful political foundation had long been destroyed by his straightforward and domineering personality. This large tree seemed to reach the clouds, but its insides had long been eaten away by insects and would fall with a single gust of wind. In this way, Yang Fan would most likely be caught in the crossfire. What exactly did he want to do?
Young Master Jiang thought hard for a long time and repeatedly deliberated, but he still couldn't determine Yang Fan's true intentions. His brows couldn't help but furrow deeper and deeper.
He didn't know what Yang Fan wanted to do, but he couldn't just sit and watch. No matter what, this opportunity couldn't be missed.
Thinking of this, Young Master Jiang slightly relaxed his brows. He raised his head and said to Yuan Tingyun, "Have Gawain impeach Yang Fan!"
Yuan Tingyun was very excited. Young Master had finally decided to act. He nodded heavily and immediately walked out.
Gawain was the Right Assistant Imperial Censor of the Imperial Censor, someone that the Lu Family had raised. After Young Master Jiang was deposed, all of the connections in the officialdom controlled by Xian Zong were taken over by Yang Fan. Even though Young Master Jiang was proud and was not willing to ask the family for help, there were many times when he had to use the connections that the Lu Family had painstakingly built up over many years.
Among the most important assets of every large family, there was a list of names that could only be personally held by the head of the family. It was like the mafia leaders in The Godfather locked away in the most secret safe and only passed on to their heirs when they died.
The people on that list had either been raised up by them, or they had been fed with real money for many years, or they were secret allies that had been established based on their interests. Old Master Lu doted on this eldest grandson, but he didn't dare to let him squander the family's resources. After returning to Fan Yang, he only copied down the names of three people from the list and gave them to Young Master Jiang. This Gawain was one of them.
Young Master Jiang could not wait any longer. He had to send someone to test the waters and see how Yang Fan would respond!
Yang Fan lay on his side on the large luohan bed, enjoying a rare moment of father and son alone time with his precious son.
On the luohan bed, the bed table in the middle had already been removed. Yang Nianzu was lying next to him, kicking and grabbing. He quickly grabbed the jade pendant on his father's waist. His feet pushed against his father's hip bone and he forced his body to turn over. His little mouth was foaming and he grinned at his old man in a very happy manner.
Yang Fan used a handkerchief to wipe away the foam at the corner of his mouth. Yang Nianzu impatiently turned his head.
"Boy, you still have a little sister. Do you miss her?"
Yang Nianzu worked hard to spit out another ball of saliva and smeared it on his pink lips that had just been wiped clean. He gave his old man a victorious smile.
"Good boy!"
Yang Fan's fingers gently scratched his chubby little face. His voice became low and his eyes became very emotional: "Son, your father also has an Elder Sister. She is your aunt, your biological aunt. Your aunt is very beautiful, very gentle, and she loves your father very much. Unfortunately … … your aunt passed away early and will never be able to love you!"
Yang Fan's eyes were a little moist. He blinked his eyes to wipe away the tears in his eyes. He whispered to his still ignorant son: "This kind of thing will not happen to you again. Father will definitely find your elder sister and bring her back. Don't you think so?"
Yang Nianzu's pair of black eyes stared at his father. He made a sound of agreement and grinned again.
Yang Fan also smiled. He gently patted his little butt and dotingly said: "You are really a silly boy! Your father has just become a big official and he is about to lose it. He is going to be in big trouble. Why are you still smiling? "
Yang Nianzu's little mouth grinned. The smile touched his entire face. The curve of his face was raised and he smiled even more happily.
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