Seeing that Wu Chengsi didn't speak, Wu Mei smiled and said: "I just want you to give it a try. It doesn't matter if you don't do it well. Let's think of other ways."
"My nephew is just a little worried. If there is a conflict with those princes, His Majesty will intervene."
Although Wu Chengsi is a die-hard Queen's party, he is not willing to be pushed to the forefront by the Queen to do things that are completely offensive to others.
Wu Mei shook her head and smiled: "You kid, do you think I asked you to deal with those princes?"
"Then what do you want your nephew to do?" Wu Chengsi asked directly.
Wu Mei smiled and said:
"I intend to make you the Governor of Yangzhou. You don't have to do anything else. You just need to secretly collect their evidence. At that time, we will select a suitable candidate and let him come forward to testify against these princes."
Wu Chengsi was secretly frightened, fearing that this "suitable candidate" would not end well.
Just listen to Wu Mei continue to say:
"When the battle between us and them becomes fiercest, if we take a step back and give up this chess piece, Your Majesty will have nothing to say. When things reach that point, the reputation of the Li family kings will be greatly affected, and their power in Jianghuai will be reduced.
It fell apart.”
"..."
Good guy, he immediately became an outcast.
Wu Chengsi did not agree with Wu Mei's approach in his heart, but even if he had some strength now, he was not enough to teach Wu Mei how to do things, so he had to say: "My nephew knows what to do."
Wu Mei was very satisfied and said with a smile:
"I am very confident about your abilities. You should be more careful when you go to Yangzhou this time. The two people that the princes surnamed Li hate most are you and me."
Wu Chengsi took the opportunity and said: "Aunt, my nephew wants to take Qing Zhuge with him."
"Okay, I will send you another five thousand cow guards to accompany you in case something unexpected happens." Wu Mei agreed.
Wu Chengsi's heart moved and he said: "Aunt, why don't you transfer Wang Fangyi to your nephew?"
Wu Mei frowned and said, "Chengsi, do you know Wang Fangyi's background?"
Wu Chengsi naturally knew that Wang Fangyi was a member of Queen Wang's clan, so he had been suppressed by Wu Mei.
But what Wu Chengsi is most interested in now is to increase his influence in the army. Wang Fangyi has been in the army for many years, is good at war, and is very popular among soldiers.
If you can take him under your wing, it will be of great benefit.
"Aunt, Wang Fangyi is a good general who may come in handy in the future. My nephew just takes this opportunity to see if he can be used by us."
Wu Mei thought for a while, nodded and said: "That's fine, as long as you know what's going on."
…
After leaving the palace, Wu Chengsi went straight to Dali Temple and assigned Yao Jian to lead people to Huzhou to investigate, Nie Ziyun to lead people to Quanzhou to investigate, and Zhuge and his son to follow him to Taizhou.
The next day, the decree was issued that Wu Chengsi was made the Governor of Yangzhou. After Princess Taiping, Su Dingfang and others learned about it, they immediately went to the county prince's palace to inquire.
The prince was about to put aside his past grudges and recruit Wu Chengsi to deal with King Pei, but he was quite disappointed when he learned the news.
King Pei Li Xian was different and immediately summoned his subordinates to discuss the matter.
The study room of Prince Pei's Mansion.
Zheng Yuanning said with a gloomy face: "Your Highness, I am afraid that the queen has noticed that all the princes of the Li family are unanimously supporting you, so she asked Wu Chengsi to go to Jianghuai in person to weaken the strength of the princes in Jianghuai."
Li Xian solemnly said: "I also have this suspicion."
Wan Jun, the general manager of the palace, smiled and said:
"My lord, why do you need to worry? Although Wu Chengsi can fight, he is still young and cannot compete with those princes from Jiangnan."
Zhang Jianzhi said in a deep voice:
"Otherwise, Wu Chengsi showed very sophisticated methods in handling the Su Ding plan and the Li Yunxian case. Such a person is by no means a reckless man who only knows how to fight."
Chen Ziang frowned and said:
"Today, rumors spread from the Zhongshu Province that Yan Liben, the Minister of Punishment, was reprimanded by Empress Wu for his failure to investigate the Huofeng Society. Some people said that he could not keep his position as Minister."
King Pei let out a long sigh and said:
"This is the power of Wu. She has long wanted to replace Yan Liben, but she couldn't find a reason, so she deliberately put him in charge of the Huofengshe case. As long as he couldn't catch anyone, she would have reason to remove him.
.”
Chen Ziang said: "This matter may be related to Wu Chengsi being named the Governor of Yangzhou. Your Highness, you said that Wu Chengsi went to Jiangnan, is it possible that he went to Huofeng Society?"
Zheng Yuanning glanced at Chen Ziang and said calmly:
"Chen Changshi, who do you think Wu Chengsi is? Even if the Huofeng Society rebelled, Empress Wu would not be able to send him to deal with the Huofeng Society."
Wan Jun said with a smile: "Isn't it? Only the princes of Jiangnan can force the Wu family to send Wu Chengsi to take action, but let alone Wu Chengsi, even if the old woman takes action in person, it will be useless."
King Pei glanced at Wan Jun coldly and said, "Who do you think is the old woman?"
Wan Jun originally thought that King Pei hated Wu Mei deeply, so he deliberately belittled her with his words. Unexpectedly, he slapped his flattery on the horse's leg and said hurriedly: "You made a mistake, your highness, please forgive me."
King Pei said coldly:
"Wu's methods are very powerful, otherwise Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shu would not have ended up like that. You must not underestimate her in the slightest."
Zheng Yuanning said: "Your Highness, we need to remind all the princes early, especially the King of Yue in Yangzhou, so that he can be prepared to deal with it."
Li Xian nodded and said: "It doesn't matter if Wu Chengsi is gone. Without him, we don't have to worry about carrying out our plans. Now we are just waiting for news about Jingye."
Chen Ziang frowned and said: "Judging from the news that General Li sent before, the person who killed Zheng Gong's maid seems to be a gangster killer organization."
Zheng Yuanning said coldly: "If this is true, I will make those reckless people pay the price."
Wan Jun said: "Your Highness, do we need to deal with Di Renjie first then?"
Zhang Jianzhi's heart sank and he wanted to dissuade this matter.
But since he failed to win over Di Renjie last time, he has felt that King Pei has become a little colder towards him.
He knew very well that even if he tried to persuade him, it would have no effect and would only make King Pei more dissatisfied with him.
King Pei said coldly: "There is no need to go to so much trouble this time. I have already discussed it with King Lu, and he will help me handle this matter."
"Your Highness, I wonder how His Highness King Lu plans to deal with Di Renjie?" Zhang Jianzhi couldn't help but ask.
King Pei glanced at him and said: "Don't worry, although Di Renjie is unwilling to serve me, I am not a Wu family and will not kill him for this reason."
…
One morning three days later, Wu Chengsi left the east gate of Chang'an City with a large group of troops and headed south.
In the evening of that day, the team set up camp in Shangzhou.
After dinner, Wu Chengsi summoned Wang Fangyi into the camp, told him that he would go incognito, and asked him to lead the army slowly towards Yangzhou.
"...In short, General Wang only treats this journey as an outing. The slower the better, just wait for my order."
Although Wang Fangyi was a little worried, he and Wu Chengsi did not have that deep friendship after all, so he had no choice but to take military orders and retreat.
After Wang Fangyi left, Wu Chengsi called Li Duozuo and asked him to take 500 cavalry to Mingzhou, which is adjacent to Taizhou, to wait for orders.
Everything was arranged, and in the early morning of the next day, Wu Chengsi, Zhuge, his son, and Han Cheng dressed up in disguise and quietly left the military camp.
…
On Guandao not far from Shangzhou City, there is an old shop called Nanfeng Inn.
It is said that this inn was opened in the year after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, which was only one year younger than the Tang Dynasty.
Now nearly fifty years have passed, although this old store is very dilapidated, but with its long-standing reputation, customers from all over the world love to stay here.
It is better to live in a familiar store than a new store. All businessmen who often travel outside have this consensus.
At dusk that day, two strange guests came outside the Nanfeng Inn.
The two men were dressed in men's clothes and had some pot dust on their faces, making them look dark.
When the guests in the inn saw them, they only felt strange at first, but soon everyone found them funny.
It turned out that the necks of the two people were as white and greasy as gelatin. At a glance, it was obvious that they were women disguised as men. They deliberately applied pot ash on them to pretend to be men.
It's a pity that both of them seem to be missing a muscle, and their necks appear whiter and whiter against their black faces.
Coupled with their strange appearance, almost everyone would take a look at them and discover their identity as women.
This disguise can be said to have completely had the opposite effect.
The two of them, unaware of their own weirdness, came to a table.
The taller woman sat down directly, while the shorter woman frowned and stared at a chair in a daze.
The tall woman complained: "Young Master, it's time for you, so don't be so particular. Just sit down."
The short woman hummed: "That's right, now that dad is in prison and our family is in ruins, you don't have to worry about me."
Her words revealed all the details about herself, and several guests nearby couldn't help but glance at her.
One of the shirtless men had a strange look in his eyes.