"I am sincerely happy for you to win the martial arts championship. This is my wish, please accept it!"

Shangguan Wan'er put a slender short sword on the table and pushed it to Li Zhen. Her face was filled with a smile. Li Zhen won the top scholar in the martial arts competition, not only expanding space for her subsequent power operations, but more importantly, she herself was also full of joy.

"This short sword was given to my grandfather by Emperor Gaozong, and later left to me. Although it is a commemorative object, I have more than this one. I think it is more useful to you, so I will give it to you!"

"Thank you, she!"

Li Zhen picked up the short sword and slowly pulled it out. He felt a cold air coming towards him. Although the blade was thin, it was extremely sharp and it was a rare treasure blade. However, this short sword seemed to be more suitable for women. Li Zhen understood Shangguan Wan'er's deep meaning, so he inserted the short sword into his boots, clasped his fists again and said, "I am grateful for my humble duties."

"I hope your gratitude is not left verbally, I prefer you to keep it in your heart."

Shangguan Wan'er raised her slender eyebrows, and a meaningful smile appeared on the corner of her clear-cut mouth, "I heard that Wu Sansi went to the restaurant to congratulate you last night. I'm very curious, what did he give you?"

It was also when Li Zhen saw the gift boxes and congratulatory letters on the table this morning that he realized that Wu Sansi had given him a gift. However, he was very surprised that Shangguan Wan'er was concerned about the congratulatory gifts, and not about Wu Sansi's motivation for coming to congratulate him for winning the top scorer.

"Wu Sansi sent a jade unicorn to Bei Zhi."

"But it is blue, with cloud-like patterns on its back?" Shangguan Wan'er continued.

“That’s right!”

Li Zhen looked at Shangguan Wan'er in confusion, "How could the sheren know? Does this jade unicorn have any special significance?"

"It's true that's not what I expected!"

Shangguan Wan'er sneered and said, "Because I gave that jade unicorn to him, congratulations on him for being named King of Liang. His intention to congratulate you is very simple, and I hope it can make up for his betrayal of me in the Wu Chengsi case."

Li Zhen was speechless. He knew from the relics case that Wu Sansi and Shangguan Wan'er were political ally, but in order to eliminate Wu Chengsi, Wu Sansi did not hesitate to betray Shangguan Wan'er. This shows that Wu Sansi is essentially a villain who cannot be trusted. If Shangguan Wan'er accepts Wu Sansi's apology to send him a gift and restores his former ally relationship, he will also look down on Shangguan Wan'er from this.

Shangguan Wan'er seemed to understand Li Zhen's thoughts. She pondered for a moment and said lightly: "My Shangguan Wan'er was wrong once, and she won't make mistakes again. But now I don't want to make too many enemies. It is an unwise move to push Wu Sansi to Princess Taiping. Li Zhen, please reply to him for me. Thank him for his kindness. I believe he will understand the profound meaning."

Although Li Zhen could understand Shangguan Wan'er's helplessness, he was still very uncomfortable. After all, Wu Sansi betrayed Shangguan Wan'er and almost killed his life in the end. To put it bluntly, Wu Sansi was not only an instigation, but also an accomplice in the assassination case.

"If the servant must ask me to reply, I can reply, but should I also reply to Princess Taiping, thank her for her kindness to me?"

"What did you say?"

Shangguan Wan'er was shocked, "Has she given you a gift, too?"

Li Zhen took out the flat jade box that Princess Taiping gave him from her skin bag and handed it to Shangguan Wan'er. Shangguan Wan'er quickly opened the jade box and was stunned for a moment. With her cleverness, she certainly understood the profound meaning of the golden leaves in the jade box.

It was not surprising that Princess Taiping advised Li Zhen to "reliance early". She was not surprised that Princess Taiping carefully made this golden leaf for Li Zhen, which was enough to show her attention. She could not usually see it, but this golden leaf leaked the secrets of heaven.

After a moment of silence, Shangguan Wan'er slowly returned the jade box to Li Zhen, but Li Zhen shook his head, "I will give this golden leaf to the servant, thank you for your kindness to me."

Shangguan Wan'er looked at Li Zhen silently with beautiful eyes. She was extremely moved and nodded gently, "Don't worry about Wu Sansi, I won't reply to him. If he dares to collude with Princess Taiping to deal with me, I will make him pay a heavy price."

"Sons do not have to sacrifice for humble duties."

"No! Not just for you."

Shangguan Wan'er said softly: "It's you who made me sober. Wu Sansi is a villain by nature. If I blindly give in, it will only make him look down on me more and more. In the future, I will betray me twice as much, so I must not easily forgive him for betraying me."

The official room was silent. After a while, Shangguan Wan'er smiled again: "When it comes to Princess Taiping, I remember something. Do you guess how she expanded Wan Guojun's inner guard?"

"I can't guess!"

"She did a lot simpler than you. She organized all Wu Chengsi's Wu family into the Neiwei, and Wu Furong became the Neiwei Captain. Judging from Princess Taiping's meaning, she wanted Wu Furong to replace Wan Guojun."

"Wu Furong?"

Li Zhen had a headache. If this ghostly woman became the deputy commander of the inner guard, wouldn’t it be even more trouble for her? “How likely is the shepherd?”

"I think there is an 80% chance! If I'm not wrong, Princess Taiping will talk to the emperor about this matter now."

....

As Shangguan Wan'er expected, in the imperial study, Princess Taiping carefully proposed her replacement plan to her mother, "Furong was smart and capable, and had a strong martial arts skills. Although she was a woman, she did not allow men to be a bearded man. In contrast, Wan Guojun was calm but not capable enough. More importantly, in the Wu Chengsi case, he actually exceeded his authority to investigate the assassin case. His daughter felt that he was not suitable for such an important position again, so she begged her mother to approve her daughter's request."

Of course, Wu Zetian would not believe her daughter's reasons. Without her instructions from Princess Taiping, how could Wan Guojun dare to mobilize the inner guards to participate in the assassination without authorization? However, Wu Zetian did not want to investigate this matter in depth, nor did he want to expose his daughter's ridiculous excuses.

Originally, she handed over half of the inner guard to her daughter, hoping that she could check and balance with Shangguan Wan'er. Just like she asked Wei Tuaner and Shangguan Wan'er to check and balance with each other, this was a need for power control. The inner guard had been handed over to her daughter. If she wanted to change the deputy commander, Wu Zetian would not generally object, but she didn't quite understand why her daughter recommended Wu Furong as the deputy commander?

After pondering for a moment, Wu Zetian asked slowly, "Why is Furong?"

Princess Taiping smiled bitterly. After she talked for a long time, her mother didn't hear it at all. She still wanted to give her a real reason herself. Originally! What kind of shrewdness and ability, and high martial arts skills are just excuses. As long as her mother doesn't study it deeply, she can use this excuse to get over it.

But she forgot that her surname was Li, Furong and Wu, and the princess of the Li family used the county lord of the Wu family, which was a bit ridiculous, so Wu Zetian wanted to know the real reason.

The real reason is of course very clear, because she wanted to use Wu Furong to obtain Wu Chengsi's huge amount of money, and at the same time she also wanted to use Wu Furong to win over the Wu clan members who refused to vassal Wu Sansi and gain greater financial resources and power for her.

Of course, Princess Taiping couldn't say the real reason. Her lips trembled a few times, and she finally stumbled: "When Furong was dedicated to her daughter Ye Mingzhu and the polo player, her daughter had already promised her. In addition, Wu Chengsi was demoted and her daughter was unable to help, so she felt very guilty..."

Wu Zetian stared at Princess Taiping with sharp eyes, as if she had seen through her true intentions in her heart. However, Wu Zetian did not continue to ask questions. She married her daughter to Wu Youji in the hope that her daughter could become a bridge between the Li and Wu tribes. Now her daughter wants to use Wu Furong, which is not contrary to Wu Zetian's original intention.

As for Princess Taiping's desire to seek wealth and power, Wu Zetian also vaguely guessed a few points, but she didn't want to expose it anymore, so she nodded, "Okay, I'm sure!"

Wu Zetian picked up a pen and drew a circle on his daughter's memorial, and said with a smile: "Let the Ministry of War arrange this matter!"

Princess Taiping was overjoyed and remembered her mother's anger at her a few days ago. She couldn't help crying and said, "Daughter thanks to her mother..."

Wu Zetian sighed slightly, "I used to value Wu but rather Li, which led to the sharp conflict between the royal family and the relatives of the outside world, which made me heartbroken. I thought about it repeatedly and decided to try my best to balance Li Wu, and hoped that the conflict between them could be eased so that they could coexist for a long time."

Princess Taiping was watching her mother's wishes, and she said cautiously: "My daughter is willing to share her worries."

"You are my favorite little daughter, Princess Li, and the wife of Wu. I hope to be more careful in easeing the conflict between Li Wu, so I will naturally not treat you badly."

Princess Taiping was secretly happy. It was her mother who gave her a question. She hurriedly said: "My mother's expectations will be remembered by her daughter."

...
Chapter completed!