Li Zhen returned the seized letter from Lin Qing and Zhao Wenchu. The two were extremely grateful. Not only did they have nothing to do with Li Yuanjia's rebellion, they would instead be rewarded for their contributions to protecting Yangzhou.

A few days later, Lou Shide and Wu Yizong led an army of 30,000 to Yangzhou and began to clean up the sequelae left by Li Yuanjia's rebellion. After Li Zhen finished the settlement with them, he led the inner guards back to the capital overnight.

It was already June, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter day by day, but the major cases of the court launched by Lai Junchen began to cool down. Under Wu Zetian's instruction, all the cases investigated by Lai Junchen were closed one by one. Li Dezhao was demoted to Nanbin County Magistrate, Su Weidao was demoted to Jizhou Prefecture, Sun Yuanli was demoted to Zhaozhou Prefecture, and Xue Yuanzong was demoted to Suizhou Prefecture, but Su was executed because of collusion with Li Yuanjia to rebel.

Due to insufficient evidence, the other middle and low-level officials were released one by one by Wu Zetian, and their officials were restored to their posts. All the property they found was returned. The officials were so grateful that they all shouted long live.

At noon, Wu Zetian woke up after taking a nap, and after a rain with the imperial doctor Chen Mionan, the palace maids served her to wash her body and put on loose colorful silk clothes. Wu Zetian felt happy physically and mentally. She gave Chen Mionan a charming look, pointed to her shoulder, Chen Mionan understood and immediately knelt behind her and massaged her meridians.

Chen Munan is over forty years old. In order to satisfy Wu Zetian's desires in the past few months, he has exhausted his energy. Although he has good care, he is really unable to bear it. He knows in his heart that if this continues, he will sooner or later be squeezed by the emperor. More importantly, his daughter is young and his wife is virtuous. He must consider it for his wife and daughter.

"Your Majesty, I have one thing, I want to ask your Majesty for your agreement."

"What's the matter?" Wu Zetian gently held his hand and asked softly.

"I want to... go back to my hometown to worship my ancestors during the Zhongyuan Festival, and ask your Majesty to agree."

"You haven't returned to your hometown before, why do you think of returning to your hometown now?"

Wu Zetian looked at his slightly panicked gaze, and remembered his difficulty on the bed. He couldn't help but curl his lips and smiled, "Do you feel too tired and want to find a chance to take a rest?"

Chen Nanmiao didn't expect that the emperor was so smart, and he saw through his heart all at once. His face turned red and he knelt down to apologize, "I deserve to die."

"It's nothing. You've served me so hard and haven't even had sex with my wife for several months. I know that, just do this. If you come to serve me every three days, you don't have to go back to your hometown. It's the same with worshiping ancestors in the capital."

Chen Nanmiao kowtowed in tears and said, "I am grateful to Your Majesty for your consideration."

At this time, Wu Zetian looked at Zhong Lu, and the time to handle the court affairs in the afternoon was about to come, so he nodded, "You go, I'm going to the imperial study."

The two palace maids hurriedly stepped forward and helped her up. Wu Zetian went out to get on the carriage, and surrounded by the palace maids and guards, she headed towards the imperial study.

"Your Majesty is here"

The eunuchs on duty shouted loudly, and the eunuchs sitting in the corner resting stood up one after another, lowered their hands and lowered their heads. Shangguan Wan'er, who was sorting out documents in the imperial study room, also stood up. At this time, Wu Zetian walked into the room, and Shangguan Wan'er hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "Wan'er meets Your Majesty."

"Are there any arrangements for the afternoon?" Wu Zetian sat down in front of the imperial case and asked.

"Report to Your Majesty, I will come to the Central Chief to report to Your Majesty the progress of the investigation of the Xingtang Association case."

A hint of undetectable sneer appeared on Wu Zetian's mouth. Without saying anything, he asked again: "What else?"

Shangguan Wan'er hesitated for a moment and whispered: "Your Majesty, Li Zhen's report has been delivered at noon, and a search list and the heads of Li Yuanjia and his son."

Wu Zetian was immediately excited. This was the report she had been looking forward to. She immediately said: "Give it to me quickly."

Shangguan Wan'er took the report sent by Li Zhen from the small table next to her and presented it to Wu Zetian. She felt a little uneasy. She had read this report at noon. In the report, Li Zhen said the most critical evidence, that is, the list of the Xingtang Association's oaths was not found, it may have been destroyed by Li Yuanjia in advance, and there were no letters found.

Shangguan Wan'er knew Li Zhen. She suspected that Li Zhen did not tell the truth in this matter, so she didn't know what the emperor would think?

But Wu Zetian was expressionless from beginning to end, and she couldn't see what she was thinking inside. After reading Li Zhen's report, Wu Zetian pondered for a moment, and then said, "Give me a search list."

Shangguan Wan'er quickly presented the search list to Wu Zetian. Wu Zetian took it and looked it up, with a rare smile on her face. This was amazingly rich, with more than 90,000 taels of gold, 200,000 taels of silver, more than 300,000 taels of cloth, silk and satin piled up like mountains. These property can solve the urgent need for insufficient military expenditure in Liaodong. Of course, the emperor was very happy.

Wu Zetian put down the list and sighed: "I have heard that Li Yuanjia is rich enough to rival a country, and he has occupied the most profitable business in Yangzhou. When I see you today, it's really true.

"Your Majesty, there are also famous calligraphy and paintings collected by Li Yuanjia here, and there are actually Wang Youjun's "Seventeen Posts" and "Huangting Jing". This is something that Your Majesty cannot find."

Shangguan Wan'er had to secretly praise Li Zhen for his cleverness and specially put the famous calligraphy and paintings into a book. This was obviously intended to be dedicated to the emperor. After Wu Zetian read the list of calligraphy and paintings, he was immediately happy and said with a smile: "Does Li Zhen plan to present these calligraphy and paintings to me?"

"It should be"

Wu Zetian nodded happily, "It's rare that he takes care of both public and private affairs. He thinks very thoughtfully. It's good that he went to Yangzhou this time to deal with it calmly, quell the Li Yuanjia rebellion in time, and preserve Yangzhou. He did not disappoint me."

Shangguan Wan'er was deeply surprised. Li Zhen did not get the list of Xingtang Association. The emperor still praised him so much. Could it be that Shangguan Wan'er slowly realized that the emperor might not really want the list of Xingtang Association.

At this time, Wu Zetian asked again: "In the report, Commander Li said that he also sent evidence of Li Yuanjia's rebellion and the heads of their father and son, where are they?"

Shangguan Wan'er hurried to the door and ordered: "Bring the things in."

Several eunuchs carefully carried a large sandalwood box and stone tablet in and placed it in the imperial study room. Wu Zetian slowly walked forward, pointed to the stone tablet wrapped in cloth, and "opened"

A guard opened the cloth, which contained the words "Accepted by the sky, Yuanjia was the king, eight words. Wu Zetian sneered and pointed at the wooden box, "This one is also opened"

The guard opened the wooden box and saw that the boxes were filled with dragon robes, jade seals, and big cranes, and other emperor items. There were three small boxes. The guard whispered: "Your Majesty, these three boxes should be heads of Li Yuanjia and his son. Do you need to open them too?"

"Open"

The first small box was opened, and inside it was Li Yuanjia's head, with white hair and wide eyes wide open, as if he was dying with his eyes open. Li Zhen said in the report that Li Yuanjia and his son died in the chaos.

Wu Zetian shook his head, "A such an old man actually has the ambition to be emperor. I think he is so old and confused."

Shangguan Wan'er stood aside and bowed her head without saying a word. At this time, Shangguan Wan'er had completely understood the feelings of the emperor. Although she wanted to use the name of Xingtang Association to capture the Li royal family, she finally realized that the consequences of doing so were very serious and unrealistic. Therefore, this Yangzhou rebellion turned into a one-man show for Li Yuanjia alone, and had nothing to do with other members of Xingtang Association.

This is also the real reason why she didn't care about the destruction of Xingtang Association's list. It was just Shangguan Wan'er didn't understand it very much. How could Li Zhen understand the emperor's intentions, or... it was just a coincidence?

The guards carried the box and stone tablet down. Wu Zetian sat back on his seat and smiled at Shangguan Wan'er and said, "This time Li Zhen made great contributions in Yangzhou and saved Yangzhou. How do you think I should reward him?"

Shangguan Wan'er smiled and said, "Didn't Your Majesty plan to let him take over Wu Youxu's position and become the commander of the inner guard? He made contributions and could be promoted to this position."

Wu Zetian nodded, "His ability is enough to prove that he can take on this position. I can agree to him as the commander of the inner guard. In addition, I plan to remove the position of deputy commander of the inner guard and he will directly supervise the eight lieutenants."

Shangguan Wan'er understood the emperor's difficulties. She originally planned to let Wu and Li take the post of deputy commander, but now it seems not realistic, so she simply removed the deputy commander and was directly under the control of Li Zhen.

In fact, the Inner Guard originally did not have the position of deputy commander, but because she, Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Taiping, each took half of the power, so she set up two deputy commanders. Now she is just restoring the original state.

Shangguan Wan'er smiled and said, "I think he will be grateful to His Majesty for his great grace."

At this time, a eunuch reported outside the door: "Your Majesty, come to the Central Chief to wait for you to see you outside the palace."

Wu Zetian stopped talking about Li Zhen’s affairs and said coldly: “Show him up”

"Your Majesty has an order, and the Chief Censor of the Censor will come to see you."

As the guard shouted, Lai Junchen, who was standing under the steps of Zhenguan Hall, was waiting to see him quickly tidy up his clothes, lifted up his robe and mattress, and walked quickly into the palace. If Li Zhen had gained a lot in this trip to Yangzhou, then Lai Junchen would be a big loser.

The emperor's mood was ever-changing and unpredictable. At first, he had to pursue the Xingtang Association in a fierce manner, but as Li Yuanjia rebelled and was wiped out, the investigation of the Xingtang Association cooled down again.

Especially many middle and low-level officials were acquitted, and officials were restored to their posts and returned their property. This means that Lai Junchen must take out a lot of the property he had occupied, but this is not a headache, and it is even more a matter of danger that he has occupied many officials' wives and concubines. How can this be handled?

Lai Junchen has been like an ant on a hot pan these two days, so anxious that he can move around. Although he can drag it, he can't drag it all the time. It seems that there is no other way except to deny it.

Lai Junchen came outside the imperial study room and waited for a moment. A eunuch walked out of the study room and whispered: "Your Majesty is waiting, Lai Junchen please come in."

Lai Junchen walked into the Imperial Study room uneasy, feeling the atmosphere in the Imperial Study room was cold and he jumped in his heart. He quickly knelt down and bowed and said, "I Lai Junchen greeted my emperor, I wish you a long live your Majesty."
Chapter completed!