Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 508 The King of Wu, Devastated
Meanwhile, Wu Minzhi and her brother arrived at the Wu King's mansion in a carriage.

Originally, Wu Minzhi was a frequent visitor to the Prince of Wu's mansion, and all the servants in the mansion knew him, so he could enter without being informed.

However, his appearance had changed drastically, and the servants in the mansion did not recognize him at first. Fortunately, Helan Minrou was with him, so the servants did not dare to stop them and let the two of them in.

The two walked through the courtyard and along the veranda toward the back hall.

As we were walking, a middle-aged man, about forty years old, with a resolute face and a vigorous posture, came from ahead.

Wu Minzhi had seen quite a few people by now, and his eyesight was exceptional. He could tell at a glance that the man was skilled in martial arts and was no ordinary person. He blocked the man's path and asked, "Who are you?"

He had a close relationship with Li Ji and knew almost all of Li Ji's acquaintances, hence the question.

The man glanced at the brother and sister, noticing their noble bearing, and bowed, saying, "I am Wei Chang, the county magistrate of Wannian County. I greet you, sir and madam."

Wu Minzhi knew that Li Ji was the Sima of Yongzhou Prefecture and the County Commandant of Wannian County was his subordinate, so it was normal for him to come looking for him. He nodded to Wei Chang and continued walking.

Before long, they arrived at the back hall, where Li Ji, having already received the news, was waiting outside the door.

Upon seeing Wu Minzhi, he also showed a look of surprise and exclaimed in astonishment, "Brother Wu, what's this...?"

Wu Minzhi waved his hand and said with a wry smile, "Don't ask any more questions. Do you have any wine? Have a couple of drinks with me."

The wine at the Wu Prince's residence was naturally of high quality, and Helan Minrou poured wine for the two of them.

Li Ji drank a few cups with Wu Minzhi, and several times he wanted to speak, but seeing Wu Minzhi's expression, he swallowed his words back.

After several rounds of drinks, Wu Minzhi finally spoke.

However, he was unwilling to mention his trip to the Western Regions, and instead asked about the current situation in Chang'an, especially the matter of the Yang family.

Li Ji then briefly explained the matter concerning Yang Miao and Wei Shen.

Although the Yang family was the same family as Madam Yang, Wu Minzhi did not have much contact with them. The reason he asked about this matter was because his fiancée was from the Yang family.

Helan Minrou saw through his thoughts and said softly, "Brother, there's no need to worry. Your sister-in-law has not been implicated."

"She's not even married into the family yet, why are you calling her sister-in-law?" Wu Minzhi snorted.

Deep down, he didn't want to get married so early; he would rather Yang be implicated.

Li Ji raised his eyebrows and said, "Brother Wu, even if you're in a bad mood, you can't take it out on your own sister."

Seeing that Li Ji was protecting his sister, Wu Minzhi was pleased instead of angry, and a smile finally appeared on his face. He raised his cup and said, "Alright, I'll punish myself with a cup."

"By the way, Brother Li, I've already left the Inner Guard and I reckon I'll be getting married next year. When are you getting married?" he asked again.

Upon hearing this, Li Ji glanced at Helan Minrou.

Just then, Helan Minrou's beautiful eyes also looked over. Their eyes met briefly, and then she looked away, a blush rising on her face.

Wu Minzhi found it amusing and laughed, saying, "How about I go back and mention your marriage to my mother and grandmother, and we set it for early next year?"

Li Ji's face lit up with joy, but he remained silent and looked at Helan Minrou.

Unexpectedly, Helan Minrou whispered, "Brother, I don't want to get married so early."

Upon hearing this, both Wu Minzhi and Li Ji were quite surprised.

Wu Minzhi frowned and said in a deep voice, "As the eldest brother, I am in charge of your marriage. Besides, didn't you say you wanted to marry the King of Wu?"

Helan Minrou's face turned even redder. She glanced at Li Ji and saw that he was staring intently at her. She gritted her teeth and said, "If my brother forces me, I will go to my aunt for help!"

Just as Wu Minzhi was about to speak again, Li Ji waved his hand and said, "Brother Wu, no need to say more, let's drink." With that, he drank a full cup.

When Helan Minrou poured him wine, he turned his head away, looking very displeased.

Originally, Wu Minzhi was drinking alone in her sorrow, but now, it's the two of them drinking alone in their sorrow.

Wu Minzhi was already in a bad mood, and seeing that his sister was disrespecting him and making Li Ji unhappy as well, he immediately stood up and said with a stern face, "Let's go back, don't make Brother Li unhappy anymore!"

He Lanminrou gave Li Ji an apologetic look and left with Wu Minzhi.

Li Ji originally had no feelings for Helan Minrou. Like Wu Minzhi, he did not want to get married too early.

Later, Helan Minrou took the initiative to approach him and kept showing him affection.

After all, she was a beautiful young woman, gentle and considerate, and Li Ji gradually developed feelings for her.

Who would have thought that the other party would say such a thing today, which greatly shocked Li Ji.

He grew up without parental love and didn't know much about women. He often heard people say that women's hearts are hard to fathom, and today he realized that this was absolutely true.

Li Ji sat alone in the room, drinking in silence. He got so drunk that he saw triple visions and couldn't even hold onto the bottle.

Just then, a slender, snow-white hand grabbed the wine bottle, poured him a glass of wine, and held the glass to his lips.

Li Ji was already in a daze, his mind was blank, and he didn't even think about who the person was before he opened his mouth and drank.

After downing that glass of wine, my head slumped, and I was completely drunk.

The next day at noon, Li Ji woke up from his daze, feeling a terrible headache and a dry mouth.

"Water...water..." he murmured.

Soon, a glass of water was placed to his lips. The water instantly sobered him up. When he looked up, he saw that it was Helan Minrou who had fed him the water.

"You... what are you doing here?" Li Ji asked blankly.

A soft laugh came from the side.

“Brother, Sister Helan returned quickly after leaving yesterday. She helped you get into bed after you got drunk, and she came early this morning to take care of you.”

The speaker was Li Ji's younger sister, Li Hua.

Li Ji looked at Helan Minrou and saw that she was keeping her head down and not saying anything. He then said to his sister, "You go out first."

Li Hua had long regarded Helan Minrou as his sister-in-law. He stuck out his tongue, chuckled, and went out with light steps.

Li Ji slowly sat up, gazing at Helan Minrou. "Minrou, I'm a fool, I really don't understand why you said those things yesterday, and why you're treating me like this today. What are you thinking?"

Helan Minrou lowered her head and whispered, "What happened yesterday was something I did wrong, but... I... it's not that I don't want to... I just want to wait until my brother gets married first, and then... I'll marry you..."

The last few words were spoken so softly they were barely audible.

After hearing this, Li Ji was both surprised and delighted, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? I know about your relationship with Brother Wu. I won't blame you. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry."

Helan Minrou smiled slightly at him, but her brows were furrowed, as if she was still worried.

Li Ji immediately felt uneasy again and asked, "Sister, is there something else bothering you?"

Helan Minrou sighed softly, "Brother Ji'a, as you saw yesterday, he suffered a great blow during his trip, and I don't know when he will be able to recover."

Li Ji thought for a moment and said, "Leave this matter to me. I know his temperament best. I guarantee that within three days, I will turn him back into the Wu Minzhi he used to be."

Helan Minrou said happily, "Then we'll have to rely entirely on Brother Ji'a!"

Li Ji's method for helping Wu Minzhi recover was also very easy: cater to her preferences.

Knowing that Wu Minzhi loved horses, he picked out two fine horses from the stables the next day after leaving his post and personally went to Wu's residence to present them to Wu Minzhi.

To his surprise, although Wu Minzhi put away the horse, he was not as excited as usual, and did not even try it out.

It seems that he suffered a great blow this time, and simply sending him a horse is not enough to help him fully recover.

Li Ji had no choice but to choose another method.

Just these past few days, he was preparing to go with the scoundrels from Wannian County to handle a case in the south of the city.

Wei Chang came to the Wu King's residence that day, precisely for this matter.

This is a human trafficking case. There is a criminal gang that abducts children from all over the country, trains them for a few years, and then sells them to high-ranking officials or brothels in Chang'an.

Since the Qin and Han dynasties, various dynasties have attached great importance to human trafficking.

The current sage attaches particular importance to cases of human trafficking and has even issued an edict to the Eastern Terrace, requiring all memorials related to human trafficking to be personally submitted for review.

For this reason, the Chang'an government could tolerate other cases, but as long as human trafficking was involved, they would spare no effort to crack down hard.

In the Yonghui Commentary on the Chapter on "Theft and Robbery," it was clearly stipulated that the ringleader of child trafficking would be hanged, accomplices would be exiled three thousand li, and even wives, concubines, children, and grandchildren would be implicated and sentenced to three years in prison.

The buyer is equally guilty, only slightly less guilty than the seller.

In the fourteenth year of the Yonghui era, due to the matter of the Yibaohui, Emperor Li Zhi ordered Zhang Jianzhi and other officials to revise the laws.

At that time, an official from the Ministry of Justice submitted a memorial proposing to amend the clause on "theft and robbery" in the chapter on "theft and robbery of people," arguing that the buyer's crime was too severe and that only the seller should be punished, thus reducing the buyer's crime.

After reading the document, Emperor Gaozong (Li Zhi) was furious. He suspected that the official had bought trafficked people and dismissed him from his post for questioning.

Although it was eventually discovered that he had not bought or trafficked people, Li Zhi did not reinstate him to his official position.

Since then, no official in the court has dared to propose amending this regulation.

With strict laws and the emperor's emphasis on them, the government naturally went all out.

Once human trafficking is discovered, other cases will be set aside, and all efforts will be devoted to solving the case.

This case has been under investigation for several months. It was personally assigned by the Ministry of Justice, and because the gang was located in Baoningfang in the east of the city, it was handled by Wannian County.

Given the severity of the law, anyone who dares to become a human trafficker must be no ordinary person.

This group is more ruthless than ordinary thieves, and because of the high profits from human trafficking, they can bribe government officials. Their relationships are intricate and complex, and they seem to have informants within the government.

County Magistrate Wei launched three arrests, but each time he failed to apprehend the suspects.

Baoningfang is located at the westernmost part of Wannian County, right next to Zhuque Street. Once you cross Zhuque Street, you will reach Chang'an County.

Therefore, many criminal gangs like to use Baoningfang as their base, so that they can quickly escape to Chang'an County if anything happens.

If the Wannian County outlaws wanted to arrest them again, they would need to apply to the Yongzhou Prefecture for a cross-border investigation. By the time they got there, the group would have already vanished without a trace.

Wei Chang knew that Wannian County was a mixed bag, and many of the scoundrels under his command were criminals and not very reliable.

There was no telling who might have been bribed by human traffickers, so they tipped off the suspects before each operation, which led to three failed arrests.

In this situation, he could only conduct an internal investigation, hoping to find the informant before arresting the kidnapper.

A few days ago, the King of Wu summoned him to Yongzhou Prefecture to inquire about the case in the south of the city, and promised him that he could ask him for help if he needed anything in the future.

Wei Chang then turned to Li Ji for help, hoping that Li Ji could transfer a group of yamen runners from Yongzhou Prefecture to his service, so that he would no longer have to use the people from Wannian County.

In this way, it would be very difficult for the traitor to tip off the spy.

The operation took place in Baoningfang.

Upon hearing this, Wu Minzhi indeed became more interested and, together with Li Ji and Wei Chang, led a large group of yamen runners into the neighborhood.

Just after passing through the gate, they saw Wei Chang dispatching men to take control of the ward head, ward officials, and the people in Wuhoupu.

Li Ji was very surprised and asked, "County Commandant Wei, why are you arresting them? Are they in cahoots with those kidnappers?"

Wei Chang cupped his hands and said, "Your Highness, I cannot confirm whether they are colluding, but just in case, it is best to keep them under control."

Wu Minzhi patted Li Ji on the shoulder.

“Brother Li, County Magistrate Wei is right to do this. Since Baoning Ward has such a big problem, do you think the military commander and the ward officials in charge of Baoning Ward can be completely clean?”

He had served as an inner guard, and whenever he arrested foreign spies, he would also control the personnel on the perimeter to prevent them from tipping off the operation.

Li Ji nodded and said no more.

(End of this chapter)