This returnee Ding Yun spent nearly half of her effort on the master-apprentice branch system that appeared later in the internal life skill system. After finishing, she organized it as usual, submitted the tasks and golden fingers, and then randomly selected tasks and golden fingers again.
...
[Client: Xiang Yuling
Commissioned Task: The empire is not yet unified, and my husband has already passed away. I am left alone with my orphan son and widowed self, holding the central court. Outside, enemy nations cast covetous glances, and within, generals and powerful officials covet my son's power. I cannot sleep day or night, exhausted and worn out.
I implore a god to protect my son. I do not expect him to become a wise ruler of a prosperous age, only that his life be preserved.
If he can live out his years in peace, surrounded by wife and children, that would be even better!
Commission Reward: Ten soul points]
Upon seeing the commissioned task, Ding Yun felt that this mission would not be simple. The founding emperor had died before unifying the empire. This looked like a beginning where one had fought hard to win the empire only to end up working for others.
Similar to Chai Rong of the Later Zhou...
However, it was hard to say for sure at this point.
Moreover, Ding Yun felt that although the task was dangerous, it was likely not extremely urgent. It did not seem like the kind of situation where one would be poisoned to death by a powerful official.
Therefore, the first thing to do, of course, was to sort out her memories.
Then Ding Yun learned that her guesses were mostly correct. When the original host was born, the entire country, or rather the entire world, had been in chaos for a full one hundred and ninety-eight years. During this period, no less than a hundred individuals had established kingdoms and declared themselves emperor.
Short-lived states lasted only three to five years, while the longest did not exceed a hundred years. They typically passed down through four or five generations to be considered long-lasting, with most falling within two or three generations.
Of course, these states could not possibly have a continuous lineage. Sometimes, seven or eight might exist simultaneously.
Or even over a dozen states coexisting.
Otherwise, in less than two hundred years, nearly a hundred large and small states would not have been established.
In these nearly two hundred years.
It was truly a case of emperors taking turns, with each family having their chance.
Today it was an emperor surnamed Guo, tomorrow it would be an emperor surnamed Wang, and the day after, emperors surnamed Zhang, Li, Liu, and Zhu would all come. If one's own surname had never produced an emperor before, then one had no choice but to fabricate a reason to declare oneself emperor. If one's surname had produced emperors before, then one would simply pick one of those emperors and claim them as an ancestor, logically declaring oneself emperor.
This was a truly chaotic era, a true breakdown of rites and music, more so than the Spring and Autumn or Warring States periods, more devoid of order. The world had long lost its morals, its etiquette, its benevolence.
Only military might reigned supreme.
Whoever had soldiers and generals could declare themselves emperor.
The common people of this era were undoubtedly suffering greatly. "Living in constant peril" described them well, as did "not knowing if there would be a tomorrow."
Of course, it wasn't just the common people. Noble families and even the emperors themselves were not much better off.
They could be annihilated by others at any moment.
Their families could be overthrown, and the entire clan wiped out.
Since the Sima family set a bad precedent, almost openly assassinating the emperor and exterminating entire clans, the rulers of subsequent fallen states met similarly grim fates.
In such a social environment, even though the original host was born into a prominent family, her life was not particularly easy.
While she did not have to engage in labor and could generally be considered to have a secure livelihood, her childhood was still filled with fleeing and displacement, and she lost many relatives.
When she was three years old, her paternal grandfather died in battle, and her eldest uncle, along with collateral relatives, resulted in the loss of nearly half of the family clan.
However, because the country was also destroyed at the same time as his death, her family did not face any particular blame. They simply fled in haste amidst the chaos.
They went from the Later Qi to the Later Liang.
Her father, relying on the connections left by his father and the family's assets, quickly assembled a force of tens of thousands of men. He soon regained a favorable position and pledged allegiance to the Later Liang, fighting against other states.
When she was seven years old, the Later Liang fell.
Her father, being shrewd, did not confront the Later Qin, which had destroyed the Later Liang. Instead, he surrendered, not only preserving his authority over his soldiers but also seizing many stragglers, thus expanding his power once more.
When she was sixteen, the Later Qin fell.
Her father once again followed his established practice.
He quickly surrendered and seized the opportunity to expand his influence again. However, because the military force he displayed this time was somewhat substantial, the Southern Zhou, which had destroyed the Later Qin, was wary. Therefore, the original host was demanded as a consort.
This was ostensibly for an alliance, but in reality, it was akin to a hostage.
While not as significant as a male heir being a hostage, firstly, it would be disheartening to demand a direct heir from a newly surrendered party as a hostage. Secondly, if they didn't explicitly demand a hostage, they couldn't possibly send someone into the palace without reason. If they went into the palace, would they become a eunuch or an imperial concubine?
Becoming a eunuch would clearly be a humiliation, wouldn't it?
And as an imperial concubine, the emperor wouldn't be willing, would he?
Therefore, they had to settle for a secondary option: demanding a favored legitimate daughter to enter the imperial palace as a consort, to solidify the relationship.
Thus, that year, the original host entered the Southern Zhou imperial palace. From then on, the Southern Zhou seemed to be blessed with immense luck, achieving victory after victory, conquering all before them. Every year, they would conquer one or two small states, and within a few years, they unified more than half of the realm. Meanwhile, the original host, fortunately, became pregnant with the imperial heir and gave birth to a son.
Eventually, having given birth to the only son of the Southern Zhou emperor, she was successfully promoted to Empress, and her son was made Crown Prince.
However, in the same year, her father succumbed to an old illness and passed away.
Emperor Jingwei of Southern Zhou had initially been concerned about the Empress's maternal family wielding excessive power, leading to an imperial consort's dominance or even the maternal grandfather usurping the throne from his grandson.
With this development, he naturally could not let go of such a golden opportunity. He immediately began to dismantle the original host's maternal family's power, thereby ensuring that his son would not face any imperial consort's dominance upon ascending the throne.
But then, he died within two years.
Leading an army on campaign, he was struck by a poisoned arrow. Even with the bone scraped and tendons treated, it was in vain. He died suddenly before returning to the palace.
Now, the imperial consort's dominance was out of the question.
But without imperial consorts or eunuchs to assist, the original host and her son, who was only three years old, were immediately forced to face the powerful civil and military officials, as well as the noble clans. How could they possibly face them?
To put it bluntly, even in ordinary commoner families, if only an orphan and a widow were left, there would be people who would try to exploit them, either by killing them or by seizing their assets, distributing them among themselves to celebrate the new year.
Let alone a vast empire.
And the throne of an emperor who had unified more than half of the central plains.
For a time, on the surface, everything seemed to transition smoothly. All officials respected the original host as the Empress Dowager, and her son, Crown Prince Fengde, ascended the throne, establishing the reign title of Kangsheng.
But beneath the surface, the undercurrents of strife were evident. Except for the emperor, who was only three years old, everyone could see it. The original host lived in constant fear every day.
Fearing she would not see the next sunrise.
Or that she would be poisoned to death.