Chapter 791 The Emperor's Decision

Like two blossoming flowers, each represents a separate branch;

Unlike the raging warfare and thunderous hooves in J Eastern and C Northern regions, Y City, after experiencing the "darkest hour" of the late emperor's passing and the death of the grand councilor, finally returned to a state of "lively" and "noisy" intertwined with "peace" with the new emperor's ascension and the destruction of the barbarian royal court.

The late emperor left the new emperor a Great Yan that was "outwardly strong but inwardly weak," which was true. But it wasn't exactly "everything waiting to be rebuilt." It was more like a person, whose body was depleted, who began to cough, hunch over, and struggle to get out of bed.

But there was no need to take any tonics or seek any miraculous pills. Even if you just sat there, doing nothing, governing by inaction, the people's livelihood would recover at a visible speed, very obviously.

The blind man once said that after every emperor who "exhausted the military and indulged in conquest," there would often be a so-called "great governance" and "revival."

The predecessors tightened their belts and quelled the biggest internal and external troubles, while bearing the infamy. Only then could there be a chance to restore and develop in peace, and naturally, they could carry out revival on the basis of their predecessors.

This has always been the case throughout history.

Moreover, when the late emperor was in power and the new emperor was still a prince, he had already started working in the Ministry of Revenue. The country's finances were already in the hands of the new emperor.

The most important affairs of a country are sacrifice and war;

But in reality, finance is the foundation of a country.

Some say the Qian people are the richest, but what is the Qian Kingdom like?

But conversely, if the Qian Kingdom wasn't rich enough, it might have ceased to exist long ago.

Fighting a war requires money and grain;

Culture requires a sufficient population of people who are full and have nothing to do to flourish;

The court's policies, the court's dignity, the country's every move, in every aspect, actually require money and grain to pave the way.

Before the new emperor ascended the throne, the late emperor had lived in the back garden for a long time. At that time, the crown prince was supervising the country, and the policies remained the same. The crown prince didn't dare to break new ground to reform.

This left a lot of room for the new emperor.

Although the death of Zhao Jiulang caused a certain degree of upheaval in the court situation, the new emperor's skills and abilities, coupled with the arrangements made before the late emperor's death, quickly consolidated the new emperor's position.

New policies were promulgated one by one, unhurriedly, and reforms in various aspects were also progressing steadily.

The members of the royal family and meritorious nobles finally saw off the late emperor, who was extremely harsh on them,

And then welcomed a new emperor who was even more "mean and ungrateful."

The new emperor's actions against his own brothers indicated that in his reign, being a rice worm of "rich and idle people" would not be so easy.

The Jingnan King went to the west,

The old King of the Zhenbei King's Mansion passed away. After the new King ascended the throne, he actively requested the court to incorporate the remaining Zhenbei Army troops. The court gave sufficient grace, and decree after decree of appeasement were issued. In name, it still recognized the Zhenbei King's Mansion's continued tradition of guarding the desert, but it also gave promotions and titles to several regional commanders stationed in the desert of the original Zhenbei King's Mansion, and changed the delivery of money and grain to the Zhenbei King's Mansion. Most of the money and grain that should have been sent to the Zhenbei King's Mansion and then transferred to the border army was now directly sent by the Tumancheng prefect in the name of the imperial court.

The relationship between the regional warlords and the imperial court is always delicate, and the imperial court's means of containing the regional warlords is actually money and grain.

In this way, in name, the Zhenbei Army was still under the command of the Zhenbei King's Mansion, but in reality, the imperial court's influence had already penetrated. The kind of situation in the past where Li Liangting gave an order and two hundred thousand Zhenbei Army iron cavalry pointed their spears eastward towards Y City would be impossible to reappear under the new King's lack of prestige and the imperial court's infiltration, with the decline of one and the rise of the other.

On the other side, the Marquis of Pingxi was already a leading figure of the Sixth Master's faction when the new emperor was still a prince, and a neglected prince. Although some interested people have said that who knows what will happen in the future, at least for now, the relationship between the imperial court and the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion can be described as being as sweet as honey.

The new governor of Y City was Sun Liang, the former transportation commissioner of Yingdu. This was appointed by the imperial court, but both the Yingdu officialdom and the upper echelons of the Y City officialdom understood that the Sun family of the original Sun Youdao had actually already submitted to the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion.

Sun Liang's elder brother, Sun Ying, had even entered the capital in a wheelchair with the Marquis of Pingxi.

Y City was equivalent to being "given" to the Marquis of Pingxi by the imperial court, allowing J Eastern region, east of Wangjiang, to be formally and completely handed over to the Marquis's Mansion.

In exchange, the imperial court regained the power to govern the local area from the original Jingnan Army, J Army, and Zhenbei Army warlords in J province. The situation where military leaders were also local chief officials was gradually receding.

In this regard, there must be great dissatisfaction in the army, after all, this was smashing people's rice bowls and side income.

After taking the benefits for a long time, it became a matter of course, and they felt that it was justified.

Throughout history, when a new emperor ascended the throne, they would first appease the army to show their grace, but the new emperor of the Yan Kingdom went against the grain this time.

However, the Jingnan King was no longer in J province, let alone the Yan Kingdom. The Marquis of Pingxi, who originally inherited the Jingnan King's mantle and held the identity and status of the Jingnan King's heir, and was now strong enough to raise his arms and call for support, showed a kind of silence on this matter.

Without someone with enough weight to take the lead, the various warlords below had no way to make trouble, and could only reluctantly hand over the power they should hand over.

In short,

The entire Great Yan now looked extremely stable. Although there was widespread dissatisfaction among all levels, it was suppressed, so that there would be no turmoil.

Many old officials were already looking forward, looking forward to five years later, ten years later, when suppression became the norm and became the law, the so-called complaints would disappear.

At that time,

Even if they didn't expand their territory,

Great Yan, with its vast territory of Yan and J provinces, would usher in a stable and peaceful "prosperous age" after recuperating.

And the new emperor, in addition to handling government affairs, would also occasionally send people to ask about the sales of his father-in-law's pork, in order to infer the stability of the market and the people's living standards.

But,

A memorial from J Eastern region,

Was like a stone thrown into this calm pool,

Breaking the tranquility of Y City.

...

The Marquis of Pingxi requested an imperial decree to attack the Chu, on the grounds that the Chu people had repeatedly invaded and harassed our border people.

After this memorial was sent to the new emperor, it was transferred to the inner cabinet, and then, it was revealed to the court.

The court officials were stunned for a moment,

Was there going to be another war?

How long had it been since they had been at peace, how long had it been!

What about recuperation, what about renewing with the people!

But at this time, no one took the initiative to jump out to try to stir up the muddy waters.

After all, the new emperor's attitude was still a mystery;

With the experience of the late emperor's time, everyone had a stronger adaptability to this kind of troop deployment.

Whether it was those who had private grudges with Marquis Zheng,

Or those who purely stood on the position of thinking that the country needed to recuperate,

Or those who stood on the position of the imperial court centralizing power and opposing the regional warlords,

In the beginning,

They all uniformly and tacitly fell into silence.

The inner cabinet went through the procedures, and then transferred it to the Directorate of Ceremonial;

The new emperor didn't act coy, and made the response that most people expected:

Approved.

However, the imperial court did not issue orders for war preparation because of this, nor did it mobilize additional troops.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that this was a small-scale war that the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion was enough to handle on its own, and the imperial court did not need to provide additional support for troops and supplies.

But what followed was a kind of strong feeling of suspicion that was not belated but belonged to belatedness.

In the past,

The Jingnan King was tyrannical, oh, then let him be tyrannical. Any censor who dared to impeach the Jingnan King had to be prepared to have their entire family exterminated by the Jingnan King when he returned to the capital next time;

Similarly, when the previous generation of Zhenbei King was around, no one dared to impeach him. Ma Taming the Clan was all done by Old Li alone. Who knew when he would take up his old business again?

In addition to the pattern during the late emperor's time, the imperial court and the upper echelons had defaulted to this situation.

But now,

In the eyes of the ministers, the new Zhenbei King could be said to be well-behaved. They were even too embarrassed to continue to bully this regional warlord with a straight face. They couldn't let the imperial court's actions appear too mean;

After the Zhenbei King's Mansion became docile, the existence of the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion was a bit glaring.

In the past, the Marquis of Pingxi was the number one general of the Sixth Master's faction, and no one would take this matter to complain to the Sixth Prince;

But now, the relationship between the ruler and the ruled was clearly defined.

Most of the civil and military officials of the court naturally stood on the side of the dragon throne. The Marquis of Pingxi, the former top brand of the Sixth Master's faction, had become an outsider.

The Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion didn't want food or troops, and was just straightforwardly preparing to fight the Chu people. This, to a certain extent, reduced the burden on the Great Yan court, which was in a state of "recuperation," but it also proved from another aspect that the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion was different from the Zhenbei Marquis's Mansion back then. The Zhenbei Marquis's Mansion had to rely on the full support of the Great Yan court to support its 300,000 iron cavalry at its peak, but the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion could achieve self-sufficiency, and at the same time, could wrestle with a large country like the Chu Kingdom, even if it was just a small-scale and controllable war, but how dare they do such a thing without that kind of confidence?

This had gradually deviated from the level of a regional warlord and began to develop towards a feudal state.

In addition, under the command of the Marquis of Pingxi, the J troops and barbarian troops were the majority, and the pure Yan army was not dominant in the Marquis of Pingxi's army organization.

This made people feel even more uneasy.

Moreover, the princess in the Marquis's Mansion was also pregnant, this...

However, because of the new emperor's ambiguous attitude, and because the ministers still had the feeling that the new emperor and the Marquis of Pingxi were "arguing at the head of the bed and making up at the end of the bed";

It was very likely that you had just said bad things about him here, and the two of them would make up as before, making you an outsider.

However,

As the news from J Eastern region gradually came, the court instantly boiled over.

Chu's great general, Nian Yao, suddenly raided into J province, capturing military outposts one after another, as if entering an uninhabited land!

Nian Yao transferred to Mengshan, and the Chu army advanced to Fancheng, Fancheng was in imminent danger!

The Marquis of Pingxi, enraged, personally led all the elites of the Marquis's Mansion out of Zhennanguan to attack Chu!

And after setting off, he submitted a memorial to the imperial court, requesting the imperial court to send the Wangjiang naval fleet south, to increase several reinforcements, and to start preparing corvée laborers and supplies from Yingdu.

Under a series of news,

In the eyes of the big shots in the court,

The meaning was:

National war,

National war!

This lawless military man actually disregarded the overall situation, defied his superiors, and forcibly dragged Great Yan into the quagmire of national war again!

...

"Hehe."

Ji Chengjue was sitting on the east city wall of Y City at this time, with a chessboard in front of him and a coffee table next to him.

Opposite him sat a young scholar, surnamed Liu, named Dan, from Hwei County. He had entered the eyes of the Sixth Master early on, and was later arranged to go to the local area to serve as a parent official to gain experience. After the Sixth Master succeeded to the throne, he summoned him back to his side and replaced Lu Bing as the vice minister of the Court of State Ceremonies.

As for Lu Bing, after his identity was clarified, it was indeed unnecessary for him to continue to occupy the superficial position.

When playing chess with the emperor, Liu Dan didn't cautiously think about how to let the emperor win, because the emperor's chess skills were far superior to his own. He would lose anyway, so there was no pressure.

On the contrary, Wei Gonggong's occasional personal help in adding tea made Liu Dan a little uneasy.

Ji Chengjue was in a good mood today,

The Zheng fellow had said before that the imperial palace was a besieged city.

No matter how smart Ji Chengjue was, he couldn't know that this "besieged city" was not that "besieged city," but he could probably taste the meaning that the Zheng fellow wanted to express.

Indeed,

After becoming the emperor, Ji Chengjue liked to go out of the palace to get some air every once in a while.

He didn't like to travel incognito to the folk of Y City, after all, he was not an emperor who didn't eat grains and was raised in the deep palace all the time. He preferred to go to the city wall, looking into the distance while basking in the sun, enjoying a kind of great satisfaction.

"Your Majesty, you can still laugh. This subject has heard that the memorials from the ministers of various departments impeaching the Marquis of Pingxi are almost filling the inner cabinet."

Ji Chengjue shook his head disapprovingly and continued to make a move.

Liu Dan could only continue to follow.

Not far away, Ji Chuanye was flying a kite with the help of Old He, grandfather and grandson together. Zhang Gonggong was accompanying them.

In addition, there were two little ones, a boy and a girl, watched by their respective nannies, watching their brother playing there. It wasn't that they didn't want to bring them together, but they were too young. The city wall was not a flower field, and it would be no small matter if they bumped into something.

Empress He and the imperial concubine were sitting together. Since entering the palace, the two women did not compete for favor, nor were they jealous. They got along even more harmoniously than when they were in the prince's mansion.

Of course, there was also the reason that the emperor had only them so far. Although many ministers had advised him to choose new women to enter the palace, and even Empress He had actively advised him in order to show to the outside world that she was not a jealous person, they were all rejected by the emperor on the grounds that he did not want to "waste people and money."

In this regard, the subjects listened to it and let it go.

After all, His Majesty was young, and already had two princes and a princess. The empress and the imperial concubine were also young, and it was estimated that they could still give birth. Since the imperial family was not troubled by the lack of children, the subjects really had no reason to interfere with the emperor's desire to be "pure and desireless."

Liu Dan felt that His Majesty the Emperor was really a rare emperor with human touch in the world. He did not have the coldness of a lonely man when treating his family, which was very different from the late emperor...

In fact, the emperor's mind was no longer on the chessboard. Liu Dan felt that it should be his previous question that had attracted the emperor's thoughts.

Therefore, the emperor made his moves faster and faster, almost without thinking. But precisely because of this, naturally, without concealment, he instead brought out his normal level. In the end, Liu Dan helplessly discovered that he lost faster and more miserably than usual.

So it turned out that the emperor used to deliberately accompany him to play for a while longer...

"Put it away."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Wei Gonggong stepped forward to clean up the chessboard.

Liu Dan wanted to help, but was stopped by Wei Gonggong. Wei Gonggong also winked at him, and Liu Dan then noticed that the emperor had already walked to the crenellations. He quickly followed and stood beside him.

"Fifth is coming back soon. I plan to let Fifth take charge of the Ministry of Works."

"This subject agrees." Liu Dan said straightforwardly.

"As for you, go to Yinlang County in a while, as the prefect?"

"This subject does not have enough qualifications."

"I never look at qualifications."

"Let it be the prefect of Nanwang City, Your Majesty. This subject wants to take it one step at a time, so that I can see clearly and walk steadily. When doing things for Your Majesty, I can be more comfortable."

"Alright, let it be the prefect. Xu Wenzu did very well in Nanwang City before, and now as the prefect of Yingdu. I plan to let you take over Xu Wenzu's position in the future."

"This subject will do my best to live up to Your Majesty's expectations of me!"

The emperor nodded,

And said:

"I have delayed your day off."

"This subject is terrified."

To be able to accompany the Son of Heaven's family to relax during the "holiday" was such a great favor!

"Wei Zhonghe."

"This servant is here."

"Return to the palace."

"This servant obeys."

...

Old He had been sent back home alone. The empress missed her father, and Old He also missed his daughter and grandson. Every once in a while, the palace would arrange a small reunion.

In Wei Gonggong's opinion, the new emperor was really the opposite of the late emperor in terms of treating his family.

On the way back to the palace, the emperor's family was sitting in a large carriage, with Wei Gonggong driving the carriage himself.

In front, behind, left, and right of the imperial road, I don't know how many masters from the Secret Intelligence Department were protecting the emperor's safety. Some places had been cleared in advance, and there were armored soldiers guarding them.

Inside the carriage,

The emperor was sitting in the first seat, holding the little princess in his arms.

After having two sons, the emperor instead felt more sorry for and liked his daughter more.

Empress He hesitated,

The imperial concubine lowered her head;

The emperor just held the princess and did not speak.

Ji Chuanye looked at his father and then at his mother. This eldest son of the imperial family, who had been praised by the late emperor as the "good holy grandson" because of his intelligence, did not know what to say to ease the atmosphere at this time.

As for the younger one, he was only focused on playing with the kite that his brother had been flying before.

The family was no longer as happy and relaxed as they had been on the city wall before.

When the carriage was about to enter the palace gate, when everyone's identity would change from a family to a ruler and his subjects;

The imperial concubine mustered up her courage,

And said:

"Your Majesty, you can't treat Elder Sister like this."

The emperor smiled,

And said:

"Let the empress, say it herself."

Empress He took a deep breath,

Put one hand on her eldest son's head and stroked it,

And gently wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with the other hand,

And squeezed out a smile,

And said:

"This concubine remembers that on the day of the late emperor's death, everyone in the mansion was panic-stricken. It was the people of the Marquis of Pingxi who took us over that this concubine's heart was finally settled."

After a short while,

Empress He added:

"It's deserved."

...

The next day,

When the court and the public were criticizing the war that was taking place in J Eastern region and impeaching the Marquis of Pingxi for underestimating the enemy and rushing forward alone into the Chu Kingdom, and for the serious consequences that might result from failure;

Three imperial decrees, with the blessing of the emperor's will, were drafted by the inner cabinet, immediately sealed by the Directorate of Ceremonial, and openly issued to the central government.

This was the first time that the new emperor had shown the late emperor's domineering aura since he ascended the throne.

The Son of Heaven cannot make mistakes. Every time the Son of Heaven makes a mistake, it means a great blow to his own authority. Therefore, many times, even the policies and decisions that the Son of Heaven wants to promote must find a spokesperson in the court, that is, a scapegoat.

But this time, the Son of Heaven did not;

The first imperial decree: To establish the emperor's eldest son, Ji Chuanye, as the crown prince;

The second imperial decree: To confer the title of tutor to the crown prince to Zheng Fan, the Marquis of Pingxi of Great Yan;

The third imperial decree:

Because the Marquis of Pingxi was guarding the country's borders and his military affairs were heavy, he was not allowed to return to the court;

Therefore, the crown prince was ordered to leave the capital immediately,

Go to J Eastern region and enter the Marquis of Pingxi's Mansion,

To study.