Chapter 945 Ancestral Spirits

The Emperor of Great Yan had just finished a set of tai chi, then sat cross-legged to practice breathing exercises for a while, before taking a refreshing bath.

Since "curing his illness" five years ago, the Emperor had become extremely precious about his health.

Of course, with the last official purge five years ago, coupled with the smooth operation of the cabinet system, Ji Lao Liu had achieved a harmony between "collecting power" and "delegating power".

State affairs were handled by the cabinet, freeing himself from the burden of paperwork as much as possible, but the authority belonging to the Emperor remained firmly in his hands.

The Emperor entered the cabinet at dusk, the plaque outside reading "Qingzheng Hall" (Hall of Clear Governance).

The Grand Secretaries all rose to salute the Emperor, who nodded slightly, signaling them to sit down, then instructed Wei Zhonghe to have the eunuchs serve the Grand Secretaries silver ear soup.

At the head of the Qingzheng Hall was a dragon throne, which only the Emperor could sit on when he came; at this moment, the Crown Prince sat at a table below the dragon throne.

The Emperor's obvious "health preservation and delegation of power", compared to the late Emperor's diligent and hardworking efforts during his reign, and even compared to the Emperor's own conscientious efforts in the first two or three years after his ascension to the throne, seemed far too "lax".

Logically speaking, the Grand Secretaries should have had many complaints about this, and at the very least, they should have advised him, "Your Majesty, we can't be so idle!"

Although the Emperor had always taken the lead in the overall direction and the control of new policies, and the annual reports submitted by the Ministry of Revenue had always met the expected increases, only exceeding the target and never falling short;

But at least put on a show of being busy, didn't he want to leave a good name for diligence in the history books?

Most importantly, the Emperor had a level of understanding of governance, especially in people's livelihood and the economy, far beyond that of ordinary officials. The Minister of Revenue was like a junior clerk facing an experienced shopkeeper in front of the Emperor, so the Emperor acting as a "mascot" undoubtedly made everyone's work much heavier and more complicated.

However, the Emperor was also very skilled at dealing with these Grand Secretaries, and he knew what these officials wanted.

Rebellion... they really didn't have that in mind.

Having become officials to this point, what they sought was to be remembered in history, and preferably, to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Therefore, the Emperor placed his eldest son, the current Crown Prince, in the Qingzheng Hall.

The Crown Prince initially did the work of a "little eunuch" here, serving tea and water;

But he was always able to ask and observe, so in a way, everyone became the Crown Prince’s tutors, and they were cultivating and teaching the future Emperor of Great Yan;

Just like the Sword Saint had unhesitatingly given Long Yuan to the eldest princess of the Regent's Palace, martial artists valued inheritance extremely highly, and so did the Grand Secretaries.

They hoped that their political philosophies could be instilled into the Crown Prince, so that their ideas could continue to illuminate the entire Great Yan in the future.

And therefore,

The Emperor was "negligent" in his duties, but the Grand Secretaries, in consideration of the Emperor throwing the Crown Prince over to them... tolerated it.

Seeing his imperial father arrive,

The Crown Prince, who had been too sensible since childhood and therefore had to bear the "heavy burden" all along,

Couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He organized some of the memorials at hand and proactively walked towards his imperial father.

The Emperor sat down and began to review the memorials.

The atmosphere in the Qingzheng Hall returned to solemnity.

After about half an hour, the Emperor "cleared" the memorials in front of him and signaled the Crown Prince to take them down and distribute them.

Rubbing his wrist, the Emperor subconsciously wanted to yawn, but seeing the Grand Secretaries sitting below, he covered it up slightly with his hand.

Many times, people would deliberately tense up and work hard, not because they liked the feeling of being tense, but because they knew that once they relaxed, they would only keep finding various excuses for themselves, and then collapse completely.

Only a short while, and the Emperor already felt tired.

The cabinet initially had five people, but it was expanded repeatedly, and now, there were nearly fifteen Grand Secretaries sitting in the Qingzheng Hall. However, the core circle, those who made the decisions and sat in the rosewood armchairs, only numbered five. The other ten were more like assistant Grand Secretaries, but regardless, they had also entered the cabinet;

Slowly endure, slowly muddle through, and there was always hope of sitting in one of the chairs.

There was also a very important reason for expanding the number of people: government affairs were too tiring, and the Grand Secretaries often needed to work overtime, so it was easy to get sick. Some, after recuperating and resting, could quickly climb back and continue to work hard for Great Yan, but some... might never be able to get up again after falling ill;

Therefore, the number of people in the cabinet had to be large, to facilitate filling vacancies.

Power was a poison, it not only made emperors work their hearts out, but also allowed officials to continue to enjoy this state while enduring bloodshot eyes.

"Gentlemen, you can take a break. Join me for the banquet later."

Today, there was a banquet in the palace, on a scale similar to the one when the Regent was ennobled five years ago.

The Grand Secretaries knew the priorities of things, and no one objected. They stood up separately and found the eunuchs in charge of serving them to wash their faces and change their robes.

On both sides of the Qingzheng Hall, separate sleeping quarters had been opened, to facilitate the Grand Secretaries to take a nap and continue to work hard, saving them the trouble of going in and out of the palace. Many Grand Secretaries only left the palace once every half a month to return to their residences;

There was a saying outside that, even though the adults who entered the cabinet were generally not young, people like Yao Zizhan of the Qian Kingdom could still have a young son or daughter, but the Grand Secretaries who entered the cabinet in Great Yan never had any offspring at home once they entered the cabinet. The pear blossoms had no time to overshadow the begonias.

The eunuchs brought the formal attire for the Grand Secretaries from the sleeping quarters. After seeing everyone dressed, the Emperor walked in front, the Crown Prince followed behind, and behind them were a total of three rows of fifteen Grand Secretaries.

Putting aside the Prince’s Palace in Jidong,

This group,

Was already the true core power team of Great Yan.

The banquet was very grand, with not only the royal nobles of Yan, but also the hostages from the thirteen tribes of the desert... or rather, the young princes.

If the entire desert was cut in half, the part that truly had close ties with Yan was actually the eastern desert, while the western desert had closer ties with the West.

Relatively speaking, the eastern desert had the largest population, the most tribes, and the strongest strength. The royal court of the Manchu tribe was also located in this area.

Since the two Kings of North and South crushed the royal court together, the desert Manchu tribe began to split, and in the past few years, they had been fighting each other bloody.

The Great Yan Emperor even conferred the title of "King" on thirteen tribes in one go, a cost-free title, rivaling the time when the First Prince took a radish seal to "officially solicit prostitutes" in the snowfields.

The decline of the Manchu tribe and the rise of the Yan Kingdom had become an irreversible trend. In addition, the Emperor had learned from the Pingxi Prince's methods in the snowfields and made adaptations to suit local conditions, accelerating the differentiation of the desert tribes while also strengthening Yan's penetration there.

The thirteen Manchu "young princes" all paid congratulations to the Great Yan Emperor and offered their blessings.

The theme of today's banquet was a festival of the Yan royal family. In the late Emperor's time, it should have been the Emperor leading the royal family to recall the bitterness and think about the sweetness, the most typical example being letting the princes sit there and eat hard-to-swallow cornbread;

But this time, the Emperor went all out to organize it.

The Emperor stood up, stood at the highest point of the banquet, and shared a cup with them.

After sitting down, the Emperor sorted out his cuffs while thinking about the letter he had received from Jidong some time ago, which expressed concern about the current Yan Kingdom's policy of indirect rule over the desert.

Once the separation between Yan and the Manchu tribe was gradually broken as the Manchu tribe became completely subservient, in future generations, it was likely to lead to the Manchu tribe re-emerging within the Yan Kingdom in another way, even under the identity of the Yan people themselves... a reversion to the ancestral state.

Looking at the group of Manchu princes who were presenting dances for him,

The Emperor smiled slightly.

He had considered this reminder before, but it was still what he had discussed with that Zheng fellow.

If future generations were not ambitious, even if there were no problems with the Manchu tribe, there would be problems in other aspects. He couldn't possibly eliminate all the present-day riffraff in advance, right?

Even if you eliminated them completely, wouldn't they spring up again after sixty years?

After the Manchu young princes finished dancing, the various parties of the Yan Kingdom came up to offer their blessings. In fact, the Yan people themselves didn't understand why everyone was celebrating this festival that should have belonged to the "royal family", and they didn't even understand what they were supposed to congratulate, but praising the Emperor's greatness and praising the prosperous growth of Great Yan was always a safe bet.

Next,

The envoys from the Qian Kingdom, the Chu Kingdom, the Prince Cheng's Palace, the Prince Jin's Palace, and a group of envoys sent by the small countries of Zhuxia, successively offered their congratulations.

The Emperor was very gracious. Although he didn't come down to "mingle with the people," he also raised his glass in response.

On the side of the Qian Kingdom envoys, there was a young man named Shi Kai who was shaking the wine pot on his table. An official of the envoy laughed and asked:

"How can the wine of this Yan Kingdom compare to the peach blossom brew of our Great Qian, which is so delicious and throat-soothing?"

Shi Kai shook his head and said, "Didn't you notice that this wine is only half a pot full?"

Although banquets held in the court were mainly political, and eating and drinking were just symbolic, it was inevitably strange that even the wine pots on the envoys' tables were only half full.

"Tch, the Yan people are always stingy. They have the habits of barbarians."

Shi Kai pursed his lips and said:

"Before returning home, we must check the price of wine in the Yan people's markets."

"Mm, why?"

Shi Kai poured the remaining wine in the wine pot into his wine glass,

And then slowly put down the wine pot in front of him:

"For a grand banquet of this scale, the wine pots for the guests are only half full. They don't even care about the face of the country..."

Shi Kai drank the wine in his glass in one gulp,

And said;

"I guess the Yan people might have banned alcohol."

……

During the second half of the banquet, the Emperor left early.

Wei Zhonghe helped the Emperor walk towards the harem. To this day, the Emperor's harem still only had one Empress and one Imperial Concubine.

During these five years, the Empress had given birth to another son for the Emperor, and the Imperial Concubine had given birth to another princess.

The harmony of this harem left the courtiers somewhat speechless.

What a dutiful Empress. Every day, she liked to grow vegetables, spin yarn, and weave cloth in the palace, and she also gave birth to three princes for Great Yan;

What a courteous Imperial Concubine. She only gave birth to princesses and not a single prince.

Three princes and two princesses. Children were actually still few for the Emperor, but... it was enough.

Especially given that the foundation of the state had been established early on, the Grand Secretaries were not willing to use this to advise the Emperor;

They would naturally support the Crown Prince, just like when the late Emperor was around, no matter how powerful the Sixth Prince's party was, the Crown Prince had never lacked supporters;

Because many officials were not thinking about riding on the Emperor’s coattails or getting promoted through flattery. They might not even be familiar with the Crown Prince. What they were protecting was this stable system.

If they were to advise him to hold a selection to bring more people into the harem, what if some enchanting woman was brought in and stirred up a drama in the harem? Why bother?

Wei Zhonghe knew that His Majesty had drunk too much, and was truly drunk, so he planned to send the Emperor to the Empress.

Under normal circumstances, the Empress would also call the Imperial Concubine over, and the two of them would serve the hungover Emperor together.

But the Emperor suddenly said:

"Go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

"Yes."

Wei Zhonghe immediately waved his hand, and the eunuchs in the back immediately brought up the palanquin and had the Emperor sit on it.

Then,

The group went to the solemn Imperial Ancestral Temple in the middle of the night.

The Imperial Ancestral Temple was a place of sacrifice, solemn and sacred. Even when the Emperor needed to hold any activities here, he had to bathe, change his clothes, and fast in advance.

But if the Emperor himself had a whim to come here to take a look, naturally no one would dare to stop him.

Wei Zhonghe helped the Emperor up the steps of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Then, the Emperor reached out and pushed Wei Zhonghe away. He staggered slightly, supported himself with his hands, and opened the gate of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. He staggered into it.

The eternal lamps in the Imperial Ancestral Temple would not be extinguished. In the middle was an offering table, and on both sides were brightly lit candles.

Wei Zhonghe stood at the door, hesitated for a moment, but closed the gate of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. He turned around and faced the outside.

Inside,

The Emperor began to move step by step along one side.

In front of him were portraits of the ancestors of the Ji family throughout the ages.

The portrait of the first Marquis of Yan was the most simple, because he was not wearing a dragon robe, but an official uniform of Great Xia. He was riding a Pixiu, carrying a bow and arrow, and holding a long knife, extremely heroic.

He was the founder of the Yan region and the leader of the Yan people.

The old Yan people were indeed very straightforward in some things. For example, the "emperors" in the next few portraits of the Ji family were not wearing dragon robes, because they had not yet proclaimed themselves emperors and established a country at that time.

But it was said that in the Imperial Ancestral Temple of the Zhao family of the Qian people, the emperors of the Zhao official family had posthumously conferred imperial titles on their ancestors for many generations, even above the founding Emperor of the Qian Kingdom, and the portraits hung were all in dragon robes;

In the narration of the Qian people, their Zhao official family's ancestors were one of the four Marquises who pioneered the borders.

Perhaps it was precisely because they had obtained the country through improper means that they were more guilty and needed these things to decorate themselves. On the other hand, the Ji family, who relied on their ancestors to fight for the country with one knife and one spear, had nothing to fear or hide;

The appearance of their ancestors in those years was the best proof of the hardships of starting a business, and it was also the glory of the Ji clan.

After the founding of the country, the next portraits of the emperors were all wearing dragon robes.

During this period, there was a long string of emperor portraits that were very young, which meant that these emperors had all died young and did not live to old age to leave behind an image of old age.

A portrait, of course, should be the appearance of the last healthy time in life. It was impossible to live to be sixty or seventy years old and then draw a so-called handsome appearance of when you were twenty years old and hang it up.

These years were also the period when the Yan people and the Manchu people fought the most fiercely. There were several emperors who personally led expeditions and died on the battlefield.

Ji Chengjue continued to walk inside, and then he saw his grandfather.

He actually had very limited impressions of his grandfather, and could even say that he had almost no impressions.

But he still stopped in front of his grandfather's portrait for a long time,

Not to take a few more glances at his grandfather, but purely to look at the person below later.

But,

He had seen so many ancestors, so he couldn't leave him out;

Ji Chengjue finally moved his steps and stood in front of the last portrait.

This portrait was very new, and the person in the painting was also very vivid. Most importantly, because you were too familiar with him, when you saw his portrait, you would supplement his image yourself.

In the painting, he was sitting on the dragon throne, wearing a black dragon robe, and his eyes seemed to still carry that domineering aura.

Many times, Ji Chengjue felt that his imperial father was not a human being, but a Pixiu, a Pixiu in the true sense of the word, wearing the skin of a divine beast, but in essence a fierce beast.

Ji Chengjue leaned back, chose a support point in front of the table, and stared at his imperial father.

"Hic..."

The Emperor hiccuped.

So many years had passed. If you said he hated him, he really didn't feel much anymore, but the image of a so-called loving father was naturally impossible.

Ji Chengjue tilted his head,

Reached out,

Pointed to the late Emperor in the portrait,

And laughed:

"You, in this life, all you wanted was the reputation of a great emperor, but unfortunately, you don't have a chance anymore. You don't have a chance anymore.

The roast duck at Quande Lou Roast Duck Restaurant has always been very famous.

But what diners praise is the skill of the roast duck chef. Who would be idle enough to praise the guy who buys the ducks?

This dish,

You prepared the ingredients,

And I will cook it;

This world,

You didn't unify,

And I will!

Hundreds and thousands of years later,

The great emperor in the illustrious history books will only be me, me... Ji Chengjue.

You will be overshadowed by me because you are too close to me;

In this life, you have never been a proper father,

Then I will let people have only one thought in their minds when they read about you in the history books,

Ji Runhao?

Emperor Wu of Yan?

Who is he?

Oh,

He is... my father.

Hahahahaha..."

The Emperor laughed loudly,

He pointed in all directions,

And shouted:

"When I live here, I will make all of you... pale in comparison!"

Drunkenness and the fatigue of walking all the way through the Imperial Ancestral Temple made the Emperor's body sink lower and lower. Finally, he leaned against the edge of the table and fell asleep, even snoring.

He didn't know where the wind blew in from;

The candlestick,

Was swaying slightly.

The portrait of the late Emperor in front of him fell off at this moment and slowly swayed down...

Covering the Emperor's body.

A hungover dream,

Always brought dizziness and nausea, and was also chaotic and illogical, and even seemed very absurd;

Just like,

In Ji Chengjue's dream,

It seemed that he was surrounded by people,

Among them, a familiar voice rang out from beside him:

"Hehe,

How is it?

Have you seen it?

This is the emperor I chose for Great Yan!

This,

Is my, Ji Runhao's,

Son!"