The First Auxiliary Road from the Imperial Examination

"Sister Yuan, I came to you today because of a few things." Inside the Lanzheng Hall, Empress Dowager Sheng Ran raised her head from behind the imperial desk and waved for Sheng Yuan to come over to talk.

"One concerns promotion, one concerns rewards, and one concerns the appointment of officials." Sheng Ran held the teacup and motioned Sheng Yuan to open the document book on the table.

"Although the Emperor's enthronement ceremony has not yet been held, my status as Emperor and I have been confirmed, so I naturally have to focus on practical matters... Now, whether it is to appease people's hearts or to encourage role models for future generations, the promotion of meritorious officials is a top priority."

"That's right, sister. But why did sister circle the word 'Ning' after my name?"

Sheng Yuan looked at the document in confusion, which made Sheng Ran, who was looking at her, laugh: "You are my biological sister, I want to confer a throne on you, and this word Ning is the title."

"Ah?! Then... I don't want it!" Sheng Yuan was stunned for a moment, then refused without hesitation. This reaction surprised the eunuchs on both sides.

But Sheng Ran was not surprised at all: "You are afraid that it will affect your position as Prime Minister in the future!"

Sheng Yuan nodded immediately: "Being a prince is good, but it is achieved through the relationship with my sister. It is far inferior to my career path based on my own ability."

"Hmph." Sheng Ran raised her hand and tapped her several times in annoyance, "I knew you were stubborn!"

Seeing Sheng Yuan's insistence, without any sign of wavering, Sheng Ran glanced at her and said, "You have been like this since childhood! So this was just my initial idea, and I changed my mind later! As for the position of Prince Ning, haha, I will not give it to you, I will only give it to my nephews and nieces! When you give birth to children, I will make you the prince!"

"Well, just wait!"

Sheng Yuan's casual attitude naturally earned her a lot of contempt from her sister.

Sheng Ran knew her sister's temper very well, and was too lazy to say anything. She just took out another memorial and threw it to her: "Yu Ge'er and you really are a couple! I originally planned to promote him to Duke and change his title to 'Ping', but he was afraid that becoming Duke Ping would affect your position in the cabinet, so he declined... Tsk tsk, I don't know whether to say that you two are naive or ignorant."

"I guess my sister would rather say that we are ungrateful!" Sheng Yuan took the memorial and glanced at it. He immediately smiled and stroked the words on it happily. "Yu'er has known my ambition since he was a child, so he naturally wants to help me."

"Humph, you are a little self-aware!" Sheng Ran glanced at her smiling sister, "Aren't you two just ignorant?!"

Sheng Yuan looked over with a smile: "Sister, why are you so angry? If you want to promote Yu Ge'er, wait until I retire! Hehe, by then I can also become a duke's wife!"

"Hmph, look at what you have become! You naive and shameless girl!" Sheng Ran glared at her with a smile, "You actually order me around!"

"How can you be called upon to do that? I am your biological sister, and you love me!"

"..." Sheng Ran was speechless after hearing Sheng Yuan's righteous words. She could only shake her head in a helpless manner, "I really owe you!"

After tacitly agreeing with Sheng Yuan's idea, Sheng Ran mentioned Lu Sheng again: "To be honest, you three are really the same. I intended to make him the 'Duke of Chengguo', but he wrote to me and begged me to use the title of Duke in exchange for the grace of marriage."

"Arranged marriage?! Who does Shengge'er like?!" Sheng Yuan perked up immediately, looking at her sister with her big, sparkling eyes, waiting expectantly for the answer.

"..." Sheng Ran looked at the pair of big blinking eyes in front of her that were filled with the words "speak quickly". She was speechless and had the urge to scold him.

Clearly, the point she made was that Lu Sheng refused to be promoted, but what the girl heard was that he was asking for a marriage.

This same thing, when this girl paid attention to it, actually made her feel a bit disconnected!

After glancing at her sister with disdain, Sheng Ran said slowly, "The one he wants to marry is the youngest daughter of the Duke of Liang."

"Who? The youngest daughter of Duke Liang... Liang Youdong?!" Sheng Yuan was instantly overwhelmed by her childhood memories. She had very rich memories of this "acquaintance" whom she had only met once!

"Yes, it's her..." Sheng Ran nodded and looked curiously at the little sister with a very interesting expression, "But how old were you at that time? You still remember it!"

"Of course. I still remember that Liang Youdong's mother's surname was Shi. Aunt Shi was a close friend of our mother. When we met, she gave me a whole room full of iron-eating beast toys!"

"You only remember the toys, girl! You didn't even mention the jades they gave you!" Sheng Ran shook her head in amusement and talked about Liang Youdong again, "I see that the attitude of the Marquis Chengzhong's son is that he wants to marry that girl... Speaking of which, the Marquis Chengzhong's son is one year older than Yu Ge'er. If the character of the Duke of Liang's youngest daughter is good, I am willing to help her. But, how did they know each other?"

"It seems that they met when Arong and his men started an uprising in the border town." Sheng Yuan thought for a while, "In fact, although Yuger and I both know that Shengger has a crush on someone, Shengger himself deliberately avoids the issue. For so long, no matter how Yuger asked, he only mentioned it two or three times, and even these two or three times he was still vague, but from what he said, it seems that he is sure that there is no chance between him and the other party. I don't know why he changed his mind now!" "It's probably because Madam Shi, who was guarding Nanzhao, decided to divide the family. Except for the eldest daughter's family who stayed in Nanzhao, the other three daughters were sent elsewhere, and her youngest daughter chose to return to Kyoto on her own."

"I remember that Duke Liang gave the throne of his son to his adopted son?" Sheng Yuan thought about the atmosphere in Duke Liang's mansion and couldn't help but feel sympathy for his good friend Lu Sheng for a moment.

"The two concubines that Duke Liang favored both became insane, and they have no sons. If the title is not passed down, I'm afraid the court will take it back."

Sheng Ran said something casually, and couldn't help but remind Sheng Yuan: "If there is no mistake, I will grant them a marriage... But that girl Liang is not simple. If they get married, you and Yu Ge'er should be careful when you interact with Sheng Ge'er in the future, and don't let others use you as a gun."

"I'm not stupid! How can I not tell who is the enemy and who is the friend?! Besides, it's true that we are friends with Brother Sheng, but we are not with Miss Liang, so we naturally know our limits! Don't worry, sister, it's not my character to talk about deep things with someone I just met!"

Although Sheng Yuan's tone sounded like she was bragging, Sheng Ran still believed what she said.

"In that case, let's put this matter aside for now and move on to other things." Sheng Ran traced the edge of the teacup with his finger, looked at Sheng Yuan and asked, "How do you think our Yongxing Marquisate should advance its rank?"

"Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, our family is above the Duke's Mansion..." Sheng Yuan said, her eyes flashing, and she hurriedly put her head in front of her sister and whispered, "Could it be that sister intends to make our parents the emperor and queen?"

"Shut up!" Sheng Ran slapped her sister on the forehead, gently pushed her away, and then sighed, "I intend to confer a title of king on my family, but my eldest brother..."

"Anyway, no matter how my sister rewards me, my big brother will benefit from it, so why bother thinking so much?!"

"I just don't want Shu's descendants to inherit the Marquisate."

"There's nothing we can do even if we're not happy. Judging from the attitude of our eldest brother, he probably doesn't plan to have another child. And look at Chun Jie'er. Her child still has the Hai'an Marquis's Mansion to inherit. How can we let her inherit everything?"

"…Then let's upgrade it to a Duke's Mansion first! Let's call it the Duke of Xingguo Mansion!" Sheng Ran hesitated for a while and only promoted his own family by one level for the time being.

After talking about the Yongxing Marquis Mansion, Sheng Ran mentioned the Shengguogong Mansion again: "Although the Shengguogong does things unrighteously and is indeed infuriating, but after all, he is surnamed Sheng, and I can't ask people to raid the Shengguogong Mansion... Although Daddy hates Sheng Xiangya, I'm afraid Daddy will be sad if he really orders to kill him."

"Dad has the Duke Sheng's Mansion in his heart. It's easy to deal with Duke Sheng, but you can't hurt the vase when you kill the mouse. You really have to be careful."

Sheng Ran couldn't help but smile when she heard Sheng Yuan say this: "I've been thinking about it and found that since my grandfather stopped teaching him, Duke Sheng has often forgotten his reason. In this case, why not ask him to go back to his hometown... He doesn't need to repent in front of his grandfather's tomb. As long as he goes there often, he will probably calm down!"

"That's a good idea... Does that mean the position of Duke Sheng will remain in Kyoto?"

Sheng Ran nodded: "In theory, as the prince, my eldest cousin should inherit the dukedom, but he is the eldest son and is the favorite of my uncle, and he and his wife have always obeyed my uncle's orders and are extremely filial.

If my uncle returned to his hometown without his children and grandchildren, it would be a shame. People who didn't know would think that our family couldn't accommodate him! Therefore, I thought I should just ask my eldest cousin to give up the title of Crown Prince and accompany my uncle back to his hometown to recuperate.

As for who will inherit the Shengguo Mansion... I think my eldest uncle's sixth cousin is a good person, so it makes sense to let him, the second son, inherit the title."

Sheng Yuan thought about it, nodded, and added: "It's good for uncle to return home, but aunt is old and it's not suitable for her to travel through mountains and rivers. It's better for her to stay in Kyoto and be supported by my sixth cousin!"

"Of course. It's not good to ask Sixth Cousin to fail to fulfill his filial duty, right?" Sheng Ran nodded in agreement, and then said, "Oh, and there's also the eldest cousin. I remember that her husband's family is a mess, not a good place to live... Although she has no intention of divorce, I sent someone to ask her, and she is willing to divide the property and live separately... In this case, I want to make her a second-rank lady, so that she can have her own mansion to stay, which is also a confidence, what do you think?"

"That's great, of course. It also saves those people who bully the weak and fear the strong from making trouble."

Seeing that Sheng Yuan was very supportive, Sheng Ran took out the third volume of documents with satisfaction: "There is also the issue of the appointment of the current female officials in the court, and the reward of the girls who made contributions during the previous turmoil... The latter is easy to handle, just reward them according to their merits and follow their wishes.

Is it just the former? The court has held the imperial examination for women for six years. There are many girls on the list, but not many girls can really stay in the court. In addition, for various reasons, the positions of these girls are too marginal. "

Sheng Yuan listened to Sheng Ran's sigh for a while, and when she stopped talking, he asked, "Sister, are you talking about this today because of the 'Six Suggestions on Employing Female Officials' mentioned by Prime Minister Gu a few days ago?!" (End of this chapter)