Work overtime

Chapter 686

But it has already happened, and although I am sad, angry and painful, there is nothing I can do.

The Central Plains never stopped conquering minority areas and worked hard to achieve national unification. His father was the same.

At the front-line level, the two most important factors in motivating victory were money and women. The methods used by generals to show filial piety and please the emperor were similar since ancient times: treasures or beautiful and noble women. The generals under his father were the same.

None of the parties involved thought there was anything wrong. None of them thought that their actions were catalyzing the downfall of the dynasty.

From the priestess deliberately causing miscarriages one after another to frame the concubines with children, to the eldest prince's sudden death and blaming the imperial concubine. To the temptation to support Li Beiwang's revenge, to the Queen Mother's use of large doses of Gu poison, to the royal family being infected with a small amount of Gu poison and slowly torturing them.
Li Beichen linked all these series of events together and they all made sense. He realized that this was a revenge of a nation that had been conquered, massacred and abused, and that it was a plot by a smart and strategic woman.

He didn't know that the priestess's daughter, Princess Ten, had a relationship with Li Beiwang. This was also part of the priestess's revenge.

The closeness between her daughter and Li Beiwang was carefully planned by her. She even taught her daughter how to refine and use the Heart-to-Heart Gu. When the Tenth Princess had sex with Li Beiwang, the Gu had already entered Li Beiwang's body. If Li Beiwang favored other women, he would be happy to suffer from the pain of gnawing at his heart every day.

In other words, no matter whether Li Beiwang or Li Beichen wins this rebellion, the outcome will be the same.

The night was dark, and such historical lessons were thought-provoking. My own death was inevitable, but my children had to live, and the Ming Dynasty had to continue.

Li Beichen pondered for most of the night. He recalled and sorted out all the ethnic groups in later generations and wrote them all down. He decided to adopt a completely new set of ethnic policies.

For example, determining the highest interests of all ethnic groups is the basic principle for maintaining national unity and ethnic solidarity.

All ethnic groups are subjects of the Ming Dynasty. Regardless of their population size, level of economic and social development, customs and religious beliefs, they all enjoy the same rights as other central citizens.

Peacefully unify minority areas, implement regional autonomy in minority areas, develop the economy and culture of minority areas, respect the customs and habits of minority groups, and respect and protect the beliefs of minority groups.

Strict military discipline was enforced, and burning, killing, and looting in conquered areas was prohibited, especially insulting and killing women and children. Once verified, severe punishment would be imposed.

After writing this, Li Beichen lay in bed, still unable to fall asleep. He really wanted to chat with Jiang Yuebai, share the context of events he had deduced tonight, and discuss the adjustment of ethnic policies together.

He stroked the ring on his hand, filled with longing.

He wanted to hug her, bury his face in her hair, and smell the pleasant scent of her hair.

Many times, missing someone is not because of the distance, but because we cannot see them when we want to.

It started to rain heavily in the second half of the night.

The longing became clearer in the sound of rain. Li Beichen murmured in the darkness, "Jiaojiao, I miss you so much."

I slept for two hours in a daze, and my sleep was very shallow.

After dawn, Li Beichen washed up and couldn't wait to meet Jiang Yuebai with his new "policy program".

On a rainy morning, there was a puff of hot and humid water vapor, and a ray of sunlight in the sky created a circle of gold around the clouds.

When I saw Jiang Yuebai, she had actually gotten up and was sitting in a wheelchair, practicing hand movements with a sword in her hand.

Li Beichen didn't expect that after several months, Jiang Yuebai was still so diligent.

Jiang Yuebai was a little surprised. The emperor hadn't come early in the morning.

Li Beichen took the sword from her with a smile, and performed a set of dances with ease. Then he patiently gave a slow-motion step-by-step explanation.

One taught attentively, the other studied seriously. At the end, they smiled at each other, showing a tacit understanding.

An emperor, a concubine, handsome men and beautiful women, a rare wonder in the world.

The palace servants were stunned.

Just like the spectators and fans of CP in later generations, they all secretly sighed that the masters were so awesome and loving, it was so enviable.

Li Beichen only felt refreshed and fulfilled.

After practicing sword, Li Beichen asked, "What else do you usually practice after practicing sword?"

Jiang Yuebai smiled and said, "Practice flying knives for a while."

She laughed in her heart, you are asking even though you already know the answer, you have spies everywhere, is there anything you don’t know?

This is a good opportunity for the leader to see the results of her hard work and study.

After setting up the scarecrow, she was able to hit the heart with her right hand almost every time, with only one strike going astray. The left hand had a one-third chance of hitting the heart, and it was 100% certain to pierce the body without flying around.

Li Beichen clapped his hands, "Awesome! Jiangnan Heroine~"

Her excellence made his heart beat fast.

"Thank you for the compliment, Your Majesty. It's just average. It's still far from my goal. I want every strike with my left and right hands to be lethal." Jiang Yuebai said while playing with the dagger in his hand.

After saying that, he shot it out and hit the scarecrow's heart again.

"You are so annoying," Li Beichen pinched Jiang Yuebai's face, "You have only practiced for two months? You can reach this level, and you still say it's just average? Are you trying to defy fate?"

Jiang Yuebai's rosy red lips made him want to kiss her.

I couldn't help but have a physiological reaction.

He liked to see her so capable, confident and proud.

Jiang Yuebai said mischievously, "I just want to hit the target every time I shoot, so that the bad guys will be scared and dare not move at all."

"Where are the bad guys?" Li Beichen's heart skipped a beat. "What new discoveries have you made?"

"Not yet. But it never hurts to be prepared," Jiang Yuebai gathered the hair by her ears, "Your Majesty, let's go have breakfast."

"Yeah." Li Beichen took Jiang Yuebai's hand with the ring on it, rubbed it, looked at her with a smile, and couldn't help but kiss her on the forehead.

The moment his lips touched her forehead he whispered, "I love you."

For breakfast, a large table was set up, similar to the breakfast buffet in a five-star hotel.

"It's such a waste in such hot weather." Jiang Yuebai couldn't help but complain, "The country is not rich now, and many farmers can't afford to eat."

On weekdays, she had a rich and varied breakfast, but she never wasted it. She prepared as much as she could eat. If she couldn't finish it, she would share it with Xia Zhi and the others. The palace maids on the side were sweating.

You are the emperor. This kind of breakfast is the standard for emperors of all dynasties. And the emperor came to have breakfast with you. How dare you criticize the emperor for being wasteful?

Do you still want the head?

Who knows, Li Beichen nodded, "My beloved concubine is right, as the emperor I should set an example. It's because I don't know what you like to eat, so I ordered people to prepare more variety. Next time I will eat whatever you eat."

Jiang Yuebai thought for a moment and said, "You can make something that the emperor likes to eat. This will be a great treat for me."

There is no answer that would satisfy Li Beichen more than this. This makes him cherish it even more, and he replied lovingly, "I like everything you like to eat."

The leftovers from the two were distributed to the palace servants, who felt like they were celebrating Chinese New Year because the meal was so rich.

After the two men entered the inner room, they dismissed everyone and ordered Liang Xiaobao and Lichun to guard outside.

There was only a little ice in the room. The temperature was very high today. Although it was still morning, it had already become hot.

Jiang Yuebai was sweating profusely.

Li Beichen wiped Jiang Yuebai's sweat and asked, "Why don't you use more ice?"

Jiang Yuebai only said, "Envoy Jiang said that we should adapt to the four seasons. We should sweat more in the summer. If we use too much ice, too much cold air will enter our body, which is not good for our health."

Li Beichen stared into Jiang Yuebai's eyes, "You are not doing this because of me, right?"

In fact, he asked this on purpose because he wanted to hear Jiang Yuebai's confession.

Jiang Yuebai smiled and said nothing.

"Why don't you speak?" Li Beichen poked her chest.

"Where are you poking?" Jiang Yuebai smiled and pushed him away, "If you don't understand, don't say it."

"I'm poking here." Li Beichen smiled and poked again while Jiang Yuebai wasn't paying attention, "It's very elastic."

Jiang Yuebai couldn't help but rolled his eyes at Li Beichen, "So early in the morning."

Li Beichen took Jiang Yuebai's hand and said with a smile, "Is it okay in the afternoon?"

Jiang Yuebai said unhappily, "Don't you have any memorials to approve?"

Li Beichen smiled and said, "How dare you criticize me!"

Jiang Yuebai smiled, "Look, you really like acting."

"You still hold a grudge. I came to you today for something serious."

Li Beichen told Jiang Yuebai everything about the past and his own speculations. Li Beichen had talked about related things in bits and pieces before. When he put them together today, Jiang Yuebai was stunned.

This priestess was so cruel and ruthless that she could kill herself and her daughter in order to get revenge! She was even more powerful than the beautiful spy Xi Shi in history.

All of this comes from the violent conquest and suppression back then.

It is embarrassing.

Li Beichen then talked about his own plan, which was to adopt a new ethnic policy, no longer conquer the southwestern border areas by force, and adopt a policy of appeasement and integration.

Jiang Yuebai agreed greatly and took the opportunity to flatter him, then suggested finding the right time to implement it.

The timing is less than ideal now, as Annan will soon have to be retaken by force in the name of eliminating rebels.

It would be just right to launch a new conquest strategy after recovering Annan.

Because the emperor's order, even if it is wrong, cannot be changed overnight. So the implementation of policies must be cautious and the timing must be chosen correctly.

The same goes for the leadership’s orders.

In many cases, even if a leader knows that a decision he made is wrong, he will not admit it. Instead, he will let his subordinates move forward and find a way to solve the problem themselves and get back on the right track.

If a subordinate fails, different leaders will handle it in different ways, but most will not admit they were wrong.

Therefore, subordinates should try to give leaders less "reasonable" suggestions and point out that leaders' decisions are unreasonable. The key is to solve the problem. Moreover, seemingly unreasonable decisions have their own internal logic. It's just that outsiders don't understand this logic and the interests involved.

Of course, this is a good time to enforce strict military discipline.

It is forbidden to burn, kill, plunder, and rape women. If this is done well, there will be no harm but only benefits.

Li Beichen listened to Jiang Yuebai's clear analysis with eyes full of admiration and love. He was so moved that he hugged her in his arms.

"What are you doing? Can you be more professional?"

Jiang Yuebai was talking excitedly when she was suddenly hugged tightly. She almost wanted to hit him.

"I'm very dedicated. If you don't believe me, try touching it." Li Beichen's breath sprayed against her ear, warm and full of temptation.

Jiang Yuebai's hand was grabbed and his face felt hot.

She wanted to hit someone even more. Can't she think about something serious?

Jiang Yuebai struggled, "This is not good for your health."

"I know." Li Beichen bit her earlobe. "I didn't sleep the night before yesterday. I spent the whole night thinking about ethnic policy. I felt sleepy when I came to your place. Can you sleep with me for a while?"

Jiang Yuebai said helplessly, "Why don't you sleep by yourself? I'll go outside and read a book."

"I want you to sleep with me." Li Beichen kissed her hair, "I can't sleep without you."

Jiang Yuebai inexplicably felt a little flustered, and his heart was pounding wildly.

She didn't say anything and let Li Beichen drag her to lie down on the bed.

Li Beichen hugged Jiang Yuebai and rubbed her for a while. Then he couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell asleep contentedly.