Work overtime

Chapter 779

Jiang Yuebai ordered Mao Yuliang to be the commander-in-chief and his brother Jiang Binggong to be the deputy commander-in-chief to attack Mengzibak, who had fled to the northeastern grasslands and was the mastermind behind the murder of the late queen and one of the main culprits in the murder of her father. He also ordered that all descendants of Chen Ang, the murderer of his father, be beheaded regardless of gender or age.

In late April, Jiang Yuebai gave birth to a boy, the Fourteenth Prince. This was Li Beichen's last child. To commemorate this special meaning, Jiang Yuebai named him Li Chengyuan, and his nickname was Nian Nian.

Jiang Yuebai rested for only seven days before resuming his duties as state official.

She did not go to the Hall of Supreme Harmony to attend the court. Instead, she listened to the reports from Li Chengji and the State Council, and then dealt with the memorials that Lichun had initially sorted out and approved.

Because she was depressed during pregnancy and was busy with government affairs, the fourteenth prince was weak and weighed only 6.2 jin in modern terms. This was the smallest child Jiang Yuebai had ever had except for twins.

In addition to vaccinating her child on time and taking probiotics and iron-zinc mixture provided by the system, she herself eats more beef, mutton and nuts, drinks more milk, keeps the child by her side, and breastfeeds, hoping to make up for it later.

In June, the selection of Mongolian youths to study in the capital was successfully completed. Seven outstanding candidates were appointed to the Ministry of Works, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Inspection, and most of them were sixth-rank officials.

In August, the Annan Protectorate successfully suppressed the rebellion launched by the remnants of the Chen Kingdom. Annan has developed into an important high-yield rice production area. Rice is mainly sold to the Jilong area by sea. The central government no longer provides financial support to Jilong, and mainly supports guns and ammunition.

The daily life of Jilong has become basically self-sufficient on the island, and several towns have been formed, with both residential and commercial areas thriving.

The boundary between soldiers and ordinary residents is becoming increasingly blurred. All men over the age of ten, whether indigenous or immigrant, are required to undergo six years of military training, or they will have to pay a huge military fee.

In this way, Meng Xin kept the island's army young and energetic. All the adult men on the island were well-trained and could defend their country by taking up arms.

He even organized a pursuit at sea, killing more than half of the Japanese pirates, nearly 500 people, which severely damaged the Japanese pirates and made them dare not attack easily.

In October, Concubine Qian, who had lost her son, died of depression.

It was also this month that Jiang Yuebai selected an outstanding Mongolian noble youth, Bayan, to serve as the left and right prime ministers. The six ministers of the six ministries learned Mongolian for an hour after each court session.

Jiang Bingqian was a brave warrior who killed Mengzibak and his concubines at night. The tribe led by Mengzibak soon fell into chaos. Mao Yuliang sent people to persuade them to surrender. On behalf of the Anbei Protectorate, he appointed Kuokuo Timur, one of Mengzibak's enemies, as the new chief. He was asked to kill Mengzibak's wives, concubines and sons. His achievements would be reported to the court.

The one who knows the enemy best is always the one who is close to the enemy. Kuokuo Timur soon presented the heads of Monzibak's wives, concubines and sons.

Mao Yuliang followed his promise and submitted a petition to Jiang Yuebai, and packed up Mengzibak's head and sent it back to the capital, asking for a reward for Kuokuo Timur. Jiang Yuebai named Kuokuo Timur the King of Bravery and Righteousness, and gave him a large amount of food, daily supplies, gold and silver. Mao Yuliang was named the Earl of Beining.

Jiang Yuebai used Mengzibak's head to sacrifice to his ancestors and the previous emperor in the Taimiao, and his father's revenge was avenged.

This year is the first year of Taixing, and the Wanshou Festival was held with great ceremony. Envoys from many countries came to congratulate, and this year the Eastern Chagatai Khanate also sent envoys with gifts.

In the court, Li Chengji remembered the late emperor and expressed his expectations for the future of the Ming Dynasty. The ministers were moved that the new emperor spoke in the same tone and manner as the late emperor. He was intelligent and extremely hardworking and studious, and he was much calmer than he was at this time last year.

In the second year of Taixing, the four children were all eight years old and began to study separately, the prince entered the Imperial Academy and the princess entered the Huazhang Academy.

According to etiquette, the new emperor should live alone in the Qianqing Palace. The two children must live in the prince's residence or set up a residence outside the palace. Jiang Yuebai moved to the Cining Palace.

Since the central axis of the Palace of Heavenly Purity was close to the Palace of Supreme Harmony, Jiang Yuebai rearranged it, performed several rituals, purified and consecrated it, and changed it into a place for summoning court officials, reviewing memorials, and handling daily government affairs. He let the young Li Chengji live in the more comfortable and compact Hall of Mental Cultivation.

She was worried about the third and fourth brothers moving out of the palace, so Li Chengji said, why don't you live with me, since I haven't married yet. Jiang Yuebai thought it was unreliable, as how could three brothers live in the Yangxin Palace? He tried to persuade his eldest son by citing various classics.

As a result, the eldest son only said one sentence, and she stopped him, "Mother, is this child the emperor?"

"of course."

Li Chengji said calmly, "Then the child has the power to make his own decision."

So the three brothers lived together, and they didn’t have a mother to take care of them, so they were not very happy.

Jiang Yuebai suspected that Li Chengji learned his ability of sophistry from the third brother. After all, the third brother loved to use unreliable remarks to choke his eldest brother, the crown prince, speechless since he was a child.

Since he couldn't make the decision for his eldest son, he made an agreement with Li Chengji that his two younger brothers must move out when they turn fourteen, otherwise it would be disgraceful.

Li Chengji agreed.

Jiang Yuebai moved to the Cining Palace and brought the other little ones including Li Chengan with him.

As soon as I entered the Cining Palace, I felt old, even though I was only 25 years old.

His younger brother Jiang Bingliang and younger sister Jiang Jinshu followed him to study at the Imperial College and Huazhang Academy respectively.

Li Chengji and his four siblings were already used to calling the children of their own age "uncle" and "aunt". The six of them got along well and were very friendly, and were not shy about doing bad things or fighting.

Li Cheng'an inherited the title of his father Li Beihong and was conferred the title of King Jing'an.

This year, we continued to encourage the top leaders of the seven departments and five temples to learn Mongolian.

In addition, he ordered the Ministry of Works to reopen the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. He also copied the Yongle Encyclopedia and ordered the Imperial Academy to compile the Taixing Encyclopedia. He also ordered Jiang Xian to compile all the prescriptions for treating poison into a complete guide to treating poison, which compiled the symptoms and treatment methods of various poisons into a book so that people would no longer have to suffer from poisons.

Jiang Xian is already 26 years old and has not yet started a family.

His eldest brother Jiang Yu had three sons in the past eight years and was very worried about his unmarried younger brother.

Jiang Xian replied, "You are already the one who carries on the family line, so how much does it matter if I have children or not?"

Jiang Yu had been holding it in for a long time, but couldn't stand his parents' nagging anymore, so he begged the Queen Mother to grant him a marriage.

Jiang Yuebai thought about it and felt that Shen Ximo was the most suitable. They were both from traditional Chinese medicine families, a strong combination. Besides, Shen Ximo was 22 years old now, not young anymore. As a girl, it was time for her to start a family.

When Shen Ximo heard that it was Jiang Xian, she told Jiang Yuebai the next day that she needed to talk to Jiang Xian. Jiang Yuebai arranged for the two to meet and talk privately. After that, Shen Ximo agreed to the marriage.

Jiang Yuebai rewarded her with a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, promoted her to the first-rank female official, and sent her back home in glory.

Then the imperial edict was issued, granting Shen Ximo to Jiang Xian. The two families made some arrangements and went through the formalities. At the end of the year, they held a banquet and entered the bridal chamber in the twelfth lunar month. Seven days after Shen Ximo got married, he did not even have a honeymoon, but went back to work in the palace. Jiang Xian was even more exaggerated. Jiang Yuebai gave him half a month of wedding leave, and he came back to work every three days.

Jiang Yuebai suspected that the two had a fake marriage.

The days passed quickly. Jiang Yuebai attended the morning court on time, handled government affairs, tutored the new emperor, and spent time with the children in his spare time. Six years passed like this day by day.

The Ci'an Palace was harmonious. Occasionally there were quarrels and conflicts, but they were quickly mediated by Concubine Lu, Concubine Huan, Concubine An, and Concubine Jing. Concubine Li of Korea had been in poor health since giving birth, and she passed away in the fourth year of Taixing.

Gu Taichang of Puning Temple was the first to commit suicide in the winter of the third year of Taixing, followed by Xiao Taiwanyi and Yang Taigui. The winter of the fourth year of Taixing was too cold, and Puning Temple was in the mountains, so Concubine Zhao and Concubine Zhou Liangyuan caught a cold and died. Only Concubine Ye and Concubine Bao were left among the Han concubines.

Two foreign concubines also left.

In the fifth year of Taixing, Prime Minister Ye heard about Ye Suyun's situation. Not knowing whether it was because Ye Suyun's mother was more favored or because people valued their children more as they got older, he went to the emperor to plead for mercy.

He hoped to bring Concubine Ye and others to Jing'an Temple in the capital to practice Buddhism, and vowed to donate money to repair the Buddhist statues and temples in Jing'an Temple to do good deeds. The emperor first talked about the ancestral system for a long time, and finally pretended to consider it seriously before agreeing. In these six years, under the influence of his third and fourth brothers, Li Chengji mastered four foreign languages, Mongolian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. After all, his third brother was a madman in learning foreign languages, and his fourth brother's companion was proficient in six languages.

The third brother is a poor student and ADHD patient, and the fourth brother is a lover of lying down. They are spoiled by their eldest brother Li Chengji. Every day, they have to check whether the homework in the Imperial College has been completed. They are required to talk about what the teacher said today, summarize the rules, and talk about their feelings.

The two were passively pushed by their elder brother to become academic masters. But they did not let their elder brother go. They tortured him with foreign languages. But as they tortured him, they found that the other person was better than them and spoke more fluently than them.

This is unreasonable.

Very unreasonable.

Obviously, the emperor brother is much busier than them because he has a lot of things to do every day. Does he skip meals and sleep to learn foreign languages?

Jiang Yuebai was very pleased to hear that the three-person study group was so introverted. He often sent them delicious food to comfort them and took them out to climb mountains, ride horses and hunt.

When Li Beichen passed away, she had not yet tamed a wild horse. Mainly because Li Beichen was afraid of dropping her, he found the most gentle wild horse for her to train, but because the training difficulty was too low, after training for a long time, she failed.

In the second year of Taixing, Jiang Yuebai began to learn horse riding.

At first, it was the guard Meng Shu who taught her.

Meng Shu was no longer the 14-year-old boy he had been when he first met her. He had become a real man, 1.8 meters tall, with broad shoulders, and a strong masculine aura that could not be ignored.

On horseback, Meng Shu held Jiang Yuebai in his arms and taught her step by step how to control the reins, how to maintain her shape when the horse was galloping, and how to avoid falling when the horse jumped and changed direction.
Riding on the horse, Jiang Yuebai recalled the joy and excitement of Li Beichen hugging her and galloping on the horse, which made her feel sweet and melancholy. But that was only for Li Beichen.

It's probably like "Once you've seen the sea, all other waters are but puddles; except for Mount Wushan, all other clouds are but mounds."

When Mengshu taught her, she, as a modern person, regarded Mengshu as an equestrian coach, and did not feel embarrassed at all, and studied without distraction. But Mengshu, who was holding her, blushed and felt as if his heart was pounding.

He fell in love with this woman from the first moment he saw her. She was dressed in red, holding a sharp sword, with fierce eyes and yet gentleness and compassion.

She broke into his heart just like that, and he stayed with her silently for eight years.

When he took her on horseback, he eagerly fantasized about flying away with her, and he would go wherever she went.

Once he pretended to ask Jiang Yuebai casually, "Empress Dowager, have you ever thought about leaving the palace and going to the grassland one day?"

As soon as he finished speaking, many birds were startled and flew away, flapping their wings.

Jiang Yuebai's first reaction was to inspect the Anbei Protectorate. He touched the chestnut horse in front of him and nodded solemnly, "I have this plan, so I need to learn to ride a horse faster."

However, when she started riding alone, she didn't have the aura of a talented heroine. She fell off a galloping horse, broke a leg, and suffered a mild concussion.

Fortunately, a wheelchair was readily available. Fortunately, no ribs or spine were broken.

She told her sons and daughters this optimistically, but Li Chengji was worried. He found a horse riding expert to teach his mother.

But the young ladies in the harem could no longer sit still. After hearing that she was injured, they all came to visit her. They all unanimously despised Meng Shu's riding skills.

Both Tiffany He and Tiffany An said that they were first-rate horsemen and could teach.

Their fathers and brothers both served in the court, so they would not dare to plot murder.

Moreover, the Queen Mother was particularly kind and tolerant to them. Once they lost her protection, they could not imagine how the new emperor would treat them, and what policies the court officials would adopt to treat their people. One of them had a son and the other had a daughter, and they both hoped that the Queen Mother would treat the two children well and find a good place for them. Therefore, based on their own interests, they would not murder the Queen Mother.

Jiang Yuebai used these reasons to convince his son.

Women teaching women are more relaxed and know how to explain the details better.

This year, the fourteen-year-old young emperor toured the vast Mongolian region with a grand entourage.

When Li Chengji gave an impromptu speech in fluent Mongolian, talked cordially with the leaders of various tribes and ordinary herdsmen, and asked about their daily lives, his speech was fluent and natural. The whole audience was boiling with excitement and shouted "Long live the Heavenly Khan".

It was not until then that the ministers realized the Queen Mother's foresight and the importance of learning Mongolian.

Jiang Yuebai had been in Taixing for five years when she learned to ride a horse. She had no talent for this. But once she mastered it, it was as if her Ren and Du meridians were opened up. She quickly became one with the horse and enjoyed the joy of galloping.

But this is still a long way from taming a wild horse, or being able to shoot effectively on horseback.

By the sixth year of Taixing, Jiang Yuebai was still worried about not being able to tame a real wild horse to complete the system task, and he almost fell and became paralyzed.

She is already the queen mother, but she is still in the novice village. She is too new. She is probably the best in the universe.

Until one day, Han Ziqian came back from his third voyage to the West and told her that taming a wild horse is not necessarily related to mastering horsemanship. The key is to establish a connection with the horse, lead the horse, ride it, teach it, and communicate with the horse so that the horse recognizes her as the master.

Han Ziqian said that this process is like raising a child or conquering a person.

Jiang Yuebai looked at the boundless world, lowered her head and remained silent. She felt her heartbeat speed up for a moment when she heard these words, but it calmed down in an instant.

The wind blew Jiang Yuebai's hair, and Han Ziqian quietly looked at her profile.

After so many years, I am fascinated by her again.

Jiang Yuebai stroked the horse, trying to understand the secret Han Ziqian had mentioned, without saying anything. Han Ziqian did not say anything.

She finally understood and used the "Loyalty Talisman" on the horse.

She had previously used the "obedient talisman" but it had no effect on horses. She thought that this kind of talisman paper had no effect on animals and that she could only rely on her own hard work and practice, so she chose to give up.

Now she understood. For a wild horse, you can't tame it by making it obedient, but you can make it loyal. Because a horse will agree that it has to be a loyal horse, but it will not agree that it has to be blindly obedient.

In the autumn of the sixth year of Taixing, she finally tamed a fierce horse that Tatar had sent as tribute. With the help of the "loyalty talisman" provided by the system.

The system mall was finally opened, but it didn't open up too many new worlds.

It's nothing more than a mobile library. Plus the purchase interface of various rewards provided by the system in the past. In other words, in the past, it was all system rewards, and you took whatever you were given. Now, you can buy whatever you want, as much as you want, as long as the system has stock. Those very modern products are almost not available in the system mall.

Two years later, in the eighth year of Taixing, the five children in the first group were all fourteen years old.

Jiang Yuebai summoned the eldest prince from Mount Wutai to the palace. At this time, he had grown into a handsome young man, with eyes and eyebrows very similar to those of Concubine Xi back then.

Perhaps due to the hard work and the cold spring weather, Li Chengye fell ill on the night he returned to the palace. According to the chief imperial physician Jiang Yu, he had typhoid fever.

This time the typhoid fever was severe and Li Chengye had to take medicine continuously. He thought the emperor would take the opportunity to poison him and kill him to avenge the eldest princess, but he was brought back to life.