Work overtime

Chapter 794

There has been no news of Li Chengye since he was sent to Australia. Last year, when Jiang Yuebai celebrated his 50th birthday, he sent the prince back to give gifts, including a pair of magical creatures called kangaroos, as well as wheat seeds, wool and wool products, beef jerky, wine, honey and other specialties.

I wrote a letter to Jiang Yuebai alone.

"Respected mother, I wish you a long and healthy life. Today, I finally realized my mistake. Because of jealousy, I hurt the eldest princess and the seventh princess, and made an unforgivable mistake. Jealousy made me lose my mind and kindness, and I was used by the wicked. But you and the emperor forgave me and tolerated me time and time again with a broad mind, giving me the opportunity to reform. You hoped that Buddhism would influence me, but I went further and further on the road of persistence.

Until now, I have done too many wrong things. I dare not ask for your forgiveness, but I am willing to spend the rest of my life to atone for my sins. I promise that the New Australia Kingdom I founded will always be a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and will send envoys to pay tribute every year and never betray. I beg to resume intermarriage and exchanges with the royal family, and marry a princess to be the crown princess of the New Australia Kingdom. Yeer"

Soon after, Li Hongyuan ordered a delegation led by the Thirteenth Uncle to visit the New Australia Kingdom founded by the Eldest Uncle to restore trade and marriage relations.

Jiang Yuebai considered it for a while and chose Zhao Xiaomeng, the legitimate daughter of the Sixth Princess, to go to the New Australia Kingdom for marriage. The Sixth Princess was the daughter of Concubine Rui. She was originally married to Annan and now moved to Yunnan.

Li Hongyuan asked the Empress Dowager why she didn't choose the daughter of the Fifth Aunt as the Queen. Jiang Yuebai didn't explain, but just said it was unnecessary.

She promised her fifth princess that her next generation would no longer have to marry off foreign princes, and would be free to marry the person they loved and live the rest of their lives. If they wanted to stay on the grassland, they could stay on the grassland; if they wanted to come to the capital, they could come to the capital.

The Queen Mother's tolerance and righteousness, her emphasis on national interests and her decision not to blindly expand the influence of her mother's family, made Li Hongyuan respect and trust her more and more.

Before leaving, Zhao Xiaomeng was named Princess Anle by the emperor and married to the crown prince of Xin'ao Kingdom.

In June, the Thirteenth Prince set out on a diplomatic mission with several ships of goods and Princess Anle.

The temperature was hot, so Li Hongyuan took the Empress Dowager and the concubines to the newly built Summer Palace for a short stay to escape the heat. This was the first time Jiang Yuebai had left the palace to escape the heat since she entered the palace.

The Summer Palace is so beautiful, with beautiful lakes and mountains, pavilions, towering Buddhist temples and the sound of Zen bells.

The Summer Palace here not only perfectly replicates the essence of the Summer Palace in later generations, but also integrates the creative design of Princess Huan Tai Wanyi. It is noble and elegant, exquisite and vivid, and is full of the charm of the Jiangnan water town everywhere.

Wherever Jiang Yuebai walked, he would think of the scenery of Jiangnan, the joy of the five people playing and fighting together and letting themselves go, and the scene of Huan Tai Wanyi sitting in front of the window, sketching with a brush in her hand.

After returning from the Summer Palace, Jiang Yuebai went to Puning Temple with Hua Tai Wanyi to burn incense and visit the emperor's concubines who were practicing there. They were old, with white hair on their temples and wrinkles on their faces. Inexplicably, Jiang Yuebai was reminded of the poem written by Qing Wanyi:
"Laughing, I boil the spring light into tea, and after drinking it, my black hair turns white as snow."

Alas. Come to think of it, Qing Wanyi has been gone for many years.

Not long after returning, Concubine Hua suddenly suffered a stroke. One side of her face became numb, the corner of her mouth was crooked, she could not speak clearly, and she was in a coma most of the time.

Two months later, Concubine Hua passed away one afternoon. She was in great pain before her death and wailed in pain.

When she left, Jiang Yuebai stayed with her and held her hand. She felt that her heart was so hard that she didn't feel sad or scared at all, but was very calm.

It was not until Concubine Hua was buried with great ceremony that Jiang Yuebai felt the severe pain in his heart.

Ci'an Palace was full of her son's concubines, so it wasn't empty. But she felt extremely lonely. All the concubines who had lived with her had left. She was the only one left.

She moved back to the Cining Palace.

At the New Year's Eve banquet in the 12th year of Jiashun, she was called "Old Ancestor" and was arranged to sit next to the emperor's grandson. She was surrounded by concubines and princes and princesses in their early thirties.

The following year, the thirteenth year of Jiashun, the emperor turned sixteen and it was time to appoint a queen.

One day in the twelfth lunar month, Jiang Yuebai called Li Hongyuan to the Cining Palace.

"Grandson, you're going to be sixteen at the beginning of the year. Have you thought about what kind of queen you'll marry?"

When his son Li Chengji chose the Mongolian queen, it was both out of interest and out of initial affection. It's just that it's easy to fall in love but hard to get along. What attracted two people in the beginning made them go against each other later.

Moreover, their identities determined that this relationship could not be pure and was full of conflicts of interest. The queen kept causing Han women to have miscarriages, so that she had to be deposed and her parents and family members executed.

Jiang Yuebai's ideas have changed over the years.

Marriage is a big deal, but it is important to be cautious. Especially when making a Mongolian girl the queen. It is just like marrying a foreign daughter-in-law. There are bound to be differences in culture and living habits. Although it is beneficial to the stability of the border, whether to make her the queen still needs to be considered.

The incident involving the late queen is both regrettable and a warning.

Li Hongyuan was a little shy: "Grandma, I want to marry a well-educated and well-mannered woman like you to be my queen. I think Master Lu's youngest daughter is a good choice."

Lu Changlin was the late emperor's companion, the champion of the imperial examination, and served in the Hanlin Academy as a senior scholar of the Dongge Academy. He was also the Grand Tutor in charge of culture and education for Li Hongyuan. Lu Changlin's father, Lu Zhaohou, was transferred back to the Ministry of Rites and served as the Minister of Rites.

"There's no problem with her family background, and she's of suitable age, but not in terms of seniority. According to seniority, she's your aunt. You can only choose someone else."

After listening to this, Li Hongyuan felt a little disappointed. Why can't it be possible? According to seniority, shouldn't we follow Grand Tutor Lu?

As the Empress Dowager, Jiang Yuebai still has something to say:

"Grandson, your father and your mother were just as sincere and devoted to each other at first, but they later parted ways, like fire and water. It was because they not only fell in love with each other, but also took love too seriously. Ordinary people can die for love and become crazy for love. But the emperor cannot do that. The emperor must put the world first. The empress cannot be treated according to his or her preferences. I cannot treat her well just because she suits my taste, and neglect her and humiliate her just because she does not suit my taste. I must always respect and love her, unless I have committed an unforgivable mistake."

Li Hongyuan nodded sensibly, "Grandson understands. I will follow grandma's arrangements."

Jiang Yuebai is actually very conflicted.

At the beginning, the government was unstable and wars were frequent in the north, so making a Mongolian woman the queen was the simplest way to ease the conflict. Now, more than a decade later, with the integration and development of economy, culture and population, coupled with the Mongolian banner system and the selection system of Mongolian language teachers for compulsory education, the Mongolian region has been fully controlled, and the relationship between the Mongolian and Han regions has entered a new situation.

Moreover, after something like the incident in which Kokozhen deposed the queen, is it necessary to continue to make a Mongolian woman the queen?

Jiang Yuebai thought about it again and again but still couldn't make up her mind. She summoned Chen Ping to the palace to listen to different opinions. Chen Ping suggested that they could rotate one by one. This would win the support of more Han aristocratic families. The empress or the empress of the next emperor could choose a Mongolian woman as the empress, and the tribes of the women could be rotated to balance. These gave Jiang Yuebai a lot of inspiration. After thinking about it, she picked out three candidates for the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to look at their horoscopes. One was the granddaughter of Lu Ruilin, the Minister of War, one was the granddaughter of Lu Zhaohou, the Minister of Revenue, and one was the granddaughter of the deceased Prime Minister Chengyi.

The Imperial Astronomical Observation Department calculated the horoscopes of the three people and gave their opinions. Zhou Jinxuan, the granddaughter of Lord Chengyi, had the fate of being the mother of the country. Jiang Yuebai had met this girl several times. She was well-educated, gentle and generous. They were also well-matched, so he decided to marry her.

After the queen was chosen, the next step was to choose two concubines and four concubines. The most important principle was balance. Among the six people, three were Han women and three were foreign women.

The second concubines were Yesul, the youngest daughter of the second brother of the Choros tribe leader, Concubine An, and Qi Yaxin, the granddaughter of General Qi Muye. The four concubines included Wuyunna, the daughter of the new leader of the Torghut tribe, Haitang, the daughter of the chief of the Wuliangha tribe, Du Yueyao, the daughter of Nanping Marquis of Nanxin State, and Lu Wanxin, the granddaughter of Lu Ruilin, the Minister of War.

After arranging the wedding of the emperor's grandson, since there was no empress dowager in the harem to preside over the affairs, Jiang Yuebai, the emperor's grandmother, had to continue to help with the arrangements.

The eldest princess, born to the late queen, married the crown prince of Korea, and the second princess, born to Concubine Yi's niece Xi Ronghua, married last year's runner-up in the imperial examination.

The marriages of the following adult princesses and princes were basically similar. On the one hand, they won over the old officials in the court, and on the other hand, they absorbed fresh blood. After all, the grandson had to rely on the old officials to stabilize the foundation, and needed the new officials to be pioneering and enterprising and build his own confidants. Both hands must be grasped and both hands must be strong.

Among the princesses, the fourth eldest princess born to Hai Lansheng of the Uriankhai tribe and the seventh princess of Han descent unfortunately died young.

The fifth eldest princess of Meng Zhaoyi was given to the son of the loyal and brave King Wuzhitu.

The Sixth Princess, who was of the Huite tribe, married the eldest son of Qi Ming, the Protector General of Qinghai;

The ninth princess, who was of Uriankhai descent, married the legitimate son of Prime Minister Li Gongliang.

Among the princes, the second prince of Consort Hui died at the age of eight, and the third prince of Consort Xie died at the age of three. Apart from the emperor, only three princes lived to adulthood and got married.

The fifth prince of Xi Tai Wanyi married the daughter of Lu Changlin's younger brother Lu Changfeng. Because of his interest in astronomy, he entered the Imperial Observatory to work.

Li Chengji had relatively few princes after his marriage. Two of them were of Mongolian descent, both from the Choros tribe. One was Li Hongyuan, born to the queen, and the other was the sixth prince Li Hongsheng, born to the queen's cousin, Concubine Li Shu.

The Sixth Prince Li Hongsheng was the one closest to the emperor in terms of blood relationship. He was granted marriage with the granddaughter of the deceased Prime Minister Zhou and was sent to the Laos Protectorate as Deputy Protector General.

The seventh prince, the posthumous son of Li Chengji and the daughter of Jiang Yuebai's niece, Concubine Hui, married the sister of the newly crowned top scholar and stayed in the Ministry of Personnel as a sixth-rank official.

Jiang Binggong's three daughters were married to new officials in the court.

Jiang Yuebai no longer allowed children of direct relatives to enter the palace, but chose relatives with relatively distant blood relations, such as the granddaughter of her mother's cousin from the Wang family. After all, there was already a queen.

She arranged marriages between the younger generations of her clan who were of marriageable age and the aristocratic families in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as the relatives of important officials in the court who were originally from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and between each other.

Only when the entire family moves forward will it become more prosperous.

After worrying about the marriages of his grandchildren, it has been seventeen years in Jiashun. This year Jiang Yuebai is fifty-five years old.

She had a bunch of great-grandchildren. After a small selection and a big selection, the harem was filled with young faces, as tender as flower buds covered with dew.

In the 13th year of Jiashun, the Queen became pregnant soon after entering the palace. She was crowned Queen in March, became pregnant in April, and gave birth to her eldest son in the first month of the following year. He is now four years old.

In the 16th year of Jiashun, which was last year, she gave birth to her second legitimate son.

In this generation of grandson, there is finally no longer any conflict between the eldest son of the emperor and the eldest son of the legitimate wife.

The Yonghe Palace where Jiang Yuebai and the children once lived is now home to a princess from Korea who was married to a foreign king.

She was not the daughter of Xiao Shi who married into Korea, but a concubine's Korean princess. Her mother came from the big Korean family Quan. She was beautiful and lovely, and was named Quan Fei.

It was Jiang Yuebai who originally proposed this arrangement, saying that this would better strengthen relations with North Korea, allowing the Tenth Princess to make more friends with local political forces there and live a better life.

In addition to this objective reason, she did not want her granddaughter to experience the same miscarriage experiences as Concubine Yi and Concubine Nian.

Four months after Quan married, she became pregnant and gave birth to the fourth prince, who is now three years old.

When Jiang Yuebai went to Yonghe Palace to visit, the little prince was fishing by the pond. His joyful laughter could be heard from a distance.

Jiang Yuebai couldn't help but think of Bater's childhood and Concubine Yi at that time. He couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth, feeling a little melancholy.

Seeing her come in, Quan, the Fourth Prince, and a group of slaves and palace maids knelt down respectfully.

"I, your servant, pay my respects to the old ancestor."

Jiang Yuebai walked slowly on the bluestone road, thinking of the night when Li Beichen brought her to eat barbecue. He led her through the darkness and held her in his arms while washing hands in the sink.
Thinking back to when she was sitting in a wheelchair and couldn't move, Concubine Yi came over every day to chat and keep her company.
Thinking of Li Beichen flying in the air, holding a hairpin and playing music for her in the bamboo forest
I think of so many things.

She slowly walked to the swing frame and sat on it. Jinxiu loved to sit on the swing, and after she told Li Beichen about it, he built a bench swing that could accommodate two people, with handrails.

Li Beichen once stood behind her, sent her up to the sky, caught her, and sent her up to the sky again.
Yes, he also likes to sneak here on rainy nights to enjoy the secret happiness between lightning and thunder.
Jiang Yuebai held the iron chain of the swing, closed her eyes, felt the flow of the air, and those sweet fragments rushed into her mind one after another.

Suddenly I felt the chair falling slightly.

"Grandfather, are you asleep?" asked the three-year-old Fourth Prince innocently.

Jiang Yuebai turned to the Fourth Prince playfully, still with her eyes closed, "Then do you think I fell asleep?"

"No. You are talking to me." The Fourth Prince said with a smile.

Jiang Yuebai couldn't help laughing. He held the Fourth Prince in his arms and gently stroked his head.