Quickly wear it and insist on being an old man forever

Chapter 338 I Really Want to Live Another 10 Years ()

March 1st, the fifth year of Chang'an.

In the Daming Palace, the emperor would attend court on the first and fifteenth days of each month, and all officials would come to pay homage to him.

There were three types of court meetings during the Wu Zhou Dynasty. One was the annual New Year's Day court meeting, the other was the New Moon and Full Moon court meetings held on the first and fifteenth days of each month. The first day was the first day of each month, and the full moon was the fifteenth day of each month, so the court meetings were also called New Moon and Full Moon court meetings. The other was the regular court meetings that were held every day. It was normal for the emperor not to show up during the regular court meetings, but the court meetings were held twice a month.

As an emperor, he undoubtedly needs to show up in public.

At the same time, only officials of the fifth rank and above were eligible to attend regular court sessions, while officials of the ninth rank and above were eligible to attend the new moon and fifteenth moon court sessions.

At least all officials in the capital need to come.

This is the most complete gathering of all civil and military officials in the court except for the New Year's Day court meeting. Moreover, compared with previous court meetings, this time there is something special about it.

That is, several people who had made outstanding military achievements but were seriously ill and unable to get out of bed were carried into the Daming Palace.

For a moment, although the ministers did not dare to whisper to each other or discuss this, their eyes were involuntarily turned to the several meritorious officials who were carried in.

There are so many thoughts in my mind, and I don’t know what the deep meaning is.

But there are also some smart people who guessed that it might be related to the miraculous elixir that had been widely rumored before.

They were even vaguely excited in their hearts, because if their guess was correct, then in the future anyone who had made meritorious contributions and had not died directly on the battlefield would have the opportunity to obtain a magic pill that could cure all diseases and prolong life, and thereby live ten or twenty more years and enjoy the company of four or five generations of descendants.

Stay healthy and live a few more years.

No one wants to be bedridden and die early.

Of course, no matter how happy and expectant they were in their hearts, the court attendance was different from the usual court attendance. They were not allowed to whisper to each other, and the process even had a series of procedures such as etiquette and music. So they could only suppress their curiosity and continue with the process.

After the process is completed, the ministers will pay their respects.

"I was seriously ill a few days ago, and fortunately, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady came to the world and sent me some Life Creation Pills. However, it was not until a few days ago that the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady came to pay a special visit to me.

I just realized that she was my chief disciple in my previous life.

Later, with his help, I slightly awakened some memories and supernatural powers of my past life. I think you should be able to guess that I was the Queen Mother of the West on Kunlun Hill in my previous life.

And this so-called life-creating elixir.

It's just a little bit of the energy in my body.

After some time, when I have awakened more memories and retrieved more of my past life's cultivation, it might be difficult to grant everyone the elixir of immortality, but it should not be a problem to grant everyone the elixir of longevity that can extend one or two centuries of life.

In the future, our dynasty will be a country of longevity and immortality.

However, the Dharma cannot be passed on lightly, and the elixir cannot be given lightly. If you have not made any contribution, or even disobeyed my will, how can you be qualified to be granted health and longevity? Therefore, a system of performance evaluation must be established to calculate and record the merits and demerits of all officials and nobles. Those with outstanding merits will be rewarded.

I will not pursue past mistakes for the time being.

But past achievements must be rewarded!"

After saying this, Bai Sheng took out a bottle filled with more than a dozen Life-giving Creation Pills wrapped with his own true essence, and handed it to the female official beside him, Shangguan Wan'er. The specific steps to follow had already been explained, so Shangguan Wan'er bowed and took the bottle of pills to the side of the dozen meritorious officials who were about to die.

Feed them the Life-Creation Pill one by one.

Bai Sheng had already counted these meritorious officials yesterday, so the pills were naturally taken according to their number, one pill per person, no more, no less.

These old guys might not be as old as her, and might not be as loyal to her, but at least they did not rebel, and they did make contributions to the Tang Dynasty, and even to the Wu Zhou Dynasty, which had only been established for a dozen years.

Therefore, it is reasonable to grant them elixirs. At least their contributions are definitely greater than those of the original body's children.

If we really judge loyalty strictly, the original body's children may not be as loyal as these old ministers. After all, during the previous coup, these old ministers at least did not know about it and did not participate. The original body's two sons and one daughter all knew about it and participated in it to some extent. At most, some were pushed out in the open, and some were in the dark.

So Bai Sheng gave them the pills without any hesitation.

When Shangguan Wan'er fed the last few old ministers, the old ministers in front had already undergone very obvious changes. The sallow complexion quickly became ruddy and shiny, the hair was as dry as white hair and turned black in an instant, and the faces with bitter faces and wrinkles also turned back in time and became young again. The old Deng, who was in his seventies, not only recovered completely, but also returned to the appearance of his forties or fifties. Those who were terminally ill were no exception. All their diseases were completely cured and there were no hidden dangers.

Although they could not see their own changes, they could see the changes in others around them. They were so excited that they could not express it in words and forgot all the rules and etiquette. Some tried to touch themselves, some touched the faces of people around them, some cried loudly, and some smiled happily. The ordinary ministers who saw all this were also surprised and delighted.

After a long time, those old ministers who had recovered their health finally calmed down, and then knelt down and kowtowed sincerely to express their gratitude!
Some of the pious ones even thanked directly:

Taihuaxi Zhenwanqi Grandmother Yuanjun! !
Bai Shengdu said that he was the reincarnation of the Queen Mother of the West, so there was nothing wrong with the ministers thanking him with the title of Queen Mother of the West.

Then, Bai Sheng specifically named seven or eight ministers who had indeed made contributions and were not in a dying state. As before, he bestowed the Life-giving Creation Pill on them and asked Shangguan Wan'er to bring it to them one by one, urging them to eat it on the spot. When he saw that some were hesitant, he explained:

“These pills are actually just ordinary pills for strengthening the body and replenishing the essence. They don’t have any magical effects. The reason they can cure all diseases, prolong life, and even restore youth is that they can cure all diseases, prolong life, and even restore youth.

That was because I sealed a wisp of vital energy into the elixir.

What takes effect is that ray of vital energy.

The mortal world is filthy and the air of the red dust is heavy. My vitality is also difficult to maintain and will soon dissipate into the world. Therefore, I need to take it early. The later I take it, the longer I delay, and the more likely the effect of the medicine will dissipate."

Now that everything had been explained to this point, those who had been hesitant at first no longer dared to hesitate any longer and quickly swallowed the Life-giving Creation Pill, feeling extremely relaxed all over.

All my illnesses disappeared and my appearance became much younger.

Bai Sheng had turned a good meeting into the Queen Mother of the West Dan Yuan Conference, but the effect was undoubtedly quite good. If Bai Sheng had a system, he should have seen that the progress bars of the civil and military officials who were originally loyal to Li Tang kept decreasing, while the progress bars of those who were loyal to Wu Zhou, or loyal to her, kept increasing, especially those who had taken the Shengsheng Zaohua Pill, whose loyalty value was definitely greatly increased.

As for the performance evaluation method that Bai Sheng mentioned in the middle of a bunch of conversations, no one cared or paid any attention to it.

Even if everyone realized how unfriendly this performance evaluation system was to them, it is estimated that not many people would strongly oppose it. Compared to doing a bad job, at most they would be fined, demoted, exiled, etc., and they would not be put to death unless they committed a serious crime. If they did a good job, they would not only be promoted and have a salary increase, but also receive the Life-giving Elixir that can cure all diseases and prolong their life.

No matter how you look at it, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages! Some restrictions are still acceptable.

The most important thing is that in this way, there is at least a standard for obtaining the Life-Saving Pill, instead of relying entirely on the will of the Holy One. There is a standard, and they just need to work towards that standard.

Bai Sheng then announced many things, such as building temples for the Queen Mother of the West across the country and deciding on her own title. From then on, her title would be "Supreme Saint White Jade Turtle Terrace, Nine Spirits, Taizhen, Wuji Holy Mother, Yao Chi, Great Saint, Golden Mother of the West, Supreme Pure Spirit, Yuanjun, the Great Heavenly Venerable who rules over all the immortals."

The Life-giving Creation Pills began to be distributed in large quantities.

No matter how much the officials wanted to refute, they couldn't!
Besides, except for the very young ones, none of the other middle-aged and elderly ministers were willing to offend Bai Sheng under the current circumstances. After all, they were still thinking about the Shengsheng Zaohua Pill in her hand. To offend her at this time would be like courting death.

Therefore, all of Bai Sheng’s orders were issued smoothly.

Under Bai Sheng's manipulation, related propaganda began to spread beyond the Divine Capital and throughout the world.

……

As the news spread throughout the world, people from different forces and regions had different attitudes towards the news. For example, the people in Shendu, because they had seen many old ministers and generals regain their youth with their own eyes, they believed it firmly and were the most active in building temples.

Princess Taiping directly converted the pagoda in her home and the temple she invested in building into the Temple of the Queen Mother of the West.

Worship the Queen Mother of the West and her disciples.

Even the major temples that were once quite prosperous had to keep a low profile at this time, and even set aside one or two halls to worship the Queen Mother of the West Buddha. Otherwise, how could Buddhism develop well? What is this called? This is called flexibility!
The current emperor is the Queen Mother of the West.

Then there must be corresponding Buddha statues in this temple.

Originally, Buddhism was still struggling over whether to add this Buddha, and whether it would be too flattering and embarrassing to forcibly fabricate a Buddha. However, the Taoism, which had been suppressed in recent years, was too active, and not only quickly created a bunch of statues of the Queen Mother of the West, but even ranked the Queen Mother of the West ahead of the Three Pure Ones and Six Imperial Gods, calling her the Mother of Heaven and Earth.

The Buddhist community certainly cannot tolerate this.

After all, the struggle for orthodoxy will never end until one dies.

Therefore, the relevant resolution was passed very quickly, giving priority to building the Queen Mother of the West Buddha in the temple of the capital. This was also a chance to see the attitude of the current emperor. If the emperor had no objection or was even satisfied, then it would be promoted on a large scale. If the emperor was dissatisfied and thought that there should not be this Buddha, then it would be troublesome.

Originally, the Li Tang dynasty supported Taoism and even recognized the Taoist Taishang Laojun as the Holy Ancestor Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. When a female emperor finally came, she needed the cooperation of the Buddhist sect to create auspicious signs and provide them with convenience.

It was said before that Maitreya had come to the world.

How could he regret it and become the Queen Mother of the West?

It is definitely about abandoning Buddhism and making peace with Taoism.

Generally speaking, it can be said that the most anxious forces in the entire Divine City at present are mainly the Buddhist forces. At the same time, they are also a little unsure whether the so-called Life-Creating Pill is provided by Taoism, or does it have any special origin?
Civil and military officials, nobles and royal family members, especially the older ones, currently want to obtain a Life-Creating Pill to prolong their lifespan.

Some are trying to play the emotional card.

Some are thinking about how to make meritorious service.

This is the capital of gods and its vicinity. The farther away from the capital of gods, the more people are skeptical, especially those who already scoffed at Wu Zetian's claim that she was Maitreya incarnate.

Although it won't cause any big waves.

But anyway, there is nothing good to say in private.

Many people even believed that he was another incompetent emperor who sought immortality in his later years, just like Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han.

Some people also felt sorry for Zhang Jianzhi and his team’s failure!
Otherwise, there wouldn't be such a farce.

It was not until some of their good friends and family elders in the Divine Capital wrote to them to tell them that the miraculous effect of the Shengsheng Creation Pill was real that many people began to be skeptical, or lamented how this could be possible, and that God was blind, etc.

And compared to this, in reality, the promotion of the performance evaluation system makes them feel more painful.

Originally, officials only needed to maintain good relations with the local aristocratic families and compromise with each other. They basically did not have to do anything. As long as there were no natural disasters, there would be no major problems. After a few years, they would naturally be promoted through family connections. Everything was a natural process.

However, with the introduction of the performance evaluation system and the use of those who had passed the imperial examination but had never been able to obtain an official position to supervise, it was simply a matter of life and death for lazy officials.

We will also take the heads of corrupt officials.

In less than half a month, a large amount of evidence flew into the capital like snowflakes. At the same time, a large number of officials were arrested, and a large number of poor children who had no connections or low family status were quickly replaced.

By the time the many officials from the noble families in the Divine Capital reacted.

Those cases have already been proven to be ironclad, and the evidence and confessions have been directly transmitted to the local authorities and made public.

At this time, many people realized what they had overlooked, but the performance evaluation system had already been officially implemented for a month, and many children from poor families had benefited from it.

Many officials now wanted to prevent the abolition.

The master has no name.

I could only accept it helplessly, and urge the family members to read and understand the examination method carefully, and never make mistakes. It would be best if they could study it thoroughly and work hard to make some contributions.

After being suppressed by Emperor Gaozong and the original emperor, the aristocratic families are no longer as difficult to suppress as they were at the beginning of the founding of the country. They can only rely on their own background, collusion in the court and exploiting loopholes in various policies to barely maintain the glory of their family. As for directly resisting and boycotting, and in turn suppressing the imperial power, it is pure pipe dream.

Until the early period of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the aristocratic families were suppressed by the imperial court. It was not until after the An-Shi Rebellion that the aristocratic families took advantage of the chaos to rise again.

And that was their last glory.

Later, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, it was physically destroyed.

Therefore, the foundation left by the original body to Bai Sheng was actually quite good. Without this foundation, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang would not have been able to create the Kaiyuan Prosperity and attract all nations to pay tribute.

However, even so, the aristocratic families still have some foundation. It is okay to cut some meat, but if you really want to kill them, there will definitely be chaos. So after the introduction of the performance evaluation system, Bai Sheng did not continue to make new policies, but concentrated on the selection of talented women.