Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 460 Father, I won't resign.
Yellow water swells and accumulates in a huge artificial lake.

On the riverbank, countless laborers and residents from the surrounding area who had come after hearing the news were all intently watching the direction of the river's flow.

Although it was early spring, everyone was covered in sweat, and their clothes were hanging loosely.

Among the laborers, Wei Daijia was also exhausted and sweating profusely, his trousers rolled up and his official robe casually draped over his shoulders.

He was surrounded by officials in charge, including the Vice Minister of Works and the Prefect.

Everyone was covered in mud, watching the surging Yellow River with bated breath.

Today is the final day of the Yellow River diversion project, and also the most crucial step.

Will the Yellow River return to its original course? Will the efforts of the people of the Central Plains over the past six months be in vain? Will the enormous sums spent by the imperial court and the hair lost by Ji Xiangfang go to waste?

It all comes down to today's final move.

As the highest-ranking official in charge of coordinating this rerouting project, Wei Daijia swallowed hard, solemnly waved the command flag in his hand, and roared in a somewhat hoarse voice:
"Open the gate!"

slam-la-

The surging Yellow River finally left the ravaged Bian River and Huai River, and after half a year, returned to its own course.

it is good!
The project was a success!
From the highest-ranking official to the most ordinary laborer, everyone was filled with intense excitement.

The Yellow River, it must be in the Yellow River channel!
"Long live the Emperor! Long live His Majesty the Divine Emperor! Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

No one knows who started it, but the shore erupted in a thunderous roar, with people spontaneously shouting "Long live!"

Half a year, just half a year!
They handled a once-in-a-century, or even once-in-a-millennium, disaster perfectly!

In the hands of a mediocre dynasty and monarch, this disaster would have been enough to turn the fertile Central Plains into a desolate hell on earth.

How could the people not be moved to tears by Your Majesty's wisdom?

"Phew..." Wei Daijia let out a long sigh of relief.

"We finally managed to get this important matter done before the Spring Festival."

"I can finally have a good New Year..."

To be honest, he was completely at a loss when he first received this assignment.

How can six months be enough to tame the unruly Yellow River?
And now, all he wants to say is—

"Long live His Majesty the Divine Emperor."

…………

"Glug glug... Pfft!... Achoo!"

One of the divine emperors pulled his head out of the icy water and suddenly sneezed.

"Who's talking about me behind my back...?" Li Mingqing mumbled through her nose.

"You still have such a childish attitude," Empress Dowager Yang said with a smile as she wiped her eldest son's face.

As His Majesty the Emperor, like a lump of dough, let his mother knead him with a towel, he muttered:

"But I'm still a child..."

"Don't talk while washing your face, be careful not to break your baby teeth. The Spring Festival Ceremony is coming soon, do you want to issue a decree to the people of the world with a missing tooth?" Empress Dowager Yang said in a slightly cunning tone.

His Majesty the Divine Emperor imagined the scene of the social death, and then imagined the excited historians and the laughing descendants, and then he readily shut his mouth.

Tangzhou, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, is located in the imperial palace.

Time flies, and the Spring Festival is here.

With the arrival of the new year, the Imperial Household Department was busy preparing for the Spring Festival celebrations, working tirelessly both inside and outside the palace.

Of all these, His Majesty Li Ming was the busiest—

Surrounded by the palace ladies, he was busy being dressed as a doll for them.

“This is really outrageous!
"I am the supreme ruler! I am busy with countless affairs of state day and night, who can restrict my actions!" His Majesty the Divine Emperor roared in resentment.

"Don't move, don't move! Oh dear, look, your dragon robe is all wrinkled."

Li Mingda bustled around Li Ming, sometimes helping him put on the dragon robe and smoothing out the wrinkles, sometimes helping him put on the crown, and never forgetting to make a comment when he had a spare moment:
"You wouldn't want to appear in front of the whole country looking disheveled, would you?"

"Okay." Little Li stood up obediently.

"Why do you sound more and more like my mother when you talk, Sister Sizi? Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! My hair! You're going to pull my hair out!"

Li Mingda vigorously combed his younger brother's hair, smoothing it out, and then put a twelve-tassel crown on his head.

"Put your hat on properly. What kind of emperor wears his crown askew? It would be a laughing stock for the people."

"Isn't this what you've always said? 'If you want to wear the crown, you must bear the weight.'"

"This is a figurative meaning..." Li Ming could only mutter softly, as another piece of red paper was stuffed into his mouth.

"Ptooey! What is this?"

"Hey, hey, why did you spit out the rouge paper?" His older sister, Li Ling, picked up the red paper he had spat out and habitually gave her younger brother a sharp rap on the head.

Rouge paper? Isn't this an ancient method of using lipstick for women's makeup?!
"What...what are you going to do to me?!" Li Ming began to resist violently.

"Ah Si Zi!"

At Li Ling's command, Li Mingda immediately restrained His Majesty's flailing hands and feet from behind.

"Hehe, little Ming, we won't hurt you." The two older sisters revealed a malicious smile.

"No, I won't open my mouth! Don't even think about making me smear rouge on my mouth!" Li Mingning refused to yield even in the face of death.

He recalled the fear of being forced to perform on stage in kindergarten.

Li Ling's smile grew even more sinister as he pulled a tubular object from his pocket.

"This is... lipstick?!" Li Ming stared at it and was immediately shocked.

Yes, in the 7th century AD, China already had tube-shaped lipsticks similar to those used today.

However, His Majesty Li Ming did not seem to be happy about this technological advancement at all.

"Quack, I don't want to wear lipstick!"

"This isn't to apply makeup to you; it's just to make Your Majesty look better."

Empress Dowager Yang said.

"These past few months have been filled with disaster relief and war, which has not only exhausted the ministers, but also made Your Majesty look much more haggard."

"If this were seen by our subjects and envoys from vassal states, it would have a negative impact."

Li Ming pouted and complained:

"Then let's cancel this year's Lunar New Year celebrations!"
"Sigh, this is such a waste of money and resources. Spending so much money on a ceremony is going to empty the national treasury. Fang Yize will have to cry poverty to me again."

For the ambitious and vain Emperor to utter the words "wasteful and extravagant" is truly a reversal of the natural order... Empress Dowager Yang's lips twitched slightly as she patiently said:
"This year marks Your Majesty's first Spring Festival since ascending the throne, and the first Spring Festival since the founding of our Great Ming Dynasty."

"At this pivotal moment of renewal and transition, the nation needs a fresh start."

Indeed, so much has happened on this land in the past year.

The war to establish our nation and the war against the Japanese invaders have just ended in victory.

The historic floods in the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers were also brought under control very quickly.

This country has been cleansed of the war and disasters of the past year, and the world truly needs a fresh start.

"And this beginning can only be announced by Your Majesty personally. Its importance is self-evident."

"All people are eagerly awaiting the Holy Teachings, and we must do our best in every detail."

Empress Dowager Yang gently advised.

She knew her eldest son was good in every way, except that he was too pragmatic and didn't care much about formalities. He could mobilize people for war, but he wouldn't be able to help make dumplings together.

However, a nation sometimes needs a sense of ritual.

"Oh."

Li Ming thought Empress Yang's words made sense, so he quieted down and obediently pouted as his sisters applied lipstick.

Then, the door to the dressing room opened.

At the most devastating moment of Li Ming's life, the person who would have made him the most devastated appeared at his doorstep.

"The ceremony is about to begin, how long are you going to dawdle... oh ho?"

Li Shimin appeared at the door at just the right moment, watching his eldest son pouting as his older sister applied lipstick to his lips.

Li Ming also looked at him, as well as the two bodyguards beside him—

Eldest brother Li Chengqian and ninth brother Li Zhi
Very well, he died thoroughly.

"Let's go, let's go, don't disturb the emperor."

Li Shimin hurriedly pulled his two elder brothers away. "What happened, Father? I didn't see anything!" Li Zhi muttered loudly to himself, clearly trying to survive.

Li Chengqian said nothing, but gave his younger brother a meaningful look and nodded slightly.

"Tasteful..." That's what the cross-dressing senior seemed to say.

No, it's to improve complexion and showcase the grandeur of our great nation! Listen to me... Li Ming shouted in his heart.

But he couldn't utter a single word.

"Don't move your lips, you don't want to get it on your nose, do you?" Li Ling was still giving instructions.

…………

"I'm not crossdressing. It's because I'm overworked that I need to use rouge to add some color to my skin."

"Look, look into my eyes! I'm not surprised at all now!"

Finally, the long and grueling torture came to an end. On the carriage to the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Li Ming kept explaining to his grandfather, Li Shimin.

"Yes, indeed, our Divine Emperor is truly magnificent today," Li Shimin echoed.

silence.

"You need to explain this clearly to Chengqian and Lizhi!"

"Hmm, yes."

Silence again.

Inside the carriage, the old and new emperors sat facing each other, speechless.

In theory, only the emperor could ride in the emperor's carriage; no one else, including the retired emperor, was allowed to do so.

If word gets out that the emperor and the retired emperor shared a carriage, our Great Ming Dynasty will become a laughing stock in the international community. Foreigners will think that our Great Ming Dynasty can't afford to ride in a carriage.

One person per vehicle.

It was only through His Majesty Li Ming's strong opposition that the double suns were able to be visible in the sky.

Inside the car, Li Ming sat up straight with great humility.

He wore a full set of imperial robes that he hadn't used in years, and his head remained still and obedient.

It wasn't because he wanted to maintain his authority.

It's not that wearing a twelve-tassel crown is inconvenient.

Not only is it heavy, but the curtain-like tassels also sway with the slightest movement.

This forced him to stiffen his neck and hold it up.

“I used to think that once I became emperor, I would be the greatest emperor in the world, and I could do whatever I wanted.”

Li Ming broke the silence with a helpless bitter smile.

"Unexpectedly, the emperor was the one most constrained in the entire world."

"Although there are no explicit rules, we are bound by invisible regulations. We have to consider the consequences of every move we make, and we are not even free to ride in the same car with our parents."

The old father Li Shimin's eyes flickered:

"I feel the same way. It's as if we emperors are giants who can cause cities to collapse and houses to crumble with a mere sweep of our hands. We have to be careful."

Sigh... The two colleagues talked about the hardships of being an "emperor" and sighed in unison.

"I never imagined you could be so naive. I thought you were born with superhuman strength," Li Shimin asked, half-jokingly and half-sarcastically.

Because I was really young back then, still enjoying air conditioning and watching TV, unlike now, which is like expired milk—it looks pure white on the surface, but is full of bad stuff inside…

Li Ming muttered to himself, without answering his father.

"Ahem, on another note..."

Li Shimin brought the topic back on track:

"Is the war against the Japanese pirates finally over?"

The upper echelons of Japan were wiped out, the Japanese people migrated to the mainland, and the Japanese prisoners of war were put on slumped ships with holes in the bottom and sent to the bottom of the sea without resistance or being discovered.

As a political entity, Japan has ceased to exist.

As a nation and a civilization, they are about to exit the stage of history.

"It's mostly finished, just a little finishing touches left," Li Ming said calmly, nodding.

"The central and local authorities of Japan have been dismantled, the entire island has been transformed into saline-alkali land where crops can hardly grow, and civilians are being transferred back to Japan."

"In the short term, that land should not be able to support a large population."

"Next, we will conduct regular annual inspections on the island and 'relocate' any Japanese people we miss. This will ensure that no new civilization will emerge on the Japanese islands in the near future, posing a threat to the mainland."

It is difficult to rule over a barbarian land, often involving a tug-of-war that can last for thousands of years, and it is even more impossible to rule over enclaves far overseas.

In comparison, destroying a civilization is much simpler.

"When it comes to eradicating the root of the problem, I am no match for you."

Li Shimin's voice trembled slightly.

His Majesty Li Ming's handling of the Japanese was not without significance domestically.

Radicals felt His Majesty was not radical enough, while conservatives thought His Majesty was too conservative.

That's not enough slaughter!

We should take all the Japanese civilians we can!
But Li Shimin knew that killing everyone was just empty talk.

How could you possibly kill them all? Even if you scattered tens of thousands of pigs across the vast and complex Japanese island, you still couldn't kill them all.

Only Li Ming's radical approach, which cuts off the lifeline of civilization, can completely sever its lifeline.

Steady, accurate, and ruthless.

"The Japanese civilians were sent to the mainland, while the prisoners of war sank to the bottom of the sea with the ships. The great river returned to its original course, and the river basin was restored to peace."

"The world is at peace."

Li Ming was filled with emotion.

"The southern barbarians in the southwest have not been completely pacified, and the national treasury is already empty," Li Shimin reminded him.

"Cough cough!" Li Ming coughed violently.

Before he could save face, Li Shimin added:
"Governing a large country is like pressing down a gourd; if you press down here, a gourd will pop up there."

"There are always problems to solve; we have to look at the big picture."

Li Ming stared intently at his father and pressed, "Father, then in your view, what is the overall situation for our country?"

Old Li didn't answer, he just looked out the car window.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty was teeming with people and bustling with traffic.

Citizens are busy buying things for the Lunar New Year, and everyone's face is filled with a happy and relaxed expression.

A new year, a new beginning.

"May the country be prosperous and the people at peace..." Li Shimin blurted out.

This prosperous and affluent scene even surpassed his reign of Zhenguan.

Considering the trials that the Ming Dynasty had just undergone, even he had to admit it.

"Your skills are slightly better than mine."

Li Ming's lips curled into a smile, which he quickly smoothed out. He cleared his throat and said nonchalantly:
"Just average."

Li Shimin glanced at him sideways and said with a wicked smile:
"Now you're not making a fuss about quitting? Back in the day, you were yelling and screaming in the Liangyi Hall, and you were even naked..."

"Ahem! A hero doesn't dwell on past glories..." Li Ming interrupted the other party's attempt to dig up his dark past.

Besides, you were the one who pulled down my pants and spanked me back then... he thought to himself.

"Hahaha... If we dig into our past, there's so much to uncover between us."

Let bygones be bygones.

Li Shimin laughed it off, then said seriously:

"The Ming Dynasty is already a behemoth. How do you plan to rule it from now on?"

Li Ming looked out the car window at the crowd and said:

"Let this prosperity continue for as long as possible."

The convoy cruised along the bustling streets of Beijing, slowly moving forward amidst a chorus of New Year's wishes.

(End of this chapter)