Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 835: Personal Reign
"Li Fengniang has taken Uncle Jin Wang as her sworn brother?"

Zhao Qi looked at the eunuch in charge of the selection in astonishment.

The eunuch who was in charge of the selection had a pale face and said awkwardly, "Yes, it is said...it is said that Li Fengniang is the daughter of General Li Dao, a noble lady, but she was not selected among the thirty-seven beauties, which is really embarrassing.

His Royal Highness Prince Jin was worried that the palace would be reckless and hurt the harmony between the monarch and his subjects, so he stepped in to remedy the situation and recognized Li Fengniang as his adopted sister.

In this way, because of the generation difference, Li Xiuniang was not allowed to enter the palace, so as not to damage the dignity of the Li family. "

He swallowed his saliva and continued, "So, His Royal Highness Prince Jin recognized Li Fengniang as his sister on the day she left the palace.

The Prince of Jin also asked the officials from the Ministry of Rites who were in the palace to be witnesses.

In this way, it would be unclear to outsiders whether the adopted sister was the one adopted by Prince Jin first or Li Fengniang was chosen by the Empress Dowager first, and naturally Miss Li's reputation would be preserved.

This is all the painstaking effort of His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin for the Emperor."

"Then I have to thank him!"

Zhao Kai's face turned red with anger.

He felt that this was a provocation to him, a slap in his face, and a contempt for him as the emperor.

Zhao Qi was a sensitive person. His father was an upright man and his biological mother died early. His father's second wife, Xie, was always busy with the frail health of his younger sister Ning'er.

As the eldest of three brothers, his psychological pressure is different from that of his two younger brothers.

Moreover, my second uncle had an eccentric personality, so he looked down on such a well-behaved child.

But his father doted on his second uncle too much, so he was very afraid of him.

After much difficulty, he became the emperor, but his second uncle became the regent.

Moreover, my second uncle was raised by the Empress Dowager herself. The Empress Dowager loved my second uncle more than his father. The two palaces and the Prince of Jin were of the same mind.

So, even though he became emperor, he still had to look at his second uncle's mood.

Now the clouds have finally cleared and the moon is visible, but on the auspicious day when I will take power, my second uncle comes to make things difficult for me again.

Is my second uncle reminding me that even if I take power, I still cannot ignore his existence?

Zhao Qi gritted his teeth and held his anger for a long time before he let out a long breath and said, "We'll talk about this later. Tomorrow I have to go to offer sacrifices to the heavens, the earth, the temples, and the community, so I can't spare the time."

When the eunuch in charge of the selection saw that the emperor did not blame him, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, quickly agreed, and ran away.

In fact, if Prince Jin adopted Li Fengniang as his adopted daughter, it would be of no use.

Because there is no real blood relationship, but the generation...

Should I follow the example of the barbarians and marry someone of a different generation?
I hate it!

……

"Hello, Uncle, I'm your sister."

Yang Yuan is a prince. The emperor is going to offer sacrifices to heaven, earth, temples and communities today, so he has to accompany him.

Yang Yuan clearly felt that the little emperor was in a bad mood today and was somewhat cold towards Prince Jin.

However, Yang Yuan didn't know what happened between the uncle and nephew.

Seeing that the Prince of Jin was about to return power, and before that, the Prince of Jin had never acted arbitrarily and was quite respectful to the emperor, what was wrong with Zhao Ke?
Unfortunately, he never found a chance to ask Zhao Yu.

After completing this entire process, Prince Jin will have to accompany the Emperor back to the palace to work out some details for tomorrow's handover ceremony.

So, Yang Yuan went back home.

As a result, as soon as he arrived at the gate of the mansion, he saw a sedan chair being carried in.

When they arrived in front of the mansion, a pretty girl stepped down from the sedan chair.

As soon as she saw Yang Yuan, the girl lifted her pomegranate skirt and ran to him with a look of excitement on her face.

Yang Yuan was stunned and said, "What do you mean by second uncle, your sister? You are so disrespectful. What are you talking about?"

Li Fengniang stuck out her tongue and said with great joy, "His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin has recognized me as his adopted sister. Second Uncle, you are the Prince of Jin's brother-in-law."

"What?"

Li Fengniang blushed and waved her hands hurriedly: "I'm not talking about my sister, I'm talking about the late emperor's sister, the eldest princess. The eldest princess is also the sister of His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin."

"Oh……"

Yang Yuan was still stunned: "Prince Jin recognized you as his sister? You didn't enter the palace through the selection?"

"No, I am now the official's aunt, so we are of different generations.

He was the emperor of the Song Dynasty, not the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Dali, Western Xia, Tubo or other places.

He dared to let me enter the palace through the selection of concubines. Isn't he afraid that the ministers will drown him with spit? "

Li Fengniang said complacently: "Second brother, I have just become the younger sister of His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin, and I came to visit Sister Luxi right away. Do you think I am good to you?"

Yang Yuan was stunned for a while, and he roughly understood why Zhao Kai always had a sullen face when he saw Zhao Yu today.

"Second brother, why are you staring at me in a daze? Let's go back to the mansion to see sister."

"That's not right, you should call me second sister-in-law. No, you should call me second sister, and call me second brother-in-law..."

Before Yang Yuan could sort out the complicated and changeable relationship between relatives, Li Fengniang grabbed his sleeve and pulled him into the mansion.

……

On New Year's Day, the whole country celebrates.

Zhao Ke held the "Ceremony of Taking Over the Government" today.

These two days, Zhao Kai felt a little upset whenever he thought of Li Fengniang's bright and beautiful face.

The "personal reign ceremony" was held today and I felt a little better. Unexpectedly, problems arose again during the ceremony.

The problem lies in the temporary oral order issued by Zhao Kai and the adjustments made to the officials of the Eastern Palace such as Lou Wangchen.

Because before, civil and military officials in the capital had to pay their respects to the emperor in three places according to their rank: inside the Daqing Hall, outside the Nangong Gate, and outside the Wumen Gate.

Because of Zhao Ke's words, a group of officials from the Eastern Palace were allowed to enter the Daqing Palace as an exception.

This caused trouble, because the Daqing Palace suddenly became too crowded. The reason why the officials were divided into three places was because the palace was too crowded. Now the Daqing Palace was overcrowded.

The officials who were originally supposed to perform the ceremony in the Daqing Palace had to adjust their original positions.

The newly transferred officials of the Eastern Palace not only had to adjust their positions, but also had to re-familiarize themselves with the arrangements for etiquette and other procedures.

After all, when the emperor is handing over power, what to do and when to do it is much more complicated than for the officials waiting outside the Meridian Gate.

So, two things happened on the day of the "Jiaozheng Ceremony".

One was when an official of the Eastern Palace accidentally scraped his sleeves against the sharp beak of a bronze crane while he was kneeling and bowing. As he bowed, he knocked the crane down.

Bronze turtles and bronze cranes were placed in the palace to symbolize the longevity of the country and the emperor.

It would be very unlucky if this bronze crane fell down.

As a result, when everyone was shouting "Long live the emperor" in unison and performing the ritual of three kneelings and nine kowtows, the officials of the Eastern Palace who were unfamiliar with the ritual procedures in the Daqing Hall shouted too early and knelt down too late.

The little emperor was a man of few patience, and from then on, he had a gloomy face throughout the entire ceremony.

Finally, when the young emperor received the imperial edict, held a banquet and issued an imperial edict, all the officials of the Eastern Palace smoothly moved into the court.

All the officials in the Eastern Palace were promoted by one or two levels.

This is of course still far from the high point.

After the ceremony ended and before the emperor's banquet began, Zhao Kai first summoned the former East Palace officials to a side hall and went on a rage.

"Your Majesty, we were hastily transferred from the Meridian Gate to the Daqing Palace, so naturally we were unable to familiarize ourselves with the procedures quickly."

Lou Wangchen and other officials of the Eastern Palace pleaded guilty and said, "Moreover, the emperor was very kind and allowed us to enter the Daqing Palace for a ceremony. The officials of the Ministry of Rites had some complaints about this, so they were not attentive when they taught us etiquette before."

The little emperor was controlled too strictly in the past, and his biggest worry now is that he lacks prestige and cannot control the situation.

Upon hearing this, his face suddenly darkened again.

The officials of the Eastern Palace had been serving him for a longer time and had been trying to figure out his thoughts. Seeing that he looked unhappy, they took the opportunity to make some suggestions.

"Your Majesty, the officials in the court look down on me because I was able to enter the court because of your majesty's access to the throne."

"Yes, sir. If we want to go further, we need real achievements."

"This is just a ceremony of 'inauguration', and they are so perfunctory towards me. How can I serve the emperor in the future?"

Lou Wangchen, who was in charge of the Imperial Guards' Infantry Division, said respectfully, "The results of local governance are too slow.

The only way to achieve real achievements as quickly as possible is through military merit.

The emperor, without the emperor, there would be no future for us ministers.

Without his ministers, how can the emperor be an autocratic ruler?
We need some military merit to shut up the high-ranking officials in the court."

Zhao Qi thought of Li Fengniang and could not help but said coldly: "Not only do they dare to show disrespect to you, but even if it is me, how dare they not humiliate me now?
You want military merits, that's easy. When I take power, I will restart the war against Jin!

Today's Jin Dynasty is in ruins and vulnerable to any attack.

As long as you can give me a good record, I will promote you when the time comes. Who dares to say anything?"

Lou Wangchen and other officials of the Eastern Palace were overjoyed when they heard the words, and they immediately offered flattery such as "holy", "wise", and "mighty".

After hearing this, the little emperor couldn't help feeling a little elated.

Zhao Ke took power and changed the reign title.

When an emperor ascends the throne, he will change the reign title, which usually takes effect the following year.

Of course, nothing is absolute in the world, and there were a very small number of emperors who could not wait to change the reign title that year.

As for the emperor's personal rule, the reign title can be changed or not.

In order to erase the traces of other people in his dynasty as quickly as possible, Zhao Kai eventually changed the reign title.

Zhao Kai's reign title was "Jianwu".

Since Emperor Wu of Han first created the era name system, although emperors of successive dynasties have used many era names, not many of them intentionally repeated the era names of the previous dynasty.

There are so many Chinese characters, and the Hanlin scholars are all very knowledgeable, so it is not impossible for them to come up with a new reign title with auspicious meaning.

The reign title was specifically set as "Jianwu", which was obviously intentional.

Sure enough, before the end of the first month of the year, Emperor Zhao Ke began a series of actions.

The so-called strategy agreed upon at the imperial conference last autumn, which was to completely pacify the former territory of Western Xia within two to three years and then try to recover the Central Plains, has become nothing more than a piece of empty paper.

It cannot be said to be empty talk, these things still need to be done, but the little emperor is impatient and wants to do them every day.

It's not that he doesn't do it, he is doing all kinds of things at the same time.

He was even more radical than Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty.

Zhao Kai was already prepared to be obstructed by Jin Wang Zhao Qiu, and he also had a plan on how to counterattack.

However, Zhao Qu didn't care about him. He was aware that his nephew was unwilling to be disciplined by him.

Zhao Yu first went to ask for instructions from the two palaces, and then together with the two palaces, forced Zhao Kai to hold his nose and confer the title of princess on Li Fengniang. After that, the Goose King returned to his dissolute and idle appearance.

At this point, Zhao Kai finally felt relieved.

The following year, Zhao Kai frequently summoned his trusted ministers to discuss military affairs.

Although Yang Yuan still held the position of Xuanfu Envoy of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Longyou, he had been completely excluded.

Zhao Kai's old ministers in the Eastern Palace needed a sufficiently great achievement to be promoted to a higher position in the government.

Zhao Kai himself also needed a number of great achievements to be born in his hands to establish his supreme glory as a young emperor and build a court team that belonged entirely to him.

Only then will he be the true emperor.

A word is as good as gold, and the emperor has absolute power to make decisions.

No one could stop him from getting what he wanted.

Zhao Kai sharpened his knife, ready to show his skills.

(End of this chapter)