The emperor would rather have a

Chapter 19: Get promoted, get rich, and die...without a wife!

"Ma Renyu, the sergeant of the Right First Squad of the Inner Palace Guards!"

The summoner shouted at the door of the central army tent.

"I'm coming!"

Ma Renyu was looking forward to it, and when he heard his name being called, he ran over happily.

Suddenly, Li Yi was the only one waiting outside to receive the reward.

"Who is that big guy? Why is he the last one to take a turn?"

"Is that even a question? Among those people we called in earlier, whose names haven't been called yet?"

"You're talking nonsense. There are so many people who have made contributions. How am I supposed to know whose name wasn't called?"

"You may not know who the others are, but you've probably heard of Li Yi, the inner palace guard? He's the one who made the most contribution this time!"

"Oh, you should have said so earlier... Tsk tsk, he doesn't look that old, but now he's rich!"

"Shh! You two keep your voices down. He might even be promoted to a high-ranking general after this incident. If he hears you chatting away, aren't you afraid of the consequences?"

"..."

Li Yi didn't care about the discussions of the surrounding soldiers.

Instead, he was thinking about a trivial matter. From the order of summons he observed, it seemed that they were arranged according to their merits.

For example, Ma Renyu was the second one to rush forward, so he was summoned to receive the reward before Li Yi.

If this is true, Li Yi is the only one who has not received the reward yet, which proves that Zhao Kuangyin’s statement that he was the first to make the contribution was not just a polite remark.

First merit... Thinking of this word, Li Yi couldn't help but think of the image of a big black fat man.

If I am the main contributor, then what about Zhao Kuangyin?

"Li Yi, the yamen officer of the Second Squad of the Left Division of the Inner Palace Guards!"

After a long while, the person who summoned came out again and shouted towards Li Yi's position.

In fact, it doesn’t matter whether he shouts or not, since he is the only one standing here now.

But strangely, Li Yi did not see Ma Renyu come out.

Those who received rewards just now will be taken away from the central military camp and led to the dining area nearby.

After all, only military generals above the first rank were qualified to dine with the emperor in the central military tent.

It's impossible for this guy to be given a military rank equivalent to mine, right?

"exist!"

Li Yi didn't think too much and walked quickly towards the tent.

As soon as he entered the big tent, he saw many civil officials and military generals standing on both sides, and many of them immediately turned their eyes to Li Yi.

This time the emperor led the army in person, and he was accompanied not only by the army but also by many ministers.

Since ancient times, wars have not been fought just about the strength of the troops.

There is also the coordination of logistical support, the conscription of civilians along the way for labor... If an enemy city is captured, officials must be sent to temporarily manage it.

All these things need to be carried out by civil servants.

Li Yi took the opportunity to take a quick look. He didn't know many of the people, not to mention the civil servants. He didn't have much contact with the military on a daily basis, so it was normal that he didn't know them.

As for those senior military generals, they belonged to various systems of the Imperial Guards, and Li Yi only knew the ones in the Palace Guards.

At most, he only knew the other party's military rank. As a small colonel, he was not qualified to have any relationship with them.

But after tonight, things will be different...

Li Yi took a few steps forward, knelt down and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, I, Li Yi, greet you. Long live the Emperor!"

The official who went to inform them to receive the reward briefly explained the process and told them some precautions.

For example, in such formal occasions, one should call oneself "minister" instead of "general" as on the battlefield, and one should bow down and kowtow when performing the ceremony.

As for the rest, it's not much different from usual.

"Flat body."

Chai Rong didn't say much and just asked Li Yi to get up.

After standing up, Li Yi discovered that Chai Rong was not wearing a formal dragon robe or armor, but a purple round-necked robe and a lacquered gauze hat with long wings on his head.

At first glance, this attire doesn't look like that of an emperor, but more like an official trying a case in a prefecture or county government office. Could this be the reason why it was popular in the Song Dynasty to privately call the emperor "Guan Jia"?
At this time, Chai Rong said, "You made great contributions in the previous battle. You killed Zhang Yuanhui in battle and took away the morale of the Han army. You also protected the emperor. You should be ranked first among all the merits."

Chai Rong had a smile on his face, and his eyes revealed his approval of Li Yi.

As he spoke, he signaled the official beside him to come forward and read out the rewards.

I don't know who wrote this reward edict, but it was long and boring. In addition to recording Li Yi's merits and praising him highly, it also flattered the emperor and was interspersed with a bunch of flowery words.

It was not until the last few sentences that the specific reward for Li Yi was mentioned.

"Promoted to the position of Inner Palace Guard Commander-in-Chief, and appointed Deputy Commander of the Tangzhou Militia, and awarded a brocade robe, a jade belt, two horses, ten gold ingots, twenty silver ingots, and ten bolts of silk..."

Li Yi didn't expect the emperor's reward to be so generous.

There is no need to explain much about the Inner Palace Guard Commander-in-Chief, while the Deputy Commander of the Militia is an additional appointment, responsible for assisting the Commander-in-Chief in managing the military affairs of a state.

However, as a military commander of the imperial guards, Li Yi's position as deputy commander of the militia was a remote one and he was not actually in office, so he had no control over local affairs at all.

It mainly serves as an honor and allows one to receive an extra salary.

As for the horses and other valuables that were given as rewards, they were a large sum of income, probably worth over a thousand strings of cash in total.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!" Li Yi knelt down again to express his gratitude.

Afterwards, he respectfully accepted the imperial edict of reward and was led to stand among the ranks of military generals.

Now I am just reading out the awards, and you cannot get the actual rewards for the time being. Everything will have to wait until we return to Beijing.

Immediately afterwards, Chai Rong rewarded two heavyweights.

"Li Chongjin, the commander of the Imperial Guards' cavalry and infantry, was transferred to serve as the governor of Xuzhou and co-prime minister, and was appointed deputy commander of the Imperial Guards' cavalry and infantry."

"Zhang Yongde, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Palace, has been transferred to the post of military governor of Wuxin Army, and his duties remain the same."

At first glance, Li Chongjin's reward was far higher than Zhang Yongde's. Not only was he promoted in his original position, but he was also given the title of Tong Pingzhangshi, and was on par with the prime minister.

Although he did not have the real power of a prime minister and was only an honorary title, called "envoy prime minister", it was a title after all.

In contrast, the reward given to Zhang Yongde was too small, and it was almost the same as not giving any reward at all.

However, if you delve deeper, it is not what it seems on the surface.

First of all, Zhang Yongde is nearly ten years younger than Li Chongjin. He is only 27 years old this year, and is even one year younger than Zhao Kuangyin.

Li Chongjin is already 35 years old this year, one year older than Chai Rong, which is not considered young in that era.

Secondly, Zhang Yongde was the son-in-law of Guo Wei, the founding emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and Li Chongjin was Guo Wei's nephew.

In terms of blood relationship alone, Chai Rong is not as good as Li Chongjin.

Otherwise, Guo Wei would not have insisted that Li Chongjin kneel down in front of Chai Rong to show the difference between monarch and subject before his death.

More importantly, Li Chongjin had followed Guo Wei in his campaigns very early on, and his military achievements and qualifications were not comparable to Zhang Yongde's.

When Guo Wei promoted Zhang Yongde, he promoted Li Chongjin first and then let Zhang Yongde take over his position.

It can be said that Zhang Yongde has always been following Li Chongjin's footsteps to rise higher.

Therefore, Li Chongjin always suppressed Zhang Yongde, which is no wonder that the relationship between the two was not very good in private.

Combining the above, it can be seen that the reward given to Zhang Yongde was indeed not as great as that given to Li Chongjin, but Zhang's promotion speed was not slower than Li's, and it can even be said to be faster.

After bestowing the rewards, Chai Rong encouraged everyone a few more words and then ordered people to bring them food.

Since we were marching and fighting, we were not allowed to drink alcohol, so we drank tea instead, which we enjoyed very much.

The food was also very simple, with plenty of hard wheat cakes, served with soup made from pickled meat, and the broken wheat cakes soaked in it, which was swallowed down with slurps.

In addition, there was no shortage of meat, and everyone ate to their heart's content.

In fact, many times, what you eat and drink is not that important.

What is more important is the state of mind.

Just like Li Yi at this moment, although he was chewing wheat cake in his mouth, he felt that its deliciousness was not inferior to any delicacies from land and sea.

This reminded him of a sentence -

Get promoted, get rich, and die...Oh, that's not right!
I don’t have a wife!

　Everyone, listen to me announce something - "I, the author, am a big idiot!"

　　Over, meeting adjourned!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)