allendalepharm Chapter 705 8 year later
Chapter 705 8 year later
In the third month after Yan Shu's death, Ying Qi rushed back in a hurry.
"Your Majesty, I have brought the things back."
Jiang Ci's cold eyes suddenly lit up. He put down the government affairs in his hands and hurriedly stood up. He reached out to take the box from Ying Qi's hand. After opening it, a translucent white bead came into view.
The bead was only the size of an ordinary pearl, with a texture like jade and a faint halo shimmering around it. This was the anti-aging bead he had been searching for for a long time. As long as he had this thing, he could preserve the little fox's body forever.
Jiang Ci returned to the bedroom, took out the pill from Yan Shu's mouth, and gently put the anti-aging bead into her mouth. The bead seemed to have some kind of response and emitted a strange light in Yan Shu's mouth. In just a moment, her originally pale and bloodless face became radiant, as if a living person was sleeping peacefully.
There were only four words in Master Hongyi's treasure bag: "Live towards death", so he concluded that the little fox would definitely come back, and he had to keep her body intact and wait for the day she returned.
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Half a year later, a "Star-Picking Pavilion" was built in the imperial palace, in which a huge Buddha statue was enshrined.
Everyone knows that the new emperor is obsessed with Buddhism. Apart from handling government affairs, he spends most of his time meditating in the Buddhist temple. The top floor of the Star-Picking Pavilion is a royal forbidden area, and no one except the new emperor can enter without permission.
After three years of war and three years of famine, the Sui Dynasty was already in poverty and the people were living in misery. If there was another war, it would only continue to overdraw the national fortune of the Sui Dynasty. The most urgent task was to solve the internal problems first.
Clean up the bureaucracy, reduce taxes, vigorously develop agriculture, and actively increase economic and trade exchanges with neighboring small countries.
The new emperor appointed Wen Yutang as the Left Deputy Inspector General to monitor the land conditions throughout the country and promote the planting of potatoes and corn throughout the country. For a time, the whole country worked together, and the agricultural harvest in the first year increased five times compared with previous years of planting ordinary grains. In the second year, farmers had some experience in planting potatoes and corn, and the harvest increased tenfold.
The people had more food than they could eat, and they could sell the remaining food to supplement their family income. Since potatoes had a high survival rate, it also inspired people living near the mountains and forests to reclaim wasteland.
The people were prosperous and the treasury was full. In the third year after the new emperor ascended the throne, he personally led an expedition to Lingnan and destroyed the King of Lingnan, unifying the 37 tribes in southern Xinjiang. In the fifth year of the new emperor's reign, he led the cavalry general Qi Tianyi to the north to fight against Rongdi. The 5,000 shooting soldiers under Qi Tianyi were like heavenly soldiers and generals, and became famous in one battle! In the end, the Rongdi army, known as the god of war on horseback, was defeated again and again. In the winter of the following year, after nine months of war, the 300,000-strong Rongdi army was completely destroyed, and the internal divisions of Rongdi collapsed. The Khan of Rongdi and his royal family were all captured and brought back to the Sui Dynasty. After the Rongdi country was destroyed, the people of Southern Rongdi voluntarily merged into the Sui Dynasty, and the remnants of Northern Rongdi moved out of Mobei and fled to a farther place. Since then, there has been no war in the northern Xinjiang for a hundred years.
After solving the two major hidden dangers in the surrounding areas, the Sui Dynasty became unprecedentedly powerful. Small countries around it came to pay tribute one after another, and there was a trend of all nations coming to pay tribute. This is known in history as the Guangwu Restoration.
In addition, Emperor Guangwu also strongly advocated that women step out of the boudoir and enter school, and those who are capable can serve as officials in the court. At first, most women were a little timid, until a woman disguised herself as a man to take the imperial examination and passed the examination as the third place. This caused a huge uproar, and all officials in the court wanted to punish her for the crime of disrespecting the imperial examination. Some angry civil servants even wanted to sentence her to death. However, the teachers and students of the women's school jointly wrote a petition in blood at this time, which resonated with many women in the boudoir. They stood up to speak up for the woman who passed the examination. For a time, there was a lot of noise, and there was even a trend of confrontation between men and women.
The incident lasted for a month, and finally His Majesty silenced all the civil and military officials with his statement that "it does not matter where a hero comes from, but his strength determines his character."
On that day, in the Qionglin Hall, His Majesty let the female third place winner compete with those radical civil servants. The female third place winner's real talent and knowledge slapped the faces of those old pedants, and finally the female third place winner got her wish and entered the court as an official, which also fired the first shot for women to serve as officials. Since then, a large number of outstanding women have emerged in the following years, and there has gradually been a place for female officials in the court. Those radicals who opposed women serving as officials had to accept this reality under their incompetent howling.
In fact, many bigwigs in the court understood clearly that it was His Majesty's intention to allow women to enter the mainstream school of thought, and no matter how much they made a fuss, it would be useless.
Because the new emperor worked hard to govern the country, was ruthless to foreign countries and gentle to the people at home, he was finally given the temple name: Emperor Guangwu and Wen! Later politicians and writers never spared praise for Emperor Guangwu, and his status even exceeded that of the founding emperor.
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eight years later
early morning
Prime Minister Su, who is over 80 years old, has a head full of white hair. Three years ago, he witnessed with his own eyes how the current emperor governed the Sui Dynasty to prosperity, and he went back to enjoy his retirement with peace of mind. It was a helpless move for him to return to the court today.
"Your Majesty, you were too busy with government affairs to pay attention to the harem in the past few years, but now that the Sui Dynasty is strong and the people are living and working in peace, it's time for you to marry a virtuous queen and expand the royal family as soon as possible."
The emperor sat high on the dragon throne, wearing a dragon robe and a golden crown. Although he was 28 years old now, his face did not show many signs of aging. He just looked more majestic than eight years ago, his eyes were sharper, and he was more unpredictable.
Some people say that His Majesty is a perfect man. He is diligent, concerned about the country and the people, and is clear about rewards and punishments for civil and military officials. He has also opened up a precedent for women to serve as officials, engage in business, and marry freely. However, he is obsessed with Buddhism and Taoism and is not interested in women. Apart from being busy with government affairs every day, he spends the rest of his time in the Zhaixing Pavilion chanting scriptures and reciting Buddha's name...
It is said that there is a huge Buddha statue enshrined in the Zhaixing Pavilion, and His Majesty kneels in worship all day long, obsessed with it. Some people also say that His Majesty has had an empty harem for many years but still cannot forget the beautiful but ill-fated late queen. The people also praise the late queen very much, and a temple was specially built in Xinyang Prefecture to worship her. Nowadays, the food eaten by the people is brought by the late queen. She has been following Your Majesty since he was a humble man. The late queen made a great contribution to Your Majesty's successful ascension to the throne. It is normal for His Majesty to be concerned about such a woman for many years.
But how could a king of a country continue to have children if he did not remarry a queen or even concubines? Since the second year after the death of the former queen, officials in the court have repeatedly proposed that the emperor fill his harem, but in the end the emperor found various excuses to evade the idea, and the monarch and his ministers fought over this matter for eight years.
Now that His Majesty is almost thirty years old, but still not ready to end his single life, we have no choice but to invite the old Prime Minister Su, who has long retired, to come out and persuade him.
After Prime Minister Su spoke, ministers in the court knelt down one after another to agree.
"Your Majesty, please marry a queen as soon as possible and expand the royal family."
Jiang Ci's cold eyes swept across the ministers kneeling in the hall.
"My dear ministers, do you think I am old?"
"Your Majesty is in the prime of life and has practiced martial arts for many years, so your body is very strong. But as the ruler of a country, how can you not have your own heirs?"
Jiang Ci said: "Prime Minister Su is old, he should take care of his health. As for what will happen after a hundred years, I know what to do."
After he finished speaking, his eyes coldly swept over the other officials who took the lead in forcing marriage.
"My dear ministers, if you feel that you have too little work to do, you can think more about how to resettle the flood victims in the south, and stop staring at my harem all day long. Let's end this morning court session here."
The emperor stood up and left with a grim face.