Although he couldn't persuade Xu Qingyang, the King of Huainan still trusted him. The King of Huainan didn't know anything about the rules, and he needed Xu Qingyang's advice in many cases. He had planned to bring Xu Qingyang to the New Year's Eve banquet, but now seeing that Xu Qingyang's lips were pale from illness, the King of Huainan felt that at worst, it would be a violation of the rules, and there was no need to let his men drag their sick bodies to follow him into the palace.
Unexpectedly, after he said this, Xu Qingyang was even more moved, and said that even if he died of illness, he would not let the prince go to the Hongmen Banquet alone.
The King of Huainan was depressed. How could an ordinary New Year's Eve dinner be called the Hongmen Banquet? Was Xu Qingyang afraid of being murdered
However, Xu Qingyang looked like he would crawl there no matter what, so King Huainan had no choice but to take Xu Qingyang to the banquet.
In the capital, officials below the fourth rank had no right to attend court, and officials above the fourth rank but below the second rank had to stand outside the door while waiting for the morning court. Only those above the second rank who were the real power center had the right to sit in the palace and drink tea while waiting for the morning court. In such a place, Xu Qingyang, a small official of the eighth rank, was not allowed to enter the Golden Palace even if he was accompanied by the King of Huainan. At the place where the sedan chair was parked in front of the palace, Xu Qingyang was stopped by the guards and taken to a small room with the servants brought by various officials.
Of course, he was an official of a certain rank after all, so it was impossible for him to be treated the same as the servants. The eunuch who led the way took him to the inner room and served him a big bowl of hot dumplings, pointing out that it was a special reward from Emperor Jingren out of compassion for the servants. The servants in the outer room were either sedan bearers or house servants. When they heard that they could eat dumplings given by the emperor and made in the imperial kitchen, they were simply blessed! They ate the hot dumplings with gratitude and drank the best tea they had never tasted before. After a while, someone brought all kinds of snacks and dishes, saying that they were rewards from the empress dowager and the queen, and they were all exquisite dishes that had never been seen before. These servants were extremely moved, and kept saying that the emperor was a wise ruler, a good emperor, and a good queen. Before eating, they kowtowed three times in the direction of the Golden Throne Hall, and some of them even kowtowed blue.
Xu Qingyang just stood up and thanked calmly, kneeling a little reluctantly, his attitude was completely different from the people outside.
In Xu Qingyang's opinion, those people were really stupid. This was just a small favor from Emperor Jingren. The one who could really benefit the people was the magnanimous King Huainan who knew how to consider everyone.
The eunuch who delivered the food secretly said something to the consul eunuch after returning, and the consul eunuch trotted over and said a few more words to a young eunuch, and this young eunuch was Xiao Shunzi.
At this time, Emperor Jingren was changing his clothes. Although the place outside was full of officials, he was the emperor after all, and he had to wait until the time calculated by the Imperial Observatory before he could appear with the empress.
The empress had already put on her luxurious phoenix robe, and the hairpin with nine phoenix tails was also hung on her head. Her golden phoenix was dazzling, and it matched the dragon robe of Emperor Jingren. The two of them stood together, with an imposing aura and noble air, making people dare not look directly at the emperor. This kind of aura was only possessed by people who had been in high positions for many years. Even if ordinary people put on dragon robes, they would just be ridiculous actors. Only the real dragon emperor could have this kind of imposing aura.
At this time, Xiao Shunzi walked in quietly. He saw the emperor and the empress looking at each other with affection in their eyes. He smiled coldly, coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty, I just received news that the staff of the King of Huainan did not thank your Majesty and the Empress for the New Year's Eve dinner, and even looked down on others who were grateful."
Speaking of serious matters, Emperor Jingren had to retract his gaze from the empress and nodded slightly, saying, "I understand."
At tonight's dinner, he knew how to treat King Huainan.
Xiao Shunzi, who had successfully interrupted the affectionate gaze between the emperor and the empress, was secretly delighted. He lowered his head and was about to slip out of the room, but he heard the empress say, "Wait."
The Queen smiled at Xiao Shunzi, then turned to Emperor Jingren and said, "Your Majesty, this little eunuch is really smart. Was he trained by Eunuch Lian?"
"Hmm." Emperor Jingren just nodded slightly, "It's OK."
In the eyes of the emperor, it was quite good for an ordinary eunuch to be rated as "acceptable". There was a precedent of eunuchs monopolizing power in the previous dynasty, and Emperor Jingren would not allow eunuchs to have too much power. Eunuch Lian was loyal to Emperor Jingren, but he didn't know much about the affairs of the court.
Emperor Jingren was always cautious in the face of past events, whether it was the monopoly of power by relatives of the emperor, the monopoly of power by eunuchs, the emphasis on civil officials over military officials, or the emphasis on military officials over civil officials. He knew that the most important thing for an emperor was checks and balances, and he used his supreme power to check and balance officials, so that they would not be blinded by power, and would not forget who they were and their original intentions when they studied hard for ten years because of excessive power.
Emperor Jingren's attitude was that it was okay to use people, but no matter who was used, it had to be done in moderation. For example, Lin Boyuan, even though his father was a university scholar and had many students all over the country, and had made friends with almost 90% of the civil servants, Emperor Jingren thought he was suitable for implementing the new policy and would use him, without worrying that his family would have too much power because Emperor Jingren would not give him too much power just because Lin Boyuan implemented the new policy well. Whether he could continue to climb up depended on Lin Boyuan's own ability.
Because the new policy has won over all the wealthy businessmen in the country, all of them have become supporters of the imperial power. Under the secret operation of Emperor Jingren, the wealthy businessmen who once supported Li Xiangguo have also turned against him. Li Xiangguo has power, but money and power are inseparable. When he does not have enough interests to attract officials, then the number of people who can support him will gradually decrease. What if someone uses money to induce Li Xiangguo's former disciples to betray him? These people who have been brought together by interests are also easily separated by interests.
Gradually, Li Xiang will find that his voice in the court is getting smaller and smaller, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to accomplish anything.
This is the first step, and Emperor Jingren has achieved it using the new policy.
The second step is to improve the laws. In addition to handling government affairs, Emperor Jingren also studied the laws of the Xia Kingdom. These laws were formulated by the ancestors in the early days of the founding of the country, and some are no longer applicable to the present. The next step for Emperor Jingren is to improve the laws again, and use money and guns to force all officials to understand and abide by the law first.
Of course, this step is more difficult than the first one. In order to improve it, Emperor Jingren needs to listen to the opinions of all people before he can formulate laws that benefit the country and the people.
He knew that it was too difficult to make everyone in Daxia live every day with a smile, and he would never be able to achieve it with his own ability. But Emperor Jingren had set a great goal. During his lifetime, he would make sure that the number of people who starved to death in Daxia would be minimized, the number of unjust cases in Daxia would be minimized, and the number of corrupt officials in Daxia would be minimized. There was no bottom line for this minimum. Emperor Jingren's bottom line was to do his best and devote all his efforts to it.
With such a broad mind, Emperor Jingren could suppress his crazy love for the queen and force himself to select concubines for the sake of his offspring and the stability of his country. Such an Emperor Jingren could not let go of too many people in his heart. No matter how well Xiao Shunzi did, she was just okay in his eyes.
"Oh?" The Queen said with a smile, "I am in need of a quick-witted person to run errands for me. I wonder if the Emperor can spare me?"
Hearing what the queen said, Xiao Shunzi, who had been keeping his head down all the time, suddenly looked up. He looked at the queen intently. He never expected that the queen, who had been keeping a low profile, would suddenly take action against him at this time.
"Where does the Queen need someone?" Emperor Jingren asked with concern.
"Yes," the queen said with a faint smile, "next year will be the selection, and the harem will be busy again. There won't be enough people to take care of them. Every selected girl may become a noble lady in the future, and it would be inappropriate to offend any of them. If there is a smart person to help, one person is worth ten."
When the selection was mentioned, Emperor Jingren's heart tightened. He always felt that although the queen was smiling, she was actually very sad. So he nodded involuntarily: "Okay, from now on, Xiao Shunzi will follow you. If there is still someone missing, the queen can choose in the palace. Except for the people from the queen mother, who need the queen mother's consent, the rest can be transferred directly to Kunning Palace."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." The Queen smiled with satisfaction, but not to Emperor Jingren, but to Xiao Shunzi.
The auspicious time had arrived and the officials from the Ministry of Rites came to remind Emperor Jingren that it was time to appear. Emperor Jingren, hand in hand with the Empress, walked into the main hall together, leaving Xiao Shunzi alone, unable to stand steadily, and sat down on the ground with a thud.
He never expected that all the time he had carefully served the emperor was not worth a word from the queen!
When Xiao Shunzi first heard the Queen say "Emperor Jingren is the emperor", he felt that he understood. Rather than vying for favors and causing trouble for Emperor Jingren, sharing his worries was the first choice. What he had to do was not to try his best to please Emperor Jingren, but to subtly make Emperor Jingren feel that there was someone by his side to share his worries. He wanted Emperor Jingren to feel comfortable using him in both life and politics, and feel that using others would be a little inconvenient and uncomfortable. After achieving this goal, he could start the next plan.
But... after working so hard for so long, his position in Emperor Jingren's heart is not as good as the Queen's casual words.
Following Emperor Jingren these days, Xiao Shunzi has understood that many things are not as simple as they seem. The reason why the Queen was so successful in getting her over this time was not because his relationship with Emperor Jingren had just eased, but because he mentioned the selection of concubines! When the selection of concubines was mentioned, an emperor like Emperor Jingren would definitely realize that he would neglect the Queen because of it. So, in order to make up for his guilt towards his first wife, what was the point of sending a eunuch!
After figuring this out, Xiao Shunzi sat on the ground in despair. He knew that from the moment the Queen opened her mouth, he was out of the game.
Compared to Xiao Shunzi's despair, the Queen followed Emperor Jingren with the attitude of a victor, offered sacrifices to heaven and prayed for blessings, accepted the worship of all officials, and raised a toast with Emperor Jingren.
"The first cup is for the good harvest and the happy people last year, and for the good weather and prosperity of the country today. Let's raise our cup." Emperor Jingren raised his glass with a serious face and drank the first cup of wine in the new year.
All the officials knelt and raised their glasses at the same time. They all raised their heads to toast. While toasting, the Queen used her wide sleeves to cover her face and glanced at the Prince of Huainan who was sitting in an improper posture.
One more missing.