After Xiaocao had the jade put away, she packed up and went back to the palace.
The palace banquet on New Year's Eve is a family banquet. Of course, the scope is relatively wide. All royal family members are included, and married princesses who are still alive can bring their husbands and children and grandchildren to participate, so the number of people is also not small.
Of course, there is a scope for royal relatives. Not all those with royal blood are included. After all, the emperor may have many sons, generation after generation. If all of them are counted, the number is really terrifying. Therefore, these relatives refer to those who still have titles, including their descendants who are royal relatives.
Except in special circumstances, such as significant contributions, royal titles are inherited by downgrading.
The eldest son of a prince inherits the title of a county prince, and the other sons are demoted two ranks to General Guarding the Country. The eldest son of a county prince inherits the title of General Guarding the Country, and the other sons are demoted two ranks to General Supporting the Country, and so on. After General Supporting the Country, there are four more ranks of titles: General Serving the Country, Lieutenant Guarding the Country, Lieutenant Supporting the Country, and Lieutenant Serving the Country.
Inheriting a title by lowering one rank and inheriting a title by lowering two ranks are naturally two completely different concepts. Although under normal circumstances, the eldest son should inherit the title by lowering one rank, this is also the normal situation. What if the eldest son is gone, or even all the legitimate sons are gone
Therefore, the "struggle for succession" among the royal family members was also quite brutal. There was even a situation where more than a dozen brothers were killed, which was even more brutal than most fights among princes. However, since then, the royal family has made a rule that only legitimate sons can inherit the title directly, and this brutality has been curbed. Then, naturally, they would try every means to keep the legitimate sons.
Of course, at the same time, one must try to live as long as possible. One more year of life means one more year of honor for the family. If one dies, the honor will be reduced significantly, especially for those in the last two ranks of nobility. For a Lieutenant of Fuguo, there is only one legitimate son who can inherit the title of Lieutenant of Fengguo, but after the Lieutenant of Fengguo, there is nothing. One needs to rely on oneself to fight for everything like ordinary people. If the family has successful descendants, it's fine, otherwise, one will have to eat dirt.
If you want to live longer, is it okay not to hold Princess Anguo in your arms
Therefore, Xiaocao's popularity among the royal family is really good.
When seeing Xiaocao, many people took the initiative to say hello, and some people's attitudes were even a bit flattering.
Xiaocao is calm and has the same attitude towards everyone. She will not refuse normal medical consultations. Of course, if anyone has to come to her for any small problem, she doesn't have the time and energy to do so.
Most people have come to understand this in the past few months. To be more specific, more than a month ago, Xiaocao was almost busy to the point of fainting, but an old princess came to her house in a hurry for her little grandson and insisted on taking Xiaocao to the Prince's Mansion. As a result, it turned out to be a trivial matter, which could be done by just finding a doctor from the Imperial Hospital to prescribe some medicine. Xiaocao turned cold on the spot, and then, the old prince was also scolded by Emperor Xuanren in the palace.
You know, a long time ago, a concubine in the front and back palace became spoiled because of her pregnancy, and the entire harem was warned.
Everyone knew that unless it was a serious or life-threatening illness, Princess Anguo should not be blamed.
Since Emperor Xuanren ascended the throne, except for the first few years, he was somewhat ruthless. Later, when the situation stabilized, he gradually restrained himself. As long as he didn't commit any trouble, he would appear to be particularly gentle and kind. Year after year, many people also knew that at this time, it was best not to have any other messy things, let alone do anything weird. Over the years, everyone has formed a habit of putting those things aside and feeling a little more relaxed. Therefore, the family banquets in the palace can be harmonious and the atmosphere is full.
Although they did not formally take their seats, everyone sat together. This time, Xiaocao was not next to Emperor Xuanren, but sat with Princess Fukang and Fan Wuguo. The younger generations were saying auspicious words to Emperor Xuanren and the Empress Dowager, and making fun of them. Emperor Xuanren would give them small gifts from time to time. At this time, they did not care about the value of the gifts, but paid attention to the meaning.
Several of Emperor Xuanren's sons were married, so there were naturally quite a few grandchildren. However, in terms of favorites, Prince Duan's two legitimate sons still took the top spot, and everyone else was envious and jealous.
Xiaocao also likes this kind of atmosphere.
The emperor will host a banquet for all officials tomorrow, so, to a certain extent, it can be regarded as wishing the emperor and the empress dowager a happy new year. After all, in the first month of the year, ordinary families will visit each other to wish each other a happy new year, but the palace will not do so.
Emperor Xuanren was always generous to younger generations, so even though the things distributed were only small things, the total number was still quite large.
However, as Xiaocao is a new member of the royal family this year, it is natural that the younger generations will come to "greet the New Year" to her. Led by the eldest son of Prince Duan, there is a long group of little kids, no matter whose children they are, they always make people feel pity for them.
Before entering the palace, the head nanny prepared a lot of purses for Xiaocao, just for this moment. So Xiaocao was not shy. She distributed the purses to everyone with a smile and even patted everyone's head.
"Since An Guo likes children, he should get married early and have two of his own." Emperor Xuanren said with a smile.
"Let's wait until the hospital is completed." Xiaocao did not hesitate to answer this question.
When Wei Tingyu found out about this, he was so happy.