On the fifth day, which was the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, before dusk, the eunuchs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened the imperially sealed small box in public at the same time in front of various doors. Unexpectedly, in addition to a movable type string of one hundred strings designated by the Queen Mother Zheng, there was also a movable type string of one thousand strings designated by the emperor!

So far, who still doesn't understand that this is the government's way of compensating the private sector for not having a lantern shed? You must know that even if you don't know how to do the math, you can roughly understand that this kind of six-character lottery with six categories is not very large in scale. The court only sells out 600 to 700 strings of cash every day, and basically all of them are awarded prizes.

For Emperor Zhao, who was always stingy, this one thousand strings of cash was really a loss, but it could also be considered a kind of sincerity.

Without further ado, the 100-guan prize was awarded at Chongming Gate, while the 1,000-guan prize was awarded outside Luhe Gate...and then it turned out that a soldier of foreign descent, who spent only 80 wen and bought eight small Northern Expedition lucky movable type paper tickets, won the prize!

There was no telling how many people were cursing in private around them, but this kind of lottery ticket printed in six movable type, distributed at six gates, was clean and tidy, not too big or too small in scale, and everyone bought it randomly, so even the officials could hardly cheat. After cursing at Fanzi, they could only envy him in their hearts.

After all, for those people below the middle class who were willing to buy lottery tickets, one thousand strings of cash was enough to buy a family mansion and a family shop in the city, and still have a few hundred strings of cash left for their funeral.

This is roughly what the so-called financial freedom of the urban middle class in the feudal era meant.

But no matter what, with the arrival of the 18th night of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival begins for the last time, and the carnival seems to be finally coming to an end.

However, so to speak, on the 19th day of the first lunar month, early in the morning, Emperor Zhao, accompanied by two imperial concubines, as well as several princes and princesses, appeared on the still relatively deserted Xuande Tower.

Not only that, soon, the three empresses dowager, whether it was the Empress Dowager Meng, commonly known as Yuanyou, who had just returned, or the Empress Dowager Zheng, commonly known as Ningde, and the Empress Dowager Wei, commonly known as Chengping, who enjoyed themselves in the harem and seldom appeared in public, were all picked up by the emperor and ascended the Xuande Tower.

That’s not all. Minister Lü Haowen and other ministers in the capital also showed up one after another… Lü Haowen was picked up from Jingyuan by the empress dowager at the same time. The other ministers were about to start their official duties today, so they basically ran into each other head-on… And the emperor has issued an order, ordering the ministers and the important officials of the secret cabinet to go up to the tower to accompany the emperor. If the officials of the secret cabinet happen to be there, they may go up to the tower. The rest of the officials, whether they are in office or retired, will sit quietly along the corridors on both sides of the Imperial Street according to their final rank.

Since the emperor was going to put on such a show to meet his subjects, who wouldn't come? Not to mention the important officials of the secret cabinet went up to the building, even the monks and Taoists in the public cabinet, regardless of the incense and oil that had not been cleaned up in their temples, all hurriedly changed into brand new monk and Taoist robes and gathered in a hurry.

When he came, he was so breathless, but after he arrived, he looked so dignified and had a Taoist and immortal demeanor.

After this group of people arrived, changes occurred in front of the Xuande Tower on the frighteningly wide Imperial Street. Countless craftsmen had already poured out of the Xuande Gate from the palace with all kinds of tools and materials, and began to assemble a strange, huge thing that looked a bit like a headlight in public... but they were not quite sure?

At the same time, the imperial guards were fully armed and lined up around the object, strictly prohibiting others from approaching.

Soon, with Emperor Zhao's unethical surprise attack, the entire Tokyo city seemed to come alive. Countless people gathered together regardless of how long they had stayed up last night, so that the front of Xuande Tower was soon crowded with people, no less than the scene at the gates of the inner city in the past few days.

The craftsmen were still working hard on something, but the noise was gradually getting louder.

Frankly speaking, at this moment, whether it was the important officials on the Xuande Tower or the common people watching the fun below, 80% of their attention was not on the thing on the Imperial Street... After all, there was a 'precedent' for this kind of thing, no matter if it was to do something fancy to have fun with the people, or to learn from the last time when Marat pulled the hemisphere to attract attention to the original school, anyway, everyone was just there to watch the fun... Everyone's eyes were more on Emperor Zhao and the three empresses dowagers, two imperial concubines, two princes, and three princesses.

There are so many things worth mentioning in this combination:

Needless to say, Emperor Zhao himself was dressed in a bright red robe and a stiff-winged hat.

However, Empress Dowager Yuanyou, who had the greatest contribution to Emperor Zhao's enthronement and was the source of his legitimacy to the throne, was the one with the longest relationship with Emperor Zhao. Moreover, the incident of transferring documents on behalf of the two emperors had just happened, which completely ended the seven or eight years of peace between the two sides.

In theory, Empress Dowager Wei was the one closest to Emperor Zhao, but according to gossip, this Empress Dowager was the most, the most difficult to describe, almost the same as Concubine Pan... Whether it was the big candle or the big parrot, they were both real stupid things that could be found out by those who were interested... But it was not her fault. If Emperor Zhao himself had not stood out, she would have been a nobody in the harem of Emperor Taishang Daojun, just like if Concubine Pan had not slipped through the net and became pregnant at the beginning, she would not have had such good fortune today.

Queen Mother Zheng is the most well-known, and is recognized to have the highest prestige among the people and the highest level of harem, but she is the most silent one at the moment and was the quietest one before.

As for the two imperial concubines, there is no need to say anything. The reality that there is no queen and there may never be one in the future is enough to make these two sing rival songs for the rest of their lives... However, today Imperial Concubine Pan is dressed extremely gorgeously, which complements the emperor's bright red robe. If the ignorant people saw her from afar, they might think she was the queen!

As for Concubine Wu, maybe it’s because she’s already showing her pregnancy, so it’s difficult for her to wear those kind of fitted and luxurious clothes?

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