Yue Fei quickly replied, "Your subject obeys the decree!"
Zhao Huan smiled and said, "What I want is not for you to obey the decree, but for you to be genuinely good to Ninth Sister in the future."
"Your Majesty, I will certainly not let you down."
Seeing that Yue Fei had agreed, Zhao Yuanzhu secretly rejoiced, her heart pounding like a deer.
Zhao Huan helped Yue Fei up, patted him on the shoulder, and said in a tone that all men understand, "I have other matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving now (Young man, I'm leaving this to you, do your best, I won't be a third wheel)."
"Farewell to Your Majesty."
Zhao Huan suddenly felt that many things were deliberately making things difficult for him, such as the matter of marrying Zhao Yuanzhu to Yue Fei. Yue Fei was a married man. Although his wife had run away, he had not formally divorced her and was still a legally married couple under the laws of the Song Dynasty.
If Zhao Yuanzhu were to marry into the royal family so hastily, rumors might spread among the people that the royal family had forcibly taken a man from the common people, and that would be a huge disaster.
But Liu was a fugitive from the war, and who knows where she is now? In ancient times, there were no ID cards that could be entered online, and the household registration system was rudimentary. If Liu ran to a new place, she could simply say that her husband Zhang San was dead and start a new life with a new identity.
Even if they could find someone, it wouldn't be a matter of just a few days, but Yue Fei's marriage couldn't be delayed. The sooner it was arranged, the better Zhao Huan would sleep.
So this emperor, whose mind was often impulsive, slapped his forehead and declared: "We must get married! We must get married immediately! I've been suffering from insomnia for days!"
The next day, the people of Tokyo suddenly discovered that the main focus of the Song Dynasty's official gazette was not the new policies, but rather the military's introduction, listing several individuals.
There was Zong Ze, the commander-in-chief of the new army, who introduced his military achievements and past, as well as Marquis of Valor Han Shizhong and Commander Yue Fei.
There were also Zhe Keqiu and his son from the Zhe family army in the Northwest, the brothers Zhong Shidao and Zhong Shizhong from the Zhong family army, as well as Yao Gu, Yao Pingzhong, Zhang Xiaochun and his son, and Wang Bing, Chen Gou, and Zhan Du, the garrison commanders of Hedong in Hebei.
The introductions were quite detailed, which aroused people's curiosity and sense of novelty. This was the first time that the imperial court had publicly displayed the details of its army.
While praising the army for defeating the Jin invaders and pacifying the Northwest, people also noticed some gossip in the introduction of the man named Yue Fei, saying that after he joined the army, his wife abandoned her mother-in-law and son and fled alone in order to make it easier to escape.
The official gazette of the Song Dynasty contained a passage in plain language that commented: "Our heroes are protecting our country and fighting against the Jin invaders with their lives on the front lines. Some women, however, are failing in their duties as wives. What a disgrace!"
For some reason, the Song Dynasty Gazette printed an extra page today. The main page of the page stated that Yue Fei's wife had abandoned her mother-in-law and children during the war and was no longer worthy of being Yue Fei's wife. The emperor personally ordered the end of this relationship.
This can be described as a comprehensive enhancement of the military's image.
During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the army was perceived by ordinary people as hooligans and bandits. People hoped that the army would protect their homes, but at the same time, they were afraid of the army.
However, the war from last year to this year resulted in the Jin Dynasty decimating the northern defenses, but it also helped the Song Dynasty clean up its mixed army. The newly formed, or rather the remaining, army was basically elite, and even if it wasn't elite, it was capable of fighting on the battlefield.
In addition, starting in May, the Privy Council began to streamline its administration and eliminate rogues and scoundrels, while also making adjustments to the local militia.
In this version of the report praising the army, the emperor also left a final sentence: "The army of the Great Song Dynasty is the emperor's army, and it is absolutely loyal to the emperor. The emperor has an army to protect the people. An army that is not loyal to the emperor will be condemned by the whole world. An emperor who does not protect the people will be condemned by the whole world!"
This sentence was also engraved in front of the square of the Privy Council's administrative building.
Taking advantage of this wave of publicity from the Song Dynasty's official gazette, the Imperial Propaganda Department, a branch of the Censorate, also immediately took action. They began to widely publicize the emperor's words in the Jingji Road, Jingdong Road, and Jingxi Road, and wrote the words on banners and displayed them in various places where people could see them.
The people were overjoyed. The emperor was expressing his determination to the world that he would absolutely protect the people from now on!
Meanwhile, the emperor's envoys began arriving in the northwest and Yanyun, bestowing great rewards upon the victories in the northwest and expressing condolences and rewards upon the soldiers and civilians of Youzhou.
Incidentally, the Imperial Propaganda Department began to spread the emperor's ideas throughout the army. These Imperial Propaganda Department members were all eloquent and shrewd, managing to win over various factions within the army.
Over the course of several days, the soldiers were organized to recite and read aloud the emperor's reprimands, repeating his words over and over again.
If the construction of the Martyrs' Shrine marked the beginning of the emperor's efforts to elevate the status of soldiers, then the extensive praise of the military in the Song Dynasty's official gazette signified the beginning of the emperor's reconstruction of the military system.
Taking advantage of this wave of publicity, the emperor also brought up Yue Fei's case and made a decision for him.
When the streets and alleys of Tokyo were filled with talk of Yue Fei, some women even had the idea of marrying him. Among these women were some daughters of wealthy families.
This would have been absolutely impossible in the Song Dynasty. Women with slightly better conditions were unwilling to marry soldiers. Everyone coveted scholars and avoided soldiers like the plague.
The emergence of signs of change is also related to the court's extensive propaganda about the military.
A few days later, the official gazette of the Song Dynasty eagerly announced to the people that the emperor had decreed that the Ninth Princess, Princess Yifu, would marry Yue Fei. This immediately became a topic of conversation among the people of Bianjing (Kaifeng).
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