For the ministers who received the note, they didn't know whether to be happy or sad during these few days in late March, because Emperor Zhao was out of the city for more than three days.
There were 12,000 soldiers in the imperial camp, including Wang De's army, Fu Qing's army, Huyan Tong's army, Qiao Zhongfu's army, Zhang Jing's army, Xin Xingzong's army, and Xin Yongzong's army. Zhao Jiu visited them one by one. In addition to reissuing the military salaries, he also took the opportunity to check the vacancies, draw up a rough roster, and promoted some grassroots officers. Then he watched more than a dozen sumo matches, two Cuju games, and saw countless weird tattoos... Finally, he personally wrote a rough military medical regulation, such as not allowing drinking raw water, spreading quicklime on the ground, and boiling bandages in boiling water. Then he returned to the city with satisfaction.
However, just after returning to the city and before entering the palace, Emperor Zhao met Yan Xiaozhong, the acting governor of Nanyang Prefecture, on the street outside the palace, whom he had not seen for only two days, and then learned an absurd story from Yan Shaoyin.
"I...what does this mean?" The weather was a little gloomy, but there were many pedestrians and officials who hurriedly bowed and saluted on the main street of Nanyang Prefecture. Although they did not look up at this time, they were all listening with their ears perked up. Emperor Zhao's face was flushed, and he was stunned for a long time before he reacted.
"What I mean is," Yan Xiaozhong replied solemnly, "Your Majesty has just arrived in Nanyang, and the people of Nanyang are seeing you for the first time, so the people in the city are curious and everyone is watching your behavior. At this time, please be careful to avoid rumors."
"That's not what I meant." Zhao Jiu came back to his senses and looked at the crowd of people around him, feeling extremely helpless. "What I meant was that I definitely didn't ask anyone to look for famous beauties in Nanyang! You, Yan Xiaozhong, clearly accompanied me to distribute military pay outside the city a few days ago, how could you not know? As for marrying all the women in Nanyang to the imperial soldiers... Even if I did have an order for the ministers to pay attention to marrying the soldiers to put their minds at ease, can you believe such a rumor?!"
"Of course I know." Yan Xiaozhong stamped his feet in front of his horse and said loudly. "Of course I don't believe it! I guess those who spread the news just thought it was a joke when it first spread, but as it spread more and more, people became more and more convinced! And in my opinion, the incident may not be caused by the usual marriage of soldiers, there must be some eye-catching twists and turns... Your Majesty, the reason why I came here to wait is because there are rumors that more than a dozen famous beauties and a hundred newly selected palace maids are already in the palace!"
Zhao Jiu was stunned, but he looked at Yang Yizhong and Feng Yi who were accompanying him.
The latter two understood and immediately went to the palace. But after a moment, they hurried back and spoke in a low voice with Emperor Zhao.
Emperor Zhao finally understood what was going on, and issued an order in public to summon all the famous beauties and palace maids out of the palace.
In this way, they waited for another half an hour. Everyone watched helplessly as seven or eight small curtained carriages, each surrounded by a dozen maids and servants, drove out of the palace. Emperor Zhao then shook his head repeatedly, reined in his horse, and personally spoke to the carriages:
"My dear ladies, it's not that I don't like your looks, nor that I don't want to enjoy a gentle and peaceful life. It's just that the country is in danger, and the Jin people can come at any time... It's not that there is no point in going home until the Xiongnu is destroyed, but that in the future, I may have to go out on military business like I have these few days, and not live in the palace... If I were not here, you would have lived in this temporary palace for a few days, and you should have seen how deserted this palace is, how scarce things are, and I'm afraid it's not even as good as ordinary wealthy families. So why do so many of you spend your youth in such a place for nothing? You must know that even my original concubines were settled in front of the Queen Mother of Yangzhou and have never come here. So, I will make the decision for you today. Those who want to go home can go home, and those who don't want to go home, I will find a good marriage for you! What do you think?"
After a while, apart from the laughter coming from the two curtained carriages, there was no other movement. Even the many trusted ministers behind him watched and kept silent, because this kind of matter was not something that the ministers should get involved in, and the only good opportunity for the ministers to get involved was snatched away by Yan Xiaozhong, so they could only pretend not to see it.
When Emperor Zhao saw this, he simply stepped forward and pointed with his hand, giving the eight curtained carriages in turn to Han Shizhong, Yuwen Xuzhong, Lü Benzhong (Lü Haowen's eldest son, the newly appointed Zhongshu Sheren), Zhang Jun, Hu Yin, Lin Jingmo, Yan Xiaozhong, Liu Ziyu... Except Han Shizhong, all of them were ministers, famous scholars, and close officials who did not have many family members accompanying them. He hoped that these people, who were born as civil officials, would be more particular and would be better to the women.
However, Liu Ziyu knelt down again and said that he was in mourning, so the curtained carriage assigned to him was again assigned to Yang Yi Zhong by the emperor.
After dealing with this mess, Emperor Zhao finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then led everyone outside the palace into the palace.
Since they had entered the palace, Emperor Zhao did not pursue the intentions of Lan Gui and others. Instead, he changed his clothes and hurriedly issued an edict, asking the ministers, the Chief Censor, the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Camp and the Assistant Military Officers of the Ministry of Personnel under the Privy Council, as well as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, the Academicians of the Jade Hall, the Palace Censors and other close ministers, plus a special person named Yan Xiaozhong, the Acting Governor of Nanyang Prefecture, to gather in the palace to discuss military and national affairs.
These are basically all the core personnel in the so-called secondary capital.
Those who had originally come to the palace naturally did not mention it. The other ministers and important officials hurried over and naturally learned about what was happening outside the palace on the way. However, with so many military and national affairs in front of them, although everyone looked at each other awkwardly in the palace, they did not dare to mention it for the time being.
"Mr. Lu is the Prime Minister of the temporary capital, let's have a brief summary first!" Zhao Jiu, dressed in casual clothes and with a normal expression, hurried into the hall, as if such an embarrassing thing had never happened before. After he sat down on the cold throne, he heard the constant gurgling sounds outside the hall, but he didn't care much about it. Instead, he spoke directly to the matter.
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