Chapter 3 The Princess Who Protects the Nation
Three years ago, when Li Yuanzhao came of age, she was conferred the title of Princess Zhenguo.
He was granted a fiefdom consisting of four prefectures and fifty-nine counties, with a fief of thirty thousand households.
The Emperor not only established a residence and government office for her outside the palace, but also renovated the East Palace where he had lived when he was the Crown Prince into the "Xihe Palace" for her to live in.
Moreover, most surprisingly, the Emperor granted her the authority to lead the Imperial Guard.
The Imperial Guards were an elite force responsible for patrolling the outskirts of the imperial city, and were traditionally led by trusted military officers of the emperor. Now, however, they had been handed over to a princess who had just come of age.
From then on, Li Yuanzhao became the only princess in the history of the Great Qi Dynasty to have a fiefdom, and also the prince with the largest fiefdom in history.
Since the founding of the dynasty by Emperor Taizu, the fiefdoms of princes were only one prefecture and a few counties.
The fiefdom of this legitimate princess was several times larger than that of the most favored prince.
Not to mention the power to command troops and the honor of being the "Crown Prince".
The emperor even issued an edict allowing her to enter the court to listen to government affairs and participate in court discussions.
The court and the public were immediately shaken.
The senior officials complained about this and submitted memorials to the emperor, stating that women attending court and interfering in politics violated ancestral rules!
But His Majesty remained stubborn and did not change his mind.
All these honors were due to Li Yuanzhao, who was the only daughter of the late empress and the only legitimate eldest daughter of the Emperor of Great Qi.
Everyone in the world knows that the current emperor, Li Ye, and the late empress, Shen Lang, were childhood sweethearts who shared hardships together.
Back when the Emperor was still the unfavored Prince of Yan, the late Emperor's five sons fought for the throne, resulting in a bloody power struggle.
The Prince of Yan originally wanted to protect himself and stay away from the conflict, but due to the sudden death of the former crown prince, he was forced into this game.
At that time, none of the officials in the court had a high opinion of this taciturn prince.
It wasn't until General Shen, who was guarding the border, married his daughter Shen Lang into the Prince of Yan's mansion.
Later, the Prince of Yan was tricked into leading his troops to the northwest to quell a rebellion.
Princess Yan sold all her dowry to help the Prince of Yan recruit troops. She personally led a light cavalry raid on Tongguan, cutting off the enemy's retreat. She even disguised herself as a merchant's wife to infiltrate the enemy camp and burned three granaries in one night, turning the tide of the battle.
From then on, the Prince of Yan gradually cleared away obstacles and secured his position as crown prince.
On the day the new emperor ascended the throne, Li Ye, in front of all the civil and military officials, took off the dragon robe he had just put on and draped it over Shen Lang's shoulders, vowing, "In this life, my harem will only have you."
For several years afterward, no matter how much the officials advised him to select a concubine, the emperor never took a new one. In the harem, there was only Empress Shen.
After Empress Shen gave birth to her eldest daughter, Li Yuanzhao, the woman who had once been able to laugh and talk freely amidst thousands of soldiers quietly passed away on a snowy night due to old injuries and postpartum hemorrhage, at the young age of twenty-two.
Historians recorded that the emperor held the empress's gradually cooling body and sat in the Jiaofang Palace for three days without holding court.
Later, in order to maintain the stability of the country and to silence the gossips of the imperial family and court officials, the emperor took the Cui family of Qinghe—the sister of Prime Minister Cui—as a concubine, and also selected several other women from prominent families as ladies-in-waiting.
Occasionally, he would visit her, but it was merely a matter of routine.
Now His Majesty is over forty, yet his offspring are unusually few.
Apart from Li Yuanzhao, the eldest daughter born to the late Empress, there were only the second prince Li Yuanyou and the third princess Li Yuanshu born to the Consort, as well as two princesses born to Consorts.
This is why the Emperor's favor towards Li Yuanzhao almost reached the point of blind devotion.
He had her by his side since she was a child, letting her sit on his lap when reviewing memorials and allowing her to listen behind a screen during meetings.
He even personally taught the six arts of horsemanship and archery, as well as the art of governing a country...
The eldest princess indeed inherited the heroic bearing of her parents.
She was exceptionally intelligent and quick-witted. At the age of five, she could recite the entire Book of Poetry word for word, and by the age of ten, she had a thorough understanding of The Art of War and could even point out an error in the Grand Tutor's explanation.
Since entering the court at the age of fifteen to participate in government affairs, Li Yuanzhao has demonstrated his talent for governing the country with swift and decisive measures.
She never made a single mistake in the tasks assigned to her by the Emperor.
Last year, when the Hexi area was flooded, she was ordered to go and provide disaster relief.
Upon arriving in Hexi, her first action was not to open the granaries and distribute grain, but to punish the local officials, executing three county magistrates on the spot for embezzling disaster relief funds.
He then personally led the river workers to survey the river channel, and in just two months, he dredged the silted-up river channel, reinforced the dikes, and solved the problem of flooding that had plagued the area for years.
This spring, she once again swiftly reformed the corrupt practices of the imperial examination system, abolishing the bad habit of "submitting papers" and adding a "blind grading" system, which cut off the avenues for cheating for those powerful families and made poor students cheer with joy.
Gradually, more and more young officials began to secretly admire the eldest princess.
They secretly speculated that this favored and highly talented princess might be the future of the Great Qi Dynasty.
Although the emperor has not yet issued an official edict to establish her as the crown prince, the renovation of the Eastern Palace and the granting of her the power to command troops and participate in government affairs are the most obvious hints.
After all, these were privileges reserved for the crown princes of all dynasties.
While the stubborn old ministers still had reservations about women interfering in politics, they gradually fell silent in the face of Li Yuanzhao's repeated impressive achievements.
However, although the eldest princess was proficient in both literature and military strategy and had outstanding political achievements, she was also ambitious, ruthless, and had a rather arrogant and domineering demeanor.
She could smash the imperial censor's jade tablet in court because of political disagreements, and she dared to make the six ministers kneel in the snow for two hours just to wait for her to finish her lunch.
There are even rumors that she kept more than a dozen male concubines in her Xihe Palace.
They were all handsome and strong.
If the princess were a man, the ministers would only praise her for her masculinity, youthful spirit, and even say that men being lustful is just their nature.
But, by she chance, she was a woman.
In their view, women should adhere to the "three obediences and four virtues," staying hidden in their boudoirs instead of showing their faces in public or even encroaching on the rights that only men should possess.
Therefore, the old ministers used this as an excuse to impeach the princess repeatedly for not being virtuous and proper, for her improper words and deeds, for corrupting public morals, and for her licentious behavior in the palace.
However, Li Yuanzhao has never liked to wrong himself.
Today, the Imperial Advisor just submitted a memorial impeaching the Princess for "improper words and deeds".
The next day, the old minister accidentally fell on his way to court, injuring his bones and muscles, and had to stay in bed for half a year.
In front of the entire court, the Minister of Rites bluntly accused Li Yuanzhao of being "arrogant, extravagant, and dissolute, corrupting public morals."
Less than a month later, an official "accidentally" encountered the Minister engaging in indecent acts with several young male prostitutes at a brothel.
This matter caused a great uproar and eventually alarmed the emperor, resulting in the Minister being dismissed from his post and investigated.
Although no one could provide conclusive evidence that these matters were related to Li Yuanzhao, everyone in the court and the public knew that this was the consequence of offending the Princess.
From then on, no one dared to openly contradict Li Yuanzhao. Even if they were dissatisfied, they could only dare to be angry but not speak out.
The emperor had repeatedly advised her that governing the country should prioritize virtue, and that she should maintain harmonious relations with the court officials in order to gain their true trust and respect.
Although Li Yuanzhao outwardly agreed to his father's request, he remained "unrepentant and did as he pleased."
She never needed any insincere "respect," just as she never believed in the "loyalty to the emperor and love for the country" that the court officials talked about.
In this world, only power and fear are truly real, forcing people to tremble and kneel in submission.
As for the so-called "trust and respect," it's nothing more than a lie used by the weak to comfort themselves.
She knew very well that those who secretly cursed her would one day still have to perform the grand ceremony of kneeling and kowtowing to her, a woman they looked down upon.
That's enough.
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