The Qin dynasty's conquest of China shook the mountains and rivers, and the roof tiles of the Epang Palace shone brightly, yet the dynasty perished after only two generations.
During the reign of Emperor Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty, grain ships stretched as far as the eye could see, and the sails on the Grand Canal resembled layers of clouds. However, the dynasty declined after the An Lushan Rebellion.
The bustling marketplace depicted in the Song Dynasty painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" was packed with people, and the painted boats on the Bian River carried singing girls who sang until dawn, but ultimately they could not withstand the iron hooves of the Jin army.
But in the end, none of these can escape the law of "no more than three hundred years".
Those phrases like "the dynasty lasted only three hundred years" and "when things reach their peak, they decline; the way of heaven is cyclical" are like a fine thorn stuck in my heart.
Even turning the pages felt rough on my fingertips, like touching a cold, angular stone.
But I'm determined to give it a try, just in case? What if Zhao Ning can break free from this cycle and allow the rules of "women can also hold power" and "there is no difference between men and women" to be passed down for longer?
Even if they ultimately cannot escape the fate of rising to prominence and then declining, they should still leave a unique mark on history.
May future generations of this world, when they open the volumes of the History of Ning, be able to point to the three characters "Ning Yuanhe" and say: "Look, this emperor once paved the way for us."
This thought is like a nanmu pole, firmly supporting me from a young child to someone with graying temples.
I gradually became known among my courtiers as a "calm and decisive" monarch.
During a year of famine, the Yellow River breached its banks, and refugees from both north and south of the Zhuohe River flocked to the outskirts of Beijing. The makeshift thatched huts stretched from Yongdingmen to Nantong Bridge, seemingly endless.
The veteran officials knelt outside the imperial study, weeping as they offered their advice. Their robes were stained with mud, and their foreheads were bruised from kowtowing.
They said, "We must reserve grain for the capital and for the army, otherwise what if there is chaos? The ancestral legacy cannot be destroyed in Your Majesty's hands!"
Despite strong opposition, I issued an edict to open the granaries, ordering the Grand Canal Transport Commissioner to dispatch thirty grain ships overnight to transport all the grain from the Tongzhou granary to the disaster area.
He also personally wrote the six characters: "Only when the people are at peace can the country be stable; when the people are starving, the country is in danger."
The cinnabar was used to make a rubbing on the screen wall outside the Ministry of Revenue, so bright red that all passing officials could see it and remember it.
This is what the Regent taught me: the country belongs to the people, not to the grain piled up in the granaries. Without the people, even the fullest granaries cannot protect the country.
The barbarian calamities in the North were overcome thanks to me, Zhao Ning, but after recovering, they came to provoke us during the winter snow.
The messenger knelt outside the palace with a blood-stained battle report. The blood on his armor had frozen into ice shards. His teeth chattered as he spoke, and his lips were purple from the cold.
I picked up my pen and wrote the eight characters "Those who offend Zhaoning, though far away, shall be punished" on the challenge letter. The ink seeped through the paper where the pen touched the paper, and it had a sharp edge to it, just like when the Regent was reviewing memorials.
Even the chief eunuch Li Fuquan was stunned. After stepping down, he secretly told the palace servants, "His Majesty's calligraphy has the regent's insightful wisdom."
His strokes were like cutting through tangled hemp, even more forceful than when the Regent issued his declaration of war!
Later, I followed my father's example and passed the throne to the crown prince early.
The boy was sixteen years old this year. His heroic spirit in his eyes and brows was just like that of the Ning family's ancestors. He was already capable of handling things on his own, and when he was judging corruption cases, he flipped through the account books with a rustling sound.
When dealing with local officials who deceived their superiors, the gavel fell with a force even harsher than mine, and the verdict was written with more decisiveness than mine had back then.
Even the Crown Prince's tutor stroked his beard and praised, "This child is more composed than His Majesty was back then. He is meticulous and ruthless. If the Regent sees this, he will surely smile and say, 'It wasn't a waste of his teaching.'"
On the day I took off my dragon robe and put on my moon-white everyday clothes, I untied the heavy jade belt from my waist. The jade hook jingled against the plain fabric, and I felt so light that I felt like I could float away.
Even breathing was easier than usual, as if a burden that had been weighing on him for twenty years had finally been lifted. The reports, disasters, and wars piled on that burden could finally be put down gently.
Only when he became the retired emperor did he truly experience the "leisure" that the regent had mentioned on that snowy night.
Every morning, the palace servants would bring warm almond porridge to the corridor, with a rock sugar lotus seed nestled in it, so sweet it soothed the heart. A dish of pickled vegetables, including my favorite crisp cucumber, was placed beside the bowl.
After I finished my porridge, I took the bamboo birdcage that the emperor had specially found and went for a stroll in the Imperial Garden.
The thrushes in the cage were tributes from Jiangnan. Their feathers were so glossy they looked like they had been coated with pine soot ink. They sang clearly and melodiously, and could sing from the moment they entered the garden until they left.
Even the butterflies that were passing by stopped on the cage to listen, their wings trembling, reluctant to fly away.
The emperor said that the thrush "understands human nature and knows that the Empress Dowager likes to listen, so it was specially chosen."
Watch as the palace maids carry engraved copper kettles to water the peonies, the spouts tilting downwards.
Water droplets fell on the pink and white, bright red petals, rolling into jade beads, and dripped down the petal tips onto the bluestone slab, splashing out tiny wet marks, like a handful of sparkling diamonds.
Occasionally, a petal is blown by the wind and falls onto the copper kettle, where it is poured into the soil along with the water droplets.
The palace maid smiled and said, "This is fertilizer for the flowers. They will bloom even more beautifully next year. Your Majesty, please come back next year. They will surely be even more beautiful than this year."
Listen to the old eunuch Zhang Desheng, who guards the garden, tell some interesting stories about the neighborhood. The Lin's Silk Shop on West Street has changed its manager, who is now Lin Aman, a captain who fought alongside General Mu back in the day.
His left hand still bears the scars of war, a line running from his wrist to his elbow.
The silk shops that open now have patterns that are even more exquisite than those of the Imperial Clothing Bureau in the palace. Even generals come to buy their embroidered "Battle Lotus" designs, saying that they "carry the spirit of the battlefield."
Even the princess from a neighboring country sent someone to buy it, saying, "The flowers woven by the women of Ning Dynasty have a heroic air about them, and wearing them makes you feel like you can fight."
Xie, a scholar from the east of the city, passed the imperial examination and was appointed as the magistrate of Suzhou. Within three months of taking office, he had arrested all the salt merchants who had been bullying and monopolizing the market, and distributed all the confiscated silver to the people.
The people erected longevity tablets for her, inscribed with "Thank You, Upright Official," and incense burned continuously. Even the prefect of Suzhou wrote a letter praising her for "having the demeanor of an excellent official of ancient times."
Even Liu Wan'er, the daughter of the Liu family, a former official of the Xuanyuan Kingdom, went to study at the academy in Jinxiu County with a cloth bag on her back.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
