Chapter 223 (This appears to be a fragment of a larger text, possibly related to a mobile phone or a phone. The last part, "The phone," seems to be a separate, unrelated sentence.)
Following the investiture ceremony, news of Prince Rui, Qi Chengming, becoming the new crown prince began to spread rapidly beyond the capital, and the repercussions are still unfolding.
The atmosphere in Kyoto gradually became mysterious.
The Emperor issued a series of new imperial edicts, bestowing upon the retired Grand Tutor Mu the title of tutor to the Crown Prince. He also designated three vacant palaces in the vicinity of the Prince's residence as the new Eastern Palace, with plans to begin construction on an auspicious day. The Eastern Palace was granted to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, and the newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) and Hanlin Academy scholar of this year were appointed to assist in managing the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
At this point, the positions of Grand Chamberlain, Junior Grand Chamberlain, Prefectural Assistant, Left Vice Minister, Right Assistant Minister, Head of the Imperial Stud, and Proofreader under the Crown Prince were filled by newcomers.
Out of thoughtful consideration, Emperor Hongren left the position of Grand Chamberlain to Song Gu, the former Grand Steward of Prince Rui's Mansion, and the high-ranking positions such as Junior Chamberlain were also left to be appointed by Prince Rui's Mansion. He only appointed Qin Liusong, the newly appointed Jinshi this year, as Left Vice Minister of the Imperial Household Department, and ordered some Hanlin Academy scholars to fill the position of Grand Chamberlain.
This gave His Highness the Crown Prince a real pool of people in the court who could fight for him, a right personally tacitly approved by His Majesty.
Inside the former Prince Rui's mansion, everyone was happy about the good news, but the few trusted confidants in the main courtyard who knew the truth were troubled.
Song Gu: "..."
"Your Highness, is this appropriate?" Xiao Dezi asked with equal concern. The He family, having risen to prominence later, had already been appointed Junior Chamberlain, yet Mr. Qin, who had rendered great service within their ranks, was parachuted in and his position was actually below Mr. He's? Did this make sense?
"This is the Emperor's appointment." Qi Chengming had no choice but to sigh, rubbing his forehead. "We can only find an opportunity to promote Mr. Qin as soon as possible."
Fortunately, no matter what, Mr. Qin was officially appointed to the Eastern Palace's Chamberlain's Office by Emperor Hongren, so promoting him would not be hindered, and Emperor Hongren would be pleased to hear about it.
"I'll talk to Mr. Qin about it then." Qi Chengming hadn't seen his trusted minister, Mr. Qin, for almost a year, and the thought of it made him feel like each day was an eternity. He wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with him.
His Majesty granted the newly appointed scholars a leave of one to three months, allowing them to return home in glory.
Mr. Qin was no exception. He was from Ruzhou, not far from the capital. Although there were hardly any people left in his family, and his page still followed him, this time he was preparing for his wedding. He needed to return to his old home to make the necessary preparations for the marriage, and after the wedding and his leave, he would return to the capital to serve his country.
Even if Qi Chengming were completely oblivious, he wouldn't bother someone at this time.
"Send over the wedding gift I chose to congratulate Mr. Qin on his upcoming marriage." Qi Chengming personally went to the storeroom and selected a pair of auspicious jade scepters with intertwined mandarin ducks, made by the imperial court. The jade was warm and delicate, made of top-quality seed jade. These items were valuable and auspicious, and could be passed down as family heirlooms for generations to come in Mr. Qin's family.
"This servant will deliver it personally," Xiao Chengzi volunteered, knowing how much his Highness valued Mr. Qin. Unfortunately, His Majesty had already personally bestowed the marriage, a testament to the Emperor's immense favor. As the Crown Prince, he could no longer leave the capital at will, nor could he reveal their close relationship, thus he couldn't go to Ruzhou to witness the wedding.
Having heard this, Song Gu felt relieved and smiled slightly as he reported, "Your Highness, the newly drafted list from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices is here."
"Let me see." Qi Chengming was curious about how his friends had been divided up.
Zhang Ting was assigned to the position of Right Registrar of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Huang Lan's brother, whose real name was Huang Quanyun, was appointed as Left Vice Minister. Shen Congting did not join the Crown Prince's Palace. Qi Chengming guessed that his cousin, Shen Shuzhi, had the ability to control water resources, and that His Majesty might be reluctant to part with this new pillar of the state and wanted to bring him over to see if he had similar talents.
Qi Chengming also saw many familiar names.
Most of the names were those of the top-ranking Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest level of the imperial examinations) in this year's examinations. He couldn't help but glance down at the list, but couldn't find Zhang Ji's name.
Seeing the young prince raise his eyelids, Song Gu knew what the question in his mind was, and answered at just the right time: "I have inquired at the Six Ministries. Scholar Zhang has not yet been appointed, but as expected, he will be sent to serve as a county magistrate. The leave he has left is not enough for him to return to his hometown, so Scholar Zhang will stay in the capital for now."
"...It's a way out, too." Qi Chengming said with relief. "Remember this for me, and find some time to get together with him in the next couple of days."
Emperor Hongren also had his pride.
Simply filling the Crown Prince's Chamberlain's office with this year's new recruits, without assigning Qi Chengming any truly capable assistants in the court, is already a rather unreserved approach. To cramm everyone into the Chamberlain's office, regardless of their merits, would be truly blatant.
Therefore, Emperor Hongren only selected some of the best Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest and second-highest ranks) from this year's rankings for Qi Chengming, while those ranked lower were destined to be appointed as officials outside the capital.
"Yes." Xiao Dezi bowed. As the chief eunuch who served him closely, he also acted as a memorandum-keeper.
"Alright...you all go about your business. Go tell Mr. He to submit a memorial for me, stating that it is not advisable to start construction on the Eastern Palace recently, and ask him to persuade the Emperor to postpone the construction." Qi Chengming pondered, and asked Song Gu to deliver a message to He Dajia before leaving.
His companions were all busy with the ticket issue. In Qi Chengming's view, building the Eastern Palace was completely unnecessary; he was perfectly comfortable living in the Prince Rui's Mansion. He figured a new economic storm would soon sweep through the capital, and the imperial family would be too poor to afford building the Eastern Palace for him.
"yes."
Song Gu thought about what would happen next after the "crown prince's investiture" and skipped the "coup d'état" incident. He took his leave thoughtfully, his expression slightly composed.
It was getting late at that time.
Qi Chengming had been busy all day since the end of court, and only now did he finally have a moment to catch his breath. He habitually dismissed everyone in the main courtyard, lay back down on his bed alone, took off his boots, let his hair down, and closed his eyes.
Seeing this, Xiao Dezi quietly closed the tent flap and left without a sound.
The young prince appeared to be extremely tired and had fallen asleep early, but in reality, he wanted to remain undisturbed and quietly continue observing the changes in his infrastructure system.
Today, in court, he only observed changes in the infrastructure system's [personal information] and [territory].
Qi Chengming quickly scanned the three items behind him: [Shop], [Tasks], and [Achievements].
The [Shop] no longer contains the same nine items! In addition to them, a new page has been added with nine new products. Qi Chengming looked through them one by one, both surprised and delighted:
[One Voice-like Pill] 50 points. [One Eye-Catching Pill] 50 points. [One Hearing-Across-the-Fields Pill] 50 points.
[From "Previous Years' County Annals, General Compilation, Part 1"] 100 points. [From "A Review of Emperor Dingguo's Memorials, Volume 1"] 100 points. [From "Records of Officials' Resumes from the Former Dynasty"] 100 points.
[A four-year-old mobile phone with signs of wear and tear] 500 points. [A Dayou brand heavy-duty waterproof drone] 500 points. [An earthquake detector and sensor] 500 points.
Qi Chengming remained relatively calm as he read on, wondering if the contents of the system shop changed according to his status. When he was a prince, it sent him grain seeds; after he became the crown prince, it sent him useful government records and local chronicles to help him learn how to govern...
But when Qi Chengming saw the valuables at the very bottom, his breathing quickened: "...?!"
What did he see? A cell phone!
Although mobile phones were essentially blank devices in ancient times without internet access, they were still mobile phones! With the infrastructure system forming a local area network and generators for charging, mobile phones could serve as small, multi-functional devices and could communicate with other devices at any time.
Drones are even better!
Although it can't be used in the capital, it can be used to assist in Liuzhou, Lingnan, and even Yindao Prefecture... Putting aside other uses, its best application right now is searching for and rescuing people during natural disasters. But the more drones you have, the better... except that the price is prohibitively expensive.
Qi Chengming had already planned to buy a mobile phone, and allocate a portion of the several thousand points he had accumulated over the years to buy drones. With these drones in the hands of his subordinates, they could accomplish many things that manpower could not do at the moment.
Oh, and it's also necessary to buy an earthquake detector.
Qi Chengming stared at the synopsis, perplexed: "..."
The earthquake detector is a small, orange-red box, about the size of a regular toolbox, easy to carry around, and equipped with a set of sensors. However, to make it work, there are no modern wiring and connections. In ancient times, it was simplified to requiring only two basic items: a network and a GPS detection device.
In other words, Qi Chengming could only buy one earthquake detector, connect it to his large radar, and then connect it to the local area network of the infrastructure system. This only allowed him to detect earthquakes near Beijing. If he wanted to detect earthquakes further away, he would have to deploy multiple networked sensors, spreading them outwards like a spider web.
But here's the problem.
Luoyang is not located in an active seismic zone. Throughout history, it has only experienced a handful of minor earthquakes, with the rest being tremors or aftershocks transmitted from surrounding earthquakes.
Qi Chengming's deployment of earthquake detectors in the capital city... was essentially a waste of time. He could only hope to deploy the sensors outwards in groups... but he didn't know how many points that would cost, or how long it would take to reach the nearby earthquake zones.
In the short term, it is an absolutely useless plan, but in the long term... it is a life-saving national measure.
'...It's decided.'
Qi Chengming took a deep breath and kept the matter in mind.
He can accumulate experience little by little, and perhaps one day in the future, earthquake monitoring instruments can be connected across the country... As long as it is detected early, there is hope for early warning to the people and saving more lives.
At this moment, Qi Chengming, who was praying from the bottom of his heart, did not think at all about the fact that he was forced to seize the throne for the hope of returning home, or whether he would be able to return home one day, thus rendering his plans futile.
Okay, that's enough about worrying about the country and its people.
Qi Chengming couldn't wait to snuggle under the covers and buy the phone, ready to excitedly unwrap the gift.
"...?" He stared at the familiar phone that had appeared out of thin air in his palm, stunned in disbelief.
etc……
This black appearance, this subtle feel, and the few tiny scratches on the screen... isn't this... isn't this Qi Chengming's phone from before he transmigrated?!
He has so many novels, music, and videos on his phone!!
Upon realizing this, ecstasy washed over me like a tidal wave.
Qi Chengming wrapped himself up like a caterpillar and suddenly began to wriggle wildly and silently on the bed, so moved that he wanted to cry.
Oh my god! He'd been gone for years—a modern man separated from his phone for so long! His beloved mental nourishment had finally returned!!
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