After the crown prince's wedding, the emperor's health deteriorated rapidly and he only lasted half a year before finally passing away.
The previous emperor passed away and the new emperor ascended the throne, but the Great Zhou Dynasty did not stop its steps and the gears continued to move forward.
After the new emperor ascended the throne, the first thing he did was to enthrone his Crown Princess as Queen. The second thing he did was to confer titles on the meritorious officials who had followed him to conquer the Northern Qi royal court. In the process, he also conferred titles on several officials who had not left the capital and the sons of meritorious officials. Only then did other officials realize that it was not that Xiao Mingyu had no people left in the capital on the border, but they were hiding deeper than anyone else. It was not unfair that King Cheng and his son lost.
Xiao Mingyu further conferred the title of Supreme Emperor on Prince Duan, and conferred more titles on Lady Fan until there was no more title to be conferred. The ministers protested, but Xiao Mingyu was originally willful, so how could he listen to advice? After the old emperor passed away, he replaced the royal guards in the palace with people he brought back. Five thousand soldiers were distributed throughout the capital, and no one dared to move rashly.
Xiao Mingyu still has feelings for Prince Duan. He believes that the best reward is to let his father enjoy the supreme status and honor. Prince Duan, no, now the emperor, is naturally very happy. He doesn't think about whether he can afford it or not. As long as his son dares to give it, he will accept it.
Xiao Mingyu then carried out drastic reforms in the court, aiming to purge a bunch of corrupt officials. They all cried out for injustice, but the evidence that was then presented silenced them all. The officials had no idea when Xiao Mingyu had collected all the evidence, and he waited until he came to power before presenting it to them.
Is this still the reckless and impulsive Xiao Mingyu they thought he was? He is clearly a man of deep calculations, and there must be a force behind Xiao Mingyu that they don't know about that is monitoring all the officials, which makes them feel uneasy.
They had no idea that the spy chief behind this was the current queen. Xiao Mingyu's reorganization in the court also made the officials no longer interested in reporting the queen's inappropriate behavior, because the queen went to Yuan's Medical Clinic to see patients again.
"What? Are you all silent? Why are you staring at my queen? I tell you, my queen does a better job than any of you. If you want to be the queen half as hard as she is, why should I punish you?"
The ministers who thought they had no evidence were speechless when they heard these words. Why did they hear a hint of boasting? It must be said that this queen was indeed different and very approachable. There seemed to be nothing wrong with this.
Of course, there are still people who refused to give up and wanted to steal Yuan Jing's woman. They waited and waited, one year, two years, five years, ten years. They saw that the Great Zhou Dynasty was governed better and better by Xiao Mingyu, and Xiao Mingyu became more and more arbitrary in the court. However, he never took his eyes off the queen. Whenever he had time, he would come out of the palace to take the queen back to the palace.
It's not that the Queen is clinging to His Majesty, it's that His Majesty can't leave the Queen and is pestering her. If it weren't for the need to attend court or handle government affairs, His Majesty would follow the Queen wherever she goes.
But ten years have passed, and the queen has not yet conceived and given birth to a prince? Thinking of the situation in the late emperor's harem, could this problem be hereditary?
The ministers became anxious. The current emperor was indeed wise and powerful, and his governance had made the Great Zhou gradually show signs of prosperity. The more so, the more they needed an outstanding successor to continue this prosperity.
They couldn't say anything wrong about the Queen. Everyone had seen what the Queen had done over the years. The image of the Xiao royal family was very good now. In addition to the credit of His Majesty, it was also the credit of the Queen. Now Yuan's medical clinics had been opened in various parts of the Zhou Dynasty. Batches of doctors had been trained by the Queen and the imperial physicians in the palace. The goal was to enable ordinary people to afford medical treatment and to vigorously develop Chinese patent medicines.
Above the Yuanshi Medical Clinic is the Royal Imperial Hospital, which specializes in recruiting and training students who are dedicated to and talented in medicine. After training, the students are sent to Yuanshi Medical Clinics in various places. With the Queen alone, the medical world of the Great Zhou is flourishing, and many buried talents have emerged.
I heard that the Queen and His Majesty intend to promote the model of the Imperial Hospital to other fields.
I heard that the Queen has also recruited many outstanding craftsmen, some of whom have already achieved results that will play a huge role.
Anyway, the Queen is doing more and more things, and His Majesty will often discuss important court affairs with the Queen. The court officials want to say that the harem should not participate in politics, but His Majesty has to listen to them.
Now, it seemed that the Queen's only weakness was that she had no children, so court officials began to submit memorials hoping that His Majesty would recruit more concubines to the harem to give birth to princes and train an heir to the throne.
This memorial was submitted for a month. After a month, they found that there were more than a dozen children in the palace. After a closer look, they found that they were all from the royal family. His Majesty looked at them coldly and said, "It's not easy to find an heir. I will call all the children in the royal family who meet the requirements into the palace to educate them uniformly, and finally pass the throne to the most outstanding person. This is the end of the matter. No further discussion is allowed. You should think about how to educate these children."
Someone ran to the retired emperor and wanted him to persuade His Majesty to change his mind. The retired emperor had been living a very comfortable life in recent years. Although he felt a little regretful that the queen did not give birth to his grandson, he had always been obedient and never interfered in the affairs of the previous dynasty. He also knew that his son had made up his mind, and no one except the queen could make him change his mind. This matter also involved the queen, so no one could persuade her.
The emperor emeritus would never destroy the relationship between the empress and the emperor.
Mrs. Fan was not very reassured at first, but when she saw His Majesty doing this, she smiled. She didn't expect His Majesty to do this for Yuan Jing. Even if she was asked to close her eyes immediately, she would be relieved. What the emperors couldn't do doesn't mean that His Majesty can't do it now.
Another ten years passed, and the Zhou Dynasty lifted the maritime ban, opened up to foreign trade, and vigorously developed overseas trade, ushering in a true era of prosperity for the Zhou Dynasty.
This time, Yuan Jing did not want to reveal his identity as a time traveler. He and Xiao Mingyu just gave a little push behind the scenes, and the world developed on its own. Overseas merchants brought high-yield grains, and also brought and spread civilizations from other continents, making the Great Zhou Dynasty increasingly open and many talents emerged. These talents entered the court, making it more vibrant and slowly moving towards lighting up the technology tree.
***
Meng Susu left the city shortly after Xiao Mingyu returned to the capital. She believed that it would not be long before the crown prince Xiao Mingyu would ascend the throne and become emperor.
She hired a carriage and went to Jiangnan because she was from Jiangnan in her previous life.
She thought everything was too simple, believing that she had traveled through time and space and brought with her a mysterious space for cultivating immortals. When she knew the direction of history, she saw herself as the protagonist of this time and space and thought that she could easily get everything she wanted.
But in the end she found that no one around her was simple. She almost got trapped in the capital and couldn't escape, and even implicated her son. She underestimated the world. This time, she just wanted to live the rest of her life as an ordinary person and raise her son. It would be even better if she could return to the modern era after her death.
In a small town in the south of the Yangtze River, there was a widow named Lin Su who had a boy. The mother and son depended on each other for survival. The neighbors on both sides were all kind-hearted and would lend a hand when there was anything going on. Life went smoothly for them.
Lin Su, also known as Meng Susu, hired an embroiderer and opened an embroidery workshop after gaining a firm foothold. In addition to the embroidery business, she also made ready-made clothes for sale. This time, Lin Su no longer relied on the immortal cultivation space, but relied on her own brain and what she had learned in her previous life to make a living. The embroidery workshop had a difficult time at first, but later it opened up and was able to make enough money to support her son's schooling and even had a considerable surplus.
No one here knew her identity, and no one knew that her son Lin Chuanyang had royal blood of the Xiao family. She sent her son to school just to let him study and learn, and she didn't want him to take the imperial examination to become an official, otherwise she was afraid that Yangyang's life experience would be exposed to the public one day, so she was not strict in disciplining him in his studies.
She paid attention to the news in the capital and learned that the former prince ascended the throne after the death of the previous emperor, and that Shuang'er, named Yuan Jing, became the queen. She also knew that the emperor and the queen had withstood the pressure from all the ministers, and that the queen was still practicing medicine and seeing patients. This was the most extraordinary queen since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
In the embroidery workshop, she heard many customers who came to make clothes talk about the queen with envious or jealous tones. The jealous ones often said that the queen had no rules and was unfit to be the mother of the country. Wasn't the queen supposed to manage the harem for the emperor and let him have children? But there were also many people who envied the queen. The queen had the freedom that Shuang'er and other women in ordinary families did not have.
If Meng Susu had just traveled through time from the future, she would definitely have been dismissive, as she was very conceited at that time. But after integrating into this time and space, she knew very well that it was not easy to do this. Both the emperor and the queen's actions were gradually challenging the bottom line of those court officials and dignitaries.
Thinking of the Queen, Lin Su's mood was more complicated than those who talked about him. Thinking back to the events of the past few years and the later history that she still remembered, she was very suspicious that the real protagonist of this time and space was not Xiao Mingrui, not Zhao Han, not Xiao Mingyu, and certainly not her Meng Susu, but Shuang'er named Yuan Jing.
In the past history, Shuang'er entered Xiao Mingrui's backyard, so Xiao Mingrui successfully ascended to the throne, but his ascension to the throne only gave Yuan Jing's Shuang'er a stepping stone, and eventually made Shuang'er the most honorable queen mother in the world, affecting the direction of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
This time, due to Zhao Han's interference, Yuan Jing did not return to the Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion in the capital, but hid his identity. Moreover, it was he who saved Xiao Mingyu's life. This time his fate was entangled with Xiao Mingyu, so it was Xiao Mingyu who was destined to take the throne instead of Xiao Mingrui.
Look, who can become the emperor depends on who Yuan Jing's twins choose. This inference makes Lin Su have to admit it.
Lin Su had heard people talk about the queen so much that she had a strange thought in her mind. Who was the queen? Or was she a time traveler or a reincarnated person? Otherwise, why did she know so much? Her medical skills were so profound that even an ordinary person would not be able to learn them for decades. When Shuang'er first returned to Beijing, she was not even 20 years old. Even if she started learning right after she was born, she would not be able to reach such a level, right?
Although such a thought came to her mind, her curiosity was not as strong as it was at the beginning. This curiosity only made her pay more attention to the news about the queen. Knowing that he opened an imperial hospital to teach medical skills to people all over the world, Lin Suxin said, isn't this a medical school?
Later, even the small town where she lived had a branch of Yuanshi Medical Clinic. Both the consultation fees and the prices of medicinal materials were very affordable. Ordinary people with extra money in their pockets could see a doctor. There were also Chinese patent medicine pills, which were very effective. She even bought some commonly used medicines and kept them at home.
In the past, many people said that the Queen's behavior was out of line, but now more and more people are praising the Queen and putting her on the same level as His Majesty.
Later, when they heard that the Queen was infertile, many people in the country also thought that the Queen should let His Majesty take a concubine to expand the family line. How could His Majesty be without an heir? At that time, she was also watching, wondering how long His Majesty could hold on before he could not withstand the pressure and allowed someone into the harem. Even in modern society, there are still many men who choose to divorce or find a mistress when their wives are infertile, let alone this ancient time.
But the current emperor went beyond her expectations. His Majesty actually announced that he would choose the heir directly from the royal family, and called all the children who met the requirements into the palace for unified education. At that moment, even she could not control her sour emotions. How could there be such an affectionate emperor in the world.
The people have been discussing this for a while, and many people have criticized the Queen, but there are just as many people who stand on her side. Moreover, this was His Majesty's choice.
But because of the Queen's example, more and more women were encouraged to step out of the backyard and show their faces in public.
As she gradually handed over the embroidery workshop to her son and took care of her grandchildren at home, news from the capital once again caused an uproar in the city. His Majesty actually abdicated, handed the throne to the chosen heir, and left the capital with the queen, and their whereabouts were unknown.
Lin Su felt that her whole body was filled with sourness, and she was soaked in a jar of vinegar. In this life, although the queen no longer had the supreme position of queen mother, she won a loyal lover. In both lives, she was a winner in life. Which emperor could do this to the point of not loving the country but only loving the beauty? But Xiao Mingyu did it.
She initially thought that Xiao Mingyu was the kind of iron-blooded emperor who was autocratic and ruthless, and that such an emperor would never give up the power in his hands, but he did what no other emperor could do.
There was more than one embroidery workshop. Her son went to the branches outside to check the accounts. Her grandchildren all went to the school, which was officially opened. Her daughter and Shuang'er could also go to school. Lin Su was the first to agree and sent all her grandchildren in. So when she had nothing to do, she went to the embroidery workshop.
Just after seeing off an old customer, two more guests walked into the embroidery workshop. Lin Su looked up and was about to greet them with a smile, but she was stunned by their good looks. She felt that they were not young, but their demeanor made people know that they were from prominent families, which made her feel a little uneasy.
"My two guests, what would you like to see?"
The shorter man among them smiled as warmly as the spring breeze: "Give us a few sets of men's clothes, and the boss lady can help us choose."
The tall man next to him had an obvious look of disdain on his face, as if he looked down on the clothes in the store, but he didn't want to reject the other man's wishes.
Seeing that the materials of the clothes they were wearing were of high quality, Lin Su invited them to go upstairs, where the quality of the clothes was better than that downstairs, and recommended to them the clothes that she thought were of the best quality in the store.
These two people were indeed not short of money. They bought everything she recommended. Before leaving, they wished her a prosperous business. Lin Su saw them off warmly.
Having done a big business, Lin Su was in a good mood. But after midnight, she suddenly woke up from her dream and sat up abruptly, with big beads of sweat sliding down her forehead. She knew who those two people were during the day. They were the emperor and the queen who had left the capital and disappeared after abdicating. No one could recognize the queen when she dressed as a man.
Although she had never seen these two people up close, His Majesty's outline was somewhat similar to Xiao Mingrui. Coupled with their demeanor, she had no doubt that they were them.
How did they get to her embroidery workshop? Did His Majesty know her whereabouts all along? Or did he just discover it? What should she do? Should she flee again with her family immediately?
No hurry, no hurry, it shouldn't be that dangerous, otherwise what she would be waiting for would be government officials. Besides, if she is found, how could she escape the court's tight net?
She doesn't want to expose her current space anymore. It takes ten days for the condensation in the space to condense into one drop. She basically uses it to regulate her family's bodies and doesn't use it for other purposes. This time she wants to take her family into the space to hide. Can she guarantee that it will not be leaked?
She didn't dare to bet on people's hearts, even her own son.
Lin Su had been feeling uneasy, but after a month, her son returned to her safely, and she finally felt relieved. It seemed that His Majesty and the Queen had no intention of taking action to get rid of their family.
The guests Lin Su entertained that day were Xiao Mingyu and Yuan Jing. After leaving the embroidery workshop, Xiao Mingyu said disdainfully: "Why do you want to buy clothes from her? If you need clothes, just ask someone to send them over. But this woman, hiding here is really safe. Yuan Jing, when do you think she realized that she was exposed?"
Yuan Jing smiled and said, "This dress is not bad. Now that you are out, you have to adapt to life outside and stop being so particular. She has been hiding for decades, so of course she thinks she is safe, so her vigilance has been lowered and she won't be so nervous."
Xiao Mingyu said maliciously: "If she knew that she had been under your surveillance all these years, would she be so scared that she would run away with her family?"
Yuan Jing patted him on the shoulder and said, "Even if they realize our identities, they are unlikely to flee again. After all, this is a different time. My grandson is about to get married, but there is no way to start over in another place."
Xiao Mingyu grabbed Yuan Jing's hand and said, "If she knew that if she stayed in the capital, her children and grandchildren might have a chance to compete for the throne, would she regret it?"
"I don't think so. She went through a lot back then and almost lost her life. How could she dare to get involved in the vortex of right and wrong in the capital again?" Yuan Jing didn't think Meng Susu had such ambitions anymore. It was obvious that she was content with being ordinary now.
When choosing the heir to the throne before, although the situation was much better than when Xiao Mingyu seized the throne, with Xiao Mingyu watching from above, the people below did not dare to act recklessly, but there were still many thrilling exchanges. After all, he and Xiao Mingyu had to pick out the most suitable one.
"Forget it, let's not talk about this woman anymore. Let's go out to sea. I want to go overseas and take a look."
"OK."
The two men left the city that day and headed straight for the coast. The ship was already waiting for them on the seashore.
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