"You're really disappointed. I am Shen Lanxi. Who are you?" Shen Lanxi asked deliberately.
Shen Yuantang stared in disbelief at the woman in front of him who looked to be only in her early thirties. It was Shen Lanxi's face, and it was also the tone of her voice.
She is Shen Lanxi, she really is Shen Lanxi.
"Big sister, I'm Yuan Tang, Shen Yuan Tang. I'm your own sister!"
Shen Lanxi said coldly, "How dare you impersonate my own sister."
Shen Yuantang trembled at the reprimand. What did she mean by that?
Does she not intend to acknowledge her?
"I am Shen Yuantang. If my brothers find out that you killed me, they will never let you get away with it!"
Wei Dongzhu: "How dare you! You're about to die and you still dare to spout nonsense. You're a Xiongnu, yet you dare to impersonate His Majesty's sister just to save your own life. You deserve to die!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, kill her."
"The Xiongnu are cunning and treacherous; they absolutely cannot be allowed to live."
"Your Majesty, I have ascertained that this person is the Empress Dowager of the Xiongnu. She is the one who instigated the Xiongnu to betray our Aolai Kingdom."
Shen Yuantang panicked when he heard that so many people wanted to kill him.
"I am Shen Yuantang, a member of the Shen family. You dare to touch me? Try it! I am a princess sent for a political marriage. I made this marriage with the Turks for the sake of the Great Zhou Dynasty. I am a meritorious official!"
"Shen Lanxi, if you dare to kill me, the Shen family will never let you go."
Wei Dongzhu: "Take him away and deal with him along with the rebellious foreign tribes."
Seeing that His Majesty did not stop them, the soldiers immediately obeyed the order.
After a while, Shen Lanxi finally spoke: "If any traitors dare to impersonate my family members in the future, just like today, kill them without mercy!"
"yes!"
Ten days later, the remaining Turkic forces were completely wiped out.
"Your Majesty, what should be done with the Turkic people who did not participate in the rebellion?"
Shen Lanxi glanced at the person who spoke: "Are there any Turkic people? There are only citizens of my Aolai Kingdom."
The speaker understood that if it were any other emperor, he would have taken this opportunity to exterminate the Turks.
His Majesty may appear to be a tough ruler, but in reality he is a wise and benevolent one.
...
News of His Majesty's victorious campaign quickly reached the capital. Along with it came reports of His Majesty's valiant deeds and battle reports.
"If Your Majesty had not already ascended to a high position, the world would surely have bestowed upon Your Majesty the title of God of War."
“Your Majesty is the true God of War; the previous one was a false God of War.”
It has been a long time since anyone has thought of Zhou Ruyuan. The title of a war god has once again reminded the world of the person who mistook fish eyes for pearls.
In the end, they would all sigh and say that Zhou Ruyuan was blind and foolish.
A general was reassigned to guard the Northwest, and Wei Dongzhu and his son returned to the capital together with the expeditionary force.
However, when they were almost at the capital, Wei Dongzhu and his son went to the imperial mausoleum, while the expeditionary force headed straight for the capital.
Nothing had changed in the capital. When Shen Lanxi left, everything was the same as before; she appointed a regent minister. The regent minister handled state affairs on behalf of the people, and each subordinate performed their duties diligently, with no one slacking off.
On the day of the welcoming ceremony, the entire Shen family came, including the married daughter, the engaged daughter-in-law, and the young children.
Not long after Shen Lanxi returned to Beijing, Shen Congli passed away.
Not long after, Shen Conglian and Miao also passed away one after another.
A few days later, Shen Lanxi officially abolished the mourning period for fathers in the imperial court. The officials only offered some casual advice, but were secretly very happy about it.
If an elder dies, one must observe a year of mourning at home. With officials changing so quickly in the court, will they still have a place when they return?
The Shen family secretly rejoiced when this system was introduced.
If elders in the family pass away one after another, and each person has to come to observe the mourning period, they will have to stay at home for three years. Even if they don't have to go through the mourning period, they will still have to stay at home for a year.
Although they had already established a firm foothold in the capital, they couldn't withstand the sheer hard work of their subordinates.
Just two days ago, a detective in his early twenties was promoted to the position of Chief Clerk of the Court of Judicial Review.
Going back further, after His Majesty personally led the expedition, he returned and appointed many young generals who had accompanied him to the Northwest. The ministers of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Personnel were getting younger and younger.
If they don't work hard now, they will definitely be replaced when they get older.
A sense of crisis made them afraid to rest every day.
The sons of the Shen family gradually began to show their talents. Among them, the most outstanding was Shen Qingshan, the son of Shen Yuanjun, followed by Shen Zhongshan, the son of Shen Yuankun.
Shen Chengfeng, who had previously held the top spot among his brothers, had fallen behind. His marriage was fraught with difficulties, and although he later joined the army, he made steady progress, but frankly, he accomplished nothing and remained in the position of a fourth-rank military officer.
In a few years, when the younger generation grows up, if a few of them become successful, he might even be pushed out of the top three.
As for the woman, Shen Emei, although she had secured an official position after giving birth, unfortunately became pregnant again. Not long after giving birth, and after only half a year of working in the court, she became pregnant again.
From then on, she gradually distanced herself from the court, spending her days at home taking care of her children and managing the inner quarters. Even now, she has not been able to extricate herself from the affairs of the inner quarters.
Shen Yuanjing was very disappointed in his daughter and began to focus his energy on the sons in his family.
His eldest son was mediocre, his second son was dull-witted, his third son was sickly, and his fourth son was clever, but he didn't use his cleverness to study or practice martial arts. He only thought about playing every day. He didn't plan to support his daughters anymore. He had realized that there were few daughters like His Majesty in the world, so he focused his energy on his younger children.
Furthermore, his second wife suffered postpartum hemorrhage during childbirth, and he then married the daughter of a minor official of the sixth rank.
Although the daughter of a minor official cannot compare to the Shen family in terms of social standing, she is well-educated, reasonable, and in the prime of her youth. I believe that such a wife will surely raise the children in the family well, and the children they bear will also be much more intelligent.
Shen Yuanxu also remarried the daughter of a minor official in the capital, a woman who was even much younger than Shen Chengfeng. Not long after Shen Yuanxu's remarriage, the Shen family began discussing dividing the family property.
The number of children in the Shen family grew day by day, and even the old house plus Shen Lanxi's later mansion, which is now the Shen family's residence, could not accommodate them all.
Furthermore, because the new wives of the elders in the family were all younger than their children, there were many frictions, and over time, they began to quarrel.
If Shen Yuanxu and Shen Yuanjing hadn't sternly warned that if the matter reached His Majesty and they were to be beaten and killed, they would have already taken it to Shen Lanxi.
Shen Yuanjing and Shen Yuanxu were so annoyed that they finally discussed it and sent a letter to the rest of the family.
The elders have passed away, and they are getting old; it's time to separate the family.
A month later, after the court session ended in the Golden Palace, the two brothers, Shen Yuanjing and Shen Yuanxu, approached Shen Lanxi.
"Your Majesty, the Shen family has now flourished, and your former residence is no longer sufficient. After discussion, we have decided to divide the family property." (End of Chapter)
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