Extra 3, Empress
Just when I was overwhelmed, my brother came back. I knew they would come back!
After my brother came back, he immediately summoned a few close ministers, found out the whole story, demoted the court officials, and asked Brother Zhao to come to Xizhou to replace me.
When the general arrived at the battlefield, I knew we would win the war! The soldiers seemed to be covered with a shield. As long as they followed the general, they would be invincible and unbeatable!
I asked Brother Zhao about my brother's condition, and he told me that my brother's health was completely recovered this time.
I took the train back home and met the young military doctor again on the train. He had injured his leg on the battlefield and could no longer treat the wounded, so he came back with us.
The more I looked at him, the more familiar he looked. I walked up to him and asked, "Have we met before?"
The young doctor blushed upon hearing this, shook his head and nodded, and spoke after a while: "Yes... I have seen it, but that was many years ago."
"I...my nickname is Tuan Tuan." His face turned even redder after he said that.
I suddenly remembered that about ten years ago, my brother took me out for an outing to watch polo outside the military camp, and we met this child on the way.
I smiled and said, "It's been a long time."
This child suffered from heart disease and his brother performed surgery on him personally. Unexpectedly, he also became a doctor and even went to work in the army.
I chatted with him for a long while. Tuantuan was a very lovely person as his name suggested. He spoke softly with a warm and pleasant voice, and he talked about difficult and complicated diseases that I had never heard of.
I looked at him quietly, thinking that it would be nice to have a queen like this.
After returning to the palace, I couldn't control my excitement and ran towards the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Along the way, many palace servants looked at me in surprise and even forgot to greet me.
"Brother! Brother!" I ran to the entrance of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and saw a familiar person sitting on a chair reviewing memorials.
He looked up at me, smiled, and waved, "Tongtong, come here quickly."
My nose felt sore and tears started falling. I threw myself into my brother's arms. At this moment, I could finally cry out loud like a child without restraint.
My brother patted my back and comforted me: "Good boy, you have worked hard during this period."
I calmed down, shook my head and said, "It's not hard, I just miss you very much."
My brother pulled me to sit down, looked me up and down and said, "Tongtong has really grown up. You have done very well in the past few years. Xu Bing told me about it."
I felt a little proud and felt that I had lived up to my brother's expectations.
In the 18th year of Changzhi, the Xizhou rebels were annihilated, and the leader Fang Hao and others were killed or captured. Brother Zhao led his troops to attack the capital of Huiqi again, killed the King of Huiqi, and drove the local people to the north.
The Tubo Kingdom surrendered immediately, and the Tubo king personally brought gold and silver to the capital to apologize. He was very flexible and knelt on the ground with tears streaming down his face, saying that he was bewitched by the Huiqi people.
I sneered when I heard this. This kind of words can only fool children. The Tubo King also knew that he was in the wrong and wanted to leave his prince in Daqi as a hostage.
My brother didn't want to start another war, so the matter ended up in nothing.
But I have already drawn a circle around Tubo in my heart. After defeating Daqi, you still want to make peace? There is no such good thing in the world. Wait for me to settle the score later.
As I got older, my mother became more and more worried. During the Chinese New Year, she found my brother and asked me what to do about my marriage. I couldn’t live my life in confusion like my brother.
My brother asked for my opinion, and I naturally followed his decision. After all, to me, men are just tools to reproduce offspring, so the person my brother chooses must be of impeccable character and family background.
Two months later, he introduced me to someone. Sometimes fate just happens to be a coincidence. This person's name was Zhang Jingyi, and he was a medical officer at the Imperial Medical Academy. His nickname was Tuan Tuan.
He was my father's student and worked in the Imperial Medical Academy after graduation. He had a clean family background and upright character. Most importantly, he and I had known each other since childhood and he admired me.
Tuantuan and I got married after living together for half a year. I got pregnant at the end of the year and gave birth to our eldest son, Song Zhen, in the autumn of the following year.
In the 19th year of Changzhi, the emperor's brother decided to abdicate and focus his energy on medical research.
After repeated requests from court officials, the throne was finally passed to me, and the reign title was changed to Changle, using my title.
In the early years of Changle, there was a severe drought in the north. There were rumors among the people that it was because a woman ascended the throne, which violated the will of heaven and angered heaven, so there was no rain.
Now I am no longer an ignorant little girl, and I will no longer be angry or sad about such things.
I sent Li Jie to oversee disaster relief in the north, allocate silver, dig ditches, and divert water for irrigation in order to preserve as much of the crops as possible.
At the same time, Liang Zheng, Xiao Qi and others were sent to the south to purchase grain for disaster relief in the north.
The drought almost emptied the national treasury, and everyone had to tighten their belts at the end of the year, but at least the people managed to get through the disaster safely.
In the third year of Changle, I began to increase military spending and spent two-thirds of the annual tax revenue on military reserves. Some people have guessed my purpose: I was going to start a war.
The war during the Regent period has always been engraved in my heart. They covet Da Qi. If they can start it the first time, they can start it the second time. Once the time is ripe, they will surely come back again.
I am different from my brother. Every battle he fought during his reign was justified, but Da Qi passively fought back from a moral high ground.
I am different. What I want is long-term stability. How can I allow others to sleep peacefully beside my bed?
At the end of the fourth year of Changle, a large army consisting of 100,000 people was officially formed. This army was led by General Yang Ping, with General Jiang Ling as his deputy general. I named it the Qiming Army.
This was an army composed of elite soldiers, good generals, strong bows and fine horses. At the beginning of the following year, it officially marched directly towards Tubo.
When my brother learned that I sent troops to attack another country, he chatted with me for half a day and asked me what I thought.
I did not hide anything and told him my purpose. I wanted to flatten all the disobedient countries around us and turn them into Daqi's territory.
The elder brother held Zhen'er in silence for a moment and said, "I think differently from you, but I respect your choice."
I am very grateful for my brother's understanding. I know that doing this will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among many people in the court, but I will not compromise because I know what I want.
In May, the army attacked the Tibetan capital of Pibo, and the Tibetan king fled to Lhasa with his sons and the few remaining soldiers. The mountain roads there were rugged and steep, and many soldiers fell ill halfway through the pursuit.
My brother mentioned that due to the high altitude, altitude sickness could be fatal, so I had no choice but to issue an order for the army to stop the pursuit, but the Tubo Kingdom was completely incorporated into Daqi.
I divided Tibet into two states, sent capable officials to govern the country, and sent teachers from the academy to teach the locals Chinese and the Daqi language.
The benefits of this battle were obvious. Tubo was no longer a vassal state, and the rich mineral resources here accelerated the industrial development of Daqi.
In the sixth year of Changle, I once again sent troops to attack the Jin capital in the north. There was a reason for this expedition, because I discovered spies from the Jin Kingdom in the court. They had actually infiltrated the Ministry of Military Industry and leaked all the drawings of muskets and artillery!
I was furious when I heard this, so I decided to attack Jindu in advance.
The 100,000 Qiming troops and the 50,000 stationed troops at Beiguan marched north at the same time. After ten months of fierce fighting, they finally captured the capital of Jin in one fell swoop. Khan Yelu Guang was shot dead while fleeing, and his descendants were all killed.
The Jin soldiers were difficult to subdue, as they harbored hatred for Da Qi in their bones, so I killed 70,000 of the Jin soldiers who surrendered.
I heard that the water in Beichuan was dyed red with blood, and the wilderness was full of corpses and painful wails. It was because of this massacre that the Confucians labeled me as cruel and bloodthirsty, and many strange voices appeared in the court.
Tuantuan comforted me, "Your Majesty, don't take those false reputations to heart. I know that Your Majesty is a very good person. You do these things for the people of Daqi. If you allow the Kingdom of Jin to build cannons and muskets, it will be a disaster for thousands of years."
I feel relieved that he understands me.
In the tenth year of Changle, his mother died of illness. In July of the same year, his father also passed away due to excessive worry.
The successive deaths of our parents were a huge blow to my brother and me. He lost his appetite and his hair turned a lot white overnight. Brother Zhao was very worried and took him out for medical consultations. Only then did he slowly recover.
But it's not all bad news. I became pregnant again at the end of the year. Zhen'er is now ten years old. This is the second child of Tuantuan and I.
Just when I was pregnant, a rebellion broke out again in the south. My brother came back in time to help me run the government, and we suppressed the rebellion without any danger.
I gave birth to my eldest daughter Song Tan in August, and in October of the same year I led my troops southward, occupied Nanzhao State, and captured the King of Nanzhao alive. Nanzhao was a place with hot climate, miasma, and many poisonous insects and snakes, so ordinary people were unwilling to deal with it.
Later, an official from the south took the initiative to govern the country. His name was Wen Dian, also known as Dian Gong by later generations.
He served as the prefect of Nanzhao for 17 years, and the naturalization of Nanzhao was inseparable from him. He built roads, learned Qiwen, used Qi money, and read Qi books. He completely integrated this place into the great Qi.
The nineteenth year of Changle was the most difficult year of my life. My brother, Emperor Changzhi Song Yuzhu, left me forever.
At that moment, it was as if heaven had fallen in love with me. My brother and I were not only brothers, but also life guides. There was a big age gap between us, and I almost grew up under his lap, and there was a little more father-daughter relationship between us.
General Zhao and I held a grand funeral for him and personally sent him to the imperial mausoleum.
I know that the person who is even sadder than me is General Zhao. He has no relatives and few friends. His brother is his only relative and lover. You can imagine how big a blow this is.
He had no appetite and stayed by the imperial mausoleum every day. I tried to persuade him several times, but he just waved his hands and said, "I want to keep him company. It's such a big mausoleum, how lonely he would be lying in it alone. I'm afraid he would be lonely."
I burst into tears and had no choice but to send a few more people to stay here to take care of him.
In the 21st year of Changle, General Zhao also passed away. I buried him next to my brothers. I knew they would be happy.
Old officials left the court one after another, and new officials rose one after another. I still followed my brother's teachings and strengthened the country's infrastructure investment to benefit the people. At the same time, I encouraged various inventions, whether it was military industry, civilian industry or medicine, they were all developing slowly.
During the more than 40 years that I have been in power, Daqi has become strong, its people have lived and worked in peace and contentment, trade with other countries has been frequent, and tax revenues have increased year by year.
On my sixtieth birthday, all nations came to pay tribute, and countless foreign monarchs came personally to the capital to present their country's treasures.
I wore a dragon robe and climbed the Wangque Tower with my descendants and grandchildren to accept worship from all the people.
Regardless of how later history books praise or criticize me, I think I can be considered a wise ruler in my life.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
