"Your Highness, Prince Consort!"
"Why did you come alone? Where is Miss Lin? Didn't she come with you?"
Looking at the scene before him, Lin Dayong's doubts grew even stronger!
"Eunuch Gao! The matter is somewhat complicated. Miss Lin hasn't come. I need to see the King!"
"Report this in detail!"
Eunuch Gao glanced at him but didn't say anything. Jiang Lu let Lin Dayong in. Lin Dayong wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Eunuch Gao's eyes were full of mockery!
After he went in, he saw the Marquis of Zhenxi practicing calligraphy at his desk!
He was about to speak when he was interrupted by the Marquis of Zhenxi!
"Dayong's here! Come quick! What do you think of the characters I wrote today?"
"Those civil officials, though they were all weak and powerless, and spent their days gossiping about this and that, had such beautiful handwriting that every time I reviewed a memorial to the throne, I felt like I had wasted all these years."
"How come your handwriting is even worse than a child's?"
Lin Dayong could only swallow his words and quickly walked over!
The paper has a large character for "patience" on it.
To be honest, this handwriting isn't particularly beautiful, but it's not particularly ugly either. However, it's definitely much better than Lin Dayong's handwriting!
He came from a village and his family didn't have much money, so he had never been to school. He couldn't even recognize a few characters, let alone write. If he hadn't joined the army, he probably would have spent his whole life in that small mountain valley and never seen the prosperity of the outside world!
He's no fool for getting to where he is today!
Looking at the character "忍" (patience/endurance) in front of him, and realizing that there was no intention to hold a welcome banquet outside at all, he understood everything!
Although he harbored resentment, he still answered respectfully, "Your Majesty's handwriting is very beautiful."
"It's so much better than my handwriting, I don't know how many times better."
The Marquis of Zhenxi smiled and wrote two more characters on top of the literal meaning!
"Does Dayong recognize these two characters?!"
Lin Dayong shook his head, feigning innocence.
"Your Majesty! Don't laugh at me, but the word 'patience' was actually taught to me by my father!"
"I can only write my own name; I really don't recognize any of the other characters."
What do the two words mean?
"Please enlighten me, Your Majesty."
The Marquis of Zhenxi replied with a smile, "These two words are Emperor!"
Do you know what an emperor is?
Lin Dayong: "Your Majesty, I am ignorant and humbly request your guidance!"
The Marquis of Zhenxi smiled and patted him on the shoulder!
"You have such shallow knowledge!"
"It's just a compliment!"
"Since you've put it that way, let me explain it to you."
"You should know that many dynasties rose and fell before us, the oldest being the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors!"
"The Three Sovereigns are the Heavenly Sovereign, the Human Sovereign, and Shennong, the Earth
"The Five Emperors are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Diku, Yao, and Shun."
"It is because of the existence of these people that we are who we are today."
"These people can all be considered our ancestors."
"Only those whose achievements surpass those of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, who combine all their virtues, and who conform to the Mandate of Heaven can be called emperors!"
"That is, the emperor!"
"As for those who can dominate a region and have their own territory, they can only be called kings!"
"Just like Prince Shun and Prince Kang before them!"
"They are either extremely cruel or mediocre. They can only dominate a region and have their own territory because they have royal blood. That is why they can be called kings."
"My journey to this point is illegitimate. Although it can be said that I have acted in accordance with the will of Heaven, I have not won the hearts of the people. I have also made many mistakes. Therefore, even though I have one-third of the former Jing Kingdom, I only dare to call myself a king, not an emperor."
"The Marquis of Zhenbei naturally shares the same thought as me!"
“We are both cowards and timid people. Although we have both followed the will of Heaven and been forced into this situation by the royal family, we still dare not declare ourselves emperors!”
"Don't be fooled by that little girl from the Lin family. She claims to be a goddess, able to communicate with the gods in heaven, to bring rain, to conjure water out of thin air, and to possess divine artifacts. But she has only declared herself an empress! Or rather, a queen! She has not declared herself emperor! She has not called herself the Son of Heaven!"
“I also occupy the capital and a palace. The land under the jurisdiction of the Marquis of Zhenbei is fertile, and the drought in the past two years did not have much impact on them. So after he declared himself king, he also expanded his palace!”
"And that little girl, although she jumps around very happily, calling herself Empress and Her Majesty, doesn't even have a palace of her own. Even her birth mother is only called Madam by outsiders, and her younger brothers are called Young Masters by outsiders! Even her more capable assistants don't have a proper title."
Do you know why?
Lin Dayong never imagined that there would be such a big difference between calling himself a king and calling himself an emperor!
There's such a story behind the word "emperor"!
He hadn't even considered this question before; he just thought it was because the little girl was selfish, only caring about herself and not her relatives and confidants!
At the time, he felt that he had chosen a king, after all, after the king established himself as king, he appointed many officials, big and small, to his relatives and family members, and he was not left out!
He was granted official titles that only emperors could bestow, and performed duties that only emperors could perform, yet he declared himself king!
He had only thought of it as a form of address and hadn't thought much about it!
Now I've just realized something's wrong, but I can't quite put my finger on why!
"Your Majesty! This humble official is truly foolish! I am not quite clear about the intricacies of this matter."
The Marquis of Zhenxi put down his pen and burst into laughter!
"Dayong! What I like most about you is that you don't pretend to know what you don't!"
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask us. We’re not going to be so formal. But if you keep everything bottled up inside, it will create a rift between us, and only outsiders will benefit!”
Do you understand what I mean?
Lin Dayong's heart skipped a beat. So, the idea was that Eunuch Gao had reported to the King about his erratic behavior at home!
In addition to what I did in front of the post station, the king must have noticed my dissatisfaction!
Everything that's being done now should be a warning to him!
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