Who Cares

Chapter 138 Mother of The Country

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Emperor Sheng Yuan was worried about how to win over these talents, and then Emperor Teacher gave him this wonderful idea.
As long as the proclamation was issued to the world, and with the temptation to write a book that could be passed down for future generation, which literati could resist? As long as they were willing to come, he could make people stay behind!

“Emperor Teacher has a good mind! Bring the memorial, Zhen want to take a closer look!” He immediately asked Baifu to present the half-foot-thick memorial to the imperial desk.

The generals still did not respond, but the civil servants were already red in the face with excitement.
Leaving a masterpiece for future generations, those who were fortunate enough to participate in this would surely leave a good reputation for all eternity! This was what they have been looking for all their lives, how could they miss it? Emperor Teacher really had a broad mind, and capable to expand the literary world, unlike Xu Guangzhi, who blindly deceived the world and stole name to gain profits.

Be sure to let the emperor approve the memorial as soon as possible! Be sure to get the book-writing position! Thinking like this, all the civil servants were ready to move.
When the court disperse and the news spread, the great scholars who lived in Yanjing, would surely gather in the Emperor Teacher Mansion to try to contribute to the Confucian treasure book.
This kind of thing did not need to be stirred at all.
As long as the emperor call for action, the people of the world would definitely respond!

In a moment of thought, Emperor Sheng Yuan had already quickly read the memorial, and without even thinking about it, he lifted the imperial brush and wrote “memorial is granted” in bright red.
He also appointed Emperor Teacher as Lantai Historian, in charge of setting up the compilation hall, and summoned the world’s literary giants to participate in this grand event.

Old Master Guan kowtowed to accept the order, looking very excited.
All the civil servants also knelt down and kowtowed, cried out Long live Your Majesty.

After another court affairs were dealt with, Emperor Sheng Yuan felt a little high-spirited, and was about to let Baifu shout the dismissal of the court.
However he saw the princes of the Jiuli clan come forward in unison, begging the emperor to set up an empress.
Because of his bizarre background, and because the previous emperor had murderous intentions for this son, the loyalty of the imperial family to Emperor Sheng Yuan was far less than that of the Han people.
No one expected that it would be him who eventually ascend the throne, and on top of that he received Empress Dowager’s instigation, so it was inevitable that they had a disobedient heart.
Therefore, in the early days of the founding of the country, among the top ten surname of Jiuli clan only the Pan family sent their daughter to the palace, and the rest of the imperial concubines all had lowly background, considered as discarded pieces.

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Now that the mystery of Emperor Sheng Yuan’s life experience had been solved, and with the help of Han ministers, his power had become more stable and his prestige had risen.
While the Empress Dowager’s line had completely given up and almost hidden, causing the imperial relatives and the ten noble surnames panicked and wanted to stuffed their daughter into the harem.

The emperor was abandoned by his clan since he was a child, and was raised by a pack of wolves.
Most of the troops who helped him conquer the world were Han troops, so how much feeling did he still have for his clan? No one dared to think deeply about the answer to this question.
But watching him wantonly support Han ministers, and focused on suppressing the Jiuli clan nobles who were not loyal to him, they could assume one or two.

Strengthening his blood ties with the clan while the military power had not yet completely captured by him was a method that the princes had been painstakingly thought for many days.
In any case, the Empress of Wei must be a woman of the Jiuli clan, and the next crown prince must be come from a concubine of the Jiuli clan, and the emperor must not be allowed to mess up the imperial bloodline.

Holding the list of potential empresses drawn up by several princes in his hand, Emperor Sheng Yuan laughed instead of getting angry, he leaned over and asked, “Who is Zhen?”

“Your Majesty, you are the lord of the Wei Kingdom.” The nobles of the Jiuli clan were a little puzzled.

“How much power do Zhen have?”

“You are supreme!”

“Can Zhen be worthy of the most precious treasure in the world?”

“You are rich in the world, and the treasures in the world naturally belong to you.”

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“Then what do you mean by picking these ordinary women for Zhen? Are you looking down on Zhen?” Emperor Sheng Yuan threw away the list and said slowly, “If Zhen want to set up an empress, certainly have to marry a woman with the most beautiful appearance, the most outstanding talent, the most the noble family background and the highest moral virtue in Wei Kingdom, the other vulgar women not worthy of entering Zhen’s eyes!”

As soon as these words came out, the whole court fell silent.
The princes wanted to retort, but could not find a suitable entry point.
He was the supreme being of Wei Kingdom, and of course worthy of the most outstanding woman in Wei Kingdom, what’s wrong with saying that? Those four conditions were also essential qualities for the mother of the country, and none of them were indispensable.

This, this was completely different from what they originally thought! How to refute it? Could it be that you have to choose one from these women, Your Majesty? Could it be that you said you deserve such a perfect woman, then you can just casually get it? The current Emperor Sheng Yuan was not a tool that was used like a pack horse by the previous emperor in those days.
He arbitrary decide the discipline of the imperial court and had real power in his hands, it was simply impossible to force him to submit.
Even if the armies controlled by the ten noble surnames and the imperial clan were all added up together, they were only two-thirds of the Han army under his command.
If they have a fight, they were bound to be doomed.

The most beautiful, the most talented, the most noble family background, and the most virtuous? The Han courtiers also pondered in their hearts, picking out the unmarried women in the capital one by one, only Guan Suyi, the granddaughter of the Old Master, accounted for all four points.
Whether she was beautiful or not, anyone with eyes could see; whether her talent high or not, wasn’t she talented enough to compete with the literary giants of the world several times, still need to elaborate? If the Emperor Teacher Mansion couldn’t afford the four characters of “a noble family background”, who could afford it? As for virtue, it’s a matter of opinion.

Some people criticize Guan shi’s womanly character as being rigid and unladylike, but that was for ordinary people.
If the emperor came forward to argue, the fact that she cut open the abdomen to take a child out, thus allowed the late Empress Dowager to rectify her name, was enough to earn her a favorable impression.
Others could say hundreds of thousands of sentences about Miss Guan’s disadvantages, but in the emperor’s heart she was still good.

The emperor’s words were completely pointed out to Miss Guan! Thinking like this, many people glanced at Emperor Teacher and Chief of Ceremonies to see how they would react.

However, to everyone’s disappointment, Emperor Teacher and Chief of Ceremonies didn’t even raise their eyebrows, as if it had nothing to do with them.
That’s right, although Miss Guan was both talented and beautiful, she had been married and reconcile, so how could she become the empress! Almost forget that key point!

Everyone reacted and breathed a sigh of relief.
The lower-ranking ministers did not think about it anymore, but the noble and powerful ministers examined their daughters one by one to see who was talented, beautiful, and virtuous, and find an opportunity to let them meet the emperor in the future.

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Emperor Sheng Yuan was not surprised when he saw that the two Mount Tai were indifferent, but he also could not help but a bit disappointed.
What’s wrong with a reconcile woman? A reconcile woman can’t marry again? What a bunch of idiots! The words had been released, and if someone want to put a woman in his harem, he had to decide whether she was qualified or not.

After thinking about it, he slowly said, “All the beloved ministers worried that there is no master in the harem, and Zhen is also worried.
But the mother of the country is the most honorable woman in the world, how can anyone deserve it? It’s better to have the empress’ seat empty than having unworthy people usurping the throne of Jiaofang Palace* and harm my great Wei’s blessing, what do the beloved minister think?”

It had been raised to harming the country’s blessing, who dare to refute it now? What’s more, what the emperor said was right, whether the empress was virtuous and not, it was indeed a great importance.
Don’t you see that Xia, Shang, Zhou… all the previous dynasties died because of the chaos in the harem.
Looking at it, the emperor’s standard for establishing an empress was really reasonable.

After the court hall calmed down, Emperor Sheng Yuan raised his voice, “Do you have anything else, beloved minister? Let’s retire if there is nothing.”

Everyone hurriedly knelt down to send off the emperor, only to see him striding to the door of the Jinluan Palace, and suddenly turned around and smiled, “Emperor Teacher, Zhen asked you last time if you recognize the Innkeeper, you said you didn’t know, and now Zhen find out that she is actually your granddaughter. Zhen will remember your crime of deceiving the monarch, in the future send the Innkeeper’s calligraphy treasure to make it even.”

Old Master Guan hurriedly knelt down to apologize, and when he got up again, His Majesty had already left.
After coming out of the Jinluan Palace, the father and son showed a solemn expression.
Who said that reconcile woman cannot enter the palace? Others might have forgotten, but they have not, the Jiuli people have always had the custom of son inheriting when the father died, younger brother succeeding when older brother died, not only in the change of rights and family inheritance, but also the marriage.
Younger brothers married his sisters-in-law, sisters-in-law married husband’s younger brother, and son even married the stepmother, all kinds of absurd actions had been passed down for hundreds of years and had evolved into the norm.

Even father’s woman could marry, then what’s marrying a second-married woman be count on? His Majesty’s words today were deliberately addressed to the Guan family!

Old Master Guan unaware of the ins and out, so he was just a little worried, but Guan Father felt that the situation was over and he was powerless to struggle, he could only take one step at a time and go with the flow.
Fortunately, although the daughter did not understand hidden plot, she was good at using open conspiracy.
If she could occupy the phoenix position, she might avoid the worst end.

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—-

When the court meeting was in progress, the literary war was still continuing, and the tea houses near the literary notice were already overcrowded.
The prominent people occupied one place, and the students did not dare to enter and bother them, and could only linger nearby.
Some tea house shopkeepers knew how to take advantage of the situation, selling both tea and brush, paper and inkstone, and the business was very hot.

One of the luxuriously decorated tea-house was gathering many noble children, they silently buried their heads to copy the articles.
Guan Wenhai was also among them, but his face was not as excited as the others, sometime white and sometime blue, looking very twisted.
The news that Guan Suyi was the Innkeeper gave him a slap in the face, and then Master Xu’s works were refuted by many great scholars, and they used practical arguments to prove that many of his views were just conjectures.
If they were used to teach students, it might be suspected of misleading people.

There was no doubt that Guan Wenhai was one of the misguided students.
Thinking of the policy advice that he shared with the public half a month ago, he longed to go back in time and burn the manuscript.
He even prattle on self-importantly, directly scolding his cousin for pretending to understand the matter, have shallow knowledge, and said that Guan Father had some grudge with him for refuting his article.

It turned out that he was the one who pretended to understand, and he was the one who harbored grudge.
He mocked his cousin’s words, and his cousin’s reply to this had now become a reason for everyone to make fun of him.

“Remember the article that Guan Wenhai published last time? Looking at it now, it’s ridiculous.
Miss Guan warned him that he was wrong, but instead he slandered people for being short-sighted.
I actually don’t know that a person who could criticize Xu Guangzhi to the point of exhaustion and discuss the Tao with all the great scholars is actually not as knowledgeable as him.”

“Hey, you don’ know.
He doesn’t look at people’s talent, he only looks at age.
Older people are more knowledgeable, and younger ones are less knowledgeable, so he doesn’t agree with the younger students, and must mock a few words.”

“If that the case, then what kind of imperial examination is he taking? Just wait until he is seventy or eighty and go straight to get the champion title, won’t it be possible?”

“Yes, that’s what Miss Guan said too.
Hahahaha…” The tea house was full of laughter, causing Guan Wenhai to have smoke over his head and too ashamed to show his face.
Ji Chengyue sat in the corner and listened, his ears were also burning red.
He also looked down on Miss Guan, indeed have eyes but fail to see.
Fortunately, those stupid words were only mentioned to Xu Yayan, so it shouldn’t be spread to her ears, right?