DLWAV CH33

At that very moment, a grand New Year’s banquet was being held in the palace.

Emperor Yuanxi sat high on the main seat, with civil and military officials seated solemnly on both sides, while dancers and musicians performed in the center.

Originally, Emperor Yuanxi had been quite pleased, feeling that the Great Yang Dynasty now had a bright future.

He was even more gratified that his twenty-three years of tireless effort, rising early and sleeping late, had finally achieved some success.

—Although the greatest credit belonged to Ao Ruize.

Thus, whenever he saw a splendid part of the performance, Emperor Yuanxi couldn’t help but applaud and cheer, frequently raising his wine cup to drink with his ministers.

It wasn’t until the banquet was halfway through that Emperor Yuanxi’s emotions were mostly vented.

When he looked at the ministers again, he realized that their expressions seemed a bit off.

To be precise, there was excitement, but it looked forced, like an act, overshadowed by awkwardness and regret.

Just then, the song and dance performance ended. Emperor Yuanxi asked, “My dear ministers, why do you all have such expressions?”

“Is this year’s grand banquet’s performance not splendid enough?”

Hearing this, the civil and military officials below couldn’t help but look at each other. They opened their mouths, not knowing where to start.

Thinking of this, they couldn’t help but glance at Ao Ruize sitting opposite them.

Seeing that his expression hadn’t changed from beginning to end, always maintaining a proper smile, they couldn’t help but think that this Prince An truly had the demeanor of a ruler.

It was just a pity…

Seeing this scene, Emperor Yuanxi immediately frowned.

Seeing this, the Head Eunuch Yu Zan could only bite the bullet and lean over to whisper an explanation in Emperor Yuanxi’s ear.

The expression on Emperor Yuanxi’s face slowly stiffened.

The civil and military officials below also subconsciously straightened their posture.

After finishing his explanation, Head Eunuch Yu Zan lowered his head and retreated.

After a brief silence, the wine cup in Emperor Yuanxi’s hand dropped directly onto the table, splashing wine all over him.

Instantly, everyone dared not even breathe loudly. The singing girls and musicians hurriedly knelt and prostrated themselves on the ground.

The next second, Emperor Yuanxi stood up directly, turned around, and walked out of the hall.

Leaving behind a hall full of officials looking at each other in dismay.

Seeing this, Ao Ruize smiled lightly, raised his wine cup, and drank it in one gulp.

The First Prince beside him couldn’t wait to start his performance.

He gritted his teeth and said, “Old Eight, don’t worry. I will definitely find out which bastard leaked this news.”

Because he was currently observing politics in the Ministry of Justice.

Hearing this, the Fourth Prince, who had been secretly triumphant, felt his pupils constrict.

Because the First Prince’s words clearly implied that they had long known about Prince An being crippled.

Thinking of this, the wine cup in his hand also fell onto the table with a bang.

Only one thought remained in his mind: he had fallen into a trap—

Overnight, the Prince An’s Manor, which had been bustling with visitors, became deserted.

Seeing this, the faces of the scholars and officials from Yunzhou darkened even more.

In fact, they had wanted to visit Prince An two days ago.

But at that time, news had already spread that Emperor Yuanxi had praised Prince An in court as the Qilin son of the royal family and seemed to intend to make him the Crown Prince. Consequently, they were blocked at the intersection several hundred meters away and couldn’t get in at all.

—Because those civil and military officials all wanted to earn the merit of supporting the future emperor, they scrambled to send gifts to Prince An.

The scene at that time was incredibly lively. Some offered land deeds to Prince An, some submitted their writings… there were even those who wanted to offer their daughters to Prince An. When the steward of Prince An’s Manor refused entry, they actually just left the people at the gate and ignored them.

“But now, as soon as they know Prince An can’t inherit the throne, they’ve all disappeared without a trace.”

“A bunch of power-clinging villains, hypocrites.”

“Are the officials of my Great Yang Dynasty all of this virtue nowadays?”

Until someone said, “Forget it, forget it. Meeting His Highness is the most important thing.”

Only then did they barely suppress the anger in their hearts, straighten their clothes and caps, and knock on the gate of Prince An’s Manor.

Upon learning of their visit, Ao Ruize immediately ordered people to invite them in.

As soon as they saw Ao Ruize, they bowed down directly: “Your humble officials/students pay respects to Your Highness.”

Ao Ruize made a gesture of lifting them up and said, “Everyone, please rise.”

“Please sit.”

Soon, maids and young servants served tea.

But the officials and scholars didn’t care about drinking tea. Looking at Ao Ruize, they immediately choked up: “Not seeing Your Highness for three months, Your Highness seems to have…” lost a lot of weight.

But they couldn’t finish the sentence.

Because they discovered that Ao Ruize didn’t look thin at all; instead, he looked much stronger.

This… this…

Ao Ruize simply said, “Thank you for your concern. This Prince is doing well.”

How could everything be well?

The faces of those scholars and officials darkened again.

Because right now, who knows how many people were gossiping behind his back, even mocking that no matter how powerful Ao Ruize was, he was destined to have no descendants.

These words had reached their ears; how could Ao Ruize not have heard them?

Even they were so angry, let alone Ao Ruize.

But they soon fell silent again.

Because Ao Ruize said, “In fact, on the day the imperial physician told this Prince the diagnosis, this Prince had already prepared himself mentally.”

They felt even more heartache for Ao Ruize.

But they also knew that with things as they were, if they mentioned this matter again, it would be no different from tearing open the wound Ao Ruize had difficulty healing.

So they could only clench their fists, thinking, don’t let them find out who spread this matter, or they would definitely make him taste the feeling of being condemned by thousands.

Ao Ruize asked again, “By the way, how is Yunzhou now?”

Hearing this, the officials and scholars could only follow Ao Ruize’s words and say, “Thanks to Your Highness’s great blessing, everything is well in Yunzhou now. With grain in hand, the people naturally don’t panic. When we set off, it just snowed heavily in Yunzhou. If nothing unexpected happens, next year should be a bountiful year.”

“By the way, Yunzhou has a custom of eating rice cakes during the New Year. So when we came, the folks in Yunzhou specially made some rice cakes for us to bring and present to Your Highness.”

Saying this, they pushed the rice cakes and other Yunzhou specialties they brought towards Ao Ruize.

Naturally, Ao Ruize didn’t refuse. He chatted with them for a while longer, from the customs of the capital to the studies of those scholars. Finally, his gaze fell on the slightly thin clothes of those scholars, and his expression paused.

Ao Ruize turned his head and signaled the eunuch Qu Ji with his eyes.

The other party reacted immediately and then retreated.

In no time, he returned with a tray containing ten ingots of fifty taels of silver.

“It was my oversight.”

Ao Ruize simply said, “Yunzhou just suffered a disaster, and you have to rush to the capital to participate in the metropolitan exam. It’s inevitable that you might be a bit tight on money.”

“Take this silver and buy a few warm cotton clothes…”

“Absolutely not!”

Those people immediately stood up in excitement and pushed away the tray offered by Eunuch Qu Ji: “How can we students deserve such a gift from Prince An?”

But Ao Ruize said, “This Prince giving you silver isn’t entirely for your sake.”

“This Prince does it more for Great Yang.”

“If you freeze and fail the metropolitan exam because of it, it won’t just delay three good years of your lives. In these three years, Great Yang will lack dozens of talents. So what’s delayed is Great Yang, and the people of Great Yang who are urgently waiting for you to lead them to prosperity.”

“Most importantly.”

Speaking of this, Ao Ruize paused: “You are also among the few people who have come to visit this Prince in the past two days.”

“So this is also a token of this Prince’s appreciation.”

With words said to this extent, what else could those scholars do?

They looked at each other and finally said, “Then we students will respectfully obey.”

After sending off these scholars and officials, Ao Ruize picked up a pack of rice cakes and ordered, “Prepare the carriage. This Prince wants to enter the palace.”

Learning that Ao Ruize had come, Emperor Yuanxi, who was lying on the bed in a daze, was stunned for a moment before reacting. Remembering what happened at the banquet, he paused, then sat up: “Call him in.”

He thought Ao Ruize was here to complain. After all, in the past, whenever the First Prince and Fourth Prince encountered problems, they liked to come to him to complain.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Ao Ruize came in, he presented the rice cakes he brought and then told Emperor Yuanxi about giving five hundred taels of silver to those Yunzhou scholars.

Then he asked, “Imperial Father, I heard that the first batch of gold produced by the Fuzhou gold mine has arrived in the capital. I wonder how Imperial Father plans to use this money?”

Emperor Yuanxi was stunned again.

He hadn’t expected Ao Ruize to come to talk about business. Most importantly, after such a big event, Ao Ruize didn’t seem affected at all.

Ao Ruize: “Imperial Father?”

Emperor Yuanxi finally reacted. Remembering Ao Ruize’s question, he simply said, “That money, I plan to use it to repair the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Confucius Temple.”

The Imperial Ancestral Temple was where the past emperors and meritorious officials of Great Yang were worshipped.

Before the New Year, a eunuch had reported that the Imperial Ancestral Temple was leaking. Unfortunately, the national treasury had no money, and he couldn’t afford to repair it, so it was put on hold until now.

Repairing the Confucius Temple was naturally to win over the hearts of scholars worldwide, a basic method for the court to maintain its rule.

Hearing this, Ao Ruize said, “Your son thinks this is inappropriate.”

Emperor Yuanxi: “How so?”

Ao Ruize: “Your son thinks that rather than repairing the Confucius Temple, it would be better to first repair the examination halls and the prefecture and county schools, while simultaneously rebuilding official roads in various places.”

“After repairing these, then repair the Confucius Temple and the Imperial Ancestral Temple.”

“The later the Imperial Palace is repaired, the better.”

Emperor Yuanxi frowned.

The so-called examination halls were where scholars took imperial exams.

And the prefecture and county schools across the country added up to over one thousand seven hundred.

To repair all of these, even if the annual output of the Fuzhou gold mine doubled, it wouldn’t be finished within three years.

Let alone simultaneously repairing official roads in various places.

Ao Ruize simply said, “Imperial Father, no matter how well the Confucius Temple is repaired, only a small portion of scholars can see it. I believe the vast majority of scholars in Great Yang won’t have the opportunity to go to the Confucius Temple to worship the sage.”

“But those scholars inevitably have to enter and exit the examination halls and prefecture and county schools.”

One was intangible and invisible, while the other was a tangible benefit. It was self-evident which was more conducive to winning people’s hearts.

“And repairing official roads in various places can be done after the busy farming season by recruiting laborers and giving them certain wages. This way, the common people can have an extra income.”

This was true storing wealth among the people.

Moreover, repaired roads would also be beneficial to the economic development of Great Yang.

Hearing this, Emperor Yuanxi’s furrowed brows had mostly relaxed.

Ao Ruize continued, “Scholars and common people are the most emotional. If they receive benefits, they will think of repaying.”

“The people of Yunzhou are the best example.”

“Guess what their reaction would be if they knew that while they can eat their fill and dress warmly, the Imperial Ancestral Temple has never been repaired and leaks whenever it rains?”

Emperor Yuanxi subconsciously followed his train of thought—

Scholars and common people would definitely spontaneously raise money to help the court repair the Imperial Ancestral Temple!

Emperor Yuanxi instantly forgot to breathe.

—What a beautiful story that would be!

Most importantly, an Imperial Ancestral Temple repaired with money raised by scholars and common people together… even if Great Yang fell, the emperors of subsequent dynasties wouldn’t dare to touch it. They would even have to pay respects whenever natural disasters or civil unrest occurred, because that was the will of the people, the expectation of the masses.

Thinking of this, a look of excitement couldn’t help but rise on Emperor Yuanxi’s face.

But Ao Ruize continued: “As for why the Imperial Palace should be the last to be repaired, it is to let everyone in the world know that the Emperor is frugal and loves his people, worrying about the people’s worries before his own.”

In this way, the hearts of all people in the world could be won.

Phew!

Emperor Yuanxi couldn’t help but let out a long breath.

He admitted that Ao Ruize had spoken to his heart.

He was silent for a moment, then made a decision: “Then let the ancestors suffer grievances for a few more years.”

After all, this concerned the rule of their Zhao family.

Ao Ruize immediately smiled and said, “Your son thought the same.”

After speaking, he bowed again.

“Your son has said everything that needs to be said and won’t disturb Imperial Father’s rest any longer. Your son bids farewell.”

Emperor Yuanxi immediately said, “Good, good, good.”

Only then did he react.

And then, he was stunned again.

Not because he initially thought Ao Ruize came to complain but turned out to be discussing serious business.

But because—

Emperor Yuanxi opened his mouth, looking at the empty hall, recalling what Ao Ruize had just said: “I don’t know why, but I suddenly have the illusion that Prince An took me by the hand and gave me a lesson on the art of being an emperor.”

And that feeling became stronger and stronger.

Hearing this, Head Eunuch Yu Zan: “…”

Just then, a eunuch came to report that the First Prince requested an audience.

Emperor Yuanxi didn’t think much and ordered him to be summoned.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the First Prince entered, he shouted directly, “Imperial Father, your son has found out who spread the news that Eighth Brother is crippled—”

Hearing this, Emperor Yuanxi’s face instantly darkened.

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