Chapter 1077 Spring Festival Feast, Concubine Xiao is Alone

The tenth year of Jianwu.

Spring Festival.

The Han Dynasty held a grand court meeting.

Civil and military officials came forward to congratulate the Han Dynasty for adding new territory last year and for the registered population exceeding 50 million.

In fact, the Han Dynasty not only had a population of over 50 million.

At the same time, the number of provinces reached an astonishing fifty-six.

In the ninth year of Jianwu, tax revenue exceeded 60 million taels of silver without any population tax.

Taken individually, these events are all great causes worth celebrating.

Su Mingzhe sat on the dragon throne, listening to the ministers' congratulations, but his mind was wandering.

Since the sixth year of Jianwu, when Tubo surrendered, Su Mingzhe spent another three years to incorporate small local countries such as Goryeo, island countries, and Luzon into his territory.

Today, the territory of the Han Dynasty is the largest outside the Yuan Dynasty, compared with the original historical time and space.

In fact, compared with the Yuan Dynasty, it is not much different.

The ministers' congratulations ended.

As per custom, Su Mingzhe began to reward civil and military officials.

There are three levels of rewards.

The first type is people who have made outstanding contributions to the court and the country.

For example, the first-ranked military generals, capable ministers, virtuous people, technical officials, etc.

Su Mingzhe was generous in rewarding these ministers.

Titles, gold and silver, mansions, fertile fields, etc. - everything you can think of.

The second type is those ministers who can follow the rules and abide by the laws.

These officials are the backbone of the official system.

It was these ministers who worked tirelessly and supported the operation of the Han Dynasty court.

These people can be considered as 'good fighters, but without any outstanding achievements'.

Therefore, Su Mingzhe cannot reward them too much.

They could only offer some spiritual rewards, such as allowing some children to study in the Imperial Academy.

In the Han Dynasty, studying at the Imperial Academy was basically equivalent to having one foot in the officialdom.

The ministers work hard, not only for themselves but also for future generations, so they are all grateful for such rewards.

The third type of ministers are those who occasionally have some problems but do not make big mistakes.

These ministers accounted for the vast majority of civil and military officials.

They may not be able to do anything good, but if they turn evil, they can definitely do bad things.

Therefore, Su Mingzhe wants to give them some consolation prizes to encourage them to work hard to improve themselves instead of becoming old foxes in the officialdom.

The reward is over.

The song and dance festival has begun.

Unlike in TV dramas, the Han Dynasty's banquets are held separately for men and women.

The emperor and his ministers drank and watched singing and dancing in the Golden Palace.

The ladies of high rank brought their daughters who were eligible to enter the palace to the Queen's Qixia Palace to drink and watch dramas, acrobatics and other performances.

In this case, situations like in TV dramas where the heroine or hero takes the wrong road and meets each other accidentally will basically not happen.

Because, in Qixia Palace, apart from the young prince, there is no real man.

Amid the singing and dancing in the Golden Palace, as the ministers drank cup after cup of imperial wine, some ministers who had poor drinking habits began to cause all kinds of trouble.

Su Mingzhe was looking at the beauty from the Western Regions who was dancing the Hu Xuan.

Suddenly, a strong man with a dark face rushed out from the generals and nobles on the right and went straight to the beautiful woman leading the dance.

The dark-faced man embraced the leading dancer, then bowed to the emperor on the dragon throne with a smile and said:

"Your Majesty, this beauty is so beautiful. I, Old Zhao, have never seen such a beautiful woman. I am willing to exchange the thousand acres of fertile land that Your Majesty has rewarded me for her. Do you think so?"

"Zhao Jing, your reward is a thousand acres of fertile land near Luoyang City, which is worth at least thirty thousand taels of silver!"

Su Mingzhe resisted the urge to scold and reminded the big man:
"I can promise you that I will let you trade your farmland for a beauty today, but if you regret it later, I will not let you trade it back!" "Your Majesty, I am an honest man and will never regret it!"

Zhao Jing, a native of Zhuo County, joined the Yi Nu Army when it was first established.

Over the past decade, they have repeatedly made great achievements by relying on their bravery and fighting skills.

This Zhao Jing is now the Duke of You, one of the nine founding dukes of the Han Dynasty.

"Well, my dear ministers, bear witness to me, this was proposed by Duke You himself."

Seeing that Zhao Jing was determined to do so, Su Mingzhe decided not to be a bad guy and simply agreed to his exchange request.

Unexpectedly, when the civil and military officials saw that Zhao Jing had successfully obtained the exchange, they all rushed to grab the beauty and exchanged her for their own rewards.

A wonderful feast was turned into a vegetable market.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land that were originally intended to be given away as rewards returned to the national treasury.

In fact, the reason why the Han Dynasty’s court was so lively was that Su Mingzhe spoiled his subjects too much.

Although Su Mingzhe has been an emperor for countless years, he still has the mindset of a business boss in later generations.

Su Mingzhe will not hesitate to reward subordinates who have real skills and are capable of creating high value for him.

Over time, those self-satisfied ministers in the court gradually began to become lawless.

This situation is something that will happen in every dynasty at the beginning of a country.

The feast is over.

Su Mingzhe returned to Shangyang Palace to rest.

Many concubines also went to attend the banquet in Qixia Palace.

There were only a dozen concubines left in Shangyang Palace.

Su Mingzhe asked the eunuch in charge of Shangyang Palace and then walked towards Qingyang Palace.

There are four halls in Qingyang Palace, where four concubines, Qingping, Xiaoai, Qingnu and Xiaowen, live respectively.

Xiao Wen was the granddaughter of Yelu Abaoji, and the granddaughter and niece of Shulü Ping.

I don’t know if it’s because of close relatives that the body has undergone mutation.

Xiao Wen had skin whiter than snow, eyes like ink, lips like red, and was extremely beautiful since childhood.

A few years ago, when Su Mingzhe brought her back from Khitan, she was still young, so he kept her in the harem.

In the past two years, Xiao Wen has grown up, and Su Mingzhe took her in.

After entering Qingyang Palace, the first person Su Mingzhe saw was Xiao Wen holding a little girl.

This girl is not Xiao Wen's child, but Xiao Ai's.

In the past few years, Xiao Ai gave birth to two princesses.

Both princesses inherited Xiao Ai's beautiful and unparalleled beauty.

Shortly after their full-month birthdays, Su Mingzhe bestowed upon them the titles Yong'an and Yongning.

"Your Majesty is here!"

When Xiao Wen saw the Han Emperor arriving, he quickly picked up the child and was about to pay his respects.

Su Mingzhe quickly stopped her: "My beloved concubine, didn't I tell you that if it's not a formal occasion, all these complicated etiquettes will be waived."

As he spoke, Su Mingzhe reached out and took Xiao Yongning.

Little Yongning also liked his father. The one-year-old baby called out "Daddy" in a baby voice, which directly warmed Su Mingzhe's heart.

"Hey!"

Su Mingzhe held his daughter in his arms and pulled Xiao Wen into the hall.

Although today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the north wind is still howling and it is still bitterly cold.

After teasing his daughter for a while, Su Mingzhe looked at Xiao Wen curiously and asked:
"My beloved, why didn't you go to Qixia Palace to attend the banquet?"

"I don't like crowds."

Faced with the man's question, Xiao Wen forced a smile but did not tell the truth.

In fact, ever since being taken in by a man, Xiao Wen has never attended banquets with her grandmother Shulü Ping again.

(End of this chapter)