Chapter 568 Confessing the King
It was the next day in a blink of an eye.

The third grand court meeting after Su Mingzhe ascended the throne.

The eldest prince, the second prince, and the third prince, who was only five or six years old, were all present.

Su Mingzhe sat upright on the dragon throne. After the ministers shouted "Long live the dragon" three times, some officials began to submit their memorials.

Anything that can be reported to the emperor at a grand court meeting is important.

Su Mingzhe should either deal with it on the spot or hand it over to the cabinet or the six ministries and nine officials to come up with a solution to the problem as soon as possible.

After more than an hour, the young third prince began to feel sleepy.

The number of ministers submitting memorials gradually decreased.

At this time, Guo Youzhi stood up and said:
"Your Majesty, I have a script!"

Guo Youzhi was indeed the Minister of Rites. He handed over a memorial with several thousand words written on it. At the end he wrote:

"… the first son of the late emperor, Chengjiang, the second son, Chengze, are virtuous and diligent in royal affairs, and the youngest son, Chengping, is intelligent and studious, filial and loyal… they continue the ancient system of dividing the fields into wells and serve as vassal states in the imperial court…"

Su Mingzhe waited for Guo Youzhi to finish speaking in a chorus of words before nodding and saying:
"What Minister Guo said is very true. I want to confer the title of Prince of Pingxi on my eldest brother, the title of Prince of Pingnan on my second brother, and the title of Prince of Yong'an on my younger brother. They will be granted the title of Prince and the title will be hereditary. Do you have any objections, my dear ministers?"

Lin Ruofu was originally the head of all civil and military officials in the court.

At this moment, Lin Ruofu looked confused.

As soon as Guo You made the request, Su Mingzhe promptly arranged for the three brothers.

Even a fool could see that the emperor and Guo Youzhi were playing a double game.

Now he is hypocritically asking everyone what they think. Does he really think you are fools?

If the emperor wants to perform a solo show, what else does he need us, his old ministers, to do?
Thinking back to the emperor's cold treatment of him a few days ago, Lin Ruofu's old face suddenly turned blue with anger.

However, this kind of thing was often done during Emperor Qing's reign.

Lin Ruofu was helpless against Emperor Qing.

Now Su Mingzhe is also following Emperor Qing's example and playing the game of monopolizing power.

Lin Ruofu was still helpless against Su Mingzhe.

As mentioned before, Nanqing was founded on military power, and the status of civil officials and military generals in the court was similar to that of the Han and Tang dynasties.

Although civil officials can occupy half of the positions in the court, the ones who really have the confidence to speak are the generals with military merits.

For example, in the novel, Mei Zhili left Kyoto and went to Yanjing to serve as the city lord. He was the head of Yanjing's civil servants, but was under the jurisdiction of Yanjing's Grand Commander Wang Zhikun.

Therefore, Lin Ruofu felt very unhappy about the fact that the emperor did not inform him of something, but he could only endure it silently.

However, many ministers sensed something unusual in the names of the titles bestowed by Su Mingzhe.

According to the old system, when a person of royal blood was given the title of prince, he was usually given the title of 'single-word prince'.

For example, the Chinese Han dynasties liked to use words such as "Jin, Qin, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, Han, Tang, and Song" as their royal titles.

Daqing likes to use words such as "Jing, Cheng, Rui, Zhuang, Gong, Xiao, Shun, Mu" as the title of king.

When the emperor conferred the title of "Double-Character Prince", it was usually given to a king of a different surname who had made military achievements and contributions.

For example, Wu Sangui's "King of Pingxi", Shang Kexi's "King of Pingnan", Geng Jingzhong's "King of Jingnan" and so on in the early Qing Dynasty.

Now, Su Mingzhe gave the title of king of a different surname, which should have been given to military heroes, to his three brothers. There must be a strong political implication in this.

Many generals with military honors looked at each other and began to smile meaningfully.

After the grand court meeting ended, Su Mingzhe asked Eunuch Hou to take the three newly-promoted princes to Yanshou Palace to pay homage to the Empress Dowager.

As an elder, the Empress Dowager attaches great importance to rules.

Now that Su Mingzhe has ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, she couldn't help but admonish her three grandsons when they came to pay their respects, asking them to behave themselves and not make any mistakes.

Finally, the Empress Dowager spoke up: "Since you three have been conferred the title of princes, it is somewhat inappropriate for your mother to continue living in the palace. You should take your mother back later."

"Thank you for your grace, Grandmother."

Li Chengjiang originally didn't like the Empress Dowager very much, but now that his grandmother actually asked him to take his mother out of the palace to show his filial piety, the resentment in his heart immediately dissipated.

Li Chengze didn't want to live with his mother because he didn't like being restricted.

However, he had no reason to refuse and could only join in expressing his gratitude.

As for the youngest, Li Chengping, he was only five or six years old and had no right to make any demands.

The three princes thanked the emperor and went to Yeonbok Palace to pay a visit to the Queen Mother and to pick up their mother from the palace.

The Queen Mother had no good feelings towards her son's half-brothers. She just said a few dry words to them, gave them some gold, silver, jewelry, and silk fabrics, and then let them leave.

Not to mention that Li Chengjiang and Li Chengping took their mother out of the palace and reunited with their family.

Li Chengze brought his mother, the Queen Mother of Pingnan, back to the palace and directly left his mother to the housekeeper. He then called a few confidants to ask about what had happened in Kyoto during the nine days he was detained in the funeral palace.

At noon, after visiting the Grand Empress Dowager, Su Mingzhe came to the Yanfu Palace. The Empress Dowager asked her son with an unhappy face:
"Qian'er, why did you confer the title of prince on the three of them so quickly?"

Su Mingzhe didn't want to tell the Queen Mother about his plan, so he could only find a random reason to explain:
"Mother, as long as they haven't made any serious mistakes, it's only a matter of time before they are granted the title of prince. It just so happens that I have something that I need their help with, so I'll take this opportunity to grant them the title." Su Mingzhe said, and before the Queen Mother could lecture him again, he continued to talk about another matter:

"Mother, the Ministry of Rites reported that the weather is hot now, and my father's coffin should be placed in Changling early. According to the old system, the emperor's coffin is held on the seventh day and buried in the seventh month. My father's concubines need to go to Changling to keep vigil. Please make a list of those who will go to keep vigil."

"I have already prepared the list."

During the more than ten years that the Queen Mother was the Empress, she was always suppressed by Emperor Qing and was completely like a mascot.

Now that she is the queen mother, she also likes to manipulate power, so she has come up with plans for the things she should handle early on.

Su Mingzhe took the list from the Queen Mother and handed it to Eunuch Hou, asking him to arrange the matter.

After doing all these things, Su Mingzhe was about to leave, but the Queen Mother suddenly started talking about another matter:

"Qian'er, I heard that you have been living and eating in the Imperial Study these days, is that right?"

Su Mingzhe thought the Queen Mother felt sorry for him, so he smiled faintly and responded:
"Yes, I have just taken over state affairs and have not yet sorted things out. It will be fine in the future."

"Child, it's good for you to be diligent in government affairs, but you are the emperor, you must understand the principle of 'balancing action and stillness, and knowing when to relax and work hard'."

The Queen Mother spoke lightly and waved to the side.

Soon, the eunuch in charge brought in four beautiful beauties with delicate eyebrows, pink lips, pearly teeth, and fair skin.

Su Mingzhe took a look and couldn't help but be attracted by it.

This is not to say that these four palace maids are as beautiful as angels and stunningly beautiful.

It was because, among these four palace maids, two were seven points similar to Li Yunrui, and two were seven points similar to Fan Ruoruo.

In just a few days, the Queen Mother found four such unique and beautiful beauties. Su Mingzhe had to admire the Queen Mother's ability.

When the Queen Mother saw Su Mingzhe's surprised look, she couldn't help but feel proud and continued:

"Qian'er, these four beauties were all personally selected by me these past few days. Although I cannot say that they are proficient in everything, they have achieved some accomplishments in all of them. Take them back with you, and you can have fun in your spare time."

"Thank you, Queen Mother."

Su Mingzhe did not refuse and immediately left with four beautiful palace maids.

After returning to the imperial study, Su Mingzhe couldn't help but ask the four girls' names.

The two girls who look like Li Yunrui are named Xue Ying and Tao Qing, and the two girls who look like Fan Ruoruo are named Jiang Yan and Yue Hong.

Among these four girls, Xue Ying looks most like Li Yunrui and has the most beautiful appearance.

The second is Jiang Yan, whose temperament is somewhat similar to Fan Ruoruo, with a beautiful face and a pure and delicate temperament.

"Eunuch Hou, please arrange for these four to stay first."

The imperial study where Su Mingzhe works is in the front hall of the Weiyang Palace.

Eunuch Hou was also considerate, so he placed the four girls in the Kunde Hall on the west side to rest.

At night, when Su Mingzhe finished reviewing the memorials and was about to rest, Eunuch Hou came over and asked with a smile:
"Your Majesty, which one of you would you like to choose to sleep with you tonight?"

Xue Ying's fourth daughter entered the palace as a concubine. She originally had no status and was temporarily promoted to "selected concubines" by the empress dowager.

Su Mingzhe listened to Eunuch Hou's question and was silent for a while before he spoke:

"Let Consort Xue and Consort Jiang come over."

A romantic night.

On the second day.

Su Mingzhe did not stop attending court early in the morning because of the two women's affection.

Before the morning, when it was just light, Su Mingzhe got up.

Eunuch Hou had been waiting by the bed.

Afterwards, several palace maids came in and helped her dress and wash.

Eunuch Hou ordered someone to bring two bowls of cold soup.

Cold soup, also known as "contraceptive soup", is made from cold Chinese medicine, which can damage a woman's Du meridian, causing damage to her body and making it difficult for her to get pregnant.

Su Mingzhe is still in mourning, so women around him are not allowed to get pregnant.

Xue Ying and Jiang Yan both came from powerful official families and knew the situation, so they drank the cold soup obediently.

Su Mingzhe looked at the two women's docile appearance, thought for a moment, and then said:
"You two have worked hard, get some more sleep."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

The two women sat on the bed and thanked him gratefully.

As an emperor, Su Mingzhe had a lot of things to do and didn't have much time to care about them. He put on his clothes and left the bedroom.

(End of this chapter)