After the Hundred Flowers Banquet, a heavy bomb was suddenly thrown on the calm courtroom—
His Majesty wanted to make Princess An Guo the crown princess!
As soon as the news came out, the court exploded! How can a woman inherit the throne?! His Majesty must have gone crazy!
It was fine that he previously spoiled Princess An Guo too far. After all, she was just a baby girl, so just let her be spoiled. But now he wanted to make her the crown princess! To let her inherit the throne! Impudent?!
I oppose, resolutely oppose! A dignified 1.8m tall man* definitely can't stand being ruled under by a woman!
*T/N: 堂堂八尺男儿, it literally means "a dignified 8 chi(s) man," and 8 chi(s) is about 1.8m. It's the equivalent of a dignified man.
None of the officials agreed. What's more, some officials slammed their heads against the pillars on the spot, risking their life. The general holding the military power was ready to make trouble in the dark. The scholars held a meeting, gathering crowds to protest, and praying that His Majesty would withdraw the order...
However, no matter how they were, Emperor Yuan Chang made no other move. The officials who hit their heads against the pillar were sent to a doctor to get proper treatment. The general with the military power had an unstable mind and secretly suppressed the Duke of Zhen. The leader of the scholars who caused trouble was arrested and locked up in jail...
Emperor Yuan Chang, who had a lukewarm personality all his life, showed a thunderous attitude this time and quickly suppressed all the voices of opposition. He didn't have much time. He had to pave the way for his niece at his last moment.
Fortunately, in this era, the power of the Emperor was greater than the sky. No matter how the minister tossed around, they still had to listen to the Emperor. The establishment of the Crown Princess was not a trivial matter, and Emperor Yuan Chang was in a hurry, so he hurried the Ministry of Rites to prepare the coronation ceremony. Although a lot of procedures were simplified, in the end, it still took a month to finish.
Everything was difficult at the beginning. Some things once started can't be stopped. Emperor Yuan Chang believed, as long as Wen Qing was given a rightful identity, he did not need to worry about the following matters at all.
In fact, he guessed it right. His niece's ability was not weaker than him. Her methods were sharp and decisive; she was more like a qualified emperor than him. More importantly, she was more susceptible to government affairs, absolutely surprising, which was the reason he chose her in the first place.
The Emperor's method and state affairs were all time-consuming to learn. If he had to choose another heir, he would have no time to teach them. On the contrary, his niece seemed to be born to know these and only needed one or two pointers from him. He could be assured to give the throne to her.
On June 16, year 25 of Yuan Chang, the Emperor passed away.
When Emperor Yuan Chang passed away, he was free from illness and disaster. As if he had a premonition that his time limit was approaching, he laughed and said goodbye to the people around him. "An Guo, we leave the Great Zhao to you!" Then he tidied up his clothes and lay on the dragon bed, then he shut his eyes and was gone forever.
The Empress mourned and went after the Emperor the next day.
From the funeral of the late Emperor to the ascension of the new Emperor, it was busy until October before gradually stabilizing. Although Wen Qing had ascended the throne, there were many people who were dissatisfied with her. Wen Qing had no time to play trickery games with them. Even if you were a loyal and upright person or a minister for three generations, those who disobeyed would be directly dismissed!
Heartless? Forgetting old favor?
Sorry, she did not care about that at all. The history books were written by the victors. You could happily scold her right now, but the one who would be rained with praises by the future generations would be her.
It wasn't the first time she became the Emperor, and Wen Qing was familiar with the process. Promoting water irrigation; changing agricultural tools; promoting potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes; first solving the problems of people's food and clothing. Then building the imperial college, establishing schools for women; to spread education, teaching common people professional skills. Promoting trade, developing the economy, encouraging invention and creation, etc. Within ten years, under Wen Qing's hands, the Great Zhao became prosperous, and the people lived in peace, a powerful and rich country.
Wen Qing also opened a trade with the northern barbarians, exchanging food, salt, and other materials for their wool and mutton. Being able to trade sheep for food to survive, the northern barbarians and herdsmen naturally gave up raising horses and raising sheep instead. Thus allowing Wen Qing to control their economic lifeline. Once war broke out and the Great Zhao cut off their food trade channel, they would no longer be able to survive.
In the same way, Wen Qing exchanged rubber and cane sugar from the southern barbarians, and exchanged mineral products from the tribe Yi in the west. Firmly controlling their economic lifeline.
Therefore, Wen Qing had not waged a war in fifty years of her reign, but the border was stable and the barbarians never attacked. The country was even more prosperous, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, honesty prevailed throughout the society, which was a peaceful and prosperous time.
Of course, creating a peaceful and prosperous world was only incidental; Wen Qing still remembered her mission. Between the client's two wishes, one was to let the male lead die, which had been completed long ago. When King Huainan and his family were imprisoned, Wen Qing deliberately let people put the male lead and King Huainan to be locked together.
In his last life, because his father was meddlesome, he killed his parents. In this life, he failed on the last step and went to jail. You can imagine what King Huainan would do to Zhao Yan. The two people tore and bit each other off, hurting each other. The guards also did not care about them, so in the end, the two were bitten to death by each other.
As for the second wish, it was to protect the Duke of Zhen's Manor. This didn't require her to do anything at all. The first granddaughter/daughter was in the palace as the Emperor. Even if you change the jade slip, the blood relationship is inseparable. Who would be blind enough to mess with the Duke of Zhen's Manor?
As for the original heroine, Wen Qing didn't plan to do anything to her from the beginning. Although she did not have the male lead, she married the loyal dog supporting the male lead. She gave birth to a girl and had a good life. Wen Qing took her Taobao golden finger after she (WQ) died.
In the fourth year after Wen Qing ascended the throne, her mother chose a beautiful imperial husband for her, and she gave birth to two sons. When Wen Qing was sixty-five years old, she passed the throne to the eldest son and then left the world.
The golden finger she chose this time was not much of use. Although the cultivation of immortality had much use, it had many restrictions too. One of them was, cultivators were not allowed to attack mortals. This was the protection Heaven gave for the weak. Sadly, she had been an Emperor in her last life, but she didn't kill anyone!
Wen Qing returned the golden finger to Vanity Space, absorbed the power of merit, then teased the little Phoenix. She obviously saw it in advance, and in a blink of an eye, it unexpectedly took some effort to change back into a palm-size. It really made people not know what to say.
While playing around, the soul-calling bell at the door again rang. Wen Qing threw the little Phoenix and used her soul consciousness to check on the Past Life Stone. She already had a plan in her heart and was waiting for the client to come in.
A dull-face, thin, middle-aged woman came in. She wore a short-sleeved shirt, modern clothing. It just so happened that Wen Qing had just gone to ancient times, so she didn't want to immediately go back there.
Following the same pattern of the opening speech, they finally came to the topic:
"My life is not very good..." said the thin woman.
It was not very good. Based on what Wen Qing saw, it could indeed be called miserable. The client's surname was Wang, her name was Wang Wenqing, she was born in a small isolated mountain village. Once she was born, she was nicknamed "mother's killer" because her mother died because of a difficult birth. Although there was a younger twin brother and her mother died after giving birth to the little brother, she was the only one who killed their mother because her old grandmother Wang didn't want her treasured golden grandson to carry such a reputation.
Since childhood carrying the nickname "mother's killer," the star of disaster, or such money-losing nicknames, Wang Wenqing didn't have enough food daily and still needed to do the most work. It would be fine if the Wang family was poor, but the Wang family could be considered as one of the richest families in their village, and they still treated her harshly, not treating her as a human being at all. After her father married her stepmother, her life became more difficult. After the stepmother gave birth to a child, even her younger brother was not treated well.
Fortunately, the two siblings had been close since they were young, supporting each other and growing up filled with hope. When they were eight and nine years old, there was a group of urban youngsters who came to the countryside. Later, there were another group of "bad influencers" who came to reform through labor*. Wang Wenqing was busy working and serving her family, and didn't know what was happening outside.
*T/N: 劳动改造(Láodòng Gǎizào), abbreviated as 劳改 (Láo Gǎi) is a criminal justice system involving the use of penal labor and prison farms.
Later, her brother suddenly fell into the river and drowned. Someone secretly told her that he was pushed into the river by the stepmother's child. She had been submissive for more than ten years and finally exploded when the little brother who depended on her was killed. She broke relations with her family and set up her own business.
She moved out by herself and happened to be neighbors with those bad people who were being reformed. She received a lot of help from those people, and then she was moved by one of the teenagers of the same age.
At that time, she didn't know what was a stinking intellectual* was, what was an evildoer**. It was when the villagers saw her close with them that they told her about it. So the little girl ran away in fright and never interacted with them anymore. Later, she married an educated youth in the village; he abandoned her when he returned to the city.
*T/N: 臭老九 (chòu lǎo jiǔ), lit. means stinking number nine, is one of the labels given during the "cultural revolution" in 1966-1976. As the "Nine Black Categories" were landlords, rich farmers, anti-revolutionaries, bad influences, rightists, traitors, spies, capitalists, and intellectuals. The ninth is intellectual.
**T/N: 坏分子(huài fèn zi) refer to the fourth in line, which is the bad influencers.
Later, she married two more husbands. One was addicted to gambling and sold her when he had no money to gamble. The other was a drunkard who would resort to domestic violence as soon as he got drunk. She'd had a miscarriage twice during her pregnancy, and she could no longer give birth due to her injured body... She reached middle age, had no one to rely on, and could only pick up trash on the road to make a living. At this moment, she met the young man who moved her heart. He was still young and handsome, wearing a well-ironed military uniform with two bars and four stars on his shoulder. However, the woman he was affectionately holding was actually Wang Zhaodi, who came from the same village as her...
Wang Wenqing was struck to death by a car in her trance.
Her whole life was a tragedy, Wen Qing couldn't help but sigh.
"...I just hope to find a good man and live a good life."
Wen Qing: "……"
She took back what she'd said earlier. The poor man must have something hateful. She had met three scumbags; not only she didn't think about standing on her own feet, but she still hoped to rely on men. Her thinking was too naive.
But since it was the client's wish, then she would do it according to her wish.
After settling down the client, Wen Qing asked the little Phoenix, "Staying here is boring, right? Do you want to take a stroll with me? There is a lot of fun and delicious food outside!"
The little Phoenix was immediately moved. Although this space was full of energy and helped it cultivate quickly, the only bad thing was that there were no other living creatures. Once the master left, it was the only thing here, and it was boring to always cultivate. But it felt very conflicted. It wanted to go out and play but didn't want to get too close to Wen Qing. The shadows from the past still lingered, it was still afraid of being roasted by her. After hesitating for a long while, the temptation to go out and play finally prevailed, "Okay, take me out with you."
Wen Qing said with a smile, "Ah, I'm sorry. I suddenly remembered that in this world, you are not allowed to be a spirit animal, or you will be caught and slaughtered!"
Little Phoenix: "……"
Bastard! You deliberately tempted me without intending to take me! Purposely watching me feel conflicted! Bastard! Bastard!
Looking at the teary-eyed little Phoenix, Wen Qing's wicked heart was satisfied. She waved her hand and left happily.