On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Li Xuan erged from Luoyan’s mansion, his expression was slightly solemn.
Seeing this, Dugu Bilo, who had been waiting outside, took out her needle box, "Do you need to treat your wounds, Prince? I’ve fully mastered my father’s acupuncture technique recently."
A year ago, Dugu Bilo had taken ti to learn dical skills from Jiang Yunqi, and now she had already made so accomplishnts.
She had a good talent for dicine, not only surpassing Hanyun but also surpassing many of Jiang Yunqi’s disciples, which greatly surprised Jiang Yunqi. He praised Dugu Bilo whenever he had the chance, saying that his dical expertise would finally be passed on.
In fact, Dugu Bilo had already changed her surna to Jiang, now called Jiang Bilo.
However, Li Xuan still habitually liked to call her Dugu—
"I’m perfectly fine, what wounds are there for you to treat?" Li Xuan’s face turned green as he sternly glared at her, "The Prince is in good spirits and well!"
"Then I misunderstood," Dugu Bilo put away her needle box, her expression indifferent as she touched her hair tips, "Just now Your Highness was crying and howling inside, saying ’no, don’t, don’t’, I thought you were being beaten up by Yan."
Before she finished speaking, several guards waiting from the prince’s mansion could not help but snicker with suppressed laughter.
Knowing this was bad news, they quickly turned their heads to look elsewhere.
Li Xuan himself was extrely embarrassed; he suddenly rembered that Luoyan and Yue Qianqian’s new residence hadn’t had the talisman array installed yet, so the soundproofing might not be very good—
"So that was a misunderstanding! Yesterday I asked Yan to help practice the Henglian Golden Body, perhaps I was a bit loud."
Li Xuan’s face was as thick as a city wall, and he mounted the Earth Dragon beside him without showing any abnormal color.
At the sa ti, Li Xuan looked towards the sky with a sorrowful gaze, thinking to himself, this was the price to pay.
To wear a crown, one must bear its weight; to hold a rose, one must endure its thorns—
Li Xuan thought to himself that he was perhaps too happy too soon; the days when Jiang Hanyun was in Beijing were so blissful, so wonderful.
But as soon as Jiang Hanyun left Beijing, he fell from heaven into hell.
After the eighth day, The Court began to partially resu operations.
Just as several regent ministers had expected, on the day of the eighth, as soon as the locks of the Tongzheng Division’s Yan were opened, impeachnts against Li Xuan and the regent ministers flooded in like a tide, reaching more than three hundred in number.
It wasn’t just the Yushi Tai and the six ministries; the Hanlin Academy and Kedao Officials also had many people submit morials, creating a massive montum.
Their firepower was mainly focused on the matter of Li Xuan’s feigned allocation of military land and cajoling the hearts of the people.
However, after it was revealed that the ministers in charge of the allocation were led by the Ministry of Punishnts’ Shangshu Yu Shiyue, with Wang Wen and Shang Hong assisting, and that Li Xuan only supervised in his role as the Dadudu of the five armies, the opposing voices decreased significantly.
The remaining opponents placed their hopes on the Kedao Official’s rejection; theoretically, the ’Jishizhong’ of the Ministry of War had the right to reject an imperial decree, and they naturally could also reject the chaotic commands of the regent ministers and the Jianguo Princess.
Unfortunately, Li Xuan was well prepared; the Ministry of War was Shaofu Yu Jie’s territory, and with the personnel changes arranged by Li Xuan in advance, the decree successfully passed through the perilous situation.
As for the follow-up issues of ’new coin issuance’ and the new ’Ancestral Worship Law,’ surprisingly, no one ntioned them.
Even if soone did bring them up, their voices were drowned in the enormous wave triggered by the Law of Juntian.
From The Court’s highest to lowest ranks, there seed to be a tacit agreent to recognize Li Xuan’s proposal of five million taels of patterned silver as ’worship money’ to be a permanent system.
Controversies arose only over Li Xuan’s acts of deceiving the emperor, acts unbecoming of a subject; and whether those princes could release their privileges to the common people, but these issues did not gain enough montum.
Li Xuan ignored the external turmoil, maintaining an appearance of magnanimity, continuing with his duties as usual.
Li Xuan highly valued procedural justice, and the three major policies he issued this ti were procedurally flawless.
Even the ’Law of Juntian,’ strictly speaking, did not contradict the ancestral laws.
Therefore, the critiques and faultfindings of the Qingliu faction in the court were all based on speculation and assumption, without any solid grounds.
Afterward, Li Xuan took the impeachnts for himself, nonchalantly noting down the nas of these individuals.
Li Xuan never thought of settling scores in the fall or taking personal revenge; his mind was not so narrow.
However, there was a notable lack of officials in the localities recently, especially in places like Liaodong, Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu, Ningxia, particularly north of the Great Wall, where there had always been a shortage of officials.
These people were eyesores in The Court, but their integrity and abilities were trustworthy, making them suitable candidates for local experience.
This was cultivating talents for The Court and was also beneficial for the people on the frontiers, which were deeds of imasurable rit.
Because of the ’Law of Juntian’, there was turbulence in The Court for more than a month, which took a long ti to subside.
However, by February, the three ministers led by Yu Shiyue still pushed through the major policy with unwavering determination.
Although Yu Shiyue was the Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishnts, he had previous experience in defending against Japanese pirates, being demoted to the frontier, and during the attack on Beijing by the Wala Army, assisting Du Du Wei Ying with leading an army of 120,000 to protect the Dengsheng and Anding gates.
Thus, he was deeply aware of the malpractice of the Weisuo system and was one of the five ministers who staunchly supported Li Xuan’s ’Law of Juntian’.
Even Wang Wen did not impose any hindrance.
Wang Wen had participated in quelling the White Lotus revolt and pacifying Ningxia, and was likewise experienced in military affairs.
He was not opposed to the ’Law of Juntian’ itself but was concerned about the imbalance of The Court and that Li Xuan’s influence in the military could no longer be restrained.
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