Forced to Ascend the Throne after Transmigrating

“It’s time to go to court, it’s time to go to court.”

The sky above was still dark. A group of ministers saw from afar the emperor wearing a black dragon robe and accompanied by palace servants and eunuchs walking towards them. He Xiang and others did not react for a long time. After asking each other about the time, everyone felt relieved.

His Majesty finally arrived on time for once!

However, when Ye Shuo gradually approached, He Xiang and the others found something wrong.

There is a red patch on His Majesty’s shoulder, as if he is carrying something.

The reason why Ye Shuo got up so early today was not for any other reason. It was because it was difficult for little Dingning to get a full night’s sleep, so she woke up before the morning. When she woke up, Ye Shuo woke up too. If Emperor Jingwen saw this scene, he would not know whether he would be pleased or scold him.

In the past, Emperor Jingwen scolded him so much but he refused to get up early. Now that the little princess came, he also got up without any complaints. This treatment is too different.

As Ye Shuo walked, he pointed at the surrounding scenery and explained something to Ding Ning: “That is the Taihe Gate, that is the Four Corners Pavilion, and this, this is the Xuanzheng Hall…”

However, the child was too young to understand at all.

It was early spring now, and the air was chilly. Feeling a cold wind blowing, Ye Shuo subconsciously pulled his cloak closer and wrapped up little Dingning completely, leaving only his two round eyes exposed.

When Prime Minister He and his men came closer, they realised that the person lying on the emperor’s shoulder was not an object at all, but a little princess who was less than one and a half years old.

His Majesty actually brought the little princess to the morning court!

Under everyone’s dull gaze, Ye Shuo slowly sat on the dragon throne at the top, untied his cloak, and in front of everyone, placed the little princess on his lap.

“Dingning, be good. Daddy has some important things to do. You can play with the toys for a while first.”

Xiao Luzi at the side handed something to her at the right time, so Ye Shuo handed her the little gadget made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Seventh Prince curled his lips, feeling that his younger brother seemed to be radiating a kind of brilliance at the moment.

Several censors opened their mouths to scold without thinking, but before they could open their mouths, Prime Minister He spoke up.

In Prime Minister He’s opinion, since the emperor would not listen anyway, it would be useless to say anything and it would be a waste of everyone’s time. Since the emperor might quit at any time, it would be better to say something useful.

Let’s solve the important things first, and deal with the remaining trivial matters when we have time.

“Your Majesty, the batch of seeds that the Ministry of Works accidentally discovered has now all been shipped to Liangzhou, Bingzhou, Xianghu and other places.” When the Ministry of Works first said that they had found a kind of rice that could achieve two harvests a year, Prime Minister He and his men were a little bit unconvinced. After all, they had only heard of one-season rice in the past, but had they ever heard of rice that could be harvested twice a year?

Not to mention that this rice is early maturing and drought-resistant, so there is no need to worry too much even in a drought year, as it only takes more than fifty days from planting to harvesting.

If this is true, the grain output of the entire Great Zhou will definitely more than double, and the population lost due to the plague a few years ago will be able to be made up.

Prime Minister He did not have much hope at first, but the plots of land specially approved by the emperor for the Ministry of Works did eventually produce some results. Prime Minister He and his colleagues went to see them in person, and they could not help but believe it, so the change of crop production went exceptionally smoothly.

When the plague first broke out, many merchants smelled an opportunity and began to frantically hoard food, preparing to raise prices when the time was right. It can be said that the silver sent to various places this time stabilised the price of food in a timely manner.

With subsidies from the imperial court, it would be fine if the people could have normal food supplies, but if this is still not possible, then a few typical cases will be picked out and killed.

Be polite first and then use force, be appropriately lenient, but once that group of people cross that line, don’t blame the court for being rude.

Combined with the fact that we can still buy grain from Beiting and the State of Chen, it is only a matter of time before we can completely recover from the plague.

Prince Ding suddenly felt that his brother’s behaviour was really beneficial. You see, once any problem arose, he was afraid that the emperor’s reckless actions would make the situation worse. Prime Minister He and the others racked their brains, and he came up with an idea. Ȑα₦𝘰ᛒЕṦ

Things must not only be done well, but also done beautifully. Otherwise, the emperor might kill people if he disagrees with something, regardless of the consequences. How scary that is.

Also, since his younger brother ascended the throne, Prime Minister He and others were no longer as slow in attending court as before. Prince Ding still remembered that during the reigns of Jingwen and Taicheng, a group of civil and military ministers were used to making witty remarks, and they would take a long time to get to the point of a matter, or they would argue for a whole hour over some nonsense.

If the emperor and the sixth son did not listen, the censors on the side would join in and start scolding and mocking them, saying that the emperor was incompetent and intolerant. However, for the sake of their own reputation after their death, Emperor Jingwen and Emperor Taicheng usually endured it.

But his younger brother was not like that. He was like, “Write whatever you want, write however you want, let the neighbouring Beiting and Chen State see who is more embarrassed.” What is he afraid of as an emperor who was forced to take the throne? Since he was forced to come here, he shouldn’t ask for so much, right? He was lucky to be alive.

Prince Ding dared to swear that this was what his brother said personally, not a single word changed. However, what made Prince Ding feel magical was that after he said these words, He Xiang and others seemed to have opened up their Ren and Du meridians, and suddenly they became open-minded.

Yes, now that things have come to this, why do we still ask for so much?

From the moment the regent ascended the throne, the future of the Great Zhou Dynasty can only rely on this group of old officials.

From then on, He Xiang and his group of old men no longer procrastinated during court sessions, knowing that the emperor had little patience and would adjourn the court session when he said so, regardless of any rules. He Xiang and his group gradually got used to getting straight to the point and talking about business.

How could the censors waste such precious time on trivial matters that were insignificant and did not matter? He Xiang and his friends began to divide the time with the censors.

The morning court sessions that took a full hour to complete during the Jingwen and Taicheng dynasties could be completed in less than half an hour for Ye Shuo.

After the court session, He Xiang and the others had to go to the Qinzheng Hall to help Ye Shuo deal with various matters reported by other states.

Ye Shuo was not in charge of everything, but he would conduct random checks from time to time. There was basically no pattern in his checks, he just did it at will, and he would just look at whichever he touched. In this situation, He Xiang and the others would not be able to fool them even if they wanted to.  

They deserved to be unlucky to have such a bad-tempered and difficult emperor.

“Thank you ministers for your hard work. I will take Dingning outside first.” Ye Shuo had just seen his daughter and he was so excited that he really didn’t want to let go of her.

He left in a very elegant manner, leaving He Xiang and others to work hard to deal with government affairs.

The old tutor took a deep breath, then took out his reading glasses and put them on his nose.

He Xiang and others then noticed that the old tutor seemed a little different today.

He Xiang and others found it strange. After all, they had never seen the Taifu wearing any ornaments before, so they asked about it.

Later, they learned that this thing is called reading glasses, which can help people with blurred vision see clearly again.

Seeing their surprised faces, the old master was stunned, and then blurted out: “Why? You don’t have any?”

The moment the words fell, He Xiang and others fell silent at the same time.

Yes, they are all about the same age, why does this old man have it but they don’t?

The old tutor is not a fool after all, and he quickly understood it. He couldn’t help but wonder, what’s wrong with the emperor? This partiality is too obvious.

The old tutor complained in his heart, but his expression was completely different. Anyone with normal hearing could tell that he was in a good mood at the moment.

Not only is it good, its tail is almost reaching the sky!

He Xiang and others felt more and more uncomfortable.

Although the Grand Tutor and Lord Cen were the two formal teachers of the Emperor, they taught him a lot in those days! And haven’t they worked hard enough these days?

Given His Majesty’s temperament, he would not be so stingy, unless… he did it on purpose.

Could it be that they had done something to offend the emperor? He Xiang and the others thought about it carefully, and then they suddenly realised that it could not be the last time when the queen was the regent? Except for the Grand Tutor, almost all of them expressed their opposition.

Yes, that’s definitely the case!

However, what He Xiang and the others didn’t know was that Ye Shuo didn’t give it on purpose, it was mainly because Zou Wu hadn’t made it yet, right?

When Ye Shuo came back with Xiao Dingning after flying the kite, he clearly felt that the atmosphere in the Qinzheng Hall was not right, and it seemed that He Xiang and the others were holding a grudge.

Ye Shuo couldn’t help but look at the old tutor beside him. While everyone was not paying attention, Ye Shuo lowered his voice and asked, “Teacher, what’s going on? What happened just now?”

The old tutor coughed lightly and said, “It’s all because of these glasses. I thought the emperor had given them to everyone.”

Unexpectedly, he was only given one.

The old tutor thought about it and felt that he was his teacher after all, so he couldn’t help but remind him: “Your Majesty should make up for it as soon as possible, and don’t let the old ministers like Prime Minister He feel disappointed.”

“You treat me well, I know that, but don’t be partial to me in the future.”

Ye Shuo: “…”

Ye Shuo wanted to say that he really didn’t mean that, but seeing that the old tutor seemed very happy, Ye Shuo didn’t have the heart to speak.

On the third day, He Xiang and others finally received rewards from the palace. In addition to reading glasses, there were also some small glass gadgets.

Ye Shuo thought about it and finally explained that it was not that he did not give it on purpose, but that this thing was made a few hours ago, and it was sent to them as soon as it was made?

He Xiang heard that these glass products were priced very high, and they also asked around and found that the emperor did not send any more to the Taifu Mansion, which means that except for the reading glasses, the Taifu did not have the other items. He Xiang and others felt more balanced.

Ye Shuo and several old ministers spent a whole half month getting along well with each other.

Prince Ding, who was standing by, watched helplessly, feeling quite a bit of pity in his heart. It took only a few things to bribe He Xiang and his men. Why hadn’t they been so easy to talk to before?

Isn’t it true? If someone who has always been nice to you suddenly becomes not nice to you one day, most people’s first reaction would be to feel unhappy. But if someone who has always been bad to you suddenly gives you something very expensive one day, ordinary people will inevitably subconsciously feel flattered.

However, feelings are feelings, and they still have to do what they are supposed to do.

At the morning court session that day, after Ye Shuo had dealt with everything that needed to be dealt with, he was about to signal Xiao Luzi next to him to leave the court session, but he saw He Xiang walk out from the queue, bowed and said, “Your Majesty has been married to the Empress for seven years, but now you only have one princess. I hope Your Majesty will take in more women, expand the harem, and have more children for the Great Zhou.”

He Xiang and others had this idea in mind since the day Ye Shuo went to war.

Following Prime Minister He’s words, the other civil and military ministers, including Prince Su and Prince Jin, also knelt down and begged.

“I also ask Your Majesty to have mercy on the people of the world and help the Great Zhou to have many descendants.”

Even though he knew this day would come, Ye Shuo still paused slightly while holding the little princess.