It had been more than half a year since His Majesty took over the governance of the dynasty.Time was fleeting and everybody watched agape as the monarch moved silently but swiftly to implement his ideas without any input from anybody else. He wouldn"t even take into consideration the advice, recommendation, issues or concerns raised by the ministers in his court.
All the more, he wouldn"t leave them any face while deriding them if they opposed his ideas. The most notable example was a conversation that happened when one of the high-ranking ministers of The Chancellery had raised an objection to the monarch"s ideas.
The minister had implored, "Your Majesty, you cannot abolish long standing traditions of your forefathers. They are the basis and foundation on which the nation stands..."
The Emperor hadn"t even let the aforesaid person finish his words and questioned him with a smile, "Beloved official, what is the difference between Zhen"s position and yours?"
It seemed as if the monarch had made an idyllic remark. As if he was talking about something inconsequential. However, everyone present knew that it was a precursor to His Majesty"s rising anger and that the next course of action would be him taking a layer or two out of the hide of the person who had enraged him.
Now, someone could question, how did all the ministers know or grasp the mind of the monarch? Wasn"t there a common saying that n.o.body could fathom the mind of the dragon?
Let the ministers answer that doubt:
Whenever His Majesty called you "beloved official" with a twinkle in his eye, get ready to lose a verbal sparring contest. Everyone knew that for a person in such a predicament, it would have been better to go to the yellow springs than be flayed by the callous words His Majesty would say to you within the next couple of minutes.
The minister also came to the same realisation but the arrow had already left the bow with his words, what could he do? It was all over for him but he still gathered his meagre courage and replied, "Your Majesty, is the Son of Heavens while this one is a lowly official."
His Majesty had nodded his head like he was very pleased with his answer and said, "Beloved official, it seems you aren"t ignorant of our positions so, why is it that when am doing something, you have the heart to question my decisions or even force me to retract my thoughts?"
The minister replied haltingly, "Your Majesty, it"s not that this lowly one doesn"t see where you are coming from. This lowly one just wants you to be cautious. This decree will have far-reaching consequences. Your Majesty, this official begs you to stay your hand"
The next words from the monarch"s mouth made him and everyone else present tremble at their knees, "Beloved official, why don"t we do it this way? Zhen will let you sit on this throne in The Heavenly Hall and then you can take care of matters as you deem fit."
How could the old minister take such words from His Majesty?
Weren"t the monarch"s words implying that he had designs on the throne?
Wouldn"t this push him towards familial extermination?
He couldn"t let such an accusation stand or there would a blade hanging over his head at all times and would chop him without a moment"s notice.
The official was so frightened and afraid that he had fallen to his knees and said, "This official doesn"t dare."
The temperature within The Heavenly Hall had dropped to a freezing point.
His Majesty acted as if he didn"t notice the fearful atmosphere in the hall and with a wooden expression continued, "If it is as such then Zhen would tell you to refrain from speaking further."
Meanwhile, Su Li was tired of hearing "this won"t do" and "that won"t do" from all these civil officials. All they knew was to eat and drink to their heart"s content and to safeguard their wealth. When it came to doing their actual jobs, they were inclined to let it all slide and distribute their own work to others.
Moreover, whenever she tried to do something for the betterment of the people at large, this group of old bones would stoop low in front of her and quote the sages to her, all the while trying to stifle her to death. They wouldn"t let her do away with anything that infringed upon what they believed to be their birthright.
Why couldn"t they accord her the respect her position demanded?
Were they looking down on her?
Just because she was in her mid-teens?
She"ll show them the door if they won"t toe the line. She was THE EMPEROR. Therefore, this time she openly threw the proverbial gauntlet. Let her see if any of these old fogies had the guts to pick it up.
Already she couldn"t find anything about Zhou Shen. Since she wasn"t living happily she wouldn"t allow all these idiots to go scot-free if they interrupted her one more time.
In this manner, the First Decree of the Son Of Heaven had been pa.s.sed since his enthronement.
His Majesty had abolished slavery.
For the slaves, this edict was like a ray of light in their dark worlds. Slaves were humans as well and which human didn"t have hopes to reach the pinnacle of success and s.h.i.+ne?
Which slave didn"t want themselves or their future generations to break the shuttles of slavery and emerge as an independent people?
At least, this decision paved the way for them and their offspring"s.
The word in the streets was that His Majesty was very generous and magnanimous to the commoners and lower cla.s.s people. It could be seen that his own harsh experiences had made him more benevolent.
If Su Li heard that, she would have laughed at the people"s misconception. She wasn"t altruistic enough to care about every person under heavens. She had just done away with slavery because she still didn"t know about the primary task.
If the system told her to leave behind a s.h.i.+ning, long lasting country, wouldn"t she be caught unawares?
Therefore, she had started making changes here and there to prepare for any eventuality. More importantly, since she had taken over this job, she had to do it well and not let anyone find faults with her.
If the first decree let the commoners run out and shout in joy and the old ministers were even more wary of the monarch.
The second decree, that was still to come was even worse. It all started due to a few well-meaning ministers. Later on, they all would think back to this point of time and curse the people who laid down the groundwork for the second one.
Everyone was discussing national matters in the imperial court. A few ministers had noticed that the emperor"s harem was empty - devoid of even a single concubine. Therefore, they quickly submitted a request for a harem draft.
When it reached His Majesty"s table, Su Li pretended to ponder for a moment, then said in a gloomy tone, "I"ll comment on this matter later, the court is dismissed."
In her heart, she was shouting at the top of her lungs.
Enough with the harem, you all.
I really don"t want any beauties.
Please spare me.
When His Majesty"s casual dismissal of such an important matter reached Empress Dowager"s ears, she was even more worried.
All those months ago her son had declined her niece and now, he had again declined the proposal for a harem draft.
This wouldn"t do.
As her duty towards her late husband and her son, she will get to the bottom of this matter.
Which hot-blooded male declined beauties?
Even if he didn"t want to establish an empress yet, he still had to work towards it, didn"t he?
She had seen her son"s fl.u.s.tered eyes and shy expression that day.
If he was so thin-skinned, she"ll have to take such matters into her own hands.
What was the esteemed empress dowager"s solution to this?
She sent three beauties to wait upon His Majesty in his rooms.
When Su Li came to her bedroom, she saw that the eunuchs and mamas were behaving a bit abnormally. She asked them what was the matter but none of them replied to her words.
She gave it a bit of thought and guessed that they might have been gossiping about how the emperor didn"t allow anyone to serve him while bathing etc and were worried she had heard them. Su Li had heard all this talk once or twice over the course of her time here so she didn"t pay much attention to it and swiftly entered her rooms.
The eunuchs had thought that the empress dowager must have already mentioned this matter to His Majesty so they didn"t dare reply to his question. Previously, they had worried that their monarch who was so understanding of their pains and had given his first official decree in their favour had something wrong with his body.
Otherwise, why would he not let anyone accompany him on all those lonely nights?
Maybe, their highness had suffered an untold injury in his time away from the country?
When His Majesty entered his rooms and closed the doors behind him decisively, all of them were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with happiness. They could put down their constant worry over their master"s health.
It was good, good that His Majesty had finally seen the light. It was really true that old ginger is hotter than the young one. Otherwise, how could the empress dowager make His Majesty listen to her when the monarch didn"t even pay heed to his minister"s words?
A quarter of an hour later, they saw the three beauties coming out with reddened eyes.
Was His Majesty done so fast?
Don"t tell them that His Majesty didn"t want to play more.
The head eunuch hesitated a moment but still questioned one of the girls in a low voice, "This... This...Ahem! What happened? Wasn"t His Majesty happy?"
Obviously, he couldn"t ask the question he really wanted to ask in fear of his head.
The beauties looked at each other and one of them spoke, "His Majesty said not to disturb him. He was feeling tired from taking care of all the matters in court today."
What had really happened inside the room?
The beauties could tell you :
His Majesty had taken one look at them and furiously questioned them as to how they came to be in his rooms. With trembling bodies, they had told him the truth of being sent to his door by the exalted existence in the inner palace.
His Majesty had murmured to himself, "The lady should just eat and sleep in peace. Why is she also trying to meddle in my affairs? Is she not content enough to enjoy her days at ease? Jumping around to find me company."
The three of them had really wished the earth to open up and swallow them when they heard those words. If not, they wished to retract their heads into their necks to block His Majesty"s words.
They could see the fury in the monarch"s eyes and had lowered their heads even further, just gazing at the tip of his shoes... They didn"t dare to look at his face.... His repressed fury was enough of a reason for him to do away with their heads.....
It seemed there was some friction or tussle of power between His Majesty and The Empress Dowager. Otherwise, why would the Son of Heaven walk in agitated circles in his rooms when he knew that they had been sent by his mother.
So, it was true.
It was true that there were no blood ties in the Imperial Palace. A mother and her child opposing each other just to gain hold of power. Ah! it was too terrifying.
They went down on their knees, falling at his feet, their throats had dried and they couldn"t say a single word. They were worried that the next words out of His Majesty"s mouth would be to decapitate them. After all, they had heard such words from him and had understood some of the inner workings of this golden palace.
In the end, His Majesty hadn"t made things difficult for them and had even spared their lives. He simply waved his hand, with "a get the h.e.l.l out of here" expression on his face. They couldn"t thank him enough and couldn"t walk fast enough to get far away from this place.
What if he changed his mind and simply ordered their execution?
They didn"t have enough heads to spare.
Therefore, when the head eunuch questioned them, with a tacit understanding, they made up some nonsense to get away from this gloomy place.
Meanwhile, Su Li didn"t know whether to laugh or cry.
Her mother was really something.
She understood the point that the lady couldn"t wait to hold her grandchildren in her arms but she was really expecting too much from Su Li.
She recalled that the empress dowager had tried to probe her on these matters a few times but every time she had deflected her attention. It looked that the other person couldn"t be at peace until Su Li talked to her firmly to postpone all this.
Was there ever a mother who did something like this?
Since she couldn"t marry off her son, she simply decided to stuff his place with girls as if they were common, readily available items.
If this was a gesture of her goodwill, Su Li didn"t want to know what that lady would do to an enemy.
In a few days, this matter was known to everyone who had some clout in the Imperial Palace.
People discussed in hushed tones that the emperor was someone of firm resolve. In this time and age, who amongst them didn"t have three wives and four concubines.
This further fuelled the imagination of the young girls of the Imperial Capital. Who didn"t want a husband who would only love them and pamper them?