Professional Ethics of a Concubine

Standing up, the empress decided to go and see what was going on.

When they arrived at the scene of the accident, which was the pavilion in the garden, the empress saw the old man and Xiaowu playing chess together.

Judging from the way they both looked, it didn't seem like they had a falling out.

"Greetings, Mother." The Fifth Prince stood up immediately when he saw the Empress coming.

"Come and help me see where to make the next move?" The Emperor called to the Empress.

"You can't beat him?" The empress walked forward, looked at the chessboard and asked with a frown.

"I gave him three moves at the beginning, so I kept losing." The emperor said, "But I must win!"

"Reporting to the Queen Mother, the Emperor just made a bet with me. If he wins, he will ask me to call him dad." The Fifth Prince said angrily.

"I don't want to bet with him, and he is unwilling to do so. In the end, I can only compromise!"

The empress's face darkened slightly, and she looked at the emperor speechlessly, "Are you mentally ill?"

"Don't believe this brat's one-sided words!" The emperor was accused of being mentally ill, but he still refused to accept it. He pointed at the fifth prince and complained to the empress.

"The reason why he agreed to my bet just now was because he asked me to promise that if I lost, I would tell him how we knew each other. This kid also has some hidden agenda!"

The Fifth Prince was exposed, and when the Queen Mother looked at him coldly, he immediately felt guilty and explained in a low voice,

"I don't really want to know. I just want to fight back. The Queen Mother knows that I am a terrible chess player and I can't beat the Great Zhao Emperor."

"Haha, don't listen to him. Look at the chess board, it's obvious that he is going to win." The emperor sneered.

The empress stared at the chessboard and saw that Xiaowu was indeed going to win. It seemed that his chess skills had improved.

"Go away." The empress waved her hand and asked them to leave.

No matter who wins or who loses, the bet is invalid.

The retired emperor and the fifth prince were both unconvinced. They looked at each other with anger, and in an instant they understood what the other meant.

Fight again next time!

One wants to find out gossip, the other wants to trick someone into calling him dad, and each of them has his own little calculations.

When the empress saw the little flames in their eyes, she snorted angrily and decided that they were just too idle.

He must be exiled. Don't stay under her nose every day. It's too annoying.

The empress summoned Yuchi Yongning and asked him to come up with an idea on how to get rid of the two people and have a legitimate reason.

Yuchi Yongning,...

Well, this inexplicable damn familiar feeling, when he was in Da Zhao, he often heard the emperor's cousin complain like this.

Ahhh, Your Majesty cousin, help me, please take this annoying old man of yours back home as soon as possible.

When a troublesome younger brother faces a naughty old man, the day cannot go by without some trouble!

"My Queen Mother, it seems that a new jade mine has just been discovered in our west." Yuchi Yongning thought for a moment and said,

"Mother Queen, please let the Fifth Prince go there to hold a Zoroastrian ceremony and bestow the blessing of the God of Fire.

As for the Emperor, I will ask my son to accompany him and invite him to visit the grottoes in the south. The Emperor has never seen the wonders there, so he must be curious. "

"Very good!" The empress nodded with satisfaction. She became more and more satisfied with Yuchi Yongning and gave him a confirmation.

"Next spring, I intend to pass the throne to you. In a few days, I will issue an edict to announce it to the world and have people prepare for your coronation ceremony."

"Mother Queen, you are still so young and healthy, why are you so anxious to abdicate? I still have a lot to learn and I am afraid I am not up to the task."

Yuchi Yongning said immediately.

"Don't give in. I can see your growth." The empress said with a smile.

"I feel relieved to leave the Western Region to you. I am not young anymore, and it is time to unload the burden on my shoulders."

"I will definitely live up to your expectations!" Yuchi Yongning knelt down and said to the empress.

The empress nodded in satisfaction. "Get up quickly. You only need to accompany the Great Zhao Emperor for a few days. Later, other envoys from the Great Zhao will arrive, and it seems to be Prince Duan."

"Prince Duan's envoys are coming?" Yuchi Yongning smiled in surprise, "It's been a long time since we last met. I miss Prince Duan."

The empress also heard that he had a good relationship with Prince Duan. Seeing him so happy, she nodded with satisfaction.

The Western Regions will be incorporated into the Great Zhao sooner or later. Let the younger generations do this.

She just didn't care.

-

In a blink of an eye, it’s the end of the year again.

Heavy snow fell in the capital again, causing a minor snow disaster.

However, compared with the snowstorm a few years ago, no victims flocked to the capital for refuge this time.

There is no other reason. The people have a lot of surplus grain, and in recent years, Da Zhao has been promoting cotton planting, so now ordinary people can also cover themselves with quilts and wear cotton clothes.

Their houses are no longer thatched and mud houses, many of them are brick and tile houses, and will not collapse due to snowstorms.

With houses, food, quilts and cotton clothes, people are not afraid even if it snows heavily.

Although there were no major difficulties, Xie Jin still asked all government offices to pay close attention, allocate the necessary materials, and be ready for rescue at any time.

At the same time, he also dispatched more patrol soldiers to help the people affected by the disaster.

As for other places, if there are counties that conceal the disaster and fail to report it, once it is discovered, the local officials will not just dismiss them from their posts, but will also confiscate their properties and exile them, affecting the careers of their descendants in the future.

The punishment is very severe.

It is also because of such severe punishment that local officials dare not conceal any information.

Even if this would result in a bad performance evaluation and even lead to dismissal from office, it is still better than having one's property confiscated and being exiled.

Moreover, this kind of dismissal from office is only a temporary punishment. When the crisis has passed, the emperor will still re-employ the official, usually by transferring him horizontally to any place to serve.

Therefore, there is a strict punishment system and strict inspection and supervision measures. At least for now, no official dares to challenge Xie Jin's power.

-

Qiwu Palace.

When Ye Qingzhi saw the emperor walk in with a bad look on his face, she asked, "What's wrong with the emperor? Did another minister make you angry?"

"I received a memorial from the Ninth Princess today. It snowed heavily in Jiuyan, and the snow disaster in the grassland was even more severe this year."

Xie Jin said, pulling out a memorial from his sleeve and handing it to her.

"I am a little worried about the King of Chu. He led his people to the grassland to lobby the tribes. Now that he has encountered this snowstorm, I don't know how he is doing now."

Upon hearing this, Ye Qingzhi frowned worriedly, took the memorial and opened it, and her worries became even greater.

"The Ninth Princess said that she has sent a large number of troops to the grassland to search for the King of Chu and his men, but the snowstorm was too strong, making the search difficult, and many people have been killed."

Ye Qingzhi said,

"In this kind of natural disaster, to be honest, if you encounter something like this, you can only rely on King Chu's own luck."

Xie Jin responded, "When the King of Chu went to the grassland, I sent a letter to Xiaokang, asking him to give the King of Chu more blessings and hope that everything goes well for him, so his luck should not be bad."

"Then it shouldn't be a big problem. With good luck and the King of Chu's cleverness, we will be safe." Ye Qingzhi held his hand and comforted him.

"Your Majesty, don't worry too much."

Xie Jin held her hand, smiled at her, and then told her another story.

"Today I also received a desperate letter from Yuchi Yongning asking for help. Father is arguing with the Fifth Prince over there.

He won a bet playing chess with the Fifth Prince and asked the Fifth Prince to call him dad, and the Fifth Prince really did so.

But this matter was also known by other ministers, and then those ministers who were loyal to the late emperor of Gulan Kingdom were not happy about it. They wrote letters to impeach my father every day, hoping that he would leave the Western Regions as soon as possible..."

Ye Qingzhi,...

Is it true that the retired emperor is too self-indulgent in his retirement life?

Being an empress is so difficult!

"Your Majesty, should we really bring the retired emperor back?" Ye Qingzhi asked.

She was really afraid that if she continued to stay in the Western Regions, someone would risk their lives to teach the retired emperor a lesson and make him behave himself and stop being so dissolute.