You rascal, stop right there!

capital city, royal palace

A Yan rushed for 800 miles, exhausting several horses to death, to report Ling Shumo's memorial to the court.

He wrote down every detail of what happened during his mission to Xuanli Country and sent it to the capital to be presented to His Majesty.

Today is the birthday of Your Majesty's Concubine Chun, and a banquet is being held in the palace.

Emperor Daying naturally also sat at the banquet, looking very comfortable.

The whole scene was full of grand ceremony, with ministers from various ministries, princes and nobles, imperial concubines and beauties... people of all kinds of identities coming in and out.

"Report - Minister of Rites Ling Shumo has an urgent memorial to present to Your Majesty from eight hundred miles away!"

The voice was extremely rapid and hoarse.

During the banquet, the emperor frowned in dissatisfaction.

In front of all the ministers at the banquet, he had no choice but to take the memorial.

The Daying Emperor is called Emperor Jiaxing. He is only 24 years old this year. He has not been interested in political affairs since childhood, but he loves playing the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, and exquisite works of painting.

Since he ascended the throne five years ago, he has opened more art academies and recruited painters.

Compared with that memorial, he was more interested in the masterpieces of famous painters, exotic flowers and stones, and beautiful women.

So, after receiving this heavy memorial, Emperor Jiaxing sighed nonchalantly:

"What a trouble! Minister Ling finally sent Xuanli away, but he didn't even let me have a good meal."

Upon hearing this, the ministers around looked at each other, and they all thought it was ridiculous.

The matter of Minister Ling's diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Xuanli concerns the welfare of the people of both countries and their livelihood. How could he be so casually disparaged at the table?

But the emperor is the emperor after all, and he cannot speak nonsense.

However, the emperor did not read the memorial, but threw it directly to the Prime Minister Li Simeng next to him.

"Yes, Prime Minister Li, please take a look and you can decide!"

Li Simeng beside him took the memorial as usual and took a quick look at it. Then, his face looked a little strange, and he pretended to be deep and twirled his beard.

He is already an old man in his fifties, and looks kind, wise and profound.

During the meal, no one spoke much, watching the two men discuss political affairs as usual.

Although Li Simeng is now a right prime minister who holds a high position, he was once just an academician of the Daying Academy of Painting, and even earlier he was just an unknown scholar.

He failed in the imperial examination, but was later appreciated by the late emperor for his talent in painting.

He taught the young emperor to paint since he was a child and gained his trust. Later, when the young emperor ascended the throne, he entered the official career because he liked to confer official titles based on their close relationship with the emperor.

Li Simeng became the prime minister inexplicably as a painting teacher, which even the people of the world found ridiculous.

He still has some auxiliary talents and can handle some government affairs.

In addition, since he is favored by the emperor, it doesn't matter if the ministers oppose him. He might be directly imprisoned as a traitor.

Precisely because there was such a precedent of a painter becoming a prime minister, all the painters in the country flocked to the Palace Painting Academy.

Of course, we have to say that some people have the idea of taking shortcuts and becoming an official by moving from painting to high positions overnight.

And the other end.

Emperor Jiaxing paid no attention to the so-called memorial. Instead, he looked with great interest at the dancer in white feathers and a golden hairpin on the center of the stage.

They are all charming and their dancing moves are very alluring.

I don’t know how long it took.

During the meal, Li Simeng looked at the memorial carefully again and put it on the table.

He then said to the emperor earnestly, "According to my old servant, this memorial is about Minister Ling's mission to Xuanli Country, where the delegation was detained and hunted down by Xuanli. He is requesting Your Majesty to make a decision on this matter!"

Emperor Jiaxing was very displeased when he heard this.

"This is outrageous! How dare Xuan Li treat Daying like this? It's totally unreasonable."

Although the emperor is not interested in state affairs, it does not mean that he will sit idly by and watch the Great Ying Kingdom being humiliated.

This tragedy of the envoys was clearly a slap in his face.

So he immediately waved his hand, signaling these charming dancers to go down.

"I will immediately write a letter to the Xuanli Kingdom, demanding justice. And the soldiers on the border should be on high alert at all times." He said angrily.

Unexpectedly, Li Simeng next to him suddenly bowed and said, "Wait! Your Majesty!"

He sighed softly: "Justice is acceptable, but there is no need to put these soldiers on high alert."

"Why?" Emperor Jiaxing was puzzled.

Li Simeng put down the memorial and said quietly to the emperor: "The purpose of peace talks is to avoid war. The treasury is empty now, and there should be no war. If a war breaks out, I am afraid that lives will be lost and the people will have a hard time!"

Emperor Jiaxing felt very strange: "I just visited the national treasury the other day, and there were still a lot of rare treasures. How could it be empty?"

This makes people roll their eyes.

How can the money and silver in the national treasury be compared with the luxurious and rare treasures in the harem?

The emperor was ignorant and wore gold and silver all day long, ate and drank well, and always thought that the treasury was full and money was everywhere.

After all, there are too many things left behind by the late emperor.

Li Simeng laughed in his heart, but said solemnly: "Your Majesty, it is not that easy to get military supplies. The treasury does not have much money now. I still advocate peace and take a long-term view."

"The teacher is kind and thoughtful. Let's do everything according to the Prime Minister's wishes!" Emperor Jiaxing echoed.

In the end, this concubine's birthday banquet was undoubtedly a failure, and Emperor Daying walked out of the banquet with a dark face.

The various pure gold lamps around that were used to show luxury, and the priceless central pearl, were in sharp contrast to the tearful and bloody memorial.

The birthday party was overshadowed.

As soon as the banquet was over, he issued an imperial decree and sent a letter to the Xuanli Kingdom to demand justice.

…………

A noodle shop on the street.

Those who ate noodles together were all peddlers and hawkers. They often gathered together and boasted about all sorts of things.

For example, a pretty widow in the east city got married, and a citizen in the west city reported the official and was beaten with a stick.

Or maybe Your Majesty discovered some flower rain stones in Jiangnan, or shipped rare stone paintings back to the capital, etc. There are all kinds of messy gossips.

These people love to watch the fun and listen to gossip.

Today is a little different.

When eating noodles, I always hear some nonsense.

……

"I heard that our Minister of Rites went to Xuanli Country for peace talks, but was detained and hunted down. In the end, there were only a few survivors in the entire delegation!!"

"What? Detain? Hunt down? The Xuanli people are going too far!"

"Who said it wasn't true? Why should our officials who won the big victory suffer such injustice?

"The Xuanli Kingdom told our emperor that they would renew the peace treaty with us only after they saw the bull give birth. This time, they refused to give us an explanation no matter what we said!"

"A bull giving birth to a calf? How could this be so ridiculous?"

"That's right! I don't know what your Majesty was thinking. When they were detained, you should have sent troops to teach them a lesson!"

"Hush..." said an elderly man, "We can't discuss state affairs. Our emperor doesn't like war..."

……

Everyone who was eating noodles nearby sighed.

The final outcome of this incident will either be a war between the two countries.

Either Xuan Li should pay compensation or give some explanation. After all, he couldn't be wronged in vain.