Forced to Ascend the Throne after Transmigrating

Fengshan Ceremony. As the mother of a country, Yao Zhi naturally had to attend.

The Fengshan ceremony has always been solemn and dignified. Although everything is kept simple now because the war has just ended, it still took the Ministry of Rites a long time to prepare.

Two whole months passed, plus two months on the road, and it was already three months later when Ye Shuo and Yao Zhi stood on the altar.

Ye Shuo didn’t know if there really were gods in this world, but if they were, he just hoped that everything would go smoothly.

At this moment, Ye Shuo was particularly pious.

When the two men inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner, Ye Shuo couldn’t help but think that this was a great honour that even his father had never had.

There were also those who accused him of being cruel and merciful, saying that he was a king who loved war and was not a merciful king. However, these voices were too weak and ultimately did not gain any momentum.

After all, the good and the bad are written by the victors.

After offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, another piece of good news soon followed –

Looking at his sister who had just returned from Jiangnan to report, with dark circles under her eyes, Ye Shuo could not help but laugh out loud.

He didn’t even need to open his mouth to feel the ridicule coming at him. Jianjian couldn’t help but clench her fists until they made a crackling sound.

Who on earth am I doing this for? !

The original plan was to complete it in one and a half to two years, but because the attack from the Great Zhou was too swift and there were so many more mouths to feed, Jian Jian worked almost day and night, rushing to shorten the construction period by so much.

Thinking of this, Jianjian couldn’t help but grit her teeth.

During this year, Jianjian studied hard and almost became a half-expert in ships. However, theory and practice are different after all, so she will have to be assigned a few experienced assistants. There are many such experts among the people, so it is not a difficult task for Azhi. As soon as she spread the news, several well-known figures in the world actively reported their names.

All the preparations have been completed. Ye Shuo raised his head and confirmed for the last time: “No regrets in this move…”

Before Ye Shuo could finish his words, Jian Jian had already knelt down on one knee.

Seeing this, Ye Shuo finally didn’t say anything more.

Compared to the controversial Fengshan ceremony, not many people cared about the voyage. Except for those who knew Ye Shuo very well, no one else thought there would be anything rare on the other side of the ocean.

The Great Zhou is now so vast and rich in resources, why bother? Moreover, the winds and rains are strong at sea, and it is common to lose your life if you are not careful, which is really not a good thing.

Thinking about it this way, anyone with some status would not be very interested in this.

After another six months of training and running-in, the weather was clear and calm on the day Jianjian went out to sea. It was a rare good day. However, the scheduled port was too far from Shangjing, and Ye Shuo had just left not long ago, so he did not go to see her off in person this time. Instead, his mother set off a month in advance and is probably already at the scene now.

On the other side, Queen Dowager Wei was truly shocked when she looked at the vast sea and the fleet floating on the sea.

The Empress Dowager Wei, who had lived in the deep palace for a long time, rarely saw such a grand scene. For some reason, she suddenly remembered an incident before she entered the palace. When the old Duke Zhen was still leading the troops, the Empress Dowager Wei once followed her father to the military camp. At that time, everyone in the entire military camp followed her father’s lead.

Only that one time, when the blurred memory came back to her, did Queen Mother Wei suddenly realise how heart-shaking that scene was.

She used to be a daughter, and now she is a mother. Queen Mother Wei had to admit that she was indeed very majestic, even more majestic than when she was a concubine and a queen mother.

Looking at her daughter standing at the front, Queen Mother Wei could vaguely understand why Jian Jian was so persistent about this matter. Even a bystander like her felt a little excited when facing such a team, let alone Jian Jian as the leader?

After such a long period of training and running-in, Jian Jian had already subdued all the people in front of her. Now, as long as she gave an order, the whole team would respond. How could it be described as high-spirited?

Coupled with the unknown adventure, Jianjian became excited. If what her unfortunate brother said was true, then in the near future all the people in the world would benefit from her, and her influence would even extend to hundreds or thousands of years later.

I am now about to do something very big.

Until this moment, Jianjian had never been so clear-headed, and when she thought of this, the blood in her body began to roar and boil.

The Queen Mother waited until the ship disappeared. She was also ignited by the nameless flame burning on her daughter. She couldn’t come back to her senses for a long time. After she reacted, she couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Then when she returned to Beijing, she went to the Duke of Zhen’s Mansion as soon as possible.

It would have been fine if Queen Mother Wei hadn’t known that women could be like this before, but now that she knows, of course she feels depressed.

How glorious it is to be a female general or a marquis. Why didn’t her father have such foresight?

Poor old Duke Zhen, he is almost ninety years old and still has to be nagged by his almost sixty-year-old daughter, asking why he didn’t train her to be a female general.

The old Duke of Zhen felt aggrieved, but he didn’t say anything.

Female generals were not popular in his time. Now, he heard that there are some signs of this happening, but that was an idea that his beloved grandson came up with in recent years. Even if he was rough, he was not a heretic after all, otherwise he would have rebelled long ago and would not have been tormented like that by Emperor Jingwen.

“Dad, you even refused to teach me the family palm technique.” Queen Mother Wei had a resentful look on her face, otherwise she wouldn’t be so weak now. She also wanted to be like her daughter-in-law and her second master, who could knock people down with just a finger.

At this moment, the old Duke Zhen only regretted that he was in such good health. He was ninety years old and his ears were not deaf. Unlike his old wife next to him, she could hardly hear what others said two years ago. Otherwise, this incident would not have happened.  

The old Duke of Zhen hesitated to speak, and finally muttered in a low voice: “How can you blame me for this? Why would a little girl practice palm techniques and make her hands rough?”

Back then, the old Duke Zhen would never have let his daughter suffer like this!

But now, perhaps the concept does need to change.

After his daughter’s disturbance, the old Duke Zhen tossed and turned at night, thinking a lot. It seemed that their family had indeed regained its glory. After Prime Minister He retired, his eldest grandson Wei Wen, as the head of the civil servants, naturally enjoyed great glory. However, behind this glory, there was also unknown sadness.

The old Duke of Zhen had many sons in his life, and his sons gave him many grandsons, and his grandsons gave him a lot of great-grandsons. However, what made the old Duke of Zhenguo despair was that among the nearly one hundred people, there were only a few who could read. Even if they could read, they could hardly be considered proficient. In the end, it was already the best they could do to pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi, not to mention taking over Wei Wen’s job in the future.

There is only one top scholar among tens of thousands of people, and there are only a few hundred people in their family. It is normal that their great-grandsons cannot become successful.

Now, as the emperor’s grandfather, he does treat the Duke of Zhenguo’s Mansion well, but he is the emperor after all. For the sake of checks and balances, he will not allow the Duke of Zhenguo’s Mansion to produce another brave general. Now, Xiao Shiba’s position in the army has actually reached the limit. Otherwise, with one civil and one military in the court, it will be difficult for their Wei family to avoid problems in the end.

Although his grandson would not say so, the old Duke Zhenguo has always been knowledgeable and interesting, and his feelings are always two-way. Since his grandson does not want to be suspicious, the old Duke Zhenguo will not let him down.

Now the question is, if the eldest grandson Wei Wen retires one day, who will be able to take over the family?

It was obvious that the path of studying was not feasible, and he had to return to the army in the end. But being a male general was not feasible. If he put himself in his shoes, the old Duke of Zhenguo felt that he would lose sleep. But the same could not be said for a female general.

Although the old Duke Zhenguo is old, he is not confused. He knows that although they are both generals, there are great differences. For example, their little Eighteen has a family behind him. Little Eighteen’s starting point is higher than ordinary people because he is the heir of the Duke’s Mansion. In the future, he will naturally put his family first, but the female general… As for the female general, for a long time in the future, the only one she can rely on is the emperor. If someone else comes, even if that person is her father or brother, it will not work and they are not reliable.

Just like how the old Duke Zhenguo loved his young daughter so much, he eventually chose to send Queen Dowager Wei into the palace.

The old Duke Zhenguo doesn’t care whether his daughter is loyal to the family or not, as long as the family can continue. So all he has to do is cast a wide net, just in case he can catch a big fish in the end?

Thinking of this, the old Duke Zhenguo called his daughters of marriageable age to his side the next day and asked them if they wanted to learn martial arts with their brothers or join the army with their fathers and brothers.

The girls were stunned when they heard the news. Except for a few who didn’t understand it for a while, the rest of them signed up immediately after they realised what was going on.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Whether they find martial arts interesting or something else, for now, these girls are very enthusiastic.

Afterwards, the old Duke Zhenguo picked out two people who were indeed ambitious and had relatively clear minds, and immediately delivered the news to the palace.

The youngest of the three princesses is also old enough to go to school, so now is the perfect time to send her over to be a study companion to the other princesses. The friendship fostered in this way will naturally be much stronger than usual.

No matter what His Majesty plans to do in the future, given His Majesty’s temperament, the three princesses will certainly not suffer any loss, and as long as the princesses do not suffer any loss, their family will not suffer any loss.

Even Ye Shuo didn’t expect that his grandfather was so smart, and getting smarter as he got older. He couldn’t help but feel happy.

It is a great blessing for him and the three princesses that their grandfather is so wise.

After the Duke of Zhenguo made this move, the nobles who came to the capital could no longer sit still.

If the female marquis of General Xu’s family was a coincidence, then the behaviour of the old Duke of Zhenguo was more like a signal. Even General Xu was not as close to the emperor as the old Duke of Zhenguo. The old Duke of Zhenguo’s behaviour could almost reflect the emperor’s intention. In addition, Zou Wu was just promoted to Minister of Works half a year ago, and there were several capable female officials around the Empress, so the emperor’s attitude could not be more obvious.

But the emperor did not say it clearly, and he never gave a direct answer when asked, which made it impossible for the court officials who wanted to give suggestions to speak up. After all, they couldn’t control whether the women in the old Duke Zhenguo’s Mansion and General Xu’s Mansion practised martial arts or studied, right? Even though many people guessed that the emperor’s intentions were more than that, on the surface, this matter was very simple.

Ye Shuo is not stupid, how could he say it out loud and set up such a big target for them to hit? As long as he does not make his attitude clear and has no clear target to hit, the opponents will be scattered. After all, those people are guessing among themselves, sometimes they are resolute and sometimes they hesitate with a fluke mentality, and he will kill his own people.

Seeing that they could no longer oppose, and that the emperor had no position to oppose unless he made a statement, they followed the principle of joining if they couldn’t beat him. Smart people had already begun to learn from the old Duke Zhenguo and did what he did. Even if they didn’t gain anything in the end, they wouldn’t suffer any loss by doing so.

In Shangjing, under the emperor’s feet, there is no shortage of people with a keen sense of smell. Once the trend is formed, the radiation area will only expand larger and larger, and in the end, those who do not follow the trend will not be able to integrate into the circle.

A spice or a piece of cloth can start a trend, let alone other things.

Anyway, Ye Shuo’s students are the first batch of followers, because they are almost certain that if they don’t seize the opportunity now, they will definitely regret it in the future.

Needless to say, there have always been families who let their daughters study. The nobles who originally thought it didn’t matter whether their daughters studied or not were not short of money, so they simply invited teachers to come home to teach. As for those who were firmly against their daughters studying, other families’ daughters were studying, and if their daughters didn’t study, wouldn’t it be embarrassing?

The people in Shangjing were even easier to solve. The daughters of the nobles went to study and practised martial arts, proving that studying and practising martial arts were good things, so all the families with extra money followed suit.

Although most people nowadays are just taking shortcuts, even his grandfather only chose the daughter of the mansion because he could not choose a male member of the family, but Ye Shuo did not care.

All things are difficult at the beginning. You have to take one step at a time and eat one bite at a time.

Three years passed like this, and seeing that the time was almost right, Ye Shuo issued an imperial decree on a very ordinary day, during a very ordinary morning court session, which seemed very normal to him –

From now on, if a woman has a certain amount of property under her name, she can set up a female household, and she can also become an official by passing the imperial examination.

As soon as these words were spoken, Ye Shuo’s students all had a feeling that “it is true”, while the others were shocked on the spot.

They guessed what the emperor might do, but they didn’t expect that they were too timid and didn’t think enough.

If it were in the past, they would definitely say, how can women take the imperial examination? It is simply against the will of heaven and is extremely unrighteous!

However, the reality now is that their sisters, daughters, and granddaughters are all studying… If they can catch up with the first batch of women to take the imperial examination, they will definitely be able to take advantage of it.

So now the question is, do they take advantage of this or not? Do they eat the pie that is right in front of their mouths or not?