get-shopping Chapter 109 Underestimating Li Yuanke
Chapter 109 Underestimating Li Yuanke
The fact that the heir of the Duke of Wei had colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country, along with the loss of Tianfei Pass, caused a great uproar in the court.
In an instant, petitions impeaching the Duke of Wei's mansion rained down on Li Yuanke's desk.
At the grand court assembly, Li Yuanke appointed five people as Hanlin Academy Attendants: Fu Chuji, Xie Wensheng, Lin Xiangchuan, Pei Yanli, and Song Baiyan, a Doctor of Mathematics, to accompany him in his studies.
All five of them were granted the rank of seventh grade official.
Originally, these five people were all officials of the eighth or ninth rank, and were all young people in their twenties or thirties. Apart from Xie Wensheng and Pei Yanli, the other three were not from aristocratic families.
Prime Minister Pei was very sensitive and disagreed. "Your Majesty, apart from my son Pei Yanli, the other four of these five people all hold official positions. They have been suddenly transferred to serve as Attendant Scholars. Although it is said to be a demotion, they do not actually have any real duties. They are simply accompanying Your Majesty in your studies. Forgive my ignorance, but I do not know what Your Majesty's intention is in doing this?"
Li Yuanke was quite straightforward. "Don't think I don't know. Many people in the court and the public have laughed at me for not studying hard back then. I really didn't like studying when I was young. My tutor even broke a stick to make me study."
Looking back now, I feel both regret and guilt. Fortunately, Prime Minister Pei assisted me in governing the country, preventing me from being overwhelmed. Now that I have some energy left, I plan to read more books.
Among the princes, only Li Yuanke was not good at music, chess, calligraphy and painting, but he was excellent at riding and archery. This was mainly because Shen Shixi had him practice riding and archery properly to learn how to lead troops in battle, so that he could save his life in critical moments.
He thought it made a lot of sense and put a lot of effort into it.
The Grand Secretary stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty's move is excellent! These five young men are all of the highest caliber in their learning. If they can serve Your Majesty, they will surely improve in the future."
Several more people stood up to support the emperor, including his own son, so Pei Wuji did not object.
The five people who were named were naturally overjoyed. They had been promoted suddenly and were now close ministers, with plenty of opportunities ahead.
Among them, Pei Yanli, the Dengshilang, was a sinecure official. In other words, he did not get the position through his own abilities, but through the privilege of being a seventh-rank official. However, he was originally an illegitimate son of the Pei family, so how much resources could he possibly have?
Having a minor official position of the seventh rank is already quite good.
He was born to Pei Xiang's most favored concubine, but the Pei family had strict etiquette. His wife, Lady Gao, came from the Bohai Gao family, and her maternal family was the Shen State Duke's Mansion. She was ruthless in managing the inner quarters, so Pei Xiang dared not easily interfere in the affairs of the inner quarters.
When Shen Shixi heard who Li Yuanke had chosen, he knew his intention. They had dealt with Pei Yanli once before, and Pei Yanli was definitely not the kind of person who would submit to someone else.
Moreover, he was extremely filial to his birth mother.
Since he had summoned someone to serve him while he read, Li Yuanke had to put on a show. He had never liked reading before, and now that he was emperor, he disliked it even more. However, he enjoyed listening to stories, so he had someone tell him historical events.
After each story is told, the group discusses it, and the time passes quickly.
After about half an hour, the emperor dismissed these people from their posts.
Xie Wensheng held the highest status among them. Although his official rank might not be the highest, it seemed natural for him to lead the way. After leaving the palace gates, he patted his chest and declared, "From now on, we will serve the Emperor together in his studies. It is fate. Today, I will treat everyone to a drink, shall we?"
Why not? The others naturally agreed, and they found a tavern where they all had a good drink.
When Pei Yanli returned to the Pei family, his father and elder brother Pei Xunli were indeed waiting for him.
In Prime Minister Pei's study, Pei Xunli said, "Seventh Brother, you are truly in high spirits today. I just wonder if you can understand His Majesty's thoughts?"
Pei Yanli did not speak, but looked at Prime Minister Pei.
Prime Minister Pei said, "Whether the Emperor truly favors you or has ulterior motives, you must not forget your identity. Your surname is Pei. Without the Pei family, you have no right to enter the court. You should understand this!"
Pei Yanli recalled that seven years ago, at the foot of Xiangshan Mountain in the suburbs, he met the emperor who had not yet entered the Eastern Palace and a little girl. They had a long chat at that time.
He bowed his head and said, "Yes!"
"It's good that you understand!" Pei Xiang said.
Pei Xunli wanted to make another sarcastic remark, but Prime Minister Pei stopped him by raising his hand and telling Pei Yanli to leave first.
After everyone left, Pei Xunli was furious. "Father, such a good opportunity, and the Emperor didn't give it to me, but gave it to him. Does he expect to be able to suppress me in court in the future?"
Prime Minister Pei said with some helplessness, "You are now the Vice Minister of the Imperial Clan Court, an official of the sixth rank, so why are you still so impatient? Although he is of the seventh rank, he only serves the emperor and does not participate in court affairs. If he were not my son, the emperor would not have mentioned him."
"Father, the current emperor is not the same as my uncle was back then. Li Yuanke still has half the blood of the previous dynasty in his veins. He is cruel and tyrannical. Just look at how cruel his methods were in dealing with the Prince of Yidu this time. On the surface, he only exterminated three clans, but he implicated others and killed all of Yin's relatives and friends."
Prime Minister Pei remained silent, deeply regretting that he had underestimated Li Yuanke back then, a dissolute and uneducated prince whom he had not taken seriously.
But those who are ruthless are usually not bad-natured.
When Li Yuanke returned to Zhaoyang Palace, it was quiet inside and out. He entered without being informed. Under the lamplight, Shen Shixi was writing furiously at his desk.
She was rushing to finish her manuscript.
The main readers are urging me to update so much.
The big spender in front of us is one of them.
Li Yuanke picked up the manuscript next to him and saw that it read, "The Monkey King said, 'When I was happy, I had some worries. I thought that the emperors of the human race could not control me, but the King of Hell in the underworld would still be in charge of me. This made me very troubled.'"
He decided to learn the skill of achieving immortality, so he bid farewell to his civil and military officials and his monkey offspring, and descended the mountain to seek the immortals…
Shen Shixi wrote up to the section about Sun Wukong listening to the lectures on the "Huang Ting", and then stopped.
"What happens next?" Li Yuanke was engrossed in watching.
Shen Shixi put down her pen, turned her head, rubbed her shoulder, looked around with her beautiful eyes, and said coquettishly, "It hurts! I want you to rub it!"
Li Yuanke chuckled, put down his manuscript, and began massaging her shoulders. "You scoundrel, who's like you, ordering me around to massage your shoulders?"
Shen Shixi leaned against his stomach, turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Who told you to be my man? If you won't let me massage you, I'll find another man to massage you!"
[Ha, I'll make you mad! Ugh, I wish I had seventeen or eighteen handsome men, one to massage my shoulders, one to rub my back, one to pound my legs, and one to feed me tea… Hahaha!]
"You dare!" Li Yuanke looked down at her, his eyes filled with frost.
She slithered up like a snake, as if blind, cupped Li Yuanke's face, and kissed his chin. "Your Majesty~, how did you get such a beautiful face? It's so handsome, beautiful in every way! I love it so much!"
[Hmm, Yuan Ke's face is still the most striking, handsome from every angle. Since you're so good-looking, I'll make you my official wife!]
Li Yuanke was so angry he couldn't live anymore!
[Hmm, why is this scoundrel so unpredictable? Being an emperor is no human job. Who angered him this time? Sigh, working from dawn till dusk every day, it's really tough, harder than being an ox or a horse!]
Li Yuanke took a few deep breaths and held back, "You only like my face, right? If I didn't have this face, would you never come to the palace?!"
"Of course! Let alone refusing to enter the palace, if you didn't have that face, I wouldn't have even bothered with you when you came to the Shen family back then!"
In this world, only she could make "judging people by their appearance" sound so noble and respectable.
Li Yuanke laughed in anger, placing her on the desk. "If you're not going to the palace, what else do you want to do? Speak!"
[Duck, this is a serious psychological problem; you need counseling!]
When Li Yuanke entered the study and began massaging Shen Shixi's shoulders, the servants left.
At this moment, their intertwined shadows were reflected on the window paper.
(I'm sending you another chapter from my draft, originally intending to get some comments, but you've all ignored me. Tomato has recently been cracking down on AI, changing the rules to allow up to 50,000 words per day. Honestly, even if you typed it all out on your ten fingers 24/7, you couldn't do it. Seriously! Only AI could manage that.)