jdhmnovel Chapter 284 Retreating to Advance
Chapter 284 Retreating to Advance
Ever since Empress Dowager Cao claimed to be in the highest position in the palace, she would no longer tolerate any remarks that went against her ideas.
In the past, when the Sheng family was filial to her and followed her lead, she also took some care of the fourth Miss Sheng for the sake of money.
But now, she has sat on the throne of the queen without knowing what is good for her. Anyone who goes against her will be a bastard who will not have a good death.
Three generations ago, the Sheng family was just a lowly merchant family. How could they be compared with her?
When you hear some compliments, you tend to take them seriously.
So Empress Dowager Cao snorted with disdain and anger,
"The Queen's maid is indeed majestic. All the maids in my palace want to emulate you."
Longsha's expression remained unchanged, and he continued to speak respectfully,
"Thank you for your kindness, Madam Queen. I don't deserve it."
"Don't you dare?"
"I think you are so bold!"
Normally speaking, you should kneel down and kowtow to apologize here.
But Longsha didn't say that, he just said it in a formal way,
"Your Majesty, please calm down. I will report this to the Queen right away.
I will take my leave now."
After saying that, he took Sheng Changtong and quickly walked out of the room.
Report to Her Majesty the Queen?
What to report?
Empress Dowager Cao was stunned at first, then she shouted angrily,
"presumptuous!"
"Stop her for me!"
But the imperial guards were following Molan's orders after all. Even though they were hindered by the orders of the Empress Dowager, they still kept a standard distance of one person from Longsha. With a rather freehand tug of war, they were "blocked" in front of the Queen's palace.
In this case, how can we stop it?
He had to leave with regret and went back to say, "This female official is really cunning and difficult to deal with."
Walking into the courtyard of the Queen's palace, Yao Yiyi was still a little confused.
Although he expected that Sister Molan, as the Queen, would definitely send someone to rescue her, but...
"Sister Longsha, is it appropriate for us to leave like this?"
"Suitable."
Longsha affirmed,
"Later, the Queen will come to the outside of the palace to kowtow and apologize."
"what??"
Yao Yiyi was stunned. She didn't expect that her toughness just now would have to lead to such serious consequences.
But Longsha understood Molan's intention and explained,
"Grandmother and granddaughter, there is another way to calculate this account."
Yao Yiyi sighed,
"Alas... it's all my fault. I can't support my sister."
In this era, the relationship between the ruler and his subjects and filial piety are bound together.
Even the emperor was subject to the so-called "filial piety", let alone the empress.
In a family, if the mother-in-law is unreasonable, it is the daughter-in-law who is at fault.
With this mindset, what's more, the grandmother is even more important.
Fortunately, it is still the Song Dynasty, and it is not as suffocating as the Ming and Qing Dynasties or in most of the movies and TV dramas she has watched.
There are not so many bizarre oppressions and rules for women in the world like those in Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.
If the younger generation wants to successfully control the older generation, besides relying on a strong maternal family, they also have to rely on first suffering a loss, then making a big fuss, and then the rumors that "time will tell" will spread.
If this happened in the later dynasties of the extremely feudal era, even if the grandmother was wrong, the younger generation would have to endure it and keep silent, reflecting on whether they had displeased their grandmother by stepping into the house with their left foot. They would also be punished by kneeling in the ancestral hall to reflect on their actions.
Since the establishment of the private school, Yao Yiyi has been acting as a man, and this has almost lasted throughout her entire life in ancient times after she traveled through time.
At the same time, the front yard and back house of Sheng Mansion were quite clean, which inevitably made her somewhat neutral in her behavior and thinking. She immediately forgot the unique calculations of this era because of "there really is a throne, huge wealth, and noble title to inherit", as well as its inherent injustice to women.
Maybe only after working so hard for a long time can you have a chance to shine?
This is probably the reason why Cao Laodeng is so paranoid.
It takes a long time to change the times. As the wheel of history rolls forward, the broadening of people's minds depends on the development of science and technology and the spread of information - that is, the reduction of illiteracy.
It is probably unrealistic to directly overthrow the imperial power, but it is more than enough to overthrow the patriarchal society and establish a world that is friendly to women.
Since you have traveled through time, everything should be centered around yourself.
Men are the beneficiaries of the patriarchal society, and male time travelers will not engage in the feminist movement.
But the victims of patriarchal society are women. It should be reasonable for women to travel through time and engage in the women's supremacy movement, right?
She felt uncomfortable all over when she thought that Sister Molan would be forced to kneel down to Cao Laodeng out of filial piety.
If Sister Molan were a centralized empress, would she dare?
The attack power of T0 in this version of filial piety is limited, and the final right of interpretation of everything that happens in this palace lies in the hands of the empress.
call--
Yao Yiyi.
You are still too lazy. Life in this world is so difficult, why don't you work harder?
The sixteen-year-old top scholar and fifth-rank official of the current dynasty, who had unknowingly been assimilated by Molan, reflected like this.
……
Walking into the hall, Molan immediately dispensed with Yao Yiyi's polite greetings, immediately gave her a seat, sent away the palace maids and eunuchs, and asked,
"Did Cao give you a hard time?"
Yao Yiyi laughed out loud when she heard Molan address her as Sister.
She thought that this must be the way the well-educated Sister Molan expressed her extreme anger.
The Empress Dowager was called Cao.
Sister Molan cares about me!
I was thinking about it in my heart, and answered wittily,
"It's okay, but I'm going to force you to get married."
"Ugh……"
Molan sighed, held her forehead and shook her head, "Are you really that stupid?"
"Ah."
Yao Yiyi nodded.
To be honest, she didn't think that the Empress Dowager's strategy was a good one.
This forced marriage...can it be forced?
How to force it?
Nowadays, the scholar-officials and the emperor rule the world together!
You forced your subjects to marry the daughter of the Empress Dowager, who is not even a princess!
Molan felt even more helpless than Yao Yiyi.
No wonder the Empress Dowager Cao could fight so well with that group of useless girls in Yuzhou.
In the end, even if they got some historical bonuses, they would just be more ambitious and ruthless, but not have any wisdom.
Okay, that's good.
In other words, she had recruited the intellectual leader of this copy under her command ten years ago, which had already determined her fate of having an easy time and steadily gaining points.
In this case, she only needs to show extraordinary means and strategies, and Yao Yiyi, who adapts to the changes in the situation, will naturally push her to the throne.
Will this way of ascending the throne and planning methods, which are completely different from the previous lives, bring new achievements and points?
She was looking forward to it.
So Molan told Yao Yiyi,
“Be careful in the future, Cao will not let you go.
Of course, there is no need to panic too much. If something unexpected happens, just call the imperial physician and let him tell the truth."
Yao Yiyi frowned, not quite agreeing with Doctor Xuan's remedy.
The key to this matter is to be vigilant and not let the other party exploit any loopholes, otherwise there will be a disaster.
"This is inappropriate, it will definitely cause trouble."
Molan smiled and repeated,
"Just ask him to tell the truth, where did the trouble come from?"
"truth".
Yao Yiyi didn't understand at all.
It just means that she doesn't have the ability to make things final with the girl from the Cao family.
This is the truth.
Because she is a woman, she naturally does not have those omnipotent means.
Yao Yiyi thought she was already capable of applying these "untold" methods in real life, but in fact, she was still far behind Sister Molan's ease and ability to plan and strategize.
After passing this topic, Molan said,
"The Sheng family will never be a breakthrough point."
Yao Yiyi's thoughts were also very active. She immediately understood what Molan meant and asked quickly,
"So the Cao family is going to take action against the Shen family in Yuzhou?"
"Yes."
"But do you want me to intervene?"
Molan raised her hand, picked up the teacup and took a sip, raised her eyebrows and asked,
"But what does this have to do with me?"
Regardless of whether the Shen family takes the plunge or not, the distance between the Shen family and the throne is now at least three Sheng families away.
Because the current emperor changed the family tree, acknowledged the previous emperor as his grandfather, and directly skipped the "parents".
What identity does Shen regard himself as?
If Shen Congxing dared to say "I am the brother of the mother of the current emperor!", within a quarter of an hour Shen would be sued in court, and in the end Shen Congxing would be beheaded and his entire family exiled.
The ability of Song Dynasty censors to exaggerate matters was much greater than that of censors in other dynasties.
Once Shen Congxing died, the Shen family was gone. It might be a blow to the emperor, but for Sister Molan, the queen, it meant that she would be spared a lot of trouble.
These country bumpkins in Yuzhou are ignorant and cannot tell right from wrong.
Ugh……
If Sister Molan had not calculated that Zhao Ceying would have a chance to inherit the throne, and if his last name was not Zhao, Yao Yiyi would never let such a man marry Sister Molan.
What does he have? How many does he have?
Yao Yiyi found that whenever she came to the Forbidden City recently, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
Molan knew that Yao Yiyi had been "busy", so she began to summarize and said,
"First, we need to take care of the Ministry of Industry's work. We cannot lose even one acre of land.
Secondly, slowly take control of the Ministry of War, and Shengtang will cooperate with you.
As for the Ministry of Revenue’s farming, there is no rush. We can leave it to our own talents in the future.”
Yao Yiyi, who had long harbored the intention of "rebellion", naturally understood it.
She immediately patted her chest and promised,
"Don't worry! Sister Molan, I won't let you down!"
Molan smiled,
“Of course I trust you.
Be careful, it won't take long, my little prince."
It won’t take long?
The last time I said this was before Sister Molan was getting married.
It wouldn't be long before she would return to Yuzhou, so it took less than six months.
now……
Yao Yiyi's eyes brightened, and she immediately knelt down and performed the etiquette of a subject, saying solemnly,
"Sir, obey the order."
"Hahahahaha, okay!"
The sisters had fun role-playing.
But Yao Yiyi knew that this "acting" would probably only have a few more opportunities before she would have to put it into practice.
The situation in the court is so chaotic. How is Sister Molan going to make a breakthrough?
Empress Dowager Cao is definitely the core of the conflict, but where are the opportunities? Where are the pawns?
Yao Yiyi didn't know.
But she would not give up thinking, even though she knew that in the end she would only be able to review the situation and would not be able to taste anything new. She could only be prepared at any time like she was when Prince Yan had his palace coup.
……
The next day, nothing unexpected happened.
The news that Empress Dowager Cao detained Lord Xiao Sheng and intended to torture him, and that the Empress had knelt in front of the palace for two hours, caused an uproar in the court.
The officials, headed by the Duke of Yingguo who holds the main military power and assisted by the Sheng family, are bound to find out the reason.
There's nothing wrong with being the mother of a country, that she has to kneel for two hours!
Is it common for a mistress to be so mean to her daughter-in-law?
However, officials led by the Cao family, who wanted to take a gamble, started by saying that the Queen and the Sheng family must be guilty.
If she was innocent, why would the Empress Dowager punish the Queen, who was her grandson's wife?
It must be you, the daughter and son of the Sheng family, who have committed a heinous crime!
Saying this is like turning on the switch for a quarrel.
The moral cultivation of the women in my Sheng family comes from the successive matrons of our Sheng family. My grandmother was the legitimate daughter of a marquis, and the eldest lady of the Sheng family was a king who was entitled to be worshipped in the imperial temple...
The girl from the Sheng family, under Molan's management, has already developed a set of winning boxing skills.
To question the character of the daughter of the Sheng family is to question the late emperor, question the eldest princess of the current dynasty, question the achievements of old master Wang who is enshrined in the Taimiao, question the character of Sheng Hong as a second-rank official, question the value of a family's consecutive top three rankings, and question Lin, a first-rank imperial husband.
Well, with such a connection, who do you dare to question?
Or is it that Empress Dowager Cao is dissatisfied with the eldest princess and the late emperor and wants to bully her grandson's wife?
Ok?
"This……"
The quarrel among the civil servants in the court was no different from an ordinary argument.
Everyone has their own winning rhetoric, but the Sheng Mansion is more like an indestructible battleship. Compared with the stubbornness of the opposition party, it seems so great and glorious that even the "rationalists" who are not involved have to say in their hearts that "the Sheng family is not wrong, and the queen is not wrong."
After copying for a long time, Zhao Ceying, who had already talked with Molan and was so heartbroken that he cried all night until his pillow was wet, finally stopped the quarrel below.
She specifically pointed out Sheng Changtong and asked him to "explain in detail" why he was punished by the Empress Dowager yesterday.
In a word, the golden words have already defined the unwarranted punishment of the Empress Dowager.
Could it be that someone would really come and correct the emperor's harmless slip of the tongue in the court, thus damaging his dignity?
There won't be any.
Sheng Changtong was very sensible and stepped out of the line, kowtowed, and remained in a kneeling position, preaching with a repentant and sad face.
"Your Majesty, yesterday the Empress Dowager...
It is an order requiring me to marry the daughter of Cao. "
As soon as he finished speaking, the court, which had finally fallen silent, was suddenly filled with uproar.
Regardless of whether they were on the positive or negative side, they all looked at each other with surprise on their faces.
It was this moment of silence that allowed Sheng Changtong to continue his sad sermon.
"Just as the Empress Dowager said, the Cao family is so noble that it is impossible for a humble official like me, a bastard from a small merchant family, to marry into their family.
Therefore, although I am ecstatic about the favor and support of the Grand Empress, I dare not agree to this marriage and I rejected it on the spot. "
"..."
How noble is the Cao family?
How could Sheng Changtong be so high up?
Is the Sheng family a small merchant family?
And what kind of humble bastard is Sheng Changtong?
When Yao Yiyi spoke, she prefixed her words "Just as the Empress Dowager said" in a neither light nor heavy tone, which made everyone realize by surprise that these words came from the Empress Dowager.
Now, turning around to look at the men of the Sheng family headed by Sheng Hong, he didn't expect that one by one they covered their faces with their sleeves and sighed with sad looks on their faces?
No?
Could it be that you also think that the Empress Dowager is right?
The Sheng family showed no signs of complacency or of pursuing their victory, which made the speculators, who were loyal to the Empress Dowager and had long planned to profit from the victory, feel helpless.
At this point, I had no choice but to stand up and question.
"You said that this was said by the Grand Empress Dowager. Do you have any evidence?"