Dragon's Origin

The people in the capital had probably never seen representatives from the various vassal states fleeing from the palace like rabbits shot with arrows, rushing back to their respective residences as if their lives depended on it. Today, they finally had the chance to witness such a scene.

After the Emperor announced the second decree, the representative of the Tang family stood up on the spot, restated it, and confirmed it with the Emperor again. After receiving the Emperor's affirmative reply, and the Emperor even presented two imperial edicts for everyone to examine, he stamped them in front of the representatives of all parties and sent people to post them outside the palace.

One of them was the two decrees that the Emperor had just announced. The meaning of the words was without error, exactly what the Emperor had said and Elder Tang had confirmed. Everyone watched as the Emperor stamped the edicts, leaving no room for ambiguity.

The content of the second imperial edict was about conferring a woman as a princess. Compared to the first one, the second edict was nothing. Wasn't it just conferring a woman as a princess? Not to mention a mere princess, what did it matter to anyone if he even made someone Empress Dowager? Wouldn't the royal family still support her themselves? As for what title the princess was given, who would pay attention to such trivial matters at this time?

The representatives of all the vassal states rushed back to their respective residences as quickly as possible. The first thing they did was to send messages back to their countries via messenger birds, conveying the Emperor's intentions. Only then did they gather their strategists in the capital to ponder what the Emperor meant.

All parties were making guesses, but there was one thing they all agreed on: the Emperor was afraid.

Since childhood, the Emperor had been a figurehead trying to survive in the cracks. Saying he was from the royal family, which family cared? He finally managed to gain a little respect from everyone through a system of enfeoffment, allowing everyone to address him as Emperor, but in reality, the various parties didn't feel that his status had improved in any substantial way.

But the last few years had been different. The prosperity of the capital was increasing day by day. Since Wang Sheng entered the capital, all kinds of rare and precious things had emerged one after another, and the enjoyment had also increased.

In contrast to the nightly revelry in the capital, all parties had been working hard to strengthen their states and constantly fighting. It must be that the battles between the various parties these days, and the war with the Shanyue Kingdom, had made the Emperor feel something. To prevent the various parties from misunderstanding that the Emperor had any ambitions, he displayed such an attitude, even tearing down the inner city walls, to give all parties a clear signal that the Emperor had no ambition.

Of course, collecting taxes was entirely the Emperor's little scheme. Now that he had expressed his attitude so thoroughly, how could the various parties be embarrassed not to give the Emperor some benefits? Moreover, the Emperor didn't ask for too much; he just wanted some gold coins. To be honest, it wasn't excessive at all.

Wasn't it just some gold coins? Attending a concert in the capital cost 100,000 gold coins per person, and buying a decent residence cost at most 10 million gold coins. One-tenth of that was only 1 million gold coins, plus the 'peace and prosperity tax,' which was basically protection money, and that was only 2 million gold coins. Was 2 million gold coins a lot?

The real trouble was the requirement for peerage. It wasn't a big deal for the rulers of each country to buy a peerage for their sons. An imperial baron only cost the Emperor 10 million gold coins, which they could easily take out. The problem was the peerage of others.

Which of the various families' elders and important officials didn't want to send their children and family members to the safe capital? Don't think that the Emperor had torn down the city walls; the more he did this, the safer the capital seemed. If anyone dared to harm someone's family in the capital, they would become the enemy of the world, and everyone would have the right to punish them. Their situation would be even worse than Wang Sheng's when he was hunted down by the whole world.

In this situation, the most embarrassed were actually the rulers of each country. The Emperor had given them blank imperial edicts and peerages, it was just up to them to confer them or not.

If they didn't confer them, the elders and important officials of each family would be disappointed. If they did confer them, they would have to grant fiefs, wouldn't that be artificially creating a country within a country, causing the vast vassal states to disintegrate? It looked like a conspiracy by the Emperor no matter how you looked at it.

Just as the rulers of each country were in a dilemma, the Tang State took the lead in taking measures. Fiefs would still be granted, but the meritorious officials who were granted peerages and fiefs could only own the income from the fiefs after taxes, but could not participate in the management themselves. The management of the fiefs would still be uniformly managed by the various vassal states.

With this, it seemed that the conflict between peerages, fiefs, and the various vassal states no longer existed. This was a result that all parties could accept. Thus, everyone was happy. Those who wanted peerages and fiefs got peerages, got fiefs, and even got income from the fiefs. The various vassal states did not disintegrate because of this and remained complete vassal states. As for whether the Emperor had achieved his goal, who cared?

In the Changsheng Duke's mansion in the capital, Chief Steward Li of the Inner Court, the Emperor's favorite, personally came to deliver the decree. Of course, Chief Steward Li didn't dare to put on the act of asking Wang Sheng and Mei'er to kneel and greet the imperial edict after burning incense and bathing. He was completely obsequious, diligently holding the imperial edict with both hands and sending it to Mei'er, his face beaming with smiles.

The Emperor conferred Mei'er as Princess Ning, with the surname Su. This was the first princess with a title conferred since the Emperor's enfeoffment ceremony. He bestowed a mansion, eunuchs, maids, a complete set of ceremonial guards, and the qualification to enter the palace at any time.

These things seemed ordinary, but that was just the surface. The Emperor's sincerity was fully expressed. The entire development of the outer city of the capital, except for the demolition of the city walls, was all handed over to Mei'er. In other words, the entire project worth tens of billions was handed over to Mei'er. The amount of income depended entirely on Mei'er's wishes, and not even a financial supervisor was appointed.

"This humble servant greets Princess Ning!" Chief Steward Li was quite good at seizing the opportunity. As soon as Mei'er received the imperial edict, he knelt down with the etiquette of meeting the Emperor.

"Chief Steward Li, please rise quickly." Mei'er had been doing business in the capital for so many years, how could she not know who was truly powerful and who was just a show? Chief Steward Li's behavior was completely a manifestation of his loyalty to the Emperor, but it also meant to make Mei'er happy.

Under normal circumstances, she would definitely give a reward, but could someone of Chief Steward Li's level care about that little money? The subordinates accompanying Chief Steward Li could be rewarded, but Chief Steward Li could not be easily dismissed.

"Old Li, do you, Old Zhou, and Old Shen have any spare money on hand?" Wang Sheng opened his mouth from the side before Mei'er could figure out how to deal with Chief Steward Li, "If you do, send it to Mei'er's hand. Mei'er is opening the next jewelry shop, and each of you will have a one-tenth share."

Not only did he not give a reward, but he also wanted money from them? If it were someone who wasn't clear-headed, they would probably turn against Wang Heng and Mei'er. But who was Chief Steward Li? How could he not know how terrifyingly profitable Mei'er's next jewelry shop would be? This was simply Wang Sheng throwing them a golden pie, and it would be foolish not to grab it.