The medical concubine is blessed with good fortune and her husband's life is prosperous. The mo

When Shen Dongsu was regent, the morning court usually ended at around 11 o'clock. In the past, no meal was provided after the morning court in Chang'an. Since the capital was moved to Youzhou, the Empress paid for it out of her own pocket.

An external kitchen was built to prepare working meals for officials attending the morning court. Generally speaking, working meals were not delicious, and the palace banquets were even more beautiful than delicious.

At first, the officials didn't take it seriously, thinking that having hot soup, hot tea, and hot snacks was better than going hungry all morning. But after eating a few meals, everyone found that this working meal was too delicious!

Especially in the cold winter, there were fresh vegetables and fruits at every meal. In Chang'an, green vegetables in winter were given to officials as rewards, but in Youzhou, they could be eaten at every meal!

In addition to green vegetables and seafood, the pork improved by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences is not smelly at all. The braised pork, stewed spare ribs, and steamed pork with rice flour are all very delicious when paired with rice or steamed buns in the middle of winter.

Fresh mutton is either shabu-shabu or grilled. The huge oven roasts roast duck and goose with crispy skin and tender meat. The large grass carp weighing more than ten kilograms is filleted and stewed with pickled cabbage, which is both appetizing and delicious...

Soon the officials became addicted to working meals. They heard that no one would eat after the morning court session, and some people even delayed it on purpose. Even after the Empress's affairs were dealt with, they would still stay for group discussions.

It was the first time that Shen Dongsu heard of someone working overtime on purpose just to get a free work meal.

It’s not that the officials were greedy, but the catering model of that era was too simple. Especially for the officials who came from Chang'an, many of them had never eaten fried dishes!

There have long been hotpot restaurants in Chang'an, and big restaurants also serve stir-fried dishes. It is said that some poor officials, such as the Imperial Censor, never go to restaurants.

The spices in Chang'an are not as rich as those in Youzhou, not to mention seafood. The seafood in Chang'an is all dried goods, and because people are not good at cooking, they don't like to eat it.

The seafood in Youzhou is nothing like that, which is rich in variety and has plump meat.

I also heard that the menu for the working meals was drawn up by the Empress herself, and even some of the dishes were cooked by the chefs taught by the Empress. These dishes are not available in the big restaurants outside the palace.

The after-meal snacks are even more sumptuous, including the popular egg tarts and cakes, puddings and milk tea. Some officials even keep some for themselves and take them home to pick up their children.

In short, when in Chang'an, everyone was looking forward to leaving court early, and after arriving in Youzhou, everyone was looking forward to having lunch.

So Shen Dongsu spent a lot of time in the morning preparing for the "handover". After sorting out the information, she personally arranged the lunch dishes.

Order all of Ling Moxiao's favorite dishes, and have hotpot for dinner, otherwise you will feel sleepy in the afternoon if you eat too much at noon.

Dabao’s favorite egg rolls, bean curd rolls, and fish ball soup, as well as Xiaobao’s favorite tender beef scrambled eggs, shrimp balls, and red bean paste dumplings are also served.

Although Ling Moxiao has only lived in Gwangju for a few years, he must have the stewed bacon, a winter specialty of Gwangju. This was specially sent by his grandfather, who said that the bacon was more delicious because the pigs were fattened up by him.

After lunch was arranged, the father and his two children returned hand in hand. They were still discussing along the way. Xiaobao asked:

"What did the grandfather with the whitest beard mean when he said that we should show the demeanor of a great country and treat the people of Goryeo well?"

Ling Moxiao was not perfunctory at all and explained to her very seriously.

Dabao would occasionally interject a few words. He felt that he had attended the morning court with his mother, and since it was his sister's first time attending the morning court, he had an obligation to explain for her.

"You are talking about Lord Zhang from the Imperial Censorate. They are discussing the follow-up arrangements for Goryeo County and how to treat the people of Goryeo."

Ling Moxiao patted Dabao's shoulder in surprise, treating him like a little adult:

"Well said! I didn't expect Dabao to understand it."

Dabao straightened his back proudly: "This prince has been regent for more than half a year, so of course I understand what the ministers are saying!"

Ling Moxiao laughed loudly and carried him on his shoulders: "You are worthy of being my son! From now on, you will go on expeditions for your father, and I will leave the affairs of state to you two."

Shen Dongsu smiled speechlessly and said, "Okay, let's stop bragging about each other as a family. Come on, wash your hands and eat."

After dinner, Dabao and Xiaobao played flying chess to help digest their food, while Dongsu and Ling Moxiao went to the study to discuss matters.

In the afternoon, Ling Moxiao had to summon important ministers to a small meeting, and there were still many memorials to review. Even though he was in the palace, the couple did not have much time to talk.

Of course, if they did nothing else at night, the couple would have as much to talk about as they wanted.

Unfortunately, whenever they get close to each other, their bodies instinctively want to do something else...

Ling Moxiao looked at the world map, pointed at the Goryeo area, and told her in detail about the current situation of that small island. Where is Chen Li stationed? Where is Silla stationed?

If we want to destroy Silla, where should our army start to attack and where should our navy start to outflank it, etc.

Ling Moxiao meant that Silla did not need to fight, but only needed to gather troops and confront Japan. Once Japan was destroyed, Silla would surrender on its own.

The king of Silla has always been like this, and he is very good at judging the situation. As long as the Han Dynasty becomes strong, he will immediately submit.

Shen Dongsu also agreed with his opinion, but she suggested that even if the king of Silla surrendered, we must completely sinicize Silla and never give them any chance to restore their country.

In short, Silla is not an opponent at all, and the current focus is on fighting Japan. The two chatted about the situation in Japan and waited for Ling Moxiao and the Ministry of War to come up with a plan.

No matter how anxious we are, we have to wait until next year to send troops. Although Goryeo was defeated, there are still many generals who are ready to restore their country. It will take two years to completely pacify Goryeo.

Shen Dongsu repeatedly said that we should not be impatient. Our development in recent years has been faster than in the past few decades.

Frequent wars and the unstable national situation, the saying that she has a divine responsibility and bears divine punishment is really just a joke and should not be taken too seriously.

The result was that the more she emphasized it, the more Ling Moxiao took it seriously.

Shen Dongsu really had no choice but to make an agreement with him that they could just destroy Japan within five years and there was no need to be in such a hurry.

Moreover, she did not want Ling Moxiao to lead the army in person to fight against Japan. She really did not want to be regent anymore. Japan was not like Goryeo. It was close to Daxia and had less risk at sea.

Going to Japan is risky. Although troops can be sent from Goryeo, Japan is larger and more difficult to attack. Once Ling Moxiao leaves, it will take at least two years to come back.

Seeing that Ling Moxiao was unmoved, she changed her point of persuasion and also wanted to give other generals some chances.

Your Majesty personally led the army to fight, and most of the credit for the victory went to the Emperor. The navy needs to make a name for itself, and as you can see, the overseas region is so vast, and our navy will one day dominate the four seas.

You can't fight all the battles by yourself, right? Then what are all the generals for? You have to train naval commanders and give them opportunities to make contributions.

After persuading them in the name of the queen, she then persuaded them in the name of his wife, saying that Dabao and Xiaobao were grown up and she could not discipline them, especially Dabao, and that boys should be disciplined by their father.

Ling Moxiao thought seriously for a while and then said, "I can't answer you right away, good Dongsu, let me think about it. Anyway, the war against Japan will not start until next spring, so we can talk about it then, okay?"

Ling Moxiao insisted on fighting Japan on his own, of course not for military merit, but because he was worried that the annihilation of Japan would not go smoothly, which would be a matter of divine punishment. If it had any impact on Dong Su, he would regret it all his life.

Dong Su was afraid that the two would quarrel if they continued talking about this topic, so he changed the subject and casually mentioned Chen Xingyao and talked about his request to go to Northern Xinjiang.

Ling Moxiao raised his eyebrows: "Don't bother with him, I have already sent him to the base."

Then he suddenly asked, "I heard that you auctioned off all the gifts you received for your birthday, but kept the two gifts from Chen Xingyao. What were they so special?"

Shen Dongsu was stunned for a moment. She felt that his tone was strange, but she couldn't figure out the reason.

He took Ling Moxiao to the bathroom and pointed at the two wash basins on the low stand and said, "Here, this is it. Your daughter likes it very much. One for washing her face and one for washing her feet."

The basin looked like an ordinary copper basin, but it was carved with flowers, birds, fish and insects. When clean water was poured in, the carvings inside seemed like living things, and the two children played with washing their hands for a long time.

But now I’m tired of it, but I still prefer to use this basin to wash my face compared to other basins.

The expression on Ling Moxiao's face was a little... unexpected, which was the only word to describe it. He even touched his nose awkwardly and said with an "oh":

"Tomorrow, ask Li Nianyu to make a pure gold one for Xiaobao. Don't let our little princess use these two broken basins."

Shen Dongsu realized belatedly that Ling Moxiao was targeting Chen Xingyao, right? Was it because of his identity?

This shouldn't be the case. None of the officials and dignitaries from Chang'an have seen Ling Moxiao target anyone. It must be that Chen Xingyao has done something annoying.

It seems that there are bound to be disagreements when talking about serious matters. Shen Dongsu changed the topic again and talked about children. She talked about inviting three teachers for the prince.

But her personal opinion is that before the child is seven years old, the brother and sister should study together, and it would be best to recruit some children of the same age to study with them.

It's called companion reading, but it's actually the model of the Royal Kindergarten. She didn't want Dabao to have so much pressure when he was young.

Ling Moxiao supported her decision without even thinking about it. Shen Dongsu had discovered that as long as it had nothing to do with her, Ling Moxiao would support whatever she said.

Only when it comes to her, Ling Moxiao becomes very stubborn.

After this was planned, she started to run the Royal Kindergarten in the spring. She would not accept many students, just thirty, which was enough for the children to be divided into small teams to play games and read.

As for the teachers, she interviewed them personally. For example, she hired an old scholar who was specially hired for the royal family as the director, and hired younger teachers for the other teachers.

Let’s have another interesting class. Today, Teacher Li Nianyu will take you to visit Momen and learn about the working principles of the machinery.

Tomorrow, Master Mo Xiujing will take everyone to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to learn about grains, spring ploughing and autumn harvest, and the growth process of crops.

Well, my eldest brother was also nominally a teacher and visited the navy at least once a month.

From now on, the world will be handed over to Dabao. I believe that compared to when Ling Moxiao ascended the throne, there will be earth-shaking changes.

Dabao must understand for himself what the country he is going to manage is like.

And she wanted to make this a compulsory course for the royal family. She didn't want to see an emperor who was almost imprisoned by all the officials in a few generations.

He had never even left the palace in his entire life, and his understanding of the national conditions depended entirely on memorials.

She had already written a plan for the kindergarten curriculum, and she spread it out with Ling Moxiao, who was very interested.

He even suggested that he teach one day a month, but he felt that thirty people were too few and he should have at least one hundred students.

When these children grow up, they will be the right-hand men of Dabao and Xiaobao. Before the age of seven, boys and girls do not have to sit at different seats and can be taught together.

After the age of seven, they would take the examinations for the Wanshu Pavilion and the Imperial Academy. But Dabao had to follow the three teachers and learn the ways of the emperor.

After discussing the royal kindergarten, the couple discussed the upcoming Spring Festival, especially the New Year gifts for the navy and the rewards for this great victory.

Ling Moxiao was generous in praising Dong Su, saying that she was better than ten prime ministers. With her as regent, the country would be prosperous and he, as the emperor, would have less worries.

Shen Dongsu exposed him bluntly, No matter what you say, I will not be the regent anymore.

If you want to go on a long expedition, wait until your son is sixteen years old and let him go as regent.

As for now, please give me a holiday. I want to go to Grandpa's manor to play for a few days. Since Grandpa came to Youzhou, I have never spent enough time with him.

Ling Moxiao naturally satisfied this small request. He originally wanted to go with Dong Su, but was rejected by Dong Su. How could the emperor and empress leave the palace at the same time?

Or go visit relatives, what kind of talk?

The couple each took care of one child, Dong Su took Xiaobao to visit relatives, and Ling Moxiao took Dabao to handle state affairs.

Ling Moxiao is full of confidence. He has never taken care of a child alone since he grew up!

But he didn't let Dongsu go again after three days, because, uh, everyone understands, the couple had been separated for more than half a year, and this was just one sweet night, of course it wasn't enough!

He would not let Dong Su go back to her parents' home until they had had at least three sweet nights together.

When the two little guys woke up from their nap, they heard such good news. When Dabao learned that he could not go to his great-grandfather's villa, he felt aggrieved.

Then Dongsu told him, if you go too, your father will be alone at home, how lonely it will be!

As a result, Xiaobao said that his father was alone in the palace, and there would be many beautiful young ladies who wanted to enter the palace to be his concubines, so his brother had to keep an eye on them in the palace.

Then Dabao agreed to stay.

Shen Dongsu was angry and helpless, and repeatedly warned Xiaobao not to say such things again, because his father would not take a concubine.

Xiaobao nodded with a smile on her face, and reminded her brother again behind his back, saying that she had heard that at every palace banquet, she could hear some adults talking privately about how to persuade the emperor to take a concubine.

Ling Moxiao found out that his wife was not worried about him taking a concubine, but his daughter was. He was very angry and decided to find an opportunity to warn all the ministers. Anyone who dared to say anything nonsense and cause the little princess to misunderstand would be exiled to the border with his entire family!

He wanted to leave his daughter with the image of a strong, powerful and handsome father, rather than the image of always worrying about her father taking a concubine!

Before visiting relatives, the only thing that Dongsu was worried about was naturally Feng Wensheng.

Brother Dayu and his friends have already arrived back home. The last message they sent back was that they were luring Feng Wensheng into a trap.

Ling Moxiao told her not to worry, it would be a joke if Li Nianyu, Yu Dayu, Ding Qi and Butler Liu couldn't kill Feng Wensheng.

Ling Moxiao was more concerned about how much information Jia Si could find in Chang'an by following the vine of Feng Wensheng. Finally, he would reveal it before the New Year, so that the people of Chang'an could spend the New Year in peace.

Three days passed in a flash. During these three nights, Dong Su changed into different bikinis and then regretted it so much that she shouldn't have made this kind of underwear on a whim.

I have to go back to my mother. If I continue like this, rumor will spread tomorrow that the Emperor and Empress both have kidney deficiency. How embarrassing!

When he heard that his sister was going to bring her niece to visit their home, Zhongyang quickly asked for leave from the academy and took Dongsu's carriage back to the villa.

He was worried that his mother would say nonsense in front of his sister again, which would make everyone unhappy.

On the way, Dong Su asked Zhong Yang about his studies. Zhong Yang was very confident and said that the next spring examination would be held in Youzhou. The teacher said that his essay was sophisticated and not exaggerated, so he could give it a try.

The Master spoke so tactfully because it was extremely rare for someone to pass the imperial examination at such a young age.

Zhong Yang teased Xiao Bao: "My uncle is going to take part in the Spring Examination. Do you think he can pass?"

Xiaobao said in a baby voice: "My little uncle can win the third place!"

Zhong Yang and Dong Su both burst out laughing. Xiao Bao was so sure of what he said.

"Why is it the third place? Not the first place?"

Xiao Bao said confidently: "The top scholar is so old, my uncle is so handsome, he should be the third scholar."

This made Zhongyang embarrassed. He blushed when people praised his knowledge and handsomeness.