Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 522: Issues concerning the establishment of a vassal state
After the king and his minister finished taking a bath, they went upstairs to have a "small party".

After all, the dishes at the grand banquet were all made in the imperial kitchen, and the dishes were all the same. It was far inferior to the small banquets of today.

Zhezong was in a good mood and even opened a jar of imperial wine that was more than 30 years old for Zhao Mu.

During the banquet, Zhao Mu also discussed with Zhezong whether to cancel the edicts that allowed the emperor to "mint his own coins" and "set his own reign title". Zhao Mu felt that this was a bit too much.

But Cheoljong said that this was just a temporary measure, and that this matter had been carefully considered by Cheoljong.

Because the ratio of copper to lead in the coins of the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty was different, the Song Dynasty was rich and had developed maritime trade, so in order to facilitate the use of the market, it had to make more coins.

The progress of copper mining could not meet the demand for coins on the market, so many trades could only be carried out in gold, silver, or even barter. Therefore, the Song Dynasty court adjusted the copper-lead ratio of coins to a very low level to facilitate the production of more coins for easy circulation in the market.

Although the Western Xia Kingdom controlled the throat of the Silk Road, it was just a throat. The main source of income for the Western Xia Kingdom was the entry and exit tariffs of trade between the Western Regions and the Central Plains. It could not produce the goods needed by the Hu people. Therefore, there were not many coins needed in the market.

Therefore, the copper content in the copper coins made by the Western Xia Kingdom was slightly higher than that of the Song Dynasty.

Zhezong granted Zhao Mu the power to mint his own coins, but it was not entirely a favor to him. He also assigned Zhao Mu a task, which was to change the copper-lead ratio of Xixia coins to the same as that of the Song Dynasty, or to make it slightly higher than that of the Song Dynasty coins, but not too much higher.

By that time, the only difference between Zhao Mu's Qi coins and the Song Dynasty coins would be the year numbers.

Zhezong planned to let Zhao Mu do this evil thing of exchanging bad money for good money and plundering the wealth of the people of Western Xia on behalf of the Song court.

It is even clearer that he was allowed to set his own reign title. If Zhao Mu did not have his own reign title, what would be printed on the coins?
After Zhao Mu understood the task assigned to him by Zhezong, he readily agreed to these two points.

So Zhezong's imperial edict remained unchanged.

Afterwards, Zhezong began to "dress" Zhao Mu. Originally, Zhezong planned to give Zhao Mu a set of his own crown, and then let him use the style of the emperor's court dress as the style of his own court dress. The only difference was the number of dragon patterns on the robe.

However, Zhao Mu directly and firmly rejected this idea on the grounds that it was "beyond the rules".

However, Zhao Mu was not being polite. He was happy and carefree to be such an idle vassal king.

He rejected Zhezong simply because he disliked the Song Dynasty's imperial ceremonial robes, which were too ugly.

The formal dress was fine, but the brim of the casual clothes was so long on both sides that Zhao Mu really didn't like it.

So Zhao Mu asked Zhezong to revoke his decision in the name of stopping the ministers from talking.

Zhezong stood in front of his formal attire and said in embarrassment, "What kind of attire does the emperor's uncle want? Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, there has been no precedent for establishing vassal kings. The most elegant attire is what I am wearing. The second-best is the prince's dragon robe that the emperor's uncle is wearing. Now that the emperor's uncle is to be made a vassal king, the crown and court dress of the prince will be in a mess."

Zhao Mu thought for a while and said, "How about this. In the past, the Zhou emperor established a ritual system to enfeoff princes. Your Majesty can follow the Zhou rituals and let me meet your Majesty in the style of a prince. The crown can be made of the Qin and Han dynasties, but the emperor has twelve crowns, and I, as a prince, can use nine. As for court clothes, in my humble opinion, there is no need to change them. Just follow the formal dress of the princes of the Song Dynasty."

"This way I am not overstepping the boundaries, but I can also distinguish myself from other princes of the Song Dynasty. Moreover, the scholars in the court all worship Confucius as their ancestor. Confucius highly praised Zhou rituals. If they dare to oppose it, Your Majesty can use Confucius to suppress them."

Hearing Zhao Mu's words, Zhezong couldn't help laughing. Zhezong laughed and said, "Haha, the 'Great Sage and King of Literature' Confucius has become the second Confucius in the mouth of the emperor's uncle. If the civil officials in the court heard this, they would be so angry that they would die."

Zhao Mu accidentally let slip the name "Kong Lao Er".

Zhao Mu then laughed and said, "I am telling the truth. Zhongni means 'second in command'. Besides, this 'King Wenxuan' can't crawl out of the soil to help us drive away the Xixia and Liao people, right? If I criticize him like this, it can only be blamed on his disciples for being incompetent." Zhezong laughed and said, "Haha, what the emperor's uncle said makes sense. But you can only say this in front of me. Don't tell others outside."

Zhao Mu bowed and said, "I obey your command." Then both the emperor and his minister laughed out loud and made fun of the Confucian scholars.

After Zhao Mu finished discussing with Zhezong in the palace, he returned home.

After Zhao Mu returned home, the women in the family naturally had a brief chat and asked about his well-being. After chatting, Zhao Mu went to visit his daughter.

Now the little princess is already one month old, her eyes are open, although she has never seen her father, but when she saw Zhao Mu, she smiled at him, and even stretched out her hands to grab him. She was wearing the golden fruit and golden flower bestowed by the emperor, and the longevity lock given to her by Li Qinglu.

After visiting his daughter, Zhao Mu handed her back to the care of her wet nurse.

After Zhao Mu finished looking after the child, it was time to talk about some serious matters.

This time, Zhao Mu gathered all the women in his family.

The elders include Concubine Chai and Zhao Ji, and the wives and concubines include Mu Wanqing, Hu Yanjin, Azhu, Qiu Shuang and Dong Xue.

There are also the Four Swords of Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum, Wang Yuyan and A-Bi who haven't entered the door yet.

There are even Long Xuan, Musa, and Hong Luan.

Looking at the people around her, Long Xuan whispered, "You all have something to discuss, why did you call me over as well?"

Hearing her mumbling, Hongluan couldn't help but chuckle.

Zhao Mu's ears were very sharp when he heard what Long Xuan said. Zhao Mu replied, "I invited you, Master Xuan, to come as well because you have to leave with me too."

Cong Longxuan chuckled and said, "Huh? I'm going with the prince too? Sorry, I'm just a servant in the prince's house, not his wife or concubine." At this time, Cong Longxuan reacted and asked, "Wait! Going with you? Where to?"

Zhao Mu looked at everyone and said, "Okay, let's talk about serious matters now. We will be leaving the capital soon."

Mu Wanqing asked at this time: "Where are you going after leaving the capital?"

Zhao Mu replied: "The capital of Xixia is Lingzhou City!"

Hu Yanjin asked at this time: "Ah? His Majesty has exiled you?"

Upon hearing this, Concubine Chai took a deep breath and said, "What should we do? Because of the rumors in the capital, both the Shang Palace and the Deng Palace wanted to cancel the engagement. If we are exiled as a family, then this marriage will be..."

Zhao Ji also said at this time: "Yes, my son has made great contributions this time. Your Majesty, what do you think?"

At this moment, Concubine Chai pulled the corner of Zhao Ji's clothes, then winked at her, indicating that Long Xuan and others were here.

Only then did Zhao Ji swallow her words indignantly.

(End of this chapter)