Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 529: Deciding on the reign title and enthroning the harem

The next day after Zhao Mu returned to Qi State, he held his first court meeting.

At the court meeting, he also began to get to know his ministers.

Although it was embarrassing for the "king" not to know the important officials in the court, it was not a big deal for Zhao Mu, because the officials in the court, except for the Jinshi of the same class, did not know each other. They all came from the Song Dynasty and had no interactions before. And their official positions were not conferred by Zhao Mu, but arranged by Zhezong.

Fortunately, Zhao Mu knew the people in the positions of prime minister and ministers of the six ministries. Otherwise, he would have been unable to govern.

At the court meeting, everyone focused on the issue of reign titles. Prime Minister Hu Yanrui handed over more than a dozen reign titles to Zhao Mu. However, after discussion among all officials, everyone believed that "Jianyuan" or "Gengshi" should be selected as Zhao Mu's first reign title. Or "Yong'an" or other reign titles with a long-lasting meaning should be selected.

After much deliberation, Zhao Mu decided to use the "Yuan Shuo" of Emperor Wu of Han as his first reign title. Zhao Mu chose this reign title for his own meaning.

Zhao Mu was well versed in ancient and modern history. The first time that the Central Plains dynasty truly incorporated the Yongliang area into its territory was during the Qin Dynasty. Meng Tian led the Qin army to defeat the Xiongnu and occupied the Hexi Corridor and Hetao area.

However, the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, and the Xiongnu took advantage of the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty to recapture this land. In the second year of Emperor Wu of Han's reign, half of this land was recaptured after the victory of the northern expedition against the Xiongnu. Since then, the Xiongnu could no longer threaten the Han imperial capital Chang'an.

The land of Western Xia was lost to the former Tang Dynasty. Now he took it back on behalf of the Song Dynasty, which was similar to Emperor Wu of Han's retaking of the Heshuo land. Therefore, the reign title "Yuanshuo" was perfect.

The Han Dynasty also began to fight against the Xiongnu in large scale from the beginning of the Yuanshuo Period. They took over Qilian Mountain, Yanzhi Mountain, Fenglangjuxu and Yinmahanhai. After that, they gradually opened up the Hexi Corridor and set up the Western Regions Protectorate.

Although the reign title had been decided, Zhao Mu's opinion on whether it would be used or not was not final. It needed to be reported to the suzerain state, the Song Dynasty, by express horse and could only be used after being reviewed by Emperor Zhezong.

However, this day's court meeting was a good start. At least all the matters that needed Zhao Mu's personal involvement and approval were finalized. The country was gradually getting back on track.

Zhao Mu also gradually relaxed. After all, most of the affairs can be handled by the Secretariat, the Privy Council, and the Censorate themselves, unless there are some things that cannot be handled, they will be reported to Zhao Mu.

Soon the reply from Bian Jing arrived. However, Zhezong did not agree with Zhao Mu's request.

In his memorial, Zhao Mu requested the reign title of "Yuanshuo" and demanded that the capital of Qi State, "Xingqing Prefecture", be changed back to the name of "Lingzhou" in the Song Dynasty.

Zhezong's instruction to Zhao Mu was to grant the reign title "Zhenguan". Moreover, Zhezong felt that the word "Ling" did not sound good as the capital, even though "Lingzhou" was the name of Xingqing Prefecture in the Song Dynasty. So Zhezong also approved that Xingqing Prefecture be changed to "Zhongxing Prefecture".

After seeing Zhezong's reply, Zhao Mu was also somewhat amused. He now understood why Zhezong gave him the title of "General of Heavenly Strategy" from Li Shimin. It was not only because of his merit in destroying the country, but it turned out that he had been waiting for him since the "Zhenguan" period.

"Zhenguan, Zhongxing Mansion, hehe." Zhao Mu was muttering.

At this time, Li Qiushui said, "Your Majesty really dotes on you. Zhongxing Prefecture, I haven't heard this name for a long time. When your Majesty was still the emperor, he changed Xingqing Prefecture to 'Zhongxing Prefecture', but after he pledged his loyalty to the Song Dynasty, he changed the name back. After so many years, I can still hear this name."

Zhao Mu looked back at Li Qiushui who suddenly appeared. He saw that Li Qiushui had taken off her palace dress and changed into plain clothes. Zhao Mu asked, "Are you going on a long journey, Master?" Li Qiushui replied, "Yes. Now that everything in your Qi Kingdom is done, Master is relieved. Now it's time to go back to my Great Xia Kingdom."

Zhao Mu looked at Li Qiushui and said, "Master's Wife! Are you leaving? Is it because mother has taken possession of you?"

Before Zhao Mu finished speaking, Li Qiushui waved her hands and said, "Little Mu'er, don't worry. It wasn't your biological mother who drove me away. Because she knew that I was Qinglu and Yuyan's grandmother, your mother treated me with great respect. It's just that you are not the only son I have, so I have to go back to your brother's side to see him. I will come back to live with you in a while. Oh! By the way! Master's wife knows that you are very busy now. Although it is a good thing to be a wise king by taking care of state affairs, you can't neglect those beautiful girls in your harem. You have been here for more than a month, and you haven't conferred titles on them yet. This is really wrong."

Zhao Mu said, "Oh, thanks to Master's wife for reminding me. I have just taken office recently. I have been so busy that I forgot about this matter for a while."

Li Qiushui smiled and said, "Haha, it's not too late to think about it now." Then Li Qiushui came to Zhao Mu and kissed him on the forehead. He said, "My son, I'm almost 90 years old, and I'm afraid I don't have many years left. I'm old, so I want to see my children more. Don't work too hard, and give me a great-grandson with Qinglu as soon as possible. That will make me happy."

Zhao Mu smiled and said, "I understand, Master's wife. I will help you have a great-grandson soon."

Li Qiu Shui smiled, then walked out of the door and left using her lightness skills.

Zhao Mu looked at the memorial on the table and murmured, "If I hadn't told you, I would have almost forgotten about her."

As he spoke, Zhao Mu took out the list of titles he had prepared.

Zhao Mu began to rank himself on the list of concubines he had appointed.

Li Qinglu and Mu Wanqing were princesses, and naturally they were the queens of the east and west palaces.

Azhu and Huyan Jin were also directly canonized as imperial concubines by Zhao Mu.

As for plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, autumn frost and winter snow, Zhao Mu appointed them as concubines. The two Khitan girls Zhao Mu had used before were appointed as the lowest level of concubines.

As for Wang Yuyan and others, Zhao Mu has not met them yet. It will not be too late to confer titles upon them after he has met them.

After dealing with all these things around him, Zhao Mu thought of Princess Anping who was far away in Goryeo. He had touched this little girl before, and then he patted his butt and returned to the Song Dynasty.

After returning to the Song Dynasty, he experienced the Pingxia Campaign and then the King's Ceremony. For a while, he forgot about this girl. So Zhao Mu hurriedly wrote a letter and asked the Honglu Temple to send an envoy to Goryeo with enough gifts to ask for marriage from the Goryeo King.

Zhao Mu only hoped that it was not too late to ask for marriage. Otherwise, such a beautiful girl would be given to Yelu Yanxi, even if she was just a second-hand product that he had touched. Zhao Mu felt very uncomfortable.

However, just as Zhao Mu was preparing to write a letter to Goryeo, a maid came to report: "Your Majesty, the envoy from Goryeo wants to see you."

(End of this chapter)