In the autumn of the seventeenth year of Yonghui, on the sixth day of the ninth month, the crown prince Xiao Min ascended the throne as the emperor, for the Mingde Emperor, and canonized the crown princess Lu as the queen. On the same day, Empress Wen was crowned as the Empress Dowager Wen, Empress Dowager Qi was the Empress Dowager of Qi, and the concubines of the rest of the first emperors were sealed as usual.

Today's enthronement ceremony and the post-establishment ceremony have been drastically cut off by the new emperor, but in the matter of the emperor and queen worshipping the ancestors of heaven and earth, the new emperor insisted on rejecting all the ceremonial officials and attendants.

The civil and military officials and the noble clans were all left far behind by the two. On the long steps leading to the place of worshipping the ancestors of heaven and earth, only Xiao Min and Lu Bingzhen slowly walked through the steps step by step, stepping towards the journey of creating a history that belonged to the two of them.

At this moment, the two of them don't know that they will start a new history of the Ji Dynasty. Later generations called it the prosperity of Mingde, which is a unique glory in history.

However, what is widely spread on the streets and alleys outside the history books is not only the prosperous era created by Emperor Mingde and Empress Dunxi, but also the good story of the emperor and queen who are in love with each other and have a white head.

The etiquette of that day was cumbersome and lengthy, and later Lu Bingzhen couldn't remember many things at that time, but he only remembered the firmness of the two of them looking at each other and smiling at each other on the long steps that day, and Qingyan's hand held her hand very firmly and tightly from beginning to end.

Early in the morning, the two got up to prepare for today's many matters. Fortunately, Xiao Min has realized the importance of simple etiquette since the day of the wedding, just after noon, Xiao Min and Lu Bingzhen have already changed out of layers of dresses and are ready to change into regular clothes to dine with Empress Dowager Wen.

Empress Dowager Wen has now moved to Rong'an Palace, and the new palace has been decorated with a new look, sweeping away the previous dull atmosphere. Today, the Empress Dowager is also in good spirits when she is happy. Seeing his son and daughter-in-law walking in hand in hand, he greeted them with a smile, "Min'er, Arui, I'm tired today." Come on, come on, let the mourning family prepare your favorite meals, sit down. ”

While speaking, Empress Dowager Wen stopped the two of them saluting, "Good boy, they are all a family, why bother to be polite." ”

"Queen Mother, how well do you live in this Rong'an Palace? If there's anything wrong, you can ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs to change what you like. Nowadays, no one is dictating your daily life. ”

It seemed that she had thought of something, Queen Wen was silent for a moment, and then smiled with relief, "It's good that Min'er has this heart, the mourning family is in a good mood now, and they don't care about anything or anything." ”

The dialogue between the mother and son was like a dumb riddle, and it only lasted for a short time.

Empress Dowager Wen is a loose-hearted person, she beckoned the two of them to the table, and the family of three happily finished the lunch.

After lunch, Empress Dowager Wen also knew that the two of them must have a lot of affairs these days, and the family was too lazy to talk politely to each other, and they didn't leave Xiao Min and Lu Bingzhen in vain.

In the past, when they were in the East Palace, Xiao Min and Lu Bingzhen lived together in Jinghe Palace. Today in the harem, Xiao Min still lives with A Rui as before, living and sitting in one place, just like an ordinary couple.

Although the palace of the new queen has been newly decorated, Xiao Min is a little reluctant to live in it, it is really the first emperor who has left too many shadows on the mother and son of the Empress Dowager Wen here.

"Ah Rui, you still live with me in the Heart Nourishing Hall now. In the past, I kept the East Palace as a garden for recreation, and I did not close it for the time being. As for this palace, I intend to renovate it. Xiao Min pointed to the queen's palace on the sand table and said.

Actually, after Xiao Min ascended the throne, it stands to reason that he should call himself me, but he felt more cordial when he heard that A Rui had always called himself me. Before, as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the East Palace, he had countless pairs of eyes staring at his every move, word and deed, but now that he has ascended the throne, he does not have to be cautious in everything.

Today's Xiao Min also prefers to call himself me when he gets along with Ah Rui in private, rather than the more distant me.

Ah Rui didn't care much about this, her eyes wandered over the decorations of the Heart Cultivation Palace, and asked hesitantly, "Qingyan, is this lamp inlaid with night pearls?" ”

The lamp she was talking about a foot tall was adorned with hundreds of fist-sized pearls. If all the pearls on the lamp are really night pearls, it is not an exaggeration to say that they are worth a lot of money.

"Yes." Hearing Xiao Min's answer, Ah Rui turned to look at him in disbelief, "This is inevitably too extravagant." The top is good, and the bottom is better. I am only worried that this move will cost Zhu Nong, a fisherman on the coast of the East China Sea, his life because of these dead things. ”

Ah Rui's face was full of worry, and her expression did not seem to be fake. The events of the night of the palace change were like a dream, and after that, Ah Rui shrank in the East Palace, recuperating with peace of mind, and did not ask about trivial matters. Because of this, the wind and rain of the power confrontation before she ascended the throne did not affect her, and she did not feel like she became a queen until the end of the ceremony today.

At this moment, Ah Rui only has confusion and doubts about whether she can do a good job in a country. That's why she is so careful in everything, to the point that there are some cups and snakes.

Hearing Ah Rui's words, Xiao Min felt a lot in his heart. Once ordinary people reach a high position, they will only be complacent, and they don't know how to vent the power in their hands. But the more Ah Rui suffered, the more panicked she became, and she was only worried about whether she was worthy of being a country, and worried that she would become a person who was not worthy of virtue.

Gently hugged Ah Rui from behind, Xiao Min comforted her gently, "Ah Rui, don't worry. If you have this heart, it is enough for you to be the best queen of all time. ”

This sentence didn't give Rui too much sense of stability, she was not a child anymore, and it was impossible for her mind to be changed by other people's words.

Seeing that Ah Rui's expression was still worried, Xiao Min teased, "What is Ah Rui worried about, it's just that she used more than a hundred night pearls." You think, there are no 3,000 beauties in my harem, only you. You are equivalent to the entire harem, and you only use more than a hundred night pearls, how frugal. ”

"Plop", Ah Rui finally couldn't hold back the expression on her face and laughed.

Xiao Min, who was hugging Ah Rui, said secretly in his heart, it is just a lamp adorned with night pearls, and what I want to give you is a favor that everyone in the world looks up to.

This beating at the enthronement ceremony made all the noble families who had the idea of the new emperor draft give up this idea for the time being. No one who can get to this position is a real fool. At the moment, the new emperor is obviously full of only Empress Lu, why should they bother to hit this muzzle.

Especially there is competition between each family, if they rush to the front, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not be stepped on by the people behind to pick up the cheap. When the time comes, the people in the back are afraid that their mouths will be crooked.

Since the new emperor is so interested in Empress Lu at the moment, they might as well wait. If you want to send your daughter into the palace, as time goes by, there will always be a chance, so why rush for a while, but it will make the new emperor unhappy.

I think that when I was in the palace, the first emperor was also the same as the new emperor now, and Queen Wen walked and sat and lay down like an ordinary couple. But Gu Guifei came from behind and flaunted her power in the harem for decades. It's only been a few years. The young ladies are all waiting to watch, our variety show is so powerful, ha, ourselves.

They can afford to wait.

For this reason, everyone at the Chongyang family banquet respected Queen Lu peacefully. Even Wen Qiongying, who is the niece of the Empress Dowager Wen, has been silent from beginning to end, and has hardly done anything except toast the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager, Her Majesty and the Empress Dowager.

Time flowed like water, and soon the weather turned cooler into winter.

On the day of the winter solstice, Xiao Min and A Rui made an appointment to have lunch together, and then went to have dinner with the Empress Dowager Wen in the evening. The mutton soup that the masters are going to use today has been prepared in the imperial dining room.

However, Xiao Min was stumped by the ministers who had admonished him in the early court.

A minister said bitterly, "Your Majesty, by all means." is so extravagant to do a thousand autumns for the queen's mother, isn't it to let the historian record it, which will lead to scolding through the ages. ”

Several more ministers echoed this, "Yes, yes, Your Majesty. This is absolutely unacceptable. ”

Xiao Min's face was ugly, and he only felt extremely uncomfortable. But thinking that these people are all old men of the two dynasties, Xiao Min still patiently explained, "Where is this extravagance?" The queen is the only one in my harem, and she holds an extravagant banquet, and the annual expenses in this harem are less than half of the time of the first emperor. Besides, it doesn't cost much silver taels to hold a thousand autumn banquets. ”

Several ministers wanted to persuade again, but Xiao Min was completely impatient, he strode out of the hall directly, and simply threw down a sentence, "In this case, the queen's Qianqiu banquet matter, then allocate money from my private treasury." You don't have to use the money in the treasury, so you can do it. You don't have to talk about it. This morning, that's it. ”

In fact, none of the monarchs and ministers on the field knew that they were not discussing the queen's Qianqiu banquet, but secretly poked and poked to express their extreme dissatisfaction with the exclusive favor that Queen Lu had received in the past few months. They can't wait to send their daughter to the palace, but the biggest obstacle at the moment is Queen Lu's favor.

Therefore, in the early court today, the ministers will follow the excuse of Queen Lu's extravagance and criticize the queen's behavior.

Today, Xiao Min was extremely anxious to leave the council hall and go back to see Ah Rui. The weather is getting colder, and Ah Rui has a cough these days, so she should have kept warm and recuperated. But when he was away, Ah Rui always didn't like to stay in the main hall, but had to go out for a walk from time to time.

With the previous situation, the words and deeds of the ministers in the early dynasty will not make him a little dissatisfied with A Rui, but will only make him more angry and angry at the words and deeds of the ministers who slander A Rui.

Xiao Min, who returned to the Heart Cultivation Palace, saw Lu Bingzhen sitting quietly next to the smoker, the mutton soup on the table was already steaming, and her sister's mood gradually calmed down.