Chapter 459

“Empress, it’s time to rise.”

“Come in.”

A group of palace maids led by Hong Ling and Qing Bird entered the room in a row. Shen Ninghua was served to wash her face and finish her makeup, and put on the cumbersome queen’s service piece by piece.

Hongling helped Shen Ninghua organize the hem of her skirt and cuffs, and then the green sparrow brought over congee, “Your Highness, you use some congee, it will take a long time for the morning court later.”

Shen Ninghua nodded and quietly and silently used most of the bowl of porridge. There was silence in the back hall, the green sparrow and Hongling were even more emotionally tense, as if the nerves of the whole body were tensed up. Shen Ninghua put down the bowl, glanced at the two, smiled faintly, and did not speak. Waiting for the door a chamberlain came to pass word that it was time, she only got up and walked towards the Chengqian Hall.

Inside the Chengqian Hall, civil and military officials stand on both sides, the hall is very noisy and noisy, many people look to the direction of the entrance of the hall from time to time, just waiting for the newly appointed Empress Dowager to appear. Many people even began to speculate maliciously, later the queen face them will be busy into what appearance, they listen to Baili Jun Yi’s command is not bad, but in the face of a queen, they really did not put in the eyes.

The officials who were newly promoted by Baili Junyi were different, they were all loyal to the emperor’s party, although they also did not agree with the Empress’s move to supervise the country, but since it was Baili Junyi’s decree, they would resolutely carry it out, and if the Empress couldn’t hold on to it later on, they would definitely do their best to preserve the Empress’s face and not let the situation in the courtroom get out of control.

“Empress Dowager arrives!” The long-awaited sound of the summons finally rang out, the originally noisy hall was instantly silent, a pressure spread out silently, for a time making the newly promoted officials stare at the old courtiers with increasingly unfavorable faces, they were deliberately embarrassing the Empress Dowager.

Shen Ninghua, who was dressed in the Empress’s orthodox service, appeared above the great hall, and she walked up the high steps step by step through the imperial path dedicated to the Emperor, her gorgeous phoenix robe charmingly trailing on the ground, rolling with the luster as she walked, and then she slowly sat on the dragon chair.

“Greetings to the Empress, Your Majesty, a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand years.”

Shen Ninghua swept through the ministers in the hall, in fact, she has just stood next to her for a while, naturally know the hall from the clamor to the silence of a moment of change, but also will be some of the ministers of the heart feel through, at this time, she sat on the top, slightly lifted his hand, “All of you love ministers leveled off.”

“Thank you, Empress.”

Quite a few ministers secretly surveyed Shen Ninghua and realized that she even sat directly on the throne belonging to the Emperor, and were instantly dissatisfied. Spokesman Qiu Ming immediately stepped forward, “Empress, the Emperor decreed that you should supervise the country, but you are the Empress, even if you have the right to supervise the country, you shouldn’t be sitting on the Emperor’s dragon chair, this move is really disrespectful to the Emperor.”

Upon this statement, there was an immediate chorus of approval from below, “Yes, Lord Qiu has a point.”

“There is something wrong with this action by the Queen.”

Shen Ninghua continued to sit with a bland expression, coldly watching the courtiers below bickering.

When the newly promoted officials saw that the old ministers were arguing excessively, they naturally could not just sit back and watch, and a number of them immediately joined the fray:

“Lord Qiu’s words are not correct, the Emperor himself gave the imperial decree to give the power to supervise the country and manage the government to the Empress Dowager, what’s more, the Empress Dowager is the Emperor’s rightful wife, and is naturally qualified to sit in the dragon chair while in charge of supervising the country, even if the Emperor is present he won’t care, isn’t Lord Qiu minding a little bit too broadly?”

“Not bad, the Empress has a different status now, and there is nothing wrong with sitting in the dragon chair.”

After about a quarter of an hour, the scene below became more and more noisy, and many courtiers waited for Shen Ninghua’s reaction to see how she should end it.

In the great hall, the newly promoted ministers face more and more embarrassing, to this time they suddenly realized, that Qiu adults picked a not too small problem into the speech, in order to let them quarrel up, now no one to shut up, the Empress opened the mouth for fear that no one can hear, this scene if the pressure is not down, then the situation in the future is more difficult to control.

Shen Ninghua had enough of listening to them bicker around and raised her hand slightly, “Someone come!”

Her voice was not loud, and even because the hall was too noisy, many people did not hear it. Naturally, Lord Qiu and the others who were the first to cause trouble were always watching Shen Ninghua, so they naturally heard and saw her movements, but they were just pretending not to hear it with hearts full of malice, continuing to speak loudly and waiting for the moment when she would lose face.

“In!”

Suddenly a loud answering voice rang out violently, the voice was thick and powerful, matching the footsteps entering the door was extraordinarily amazing. The officials quarreling in the hall were violently startled, subconsciously looking towards the door, unbelievingly staring wide-eyed, the neatly equipped Dragon Scale Army quickly swarmed in from the doorway of the hall, occupying the entire back section of the hall.

The Empress had unexpectedly transferred the Dragon Scale Army into the Grand Hall! The current Dragon Scale Army had been cleansed and organized by Baili Junyi, and was very different from Baili Kengcang’s personal army before, and Shen Ninghua used it extraordinarily smoothly.

“Seize Qiu Ming, remove the top hat plume, and imprison him in the Heavenly Prison to await disposition.” Shen Ninghua’s voice was clear and cold, and didn’t even increase the volume extraordinarily in order to be heard, but when it reached the ears of the crowd, it made people’s minds confused.

Qiu Ming, who led the speech, immediately cried out in a loud voice after returning to his senses, “Empress Dowager, I just did my duty as a speech officer, you can’t treat me like this, won’t you let all the speech officers in the court be chilled by this action, and who will still dare to enter the words of loyal counseling in the future?”

“Speech officer? This palace respects the speech officer, naturally will not let all the loyal admonition of the people cold heart, just, you deserve to be a speech officer?”

Qiu Ming’s face turned red, “I have been an official for dozens of years, and I have risked my life many times to advise you, so how can I be unworthy of being an official? Empress Mother, if you don’t give me a statement, I don’t need to be dealt with by the Empress today, I will just crash my head on this Chengqian Hall to correct my reputation as a speech officer!”

As soon as he said this, the speech officials underneath also glared angrily at Shen Ninghua. The verbal officials were the most iron-clad group of officials in the imperial court, and when they were obstinate, even the emperor could do nothing about it. Shen Ningshua’s attack on the speech officials right away was simply a punch in the hornet’s nest.

Shen Ninghua slowly stood up, the back hem of her phoenix robe embroidered with a hundred birds facing the phoenix spread out at her feet, and she stood straight up like a proud phoenix with an ineffable nobility and coldness, “You’re still unconvinced, so come and tell this palace what kind of person a speech officer should be?”

Qiu Ming violently shook off the guards who wanted to come forward to seize him, straightened his clothes, and said righteously, “Wordsmiths, you must oversee injustice, advise the Emperor, and dare to speak out even at the expense of your life!”

Shen Ninghua sneered, “It seems that this is all you know.”

Qiu Ming’s face flushed red, “Empress Mother, your words are a great insult to a courtier, then may I ask the humble servant what you consider to be a speech officer?”

Shen Ninghua slightly raised her voice, and her cool voice echoed in the hall as if it were broken jade, “When choosing a magistrate, three things should come first: the first is not to love riches and wealth, the second is to cherish fame and honor, and the second is to know how to rule. In the view of many people, this is already the standard of the magistrate, but the Palace believes that this is not enough!”

Do not love the rich and noble, cherish the name and honor, and know the rule of the body. These three points put forward, immediately made the speech officials above the hall trembled, they raised their heads to look at the high above the queen, the bottom of the eyes of the untamed gradually disappeared. A minister over the age of old came out, he was wearing a first-class official uniform, his figure was dry and thin and even a little hunchbacked, but as he walked, all eyes gathered on him.

He is the former speech officer Zhu Zheng, once because of the former emperor’s lethargy, many times risked his life to remonstrate with the emperor, was the emperor into the prison suffered a lot of torture, his family was also ordered by the emperor to behead all of them, and later on the former dynasty’s country is broken, but this courtier wants to die with his body, and later, although he was rescued, and also recognized the emperor of the Great An Empire can give the people a better life, so although he no longer seeks death, but he hangs a name of a speech officer, and does not say a word for many years on the dynastic court The words. Seriously speaking, he was a senior official of the court.

Zhu Zheng walked to the center of the main hall and kneeled respectfully towards Shen Ninghua, his body crouching on the ground and saluting her with the most disciplined etiquette before he said in a slightly hoarse voice, “I ask the Empress to re-establish the standard for speech officials.” The Empress had said that she didn’t think it was enough to do the three points of the petition, so that meant she had even higher requirements.

With Zhu Zheng taking the lead, the other speech officials hurriedly knelt down, “Please Empress Dowager re-set the standard for speech officials.”

Shen Ninghua said in a cold voice, “Good, with this sentence of Lord Zhu, this palace will say. First of all, the speech officer must choose the country and forget the family, loyalty and forget the body of the person; secondly, must be decent and upright, straight and outspoken, but not suffer from loss, love the body and fix the salary; again, with outstanding knowledge and talent, not only know all aspects of the court’s political affairs, understand the advantages and disadvantages of the dynamics, but also be able to broadly relate to the ancient and modern, quoting from the past history.”

“Good!” Zhu Zheng shouted loudly and bowed down deeply to Shen Ninghua, his pale figure with a slight tremor, this is the standard that a magistrate should have, this is the realm that he pursued!

Shen Ninghua slowly walked down the steps and came in front of Zhu Zheng, she bent down to help Zhu Zheng up, “Lord Zhu, when you were an official in the previous dynasty, you were able to be impartial and factual, good at distinguishing right from wrong, and dared to discuss the straight and narrow, both diligent and honest, and was an exemplar of a speech officer, although I don’t know why you weren’t speaking out after the founding of my great state of An, but today, you can open your mouth, and this palace is grateful. ”

“The humble minister’s previous knot in his heart was not opened, so the Empress Dowager has made you laugh, and in the future, please don’t dislike the old minister’s raucousness before you do so.”

Shen Ninghua smiled and opened, “Lord Zhu has an iron mouth, if there is anything wrong with what this palace has done, please be merciful with Lord Zhu’s mouth.”

“How is that possible.” Zhu Zheng shook his head solemnly, which was rewarded with a laugh from the newly promoted officials. The eyes that looked at Shen Ninghua grew more and more admiring, if they didn’t know that Lord Zhu couldn’t be bribed, they would have suspected that this was a scene rehearsed in advance by Shen Ninghua and Zhu Zheng. No wonder the Emperor could rest assured that the country would be handed over to the Empress Dowager, this Dowager is truly not an ordinary person!