Chapter 355

"Ahem."

The young eunuch coughed tactically twice: "My Lady, you have not yet received the decree and expressed your gratitude."

Since she hadn't received the decree and expressed gratitude, how could he, the one who delivered it, possibly leave?

Just last night, the head of the Imperial Garden guards had been questioned for dereliction of duty and sent to the northern grasslands to herd sheep.

He didn't want to follow in the footsteps of that unlucky guard commander.

Well, he wasn't exactly unlucky; after all, someone had snuck into the Emperor's private Imperial Garden,

and whether he was intentional or unintentional, he had to take the fall for it.

Being able to be transferred to the north as a guerrilla general in a near-lateral move,

suppressing various tribes on the grasslands, was already the Emperor's heavenly benevolence and vast imperial grace.

However, as the saying goes, "the overturned cart ahead is a warning for the one behind," so he naturally had to be even more careful and cautious.

"It is this humble woman who was impolite. I ask the Heavenly Envoy to not hold a grudge against a small person."

Reminded, Zhu Lian finally remembered that she hadn't received the decree and expressed gratitude, so she hurriedly tried to make amends.

"Hmph!"

The young eunuch snorted coldly in his heart.

Failing to receive the decree and express gratitude was a crime of great disrespect, and even a summary execution wouldn't be excessive.

But who told this Lady Zhu to have slept on the dragon bed last night, leaving the current Emperor unable to forget her,

to the point that he disregarded etiquette and law to grant her the status of Lady Jingkang, with treatment comparable to a first-rank noble lady?

Although the Emperor did not bring this Lady Zhu directly into the palace like he did with Lady Li Shishi,

this act of granting her a title was practically announcing it to the world,

which shows the status of this Lady Zhu in the Emperor's heart.

He could only reveal a bright, smiling face, as if he didn't care at all:

"It is completely understandable that you were momentarily distracted after receiving such a great reward, completely understandable."

"This humble woman receives the decree and expresses gratitude. Long live, long live, long, long live the Emperor!"

Zhu Lian immediately knelt and shouted "Long live."

"You have worked hard, Huangmen."

After receiving the decree and expressing gratitude, Zhu Lian flipped her jade hand and secretly passed a Jiaozi note into the young eunuch's hand.

Although she was once the noble Crown Princess and Empress, she knew the rules of the world below.

It was customary for these Heavenly Envoys to receive a "negligible" tip when they went out to handle affairs.

Now that their situation was precarious, she could not afford to offend someone like the young eunuch

who could face the Emperor directly; after all, the King of Hell is easy to deal with, but the little demons are hard to handle.

"My Lady, you are too polite."

Although he was young, the seasoned young eunuch only had to rub his fingers

to know that the Jiaozi note in his hand was at least one hundred guan, and the smile on his face became three parts brighter.

The fake smile he had just now, out of caution for Zhu Lian's favor with the Emperor, became much more sincere.

Who would complain about having too much of such cute things as money?

Haven't you seen that even the Emperor himself was racking his brains over the minting of coins, not hesitating to send the navy on a long expedition across the sea to the Wa slave nation?

And for those of them who had lost their brothers,

and could no longer experience the true pleasures of a man,

their greatest hope in this life was to climb higher, grasp greater power,

and accumulate more wealth to find a reliance for their destined miserable old age.

The young eunuch was not surprised that Zhu Lian offered one hundred guan in Jiaozi.

After all, a camel that is dead is still bigger than a horse; no matter how miserable the situation of Zhu Lian and Zhao Huan was,

to the point where they had to grovel and curry favor with a small person like him who wouldn't have even received a glance in the past,

they were, after all, the Emperor and Empress of the Great Song, who once possessed the world.

As long as they hid a few personal items, they would be worth thousands or tens of thousands of guan.

As for why the Great Song's Jiaozi was still in circulation when it was already the Great Gan?

Well, the Old Master said in the Daoist scriptures: "Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish."

Although it was necessary to strike with thunderous force when overthrowing the Great Song court, giving them no moment to catch their breath,

eliminating the influence of the Great Song had to be done step by step.

Directly announcing that the various currencies issued by the Great Song, such as Tongbao copper coins

and Jiaozi paper money, were void would be too explosive, and a slight carelessness could trigger a major upheaval.

Zhang Jie's idea was to mint the Great Gan's own coins to slowly replace them.

Because the time had been short, the market currently presented a strange phenomenon where the brand-new,

technologically advanced Great Gan Tongbao and the more numerous Great Song

coins minted over the past hundred years circulated together.

However, compared to the Great Song Tongbao, which had inferior craftsmanship and unclear appearances,

the common people favored the Great Gan Tongbao issued by Zhang Jie, which were more exquisite and refined.

It was just that the Great Gan Mint had been established for a short time, and the minted coins were not enough to circulate throughout the world;

otherwise, the Great Gan Tongbao replacing the Great Song Tongbao would be a matter of course.

As for the gold and silver coins commonly known as "Zhang Datou," which bore Zhang Jie's portrait,

they disappeared like mud cows entering the sea as soon as they entered the market.

After all, anyone with a discerning eye knew the collection value of this first batch of Great Gan gold and silver coins.

In just a few years, when the Great Gan began to enter its golden age,

their value would easily increase several or even dozens of times.

Some people also valued their commemorative significance and collected them at home.

Regarding this, Zhang Jie directly raised the sickle to harvest the leeks,

ordering the Mint to cast a batch of "Great Gan Year One" commemorative coins to enter the market, harvesting a batch of leeks quite well.

"My Lady, the Emperor has an oral decree for you."

The young eunuch, having quietly tucked the one-hundred-guan Jiaozi into his sleeve, whispered to Zhu Lian.

"An oral decree?"

Zhu Lian's expression suddenly turned pale.

She had thought that last night's events had passed, and that she would remain the Empress of the former Song's deposed Emperor,

never again having any intersection with Zhang Jie, the Emperor of the Great Gan.

But now it seemed that Zhang Jie was afraid he was unwilling to let her go just like that.

She asked stammeringly, "May, may I ask the Heavenly Envoy, what decree does the Emperor have to, to give to this sinful woman?"

"My Lady, it's a good thing, a great thing!"

The young eunuch whispered joyfully to Zhu Lian:

"The Emperor grants you the right to see the Emperor at any time."

The young eunuch's words were full of envy.

Although he was respectfully called a Heavenly Envoy after leaving the palace and was seen as the embodiment of the Great Gan Emperor,

and he didn't earn a small amount of benefits for himself while handling affairs for the Emperor;

but he knew his own situation—there were over a dozen young eunuchs like him who were qualified to represent the Emperor to deliver decrees.

Moreover, these young eunuchs could only see the Emperor in the palace after receiving an imperial edict.

In the entire court, apart from the Left and Right Chancellors like Chen Wenyun of the Secretariat and Wang Zhengdao,

and the several Grand Commanders of the Five Military Commissions who commanded the navy,

army, and cavalry, the only ones qualified to see the Emperor at any time were Commander Wu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard,

and Li Dequan, the ancestor of the thousands of eunuchs in their inner court.

Thinking of Zhu Lian receiving such authority, the young eunuch couldn't help but feel a surge of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

The Emperor is the source of power; the closer one is, the higher the status, and the greater the power.

This is why, even knowing that the imperial palace is a treacherous place of schemes and deceit,

countless people still rack their brains every moment wanting to drill into it.

Zhu Lian's transformation from a former dynasty's Empress to the high-and-mighty Lady Jingkang, with treatment comparable to a first-rank noble lady,

let him know that sometimes it's not just hard work that leads to a future,

and the "hard work" that is obviously a shortcut to success...