Grand and small official vessels arrive in an endless stream.

After praising him, there had to be a banquet. Changzhou might not have felt the warmth of spring yet, but travelers could still become intoxicated all the same. Despite declining repeatedly, Wang Lixin was eventually escorted to the seat of honor.

Upon inquiring in lowered voices, it turned out to be true that Wang Lixin had been stripped of all his posts, leaving him with only the title of Academician of the Duanming Hall. However, upon learning of this, Zhao Qi had further commanded him to attend court by special summons, granting him the qualification to enter the palace and have an audience with the Son of Heaven.

Ah, one couldn't help but sigh once more: how wonderful it is to have an adult emperor.

Even if Zhao Qi possessed low intelligence and was licentious and devoid of morality, he was nonetheless an adult emperor who understood the priorities of weight and urgency. The fact that he had slept with thirty palace maids last night did not prevent him from summoning the nation's loyal and righteous ministers this afternoon.

Zhao Qi was not completely oblivious to the situation on the Xiangyang frontline, especially now that Xiangyang had been lost. Previously, because of some small butterfly effect, Li Tingzhi and Fan Wenhu had engaged in mutual recriminations, and Zhao Qi still needed to find someone to explain clearly what kind of mess the Jinghu region had become.

Whether to mobilize another hundred or two hundred thousand men for a counterattack, or to forgo the counterattack and simply hold on to Ezhou while offering gradual resistance—since Jia Sidao could not come up with a comprehensive plan, Zhao Qi had no choice but to figure something out himself.

It was said that a few days ago, Jia Sidao had once again petitioned to retire on account of old age. In front of the ministers and palace attendants, Zhao Qi had actually made a formal obeisance to Jia Sidao, clutching the sleeve of the "Master Chancellor" to prevent him from leaving. If Jia Sidao were to leave, the imperial court would not even possess a qualified chancellor to preside over the central affairs of state, and how could the current situation be allowed to fall into such disarray?

Li Rang spoke with such vivid embellishment, as if he himself had been present at the scene. It was as though he might have been one of the pillars or chairs in the hall.

Because Wang Lixin was still able to meet and converse with the emperor, in the feudal era, this constituted an immense advantage. Not only did the officials and gentry of Changzhou come to pay their respects to him, but almost every stage of the journey from Jiangling to Hangzhou saw officials and gentry coming to pay homage.

There was always a chance the old gentleman might drop a good word for someone in front of Zhao Qi. At present, aside from Zhang Xun, who knew that Zhao Qi had begun vomiting blood after meals, probably not a single soul among those gathered was aware of it.

Lu Xiufu kept his mouth quite tightly sealed to the outside world. Having just assisted the Prefect Zhao Rujian in helping Wang Lixin down the boat, he had done nothing but praise how spirited and robust the old academician was.

Right, since this old gentleman was able to rub shoulders with Zhao Qi, if he were to praise Lu Xiufu before the emperor, wouldn't Lu Xiufu's career shoot up like a rocket? Their purpose in seeking out Shi Nengzhi was to utilize him and the connections behind him, but in such matters, who would ever consider the paths too numerous?

After all, everyone was taking money to perform tasks; there was no strict talk of political parties.

The strife between the New Party and the Old Party had been extremely fierce during the Northern Song dynasty, and intensely so for a period in the early Southern Song as well—did not Zhu Xi constantly oscillate between being revered as a sage and cursed as a hound?

Now, the scholar-officials of the Southern Song were decadent and thoroughly debased, completely useless creatures. Aside from a very few upright gentlemen, the scholarly ethos had long since deteriorated beyond recognition.

Speaking of any political parties? When Shi Miyuan was in power, it was the Shi faction; when Han Tuozhou was in power, it was the Han faction; and now that Jia Sidao was in power, it was the Jia faction.

Look at how even Zhang Cheng could become Zhao Qi's Diary-Keeper; by now, the New Learning and Old Learning factions no longer fought to the death over the emperor's scriptural banquets, daily lectures, and personal attendants.

Looking up at the top three tables, Lu Xiufu and Wang Lixin were chatting quite pleasantly. Perhaps there was no need for them to concoct any messy imperial edicts; upon meeting Zhao Qi, Wang Lixin would simply recommend Lu Xiufu himself.

Wishing big brother-in-law good fortune.

The next day, Zhang Xun was still unable to return home and went instead to see Wang Lixin off for a final stretch. Today, there were an exceptional number of official boats anchored at the Mooring Boat Pavilion. First, a vessel arrived bearing a dispatch that the imperial court needed to procure military armaments, requiring Changzhou to prepare fifty thousand large goose feathers.

Indeed, the imperial court was functioning after all, and procuring fifty thousand goose feathers was no difficult task. When villages and counties slaughtered geese, they routinely collected and preserved the feathers specifically in anticipation of such demands.

In the rural society of the feudal era, nothing went to waste; even a single feather could be put to use. Now that the court demanded goose feathers, to put it bluntly, it meant Changzhou's local treasury would shoulder the cost of purchasing these fifty thousand feathers before sending them off to Hangzhou.

Fortunately, it did not cost much; Zhao Rujian glanced at the official document and tossed it to his subordinates. By squeezing a little from salt, tea, wine, or medicine, the matter of buying fifty thousand feathers would be settled. Naturally, Prefect Zhao's official entertainment allowance of several thousand strings of cash could not be touched.

Immediately following this, a second boat arrived with a report stating that the imperial court had dispatched General Wang, the Deputy Commander of the Ninth Army of the Southeast and additional Military Commissioner Inspector of Western Zhejiang, to Suzhou, Changzhou, and Runzhou to recruit soldiers, and that the localities must render full assistance.

This General Wang was none other than Wang Xiaojie, the son of the late Commander-in-Chief Wang Jian, who had been the defender of Diaoyuchang in Hezhou, the Military Commissioner of Ningyuan Army, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Infantry of the Palace Guard.

He was the very same Wang Jian who had blasted Mongke to death with a cannonball.

It was understandable that his son wished to recruit soldiers from the three prefectures of Suzhou, Changzhou, and Runzhou to reinforce the troops of Western Zhejiang. Yet Zhao Rujian merely glanced at it casually and tossed it aside to his subordinate clerks.

What a joke. Zhang Xun, a local tyrant of Changzhou, had only managed to recruit five or six hundred men; what on earth could this Wang Xiaojie hope to recruit? Either he came bearing money or he came bearing silk; bringing nothing at all, Zhao Rujian had no way to assist him.

Your father is your father, and you are you.

If your father Wang Jian were still alive and able to personally have audience with Zhao Yun and Zhao Qi, then out of respect for Wang Jian, Zhao Rujian would have helped pull together five hundred able-bodied men. But your father Wang Jian was dead, and what was more, he had been dead for ten years; people leave and the tea goes cold.

Never had it been imagined that seeing off Wang Lixin could involve all these messy complications. Zhao Rujian offered repeated apologies and properly escorted Wang Lixin onto his boat.

At that very moment, yet another official boat arrived. The narrow section of the canal was congested, and the people on board shouted upward that they were bearing a memorial to reinstate the Academician of the Wenzhi Pavilion, asking for the passage to be cleared.

The Wenzhi Pavilion? Zhao Rujian, who had been indifferent just moments before, hastily ordered his subordinate clerks to dredge the waterway. Upon subsequent inquiry, it indeed transpired that Zhao Qi had asked about the whereabouts of Wen Tianxiang, the man who had previously drafted imperial edicts for him.

Since those around him could not give an answer, Zhao Qi had reinstated Wen Tianxiang as the Surveillance Commissioner of Hunan, with an added academic title. Wen Tianxiang had been promoted to a circuit-level supervisory official! How could they not make way? Everyone scrambled in utter chaos to clear a path for the official boat heading toward Jiangxi.

He was a top palace graduate after all; an emperor might not see ten top graduates in his entire lifetime, so he was surely favored in the emperor's heart. At a single inquiry from Zhao Qi, Wen Tianxiang had been promoted to the chief administrator of a circuit.

Even Wang Lixin, who was already on the verge of departure, nodded and remarked that His Majesty's appointment was well-made and entirely as it should be.

Just as they were in the midst of a heated discussion, another official boat arrived, this one also bearing an imperial decree. It promoted Lu Xiufu from Assistant Administrator of the Court of the Imperial Stud to Junior Official of the Imperial Clan Court, with instructions to superintend the Imperial Armament Workshop.

Oh, my, so swiftly? Surely not.

Lu Xiufu, who was already standing on the shore cupping his hands in farewell to Wang Lixin, found this stroke of good fortune descending upon him out of nowhere. While accepting Wang Lixin's congratulations, he acknowledged the felicitations of the surrounding officials.

Before he even had a chance to look back at Zhang Xun, he was surrounded by the crowd. Zhang Xun, on the other hand, quietly asked Li Rang about the difference between the Armament Workshop and the Directorate of Armaments, wondering if they were simply two names for the same institution.

Li Rang waved his hand, explaining that heading the Directorate of Armaments was a career advancement path for civil officials and no longer involved any actual military manufacturing tasks. The Armament Workshop, however, had originally been a branch agency of the Inner Court and had now been seized by the Outer Court to become a branch of the Ministry of Works, holding actual charge of ordnance production.

Yet stepping in to manage military production at this critical juncture was hardly a desirable post.