Chapter 1139: Palace Banquet (1)

As this was the first time the Crown Prince was solely in charge of holding a palace banquet, he was a little busy even with the Empress’s help.

Hence, he called his younger brothers over to help.

Little Bear and Little Treasure grew up together and understood each other the best. With great tacit understanding, together, they did things with half the effort. With Little An helping out as well, the trio’s efficiency was greatly enhanced.

Tiger Head and Little Lion dragged Qi Wensu around the venue to cause trouble. Of course, in their words, they were helping to supervise the staff.

Little Bear really wanted to chase them out, but Little Treasure and Little An stopped him from doing so in the end.

Smiling, Little An said, “Let them make a fuss. We’ll know what’s lacking by following behind them. They’re experts at filling in gaps.”

Little Treasure agreed with a smile. “That’s why I called them over. If it weren’t for the fact that Third Brother and Fourth Brother are still young and I’m afraid that they would bump into things here, I would definitely have brought them along, too.”

It had to be known that they were the biggest troublemakers. If this venue could withstand the torment of these brats, there shouldn’t be anything missing.

With their older brothers indulging them, Tiger Head, Little Lion, and Qi Wensu ran around even more merrily in the venue.

This was the grandest New Year’s Eve palace banquet since the founding of Great Qi. It was not only because Great Qi’s national treasury was rich, but also because they had seized back a large amount of lost territory in the north this year. Although there had been occasional disasters in the past two years, the harvest of crops had been mostly great. Therefore, the civil officials could praise that the country was flourishing and people were living in peace.”

It could be said that it was a rare historical feat to have such accomplishments merely 12 years after the dynasty was established. Since the civil and military officials had also contributed to this, when they stepped into the Hall of Union, they were all in high spirits and beaming with joy.

This time, the palace banquet seating area was still divided into different sections. Just like the previous dynasty, men and women weren’t separated. Thinking about it, this was actually a great initiative of Emperor Shizong. He set a rule following the Tang system that the husband and wife would sit together at the palace banquet. As a result, although the status of women in the previous dynasty was greatly reduced compared to the Tang dynasty, it was still much better than the Song dynasties in her previous life.

The moment Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran entered the Hall of Union, they attracted everyone’s attention. The fervor in their eyes startled her.

Qi Haoran walked in front without changing his expression and led her to the first seat on the left.

Opposite him was the Crown Prince, and below him was Fan Zijin. The princes sat on either side of the Crown Prince and Zijin, followed by the Left Minister and Right Minister.

When the ministers saw that Fan Zijin’s seat was above the princes, they all sighed at his glory and favor, discussing in low voices that he would probably be the next Left Minister.

Before they could finish speaking, the Emperor and the Empress arrived. Qi Haoran hurriedly took the lead and knelt down to welcome them. Kneeling beside Qi Haoran, Mu Yangling heard a voice from above chuckle. “You may rise. Today is New Year’s Eve, a day of pleasure. There’s no need to be restrained.”

Although that was the case, there was certainly more to the banquet than just pleasure. That was because the palace banquet was not only for the emperor and ministers of Great Qi to enjoy. There were also envoys from various countries who came to congratulate Great Qi.

There were countries from nearby—West Xia, Goryeo, Japan, and Tran Dynasty (Vietnam), as well as countries further away like Spain, Portugal, England, and France.

Right now, there was an intense civil war ongoing in West Xia. The reason why they sent envoys this time was also to remind Great Qi of their alliance, hoping that Great Qi would not take advantage of the situation and attack West Xia.

As for the fact that they had sent troops to help Great Jin previously, West Xia attributed it to a misunderstanding, saying that their troops were sent to help Great Jin deal with their internal strife. Who knew that they would accidentally collide with and muddle-headedly get into a fight with the Great Qi army?

In order to express their apology, West Xia even brought over several carts of gold, silver, and jewelry.

In a way, this was them showing weakness, as well as giving a bribe.

Qi Xiuyuan did not give a definite answer, but he also knew that it was not appropriate to start another war since Great Qi had just won a battle against Great Jin. Hence, he could only wait.

He would have to wait for the next opportunity to arrive or to find a peaceful means to take back the land that West Xia had occupied.

However, there wasn’t much territory lost to West Xia, which was why Qi Xiuyuan wasn’t in a hurry.

While Qi Xiuyuan was chill about it, West Xia was anxious. Over the past few days, West Xia’s envoys had been visiting various places with gold and silver, but each time they had hit a brick wall.

One had to know that West Xia had never encountered such a situation against the Great Zhou Dynasty. It had always been the officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty bribing them with gold and silver in exchange for favors.

Now that the roles were reversed, they were ashamed and frustrated. Yet, there was nothing they could do about it.

The envoys of West Xia didn’t know that the officials they visited were the ones who were complaining endlessly.

After all, this was the capital, and it was well-known that the Emperor and King Rong hated corrupt officials the most. Yet, these envoys went to those officials’ doors with gold and silver so conspicuously. Not to mention that they didn’t have the intention to accept bribes, even if they did, they wouldn’t dare to accept the gifts under such circumstances.

The West Xia envoys were so frustrated that no one would accept the treasures.

On the other hand, the western countries had their own goals. Meanwhile, Goryeo was purely here to try to sponge on people, the Tran Dynasty was here to gather information, while Japan was just here to establish diplomatic relations. Therefore, in comparison, the envoys from these three countries were much more relaxed.

After meeting with the ministers, the Emperor naturally had to meet the envoys from the various countries in a particular order.

The first to step forward was West Xia, which was relatively powerful. Next was the Tran Dynasty, which shared a border with Great Qi and was on pretty good terms with Great Qi. Then, it was Goryeo, and third was Japan. These were all neighboring countries. Not only did Great Qi share a connection with these countries historically, but they also shared some interests.

The envoys of the Western countries were summoned together. It couldn’t be helped since the Western countries were too far away from Great Qi. Other than business dealings, Qi Xiuyuan really could not think of any other connections between them. Since he could not tell the good from the bad, he decided to just summon them together.

The envoys of the Western countries bowed to Qi Xiuyuan on one knee. Qi Xiuyuan nodded slightly before granting them seats.

Only then did everyone see the hundreds of officials sitting in two rows. With two people sitting together and the officials’ families sitting behind them, their relationship was obvious at a glance.

There was fine wine and delicacies on the table, as well as some dishes that the envoys had never seen before. It was impossible not to be shocked.

In this era, the Western countries’ citizens were still relieving themselves in public places, and the nobles bathed probably twice a year. Food-wise, it was also lackluster. Despite having already witnessed the prosperity and abundant resources of the Han people during their time in Great Qi, the previous experiences were not as shocking as this.

So this was what a Great Qi palace banquet was like!

Even Andre, who had been on this mainland for more than 20 years, was momentarily dazed.

Antonio only came back to his senses some time after sitting down. Looking at the distant and blurry Emperor of Great Qi, he said, “I finally understand why you guys always like to come to this continent to do business. This is indeed a beautiful country.”

Representing Spain as the deputy envoy attending the palace banquet, Andre lowered his voice and said, “With its vast territory and abundant resources, it’s the most prosperous country I’ve ever seen in my life. There are plenty of opportunities on this continent.”

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