Chapter 535
On the 5th day of June, the palace was very busy with different people coming and going.
Mu Mingtang was sitting in the Yanying Palace, talking to Xu Wuniang and Xu Qiniang.
"Your Royal Highness, tomorrow is the enthronement ceremony. Is everything going well in the palace?"
When Mu Mingtang heard this, she merely smiled and answered, "Everything is fine."
Xie Xuanchen headed south and invaded Lin An in March. From then on, the South Ye Dynasty was destroyed and the country was unified as it once was. After Xie Xuanchen returned to the court, the ministers jointly asked Xie Xuanchen to proclaim himself as the Emperor.
Xie Xuanchen successively destroyed Beirong, Xixia and South Ye in these years. With that feat in his grasp, Dali, Gaoli and several other countries immediately became vassals upon seeing this. Xie Xuanchen proclaiming himself Emperor was to be expected as it was the people's will as well.
Xie Xuanchen was Xie Yi's legitimate son. Without Xie Rui, he would have been the legitimate heir all along. Later, since Xie Yi died abruptly and Xie Xuanchen happened to fall into a low point as well, it led to his royal uncle inheriting the throne. Now that Xie Rui was dead, the southern court that was passed down by the former Emperor also perished in the hands of Xie Xuanji. With that, the throne was passed full circle back into Xie Xuanchen's hands.
Xie Xuanchen declined the idea for a moment before he adopted his father's country name of Ye and made the capital Youzhou. After that, he changed the name of the era to Yuanning.
The enthronement ceremony was scheduled to be held on the 6th day of June in the first year of Yuanning, which was tomorrow.
The enthronement ceremony was held together with that of the Empress. Since the new dynasty was just established, everything was renewed and there were many things in the harem of the outer dynasty that needed to be settled. The enthronement ceremony and Mu Mingtang's conferment ceremony were top-notch events. The ceremony of the founding Emperor was the highlight of the country's history and could not be ignored.
The people have been busy with this for 3 months and they seemed to be getting busier as things got to the last moment.
Everyone else was stunned, but Mu Mingtang, the person involved, felt rather relaxed. Tomorrow was the Emperor's enthronement and her own conferment ceremony. Madam Xu was worried that Mu Mingtang didn't have enough manpower, so she sent Xu Wuniang and Xu Qiniang over to ask if there was anything they could help with.
The Xu family had been stationed in Zhongshan for generations, but after Xie Xuanchen established the new imperial court, a lot more people were employed. After changing the previous deformed system of emphasising civility and suppressing military affairs, various sons of the Xu family were also highly employed. Now, except for Xu Silang and Xu Siniang, who were still staying in Zhongshan to guard the city, everyone else from the family had moved to the capital.
During the years when Xie Xuanchen was away at war, Mu Mingtang stayed in the Xu family for a while. There, she became most affable with Xu Wuniang. After the Xu family settled in Youzhou, Xu Wuniang often went into the palace to talk to Mu Mingtang. Now that Madam Xu sent someone in to inquire about the current news, Xu Wuniang came over naturally.
WIth that, Xu Wuniang asked about the preparations for tomorrow's ceremony. She and Mu Mingtang conversed happily as Xu Qiniang sat next to her Fifth Sister-in-law, listening quietly with large, open eyes.