Chapter 1227 – Ascension to Emperor

Regarding the arrangement of Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo only made five big adjustments. As for minor changes, Ouyang Shuo did not need to care because as long as the city was developing, it would naturally adjust by itself.

“System Notification: Adjustment request confirmation, adjusting…”

In the blink of an eye, the things within the city had moved. After the expansion and adjustment, Shanhai City had built the foundations for an explosive growth, moving toward a mega city.
…
Ouyang Shuo had finished collecting the prizes and adjusting territory. Although it looked like he had been busy for a long time, in truth, only half an hour had passed.

“Your majesty, the auspicious hour has arrived!”

A court lady shouted. The moment her words landed, classical music played out.

From today onward, Ouyang Shuo would be the emperor of an Emperor dynasty. He could be called his majesty or emperor, becoming a true son of god.

Ouyang Shuo was wearing his coronation attire as he got onto the imperial carriage and exited the palace gates.

“Long live the emperor!”

Under the guidance of the ritualist, after Ouyang Shuo exited the imperial city, all the civilians on the streets cheered and knelt and greeted him.

Like the previous ascension ceremony, it was bustling with excitement.

After worshiping the ancestors and the various gods, Ouyang Shuo boarded the carriage again and entered the main hall. Within the Cabinet, the ministers and officials all knelt, “With all the rituals complete, please ascend to your throne!”

Ouyang Shuo slowly walked up and sat on the dragon throne. Instantly, the hall became solemn.

The ritualist hollered, “Officials bow!”

“Long live the emperor!” The officials all knelt and kowtowed three times.

Ouyang Shuo was on the dragon throne. As he had experienced a similar event before, he said calmly, “Rise!”

“Thank you, Emperor, for your kindness.”

Ouyang Shuo said, “For the Imperial Court to be able to upgrade to an Emperor dynasty, it is all thank to your efforts. I will be generous with my rewards!”

The Cabinet led the officials to kowtow three times once more.

“I’m willing to follow our ancestors and set up the Shanhe Pavilion and have 24 meritorious officials!”

The moment his words landed, the eyes of all the officials lit up with eagerness. Ouyang Shuo had not told anyone about the Shanhe Pavilion, not even the Cabinet.

Tossing it out suddenly naturally created a lot of commotion.

For this ascension ceremony, Ouyang Shuo did not invite outsiders, just all the Governor-Generals and Provincial Governors.

As he said that, Ouyang Shuo gave Bai Nanpu, the decree announcing official, a look.

Bai Nanpu understood, opening up the imperial decree, “The emperor decrees the establishment of the Shanhe Pavilion, listing the 24 meritorious officials who helped to build up our dynasty as models for all, shining even in the afterlife.”

“Baiqi, Jiang Shang, Huo Qubing, Han Xin, Wei Yang, Zhang Liang, Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, Shi Wanshui, Fan Li, Zheng He, Shen Buhai, Sun Bin, Er’Lai, Zhang Yi, Cui Yingyu, Liu Mo, Zhang Han, Di Qing, Yu Dayou, Tian Wenjing, Fan Zhongyan, and Xu Chu.”

With every name he read out, a person would step out with unspeakable joy on their faces.

To the officials, apart from their appointment and power, they cared more about their place in history. Being listed in the Shanhe Pavilion was the best way to be remembered in history.

Hence, even Baiqi, Du Ruhui, and Tian Wenjing, these cold-faced people, could not hide their joy.

“End!”

The long list was finished; some were happy while some were naturally disappointed. Especially people like Li Jing and Kou Zhun, who missed out only because they joined the dynasty late.

It was impossible to say that they were not jealous.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo said, “These 24 have made a lot of contributions to the dynasty. I hope that when we become an imperial dynasty, there would be more people listed in the Shanhe Pavilion.”

“Thank you, your majesty!”

The officials were instantly really motivated.

Apart from the 24 meritorious officials, Ouyang Shuo also gave out a bunch of titles.

Both Baiqi and Jiang Shang became dukes alongside Mulan Yue, Bai Hua, and Feng Qiuhuang. Huo Qubing, Xiao He, and Han Xin all received the rank of 1st class Marquis.

Wei Yang, Zhang Liang, Du Ruhui, Jia Xu, and Shi Wanshui received the rank of 2nd class Marquis. Fan Li, Zheng He, Shen Buhai, Sun Bin, Er’Lai, Zhang, Yi and Cui Yingyu became 3rd class marquises.

The remaining seven from the 24 meritorious officials became 1st class earls.

Apart from that, a bunch of officials like Kou Zhun, Li Jing, Wei Zheng, and Zhang Tingyu became earls.

It was not hard to see that the titles, especially those of Marquis and above, were given out really carefully.

Ouyang Shuo did so to show their value.

After all, he needed to try to raise the value and meaning of the title.

Along with the army scale settling down, the Legion General positions were basically settled, and it would be difficult for any empty spots to appear. This also meant that the promotion of Advanced Generals was basically locked.

In the Imperial Court, the core positions were settled, and no big adjustments would be made. However, in comparison to the military, there would be more opportunities for Provincial Governors due to the fact that they were still expanding.

Promotion channels not being smooth was deadly to a dynasty.

The reason why this problem would appear was because the game was different from real life. To a certain extent, the officials were half immortal.

Even if they were instantiated into reality, it would remain so.

With Jiang Shang as an example, after he became an AI, he might look old, but his cells were no different from a young man’s. It would be easy for him to live for another 180 years.

This was both a good thing and a bad thing.

Due to their presence, the promotion channels of the dynasty were blocked.

Ouyang Shuo was already considering whether he should force retirements to promote a change of blood so that the dynasty would not become stale.

Of course, this was all something for the future.

Specifically in the game world, there was nothing more suitable than a title system as a value system.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo gave titles carefully and did not let them become as common as cabbages.

At this point, it all came to an end.

“The Emperor dynasty is newly established, and I hope you can all work hard.” Ouyang Shuo said. Then he told the ritualist, “Give the Queen the title of empress and Ouyang Yu as eldest son of the emperor and Ouyang Luo as the princess.”

At this point, the ascension was completed. Next up was the ceremonial reviewing of troops.

After that, it was already noon.

At night, there was a huge Imperial Palace feast and fireworks, creating a great bustle.

Once it all ended, it was already the dead of the night.
…
Starting from the 1st month, 2nd day, for five days, one protector, two Governor-generals, and 24 Provincial Governors all took the chance to be debriefed.

There were five on average every day.

These were the busiest five days for Ouyang Shuo and the days during which he had to think the most.

He had to settle them down and evaluate their reports, give some criticism, and pick out the flaws.

This meant that Ouyang Shuo had to have a clear understanding and plan for each area.

A month before the New Year, apart from preparing for the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo spent a large part of his effort on that. Of course, such a difficult matter could not be handled by him alone.

Behind every one of his suggestions was the work of the Cabinet and the Administrative Mentor Court.

Using the chance of debriefing them, Ouyang Shuo told them about the plans of their provinces so that they would not veer off the track.

Of course, with a huge territory, there would be some in better and some in worse positions.

Out of the 24, some were ran really well, and there were even some surprises like Hu Zongxian’s planning of Heluo Province, which made the eyes of the Cabinet light up.

Some people did not do well and while debriefing them, Ouyang Shuo did not give them any face and chided them, “If you do not wake up and continue to be arrogant, I’ll sack you.”

Ouyang Shuo could do as he said.

Since the dynasty had developed to such a stage, firing one or two Provincial Governors would not be too big of an issue.