In the twenty-fifth year of the Yuanzhen era, at the Crown Princess’s birthday banquet, Zhao Hanzhang announced she would abdicate and pass the throne to Zhao Mingming.

The ministers were silent for a moment.

Zhao Hanzhang had a distinct personality. Through many years of working together, the ministers had long since figured out her temperament. She liked to engage in trivial matters with people, demonstrating beautiful virtues like humility and affection, but absolutely never tested hearts with major matters.

So they all knew that since Zhao Hanzhang had spoken of such a major matter as abdication, she must have already made up her mind.

In over twenty years, decisions the Emperor had made had never failed to be carried out—how much less would abdication be?

If they tried to dissuade her, they didn’t know if the new emperor would think they disapproved of her accession.

If they enthusiastically approved, they didn’t know if Her Majesty the Emperor would think they had long since switched allegiance to the new emperor…

So forget it. This was the Emperor’s family matter. They should just keep their heads down and their ears perked up to listen.

Court officials had changed batch after batch—some had died, some had resigned to retire, and some had normally risen, fallen, or been newly appointed.

Ji Yuan and Ming Yu had been demoted a few years ago, then brought back up when the new laws were reformed. At this time, they still held the positions of Prime Ministers.

Hearing that Zhao Hanzhang would abdicate, both men’s eyebrows jumped. They exchanged glances and knew they too should retire and yield to worthier successors.

This time was different from before—once they retired, they truly would not return.

A new emperor, a new court. Many ministers shared Ji Yuan and Ming Yu’s awareness.

In recent years, Zhao Hanzhang had promoted many young people through the recruitment examinations. They had been participating in government for over ten years. These people were in their prime, and she had basically sent them to various localities for training. A few years ago they returned to the capital, served as capital officials for just a few years, then were sent out again, yet they showed no signs of being out of favor.

Previously they hadn’t thought of it because Zhao Hanzhang was in her prime, but looking now, these people were clearly being cultivated by her for the Crown Princess.

Had Her Majesty been planning today’s abdication over ten years ago?

Terrifying when one thought deeply about it!

Besides Zhao Hanzhang, Zhao Mingming had also cultivated her own team. After she successfully concluded the “Abolishing Corvée Labor” case, Zhao Hanzhang had her supervise the state while she herself occasionally went out on inspection tours. Last year when locals in Jiaozhou rebelled, Zhao Hanzhang, who had been inspecting Jiangnan, somehow suddenly appeared in Jiaozhou.

She directly took over military authority in Jiaozhou and also transferred troops from Guangzhou, Jingzhou, and Ningzhou. Not only did she quell the Jiaozhou rebellion, she pushed all the way to the Mekong River in one go.

The Jiaozhou mentioned now was the area of later Vietnam. Before the Song dynasty, the Vietnam area had always been a directly administered region of China.

After Qin Shi Huang unified the realm, this area was called Baiyue and was directly administered by the court. It was so under Han, and during the Wei-Jin period, it was directly under Eastern Wu. After Eastern Wu was destroyed, it belonged to Jin.

Naturally, after Jin’s destruction, it also belonged to Zhao Hanzhang’s Hua kingdom.

Historically, after Eastern Jin’s destruction, this area was never separated out, always belonging to the southern kingdoms. After Tang was established, the Annan Protectorate was set up here, with the protectorate headquarters located in Hanoi, Vietnam.

It wasn’t until the Song dynasty, when Zhao Kuangyin enfeoffed the King of Dinh as Prince of Jiaozhi and recognized its independence, that the directly administered region became a tributary state and was no longer Chinese territory.

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t want to leave territorial disputes for future generations. This Jiaozhou rebellion had two causes: first, the court had directly dispatched several officials to govern, conflicting with local chieftains’ interests; second, people from southern tribes had instigated it.

That was the former Shan kingdom, the area around Laos and Thailand.

But… the Shan kingdom had been destroyed, the country fragmented. Now it was ruled by various tribes, with no unified nation.

Zhao Hanzhang captured people and questioned them, learning that these tribes knew the eastern suzerain state was growing increasingly powerful. They wanted to send envoys to pay court respects and also wanted to ask the Emperor to choose a king for them (preferably from their tribe). But the Jiaozhou tribes had conflicts with them and worried that after they made contact with Luoyang, they would gain court support.

Therefore, in alliance with some local officials, they obstructed them in every way, and the southern tribes simply could not cross the blockade.

After striving for seven or eight years without being able to see Zhao Hanzhang, these tribes became ruthless and simply instigated Jiaozhou chieftains to rebel.

This reverse operation indeed successfully attracted Zhao Hanzhang’s attention, so Zhao Hanzhang simply pushed all the way to the Mekong River and brought these tribes into her territory.

No need to appoint a king either—appoint a commandery governor or the like. From now on, everyone would be governed by Hua kingdom, so there was no need to fear internal conflicts.

This campaign not only frightened the Jiaozhou chieftains and southern tribes, it also frightened the ministers.

The Emperor personally led the campaign, actually not even informing the court, just running off to the border so silently—absolutely outrageous!

But from this, Zhao Hanzhang felt a long-lost sense of freedom.

Originally she had planned to work until Zhao Mingming turned thirty. Thirty marks maturity after all. After supervising the state for seven or eight years, she would be no different from a deputy emperor. After seven or eight years, she would be practiced, and the transition of imperial power could be smoother then.

At that time she would be fifty-one. By her previous life’s retirement age, she would be retiring a few years early due to injury—also counting as a hardworking laborer.

Simply perfect!

But the taste of freedom was truly too addictive.

So after returning to Luoyang from Jiaozhou, Zhao Hanzhang quietly discussed it with Fu Tinghan.

Fu Tinghan was even more pitiful than Zhao Hanzhang. These years she went out on inspection tours every year, while he had always been stationed in Luoyang. The farthest place he’d been to was a few sections of the Yellow River. So when she brought it up, he immediately nodded, and the couple quietly began preparations.

The two first observed Zhao Mingming’s performance supervising the state. Finding she made no mistakes, Zhao Hanzhang simply didn’t reclaim power, using reasons like illness and physical weakness to let her continue supervising, occasionally appearing to give her some guidance.

Zhao Mingming supervised the state for two years like this. Zhao Hanzhang felt it was sufficient and announced the news of abdication.

The abdication ceremony required time to prepare.

For every major event, the Emperor must consult Guo Pu, Director of the Bureau of Astronomy.

Guo Pu selected an auspicious day in the first month.

Zhao Hanzhang was very satisfied with this date.

The first month—agricultural slack season, nothing to do, many holidays, everyone had time. Beginning of the new year, easy to change era names.

Most wonderfully, a couple months after abdication would be the time of spring warmth and blooming flowers—very suitable for travel!

So Zhao Hanzhang waved her hand in agreement.

On the twelfth day of the first month in the twenty-sixth year of Yuanzhen, which was also called the first year of Heshun, Crown Princess Zhao Renjia ascended to the throne. Zhao Hanzhang became Grand Empress, moved out of the imperial palace, and returned to live at the Grand General’s Mansion.

Because of this, Grand Generals Zu Ti and Beigong Chun silently took down their mansion plaques and stored them in their storerooms.

Heshun lasted only three years. In the fourth year, the new emperor changed the era name to Jianchang, beginning a new era.

Later generations viewed this change as the complete transfer of power.

Because in the first year of Heshun, Ji Yuan resigned. In the third year of Heshun, Zu Ti resigned, and Grand Empress Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan also left Luoyang to tour the entire country. Only when the Grand Empress and old ministers who had been weighing on the new emperor were gone could power be considered truly transferred.

Therefore, from the first year of Heshun to the third year, later internet users jokingly called them the twenty-sixth through twenty-eighth extra years of Yuanzhen.

Because of this, internet users often debated whether Zhao Hanzhang’s reign was actually twenty-five years or twenty-eight years.

Ultimately, twenty-five years won by a slight margin for this reason: after Zhao Hanzhang, her descendants all tacitly reigned only twenty-four years.

Setting aside those who died before reaching that number, those who lived past it all tacitly abdicated in the twenty-fourth year, claiming they couldn’t exceed the Grand Ancestor Emperor.

Of course, Zhao Hanzhang’s great-great-grandson Emperor Wu of Hua didn’t count. This emperor ascended at age twelve, ruled for twenty-seven years, then finally abdicated to his son under the ministers’ hints. He said one phrase—”Grand Ancestor Emperor actually reigned twenty-eight years”—which created the dispute about whether it was twenty-five or twenty-eight years.

Three years after his son took the throne, because his son made his father-in-law Prime Minister, let his maternal uncle enter the Council of Deliberation, and misappropriated state treasury silver to build a separate palace, he finally couldn’t tolerate his son’s stupidity and directly usurped his throne, ascending to the imperial throne himself, then worked hard to produce heirs.

This time, he reigned another twenty-four years.

In the twenty-fourth year, he abdicated to his sixteen-year-old daughter, then sat beside the dragon throne watching her govern, only removing the Grand Emperor’s dragon throne when Emperor Xiao turned twenty and could handle things independently.

Therefore, though this Emperor Wu wasn’t the longest-lived among Hua kingdom’s emperors, he had the longest reign and actual control time.

He was also one of the most controversial emperors, and like his ancestor Zhao Hanzhang, most talked about with relish.