Dragon's Origin

The Song State is now flexing its muscles. Not only were they the first to utilize the Thousand Desolation Lands, but the Song State is also the first established vassal state.

Initially, the Emperor conferred upon Song Hongde the title of Marquis of Song. However, because the Song State was the first to attach itself to and support the Emperor, the Emperor recently issued another decree, elevating Song Hongde from Marquis to Duke of Song. This makes him the highest-ranking vassal willing to accept the Emperor's conferment.

Other vassals who wish to be enfeoffed, sorry, at most you can only be granted the title of Marquis to start. Who told you that you weren't the first to support the Emperor? However, the Emperor has also hinted that as long as there is sincerity, everyone will be granted the title of Duke within a year or two, but the timing will be staggered.

In addition, the national Marquises must also know how to act. Not necessarily to perform earth-shattering feats, but they should always flatter the Emperor and show their piety during festivals and sacrifices. Only then will the Emperor have a reason to elevate their titles! Otherwise, it won't be convincing, right?

The former head of the Song family has become the Duke of the Song State. The things he's doing now make the heads of other families, who used to be on equal footing with Song Hongde, envious. Even if they manage to persuade the Emperor to confer a title now, they will still be one level lower than Duke Song when they meet. Who told them they didn't jump out to support the Emperor decisively back then?

Rely on coercion? Whoever dares to jump out first will probably be beaten down by several others around him. Wouldn't that be a ready-made great achievement? Enfeoffing a Duke would be no problem, right?

No one wants to jump out and become a stepping stone for others to get promoted and make a fortune, so they can only honestly endure it for now. Besides, would the Song State agree to other families suppressing the Emperor?

Now, all the aristocratic families are watching the Song State with envy, filled with envy as they watch the high-end things they're playing with, which are different from their own.

The other families are still guarding their old nests, the better ones calling them something like a garden or a manor, and the lesser ones calling them something like a pavilion or a lodge. But look at the Song family's manor, which is now no longer called the Song Family Manor, but has been renamed the Song Royal Palace.

The city where the Royal Palace is located is now called the capital. Naturally, it is a head taller than any other city or town.

While the other families are still running their small businesses, the Duke of Song has already begun to govern a country. The Royal Palace is being built, the capital is being built, and local officials are being appointed everywhere. What kind of prestige is that? This is much more upscale than each family appointing a chief steward to be responsible for a certain city!

What the family heads envy most is that everyone else travels with entourages, but their own escorts are family bodyguards and disciples, with at most a few personal maids. But what is the Duke of Song's posture when he travels now? What kind of style?

The Song State Imperial Guards, the Emperor's reward of a full set of ceremonial guards, eunuchs and palace maids, imperial guards, accompanying historians, any one of them is so high-end that it makes people feel ashamed, easily and casually crushing the earthy guards of the various aristocratic families.

Now, when the heads of the various families see Song Hongde, not to mention anything else, just looking at his current style and etiquette when traveling can make them look like bumpkins from the countryside.

The royal family, no, the Emperor and his ministers, obviously thought of using Duke Song as the best example to create an irresistible model for other aristocratic families. Do you also want such splendor? Come and accept the Emperor's conferment!

Leaving aside the brilliant methods, if Wang Sheng were to comment, Wang Sheng would definitely be surprised that the royal family had actually created an advertising spokesperson, and did it so successfully. This sales technique is simply admirable. Those cultured literati and scholars are simply adept at playing this game!

Within a short period of two months, almost all the aristocratic families expressed their intention to request conferment from the Emperor. Not only these aristocratic families, but even those sects couldn't sit still and jumped out one after another, demanding conferment.

The Emperor quickly invited representatives from various families to the capital, gathered them together, and then expressed his intentions.

First of all, the feudal titles obtained by various forces will definitely be different according to the size and influence of their bases. Everyone must recognize this. Otherwise, if a local tyrant who is rampant in a ten-mile radius can be on an equal footing with the head of a large family occupying thousands of miles of territory, even if the Emperor is happy, those large families and forces will not agree.

Secondly, the highest title that can be conferred this time is Marquis. Then, within a year or two, Marquises with sufficient strength will be successively promoted to Dukes. The reason is the same as above. In addition, the sincerity of all parties should also be considered, without any concealment.

As for who is higher and who is lower, you should first argue among yourselves and then let the Emperor decide.

This time, the royal family really breathed a sigh of relief. Who would have thought that the royal family, which used to be unable to issue decrees outside the capital and whose civil and military officials were just decorations and were never taken seriously, would be so sought after this time.

And the reason for all this was just a small reminder from Wang Sheng. Who would have thought? Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the old eunuch Li was smart enough and loyal enough, which is why he exchanged for the royal family's current greatly increased status.

Don't look down on the fact that he just changed from Emperor to Son of Heaven, but now the Son of Heaven's right to speak has increased a lot. Those aristocratic families can't wait to lick the Son of Heaven in order to get higher titles. Where did the previous royal family have such a glorious moment?

As soon as he thought that as long as he controlled the enfeoffment of the vassal titles, the royal family would be able to secretly control the conflicts between the various parties, artificially create conflicts of interest, and even intervene in the competition for the next generation of candidates for the major vassals, the royal family's actual influence would unknowingly expand to at least five times what it was before. At this time, the Emperor was so happy that he couldn't control himself.

The Emperor greatly appreciated Wang Sheng, the initiator of this proposal. This was also due to the royal family's initial expression of closeness and wooing towards Wang Sheng, especially the two meritorious old eunuchs.

The Shadow Old Eunuch of Worry-Free City was definitely the first great hero to establish a friendly relationship between the two sides. The later Old Eunuch Li was even more meritorious. If he hadn't killed the guard leader in time to show his goodwill to Wang Sheng when he wanted to control Wang Sheng, he probably wouldn't have received this reminder from Wang Sheng.

Both of them received great rewards, and Old Eunuch Li was directly granted a title. Although it was only the Viscount, the second-lowest of the five ranks of nobility: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron, it was already the pinnacle of glory for a eunuch to be personally granted a title by the Emperor, and it was a glory to his ancestors. He was definitely the number one eunuch in history.

The Shadow Old Eunuch was also granted a title, Baron. However, this title did not fall on his own head, but on a promising nephew of the Shadow family, who was also a descendant of Meng Yin. When the news reached Worry-Free City, the Shadow Old Eunuch took the initiative to jump into Wang Sheng's house, where only maids and cooks were present, and forced the cook to make a table of good dishes, and drank alone all night.

This time, the Emperor made a lot of money!