The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1304: Solemnly
Chapter 1304 Solemn
It would have been fine if he had failed to share the worries of His Majesty, but he also allowed his clansmen to cause trouble for His Majesty. It was his dereliction of duty as the clan leader and he cannot escape the blame.
Hearing Wei Zhong asking him to come in, Bai Qihe hurriedly stood up, lifted the hem of his clothes and stepped into the hall, respectfully bowing to Bai Qingyan.
Then, Bai Qihe took the initiative to plead guilty: “Originally, when Your Majesty returned to the palace yesterday, Bai Qihe should have gone to the palace to plead guilty, but I thought Your Majesty must be tired after just returning, so I did not bother him, and therefore delayed it until today. I heard that Sima, the Chief Censor, had mentioned the matter of Bai Qingshi and Bai Qingfan to Your Majesty in the court today. It was Bai Qihe who failed to discipline the clansmen, which made Your Majesty upset. Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”
Chunzhi and Chuntao came up with snacks and hot tea and served them to Bai Qingyan and Bai Qihe.
Bai Qingyan smiled and said, “Clan leader, please stand up! You are the clan leader of the Bai clan, but you have limited energy. You can’t just stare at them every day without doing anything…”
“Your Majesty! Actually… Qihe was aware of Bai Qingshi’s matter, but… he took it lightly!” Bai Qihe closed his eyes and honestly confessed to Bai Qingyan, “After Bai Qingshi was sentenced to exile, his grandfather came to me and asked for help because we were from the same clan. He said that he didn’t dare to ask for Bai Qingshi’s crime to be pardoned, and only asked me to help negotiate with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Revenue. They wanted to buy a prisoner to exchange with Bai Qingshi, and give Bai Qingshi a new identity to stay in the capital. I told Bai Qingshi’s grandfather that our Great Zhou is a country ruled by law, and no one can do anything about Bai Qingshi’s violation of the law… Bai Qingshi’s grandfather was so angry that he immediately said that what Bai Qingfan could do, I, the clan leader, would not be able to do it. It was obvious that he didn’t want to help!”
Bai Qihe was extremely annoyed: “I just thought it was a bit strange at the time, but I didn’t think about it carefully. Later, I checked and found that Bai Qingfan had not violated the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, so I didn’t take it to heart. I didn’t expect… I didn’t expect…”
“Get up!” Bai Qingyan said, “Sit down and have some hot tea and snacks. I haven’t had breakfast since the morning court session. Let’s talk while we eat.”
Upon hearing this, Bai Qihe quickly agreed, stood up and knelt behind the small table that Wei Zhong had someone bring.
In fact, Bai Qingyan knew that Bai Qihe had indeed tried his best. After all, Bai Qihe was only a clan leader, and he had no secret guards around him who could monitor the clan members anytime and anywhere.
And now, under the leadership and control of Bai Qihe, the Bai clan has slowly gotten back on track, and the clan members have begun to do some serious things. Now, although the Bai clan members may not be able to help Bai Qingyan, at least most of them know how to work hard!
For example, in this imperial examination, there were many names of young men from the Bai clan on the list of candidates for the palace examination, and many men from the Bai clan also went to join the army. Bai Qingyan knew all of this.
If it weren’t for Bai Qihe, these clan members would probably still be planning to lie down and enjoy themselves by relying on their status as royal relatives.
Which clan doesn’t have one or two parasites, let alone the Bai clan, which was used to being domineering in Shuoyang.
It was beyond Bai Qingyan’s expectation that the clan leader Bai Qihe could reorganize the clan into its current state in such a short time since she ascended the throne.
“You manage the clan members very well, much better than I expected!” Bai Qingyan took a sip from the teacup and said slowly, “The Bai clan’s problems have existed for a long time. The fact that they have been changed to what they are now in such a short period of time under your leadership proves that I was right about you!”
“Your Majesty, I feel ashamed for saying so!” Bai Qihe kowtowed to Bai Qingyan. He had not forgotten the harsh words Bai Qingyan had said to him when he expected him to become a good clan leader. He was a little dazed… He didn’t know if it was because he was too soft-hearted and disappointing at the beginning, or if it was because Bai Qingyan had become a mother and her temper had become much softer.
After thinking about it, Bai Qihe felt that it should be the former. Bai Qingyan was a decisive and ruthless person. Even when he was extremely angry, he would not speak or act according to his temper. Bai Qihe had experienced this before.
“Well, let’s set a standard. It’s already the end of April this year, and the Censorate has arrested two members of the Bai clan who made mistakes. So by the end of this year… our Bai clan will never allow anyone to make mistakes again! Next year… we will reduce it to only one member of the clan making a mistake in a whole year, and the year after next…” Bai Qingyan picked up a piece of dessert with silver chopsticks, looked at Bai Qihe and said, “You have been the clan leader for so many years, and you have been given the opportunity to make mistakes. You must be able to do it well. So starting from the year after next… members of the clan must no longer make mistakes that violate the laws of the Great Zhou!”
Bai Qihe quickly kowtowed to Bai Qingyan: “Bai Qihe understands! Thank you, Your Majesty!”
“Get up and have some snacks! You probably haven’t eaten well these days…” Bai Qingyan lowered his eyes, took a small bite of the snack, and drank some hot tea before he felt better.
Bai Qihe saw that Bai Qingyan really had no intention of blaming him, so he felt relieved and had some snacks with Bai Qingyan.
In fact, Bai Qihe has not been idle during this period. He has been reflecting on how to discipline his clansmen. He already has an idea in his mind, which is… the clan law must be stricter than the laws of the Great Zhou!
But to start changing the clan law, Bai Qihe needed help, so after finishing his snacks, Bai Qihe told Bai Qingyan about his plan to take this opportunity to change the clan law, and then kowtowed to Bai Qingyan and said, “So, Bai Qihe dares to call Bai Qingping from Shuoyang to help deal with the matter of changing the clan law.”
Bai Qihe had selfish motives in this matter. It was true that if Bai Qingping stayed in Shuoyang, he would definitely become the patriarch of the Bai family in the end, but Bai Qihe also wanted Bai Qingping to enter the officialdom in his heart.
Bai Qingyan nodded, put down the silver chopsticks, took the hot towel handed to him by Chunzhi, wiped his hands and said: “I have been thinking about this for some time!”
“Aping is a good boy. He stayed in Shuoyang to look after the Shuoyang camp for me. He also didn’t want the efforts we made together in Shuoyang to go to waste. But it would not be good for Aping’s future if he stayed in Shuoyang like this. It’s just that there has been no suitable candidate to replace Aping, so it’s delayed!” Bai Qingyan smiled and looked at Bai Qihe, “Don’t worry, I will keep this in mind and bring Aping to Dadu as soon as possible. You should prepare to revise the clan law. If you need manpower, go to the Bai Mansion to find Butler Hao and Uncle Ping and ask Butler Hao and Uncle Ping to send you some people.”
“Yes! Thank you, Your Majesty!” Bai Qihe kowtowed solemnly to Bai Qingyan. It turned out that Bai Qingyan really had not forgotten Bai Qingping.
After Bai Qihe bid farewell to Bai Qingyan, Bai Qingyan asked someone to invite the Minister of Works Shen Tianzhi to come over. While Shen Tianzhi was not there, she wanted to go see the two children.
Second update…