Urban Sims

June 7th.

Zhou Ming's twentieth birthday celebration ceremony began grandly.

On this day, the whole country celebrated with great excitement, singing and dancing, and the whole country carnivaled.

Zhou Ming, who was dressed in gorgeous attire, also sat in the middle of the ceremonial hall and accepted the gifts given to him by the ministers and nobles.

Every time an official presents a gift, the ceremonial officer will announce it loudly.

"Prime Minister Orusconi, I present to Your Majesty ten stones of gold, ten boxes of jewels, one hundred rare treasures, and ten beauties. I wish your Majesty a long life as long as the heavens, and may your empire shine forever!"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Uncle Rubust, presents to your Majesty ten stones of gold, ten boxes of rare treasures, ten pieces of rare gems and jade, and ten beauties from the royal family. I wish your Majesty ten thousand years and a prosperous empire!"

"The chief minister, Mr. Hargos, presents to your majesty nine gold and silver stones, nine boxes of jewels, fifty treasures, and ten beauties. I wish your majesty good health and may the empire prosper forever!"

"The second minister, Lord Willon Pound, presents to your majesty XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and ten beauties. I wish your majesty XXXX..."

"..."

Zhou Ming, who was sitting in the main seat, became increasingly agitated after hearing these reports.

Beauty, beauty...

The so-called "beauty" is included in the gifts given by every minister or noble!

The largest number, ten were given away.

The one who gave the least was given at least two... which means good things come in pairs.

The most unscrupulous thing is that some ministers use backdoors, trust relationships, heavy bribes and other methods to let those well-dressed and enchanting beauties walk through the ceremonial hall and wander under Zhou Ming's eyes.

Among them are those performing talent shows, some from foreign countries, and there are twin sisters, triplets, and the extremely rare quadruplets.

Anyway, there are all types of beauties!

In half an hour, at least three to four hundred beauties passed by Zhou Ming's eyes.

If today was not a special day and it was not easy for him to have an attack, he might have cursed him on the spot!

Some who behave excessively will even be severely punished!

But he still endured it without having an attack.

When the gift-giving ceremony came to an end and Zhou Ming became extremely impatient, the etiquette officer who had been singing loudly suddenly became stuck and stopped reading the gift list in his hand.

"Why don't you read it anymore?" Zhou Ming asked.

"Your Majesty, the gift given by this nobleman is of low value and is extremely rude to Your Majesty. I dare not read it." The etiquette officer lowered his head and said.

"Read it!" Zhou Ming said.

"Your Majesty... Lord Elsa, the head of the Lucis family, presented to Your Majesty 100 boxes of high-grade iron ore, 100 boxes of high-grade sulfur and flint (a raw material for making gunpowder), and 100 boxes of light purple wood (material for shipbuilding)... ...Your Majesty, these things are ordinary things, and their combined value is not as good as a gem given by other adults. Your Majesty, Prince Elsa of the Lucis family, this is contempt for the imperial power, this is an insult to Your Majesty! "

The etiquette officer knelt down and said with great fear: "Your Majesty, the Lucis family is so provocative again, please punish them with death!"

"Prince Elsa didn't give the beauty as a gift?" Zhou Ming asked.

"No! There are beauties on other gift lists, but not on this list! Your Majesty, it is a capital crime, this is a capital crime!"

"Hahahaha~"

Zhou Ming suddenly laughed, clapped his hands and said, "What Prince Elsa sent me is exactly what I really need, and it is exactly what I want! What crime does Prince Elsa have?"

The etiquette officer was confused.

This is obviously an unforgivable and a capital crime that insults His Majesty, but His Majesty the Emperor is actually very satisfied?

His Majesty is actually very happy with a gift with such a low actual value?

He didn't quite understand what a god like His Majesty was thinking in his mind.

…

After the grand and joyful birthday celebration.

June 8th.

The next day the court went to court early.

Facing the ministers and officials, Zhou Ming became furious and scolded the ministers in the palace bloody!

"Ten stones of gold and ten boxes of treasures are often given! I have reiterated many times that this birthday celebration must be frugal and the gifts should be light. It would be better for you to give away treasures worth more than one million gold pagoda shields as if they are competing with each other. You have completely forgotten that these are all donations from the lower classes. You don’t want to improve their treatment or improve their living standards, but you just want to please me. How is this unreasonable?”

"There are also those beauties from all over the world. I asked someone to count them. There are as many as 10,000 people, which is shocking! Where did these beauties come from? Bought with money? Kidnapped or kidnapped? Or by other means Did you get it? I don’t know, and I don’t want to ask about the specific process. I only know: for this birthday celebration, at least 10,000 families were broken up, and more than 10,000 women left their parents and faced an unknown fate. !”

"What may eventually brew may be tens of thousands of human tragedies!"

"I don't want any of these things, including gold, silver, jewelry, rare treasures, and all the beauties. I will have them all sent back!"

"In the future, I will not let others hold activities like birthday celebrations, lest they cause countless human tragedies."

Zhou Ming's statement caused an uproar and wailing in the palace.

"Your Majesty, this is all our intention!"

"Your Majesty, we did not use people's wealth and people's anointing. All that money was earned through foreign trade!"

"Your Majesty, the ten beauties I gave to Your Majesty were all willing to enter the palace. Their parents were also very supportive. They did not cause family breakdown or human tragedy!"

"Your Majesty, if you are not satisfied, we will definitely improve in the future. You said that you will not even hold birthday celebrations in the future. How will your subjects express their love and respect for you in the future? The people need to express their love and respect in this way. Their happiness and loyalty, this celebration must not be cancelled!”

The ministers knelt down and tried their best to dissuade and explain.

"enough!"

Zhou Ming waved his hand: "Anyway, I will send people to return all the treasures and beauties you gave me this time. As for whether the birthday celebration will be held in the future, I will use other celebration methods to replace it based on the actual situation. In short, yesterday I will completely abandon this form of celebration!"

Zhou Ming added: "In addition, among the hundreds of ministers and nobles in this palace, there is one person who I want to highlight!"

"I will accept all the gifts she gives and express my gratitude. I am very satisfied with her gifts!"

"She is Prince Elsa who just returned to the imperial capital. I hope everyone can learn from her!"

Zhou Ming pointed to the noble area on the right and said to Elsa, who was standing in the corner of the last row and could hardly be seen.

Swish, brush, brush!

The eyes of everyone in the palace were all focused on Elsa!

Then there was an uproar and a lot of discussion.

"What? Your Majesty specifically praised Prince Elsa and accepted the gift from her?"

"Prince Elsa, who gave His Majesty two piles of stones and a pile of wood, was not punished?"

"I knew about it yesterday. I thought the Lucis family was dead this time! Unexpectedly, it was us who got scolded, but she was praised!"

"I'm not convinced. How much energy did I spend preparing gifts? How many connections did I rely on? The result is not as good as two piles of rocks and a pile of wood given by others!"

"Hey! Last night, I was discussing with several nobles to jointly request Your Majesty to destroy the extremely rude Lucis family, but the result..."

The nobleman was very upset.

"We made a mistake. This time, we all made a mistake!"

Under the complicated gazes of the ministers, even though she had outstanding psychological quality, Elsa couldn't help but blush.

She raised her skirt and came out, kneeling down and said: "Elsa thanks Your Majesty for the compliment. The three gifts Elsa gave to Your Majesty have no other meaning. She just wanted to say to Your Majesty: There are a lot of iron ores in my territory. If the empire needs brimstone, flint and wood, I am willing to supply them in large quantities and guarantee favorable prices."

"I understand what you mean. I will let someone place an order to purchase these resources at a suitable price. As for the price, I will never let Prince Elsa suffer!"

Zhou Ming said: "I also hope that other ministers and nobles can be like Prince Elsa and think about what the empire wants and urgently need what the empire needs, instead of delving into crooked ways all day long and wasting a lot of people's money."

"In addition, in order to encourage everyone to learn from Prince Elsa, I have ordered that Prince Elsa be rewarded with 100,000 golden tower shields and ten boxes of jewelry. Her official rank will be upgraded by one level, and she can stand in the noble area to discuss affairs and listen to politics. Effective immediately!”

After Zhou Ming received this reward, Elsa was immediately guided by the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette, and under the eyes of countless jealous and hateful eyes, she moved from the end of the noble area to the middle of the queue.

In this way, Zhou Ming can see her more easily because the distance is shortened and the obstruction is reduced.

Not only that, but Elsa, whose status had just been promoted, Zhou Ming also gave her a more difficult task - to send away the ministers and nobles to give him tens of thousands of beauties.

Because if all these beauties are returned the same way they came, there is no doubt that during the return process, these beauties will definitely be touched by the ministers and nobles. A considerable number of them will not be sent home, but will be enjoyed by the ministers and nobles. ...This is tantamount to harming them.

So with this in mind, Zhou Ming temporarily gathered all the tens of thousands of beauties, and then arranged for an official who could control them to handle the matter properly.

Who would be better responsible for this?

Looking at the male officials in the palace, Elsa stood out like a chicken. As the only woman, it was most appropriate for her to do this job.

But considering the complexity and difficulty of this task, Zhou Ming still asked Elsa: Can she accept this job and complete it well?

Elsa frowned, considered it carefully, then gritted her teeth, nodded and said, "Your Majesty, I can accept this job!"

"good!"

Zhou Ming looked appreciative: "Elsa, I believe you will not let me down. If you complete the task well, I will reward you greatly!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Elsa knelt down on one knee and said.