Chapter 318: Senior Grand Secretary Zheng

He truly wanted to assist the Emperor, his son-in-law, in bringing prosperity to the people and ensuring they no longer lived in deep misery. He hoped the people of Daqian could live in peace and contentment, their doors unlocked at night, ushering in a golden age where lost items on the road remained untouched."Aren’t you worried that your power will be halved, Father-in-law?" Xiao Yunjing asked.

Gu Xicheng shook his head. "As long as I can serve the people, what does it matter if my power is greater or lesser? Besides, what use is immense power if one doesn’t wield it for good? Didn’t Li’er often say in the past, ’If an official doesn’t champion the people’s cause, they might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes’? Your Majesty need not worry. The proposal to establish two Senior Grand Secretaries is a good one."

Having risen from humble beginnings, he understood better than anyone the lives of those at the lowest rungs of society and what they needed most. With more power in his hands, he would have more opportunities to do what he could for the populace.

Moreover, there was a critical consideration: traditionally, there had always been only one Senior Grand Secretary. The power wielded by a sole Senior Grand Secretary was immense, creating a precarious situation akin to walking a knife’s edge or treading on thin ice, where any misstep was deeply feared. Consequently, they often acted with extreme caution.works and connections within the Capital City. Their influence was often so far-reaching that a single move could impact the entire nation, even shake its very foundations. The Emperor would not permit such powers to exist and pose a threat to his authority. His Marquis Zheng Mansion had managed to remain unscathed to this day precisely because they understood how to assess situations and align themselves with whoever held the imperial throne. They would never behave like other aristocratic families who, believing they possessed the strength to challenge the Emperor, acted with overweening arrogance and showed blatant disregard for imperial power. This Emperor, Senior Grand Secretary Zheng perceived, was unlike his predecessors. To think of threatening him? In two words: pure fantasy.

With this realization, Senior Grand Secretary Zheng promptly made a decision: he would surrender half of his family’s assets to the Emperor as a means of self-preservation.

Sure enough, upon receiving these assets, Xiao Yunjing issued an imperial edict to the Marquis Zheng Mansion, bestowing upon it the status of a hereditary marquisate. This signified that the title would pass down through subsequent generations without any reduction in rank; it would forever remain a marquisate. The Marquis’s wife was concurrently honored as a Second-Rank Commanded Lady, though this particular honor was not hereditary.

This action by Senior Grand Secretary Zheng immediately drew the scorn of the other old aristocratic families, who derided him as a pathetic, tail-wagging cur.