My Wife is Unbeatable in the Whole World, Touch Me If You Dare!-Chapter 444 - 304: Reversing Public Opinion

Last year's New Year's Eve, Li Nuo spent at King Chun Mansion.

At that time, there were only three people in the family, and even during the New Year, there was no festive atmosphere.

In contrast to the bleakness of last year, this year's Li Mansion was much livelier.

Anning had joined the family, and Yiren stayed at Li Mansion for the New Year. At the invitation of his wife and Anning, Phoenix hadn't returned to the Jade Sound Pavilion. She even invited Nightingale over, and together, they all hung couplets and lanterns, finally giving Li Mansion the semblance of a New Year...

The New Year started with three consecutive days of grand court meetings.

Li Nuo, holding a Standard Fifth Rank official position, now had the qualifications to participate in the court meetings, and his attendance was mandatory every year.

At the court meeting, Li Nuo saw the Xia Emperor again.

He looked much younger than he had a few months ago.

It must be said, His Majesty had the skill to maintain his youthful appearance; based solely on his appearance, no one would think he was already sixty years old.

Everyone knew he was researching the path to immortality, but no one knew how he had managed to rejuvenate.

Li Nuo was familiar with the Hundred Schools, and among them, only a Medical Family High Realm had such capability.

Medical Family True Qi naturally had the effect of extending life, a defining feature of the Medical School.

Officials from other families at the Sixth Realm would live for three Jiashi, while those from the Medical School at the Fifth Realm could live up to two hundred years old.

Historical records showed that those in the Sixth Realm of the Medical School could easily live to three hundred years.

High Realm members of the Medical School, even at the age of a hundred, in both appearance and bodily functions, hardly differed from someone in their twenties.

However, nowadays, the Medical Family had long been in decline. Being at the Fourth Realm was already quite remarkable, and across the entire continent, the Fifth Realm Medical School members could be counted on one hand, with none at all in Daxia.

There were no significant topics at this session of the grand court meeting.

Some old ministers wanted His Majesty to determine the Crown Prince early on, but His Majesty did not give a direct response.

Other officials originally wanted to echo this, but seeing His Majesty full of vigor, appearing as if he could remain in power for many more decades, they all silently closed their mouths.

More importantly, the upcoming Imperial Examination was discussed. Various government offices were short-staffed and in urgent need of new blood.

It's worth mentioning that, during the court meeting, an important law was passed by His Majesty.

Several officials from the Ministry of Justice jointly submitted the proposal, hoping to implement a legal reform.

The main content of the legal reform was the abolition of the Redemption Silver system and the privilege of nobles to be demoted instead of punished for crimes, henceforth nobles who break the law would be punished according to Daxia Law.

Almost every year, officials would advocate for such a stance.

But without exception, every time, it would face collective opposition from the nobles.

However, this time, there were very few opposing nobles.

That's because there weren't many nobles left participating in the grand court meeting.

Some of them had been executed for treason, while others had moved away from Chang'an to avoid disaster. This year, the number of nobles attending the court meeting was less than a tenth of last year's.

After the Ministry of Justice submitted their proposal, the Imperial Censorate and Ministry of Justice were the first to follow up. Then, both the Right Prime Minister and the Left Prime Minister expressed their support. In a short time, the Three Provinces, Six Ministries, and Nine Si, stood out together with countless courtiers echoing their agreement.

With so many officials in support, even His Majesty couldn't ignore their consensus and had to agree.

The few remaining nobles on the court, though they strongly opposed it, were too few and carried too little weight to change the overall situation.

This also meant that in the future, if they violated the law, they could only be exonerated by the Death Exemption Token.

But there weren't many people left who possessed such a token.

For the nobles of Daxia, the past half year was undoubtedly their darkest hour.

But for Daxia officials, especially those from Legalism, their hearts were filled with excitement.

For many years, what predecessors of Daxia's Legalist faction couldn't achieve, someone had now accomplished.

And the person who completed this great feat wasn't even a Law Practitioner.

After the cohort of Ministry of Justice officials submitted their proposal, the guiding hand behind them couldn't be more apparent.

Li Xuanjing had committed many unpopular actions in the past.

Many loyal and upright people had died directly or indirectly by his hand.

But his achievements were also an undeniable part of history; offending nobles by treating their crimes the same as commoners, something that no previous generation of Legalists had managed to do, he achieved using another method.

Each time a legal reform targeted at nobles was proposed, it faced fierce opposition from them and ended in failure.

In order to prevent the nobles from opposing, he framed them for fictitious crimes of rebellion and insurrection, decimating the entire circle of nobles. Those who were lucky to survive scattered and fled.

They even suspected that, these days, the numerous assassination cases of nobles in Chang'an might have been orchestrated by Li Xuanjing.

As long as all the nobles were dead, naturally, no one would be able to oppose anymore.

And indeed, that was the case…

Previously, they thought that Li Xuanjing's killing spree was for factional conflicts, to help King Chun ascend the throne.

But now, many felt that perhaps factional conflicts were just his pretext?

He hadn't openly advocated for reforms anymore.

But his goals for reforming were being achieved one by one.

Twenty years ago, he hoped the court could establish more official schools and recruit more students from poor families, reducing the famous families' control over the court.

That reform failed, but now, the control of famous families over the court was indeed much less than it was twenty years ago.

Although it was because he had killed many people from those families, could anyone deny that their control over the court had lessened?

Twenty years ago, he wanted to abolish hereditary peerages to reduce the number of nobles, which also ended in failure.

Today, while the inheritance of privileges still existed, the number of nobles had drastically declined.

Although he no longer adhered to Confucianism and Legalism, his achievements shamed all officials from Confucian and Legalist backgrounds…

Such a significant matter, the Three Provinces hadn't yet issued specific laws, but the news had already spread to the commoners.

Nobles who broke the law were to be punished the same as commoners.

The festive atmosphere couldn't compare to the shock this news brought to the people.

No one expected that, right at the beginning of the new year, the people of Daxia would receive such a significant gift.

All of Chang'an was in a complete uproar.

It was during this time that they truly recognized how correct it had been not to join the clamor to purge the court back then.

"This is no villain, he's clearly The Great Lord!"

"From now on, if anyone dares to call Lord Li a villain, I'll tear their mouth apart…"

"Thankfully, someone gave us advice that time; otherwise, we really would have wronged Lord Li!"

"In my view, Lord Li is bearing a heavy burden in humiliation, his betrayal back then must have been a reluctant decision. If he hadn't done so, he would have been killed by the nobles, and we wouldn't have this day…"

"We had always misunderstood him…"

Before this law was introduced, opinions on Li Xuanjing among the populace had been mixed.

With this law, the people's praise for him was unanimous.

Ministry of Personnel.

After the court session ended, officials of the Ministry of Personnel returned to the government office to summarize.

They could clearly see that the Right Prime Minister was in a good mood; when two officials made mistakes during the court session, he merely asked them to correct their errors lightly, without the severe reprimands of the past.

The reasons were apparent to everyone.

The abolition of the privileges of the nobles, making them subject to the same laws as the commoners, had once been a principl of the Right Prime Minister's reforms.

At that time, he wasn't yet the Right Prime Minister.

Though forty years had passed, the content of his reforms had finally been realized.

However, the one who realized the Right Prime Minister's reform initiatives was his greatest political enemy, and who knew what the Right Prime Minister was thinking...

Li Mansion.

Today was the last day of the grand court session, and in the afternoon, Li Nuo again welcomed the two envoys from Zhao Country.

The young female official looked at Li Nuo and asked, "About that matter, may I know what your thoughts are?"

It seemed they were unaware that he was soon to be dispatched to Zhao Country.

Li Nuo nodded and said, "I can go with you to Zhao Country, but you need to tell me, what do you need my help with?"

Upon hearing this, the young female official's face lit up with joy, then she lowered her head and said, "Actually, I don't know…"

Li Nuo looked at her in astonishment.

She was asking for his help, but she didn't know what help she needed?

He couldn't help feeling that these two were somewhat unreliable…