The next day, Ding Yun woke up at the crack of dawn.
There was nothing else to do at night these days, and no computers or phones. Besides, Ding Yun had gone to bed before dark yesterday, so she was bound to wake up early.
However, even though she was awake.
She didn't rush to get out of bed to wash.
Instead, she lay on the bed, checking the system tasks.
Although the points earned from doing tasks couldn't be used yet, this system still had to be tested. It wasn't just that the points were temporarily unusable.
Even without points.
Ding Yun had to do tasks to write trial reports.
[Novice Mission 1: Earn your first fortune.
Mission Description: As someone aiming to be an emperor for all time, how can you not have lofty goals? Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Even a hero can be stumped by a single coin. Everything requires money. Therefore, earn one thousand taels of silver within the next month.
Mission Reward: One thousand points.
Bonus Reward: For every additional tael of silver earned within the allotted time, you will receive one more point, with no upper limit.]
[Novice Mission 2: Possess your own army.
Mission Description: As someone aiming to be an emperor for all time, how can you not have lofty goals? Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Even a million-strong army must start from scratch. Therefore, find a way to raise your own army within the next month.
The total number of troops must not be less than one hundred.
Mission Reward: One thousand points.
Bonus Reward: For every additional person recruited within the allotted time, you will receive ten points, with no upper limit.]
[Novice Mission 3: Possess your own territory.
Mission Description: As someone aiming to be an emperor for all time, how can you not have lofty goals? Every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Even an empire where the sun never sets must start from scratch. Therefore, find a way to occupy a territory within the next month, with an area no less than one thousand qing.
Mission Reward: One thousand points.
Bonus Reward: For every additional qing of land occupied within the allotted time, you will receive one point, with no upper limit.]
Well, well, three novice missions that covered wealth, people, and land. Seeing this, Ding Yun knew she had guessed wrong. This system wasn't simply designed to cultivate ordinary emperors into emperors for all time. The preliminary tasks like novice missions might also include rebellion.
These three elements of the novice missions.
Were they not the beginning of a rebellion?
And Ding Yun's current identity, although she could be considered royalty of the current dynasty, was a princess. Moreover, she bore the identity of the former empress and empress dowager. Her daughter also possessed the bloodline of the former dynasty's royal family.
None of these identities.
Were conducive to her smoothly ascending the throne.
Furthermore, she had three older brothers above her and nine younger brothers below her, as well as seven or eight nephews. To obtain the position of heir through legitimate channels was pure fantasy. Even if all three of her older brothers, her nine younger brothers, and the seven or eight nephews all died, the heir would still have to be adopted from a collateral branch.
It was impossible for her, a daughter, to ever get it.
Therefore, rebellion or mutiny.
Was the only channel and possibility for Ding Yun to ascend the throne.
In this regard, this system could be considered somewhat suitable. It was just that it wasn't very helpful at the moment. There wasn't even a novice gift package. Everything had to be done by Ding Yun herself.
"Forget it, I won't accept the missions for now.
I'll make some preparations in advance, and then accept the missions when I'm fully prepared. I should be able to earn more points then."
After reading the three novice missions, Ding Yun originally wanted to click "Accept Mission" immediately. But after thinking about it, she decided not to accept them yet. Since there were bonus rewards, she naturally had to prepare more. She had to earn more money, gather more manpower, and occupy more territory within the month to ensure maximum benefit.
If she accepted them now and got busy immediately.
It would be good enough to complete the missions on time within a month, let alone get any bonus rewards.
As for not accepting the novice missions, the inability to unlock the Lord Branch System, and the inability to accurately distinguish the loyalty of her subordinates, Ding Yun didn't care. It was just a small skirmish at the beginning. She was still confident that she could control the situation and her forces without the help of this system.
As for later, when her power grew and she had more manpower.
Wouldn't she be able to accept the novice missions then?
It wouldn't delay anything, and it would be perfectly fine.
After thinking it through, Ding Yun sat up from the bed and called out. The maid who had been waiting outside immediately divided into two groups upon hearing Ding Yun's call. One group went to the main kitchen of the mansion to get breakfast, while the other group quickly fetched hot water, washbasins, and other items to enter the room and serve Ding Yun for her grooming.
The process was cumbersome.
But it was convenient because Ding Yun didn't have to worry about it.
After washing and grooming, the piping hot breakfast was served. Ding Yun ate only about seventy percent full.
Then she had it cleared away and called for the steward and others.
She also instructed them to bring the account books, inventory lists, land and house deeds, and the like, so that she could carefully examine the original owner's assets and then decide what business to do based on them.
And whether to earn money first and then train private soldiers.
Or could they be done simultaneously.
If she had money, she could earn money and train private soldiers at the same time. If she didn't have money, she definitely had to prioritize earning money.
After all, training private soldiers consumed money and grain.
After about half an hour, the steward and the others brought all the items Ding Yun requested and stood by, ready to answer any questions Ding Yun might have. Ding Yun, of course, picked up the account books and lists and began to read them, while also calculating the data in the account books in her mind.
Then she read for two hours.
The results were acceptable, but not too great.
How to describe it? It meant that the original owner's assets were definitely not as much as those of the great aristocratic families and powerful clans.
Even if she had married an emperor, it was useless.
But it wasn't too little either.
Currently, the original owner's assets were mainly composed of two parts. One part was the dowry prepared by the Dugu family when she married Emperor Ling, as well as the betrothal gifts from Emperor Ling, the betrothal gifts from the imperial family, and the dowry from a major aristocratic family. The total amount was certainly not small, but it was only not small.
Excluding some large items like silk.
The remaining items.
The total value was less than one million taels of silver.
The other part was the regular stipends she received when she was Empress, gifts from the emperor, officials, and noble ladies on her birthday, rewards from the emperor when she gave birth, and congratulatory gifts from noble ladies and dignitaries.
This part added up to three to five hundred thousand.
In addition to these two parts of assets, if there were any other assets, it would only be this Princess Residence. As for the imperial treasury, it had nothing to do with her, the former Empress Dowager, and belonged to her father.
And the so-called one point five million taels was only the value of the items. Most of them were gold and silver jewelry, antiques, and rare treasures. The actual silver that could be directly taken out was less than two hundred thousand taels in total.
It was more than enough to do some ordinary things.
But it was definitely not enough to do major things like rebellion.
However, using this silver to make some preliminary preparations should be fine. The three tasks in the novice missions could also be carried out simultaneously. It was certainly much better than starting from scratch with nothing.
But Ding Yun soon faced another problem.
That was, she had no manpower to use. To be precise, she had no one she could trust to do secret tasks for her.
Even though the original owner had been an Empress and Empress Dowager, she basically only interacted with women. The manpower she had was limited to palace maids, eunuchs, and wet nurses. Moreover, many of these people had betrayed her during her time as Empress Dowager. Only a few dozen were still trustworthy.
And these trustworthy people were fine for serving people or doing needlework. But asking them to do business, recruit private soldiers, or even become bandits was simply asking too much of them.
Not to mention whether they dared to do it.
Even if they had the courage, they lacked the ability.
Therefore, Ding Yun had to cross out some of the more radical plans and prepare to lay low for now. With the available manpower, she would do things like business and storing grain, which did not have obvious rebellious tendencies. As for private soldiers, she could raise them for the time being under the guise of household servants and hired farmers, allowing them to train in secret occasionally during their normal work.
Besides this, there was the most important point.
That was, she had to start secretly cultivating manpower.
Only by having enough obedient, loyal, and capable people to help could many of Ding Yun's ideas be implemented. Otherwise, what could a lone commander do?
She couldn't possibly expect to charge into the palace with a sword.
And stage a regicide and usurp the throne.
With an idea in mind, Ding Yun quickly began to gather manpower to execute it. She assigned tasks to all the trustworthy and untrustworthy people, the difference being that the trustworthy ones would be assigned important tasks, while the untrustworthy ones would be assigned tasks that could be handed over to someone else at any time, and they were to be executed immediately.
For example, recruiting house guards and hired farmers, and hiring some capable veterans who had been forced to retire from the battlefield due to injuries, and asking them to help teach the hired farmers and house guards.
The excuse was that learning to hunt would be more convenient.
Another example was sending people to buy wasteland and build workshops.
In addition, buying servants, buying slaves, buying maids, hiring artisans from various industries, and finding people to teach those young children who were bought to read and write.
In short, Ding Yun thought as she gave instructions.
And she continued to talk from morning to night, finally assigning all the tasks she could think of that could be done at the moment. She also instructed the steward not to be stingy with money. If the mansion's savings were insufficient, they should sell something.
Apart from essential jewelry and silk.
Other items could be sold.
The steward tried to persuade her a couple of times but failed, so he gave up. After all, a princess would never starve, no matter how much she tossed and turned. Moreover, the process of spending a large amount of money was too suitable for him to take advantage of some embezzlement. Why would he not welcome such a good thing?
Then, all the servants in the mansion.
Became very busy.
Only Ding Yun had to stay at home as usual.
Because the imperial edict ordered her to return home for self-reflection, which was actually a form of house arrest. Although there was no time limit, it was obviously inappropriate to run out in less than a day or two after returning. Moreover, the matters she had instructed her servants to do had already caused quite a stir. If she ran out herself, wouldn't that give people something to talk about?
So, of course, she had to stay at home quietly for a while.
Anyway, someone was helping her with the tasks, and it was quite nice to stay at home with her daughter and direct others. If she didn't spend more time with her daughter now, she might not have much time to spend with her later when she was really busy.
Although the matters that Ding Yun sent her servants to do attracted some attention, they were not illegal. Moreover, no one was willing to get involved with Ding Yun, who had close ties to both the former dynasty and the current one, for fear of misunderstandings. Therefore, no one stopped her. Some even turned a blind eye, and the procedures were handled very quickly, as if they were afraid that the servants of the Princess Residence would stay with them any longer.
Making people think they had a close relationship with Ding Yun.
As for why the officials and nobles were like this?
It was well known that the Princess had close ties to the former dynasty, and even had a daughter with the former dynasty's royal bloodline in her residence. Although it was unlikely that anyone would contact the Princess to raise an army with her county princess daughter to restore the former dynasty, the mere mention of the words "former dynasty bloodline" made them quite wary.
If the Princess had a good relationship with Dugu Xiao.
Then others could interact with her with peace of mind.
But she had just quarreled with the new emperor, her father, Dugu Xiao, not long ago. She was also under house arrest and ordered to return for reflection. Now, people couldn't figure out the new emperor's specific attitude.
However, the Princess was, after all, the eldest daughter of the new emperor.
It was difficult for them to offend her, and it was also difficult to befriend her.
Therefore, they could only try to stay away and avoid contact.
But when matters came to them and everything was in order, they did not dare to refuse to receive them or deliberately make things difficult for them. This led to such a bizarre situation.
Not only were those officials like this.
The noble ladies and daughters were also the same.
For a time, the Princess Residence seemed to be in a state of desolation. The flattery and respect that the original owner had received as Empress and Empress Dowager in those years were gone. Let alone flattery and respect, people didn't even visit anymore. It was only recently that Ding Yun bought a lot of servants that it wasn't too quiet.
However, Ding Yun was even more pleased with this.
This situation, where she didn't need to engage in social pleasantries, maintain relationships, attend all sorts of messy gatherings, flower viewing parties, and poetry gatherings, yet her affairs were handled smoothly, without anyone making things difficult, and without any worries, was simply too comfortable.
So, her life was quite leisurely.
She was not flustered or afraid at all.
Nor did she think about returning to the palace to mend her relationship with her father.
Unfortunately, Ding Yun wanted to continue living like this until she had accumulated enough manpower and money before doing anything else. However, her mother and other elders in the family were very concerned about her. They not only worried about the slightly strained relationship between her and her father.
They also worried about her being a widow.
As soon as Ding Yun returned to the Princess Residence, less than seven days had passed when her mother, the Empress, issued an imperial edict ordering her to bring her daughter back to the palace, saying that she and the Empress Dowager missed her.
They also missed their granddaughter.
Whether it was an invitation from her mother and grandmother or from the Empress and Empress Dowager, Ding Yun could not refuse.
Therefore, she had no choice but to bring her daughter to the palace to pay her respects.