By custom, March 10 was the day of the Grand Court Assembly.
However, due to the urgent military situation in Fengzhou, and because of the emergency court conference held on the night of March 9, Benevolent Sovereign Ji Long and the assembled ministers agreed that the Grand Court Assembly on March 10 would be changed to a Small Court Assembly.
The reason was simple.
The Grand Court Assembly held once every ten days in Great Zhou was often more of a formality, a venue for promulgating various Imperial Decrees and laws, with actual deliberation of affairs being rare.
Just think about it—several thousand court officials gathered in Qiankun Hall, with several thousand mouths. How could they possibly deliberate affairs?
If everyone could voice an opinion, no major matter could ever be decided.
Moreover, major military and state affairs required secrecy.
If anything were truly decided at a Grand Court Assembly, it would spread across the realm for all to know in the shortest possible time.
For these reasons, Benevolent Sovereign Ji Long and the ministers had agreed to change the March 10 Grand Court Assembly into a Small Court Assembly.
Yet when Benevolent Sovereign Ji Long, who had arrived after traveling through nearly an entire sleepless night, reached Qiankun Hall, the ministers gave him a tremendous surprise.
More than 3,100 court officials had packed over half of Qiankun Hall full.
A Grand Court Assembly!
And one of exceptionally high rank, with an enormous number of attendees!
Had they not agreed last night that it would be a Small Court Assembly?
But at this moment, Benevolent Sovereign Ji Long could not very well fly into a rage before so many officials. His cold, sinister gaze swept over the many senior ministers one by one before he took his seat upon the