Time quickly reached April of Shenmu's twentieth year.
The eighth day of the sixth month, Shenmu's twentieth year.
Yang Chengye issued his ascension edict, founded the nation under the name "Great An," and set the era name as Jianyuan.
He enfeoffed Lady Yu as Empress.
He enfeoffed Yang Qinyuan as Crown Prince, Luo Keqing as Crown Princess, and Yang Jijue as Imperial Grandson.
He enfeoffed Qu Shaogong as Duke of Xing, Liang Jinyan as Duke of Ping, Zhou Xu's son Zhou Yuanchen as Duke of Ning, Xue Ping as Duke of Chang, Xie Yuan's son Xie Linxuan as Duke of Qing, and Han Fei as Duke of Cheng.
Of the six dukes, only Qu Shaogong and Zhou Yuanchen were first-rank dukes; the other four were all third-rank dukes, and all of them were hereditary in perpetuity.
This round of enfeoffing dukes was not based on the size of military achievements, but on past ties of affection.
If military achievements were to be considered, no one at present should have been qualified to be made a duke. After all, the Yang Family's uprising had been too simple, and the accumulated military merits of everyone involved were not many.
Aside from dukes, twelve marquises and thirty-six counts were also enfeoffed this time.
The twelve marquises were Yang Mingwu, Yang Chengze, Yang Chengxu, Song Dashan, Lu Baishu, Guo Ying, Zhang Luan, Yu Tonghai, Luo Feiyu, Luo Bo, Wu An, and Zhang Ming.
As for the counts, Liang Xiu, Song Jie, Zhou Shang'an, Lu Miaoheng, Wang Dahe, Yang Jishan, Yang Qinhu, and others under Yang Chengye all managed to obtain a countship.
In addition, Chen Buyu under Yang Mingzhao also managed to obtain a countship.
The rest were enfeoffed according to how close or distant their former relationship with the Yang Family had been,