Jinghe Year Sixteen, the first day of the third month.
In the Tangut Prefecture, a banquet was held in the royal palace.
The palace had been built in imitation of the Central Plains style, with vermilion pillars and golden tiles, yet the world within was another thing entirely.
Empress Dowager Liang sat behind a curtain beside the imperial throne, with only half her silhouette visible through it.
On the imperial throne sat the thirteen-year-old sovereign, Li Bingchang, dressed in a dragon robe. Sadly, the robe wore the boy, rather than the boy wearing the robe.
The young sovereign sat on the imperial throne, not daring to look elsewhere, his eyes fixed on the cups before him.
The true master of the household was Chancellor Liang, seated to one side outside the curtain.
The "Annals of Empress Dowager Lü" in the Records of the Grand Historian recorded: Emperor Hui died; the empress dowager presided over court and issued decrees, installed a child emperor, and placed power in the hands of the Lü clan.
Now, in the Tangut royal palace, Empress Dowager Liang sat behind a curtain, the young sovereign occupied the imperial throne, and Chancellor Liang sat outside the curtain.
How closely their positions resembled those of the early Han: Empress Lü presiding over court, a child emperor occupying an empty throne, and the Lü clan wielding power.
When Wei Shouzheng entered, every gaze in the hall fell upon him.
Wei Shouzheng remained unruffled, dressed in the official robes of Great Zhou, his topknot combed without a single stray hair.
He walked into the center of the hall, first saluted the young sovereign on the imperial throne, then bowed toward the curtain. Finally, he turned to Chancellor Liang and smiled. "Chancellor."
Though he was a man detained in another country's