Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

"Someone! Save her! Save her!"

Qin Yi hugged Xue Lingyao and screamed. Seeing that no one paid attention to him, he looked at Shen Zhao again: "A Zhao, please save her. Lingyao is innocent. She can't die."

Shen Zhao said nothing and looked quietly at the three people in the prison.

Xue Lingyao lay silently in Qin Yi's arms, her face as pale as paper. Xue Yi could not tell whether she was happy or angry, but he was not sad either.

Qin Yi had a look of grief on his face, and his eyes were filled with murderous intent.

Shen Zhao smiled and said softly, "Qin Yi, you actually expected this day to happen, didn't you? But why didn't you prepare an abortion pill for Xue Lingyao? She could have easily aborted the baby and returned to the palace healthy and sound to be a slave girl, but you insisted on letting her take such a dangerous path."

Qin Yi was stunned.

Shen Zhao placed his hand on Tian Xiu's and slowly stood up: "Or do you think that everything will be fine if you can capture me to replace Xue Lingyao?"

"You" Qin Yi was shocked.

He did think so, and secretly discussed it with the Xue family, asking them to dispatch more than 20 guards to act with him.

Even the prison had been arranged. They just had to knock Shen Zhao unconscious and then send her to the prison to torture her beyond recognition. Who would be able to recognize that she was Shen Zhao?
Then let Lingyao give birth to the child safely, and then pretend to be Shen Zhao and return to King Zhao. Then the Xue and Qin families will have no worries anymore.

And since he held the Xue family's handle in his hand, he could control Xue Lingyao's words and actions.

When Prince Zhao ascends the throne, Lingyao will be the queen, and it will be difficult for her not to be prominent.

But she had never expected that Shen Zhao had secretly ambushed more than 200 guards in the Shen residence, and even had more than a dozen guards hiding in her boudoir, just waiting for her to lead people to climb over the wall and enter. They were caught immediately, and no one escaped.

Qin Yi felt extremely regretful when he thought of this incident, regretting that he had underestimated the enemy.

"A Zhao, it's not what you think." Qin Yi put Xue Lingyao down, grabbed the railing and explained: "I just want you to save Lingyao, there is no other intention."

Shen Zhao smiled: "Oh? Why do you think I can save Xue Lingyao? It was the Emperor's order to have her abort. Even the mother of King Rui couldn't save her, and you want me to save her?"

Qin Yi was silent.

Suddenly, Xue Lingyao, who was lying on the ground, groaned and slowly woke up.

"You're so lucky." Shen Zhao waved his hand, and the jailer behind him came over with a big bowl of medicine. Another jailer opened the cell door, and several jailers grabbed Xue Lingyao and pinched her nose to force the medicine down her throat.

After a while, Xue Lingyao rolled on the ground and howled for more than half an hour before she gave birth to a tiny fetus with the help of the jailer.

The eunuch wrapped the thing in a piece of cloth and took it away. Qin Yi and Xue Yi were also locked up in the men's prison opposite, facing Xue Lingyao's cell from afar.

Shen Zhao watched the whole process and found it very boring.

On the way back to Shen's house, she asked Tian Xiu to buy a big house in the capital where she would move in.

Because my parents are going to Beijing soon, and my eldest sister-in-law is about to give birth, it would be a bit crowded for me to live in the Shen residence with so many people.

A few days later, news came from the prison that Xue Lingyao had gone crazy, and Qin Yi and Xue Yi had also been castrated.

Princess Chengyang also passed away suddenly, probably because she was implicated in Prince Rui's rebellion.

A month later, the emperor died and the nine-year-old King Zhao ascended the throne.

Because the emperor was young, Empress Dowager Fu and the Empress Dowager controlled the government.

Although Shen Zhao was made queen, she had no say in the palace.

But she didn't care and only focused on making money. She allocated a large amount of money to her second brother Shen Heng, allowing him to develop agriculture and commerce in the northwest, and open a school, letting Mr. Dong serve as the principal.

The two or three hundred children brought back from Handan were also sent by Shen Zhao to study in the schools run by the court. She also took out many books for these children to study.

His father Shen Ang was granted the title of Marquis of Anding, and the imperial court sent him to Dunhuang in the northwest to serve as the county governor.

With the new emperor's ascension to the throne, Shen Xun was also sent to Handan to serve as the prefect, in charge of the affairs of one county and several counties.

Eight years passed in a blink of an eye. The Han Dynasty became increasingly powerful, and the population increased rapidly with the support of Shen Zhao.

At this time, the emperor was already seventeen years old, but the two empress dowagers were unwilling to give up power and let him rule the country. They wanted to depose Shen Zhao and make Fu's daughter the queen on the grounds that she had no children for many years.

Shen Zhao remained calm, as if nothing had happened.

One day, when they were taking a boat trip on the lake with the two Empress Dowagers to the summer resort outside the city, the boat suddenly capsized and everyone on board fell into the water.

When everyone fished out the two Empress Dowagers, the Empress and several palace maids were nowhere to be seen.

The emperor was heartbroken when he heard the news and immediately ordered people to search along the river.

A few days later, the two Empress Dowagers passed away one after another, and the whole country mourned. On several large ships, a white-haired old man and hundreds of guards sailed down the river, stopping in each county to inspect the people's conditions.

If they come across an area hit by drought or flood, the elders will bring large amounts of food to distribute to the victims until the disaster is over.

However, this group would sometimes encounter ignorant bandits, so the guards would pick up crossbows and shoot.

Several years passed like this. The old man had inspected all the territories and opened schools and nurseries in various parts of the Han Dynasty. He provided cotton seeds, potato seeds and sweet potato seeds to the local people and promoted various vegetable seeds.

Various technical books were also popularized, allowing the Han people to learn Mandarin and unify the pronunciation of characters.

In a blink of an eye, it was already the tenth year AD. As the Han Dynasty had not fought against the Huns for many years, the Huns united with several small countries around to attack the Protectorate of the Western Regions, killed the commander, and assembled an army of 200,000 to try to break through Yumen Pass and Yangguan Pass.

After receiving the news, Shen Zhao immediately rushed back to the capital.

This time she dressed up as a middle-aged strategist and followed Chen Wuhou to the border.

This time, the emperor dispatched an army of 200,000 and appointed Chen Wuhou as the commander-in-chief, ordering him to wipe out the Xiongnu and the rebellious states in the Western Regions.

Shen Zhao had dozens of disciples dispersed throughout the army, and asked them to serve as messengers of the gods to provide supplies and assistance to each unit, with the goal of driving all the Huns out of Asia.

Thus, a siege campaign began.

The Han army encircled and wiped out the Huns in a dragnet-style attack, leaving no one alive. All the men were killed.

The Han army fought this battle very easily and suffered few casualties, because each of them was wearing armor, riding tall horses, and had advanced weapons in their hands, including strange firearms.

The Xiongnu soldiers and the Western Regions soldiers did not expect the Han army to be so powerful, and they were defeated and fled westward.

Marquis Chen Wu divided his troops into twelve groups to pursue the Huns, determined not to let a single Hun go.

Every time they conquered a small country in the Western Regions, they would carry out a large-scale purge, killing all the powerful people in the small country and leaving only the poor people. They would then be forced to swear to become Han citizens and then redistribute materials and land.

Three years later, there was no longer a single Hun in the northwest of the Han Dynasty, and the countries in the Western Regions also surrendered in fear.

As the northern territory was returned to the Han Dynasty, the emperor moved the landless poor from all over the country to live in the north, to herd horses and sheep for the court, and to build cities and guard counties on the northern grasslands.

Shen Zhao took thousands of disciples and soldiers to the northeast, where he set up a number of protectorates and built several Great Walls.

The people who built the Great Wall were from local tribes. As long as they were provided with food and drink and given warm clothes in winter, many people were willing to come and work.

Twenty years later, the entire Northeast was under the control of the Han Dynasty. Even the easternmost island country was named Han Wa Nu Kingdom by the emperor and was granted a golden seal as a vassal state.

At this moment, the population of the Han Dynasty has exceeded 500 million. From the North Pole in the north to the South China Sea in the south, from the Wa Island in the east to the Aral Sea in the west, all of it is Han territory.

Shen Zhao was already in her sixties. She took out money to buy books and supplies and gave them to the emperor. Afterwards, she built a large underground palace near the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, sealing all the history and documents of the dynasty and before and burying them underground for future generations to excavate.

Now she has shops all over the country, and every year she takes out a portion of the money to help the poor and provide free education for the people.

The next step is to build water conservancy projects and develop industry.

In fact, during these twenty years, Shen Zhao had been spending money to build canals and roads across the country. He also introduced rubber trees and began to establish many rubber plantations.

Steam engines and shipbuilding industries also developed, but these technologies were not allowed to be learned by foreigners, including small surrounding countries.

Even if a small country sends students and envoys here, they can only learn writing and art, and are not allowed to touch anything else.

This has been written into the law, and anyone who violates it will be executed along with their entire clan.

As the number of Han people grew, several of the emperor's descendants took tens of thousands of people to a more distant continent, a place that people in the future would call America.

Shen Zhao also went to that place with the fleet and found that there was a group of uncivilized primitive people living there.

These people were somewhat similar to the Han people. They wore animal skins or linen clothes and had long colorful tail feathers on their heads.

Shen Zhao also discovered that there were many strange giant birds here, which were taller than elephants and ran very fast.

So she ordered the soldiers not to kill these rare birds without permission, and anyone who violated the order would be executed immediately.

A year later, the first Han city in the New World was born.

Five years later, the second and third cities were built.

The Han people also incorporated the local indigenous people into the Han Empire, taught them Chinese characters and Chinese language, and also taught them how to plant and weave.

From then on, once the Han people in the Central Plains ran out of land, the imperial court would send them to the New World to reproduce and live.

By the time Shen Zhao was ninety years old, the Han Dynasty had already ruled the world and established vassal states on various continents. (End of this chapter)