I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 165 One Shot, Five Blows

...

Since that night.

Having tasted the sweetness of success, Zhao Yu had all five women serve him in bed together for several days in a row.

A little over a month later, Yuan Qingcheng did some quick calculations and exclaimed, 'Oh no, my period seems to have ended seven days ago!'

Unlike many women with irregular lifestyles who have irregular periods, Yuan Qingcheng, who always eats and sleeps on time and pays great attention to health, has very regular periods that have never been this late.

Therefore, Yuan Qingcheng immediately realized that she might be pregnant.

Yuan Qingcheng quickly asked Xu Poxi to invite the imperial physician to come and take her pulse.

As it turned out, Yuan Qingcheng guessed correctly; she really was pregnant.

Yuan Qingcheng really didn't know what to say about this.

Counting the number of times she had slept with Zhao Yu, Yuan Qingcheng felt that she should be pregnant. Otherwise, not only would Zhao Yu's efforts have been in vain, but her body might also have problems like Pei Sui and the others.

In fact, if Yuan Qingcheng hadn't always carefully planned her visits to Zhao Yu, she might have been pregnant long ago.

'It's all Zhao Yu's fault for leading me astray; he made me stop using the three-after-four method of contraception, otherwise I could have lasted longer.'

It wasn't that Yuan Qingcheng didn't want to get pregnant. She just didn't want to end up like Ma Xiaojiao, getting pregnant one after another before fully experiencing love between men and women, and then having to put on hold.

In Yuan Qingcheng's opinion, this was too much of a loss.

Although Yuan Qingcheng feels that she hasn't gotten her money's worth yet, to be honest, she hasn't lost out by frequently serving the emperor over the past year.

'I've been through everything I was supposed to, so being pregnant is fine.'

Thinking about it this way, Yuan Qingcheng felt a sense of anticipation for the arrival of this little life.

After a moment, Yuan Qingcheng asked Xu Poxi to inform Zhao Yu that she was pregnant.

Zhao Yu visited Yuan Qingcheng immediately and gave her a lot of rewards. He even kept her at his bedside that night so that she could serve him one more time.

As for how Yuan Qingcheng served him in bed, that is not something that can be told to outsiders.

The next day, after arranging the preparations for spring plowing, Yuan Qingcheng went to share the good news with Zhang Chun and the other three women.

To Yuan Qingcheng's surprise, as soon as she arrived at Zhang Chun's palace, she saw Zhang Chun bestowing a grand reward upon all the people in her palace, while Ma Xiaojiao was sighing and lamenting.

Upon entering the secret room, Yuan Qingcheng asked Zhang Chun and Ma Xiaojiao, "What's wrong with you two?"

Zhang Chun, beaming with joy, exclaimed, "I have some great news to share with you! I'm pregnant again! Yay!"

Then, Zhang Chun said to herself, "I feel that Shi Yun was right. The reason I had trouble getting pregnant before was because I was too nervous. During this period, I was having more fun and no longer had the pressure of having a son, so I got pregnant again easily."

Yuan Qingcheng echoed Zhang Chun, saying, "A relaxed mood does make it easier to get pregnant."

Yuan Qingcheng then asked Ma Xiaojiao, "And what about you? Why do you look so worried?"

Ma Xiaojiao smiled wryly: "I'm pregnant too."

Then, Ma Xiaojiao couldn't help but complain: "I'm speechless. I've been using the seven-day contraceptive method and I always wash afterward, but I still got pregnant. I really don't know if it's because I'm easily pregnant or because Zhao Yu's fertility is too strong. I'm so careful, but I still can't stop him from getting me pregnant."

Upon seeing that Zhang Chun and Ma Xiaojiao were also pregnant, Yuan Qingcheng didn't know what to say.

Just as Yuan Qingcheng was about to share with Zhang Chun and Ma Xiaojiao that she was also pregnant, Li Lin and Ye Shiyun suddenly pushed open the door to the secret room and walked in.

Upon meeting, Yuan Qingcheng could tell that Li Lin and Ye Shiyun were both in good spirits.

Zhang Chun preemptively boasted to Li Lin and Ye Shiyun, "I'm officially informing you that I, Zhang Chun, am pregnant with my second child. Sorry, I'm a little ahead of you."

Unexpectedly, Ye Shiyun smiled like a fox and said, "You're overthinking it. We came here to share good news with you."

"What's the occasion?" Zhang Chun asked.

"We're pregnant with our second child too," Li Lin said with a very happy smile.

Li Lin had always been the one who most wanted to get pregnant; her desire to have a son even surpassed Zhang Chun's.

In Li Lin's words, she wished she could give Zhao Yu ten sons.

Li Lin really wanted to pass on her military skills to her sons, so that they could fight on the battlefield in her place, achieve great feats, and fulfill the dream she could not achieve.

Soldiers have always been synonymous with death, and the battlefield is fraught with danger, where life and death are unpredictable.

If she doesn't have a few more sons, how can she fulfill Li Lin's dream?

After all, not all of Li Lin's sons are suitable for or willing to join the army.

Knowing all this, Li Lin wanted to have more sons to overcome any unforeseen circumstances through sheer numbers.

Therefore, Li Lin made a tough decision and completely gave up "Convict Conditioning," which she had practiced for many years.

Now that she has easily become pregnant with her second child, how could Li Lin not be overjoyed?

Unlike Li Lin, who was overjoyed, Ye Shiyun was also happy, but she still said one thing and meant another: "Sigh, not only will I suffer for another ten months, but I will also have to go through the gates of hell again. It's only because it's in this era that I'm happy. Otherwise, I would definitely send Zhao Yu to get a tubal ligation, so that he won't keep hurting me."

Zhang Chun laughed and said, "Go out and say that and see if the women in the harem will tear you to shreds. You've certainly gotten your money's worth, but they're all still lining up to get pregnant."

At this point, Zhang Chun glanced at Yuan Qingcheng and asked, "Isn't that right, Qingcheng?"

Yuan Qingcheng said calmly, "Why are you asking me?"

Zhang Chun said with no small amount of schadenfreude, "We've already lapped you twice, and you still haven't made a move. Who else should we look to?"

Yuan Qingcheng smiled slightly: "I'm pregnant too, why are you twisting my arm around your neck twice?"

When Yuan Qingcheng told her that she was also pregnant, Zhang Chun was a little skeptical: "Really? Don't lie to me."

Yuan Qingcheng rolled her eyes: "Why would I lie to you about something like this? Besides, there's nothing wrong with my body. Getting pregnant is just an easy and pleasant thing, isn't it? To tell you the truth, I'm also using contraception. Otherwise, I would have gotten pregnant long ago. Why would I have to wait so long?"

Zhang Chun said leisurely, "Why do I feel like you're insulting me?"

Li Lin also said, "I feel the same way."

Yuan Qingcheng laughed and said, "You're overthinking it. I was just saying that getting pregnant isn't difficult."

“It’s not difficult,” Zhang Chun said. “Otherwise, could the five of us get pregnant at the same time?”

At this point, Zhang Chun looked at Li Lin, Ye Shiyun, Ma Xiaojiao, and Yuan Qingcheng one by one, and asked, "Do you think we were wiped out in one fell swoop by Zhao Yu?"...

Early March.

The Song Dynasty held its first imperial examination during the reign of Emperor Zhao Yu.

After fierce competition, Li Gang became the top scorer in his undergraduate program.

To be fair, Li Gang's achievement of becoming the top scholar this time had a large element of luck involved.

Fortunately, before Li Gang came to refer to the case, he had spent a long time in the Longyou Protectorate, which was the front line for the recovery of Western Xia. Lü Huiqing was the deputy marshal appointed by Zhao Yu to recover Western Xia. Li Kui and his son Li Gang were important officials under Lü Huiqing and the main force for the future recovery of Western Xia. They must have known Western Xia very well.

In this imperial examination, the section on the Western Xia dynasty accounted for almost one-third of the total score.

Secondly, Li Gang was very familiar with the successful model of the Longyou Protectorate. Therefore, when discussing what methods to use to govern Western Xia after its recovery, Li Gang boldly proposed to eliminate all the nobles and powerful chieftains of Western Xia who did not surrender voluntarily, and to fully replicate the successful experience of the Longyou Protectorate.

These are questions that candidates deeply influenced by Confucian benevolence dared not write or even think about. Their suggestions were either to value the Western Xia nobles and influence them with kindness, attempting to win over the Western Xia people through cultural integration; or to advocate for a policy of appeasement to win over the Western Xia upper class and maintain a superficial peace.

These superficial solutions, which did not address the root cause of the problem, naturally did not satisfy Zhao Yu.

Having already experienced the benefits of the Longyou Protectorate model, Zhao Yu certainly hoped to resolve the Western Xia problem once and for all.

Therefore, it was naturally Li Gang's proposal that best suited Zhao Yu's taste.

Zhao Yu could also demonstrate his stance by appointing Li Gang as the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Li Gang's third stroke of luck was that Zhao Yu liked Li Gang as the prime minister who resisted the Jin dynasty, so he naturally gave him a higher starting point.

In fact, judging solely by their writing skills, Huo Duanyou from Wujin, Changzhou, was far superior to Li Gang.

Moreover, Zhang Chun had spoken to Zhao Yu about Huo Duanyou. Although Huo Duanyou was far less famous than Li Gang, he governed with benevolence and compassion, rather than relying on harsh punishments to establish his authority, and thus enjoyed considerable prestige among the people. Chenzhou was low-lying and prone to flooding after prolonged rains. He ordered the dredging of an 800-li (approximately 400 km) canal. However, due to its distance from the Huai River, the floodwaters still did not easily flow into the Huai. He then petitioned the court to dredge another 200 li (approximately 100 km) of canal, completely eradicating the flooding problem in Chenzhou. He was an upright man. When the eunuch Shi Tao conveyed an imperial edict demanding daphne flowers, he refused, and was impeached and dismissed. He was indeed a capable person.

Even so, Zhao Yu still appointed Li Gang as the top scholar, citing that Li Gang's policy proposals were more to his liking.

Zhao Yu even stingily did not give Huo Duanyou the second place, but instead gave the second place to Zhao Ding, another prime minister who had served as prime minister twice in history, advocated nurturing the people's strength and stabilizing the foundation. During his tenure, he made great contributions to consolidating the foundation of the Southern Song Dynasty by strategizing and turning the tide.

Huo Duanyou only achieved the title of Tan Hua (third-place scholar).

It is worth mentioning that, under Zhang Chun's careful selection, Zhao Yu recruited many promising and capable ministers and famous historical figures, such as Chen Gou, Yuwen Huangzhong, Li Guang, and Qiu Yu.

Zhao Yu appointed Li Gang as Xuanyi Lang, but within a month, he was promoted to Secretary of the Imperial Library, then to Assistant Compiler, then to Imperial Diarist, and finally to Secretary of the Imperial Secretariat, and was granted the privilege of wearing gold and purple robes.

Previously, officials and attendants could only wear black horn belts; the change in dress code began with Li Gang.

In response to the court's emphasis on internal affairs over external affairs, Li Gang proposed a system of alternating appointments for both internal and external attendants, and he personally took action by requesting a post outside the capital.

Zhao Yu approved the request and appointed Li Gang, a scholar-official of the Xianmo Pavilion, as the prefect of Shanzhou.

Not just Li Gang.

About half of the talents selected in this imperial examination were sent to the northwest by Zhao Yu and given to Zhang Jie and Lü Huiqing respectively to help them recover the Western Xia.

The Northwest region has a relatively dry climate, and spring temperatures rise relatively slowly.

At this time, agricultural production mainly relies on the solar terms and long-term accumulated experience. After the "Rain Water" solar term, the land gradually thaws, the temperature rises, and the soil moisture is also relatively suitable. Around the time of "Awakening of Insects" and "Spring Equinox", people begin to plant spring crops, mainly drought-resistant crops such as wheat, millet, and sorghum.

Zhao Yu sent a large number of talented people, including Li Gang, to the Northwest region, and they thought they would be immediately thrown into battle.

Unexpectedly, the first thing Zhang Jie, Lü Huiqing, or any other commander was asked to do was to encourage agriculture.

This puzzled many of the newly appointed scholars, because they had already learned that the best time to attack Western Xia was in the spring. Why not attack Xia in this prime season? Should they wait until autumn, when the horses are fat and strong, like Emperor Shenzong of Song did, and let Western Xia take advantage of the opportune time?
Some even wondered if Zhang Jie and Lü Huiqing were planning to outwardly comply but inwardly resist, and not actually want to recover Western Xia.
What puzzled the newly appointed scholars even more was that Zhao Yu and Zhang Dun did not urge Zhang Jie and Lü Huiqing.

With no other option, these newly appointed scholars had to go to the fields and persuade farmers to participate.

Because the Northwest region bordered the Longyou Protectorate, which had enjoyed two consecutive years of bumper harvests, the local people lived quite well during those two years. People from the six routes of Shaanxi heard about this, and the newly appointed Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) who encouraged agriculture used this to encourage the people of the six routes of Shaanxi. They then presented the "Qingcheng Nongshu" (Agricultural Book of the City) and a series of agricultural and industrial inventions by Ma Xiaojiao, which were more readily accepted by the people of the six routes of Northwest China.

This enabled the agriculture of the Six Routes of Shaanxi to almost immediately recover to the level it was before the independence of Western Xia.

Li Qianshun and his ministers were so angry at this that they vomited blood.

Prior to this, Zhang Jie and Lü Huiqing, those two cunning old foxes, had been spreading false information to Western Xia, saying that Zhao Yu had ordered them to retake Western Xia this year.

Li Qianshun and his ministers had already calculated that the Song Dynasty, having suffered a great loss from its five-pronged attack on Western Xia, would definitely choose to launch its next attack in the spring.

Based on this, Li Qianshun and his ministers were on high alert, and mobilized 700,000 troops to wait for the Song army to attack Western Xia.

During this process, both Zhe Keshi and Wang Hou reorganized their troops and launched attacks.

However, both sides were merely harassing the enemy by advancing when the enemy retreated and retreating when the enemy advanced, and attacking when the enemy was exhausted. They were not actually fighting the Xia army at all.

The cunning old bastard Lü Huiqing shamelessly sent men several times to make it appear as if they were crossing the Yellow River, forcing the Xia army to rush from the north to the south to defend.

As a result, the Xia army arrived, and Lü Huiqing ordered Wang Hou to withdraw and defend the fortified village.

Meanwhile, Tao Jiefu of Fuyan Road sent a large army to build fortresses in the direction of Xiazhou.

Seeing this, the Western Xia side could only send the Xia army from the Tiandu Mountain direction to stop Tao Jiefu from attacking Xia Prefecture.

The Song army and the Xia army fought a major battle on the Fuyan Road for more than two months.

This gave Zhang Jie an opportunity.

Zhang Jie ordered Zhe Keshi to build five fortified villages, including Zhulong, Moyi'ai, and Sanpen.

Meanwhile, the spring planting season in the Zhao Song Dynasty was completely completed.

At this point, Emperor Li Qianshun and his ministers finally realized that Zhang Jie's conquest of Western Xia was still a matter of shallow attacks and gradual advances, and he had no intention of launching a full-scale offensive like Emperor Shenzong of Song and directly engaging in a decisive battle with Western Xia.

really!

After the spring planting season was over in the Song Dynasty, the Song army split into three routes and began to advance towards the Western Xia.

Zhao Yu's Shenji Army and the Four Auxiliary New Army of the Zhao Song Dynasty were also transferred to Western Xia in turn to train the army in actual combat, while helping the six routes of the Western Army in Shaanxi to advance into Western Xia.

The Xia army could only run around in circles and be constantly worn down by the Song army's defensive counterattacks.

Seeing that the Western Xia was being gradually eroded by the Zhao Song Dynasty, Li Qianshun said in despair, "The Song army wants to build fortresses right up to the walls of my Lingzhou city!"

Feeling that death was drawing ever closer, Li Qianshun once again sent envoys to the Liao Kingdom to request a marriage alliance with a Liao princess, hoping to secure Liao military reinforcements and perhaps even defeat the Song Dynasty with two against one, or at least recover the territory seized by the Song Dynasty and preserve Western Xia...

……

(End of this chapter)