Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 204 Zhao Xu: Two Dead Ends, Choose One! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Early in the morning, when Zhou Yi got up to cook, Wu Meiniang and the others had already started practicing riding bicycles, with Li Bai, who was the first to learn to ride, becoming their coach.

I thought that the loud and boisterous Gongsun Da Niang was the first fairy to learn to ride a bicycle, but who knew that Xi Shi would surpass her and ride a bicycle at lightning speed in the Hunyuan Palace courtyard, demonstrating with her actions what it means to be "still as a virgin and swift as a mad rabbit".

Wu Zetian preferred studying; she would practice for a while and then go to read.

Li Qingzhao had a girlish heart; she arranged many wildflowers on the handlebars of her bicycle, transforming what was originally a light and elegant folding bicycle into a flower-covered vehicle, which looked quite beautiful.

After breakfast, Xi Shi, worried about the instability in the Yue Kingdom, returned home early. She planned to discuss the matter with Fan Li before setting off to the Wu Kingdom to visit Sun Tzu, the military strategist.

Zhou Yi tied a box of salt, a box of pickles, and a box of noodles to the back of her bicycle. Wu Meiniang prepared a change of underwear, shoes, and socks for her, while Gongsun Da Niang and Li Qingzhao prepared a bunch of snacks.

Unfortunately, Xi Shi doesn't understand modern writing, so she can't use mobile phones or tablets or read books yet. She needs to study them systematically when she has time.

After seeing off the beautiful woman, Li Bai and Gongsun Da Niang pushed their bicycles, carrying food, drinks and other necessities, and returned to the Kaiyuan world of the Tang Dynasty.

Now that I've got the bicycle, it's time to ride it over there and show it off.

Last to leave was Li Qingzhao. This girl led more than twenty horses, took her own folding bicycle, and two bottles of white wine. After bidding farewell to Zhou Yi and Wu Meiniang, she left Hunyuan Palace.

After seeing everyone off, Wu Meiniang stayed behind at Hunyuan Palace, while Zhou Yi drove to Qingshui Town. Today was the day the foundation for the Dragon King Temple was to be dug, and he couldn't be absent.

Meanwhile, in the world of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Xu looked at the wealth that had been "returned" in the past few days and felt that it was enough to support a small-scale war. He gained a completely new understanding of the corruption among the officials.

He said to Li Gefei:
"Convert all these gold and jewels into money and grain and distribute them to the families of the soldiers who died on the front lines. If there are any orphans, build a courtyard outside the city and I will take them all in."

There was a rule in the Han Dynasty that if any soldiers who died in battle had children, the court would adopt them and enlist them in the Imperial Guard when they grew up. Therefore, the Imperial Guards were also known as the Imperial Guard Orphans.

The Imperial Guard was the most powerful army in the Han Dynasty. They were brave and highly united, and a large number of talented people emerged from them, such as Gan Yanshou, Chen Tang's old partner, who came from the Imperial Guard.

Zhao Xu now plans to reinstate the system of Imperial Guard Orphans, so that the offspring of all fallen soldiers will become the emperor's personal guards.

As they were talking, Cai Jing requested an audience.

After Zhao Xu agreed, Cai Jing strode into the imperial study, bringing with him the results of his recent investigation:

"Your Majesty, I found over 700 fine horses, hundreds of granaries, and countless weapons and armor in the manor outside the city. Many of these weapons came directly from the Armory. According to my investigation, they were likely smuggled to the Western Xia or Liao Kingdom. Some caravans also sold them to the grasslands or the Jurchens. We still need to investigate which caravans were involved."

Upon hearing that so much grain and weapons had been stockpiled around Kaifeng, Zhao Xu was startled, but he quickly turned his shock into anger and issued a series of edicts:

"Investigate merchants involved in smuggling weapons out of the country; all their property shall be confiscated, and their entire families, young and old, shall be executed."

"We must thoroughly investigate the protective umbrellas behind this, from the capital to the border, to find out who issued the travel permits and who provided the necessary conveniences along the entire route; we must pursue them to the very end."

“The Director of the Ordnance Bureau was dismissed from his post and his land was confiscated. His entire clan was exiled to Lingnan.”

"..."

A series of orders set the Song Dynasty's decaying machine running at full speed, and each decree caused a huge uproar in Bianliang City, leaving all officials horrified.

In the past, whenever similar decrees or decisions were to be issued, the court would argue for half a month before the decrees would be implemented.

But today, there was no court assembly, no officials, not even the prime minister was present, yet the emperor issued a series of edicts, which were carried out one by one.

This not only demonstrates that the imperial court has become more powerful, but more importantly, it shows that the scholar-officials' efforts to limit imperial power have completely failed.

The Song Dynasty was an era in which officials and scholar-officials shared power. The emperor was not the sole authority, but rather a representative elected by a group of landowners. Therefore, while there were instances of Song Dynasty officials being executed, more often than not, the emperor would patiently reason with his officials.

Now, this balance has been broken, and imperial power has risen rapidly, to the point that officials can no longer restrain it.

During this period, many officials offered their opinions, some with outrageous remarks, while others adopted a "I'm doing this for your own good, for the sake of the Song Dynasty" attitude, employing a variety of tactics.

This strategy used to be infallible, but now, Zhao Xu only needs to throw out the brass token to strike directly at the heart of the ministers' weaknesses.

Come on, swear an oath.

If you don't swear an oath, you'll be considered disloyal to the emperor; if you do swear an oath, you'll become the emperor's most loyal servant.

The one-track mind became a double-edged sword; the tacit understanding that had been maintained among the literati for over a hundred years crumbled instantly in the face of death, offering not even the slightest resistance.

Those who can become officials are all smart people. Since they are smart people, who would do something foolish that would lead to their own destruction?

Thus, relying on divine intervention, Zhao Xu not only disintegrated the old party, but even the new party was no longer a monolithic entity. Everyone became like quails desperately trying to protect themselves; no reform or proposals mattered more than preserving their own official positions. To divert attention from the court, Zhao Xu ordered another increase in military pay for the Western Xia front. At the same time, he sent urgent messages to the front-line armies, stating that whichever army conquered the most Western Xia territory by August would receive three thousand warhorses.

You keep saying you don't have enough warhorses? Then fight to the death and trade the heads of the Western Xia for warhorses!
Besides engaging the enemy head-on, Zhao Xu thought that since the corrupt officials of the Song Dynasty dared to defy public opinion and smuggle military equipment, the corrupt officials in the Western Xia should also be able to be bribed.

The scholar-officials not only wreaked havoc on the Song Dynasty, but also on the Western Xia and Liao Dynasties.

In addition, it was promised that the fertile land conquered would be distributed to displaced people and homeless people on the spot, and that homeless Song citizens would be encouraged to go to the front lines to fight for their future.

"Once the prince is born in August, I will take the opportunity to confer titles on several meritorious marquises that will benefit future generations, thus elevating the status of soldiers."

As Zhao Xu recited the memorials one by one, he noticed that his digital watch showed 10 a.m. He tidied up the memorials on his desk and prepared to go to Hunyuan Palace.

All the confiscated weapons were piled up at the Vermilion Bird Gate of the Imperial Palace. Zhao Xu, dressed in his imperial robes, walked over and, in front of the assembled officials, placed his hand on the weapons before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Song emperor, carrying the confiscated weapons and armor, went to the Immortal's Cave.

The officials were horrified. Their knees buckled, and they all knelt on the ground, shouting "Long live the Emperor!"

Inside the Hunyuan Palace, Zhao Xu ran into Huo Qubing as he walked out of the Changsheng Hall:

"Greetings, Huo Biaoyao. I brought the weapons with me. Xin Qiji doesn't need them for the time being, so I'll give them all to you."

Upon hearing this, Huo Qubing excitedly entered the Hall of Longevity. Seeing the hall filled with weapons and armor, he was overjoyed.
"Thank you, Third Junior Brother. Next time you come, I'll bring you more horses."

Huo Qubing didn't bring his horse this time because when he left last time, Zhou Yi planned to build some huts in the back and reinforce the fence.

Today, after Zhao Xu takes the stallion from the backyard away, Zhao Wei will come up the mountain to carry out construction.

Zhao Xu pointed to the weapons and armor he had brought and said:
"A total of one hundred sets of infantry armor, two hundred horse-slaying swords, four hundred sabers, one hundred and fifty flat-headed cleavers, fifty heavy axes, and thirty armor-piercing hammers..."

The Song Dynasty's horse-slaying sword was an improved version of the Tang Dynasty's Mo Dao. Compared to the Mo Dao, the horse-slaying sword was simpler to manufacture and suitable for mass production and deployment to troops.

Although the Mo Dao is excellent, there are very few of them in the entire Tang Dynasty. It is the only weapon in the Tang Dynasty that is prohibited from being buried with the dead, and this is even written into the law, which shows how precious the Mo Dao is.

The flat-headed cleaver was an armor-piercing weapon developed by the Song Dynasty. With a straight blade, it could be made very thick because there was no need to consider the edge, giving it a strong armor-piercing ability. It was one of the few offensive weapons of the Song Dynasty.

Huo Qubing flipped through it once, clicked his tongue, and said:

"The enemy of the Han Dynasty has no armor, and this high-end weapon will surely make the entire army advance with unstoppable momentum."

The Xiongnu people generally used bronze weapons, which had weak armor-piercing capabilities. Huo Qubing planned to disassemble the infantry armor and make it into a stronger version of the Han Dynasty lamellar armor.

In terms of the number of armor plates, one set of infantry armor can be disassembled into more than two sets of lamellar armor. Rather than wrapping a person up like an iron turtle, it would be better to equip more soldiers and improve the overall protection of the army.

After looking around, Huo Qubing asked Zhao Xu:

"Won't bringing so many soldiers and weapons affect your military strength over there?"

Zhao Xu waved his hand somewhat sheepishly:

"These are all due to corruption among court officials, and they have not affected the production capacity of the armory."

Huo Qubing: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Good heavens, the emperors of your Song Dynasty were really good-tempered. If it were Emperor Wu, none of the nine generations of these officials would have escaped unscathed.

When Chen Tang and Xin Qiji arrived, the group began to move the armor and weapons.

Move the weapons inside the hall outside so that Huo Qubing can transport them to the Han Dynasty.

Wu Meiniang couldn't help out and didn't know how to cook, so she simply rode her newly bought bicycle down the mountain and bought about ten kilograms of high-calorie foods such as fried dough sticks, fried rice cakes, and fried bread from Uncle Wu's stall. She also bought a bunch of braised dishes from a braised food shop and pushed her bicycle back up the mountain.

Lunch was simple yet substantial, consisting of greasy fried dough sticks and braised dishes, paired with freshly picked cucumbers—providing a complete nutritional, calorie, and vitamin intake.

Xin Qiji recounted how he traded a plastic bowl for a mountain, which sparked a sudden inspiration in Zhao Xu:
"Since plastic bowls can be exchanged for mountains from Jin officials, can't I also get some cheap handicrafts to exchange for supplies from Western Xia and Liao?"

Many shiny handicrafts are sold by weight in modern society, but in ancient times they were priceless treasures... Zhao Xu quickly came up with a plan to destroy the Liao Kingdom's economy through a scam.

There is an ancient story of subduing the enemy without fighting. Today, I, Zhao Xu, will try to destroy an enemy's country without fighting... However, whether it will work or not, I must first ask my master for permission. Only when my master gives his approval can we proceed!

(End of this chapter)