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

Chapter 251 Issuing the Black Iron Token! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Wu Zetian calculated the dates and said to Xin Qiji and Huo Qubing:
"You can come back in nine days, so you can make a round with them. I will come earlier to help the immortal with some auxiliary work."

She'll go back today, give the token to Li Shimin, and that's all she has to do. She can come to Hunyuan Palace early so she can see Zhou Yi sooner and also increase her stay time to speed up the process of exchanging household registration.

Huo Qubing took out his phone and looked at his work plan:

"I'll arrive two days early, seven days from now, to help Master with some work."

Li Qingzhao also wanted to move forward, but she hadn't found a treacherous minister to deal with yet, so she could only focus on accumulating merit for now... The talented woman had participated in the hunt for tomb raiders, so naturally she couldn't miss out on something like raising the beam of the God of Wealth Temple.

This is a great opportunity to curry favor with the God of Wealth!

After the meal, Zhou Yi stewed the large bones he had bought. Taking advantage of the time, he led Xin Qiji and Huo Qubing to pack all the grain piled up in the Wu Cheng Wang Palace into woven bags and stored them in the courtyard.

After clearing the space, he planted the Great Han Imperial Guard Flag that Chen Tang had brought in the Wu Cheng King's Hall. When Huo Qubing saw this, he planned to bring the Qimen Army's flag next time as well.

The Qimen Army was a personal guard organization established by Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che. It was only under his command and consisted of up to a thousand people, equivalent to the "Ten Thousand Cavalry" of the Tang Dynasty.

Qimen Army is not very famous because during the reign of Emperor Ping, Qimen Army was renamed Huben... This name is quite well-known, especially the position of Huben Zhonglang General, which has been held by several historical figures.

The Tiger Banner and the Feathered Forest Banner together represent the gathering of the two elite ace units of the Han Dynasty.

Xin Qiji said:
"I've heard that the Yue Family Army's military flag is still intact. If I have the chance, I'll bring it back and plant it in the Wu Cheng King's Hall as well."

Zhou Yi thought this was a good idea; enshrining the flags of the most powerful armies from past dynasties in the palace might have a beneficial effect on warfare in the ancient world.

Hmm, if it could unleash a group buff, that would be awesome.

While Zhou was leading his two disciples to work, Wu Meiniang and Li Qingzhao rode their electric scooters down the mountain to the town's supermarket to buy things to take back with them.

Li Qingzhao bought Li Hang a set of sportswear and a pair of sneakers for her stepmother. While picking and choosing, the girl secretly bought a bottle of plum wine, planning to try the local sweet wine when she got back and see if it was as good as the one brewed in Bianliang.

On the way back, Wu Meiniang gave instructions:

"Don't indiscriminately attack people, lest it cause panic among the populace. It's best to have a just cause... Is Tong Guan currently with the Western Army?"

Li Qingzhao said:
"It seems not yet. I'll go back and look for him. If I find him, I'll strike him dead with lightning."

Many people say that Tong Guan had military capabilities and kept the Western Army fighting. But that's not true at all. The Western Army was at its strongest during the years when Zhao Xu was beating up the Western Xia. It had nothing to do with Tong Guan.

Zhao Xu's method of motivating the troops was simple: provide them with sufficient pay.

During the reign of Emperor Zhezong, the monthly salary of the Western Army reached more than 1,500 cash. By the time of Emperor Huizong, although the monthly salary of the Western Army on paper exceeded 2,000 cash, the soldiers actually received less than half of that amount.

In addition to embezzling military pay, various armies also fabricated numerous false names to embezzle military pay. Most of the embezzled military pay ended up in the pockets of Tong Guan and others.

Furthermore, Tong Guan deceived his superiors and subordinates, fighting against the Western Xia during the day and secretly smuggling weapons to the Western Xia at night, thus infiltrating all aspects of the army with his business acumen.

Although he had a record of suppressing Fang La, isn't it normal for a border army of 100,000 to 200,000 fully armed soldiers to win the battle against bandits?

Now that Zhao Xu will remain emperor, there's no need for eunuchs to oversee the army, and Tong Guan, this pseudo-military strategist, is no longer necessary.

Back on the mountain, Wu Meiniang packed her belongings into her suitcase and stuffed two tokens into her backpack, which she would then hand over to Li Shimin.

Now is a crucial time to promote the Sinicization of foreign ethnic groups. We can have Li Shimin randomly execute a few foreign officials as a warning to the court officials.

After dinner, the vertical axis micro wind generator that Zhou Yi ordered online arrived. It didn't look very big in the video, but when it arrived, he found that it was thicker than a street lamp pole.

As for the vertical axis generator, it's even more difficult to move, weighing over two hundred kilograms.

The generator's rod is made up of sections that can be connected together with screws.

The base is packaged separately and needs to be poured with concrete. After it solidifies, it is installed section by section, and finally the generator is installed on top.

In modern society, this kind of construction work is very simple because there are excavators, cranes, and ready-mixed concrete.

Find a suitable location, dig a deep pit, put the steel cage in, and pour concrete over it. But such convenient conditions were not available in ancient times.

Zhou Yi thought for a moment and told Huo Qubing the specifications of the river sand and gravel needed for the concrete, asking him to find a way to prepare some after he returned this time.

To ensure the concrete met the required standards, he also bought several steel meshes from the town for sieving sand and asked Huo Qubing to find a way to sift some river sand from the Jing River, which has a large amount of silt.

Wu Zetian's side also needs to prepare these building materials, otherwise the wind turbine cannot be installed.

Emperor Zhezong didn't need to worry about river sand, because the Song Dynasty already had professional sand dredging boats... The Song Dynasty had a developed canal transport system, and the waterways needed to be cleaned regularly, so sand dredging boats naturally came into being.

Zhou Yi thought for a moment and told Li Qingzhao to transport a wind turbine and a photovoltaic panel to the Military Equipment Bureau for combined wind and solar power generation.

As for the concrete, he bought six tons of bagged cement in town under the pretext of repairing the God of Wealth Temple. He transported two tons to each world, mixed it with gravel and sand, and that was enough to build the base of the micro-wind generator.

Li Qingzhao asked:
"Master, were the bases of those huge wind turbines we saw yesterday also made of concrete?"

Zhou Yi nodded:

“That requires a large quantity. The entire base alone needs thousands of cubic meters of concrete to be poured, plus hundreds of tons of steel bars… You shouldn’t consider it for now.” At this point, Zhou Yi suggested that he could print out a copy of the cement firing process for Li Qingzhao so that the master craftsmen at Ru Kiln could try firing it.

If cement could be produced, the infrastructure level of the Song Dynasty would be greatly improved.

Xin Qiji really liked these electrical appliances, but unfortunately he was still on his way and could only use outdoor power as an emergency measure for the time being. Once he arrived at his base, he planned to install some photovoltaic panels and wind turbines so that the Yimeng old revolutionary base area could enter the electrical age ahead of schedule.

After Xin Qiji left with an outdoor power supply, some flashlights, and walkie-talkies, Zhou Yi went to town to buy some household appliances for Huo Qubing.

Lights, electric fans, refrigerators, water pumps, large-capacity water tanks, shower facilities... basically, Liu Che got everything he could.

Back in the world of Emperor Wu, before Huo Qubing could even report, Liu Che arrived jogging over:

"Wow, the immortal has bestowed so many gifts! Next time, I'll find some more good stuff for him so he won't suffer any losses."

Huo Qubing then introduced the electrical appliances he had brought:
"You need to arrange for someone to dredge sand from the river first. Only river sand can be mixed with cement. The wind turbine base can only be installed after it is poured. Now I will install the photovoltaic panels first."

Liu Che thought for a moment and assigned several guards to handle the matter. When he heard that stones were needed, he also arranged for a group of prisoners to go to Zhongnan Mountain to quarry stones. The specifications and sizes of the stones were all listed in great detail.

Soon, Huo Qubing had the photovoltaic panels installed in the courtyard of Weiyang Palace.

Before evening, Liu Che was drinking fermented rice with ice, enjoying the electric fan, and watching "Emperor Wu of Han" with great interest.

Having conquered so many territories, Emperor Wu also needed to enjoy himself.

However, what interested him most was the black iron token sent by Huo Qubing.

The black token looked both mysterious and solemn. Liu Che played with it while considering who to strike first... The gods of the Thunder Department were helping to strike someone down, so he had to choose the right person, lest the gods in heaven laugh at him for being incompetent.

Meanwhile, in the world of the Tang Dynasty during the Zhenguan era, Li Shimin examined the blueprints for the micro-wind generator repeatedly, and then instructed the Minister of Works to thoroughly study the cement calcination process.

"I don't expect you to be able to fire it. As long as you can understand the principles behind it, that will be a great achievement for you."

He knew that the foundation of the Tang Dynasty was relatively weak, and it was not possible to catch up too much in the short term. It could only take small steps and move quickly. Even if it could not be done, it had to study the theory first.

Once you've thoroughly studied the theory, getting started will be very easy.

After looking at the blueprints, he picked up the standard weights that Wu Meiniang had brought and examined them.

These weights are all made of stainless steel, and they are smooth to the touch, like a mirror.

Fang Xuanling glanced at it and whispered:
"Your Majesty, rashly changing weights and measures could easily harm the foundation of the nation."

Li Shimin also understood this principle:

"Let the Ministry of Works and the Arsenal use it first. The new knowledge that Meiniang brought is based on the units of measurement from the Immortal Master's side. Although the mathematics of our Great Tang is still quite good, it is easy to make mistakes when converting back and forth. Let's just copy it directly. It's not too late to promote it slowly after it has become standardized."

For the Tang Dynasty at present, it's like a critically ill person receiving a highly nourishing food; it needs to be consumed slowly and in moderation to be fully digested.

If people flaunt their wealth excessively, they may not be able to absorb the benefits and it could lead to social collapse.

When faced with an unexpected opportunity, restraint is more important than blindly accepting it.

After looking at what Wu Zetian brought, Li Shimin picked up the black iron token and looked at Fang Xuanling, asking:
"Who are the foreign officials who strongly oppose the name change?"

Fang Xuanling said:
"Several noble sons of the Turks were quite resistant, as were a few Tuyuhun and Tibetan people, who also expressed that the government's orders were too domineering and did not take into account the feelings of other ethnic groups at all."

Li Shimin sighed deeply:
"In the past, I treated the surrendered foreign tribes with great care and concern, but what happened in the end? They became increasingly outrageous, as if the Tang Dynasty was the defeated party... If they voice any objections again at tomorrow's morning court, I will summon divine thunder to set things right!"

Now, Erfeng is no longer burdened by empty fame, nor will he become arrogant because of the title "Heavenly Khan". What he needs to do is to consolidate the power of the Tang Dynasty and prevent a repeat of the situation in the late Tang Dynasty where the Tang Dynasty was repeatedly defeated by foreign tribes.

While Emperor Zhezong was sharpening his sword, Li Qingzhao in his own world was also diligently searching for treacherous officials, even going so far as to give her father the plum wine she had bought.

"Father, do you have the list of treacherous officials in the Song Dynasty?"

Li Gefei put down the wine bottle in his hand and asked:

Why are you asking about this?

Li Qingzhao told a little lie:

"The immortal has ordered me to kill another treacherous official within five days, or else he will unleash vicious dogs on me... As you know, I've been afraid of dogs since I was a child. If I'm injured by a rabid dog, I might not be able to bring my father the immortal wine anymore..."

Before the girl could finish speaking, Li Gefei waved his hand:

"I wondered what it was all about. I'll let you complete the task tonight."

Li Qingzhao's eyes were bright:
"Father, have you caught a treacherous minister of the Song Dynasty? Which one is it?"

Li Gefei said calmly:
"This morning we captured Li Yan, the least conspicuous of the six traitors, in the palace. He will be interrogated tonight!"

(End of this chapter)