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

Chapter 277 Taoists are natural-born scientific researchers; their talents shouldn't be wasted! [Seeking monthly votes]

When Gongsun Da Niang was planning the kidnapping, Huo Qubing served himself a bowl of yam and mixed grain porridge and asked curiously:

“In the past, when we brought items here, both the people and the items appeared inside the Hall of Longevity. Before coming today, I was worried that the threshold of the Hall of Longevity would block the crane, but the vehicle appeared directly outside the gate. Why is that?”

The Book of Changes says:

"I set the supplies brought to Hunyuan Palace to automatically transfer outside the palace, so I can bring more warhorses for Zhao Xu next time."

The Northern Song Dynasty still had a relatively high demand for warhorses. Fortunately, they had now occupied the Hehuang region, which was a natural horse breeding ground. In the future, they could independently breed warhorses and even reconquer the Western Regions.

Unfortunately, the range for taking supplies away cannot be increased further; otherwise, supplies could be exchanged between worlds.

Li Bai took a bite of the pan-fried bun and said:

"Master, last night we looked at the information on the emperors of the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty. Some of them were clearly quite capable, so why did they eventually become addicted to taking elixirs and die as a result?"

This may seem like a simple question, but if you study it carefully, you can write several papers on it.

The Book of Changes says:

"Don't judge things by appearances. During the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, imperial power was controlled by the eunuch group. They were very knowledgeable about how to corrupt and degenerate the emperor. They even summarized many experiences in inducing the emperor to play games. The elixir may not be what the emperor wanted to take. It may be slowly poisoned or forcibly administered... However, the Kaiyuan world has not reached that point yet, so we must try our best to remedy the situation."

Granny Gongsun moved her chair closer to Zhou Yi, adopting the posture of a diligent student eager to learn:
"How can we remedy this?"

"Let Sima Chengzhen abolish the alchemy system as the imperial advisor, and arrest all those who present elixirs to the emperor and send them to the quarry for labor reform."

These were all top-notch chemistry and scientific research talents, yet they kept throwing themselves into the illusory pursuit of alchemy and ascension.

With that energy, it would be so much better to study the periodic table!
Li Bai said:

"Upon returning, I informed the Imperial Preceptor and the True Man Ziyang, ordering them to purify Taoism and eliminate alchemy."

Zhou Yi nodded, then added a reminder:
"Having Sima Chengzhen organize the Taoist priests of the Dan Ding School to conduct scientific research, Zhao Ji has almost mastered gunpowder. In the vast Kaiyuan World, with hundreds of thousands of Taoist priests, surely they can't even compare to one Zhao Ji?"

These words immediately ignited the fighting spirit of Li Bai and Gongsun Da Niang. The two planned to go back and have Sima Chengzhen organize manpower to first explore gunpowder, then study nitrocellulose, and strive to make explosives as soon as possible.

Huo Qubing's side was too weak, and they didn't even have the basics of gunpowder. Fortunately, the enemy of the Han Dynasty was also relatively weak, so there was no need to use firearms. As long as they fought normally, they could easily take control of the battlefield.

After breakfast, the group changed their clothes and followed Zhou Yi to continue repairing the roof.

Meanwhile, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Xin Qiji, leading his family members, finally arrived at the Yimeng Mountains.

At that time, the Yimeng Mountains were still a wild and undeveloped area, covered with tall weeds and dense thickets, making it very difficult to clear the land.

Fortunately, Xin Qiji had a drone. He flew it from the mountain for a while and quickly found a flat place near the source of the Yi River, making it convenient to fetch water.

Xin Qiji said:
Let's start from there.

An uncle pointed at the screen and asked:
"Is anyone farming there?"

Xin Qiji zoomed in on the image, saw rows of farmland, and nodded, saying:

“There should be someone cultivating the land. We can just clear the land next to it. There are at least a thousand acres of fertile land here, which should be enough for the initial work.”

They went over and began to cut down nearby trees to build huts, while the women busied themselves boiling water. With the smoke from the cooking fires, the atmosphere of a homely meal immediately filled the air.

Xin Qiji raised his wrist, looked at his watch, and said:

"I'm going to Master's place to bring back some tools and solar panels, so we can have electricity from now on."

He instructed the elders of the clan to organize the refugees into groups, temporarily dividing them into large teams of one thousand people each, and then further dividing each team into several smaller groups to build shelters and cultivate farmland together.

Xin Qiji divided the villages according to the modern rural production brigades, and further subdivisions will be made once the villages reach a certain scale.

Upon arriving at Hunyuan Palace, Xin Qiji didn't even have time to eat before he began busying himself with organizing the tools he needed to bring.

Axes, sickles, kitchen knives, wood-chopping knives, shovels, hoes, handsaws, large saws, handheld chainsaws... Xin Qiji packed up all the tools that Zhou Yi had been searching for a while.

Zhou Yi came down from the roof and found several sets of solar panels for Xin Qiji. He then gave him two outdoor power supplies, several chainsaws, and about ten sets of plows, among other supplies.

In short, everything needed for land reclamation was provided, which delighted Xin Qiji and made him feel that the subsequent resettlement work would be much smoother.

Huo Qubing reminded him:

"Find iron ore as soon as possible, and don't forget about steelmaking. Although you have several thousand people, if you start from scratch, there won't be enough of them."

Xin Qiji also understood this:
"Once we're settled, I'll send people to recruit refugees from the surrounding prefectures and counties." To the officials, refugees were a destabilizing factor that needed to be driven away. If someone were recruiting refugees now, they would be more than happy to take them all away.

After organizing the supplies, Zhou Yi had Xin Qiji take all the potatoes that Chen Tang had left behind and briefly taught him how to plant them.

Each potato will sprout in multiple places. When planting, you can't bury the whole potato in the soil. Instead, you have to cut out the sprouted parts so that one potato can become six or seven potato seedlings.

It's been hot lately, and almost all the potatoes piled outside have sprouted, which is perfect for Xin Qiji to take away and plant.

To make watering easier, Zhou Yi also had Xin Qiji take the Confucian scholar's pen with him. After planting a potato, he would write the character for "rain" to bring down sweet rain, which would not only help the potatoes grow, but also make the refugees wholeheartedly follow Xin Qiji.

The ability to bring rain by writing is a divine miracle even in modern society. As for the ancients, they would worship it and have a high level of faith in it.

This is the early stage of Xin Qiji's career, and a few miracles can help him carry out his work better.

Just as Xin Qiji was about to leave, he noticed that a pile of divine crossbows and bundles of arrows had suddenly appeared on the open ground in front of the Hall of Longevity. Then Zhao Xu walked out of the Hall of Longevity:

"Your Majesty, we have arrived in the Yimeng Mountains. Today we are here to transport the supplies prepared by Master."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xu pointed to the divine crossbow and arrows on the ground and said:
"Take these for self-defense. Next time I'll bring you some farm tools and animal traps made of fine steel. There are many wild animals in the mountains, so be careful to protect women and children. If you catch any wild animals, cure the meat and keep the hides for the winter."

Xin Qiji thanked them, carried the divine crossbow and bundles of arrows to the entrance of the Wu Cheng King's Hall, then bid farewell to everyone and left Hunyuan Palace with the supplies.

Zhao Xu greeted everyone and then said to Zhou Yi:

"The Ordnance Department needs a vacuuming device. Osmanthus Fairy plans to vacuum-pack all the gunpowder particles in sealed bags and then open the packaging to assemble the bombs on-site when needed."

Zhou Yi thought the talented woman's idea was really good. The most troublesome problem with gunpowder was that it was extremely susceptible to moisture, and once it got damp, its power would be greatly reduced.

With the advent of sealed bags and vacuum machines, gunpowder can now be kept dry, a much simpler and more effective method than the ancient sealing techniques.

He immediately bought a commercial vacuum cleaner and several boxes of matching sealing bags online.

Li Bai leaned closer to look at the order quantity and asked curiously:
"Master, if all these bags were filled with gunpowder, how much power would they produce?"

Zhou Yi thought for a moment and said:
"It could turn the Western Xia and Liao royal families into patches of blue and purple, here and there, all over the place..."

Next, Zhao Xu talked about the equipment for making sulfuric acid, which touched on a blind spot in his knowledge of the I Ching. He opened the 1688 wholesale website and searched for corrosion-resistant ceramic distillation vessels. He actually found the relevant equipment and ordered two of them. He also bought ceramic tubing of the same size and some corrosion-resistant vessels from another store.

The equipment was quite complete, but Zhou Yi wasn't sure if it could actually produce concentrated sulfuric acid.

He had always been a model student since childhood, never engaged in dangerous projects, and had never tinkered with concentrated sulfuric acid, so he could not offer Zhao Ji any guidance.

But thinking back to the Yan'an period, they were able to produce concentrated sulfuric acid using the lead chamber method with simple water tanks. Now, with more complete equipment, if they can't produce it, then... then it can only be Zhao Ji's fault.

After making some jokes, Zhou Yi bought books on lead chamber process and textbooks on modern concentrated sulfuric acid production technology online, trying to help Zhao Ji avoid some detours.

As for this guy's suggestion to occupy sulfur mines in Japan, it aligns perfectly with the values ​​of Hunyuan Palace.

The readily available silver and sulfur mines, and the readily available short-legged miners, are simply a gift from heaven. It would be a real shame not to take advantage of them.

During lunch, Zhou Yi said to everyone:
"No matter which world it is, as long as we have the resources, we should send troops to occupy that island nation and wreak havoc on it without holding back."

Gongsun Da Niang asked:

"What about you over here?"

Zhou Yi revealed his plan:

“Once your sister Meiniang gets her household registration, I will personally go to the island to offer my support… They are now vehemently denying their invasion of China and even shouting the slogan that they will fight back once China weakens. Such shamelessness is something I, as a cultivator, cannot stand idly by. If possible, I will procure some modern weapons for each of your worlds.”

These words immediately made Huo Qubing put down his chopsticks:

"Master, is it possible to bring things from abroad?"

Zhou Yi shook his head:

"Japan is a country where Buddhism is highly developed, and it just so happens that Buddha gave me a leaf. Maybe there's some connection between them... But I can't guarantee whether it will work or not. If I can't get weapons from there, I'll just send them some natural disasters and decree some evil places. In short, I won't let those beasts on the island have an easy time."

In China, we are law-abiding, virtuous, and ethical Taoist priests. But abroad, we should fulfill the duties and responsibilities of a descendant of the Yellow Emperor.

A century of humiliation, a century of hatred, the sounds of the massacre still echo in our ears; we men should rise up and wash Tokyo clean to comfort the wronged souls!

(End of this chapter)