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

Chapter 280 The Magic Weapon to Win Over the People—The Public Trial! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Many of the garrison troops in Zhuozhou were Han Chinese. When they heard Guo Rong's call from afar, they were all moved. In addition, the Khitans were driving away and whipping the Han Chinese in front of them. They did not hesitate at all and immediately drew their waist knives and started slashing at the Khitans.

Seeing this, Guo Rong gave Han Tong a wink, and Han Tong quickly unfolded the map of Zhuozhou City that he had prepared in advance and placed it in front of him.

This map was commissioned by Guo Rong and was completed in a rush. It only shows the names of the streets and the locations of a few key buildings; the rest of the residential areas are all blurry.

But that's enough.

Guo Rong looked at the map and compared it with the images transmitted back by the drone, then directly took over command within the city:
"A pack of Khitan dogs is bullying Chinese women and children in front of the Iron Buddha Temple. Chinese soldiers guarding the north side of the east gate, hurry and charge!"

"My Chinese brothers in the Left Training Ground, the armory is just a wall away from you. It has spears and bows and arrows. Quickly break down the wall and take them. I will cover you in battle!"

"You Khitan dogs who bully Chinese women and children in front of the government office, if you do not stop now, after the city falls, I will surely cut you into a thousand pieces and exterminate your entire clan!"

"Young warriors of China gathered in the south of the city, march south relentlessly, without stopping!"

"..."

Guo Rong acted as if he had a cheat code, constantly directing the drones. Several Khitans tried to shoot the drones with bows and arrows, but they missed after firing seven or eight arrows in a row.

Although the final shot didn't miss, Guo Rong rose dozens of meters upwards. The arrow's potential energy was exhausted, and it didn't hit the drone. Instead, it caused the Khitan archer below to break through the defenses and kneel on the ground, crying loudly.

We can't hit them, and we can't stop them, so what can we do?
They had a vast army, yet they felt powerless to resist.

Ironically, while Guo Rong was commanding the Han people, he also spread false information to the Khitans:
"The five hundred brothers besieging the General's Mansion, move quickly! The General's Mansion is now undefended. You will surely be able to capture the entire family of the Zhuozhou garrison commander alive and take all the Khitan dogs of the city prisoner!"

In fact, there were no Han Chinese in the garrison commander's residence, but the Khitans did not know this. Upon hearing the noise, they rushed towards the garrison commander's residence for their lives, fearing that if they were too late, the Han Chinese in the city would be able to seize it.

Moreover, Guo Rong specifically emphasized the number 500 when he shouted. Sending too few Khitans would be like sending food, while sending too many would weaken the defenses of the city gates.

Only half an hour has passed since the announcement, but the entire city of Zhuozhou is engulfed in flames of war, and the Khitan people inside are panicking like headless flies.

At this moment, Zhao Kuangyin, who had just retreated from the city wall, heard a huge commotion coming from inside the city. He keenly sensed that this was an opportunity to fight and immediately asked Guo Rong to allow him to charge again.

Guo Rong agreed and ordered Han Tong to lead his personal guards to accompany Zhao Kuangyin and Zhang Yongde in attacking the city.

The victory was a great success, and Guo Rong hoped that his three favorite generals would all receive military credit and become commanders capable of leading independently in the future.

Wang Pu and others were so excited that they burst into tears. When they were on the northern expedition, they all thought they should stop while they were ahead. Even the Tang Dynasty could not do anything to the Khitan, let alone the newly established Zhou Dynasty.
But at this moment, these old ministers wished they could slap themselves a few times. His Majesty was already a guest of the immortal cave, and had obtained countless magical treasures from the immortals. How could he be afraid of the little Khitans?

That's how intellectuals are; they're quite emotional. They're either terrified of other races or utterly contemptuous of them.

At this point, the speech was nearing its end. Guo Rong controlled the drone to patrol around once, then manually returned, waiting for the glorious moment when the city gates would open and the people of the entire city would line up to welcome the king's army.

He instructed Wang Pu and the others:
"Upon entering the city, the first thing to do is to count the number of households. During the count, the people should name the most heinous criminals in the city. I will hold a public trial in the city and execute those who prey on the people according to the law. The captured Khitans should also be executed without any preferential treatment!"

At first, Wang Pu didn't think anything of it, but after receiving the order and standing aside for a while, he realized something was wrong... Once the public trial was held, His Majesty's prestige would soar to unprecedented heights, and the good days for the soldiers would finally come to an end!
The Five Dynasties period was an era of mass-producing emperors. Military leaders installed one emperor after another, and the whole society was in turmoil. Now, the dawn of its end has finally arrived.

Inside Hunyuan Palace, Zhou Yi, now all alone again, finished dinner and made an appointment with Zhang Yuqiang to perform a ritual at the crane factory on the weekend. He also called Uncle Ming, asking him to come to Hunyuan Palace early on the weekend.

Grandpa has manipulated Uncle Ming's fate for half his life, bringing Fuyuan to the brink of collapse. It's time for him to help fix it.

After settling things down, Zhou Yi returned to his room, turned on his computer, played "Sneak Peek" for a while to relax his mind, and then began collecting various ancient materials that could be used.

At nine o'clock, he shut down his computer, opened the black notepad to check if he had accumulated any merit that day, and was then overwhelmed with immense joy:

Guo Rong used drones to win over Han Chinese civilians, leading to the return of Zhuozhou, one of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun. Merit +50

Zhuozhou, known as a military stronghold and the gateway to Youzhou, was captured just like that.

Putting aside the merit of five taels, the fact that a fortified city could be captured in just one day is a miracle in the history of warfare, isn't it?

Moreover, Guo Rong used drones to subvert the regime, without resorting to military force... An emperor who emerged from internal strife is indeed different from an emperor during a peaceful and prosperous era.

During the years that Guo Rong was emperor, wars never stopped, but other aspects were not neglected either.

For example, dredging the Caohe River between Shangqiu and Kaifeng allowed supplies from the south to be continuously delivered to the capital, saving a lot of manpower and resources.

He also expanded Kaifeng and enacted the Zhou Code, which was very lenient towards the people. This code was later inherited by Zhao Kuangyin and became the Song Code. The Zhou Code stipulated that people could move freely without household registration restrictions or travel permits.

Therefore, in "Water Margin", when Wang Jin, the instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards, heard that Gao Qiu had taken power, he could choose to "run away as the best option"; and when Wu Dalang could no longer bear the harassment of the local ruffians, he was able to move from Qinghe County to Yanggu County with his newlywed wife, Pan Jinlian.

This was not something that could be easily accomplished in the Tang Dynasty before the Song Dynasty or in the Ming Dynasty afterward.

In addition, the Zhou Law stipulated that there would be no curfew in the city, abolished the ward and market system of the Han and Tang dynasties, and only levied a city gate tax on commerce. People could set up stalls to make a living, which greatly promoted the development of commerce.

It is often said that the Song Dynasty was an era of rule by men, but in essence, the credit belongs to Guo Rong.

The next day, Zhou Yi offered incense to the statue of Houtu in the temple, then went back to the kitchen to cook porridge and prepare to tend to the potatoes planted outside.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, on the base area in the Yimeng Mountains, newly built shacks stretched for several miles. This was specifically ordered by Xin Qiji to prevent anyone from getting close.

It's still quite hot right now, so we've only set up a simple shack. We'll have to dig a dugout house later, the kind where the lower half is underground and the upper half is the roof. In the cold winter, it will provide significant warmth.

In addition to building shacks, many bushes on the flat land were also cut down and piled up in the living area for firewood.

The shacks are almost finished now. Today we'll start leveling the land, and the remaining people will go to the upper reaches of the Yi River to dig an irrigation canal to both irrigate the crops and solve the problem of drinking water.

In order to liberate the adults, all the children were gathered together and taught to read, write, and be good people by the old teacher from the Xin family.

While everyone was working, Xin Qiji took a drone and rode away to explore the entire area within a hundred miles, determining the locations of markets, towns, and other places. He also found several similarly flat, water-adjacent wastelands that would be incorporated into the future base area.

After surveying the surrounding terrain, he returned to the camp and began to devise future development plans.

For example, they could organize a team of archers to go into the mountains, train their archery skills under the guise of hunting, find out the locations of the people living in the mountains, and win them all over.

As for public sentiment, we should regularly screen a movie and hold a grievance meeting to let the displaced people talk about why they have fallen to this state... Only by opening their hearts and speaking their minds can they be considered one of our own.

Meanwhile, inside Zhuozhou City, Guo Rong rode his horse through the streets to the Zhuozhou government office, where he met the Han Chinese prefect and the Khitan garrison commander.

The garrison commander was captured by a group of women and children, and tied up like a dumpling, and was not untied all night.

Upon seeing Guo Rong, he no longer displayed the arrogant demeanor he had displayed atop the city wall. Instead, he knelt down with a thud and kowtowed repeatedly, as if pounding garlic.
“I am a member of the Khitan royal family. I beg the emperor of the Central Plains to spare my life. I am willing to persuade the emperor of the Liao Dynasty to cede territory.”

Guo Rong ignored him and instead looked at the Han Chinese prefect and asked:

"I heard you put up a stubborn resistance last night?"

The prefect was quite stubborn:

"I believe in the principle of 'one who receives the emperor's salary must serve him faithfully.' Since I have received the salary from His Majesty the Great Liao, I must be loyal to him to the very end!"

Guo Rong laughed upon hearing this:

"But did the Khitans treat you as a subject?"

A prefect with no military power was clearly just a puppet, yet now that the Khitan royal family has knelt down, the puppet is shouting about loyalty to the emperor and serving the country.

Guo Rong had no intention of trying to win over this kind of person, and instructed Han Tong:

"Bring this Khitan to the public trial, interrogate him, chop off his head, and have the prefect take it to Youzhou to see his master... This man wants to be a loyal subject of the Liao Kingdom, I will grant his wish!"

After saying this, Guo Rong mounted his horse and left, preparing to preside over the public trial to completely win over the hearts of the people of Zhuozhou.

As for the prefect of Zhuozhou, he could no longer be arrogant. He knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, shouting that he was willing to surrender... He knew very well that if he went back with the heads of the Khitan royal family, he would definitely not have a good outcome.

Hanlin Academician Li Fang rode up to Guo Rong and respectfully offered his advice:
"Your Majesty, if we could exchange that member of the royal family for some land, it might not be a bad thing for our Great Zhou... Killing him directly would be a bit of a pity."

Guo Rong said:

"The Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun have been occupied for decades, and if we start counting from the independence of Hebei, it has even exceeded a century... Now is the time for the lands of Yan and Zhao to return to the rightful place. All the people are watching closely, and we cannot lose sight of the bigger picture for the sake of small gains."

At this point, the emperor clenched his fist, his face radiating confidence:
"Even if we take a step back and assume that our Great Zhou is strong and well-equipped, we can simply take any land we desire without needing others to cede it to us!"

(End of this chapter)