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

Chapter 305 Li Shimin Makes Empty Promises! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng exchanged a glance and reported to Li Shimin:
"Your Majesty, the two of us have been working together to deduce the truth for many days, during which we have coughed up blood several times. Although we have not reached any conclusions, we have noticed some clues... We cannot continue to deduce the truth, otherwise not only will our lives be in danger, but our descendants will also be implicated."

Li Shimin sat up straight with a start:

"What clues?"

Li Chunfeng looked around, and after Li Shimin dismissed his attendants, he spoke:
“Every time we deduce the existence of Immortal Yiyuan, we cough up blood. At first, we thought it was because our ancestor forbade us to do so. But later we discovered that Immortal Yiyuan might be... our ancestor himself. We have been atoning for our sins during this time. We hope that our ancestor will not blame us. Your Majesty, please do not inquire any further. We must not do anything that is disrespectful to our superiors, otherwise we will be unable to atone for our sins for a hundred lifetimes.”

Li Shimin picked up the teapot and personally poured tea for the two men who had lost too much blood:
"My daughter, Sizi, may go to the Immortal's Cave in the future. As her father, I couldn't help but inquire more. I am truly sorry to both of you."

When Wu Zetian first went to Hunyuan Palace, Li Shimin had Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng deduce the Hunyuan Palace. At that time, the two of them vomited blood and almost lost their lives.

Now Li Shimin secretly asked the two to deduce the truth, and then he vomited blood again.

Yuan Tiangang took a sip of tea and said to Li Shimin:

"If Your Majesty has no other instructions, we will return and continue to kneel before the statue of our ancestral master to atone for our sins. The karma we have committed this time is too great, and we estimate that we will have to kneel for a year or two."

The subtext of this statement is: don't assign us any more work for the next year, or the founding fathers will come knocking on our door.

Li Shimin handed a set of mathematics textbooks to Li Chunfeng and said:
"Lord Li is skilled in mathematics. Could you compile a set of mathematics textbooks suitable for our Great Tang Dynasty based on the teaching materials bestowed by the immortal, so that everyone in our Great Tang Dynasty can understand mathematics?"

Mathematics is the foundation of science; without mathematics, science cannot develop.

Li Chunfeng was a famous mathematician of the Tang Dynasty who annotated many mathematical classics, such as the "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art," the "Zhoubi Suanjing," and the "Sea Island Suanjing." It was Li Chunfeng who discovered and recorded Zu Chongzhi's milestone of calculating pi to seven decimal places in the "Book of Sui: Treatise on Music and Calendars, Part 1: Compilation of Numbers." Otherwise, Zu Chongzhi's achievements in the field of mathematics would have been lost to history.

In addition, Li Chunfeng revised ten important mathematical classics, annotated and organized ten classics from before the Tang Dynasty, and properly preserved them so that these classics could be passed down to future generations.

This guy was hailed as a child prodigy from a young age. In addition to mathematics, Li Chunfeng was also proficient in history, astronomy, yin and yang, calendrical calculations, metaphysics and other fields. He was a polymath.

When Li Shimin saw the math textbook Li Mingda was studying, he thought he could have Li Chunfeng copy it and compile a set of textbooks to fully utilize the guy's talents, so that he wouldn't be idle all day, spending his time speculating on metaphysics and feng shui, causing panic among the people.

The compilation of teaching materials lies in controlling the level of difficulty. The difficulty should be increased in stages each year, but Li Shimin did not know how to do it in detail. He left it to professionals like Li Chunfeng to arrange.

The compiled teaching materials can be used from generation to generation, which is equivalent to the knowledge summarized by Li Chunfeng being passed down from generation to generation. This is more conducive to the discovery and cultivation of mathematical talents.

Li Chunfeng was genuinely interested in the textbook in his hands, while Yuan Tiangang was somewhat worried:
"Your Majesty, powerful families possess knowledge. If we rashly compile and disseminate books, will it provoke their resistance?"

Li Shimin arrogantly pulled out the token from his pocket:

"What I want is for them to resist; the more they resist, the happier I am."

You monopolize knowledge? Then I will promote new knowledge, and systematically at that. The more the powerful clans resist, the better the promotion will be, because it will directly benefit the common people. When the imperial court changes the imperial examination system, the powerful clans will suffer an epic weakening.

As for starting a rebellion... that's just showing off your skills in front of Guan Yu. As long as Li Shimin is alive, no one can gain the slightest advantage in the military field.

Moreover, in terms of personal charisma, even powerful families might not be able to incite rebellious soldiers and generals.

Upon seeing the token, Yuan Tiangang was startled:
"Is this the object that summons divine thunder?"

Li Shimin nodded:
"This is a black iron token, given to those who cannot go to the Hunyuan Palace. Those who can go will be given a fine steel token, and the emperor who can go will be given a brass token."

Upon hearing the word "brass," Li Chunfeng picked up his whisk, touched the brass decoration at the end, and asked:
"This kind of brass?"

Li Shimin shook his head:
"Meiniang called it high-strength brass, a high-strength alloy with a hardness comparable to diamond. Our Great Tang Dynasty has never even heard of it, let alone made it."

At this point, Old Li subtly painted a rosy picture for the two Taoist priests:

"If you two can help the Tang Dynasty reach new heights, I can shamelessly ask the Immortal Master to bestow upon you both Black Iron Tokens. The Immortal Master needs a massive amount of merit; the more merit you accumulate, the more treasures he will bestow upon you."

These words immediately spurred Yuan Tiangang on. The old man had originally planned to rest for a whole year, but now he unconsciously rolled up his sleeves, ready to take another gamble.
"Does Your Majesty intend to exterminate the powerful clans? If so, I have a few preliminary suggestions..."

Li Shimin: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

You were acting like you were going to die just now, but now that you hear there's something to gain, you're not even pretending anymore, are you?
He turned on the fan beside him, letting the cool breeze caress him, and then spoke his mind:
"The common people are the foundation, while powerful families are the pillars. Without powerful families, the court can easily collapse, but if powerful families are too strong, they will break through the roof... They should be greatly restricted and weakened, but not completely eliminated for the time being."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Tiangang cast aside his immature ideas and began to ponder ways to restrict the powerful families.

Meanwhile, in the Later Zhou Dynasty, when Yelü Talie, who had lost an eye and an arm, was brought to the camp, Xiao Siwen could not believe his eyes. The once spirited Southern King had become such a grotesque figure.

It's quite interesting that just three days ago, both sides were high-ranking officials of the Liao Kingdom, but now one has fled south and the other has been captured, and they have met in the Zhou army camp.

It can truly be said that fate is truly wondrous!

Guo Rong stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Yelü Talie, who had once killed his beloved general, and sighed silently.

They were almost able to capture Taiyuan, but Shi Yanchao's death greatly affected morale, and problems with the logistics line forced him to retreat.

From a historical perspective, after that withdrawal, the Northern Han Dynasty survived for another twenty years, until Zhao Guangyi came to power and it was finally pacified.

Now that the Great Zhou is strong and well-equipped, and even has divine protection, it's time to end the Northern Han's practice of recognizing a traitor as their father.

Yes, in order to avoid being destroyed, the Northern Han took the initiative to acknowledge Yelü Jing as their father and lowered themselves to the rank of King of Han, thus completely defiling the word "Han," which represents the symbol of the nation.

Before meeting Yelü Talie, Guo Rong had prepared a lot of questions to ask him, but now that he saw him in person, he lost interest in asking questions.

All the necessary intelligence was obtained when Youzhou fell, including defense maps of the surrounding passes.

Yelü Talie's rank is too low, and his status is not equal to mine. I'll wait until I capture Yelü Jing, then sit down and have a proper talk with him.

Guo Rong glanced at it twice, then left with his hands behind his back. Xiao Siwen walked over, stared at his mortal enemy inside the prison cart, and calmly said:
"If you hadn't let them destroy my Bali clan that night, perhaps things wouldn't be so tragic. The people of the Central Plains proposed the principle of 'if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold' thousands of years ago, but you didn't understand it. Now you're a prisoner. Do you regret it?"

Yelü Talie laughed, then looked at his blind eye socket, and as he laughed, he let out a painful wail.

As he was howling, Xiao Yanyan grabbed a sharpened wooden stick and plunged it into Yelü Talie's severed arm wound, causing the prisoner's screams to suddenly intensify several times over.

Seeing this, Guo Rong became even more certain that Xiao Yanyan was his daughter-in-law.

He called out to Xiao Yanyan from afar:
"The basic spear technique of the Great Zhou Imperial Guards infantry: thrust forward. Grip the spear with both hands, lower your body, and let your waist move; the spear will strike like a dragon!"

Xiao Yanyan thought the Emperor of Great Zhou would reprimand her, but then she realized that he was instructing her on spear techniques. She immediately assumed a horse stance and adopted a spear-wielding posture.

Guo Rong then shouted:

"Target ahead, thrust straight in!"

Xiao Yanyan gripped the gun with both hands and thrust it forward with a sharp "ha!" The pointed wooden stick pierced Yelü Talie's stomach.

She retracted the wooden stick, and Guo Rong shouted again, thrusting diagonally upwards. This time, the stick pierced directly into Yelü Talie's throat.

The stick wasn't sharp enough, which would allow Yelü Talie to experience more pain.

Soon, the Southern King had more than a dozen wounds of varying depths on his body, his whole body was convulsing, and his mind was on the verge of collapse.

When Xiao Yanyan got tired of stabbing, her two older sisters took over, and the three sisters only stopped their assassination attempts when Yelü Talie's blood had dried up.

Xiao Siwen was pleased with his daughter's growth, but worried that she might cause trouble, so he offered to take her to live in Bianliang.

Having avenged my great grudge, I can finally leave this place.

Guo Rong appointed him as the Crown Prince's tutor and Xiao Yanyan as the Eastern Palace's companion, clearly indicating the intention to cultivate a childhood sweetheart relationship.

At the same time, inside the Hunyuan Palace, Zhou Yi, facing the setting sun about to sink into the mountains, cast a divination for Li Longji. The divination result was very auspicious, indicating that tomorrow's actions would go very smoothly.

It would be good if things went smoothly. Hopefully, the five surnames and seven clans will relinquish more fertile land so that the reforms in the Kaiyuan world can proceed smoothly.

Compared to internal strife, Zhou Yi hoped they would sharpen their swords against foreign tribes, eliminate border troubles, and make the Tang Dynasty a truly great dynasty.

While he was lost in thought, in the world of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Xu placed the statue of the Earth Goddess in the palace hall. As soon as it was placed, he felt the resentment in his heart disappear and the hatred in his heart for Gao Taotao was also greatly reduced.

He earnestly paid homage to the Earth Goddess, then, carrying plum wine and sweet rice wine he had brought from modern society, slowly made his way to Yaohua Palace to visit the deposed Empress Meng…

(End of this chapter)