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

Chapter 353 Grandpa's Letter! [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

Inside the Yiyuan Temple, Li Bai, Cen Xun, Yuan Danqiu, Wang Zhihuan, and Hu Ziyang, who was wearing a brand-new Taoist robe, stood side by side and bowed to the Taiji diagram in the main hall to say goodbye.

On this westward journey, the group will focus on Li Bai and do their best to create opportunities for the army.

Although most of the soldiers could not withstand the altitude sickness and it was difficult to occupy Tibetan land, they could still help reduce the population of Tibet.

After everyone had finished their greetings, Granny Gongsun, holding a copy of "Three Hundred Tang Poems," began reciting Wang Zhihuan's farewell poem:
"Willows sway in the east wind, green along the Imperial River; lately, I've seen many trees broken and plucked, surely because of the many partings..."

Wang Zhihuan frowned and said:
"Such a stirring scene, yet the poem is filled with such melancholy. What pedantic person wrote this?"

Aunt Gongsun chuckled:
"You wrote it. The immortal can see the future, so this is a poem you wrote in the future that I specially found out. What do you think?"

Wang Zhihuan felt this didn't fit the current tone of his angry execution of the Tibetans, and besides, he was counting on the Tibetan heads to exchange for wine. Such a good thing, how could he be sad?
"Willows sway in the east wind, green along the Imperial River; do not say that climbing and breaking them is hard, for with a whip, we will annihilate the Tubo!"

By changing just a few words, the mood is immediately transformed, from lamenting the parting with willow branches to galloping on horseback to annihilate the Tibetans, elevating the artistic conception by several levels.

It must be said that the poets of the Tang Dynasty were masters of evoking emotions.

Lady Gongsun wrote down the poem and inquired about Wang Han, the author of the poem: "Don't laugh at me, drunk and lying on the battlefield; how many have returned from ancient battles?"

"Is he a member of your family? Where does he work now?"

Wang Zhihuan nodded:
"He is my cousin, a year older than me. He has a free and unrestrained personality and loves fine wine. Three years ago, he went to Lechang to serve as a county magistrate. It is said that he will return to the capital soon to take up a new post. Unfortunately, I have to go to war and cannot wait for him."

Li Bai: "..."

Are you craving Master's wine?
I've heard that Wang Han is even more fond of drinking than Wang Zhihuan. I wonder if we can trick him into going to the front lines to kill the Tibetans, so that the Tang Dynasty can have a few more generals and poets.

The group consecrated each of the swords given to everyone and also said they would chant sutras and pray for everyone in front of Buddha.

Hu Ziyang said:
"You should study the mathematics textbooks bestowed by the immortal more and compile textbooks suitable for children in the Tang Dynasty as soon as possible. If they can be promoted throughout the country, the benefits to the Tang Dynasty will be immeasurable."

A group of people put their hands together and said:
"Rest assured, Master, this humble monk will keep it in mind."

After bidding each other farewell, Li Bai and the others mounted their horses, left Yiyuan Temple, and headed to the main camp outside the city to join Xue Ne's central army.

None of them brought armor because Li Bai planned to ask Zhou Yi to buy several sets of armor online. Modern steel plates are stronger and offer significantly better protection than Tang Dynasty armor for the same weight.

Inside the Yiyuan Temple, Princess Taiping calculated the daily food consumption of the army and said with great worry:

"Everything else in Guanzhong is fine, except that the amount of grain is quite insufficient. Now that war has broken out, a huge amount of grain is needed, but the transportation capacity is limited. If this continues, disaster will surely follow."

Gongsun Da Niang thought this was no big deal at all:

"Little Taiping, don't worry. At worst, I'll go to the Central Plains and transfer the grain prepared there through the Hunyuan Palace. My brother Li Bai can then take it directly to the front lines. This will not only save transportation time but also prevent damage and embezzlement..."

Princess Taiping asked with great interest:
How many can be transferred at once?

Gongsun Da Niang said:

“I haven’t calculated the exact amount, but the Taoist priest said last time that even if we only lay a one-meter-thick layer, we can transport several thousand tons at a time. If we open it up completely, transporting 10,000 tons at a time is no problem… The courtyard of Hunyuan Palace is very large and can store a huge amount of grain. As long as my brother Li Bai and I cooperate, we can transport grain from Jiangnan without breaking a sweat.”

Upon hearing this number, Princess Taiping suddenly felt that instead of going through the trouble of transporting the grain, it would be better to send her aunt on a business trip to order all regions to prepare the grain and transport it directly to Chang'an, which would surely alleviate the famine.

Of course, before that, the grain hoarded by the powerful families must be unearthed. In the past, the court could only turn a blind eye to the hoarding of grain and its high prices, but now, the powerful families can no longer make that kind of dirty money.

When Aunt Gongsun looked through the farmland area of ​​modern Guanzhong, she found that it was a staggering 18 million mu, and that some of that land had been converted back to forest.

She presented this number to Princess Taiping and said:

"There is still a lot of room for development in the arable land in Guanzhong. We need to get our eldest grandson to mobilize the displaced people to reclaim the land. Let alone 18 million mu, even if we only develop 10 million mu of arable land, based on the autumn planting and spring sowing, and the harvests of summer and autumn in later generations, the annual grain harvest will be astronomical."

Historical records about the Tang Dynasty often say that the Guanzhong Plain was overdeveloped, leading to a rapid shrinkage of arable land.

But in reality, it's still related to the powerful families' monopolization of land. One plot of land is vacant today, another tomorrow. The more vacant land there is, the higher the price of grain becomes, and the greater the profit from trading grain...

Princess Taiping thought for a moment, picked up the walkie-talkie, tuned it to Li Longji's channel 999, and pressed the intercom button:

"Let's have dinner at Yiyuan Temple this evening and discuss how to increase grain production."

Upon hearing this, Li Longji, who was working in the Wude Hall, quickly agreed:
"I will obey your orders, Aunt. I will go as soon as I finish the memorials at hand."

If it were anything else, Li Sanlang would finish his work before setting off, but increasing grain production is a matter of national importance, and even the most important political affairs must give way to this!
On the other side, in the world of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song Dynasty, after Zhao Xu broke camp, he slowly marched westward with the army. After several days, he finally arrived at Xingze in Zhengzhou, which is the Taohuayu of later generations, the starting point of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

The Yellow River, the mother river of China, flows quietly in its upper reaches, and although its middle reaches are powerful, they have always followed their own course in a relatively orderly manner. However, the lower reaches from Xingze to the estuary are a different story. Starting from the Song Dynasty, the lower reaches of the Yellow River became a disaster for North China and the Huanghuai Plain, breaching its banks every three years and changing its course every five years, and it has hardly ever been peaceful.

On the banks of the Yellow River, Zhang Dun stroked his beard and said:
"In retrospect, using the Yellow River to block the Liao Dynasty's southward invasion was a very wrong move. If the river had not been diverted at that time, the Yellow River might not be what it is today."

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River changed its course dozens of times, spreading across the entire North China Plain. Now, the Yellow River's channel is not good; the riverbed is too high, and the dikes are too weak, causing breaches almost every year. As a result, Hebei, a prosperous land during the Han and Tang Dynasties, now has a lot of barren land.

Zhao Xu asked:

"Is there a way to manage the Yellow River?"

Zeng Bu thought for a moment and came up with an idea that wasn't really an idea:

"We can follow the methods of the Han Dynasty, dikes can be breached and the river can be allowed to flow on its own. Once the riverbed is formed, people can build dikes on both banks... During the hundreds of years from the Western Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the Yellow River did not cause disasters to the people, which was thanks to this method."

If the Yellow River hadn't changed course three times, this method would have worked. But now almost the entire North China Plain is the old course of the Yellow River. If we were to dig up the earth and let the Yellow River flow freely, it might split into several branches, and the entire Hebei province would become a swamp.

Zhang Dun asked:

"Does the immortal master have any solutions?"

Zhao Xu shook his head:

"In the world where Master is now, the strategy of 'constraining water to attack sand' has been used for hundreds of years. Water conservancy hubs have been built, and water is released every year during the flood season to allow the floodwaters to scour the riverbed and wash the silt at the bottom of the river into the sea. After the riverbed is lowered, the harm of the Yellow River will naturally be reduced... Master said that controlling the Yellow River is a project that takes thousands of years to complete, and it is impossible to complete it in a short time."

Zhao Xu guessed that there should be other methods of governance through metaphysics, but Zhou Yi didn't mention it, and he didn't dare to ask any further questions.

Let's unify the territory first. Master said that only a unified dynasty is qualified to govern the Yellow River. If we want to govern it, we must unify China.

Zhao Xu planned to conquer the Western Xia and Liao dynasties before taking action to manage the Yellow River, transforming the unpredictable Yellow River into the mother river that nourishes the land of China once again.

They paid homage to the Yellow River with high-level rituals, and then continued westward.

From this point onward, the Grand Canal during the Tang Dynasty became severely silted up, making it impossible for boats to navigate, and many areas were even flattened.

Zhao Xu said:

"From now on, the task of dredging the Grand Canal will be handed over to the Western Xia Tanguts. They will reopen the waterway, and the Luo River will no longer flow into the Yellow River, but will instead connect to the Grand Canal. As for the Ru River that Master mentioned, we should also take a look at it then. If we can open another Grand Canal, it will surely become a golden waterway for our Great Song Dynasty!"

Zhang Dun and Zeng Bu both knew about the impending relocation of the capital. They felt a mix of emotions, realizing that the world would eventually become a Song Dynasty they no longer recognized.

In the evening, the army set up camp on the spot. Zhao Xu, having nothing to do, rode his horse to shoot a few gazelles to improve his diet.

He was about to go to the battlefield, so he had to seize every opportunity to train his archery and marksmanship to avoid making mistakes when capturing enemy generals and flags, and disgracing his master.

After the mutton stew was ready, Zhao Xu ate and drank his fill, and then began practicing marksmanship with the veteran soldiers in the army.

His diligence put the veteran officials accompanying the army to shame. Zhang Dun, Zeng Bu, and others worked overtime by lamplight. "If the Emperor doesn't rest, how dare we sleep?"

On the morning of August 17, the courtyard of Hunyuan Palace officially entered the demolition phase.

This small courtyard, built over several decades, holds Zhou Yi's childhood memories, and now it's finally time to say goodbye.

Before starting the excavation, he led four beautiful women, two adults and two children, to tour every room to make sure nothing was missed. Then he waved to Zhao Wei, who had been waiting for a long time.

Zhao Wei immediately started the excavator and began demolishing the courtyard.

With a gentle push from the excavator's bucket, the house collapsed with a roar, as if the house's structural supports had been removed after we moved in yesterday.

In the backyard of the Sanqing Hall, Da Tou Yang, wearing an apron, was busy cutting meat and cooking a large pot of vegetables.

Many neighbors came today to help Zhou Yi organize the bricks and clear away the construction waste so that Zhao Wei could dig the foundation and lay the subgrade.

Wearing white gloves and carrying four or five shovels, Wang Ge distributed them to Wang Shuangqing, Li Yongkang, and others. As soon as Zhao Weigang demolished the house on the north side, the group started clearing away the construction debris.

While he was busy, Brother Wang pulled a metal box out of the foundation of Zhouyi's room. It looked like it was made of cast iron and was quite heavy.

"Xiao Yi, there's a box here. Is it the treasure your grandfather buried?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi jogged over, picked up the box, and found it to be quite heavy. He carefully opened it and found a letter lying quietly inside.

The envelope had four characters written neatly with a brush:
[To Xiao Yi]

(End of this chapter)