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

Chapter 383 The Great Song Dynasty's Number One Mill! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Li Qingzhao checked the energy storage device of the wind turbine. It was fully charged, and the inverter was running normally. She could start grinding the flour.

A long queue had formed at the entrance of the mill. Almost all the families of high-ranking officials of the imperial court had sent people with grain to grind flour, to see the new equipment and see how much better it was than a stone mill.

The first family to be included was Cai Jing's. He had five bushels of wheat prepared, which filled an entire cart and was pulled to the mill gate by two oxen... After all, they were relatives, so regardless of whether it could be ground into flour, they had to express their support.

After the mill opened, Li Qingzhao had the wheat brought in to be weighed and charged by weight.

The scale was bought for her by Zhou Yi. It's an electronic platform scale with a maximum weighing capacity of one ton. Once Li Zhaozhao's business develops well, Zhou Yi plans to upgrade it to a smaller weighbridge.

The weight of the wheat was quickly determined:
"A total of 587 jin. Go to the accounting office to pay, and then start grinding."

Cai Jing's steward personally paid the money, and then watched as a mill worker pushed the wheat in a wheelbarrow to the chaff blower to remove dust, chaff, and impurities such as stones from the wheat.

After this step, the wheat becomes clean and free of impurities. It is then poured into the hopper of the flour mill, the power switch is turned on, and the grinding process begins.

The steward of the Cai family was dumbfounded. Before coming here, he thought there would be a huge stone mill, but he didn't see any stone at all. Instead, there was a pile of shiny steel parts.

He took the initiative to strike up a conversation with the workers:
"These several hundred pounds of wheat will take most of the day, right?"

Grinding flour with a stone mill would take a whole day to grind 500 catties of wheat. The steward of the Cai family thought that since this was a divine object bestowed by the immortals, it was already three times faster than a stone mill.

The miller then said:
“You weigh over 500 pounds, an hour will be enough… that is, half an hour.”

After saying that, he pointed to the digital clock hanging on the wall and said:

“We all use the celestial realm’s timekeeping system. The fine hand goes around once, and if it’s long, it will move a small square. One round is one hour. There are 24 hours in a day, which corresponds to our twelve two-hour periods.”

After saying that, he took a stack of brand-new woven bags, hung one on the flour outlet and the other on the bran outlet. Soon, white flour and large pieces of bran poured out from the two outlets respectively.

The biggest advantage of modern flour mills is that they automatically sift the flour, separating the bran from the flour and eliminating the need for stone mills to sift the flour.

The Cai family steward was astonished when he saw the woven bag:

"What is this?"

"The flour bags bestowed by the celestial realm will be given away for free during the three-day trial operation. After three days, they will be charged five coins each. They can only be purchased for grinding flour. If you need more than ten bags, you must report to the owner to prevent anyone from deliberately reselling them."

While this was still going on, the second customer came in to weigh the wheat, pay, and then started sifting.

The mill was filled with dust. Li Qingzhao came over, distributed masks to everyone, and instructed the accountant to count the woven bags. Then, carrying about ten pounds of flour, she went to the courtyard. She first looked at her appearance in the mirror to make sure there were no flaws before stepping into the Wenxuanwang Hall of Hunyuan Palace.

Upon seeing Zhou Yi, the girl was excited yet slightly shy.

"Master, Master, we've ground up some flour. Look how fine it is!"

Zhou Yi glanced at the bag; the flour was indeed of good quality, no different from modern wheat flour. However, he didn't dare touch it, unsure if doing so would add a thousand years to his lifespan.

"Go to each of the temples and make offerings. Regardless of whether these gods have contributed or not, it's always good to pay your respects."

"As ordered!"

Li Qingzhao carried a bag of flour to the Sanqing Hall. She first made offerings to the Three Pure Ones, and then went to the Haotian Hall, Zhongtian Hall, Changsheng Hall, Gouchen Hall, Houtu Hall, and Sanhuang Hall to make offerings to each of the gods, reporting to them on the industrialization process of flour production in the Song Dynasty.

After the girl finished turning around, Zhou Yi asked:

"Are those woven bags okay?"

"No problem, it works very well. People who grind flour can buy it in the future. If someone encounters difficulties in life, we will also give it away for free. In short, it will truly help the people."

The mill was merely a catalyst for modern society in the Song Dynasty, allowing the people of Song to witness the efficiency of machinery, which naturally led to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution... Water-powered textile machines and dyeing machines were already widely used in the Song Dynasty, and the mill was just a further push, guiding the people to explore on their own.

To prevent a shortage of woven bags, Zhou Yi purchased another 30 tons of coated woven bags from a wholesale website under the guise of stockpiling disaster relief supplies.

One ton of woven bags contains approximately 22,000 bags, so 30 tons would contain over 600,000 bags. By the end of the year, Li Qingzhao's mill would no longer have to worry about woven bags.

The hemp in the Song Dynasty hasn't been harvested yet. Let's buy Li Qingzhao a hemp weaving machine to produce hemp bags for storing grain, and gradually change the Song Dynasty.

Of course, the Song Dynasty could also influence other parts of the world. After all, the Song Dynasty was so wealthy that the taxes it collected could easily support several wars.

Last time, Zhao Xu said that once Zhuge Liang arrived, he would give the taxes of Lianghuai to the Prime Minister. Zhou Yi didn't pay attention to it at first, but not long ago, Wu Meiniang calculated based on historical records and found that the taxes and grain output of Lianghuai in the Song Dynasty were actually nearly ten times higher than those of the entire Shu Han.

Once Zhao Xu's support is all in place, Zhuge Liang will probably unconsciously utter a Li Yunlong-esque sigh:
"I've never fought such a rich battle before!" After buying the woven bags, Li Qingzhao looked around:
"Where is Sister Meiniang?"

Zhou Yi pointed to the town and said:
"Xue Guoqiang from the pharmacy commissioned a statue of Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun. Today is the appointed time. When he came this morning, he said that a batch of medicine for treating external injuries in the warehouse was about to expire and he planned to give it to me. Your sister Meiniang and sister Xishi went to move it and also bought an electric tricycle from town."

Upon hearing that the two older sisters were not there, Li Zhaozhao's heart fluttered with excitement.

"Immortal Master, I haven't been here for the past few days. Have you missed Zhao'er?"

Speaking of this, Zhou Yi asked:
"Do you mutter to the token all the time?"

Li Qingzhao immediately seemed to have her thoughts guessed:
"You... you can even figure this out?"

The Book of Changes says:

“Every time you mutter to the token, I can hear it faintly, but not very clearly. I can only feel that you are talking… At first, I thought it was tinnitus, but after deduce it, I found that it was related to your token.”

Li Qingzhao lowered her head, looking as if she had done something wrong:
"Have I disturbed the immortal master?"

Zhou Yi originally intended to tease her, but considering that this girl was sensitive and had many thoughts, he opened his arms and hugged her, giving her a rather domineering kiss... When dealing with a female literary youth, one must be a bit tough.

Sure enough, after the kiss, Li Qingzhao's back pain and leg aches disappeared, and she felt no longer aggrieved. She nestled in Zhou Yi's arms and happily talked about her plans, such as opening schools and sponsoring orphans.

Not long after, Wu Zetian and Xi Shi returned from town in their newly purchased electric tricycle, which was loaded with various medicines for treating external injuries, such as hydrogen peroxide, iodine, alcohol, gauze, anti-inflammatory drugs, and adhesive bandages.

When Wu Meiniang saw Li Qingzhao arrive, she handed her the letter left by Zhao Xu:

"Master is about to set off from Wei to Yunwu Mountain. Wang Qiang wants to bring him several hundred horses as mounts. Zhao Xu wants you to send some grain and fodder to Master through Cai Jing to help him."

Upon hearing this, Li Qingzhao immediately said:

"My brother-in-law recently beheaded several corrupt grain transport officials. When I get back, he'll bring some grain from the confiscated grain... Wait, is Wang Zhaojun here?"

Wu Zetian nodded:
"She arrived yesterday, but she won't be here for another four days. You can make time to meet her together."

With the leaves of Emperor Gouchen, everyone can freely adjust their travel time.

Upon hearing that Confucius had gone to Yunwu Mountain to build a school, Li Qingzhao immediately had the same idea:
"The Cloud Mist Mountain in our world seems to be abandoned as well. If possible, I would use the money I earn from the mill to build a school and systematically teach modern knowledge. Then I would have my master, that big glutton, take charge of it. It would definitely attract the best talents in the world."

Wu Zetian reminded her:

"In a few years, we can bring Yue Fei, Han Shizhong and others over. When they grow up, we can lead the army into the foreign lands and let those beasts experience the tragedy of their country being destroyed."

Li Qingzhao nodded heavily:

"Don't worry, sister, we will definitely recruit all the talents of the future!"

On the other side, in the world of the Tang Dynasty during the Zhenguan era.

The 150,000 Goguryeo reinforcements from Pyongyang finally arrived at a point about 50 or 60 li from Ansi City. In another day, they will be able to join forces with the garrison of Ansi City to launch a pincer attack on the Tang army.

Just then, the ambush troops arranged by Li Jing attacked.

These ambushes were not waiting in place. Instead, Li Jing calculated the time it would take for the Pyongyang army to arrive at the outskirts of Anshi City based on their marching speed. He then used this time to determine the marching speed of each unit, ensuring that all soldiers could arrive at the pre-arranged ambush points at the same time.

Without mainframe computers or battlefield simulations, he managed to calculate all of this using only his brainpower. It's no wonder that Li Weigong was revered as the Grand Marshal of the Heavenly Army.

More importantly, when he left Chang'an, he was walking with trembling feet. After several months of forced marches to Liaodong, he looked decades younger.

Not only could he live and eat with the soldiers, but he also had to handle a large amount of military-related intelligence and devise new combat plans... The title of "God of War" is truly fitting.

When the ambush began, Li Jing was on a small hill near Anshi City, with solar panels set up next to him and all his drones deployed to monitor the movements of the Goguryeo reinforcements.

Li Jing, holding a walkie-talkie, continuously made targeted arrangements based on the movements of the Goguryeo reinforcements, with combat missions even being specified down to a hundred-man squad.

Li Ji, as his deputy, was now truly convinced.

Before the war, this Minister of War thought that even 150,000 pigs wouldn't be so easy to kill.

But now, he suddenly realized that the Goguryeo people were actually lining up to die, and this one-sided battle was much easier than slaughtering pigs... It really proved the saying:

Following Li Weigong, military merits abound!
(End of this chapter)