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

Chapter 397 Another Batch of Mortars Made! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

The Hetao region is the most fertile farmland in the Yellow River basin. Due to its topography, the Yellow River can be used for gravity-fed irrigation, which is better than most places that rely on rainfall.

As a result, after the Southern Xiongnu occupied this area, they destroyed most of the farmland and began raising cattle and sheep.

On a small hill, Wang Zhang, holding binoculars, watched as fertile land turned into grassland, and said with a heavy heart:

"Such fertile land, fallen into the hands of foreign races, was trampled upon. The calamities caused by these foreign races are truly countless!"

Chen Tang opened a box of sandwich cookies, picked up a piece to taste, and thought it was good. He then shared half with Wang Zhang.
"Does Zhongqing think that Xiao Wangzhi's policy of treating the Xiongnu well was the right thing to do?"

Wang Zhang said angrily:

"What a load of rubbish! They're good for nothing but causing trouble. During Emperor Xuan's reign, the Xiongnu should have been wiped out in one fell swoop. If they had listened to Huang Ba and Yu Dingguo back then, they wouldn't be in this mess now."

Huang Ba and Yu Dingguo were both pragmatic ministers. When Huhanye first came to Chang'an to surrender, the two thought that they should just give him a marquisate and let him fend for himself. However, Xiao Wangzhi disagreed. He not only wanted to put Huhanye above the princes, but also proposed to support the Xiongnu with taxes in order to show the benevolence of the Han Dynasty.

Looking at the devastation in the Hetao region, Wang Zhang truly felt the severity of how corrupt scholars had misled the country.

Chen Tang took a series of photos with his phone and recorded some videos with a drone, intending to take them to Hunyuan Palace to print them out and have Wang Qiang take them to Chang'an to show the officials what kind of creatures they had raised by treating the Xiongnu so well.

Although the Chinese people value respect for the dead, some things still need to be settled. For example, how can we allow corrupt scholars like Xiao Wangzhi, who have caused harm for thousands of years, to gain prestige and become a representative of Confucianism?
Chen Tang said to Wang Zhang:
“Zhongqing, you are a good writer. Remember to write a memorial listing all the misfortunes of the Han people in this area, and then use it to impeach the officials. The more incisive the words, the better.”

Wang Zhang held a biscuit and took a crunchy bite:
"Could we remind His Majesty? Tell him that if the court does not protect the common people, then a court that does will naturally appear... In that case, His Majesty will not demote me to a commoner, will he?"

Chen Tang waved his hand:
"Just keep writing. When the time comes, let Lao Gan read it aloud in the court. If any of the officials object, I think Lao Gan will be happy to chat with them."

As long as the court officials did not protest, Liu Shi would only endure it even if he was unhappy. After all, Lao Gan's presence in the court represented "the correctness of the Mandate of Heaven," which was much more important than political correctness.

When Chen Tang set off from Chang'an this time, the imperial court had also prepared an edict to move the capital of Beidi Commandery to Lian County, and the governor of Beidi Commandery was replaced by someone who advocated a hardline stance against the Xiongnu.

The original seat of Beidi Commandery was in Maling County in northern Guanzhong, nearly a thousand miles away from the Xitao Plain where Helan Mountain is located. Even if it wanted to govern, it would have been difficult to manage.

Now things are much better. The administrative center has been moved to the foot of the Helan Mountains, which not only allows for better development of the Xitao Plain, but also helps to defend against the invasions of the Xiongnu and Qiang people.

After finishing the biscuits, Chen Tang said:
"Once this is over, I will return to Beidi County and build a dam for them to facilitate irrigation of their farmland."

Wang Zhang was somewhat curious:

"How do I fix it? Is it the kind of device that generates electricity, like those on tablets?"

Chen Tang shook his head:

"The kind of dam that requires a difference in elevation and needs to be built as a gravity dam is extremely difficult. What I want to build is to block the Yellow River and artificially raise the water level so that many gravity-flow canals can be dug on both sides of the Yellow River for irrigation... If it works, we will use this method to develop fertile land in the front and back of the river."

While the two were chatting, the Xiongnu people, along with their families, were being escorted to Beidi County, and the people escorting them were the local Han Chinese who had previously suffered greatly in this area.

Chen Tang also planned to recruit a group of traitors from among the Xiongnu to manage the Southern Xiongnu people, thereby diverting the prisoners' hatred towards the Han Dynasty.

However, forming such a traitorous team requires caution; each member must swear an oath before the token, and no one can be careless.

Inside the Hunyuan Palace, Wu Meiniang returned from the Zhenguan era and handed Zhou Yi a letter written in pinyin by Li Mingda:
"When Li Mingda was burning incense for Empress Zhangsun at the Guanyin Hall, he received a divine revelation from Guanyin that she would come to Hunyuan Palace in a little over a month... Do immortals even give such revelations?"

Zhou Yi was also a little puzzled. He read the letter over and then smiled at Wu Meiniang, asking:

"You've been using my suffering to fool Li Mingda all this time. What if she comes and finds out it's not like that? Won't she come after you?"

Wu Zetian gently shook her head:
"If she sees that you haven't suffered, she will only breathe a sigh of relief... Besides, you asked me to take care of your daily life, and I feel that you don't have enough servants around you. Is that wrong?"

Zhouyi: "..."

Good grief, I put you in charge of my life, and now you're watching me every day, huh?

He put the letter away, led Wu Meiniang to the Guanyin Hall, set out offerings, burned incense for Guanyin Bodhisattva, and instructed Wu Meiniang to come and offer incense every day from now on.

Since others are using divine revelation to attract talent to Hunyuan Palace, the incense offerings naturally need to keep up.

After offering incense, Zhou Yi instructed Wu Meiniang to keep an eye on Hunyuan Palace, then drove down the mountain to Xishan Cemetery in Yiyang City to perform funeral rites for a client.

This clause was included in the consulting contract we signed with Xishan Cemetery: when clients need religious rites, the I Ching expert must come. Fortunately, this is a separately charged service, and most people wouldn't choose it.

When Zhou Yi arrived, Uncle Ming had already been waiting at the entrance of the cemetery for a while. The two of them, dressed in Taoist robes, went inside to perform the rituals and then went to a well-established noodle restaurant in the city for lunch.

Uncle Ming skillfully ordered dishes such as shredded pig's ear in chili oil, and then started talking about the Dragon King statue in Qingshui Town:
"Recently, several people have said that the Dragon King is very powerful. Is that a shrine to lewd people?"

Ever since he learned that Zhouyi required merit, Uncle Ming began to pay attention, but unfortunately he looked in the wrong direction and actually set his sights on the Dragon King statue that Zhouyi had consecrated.

"I consecrated the Dragon King statue, as well as the local earth gods of Sanlizhuang in Xiuchuan County and Lijia Ferry in Lushan County. Apart from these three, there are no others."

Uncle Ming wrote it down and started talking about the blind man:
“Recently, Jin Diao Ke went to Hebei. I don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s been getting busier and busier ever since he dealt with those Manchus.”

Zhou Yi picked up a piece of dried ear fungus with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.

"They're probably setting a trap for the Qing dynasty. They're telling them that the abacus is available anytime, and they can even drive to deliver it... As long as there's good karma involved, everything is negotiable."

After the noodles arrived, the two ate their lunch in no time. After Uncle Ming paid the bill, the two drove off one after the other.

Uncle Ming went to the factory to handle business, while Zhou Yi drove back to Yunwu Mountain.

Three days later, Wu Meiniang went to the Zhenguan World early in the morning with the leaves of Emperor Gouchen. After learning that she had arrived in Fanyang, she got out of the carriage, returned to Hunyuan Palace, and took all the prepared supplies with her. She then began to direct the cavalry to install solar panels and set up relay antennas.

Zhou Yi drove to Lijia Ferry to consecrate the local earth god temple.

Hunyuan Palace was short-handed, with only one Xi Shi, who also had to stay home to look after Zhao Yan and Zhao Rui. Zhou Yi asked Uncle Ming to find a few colleagues to consecrate the local temple together.

Du Chunyi from Sanlizhuang came to take a look and confirmed that the local earth god was not as good as the one in Sanlizhuang, and only then did he feel relieved.

In terms of the statues, those from Lijiadu are modern stone carvings, while those from Sanlizhuang are hand-carved from the Tang Dynasty. They are indeed different, but after being consecrated, they are both manifestations of the God of Fortune and Virtue, and both will be very efficacious.

Meanwhile, in the world of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the steward of the Cai family arrived at Li Qingzhao's house early in the morning and respectfully said:

"The Prime Minister has prepared all the provisions that Confucius needs. In the courtyard next to the armory, he has also added some captured weapons, which he will present to Confucius."

Li Qingzhao nodded:
"I understand. Go back and tell Prime Minister Cai that the grain and military supplies to be transported to His Majesty's camp can be piled up at the armory. I will transfer them to the front line through Hunyuan Palace, thus avoiding losses on the way."

The steward agreed and hurriedly left to inform Cai Jing.

Li Qingzhao drank a bowl of porridge, then rode her electric scooter to the gunpowder workshop of the arsenal, where she saw the shells produced there... The shells and barrels of the 60mm mortar were relatively easy to make, and recently the gunpowder workshop had been working overtime to produce a lot of shells and barrels.

Li Qingzhao walked around inside, checking the wiring and potential safety hazards, and replaced the talismans pasted everywhere, avoiding danger from both scientific and metaphysical perspectives.

After the inspection, she had the cannonballs and cannon barrels packed into wooden crates lined with straw, stacked them up, and then put them together with the grain and fodder next door, to be transported to Hunyuan Palace the next day.

The cannonballs remained stored in the warehouse behind the Haotian Palace, while the grain and fodder were transported away by Xi Shi.

The mortar has never been used in actual combat. Li Duidui really wanted to see what it would look like to explode in the enemy camp, but unfortunately Zhao Xu had not yet reached the front line, and there was still some time before the war started.

At the same time, the world after Zhou.

After the war in Youzhou came to an end, Guo Rong put Zhang Yongde in charge of defending Youzhou against the Khitan counterattack. Then, he led Wang Pu and others westward along Zijing Pass, passing through the cities of Feihu and Lingqiu, and arrived outside Hunyuan City.

Hunyuan City was built against the mountain, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. In particular, the terrain outside the city gate was narrow and steep, making it difficult for troops to deploy. Pan Mei and Wang Yansheng launched a fierce attack for several days, but they were unable to make any progress.

What's even more infuriating is that the Northern Han actually sent an army to aid them, and they kept provoking the city walls, which angered Wang Yansheng so much that he tied up a bunch of Khitan prisoners and beheaded them outside the city to vent his anger.

Upon hearing of His Majesty's arrival, Pan Mei and Wang Yansheng knelt outside the main tent to plead guilty, but were personally helped up by Guo Rong.

"Have you gotten too comfortable with fighting and think that every city can change hands overnight like Youzhou? Before, when we attacked cities, didn't it take at least three months to conquer one?"

Wang Yansheng said:
"Since we began our westward advance, our army's morale has been high. However, we have been blocked by Hunyuan City, and the army's morale has plummeted. I urge Your Majesty to think of a solution. If we are forced into a protracted war, it will be very disadvantageous for our army!"

Guo Rong thought for a moment and quickly came up with an idea:
"Today we'll slaughter a batch of cattle and sheep from the grasslands to reward the army. Tomorrow morning, I'll go to the Immortal Master to see if he has any siege weapons to take Hunyuan City in one fell swoop and boost the morale of the soldiers!"

(End of this chapter)