You have truly caused me great suffering!

The area occupied by Li Xiaozhong, known as Baidao, is near Hohhot in later times.

Chen Shao immediately ordered the construction of a city there, and the establishment of several fortified villages around it, which Li Xiaozhong arranged himself.

As for the various tribes of the grasslands, if any of them disobey, we will lead our troops to attack them.

The Yinshan Mountains stretch 800 li from east to west, with only three passages accessible to large armies: Baidao, Jilu Pass, and Gaoque Pass.

Among them, only the Baidao Road is two miles wide and has a gentle slope, making it the only passageway that can accommodate supply trains and cavalry groups.

Since ancient times, when the northern expeditions reached the grasslands, those who obtained the White Road were like trapped beasts.

If the white path is lost, all efforts will be in vain.

This is the ironclad rule of the Yinshan defense line that has stood for millennia.

Qu Duan didn't need to give any orders; he had already sent troops to occupy Songshan, cutting off the escape route to the north.

They drove the last of the Jin army and royal family towards Yanshan to find Wanyan Zongwang, the last strong force of the Jurchens.

Wanyan Zongwang's situation was even more desperate than Xiao Gan's back then, because he was truly surrounded on all sides.

To the north lies Quduan, to the west Yue Fei, to the east Zhang Shuye, and to the south the four major military prefectures of Pingluan, Jingrun, and Pingluan, which are on high alert.

There is no way to heaven and no way to earth.

Xiao Gan, the former King of Xi, was pursued by Wanyan Zongwang and retreated to Lulong Ridge, where he was besieged by the Jin army and died fighting bravely.

The Xi people were later forcibly relocated by the Jin Dynasty and incorporated into the "Meng'an Mouke," and they are still under Zongwang's command today.

Now, Wanyan Zongwang, who killed him, is also trapped here. It is believed that he will be able to meet Xiao Gan soon.

Apart from the construction of the city at Baidao, the war in the north is proceeding according to the established strategy.

The construction of Baidao City was also entirely under Li Xiaozhong's responsibility. He had done this job when he was in Xiazhou, and he did it quite well.

Zhang Tianwang and his men were also forced by the Jin army's strength to flee south through the White Road, so they were quite familiar with this area.

Chen Shao was very relieved to entrust the city construction to him.

Before leaving his post, Chen Shao summoned Zhang Run, a collator in the Imperial Academy, who was the one who proposed the Hanbai school.

Zhang Run is a descendant of Zhang Yichao, and his clan now controls the Qilian Mountain Ranch and part of the Qingtang Ranch.

When he entered through the sloping corridor to pay his respects, he happened to see Chen Shao writing something.

This imperial desk, with its brush holder, paper, and ink, determined countless important events across vast distances.

Not daring to disturb him, he stood aside and waited. After a while, Chen Shao put down his brush with satisfaction, thinking to himself that his calligraphy had improved rapidly. He looked up and saw Zhang Run standing there, and waved with a smile, saying, "Come and see, how is it?"

Zhang Run stepped forward and discovered that it was an imperial edict, appointing him as Vice Minister of Rites.

Zhang Run was stunned for a moment, standing there without reacting. It wasn't until Wang Xiaojie coughed to remind him that he hurriedly bowed to express his gratitude.

"What virtue or ability do I possess to deserve such favor from Your Majesty!"

"I'm asking you, how is this calligraphy?"

"The brushstrokes are vigorous and powerful, like an angry lion or a thirsty steed, yet they are also free and unrestrained. It is truly the finest running script of all time! In my opinion, even Wang Xizhi would have to bow down in admiration upon seeing it!"

Chen Shao laughed heartily and retorted with a smile, "You sycophant, spouting nonsense!"

Zhang Run wasn't lying. He was a sixth-rank official with no real power, but when he saw the imperial edict promoting him to Vice Minister of Rites, even though the handwriting was scrawled like a dog's scratch, he still thought it was the most beautiful in history.

“But since you like it,” Chen Shao picked out a piece of calligraphy from his practice sheets on his desk and said, “Take it.”

Chen Shao liked to bestow his handwritten calligraphy upon his ministers because he genuinely believed his writing was quite good. Moreover, he practiced calligraphy frequently, using only the finest paper and ink, and it would be a waste not to reward them.

Although he became emperor, he never lost his virtues of diligence and frugality. He would not waste a single grain of rice in his bowl when eating, let alone such valuable Chengxintang paper.

Of course, in the eyes of the ministers, the value of this piece lay more in the emperor's personal touch. As for calligraphy, it was currently in its golden age, with countless masters in both official and private circles.

Zhang Run knelt down with a thud, kowtowed, and expressed his gratitude once again. He then carefully got up from the floor and accepted the letter and the imperial edict.

He was very excited. He had long heard that the current emperor was particular about employing people without being bound by convention, and he never expected that it was true.

Nowadays, people from border areas and places where they interact with other ethnic groups tend to be more disciplined.

For example, the three Jin sisters, Zhang Yinghan and Zhai Rui, used to call Chen Shao "Master," while the black maid Liu Guanglie hired for Chen Shao called him "Eldest Brother."

The barbarian generals and officials would readily kneel and kowtow, while those around him, such as Wei Li, Li Tangchen, and Zhang Xiaochun, were much more casual.

Scholars and officials in the Central Plains mostly bowed and clasped their hands in greeting, only kneeling on important occasions according to etiquette.

It wasn't until the Qing Dynasty that servility in officialdom reached an unprecedented level. The Qing rulers had absolutely no sense of responsibility towards the country and the world; they only felt that the world was something they had seized, and whether it developed or not, whether it became strong or not, was irrelevant, as long as they weren't driven out by the Han people again.

Chen Shao promoted him not because he was Zhang Yinghan's older brother, but because he valued talent above all else.

The fact that this kid was able to propose the idea that Han and Bai share the same lineage shows that he is very capable, quick-witted, adaptable, and knows what he wants.

That's such a cunning move.

It's like a soft knife, slowly but surely stabbing Dali into a state of unspeakable suffering, and you can't even find fault with it.

Even if I get close to you, it's not allowed? If you refuse my offer of a toast, I also have quite a few troops. Have you ever seen the Red River Plain?
How do you compare to the Ly Dynasty of Dai Viet?
Dali was indeed afraid, because the Li Dynasty had always been violent and aggressive towards them, and had been encroaching on Dali's land for many years, only to have it wiped out by the Da Jing Dynasty.

Its deterrent effect is maximized.

"Consort Zhang is dignified and courteous, and her conduct is measured and appropriate, which pleases me greatly. However, she lives deep in the palace and cannot see her parents. As her elder brother, you can send the women in your family to visit her in the palace from time to time to ease her homesickness."

Zhang Run happily agreed.

The current emperor is a man of honor and acts with great propriety, so he is not worried that things will turn out the same way as they did during Emperor Gaozong's reign.

After Li Zhi married his father's concubine, Wu Zetian's relatives entered the palace, and he slept with each one who entered.

In the end, they collected photos of all the women's sisters, aunts, nieces, and mothers and daughters.

Chen Shao would never learn to be like such an insect, lest he end up like him and not live long.

After Zhang Run left, Chen Shao stretched his arms and walked out of the main hall.

I've finished the more important things for today, although there's still a thick stack of memorials left, all of which are less urgent matters that I've selected.

Chen Shao would usually have the Secretariat handle the matter.

He doesn't like to do everything himself, firstly because he has limited energy, and secondly because it's too tiring.

During the Song Dynasty, there was a system for reviewing memorials, which Emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji) reformed, so the emperor basically didn't need to get involved.

Chen Shao has now made only slight changes, allowing the Secretariat to select some major events, urgent reports, and secret reports. Apart from these, they only need to report to him what government affairs have been handled.

Chen Shao did not meet with his close ministers every day; he would take a day off every three to five days.

Thinking about the many border affairs and his busy political work these past few days, Chen Shao thought he should go outside the city to relax and take a walk, which would be a good exercise.

After returning to the palace and changing his clothes, he led Da Hu and the others on horseback to the south bank of Xuanwu Lake.

The willows of Taicheng are the most heartless, still shrouded in mist along the ten-mile embankment.

The farmland and Buddhist temples are interspersed in front of us, and we can still vaguely see the ruins of the palaces of the Six Dynasties, of course, only broken walls remain.

At this moment, at the end of the road, Li Gang gazed wistfully at the harvested land, his expression quite strange.

His travels over the past few years, though consisting of simple meals of wild vegetables with dipping sauce, have made him healthier.

His final stop was Jinling, the capital of the Great Jing Dynasty.

The prosperity of Jinling far exceeded his expectations. Although it had not yet surpassed Bianliang in prosperity after only one year of being the capital, it already had the grandeur of a capital city.

Along the way, through what he heard and saw, his opinion of Chen Shao gradually changed.

He is definitely not a treacherous person with wolfish ambitions who only cares about seizing the throne.

From the perspective of the Central Plains, he may be a great ruler whose achievements surpass those of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han, and opposition to him would undoubtedly become a stain on history.

All so-called loyalty pales in comparison to his achievements.

As he was lost in thought, the crowd passing by caught his attention. He glanced at the servant beside him, then turned to look at the crowd.

The young man stood between the ridges of the field, smiling and saying something.

Seeing that he was also standing on the ridge of the field, the young man walked towards him.

Li Gang immediately tensed up.

He knew Chen Shao; he had seen him from afar several times when they were in Hedong.

However, Chen Shao did not recognize Li Gang. Although he had heard of Li Gang's great reputation, he had never actually met him.

Before Chen Shao went to the capital, this guy had already been driven out of Bianliang by Cai Jing.

Even if they knew him, they probably wouldn't recognize him now. Although Li Gang was in his prime, his skin was no longer the fair and refined white of a scholar-official, but rather dry and dark, due to his travels in the Northwest and Hedong over the past few years.

"Is this gentleman the owner of this farmhouse?"

Chen Shao asked with a smile.

Li Gang paused for a moment and didn't say anything, which Chen Shao took as his tacit agreement.

At this time, many people were not good at talking. He said, "I see that there is still a lot of straw in your field that has not been processed. Could it be that you are someone who has recently acquired land in Dingnan Army?"

Li Gang gave a vague answer and nodded casually.

Chen Shao said with a smile, "Then they're one of us. Let me tell you, if you leave this here, it will be stolen soon. Returning the straw to the field can replace manure. If you don't want to do much work, just chop it up or trample it into the mud and let it rot into fertilizer."

“A better approach is to take these straws home, mix them with human and animal excrement and wood ash, compost them to make manure, let them decompose over winter, and then apply them to the fields in spring.”

Li Gang remained silent, but Chen Shao's enthusiastic and cheerful expression, along with his smile, completely won him over.

He finally understood why this man was able to drive out the Tartars, destroy the Xia in the west, the Jin in the north, and the Yue in the south within ten years.
Moreover, it did not cause turmoil in the Central Plains.

He sighed, his face showing shame, and clasped his hands in greeting, saying, "This humble subject, Li Gang, pays his respects to Your Majesty."

"Li Liangxi?"

"Exactly." Li Gang shook his head inwardly. He had said many unpleasant things back then, and he guessed that the man wouldn't give him a kind look.

Chen Shao clicked his tongue and said, "I've long heard of your name; I never expected to meet you here."

Seeing a thatched pavilion nearby, he said, "Come, come, sit down and let's talk."

The expected cold face didn't come. Li Gang thought to himself, "That's right, he has such a magnanimous heart. It was I who was petty."

He was never intimidated, not even when facing the emperor. He followed Chen Shao into the thatched pavilion and saw Chen Shao sit directly on the railing, while Li Gang did not sit down.

Chen Shao said, "Sit down."

Li Gang nodded and sat down.

"Today I have left the palace incognito. Let us not stand on the formalities between ruler and subject. I have heard that Mr. Liangxi has gone to Hedong?"

Li Gang said, "This humble subject traveled from Hedong to Lingwu and Hexi, circled around Qinghai and Tangshan, and then traveled through Longyou and Shaanxi to Jinling."

"Good, good. As the sage said, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. What you learn from books is never enough; you must put it into practice to truly understand. You can only make a judgment about the principles of this world after you have seen and experienced them with your own eyes."

"In the Central Plains, we don't lack people who just study books, but we lack people who are willing to go out and do practical work."

Seeing that he spoke eloquently and without any reservations, Li Gang's arrogance dissipated.

He sincerely said, "I didn't understand Your Majesty's ambitions before and made many speculations. Only after traveling around did I realize how narrow-minded I was. Under Your Majesty's rule, the Central Plains can truly be called peaceful and prosperous, and Your Majesty's power can shake the four seas."

"If it were ordinary people like us who were in charge of the country's affairs back then, we would probably still be dealing with the Jurchens right now."

Chen Shao chuckled inwardly, thinking, "You're overthinking it. Without me, Zhao Laojiu would have already fled to the south to live in seclusion."

Moreover, after Li Gang suffered several defeats, he was dismissed from his post as prime minister and demoted to Ezhou.

Chen Shao suddenly remembered that although Li Gang was no good at fighting, he was an amateur.

However, his organizational skills were really strong. Back when Bianliang fell and the two emperors were taken captive to the north.

The Song Dynasty had no capital, no imperial guards, no finance, and no bureaucratic system.

With the Jin army poised to march south at any moment, bandits rose up everywhere, and the literati and officials remained hesitant and indifferent.
Many of Zhao Gou's associates were appeasers (Wang Boyan and Huang Qianshan), who advocated fleeing south.

It was Li Gang who stepped forward, rebuilt the central administrative structure, restored the Three Departments and Six Ministries, and appointed Zhang Suo as the Hebei Pacification Commissioner and Fu Liang as the Deputy Commissioner of the Hedong Administration Commissioner.

He established the Imperial Guard Command to govern the new army, and personally served as the Imperial Guard Commander to ensure that military power remained with the central government.

Strictly enforce laws and regulations: "Reward merit and punish crime with utmost impartiality," and rectify the looting practices of defeated soldiers.

It united the hearts of the scholar-officials and prevented the situation from completely collapsing.

He understands the system, which is very valuable.

In Baidao City, a new city is under construction, and there is an urgent need to establish new systems.

Li Gang already had a solid foundation, and after traveling for so many years, his knowledge and skills should have improved.

Thinking of this, Chen Shao said, "The world is so vast, and the land is so beautiful, attracting countless heroes to bow down. I am just fortunate to have gathered a group of like-minded people to work together to revitalize China."

"While the world appears peaceful now, there are still many hidden dangers. The various nomadic tribes in the northern deserts have obtained a lot of weapons from the Jurchens, but most of them have fled back to their homelands. This is a threat. I intend to build a city along the White Road to cut off the Yin Mountains and protect my border people from attacks. The only problem is that there are not enough capable people in the court."

"Mr. Liangxi's retirement is a great loss to the country. I wonder if he would be willing to do his part for the country."

Li Gang was truly shocked; this man's character was worthy of the emperor's.

Chen Shao spoke sincerely, “Only when the capable are in positions of power and the foolish benefit from them can the world be peaceful and prosperous. Sir, please do not be deterred by the high mountains and long roads, or the harsh cold of the northern border, and do not dwell on the past. Let us work together to contribute to this prosperous era!”

"Okay?"

Li Gang stood up and bowed deeply. "The White Road is the throat of Yinshan and the lock of the southern desert. Your Majesty's intention to establish a system here is not merely to defend a city, but to block the southward grazing of the Hu horses and to lay the foundation for the northward expansion of China. Your Majesty dares not fail to exert your utmost efforts!"

Chen Shao clapped his hands and said, "It is a blessing to work with such courageous people!"

Li Gang was deeply moved. He viewed governing the country as a collaborative effort, not as simply preserving his family's legacy.

This clearly demonstrates that this person is a wise and capable ruler, a rare find throughout history. Since this is the case, Li Gang did not hold back and immediately said, "Upon arriving at Baidao, I will govern according to local customs, educate and civilize the border regions, so that they may understand loyalty and righteousness, and gradually be influenced by Chinese customs. Ten years later, they will be ashamed to be called 'Hu' and will wish to be registered as citizens!"

Chen Shao nodded. Li Gang's years of travel had not been in vain; he probably wouldn't have said these words so quickly before.

He must have carefully summarized his policies in Lingwu, Yinxia.

That would put my mind at ease.

"Please make sure your family is settled these next few days. I will soon issue an edict appointing you as the Pacification Commissioner of Beiting Hanhai."

Li Gang bowed again.

Watching his departing figure, Chen Shao felt quite gratified.

His favorite thing was to transfer these people to the border.
Transforming the barbarians into Chinese and assimilating them into Chinese is not as simple as it sounds.

Only those who are orthodox Chinese scholars possess that noble spirit that transcends the boundaries of culture and education.

During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong (Li Longji) listened to Li Linfu's advice and appointed non-Han people like An Lushan and Geshu Han to guard the border.

As it turned out, An Lushan and Geshu Han were still completely like the Hu people, often tricking people into drinking, killing them and then reporting it as military merit.

This is not about transforming the Xia into the barbarians, but about turning the Xia into the barbarians, causing the border troops to all have the mentality of the barbarians, and they will fight anyone who can gain military merit.

Learning from past mistakes, Chen Shao relocated the most orthodox scholar-officials and wealthy families of the Song Dynasty to the border.

The goal is to get them to change customs and traditions.

He couldn't guarantee that it was definitely the right thing to do, but it was at least an attempt. There was no right answer to governing the world; we had to figure things out as we went.

If something is theoretically sound, it can be put into practice to be tested.

Seeing that he was staring into the distance without speaking, Da Hu asked in bewilderment, "Your Majesty, are we going back to the palace?"

Chen Shao tightened his collar and laughed, "Let's rest at the small courtyard tonight. If we walk fast, we can still make it in time for dinner." (End of Chapter)