Sky Curtain: My Great Qin must have an aircraft carrier!

Before Empress Dowager Cixi had to wait long, Yikuang and Rongqing scrambled in, their foreheads banging loudly against the gold bricks.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! It's all over!"

"The rebels have occupied the Governor-General's Mansion, Zhang Mingqi has fled, and Rui Cheng has fled too!"

Empress Dowager Cixi felt dizzy and her forehead veins throbbed.

"What about Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang warlord?

With all her might, Empress Dowager Cixi managed to squeeze out the words, "Send the Beiyang Army to suppress them! Kill all those rebels for me!"

After stammering for a long time, Yikuang finally revealed the truth under Cixi's murderous gaze: "Yuan Shikai claimed illness and refused to obey the imperial edict..."

Yuan Shikai claimed to be ill.

Those five simple words drained the last bit of strength from Empress Dowager Cixi's body.

She slumped back into her chair, feeling only an endless chill in her heart.

It's over, it's over.

Without Yuan Shikai, the Qing Dynasty had no soldiers left to fight.

Moreover, this time they are different from the Boxers and Taiping rebels in the past. They want her old life and want to overturn the ancestral tablets of the Qing Dynasty!

The most despairing thing is that no one in the world cares about the fate of the Qing Dynasty; everyone is just waiting for this dilapidated house to collapse as soon as possible.

Is the Qing Dynasty's more than two-hundred-year-old foundation about to be destroyed in her hands?

No, she is not reconciled!

Empress Dowager Cixi asked in a strained voice, "And what about the foreigners? What was their attitude?"

She wanted to try again, even if it meant borrowing troops from foreigners or ceding a few more ports.

As long as the Qing Dynasty can be preserved and her throne as Empress Dowager can be kept, any price is acceptable.

But Yikuang's next words completely shattered Cixi's illusions.

"Your Majesty, the foreigners have announced that they will strictly maintain neutrality and will no longer support the imperial court."

Yikuang buried his head in the cracks between the bricks, not daring to even glance at Empress Dowager Cixi.

When a wall falls, everyone pushes it down; when a tree falls, the monkeys scatter.

Empress Dowager Cixi rolled her eyes back, her body swayed, and she collapsed onto the phoenix chair.

Li Lianying was terrified and scrambled forward, yelling, "Summon the imperial physician! Quickly, summon the imperial physician!"

-

Lu Li was unaware that the late Qing Dynasty perished several years earlier because of the video he watched.

Of course, if he knew, he would definitely be overjoyed.

The last few years of the late Qing Dynasty were pure garbage time, and had no meaning except for disgusting people.

"White fungus is really cheap now."

Lu Li watched the introduction in the video and casually searched for it on a shopping app.

"Gutian County in Fujian can produce hundreds of thousands of tons a year? I've been staying up late every night, I really should buy some to nourish my body."

"How many?"

Upon hearing this number, Emperor Renzong of Song, Zhao Zhen, was so shocked that he lost his composure.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of white fungus, what does that mean?

If this were the Song Dynasty, wouldn't everyone in the world be able to get a bowl?

No, I'm afraid we couldn't finish it even if we ate it every day!

Such a prosperous scene could probably not even be matched by the legendary reigns of Yao and Shun.

After a long while, Zhao Zhen finally came to his senses and stirred the white fungus porridge in the bowl with a silver spoon.

He ate carefully, one spoonful at a time, never wasting a single bite.

"The sheer power of later generations, even when only a small fraction of it is revealed, leaves people speechless with awe."

"The Industrial Revolution, it really is like a myth..."

Zhao Zhen murmured to himself, a strange light gleaming in his eyes, "If the Great Song Dynasty could have a chance to glimpse even a little bit of this, I would die without regret, even if I were to pass away immediately."

Upon hearing the Emperor's sigh, Han Qi bowed and said, "Your Majesty has already considered the long-term interests of the people, lowering salt prices and promoting coal mining; this is already a sign of a prosperous era."

"The profound foundation built up over hundreds of years of subsequent development cannot be achieved overnight."

Zhao Zhen did not refute, but stared at the white fungus in the bowl for a while in a daze.

Besides these, there's also sugar.

Don't be fooled by the fact that people nowadays fear sugar like the plague, afraid of gaining weight from eating too much.

But in ancient times, and even for a long period in modern times, sugar was definitely a luxury.

The core reason is also due to technological limitations; sugar can only be made by boiling, which consumes a lot of manpower and resources.

Even if it is made with great effort, it is still a coarse sugar that is yellowish or blackish in color and has a slightly bitter taste.

Even so, it remained popular among the nobility.

"These young lads are quite picky!"

"It's good enough to have something sweet, why be so picky?"

Liu Bang was chewing on a piece of maltose when he heard Tianmu's disdain for the ancient method of sugar making, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

The method of making sugar is not difficult; it simply involves extracting juice from malt and then boiling it over a high flame.

But this job is really tedious; dozens of kilograms of malt are put in, and only a few kilograms of coarse sugar are produced.

If you really calculate the cost, it's even more expensive than fine salt.

Liu Bang spat and reached into the pottery jar on the table, but found nothing.

He was taken aback. Why was the jar empty?

I clearly remember there was still more than half a jar left.

"Xiao He, where's our candy?"

Xiao He looked helpless: "Your Majesty, please eat sparingly, there's only this much left."

"Impossible! I remember it clearly, it was just filled up a few days ago!"

Liu Bang's suspicious gaze swept over everyone in the hall.

He first looked at Fan Kuai, who was standing to the side: "Marquis of Wuyang, did you steal some food, you brat?"

Fan Kuai was dozing off while hugging a pillar when he heard this, and he immediately raised his hand:

"Brother, you know me. I'm only interested in dog meat; I can't stomach sugar."

Liu Bang felt this made sense; Fan Kuai usually had no interest in maltose, so he lacked a motive for committing the crime.

So Liu Bang turned his head and stared at Lu Wan, who was holding a wine cup.

Lu Wan quickly put down the wine cup and waved her hands repeatedly: "Brother, you know me. If I had this intention, I would have exchanged the sugar for wine long ago. Why would I wait until now?"

Liu Bang's gaze then shifted and landed on Lü Zhi.

As Lü Zhi fiddled with her armor, she let out a cold laugh.

"Don't look at me, I find that stuff too harsh on my throat."

After checking everything, Liu Bang was puzzled. Could it be that the candy had grown wings and flown away?

Just then, a faint chewing sound came from under the table.

Liu Bang peeked out and saw something amazing.

Liu Ying was squatting under the table, still holding a piece of unfinished malt candy in her hand.

Caught red-handed by her own father, Liu Ying was so frightened that she burped, and a rich, sweet aroma wafted out.

Liu Bang was so angry that he laughed and flicked his forehead.

"You little brat, eating so many sweets, do you even want to keep your teeth?!"

Liu Ying covered her forehead and nodded with a wronged expression.

-

After reading Tang's explanation, Lu Li casually opened the comments section.

The barrage of comments and bullet screen messages came in thick and fast, with all sorts of additional information.

(Actually, there's something else that was more valuable than gold in ancient times, but is now everywhere—that's aluminum!)

(Goodness, Napoleon III, huh? Ordinary guests use gold cutlery, only distinguished guests are entitled to aluminum cutlery.)

(What's aluminum compared to that? Let me give you the most practical thing: lifespan.)

(Modern people generally have an average lifespan of over seventy years, while in ancient times it was only twenty or thirty.)

This comment, like a thunderbolt from the heavens, struck all the ancients, leaving them scorched and battered.

What?! The average life expectancy is seventy?!

Whether they were high-ranking officials or ordinary people, everyone was completely shocked when they saw this sentence.

Longevity is humanity's ultimate dream, a treasure that even emperors could not obtain.

If you can live past thirty, you're lucky to have been blessed by God.

If someone can live to be fifty, they will definitely be a highly respected elder in the village.

Seventy years old? That's considered old age!

As a result, later generations said that their average lifespan exceeded seventy years.

"That's impossible!"

In the countryside, the old farmer was so excited that he was trembling all over.

"I'm forty-five years old this year, and all my peers in the village have long since died out."

"How come people in later generations could live so long? Did they eat elixirs of immortality every day?"

"Seventy years old! Good heavens, that's how many generations of great-great-grandchildren will be born?"

The emperors of successive dynasties could no longer sit idly by.

Ying Zheng clenched his fists and breathed rapidly.

He ate those poisonous pills full of heavy metals, wasn't he just seeking immortality?

Now, future generations don't need to seek immortality; they can live to be over seventy on average!

"Investigate! Find out for me exactly how later generations managed to do it!"

"I don't want ethereal immortal arts; I want the methods for prolonging life for future generations!"

Liu Che's eyes also lit up. In his later years, he became superstitious about immortals and magic, all in the hope of living a few more years.

"Order the Imperial Medical Academy to record for me every single word mentioned on the celestial screen regarding medicine and diet!"

Although the ancients coveted the modern items shown earlier, they were still able to remain rational.

But who wouldn't be envious of someone's lifespan?

Who wouldn't want to live a few more years and see this magnificent land?