Chapter 247: Harmony with the world
In Lin'an, the first month of the year had not even passed yet, and a group of old people from the previous dynasty, led by Shi's son, had gathered together to work hard for the new court.
These people urgently found a distant nephew of the royal family named Zhao Du. After some investigation, Shi Zizi determined that this boy was dull and could be manipulated. He had already brought him to the Lin'an Palace for training in preparation for the coronation ceremony of the emperor.
However, the city of Lin'an was still full of broken walls, many parts of the imperial palace had not been repaired, and the streets were still filled with beggars, looking dilapidated. It had to be tinkered with and made to look spruced up.
However, all of these require a lot of money.
As soon as the topic of money came up, everyone fell silent with dull eyes.
In order to close the doors for the New Year, the small court had already plundered all the government offices at the county level at the end of last year, which basically guaranteed the military expenses and the food and clothing expenses of the officials in the city. Shi's son wanted to win over Meng Gong and wanted to transfer some silver to General Meng, but his Ministry of Revenue stopped him. It was not a blatant defiance of his oral order, but they really couldn't take it out.
In a word, a good cook cannot cook without rice, and it really is true that there is no money.
However, Shi's son has plenty of ways.
The first person he thought of was the salt merchants. There were many salt fields along the coast of Liangzhe, and the rich salt merchants were so wealthy that they shit all over the place making gold.
He decided to sell official positions to salt merchants and let the salt merchants pay money to buy the positions.
A bunch of embarrassed people immediately sat together and started discussing heatedly. Someone suggested blocking the export of salt to Sichuan and Shu, and having the court increase the price and sell it to Western Shu. Wouldn't that mean getting money from Zhao Qi'er?
Everyone suddenly realized and immediately found a way to make money easily and quickly.
That's right, everyone, including animals, must eat some salt to have strength, it is a necessity of life. Didn't Zhao Qi'er refuse to transport taxes to Lin'an? We will hold the salt at ten times the price and sell it to them one tael at a time.
Someone immediately laughed and said that as long as we get the salt stuck, the Shenwei Army will definitely run out of energy without enough salt. They won't be able to draw their bows and arrows, lift their swords, or even walk, and they will definitely be defeated by the Northern Barbarians.
My God, these officials are not stupid at all. They actually came up with such a vicious trick.
The small court quickly got into action and revealed to the Mongolian army through secret channels that the supply of salt to Western Shu would be cut off, believing that Western Shu would be in chaos within a month.
Zhao Yulin stayed in Renhuai for ten days, and returned to Cuiping Mountain after making arrangements for the march to Guangnan. Xiao Yan was already getting along well with a group of cute kids.
Zhao Guangming, the son of Fire Phoenix, is the youngest. He follows Xiao Yan around like a follower, asking for hugs and food. He looks very cute.
Zhao Yulin had just sat down in the study when Ma Ling's son Ma Yuan came in and stood in front of him as if wanting to say something. Before he could open his mouth, Chen Xiaomin's son Chen Liu also came in.
Zhao Yulin smiled and asked everyone to stand beside him. He touched the child's head with his hands and asked if he had anything to say. "Big brother, go first."
Ma Yuan puffed out his chest and shouted that he had learned how to use the bow and arrow and wanted to follow his father into battle to kill the enemy. Chen Liu on the right also shouted.
Wow, you have great ambitions at such a young age. Not bad, not bad.
Zhao Yulin was delighted, he stepped back and sat down to look at the two brothers with a smile on his face.
He said they were still young, their arms and legs hadn't grown yet, so why were they thinking about going to the battlefield to fight and kill?
Ma Yuan said confidently: Mother Yan said that our father became a general before he was even seventeen. If we don’t go into the battlefield to kill the enemy, when can we become a great general?
Zhao Yulin almost spit out the tea as soon as he took a sip.
What is Mother Swallow?
Is Xiao Yan already teaching the kids to call her mom?
However, he felt very familiar with the word "mother". In later lives, he called her Guan. When he came here, he was not used to seeing mothers everywhere in the world.
Now, the situation has finally changed starting from his children’s generation.
He told me to go away, it was too early, my father was also seventeen years old before he picked up a sword and killed people. Now our Shenwei Army has a rule that men must be seventeen years old before they can join the army and eat food.
Ma Yuan immediately felt like an eggplant hit by frost, completely exhausted.
Chen Liu was still muttering that he had enough time to wait, as he was not even ten years old yet.
Zhao Yulin said with a smile that it was a good opportunity to learn more Kung Fu. He must learn more culture and Kung Fu, because future wars will be very cruel.
The third master was chatting happily when Lu Youpeng came in.
Zhao Yulin asked the two kids to call Grandpa Lu and then send him out to play by himself.
Lao Lu blamed him for teaching the child to call like that, which would shorten his life.
Zhao Yulin said that when we work together, there is no distinction between the two, but we must not lose the rules in front of the children.
He asked: What’s the emergency?
Lao Lu told him that there was a letter from Chengdu, in which General Cao asked him to go back early to discuss matters.
We got the news from the Fengshui place that the small court in Lin'an inherited the original Imperial City Department and openly sent a clear edict to Chengdu, demanding the transfer of 50 million strings of money in taxes, otherwise Jiangdong would cut off our salt route.
The professors of the Chengdu Prefecture School were arguing fiercely that many of them had split the land and claimed to be kings, and wanted to wear the yellow robe. Lao Lu suspected that someone was stirring up trouble and confusing the public, with the goal of making us recognize the small court in Lin'an and obey the orders of the small court in Lin'an.
Zhao Yulin was not afraid of fighting with swords and guns on the battlefield and felt that these were no big deal.
He asked Lao Lu whether Miao Gui had found the salt and where he had gone.
Lao Lu said with a smile that his brother was really good at predicting things. Lao Miao said that Xining Prefecture was full of salt lakes, so he picked the best ones to transport. The migrant workers sent the baggage to Changdu Prefecture, and it would be a waste to return empty-handed, so they just happened to bring back salt.
Zhao Yulin said that the migrant workers' team would not be disbanded. We should establish a long-term team specializing in road construction and transportation, and also broaden the channels for the Tibetan brothers to earn money.
Let's transport the salt from Xining Prefecture back for emergency use, hehe.
After the two men discussed it, Lao Lu sent a carrier pigeon to Xining Prefecture.
The next day, Zhao Yulin went to see Chen Xian to discuss the construction of Hongmeng Valley, and told him to make sure the masters' food and accommodation were comfortable, and that the roads were beautifully built so that they would be comfortable to walk on.
Chen Xian told him that Master Lu had transferred all the money from selling weapons to Jian Gu, and that he would definitely handle it properly. He said that it was not enough, and Bao Wenli had saved a sum of money for us, and asked the general account office to transfer it to them for use.
The money that Zhao Yulin was talking about was the money embezzled by Bao Wenli, and he wanted to use it all to build Hongmeng Valley.
Before the two of them could say a few words, Feihu hurried in to tell him that the fourth young lady and her husband had returned, and that the husband of the Duan family was anxious to see the young master.
Zhao Yulin quickly ended the conversation and came back to see his sister and Duan Xiaolin.
This time Duan Xiaolin didn't waste any time. After he had taken two sips of tea, he said that his father had asked his third brother to return the Yongshan and Shimen villages, and he was afraid that something unexpected might happen later, so he came to inform him.
Xiao Linzi's words sounded very relaxed, and it sounded like he was helping Zhao Yulin to tip off.
Zhao Yulin was also straightforward. He said that Yongshan and Shimen must be returned to Dali, but not now and not just because Dali asked for them to be given to them.
He also revealed the news to Duan Xiaolin, asking Duan Xiaolin to go back and remind the emperor that his sister-in-law Huo Fenghuang had already led the troops to Renhuai, and the Shenwei Army was about to launch a southern expedition to eliminate the restraint system, with the goal of reaching the sea.
Duan Xiaolin was stunned immediately, staring at Zhao Yulin without moving.
He continued, if the Shenwei Army took such action, the Yue Kingdom in the south would inevitably mistakenly think that the Shenwei Army wanted to split the land and conquer Dali, and then deploy troops to invade Dali's border. The South Yue was a species with a short memory and no idea what it was. If Dali Kingdom did not take some precautions, it would be caught off guard.
After Duan Xiaolin regained consciousness, he asked him in confusion: Didn’t my sister-in-law just reorganize the army in Xinshi? Why is she going to mobilize the troops now?
Zhao Sihan immediately glared at Duan Xiaolin. He was just talking about something irrelevant. When she came in, she reminded Xiaolin not to say useless things.
Zhao Yulin said with a smile that a knife will get rusty if it is not sharpened. It is precisely because of the need to reorganize the army that we need to use it, and we should carry out a major reorganization of the army during the process of using it.
Duan Xiaolin could no longer sit still and said that he had to hurry back to Dali to tell his father.
The Dali Kingdom had just obtained the equipment of the Shenwei Army of 10,000 people, and with a simple test, it defeated the Tubo army and made them flee in disgrace. The emperor was full of fighting spirit and confidence, thinking that he could take advantage of the disaster in Lin'an to challenge Zhao Yulin.
Zhao Yulin stood at the dock very relaxedly and watched his sister and Duan Xiaolin leave. He didn't bother to pay attention to the calculations of the little emperor of Dali.
After dinner, he said goodbye to his parents, saying that there was urgent business in Chengdu and he had to leave.
The old scholar knew that without the emperor, the country would be torn apart and divided into many warlords, so he told him to go and take care of himself.
Zhao Yulin felt very warmed when he heard this. This was the first time his father had spoken such caring words in person. He knelt down and kowtowed to his father and his mothers.
The old scholar immediately said, "No, no, please get up quickly."
Zhao Yulin went back and asked Feihu and Xiao Yan to get ready and leave at daybreak.
The next morning, they left the Zhao residence in the morning mist and quietly headed for the dock. In the corner of the backyard, Ma Yuan and Chen Liu watched the crowd disappearing in the mist and said, "Dad has left again."
Chen Liu said helplessly that his father was always in a hurry and came home less and less time.
However, Zhao Yulin really didn't see the two children waiting for him. He was preoccupied with things and didn't get enough rest last night, so he went into the cabin to catch up on some sleep as soon as he got on board.
The official ship arrived in Jiading. Zhao Yulin went ashore to the government office. Xiao Yan said as they walked that the headmistress had already returned to Emei.
He glanced at Xiao Yan and asked her how she knew, as he didn't know yet.
Xiao Yan made a face and looked outside the carriage. The newly built Linjiang Street was bustling with people coming and going, and the shrill shouts of hawkers could be heard one after another.
They walked into the government office and found that the headmistress was missing. Only Chen Chen and the maid were looking after the two children.
The headmistress has already named the children: the boy is named Zhao Guangchen and the girl is named Zhao Guangchen, which are just right because they stick to Chen Chen's name.
Zhao Yulin held the boy for a while, put him down, and picked up the girl again, feeling very upset.
Chen Chen was very happy and told him that the headmistress would be the child's godmother in the future. When they grew up, they would go to the mountains to learn martial arts, and the godmother would teach them all the martial arts.
He held his daughter in his arms and lowered his head to cover his tearful face.
