Chapter 648 We Can’t Take It
Zhao Yulin asked her to bring Hulan back to listen to his ideas, or send him to Datong Prefecture to wait for the takeover of Mobei.
Feiyan immediately stretched out her arms and put them around his neck and asked: Do you really want to do this?
Hulan is far away from me, can I bear to leave him?
He said it was not a matter of reluctance to give up, Hulan was the best key to open the gate to Mobei.
Maybe her heart isn't here anymore.
Zhao Feiyan was deeply aware of this. The old emperor had harmed Zhao Yulin more than once, but when she thought of the hardships he had suffered in Mobei, Feiyan still felt sad. After all, he was her father and they were connected by blood.
The next day, Zhao Feiyan granted leave to all the officials, left Zhao Yulin as regent, and took Shunzhidi with her to inspect the progress of the construction of the Chengwenqiong official road in the west.
He naturally knew what the woman was thinking, but he didn't say anything. He took Hua Yue to Dujiangyan to inspect the renovation of the water conservancy facilities.
It was a rare opportunity for Hua Yue to travel with Zhao Yulin, and he felt a little excited.
As they walked and talked, they advised Hua Yue to get along well with his ministers and not to have a stern face all day long, as if others owed him 100,000 shi of grain.
Hua Yue laughed when he heard this, and muttered that he had this bad habit and couldn't change it.
He said: It cannot be changed, but some changes must be made. In the future, when the ruler of Feiyan has problems, Lord Hua will be asked to temporarily govern the country. Governing the court of the new Song Dynasty is not just about the law. Governing the country requires a sense of relaxation and tension, and everyone must be united. Lord Hua understands this better than Zhao.
Hua Yue was silent.
Zhao Yulin's frank conversation was to tell him clearly that from now on this man would be the first deputy ruler of the New Song Kingdom, and he would be in charge of the overall situation when the ruler was away.
After inspecting Dujiangyan, the two went to the scene of Wu Jing's protest. Zhao Yulin laughed and shouted: Hello, Uncle Hua.
A group of children immediately went up to Hua Yue and greeted him sweetly.
He asked Wu Jing how he was doing and whether he had any problems.
Hua Yue said with a smile: The eldest princess of our New Song Kingdom leads many princesses, and the prince has difficulties in doing things here. Then he, the deputy king in charge of laws, is lazy and does nothing.
The entourage around him immediately burst into laughter.
Wu Jing said with a smile that with Uncle Hua's care, the street construction was going smoothly. Not only that, they also built the Dujiangyan Scenic Area. After the park opens in the future, as long as they can pay the workers' salaries, the surplus will be shared equally with the Dujiangyan Management Office to raise funds for the future maintenance of irrigation facilities.
Huayue is in good spirits.
At the beginning, when he first heard the officials below discussing Madam Chen Chen's plan to enclose the Dujiangyan Irrigation System and charge admission, he was extremely unhappy, thinking that Zhao Yulin's family was once again taking advantage of the court to make money.
I was delighted to hear Wu Jing's explanation today. This was equivalent to the Zhao family paying to revitalize the idle water conservancy facility of Dujiangyan, and the money earned would be split in half with the court.
After returning, Hua Yue discussed the matter with his wife, and his wife scolded him again.
The lady asked him: I don't understand, others will use tricks to embezzle public funds for personal gain, but the third young master will never do that. The lady told him to watch carefully, the third young master started from Yibin, and did a lot of money-making businesses. If he really wanted to make money, he didn't know how much silver he would sell the new weapons he made, so why did he have to be stingy with these small businesses that only cost a few coins.
As soon as Zhao Yulin entered the house, the Minister of Revenue Du Fan came in. After taking two sips of tea, the old man simply said that it was time for him to retire and asked the third young master to find another talented person to take over.
Zhao Yulin didn't bother to waste time with him and asked Du Fan if he had any suitable candidate.
Du Fan said that if it were up to him, he felt that Chen Longzhi from Lizhou Road was okay. Although this man was an old official from Lin'an, he had been working in our New Song Dynasty for some years. He was familiar with the laws of the New Song Dynasty and did his job in a proper manner. He had done a good job in Lizhou in the past few years. The Ministry of Revenue needed down-to-earth people like him to do its work.
Zhao Yulin pondered for a while and said: How about when the King of Feiyan comes back to discuss matters, Mr. Du can take the trouble to recommend him directly?
Du Fan was delighted and kept saying that the commander had entrusted such an important matter to his hands, so how could he be negligent and would definitely do it properly.
He said: Mr. Du is the current Bole, the old man's vision will never be wrong, please.
At the western end of the Chengwenqiong official road, Zhao Feiyan and Shunzhidi had already entered Qiongzhou City and were eating barbecue with Hulan at Chen Liu's Wenjun Restaurant.
Hu Lan shouted happily and asked the chef to be quick and bake it quickly and serve it to him.
While eating skewers, she asked how Shunzhidi peppers were obtained. I heard that they were found at home in Cuiping Mountain. Is that true?
Shunzhidi talked about how the children used peppers to have fun and play. After Zhao Yulin discovered the peppers, he was also puzzled. How did this new species of peppers appear in his backyard?
Moreover, Brother Yulin swore that it was Fugui’s father Zhu Congwen who brought it.
Zhao Feiyan, Shunzhidi and Hulan were all women who married into the Zhao family later. They knew very little about how Zhu Congwen came to Cuiping Mountain. Without the experience of Zhao Yulin and Yangjin's time travel, they naturally did not know the secret.
Zhu Congwen came through with his gear. He was on patrol at the border at the time. In order to keep warm when walking in high altitude areas all year round, he always carried chili peppers in his pocket. Zhao Yulin fully believed that it was he who brought the chili pepper seeds.
Otherwise, there were pepper seeds in Zhu Congwen's feces, which happened to be fresh, and they took root and grew into peppers in his vegetable garden.
Because, when Zhu Congwen was found and carried back home, he lived in the backyard to recuperate.
After the three sisters had eaten and drunk well, they went back to their room and sat on a bed to chat. Zhao Feiyan said to Hulan directly: He had read all the letters from his brother. Hubili not only wrote to his sister, but also to his brother Yulin. He asked Hulan what he thought and told her to speak out.
Shunzhidi also asked Hu Lanzhi with concern, what should they do?
Hu Lan indeed said with a smile: She had no ideas and would follow the court's arrangements to handle the affairs of Qiongzhou here.
Zhao Feiyan became bored instead. She said: It turns out that they are just like a blind person lighting a lamp, which is a waste of wax. My brother was worried that the girl would feel sad, so he asked Zhidi and me to make a special trip.
Shunzhidi also pretended to be annoyed and said that they were overthinking it and she would not worry about it anymore.
Hu Lan then murmured: This is a war between two countries, how can she take care of her own family and ignore the New Song family that Yulin'er is determined to establish?
She asked her two sisters to think about it. Sister Yangjin traveled all the way to Lhasa City to mobilize the people of Tubo Road to go all out and support the march into the Chagatai Khanate in order to realize Brother Yulin's dream of reviving the Han and Tang Dynasties as soon as possible. She was also Zhao Yulin's wife, so how could she hold him back?
It's not like she didn't have any ideas at all. She just wanted to go to Jiuyuan and Datong Prefecture as soon as possible to wait for the army to attack the Mobei Royal Court. She wanted to go with the Shenwei Army to recover the entire grassland.
"Oh, it's true."
Shunzhidi said with a smile: As expected, Brother Yulin thought of it. He said that my heart is probably flying to the Mobei royal court at this moment.
Zhao Feiyan told her not to worry, Brother Yulin said that the Shenwei Army was an army armed with iron discipline and would not kill innocent people indiscriminately. For the sincere allegiance of the brothers and sisters on the grassland, the New Song Dynasty court would not abuse force like the Mongolian army and carry out settlements for perverse acts.
Hu Lan said that she naturally believed that Brother Yulin would not issue such a military order, and if such a thing really happened, it would be retribution.
Who told their people to do so many inhumane things when they went south to fight?
She told her two sisters that she couldn't leave because there were still a lot of workshops under construction in Huojing, and the construction of the Chengwenqiong official road would require the relocation of many families, which was a heavier task. These were all top-level matters for the court. She would not go anywhere and would stay here.
The three women fell silent immediately.
Zhao Feiyan felt sleepy and yawned twice in succession. She told everyone to go to bed because they had to inspect Huojing County tomorrow.
The women slowly huddled under the covers.
In the east of Goryeo, Prince Wang Dian of the Peninsula has returned to their capital, Kaesong.
The young emperor couldn't wait to pull his son to ask about the results of the mission to New Song, but Wang Dian said nothing. He took the tea bowl brought by the maid and drank the hot tea to warm himself.
The accompanying deputy envoy said cautiously: The New Song court is furious about our occupation of Buyeo City and refuses to negotiate with us. This trip has gained nothing.
The little emperor was stunned immediately, and then roared like crazy: Why is it like this?
The Middle Kingdom is a country of etiquette, how could it be so unreasonable?
You don't even want to negotiate with us or sign an alliance with us. Are you going to continue fighting?
Wang Dian said coldly: It's not without gain, at least we have found out the bottom line of the new Song Dynasty. Commander Zhao asked the Ministry of Rites to tell us to find out where the four counties on the peninsula were during the Han Dynasty, and where the border between the two countries was during the Tang Dynasty.
The deputy envoy added: The Ministry of Rites of the New Song Dynasty has instructed us that we do not understand the rules of being a vassal state, and they do not want us to be their vassal state anymore. In the future, we must have voluntary, equal, and mutually beneficial interactions.
What? They don’t even want us to be their vassal state.
The little emperor didn't understand and asked them what they meant.
Wang Dian said: It means that merchants from the two countries enter the big market and trade freely. After both parties agree on the price, one hand pays the money and the other hand receives the goods. What else is there?
The little emperor waved his hands and said: This won't do. The Celestial Empire has always been generous in its dealings with others. We pay them one tael of silver as tribute, and they want to give us a hundred taels of silver in return. It has been like this for thousands of years. How can we change it just like that? It's against the rules.
Wang Dian said that they no longer recognized us as their vassal state. From now on, we should establish good neighborly relations, equality and mutual benefit on the basis of demarcated borders.
The young emperor firmly disagreed. He asked: There is an imperial edict from the grassland empire as evidence that we, Goryeo, occupy Liaodong. Why do you say we are invaders?
The Celestial Empire also wants us to find out where the four Han counties are. Does that mean they want to take away half of the peninsula, including my capital, Kaifeng?
Haha, this guy is very clear-headed. He knows where the historical boundaries are. Kaifeng is not on his territory.
Wang Dian asked him not to mention the edict of the grassland empire in the future, as it was a humiliation to the New Song Empire. Commander Zhao was not afraid of others opening his wounds and feeling pain. If his generals wanted to take revenge, we would not be able to bear it.
