"A low-level technological world, a world that has just begun its journey into interstellar civilization, and a doomsday world. Not bad, at least they are all different from the era I am currently in.
And the shops are quite comprehensive, offering all sorts of delicacies and snacks from different regions, milk tea and pastries, daily necessities, medicines, and flowers. They even sell self-defense weapons and ordinary transportation equipment, just like a large supermarket.
It seems life will be much more convenient from now on, no need to worry about problems with restrooms or getting used to the food."
After disregarding the shops in the doomsday world that sold expired food, zombie crystals, zombie corpses, or beast meat, Ding Yun was quite satisfied with the shops and the items sold in the other two worlds.
Her satisfaction led her to directly take out several thousand catties of useless gold from her soul space to top up her account. Then, recalling the original body's memories, she began to purchase a large quantity of various daily necessities that might be useful.
For example, daily seasonings.
Currently, not only was the quantity of seasonings very small, but even the quality of the most basic salt was poor. Even though the original body was the Empress Dowager, one of the highest-ranking individuals in the entire country, the salt she ate daily was merely "qingyan" (green salt), and its taste was not purely savory but mixed with a涩味 (astringent taste).
This was due to impurities in the salt.
Not to mention the quality of other seasonings.
The only things that had some uniqueness and stood out were probably wild scallions and wild ginger, which, in terms of flavor, were indeed much better than those grown in bulk and fertilized.
Similarly, Ding Yun specifically bought many other daily chemical and washing supplies, underwear, and toiletries from various supermarkets. She temporarily stored them in the "delivery space" that came with the delivery software. As long as they were not taken out, they could be stored there indefinitely; they could only be retrieved, not put back in.
After finishing her shopping, Ding Yun's mood greatly improved, and then, of course, it was time to get down to serious business.
She summoned the people waiting outside.
To invite her son over, as she had matters to discuss.
...
At the same time, King Zhou Jing, who had already learned of the fall of the Song state and the Empress Dowager summoning a shamanic physician, was contemplating whether he should quickly visit his mother.
To fulfill his filial duty.
In reality, if it weren't for the fall of the Song state to the Chu state and the Empress Dowager being merely ill, King Zhou Jing would have immediately set aside all political affairs to visit his mother, even personally tasting her medicine.
But in the current situation, he knew without thinking that as soon as he went to visit his mother, she would definitely ask him for a favor, whether it was to help the Song state recover or to avenge it. These were things he couldn't do and didn't want to do. That's why King Zhou Jing had been hesitating in the palace, unwilling to move.
He wanted to be filial to his mother.
But he couldn't afford to be!
The Zhou royal family had long lost its authority. Interfering in the affairs of the feudal lords would easily lead to them being beaten, causing their already scarce dignity to diminish further, leading to disgrace.
Therefore, when Ding Yun sent someone to summon him, King Zhou Jing deliberately delayed for a long time, until the Grand Tutor, the Tutor, and the Grand Protector, the three dukes, had all received his summons and rushed over.
Only then did he bring the three dukes with him to see Ding Yun.
The main reason was that he feared his mother would make a request that he couldn't easily refuse, and be accused of being unfilial, so he specifically brought the three dukes to help him refuse.
Upon arriving, they exchanged greetings and knelt down. Ding Yun immediately stated her purpose:
"My son, you must already know of today's events. The barbarian King of Chu acted tyrannically, waged war without reason, massacred the Song state, disregarded the 'two kings and three obeisances,' destroyed the ancestral temples of the Song state, and extinguished its lineage of sacrifices, an act most malicious!"
The so-called "two kings and three obeisances" primarily referred to the practice of successive dynasties enfeoffing descendants of former royal families with titles of nobility, known as "two kings and three obeisances," granting them royal titles, bestowed fiefs, and allowing them to sacrifice to their ancestral temples, showing respect without the need to perform vassalage.
Xia Yu enfeoffed Yao's son, Dan Zhu, in Tang.
Enfeoffed Shun's son, Shang Jun, in Yu.
After the Battle of Muye, King Wu of Zhou enfeoffed the descendants of the Yellow Emperor in Zhu, the descendants of Yu Shun in Chen, the descendants of the Xia Dynasty in Qi, and the descendants of the Yin Shang in Song, to continue their lineage.
The state of Qi was destroyed by the state of Chu years ago.
Now, the state of Song had also been destroyed by them.
It was as if they truly didn't put the Son of Heaven of Zhou in their eyes at all.
"Although I wish to destroy the state of Chu and extinguish its sacrifices right now, I also know that this is extremely difficult to achieve. Therefore, I will not make things difficult for you. I only hope that you will send people to bring back some descendants of the Song state to be sheltered.
It would be even better if there were descendants of King Xiang of Song.
Additionally, allocate a piece of land for them to continue their lineage."
What Ding Yun said now was already the lowest level of fulfillment of the original body's dying wish. If the original body were to say it herself, she would likely hope her son would contact other feudal lords, exercise the authority of the Son of Heaven of Zhou, and jointly attack the state of Chu. Even if they couldn't destroy Chu, they should at least avenge the Song state and, in addition, help it recover.
But this matter was extremely difficult to accomplish.
It was basically a fantasy.
If she were to say this, it would purely be making things difficult for King Zhou Jing. Moreover, even if King Zhou Jing agreed and acted upon it, whether any feudal lords would listen and lead their armies to form an alliance was hard to say.
Most likely, no one would come.
Therefore, Ding Yun did not follow the original body's true intentions but constantly pondered and scaled down the original body's ideas based on the current reality, eventually proposing this request.
When they heard Ding Yun's first statement, both King Zhou Jing and the three dukes present were worried that the Empress Dowager would make an impossible demand. Only when Ding Yun officially stated her specific request did they immediately breathe a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it wasn't excessive.
Fortunately, they could fulfill it.
"Mother, I agree to your request.
However, the land cannot be too large. The royal family no longer has much land to enfeoff. At most, we can grant land for two to three villages to the surviving people of Song for them to re-establish their state. Is that acceptable?"
During the Zhou royal family's most prosperous period, the territory they actually controlled was not as large as the current territory of the state of Chu, let alone the constant enfeoffment over the past few centuries. Furthermore, to win over some feudal states and have them assist in matters, a considerable amount of land was ceded and gifted.
The territory of the Zhou royal family is now very small.
Its total area is only six hundred li in circumference.
Nominally, the capital of the Zhou royal family is Luoyang, but in reality, the area that the Zhou royal family can rule is only Luoyang and some villages around Luoyang. The arable land is less than one hundred li in circumference. Many times, they even need assistance from the surrounding feudal lords to sustain themselves.
Most importantly, the Zhou royal family is surrounded by many feudal lords. Theoretically, they are under protection and do not have to worry about barbarian invasions, but expanding their territory is simply impossible. The feudal lords on the borders can expand easily and without concern, and without much moral restraint, because their frontiers are either barbarians or wild people of the plains. Expansion is purely about opening up new territories, and there is no room for criticism.
However, for the Zhou royal family, squeezed between many feudal lords, to expand would mean encroaching on the territory of the feudal lords.
There is no other way but to annex the territory of the feudal lords.
Who would be willing to do this?
This situation has directly led to the actual controlled territory of the Zhou royal family shrinking year after year, with no signs of growth.
Now, King Zhou Jing is willing to allocate two to three villages of land for the surviving people of Song to re-establish their state. This is undoubtedly a significant sacrifice, the kind that would cause him heartache for several years to come.
As for anything more, he truly cannot afford to give it.
He couldn't possibly give up Luoyang, could he?