Chapter 1 The Atmosphere

Since the peace talks storm arose again, it was rare for Zhao Guan Jia to make a public appearance. However, it only intensified the heavy and tense atmosphere within Tokyo, even extending it to the local areas.

It must be known that although there weren't many people present at the Jingfu Palace banquet that day, there were many consorts and concubines of the Supreme Daoist Emperor who had just returned to Tokyo. That evening, according to the official's verbal decree, they were able to meet with their respective families. Therefore, the stories from the banquet could not be concealed at all.

And Zhao Guan Jia's phrase, 'Every time I oppose Cao, things can be accomplished,' spread throughout Tokyo almost immediately along with the candles and hundred sheep.

Among these people, Noble Concubine Qiao, who was a sworn sister to Empress Wei, felt relieved after seeing her nephew's family that evening. However, she also sighed, saying that the official should be 'attributing the death of Empress Xing to the two Saints and the sisters.'

As for Empress Zheng, after summoning several of her daughters who had returned first, along with her fake nephew Zheng Yinian and real nephew Zheng Zao, in Yanfu Palace that day, she also 'sighed deeply,' only saying that the official actually regarded the two Saints as enemies.

Of course, Empress Zheng and Noble Concubine Qiao had status to rely on, so they could speak with some reason. As for the other consorts and concubines of the Supreme Daoist Emperor who had titles, their expressions varied... Some had no children, some had daughters who had already returned, and some had sons who were still in the north... The former two could be more indifferent, but those with sons in the north were obviously emotionally out of sorts, fearing that the official would somehow harm their sons along the way. And under their worries, they overreacted. Some didn't dare to say a word, just crying incessantly, while others said some chaotic things, saying that if the two Saints and the princes returned, they probably wouldn't live for more than three to five days, and so on.

All sorts of words, after being spread, naturally became even more bizarre and absurd... And among them, there was naturally no lack of vulgar remarks that Zhao Guan Jia hated these consorts for losing their virtue, so he deliberately humiliated them, and self-propagating stories similar to slut-shaming.

In the following days, as real conflicts erupted, things became even more absurd.

It is said that the Supreme Daoist Emperor had too many consorts and concubines. During the Jingkang Incident, 140 to 150 with titles were captured. Most of those who were lost or died in the middle were gone, but still several dozen returned. However, at the same time, there were only a few hundred eunuchs and maids in the entire palace, most of whom were in Yangzhou. Now that these dozens of titled 'Imperial Mothers' had returned, where would there be manpower to serve them, except for the two Empresses Dowager and three Noble Consorts?

Although they had all returned from Wuguo City, and they could tolerate even simplicity, they had returned after all, and they were 'Imperial Mothers' after all. How could they be allowed to clean their own rooms, carry water, and cook?

Therefore, in less than two days, Zhao Guan Jia officially issued an edict, allowing the two Empresses Dowager to take charge, allowing all the Imperial Concubines and Consorts to return to their families to live in peace. Of course, those who wished to live in the palace in the capital could live in the capital, and those who wished to go to Yangzhou or Nanyang for retirement could live in the palaces in Yangzhou or Nanyang. Those who had sons who had not returned could wait until their sons returned before discussing the matter further.

At first glance, this arrangement was no different from the previous arrangements for the princesses, and it seemed that there was nothing to find fault with. But in reality, anyone with a little common sense could understand a huge problem with a little thought, and that was that these Imperial Concubines and Consorts all had husbands! People with husbands would definitely live with their husbands... What was going on with letting them return to their respective homes and then go to three different places for retirement?

Was the Supreme Daoist Emperor dead?!

Someone immediately submitted a memorial saying that it was inappropriate.

Not only that, but when the matter spread, officials from wealthy families in the south quickly submitted memorials, wanting to donate tens of thousands of strings of cash from their family fortunes, saying that they had followed the official and knew that the official was frugal and really had no money, and they were willing to donate money to allow the Son of Heaven to fulfill his filial duties.

Moreover, this move was quickly imitated. In just a few days, the money donated inside and outside Tokyo, along with the surrounding local areas, amounted to hundreds of thousands of strings of cash... It could only be said that the war had not crossed the Huai River, and for the great wealthy families south of the Huai River, hundreds of years of accumulation was still considerable.

However, looking back, this was not just a matter of money. I'm afraid it also contained the meaning of advising the official's phrase 'Every time I oppose Cao'. Therefore, the palace remained silent and did not respond.

But soon, the Department of State Affairs, or rather the Secretariat, took the initiative to take over the matter for some reason. In the name of the Department of State Affairs, it issued an official order scolding and rebuking these officials for interfering in the affairs of the imperial family without authorization. At the same time, it took the initiative to allocate finances, leaving a special fund for the resettlement, relocation, and procurement of supplies for the Imperial Concubines.

According to the Department of State Affairs, there was actually no problem with the official's arrangement, except that it was slightly stingy?!

And next, something even more puzzling happened. Within the Secretariat, a fierce conflict soon broke out, because Zhao Ding and Zhang Jun, the two most powerful executive chancellors, actually wanted to hold a joint discussion in the Secretariat and then take the initiative to submit a memorial to the official, requesting Empress Zheng to reside in Nanyang!

Empress Zheng was the Empress of the Supreme Daoist Emperor, and her political status was beyond doubt. For her to also reside in Nanyang, the political language contained within was too shocking, immediately causing a backlash from many Confucian officials. Not only the expected Vice Censor-in-Chief Li Guang, but also Liu Dazhong, the Minister of Personnel who had always followed Zhao Ding's words, Zhang Jie, the Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Wang Jin, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review who was promoted by Zhang Jun, and He Chang, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, all opposed it.

Zhao and Zhang were also helpless. The return of the two Empresses Dowager, coupled with the phrase 'Every time I oppose Cao,' almost led the two to further recognize a certain danger. Their move was simply to avoid this danger, but they couldn't explain the reason, which caused the dispute.

In the end, the two were completely helpless, so they simply took out the power of the executive chancellors, bypassed the Secretariat, and submitted a memorial directly. Not only that, but the two of them personally requested to visit the Son of Heaven and Empress Zheng in the inner palace, in order to persuade them face to face.

When the matter spread, the court and the public were shocked, and various rumors among the people became even more clamorous.

"What do you say?"

Perhaps because his appearance that day had broken his golden body, Zhao Jiu did not refuse the request for an audience this time. The two executive chancellors met the official, but this time, the meeting place was changed to the Wuxue (Military Academy), which was the westernmost area of the Yanfu Palace.

However, it was obvious that when the monarch and his ministers met, Zhao Guan Jia's attention did not seem to be on the two executive chancellors.

"Your subject..."

Zhao Ding took it upon himself to say the words he had already thought out, but for some reason, neither he nor Zhang Jun, who was beside him, could take their eyes off the huge thing in front of Zhao Guan Jia.

It was a three-dimensional wooden map. Although it was still very crude, it had the basic major rivers, main cities, and mountains. The two executive chancellors were well-read and knowledgeable, so they naturally knew that this was obviously based on the *Yugong Tu* (Tribute of Yu Map).

"Do you two Prime Ministers also find it interesting?"

Zhao Jiu rarely showed a look of satisfaction. "This is what I thought of when I was supplementing the *Yugong Tu*... I only realized when I was supplementing the map that the large maps that were normally used in the palace were all wooden carvings. They were disassembled and stored on weekdays, and pieced together when needed. When I was in Guanxi that day, I was thinking of making a similar thing according to Ma Yuan's method of piling rice into mountains, but at that time, Guanzhong and Henan were very dilapidated, and I couldn't find suitable craftsmen. But I didn't expect that recently, when I was idle, it would be completed instead. I call it a sandbox!"

Zhao Guan Jia would of course be satisfied, because according to some high-end online novels, as soon as this thing came out, coupled with the implementation of the military doctor system, the entire army of the Great Song Dynasty could immediately get a super high buff of plus five to organization, and even destroying Western Xia would be no problem.

Of course, there was a bit of a feeling of being a carpenter emperor.

However, Zhao Ding and Zhang Jun looked at it for a long time, only feeling that this official was hinting at the Northern Expedition again. Therefore, although they didn't know why it wasn't called a map tray, rice tray, or wood tray, they could only nod and not dare to advise him.

"There's another good thing."

Seeing this, Zhao Jiu became even more satisfied, and led the two Prime Ministers to the side of the hall.

Here, there was only a simple large wooden table. The tabletop was edged on all four sides and covered with cloth. It seemed to be a special wooden table for holding those wooden carvings, but there were no wooden carvings on the table, only a few wooden rods and a pile of rounded stone balls of different colors...

"Your Majesty, your subjects... your subjects are ignorant." Zhao Ding looked at it for a long time, and looked at Zhang Jun face to face, but no matter what, they didn't know what this was for.

"This is billiards!" Zhao Guan Jia almost danced with joy, as if the continuous inventions had brought him a lot of happiness. "It was an idea I got while making the sandbox map. Two people take turns hitting the black ball with the white ball, and the ball that falls into the pocket counts as a point! If you think it's simple, you can add more colorful balls, or simply mark the points on the balls..."

"Your Majesty, please don't indulge in trivialities!" Zhao Ding finally couldn't bear it anymore. "The sandbox is the sandbox, it's an instrument of military and state affairs. What is this thing?"

Zhao Jiu immediately laughed with his hands behind his back, but he went directly out of the side hall, and then stood at the door of the hall and said with a smile: "Why should the Prime Minister be angry? You have handled the affairs of the court properly, haven't you?"

After saying that, he walked away again with his hands behind his back, continuing to walk outside the hall.

Seeing that the official was just joking, Zhao and Zhang each breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly chased out of the hall.

It is said that the side and back of this side hall occupied by the Military Academy was a small mountain. The mountain was neatly and uniformly covered with transplanted mature apricot trees, without a single miscellaneous tree. It was summer, and the apricot trees were full of fruit. Under the light and shadow, the wind blew the leaves and shook them, bringing up a series of red and orange fruits, and also attracting the natural fragrance of the fruit to permeate the cool forest.

At this time, Zhao Guan Jia was wearing plain white clothes in front, and the two Prime Ministers were wearing purple robes behind, climbing the stone steps and reaching the top of the mountain. Looking around at the surrounding pavilions, half were hidden by apricot trees and half were revealed... To be honest, if Yang Yizhong hadn't been leading the Imperial Guards on the side, and there hadn't been Military Academy disciples practicing archery in the shooting range on the other side of the small mountain, this place would hardly seem like the human world.

In fact, even Zhao Ding, who had experienced the officialdom for a long time, and Zhang Jun, a wealthy man from Sichuan, had never been to such a place. For a time, they were stunned.

"Is it beautiful?" After a long time, Zhao Jiu, who was sitting in the pavilion on the top of the small mountain, spoke.

"Your subjects are ashamed." Zhang Jun came back to his senses and quickly bowed in response, and Zhao Ding also vaguely came back to his senses. "We lost our composure for a moment."

"Please sit down, you two Prime Ministers." Zhao Jiu pointed to the stool in front of him. This was where he usually talked to the Imperial Guards or the Military Academy disciples. "Where were we just now?"

"Your Majesty said that your subjects have done a good job in the past month or so." Zhao Ding replied awkwardly after taking a seat. "But please forgive your subject for speaking frankly, your subjects have actually handled many things improperly in the past month or so, and have also caused internal and external disputes. Your subject secretly believes that it would be the right way for Your Majesty to come forward and take charge."

"I just don't want to get involved in the peace talks, it doesn't mean I won't take care of things." Zhao Jiu smiled in response. "After all, a dignified great power must have a head of state to deal with disputes and make major decisions. But I wasn't just perfunctory just now, but I think that as far as mundane matters are concerned, if you let me do it, I'm definitely not as good as one-tenth of you... So these days, whether it's you Prime Ministers or the Secretariat, I think you've really done a good job... As far as I'm concerned, the weight of the country still needs you to help me bear it together."

When Zhang and Zhao heard these words, although they still had things on their minds, they couldn't help but relax a little.

Of course, praise was praise, but the problem still had to be said. After hesitating for a while, Zhao Ding still cupped his hands and continued to say his intention for coming this time: "Your Majesty, your subject has come to ask Empress Dowager Ningde to move to the Nanyang Palace."

"Ask Empress Dowager Ningde (Empress Zheng) to go to Nanyang?" Zhao Jiu said thoughtfully.

"Yes."

"I don't think it's necessary." Zhao Jiu shook his head in response, but pointed to the apricot trees beside him and sighed. "Have you seen these apricot trees?"

"This is..."

"This is because the Supreme Daoist Emperor thought that the palace city was narrow, so he circled all the area from the north of the palace city to the inner city and made the Yanfu Palace; later he still thought it was small, so he occupied the area north of the inner city again and made the Jingyuan Garden; later he still thought it was small, so he went east again, circled the area to make the Genyue Garden and the Jinghua Garden, and also built a small Qujiang River to surround these four places and bring them all into the inner palace..."

Zhang and Zhao sighed together... If it hadn't been for this, where would Song Jiang and Fang La have come from, and where would the Jingkang Incident have come from.

And Zhao Jiu continued to say slowly: "Later, the Genyue Garden was carefully smashed by Emperor Yuansheng, and the Jinghua Garden and Jingyuan Garden were abandoned after Jingkang, but the buildings in the Yanfu Palace were able to be properly preserved because they were close to the palace city. The trees and forests in the Jinghua Garden and Jingyuan Garden were able to survive... Have you been to Qingfeng Restaurant to drink their apricot wine?"

The official's topic suddenly changed, but the two looked at each other and honestly admitted:

"I've drunk it."

"I've been there twice."

"Their apricots are all sold from here." Zhao Jiu smiled. "If I hadn't seen the mountains full of apricot blossoms here in the spring, I would hardly have thought that there was this prospect in the palace..."

"Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty."

The two only felt like they were sitting on pins and needles.

"I'm not complaining." Zhao Jiu waved his hand in response. "I want to say that the Yanfu Palace has two large halls, seven side halls, and dozens of pavilions. Although the Military Academy occupies 30% of them, the rest is enough to accommodate the two Empresses Dowager and three Noble Imperial Consorts. As for the Jingyuan Garden and Jinghua Garden in the north of the city, the Jingyuan Garden is close to the palace city. If we develop it a little, build some elegant properties, we can reward you people on the one hand and sell them on the other, which is enough to make a fortune; the Jinghua Garden is located in the center of the downtown area. If we flatten it and make it into shops, restaurants, and warehouses, the rent alone is enough to support several Empresses Dowager and Noble Imperial Consorts, and can also subsidize the previous princesses and the children of loyal ministers whose fathers and brothers died on the way to the Northern Hunt. Where is it so harsh... What I said before, over and over again, is just the meaning of freedom to come and go. I didn't mean to drive them away or ignore them."

Zhang Jun and Zhao Ding looked at each other, only feeling like their brains were in a mess, but they didn't know what to say... The official's previous posture and now this posture were contradictory and unsettling.

But in any case, since the official himself was prepared to fulfill the way of filial piety, they only had reasons to say good things, and no reason to say bad things.

"Is there anything else?" Zhao Jiu took the initiative to urge when he saw this.

"No."

Zhao Ding glanced at Zhang Jun, but nodded in response to the official.

After all, the two of them had come for the Empress Dowager's relocation, but who knew that the official would take the initiative to have an idea, and after thinking about it, they really couldn't think of anything else, so they could only be so frank and honest.

"If you two have nothing to do, I have something to tell you." Zhao Jiu said as he gestured with his hand.

Yang Yizhong quickly stepped forward and handed over a document.

"Wanyan Elibu (讹鲁补), the Jin Kingdom's *wanhu* (ten-thousand household commander), led three thousand light cavalry across the river and went straight into the palace city of Jinan Prefecture. He captured Liu Yu, who was originally preparing to make a change, without bloodshed, and all the civil and military officials of the puppet Qi were incorporated into the Jin Kingdom's court." Zhao Jiu handed over the document. "The intelligence came from the secret post in Lingjiu Temple in Jinan... It should have been sent to the Privy Council in the afternoon, you can take it now."

The two were shocked, but they felt that it was reasonable, so their faces didn't change, and Zhang Jun stepped forward to take the document.

In this way, the monarch and his ministers talked about some leisurely things again. Not only was there no such tiger and wolf words as 'Every time I oppose Cao' before, but it seemed leisurely and casual... It wasn't until the two of them turned out of the Military Academy of the Yanfu Palace, returned to the palace city, and were preparing to go to the Chongwen Institute to hold today's Secretariat meeting that they gradually woke up on the road.

"The official is going to treat the Empresses Dowager, Imperial Concubines, Princesses, and meritorious officials kindly, in order to appease the people of the world, and then target the Two Saints!" Zhang Jun, who was holding the Jinan intelligence, was impatient and blurted out. "We finally met the official for a while, and we were perfunctorily dismissed!"

Zhao Ding was also in a daze, but he felt powerless all over.

At the Secretariat meeting in the afternoon, Zhai Ruwen, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, took the initiative to inform them—the Jin envoy said that after receiving the news in Yanjing that day, they began to welcome the Two Saints. Therefore, in about half a month, in late June, the Two Saints would be able to return south. If it was slower, it would definitely not be later than the beginning of autumn. If it was faster, it would probably be able to arrive in ten days.

The Secretariat was in a panic for a while, and quickly discussed the matter of welcoming the imperial party.

Three days later, Zhao Guan Jia accepted the joint petition from the Secretariat to personally welcome the imperial party at the riverbank.

Seven days later, there was still no news of the Two Saints and the princes, but Han Shizhong and Wu Jie first led three thousand cavalry from Guanzhong to the Yuetai Camp, and met with the Imperial Guards cavalry and the Central Army.

On the same day, the Secretariat jointly submitted a memorial again, on the grounds that it was not appropriate to mobilize troops during the peace talks, and requested that the official must bring fewer soldiers with him.

Zhao Guan Jia followed the good advice and formally issued an edict that all civil and military officials in the capital should follow him to welcome the imperial party. Han Shizhong, the Prince of Yan'an, and the other commanders were limited to leading two hundred cavalry each for protection, and the commanding officers were limited to leading fifty cavalry... In total, no more than two thousand cavalry were allowed.

Three days later, the Two Saints arrived at Daming Prefecture, and the Secretariat jointly submitted a memorial for the third time. Zhao Jiu formally led the crowd north to welcome them.

Three days later, on the 25th of June, the two sides each arrived on the north and south banks of Baimajin, and sent messengers back and forth across the river to communicate constantly.

On the morning of the 26th, Zhang Rong, the commander of the Imperial Guards Navy, led a newly launched thirty-wheeled ship capable of carrying eight hundred people northward. Under the guidance of Wulinda Zanmo, he formally took over the Two Saints and the princes from the army of Gao Jingshan, the commander of the Daming Prefecture Military Administration of the Jin Kingdom. At noon, the Supreme Daoist Emperor Zhao Ji and Emperor Yuansheng Zhao Huan, who had changed into scarlet robes in advance on the ship, and more than a dozen princes boarded Baimajin tremblingly and returned to the land of Henan, which they had been separated from for five years.

Before they could cry, a hundred paces away, Zhao Jiu, who was also wearing a scarlet robe but had been sitting upright under the dragon banner for a long time, suddenly turned his head and earnestly asked Zhu Shengfei, the Minister of Rites beside him:

"Minister Zhu, should I kneel?"

This was an extremely simple question, however, Zhu Shengfei, who had reluctantly come to welcome the imperial party with the large group four days ago, was sweating profusely under the gaze of the thousands of cavalry behind the official, and was speechless for a moment, at a loss for words.