As May gives way to June, and considering that Consort Pan had hinted more than once to Emperor Zhao that she desired another child... Once or twice, Emperor Zhao naturally felt moved. Three or four times, it felt like merely a game of seduction. Five or six times, it felt somewhat tiresome. Seven or eight times, it became rather annoying.

Therefore, at the end of the month, Emperor Zhao officially decreed that the two princesses be placed under the care of Consort Pan, who had already given birth... The effect was excellent, and Consort Pan finally stopped mentioning it.

In addition, Emperor Zhao formally received the Goryeo envoy, Kim Busik, a figure who historically initiated the millennium-long Sadaejuui (serving the great power) political ideology on the Korean Peninsula and possibly the most accomplished historian of Korea (systematically organized the histories of Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje, incorporating the unification of the Three Kingdoms into Goryeo's official history, and also wrote Korea's first official history). He was also a politician who supported three generations of Goryeo monarchs through various internal and external crises, undoubtedly a remarkable individual.

However, the meeting between such a remarkable individual and Emperor Zhao was uneventful. Both seemed mature to the point of perfunctoriness. They exchanged pleasantries, emphasizing the longstanding traditional friendship and the necessity of private trade, and then it simply ended.

Ultimately, since Emperor Zhao understood that Kim Busik was a pragmatic man, he abandoned any thought of gaining an advantage... Although there were cracks within Goryeo, it was too early to speak of them. It was best to keep an eye on things for the future.

As for Kim Busik's thoughts, they were less clear.

According to Wang Lun, Kim Busik was likely not as composed as he appeared. Before entering the palace, after inquiring about events since the Jingkang Incident, he reportedly held Emperor Zhao in very high regard. This Goryeo statesman and renowned historian believed that Emperor Zhao had his flaws, but they were relative to a 'sage ruler'... For example, compared to Emperor Guangwu, he could be considered a three-seven split of Guangwu.

Moreover, Ambassador Kim greatly admired Emperor Zhao's artistic talents.

Needless to say, the poem "Green Jade Cup" was appreciated. Kim Busik was said to have meticulously collected and organized even the 'old works of Lay Buddhist Yi'an'. After reading the essay "Dialogue on Fine Horses," polished by Scholar Lin and signed by Emperor Zhao and Yue Fei, at the Capital Province, he immediately copied it, saying he would take it back to show his king.

However, after entering the palace and facing the desolate imperial court, the Goryeo envoy and national official, who had previously lacked expression regarding Wang Lun's description of 'the Emperor's austerity,' fell into a strange silence. His subsequent meeting with Zhao Jiu was somewhat unremarkable.

Let's not dwell on the Goryeo envoy's fleeting visit... After all, it somewhat achieved its goals... And the monotonous life of the Zhao Song Emperor continued.

As June arrived, there was finally some breaking news about the war, but the source was rather bizarre – Shi Bin, formerly known as Shi Dalang, a remnant of the rebel Song Jiang, suddenly appeared in the Xingyuan Prefecture (Hanzhong) region, then publicly proclaimed himself emperor and led his army to attempt to seize the city of Xingyuan.

Shi Dalang originally surrendered to the court with Song Jiang. After Song Jiang died of illness, he served as a general under Zhang Shuye. Later, the Jingkang Incident broke out, and Zhang Shuye led his troops to defend the emperor, becoming the only minister to break through the Jin army's blockade and enter the city of Tokyo. Shi Dalang presumably reverted to his old ways during this chaos and became a military bandit.

But no one expected him to wander all the way to Guanxi or Shangyong, only to suddenly appear in Xingyuan Prefecture and even dare to proclaim himself emperor?

This matter caused Emperor Zhao a rare moment of sighing… It should be known that Shi Bin Shi Dalang’s background and name immediately suggest that he was the standard prototype of Shi Jin the Nine-Dragoned, even more so than Vice Commander Ma Gao's One-Zhang Qing wife and Li Bao, nicknamed Sick Guan Suo. And Shi Jin the Nine-Dragoned was undoubtedly Emperor Zhao's life-long idol from his third grade of primary school, yet he never expected to recognize the existence of his idol in this way.

However, knowing was knowing, but Emperor Zhao made no reaction.

There were three reasons:

Firstly, this was just a minor rebellion. Apart from Shi Dalang's proclamation of himself as emperor being a bit shocking, the rest was no different from ordinary military banditry. Moreover, considering the delay in the transmission of news and the remoteness of Hanzhong, it was likely just a ripple caused by Liu Yu's proclamation of himself as emperor or the loss of northern Shaanxi. There was no need to make a fuss.

Secondly, Zhao Jiu had just set up the leadership structure of Yuwen Xuzhong, Zhang Jun, and Hu Yin for Guanxi, and this could be a suitable test... In fact, as this emperor had been enthroned for nearly two years, many people had gradually figured out some of the emperor's habits, and being fond of being a hands-off manager was undoubtedly a great advantage in the emperor's person for his ministers.

Thirdly, life in Tokyo was monotonous, but the emperor was also very busy. Matters such as receiving Goryeo envoys, which were useful but also useless, were constantly arising.

For example, recently Zhao Jiu was inspired by the problem of Goryeo monks, and since he was so poor, he had the idea of ​​going to temples to ask for alms.

He first led Consort Pan, Consort Wu, plus the two little princesses Zhao Shenyou and Zhao Fuyou, the entire Zhao Song imperial family, to the Daxiangguo Temple in Tokyo... However, in the end, he returned greatly disappointed. During the Jingkang Incident, the Jin people's plunder was aimed at the entire city and the Zhao Song central government, which was an aerial extraction. This level of plunder was too high, and Daxiangguo Temple could not be exempted because the Jin people had more respect for monks, so hundreds of years of floating wealth had already been transferred to the Jin people's pockets through the hands of the Great Song court.

So, in all fairness, Daxiangguo Temple, like the Zhao Song imperial family, basically only had the ancestral house with a huge area that could be considered to have some economic value left.

Only the monks of Daxiangguo Temple were not like the Zhao Song emperor, who could run all over the world, and they were also more diligent. Weeding never stopped, so the appearance of Xiangguo Temple, which was located on the east side of Yujie and occupied a huge area, was still extremely good. The real estate development value should be stronger than that of the Zhao Song imperial city.

Therefore, based on the principle that thieves don't leave empty-handed, Emperor Zhao decided to forcibly requisition the Daxiangguo Temple, which had a lot of open space and rooms, as a military equipment camp, specially for the Kaifeng prefect Chen Gui to handle various military equipment for city defense, and then the monks of Daxiangguo Temple should also use their cooking skills to cook and boil water for the civilians and soldiers.

Of course, seeing the Abbot's worried look, Zhao Jiu did not go too far. He only said that the country was in danger, and Tokyo might face a siege. Everyone should endure for the sake of the country.

When the two Hebei regions are recovered one day, he, Zhao Jiu, will naturally return the right to use the Xiangguo Temple. Maybe he can open a branch temple in Yanjing to expand the scale of the industry, etc... He even left a signed document with his signature.

At the end of the document, the four characters "Cangzhou Zhao Jiu" were getting better and better.

What else could the abbot of Daxiangguo Temple do? He could only hold the document and smile awkwardly, recite a few Buddhist scriptures, and then narrate the Zhao Song imperial family's centuries of respect for the Xiangguo Temple.

Of course, this statement was definitely expressing the determination to coexist with the country, rather than reminding Emperor Zhao that the Buddha could not be deceived, otherwise what?

It should be known that the current Tokyo city is much more lively than last year, but the number of male adults among the common people is definitely less than the number of 200,000 Imperial Army soldiers.

What's more, there are tens of thousands of Imperial Army soldiers near Tokyo.

Not to mention that after all, an emperor promised a branch temple and gave a document, right?

Therefore, this evening, Emperor Zhao reversed the universe, personally rang the famous morning bell of Daxiangguo Temple, and then both host and guest were happy. After Zhao Jiu's entire family enjoyed a world-famous Daxiangguo Temple vegetarian meal, they left contentedly.

After leaving Daxiangguo Temple, probably feeling that the results of begging for alms at Daxiangguo Temple were not enough, Emperor Zhao actually set off again the next day, but only took Consort Wu for easy travel, left Tokyo and continued west, then turned slightly south in the Xijing area, apparently heading towards the ancestral court of Zen Buddhism, the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng.

Compared with the unlucky Daxiangguo Temple, Shaolin Temple is located in Mount Shaoshi, and the Jin army has many Buddhists, so it did not encounter systematic burning, killing and looting.

Not only that, or it can be said that on the contrary, Shaolin Temple gradually rose from the Tang Dynasty, continued to grow, and has now reached its peak. It owns more than 10,000 acres of land, and the temple base alone has 540 acres, with thousands of buildings, pavilions and towers, and thousands of monks.

As early as the Renzong period, Shaolin Temple took the initiative to open a branch in Tokyo, trying to compete with Daxiangguo Temple.

Moreover, there is a tradition of martial arts in the temple, and there are countless tenant laborers. Ordinary military bandits or fear religion, or fear the strong strength of Shaolin Temple, and mostly dislike the trouble here. In addition, Shaolin Temple has superb methods. During the war, someone had long handled worldly affairs in Dengfeng City, and there was a share of identity and expression for both monks and lay people, Song and Jin, as long as there were soldiers passing through, so there was little harassment.

Therefore, when Emperor Zhao came to visit the mountain this time, Commander Niu Gao and Da Cui, plus the Imperial Guards personally led by Yang Yizhong, a total of thousands of soldiers surrounded the mountain, naturally alarming the abbot and many monks in the temple, and then hurriedly went out of the mountain gate to welcome them, while being extremely frightened.

After all, no one is a fool. The rumor that this emperor scraped Taoist ancestor's gold powder in the Mingdao Palace, collected temples as military use in Xiangguo Temple, and had nearly endured hardship in the palace before, had long been transmitted from Dengfeng to Mount Shaoshi.

In addition, everyone knows that the current court is facing serious financial difficulties due to military expenses, so that even though grain and silk from the southeast have been continued, the civil and military officials of the court are still receiving half salaries... May I ask, which great monk does not have the greatest caution?

Sure enough, when the two sides met, the Shaolin Temple monks knelt to welcome the emperor into the temple. Before entering the mountain gate, the abbot took the initiative to express his willingness to share the country's worries.

After inquiring carefully, he actually wanted to offer tens of thousands of stones of accumulated grain, plus three large boxes of gold and silver, and nearly 200,000 strings of other money and silk!

Such a generous gesture, such a decision, naturally made Emperor Zhao feel emotional. As expected of the world's number one ancient temple that can last for 1,500 years, this vision, this bearing, and this decision are even stronger than those of Kim Busik!

It made him embarrassed to scrape the gold powder.

Of course, in order to protect such an ancient temple, Emperor Zhao continued to demand two hundred martial monks to be recruited into the army at the mountain gate, and collected 5,000 acres of land outside Dengfeng City, along with the tenants, to be used as military farms. At the same time, he also required Shaolin Temple to ensure the basic rations of the Hebei refugees passing through Dengfeng City.

After all, according to what Emperor Zhao said, the military and the people are one, monks and lay people are one family, the Great Song is strong and the people are rich, so that we can better protect Shaolin Temple, the common precious property of the Great Song.

The several masters of Shaolin Temple were a little dazed, but they still tried to express their understanding and recognition from the perspective of Buddhism.

So, the host and guests were happy again.

However, the next day, just as Emperor Zhao, looking at the grain, money, and good land full of crops, was about to offer incense to the Buddha in the Great Hero Hall, a nobleman accompanying him could no longer bear it.

"Your Majesty!"

Zhao Shi㒟, the Grand Clan Court official who had just returned from Yangzhou and insisted on coming this time, suddenly stepped forward solemnly, apparently waiting for this opportunity. "How can there be a reason to worship Buddha before going to the imperial mausoleum to pay homage after arriving in Xijing?"

Zhao Jiu was slightly startled and was about to explain: "Didn't I tell the Imperial Uncle about this yesterday?"

"Your Majesty's words yesterday were all perfunctory, and I know what Your Majesty is thinking."

Zhao Shi㒟 continued to confront him solemnly in the hall. "I know Your Majesty is seeking wealth for the country on this trip... But isn't it also to avoid the Grand Ceremony? A few days ago, Chancellor Xu of the Capital Province and Minister Zhu of the Ministry of Rites suggested that since Your Majesty has returned to Tokyo, please restore the old system, perform the Grand Ceremony, inform the ancestors, and pray for the safety of the Two Sages to appease the people's hearts. But Your Majesty dodged the issue and then personally went to the Daxiangguo Temple and then here! May I ask Your Majesty, why do you have to do things personally that can be done with an imperial edict? And why do you procrastinate about things that should be done personally? Why is the importance in Your Majesty's eyes completely different from the importance in our eyes?"

Zhao Jiu's expression had already returned to normal. He stood upright in the Great Hero Hall, under the lotus platform of the Buddha, smiled and clasped his hands: "These words... especially the last two sentences, Imperial Uncle has wanted to say them for a long time, right?"

Zhao Shi㒟 came back to his senses and was a little frustrated. He bowed again: "Your Majesty, this old minister has no intention of criticizing, but is only speaking from the public interest, and has no intention of undermining Your Majesty's authority, otherwise I would not have waited until this time, coming to such an extraordinary place, before offering my advice."

This was true. Besides Emperor Zhao and Imperial Uncle Zhao, the only others who could enter the Great Hero Hall were Consort Wu dressed as a man, Scholar Lin, and a few Zen Buddhist monks who did not move at all... Generals Niu Gao and Da Cui were outside the mountain gate, and Yang Yizhong was standing guard at the hall door with a knife.

Of course, more importantly, this was a religious place after all, naturally possessing a kind of political shielding and concealment. After everyone finished speaking, they could pretend that nothing had happened when they left the door.

"I know, and that is the problem." Returning to the front, Zhao Jiu said quietly. "Everyone is doing it for the public, but their respective 'public's are completely different. Why is this so? In fact, Imperial Uncle has been in Yangzhou for more than a year, and I have been elsewhere for more than a year. Experiencing different events, our thoughts are already different. Now that we meet again, we should have made it clear. This is my mistake."

"I respectfully listen to the imperial edict." Zhao Shi㒟 bowed his head seriously.

In fact, not only Zhao Shi㒟, but everyone else in the hall, from Scholar Lin to Consort Wu dressed as a man, all pricked up their ears... Of course, the Shaolin monks who specialized in Zen Buddhism definitely disdained listening to these court secrets.

"During the Jingkang Incident, I lost all my parents, brothers, and sisters. During my exile, I saw the people of the world suffering similar hardships, and gradually developed a sense of empathy, and had the intention of treating the people as my parents, brothers, and sisters. As for Imperial Uncle and others, although they also lost their emperor, father, and family, they still hold on to some empty shells as their emperor, father, and family, and even want me to act as a puppet to replace certain people, without considering the living people in front of me at all... This is the fundamental reason why there are always problems between us after you returned to Tokyo."

"Old minister... old minister still doesn't understand." Zhao Shi㒟 barely responded.

"It's okay to be more frank... I once swore that in this life I would revive the two Hebei regions, destroy the Jin state, plow their courts and sweep their dens, and unite the world... Has Imperial Uncle heard of this?" Zhao Jiu's expression remained unchanged, and he continued to smile.

"I have heard a little." Zhao Shi㒟 immediately responded.

"Then may I ask Imperial Uncle, since I am going to do such a career... If I succeed, I should at least be better than Emperor Guangwu, right? And if I want to achieve this career, then I should learn from the ancient sage rulers above Emperor Guangwu, right?"

"That's natural."

"Then why don't you want me to learn from Emperor Guangwu, but want me to learn from those mediocre people who have not recovered Yanyun or pacified Western Xia for hundreds of years and then unified China?" Emperor Zhao's expression remained unchanged. "Not to mention that there are even people who want me to learn from those who ruined the country of their clan, were captured to the north themselves, but caused the world to be humiliated! Even if I debase myself, how can I do such a thing? Pray for safety, pray for blessings, are they worthy?!"

Zhao Shi㒟 was dumbfounded, and then couldn't help but lower his voice and said earnestly: "Your Majesty, your world was originally the world of your ancestors, fathers, and brothers, and your throne was also originally the throne of your ancestors, fathers, and brothers!"

"The world of the ancestors was originally the world offered by the hearts of the people of the world, and the throne of the ancestors was also the throne offered by the hearts of the people of the world!" Zhao Jiu still did not get angry, and could still smile. "And now the hearts of the people have been lost by my father and brothers, and the world and throne of Zhao Song have reached me and are already crumbling. I should reorganize the hearts of the people... Moreover, water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it. Has Imperial Uncle not read a book?"

Zhao Shi㒟 was completely stunned.

"Imperial Uncle," Zhao Jiu said slowly, seeing this, and calmly responded. "You did not publicly advise me in Tokyo for the sake of my dignity, and I am very grateful. And for the sake of your dignity, I have also given you a sincere answer in this extraordinary place... But after leaving the door, I will not admit some words, so as not to make the chancellors and ministers feel awkward... Please forgive me."

After saying these words, Emperor Zhao turned around and, in a dead silence, snatched the incense from the somewhat sluggish Shaolin abbot, and then shook it vaguely towards the dignified golden body puppet in front of him, and then randomly inserted the incense into the furnace in front of him.

Then he took a long breath.

I have to say that being a dictator is sometimes quite enjoyable... No wonder Zhao Ji could degenerate to that point?

We must take this as a warning.

Thinking of this, Emperor Zhao folded his hands again, bowed slightly towards the puppet, and then turned around and walked out of the hall with a solemn expression, his expression like a wooden sculpture.

ps: Good night... and happy holidays?

Twenty-one hours without sleep, allow me to sleep soundly.