Chapter 111: The Most Beautiful Landscape Designer of the Great Song

Foolish Move Two: Immersed in pleasure, grandly building.

Operation: to gather exotic flowers and strange stones for the "Hua Shi Gang", and to build the super garden "Gan Yue" for personal hobby, exhausting the people and draining the treasury, causing unrest throughout the realm.

Netizens sharply comment: "The Most Beautiful Landscape Designer of the Great Song," using the entire nation's GDP to build a private garden for oneself.

In the scene, the fleet transporting the "Hua Shi Gang" is endless, laborers under officials' whips struggle to move it, many homes are destroyed, all to satisfy a single stone in the emperor's garden.

The ultra‑luxurious "Gan Yue" garden appears, with exotic flowers and plants, rare birds and beasts, pavilions and towers, like a fairyland, contrasting the people's suffering with heaven and hell.

"Hua Shi Gang... Gan Yue... exhausting the people and draining the treasury, the realm in unrest..."

Zhao Kuangyin watches the people whose homes are ruined for a single stone, looks at the incomparable luxury garden, and feels his heart cut like a knife.

He governs the nation frugally, fully aware of the difficulty of material resources.

His descendants, however, for personal greed, wreak such havoc upon the world.

"The Most Beautiful Landscape Designer of the Great Song... using the nation's GDP to build a private garden..."

Zhao Kuangyin savors this sharp satire, feeling both shame and anger.

As the founding emperor, he still exhausts himself worrying over unifying the realm and stabilizing people's livelihoods.

Later generations already lounge on the record of achievements, using the entire nation's wealth to satisfy personal pleasure.

"This damn thing is even more outrageous than Emperor Yang of Sui building canals!"

Liu Bang scolds, "At least canals can transport goods; he does it purely for his own amusement, forcing the common folk to a desperate existence, just for more stones and flower trees in his garden? How black‑hearted is this!"

Ying Zheng sneers: "Competing with the people for profit, abusing them, cutting oneself off from the people."

"The ancient tyrants Jie and Zhou, their jade towers and jade chambers, were no different. Such monarchs are truly solitary oppressors of the people."

Liu Che angrily says: "For personal selfishness, draining all the people's strength, this is not a ruler but a people's thief!"

"The common folk are innocent, yet suffer this poison? Such actions, if they do not spark a rebellion, that is the real oddity."

Li Shimin watches, his anger blazing,

"Emperor Yang of Sui's chariot is still before his eyes. This Emperor Huizong of Song, yet takes no lesson at all."

"The harm of the Hua Shi Gang exceeds the Sui forced labor; such cruelty to the people, how could the realm not rebel?!"

Wei Zheng loudly declares: "Your Majesty! The people are water, the ruler is a boat! Water can carry a boat, but also capsize it!"

"This Emperor Huizong is personally stirring a massive wave to drown his own dragon boat! Our great Tang must forever take this as a warning!"

Cheng Yaojin also feels indignant for those laborers,

"This old emperor, truly worthless! For his own sightseeing, he forces the common folk to death; is this damn thing even human?"

Zhu Yuanzhang says bitterly: "Arrogance, extravagance, debauchery! Exhausting the people and draining the treasury! This is the standard set for a doomed ruler."

"If we had such a descendant, we'd have to stuff him into the stone crevice of that "Gan Yue", letting him taste the feeling of being squeezed."

Zhu Di also watches with alarm; such misuse of the people's labor is simply digging one's own grave.

Cao Cao shakes his head: "Coveting pleasure, ignoring the people's strength, even with ten "Gan Yue" it cannot stop a single arrow from the Jin. This ruler's folly is incurable."

Northern Song.

Inside the Bianjing Imperial Palace, within Gan Yue.

Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji, in his meticulously crafted garden "Gan Yue", composes poetry and paints before several newly arrived Taihu stones, while Cai Jing, Gao Qiu and others flatter him in a tide of sycophancy.

Suddenly, the sky screen appears again.

When he sees his name listed as "Foolish Ruler List Fifth" and called "Artistic Grave Digger", Zhao Ji is first stunned, his brush halts, and displeasure appears on his face.

"Absurd! My calligraphy and painting are unrivaled through ages, pioneering slender gold script and court style, literary elegance, how could those crude monarchs who only know conquest compare?"

Zhao Ji flicks his sleeve, declaring that he is extremely proud of his artistic achievements, even surpassing his imperial status.

"A doomed ruler? The Humiliation of Jingkang? Nonsense."

"My Great Song enjoys prosperity and peace, allied with the Jin, how could there be a disaster of losing the nation?"

Cai Jing quickly says: "Your Majesty, calm your anger; the sky screen's slanders must be tricks of old faction remnants jealous of your name and defaming your new policies."

Gao Qiu also says: "Indeed, Your Majesty's civil and military achievements are known to all; the Jin are a tiny state, how dare they trespass?"

"Even if they come, with Tong Shumi Tong Guan present, they will surely have no return."

Zhao Ji listens, pleased, his complexion brightens slightly, but the sky screen continues, displaying his "Foolish Moves".

Seeing "Traitor F4" and "Art Circle Football Circle Association", Zhao Ji's face looks uneasy, and Cai Jing and Gao Qiu are even more embarrassed.

When he sees "Hua Shi Gang", "Gan Yue", "exhausting the people and draining the treasury", Zhao Ji frowns and says:

"I built Gan Yue to cultivate my temperament, gather the realm's elegance, and also showcase the Great Song's splendid abundance."

"A little of the people's strength is nothing to worry about; what can those simple folk understand about aesthetics?"

However, when he sees "Alliance Jin Destroy Liao" listed as a Foolish Move, and the upcoming preview of "Humiliation of Jingkang", Zhao Ji's heart jumps sharply.

Alliance Jin Destroy Liao is the policy he is promoting, aiming to recover the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, fulfilling his ancestors' unfinished achievements; how did it become a Foolish Move?

He still wants to rebut, but the sky screen has already shown the netizen's viral meme about the "Wang" character flying white.

"The Jin are attacking... wait for me to finish this "Wang" character..."

Zhao Ji savors this sentence, a strange chill rising from deep within his heart.

This meme, though absurd, has an unsettling precision, as if foretelling a future moment of desperate absurdity for him.

He opens his mouth, intending to curse like the previous foolish rulers, accusing the sky screen of nonsense.

But for some reason, watching the clear images on the sky screen, hearing the sharp comments, especially the meme about the "Wang" character, he finds himself unable to curse, an indescribable panic and guilt spreading silently.

Could it be... have I truly erred?

No! I am the Son of Heaven, my art will be immortal, my decisions... cannot be wrong!

He forces himself to stay calm, but his tightly clenched, slightly trembling hand betrays his inner unrest.

He looks at the still smirking Cai Jing and Gao Qiu beside him, and for the first time feels those faces are no longer pleasant to look at.

Northern Song, among the people.

In Bianjing City, on every street and lane, countless commoners and scholars secretly gazed at the sky curtain.

When they saw the tragedy of "Huashi Gang", the extravagance of "Genyue", the grip of the "Four Traitor Ministers" on state affairs, and the emperor's obsession with art while neglecting governance…

The long‑suppressed anger and resentment finally found an outlet for venting.

"So… so our suffering, the court knows, yet they just do nothing."

"Huashi Gang… my father died from transporting that 'Divine Transport Merit Stone'!"

"Genyue… that was built with our blood, sweat, and bones."

"Cai Jing, Gao Qiu, Tong Guan, Zhu Min… the four great traitorous ministers, how does the court trust them?"

"Alliance of Gold to annihilate Liao? Isn't that colluding with the tiger?"

"The humiliation of Jingkang… the royal northern hunting tour… one‑way tickets…"

The low murmurs were filled with anger, despair, and sarcasm.

The emperor is senile, treacherous ministers dominate, the people barely survive, external threats loom… the sky curtain's revelation is like a red‑hot branding iron, scorching every heart.

Many have become utterly disillusioned with this court, and with the emperor who composes poetry among the winds and moon in Genyue.