Chapter 78: Priority Choice of Consort

…

“Still think it’s too slow?”

Ye Shi Yun felt Zhao Yu was insatiable.

Her three measures, if implemented smoothly, could yield six million five hundred thousand guan in just a few months—this was long-term revenue, certain to ease the Zhao Song dynasty’s fiscal strain.

And yet Zhao Yu was still dissatisfied.

“Emperors are impossible to please, hmph!”

Of course, such treasonous words—having been conditioned by feudal norms for half a year—Ye Shi Yun would never dare speak aloud; she merely shook her head and said, “Your servant lacks the method.”

Zhang Chun glanced at Ye Shi Yun and thought: “What good is a sharp mind if you don’t even know what he truly wants? No matter how much you do, you’ll never hit the mark.”

At this moment, Zhang Chun, having guessed Zhao Yu’s desire to swiftly resolve the soldiers’ unpaid wages, said to Zhao Yu: “Your servant has a strategy that may relieve Your Majesty’s urgent crisis.”

Zhao Yu looked at Zhang Chun and asked, “What is your excellent plan, beloved concubine?”

Zhang Chun internally scoffed: “When you need something, you call me ‘beloved concubine’; when you don’t, you call me ‘Chun Chun.’ You’re truly opportunistic!”

But aloud she said: “At the beginning of the late emperor’s reign, the Grand Empress Dowager presided behind the curtain, and Sima Guang became chancellor. While feigning illness at home, they submitted memorials proposing to return to the Xia the seven fortresses captured by the Song army—Mizhi, Futi, Saimen, Yihé, Wubao, Jialu, and Anjiang—and to negotiate slowly regarding Lanzhou and Dingxi City…”

In short, under Gao Taotao and Sima Guang’s leadership, the old faction had returned much of the territory won by Emperor Shenzong and Wang Anshi. Zhang Chun proposed branding these men as traitors and confiscating their estates.

Many corrupt officials had amassed vast fortunes through abuse of power; seizing the assets of ten or twenty such men would solve the treasury’s shortage.

The old faction’s return of land stemmed not merely from their bitter political rift with the new faction—since the expansion of the Xihé region was a new faction achievement, Sima Guang, upon taking power, sought to dismantle all its accomplishments—but also from strategic miscalculation: they believed capturing the Hehuang region could not destroy Xia, that its weak economy could not sustain military campaigns against Xia, and that its strategic value was limited; moreover, the Xihé expansion had been enormously costly, and maintaining Hehuang required heavy expenditure, and the court then faced severe economic pressure, making it seem unsustainable.

One could not say Sima Guang and his allies had no point.

But to Zhang Chun—or to those of later generations—surrendering so lightly the territory won at immense human and financial cost, and at the cost of countless soldiers’ lives, was no different from treason.

It must be reckoned with.

Indeed, even during Zhao Xu’s personal rule, these men had already been punished.

Sima Guang, for instance, had his posthumous honors revoked, his imperial steles destroyed, then demoted to deputy military governor of Qinghai Army, and later further degraded to clerk of Zhuyai Army.

Yet in Zhang Chun’s view, such punishment hardly counted as reckoning; such traitors deserved confiscation and execution.

Fearing Zhao Yu, this native emperor, might hesitate due to Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin’s ancestral edict that scholars must not be punished corporally, Zhang Chun further advised: “Your Majesty seeks to leverage military might—how can you fail to glorify its achievements? How can you allow men like Sima Guang to squander the blood of hundreds of thousands of soldiers for their own selfish desires?”

Zhao Yu, also a modern man, felt Zhang Chun spoke truly: letting these traitors off so easily was a grave injustice to the soldiers who bled and died on the frontlines—rendering their sacrifices meaningless.

More importantly, how could one possibly deny the military’s hard-won achievements now that one might soon rely on them to fight?

As for implementation, Zhao Yu believed the key lay in exploiting the old-new factional feud: let the new faction strike at the old faction, and he himself would simply make the decision he desired.

“Li Yan must thoroughly investigate these ministers’ assets and past records, lest we mistakenly seize the estates of upright officials with clean hands—we’ll gain no money and risk public condemnation, which would be far too costly.”

When it was Li Lin’s turn, she said: “Your servant knows how to make black powder. With this as a base, and with Xiao Jiao’s assistance, we can certainly produce divine weapons: the Thundering Bomb and the Crouching Tiger Cannon, perhaps even the Great General Cannon. Combined with our divine crossbow, we can forge an invincible Divine Mechanism Corps. I beg Your Majesty to recruit ten thousand new soldiers and allow me to train two Divine Mechanism Corps for Your Majesty—then even against tenfold enemies, we can still prevail.”

Zhao Yu thought: “Hand grenades, mortars, the Great General Cannon—probably the Red Coat Cannon—combined with the divine crossbow? Interesting.”

Li Lin knew that, as a young woman, she could not yet command the trust of the world or the soldiers, so she must proceed gradually; thus she volunteered: “I will draft the military organization and training plans, but I will not personally command these two corps—for now.”

Then Li Lin began painting a picture for Zhao Yu: “If Your Majesty follows my advice, you will gain two invincible elite corps, and henceforth have no cause for worry.”

Zhao Yu, who truly desired two combat-capable elite corps, was somewhat tempted.

Crucially, Zhao Yu judged that Li Lin’s plan to model these corps on the Ming Dynasty’s Divine Mechanism Corps was plausible enough—after all, the Thundering Bomb and Crouching Tiger Cannon were not advanced technology, though the Red Coat Cannon still posed some difficulty.

More crucially, lacking two reliable armies left Zhao Yu feeling uneasy.

So Zhao Yu said: “First, work with Xiao Jiao to develop the Thundering Bomb and Crouching Tiger Cannon. Show me their power, and then I will decide.”

Li Lin rejoiced inwardly: “As long as Zhao Yu approves these two corps, I will eventually seize command—after all, no one else can fully unleash their combat potential.”

The meal lasted until nightfall, with all six transmigrants still eating.

Except for Ma Xiao Jiao’s four women, all had eaten until their bellies were round and full.

Clearly, the four women’s lives in Cide Palace had been harsh.

As the banquet neared its end, Li Lin and Yuan Qing Cheng’s hearts tightened—they feared Zhao Yu would summon them for the night.

Ye Shi Yun, meanwhile, kept subtly flirting with Zhao Yu; clearly, having suffered enough, she intended to follow Ma Xiao Jiao’s path to total ascent—to a life of ease, luxury, and comfort—and no longer wished to remain a lowly palace maid.

Beyond this, Ye Shi Yun harbored a secret unknown to all.

In her past life, she had been a stone—never a proper woman, never knowing what it meant to be one.

Now, finally a normal woman, she longed to experience what women spoke of: the sensation of flying to heaven.

To achieve this, when no one noticed, she deliberately posed a seductive posture toward Zhao Yu, hoping to catch his eye.

But to Ye Shi Yun’s dismay, Zhao Yu remained utterly unmoved by her allure—unlike the men of her past life, who had chased her desperately, obeying her every gesture.

Ye Shi Yun was furious: “Brat, you ignore my charm? You’ve angered me—wait until I teach you a lesson!”

Zhang Chun, however, sat calmly, convinced that among all the women, she had performed best today—and thus deserved priority in choosing a consort.

Zhang Chun firmly believed her judgment of Zhao Yu: he tolerated them not because they were pretty, but because they were useful to him.

Therefore, his choice of whom to summon must be based on merit, not who could flirt best.

Zhang Chun glanced subtly at Ye Shi Yun: “You’re clever, you understand men—but you don’t understand emperors. How can you compete with me?!”

Indeed!

Zhang Chun was right again.

After the meal, Zhao Yu gave a crisp order: “Chun Chun stays to attend me. The rest of you, retire.”

…

(End of chapter)