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 financial strain on the Zhao-Song dynasty.

And yet Zhao Yu was still dissatisfied.

"Emperors are impossible to please, hmph!"

Of course, such treasonous words—having been conditioned by the feudal system for half a year—Ye Shi Yun dared not utter aloud; she merely shook her head and said, "Your servant lacks the method."

Zhang Chun glanced at Ye Shi Yun, thinking: "Having a sharp mind is useless—you have no idea 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 wanted 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, Empress Dowager Gao Taotao presided over court from behind the curtain, and Sima Guang became chancellor. While feigning illness at home, they submitted memorials proposing to return to the Western Xia the seven fortresses seized by Song troops—Mizhi, Futi, Saimen, Yihé, Wubao, Jialu, and Anjiang—while leaving Lanzhou and Dingxi City for later negotiation…"

In short, under Gao Taotao and Sima Guang's leadership, the Old Party returned much of the territory conquered by Emperor Shenzong and Wang Anshi. Zhang Chun proposed branding them traitors and confiscating their estates.

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

The Old Party's return of land stemmed not merely from deep political rifts with the New Party—Sima Guang, upon taking office, sought to dismantle the New Party's achievements, including the Xihé frontier expansion—but also from strategic miscalculation: they believed capturing the Hehuang region could not eliminate the Western Xia, that its weak economy could not sustain military campaigns against them, and that its strategic value was limited; moreover, the Xihé expansion had been enormously costly, and maintaining Hehuang required heavy expenditure, placing immense economic pressure on the court, which they deemed unsustainable.

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

But to Zhang Chun—or to those of later generations—giving away territory won at the cost of immense manpower, treasure, and the blood of countless frontline soldiers was no different from treason.

It must be reckoned with.

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

For instance, Sima Guang had his posthumous honors stripped, his imperial steles destroyed, later demoted to Deputy Military Commissioner of Qinghai Army, then further exiled as a Clerk of Zhuya Garrison.

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 Zhao Kuangyin's ancestral edict that "punishments do not reach scholar-officials," Zhang Chun pressed further: "If Your Majesty wishes to leverage military might, how can you fail to glorify its achievements? How can you allow Sima Guang and his ilk to squander the blood of hundreds of thousands of soldiers for their own selfish desires?"

Zhao Yu, also a modern man, agreed with Zhang Chun: letting Sima Guang and his traitors go unpunished was a grave insult to the soldiers who bled and died on the frontlines—rendering their sacrifices meaningless.

Crucially, how could they possibly deny the military's hard-won achievements now that they might need them to fight again?

As for implementation, Zhao Yu believed the key lay in exploiting the enmity between the Old and New Parties: let the New Party strike at the Old Party, and he himself would merely make the decision he desired.

"Li Yan must thoroughly investigate these ministers' assets and past conduct—lest we mistakenly seize the estates of upright officials with clean hands. We'd gain nothing but invite public condemnation, which would be far too costly."

When it was Li Lin's turn, she said: "Your servant can manufacture black powder. With this as a foundation, and with Xiao Jiao's assistance, we can surely produce divine weapons—the Heaven-Shattering Bomb and the Tiger Squat Cannon—and perhaps even the Great General Cannon. Combined with our Divine Crossbow, we can forge an invincible Divine Mechanism Camp. I beg Your Majesty to recruit ten thousand new soldiers and allow me to train two Divine Mechanism Camps for Your Majesty; then, even against tenfold enemies, we shall prevail."

Zhao Yu thought: "Hand grenades, mortars, the Great General Cannon—that must be 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 could not immediately take direct command; she must proceed gradually. Thus she volunteered: "I shall draft the military organization and training plans, but I shall not personally lead these two camps—for now."

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

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

Crucially, Zhao Yu judged that Li Lin's plan to model these camps after the Ming Dynasty's Divine Mechanism Corps was plausible—after all, the Heaven-Shattering Bomb and Tiger Squat Cannon were not advanced technology, though the Red Coat Cannon remained somewhat difficult.

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

So Zhao Yu said: "First, work with Xiao Jiao to develop the Heaven-Shattering Bomb and Tiger Squat Cannon. Show me their power. Then I shall decide."

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

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

Aside from Seeing Ma Xiao Jiao's four concubines, each had eaten until their bellies were round and full.

Clearly, the four concubines' lives in the 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 endured hardship, she intended to follow Seeing Ma Xiao Jiao's path to total ascent, to live a life of ease and luxury, no longer as a lowly palace maid.

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

That is, in her previous life, she had been a stone-hearted woman—never truly a woman at all, ignorant of what it meant to be one.

Now, finally, she was a normal woman, and she longed to experience what women always spoke of—the sensation of flying to heaven.

To achieve this, when no one noticed, Ye Shi Yun deliberately posed in a seductive posture, hoping to catch Zhao Yu's eye.

Yet to her 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 on who could flirt best.

Zhang Chun subtly glanced 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)