Chapter Fifty-Four Unique and Unparalleled

  Concerned about the emperor's life, no one was careless. The ministers supported Zhao Kuangyin to retreat backwards, retreating more than a mile away. Some ministers even rushed to stand in front of Zhao Kuangyin to show their loyalty.

  Song Jiu looked at them, then glanced at Zhao Kuangyi and said that he himself was thick-skinned and rough, but those people were even more shameless. He shook his head and ordered the soldiers to clear the scene. He was mainly afraid of the children of some ordinary people on the riverbank, as most families raised their children in a scattered manner, with adults going out to work and leaving them to play at home. In case they played near the city wall and something happened, it would be hard to explain. He ordered the soldiers to tell these ordinary people to find their children and temporarily lock them up at home to avoid accidents.

  After everything was ready, Song Jiu said: "Your Majesty, you can start now."

  Unlike that day, this was an imperial visit, and afterwards Zhao Kuangyin would be given a new name.

  Zhao Kuangyin used a flame to ignite the signal fire.

  Even Song Jiuyue couldn't get used to the real fire tongue, and had to keep scraping to get a flame. However, it was a sad era, even making a match wasn't easy, not to mention the match head, the production cost of a single matchstick would be very high at that time.

  The fuse burned quickly, and Song Jiuyi said, "Cover your ears."

  Actually, no need for him to say it, someone has already covered their ears.

  Not long after, a loud noise was heard, followed by a large amount of mud shooting up into the air. It's possible that the work was rushed, and many of the city wall bricks were substandard products that were shattered by the force of the gunpowder explosion and sent flying into the air along with the mud. In the sky, they dispersed like a small mushroom cloud, falling down like raindrops, scattering over an area of more than 100 paces. Then two more explosions were heard, first blowing out a hole in the middle, followed by the walls on either side collapsing to the east and west, leaving only a broken foundation behind.

  The ministers endured the buzzing in their ears and looked solemnly at the fallen green bricks.

  The immense power also frightened them, despite their mental preparation. However, this is a double-edged sword, which can hurt both others and oneself. If used well, it can deal with the enemy, but if used poorly, it can also allow the enemy to deal with oneself. Even they saw a very bad consequence, that is, the city wall will lose its effect.

  It's not as serious as they thought.

  Song Jiuyi played a small trick, the height was excellent, but the length had problems. The longer the length, the better the stability and solidity, the shorter the length, the worse. How can a city wall of tens of meters be compared to a city wall of tens of kilometers? But the power to knock down the city wall is enough. There is no sky collapse, if you dig a trench inside the city wall, there are at least seven ways to break it. Even if the city wall is broken, if the enemy is fierce, they can still be beaten back outside the city and the gap can be blocked with a fence again.

  Before the emergence of firearms, war was still about the commander's ability to command. If Song had given this army to Fan Yong to command, the tragedy at San Chuan Kou would have still occurred. The scattered soldiers and peasants who were led by Yue Fei during the late Northern Song dynasty became an invincible army. Logistics, weather, weapons, terrain, and supplies are all secondary factors except for the attitude of the imperial court.

  It will have an effect, making the enemy produce some psychological fear, and having a deterrent effect. Another thing is that in Song Dynasty history, many weapons were developed using extremely unstandardized gunpowder, so I believe that the development of this kind of gunpowder will result in even more powerful weapons. But there is one prerequisite: someone must go and develop it.

  Regarding the war and the lives of tens of thousands of people, Song Jiudan did not dare to be slow, and in his letter, he explained one by one to Zhao Kuangyi how to do it, which was the attitude of the imperial court and had nothing to do with Song Jiu.

  At this time, not many people knew the truth. The dust and smoke dispersed, and many people walked closer, looking at the large black hole that had been blasted out of the ground, their expressions even more serious. Tao Gu said: "This is a great ominous device, we must be on our guard."

  "Tao Qing, I understand."

  Song Jiuzhong's letter he also read, and explicitly stated that its role is not in the military, mainly still in civilian use, there is no need to say it immediately.

  Someone else looked at Song Jiu with a strange gaze, and Song Jiu was looking at the nearby woods. September is approaching, and the grass and trees are slightly yellowish. The wild geese fly south, and a desolate sandbank rises with a bleak atmosphere. On the entire riverbank, only this small forest has some bright colors. But Zhao Kuangyi suddenly lost his smile, the scenery of the small forest seemed to be okay, but there was another thing inside, a tomb.

  ……

  Then Zhao Kuangyin sent forbidden soldiers to guard the small courtyard day and night.

  Someone suggested that the twenty students of Song Jiuyi be transferred to Huoyaozhuang together, meaning they were afraid of leaking technology and indirectly controlling the twenty students. It's not about attaching importance to technology, but this city wall has collapsed, posing a real threat to their safety.

  Zhao Kuangyin did not agree, Song Jiuxin said clearly in the letter and even drew a picture, although it was hard to understand, proving that there is indeed a way to crack it. Moreover, there are good things later on, controlling twenty students, how can Song Jiuxi do it alone? Like being an emperor himself, before going up, someone pulled him from above, after going up, someone lifted him from below, and when the time came, he didn't need to say anything, the imperial robe was put on.

  They started selecting officials who had studied before, those with a dissolute style, whose mouths were not tight, non-capital residents were not allowed, it was not about exclusion, family members in other places, easy to be used by others, those with dull brains were not allowed, seemingly related to arithmetic, those who were bad at arithmetic were not allowed, above 40 and below 30 were not allowed, above 40 were not easy to accept new things, below 30 were unstable, those with bad habits were not allowed, greedy ones were not allowed, those with poor family background were not allowed... It turned out that the selection was even more strict than selecting a prime minister.

  He then issued an edict to relocate the tomb.

  Zhao Kuangyi was in a hurry, the officials on this side were fine, but the common people on that side had problems. I'm in charge of whether your city wall is falling or not, but ancestral graves cannot be moved. Especially for dozens of families with good backgrounds, they brought ordinary people to make trouble. As for internal governance, the result was only to persuade and reason, compensate, and promise one grave per coffin, re-burying the remains. If you think the court's prepared coffins are not good, the court can provide a sum of money for them to prepare their own, and there were even other conditions.

  Still no good.

  Soft doesn't work, bring out the hard stuff; a combination of soft and hard is the best approach.

  It's also useless to be strict, some common people in Kaifeng Prefecture cried and made a scene, the court was unreasonable, and it was impossible to drag them back for 100 heavy sticks, making Kaifeng Prefecture unable to work normally for a while.

  Zhao Kuangyi walked out again, his identity as the prefect of Kaifeng was quite ordinary, and behind him was also the identity of the imperial prince, trying to persuade everyone. In fact, under a series of measures, the number of rioting civilians gradually decreased. While speaking, he saw someone holding a bun in their hand and biting another one in their mouth, savoring the delicious taste, reluctant to eat it quickly, slowly chewing.

  This is too familiar. Zhao Kuangyi brought some back, and everyone at home liked to eat it. Zhao Kuangyi had the servants at home learn how to make it, and after tasting it, they found that it contained honey, sugar frost, egg yolks, cheese, apple juice, and a little oil. So the cook went to make it, but the result was completely different from what he expected.

  It only appeared twice, and Zhao Kuangyi was lucky enough to encounter it once. According to legend, the group of imperial guards brought it back home, where their families fell in love with it, then they went to coerce Song Jiu, but Song Jiu said he was busy. He had official business to attend to, so the imperial guards returned disheartened.

  Now it appears in the hands of a commoner, and he asks: "Where did you get this fruit from?"

  "The emperor also likes it. It was obtained by a little man passing by Xiangguo Temple, where someone was giving it away. He got two of them and they were delicious. The little man couldn't bear to eat them himself, so he brought one back home for the child to eat."

  Zhao Kuangyi was scolded by the people until he couldn't bear it. As soon as he heard the evil words, his courage arose, and he said to the official: "Follow me."

  Not far away, accompanied by the yamen runners, they arrived at Xiangguo Temple. It just so happened that many people were lining up in a long queue, and a large group of students were maintaining order. Song Jiu and Yu Ping stood on the side talking in low voices, two students stood behind the table, and rows of bread were placed on the table.

  A person in the queue went up, about as many people watched, not very good at it, blushing and saying a sentence: "The best flavor is in heaven, the most beautiful scenery is on earth, the heavenly world, one of a kind."

  Everyone booed, and the man ran away with a loaf of bread.

  Another one came up, and one of the students asked: "Have you memorized your lines?"

  "This man had a big temper and loudly said: 'Remember this.'"

  The scholar said: "Then read it aloud for the villagers to hear."

  "The most delicious in heaven, unparalleled on earth, a heavenly place, one of a kind."

  "How about another round?"

  The man read it out loud again, no, he yelled it out. The scholar said: "Not bad, not bad, you can have two pieces of fruit."

  The man took two pieces of bread and proudly waved at everyone before going down. Another burst of laughter erupted from below.

  Zhao Kuangyi was furious and told the yamen runner: "Go and confiscate his goods together, and bring that little brat over here."

  He thought for a moment and said, "He's an official, can't be forced to come over."