Chapter 178: Sending the Sun and the Moon with Elegance (Continued)

In times of war, things often change unexpectedly fast.

Wanqi Xie and his companions were only on a trip to Guanxi, and the round trip took only thirty or forty days. When they returned, what they saw along the way had changed a lot... For example, Luoyang was lifeless when they came, but when they passed by again, they could clearly feel that the old site of Luoyang City had been slightly renovated. Although it was still desolate, it at least had a little bit of life.

Not only that, it is said that the ancestral hall of the imperial mausoleum has also been repaired to a certain extent, and Zhao Shi, the chief ancestor who came from Yangzhou, is currently offering sacrifices and mourning at the mausoleum.

Once we reached Zhengzhou, this situation became even more obvious, because the amount and density of the smoke from cooking fires could not be faked.

Wanqi Xie knew this very well. This must be because the military rebellion in the southeast was quelled, and the financial and material supplies from the southeast that had been blocked before were able to reach Tokyo along the canal... The total income of financial and material supplies from Liangzhe Route plus Fujian Route in the year before Jingkang was more than 20 million strings of cash. Even if the turmoil since Jingkang and the military rebellion that had just been quelled consumed a lot, the minimum annual income should be 10 million strings of cash, which is the same as Bashu... And this wave of financial and material supplies, which were delayed for more than half a year, is estimated to be worth more than 6 million strings of cash.

With money, food and fodder, everything is possible.

However, in addition to this hard condition, with Wanqi Yuanzhong's intelligence and current level, he also vaguely sensed another layer from this phenomenon that he could not quite explain, but which did exist.

And this kind of thing affects the current situation all the time.

You have to know that when they were in Nanyang before, Wanqi Xie, as the person involved, could see it... The situation was so bad at that time, but once the emperor after ascending the throne determined the location of the secondary capital, a large number of displaced officials, scholars, and merchants immediately poured into Nanyang, and the situations in Jingxiang, Bashu, and the southeast were instantly affected by Nanyang and gradually became stable.

The unrest in the southeast was pacified, the belligerent Zhong Xiang of Dongting Lake was silenced, and Fan Qiong, who was so powerful, had no choice but to surrender and was then buried alive in a coffin as a warning to others.

The same is true now.

Although the Song Dynasty was still at an undoubted disadvantage in military strength due to the loss of northern Shaanxi, the emergence of the Pseudo-Qi, and internal rebellions, coupled with the awkward location of Tokyo City, all of which led to a lot of uncertainty in the future, after Emperor Zhao had sat firmly in the old capital for several months, the overall situation quickly moved towards a stable direction.

It has a bit of a calming feeling.

However, Wanqi Yuanzhong, who was already considered a useful figure in the imperial court, was not happy about it, because he always felt that the so-called stability of people's minds might not be a good thing, because people's minds might turn into complacency... and the official sitting in Tokyo City at this moment would never accept complacency.

Of course, these were all Wanqi Xie's random thoughts along the way. They were just thoughts, and there was not even a shadow of them. Moreover, previous events had already proved that the Jin people were in front, and you could not be stable just because you wanted to.

Back to the past, on the last day of mid-May, Wanqi Xie, who had been traveling with someone hard, was finally able to return to Tokyo. And as if in line with his thoughts, an incredible thing was that he was stuck in a traffic jam in Tokyo.

There was really a traffic jam. It was fine when Wanqi Xie and his men entered the outer city from the Xinzheng Gate in the west, but after entering the inner city, they encountered a series of long convoys at the intersection of West Street and Chongming Gate and were stuck on the spot.

To be fair, this kind of thing was absolutely common six or seven years ago. At that time, Tokyo was crowded with millions of permanent residents, and dignitaries were countless. Naturally, carriages and ceremonial guards filled the streets and alleys. Moreover, an incredible number of freight vehicles were needed to feed a million people.

But now it's unusual.

"Whose display is this?"

Wanqi Xie just led the horse and casually called the servants who came out from the roadside inn to watch the excitement and asked them.

"Have you just arrived in Tokyo?" The waiter in front of the store was quite knowledgeable. He could tell at a glance that Wanqi Xie and his group were serious officials coming to the capital, so he told them everything he knew. "Of course I don't know the reason. After General Yue quelled the military rebellion in the southeast, several wealthy families in Yangzhou heard that the official had returned to Tokyo, so they also wanted to return home, so they followed the army here... The leaders were the family of the Grand Master Xun Kangxiao, the family of Consort Pan, the family of Meihua Han in Xiangzhou, and the family of Empress Xing who passed away before... And the ones blocking the road here were the family of Madam Pan and the family of Meihua Han. Their old houses are close to each other. The Han family went there first, and the Pan family couldn't wait, so they went straight up, which made them look more imposing. They didn't expect that there would be many people coming from West Street today, and no one dared to block the progress of these two families, so they blocked the road here."

Wanqi Yuanzhong twirled his beard and smiled.

"When a country declines, there must be evil!"

But before Wanqi Yuanzhong could laugh, a red-faced man in brocade clothes who had not dismounted from his horse shouted angrily in the street, and his voice was so loud that it attracted the attention of people on the street. "From what I saw along the way, the imperial mausoleum in Xijing could not be protected, but they only bothered to send a large army to pick up a concubine from Yangzhou? Come if you want, you should have a small group to show your virtue, but you are here to bully others and block the road, and let the ministers of the country and the generals on the front line wait here? How can this be justified?!"

When the servant heard this, he ran back to his own building, while the people on the street stared at the red-faced man in amazement.

But a moment later, unexpectedly, the convoy that had been moving non-stop split into two. The convoy that had reached the intersection naturally hurried to cross the street, while the convoy that had not reached the intersection obediently stopped by the roadside... Not only that, a moment later, another young man and an elderly butler-like figure came out in person, introduced themselves, and said they were ashamed.

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