When the news spread, the government and the public were shocked, and rumors among the people once again spread.

"What do you mean?"

Maybe because his appearance that day had exposed his golden body, Zhao Jiu did not refuse the meeting this time. The two prime ministers met the emperor together, but this time, the meeting place was changed to Wuxue, which is the westernmost area of ​​Yeonbokgung Palace.

However, it was obvious that when the emperor and his ministers met, Emperor Zhao's attention did not seem to be on the two prime ministers.

"minister……"

Zhao Ding took the lead and was about to say the words he had already prepared, but for some reason, neither he nor Zhang Jun beside him could take their eyes off the huge thing in front of Emperor Zhao.

It was a set of three-dimensional wood-carved maps. Although they were still very crude, they still had the basic major rivers, major cities, and mountains. The two ministers were well-educated and naturally knew that it was obviously based on the "Yu Gong Tu".

"You two gentlemen, do you think it's interesting?"

Zhao Jiu rarely showed a proud look. "This is what I thought of when I was supplementing the "Yu Gong Map" before... When I was supplementing the map, I found out that the large maps used in the palace before were all woodcuts. They were usually separated and collected, and pieced together when needed. When I was in Guanxi, I thought about making a similar thing according to Ma Yuan's routine of piling rice into a mountain. However, Guanzhong and Henan were very dilapidated at that time, and I didn't find a suitable craftsman. Unexpectedly, I was free recently and succeeded. I call it a sand table!"

Emperor Zhao would certainly be very proud, because according to some high-end online novels, once this thing came out, combined with the implementation of the military medical system, the entire Song Dynasty's army would immediately get a super high buff of an increase in organization by five, and even destroying Western Xia would be a piece of cake.

Of course, it feels a bit like the carpenter emperor.

However, after watching for a while, Zhao Ding and Zhang Jun felt that the official was hinting at a northern expedition again, so although they didn't know why it was not called a map plate, a rice plate or a wooden plate, they could only nod their heads and were reluctant to advise.

"There's another good thing."

Zhao Jiu became more proud when he saw this, and brought the two prime ministers to the side of the hall.

There was only a simple large wooden table with edges on all sides and a cloth on top. It looked like a special wooden table used to hold those woodcuts, but there were no woodcuts on the table. There were only a few wooden poles and a pile of rounded stone balls of different colors...

"Your Majesty, your servants... your servants are ignorant." Zhao Ding looked at it for a long while, facing Zhang Jun, but he had no idea what it was about.

"This is billiards!" Zhao Guanjia was almost dancing with joy, as if the series of inventions had brought him a lot of joy. "It's an idea I got from making a sand table map. Two people take turns hitting the black ball with the white ball, and the points are scored when the ball falls into the pocket! If you think it's simple, you can also make more colorful balls, or simply mark the points on the balls..."

"Sir, please don't let this distract you!" Zhao Ding finally couldn't stand it anymore. "A sand table is a sand table. It's a military tool. What is this thing?"

Zhao Jiu immediately laughed with his hands behind his back, but he went straight out of the side hall, then stood at the door of the hall and said with a smile: "Why are you angry, sir? I haven't done anything for more than a month. Didn't you handle the government affairs properly?"

After saying this, he put his hands behind his back and continued walking out of the hall.

Seeing that the emperor was just joking, Zhao and Zhang breathed a sigh of relief and quickly chased out of the hall.

Behind the side hall of the martial arts school is a small hill, which is neatly covered with transplanted mature apricot trees without even a single miscellaneous tree. It is summer, and the apricot trees are full of fruits. Under the light and shadow, the wind blows the leaves, causing the red and orange fruits to sway in succession, and the natural fragrance of the fruits fills the cool forest.

At this time, Emperor Zhao, dressed in plain white casual clothes in front, and the two ministers in purple robes behind, climbed the mountain along the stone steps. After reaching the top of the mountain, they looked out at the surrounding pavilions, half of which were hidden by apricot trees, and half of their outlines were visible... To be honest, if Yang Yizhong had not brought the imperial squad by his side, and if there were not martial arts students practicing archery in the shooting range on the other side of the hill, this place would hardly be like the human world.

In fact, even though Zhao Ding had been in officialdom for a long time and Zhang Jun was a wealthy man in Shu, they had never been to such a place before and were stunned for a moment.

"Is it beautiful?" After a long time, Zhao Jiu, who was sitting in the pavilion on the top of the hill, spoke.

"We are ashamed." Zhang Jun came to his senses and quickly bowed his head. Zhao Ding also came to his senses. "It was a momentary loss of composure."

"Sit down, gentlemen." Zhao Jiu pointed to the stool in front of him. This was the place where he would usually chat with the imperial guards or martial arts students. "Where were we talking just now?"

"The emperor said that we have done a good job in the past month." Zhao Ding was embarrassed after sitting down. "But please forgive me for being frank. In fact, we have handled many things improperly in the past month, and also caused disputes both inside and outside. I think it would be the right thing for the emperor to come forward and take charge of the matter."

"I just don't want to get involved in the peace talks, not that I won't do anything about it." Zhao Jiu laughed. "After all, a great country must have a head of state to deal with disputes and make major decisions. But I was not perfunctory just now, I just feel that if you ask me to do things like chores, I am definitely not even one tenth as good as you... So these days, I think you, the ministers, and the secret cabinet have done a good job... In my opinion, the weight of the country still needs you to help me shoulder it."

When Zhang and Zhao heard this, even though they still had something on their mind, they couldn't help but relax a little.

Of course, praise is praise, but the question still needs to be asked. After hesitating for a while, Zhao Ding bowed and continued to state the purpose of his visit: "Your Majesty, I am here to ask Queen Dowager Ningde to move to the Nanyang Palace."

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!