"There is another sentence... I said it to Liu Guangshi, you should remember it?" Zhao Jiu continued to ask. "I would rather the country perish..."

"Of course I remember this."

"As for the Shaoxing incident, I could have been more tactful, but why did I still act so decisively even though I knew it would stir up public opinion?" Zhao Jiu lay on the couch, thinking. "There are more than one or two of these things. Tell me... why did I say those inappropriate words and do those inappropriate things?"

Before Yang Yizhong could speak, the official gave the answer in a soliloquy: "In the final analysis, it is because I feel that some things must be done, and some things are simply intolerable, so no matter what the price is, as for words, it is just on the surface... For example, if I surrender to the Jin people and suffer that kind of humiliation, I cannot tolerate it, so I would rather die; if I keep people like Liu Guangshi, Fan Qiong, and Du Chong for the sake of the security of the throne, I cannot tolerate it; and the time in Shaoxing, whether it was asking me to show some good face to the two saints, or asking me to agree to negotiate peace and stop this breath, I couldn't tolerate it from the beginning... Today's matter is roughly the same! Yang Yizhong, since the third year of Jianyan, how many maids have you had in your family since you settled in Tokyo?"

Yang Yizhong raised his head in panic and blurted out: "More than thirty... I will die!"

"No need to die a thousand times, not even once." Zhao Jiu sneered. "Otherwise I will kill all the civil and military officials in the court... Even after the two queen dowagers came back, didn't they recruit many new palace servants? I'm just asking. Besides, I just read some legal documents. Our dynasty is much more open-minded than the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the nobles and the common people were not allowed to marry each other, and slaves were like cattle and horses. In our dynasty, they are only allowed to be hired. Although slaves are discriminated against, they are good citizens in the law... This is the great glory of our dynasty! I feel proud! But I also think that such a good law cannot be reversed because of war... Otherwise, how can we talk about the succession of the Song Dynasty? Don't worry, there is no life-and-death sword in this matter."

Yang Yizhong breathed a sigh of relief and was about to express his opinion again, but he saw the official throw his coat on the couch, get into the quilt, and then turn over with his back facing him: "Let's do it, I'm tired, go out."

Yang Yizhong was in a daze and quickly said goodbye. When he left the back hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace and came to the courtyard, he was distracted by the starry sky. He seemed to be used to such provocative words today.

As time passed, the Mid-Autumn Festival finally arrived. Early in the morning, Emperor Zhao bid farewell to the two empress dowagers, raised the Jinwu banner, and led all the ministers, nobles, famous scholars, students of the Imperial College, students of the martial arts school, and hundreds of monks and Taoists who had hurriedly gathered there. They marched out of the city to the west in full ceremonial uniforms and arrived at Yuetai, not far from the city, before noon.

Citizens from all over the city rushed out, and this time, having learned from the lessons of the last military parade, they divided the city into different areas early on.

The government officials, civil and military officials, nobles and famous scholars naturally stayed on the Yuetai, while the hundreds of monks and Taoists were divided into two, with the Taoists on the left and the monks on the right, spreading out layer by layer from both sides of the Yuetai. The Taoists on the left were known as the Three Pure Ones' Array of Conferred Gods and Free and Easy Life; while the monks on the right were known as the Buddha's Array of Rebirth into Paradise.

On the other hand, the area opposite Yuetai was divided into zones early on, with an area set aside for viewing the ceremony. Hundreds of Taixue students and martial arts students were stationed in different places to guide the people who were viewing the ceremony, and together with the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture and some soldiers, they maintained order, allowing tens of thousands of people to view the ceremony together. Those who refused to obey were directly expelled to the Yuetai camp diagonally opposite and detained… In the words of the Taixue students themselves, who spoke nicely, these Taixue students and martial arts students were a bit like the officials of the Han Dynasty, which was not bad.

Of course, some of the students were also tasked with writing articles for the court newspaper, so I won’t go into details.

However, by noon, the so-called auspicious time had arrived, and although the onlookers had returned to their respective areas as agreed, they were still somewhat restless and confused... For no other reason, they had not yet seen the so-called altar, tablets, and incense burners.

"Let's get started!" When Zhao Jiu saw Prime Minister Chen Gui coming out to ask questions, he just sat on the stage and nodded casually.

Chen Gui received the oral order and just passed it down, saying that he would fire a signal cannon as a salute, so that no one would be surprised. The order was passed down from the platform to the people... The people just laughed, saying that they had heard all kinds of noises, such as fireworks and firecrackers and Jin army artillery carts, so how could they be in chaos? Moreover, dozens of artillery carts were placed in the wilderness southwest of Yuetai, and they could see them at a glance, so how could they be surprised?

Unfortunately, the imperial court was slow to act. It only fired a few dozen stone cannons. They repeated this move dozens of times and waited for a long time before a flag was waved under the artillery carriage in response. Then, many people, including some important civil and military officials, became impatient.

But soon, a cannon suddenly fired, and when the projectile fell into the wilderness, it suddenly exploded the ground with a violent sound, like a thunder, which was really a thunderbolt in the clear sky, shaking the wilderness. On the nearby Yuetai, many officials, dignitaries, monks, and Taoists almost stood up in shock. Only the naked eye could see the movement of the cannon, and everyone knew that the court was making gunpowder bags, so although they were surprised by the power of the projectiles made of gunpowder bags, they were just stunned.

The people watching the ceremony on the opposite side were the same. They were all startled by the movement of the artillery vehicle and lost their minds for a moment.

After the artillery vehicles fired eighteen times in a row, everyone was still in a daze when they heard the sound of horse hooves, and soldiers and horses came out of the Yuetai camp... Everyone was once again suspicious... Wasn't it a memorial service? Why was there another military parade?

But soon, shouts and cheers were heard from the viewing area.

It turned out that these soldiers were marching forward in a line, none of them holding weapons. Instead, they were showing off some broken equipment in their hands. There was no doubt that these were the equipment captured from the Jin army... and the first soldiers from the imperial camp all held helmets with marks of knives and axes. They went to the pile of monks on one side of Yuetai, threw their helmets down, and turned away.

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