Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 669: Triumphant Celebration
When Zhao Mu led his army back, he met Wanyan Zongbing on the way back.

"Report! Your Majesty! Wanyan Zongbing, the fourth prince of the Jin Dynasty, is waiting for Your Majesty on the side of the road."

After hearing the soldiers' report, Zhao Mu remembered what Wanyan Zongmou and others had talked about before, which was the matter of Empress Dowager Xiao's mausoleum.

Zhao Mu, sitting in the carriage, caressed the two Liao princesses beside him and said to his subordinates, "Let him come to see me."

"Yes!" After receiving Zhao Mu's order, the attendant immediately went to invite Wanyan Zongbing.

Wanyan Zongbing approached, and the curtain of the imperial carriage was slowly opened by two guards. Wanyan Zongbing saw that Zhao Mu was surrounded by women. There were two of them hugging him, and two lying on his knees. There were also a few sitting by the side of the carriage. Except for some of the women around him who were smiling, the rest of the women were unhappy.

The woman kneeling at the feet of Zhao Mu with her hair tied up was none other than Empress Xiao of the Liao Dynasty.

Wanyan Zongbi saw this and said, "In this case, I am sorry to disturb your Majesty's pleasure."

Zhao Mu said, "Fourth Prince, I am very busy right now, and it is difficult for you to wait that long. I will not go to that unlucky place. Pass on my oral order, do not let General Yang escort the Li Ling stele, let him go with the fourth prince first. I believe there will be something there that can help the Yang family avenge their previous shame better than the Li Ling stele."

After receiving Zhao Mu's order, his men hurried to pass on the message.

Zhao Mu said to Wanyan Zongbing: "Fourth Prince, after this victory, I should have gone to meet His Royal Highness King Jin. But now that the Song Dynasty is about to return, I will not go to visit him in person. Now that your Jurchen tribe has established a country, I hope you can live in peace with the Song Dynasty in the future. And I will also speak well of you in front of the great emperor."

Wanyan Zongbi said: "In this case, I will not disturb your Majesty's leisure. I will take my leave."

After sending Wanyan Zongbing away, Zhao Mu continued to enjoy himself in his own carriage, while General Yang followed Wanyan Zongbing to dig up the tomb of Empress Dowager Xiao.

Although General Yang did not approve of this kind of grave-robbing, he became interested because the other party was the Yang family's old enemy, Empress Dowager Xiao, and the great traitor Han Derang.

Afterwards, the Jin soldiers violently smashed open the gate of Qianling Mausoleum and looted all the treasures inside. Because of the agreement with Zhao Mu, the coffin of Empress Xiao and the body of Han Derang were taken back to the Song Dynasty by General Yang.

As for the other people buried with the dead, including Empress Xiao's husband, Emperor Jingzong of Liao, Yelü Xian, the real owner of Qianling Mausoleum, the body was dragged out by the Jin soldiers and thrown into a stinking ditch nearby. One Jin soldier even chopped off Yelü Xian's head and planned to make it into a wine vessel to offer to Wanyan Sheng.

In less than half a day, all the burial objects in the tomb were looted by the Jin soldiers. Some of the Jin soldiers even tore up many of the treasures on the bodies of the concubines buried with them.

Seven or eight days later, Zhao Mu led the Song army to Youzhou City.

After arriving in Youzhou, Zhao Mu held his first celebration banquet in Youzhou. He hosted a banquet in the Nanyuan Palace for all the generals who participated in the expedition against Liao. Except for those who were stationed in various places and could not come back, almost everyone was present.

After the celebration banquet, Zhao Mu began to count the spoils he had obtained in Youzhou City.

However, this time, the statistics involved more than 300 accountants, who calculated for more than half a month.

The silver and other things in the looted treasury were for the Song Dynasty court, so Zhao Mu naturally did not count them. But even so, Zhao Mu gained a lot from this trip.

Just counting the wealth Zhao Mu looted from the Liao imperial palace, as well as the homes of Liao royal family members, civil and military officials, not counting the various treasures that are difficult to estimate, the silver alone amounted to 800 million taels, and the gold amounted to more than 90 million taels.

And this was just a simple calculation of gold and silver, and other treasures such as jewels and jade were difficult to estimate at the moment. The accumulation of the Liao Kingdom over the past hundred years was plundered by Zhao Mu.

However, there was one thing that surprised Zhao Mu, that is, "the prime minister is fat while the whole country is thin". Zhao Mu did not plunder the people of Liao, and he did not know the status of the people's deposits. But he compared the Liao treasury with the official silver in the state treasuries seized by the Song army. After comparing, Zhao Mu found that the private property he seized was several times more than the deposits in the Liao treasury and state treasuries. Although the Song army did not plunder all the cities of Liao, this result also surprised Zhao Mu.

All the money has fallen into the hands of these officials and gentry. No wonder the Liao Kingdom has become so fragile today.

In addition to the gold, silver and treasures, Zhao Mu also looted the entire Liao royal family and the ministers. He was naturally not interested in the men. As for their wives, concubines, sisters, daughters, maids and palace maids, except for some of them who died for their integrity abroad, most of the others were also captured by Zhao Mu.

Zhao Mu carefully counted the number of women he brought back from Liao this time, and found that there were more than 10,000 of them, most of whom were palace maids and servants.

Zhao Mu naturally couldn't use so many of them. After all, even if he changed a different one every day, it would still take him nearly thirty years to use them.

For this palace maid, the maids.

Zhao Mu screened them. First, he screened out those who were over 24 years old. Then he screened out the fat and ugly ones. In the end, more than a thousand young and beautiful ones were left, and they were all accepted by Zhao Mu.

Those who were screened out were rewarded in batches by Zhao Mu to meritorious soldiers.

There were also quite a few women from royal families, daughters of officials and ministers, and wives, totaling more than two thousand people.

Of course, Zhao Mu didn't want all of them. First of all, those of noble status, such as princesses, county ladies, empresses, and princesses, except for those who were too old and had already faded, Zhao Mu kept them all.

As for the daughters of nobles, only the young and beautiful ones were left.

As for those wives and concubines who had been married, except for some who were very beautiful, Zhao Mu also eliminated the rest.

However, Zhao Mu did not distribute these women, but released them back to reunite with their husbands and brothers.

After Zhao Mu's meticulous screening, there were less than five hundred women left.

These 1,500 people were then stuffed into Zhao Mu's own Hua'e Xianghui Tower, where he could have fun with them.

However, Zhao Mu did not keep all the money and treasures he obtained this time for himself.

He distributed part of the treasure to the meritorious soldiers in the name of Zhezong. Even the soldiers who followed this time, regardless of whether they had any merit or not, each of them could get five taels of silver as hard-earned money.

In addition to the rewards given to the generals, Zhao Mu left himself 80 million taels of silver, 10 million taels of gold, and some treasures as his own retirement money.

Zhao Mu divided the rest into four parts. One part was used as pension for the fallen soldiers under his command. Another part was used as pension for the fallen soldiers of the Song Dynasty. The remaining two parts were divided into 30% and 70%, with 30% going into the treasury of his own Qi State to be used for disaster relief or other public purposes in the future. The remaining 70% was paid as tribute to Zhezong.

After Zhao Mu divided up the spoils of war in Youzhou, he disbanded the coalition forces on the spot.

Wang Xian and Wang Jin led the Qi army and their spoils back to Lingzhou first. Zhao Mu, on the other hand, took Empress Xiao and several Liao princesses and concubines with him. They took the Liao royal family back to Bianjing to report the decree and celebrate their success.

(End of this chapter)