Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 349: Bei Ming (Special thanks to the book friend 2019…0141 for the 2 monthly tickets!)

Chai Zongxun took a few sips of tea and continued:
"Now that the people of our Great Zhou are becoming more and more prosperous, many talented people no longer have to struggle to make a living like before, and they do have plenty of time to conduct research that interests them.

I intend to encourage knowledgeable people in the private sector throughout the empire to establish their own universities to study production skills in various industries or to pursue knowledge through the study of things. As long as the project is reasonable, it will be submitted to me after being reviewed and feasibility is reviewed by the academicians of the "Royal Academy of Sciences".

For valuable research, I will order the Ministry of Revenue to allocate silver for research and development, and the Wude Division and Longxiang Guard will supervise the progress afterwards."

Ding Luban and Yan Su were overjoyed after hearing this.

Ding Luban said with tears in his eyes:

"Your Majesty does not regard skills as a minor branch, and attaches great importance to the research and development of skills. You are truly a sage king.

I have no regrets in my life as your Majesty has used me for so many years!"

The next day, Chai Zongxun issued an edict, granting Ding Luban the title of Minister of Works, a reward of 1,000 taels of gold, and allowing him to retire.

Yan Su, professor of the Royal Academy of Sciences, succeeded as president.

He also issued an edict to the whole country, encouraging the people to study the knowledge of the world and to establish relevant universities or colleges. The court would not hesitate to reward valuable research topics with generous research funds.

After the imperial edict spread among the people of the Great Zhou, many people who were regarded as idle and fond of tinkering with inventions among the local people, with an attitude of giving it a try, rushed to the capital to submit their research topics to the Royal Academy of Sciences. Surprisingly, some of them actually obtained approval from the emperor and research funds from the Ministry of Revenue.

After the news spread widely, many inventors who had previously been despised by those around them and regarded as "odd tricks" were greatly encouraged. For a time, the Royal Academy of Sciences received more than 10,000 applications for research and development funds each month, and the approval rate was only 20,000 to 30,000.

On April 12, the 27th year of Kaixi, King Guo Jizhou of Song returned to Bianliang after keeping vigil for his great-grandfather for three months.

Chai Zongxun summoned Empress Fu and met with the eldest son Guo Jizhou in the Yangxin Palace together.

After greeting and sitting down, Chai Zongxun was pleased to see that his son looked energetic, just a little tanned, but physically stronger.

The couple asked Guo Jizhou about some details of his trip, mainly Fu Zhenzhen who was asking about the situation of the Fu family and cried from time to time.

Guo Jizhou said:

"Mother, when my great grandfather was alive, he told me that when I returned to Bianjing, I would cry. He was right.

Great grandfather asked the child to bring back many items, saying that they were your childhood toys. "

Xue Ke, the eunuch in charge of the palace who was standing nearby, hurriedly placed a large bundle in his hands on the imperial desk and opened it.

Fu Zhenzhen looked around and saw more than a dozen cute bamboo horses, bamboo chickens, wooden boats, cloth tigers and other toys. They were the handicrafts that her grandfather Fu Yanqing taught her to make when she was a child. She burst into tears immediately...

After Fu Zhenzhen and her son Guo Jizhou left the palace and went to Baoci Palace to meet Empress Dowager Fu, Chai Zongxun sat in a chair and began to ponder.

"What is not taboo is bound to happen."

He wanted to protect his eldest son Guo Jizhou's lineage and continue to "become emperors in the country". The most important thing was to prevent his descendants from taking action against the lineage of Prince Song.

As long as the cost for future emperors to take action against the Song lineage is made too high to be tolerated, the Song lineage can naturally be kept safe.

Chai Zongxun felt that with his own prestige in expanding territory and creating a prosperous era, and the protection of the Wei family's border states, any descendant emperor who dared to violate these two points and take action against the Song lineage would be condemned by the imperial descendants and the people of the world, and his throne would be in danger.

The price was high enough. Chai Zongxun sighed and thought for a long time, but he still couldn't figure out whether Zhou'er's limited intelligence was due to the combination of himself and Fu Zhenzhen, or because Zhou'er was deprived of oxygen due to a difficult birth.
More than ten days later, on May 2nd, 20,000 concubines from all over the Great Zhou who were selected in the preliminary selection were escorted to Bian Jing by officials sent by the Ministry of Rites.

Since the imperial edict was issued in February of the 26th year of Kaixi last year to select concubines from all over the country, by July, five rounds of selection had been completed and 120,000 concubines were selected to go to Beijing for further selection. Only one out of ten was chosen.

After the Ministry of Rites reported to Chai Zongxun, Chai Zongxun felt that there were too many beautiful women entering the capital, so he ordered local governments to conduct another selection, choose one from the six, and then escort them to Bianliang.

This time the selection was much slower.

Therefore, it was not until more than a year after careful selection that the beauties for this pageant arrived in Bian Jing, and the Imperial Household Department then began a strict screening of these 20,000 beauties.

On May 20th, the 27th year of Kaixi, a memorial came from the expeditionary army to Xianbeilia:

After nearly three years of attacks by the First, Second, and Fifth Corps, they had occupied almost the entire territory of Xianbeilia, from the "Weifeng Peninsula" and Sakhalin Island on the eastern coast, to the sea that was frozen all year round and the sun never set for half a year in the north, to an unknown mountain range stretching from north to south in the west. Only the southeastern corner was owned by the Kyrgyz.

At present, Huyan Zan, Zhe Yuxun and Lin Renzhao are leading their troops in the east, middle and west, and are building castles in the plains with abundant water and grass under the order of Emperor Chai Zongxun.

The next day, on May 21st, at the morning court, the emperor and his ministers of the Great Zhou Empire discussed the ruling strategy for Xianbeilia.

Prime Minister Zhang Qixian came out of class and said:

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, for incorporating Xianbeilia into the Chinese territory for the first time in history!
This place is very large, and was called Luo Wilderness in ancient times. It was the birthplace of the Xianbei people during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. Since the Xianbei people can live here, my Great Zhou will sooner or later be able to develop it into a livable and rich place.”

Chai Zongxun nodded slightly and said:

"Xianbeilia is a vast territory with rivers, lakes, forests and plains. It is not only habitable but also a treasure land.

The name Xianbei Lia does not quite fit the Chinese naming convention, so it would be better to change it to "Beiming."

All the ministers praised it highly, saying that Beiming not only fits the style of Chinese culture, but also fits the geography of its location in the extreme north of China.

Li Fang, the Minister of Justice, came out and said:
"Your Majesty, over the past three years, I and my colleagues in the Ministry of Justice have followed your Majesty's orders and selected all the places where prisoners and exiles are located across the country as the Northern Sea.

As of last month, more than 800,000 prisoners had been sent to develop the Northern Ocean, including more than 300,000 criminals from Goryeo and 420,000 prisoners from the Black Cuan Barbarian tribe in Dali.

Li Fang was born in the third year of Tongguang in the Later Tang Dynasty (925), with the courtesy name Mingyuan, and was a native of Raoyang, Shenzhou.

He passed the imperial examinations in the Later Han Dynasty and served as a secretary, right picker and editor of the Jixian Hall. Later, during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Zhou, he served as a scholar of the Jixian Hall and a Hanlin scholar.

In the 16th year of Kaixi, he was promoted to the Minister of Punishments for his outstanding performance.

These prisoners are currently mainly engaged in building castles under the supervision of the garrison.

Chai Zongxun said:

"The First Corps and the other three corps have been on the expedition for a long time. The emperor ordered Hu Yanzan and other generals to lead the soldiers to speed up the construction of the city. After the garrison sent by the court arrives, they will set off to return to the capital.

Beiming is a harsh place, and the court gave a monthly allowance of two taels or one rank to the soldiers and officials sent there.

The cabinet must quickly delineate new provincial capitals for Beiming."

(End of this chapter)