Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 527: Taking Control of Qi Kingdom
Zhao Mu's ceremonial guard was in the procession when suddenly a fast horse caught up.

The man shouted, "Go slowly, my Lord!"

Hearing the shout, everyone turned around and looked.

Cong Longxuan, who was in charge of the guard, said, "It's Huang! It seems that His Majesty has some new instructions to convey."

Then Long Xuan stopped the team.

The family members in the car were also confused.

After Fang Shisan arrived, Zhao Mu got out of the car and prepared to receive the order.

Zhao Mu looked at Fang Shisan and said, "I wonder what your majesty's order is?"

Fang Shisan did not dismount. He rode on his horse and said, "Reporting to the king. I am here to convey your majesty's instructions. Your majesty has ordered that Zhao Mu, the king of Qi, go to Qi to be a vassal and defend the country for me. You must not leave your post without permission. You must not return to the capital without my imperial decree. I hope you will remember this! I order you to do so!"

After hearing this, Zhao Mu exchanged a glance with his follower Long Xuan, but without giving Zhao Mu time to think about it, he said, "Your Highness Zhao Mu accepts the order!"

After Zhao Mu received the imperial edict, he looked at Fang Shisan and asked, "Brother Shisan, does His Majesty have any other instructions?"

Fang Shisan replied, "That's not the case. Your Majesty only instructed me to inform the king that the king and his family must not return to the Song Dynasty without your Majesty's imperial edict. If there is a report, tribute can only be paid by sending envoys and not in person. I hope the king will guard the land well for your Majesty and perform his duties conscientiously. I'll take my leave!" After saying this, Fang Shisan turned his horse and went back without any delay.

Hearing Zhezong's strange order, Zhao Mu looked at Conglong Xuan beside him. He asked, "Master Xuan, do you have anything that His Majesty has asked you to do?"

Cong Longxuan was also thinking about Zhezong's strange order. He shook his head and said, "No, that's not the case. Before I left, His Majesty only asked me to protect the king and his family."

At this time, Mu Wanqing poked her head out and said, "Could it be that His Majesty has become suspicious of you? Is he going to exile us to Xixia this time?"

Cong Longxuan said at this time: "Sir, in my opinion, no matter what it is, since His Majesty has given the order, we should just execute it. Anyway, His Majesty just doesn't want you and the ladies to return to the Song Dynasty. In my opinion, it doesn't seem like a punishment for everyone. We'd better hurry up and leave as soon as possible."

Although Zhao Mu couldn't figure out what Zhezong meant, although there were some bad intentions in his actions, it really didn't cause any loss to them.

Zhao Mu also sighed, "The emperor's heart is hard to predict," and then he stopped thinking about it. Just as Long Xuan said, there is no loss in this matter, just execute it.

Afterwards, Zhao Mu's team continued to move towards the Western Xia Kingdom.

After many days, Zhao Mu's team finally arrived at the border between the "two countries" - Xiaoguan.

On the Xiaoguan side, the local prefect, generals and other local officials were seeing him off respectfully, while on the other side of the Xiaoguan, officials and soldiers from the Qi State were waiting to welcome him.

Although the officials on both sides wore the same official uniform, their expressions were very subtle.

The walls of Xiaoguan were filled with soldiers from the Song border army. Zhao Mu could see that they were on guard against the Qi army that was waiting to welcome Zhao Mu into Qi.

After Zhao Mu's carriage left Xiaoguan, the officials of the Song Dynasty bowed to him, and then everyone immediately returned to the city, and the huge city gate slowly closed. Zhao Mu looked at this scene and couldn't help but sigh. Even if they were brothers from the same mother, once they returned to the "vassal state", both sides would not like each other.

Just a few months ago, when he led his troops out of Xiaoguan to attack Pingxia in the west, these local officials also came to entertain the troops and bid farewell on the spot. At that time, he was a hero in their eyes. When he returned victorious, he also passed by here, and they also regarded him as a hero.

But now they were wary of him as if he were an enemy. This made Zhao Mu feel quite emotional.

But Zhao Mu didn't think too much about it. Although this was not the life he wanted, he decided to make the best of it. At least he was a "little emperor". He should have some dignity as a prince. After all, this was his own country now.

On his way back to Lingzhou City, Zhao Mu was also welcomed by his own people.

During the time when Zhao Mu returned to the Song Dynasty, Zhezong had already helped Zhao Mu take care of everything in Qi. The officials assigned to Zhao Mu, except those who had to travel a long way, had already been "airdropped" and brought their families here.

The Western Xia Kingdom also inherited the Tang system, and its administrative system was similar to that of the Song Dynasty. The officials under Zhao Mu were also very simple when they took office.

Moreover, many stubborn Dangxiang people who were unwilling to submit to Hanization also followed the Western Xia king to the new Western Xia Kingdom in Qingtang.

Now, the people who stayed in Qi State were all people who knew Chinese characters and the Chinese language. These people were now wearing Chinese clothes and speaking Chinese. They were no different from the Han people. Therefore, Zhao Mu's "country" and the officials did not need to care about "ethnic conflicts" or the like. They were all Han people.

Not only that, during the time when Zhao Mu was arranging the connection, Zhezong had already started the policy of relocating people.

The hidden households that were previously screened out by the Song Dynasty, including the soldiers who were laid off due to the military reform, were moved here by Zhezong according to the scale of land confiscated from Zhao Mu.

The "population crisis" caused by the migration of people from Western Xia did not become a problem for Qi State. Instead, because Zhezong added the population of Song Dynasty, the population of Qi State was slightly larger than that of Western Xia State. There was even a large number of idle laborers.

After leaving Xiaoguan and traveling for several days, Zhao Mu's carriage finally arrived at Lingzhou City.

The people of Lingzhou City also warmly welcomed the return of their new king. When they arrived in front of the Forbidden Palace, Li Qinglu and Li Qiushui stood there to greet everyone.

Zhao Mu introduced Li Qiushui and Li Qinglu to everyone, and Zhao Ji, Mu Wanqing and others were also amazed at the amazing looks of Li Qiushui, Li Qinglu and Wang Yuyan. Li Qiushui also told the truth about her relationship with Li Qinglu and Wang Yuyan.

Li Qinglu also said that she had never been to Prince Qi's mansion to meet her mother-in-law before because she was afraid that her appearance would scare everyone.

The matter of Zhao Mu's family entering the harem was arranged by Li Qiu Shui and Li Qing Lu, so there is no need to say more.

Although Zhao Mu had just returned, the work waiting for him had already piled up into a small mountain. Li Qiushui called him to deal with it quickly.

Zhao Mu had no choice but to return to the imperial study to handle government affairs.

However, the government affairs that Zhao Mu urgently needed to deal with were indeed urgent matters. One was the resettlement of the people who moved in. Because the population of Qi was now larger than that of Xixia before, although housing was easy to deal with, arable land was a problem, and the solution proposed by Hu Yanrui and others was that the government reclaimed wasteland.

Then there was the issue of Zhao Mu's reign title. Qi was still using the reign title of the old Xixia Kingdom. Zhao Mu needed to quickly formulate a reign title and report it to the Song Dynasty court, so that Qi could also quickly change the calendar and mint new coins to get the somewhat chaotic order back on track.

(End of this chapter)