I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

...

Chengde Mountain Resort.

Zhao Yu was wearing only beach shorts, shirtless, lying on the tatami mat, eating watermelon while watching a dozen blonde, blue-eyed white girls dance for him.

As the setting sun bathed the gilded copper tiles of the Summer Palace in a warm honey hue, dozens of blonde girls held hands, forming a loose yet joyful circle on a rubber playground beneath the willow-lined embankment, their skirts swirling like flowing clouds.

They wore light blue, light pink, and off-white dresses, held hands tightly, and lightly touched the grass with their toes. Their steps were light and uniform. They first took small steps forward, then slid back sideways. The circle slowly rotated, sometimes tightening and sometimes loosening.

There are no complicated jumps, only elegant turns and swaying.

They twirled around to a simple yet cheerful rhythm, shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand, their laughter ringing out like wind chimes in the evening breeze.

Sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves, scattering golden light on their heads, and their skirts fluttered like blooming flowers.

In the distance, there are Chinese pavilions with flying eaves and winding corridors, while nearby, blonde white girls dance lightly. The ancient and the modern, the still and the dynamic, combine to create a strange and tender scene in the twilight of the Summer Palace.

These blonde girls were dozens of royal and noble daughters from various European countries whom Zhao Yu had captured during his western expedition.

When Zhao Yu first acquired them, they were all little girls, some even still in swaddling clothes. More than a decade has passed, and they have all grown up.

Besides these blonde girls, Zhao Yu also has girls with dark brown (blackish brown, close to black, but appearing brown in sunlight) hair, girls with brown/light brown hair, girls with golden brown (chestnut brown, brown with gold undertones) hair, girls with golden yellow hair, girls with red hair, girls with ginger/orange-red hair, girls with gray/silver-gray hair, and girls with white hair.

In short, having conquered the entire world, Zhao Yu had women of almost every kind and age.

To put it simply, although Zhao Yu was no longer the emperor, he still had no shortage of women around him.

Of course, that's normal.

Although Zhao Yu was no longer the emperor of the Song Dynasty or the ruler of the world, he was still the retired emperor, possessed countless riches, and, most importantly, had the prestige to conquer the world.

Such a person as Zhao Yu would never lack women, even though he was already over sixty and should be considered an old man.

However, even before Zhao Yu abdicated, he had already announced that he would not add any more women to his harem.

At that time, Zhao Yu issued an edict of self-reproach:

With my virtuous character and the blessings of the ancestral temples, and with the strength of my generals and soldiers, I have swept across the four seas and conquered the eight directions, quelling thousands of years of strife, settling the chaos of the world, bringing peace to the land, uniting all nations, freeing the people from the suffering of war, and allowing the common people to finally live in peace.

However, looking back, I have indeed made mistakes.

In the past, the country was divided, wars broke out one after another, the strong preyed on the weak, and people suffered greatly.

I could not bear to see my people suffer for so long, so I raised an army to punish the guilty and restore order. We fought in cities and battles, crossing continents and seas. Although my aim was to stop the fighting, my intention was to bring peace to the people.

However, wherever the arrows struck, countless people died or were injured, their bones were exposed in the wilderness, and cries of agony shook heaven and earth.

This is my first crime.

The old clans of various states, stubbornly resisting, have repeatedly rebelled and been executed. To eliminate future troubles, I have moved their rulers, imprisoned their male members of the royal family in the City of Ten Thousand Nations, and taken their noblewomen into my harem.

This is to bring peace to the world, prevent the root of disaster, and avoid reigniting war in future generations.

However, to use the security of one family to detain nobles from various countries, and to use the palace system to accept women from foreign lands, is contrary to propriety and benevolence. Acting with power is inhumane.

This is my second crime.

I have reigned for over forty years, expanding the territory immeasurably. While this has laid the foundation for lasting peace, it has also required the labor of the people.

This is my third crime.

Throughout history, rulers who establish new dynasties have often valued military might, while those who maintain existing order have focused on benevolence and virtue.

I pacified the world through conquest and subdued the four seas with my majesty. Although my achievements surpass those of the past and present, my faults are also evident in the court and among the people.

Now that the world is at peace and all nations are tranquil, I cannot bear to repeat the mistakes of my ambitious and martial ways, which would bring disaster upon my descendants.

What I have done is not out of fear of divine retribution, but out of shame for the people.

Merits and demerits, right and wrong, shall be recorded in history; the order or chaos of the world shall be entrusted to the successor.

I now abdicate in favor of the Crown Prince and retire to the Summer Palace. From this day forward, the imperial harem will never be expanded. We will cease hostilities, reduce corvée labor, promote tranquility, and nurture the common people.

The proclamation was made known to all nations.

The reason why Zhao Yu issued this edict of self-reproach was not because he truly felt he had done something wrong or to deny his actions throughout his life.

In fact, Zhao Yu knew better than anyone else that if he hadn't swept across the world, the world would still be in a state of warring states, where the strong prey on the weak, people would be displaced, and war would never end.

Zhao Yu firmly believed that his unification of the world with iron and blood and his suppression of all sides with thunder was not a sin, but a merit, a great undertaking that created a new world and rebuilt the universe.

Those conquests, those migrations, those methods of imprisoning the male nobles of various states and taking the noblewomen into the palace—though ruthless—brought about a peaceful era for hundreds of generations to come, free from separatist wars and dynastic conflicts.

However, one's descendants cannot rely on warfare to establish a nation generation after generation.

If one's descendants only learn from one's own "militarism and expansionism," then no matter how powerful the Song Dynasty is, it will be dragged down by endless wars and devoured by their own ambitions.

To put it bluntly, Zhao Yu wasn't afraid of being criticized; he was only afraid that future generations would follow his example.

If one's descendants only see the glory of ruling the world, surrounded by beauties, and dominating all under heaven, but fail to see the dangers that led to his arduous journey through mountains of corpses and seas of blood; if they only learn his ruthless decisiveness, his acquisition of women from various nations, and his imprisonment of royal families, but do not know how to stop the fighting, bring peace to the people, or allow the nation to recuperate; if they only learn his arrogance, but do not know how to restrain themselves or defend their power, then the empire he built will repeat the mistakes of the fragmented kingdoms.

Therefore, when Zhao Yu abdicated, he personally listed three sins against himself.

His self-description as "aggressive and warlike" was a warning to future generations against starting wars lightly.

He said that his actions of taking in women from foreign lands and detaining nobles from various countries were inhumane, but this was a warning to future generations not to abuse their power and act recklessly or indulge in unrestrained desires.

When he said he had wasted resources and caused hardship to the people, he was instructing future generations to keep the people in mind and to live a peaceful and tranquil life. This edict of self-reproach was not written by Zhao Yu for Heaven to see, nor for the people to see, nor was it a genuine admission of his mistakes; rather, it was written for future generations to see.

Of course, this edict of self-reproach was also left by Zhao Yu for the enemies of his descendants.

Zhao Yu hoped that this method would prevent them from exterminating his descendants.

Well, the latter is just wishful thinking.

After all, if you promise yourself to do something right, you can't expect others to do it right too.

Zhao Yu did have this much awareness.

The key point is that although Zhao Yu issued an edict of self-reproach, he never considered changing his ways.

Not only that, Zhao Yu also instructed Zhao Di and his son Zhao Zichi that if anything happened, they should kill everyone in Wanguo City immediately and not let a single one of them escape. He also instructed that all the women in his harem, no matter who they were, should be buried with him after his death.

In short, Zhao Yu's main strategy was to exterminate them completely and never give them a chance to restore their kingdom.

It was precisely for this reason that Zhao Yu, who did not want to cause any more innocent killings, stopped taking women as concubines.

Besides, since Zhao Yu was prepared to have all his women buried with him, it was clear that he was being unfair to them. Over the years, Zhao Yu had treated them very well. It could be said that, apart from not being able to go out, they could have whatever they wanted in terms of food, drink, and entertainment.

Although Zhao Yu no longer granted them any more territory, he still had countless riches to distribute to the children they bore, ensuring they could live a life free from want.

Even if any of them become gamblers or spendthrifts and lose all the shares Zhao Yu allocated to them, it's alright. Zhao Yu even set up a fund for them, so that they could receive a considerable living allowance every month.

Of course, if any of them were to lose the funds left to them by Zhao Yu, then Zhao Yu would no longer care about them—perhaps by then Zhao Yu would be dead and unable to care for them even if he wanted to.

It is worth mentioning that Zhao Yu only gave shares to his sons. He did not care about his grandsons unless their fathers were dead or they were extremely incompetent.

To paraphrase what Zhao Yu said to his sons: "You are my children, so of course I have to take care of you. They are your children, so it is your right to take care of them. If you can't even raise or manage your own sons, you are useless and don't deserve to be my sons."

If it were to happen that Zhao Yu had given them so many and thoughtful arrangements, yet they still couldn't raise or manage their own children properly, Zhao Yu would take over their children, but at the same time expel them from the house. He would then give them a sum of money, which they could either use to rebuild their lives and Zhao Yu would then pardon them; or they could squander the money, in which case Zhao Yu would just watch them fend for themselves.

It should be noted that what Zhao Yu distributed to his sons were all stocks, funds, bonds, or shares of his own companies. As for the treasures that Zhao Yu had accumulated over the years, he did not give them to anyone. Instead, he had them all moved into his tomb as burial goods.

Zhao Yu did this because he didn't know if he would be resurrected in the future.

Don't laugh.

That's exactly what Zhao Yu thought.

After all, if time travel can happen to me, is it even possible that I could sleep in a tomb for a thousand or two thousand years and then be resurrected?

If such a thing were to happen, with so many treasures around him, Zhao Yu would certainly be successful no matter which era he lived in.

In other words, all these treasures were left for Zhao Yu himself.

At this point, Zhao Yu somewhat understood why so many dead people prepared a large number of burial goods for him.

Perhaps, like Zhao Yu, they wanted to accumulate wealth so that when they were resurrected and returned to the world, they wouldn't have to start from scratch or struggle to survive.

To be honest, Zhao Yu really felt that even if he died in this life, it might not be the end for him.

What if my soul doesn't dissipate, what if my body doesn't decay, what if I can open my eyes a thousand years later and stand up again from the cold tomb?
By then, the world had changed beyond recognition. The old country was gone, and his relatives were nowhere to be found. Only the treasures in this tomb were the foundation for him to settle down in the new world, the capital for his comeback, the confidence for his carefree life, and the ultimate guarantee he had prepared for himself across time.

Because of this idea, Zhao Yu not only moved all the treasures he had accumulated throughout his life into his imperial tomb, but he also had people collect some things that might be considered treasures in later generations and move them into his tomb as well.

For example, all kinds of antiques.

For example, the calligraphy and paintings of literati in this era.

For example, various exquisite Ru ware pieces.

Another example is gold, which has always maintained its value.

In addition, Zhao Yu also moved some items that were not easy to preserve intact into his tomb.

The first one to be affected was the "Hongwu Grand Ceremony".

The Yongle Encyclopedia, compiled by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty at great expense of manpower and resources, consisted of over 10,000 volumes and nearly 370 million characters. The original copy disappeared after the Jiajing reign, either destroyed in war or buried in the imperial tombs, and was never seen again. The only surviving copies also suffered from war, theft, and burning. By later generations, only about 400 volumes remained out of the original 10,000, less than 4 percent of the original. Most of the classics were lost forever.

The Siku Quanshu, compiled during the Qianlong era with the nation's utmost resources, was copied in seven copies and stored in seven different pavilions, yet it could not escape its fate.

—The Wenzong Pavilion in Zhenjiang and the Wenhui Pavilion in Yangzhou were destroyed in the Taiping Rebellion, while the Wenyuan Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace was burned to the ground by the Anglo-French allied forces. Only fragments of the Wenlan Pavilion in Hangzhou survived, barely preserved thanks to repeated copying by later generations. Of the seven complete sets of books, only three survived intact. The rest were either destroyed by war or lost in fragments. Even the books that were banned and burned by the Qing government during the compilation process amounted to more than 3,000 titles and 150,000 copies, thus extinguishing countless ancient books.

Learning from this lesson, after Li Qingzhao and others completed the compilation of the Hongwu Encyclopedia, Zhao Yu ordered ten copies of the Hongwu Encyclopedia to be made. He then placed seven of these copies in seven different locations around the world and moved three copies into his tomb.

In short, Zhao Yu had already made arrangements for his retirement and what would happen after his death.

Next, Zhao Yu indulged in eating, drinking, and merrymaking, enjoying his later years in comfort.

However, on the other hand, once people indulge in too much eating, drinking, and having fun, pure eating, drinking, and having fun loses its meaning.

Therefore, Zhao Yu picked up the arts he had abandoned in his early years, such as music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, to cultivate his character, and sought out masters of these arts, such as Zhao Ji, to learn from him. Zhao Yu also participated in various games and activities organized by his concubines, such as playing various card games with them, playing basketball, football, tennis, swimming, rock climbing, etc., and watching their various song and dance performances.

In any case, Zhao Yu's later years were very colorful, and he also mastered countless skills.

Unlike Zhao Yu, who retired in this way, Li Lin, Ma Xiaojiao, Ye Shiyun, and Yuan Qingcheng may have achieved their dreams and had no regrets. They began to become lazy and decadent, just waiting to die every day.

As for Zhang Chun, she became despondent because Zhao Cheng gave up the competition for the crown prince position, causing her to miss out on the empress's position...

...(End of this chapter)