You have truly caused me great suffering!

Maode vaguely remembered that it was a cloudy day when he left home.

Lifting the carriage curtain revealed a bright, sunny day.

The weather changes just like people's moods.

Since things are already like this, why think so much?

She breathed a sigh of relief, straightened her clothes, and quickly went inside.

The house was indeed very well built, and Maode walked with increasing ease.

When they arrived at the room, the maids were just coming in with dishes.

For some reason, seeing the prince consort on her way here made her even more lively.

A maid helped her remove her fur coat, and Maud walked to the table and said with a smile, "I'm late."

"Anyone who is late will be punished with a drink."

Maud took off his boots, stepped onto the soft carpet in his stockings, smiled, stretched, and puffed out his chest.

"Okay, go ahead."

Li Qingzhao pursed her lips and said, "Fu Jin hasn't even drunk any, yet he seems drunk."

Maode, holding a wine glass, sat next to Chen Shao. After feeling overwhelmed with guilt and shame upon seeing the prince consort before her departure, she suddenly felt incredibly relaxed, experiencing a kind of unrestrained pleasure.

Chen Shao seemed to understand something. While pouring her wine, he asked in a low voice, "Did you meet the prince consort?"

Maode hadn't expected him to be so clever. He blushed and nodded, then playfully glared at him.

Chen Shao chuckled dryly, sat up straight, and didn't continue the conversation.

Seeing his refined and dignified appearance, and his steady and authoritative manner, Maode couldn't help but spit out a curse.

When you were pressing down on yourself and your sister-in-law, forcing us to loudly declare who our wives were, you, Prince Dai, were not like this at all.

"You've made yourself into this mess, and you still want to act like a gentleman," Maode said, biting his lip and spitting the wine in his mouth onto his chest.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhao felt a little embarrassed and stood up, saying, "You didn't come here for a banquet, I'm leaving."

Maode finally calmed down a bit, his cheeks flushed red, and he stepped forward to take her arm, not letting her leave.

The two women already had a good relationship, and after arriving in Taiyuan, they helped each other through the most difficult period.

Chen Shao felt that Mao De's mental state was a bit off; it was like he was giving up and wanting to quit.

No one knows what they whispered together, but Li Qingzhao didn't leave.

After the four of them finished eating, a maid came in and said that someone had come to see them.

Chen Shao had originally planned not to leave, but upon hearing this, he chuckled and said, "There might be some official business to attend to, I'll go take a look."

Li Qingzhao said, "The Prince of Dai may do as he pleases."

Chen Shao glanced at Mao De again, and the latter smiled, reverting to her gentle and quiet demeanor.

Chen Shao thought to himself, "I should talk to him another day and make sure he doesn't really give up."

As he emerged from the villa, he saw his personal guards waiting in front of the carriage, with Wang Yin standing motionless beside him, seemingly resting with his eyes closed.

Until someone touched him.

After Chen Shao approached, he said, "Let's get in the car and talk."

Wang Yin entered the carriage with him, stood with his back bent, and was about to speak.

Chen Shao pointed to the seat opposite him, "Sit down and let's talk."

Wang Yin knew that the Prince of Dai had never treated his subordinates in a master-slave manner, so he did not make too much concessions. After sitting down, he said, "Your Majesty, news has come from Mingzhou."

"Mingzhou?" Chen Shao looked puzzled. "I didn't deploy any people in Mingzhou, did I?"

"It was General Qu. The merchants of Mingzhou, in their pursuit of profit, joined forces to suppress our merchant caravans in Korea and Japan. General Qu dispatched the navy from Mizhou Port to raid Mingzhou and Quanzhou, confiscating the property of the five leading families and killing their heads."

Qu Duan walked away alone again.

Chen Shao rubbed his temples, wanting to curse, but he didn't utter a word.

"How do they compete with caravans for profits?" Chen Shao asked.

Wang Yin replied, "They travel by sea and have long been on good terms with the barbarians and foreigners in various places. They instruct them not to accept goods from caravans, to rob sailors who come ashore, and to harass them by pretending to be pirates."

Upon hearing this, Chen Shao breathed a sigh of relief; then everything was alright.

Wang Yin understood Chen Shao; he knew that the Prince of Dai was genuinely kind and benevolent, not just feigning compassion.

He was most likely displeased with killing people without cause, so he continued, "These families used to amass wealth for Liang Shicheng, Wang Fu, and others, and they also had a good relationship with Zhu Mian. They bribed the government offices in the south, colluding with officials and merchants, and their wealth amounted to tens of millions."

Chen Shao nodded and said, "Tell Qu Duan not to escalate the situation, to know when to stop, and to be precise in targeting the enemy."

Shipping was the area where Chen Shao had devoted the most effort this year, and he couldn't afford to fail. In fact, Chen Shao was happy to see these merchants join him.

After all, the ocean is vast enough, and with our current national strength, the more ships the better, as they simply cannot fill the huge overseas market.

The more ships and caravans that go to sea, the more wealth and specialties they bring back to the Central Plains.

Moreover, the more developed maritime transport becomes, the more it will stimulate the shipbuilding industry in the Central Plains, giving it the greater incentive to improve ship technology and enhance navigation capabilities.

However, it seems that those who have already ventured overseas do not want others to share their profits.

Even if the pie is big enough, they still want to monopolize it; indeed, human greed is boundless.

I never even considered a monopoly, yet you guys have this idea.

You use your strength to trip me up, and when I retaliate with the same methods, just don't complain.

These maritime merchants likely underestimated Chen Shao's determination and commitment to opening up the seas.

People like Chen Shao, who already possessed their own stable regime, were incredibly efficient when they wanted to do something.

In the Central Plains, no one should even dream of fighting against the government. How many resources can you mobilize? You maritime merchants have to bribe even minor officials to get anything done. It's already a rare favor when officials do you a favor; you have to keep them in check so they won't give you a hard time or obstruct your business.

With a word from someone like Chen Shao, all government offices would have to operate at full capacity, and officials would have to eagerly try to curry favor.

Therefore, it was already quite good that Chen Shao allowed them to continue to exist. These maritime merchants still dared to compete with the Dingnan Army's caravans for profits, which was purely because they had made too much money and made it too easy, which made them arrogant to a certain extent.

As the saying goes, "the arrogant will be punished by heaven," and that's exactly what happened when they ran into Qu Dapao.

As the carriage arrived at the Prince's residence, Chen Shao looked at the Marshal's Mansion under construction not far away and said to Wang Yin, "I estimate that Qu Duan has confiscated a lot of money. He should keep some and transport the rest to Taiyuan."

"I've had a lot of expenses this year, and he's really helped me out of my immediate crisis."

In the past, when Tong Guan ran out of money, he would pick fights with wealthy merchants and kill them on any pretext to seize their property.

It's just like raising pigs.
Chen Shao thought to himself that he had no such intention, but they just offered it to him.

It's good to knock down these old ones and pave the way for newcomers. Anyway, the maritime business will definitely be opened up in the future.
-
Lanzhou City.

The army remained stationed in the city, and the people in the city were filled with unease.

Based on the actions of the Dingnan Army along their journey, they certainly cannot remain here any longer.

The Tibetan generals, civil and military officials, monks and nobles in the city suffered even more misfortune.

This is an ordinary day;

With the New Year approaching, there are many holidays to celebrate, but today is not one of them.

This seemingly ordinary day, however, appears to be anything but ordinary for Lanzhou.

A large group of military officers from the Dingnan Army and newly recruited Qin Feng Army soldiers were watching the killing!
The people of the city were driven out of the city, carrying simple luggage and their families. Then they saw the execution grounds stretching for miles outside the city.

The sky over Lanzhou was gloomy today, and a few snowflakes had fallen earlier; now, a cold wind was blowing, scattering dead leaves and debris everywhere.

This atmosphere perfectly reflects the bleakness of the situation.

Beside the main road, a row of prisoners were bound hand and foot. Among them were former officials, Buddhas, landowners, lords, and their families.

When Wu Jie set out on the expedition, he had already made it clear that anyone who resisted and did not surrender would be sentenced to death!

The war is over. In addition to the officials, nobles, and monks in Lanzhou, there are also prisoners from other places. Today, all of these people will be executed.

The executioners were not executioners, but rather armored soldiers from the Dingnan Army.

"Kneel down!" a Tibetan general in the Dingnan army shouted in Tibetan.

The prisoners knelt down one after another, forming a relatively neat row. Many of them were shivering, not just from the cold wind.

Not far away, a burly man swung a wooden mallet tied with a red cloth and struck the drum with a "dong dong dong..." sound.

The Dingnan Army included warriors from various ethnic groups, including many Tibetans.

This time, when they started killing, they were far more ruthless than the Tanguts or Han Chinese, as if they had some deep-seated grudge.

In fact, these Tibetan warriors in the Dingnan Army did indeed have grudges against the Buddha and the lords.

These people only realized after leaving the plateau that humans and animals are different, and that outside of Tibet, their children are not born as slaves.

In the outside world, there are no Buddhist disciples or lords. Under the command of Dingnan Army, one does not have to be a slave, and one's wife and daughters do not have to be skinned to make drums or have their bones extracted to make flutes.

Therefore, the Tibetan warriors in the Dingnan Army would ignite a rage whenever they saw Buddhist monks, lords, and nobles.

Two rows of heavily armed soldiers, maintaining a steady pace to the beat of the drums, advanced in an orderly fashion and came to the back of the prisoners.

Amidst the shouts of the barbarian generals, the first rank of soldiers raised their swords and swiftly chopped down, heads rolling off in droves.

The next batch of prisoners, having just knelt down, saw the human head on the ground, trembled violently, and collapsed to the ground.

The nearby military officer was furious. He brandished his sword and roared, "Kneel down!"

The prisoner's hands were tied behind his back. After struggling for a while, he tremblingly propped himself up and knelt weakly on the spot.

He looked up and recited Buddhist scriptures with fear in his eyes.

The sounds of beheadings echoed one after another, and the prisoners' faces were filled with despair; some looked up and closed their eyes.

Someone was dragging a headless corpse by the roadside and throwing it into a pit, intending to burn and bury it.

Then the soldiers changed ranks and once again swung their swords to behead their enemies.

The people who were being driven away from the area all silently turned their heads to watch this horrific scene.

But they didn't feel much fear.

Zhai Fengda, mounted on his horse, watched the entire process intently.

He turned his head and saw Zhang Anxin beside him, and said, "The prisoner knows he is going to die, so why is he still so obedient?"

Zhang Anxin pondered for a moment and said, "With the soldiers looking around, they know that resistance is futile. Besides, you arrived too late and didn't see the fate of the resisters."

Zhai Fengda was clearly dissatisfied with this answer, and shook his head slightly, saying, "There are quite a few people here, yet not a single one resisted. They are trapped in a desperate situation, and they will die anyway if they don't resist, so at least they can choose not to follow orders!"

Neither of them were military officers who led troops into battle, and their discussion made Jiao Anjie of Qin Fengjun want to laugh.

Knowing that both men were important officials in Hexi and that their clans had women serving the Prince of Dai, he wanted to befriend them. So he interjected, "You two don't know, that's just how people are; those nobles who have enslaved others for years are often the most like that... They know what's going on and that there's nothing they can do, which is why they're so afraid."
Since no one stands up, it's common for people to conform and do nothing. However, if even one person rebels, everyone will likely riot!

“That makes sense,” Zhai Fengda nodded thoughtfully.

The two prefectures of Qinglan did not retain the Qusiluo barbarians; instead, they were all relocated to the fortified villages of Xingling Plain, thus freeing up a large amount of land and farmland.

A large-scale land reclamation project is about to begin here, and people from the five routes of Shaanxi, formerly the Western Army, will come here with their families to settle down.

The news had already spread throughout Lanzhou, and all the soldiers of the Qin Feng Army were overjoyed.

Those who have stable property have stable minds; to stabilize people's hearts, we must ensure that they have something to cultivate.

Lanzhou and Qingzhou are not only places where barley can be grown, but also places where trade routes can be established.

Most importantly, both the Western Xia and the Qusiluo were destroyed, and this land of centuries of conquest suddenly became peaceful. (End of Chapter)