You have truly caused me great suffering!

Inside the Xiefang Garden, in the imperial bedchamber.

The boudoir was elegantly furnished. In the northeast corner, a rosewood bookcase contained many rare copies of classics and historical texts. On the high tables on either side, several pieces of famous kiln porcelain were displayed. Warm sunlight filtered through the light gauze curtains of the carved window lattice, scattering fragments of light that shimmered on the surface.

Chen Shao sometimes doubted whether Li Yumei actually read these books and whether she made the bedroom so cultured; it was probably just for show.

The myriad charms I experienced last night on the pillow contrasted sharply with these sacred texts.

But she did come from a family with a long tradition of scholarship and poetry.

Chen Shao was lost in thought, pondering trivial matters, his mind completely blank and adrift.

"Why is Your Majesty lost in thought?"

Li Yumei, wearing a moon-white crepe dress, asked with a smile.

Chen Shao slept at her place for one night and hasn't left yet, which is indeed very unusual.

He is very busy on weekdays; even his own father said he is more diligent than Emperor Renzong of the previous dynasty.

However, Chen Shao also has one rule: he never stays up late. Even if he hasn't finished his work, he will rest on time.

Resting his head on Li Yumei's soft, supple thighs, enjoying the massage of ten long, strong fingers on his head, Chen Shao let out a comfortable hum and remained silent.

"His Majesty must be preoccupied with state affairs again," Liu Caiwei teased, leaning against the embroidered couch, her nimble fingers intently kneading Chen Shao's calves.

“If Your Majesty doesn’t get up, people will start saying that my sister and I are bewitching you.” Li Yumei smiled and lowered her head, her snow-white face, as white as a full moon, leaning close to the man on her lap and kissing him on the cheek.

Chen Shao let them chat and laugh, talk and act, but he himself didn't move, looking like he was just going through the motions and being lazy.

He was seriously considering whether to work three days on and one day off. He was young and could manage now, but he was afraid he would get tired of it later. The temptations of being an emperor were too great, with all the wonderful things in the world at his fingertips.

Otherwise, why would so many wise rulers neglect state affairs and indulge in pleasure in their later years?

After thinking it over, he decided to first establish the system so that the position of emperor wouldn't be so tiring.

I built this empire with my own hands, and even at such a young age, I was still prone to laziness. How much more so would those who come after me?

Only by perfecting the system so that it can operate on its own and reducing dependence on the emperor can a regime last.

Only through my own efforts can I prevent them from being in vain.

This is not just needless worry. If the second generation of the Jing Dynasty were to die, his own decrees would certainly be abolished and regarded as the Jing Dynasty's tyrannical and chaotic rule.

Only by ensuring the long-term stability of the Great Jing can one's policies continue. Only by continuing to implement one's own policies can one's descendants maintain legitimacy and orthodoxy.

This time, the ancestral laws truly cannot be changed.

Li Wanshu just lifted the curtain and came in, carrying a plate with a porcelain dish on it.

"This is the wind-prevention pills His Majesty received today, sent by the Imperial Concubine."

Chen Shao picked it up and ate it. Li Yumei secretly watched, thinking to herself that she should also ask her father to find some famous doctors to grind some for him.

"Time to clock in!"

Chen Shao jumped off the bed, and several women immediately surrounded him to help him change his clothes.

Even Li Yumei and Liu Caiwei were the same; they only wore close-fitting tube tops to serve him while he changed and washed.

Fortunately, the palace floor was covered with carpets, so even barefoot, one was not afraid of the cold autumn ground.

After having breakfast at Xiefang Garden, Chen Shao put his arm around the slender waists of the two concubines, then slid his hand down to pinch each of their buttocks. He said some tender words, then got up and stepped into the autumn wind.

Feeling the cool west wind blowing in his face, Chen Shao's spirits lifted, and he put the joy and leisure of the previous night behind him.

Now that the Great Jing Kingdom is at its peak, Chen Shao has not spent his money on enjoyment.

Later, Spain and Portugal were the first to open up the seas and used their vast wealth on extravagant lifestyles, and soon others caught up with them.

The emperor's work was actually quite tedious and monotonous.

Chen Shao quietly reduced taxes, repaired canals, and built granaries, gradually strengthening the foundation of the nation.

These tasks were repeated day after day, seemingly endless, because the Central Plains were simply too vast.

Furthermore, the residency system established by Cai Jing was implemented to raise the living standards in the Central Plains.

Previously, Cai Jing had this ambition, but he didn't have enough money to support Zhao Ji's antics. Even if he came up with a plan, it was just wishful thinking.

Now it can be put into practice.

After returning to the Funing Palace, Chen Shao glanced at the reports on the table and casually opened the first one.

The memorials were still from Japan. The first one was from Iwami, and it concerned the establishment of a silver refinery in Goryeo.

After Chen Shao's approval, the next step was the matter of gold mining on the island of Kyushu in Tsukushi Province.

We need a large number of experienced craftsmen, and we also need people to train local laborers.

After a moment's thought, Chen Shao instructed the Ministry of Works to handle the matter. Since the gold mines were short-handed, copper miners were to be transferred from Taiyuan.

Many of them were trained by Chen Shao when he was in charge of Taiyuan, and were prepared to go to various places to find mines. They had systematically studied the theory of mining.

If all else fails, monks from the Buddhist academy can be transferred there; they have specialized training in this area, and it was monks from the Buddhist academy who discovered the Lingyi gold mine.

The third letter was about the war to wipe out the Taira clan, which shows that in the eyes of the officials of the Secretariat-Chancellery, the importance of the war to wipe out the Taira clan was even lower than that of the Iwami Ginzan and Hishikari Kinzan.

After all, in their eyes, the Ping clan was just a branch of barbarians, much like the agricultural protection team in Hexi defeating a small Tibetan tribe that was robbing grain.

It's nothing serious.

However, in Ise Province, the Taira clan was facing annihilation at this time.

The banner raised by Yuwen Xuzhong and Guo Hao was that of the Ping clan's attack on Wei Tao's squad of the Jing army. The report described it as a series of victories, which was consistent with the balance of power between the two sides. The only thing the Ping clan could use to contend with the Central Plains was the boundless ocean.

However, by this time, the Jing army had already acquired the capability to transport troops over long distances, and their advantage was gone.

In fact, once this advantage is gone, the armies of the Central Plains dynasties would be completely outmatched here.

The size difference between the two sides is simply too great.

Historically, after Kublai Khan unified the northern Central Plains, he sent envoys to demand Japan's submission.

He was driven away by the Hojo clan, who were in power in Japan at the time.

That was the height of Mongolia's power. They were invincible in their conquests, conquering countless countries. Although they lost a few teeth during their southern invasion, it didn't mean they could tolerate the humiliation of this tiny country.

So in 1271 AD, Kublai Khan proclaimed himself Emperor of the Great Yuan Dynasty. In 1274 AD, he established the Eastern Expeditionary Province, built 900 large ships, and dispatched 40,000 troops to cross the sea to destroy the island nation.

The Hojo clan claimed to have gathered 102,000 troops to meet the enemy, but the actual number is unknown, and they certainly did not have that many; they could not mobilize 100,000 men.

As a result, the Japanese army fought a bloody day and suffered heavy losses. When they woke up the next morning, they found that they had suddenly won. A typhoon that night capsized more than 200 warships. The Yuan army eventually managed to return to land with only 13,000 men. The Japanese were overjoyed and called it the "Bun'ei War".

The winners were bewildered, while the losers were even more disheartened. While Kublai Khan was busy destroying the Song Dynasty, he once again sent envoys to make Japan submit. Hojo Tokimune, the regent of the Hojo clan, acted decisively, beheading any Yuan Dynasty envoys who came, and chopping off two of them if they came. He ordered the guards of various countries to conscript men under the age of sixty-five, mobilize monk soldiers, and strengthen military preparedness, just waiting to challenge Kublai Khan again.

In 1279 AD, during the Battle of Yamen, 100,000 soldiers and civilians of the Song Dynasty drowned themselves in the sea, marking the first time that the land of China had completely fallen into the hands of a foreign race. Japanese merchant ships passed through the area to trade, and it was then known that the Song Dynasty had fallen.

However, they were still not convinced by the northern nomadic tribes. Now that they had the opportunity, Kublai Khan naturally did not forget to take revenge. In 1281, the Yuan army split into two routes. One route, consisting of 40,000 troops, set off again from Korea. The other route, for the sake of long-term planning, sent Fan Wenhu, a surrendered general of the Song Dynasty, with 100,000 troops stationed in Jiangnan. They marched out of the Yangtze River and marched towards Japan.

The two armies were originally scheduled to converge in mid-June and launch a general offensive. However, Japan mobilized the entire nation to build stone dikes everywhere, leaving the Yuan warships with nowhere to land. At the same time, the Japanese naval commandos launched desperate attacks, delaying the Yuan army's movements. It wasn't until early July that the two armies finally joined forces. Just as they were preparing to launch the general offensive, the typhoon struck again. This time, the Yuan army suffered even greater losses, with only one-tenth of its 100,000 troops surviving. The Japanese called this the "Battle of Koan".

A great general knows the timing of events and knows when to advance and retreat. The fact that Mongolia suffered two defeats due to typhoons shows that Kublai Khan lacked the wisdom to use people and that the general in charge of the army was an idiot who did not know the timing of events and the hydrology. There is nothing to brag about.

But the honest Japanese didn't think that way. So the typhoon became "divine wind," and the Japanese islands were protected by the gods and would never perish. Since China was gone, the legitimate line of Chinese civilization should be in Japan. The Japanese island mentality swelled infinitely in such arrogance, to the point that during the First Sino-Japanese War, the slogan Japan used to wage war against the Qing Dynasty was "Expel the barbarians."

These two typhoons are pretty amazing, aren't they?

The Japanese must have been lucky to win.

Although the typhoons helped, these two battles, which were won with the help of typhoons, brought endless troubles afterward.

The Mongol Yuan dynasty was vast and densely populated, and the upper echelons did not treat the lower-ranking soldiers as human beings. Losing 100,000 or 200,000 men was not enough to compensate for the number of people they slaughtered in a single massacre of a city.

However, the shogunate exhausted its resources for these two wars, many lower-ranking samurai went bankrupt, and countless farmers became thieves.

This directly shook the rule of the Hojo clan. When Emperor Go-Daigo ascended the throne, this child was ambitious from a young age and was deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism. He was determined to restore the authority of the emperor, so he secretly gathered court nobles, local powerful families and villains to plot the overthrow of the shogunate.

Unfortunately, this emperor was all talk and no action. Before the matter could even be settled, the shogunate got wind of it and imprisoned him. Regardless of Emperor Go-Daigo's abilities, he must have been quite handsome. He was imprisoned several times in his life, and each time he escaped by disguising himself as a woman.

Since the relationship had broken down, Go-Daigo directly established his own faction and called on the anti-shogunate faction to attack the shogunate. With the help of influential figures, famous generals of the time, such as Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada, supported the emperor. Thus, the anti-shogunate faction went through several ups and downs, constantly winning against stronger opponents and gradually growing stronger.

In 1333 AD, Kamakura fell, and Hojo Takatoki, the last regent of the shogunate, who was only thirty-one years old, burned down his official residence and led 870 members of the Hojo clan to commit mass suicide. Many samurai who had benefited from the Hojo clan for generations also committed suicide to follow their lord. The Kamakura shogunate, which had weathered 142 years of storms, came to an end.

In other words, even with the help of natural forces like a typhoon, a battle between you and the Central Plains would be enough to cripple you.

Moreover, the Jing army is currently stationed right at your doorstep, with ample supplies.

Moreover, the common people have been "indoctrinated" by the White Lotus Buddhism and are no longer resilient. If you continue to treat them as less than human, they will learn from Iron Rod Misan and Hirahi Goro and hang your whole family's heads on trees.

The Taira clan could only hastily gather troops and dared not exploit them too much to raise funds for the army. In the end, they gathered 5,000 samurai and borrowed another 2,000 from the shrine, setting up defenses at Sunomata Castle, Kiso River ferry crossing, and Suzuka Pass.

Ping Zhongsheng repeatedly sent people to Guo Hao to confess his crimes and beg for reconciliation, but without exception, they were all rejected.

Ping Zhongsheng realized that they were determined to destroy him, and now that he had nowhere to retreat, he made a desperate attempt to stop Jing Jun.

If we can achieve some victory, even if it's just delaying their attack and holding back the Jing army, then we can go and explain the situation to the Emperor Emeritus and the Regent, expose the Jing people's treacherous intentions, and ask them to come and resist together.

There might still be a chance!

By mid-October, the army had reached Sunomata Castle, which was the Taira clan's first line of defense.

At this moment, Guo Hao sat on horseback, gazing at the scenery ahead.

A sparse mist hung in the moist air, swirling among the trees, while the road was still shrouded in the gradually dissipating smoke of gunpowder.

In the distance, on a hill overlooking a winding road, lies the military camp built by the Ping clan; however, it has now been occupied by the Jing army.

The smoke in the air indicated that artillery was the means to breach the military camp.

Yuwen Xuzhong also traveled with the army, and he finally gained a more direct understanding of Japan.

The people here are indeed quite backward.

He did not interfere with Guo Hao's command throughout the process, but silently observed and summarized the nature of the Japanese, preparing to assist His Majesty in formulating corresponding strategies after returning to the capital.

The Jing army's flags fluttered in the mountains and forests, and some infantrymen were still rushing into the forest one after another.

Before long, the vanguard soldiers saw Guo Hao's command flag, and a military officer rode up to report the military situation.

The general dismounted, clasped his hands, and said, "General, we have captured the outer camp. The Japanese have scattered and fled north. Scouts have discovered that there is another camp ahead, which is supporting the defeated troops. Further ahead is Sunomata Castle. If we want to attack the castle, we need to build a pontoon bridge!"

"After clearing out the surrounding fortresses, use artillery fire to cover the construction of the pontoon bridge."

"Understood!" The general clasped his hands in a salute and took a command flag.

The Taira clan's samurai originally thought that by occupying the strategic points on the only route, they could block the Kage army; however, they were utterly ineffective and were like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

The fortress was built in an absurd way, with no fortifications in front. Even without artillery, cavalry could easily storm the fortress and break down the gate.

Because the battle went so smoothly, a portion of the supply battalion was positioned at the forefront of the main army, alongside the vanguard.

Because the Jing army had not encountered any resistance before, and had only been marching for three consecutive days; the supply depot was positioned in front, allowing for the construction of camps for the various battalions of the main army in advance.

The supply battalion was also transporting some cannons, and they had already begun setting up artillery positions. (End of Chapter)