Emperor Xin led his army on the way back to Chaoge City and camped in the main tent behind the camp.

Li Pingan saw clearly what happened here.

They were discussing how to deal with the captives brought by the Dongyi tribe.

Di Xin felt a little headache after listening to the reports of these ministers.

Shang Rong said: "Your Majesty, if the captives here want to be brought back to Chaoge City, the amount of food and grass alone will be an incalculable amount. It is better to dispose of them on the spot."

Several military ministers each advised:

"Your Majesty, if you don't want to shed a river of blood and show your tender heart, you can also reward the captives to various princes along the way, reward the weak princes, support them to grow stronger, and you can slowly plan it to restrain Fang Bo."

"The various princes are already a close enemy of my Chao Ge, and then you reward them with slaves?"

"Your Majesty! I think that with our great victory this time, we will frighten all the princes, so why not confiscate the princes' grain and grass in various places! If they dare not to pay the grain, they are disobedient to the king. We can kill them on the spot to serve as a warning to others.

!”

"Yes, Your Majesty! That Dongbohou is really hateful. He refused to send troops for several years before. Now you are personally conquering Dongyi, and they are coming back and forth. You even deliberately left a gap in the battle formation to allow the main force of Dongyi to escape!

"

Emperor Xin muttered for a few times: "Dong Bohou is the leader of the eight hundred princes, but he is the current trouble for me. If I attack him hard, I may provoke chaos among the two hundred princes in the east."

"Your Majesty, why didn't the Dongyi tribe attack Dongbohou's land? This matter is really strange."

"Your Majesty, we have captured a large number of generals from various tribes. I am going to interrogate them severely. If I can find evidence that Dong Bohou deliberately led the Dongyi tribe's coalition forces to invade my business, I will punish them severely!"

Di Xin waved his hand: "Then let's interrogate him quickly!"

"Your Majesty, please make your decision early on whether these prisoners of war will be killed, released, or brought back to Chaoge City."

"As I said just now, I will order the princes from all walks of life to contribute food and grass."

Di Xin said calmly:

"My ancestors all demonstrated their military exploits by the number of prisoners of war.

"This is my first expedition. You should let me, the merchant, see that in my hands, the foundation of the great business will become more solid, so that my people don't have to worry."

After hearing this, several ministers did not dare to persuade him any more. They bowed their heads and bowed before retreating.

Di Xin swept his sleeves and sat in a chair, constantly thinking about the next steps.

A name popped up in front of his eyes.

Ji Dan.

But when Di Xin thought about it, the name Ji Dan became very vague again. He remembered that his father once recruited Ji Dan to Chaoge City, and he was very familiar with him.

It's like everything is covered with a thin layer of fog.

In recent years, whenever Di Xin encounters some problems, he will subconsciously think of this name. It seems that as long as he finds this guy, everything can be easily solved.

'But he is the fourth son of Xibohou Mansion and the son of Ji Chang, how can he be used by my great merchant?'

'What's more, it is said that he went to the heavenly gods. Although we don't know whether this is true or not, Ji Dan has disappeared now. I can't even think of bringing him back to Chaoge City.'

'My father-in-law...heh.'

Di Xin sneered and sat there with his eyes closed to relax.

Li Ping'an stared at this place with some thoughts in his eyes. The vision he had seen in Heaven seemed to originate from here...

Just when Li Ping'an was having some doubts, he wanted to calculate directly through the way of heaven. This would save time and effort and would lead to less insights.

Outside the big tent, two ministers left and came back. After entering the big tent, they knelt down and saluted.

"King!"

"Huh? I don't want to rest, but what's the important thing?"

"Your Majesty, this time you achieved great victory in the Eastern Campaign. All the tribes of Dongyi were defeated, the world was shaken, and the princes surrendered. You should report this victory to the heavens and ask all the ancestors to read it!"

"oh?"

Di Xin raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled slightly:

"What do you mean, dear?"

"Your Majesty, before you killed priests and animal officials, there were actually some criticisms from various places. For your great victory this time, why not restore the ancient system, warn the heavens and the earth, and let the gods in the heavens know about your bravery, Your Majesty."

Di Xin leaned back slightly.

Just as he was about to nod, some thoughts came to his mind.

Sacrifice of human beings is too cruel.

But such thoughts soon faded away. Di Xin thought about how he was sitting in the carriage, leading the soldiers to charge into battle, and killing the Dongyi Allied Forces before they were completely defeated. He really wanted to laugh a few times.

"Then restore it! Now there is no shortage of sacrificial uses."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

The two ministers were ordered to retire and began to arrange for people to go to Chaoge City to make preparations in advance. They would hold a sacrificial ceremony when the king returned to Chaoge City.

Li Pingan watched this scene, closed his eyes and sighed softly.

His shadow quietly dissipated, and when he opened his eyes again, he was already in the apse of the Notre Dame Palace filled with golden light.

Mother Nuwa opened her eyes and looked at Li Ping'an, and said warmly: "Have you seen it?"

"A matter of human sacrifice."

Li Pingan sighed:

"When Donghuang Taiyi left, he cut the knot quickly, but he never thought that now Emperor Xin has restored this tradition.

"I'm tired, let's destroy it and take over Nanzhou directly."

Nuwa couldn't help but frown.

"I'm just kidding," Li Ping'an smiled bitterly, "The turmoil in the Shang Kingdom is right in front of us. I won't take action randomly. I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the great truth."

Nuwa asked: "Ping An, what do you think caused the collapse of the Great Chamber of Commerce?"

"The chaos among the princes is obvious."

Li Pingan said:

"In the final analysis, the population in various places continues to grow, the princes are getting stronger and stronger, and the merchants have become relatively strong from the original absolute strength.

"The Shang royal family also became more and more bloated. Many royal families had their own private lands, but they were unwilling to submit court songs.

"There are too many loopholes in the taxation law. The contributions from the princes are not much different from those many years ago. However, there are more and more merchants and they are becoming more and more luxurious. There are many drunkards among the merchants. Where does this wine come from? Just

In exchange for grain for wine making, merchants would have a large amount of wealth flow into the princes everywhere every year.

"This means that the social system must be reformed. The Shang Dynasty's system is no longer applicable."

Nuwa sighed: "Although we are ordinary people, when war breaks out, lives will be lost."

"War is just a means in the process of civilization and a way for conflicts among all strata of society to erupt."

Li Pingan sighed:

"There is no other way. I just hope that after this battle is over, there will be peace for eighteen hundred years."

Nuwa asked: "Can't Heaven set restrictions on every living being to avoid disputes?"

"The way of heaven will lead to death."

"Um?"

Li Pingan said sternly: "What the Holy Mother said has actually been deduced by Pingan. It is to instill the thoughts of peace and non-dispute in everyone, and then deduce the world... that was originally controlled by the Western religion and refined Taoist weapons.

Those small worlds are essentially the same."

Nuwa nodded slowly.

Li Ping'an smiled and said: "The freedom of living beings actually lies in this. The essence of freedom is to reduce the restrictions on living beings. How to balance restrictions and freedom itself is a balance that Heavenly Dao needs to constantly explore."

"You are becoming more and more like a Taoist master."

"this……"

Li Ping'an shrugged: "We must complete the goal of opening up the world of stars, and we can't break our promises."

Nuwa said: "The Transcendent One should have already made arrangements. You don't have to make yourself so tired."

"His arrangements are his arrangements, and my efforts are my efforts."

Li Pingan said calmly:

"This way I can accept it a little better.

"Recently, I have also discovered that as I continue to understand the great road, the closer I am to the great road, the farther I am from the living beings, and gradually my heart has become a little unsettled.

"I see life and death as beings like flowers picked up in the morning and evening.

"And there is only one thing that I can't help but care about, and that is... everything I have now is a gift from that father.

"I can look at the world with cold eyes, but I can't look at myself coldly, otherwise I will become numb and degenerate. I obviously have the opportunity to make up for the regrets that this old man has caused countless living beings, but in the end I just muddle along.
To be continued...