When it was time to come, Wu Haowen, who had a lazy sleep, rushed to Xinxuande Gate, south of Qionglin Palace in the west of the city, under the escort of Yuansui.

Xinxuande Gate is the main entrance of Qionglin Palace. Like Xuande Gate in the old imperial city in the center of Kaifeng Prefecture, it also faces the south. However, Qionglin Palace is located on the southwest, so you have to pass through a very long Xuande Long Street that passes from the east of Qionglin Palace to enter the square outside Xinxuande Gate.

Xuande Long Street is connected to Xinyu Street north of Qionglin Palace. It is very wide, and is a straight avenue twenty steps wide. On the west side of the Long Street is Qionglin Palace, a moat and several city gates. The name also seems to be the gate of the old imperial city, but it is called "new".

On the side of the Chang Street is a thousand-step corridor, and there are almost all breakfast shops in the corridor. They are prepared for officials who get up early to court. Every morning before court, when officials pass through the Beihua Gate between Yu Street and Xuande Chang Street, they can solve the breakfast problem in the corridor of Xuande Chang Street.

However, Wu Haowen was not an official in Beijing, so he didn't have to go to the morning court. Today, he was just summoned to the palace to accompany Zhao Ji for lunch, and discussed the matter of Feng Taishan and Guan Canghai. So when he arrived at Xuande Chang Street, most of the breakfast stalls were closed. There were only a few stalls, and officials gathered together to eat and drink.

Wu Haowen didn't pay attention to them, but just rode his horse on his own. When he was about to reach the gate of Xindonghua, he suddenly heard someone calling his font size.

"Wang Dao, but do you think Dao?"

When Wu Haowen turned around, he saw Ji Yi wearing a scorched public uniform eating noodles at a breakfast stall that had not yet been closed.

"It turns out it was Brother Yizhi and Abbot Virgil." Wu Haowen bowed to the two of them on the back of the horse.

That person turned out to be the Cardinal Virgil, the messenger of the Roman Catholic Church. His "cardinal" was translated by Murray into a big abbot in red, which sounds very Chinese.

Now the "All Nations Come to the Dynasties" ceremony has ended for many days, but most foreign envoys have not left Kaifeng Prefecture. Because most foreign envoys who pass by the sea have to wait until the northwest wind blows in autumn before leaving, and now they can only wander around China.

Abbot Virgil is even more responsible for spreading the gospel of the Lord in China, so he cannot leave it.

After staying in Kaifeng Prefecture for a while, Abbot Virgil discovered that the "God of the Lord" had been spread in China. During the Tang Dynasty, it was spread to China from the Assyrian Church in Persia - a Christian heresy founded by the former Constantinople's pastor, Nestoru, which somehow spread to China and was called Nestorianism. However, as early as the Tang Dynasty, it was difficult to ban the Huichang Dharma, and later it was devastatingly hit by the Huang Chao Rebellion. Now it has no influence in the Central Plains, but there seems to be believers on the Zubu Grassland.

It is said that there is a very powerful Zubu tribe called the Krei tribe, who believes in Jing.

After deeply understanding the theory of the Confucianism (New Confucianism) in the Song Dynasty, Abbot Virgil felt that the principles of Christianity were difficult to impress Confucian scholars who "believe in the Lord but not believe in religion" (In Virgil's view, the laws of heaven are God, and Confucianism discovered the Lord through thinking, but not gained apocalypse, which was a very revelation). So he turned to contact the Bukelie tribe and guided them to the right path.

So he had to stay in Kaifeng Prefecture and wait for an opportunity to find an opportunity to enter the Zubu grassland to spread the true belief in base religion to Kelie's tribe.

In Ji Yi's view, his plan was also an opportunity to establish a connection between the Song Dynasty and the Bukelie tribe.

If Kelie's tribe could be brought to the Song Dynasty, it would be a huge contribution!

Therefore, he secretly wrote to Zhao Ji and reported his wishful thinking. Today he received the order and took Abbot Virgil to see Zhao Ji. When the two arrived outside Xindonghua Gate, it was still early, and Abbot Virgil was busy praying early in the morning and didn't eat breakfast. Now he was a little hungry, so Ji Yi took Abbot Virgil with her to eat the soft sheep noodles.

Since the abbot did not know how to use chopsticks, Ji Yi had already asked someone to prepare a three-piece set of "fork, spoon, and knife" for him to carry it with him. Now the abbot is eating noodles with a fork - these three-piece sets were not learned by Ji Yi from the West. In fact, the tableware that the Westerners ate in this era was only a knife and a spoon, but no fork. The three-piece set of "fork, spoon, and knife" prepared by Ji Yi for Virgil was a tableware in ancient China. This was how they ate before chopsticks became popular. Until the Warring States Period and the Western Han Dynasty, there were also tableware used forks and table knifes.

"But you come to the palace and face me?" Ji Yi got up and saw Wu Haowen, and asked with a smile.

"Yes," Wu Haowen smiled, "Brother Yizhi and Da Fang Abbot must have gone to Chongzheng Hall, right? Why not go together."

"Okay," Ji Yi smiled, "then you will be in the sight of you."

Ji Yi knew that Wu Haowen was favored now, no less than his brother Wu Haogu. Others had to queue up slowly when they went to Chongzheng Hall, but he would meet him anytime. Even if Zhao Ji was discussing matters with the prime minister, he could enter the hall directly. Because he was now responsible for organizing the ceremony of "Crossing Mount Tai and Watching the Sea", this was a huge event. Ji Yi could meet Zhao Ji quickly with him.

In addition, everyone knows that when Wu Haowen finishes this matter, he should become an official in the court. He is either a Hanlin bachelor or a Zhongshusband. After he gets thirty, he should be recommended to join the second palace! Being able to curry favor with such a backer is a great thing that Ji Yi, who just lost his father-in-law, just now.

...

Wu Haowen and Ji Yi were talking and laughing, and brought the big abbot in red into Donghua Gate together. When they arrived at Dongshanghe Gate, greeted the military officer guarding the gate, left Virgil, and took Ji Yi to Chongzheng Hall. As soon as they arrived outside the hall, before the Hemen Xuanzan, who was leading the way, came in to report, they heard Zhao Ji, the official in the hall, shouting.

After listening carefully, it turned out that Zhao Ji was cursing people! He was cursing Wu Haogu...

"Wu Haogu, the tyrant businessman, actually cheated me on the head. It's a thousand million! How could he think of it? Yelu Yanxi only had a few million, but he actually wanted ten thousand..."

In Chongzheng Hall, the official Zhao Ji was holding Wu Haogu’s memorial in his hand, his face turned pale, and he was scolding Wu Haogu as a tyrant businessman.

The important officials in the hall looked at each other, and no one took over Zhao Ji's fault.

It turned out that the General Military Office of the Hebei Xuanfu Office made a "anti-Liao Budget" and sent it to Zhao Ji's imperial front in the form of a memorial. In this "anti-Liao Budget", Wu Haogu was not much or less, and he planned to spend a small target first, that is, ten thousand yuan!

However, this huge budget was not just a simple word, but was proposed after careful calculation! The reason for so many is largely because of the defense preparations for Hebei Fourth Road.

After all, after the Chanyuan Alliance, the Song Dynasty did not really rectify Hebei's defense and was just messing around with the Yellow River! During the process of Sanyi Yellow River, I still don't know how many originally intact city walls collapsed. As for the areas near the border of the Liao Kingdom, due to the constraints of the Chanyuan Alliance, the city walls had not been repaired for almost a century. Only Jiehe Shangshi committed crimes against the wind and built a tall and solid red wall.

Therefore, in the planning of the General Military Office of the Hebei Xuanfu Department, the first thing is to build various city defense passes, arrange combat equipment, stock up on arrows, crossbows, paper armor and military rations, and rectify rural soldiers and militias.

It was a heavy deployment that was completely undecided without considering victory. The Art of War can be said in "The Art of War", "For generals, they are determined to lose without considering victory, so they can be defeated in a hundred battles." As the commander of Xuan in Hebei, Wu Haogu proposed to build cities and set up defenses and remain undefeated. What's wrong with it? You haven't spent money to rectify city defenses in the past century, so of course you have to spend a lot of money to make up for your lessons now.

In addition to the expense of repairing the city and deploying defense, the second largest expenditure is to rectify the Hebei New Army. The Hebei New Army has been in charge for several years, but it is only a mere appearance, and there is no reality. In addition to the quality of soldiers and generals, the money is not spent in place. The six generals directly under the Hebei Xuanfu Department are slightly better, not to mention the sufficient equipment, at least enough. The remaining twelve generals are actually beggar troops! The weapons and armor equipped are either extremely poor quality or cultural relics of collection value. If they are not re-equipped, they will die if they go to the battlefield.

So I have to order weapons and equipment from Jiehe Market in a big way! Oh, I have to buy a horse!

The two cavalry generals of the Hebei New Army pulled the knights. They all brought their own horses, entourages, and equipment. However, the sixteen infantry generals (including the four generals directly under Wu Haogu) were also equipped with cavalry, so the court had to provide horses. The sixteen infantry generals had 8,000 light cavalry on the books, and the same number of cavalry auxiliary soldiers, all of which were one person and two horses. In other words, at least 16,000 war horses and the same number of horses and pack horses were required. At the price of two or three hundred horses, it was three or four million. In addition, the military officers and cavalry among the sixteen infantry generals had to be matched with war horses, and some pack horses were also matched with a certain number of reserve horses.

If you add one piece in a row, you will have at least tens of thousands of horses, and the cost will not be less than six million.

And this is just the money to buy horses! Then you have to spend money to buy vests, build horse houses, and build horse farms (training grounds). One expense can cost another two or three million...

In addition, you have to train! You have to spend money on training! One is bonus, one is food, and the other is the loss of military uniforms and various equipment. You have to dig out money from the pocket of the official Zhao Ji!

The third major expenditure is to reserve military rations, military funds and rewards. Now there is a Xuanfu Department in Hebei, a Transport Department, and five Pacification and Control Division. Except for a Hailu Maritime Control Division, there are money, grain and materials, the other six Pacification Division do not have much savings. In particular, the Xuanfu Department and the four Pacification Division are just beggars, not to mention the provincial military and county supervisors below and there are various cities and villages.
Chapter completed!