"Your Majesty could build a tower called a beacon tower and station three to five men there, with reeds, red willow, and firewood stored inside. Whenever military news arrives, they could light it and pass the message on immediately."
Daji offered her suggestion. As a child, she had seen people burn firewood to send signals. If the dung of herbivores was used as fuel, the rising smoke would be thicker and reach higher.
As the woman involved in the forcible abduction incident, how could Daji not know the truth?
Su Hu had already told her that all of this was part of King Zhou's plan to lure the snakes out of their holes.
Clever as she was, Daji understood with the slightest hint. She could not help admiring King Zhou's grand vision and bold strategy. He had dared to shoulder such infamy and take such risks to purge the court.
Now Daji had supplied the final link in that plan. With Chaoge's defenses depleted, the villains were already stirring. A sudden rebellion could pose a danger, but a beacon tower would change everything. It could give an immediate warning and summon the surrounding Feudal Lords to defend the king. It would also make the villains more nervous, disrupting their plans and exposing their weaknesses.
"A beacon tower..."
Zi Shou's eyes lit up. Why didn't I think of that?
Although the story of King You of Zhou fooling the Feudal Lords with beacon fires had been proven false and had never actually happened, that did not stop him from making it real!
He could even throw in, "A lone rider raised red dust, and Daji smiled; no one knew that lychees had arrived."
To win a smile from Daji, he would light the beacons and trick the Feudal Lords into bringing their troops to Chaoge to defend him, only for them to discover that King Zhou had actually summoned them to pay homage with local specialties. Combining King You of Zhou and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, that stunt would absolutely earn him the name of a foolish ruler.
Besides, this policy would be easy to approve. Building beacon towers was a good deed, after all, ostensibly intended to transmit military intelligence promptly. And was Su Hu not poised to rebel right now?
Once they were built, even loyal ministers would be powerless to stop him from fooling the Feudal Lords with beacon fires. Who did not know how to light a fire? He could simply sneak in and light it himself. Would the soldiers guarding the beacon tower dare oppose him like the ministers did?
Zi Shou suddenly understood. Whether a policy was good or bad was not the key to determining whether a ruler was foolish; what mattered was how he used it. A beacon tower was a perfect example. A wise ruler could use it to guard his borders against foreign enemies, while a foolish ruler could use it to set off fireworks and win a beauty's smile.
Wouldn't his future administrative orders become much easier if he followed this approach?
There was just one problem: he had no way to solve the issue of transmission range.
A single beacon tower could cover only a radius of ten li. Building just one in Chaoge would be useless.
None of the Feudal Lords would be able to see it.
Launching a massive construction project to build a beacon tower every ten li was possible, but it would take too long. By the time they were all finished, the current Foolishness Value settlement period would be over. Wouldn't that waste another chance to cultivate immortality?
Zi Shou asked Daji whether there was any way to get it done quickly. After thinking for a moment, she said, "During the High Ancestor's reign, he expanded Great Shang's territory northward. Every time he conquered a place, he built a fortified settlement there. Many of those earthen towns are now abandoned and uninhabited. Your Majesty could put them back into use."
Brilliant! Instant!
Zi Shou came from a later age, but that age had very few records of events before the Shang Dynasty. Most of what he knew concerned the Zhou Dynasty and later periods.
Daji neatly filled the gaps in his knowledge. As a Thousand-Year Fox Spirit, of course she knew the thousand years of history spanning Xia and Shang!
With pearls joined and jade matched, what could they not accomplish?
Unable to help himself, Zi Shou took Daji's hand. Her hands were soft as young shoots, her skin smooth as congealed cream.
Daji lowered her head slightly, her cheeks reddening. Although she had cultivated for a thousand years, she had never entered the mortal world and knew little about love between men and women.
Originally, she had only intended to follow her ancestor's example, helping the world and governing the state. Now, however, she discovered that she really was beginning to fall for this king, who was so full of virtues.
Hadn't King Zhou questioned her just now precisely because he wanted to avoid conscripting laborers and wasting the people's strength and wealth on new beacon towers?
This was not merely the conduct of a wise ruler, but of a benevolent ruler-a rare thing indeed.
The next day, Zi Shou could hardly wait to present his proposal to the court.
Some raised objections, arguing that conscripting laborers to build beacon towers at a time when the Feudal Lords might rebel could interfere with the transport of provisions and delay operations at the front.
But they only needed to build one beacon tower in Chaoge, then make use of the long-abandoned earthen towns and send a few men to guard them. That would allow military intelligence to be transmitted promptly. Since it benefited the state, the proposal passed after some debate.
Zi Shou specially appointed You Hun to oversee the construction.
With You Hun's greedy nature, he might well skim money off the project and produce a tower as flimsy as tofu. Then the ministers would surely accuse Zi Shou of appointing favorites and keeping petty men close.
He truly had Daji to thank!
Without Daji, he would never have thought of beacon towers!
After giving it some thought, he realized that Daji still had no sleeping palace of her own, so he simply bestowed Shouxian Palace upon her.
That would also make it much easier for him to stay the night.
Once again, in an imposing residence somewhere in Chaoge.
Zi Qi, Zi Yan, Bi Gan, Mai Yun, Mai Zhi, Lei Kai, and the others sat gathered together.
Zi Qi wore an expression of anguished indignation. "King Zhou is now foolish and incompetent. Obsessed with beauty, he has driven the Feudal Lords to rebellion, exhausted the people and squandered their wealth on vast construction projects, and even bestowed the late king and queen dowager's Shouxian Palace upon a demon consort. I must obey the late king's final decree and set heaven and earth right!"
Mai Yun and Mai Zhi held the rank of senior grandee. Somewhat hidebound, they were utterly loyal to Zi Qi and abhorred King Zhou's actions, which had nearly driven Daji to her death.
This was all thanks to first impressions. Ever since King Zhou ascended the throne, the two had felt that he was not a ruler worth serving. Whenever they saw a stain or misdeed, they magnified it without limit and consequently overlooked his good points.
Lei Kai commanded the North Gate's defenses. After years of effort, he was the only general with troops under his command whom Zi Qi had managed to buy over.
Zi Yan had been forced to join them. His status was useful, and Zi Qi had already secretly sent his children outside the city. He had heard that another force lay hidden in the mountain forests beyond the walls, and that its two leaders could even wield the arts of immortals. Zi Yan had no way to resist, much less inform on them.
Bi Gan was the late king's younger brother, a senior minister entrusted with the royal heir, and the uncle of both Zi Qi and Zi Shou.
He was a truly wise, virtuous, and talented man, born with an exquisite seven-aperture heart. He could communicate with all things in the world, and his eyes could pierce every illusion.
Bi Gan had come to Zi Qi's residence because he, too, had received a final decree from the late king, ordering him to assist Zi Qi.
Moreover, he had seen that Daji's true form was a Thousand-Year Fox Spirit. Such a seductive demon would surely throw the court into chaos and had to be eliminated.
After denouncing King Zhou at length, Zi Qi drew the precious sword given to him by an immortal and hacked off a corner of the table. "An unjust king shall end like this table!" he roared.
Looking at the table with its severed corner, Zi Yan became even less willing to entertain any other thoughts.
Bi Gan, however, frowned. The Zi Qi before him today was utterly unlike the Zi Qi who had long enjoyed a reputation for virtue. The late king had ordered him to assist Zi Qi, but was the reigning King Zhou truly a foolish ruler?
Zi Qi took in everyone's expressions, his mouth turning slightly dry.
Only when he heard today that King Zhou intended to build beacon towers did he realize that everything had been a scheme targeting the Feudal Lords. After this series of maneuvers, any Feudal Lord harboring disloyal intentions was bound to make a move. Yet the Feudal Lords had not walked into the trap-he himself had plunged headlong into it instead.
There was no turning back now. He could only charge straight ahead.
Fortunately, Zi Qi had confidence. The troops hidden in the mountain forests outside Chaoge City were his trump card. As long as King Zhou was killed amid the chaos of battle, he could use the late king's final decree to ascend the throne with full legitimacy.
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