Ling Yi and Li Jing shared the same attitude towards the Northern Song's taking advantage of the situation: they decided to ignore it.
Take over the territory, go ahead. Consider it managing it for yourself for now. When you come back later, you can deal with them then.
Ling Yi entrusted the task of conquering cities and seizing territories to Li Jing, while he himself began to travel all over the world, mainly collecting various mineral resources.
Various metal ores, coal mines, oil, etc.
Ling Yi Ling Yi visited every place he remembered.
While others mine little by little, Ling Yi simply amassed an entire mountain at once.
Once it's in your Personal Space, things will be simple.
The metal mines were smelted directly, mountain after mountain, leaving behind various raw metal materials, while the remaining slag and soil were simply thrown away.
The coal mine simply divided it up, keeping the coal and throwing the rest away.
As for oil, it's the simplest, but these are all crude oil, Ling Yi doesn't yet know how to refine crude oil into gasoline or diesel.
He genuinely didn't understand this, so he handed it over to Zhang Chengfu later and asked him to study it.
Or we can wait until we reach the modern world to talk about it.
When Li Jing conquered Outer Mongolia, Ling Yi had already hollowed out hundreds of mountains, and there were all kinds of minerals there.
Fortunately, Ling Yi only remembered these few mineral-rich areas; otherwise, he probably would have mined up all the resources in this world.
With these resources, Ling Yi can now freely create divine Divine Weapon and armor.
Li Jing alone is a bit slow; to be precise, it's the speed at which his Personal Space collects Spacetime Energy that's a bit slow.
This led Ling Yi to a guess.
There seems to be a primary and secondary distinction in the ways to alter space and time.
In the Great Tang era, changing the Great Tang is primary, while other countries are secondary.
Therefore, in the Great Song era, changing the Song Dynasty is the primary goal, and everything else is secondary.
Therefore, although Li Jing made Divine Speed progress, his Personal Space only began to collect Spacetime Energy when Gao Qiu went north to take advantage of the situation.
Was Li Jing was wasting his time? Not really, but the plan needed some slight changes.
Moreover, since we've started, there's no need to stop; this is also a test for Ling Yi.
However, this efficiency was too low, so Ling Yi prepared to continue to transfer troops from the Great Tang Dynasty.
This time, Ling Yi is preparing to mobilize 100,000 troops.
"One hundred thousand soldiers?" Li Shimin was somewhat surprised by Ling Yi's request.
For Li Shimin, commanding 100,000 troops was no small amount of pressure.
It's not that the Great Tang didn't have 100,000 soldiers, but rather that some soldiers were able to move while others were not.
For example, the 200,000 troops stationed on the border cannot be moved, nor can the 50,000 Imperial City Guard stationed in Chang'an be moved at will.
In any case, the military is the fundamental basis for a ruler's control of power.
Without sufficient military force, how can we suppress those powerful families who still cannot see the situation clearly and are making a last-ditch effort?
How can they possibly withstand the counterattack from Li Jiancheng and his remaining followers?
To put it bluntly, it's a consequence of the Xuanwu Gate Incident being too hasty.
"One hundred thousand soldiers won't do?" Ling Yi was genuinely unfamiliar with these matters and was somewhat surprised by Li Shimin's hesitation.
He had heard Cheng Yaojin boast that the Great Tang had 500,000 soldiers ready for battle.
"Do you know that in just a few months, the railway we've laid has suffered hundreds of acts of sabotage?"
Is it serious?
Li Shimin shook his head and said, "The iron you used to lay the railway is different from ordinary iron; the rails are indestructible, but they repeatedly placed huge stones on the rails to obstruct it."
"While it couldn't damage the train, it significantly slowed it down."
The train that Ling Yi tinkered with was also made of super-compressed iron, so it naturally wouldn't be damaged.
However, it can force trains to slow down or stop.
Steam engines, after all, were somewhat inadequate in terms of power.
"I'll leave you another 50,000 sets of super armor, is that enough?"
Li Shimin laughed, saying that Li Jing's five thousand Heaven-Answering Army, clad in divine Divine Weapon and armor, were enough to Sweep Great Song Dynasty.
If he had those 50,000 divine armored soldiers, he could crush any enemy in the Great Tang Dynasty era.
"You idiot, next time just say what you want, don't beat around the bush with me."
"Furthermore, you'll be responsible for taking over the territories conquered in the Great Song era. I won't concern myself with the specifics of how you do it; you just need to come up with a plan."
"Furthermore, you must also arrange the military Martial General to lead the army this time."
Ling Yi planned to deploy these 100,000 Great Tang to various states around the world used by the Great Song, so as to quickly conquer and occupy all countries in the shortest possible time.
Finally, once the Great Song is taken over, the Great Song's timeline will become a subordinate timeline of the Great Tang.
Just then, several wealthy young men rode past on bicycles.
This surprised and impressed Ling Yi; Zhang Chengfu was quite capable, actually inventing a bicycle.
Although it looks different from the bicycle Ling Yi remembers, apart from the seat and pedals being made of wood, the rest is made of iron.
Moreover, the wheels on the back of the cart are larger than those on the front, making it look rather mismatched and improper.
Of course, this was just Ling Yi's view of it as unserious; after all, that's exactly how Ling Yi imagined a bicycle to be.
But in the eyes of Li Shimin and others, this is how a bicycle should look.
Seeing Ling Yi's gaze fixed on the bicycle, Li Shimin smiled and said, "The bicycle that Zhang Chengfu developed is indeed extraordinary."
"Although it can't compare to a horse in speed, it has the advantage of being convenient."
Ling Yi nodded. No one understood the true value of bicycles better than him, but judging from the current situation, they couldn't be popularized for the time being.
Those who can afford to ride bicycles are mostly people of power and wealth.
Mobilizing an army of 100,000 and assigning Martial General would take time, so after receiving Ling Yi's 50,000 sets of Divine Weapon and armor, Li Shimin rushed back to make the arrangements.
It wasn't until half a month later that Li Shimin finally managed to gather an army of 100,000 for Ling Yi.
Each army of ten thousand men was a unit, and each unit was led by a Martial General.
To help these generals understand their operational objectives and adapt to the new combat style, Ling Yi specifically brought Li Jing back and gave him a military lecture.
These so-called generals were basically descendants of officials from various dynasties.
Looking at these young faces, Ling Yi couldn't help but sigh, "They're all so young!" The youngest among them was only fifteen years old.
Are these young generals really capable of leading troops into battle?
If this were in later generations, someone this age would probably only be in high school. If you told them to go to war, they'd probably tremble after running two kilometers.
Finally, Li Shimin took the stage and spoke a few more words to these young generals, summarizing their actions, boosting morale, and officially bestowing upon this army the designation of the Great Tang Heaven-Answering Army.
Including Li Jing's Heaven-Answering Army, there were a total of eleven Heaven-Answering Army.
Next, the door was opened, and people were sent to the Song Dynasty era.
Ling Yi dispatched a Heaven-Answering Army to each of the following regions: South Americas, North Americas, Oceania, West Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Southern Africa, and Northern Africa.
They unleashed a century-long bloom, wiping out the entire Map.
Goodness, it took a whole month just to open the door and get people in.
After the last Southern Africa Heaven-Answering Army finished Teleport, the first South Americas Heaven-Answering Army had already conquered a significant portion of the Map.
At this time, Li Jing had already dealt with all the major and minor states surrounding the Northern Song Dynasty, and was now going back to deal with them a second time.
At this time, Li Jing still only had 5,000 troops under his command.
Li Jing didn't even bother with prisoners of war or cannon fodder. After the battle, the dead were burned on the spot, the escaped were ignored, and those who surrendered were put to good use with puppet generals.
They completely disregard whether they will run away or betray them and cause trouble behind the scenes.
Now we're starting the second round of friction. Those who behave obediently stay, while those who cause trouble get another round of friction.
The point is to kill, to kill until these people are filled with awe and fear, and have no thought of resistance whatsoever.
In the Northern Song, Gao Qiu, with his so-called 100,000-strong army, took advantage of the situation and shamelessly seized most of the territory of the Jin Empire and Khitan.
Emperor Huizong of Song was overjoyed by such a "brilliant" victory, and he would boast about it to his ministers in the palace every day, or listen to his ministers boast about it.
Emperor Huizong of Song of Song was touted as the strongest emperor in history, unprecedented and unparalleled, even surpassing First Emperor of Qin Dadu.
In any case, Emperor Huizong of Song and the entire Northern Song became arrogant.
They even shamelessly bestowed the title of "General Who Conquers the North" upon the generals of the Great Tang Heaven-Answering Army.
Damn it, Emperor Huizong of Song of Song didn't even know who the leader of the Heaven-Answering Army was.
According to his logic, I, Emperor Huizong of Song, have appointed you as a general, so you will be one of Emperor Huizong of Song people from now on. This way, it will be perfectly legitimate for me to take advantage of you later.
That's an absolute joke.
Those who don't know it's a joke are making a fool of themselves with Emperor Huizong of Song; those who do know it's a joke pretend they don't.
Truly intelligent people have already started to plan ahead for themselves.
Did they really think that the Great Tang Heaven-Answering Army, Sweep the surrounding countries, could take over territories so easily?
They just don't have Kung Fu Hustle to bother with you.
Once they've finished their work and turned their attention to you, do you really think Gao Qiu's army, which is supposedly 100,000 but actually only has 30,000, can withstand it?
Stop joking.
The Heaven-Answering Army dared to fight 230,000 Kingpin with only 5,000 men and easily won without losing a single soldier. What could they possibly use to resist?
Meanwhile, there was still no movement from Mount Liang Marsh.
Song Jiang was still preparing for the uprising, and at this time he had already gathered all thirty-six heroes of Mount Liang.
Yes, that's right. There were only thirty-six heroes in Mount Liang, not the one hundred and eight heroes mentioned in Water Margin.
Ling Yi didn't know if it was a problem with this timeline or if this was the actual historical situation.
He genuinely doesn't understand this.
Of course, it wasn't important to Ling Yi either.
Judging from Song Jiang's dawdling pace, it seems that even after the Great Tang Heaven-Answering Army has conquered the world, he'll still be hoarding grain and delaying his declaration of kingship.
They're complete trash, utterly useless, a waste of the equipment Ling Yi gave them.
As the territory gained by the Song Dynasty through opportunistic means expanded, the speed at which Ling Yi collected Spacetime Energy also increased.
To be honest, if it were any other time period, Ling Yi would never have allowed the Great Tang to occupy this timeline.
The Song Dynasty at this stage was truly terrible.
If it were during the reign of Emperor Taizu of Song, Ling Yi would probably have acted similarly to that during the Great Tang, actively helping the Old Zhao achieve world unification and making Song Kingdom the only country in this timeline.
Unfortunately, let's just ignore what Emperor Huizong of Song said.
He's only suited to be Legalist School; he's really not cut out to be an emperor.
Ling Yi hasn't been idle during this time. One thing he's been doing is building a steamship, since there are still a few countries at sea that he hasn't conquered yet.
Another area of research is internal combustion engines.