After hearing Zhao Yan's words, Cao Qi sat there motionlessly, with a thoughtful expression on his face, which made Zhao Yan a little nervous, but in the end, Cao Qi suddenly smiled and said, "Son-in-law, you have a big appetite. Even we, the people who are out of the way, want to take control of the court!"

"Grandfather, any uncontrolled religion will only bring great disasters to himself to the end. For example, taking Buddhism as an example, Buddhism has become the number one religion within the Central Plains dynasty several times in history. But if you look at their fate, you can only cause the powerful destruction of Buddhism by the rulers. As for the history of Taoism, it may have been suppressed many times, right?" Zhao Yan said with a firm look at the moment. No matter how difficult it is, the control of religion must be strengthened.

When he heard Zhao Yan mention the example of destroying Buddhism, the expression on his face was also very serious, which made Cao Qi ponder for a moment, and then he said: "Son-in-law, although I am a Taoist disciple, I am also a minister of the Song Dynasty, so I agree very much with this matter, but it is not easy to convince other forces in the Taoist sect!"

When Zhao Yan heard Cao Qi agree with this, he felt relieved and then smiled again: "The son-in-law of the grandson knows that it is not easy to get other people in the Taoist sect to agree to this matter, but as long as you agree with your grandson, with your prestige in the Taoist sect and the grandson-in-law exerting pressure with the court, it is not impossible to get other people to agree to this matter!"

"I knew you were making this idea, but although I am a little famous in the Taoist sect, there are many forces in the Taoist sect, especially Zhang Sizong from Longhu Mountain and Liu Hunkang from Maoshan Sect, who control more than 80% of the Taoist sect's forces. Speaking of which, they are all your acquaintances. They are still sharing the profits of the glass mirror together, but this matter is related to the future of the entire Taoist sect, so it is definitely not something that can be impressed by the small profits like glass mirrors." Cao Qi said in a deep voice again.

"Don't worry, grandfather. Although the court wants to strengthen its control over religion, in fact, it is just setting some rules for each religion. In the future, the management of the religion is mainly based on you. The court at most sends some officials to supervise it, and there will be rewards if it is given. As long as the Taoist sect is willing to be supervised by the court, there will be more benefits in the future, such as using the power of the court to preach overseas or newly occupied land, and in addition, it will also receive some support from the court at home, etc. These conditions are not low!" Zhao Yan said with a smile.

When Cao Qi heard that he could actually receive support from the court in his mission after accepting supervision from the court, he was happy because this was simply a treatment only from the state religion. After all, although their Buddhist and Taoist sects were powerful, it was good that they could not be suppressed by the court when they were preaching in China, let alone being supported. Even every time they wanted to build a new temple or Taoist temple, they would have to be approved by the court. Otherwise, even if they had money, some people would not be able to build a Taoist temple or temple.

In contrast, Cao Qi was not very interested in preaching overseas or newly occupied areas. After all, in his opinion, although the Western Xia was destroyed before the Song Dynasty and defeated the Liao Kingdom, he probably could not use foreign troops anymore and his territory would not expand much. As for overseas areas, there were even some barbaric lands, which had no value for missionary preaching. Unfortunately, he did not know that those barbaric lands would become the main competitive places between them and Buddhism in the future.

Next, Cao Qi asked about the specific situation of the court strengthening religious control, and Zhao Yan did not hide anything from it. He told all the things he had thought of these days. Cao Qi nodded repeatedly after hearing this. He even helped Zhao Yan make some additions from time to time and put forward some opinions. Zhao Yan also adopted them one by one. It was not until this time that he felt that although Cao Qi was a Taoist sect, his heart was still on the court. When the interests of the court and the Taoist sect conflicted, he would immediately choose the court without hesitation.

"Grandfather, this is the thing. Can you invite important figures in the Taoist sect such as Zhang Sizong and Liu Hunkang, and your grandson will talk to them directly?" Finally, Zhao Yan said again. Since he could convince Cao Qi, he was full of confidence in convincing the rest of the Taoist sect.

However, what Zhao Yan didn't expect was that Cao Qi heard his words and thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Son-in-law, I think you should not come forward for this matter for the time being. It's better for me to meet Zhang Sizong and others separately, and help you explore the attitude of these people first. If there are many supporters, I won't say it, but if there are many opponents, then we can also find ways to defeat them one by one!"

"Gao, grandfather, you are really far-scheming. Your grandson-in-law is far from enough!" Zhao Yan said when he heard this, he also flattered Cao Qi. In fact, he had thought of someone to test the attitude of some important figures in Buddhism and Taoism before. Unfortunately, there is no suitable candidate. Now that Cao Qi can take the initiative, that is naturally better.

After chatting about the main business, Cao Qi asked Zhao Yan about his plans for the past period of time, and then the two of them came to the front hall again. However, the front hall was very lively at this time. Cao Ping and Cao Yu took the lead in fighting for wine, and helped all the younger generations of the Cao family who came together. Now they were drinking, and Cao Ping and Cao Yu were even more flushed in their drinking, and they could hardly find their mouths when they held the wine glass.

Seeing the appearance of these descendants, Cao Qi couldn't help but curse a few words of hatred, but Zhao Yan didn't mind. After all, there were no outsiders here. Then he asked someone to help Cao Ping and the others into the guest room to rest. After a while, a group of female relatives also came out of the inner house. Cao Ying and her mother walked in front. When she learned that her father and uncle were drunk again, she smiled helplessly. In recent years, her father is getting older and he is getting less and less restrained in drinking, so she is also worried about her father's health.

After seeing off the Cao clan, Zhao Yan had the opportunity to be alone with Cao Ying. He asked about their itinerary along the way with concern. Although he had asked some questions before at the reception banquet, he only listened to a rough idea, so Cao Ying also explained their itinerary along the way in detail.

Speaking of which, Cao Ying and the others had a very smooth journey along the way. However, when they passed by Hangzhou, they found that the whole city was full of refugees caused by the Manichaeism Rebellion. For this reason, they stayed in Hangzhou for three days and spent money to buy a lot of food to distribute it to the refugees, which once again added a lot of reputation to Zhao Yan.

"By the way, when will the Ninth Brother and the Third Sister come back? Today, uncle and father ask me?" At this time, Zhao Yan suddenly thought of Cao Song's incident, so he asked. Speaking of which, after Cao Song got married with the Princess of Wei, he became Zhao Yan's brother-in-law, but from Cao Ying's side, he was Zhao Yan's brother-in-law, so this was a confusing account, so he simply called his own.

When Zhao Yan heard Zhao Yan ask about Cao Song and the third sister Princess Weiguo, Cao Ying laughed out loud. After a while, he said, "Originally, Brother Jiu had already handed over the matter of the Maritime Warehouse. He should be able to come back with us, but there was a problem with the third sister and insisted on staying in Guangzhou with the second sister. For this reason, it was useless to persuade Brother Jiu. When we came, the two of them still did not discuss a result."

Hearing Cao Ying say this, Zhao Yan frowned and said, "The second sister doesn't come back because Xu Yuan is staying in Guangzhou, but Jiu Ge'er wants to go back to the capital. Otherwise, who will take care of the bank? The third sister stays in Guangzhou and doesn't come back. She doesn't want to separate from Jiu Ge'er, right?"

"Hehe, the third sister didn't deliberately want to separate from Jiu Ge'er. After all, both of them already have three children. However, the third sister said that she had stayed at home to take care of her husband and children in the past few years and had already completed the task of a wife, so she wanted to do something for herself. The second sister helped Xu Yuan marry the Yu Niang into the house. Originally, the third sister was still very hostile to Yu Niang, but after talking to Yu Niang, she found that the other party was not only proficient in military tactics, but also went to the battlefield to kill people. She immediately changed her attitude. Now she created a naval women's camp with Yu Niang, recruiting a group of strong women as her personal army, saying that she wanted to build a female army of the Song Dynasty, and the third sister wanted to compete with Princess Pingyang in the Tang Dynasty!" Cao Ying finished this passage with a smile. Although she did not say that the princess Wei was hustling, the expression on the corners of her eyes and eyebrows had already explained everything.

Zhao Yan couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this. He thought that his third sister would take her heart back after getting married. In recent years, she has indeed taken care of her husband and children at home, but she did not expect that in just a few years, the nature of the Princess of Wei was exposed again. She actually wanted to set up a women's camp and let the woman enter the navy. This was simply too nonsense.

"Oh, forget it, let's go whatever my third sister wants. Anyway, I don't expect her women's camp to go to the battlefield!" Zhao Yan then spoke. Although he did not look down on women as much as the ancients, the battlefield has always been a forest for women, even if women are allowed to appear on the battlefield in later generations, it is only an auxiliary function. Hasn't there another general who said 'let women go away on the battlefield'?
Chapter completed!