All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 313: Sweeping across the Central Plains, putting people first

"so much?"

Outside Weizhou City, Chen Ran raised his eyebrows as he looked at the heads piled up on several carts in front of him. "How many are there?"

"Replying to the general, all the officers and generals above the rank of general in Wei Bo Town, 339 ranks above the rank of general, are here."

"Some people heard the good news and fled ahead of time with their families."

The soldiers of Weizhou Town still attach great importance to the traditions of their town. When there is an advantage, they will kill the Jiedushi first.

Now, not only the Jiedushi were killed, but even the generals in the army were not spared.

As for the reason, it was naturally because the conditions offered by Chen Ran were too attractive.

The soldiers of Weizhou Town were too tempted by the conditions provided by Chen Ran, such as sufficient food and wages, 100 acres of military land for each household, and rewards for meritorious service that were never delayed.

The warriors at the end of the Tang Dynasty liked to make trouble, not because they were born to do so. Well, the people in Weizhou Town were an exception.

Their unrest is largely due to treatment issues.

Food and wages were in arrears, rewards were not given in full, and even the supply of soldiers was cut.

These things did not only happen during the Song and Ming dynasties, but have existed in all dynasties.

Chen Ran's conditions were generous, and old friends who were also from Weizhou Town came forward to testify that "the general always keeps his word and has never been short of food, wages, salaries and rewards."

When the generals of Wei Bo Town were boosting the morale of the soldiers and preparing to go to war with Chen Ran's army, these soldiers naturally used their traditional skills to kill the generals first.

"That's all."

Chen Ran waved his hand and said, "Each person will be given ten strings of cash and ten pieces of silk."

All the soldiers in Wei Bo Town cheered like thunder and shouted "Long live the general~~~"

"General."

Zhang Guiba, who was staying at the governor's mansion in Weizhou, came forward and said, "Weizhou Town is often in chaos, so we should handle it with caution."

This is a bit euphemistic, what it actually means is that Wei Bo's soldiers are unreliable.

"I know."

Chen Ran nodded and responded, "First, select a group of Wei Bo soldiers in the name of selecting elite troops, and disperse them to each capital."

“Those who fail in all aspects will be given fields and livestock so that they can retire.”

"From the rest, select a group and send them to Youzhou, Henghai, Zhaoyi, Hedong, Chengde and other towns as local garrison troops."

"There are still some left." Chen Ran looked at Zhang Guiba and said with a smile, "Let's form a new army and appoint you as the commander."

Zhang Guiba was overjoyed, thinking that he was about to come to the fore.

But Chen Ran hadn't finished his words yet. "As for the name, there is a word 'Ba' in your name, so let's call it Bawangdu."

Zhang Guiba'(/?Д?)/'

"Don't make fun of me, my king." Zhang Guiba bowed with fear and trepidation. "How can I be so worthy of such a title?"

When talking about Overlord, the first person that everyone thinks of must be the Overlord of Chu.

Not everyone dares to take on that person's name and legendary story.

Besides, the King of Chu was a hero who was fighting for supremacy in the world. Zhang Guiba dared not violate his taboo.

After all, he knew very well that the general in front of him was a man even more powerful than the King of Chu.

"No need to say more." Chen Ran made the final decision, "It's settled!"

After suffering the attack from Chen Ran, the Wei Bo army still had nearly 100,000 soldiers.

First, more than 10,000 elite soldiers were selected and dispersed to replenish the various cities.

Then, using various reasons, nearly 20,000 people were laid off.

If this happened during the late Song Dynasty or the late Ming Dynasty, it is estimated that more than half of the unqualified soldiers in the army would be eliminated.

But it was different at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Those who could become warriors at the end of the Tang Dynasty all had real abilities.

If you wanted to make a living as a military man in the late Tang Dynasty but didn't have real skills, you would have died long ago.

Afterwards, tens of thousands of Wei Bo soldiers were dispatched to garrison various towns, replacing the local garrisons in Wei Bo Town.

The remaining nearly 20,000 Wei Bo soldiers all came under the command of Zhang Guiba and became part of the Overlord Capital.

This name is so domineering that the selected Wei Bo soldiers are very happy and their morale is greatly boosted.

Then, they were the first to be sent to cross the river and go south to attack Zhu Wen. Now he changed his name, because of his contribution in killing Huang Chao, the emperor gave Zhu Wen the name Zhu Quanzhong.

Quanzhong, you can tell from the name that he is a loyal and devoted minister.

He was indeed loyal, so loyal that in history he personally destroyed the Tang Dynasty.

Zhu Quanzhong was very smart, he knew that Chen Ran would never let him go.

As early as after learning the news that Chen Ran was heading south, he began to frantically exploit the potential of his territory.

They robbed the people of their property and food to feed the rapidly expanding army.

When Ba Wangdu crossed the river, Zhu Quanzhong personally led the army to fight.

After a great battle on the bank of the Yellow River, Overlord lost more than half of his men, and only a small number escaped back to the other side.

When Zhu Quanzhong was overjoyed, he was shocked to learn that Chen Ran's main troops had successfully crossed the river more than a hundred miles upstream and downstream respectively.

This Bawangdu was originally a bait thrown to Zhu Quanzhong for him to bite.

In the battle with Bawangdu, Zhu Quanzhong also suffered heavy losses.

He did not dare to fight a decisive battle with the main army led by Chen Ran himself, because Chen Ran had never lost as a jungler.

Zhu Quanzhong fled all the way back to Bianzhou City, transported all the supplies and prepared to escape.

The people in Bianzhou were starving to death, so they attacked the convoys carrying supplies and robbed them of food to survive. This angered Zhu Quanzhong, who even massacred the people in his own territory.

When Chen Ran arrived, he found less than a hundred people alive in the city.

"I thought you were just a bastard, but you turned out to be a beast!"

Chen Ran activated his passive skill Yun and became furious. He immediately led the cavalry from Zhuangshandu to hunt down Zhu Quanzhong.

Zhu Quanzhong, who was carrying too much food, military supplies and other valuables, moved too slowly.

He was caught up before he reached the eastern capital (Luoyang).

Tens of thousands of cavalrymen charged forward and directly defeated his legion.

After a fierce battle, Zhu Quanzhong's troops were almost wiped out, but after the war, no trace of Zhu Quanzhong was found.

Later we learned that he had already fled before the war started.

Chen Ran had no place to vent his anger after failing to capture Zhu Quanzhong, so he had to take action against the prisoners.

First, kill all those who participated in the massacre, and then kill the remaining ones with a single blow.

The remaining captives were not much better off and were assigned to do land reclamation work.

However, compared with those grassland captives who were sent to mines in various places and worked to death, their fate was still good. At least the land reclamation was not so hard.

After defeating Zhu Quanzhong and seizing the heartland of the Central Plains, everyone thought that Chen Ran would then enter Guanzhong and completely end the Tang Dynasty.

But not only did he not go to Guanzhong, he didn't even take over Dongdu Ji. Instead, he started disaster relief in the Central Plains.

Over the years, the Central Plains has suffered from exploitation by the imperial court, continuous wars, oppression by local military governors, and successive disasters such as droughts, floods, and locusts.

Many places that were once densely populated are now deserted, and the fields are overgrown with weeds.

Chen Ran first transported a large amount of food from all over Hebei and distributed it to the people in the Central Plains to fill their stomachs and ensure that they would not starve to death.

The next step is to control floods, droughts and locust plagues.

The key to dealing with floods and droughts is water conservancy facilities.

The Tang Dynasty once put a lot of effort into developing water conservancy facilities, but unfortunately war destroyed everything.

Chen Ran used work-for-relief as a means of mobilizing manpower for reorganization.

As for locusts, they were more direct and made a large number of nets with cloth and arranged people to catch them everywhere.

As for what to do after catching it, of course they coat it in flour, fry it in oil, and then eat it.

The source of precious oil comes from the sea.

In later generations, offshore fishing, thanks to the power of the family-destroying net, was so clean that it was frightening.

But the oceans of the Tang Dynasty are filled with marine life.

The most noticeable of these are the large number of whales heading north to the Whale Sea (Sea of ​​Japan).

Chen Ran provided drawings and made advanced whaling equipment. A large number of whales were dragged ashore, and whale oil became an important source of fat.

Whether it is locusts or whale oil, various problems are inevitable for people in the modern world.

But for the people who were almost starving to death at the end of the Tang Dynasty, they were thankful to have something to eat, and they would not think about anything else.

They rebuilt water conservancy projects, rectified the fields, transported a large number of livestock from Hebei to open up the land, and made a large number of iron farm tools to distribute to every household.

The Central Plains, which had been devastated to the point where no roosters could crow for a thousand miles, has finally recovered a little bit.

While we were busy with people's livelihood, the army did not stop either.

Chen Ran did not go to Guanzhong, but headed eastward, successively defeating Yanhai Town, Wuning Town, Zhongwu Town and his old friend Pinglu Town.

From then on, the most populous places in the Tang Dynasty, except Guanzhong, Sichuan and Dongdu, basically fell into Chen Ran's hands.

As for the vast land in the south, it has a sparse population and insufficient resources, and has no combat effectiveness at all.

His current territory is similar to that of Prime Minister Cao, except for the lack of Guanzhong and Dongdu.

It was not until the autumn harvest of the following year, when the fields had grown enough grain to feed the people in the Central Plains, that Chen Ran set out west.

More than a hundred years ago, the Eastern Capital during the reign of Wu Zetian was a world-famous city with a population of one million and was extremely prosperous.

But now, the dilapidated appearance of Dongdu shocked Chen Ran, who was used to the desolate scenes of the end of the world.

"Is this really Luoyang City?"

It is indeed Luoyang City, but it is a Luoyang City where people’s livelihood is declining.

The people were no longer starving to the point of having nothing to eat, but were just skin and bones.

Like a zombie, it was looking for anything it could eat.

The bark of all the trees had been stripped off, there was no grass left on the ground, and the environment was as dirty as the Ganges River in later generations.

After asking, we learned that the imperial court believed that it was impossible to defend the Eastern Capital, so they simply dug deep into the ground and squeezed out all the useful things, and transported all of them to Guanzhong.

After learning about what Chen Ran had done in the Central Plains, the imperial court kept all the people, saying, "Doesn't Chen Ran want to win the hearts of the people? Then keep all these hungry people here to consume his food!"

The former Tang Dynasty court was so great that it made people envious.

But in the current Tang Dynasty court, keeping them for one more day would be a crime.

"Send food here." Chen Ran instructed, "For disaster relief."

In fact, the Tang Dynasty was not so short of food. It was the extremely unfair distribution of means of production and food that led to everything we saw.

In short, it is a man-made disaster.

"We can't let them continue to cause harm. We must put an end to this chaos as soon as possible!"

(End of this chapter)