Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 133 Why Not Report to the Authorities? (Bonus Chapter for Silver Alliance Warm Sun 1314)

Back at the mansion, I removed my armor and washed up.

Sitting in the chair, Lin Dao breathed a sigh of relief.

Although we rode horses the whole way, it was really tiring to move around in armor for so long.

Li Xiangjun stepped forward without making a sound, standing behind Lin Dao before Dong Xiaowan could.

The eyes of the armored soldiers on both sides fell on her.

She acted as if she hadn't seen him, and raised her slender hands to massage Lin Dao's shoulders.

Dong Xiaowan smiled faintly, turned around and went to get the white fungus soup she had cooked.

Only Chen Yuanyuan stood there, like a statue.

Lin Dao is only back for a short rest; he will be leaving again soon.

With the city of Jinling newly settled, there were too many things to do.

Dong Xiaowan brought over some white fungus soup and placed it in front of Lin Dao.

Seeing that Lin Dao had his eyes closed and hadn't moved, she leaned down and whispered, "Master, the newlyweds have been taken to their rooms. Aren't you going to check on them?"

"Ok?"

Lin Dao opened his eyes, looking surprised. "What newcomer?"

"Master, have you already forgotten about the new bride you brought back from outside?"

"Speak properly." Lin Dao frowned. "Get to the point. Don't resort to sarcastic remarks."

Dong Xiaowan smoothed her hair, looking slightly resentful. "Sister Mei brought her into the room, and now you're saying you don't know."

Lin Dao rubbed his temples, his expression already showing impatience.

This isn't a female-oriented website; he has no time or energy to focus on the backyard.

Speak plainly, don't play games with me. How the hell am I supposed to know who Sister Mei is?!

"It's Sister Kou Mei Kou."

Chen Yuanyuan stepped forward and replied, "She left her profession and entered the Duke of Baoguo's mansion a few months ago."

"Two hours ago, he was brought into the courtyard by soldiers, who said it was the Earl of Xincheng's order."

It would have been so much better if you had said this earlier, making things simple and clear.

Lin Dao frowned. Why do these people always treat me like Cao Cao?
Can't you live without a woman by your side?

"Then let her go."

Lin Dao simply got up and walked outside. "Give her some money, and she can go wherever she wants."

I had come back to rest, but the women were also a handful.

As for Zhao Zhilong, who acted on his own initiative, he still has value to be exploited, so let's drop the matter.

If it's useful, then squeeze it dry.

Once you've squeezed it dry, just throw it away.

As we walked along the street not far from the Imperial College, we found it bustling with noise and shouting.

Lin Dao frowned slightly and spurred his horse forward.

"Everyone, everyone~"

Sweating profusely, Qian Qianyi was trapped in the middle by the students, repeatedly shouting, "Go back first, no matter what, go back first!"

"Pooh!"

One of the students spat in his face, saying, "You, who are supposed to be the leader of the Donglin Party, have actually served the traitors with your body. You have truly disgraced us scholars!"

"That's right! This old coffin maker has betrayed us!"

"I really feel sorry for Hedong Jun."

"Hit him!"

Someone punched Qian Qianyi right in the eye socket, giving him a black eye on the spot.

A gentleman uses words, not fists.

"Hit him!" The students rushed forward and began punching and kicking Qian Qianyi.

"This is outrageous!" Lin Dao sneered upon seeing this scene. "Go and rescue Director Qian."

The armored soldiers pounced on him like wolves and tigers, dragging Qian Qianyi to Lin Dao's side.

"Mr. Muzhai".

Looking at Qian Qianyi, whose nose was bleeding and whose mouth was swollen, Lin Dao also smiled and said, "Didn't you say you could persuade them to listen?"

"Are you trying to persuade me with your face?"

Deeply affected, Qian Qianyi covered his face and gave a bitter laugh, at a loss for words.

"The thief leader is here!"

A passionate student, seeing Lin Dao on horseback, shouted, "Fellow students, the day to serve our country is today! Charge!"

Lin Dao watched with amusement as a group of students dressed in Confucian robes and wearing square headscarves ran towards him.

They didn't even have a book, let alone a weapon.

But it just charged straight at us, without showing any fear.

Scholars in the Ming Dynasty certainly lived a very comfortable life.

The guy who charged the fastest suddenly felt a blur before his eyes, then a sharp pain in his head caused him to fall heavily to the ground.

The armored guard knocked him to the ground with a single punch.

The students behind them immediately stopped in their tracks.

Are you really going to fight?
In the past, when they stormed government offices, no one dared to stop them.

These bandits are really bold; they actually dared to fight?

Lin Dao straightened his back and said, "You have violated the curfew and gone out on the street without permission."

Looking at Qian Qianyi, he said, "To beat someone without cause, you have some nerve."

The students dared not rush forward, but they did not stop their verbal sparring.

Someone immediately shouted, "You're a traitor!"

"Yes, you're a traitor!"

“We are students of the Imperial Academy; how can we obey the orders of rebels?”

"Lin, you are openly rebelling; you will not have a good end."

"The imperial army will arrive soon, and then you will die without a burial place."

"The people of Jiangnan wish they could eat your flesh and sleep on your skin!"

"Lin, you traitor, you'll die a horrible death!"

Hundreds of students shouted and yelled at each other, creating a noisy cacophony.

When the shouts subsided, Lin Dao finally spoke, "What about the rebels?"

"The Duke of Wei and other nobles conspired to seize my family's wealth and kill me. Am I just supposed to be allowed to have my property taken away and willingly offer myself up for death?"

One student shouted, "Why didn't you report it to the authorities?"

One sentence made Lin Dao laugh.

These students are really brainless.

Qian Qianyi couldn't help but defend Lin Dao, saying, "The ones who came to confiscate his property and arrest him were the constables from Yingtian Prefecture. Where would Commander Lin go to report to the authorities?" The students' voices quieted down.

But some people still shouted, "You should trust the imperial court. As long as you haven't broken the law, they will definitely give you justice."

"Yes."

"exactly."

"Brother Yifu is absolutely right!"

"You should believe that the imperial court will restore justice for you, instead of rebelling!"

Hearing these words, Lin Dao laughed even louder.

"You say the people of Jiangnan want to eat my flesh and sleep on my skin?"

"The people you're talking about aren't the homeless people who can't survive in various places, are they?"

"It should be the local gentry, landlords and powerful families."

"That's not wrong."

Lin Dao took a breath. "I will soon seize their land, take away their trade, and hand them over to the real people for judgment."

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the power of local gentry and landlords reached its peak.

They refused to pay taxes and ignored the emperor's and the court's orders.

Downward, they ruthlessly exploited the people, treating them like serfs.

Externally, it vigorously developed maritime trade, earning a trade surplus from around the world through the Maritime Silk Road.

In particular, the gentry and powerful families in the Jiangnan region possessed human and material resources that were unprecedented in all dynasties.

Unfortunately, this strength ultimately became nourishment for the wild boar hide.

In Lin Dao's words, "It's better to get the wild boar hide from me than for it to go to waste!"

"You're saying the imperial army will leave me nowhere to bury my body?"

Lin Dao's smile faded. "Aside from romance and poetry, do you guys ever pay attention to the affairs of the world?"

"What army does the Ming Dynasty still have?"

"The troops outside the pass have all been wiped out on the Songjin battlefield."

"Cao Bianjiao, Wang Tingchen and others died in battle, while Hong Chengchou, Zu Dashou and others surrendered to Yezhupi."

"The defeat at Zhuxian Town resulted in the near annihilation of the troops within the pass."

Lin Dao had a faint smile on his face. "The imperial court, what army do you still have?"

These two major battles in the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign completely exhausted the last of the Ming Empire's vitality.

Both the battles inside and outside the Great Wall ended in disastrous defeats.

The elite troops loyal to the court, along with their capable generals, have been almost entirely wiped out.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty was no longer able to launch large-scale strategic offensives.

The nation's vitality has been exhausted, and all that remains is a death struggle.

Of course, this does not include Jiangnan.

Jiangnan was completely out of place with the rest of the Ming Dynasty, like a country within a country.

"As for you."

Lin Dao raised his hand and swept it over the group of students. "You're used to lording it over everyone in the Ming Dynasty. Do you think I'm just like the Ming Dynasty, helpless against you bloodsucking leeches?"

The scholars of the Ming Dynasty were truly leeches sucking the blood of the nation.

They impersonated Zhu Yuanzhang to enforce ancestral rules, forcibly granting themselves a status exempt from taxes.

Using this identity, he gained endless benefits, but also directly undermined the foundation of the Ming Empire.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty perished.

On the surface, it was said to be a natural disaster during the Little Ice Age, with bandits roaming the country and wild boars roaming outside, as well as numerous treacherous officials in the court, eunuchs wielding power, and the emperor being an idiot, and so on.

But at its core, there is only one reason.

There is no money or food.

Where did the money and grain go?

Princes and royal families, meritorious officials, civil and military officials, and these scholars.

Lin Dao, standing on the pages of history, understands all of this very clearly.

Therefore, he would never treat scholars as well as the Ming Dynasty did.

The fact that Lin Dao didn't make fun of scholars like the military men of the late Tang Dynasty already shows that he is kind-hearted.

"We all hold official titles and honors!"

The murderous intent in Lin Dao's words was palpable.

But the students of the Imperial Academy remained stubborn, asking, "Aren't you afraid of being condemned by the world?"

Lin Dao wanted to laugh, but also felt a pang of sadness.

After Ye Zhupi gained control of the country, these scholars also wanted to maintain their privileges, just like the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, he was killed by wild boar skin and cried for his parents, eventually becoming an obedient subject.

If the Ming Dynasty had also been able to wield the sword against this cancer, it's likely that it wouldn't have caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.

Thinking of this, he shook his head and looked at a tall young bodyguard.

"Liu Sandao".

“Tell them what the rules are.”

Liu Sandao's family were all from Liaoning. They fled south all the way and eventually reached Jiangnan.

His parents, elder brother, and sister-in-law all died on the road.

The younger siblings were all sold off.

By the time he finally made it to the Imperial Guard Camp, his tall frame had become skin and bones from hunger, resembling a skeleton.

It was thanks to Lin Dao's life-saving food that he survived.

Lin Dao once asked him why he was called Liu Sandao (Liu the Three-Knife).

The young man then unbuttoned his clothes, revealing three knife scars on his body.

"I stabbed myself three times to remind myself to always remember that I must return to Liaodong to take revenge!"

He performed exceptionally well and studied extremely hard, so Lin Dao promoted him to a banner commander in the personal guard.

Liu Sandao led thirty-four men from his banner forward and raised their muskets.

"First warning! All of you, go back!"

The students stirred, and some of the more timid ones began to back away.

"Second warning! Everyone lie down on the ground!"

The timid students began to run away, staggering towards the Imperial College.

Those who didn't believe Lin Dao would actually dare to turn against scholars loudly proclaimed, "They wouldn't dare!"

There was no third warning.

Liu Sandao waved his hand forcefully.

"put!"

(End of this chapter)