Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 338 Most chaos
"Han Army Marquis, appointed by Genghis Khan as the first Han Chinese, the first Marquis of Liaodong, the Tiaoli clan of Liaodong, whose ancestor was Yelü Liuge."

"The family of the Han army marquises, the family of the Han army's chief marshal, the earliest Han generals to serve the Mongols, the Shimo bandits of Huanzhou, the family ancestor was Shimo Ming'an."

"The Marquis of Han Army, Xiao Zhali of Liucheng, the second of the 30,000 households of Han Army, one of the 90,000 households of Han land, the first Marquis of Hebei, whose ancestor was Xiao Axin."

"Han Army Marquis, Shi family of Yanjing, third of the 30,000 households of Han Army, one of the 90,000 households of Han land, second Marquis of Hebei, ancestor of the family? Shi Tianni."

"A hereditary marquis of the Han army, the Zhang family of Yizhou, one of the ninety thousand households in the Han lands, the third marquis of Hebei, whose ancestor was Zhang Rou."

"The Marquis of Han Army, the Yan family of Dongping, one of the ninety thousand households of Han Army, the second Marquis of Shandong, whose ancestor was Yan Shi."

"Han Dynasty hereditary lords~~~"

Luo Guanzhong read aloud from the intelligence report in his hand: "All family members who are in the capital city have been killed."

“The Khitans and the Xi people,” Lin Dao shook his head repeatedly. “They were all treated as Han Chinese from the north.”

"They've thoroughly Sinicized it."

He raised his head, signaling to continue.

Luo Guanzhong continued reading, "The various hereditary lords fought desperately, and even persuaded some of the Han army."

"Some people tried to persuade the local landlords to join the Red Turban Army in their rebellion against the Yuan Dynasty, but they were rejected."

Hearing this, Lin Dao also smiled.

"Aren't they stupid? I've wiped out all the landlords and powerful families. How could they possibly come to serve me?"

The Red Turban Army marched north and swept through Henan, Shandong, and the Yellow River basin.

A very important task was to completely confiscate all the local land and redistribute it.

Ordinary families are starving to death, where would they find land?

Aside from the Mongols and Semu people, the majority were local landlords and powerful families.

When land is levied, resistance from family members is inevitable, and these people are usually swallowed up by the people who want to divide the land.

Having lost their property and relatives, the landlords' armed forces were now irreconcilably opposed to the Red Turban Army.

The Marquis was so desperate that he even tried to persuade them to join the Red Turban Army.

Unless the Red Turban Army can offer conditions that the landlords' armed forces cannot refuse.

It's obvious that we can't get through here in the forest.

All the civil and military officials inside the tent laughed.

Although these landlord militias were indeed very fierce in battle and caused some trouble for the Red Turban Army.

But in the eyes of the Red Turban Army, that was all.

An opponent you can defeat.

"The atmosphere in the city is extremely tense right now."

"Even Han officials who were not from hereditary noble families could suffer from the ravages of war."

Seeing Lin Dao frown, Luo Guanzhong, knowing the Ming King's meaning, bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, the capital city has been short of food for several years, and plague is rampant."

"In ordinary families, some have already fled, and some have died."

"At this time, there were almost no Han Chinese households in the city."

All the civil and military officials knew very well that the Ming King had always treated the Han people kindly.

When land was distributed and benefits were shared, the Han people were always prioritized.

Even families with only daughters and no sons can inherit the family business, divide the land, and establish their own households.

At this time, the capital city had become a living hell, and everyone knew that the Ming King was also worried about the Han people in the city.

"So good."

Lin Dao nodded. "Let them fight like dogs."

"correct."

He then asked again, "Is there a food shortage in the city?"

"Yes." This time, Li Shanchang took the initiative to step forward and greet him. "Most of the city has been without food for many years. Although we have collected some cattle, sheep and fodder from the grasslands and the north, it is not enough to supply even the nobles. How can we feed the whole city?"

“Ordinary families who didn’t want to starve to death all ran away.”

"Of those who remained," Lin Dao asked curiously, "how did they survive all these years?"

“We bought them at high prices on the black market.” Li Shanchang bowed his head in response. “Their origin was the fiefdoms of those nobles from the Yuan Dynasty.”

"And another thing is, if servants or maids die, they bring people in from outside the city."

"Tsk tsk." Lin Dao, sitting on a stool, shook his head casually upon hearing this. "That's really pathetic."

It was indeed a tragic scene; a once magnificent capital city had been reduced to such a desolate state by the Yuan Dynasty.

If there are no civilians in the city at this time, then Lin Dao can watch the excitement in peace.

He assigned military duties, while he himself piloted a drone into the city to watch the fighting throughout the city via cameras.

"A street brawl, in broad daylight? Has the Yuan court already lost control of its army?"

“Look at these military flags, they belong to the Han guards and tribal private soldiers.”

"Even the Han guards are no longer trusted. There are so many of them. The Mongols have all gone mad."

The Han guards of the Yuan court were similar to the Shence Army of the Tang Dynasty, the Imperial Guards of the Song Dynasty, and the Capital Garrison of the Ming Dynasty.

Like those armies, they were initially incredibly powerful, conquering new territories and sweeping away countless formidable enemies.

But in the later stages, they basically all became useless.

The same applies to the Han guards.

Initially, it was composed of troops from Han dynasty warlords such as Shi Tianze and Dong Wenbing.

Later, elite troops were continuously drawn from various regions to supplement and expand the number of garrisons.

Especially after the fall of the Song Dynasty, it recruited many surrendered soldiers from the Southern Song Dynasty, which became the newly attached army, with a peak number of more than 200,000.

The two expeditions across the sea to attack Japan were led by the Han Imperial Guards.

Unfortunately, both times they were hit by typhoons, which cut off their support; otherwise, that area would be a province by now.

At this time, the number of Han guards who had retreated into the capital city was estimated to be around 100,000.

The Mongols were in a bloodthirsty frenzy; they didn't even trust the Han guards, who were mainly Han Chinese, and wanted to kill them all.

Although the Han guards at the end of the dynasty were not very strong in combat, they were still numerous enough.

Faced with slaughter, they also displayed a strong fighting will to survive.

The streets were a scene of carnage, with rivers of blood flowing freely. It was an exceptionally brutal massacre.

"Tsk, tsk."

Lin Dao, who was watching the spectacle through the drone, sighed repeatedly, "If we had this kind of courage to fight to the death on the battlefield, we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Fine, if anyone survives after the city falls, and none of them are particularly wicked, they can be kept as cannon fodder."

"I'm going to launch my third expedition to Japan, so I'll first calculate the typhoon season!"

The killings in the city were too brutal.

In open-field combat, if you can't win, just run away; the casualty rate will only be a few percent different.

At this point in the capital city, both sides were blinded by rage and had no way out.

Those outside the city couldn't escape; those inside would either be killed, starve, or die of disease.

The cowards are long dead; those who are forced to muster courage in dire circumstances have gone mad.

The battle was so fierce that Lin Dao shook his head repeatedly, and even felt a pang of compassion.

The drone continued flying forward.

The camera was shaking quite badly, so Lin Dao raised his hand to adjust the angle of the signal repeater next to him, and the signal strength returned.

A thought flashed through his mind.

'If there were national-level support, the satellite should have been launched by now.'

Shake your head to clear your mind of those thoughts.

The drone flew over a mansion.

The mansion features blue bricks and white tiles, high walls, artificial hills and ponds, and lush vegetation.

The Mongols favored white and often used white glazed tiles.

This mansion is spacious and beautiful; it must be the residence of a powerful figure.

In the past, if you passed by the gate of such a mansion and even just glanced at it, you would probably get beaten up.

But now, a large number of landlords and local militias have poured into the mansion.

They set the wooden building on fire, hacked down the male servants and maids, and carried the female relatives and maids into the house.

Looking down from his vantage point, Lin Dao noticed that the place where the landlords' militia were most concentrated was not the rooms with women, but the kitchen.

The rice, flour, oil, grains, fruits, vegetables, and meat in the kitchen ended up in the mouths of countless people.

As the drone descended, it became clear that someone was so hungry that they were eating raw food.

"Has the food shortage gotten this bad?"

"That's really tragic."

“If you weren’t serving the Mongols, you could stay in your hometown and not object to the confiscation of your land. You can still make a living on a hundred acres of land.”

"They brought it all on themselves."

Lin Dao piloted the drone, continuing to roam freely in the upper reaches of the capital city.

The chaos within the city greatly threatened the safety of the Mongol Celestial Dragons.

Those who still held military power made a decision in a very short time.

They first forced the "Iron Pot Emperor" to abdicate, so he could take the blame for all the wrongdoing.

Afterwards, the Crown Prince skipped all procedures and formalities and urgently took control of the government.

An imperial edict was issued, strictly prohibiting Mongols and Semu people from seeking out and killing Han people.

At the same time, funds and supplies from the national treasury and the Khan's private treasury were distributed to reward the troops.

After temporarily calming the morale of the troops, the various units were separated and redeployed.

Empress Qi even dispatched imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital to prepare medicines from the royal pharmacy to alleviate the plague.

The capital city, which had been in utter chaos, finally began to stabilize.

However, the biggest threat still exists.

The Red Turban Army outside the city.

"The city walls are useless."

Richard Khan said with absolute certainty, "The false Ming king has divine weapons; breaking through the city walls is nothing more than a trivial matter."

Prime Minister Hama couldn't believe it. "How is this possible?"

“I saw it with my own eyes.” Richard Khan bowed to the Crown Prince. “In the Battle of Gaoyou, I personally witnessed the false Ming King’s divine weapon shatter an entire fleet!”

"The walls of the capital city are not necessarily much stronger than those of the fleet."

Wang Baobao continued, "The Red Turban rebels marched north, and many cities that were said to be impregnable fell in a single battle."

“I asked the defeated soldiers, and they said that the Red Turban rebels had many cannons and used heavy artillery to bombard the city walls and then enter the city to fight.”

"Even worse, the Red Turban Army piled up coffins filled with gunpowder under the city wall and detonated them."

"The capital city cannot be defended."

The Western Sangharama, who had already escaped the city with his wealth and beauties but was forced back by the Red Turban Army, asked, "Then let's go out of the city and fight them."

"The number of soldiers in the city is no less than that of the Red Turban rebels, is it?"

This is something that many powerful and influential people in the capital city find difficult to understand.

The combined numbers of the Kheshig troops, Han guards, local militias, and private armies of nobles within the city were even greater than those of the Red Turban Army.

Why are they afraid to leave the city to fight?

“We fought them.” Richard Khan’s face was full of bitterness. “We fought them several times before the Red Turban rebels besieged the city.”

"As you all know, we've never fought."

Karin asked again, "Why can't you beat them?"

"That's because," Wang Baobao replied, "they're all armored!"

"Two hundred thousand soldiers, all armored warriors!"

An awkward silence ensued.

Empress Qi asked, "Chaghan Temur."

"Tell me, what should we do?"

"There's not much food left in the city; we can't just wait to die."

Upon hearing this, everyone was startled.

Once the already meager rations are gone, the soldiers will inevitably start causing trouble again.

Then there will be nothing left to comfort them.

"Things have come to this." Richard Khan bowed his head. "The only option is peace talks!"

(End of this chapter)