Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 377 Lin Dao, Commander of the Imperial Guards of the Great Zhou Dynasty
"I remember you."

Guo Rong stared at Lin Dao and said, "You were the one who seized the banner from the false emperor Liu Chong before."

"Fan Aineng fled before the battle, and as his subordinate general, why didn't you run away with him?"

"His Majesty."

Lin Dao sheathed his sword, cupped his hands, and said, "To desert in the face of battle is a disgrace to all warriors! I, Lin, despise it!"

"well said!"

Guo Rong exclaimed again, "Your martial prowess is such that even if Xiang Yu were to be resurrected, he would not be any better."

He took off his sword and threw it over, saying, "You can take this sword for now."

"I will never forget your contributions!"

"Rewards will be distributed after the war."

"You should return to camp to rest and wait."

Guo Rong also wanted to pursue and kill the fleeing soldiers of the puppet Han regime, completely crush their fighting force, and not give them a chance to regroup.

The generals followed Guo Rong to pursue the fleeing soldiers, and as they passed through the forest, they all cast questioning and friendly glances at him.

Zhao Kuangyin looked at him intently.

The young Zhao Er, who was a Right Palace Attendant following Guo Rong, also curiously observed Lin Dao.

This man is truly an incredible warrior; he actually beheaded the enemy emperor amidst a massive army. Such martial prowess is unprecedented!
A guard led Lin Dao to the main camp and arranged a tent for him.

Drinks, candied fruit, dried fruit, and roasted meat were served in a continuous stream.

Lin Dao didn't stand on ceremony and picked it up to eat.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, they took the opportunity of changing clothes to send some of their belongings to Yonghe Time and Space.

With their morale greatly boosted, Zhou Jun, under the personal leadership of Guo Rong, launched a frenzied pursuit.

They chased them all the way out of the Zezhou Basin and reached Diaokoling, the boundary between Zezhou and Luzhou.

The 30,000 Han soldiers were basically wiped out.

The civil and military officials, including Wang Tingsi, the pseudo-Han Privy Councilor, either died or surrendered, leading to a complete collapse.

Only Yang Yan's Khitan troops, who had fled in advance, lost over a thousand cavalrymen covering their retreat, but most of them managed to escape alive.

After the great battle subsided, the entire battlefield was a scene of devastation.

Just as Clausewitz wrote.

A major battle involving the main forces can determine the life or death of one or more countries in a single afternoon.

In the Battle of Gaoping, the puppet Han army, from the emperor and high-ranking officials to the soldiers, was almost completely wiped out.

As a result, the entire pseudo-Han regime lost all its mobile combat capabilities, leaving it with only one path: passively taking hits and waiting to die.

Zhou Jun, on the other hand, was in high spirits and celebrated wildly after returning to camp.

"Bring the people up!"

Before the celebration, they had to kill someone.

Fan Aineng, He Hui, and more than seventy others, who had fled before the battle and almost caused the defeat, were all brought before them, bound hand and foot.

Guo Rong had just ascended the throne, and the court was full of old ministers; he had no confidants at all.

This personal campaign against the puppet Han regime was his way of establishing his prestige and consolidating power.

Now that we've won, prestige will naturally follow.

The desertion of Fan Aineng and others gave Guo Rong the opportunity to purge the old ministers.

"What else do you have to say?"

Faced with Guo Rong's question, Fan Aineng and the others all lowered their heads and remained silent.

If they lose this battle, Guo Rong's throne will likely be in jeopardy, and naturally no one will hold them accountable.

But to my surprise, we actually won!
"You call yourselves martial artists!" Guo Rong said confidently, gesturing to Lin Dao beside him, "This is the real martial artist."

"Take the enemy chieftain's head amidst a vast army and return victorious."

"Compared to him, you are all trash!"

Fan Aineng looked up at Lin Dao, gritting her teeth, her eyes filled with rage.

If this bastard hadn't killed Liu Chong, Zhou's army might have already suffered a major defeat. We would either have seized the opportunity to rise up or waited for a better price to sell ourselves, instead of ending up as prisoners in our current situation!
"I trusted you and promoted you to the rank of general, why did you betray me?!"

Lin Dao remained calm and said, "Was it my achievement in seizing the flag that led to my promotion, or did you offer it voluntarily?"

As for harming you~

"You've got that backwards; it's you who's trying to harm me!"

Lin Dao pointed to the group of soldiers and generals, "They followed you in your escape, and now they've all ended up being beheaded."

“If I had run away with you, I would be tied up there waiting to be beheaded right now.”

"Let them tell me, who really harmed whom!"

Upon hearing this, the bound generals erupted in uproar.

They either blamed Fan Aineng or begged Guo Rong to let them go.

The generals replied, "We are all acting under orders," and so on.
Lin Dao laughed when he heard this.

Guo Rong clearly intends to eradicate Fan Aineng and his associates' influence completely; how could he possibly let you go?

Only by clearing out the old guard can positions be made for Guo Rong's own trusted confidants.

Originally, Guo Rong had chosen Zhao Kuangyin and others, and their performance was indeed quite good.

The sudden emergence of Kelin Road disrupted Guo Rong's plans.

He had already carefully investigated Lin Dao's background: he was a hunter from Zezhou, had been in the army for less than a month, and had no connection with Fan Aineng and others.

Such a brave and unparalleled newcomer, who has no connections yet, is the perfect candidate to be trained as a trusted confidant.

Having already made up his mind, Guo Rong waved his hand, signaling the guards to take Fan Aineng and the others out to be beheaded.

When more than seventy heads were presented, the pungent smell of blood filled the air.

Next comes the reward.

"Lin Dao."

Unsurprisingly, Guo Rong called out Lin Dao's name first.

"You deserve the greatest credit for this battle!"

"You have made great contributions by capturing the flag twice and killing the false emperor."

"I hereby appoint you as Commander-in-Chief of the Cavalry, promote you to Military Governor of Hedong, Grand Pillar of State, and Grand Councilor, and grant you the title of Earl of Gaoping County, with a fief of seven hundred households and a substantive fief of three hundred households."

"An additional 50,000 strings of cash and 20,000 bolts of silk will be bestowed upon you."

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, official titles, ranks, and ranks largely followed the old system of the Tang Dynasty, with some minor changes. The Commander-in-Chief of the Cavalry was an actual military position, which qualified Lin Dao to command an army of 2,500 soldiers at full strength.

The title of Jiedushi of Hedong was a nominal military post, which sounded impressive but was mainly used to demonstrate status.

After Li Keyong was appointed as the military governor of Hedong, the Shatuo people almost monopolized this position.

The title of Shangzhuguo is a meritorious rank, mainly used to increase honor and receive a salary.

The title of "Adding the title of Attendant" is an honorary civil official title, which is an additional title.

The title of "County Earl of the Founding Dynasty" was a peerage, specifically a county earl.

Gaoping is actually Changping, the same Changping from the Battle of Changping.

As for Zezhou, it goes without saying that it is Shangdang.

The fief of seven hundred households was the income from the title, which was tied to the rank of nobility.

Since the Tang Dynasty, the number of county magistrates has remained basically the same.

As for the actual fiefdom, it means that the previous seven hundred households sounded good, but in reality, only three hundred of them were actually granted to you.

Moreover, it doesn't mean that these households were your slaves; that's a thing of the past from the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

All they could get was the taxes paid by these three hundred households.

The taxes were still collected by the imperial court; those who were granted titles could not collect them themselves.

After the imperial court levied taxes, the funds were allocated from the national treasury to the noble families.

Ultimately, all they could get was some money, grain, and silk.

A "缗" is a unit of measurement, essentially a long rope used to string copper coins.

One string of strings is one thousand coins.

A thousand copper coins strung together with a rope.

It wasn't until the Song Dynasty that the price was changed to 770 coins per string of cash.

Fifty thousand strings of coins is fifty thousand strings of one thousand copper coins.

Without a doubt, this is a huge sum of money.

After all, the economy in various regions had already collapsed since the end of the Tang Dynasty. The fact that Guo Rong could give away 50,000 strings of cash at once shows how happy he was to have killed his mortal enemy, Liu Chong.

It can be considered a precious horse bone.

The animosity between Bianzhou and Hedong dates back to the time of Zhu Quanzhong and Li Keyong.

As for silk, it has always been used as currency and is very valuable.

The rewards were so generous that it explains why ancient warriors were so eager for military merit, even at the cost of their lives, because it could truly rewrite their own and their family's destiny.

Besides the forest path, the generals also received many rewards.

However, compared to Lin Dao's reward, the others received very meager rewards.

A glorious victory, coupled with the desire for rewards, led the generals to volunteer to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the severely wounded Han generals to kill them.

"We shall march straight to Jinyang and destroy the false Han!"

Guo Rong thought so too.

His title before ascending the throne was Prince of Jin.

However, the Jin territory was in the hands of the pseudo-Han regime, so it was naturally necessary to take it back.

As for the Liao Kingdom intervening, the Great Zhou Dynasty was already locked in a fierce battle with the Liao Kingdom, so whether or not troops were sent, the Liao Kingdom would still intervene.

In fact, many people don't know that the Liao Dynasty was officially established in Bianzhou, which later became Bianliang City of Kaifeng Prefecture.

A few years ago, Yelü Deguang destroyed the Later Jin dynasty and entered Bianzhou City.

He changed the name of the country to Liao in Bianzhou City, and officially established the Liao Dynasty.

However, when they later raided and plundered the surrounding areas, they were defeated by the martial and virtuous people of the Central Plains and had to hastily withdraw from the Central Plains. Even Yelü Deguang died in the Killing Hu Forest.

Who could have imagined that more than a hundred years later, the Central Plains, which was once so full of martial spirit that it drove away the powerful army that founded the Khitan state, would become so weak that it was vulnerable to attack?

This shows how tragically China declined due to the combined efforts of the weak Song Dynasty and corrupt Confucian scholars.

When it was Zhao Kuangyin's turn to receive the rewards, Lin Dao stared at him.

"No matter what, I will not give you two brothers the chance to extinguish the fighting spirit and bravery of the Central Plains!"

"What utter nonsense about the emperor and scholar-officials ruling the world together!"

"student?"

"Only those who can ride horses, drive carriages, and wield swords can be considered scholars!"

The army, its morale high, began its northward march, heading straight for Jinyang, which was sparsely defended.

Lin Dao was also busy with his own things.

"Brothers."

He looked at the cavalrymen who had followed him into battle but only a dozen or so returned. "I told you, I won't bask in the glory alone."

"I will remember your contributions."

"We will divide these riches among ourselves!"

Seeing that Lin Daozhen had truly fulfilled his promise, all the soldiers and officers around them were filled with envy, their eyes reddening with envy.

They all believed that Lin Dao was a man of his word.

I just hope Lin Dao will do something amazing again in the future, and give me a chance~
And this is exactly the effect Lin Dao wanted.

He has plenty of money and valuables.

Building prestige and establishing one's personal brand in the military is far more important than material wealth.

Guo Rong transferred the more than 1,000 cavalrymen that previously belonged to Fan Aineng to him, and at the same time allowed him to recruit soldiers and horses to fill the vacancies.

Fan Aineng's cavalry unit had all its officers, from the rank of military commander to deputy military commander, killed.

This facilitates the placement of personnel along the forest roads.

The dozen or so cavalrymen who followed him into battle were promoted to military commanders to control the troops.

Some suggested that Lin Dao select men from among the captured Shatuo people, but Lin Dao politely declined.

How could he possibly use the Shatuo people!
Lin Dao's plan was to select talented individuals from among the surrendered soldiers of Northern Han after the destruction of Northern Han.

One very important target has already been memorized.

This person is Liu Wudi, Liu Jiye.

Liu Jiye was a name given to him by Liu Chong; his original name was [blank].

Yang Ye!

(End of this chapter)