Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 383 Zhao Kuangyin as a Substitute Bridegroom

"The amount of goods that have been tallied so far is more than 23 million strings of cash."

"Millions of bushels of various kinds of grains, oils, rice, and flour."

"These are all the private wealth that the abbots have hidden away."

"Including the temple's public assets, such as bronze statues, bronze bells, bronzeware, land, and real estate, the income will at least double again."

Upon hearing the figures provided by Lin Dao, Chai Rong was also astonished.

"This is more than the imperial court's annual revenue."

"These monks, they keep chanting about being devoted to spiritual practice, but in private they're so greedy!"

Before Lin Dao could finish speaking, he said, "This is just the harvest of about a thousand abbots and virtuous monks who came to Bianliang City and their respective temples."

"These are all large, wealthy temples with high incomes."

“There are at least 30,000 small and medium-sized temples in various places.”

"Although they are not as wealthy as these head monks, their numbers are large."

"With each small amount added up, the estimated income is at least several times that amount."

Chai Rong looked shocked.

He knew monks were wealthy, but he never imagined they were this wealthy!
This is equivalent to several years' worth of the imperial court's total revenue!

Such a vast fortune was enough for him to continue conquering the world and even to reform and strengthen the nation.

Warriors since the late Tang Dynasty have been money-grubbing.

If you offer enough benefits, they'll not only help you conquer the world, they'll even follow you to fight against the Heavenly Court.

With wealth and resources, one can buy the loyalty of warriors and conquer the world.

If you have no money or valuables, and you call out to the martial artists, do you think they'll even acknowledge you?

In high spirits, Chai Rong asked Wang Pu, the Left Censor-in-Chief, "How many years will I serve?"

Wang Pu, who was famous for his expertise in divination, respectfully replied, "I am ignorant and have only made assumptions based on my own knowledge. I will not know what will happen in thirty years."

This means that I can only estimate His Majesty's lifespan to be thirty years.

I can't predict what will happen in thirty years.

"Thirty years?"

Chai Rong was overjoyed and exclaimed, "Great!"

"In that case, I will spend ten years expanding the empire, ten years nurturing the people, and ten years bringing peace to the land."

Once you have money, you have to spend it to improve your capabilities.

The first thing Chai Rong did was to reward Lin Dao.

"You did a good job on this."

"The Empress will provide her sister with thirty-two loads of dowry."

He then added, "All of them are genuine."

A woman needs a generous dowry to have a respectable position in her husband's family after marriage.

The more generous the dowry, the higher the status in the husband's family.

Even in humble families, a bride's dowry would be carried by six, eight, or even twelve loads.

For families of officials, half a share was thirty-two loads, while a full share was sixty-four loads.

As the wedding day approaches, news has spread from the Fu family that they will provide 128 loads of dowry, making it a truly grand wedding procession.

Typically, a portion of the dowry is not actually part of the dowry.

It's just an empty box, or it might contain some everyday items, a dressing table, a chamber pot, or other inexpensive things.

After all, it would cost a lot of money to fill a large box that two people had to carry on their shoulders.

Therefore, people generally accept that there are instances of inflated figures to save face.

"Actually, it means to fill the boxes."

Such as clothing, fabrics, bedding, silk, headdresses, gold and silver ingots, copper coins, land deeds, and so on.

If there is a betrothal gift, there will naturally be a dowry as well, and they are usually equal.

Those who demand hundreds of thousands in dowry but only provide two quilts as a dowry—it just shows how morally corrupt people have become.
The thirty-two full-load dowry boxes that the Empress provided to her sister must have contained only the finest items and were extremely valuable.

Even copper coins wouldn't be enough to fill a chest; at the very least, it would be silk, fine clothing, or even deeds to shops and land.

For Lin Dao, this was naturally a good thing in terms of appearances.

However, the goods are not his; they are the woman's personal property.

These days, there's no such thing as joint property between spouses.

If a man dies without leaving a son, the family members of the husband's clan who seize the family property are actually seizing the property of the husband's family.

The woman is not eligible to inherit.

Following the ban on Buddhism, there will be specialized personnel who will travel to various temples to confiscate their property.

Having witnessed Lin Dao's use of torture to intimidate those bald men into handing over their private wealth, these specially arranged men were also eager to go to various places with all kinds of torture instruments.

He vowed to squeeze every last drop of wealth from every rich and powerful temple.

This is a long-term job that may last for several years, but the income is steady and consistent.

After acquiring wealth, Chai Rong couldn't resist initiating reforms.

His first step was to reform the military system.

He was very dissatisfied with the rules passed down from the regional military governors at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

In particular, the military officers paid lip service to the law while secretly disobeying orders, going through the motions but not putting in any real effort.

The soldiers were extremely demanding of money, and would not fight unless paid, among other drawbacks.

This led Chai Rong to resolve to establish a new army to replace the greedy military men who had been passed down from the various regional warlords.

"Zihou".

Chai Rong entrusted this matter to his brother-in-law and trusted confidant, Lin Dao.

"Go and recruit brave men from all over the land, select the best to serve in the palace guards, reorganize the Imperial Guards, and organize the Imperial Army!"

Historically, it was Zhao Kuangyin who did this.

It was precisely because he took action to establish the Imperial Guard that Zhao Kuangyin was able to control the military, laying the foundation for his later ascension to the throne.

Now, this opportunity belongs to Lin Dao.

"The Imperial Guards of the Northern Song Dynasty."

Lin Dao sat in a chair, holding a pen in his hand.

He was copying homework from a notebook in front of him.

Lin Dao could simply copy how Zhao Kuangyin organized the Imperial Guards in history, making minor modifications to the details, and it would become his own.

He didn't write casually; his experience in various worlds gave him a deep understanding of the military organization in the era of cold weapons.

"The foundation of the army is still based on the units of ten and five, which is a tradition since the Shang and Zhou dynasties."

"It's been used this way for thousands of years, and no one has ever changed it, so it must be effective." "The basic combat unit is the 'du', with 100 men in each 'du', and a 'dutou' (commander) in charge of the 'du'. The cavalry is commanded by the 'bingmashi' (military commander)."

"Each city has an internal commander responsible for military law, logistics, and supervision."

“A Bureau of Administration was established to handle document processing and convey orders; these officials were called messengers.”

"The guards were responsible for distributing supplies, patrolling and guarding, and were appointed by military leaders."

Turning the page, Lin Dao continued writing.

"The five commanderies form one battalion, commanded by a commander, and its internal structure is as follows~"

"Five battalions form one army, headed by a Commander-in-Chief, with the following internal structure..."

"Ten armies form a unit, commanded by a Grand Commander, and its internal structure is as follows~"

"The quarters are divided into left and right sections, each under the command of the military governor, and their internal structure is as follows~"

This organizational plan is based primarily on the plan proposed by Zhao Kuangyin in history.

Zhao Kuangyin's plan was, in fact, based on the foundation laid by the regional military governors at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

After all, Zhou Shuren once said, "If a program can still run, don't touch it!"

The previous structure has been in use for a long time and has been tested in countless real-world scenarios. Everyone says it's good, so let's not change the overall framework, just make some internal modifications.

If a time traveler were to arrive and become incredibly powerful, they would immediately want to overturn everything and reorganize everything completely.

Making changes based on the modern military structure would likely cause chaos.

This isn't like literary copyists transing poems and lyrics; they can just copy them verbatim.

Besides, even when copying poems, one must consider the context and the topic.

After finalizing the plan, Lin Dao even went to Yonghe Time and Space to ask Wang Meng for help with polishing the writing.

Afterwards, someone was arranged to transcribe it and send it to Chai Rong.

The proposal was well-written, and Chai Rong expressed his satisfaction.

He picked up a pen and added more, making higher-level adjustments and arrangements.

The entire Imperial Guard consisted of two parts.

One was the Palace Guard, which consisted mainly of newly recruited soldiers.

Another one is the Imperial Guard, which is mainly composed of elite troops drawn from various departments.

The Palace Guard Commandery comprised the cavalry Iron Cavalry Army and the infantry Crane Control Army.

The Imperial Guard Command was responsible for the elite cavalry Dragon Swift Army and the infantry Tiger Swift Army.

"There are more infantry."

"The Crane Control Army and the Tiger Swift Army each set up two flanks, one on the left and one on the right."

One flank has a full complement of 25,000 men, and the left and right flanks together have 50,000 men.

These are all combat units, with the infantry alone numbering 100,000.

The soldiers of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the so-called soldiers of the late Northern Song Dynasty more than a hundred years later were two completely different things.

Once these 100,000 soldiers are trained and equipped, even if the Liao army comes, they will have to cultivate all the fields outside Bianzhou before they can leave!

"Horse riders are hard to find."

"We can only arrange half a room."

"The Iron Cavalry Army and the Dragon Swift Army are both part of the Five Armies system."

One army has 2,500 cavalry, so five armies would have 12,500 cavalry.

In the Middle Kingdom, ten thousand cavalrymen was already a very formidable cavalry force.

Of course, it can't compare to the Han and Tang dynasties.

All of this data comes from an optimized environment.

In reality, it is almost impossible to achieve a perfect full complement.

Which army do you want to command?

Chai Rong stared at Lin Dao and said, "As long as you speak, I will grant your request."

This tactic is useless against experienced foresters at this point.

He naturally understood that this was Chai Rong testing him.

If they were to choose for themselves, they would lose their military power and be sidelined within a year at most.

Thinking of all this, Lin Dao smiled憨厚ly and cupped his hands in greeting.

"Wherever I am, I will serve His Majesty."

"All I care about is fighting."

Chai Rong stared into Lin Dao's sincere eyes for a while before nodding in satisfaction.

"Work hard, and I will not treat you unfairly."

He always liked to compare himself to Emperor Taizong of Tang, and since he was not very old, he was relatively lenient with his generals.

He felt that he could wait until the country was at peace before gradually reclaiming military power.

After all, I'm young and have plenty of time.

Now, we still need these generals to help us conquer the world.

As Lin Dao had expected, he was assigned to the Iron Cavalry Army, which was mainly composed of newly recruited soldiers, and served as its commander.

He commanded over ten thousand cavalrymen.

When the Later Zhou army was reorganized, Lin Dao's auspicious day finally arrived.

Early in the morning, a wedding procession composed of military generals arrived at Fu Yanqing's residence with laughter and merriment.

They cheered and shouted, urging the bride to come out and get into the sedan chair quickly.

When the gates of the mansion were opened, all the generals scattered like birds and beasts, running away as fast as they could.

Lin Dao, who had already chosen his target, grabbed Zhao Kuangyin's arm.

"Brother Zhao, you're the one!"

Seeing Zhao Kuangyin, who looked utterly helpless, being captured, the generals who had previously escaped all gathered around him with smiles and teased him.

The reason for this scene is that the next part is the 'teasing the son-in-law' segment.

After the groom enters the house, the bride's relatives and friends will beat him with sticks wrapped in cloth, as a way of showing that their daughter has powerful backers.
At this time, the groom will bring a best man, who is specifically there to take the beating.

Without a doubt, the one who took the blame for the beating this time was Zhao Kuangyin.

"go!"

Lin Dao grabbed Zhao Kuangyin's arm and strode toward the gate of Fu Yanqing's house.

Are you wearing chainmail underneath?

"Huh?" Zhao Kuangyin was stunned and stopped in his tracks, then suddenly realized what was happening and felt extremely annoyed.

"Why didn't I think of that when I was welcoming my bride back then!"

(End of this chapter)