Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 418 The Affairs of Yan and Yun

"Huang Tianhou Tu Rong Bing~"

Inside Youzhou City, Lin Dao held the sacrificial text in his hands and read it aloud towards the sky.

"Now, there is a man named Cao Bin from Zhending, who makes a vow to..."

However, he had already been deceived.

"We're determined to avenge ourselves later!"

"Perhaps it was a momentary outburst of anger, but there was absolutely no intention to deceive Heaven and Earth."

"Now there is a man named Lin Dao, courtesy name Zihou, who is willing to act as guarantor for the man of Zhen Ding."

The generals watching around the altar whispered among themselves.

Many people wondered, 'Shouldn't he be the Son of Heaven? How did he become the Emperor?'

'That's a title for a tyrant!'

Lin Dao continued reading the eulogy, "The responsibility for this matter lies with those who first deceived us."

"Although these treacherous and cunning individuals have been brought to justice, they cannot escape their crimes."

"When one is trapped in the cycle of reincarnation life after life, one cannot be reborn."

We have to let the heavens and the earth vent their anger.

Those who lied first should be thrown out to take the fall.

Of course, Cao Bin also had to make a statement.

“There is a man named Cao Bin from Zhending who has not fulfilled his vow. He should be punished as a warning to others.”

"He'll be punished with three cups of wine; this is a one-time exception."

After saying that, Lin Dao threw the sacrificial text in his hand into the blazing bronze cauldron and let it burn fiercely.

He turned around and waved to Cao Bin.

Cao Bin, who wasn't initially that scared, now stepped forward, trembling slightly.

He approached the table where three cups of wine were placed and muttered something to himself.

Only then did he pick up the bronze wine cup and down three cups in quick succession.

"It's done!"

Lin Dao shouted and waved as he stepped down from the altar.

In his view, this was merely a means to win people's hearts.

It wasn't just about winning over the hearts of the generals; it was also a show for the people of Yan and Yun.

Twenty years have passed since we fell into the clutches of mutton and savagery; we've already become a generation.

To change the hearts of these people who grew up under Liao rule, Lin Dao needs to offer tangible benefits in addition to these vague promises.

"All land and pastures held by the Liao Kingdom shall be confiscated."

"The land of all the powerful and wealthy Han families who once served the Liao Kingdom was confiscated."

"For those whose family property exceeds 300 mu, all the excess will be confiscated."

The biggest problem in ancient China was land annexation.

Land, the most important means of production, is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people.

These people exploit the land and live luxurious lives, while most people can't even afford to eat and stay warm.

Having traversed countless heavens, Lin Dao saw this clearly and plainly.

He had no intention of innovation or reform.

The simplest and most brutal method was used: a direct, one-size-fits-all approach!
I don't care how you acquired your land; if it exceeds the prescribed limit, it will be confiscated!
In chaotic times, it seems impossible for ordinary people to amass a large amount of land.

Lin Dao acquired the land not to possess it for himself.

It's for redistribution!
Only when everyone owns roughly the same amount of land, enough to sustain a living, can we avoid repeated periods of chaos.

"The people of the Yan-Yun region divide the land among households."

"Families with brothers must separate and open their own accounts once they reach the age of eighteen."

“Each household was allocated 300 mu of land, with at least 100 mu designated as farmland.”

"Your Majesty." Zhao Pu, who had rushed over, stepped forward and bowed. "I have reviewed the household registration records stored in Youzhou City."

“The Yan-Yun region has a large population. If all adult men were to separate into individual households, the amount of land would be insufficient for distribution.”

These days, there's no such thing as gender equality.

Every family desperately wanted to have sons, and the practice of drowning female infants and abandoning them in orphanages was prevalent in various places.

This resulted in a large number of men.

If the whole family is registered in the same household, then it's not so bad.

But if, as Lin Dao said, all the male members of the family were to separate, where would there be so much land to divide?

"If it's not in Yanyun, are there none elsewhere?"

Lin Dao paused slightly, then said, "Our old homeland of Liaodong has plenty of land."

"The bachelors are all going with the army to Liaodong to distribute land and property."

“Once we get there, we can give them a share of land to cultivate, creating several hundred acres of new land that they can all own.”

"Oh, right, find women from the Khitan, Xi, Bohai, Goryeo, Jurchen and other tribes to be their wives."

"As the population grows and the land is developed, this ancient land of the Han and Tang dynasties will not be lost again."

The generals were all beaming with excitement; it was clear that the fighting would continue.

As long as the fighting continues, they can continue to accumulate military merits, bestow titles and honors upon their wives and children, and have their family genealogies opened separately.

Zhao Pu hesitated to offer his advice, but considering the fate of civil officials, he ultimately held back.

It's already a stroke of luck that I wasn't implicated.

At this point, you shouldn't cause yourself any trouble.

Since Your Majesty wants to fight, then let's fight.

In any case, His Majesty will pay the majority of the military expenses himself, and the court will only need to pay a small portion.

No matter what time or space it is, all the troops that Lin Dao raises are supported by his own money, food and supplies.

The advantages of this approach are undeniable: the soldiers only recognize Lin Dao, who provides them with money, food, and supplies. The disadvantage, however, is that if Lin Dao is unable to provide sufficient supplies, or if he dies and his successor cannot produce them, chaos will inevitably ensue within the army.

Lin Dao's attitude towards this was very simple.

To conquer the world as much as possible during one's lifetime.

Further connections were then established via rail and radio.

As for the future, as long as the Blacks and others are wiped out, any war in the world will be just an internal conflict in Middle-earth, and it doesn't matter who wins.

Youzhou City was the southern capital of the Liao Dynasty, and it housed many Liao government institutions and the families of important figures.

After entering the city, Cao Bin had already killed almost all the men.

This left Lin Dao somewhat disappointed, since the mines were always short of manpower.

Without industrialized mines, countless people are needed to extract the ore by hand and carry it out on their shoulders.

The output of each mine is closely related to the labor force it provides.

Lin Dao desperately needed free labor, so much so that he changed his previous method of direct disposal and instead encouraged the capture of more prisoners.

Of course, there is a red line that cannot be crossed in each mine: the use of people from the Central Plains is prohibited.

You can be a foreman, you can handle transportation, you can do refining, and so on.

They are simply not allowed to go down into the mines.

This is the red line of the forest road.

He mines in order to exchange for more industrial goods from the modern world, so that people in all times and places can live better lives.

It's not to send them into a fire pit!
Each mine has a stationed inspector and there are also unscheduled patrols.

Once people from the Central Plains were caught filling mines, the mine supervisors were killed first, followed by all the supervisors and managers from top to bottom, who were all thrown into the mine pits to work until they died.

It is estimated that Cao Bin killed several thousand Liao men who did not have time to escape.

As for the female relatives, there are naturally corresponding arrangements and procedures.

A portion of them would be specially selected and given to the soldiers and officers as maids.

The rest were to be assigned to the bachelors.

Furthermore, those under the age of sixteen were usually sent to the palace.

If it's a female-oriented story, there will be Khitan women harboring hatred for their country and family, desperately climbing the ranks in the palace, employing all sorts of palace intrigue tactics, and ultimately falling in love with the male protagonist who destroyed their family.

Of course, there must be a handsome and powerful male supporting character, such as a crown prince, a prince, or a young prime minister.

Ultimately, she lives a blissful life with the handsome and powerful male lead.

The child born will become the ruler of the world, and so on.

These things can only be described as the delusions of the ignorant.

In real life, whether it's the male lead or the supporting male character, they are never short of beautiful women.

Moreover, the women who entered the palace after being defeated by the barbarians had no chance of rising in rank.

Let alone having a romantic relationship with the emperor, even seeing the emperor was a luxury.

Their main place was the laundry department.

Every day, as soon as I open my eyes, there's endless work to do.

They ate spoiled food and lived in dilapidated houses.

Being disheveled and unkempt is considered good; being so tired that you can't straighten your back is the norm.

Under such circumstances, which emperor would be so bored as to go to the laundry department to find a pale, emaciated woman with a sickly appearance and a dirty body to have a romantic relationship with?
It's simply magical.

Among the many women sent to Bianjing, there was a little girl who was crying and sobbing.

Her father was Xiao Siwen, the Liao Kingdom's Nanjing garrison commander who had previously launched a night raid on the Lindao camp but was killed instead.

This little girl's name is Xiao Chuo, and her nickname is Yan Yan.

She was Xiao Yanyan, one of the famous empress dowagers of the Liao Dynasty in history, who signed the Treaty of Shanyuan!
In this timeline, Xiao Yanyan could only follow her two older sisters, crying and sobbing, to Bianjing City to do laundry and chores.

I'll never have the chance to become Empress Dowager in this lifetime.

Unless a female protagonist from a female-oriented novel possesses her soul, and has a system that can influence Lin Dao's thinking.

Lin Dao was unaware of this matter.

Even if they knew, they wouldn't give any preferential treatment.

Later generations mostly praised the Liao Dynasty and the Khitan, and had little ill will towards them.

Some people also say that the Liao Dynasty did not commit many evil deeds.

The truth is, it's not that they didn't want to, but that they didn't do it.

Ten years ago, Yelü Deguang had already taken control of the Central Plains.

Do you know how he was kicked out?
The looting, slaughtering, and raiding of the enemy's territory reached a point of extreme anger and resentment. The people and soldiers of the Central Plains put aside their differences between their respective warlords and joined forces to drive the Khitans out of the Central Plains.

There was no difference between the Khitans and the Xiongnu, Jurchens, Turks, etc.

Given the chance, they will also engage in frenzied slaughter and plunder, aiming for the destruction of their country and the extinction of their race.

They simply didn't have the opportunity, so they had to resort to intimidation to obtain wealth.

If someone were to say that the Khitans were among the few good people of nomadic peoples, the wronged souls who died tragically in the past few hundred years of constant hay-gathering would probably all rush over to find him and ask him for an explanation!

Settle all matters in the Yan-Yun region.

Lin Dao left Zhao Pu to serve as the temporary governor of Youzhou.

They were responsible for handling the resettlement of prisoners of war, pacifying the people, confiscating land, sealing up supplies, organizing household registrations, allocating land, assigning single men to the army, and arranging wives for the single men, etc.

Compared to the complexities of civil and political affairs, the military aspects are actually quite simple.

Just focus on eliminating the enemy and achieving victory.

Dealing with civil matters, on the other hand, requires a lot of brainpower.

However, Zhao Pu enjoyed doing it and loved doing these things.

As for Lin Dao, he led his army out of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun and continued northward.

He was known as a national annihilation maniac who destroyed every country he fought.

Now that he has personally led the army on a northern expedition, how could the mere Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun possibly satisfy his appetite?

The entire Liao Kingdom was his target!
(End of this chapter)