Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 433 Leaving Hengshan, Entering Meditation is Difficult

Hengshan is located in the transition zone between grassland and Loess Plateau.

This area is under the jurisdiction of the Dingnan Army.

Dingnan Army was the military governor of Xia, Sui and Yin, who ruled over the five prefectures of Yin, Xia, Sui, You and Jing.

The current military governor is Li Yiyin. Two years ago, Chai Rong conferred upon him the title of Prince of Xiping. He was nominally loyal to the central government, but in reality, he was still a local warlord.

When they were dealing with the central government, they claimed that the Li family had bestowed the surname Li upon them by the Tang dynasty.

When facing the nomadic tribes, they called themselves the Xianbei Tuoba clan.

That's incredibly ambitious!

Previously, Li Yiyin had also sent envoys to Bianjing City to pledge allegiance to Lin Dao.

However, Lin Dao did not adopt the appeasement and control that previous rulers had shown.

He refused Li Yiyin's request for a title, telling him that only by surrendering the land and people could he be spared death.

The envoy never returned after going back, presumably because he refused.

Lin Dao's army had gathered in Guanzhong, and Li Yiyin naturally learned of this.

The sheer size of the army, numbering over 200,000, and the fact that the invincible Lin Dao personally led the expedition nearly scared Li Yiyin to the point of wetting himself.

His envoys came several times, saying they were surrendering, but their conditions remained the same: they wanted to be appointed as the military governor of Dingnan, still adhering to the old policy of separatism.

Lin Dao's response to Li Yiyin was the same as when Li Yiyin's envoy had previously requested an official title.

Can't read back.

I gave you the opportunity, but you didn't take it.

Do they still want to continue to occupy the land of the Central Plains and enslave its people?
It's a special group!

"His Majesty."

Pan Mei entered the tent and reported, "The envoys from all the tribes of Hengshan have arrived and are awaiting Your Majesty's summons."

"Oh."

Lin Dao nodded and said, "Make it clear to them that they can only come to see me if they are registered as ordinary citizens and can be asked for whatever they want."

"If you have other ideas, you may leave on your own."

In the Hengshan Mountains, there lived many tribes of the Dangxiang Qiang.

In the past, when the Central Plains paid no attention to this area, they naturally ruled and dominated this territory.

But when Lin Dao arrived with his army, it's no exaggeration to say that the number of soldiers was greater than the total population of all the tribes combined!
What's even more terrifying is that Lin Daona's invincible reputation for conquering every country he touches has already spread here.

Li Yiyin sent envoys to the Hengshan Mountains to conscript tribal soldiers to block the forest roads.

As a result, all the tribes ignored him and waited to surrender.

This also thwarted Li Yiyin's plan to ambush the enemy at Hengshan.

Without the support of the locals, and with the possibility that the locals might defect to the enemy, sending in any number of troops would be pointless.

Pan Mei went out and informed the envoys of the various tribes of Lin Dao's conditions.

These messengers were mostly tribal chiefs or heirs, and their status and position were quite important.

After a heated argument, several of the envoys chose to leave.

They can accept registered households and equal treatment of the people, but they cannot accept arbitrary demands!
That meant entrusting the entire tribe's life and fortune to the hands of the Han emperor.

With just one word, the entire tribe could be beheaded.

Fear mixed with resentment, but he made up his mind that at worst he would hide first. Such a large Han army could not stay in Hengshan forever.

The idea wasn't wrong, but it underestimated the ruthlessness of the Gods of Slaughter.

When the remaining tribal chiefs and heirs came into the main tent, they lined up and bowed to Lin Dao.

Lin Dao, sitting in his seat, calmly gave his instructions.

"We sent troops to wipe out the tribes that had fled."

"Except for the women, no one needs to be alive."

A single sentence decided the fate of several tribes, numbering in the tens of thousands!
Even though they knew this was a show of force, the tribal chiefs still lowered their heads and showed their submission.

The emperors of the Han people truly had the ability to exterminate them!

"After I go back."

Lin Dao's gaze swept over the crowd. "Bring the able-bodied men from your respective tribes and come with me to fight."

"Reward those who have made contributions, and punish those who have made mistakes."

After saying that, he stood up and said, "I haven't prepared lunch here, please go back."

There were no banquets, no rewards, and no negotiations.

With just a few casual words of advice from Lin Dao, the ceremony of submission came to an end.

It's just a small mountain village; the fact that I took the time to meet them in person is already a great honor.

The tribal chiefs, burdened with worries, returned to their respective tribes.

Undoubtedly, the moment the matter was brought to light, it drew a great deal of opposition.

There's nothing wrong with sending troops to fight; once you've committed, you must serve.

He could take almost all the warriors in the tribe with him when he went out, and he didn't know when he would be able to return.

What to do with tribes that are left with only the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled?
There was a great deal of noise and commotion in each tribe.

It wasn't until several days later, when news spread that the tribes that Lin Dao had ordered to be cleared out had been breached, that the opposition finally subsided.

Opposing at this point will only lead to this outcome.

Each tribe could only mobilize its male members to leave the mountains and follow Lin Dao to fight, under the supervision of the people sent by Lin Dao.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, these people will never have the chance to come back in their lifetime.

“Select a group of people and settle them in Hengshan.”

"We don't need too many, three thousand people will be enough."

"The second batch of migrants will be able to settle about 20,000 to 30,000 people here."

The first three thousand bachelors who remain will receive a large amount of land, mostly forested mountains.

In addition, they will have the opportunity to care for at least tens of thousands of Tangut girls.

Hengshan has arable land, but it is clearly insufficient. When the land was distributed, farmland accounted for a small portion, with most of it being mountain forest.

As compensation, the allocated area of ​​mountain forest was large enough.

A total of twenty to thirty thousand people migrated from this area; caring for the local Tangut women is enough.

Once you leave Hengshan, you'll reach Yinzhou.

This place will be called Mizhi in the future.

As the saying goes, "Mizhi is known for its women and Suide for its men," Mizhi is famous for its beauties, the most famous being the legendary Diao Chan.

Lin Dao arranged for the various Dangxiang people from Hengshan to fight as cannon fodder in the battle against Yinzhou City, which refused to open its gates.

Cannon fodder has its uses, so naturally they won't be sacrificed in vain.

Lin Dao prepared a lot of engineering equipment for them, such as shield carts, and also provided a batch of weapons and armor.

They then promised that they would be allowed half of the spoils after the city fell.

With the benefits, the Tangut people's morale, which was originally low, was finally boosted.

The ensuing battles were unremarkable, consisting mainly of life-or-death struggles.

After two days of fierce fighting, Lin Dao determined that the Hengshan Dangxiang people had reached their limit and decisively took over to arrange for troops to attack the city.

He has now made attacking cities a habit.

There were no fancy large siege weapons; it was just the simplest method: putting explosives in a coffin, pushing it to the city wall, and detonating it.

In this era, no city wall could withstand close-range blasting by mining explosives.

As the city wall collapsed, a violent shockwave, a deafening roar, flying debris, and billowing smoke filled the sky.

Both of these would inflict a heavy blow on the defending troops, both mentally and physically.

At least when a large number of armored palace guards, dressed in lamellar armor, flooded into the city, the garrison inside was unable to respond in time.

The entry of a large number of armored soldiers into the city signified the end of the war.

What remains is clearing and looting.

"The captured supplies will be divided equally among the soldiers." Lin Dao, on horseback, generously instructed, "Hengshan will receive half."

“The men from the city were taken to the mines, and the women were matched with the migrating bachelors.”

"Five thousand people will remain in Xia Prefecture."

"Same old rules, all the single men in the area will get a share."

After thinking it over carefully, he added, "Let's draw more people from Guangzhou, about two hundred people."

The generals around him naturally accepted the order, but their eyes were filled with curiosity as they wondered why so many of the men from Guangzhou would stay in this place teeming with beautiful women.

Lin Dao also offered a generous explanation.

"Because they live the farthest from home."

The bachelors who started from Guangzhou have traveled thousands of miles to get here.

Lin Dao tried his best to take care of the bachelors who had voluntarily moved in response to his call.

"How about this."

He added, "Give more opportunities to those from all over Lingnan through the lottery."

He wouldn't show favoritism; as they continued westward, the bachelors who stayed behind to start families would receive more chances to draw lots, depending on the distance from their hometowns.

Most of the veterans who remained and their families settled in the city.

The single men who were selected by lottery were scattered and gathered in various county towns and villages.

They were all allocated land, but this time they had more land.

The bachelors traveled thousands of miles to come here, all for the sake of land and women.

Now that they have witnessed the opportunity arrive, even if they were not drawn in the lottery, their morale is greatly boosted.

This at least proves that Lin Dao didn't lie to them.

The massive army continued its advance.

Because they carried too many family members and supplies, their marching speed was the slowest since Lin Dao took command of the army.

This massive legion, ostensibly there to fight, actually looked more like a large-scale pioneering group.

The pioneering group that reclaimed their homeland.

"This land has been in the hands of the barbarians for far too long."

Xia Prefecture, Tongwan City.

As he rode his horse around the fortified city, now eroded by wind and sand, Lin Dao sighed softly.

"Tongwan City, the city that rules over all nations!"

"You really have a big mouth!"

Tongwan City was built by Helian Bobo, the leader of the Southern Xiongnu Tiefu tribe, during the Eastern Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms period.

This person was the child of a Xiongnu and a Xianbei, and showed a ferocious nature from a young age.

He destroyed the tribe that saved his life, ambushed and murdered his own father-in-law, and committed countless acts of surrendering and then rebelling.

He had great ambitions and built Tongwan City on the north bank of the Shuofang River to demonstrate his ambitions.

The city is most famous for the following incident: After Helian Bobo built the city, he ordered that "soldiers use awls to chisel through the city wall; if the awl penetrates one inch, the craftsmen must be killed and brought inside the city. If the awl doesn't penetrate, the soldiers must be killed."

The number of soldiers and craftsmen who died as a result was in the tens of thousands.

"You're lucky; you weren't even born in the Yonghe Time-Space era."

"Otherwise, I will surely embed you into the city walls!"

"However, I have wiped out both your father's and mother's families."

"You wouldn't have had the chance to be born either."

After circling the city, Lin Dao reined in his horse and looked at the Shuofang River flowing slowly in the distance.

"Pitiable are the bones by the Wuding River, still the object of dreams in the hearts of those in their secluded chambers."

The Shuofang River was renamed in later generations.

It's called the River of No Destiny!
(End of this chapter)