Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 465

At this moment, Zhao Yun's situation was even more dangerous than when he directly killed the general and seized the flag.

The Cao army that dared to surround them at this point were all desperate and reckless.

Sparks flew as he swung his Qinggang sword, but the number of Cao soldiers surging around him continued to increase.

I've lost count of how many times I've been struck by various weapons.

The worst time was when a bronze mace hit him on the back.

If the armor hadn't been sturdy and the inner lining hadn't been designed to absorb most of the impact, it wouldn't have been as simple as being knocked off balance.

At this critical moment, Zhao Yun's armored cavalry finally broke through the blockade and obstacles and charged over.

They dispersed the surrounding Cao army, helped Zhao Yun onto his horse, and immediately rode away.

It wasn't that they didn't want to pursue Cao Cao's army, but Zhao Yun was seriously injured and nearly unconscious, so they had to escort him back for treatment immediately.

On the chaotic battlefield, both sides were retreating, and silence soon returned.

Fortunately, Deng Zhi sent people to clean up the battlefield, which was quite a success.

Unnecessary spoils of war could be sold to the accompanying merchant caravans, generating considerable wealth that could be shared among the soldiers.

In the era of cold weapons, almost every war involved accompanying caravans.

They not only purchased various war spoils captured by the army at low prices, but also provided the army with various goods and services to meet its needs.

However, these military caravans rarely appear in historical documents.

When Prime Minister Zhuge learned of this, he was greatly surprised.

"General Zilong is so brave and extraordinary?!"

"He's already in his seventies."

The seventy-year-old Zhao Yun, despite being outnumbered, managed to kill Cao Zhen, who was in the prime of his life.

Moreover, they not only killed generals, but also seized Cao Zhen's banner.

This feat even surpasses Huang Zhong's killing of Xiahou Yuan at Dingjun Mountain!
Prime Minister Zhuge was overjoyed.

Excitedly, he stood up from the four-wheeled vehicle and paced back and forth quickly, waving his feather fan like an electric fan.

"The great cause of the Northern Expedition is accomplished!"

"Zihou!"

Prime Minister Zhuge grasped Lin Dao's hand and said, "Now Cao Cao has lost all his troops in Guanzhong, and his generals have even perished."

"The situation is far more advantageous than it was during the Battle of Hanzhong, when Xiahou Yuan was killed!"

"As long as Wei Yan can successfully capture Chang'an, Guanzhong and Longyou will be recovered!"

"In this way, the Central Plains will surely be shaken, and the people loyal to the Han Dynasty will rise up to drive out the traitor Cao Cao. At that time..."

"You're overthinking it," Lin Dao interrupted Prime Minister Zhuge bluntly. "The people aren't that loyal to the Han Dynasty, otherwise there wouldn't have been the Yellow Turban Rebellion."

"Even if you succeed in rebuilding the Han Dynasty three times, if the current situation continues unchanged, your fate will only last for a little over a hundred years."

Lin Dao's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Zhuge's head, instantly dissipating most of his excitement.

He suppressed his smile, sighed softly, and paced back and forth.

“Zihou, I am aware of what you have said.”

"Coco~ Coco~~~"

Prime Minister Zhuge rarely uttered the word "okay" twice, but he couldn't actually say it.

Lin Dao smiled casually and said on his behalf, "But the Han Dynasty has its own national conditions."

"Powerful clans are the root cause of national ruin."

"But the Han Dynasty and the powerful clans have already become one."

"It is truly a case of shared prosperity and shared loss."

"Powerful clans could replace one another, and the names of dynasties could vary, such as Han, Wei, Jin, Qin, and Qi."

“For powerful clans,” Lin Dao stepped forward, staring at Prime Minister Zhuge, “it doesn’t really matter who the emperor is, as long as they can maintain their Brahmin status.”

"Once the opportunity arises, I will take its place."

"But you've forgotten, the Central Plains are not India!"

"The people of the Central Plains are not untouchable!"

"The day will come when aristocratic families will be completely destroyed."

"When the time comes, their descendants mustn't cry out, 'The bones of nobles are trampled on the streets, and the imperial treasury is burned to ashes!'"

"It's all your aristocratic families' fault. You should hate that Huang Chao didn't kill more people, and that he killed them too late!"

The feather fan in Prime Minister Zhuge's hand involuntarily fell to the ground.

The prime minister, who was perfectly capable of calmly executing the Empty City Stratagem, was now trembling and looking flustered.

His bright eyes were filled with endless sorrow.

He could sense from Lin Dao's words how tragic and insane the unbridled arrogance of powerful clans would ultimately be met with a frenzied backlash.

The phrase "The streets are littered with the bones of high-ranking officials" means that all officials in the court, from top to bottom, will be slaughtered.
All of these people's relatives and extended families, the small and medium-sized families that depend on them for survival, the thugs and networks they employ, and so on, will be reduced to ashes.

The imperial treasury was burned to ashes; even the priceless silks and satins of the imperial treasury were burned rather than looted.

This shows that the entire city was engulfed in an endless sea of ​​fire.

The city where the inner treasury is located can only be, and must be, the capital city!
When that man named Huang Chao led his army into the capital and burned it to the ground, the fate of the powerful clans and aristocratic families in various regions was predictable.

Prime Minister Zhuge dared not think any further.

He was terrified; Lin Dao was referring to the big man!
“That fellow Wei Zhuang comes from the Wei clan of Jingzhao. During the Western Han Dynasty, three generations of his family had already held the position of one of the Three Dukes.”

"Later, it became even more rampant, and over the course of a thousand years, the number of high-ranking officials, prime ministers, ministers, and generals has exceeded several hundred."

Lin Dao took a breath. "He cursed Huang Chao for this and that, and then talked about how miserable the noble families were, and there were actually people who believed him to be absolutely right!"

"Don't you realize that without Huang Chao, you'd probably be worse off than an untouchable!" "Wei Zhuang himself comes from the jackal clan. Don't easily believe him when he speaks up for the jackals, insults the hunters, and smears them."

The term "powerful clans" refers to families that possess near-absolute control over a region or even several regions.

In these places, even imperial edicts and decrees of the court were less effective than the words of powerful clans.

He was the most typical local tyrant.

Moreover, they used various methods, which varied from era to era, such as recommendation, conscription, nomination, filial piety and incorruptibility, and imperial examinations.

In this way, family members can be sent to the imperial court, thereby gaining greater power and benefits.

This is why ridiculous stories like "The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars" have emerged, which defy common sense in physics, biology, and natural science, insult human intelligence, and are only useful to the illiterate.

As they grew stronger, their influence spread to an entire state, or even several states.

The family members, those who received its financial support, the families they married into, and the small and medium-sized families that were subordinate to it, all formed a huge behemoth across the country, large enough to serve as the leader of the alliance.

Indeed, the pinnacle of aristocratic families was the Yuan family.

In fact, given the Yuan family's strength at the time, their plan to recruit Dong Zhuo to do the dirty work and then naturally take over the country was not wrong.

But no one expected that Dong Zhuo, whom they had previously kept, would betray the Yuan family with the attitude that "my sword has never been dull."

Since it was impossible to seize power through literature, Yuan Shikai simply overturned the table.

The alliance of various warlords was a demonstration of the Yuan family's power.

"Prime Minister."

Lin Dao said sincerely, "What I'm telling you comes from the bottom of my heart."

"If you really want to see the Han Dynasty last forever, you should start thinking about how to prevent the emergence of powerful clans like the Yuan family."

"Moreover, this is only a temporary solution. The more important thing is to cut off the breeding ground for powerful clans."

Otherwise~

“I said, the people of the Central Plains are not the people of India.” Lin Dao raised a finger and shook it. “The next Yellow Turban Rebellion, or possibly the Blue Turban, Black Turban, White Turban, Red Turban, etc., will inevitably erupt more fiercely and more brutally.”

The Huang Chao Rebellion at the end of the Tang Dynasty was actually the second Yellow Turban Rebellion.

This uprising should have happened hundreds of years earlier.

The reason for the delay was that the various barbarian tribes caused chaos in the Central Plains, and the external conflicts suppressed the conflicts brought about by the aristocratic families.

It was only after hundreds of years of large-scale killings that the second Huang Chao Rebellion had to be postponed.

The Yellow Turbans and Huang Chao were the strongest forces during the Han and Tang dynasties, which were terrifyingly powerful even in their later stages.

Moreover, each of them also has its own problems.

If it were the Song or Ming dynasty, they would have already conquered the world.

"If it weren't for you, Prime Minister," Lin Dao said truthfully, "I would have done it myself long ago!"

This is the truth.

If it weren't for the arrangement by the Time Gate specifically requesting help from Prime Minister Zhuge, Lin Dao would have taken matters into his own hands.

After all, Lin Dao had ties to many different timelines and dared not offend the Time-Space Gate.

What if his refusal causes the time portal to stop working?
Therefore, at this point, the only option is to take a roundabout approach and influence Prime Minister Zhuge to slightly alter the foreseeable future.

At least don't let so many people die!
Later generations of people who control public opinion often boast about the terrible massacres and plagues they suffered in their history.

If you look closely at the numbers, even if it's only a few hundred or a thousand people, they still dare to call it a massacre.

Even if it were in the millions, it would be insignificant in Middle-earth.

Lin Dao had witnessed too many tragedies and really didn't want such a large-scale disaster to happen again.

"Zihou is very thoughtful."

Prime Minister Zhuge knew that Lin Dao had an extraordinary background and even the ability to rewrite the course of the world.

Although she didn't know why he insisted on helping her, since such a good thing had fallen into her lap, she couldn't afford to offend him.

"I never like to speak recklessly."

With a solemn expression, Prime Minister Zhuge said earnestly, "At this moment, I can only say one thing to you."

"As long as I am alive, I will never let the Yellow Turban Rebellion repeat itself."

"Local powerful families and local magnates will also be crushed along with the Northern Expedition!"

Since the Han Dynasty, every dynasty at the end of its reign has experienced a cycle of financial collapse, forcing the court to drastically exploit the people, leading to uprisings by those who could no longer survive.

The most fundamental reason for this is that powerful clans and local magnates plundered the vast majority of the resources available for survival.

The name may be gentry, official, or something else, but the essence remains unchanged.

In this respect, the rulers of all dynasties were not actually blind to it.

More often than not, there's simply no way to deal with it.

Unless it's a complete overhaul, like starting a new war from scratch.

Without Lin Dao's assistance, Prime Minister Zhuge would most likely have recruited local strongmen to complete the Northern Expedition and restore the Han Dynasty.

Because local powerful families and aristocratic clans meant money, supplies, manpower, and that there would be no unrest or rebellion in the region.

Things are different now. With Lin Dao's support, Prime Minister Zhuge has gained confidence.

Taking advantage of the momentum of the Northern Expedition, we eliminated the hidden dangers.

While launching the Northern Expedition, under the pretext of purging rebels, the local strongmen of Wei and Wu were all swept into oblivion.

This was the best solution that Prime Minister Zhuge could think of at that time.

As for whether new ones will be born in the future, by then he will have been buried in the ground for many years, so who can care?

Lin Dao remained calm, staring intently into Prime Minister Zhuge's eyes.

"I remember what you said!"

(End of this chapter)