With 100,000 elite soldiers at the start, what should you call me?

……

"Something terrible has happened! Something drastic!"

Zhu Da hurriedly returned to the Zhu family mansion, his face full of panic.

"Something terrible has happened to the master."

Zhu Wen, who was playing with the birds, frowned and felt displeased when he was disturbed by the noise.

"This Zhu Da is a servant of my Zhu family, bestowed with the surname Zhu. How come he does things so carelessly and hastily, completely lacking in decorum? Perhaps it's because I haven't disciplined him at home for a long time, and he's forgotten the rules."

Zhu Wen grumbled inwardly, then slowly turned around and asked with a cold face, "What's the matter that you're in such a hurry?"

"Master, Master..." Zhu Da was so anxious that he forgot where to begin.

At this moment, Zhu Xingqiu's voice came, and he hurriedly came to Zhu Wen's side.

"Father, something terrible has happened! That new army leader, Li Tian, ​​is really going to break this thousand-year-old rule and restore the equal-field system. Right now, they're measuring our family's land and want to distribute all the fertile fields!"

"What joke?"

Zhu Wen was shocked when he heard what his son said.

If he were to give away all the wealth his family had painstakingly accumulated to those lowly people, he would be the first to object!

What right does Li Tian have?!

"Bandits! They're nothing but bandits, even worse than bandits!"

"If we had known, we should have helped the Qing army and opened the gates at night to welcome them."

"Damn it! These people are even more brutal and cruel than the Qing army!"

"This is pushing us all to our deaths!"

Zhu Wen flew into a rage and started cursing loudly, not caring whether anyone was listening. If he could curse Li Tian to death, he would be the first to do it!

After venting his anger, Zhu Wen's flushed face finally lightened a bit; "If Li Tian dares to do this, he's pushing all the people to their deaths. I don't believe the other families will let Li Tian take away their land like this."

Suddenly, a glint of inspiration flashed in his eyes; "Quickly send someone to contact the You family, the Yun family, and the Wu family."

"I don't believe Li Tian would dare to kill all the people of Jianning Prefecture."

"The equal-field system is against all the people!"

"Yes, sir, I'll go right away." Zhu Da carried out Zhu Wen's orders and left immediately.

"Father, calm down. Li Tian has just won a battle and his military prestige is still high. If we confront him now, he might not show any mercy."

"Father, he has an army of over 100,000 men." Zhu Xingqiu calmed down before his father, Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen narrowed his wrinkled eyes slightly; "Xingqiu, you're right. Li Tian is a barbarian soldier, a country bumpkin. We can't reason with him now."

"But we can't just sit here and wait to die. We need to let Li Tian know that being able to sit comfortably in Jianning Prefecture isn't just about having troops."

"There are countless heroes in the world, and Li Tian will surely be forgotten in the long river of history."

Zhu Wen suddenly thought of a good plan and summoned his son.

"Xingqiu, there's something I don't trust anyone else to do, and you'll have to go there yourself."

"I heard that the Imperial Preceptor is still alive. We'll write to the King of Yunxi and rescue him..."

The Zhu family was not the only aristocratic family affected by the land redistribution policy.

The Yun family at this time.

Yun Huan was reading at home when the family steward rushed in and told him about the land redistribution.

"What did you say? This is absolutely true?" Yun Huan looked surprised and put down the book.

"Young master, it's absolutely true. The Zhu family has already finished measuring their fields and started dividing them up. Next up is our family."

"Ah, if the master were home, those bandits wouldn't have a chance to run rampant."

The butler cursed and swore, clearly hating Li Tian.

Yun Huan merely frowned, sensing something was amiss.

The Yun family was a powerful local clan in Jianning Prefecture, and their influence in the prefecture was in no way inferior to that of the Zhu family.

His father, Yun Richu, was a senior member of the Donglin Party's Fushe Society.

The Yun family secretly contributed the most to Wang Qi's successful capture of Jianning Prefecture.

However, with the arrival of the Qing army, the situation was far from optimistic.

His father decided to take his elder brother and lead an army to attack Pucheng, but the situation was not good. He heard that his elder brother had died in battle, and his father's fate was unknown.

"Second brother, what's wrong?" Hearing the commotion, the younger brother Yun Ge stopped painting and came in to join in the fun.

"It's nothing. I'll be away from home for the next few days, so you can stay home and relax."

Yun Huan didn't say much, immediately packed his things, and led a few servants to find his father.

The New Army's land redistribution was no different from confiscating property.

Yun Ge watched his second brother leave, but felt bored and went back to his room to bury himself in painting.

The distance from Jian'an to Pucheng was not far; it would only take less than a day to reach the city. However, Yun Richu failed to capture Pucheng, and the whereabouts of his army were unknown.

Yun Huan could only inquire about his father's whereabouts in the vicinity. After some inquiries, he learned that his father had gone to Changzhou.

Left with no other choice, Yun Huan disguised himself as a monk and went to Changzhou.

Before long, they found their father, Yun Richu, in a temple.

Yun Richu was shocked when he first saw his second son, but he quickly guessed what was going on.

"Really? Jianning Prefecture has fallen, and you're the only one who escaped... Why didn't Chen Jin adopt you?"

"Father, Jianning Prefecture has indeed fallen, but it was not the Qing army that occupied it, but the New Army."

Yun Huan pulled his father into a quiet room to talk, and told him everything that had happened in Jianning Prefecture in recent days.

When Yun Richu heard the story of his second son, his expression first changed from disbelief to doubt, then to surprise, and finally to anger.

His anger was calm, like a crouching tiger ready to pounce on its prey at any moment.

"The Qing army failed to capture Jianning Prefecture, but instead it was occupied by a mysterious new army that appeared out of nowhere. Then Chen Jin died in the Battle of Xiaosongxi... Unbelievable, utterly unbelievable. Didn't all my previous arrangements go to waste?" Many doubts arose in Yun Richu's mind.

He initially planned to attack Pucheng, but the strength of the Qing army made him waver, and his eldest son died in that battle.

Afterwards, he corresponded with Chen Jin, the Governor-General of Zhejiang and Fujian, and finally decided to launch a night attack on Pucheng. It was raining heavily that night, but he still led his army forward. The army encountered a mudslide and was completely routed that night.

He then rallied his troops and attempted to cut off the Qing army's supply lines, but to no avail. He was eventually besieged in the mountains, dismissed his men, and went to live in seclusion in a temple in Changzhou.

After this series of actions, Chen Jin surrounded Jianning Prefecture and promised him that if the city fell, he would adopt his son as his son.

Unfortunately, all of these plans were disrupted by the sudden appearance of Li Tian.

If Li Tian doesn't appear, Wang Qi will surely die.

"Huan'er, is Li Tian really going to take away all our family's land in Jianning Prefecture? Have the Zhu family agreed?"

"Li Tian has a lot of troops, so the Zhu and You families have no choice but to agree," Yun Huan replied.

"Very well, I will gather my old troops today and reclaim Jianning Prefecture." Yun Richu's weathered eyes gleamed with a sharp light.