Chapter 124: Establishing a Monument in Lingnan, Resettling the People and Changing the Era (Seeking Monthly Votes)

This manifesto represented the final declaration made on behalf of the Great Han.

There was absolutely no path of retreat in this battle.

The Great Han would not retreat;

and they, too, had no path of retreat whatsoever!

As this manifesto gradually spread, the legends of the Gu family were constantly brought up among the various tribes.

Facing such a situation, more and more tribes chose to surrender.

They simply had no choice.

The land conquered by the Han Army along this path was the base of who knows how many tribes.

And when internal divisions erupted,

living under the roof of other tribes was also a very dangerous choice.

Gu Yi was not only capable of coercion!

—His past actions in the Northern Frontier had already given him experience.

A tribal system as dispersed as the Shanyue would only be easier to scatter than the barbarians of the Northern Frontier had been.

Under this immense pressure,

Gu Yi did not even need to do anything; he only needed to show a little goodwill, and it was enough to drive these tribes, already inclined to surrender, into a frenzy!

The twenty-first year of Qianji, fourth month;

the three routes of the Han Army gathered at Panyu.

Gu Yi did not hesitate in the slightest and immediately led his troops to launch the final offensive.

The current situation—

the Han Army no longer faced any pressure.

Everything was truly just like the Northern Frontier of years past; the tribes that had already surrendered to the Great Han scrambled to demonstrate their loyalty.

There were indeed some who wanted to resist.

Among the Baiyue of Lingnan, the most powerful tribes all wanted to drag things out.

Even having reached this point today,

they still held onto fantasies.

They thought the Han Army would be like it always was, retreating immediately after winning this battle.

In this battle, the Han Army did not expend much effort at all.

The various Shanyue tribes did not offer much resistance, still hiding in the deep mountains in all directions as they had in the past.

They were making concessions,

hoping the Han Army would quickly achieve its goals and retreat as it usually did.

But this time, they were destined to be disappointed.

Gu Yi had long since made his own arrangements for the Shanyue.

Panyu.

Actually, logically speaking, Panyu was ultimately the administrative seat of the Great Han, at least nominally still belonging to the Great Han.

But the problem was that Lingnan had become completely disconnected from the Great Han.

Especially after experiencing the previous chaos under heaven, the Panyu of today had long since completely broken away from the rule of the Great Han.

Stepping into this city,

after several years, Gu Ye finally saw Gu Han again.

The changes in Gu Han were truly immense.

Now, he no longer had any trace of a noble young master; although one could still see the etiquette of the Great Han in his words and actions,

whether it was his dark skin or his resolute gaze, both spoke of his current transformation.

"Elder brother."

Gu Han was truly quite emotional; as soon as he saw Gu Ye, he immediately walked up and bowed deeply to him: "Your younger brother pays respects to elder brother."

He was, after all, Gu Ye's own brother.

Although they had not seen each other for many years, the bond of kinship remained.

"Moqing." Gu Ye was also very emotional; he immediately stepped forward to pull Gu Han up, looking carefully at his changes, his eyes full of heartache.

Gu Yi did not interfere in any way.

Meeting again after so many years, the two brothers must have had a thousand words they wanted to say.

Why would he need to interfere?

Moreover, he also wanted to hear about Gu Han's experiences over these years.

Gu Ye had always been a person who held himself to strict standards, but on this night, he was rarely drunk.

The two brothers just sat there, telling each other about their experiences over these years.

Gu Han had indeed changed.

During his years in the Liren tribe, he had based his reforms on the Gu family's ancestral records to improve the productivity of the Liren.

This included suggestions for farming;

as well as overall development strategies, and through these actions, he constantly increased the influence of the Gu family.

What surprised Gu Yi was—he actually already had an heir.

And it was born to the daughter of the Liren tribe's elder.

According to Gu Han, this would be the future leader of the Liren tribe.

Even Gu Yi had not discovered this point.

Upon hearing this, he immediately opened the "Family Information" interface and, sure enough, saw a newly born Gu Shizi.

Named Gu Sui.

His attributes were not outstanding; one could only call them mediocre.

Gu Han wanted Gu Yi to take this child back to the Gu family for education.

To this, Gu Yi naturally would not refuse.

As time passed, the influence of the Gu family was destined to grow larger and larger, and the entire family would no longer be confined to the Nine Provinces.

Maintaining the bond of kinship was a crucial point in this.

The road ahead was still long; at least for now, the descendants of the Gu family could not be completely scattered.

The two brothers talked for the entire night.

Experience is often the best way for a person to improve.

Gu Han was just like this; only now did he truly understand the path of the Gu family that Gu Ye had spoken of.

Looking at the white hair gradually appearing on Gu Ye's head, when their emotions reached a deep point, the two brothers both shed tears.

The good thing was—Gu Ye would not leave Lingnan immediately.

What needed to be done next was the key to this southern expedition!

The twenty-first year of Qianji, seventh month;

Gu Yi controlled Gu Ye to hold a grand ceremony of heaven worship in Panyu, completely beginning his governance of Lingnan.

Regarding those tribes that had fled into the deep mountains,

Gu Yi was not in a hurry to attack.

His first order was to formally move those tribes that had already come to surrender out of the deep mountains, selecting fixed settlements for them throughout Lingnan, forming a settlement system that expanded in all directions with Panyu as the center.

Everything followed the Great Han system—

the only difference was that their architectural styles were preserved.

As for cultural integration, it was just as Gu Yi had done in the Northern Frontier back then, only this time it was more direct.

He ordered the writing of the "Thousand Character Classic of Hua and Yi."

And he offered a reward for it.

"Any Yue child who can recite the Classic of Filial Piety shall have their family exempted from one year of corvée labor."

Through this, he stimulated the passion of the various tribes to learn the Han language, and he had people open up the ancient Meiguan Road, expanding it into a "dual-track imperial road," planting banyan trees along the sides for shade, and setting up "ten-mile pavilions" for merchants and travelers to rest.

The commercial value of Lingnan was definitely far greater than that of the Northern Frontier.

This was something Gu Yi could be certain of.

—If you want to be rich, build roads first!

This is one of the principles that remains unchanged in any era.

As long as there is sufficient profit, merchants can be attracted.

And as long as life can be kept stable, Gu Yi was not afraid that the culture of Lingnan would not integrate into the Great Han.

And just like in the Northern Frontier,

when the cultures of the various tribes gradually integrated into the Great Han and began to learn the culture of the Great Han, this land would gradually merge into the Nine Provinces.

Likewise, Gu Yi did not forget the soldiers who had come all this way.

For those soldiers who had died in battle,

Gu Yi ordered a stele to be built for them in Panyu; one side of the stone stele was inscribed with a memorial essay written by Gu Ye himself, and the other side was inscribed with four large characters: "Han and Yi are One"!

This was also Gu Yi's personal sentiment.

Although he did not know how long this stone stele would last,

he still left it in the residence designated for Gu Han.

This was one of the base camps he had selected for the Gu Shizi.

The current political center of Lingnan, and the core location of the "Pearl River Delta" in later generations.

If the Gu Shizi could continue to develop in such a place, the influence on later generations would be limitless.

As for those living soldiers of the Great Han.

Gu Yi had not forgotten his promise to them, and asked if they had any desire to migrate; he would distribute land to them and grant them tax exemptions.

Gu Yi even told them about the benefits of this place.

Including that Gu Han would represent the Gu Shizi and take root here.

But alas, even so, most people were unwilling to stay in Lingnan.

This was also the common thought among the current Great Han populace regarding Lingnan, all feeling that Lingnan was merely a land of barbarians.

But they did not know—

As long as the initial period of large-scale reclamation passed, the geographical advantages of Lingnan would quickly manifest.

This place has a promising future!

But Gu Yi could not force them; perhaps everyone has their own destiny.

Since they were unwilling to stay here.

Gu Yi could do nothing about it.

Time passed in a hurry, and Gu Yi formulated detailed reclamation goals for the entire Lingnan region.

Apart from expanding the Meiguan Ancient Road, Gu Yi also formulated plans for digging canals, including ideas for land construction and everything else.

This was not something that could be finished in one generation.

It was impossible for Gu Yi to be so obsessed as to want to finish so many things in one generation.

Everything could only be planned gradually.

According to Gu Yi's conjecture, it would already be quite good if the Yan Han dynasty could thoroughly implement all of this.

What he needed to do currently was to fix the settlement habits of the various Shanyue tribes, including the introduction of Han culture and dealing with those tribes that still wanted to put up a desperate struggle.

Gu Yi did not choose to launch a frontal assault on these people.

He merely used various policies to continuously squeeze their living space.

Including bounties—

Including cutting off the various channels for their tribes to trade goods.

For Gu Yi, none of this was a difficult task.

And beyond this, Gu Yi even exerted another kind of coercion upon these barbarians.

The later they came to surrender, the lower their status would be.

Although this series of methods seemed very gentle, it was far more effective than pure military conquest.

A soft knife can also draw blood.

Under the condition of being completely isolated, no matter how powerful these tribes had once been, they could ultimately not withstand this pressure.

They would either choose to die in the mountains and forests, or they would have to surrender.

Gu Yi did not care at all about what they would do; he simply handed this matter to Wen Yang, while he himself managed the entire Lingnan region step by step.

After a period of observation, Gu Yi established a "Sugar Workshop" monopoly.

He did not adopt those overly advanced technologies from the modern era.

He simply promoted the production of maltose from sugarcane through the sugar-making techniques recorded in the *Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People*.

And had people open up pepper gardens on the Leizhou Peninsula.

He wanted to use this as a specialized industrial chain for the development of Lingnan.

Although Gu Yi had long since made full preparations, given the current situation in Lingnan, it was impossible to fully adapt to this series of policies.

Among the Baiyue, there were indeed tribes that planted sugarcane, and they could even produce sugar.

But to form a specialized industrial chain.

It was still a pipe dream.

"Migrating" the population was still a choice that Lingnan had to face.

After detailed and careful consideration, Gu Yi sent letters to Luoyang and Julu one after another.

That's right, he wanted to migrate a portion of the Julu populace to Lingnan!

As the most loyal believers of the Gu Shizi.

If the Julu populace could come here, then it would certainly be much easier for the Gu Shizi to take root in the land of Lingnan in the future.

Moreover, this matter was not a bad thing for Lingnan, nor was it a bad thing for these Julu people.

The productivity of the Julu populace could be called the best in the Great Han.

The current Julu had already become a holy land.

Even when the world was in chaos, Julu had not been affected in any way.

Migrating these people here would definitely greatly improve the Sinicization process of Lingnan, including the progress of reclamation.

And this move also had benefits for the Gu Shizi taking root in Lingnan.

Although this move might weaken the influence of the Gu Shizi in the Great Han, the current Gu Shizi did not lack this bit of influence at all.

The Great Han was currently at its peak period.

Even if the so-called "dynastic cycle" were to truly appear.

It could not appear in a short time, and the Gu Shizi would not worry about the risk of extermination.

No matter how one looked at it, this move was the best choice.

The news quickly headed toward Luoyang and Julu.

And the reclamation of the Lingnan land did not stop either; the Liren tribe played a very good leading role at this time.

The prosperity of the Liren tribe greatly increased the desire of the Baiyue tribes to align with the Han.

And Wen Yang did not disappoint Gu Yi.

Facing those Baiyue tribes that were still hiding in the deep mountains, he was initially able to maintain Gu Ye's strategy of "combining hardness and softness."

But as time passed.

Seeing that there were still tribes choosing to put up a desperate struggle.

It finally completely exhausted all his patience, and he directly led his men to launch a great raid.

And this guy had truly changed now.

He did not only mobilize the elites under his own command, but also those tribesmen who had already surrendered to the Great Han.

These tribes had been thinking about performing meritorious deeds, and some even had grudges against those other tribes.

This move greatly compensated for the Han army's disadvantage of not being familiar with the terrain.

Coupled with Wen Yang's bravery.

The result of this battle was naturally self-evident.

And Wen Yang also seemed to want to establish his prestige through this battle; he was extremely ruthless toward those tribes that put up a desperate struggle, almost directly exterminating those tribes completely.

One battle completely ended everything.

It was in the twenty-second year of Qianji, in the fourth month.

The last of the Baiyue tribes also walked out of the deep mountains and dense forests one after another to surrender to the Great Han.

Gu Yi did not soften his heart at all.

It was truly just as he had said in the beginning; whether it was the settlement land given to them or their treatment, it was considered the worst among the Baiyue.

This move greatly increased the majesty of Gu Ye.

When everything became a foregone conclusion, the Baiyue's resentment toward the Great Han would gradually evolve into internal strife.

And the news sent out by Gu Yi was also sent back to the Great Han one after another.

Upon hearing of Gu Ye's various measures in Lingnan, an unprecedented storm immediately broke out in the entire Luoyang court!

——————

"In the twenty-first year of Qianji, the Grand General Ye led his troops to Panyu.

In the past, the Guangwu Emperor established the tripod, Ma Yuan campaigned in the south, erected bronze pillars to mark the borders, and the Luoyue were subdued.

However, in the wild and desolate lands, rebellion and submission were inconsistent, because those who governed either relied on military might and lost the way of cherishing, or indulged in moral transformation and forgot military preparedness.

Ye's pacification of Lingnan inherited the remaining legacy of the Yan Han, upheld the grand plan of Qianji, used military punishment to deter their treachery, used farmland to solidify their foundation, and used schools to guide their hearts; it can be said that he deeply grasped the essence of 'using hardness and softness alternately, and uniting the Hua and the Yi.'"

——*Biography of Gu Ye, Book of Yan Han*

(End of chapter)