Chapter 142: Is he sick?!

"I can count myself as having a heart of iron."

Looking at the long line of people waiting for food, Lin Dao felt a wave of melancholy.

"I once thought about having an aunt who was a school principal to contract the canteen and make a lot of money."

"But I never dared to imagine using pig feed as food."

In one pot after another, the bubbling porridge-like substance was dinner made primarily of feed.

Tens of thousands of people were standing in line, waiting eagerly to receive it.

"That's what a chaotic era is."

Lin Dao shook his head repeatedly. "If you really opened a canteen selling this stuff, you'd be arrested long ago."

With increasing income, improving the quality of purchased grain wasn't impossible.

For example, the price of Indian broken rice was very cheap.

And to earn foreign exchange, the San Ge brothers were very happy to export on a large scale.

Lin Dao was still purchasing feed on a large scale.

On one hand, it was due to inertia; his cooperation with the feed factory was very good, and they treated him as a major customer. After all, exporting ranches to South Africa, they were very enthusiastic, with great discounts.

Furthermore, eating this stuff for a long time made it easy to gain weight.

In the modern world, everyone hated gaining weight.

But in a chaotic era, it was a good thing everyone sought but could not get.

Many people liked gaining weight, even actively requesting to eat such blessed grain.

This made Lin Dao unable to make up his mind for a while.

"Commander."

The guard stepped forward to report, "Dinner is ready, please dine, Commander."

"You take the food and eat it."

Lin Dao walked toward the rear tent. "I'm going into seclusion; no one is allowed to disturb me."

Unless there were special circumstances, he would go to various spacetimes to check in and show his face every day.

Even just eating one meal was enough to settle people's hearts.

Lin Dao first returned to the Modern World, had dinner with Su Tongtong, contacted the company's sales staff, and asked about the progress of various projects.

The company's recent big move was importing a large amount of salt in the name of export.

Lin Dao planned to, while at it, deal with the Yangzhou salt merchants in the Chongzhen Spacetime.

The vast majority of exported goods would receive support and praise.

As long as the goods could be sold and foreign exchange earned back, many things wouldn't be so closely watched.

After finishing here, Lin Dao went to the Yonghe Spacetime to show his face and check in.

"Lord."

As Lin Dao came out of seclusion, Wang Meng happily brought him good news.

"Huan Wen has surrendered!"

"Cooperating with our army, they will exterminate all the Qiang people to make a gesture of surrender."

Lin Dao was stunned. "Surrendered just like that? Weren't they issuing proclamations before, saying they wanted to attack me, saying they wanted to go north, to advance east, and so on?"

"Those were just empty words."

Wang Meng said with a smile, "Huan Wen isn't stupid; using one state's land to fight the whole world is seeking death."

"Even if he really is stupid, the officers and soldiers under his command aren't fools."

"No one is willing to fight a battle doomed to fail."

The land of Jingzhou was good, and its combat strength wasn't bad.

But facing a siege by the whole world, even a strong tree couldn't stand alone.

Especially since Li Nong's great army entered Shu, destroyed Cheng Han, and formed a three-sided encirclement posture against Jingzhou.

Under such circumstances, there was no natural barrier that could isolate Huan Wen from inside and outside; he had completely lost hope.

Even if he himself wasn't afraid of death, his subordinates were unwilling to follow him to die.

The world had already settled down; what was there to fuss about?

"Lord." Wang Meng, who assisted a wise ruler in restoring the world, was in high spirits. "How should Huan Wen and the Huan clan, as well as the scholar-gentry of Jingzhou, be dealt with?"

Normally, they would be cleared out, removing the toxic tumors of disaster.

But after all, it was a surrender, so some privileges had to be given.

Lin Dao paced back and forth, thought for a moment, and made a decision.

"Huan Wen comes to Luoyang, placed under surveillance residence."

"The Huan clan and the scholar-gentry of Jingzhou shall all be broken into households and scattered to farm and labor in various states, provinces, and counties across the world."

"Their original manors and fortresses, family wealth, and weapons shall all be confiscated."

"Their retainers and slaves shall be disbanded and given land."

"If they are unwilling to accept, then let them gather people to fight a good battle; it just happens to wipe them all out."

Lin Dao felt he was merciful enough.

At least he left them a way to live; after all, not everyone was Wang Xizhi, able to have such face.

If these scholar-gentry of Jingzhou were reluctant to give up their family businesses, then that would be even better; just finish them all off at once.

"Lord, rest assured."

On this side, Wang Meng expressed his stance, "I will definitely persuade them to obey."

Lin Dao thought to add, "You'd better be able to force them to rebel, saving me a lot of trouble."

But Wang Meng had already switched to the next topic.

"My Lord, the realm is gradually settling, yet deep in the mountains, the Qiang, Di, and other tribes still raid and harass."

"I ask for your decision, My Lord: is it to pacify or to exterminate?"

Guanzhong, Chuan Shu, Liangzhou and other places were recovered one after another, and very naturally came into contact with the continuous Great Mountains of the Plateau.

The complex and changeable terrain and climate became the greatest enemy.

"From now on, whoever dares speak of pacification is a bandit!"

Lin Dao first set the tone, then said, "If strength is insufficient for now, you may weaken them first, and launch a punitive expedition the moment power is sufficient."

"First blockade trade — not a single needle, not a single thread, not a single grain of salt is allowed to flow into the mountains."

"You personally handle this matter."

Sending the great army deep into the mountains to clear and suppress cannot be done for the time being.

Then wage economic war first, blockade and suppress to weaken their strength.

Without Central Plains cloth they will freeze, without Central Plains grain they will starve, without Central Plains salt they will fall ill!

As for iron tools, even less need to say — let them use stone and wood.

Medicine is even more out of the question; if they get sick let them go jump the shaman dance.

As for what the Confucians advocate — universal harmony, cultural assimilation, and the like.

Lin Dao sneered at this.

Assimilation is also done with swords, spears, and armor, not with women and wealth!

These Confucian things — useless at everything, number one at boasting.

Clearly beaten until they cannot care for themselves, yet they must boast that they assimilated the other side.

Those who resisted resolutely, who shed blood and gave their lives, are instead all ignored, splashed with dirty water.

"Fewer battles may be fought, but they cannot stop."

Lin Dao continued instructing, "Right now we must restore strength as fast as possible."

"Encourage population growth — people are too few."

Even if you drag out the mountain wild people and the hidden households of great clans, the total population of the Central Plains in the Yonghe Spacetime does not reach a fraction of the Chongzhen Spacetime's.

Compared to crazy expansion and land-grabbing, restoring population and production is more important now.

Only when the population grows can we continuously migrate people over and firmly occupy the land.

Pursuing only surface possession — wouldn't that make one a Heavenly Khagan~~~

After arranging and instructing a round, Lin Dao entered seclusion again, arriving at the Chongzhen Spacetime.

This side is still at war after all, needing him to watch over as much as possible.

Over the following days, large batches of population and livestock, all kinds of war spoils, were transported in succession to the Grand Canal riverbank at Jiningzhou.

What could board ships boarded ships; what could not walked southward on foot.

In the Grand Canal sails were like clouds; on both banks people and livestock wound on without end.

Only after the entire host had gone south did the garrison inside Jiningzhou tremblingly leave the city to scout.

Confirming they had indeed all left, only then did they carefully send troops toward Yanzhou Prefecture to gather intelligence.

The news returned, and everyone was stunned.

The people of Yanzhou Prefecture were gone, and the Tartars were also gone.

The whole of Yanzhou City was a ruin; only beside the official road outside the city stood a massive Jia Guan~

Confirming they were Tartar heads, the Ming Army erupted in fierce scrambling and killing, suffering heavy casualties for it.

These heads are silver and military merit.

Afterwards, many newly dug large pits were also discovered outside the city.

Inside were full of corpses.

There were Yanzhou City commoners, including the various Great Kings and all officials of Yanzhou Prefecture up and down.

And even more were Tartars and Bondservant slaves.

The Tartar corpses all lacked heads; the Bondservant slaves had all manner of death methods.

The Jiningzhou Prefect, biting the bullet, submitted a memorial to the Capital.

Vaguely stating that the Tartars who broke through the pass southward had been annihilated, that Jiningzhou up and down had fought bitterly for many days, killing very many enemies, and so on.

The memorial sent by fast horse to the Capital was delivered directly before the Chongzhen Emperor.

The Emperor's first reaction was disbelief.

Since ascending the throne these years, he has not been few in being hoodwinked by these civil and military officials.

If one truly tallied according to the battle reports and memorials of these subordinates, the Jiannu population would have been wiped out back and forth many times over.

He believed it was at most a minor victory, barely holding the city and that was all.

But soon, the various route armies of the Diligence King all captured many Tartar scattered soldiers and rogues.

Interrogation confirmed there was indeed a Ming Army that fought a bloody battle with the Tartars outside Yanzhou City.

The Ming Army employed War Behemoths, rushing horizontally and vertically, looking down on all directions; the Tartars could not block them, the whole army collapsed.

Even the commanding general Abatai died in battle.

Battle reports and captives from all places flew toward the Capital like snowflakes.

When the Jiningzhou delivery arrived — over a hundred large carts loaded with heads, verified by the Ministry of War — true Tartar heads exceeded ten thousand.

Only then did the Chongzhen Emperor truly believe that the repeatedly defeated Ming Army had really won an unprecedented glorious victory.

"Reward!"

"Heavy reward!"

The Chongzhen Emperor, his eyes bloodshot with excitement, could not conceal the agitation in his words.

"My dear ministers, whose subordinate is this, after all?"

"I want to reward him handsomely, I want to enfeoff him with a title!"

The civil officials, now knowing the true situation, all wore weird expressions; no one knew how to explain it to the Emperor.

This silence also left the Chongzhen Emperor puzzled and confused.

His gaze swept over the ministers, finally falling on Grand Secretary Zhou Yanru.

"What is going on?!"

The Chongzhen Emperor was confused: "If you are worried about the guilt of losing Prince Lu, I will not blame you."

"Who exactly is it that annihilated the Jiannu Army?"

Others could play dumb, but Zhou Yanru, as Grand Secretary, could not.

He could only be the one to step forward with a steeled resolve: "Your Majesty."

"Jinling has fallen into the hands of bandits."

"What?" The Chongzhen Emperor could not react for a moment. "Jinling? How is that possible!"

Because the Central Plains and Beizhili were all in chaotic warfare, making news transmission difficult, and verifying news even more difficult.

Only now did the ministers become certain that Jiangnan had indeed undergone a change of power.

Zhou Yanru carefully recounted the events that had occurred in Jiangnan.

The specific process was certainly unknown.

But the general result would not be wrong.

After finishing, he then added: "It is said, it is said that the ones who crushed the Jiannu Army outside Yanzhou City were precisely the Jiangnan rebel army."

Having spoken these words, even Zhou Yanru himself found it inconceivable.

The rebel commander probably has some serious illness, to travel a thousand miles to go fight Tartars, and after finishing the fight, actually went back.

Such actions are truly baffling.

"You mean." The Chongzhen Emperor wore a weird expression. "The Jiangnan rebel army marched north all the way to Yanzhou Prefecture, killed all the Jiannu, and now have gone back to Jiangnan?"

Zhou Yanru lowered his head and saluted: "Yes."

The palace interior fell into an indescribable silence.

Only the Chongzhen Emperor's heavy breathing remained.

Who knows how long passed.

The Chongzhen Emperor's heart held indescribable emotions.

"No, does he have some serious illness?!"

(End of Chapter)