Chapter 304

The Eight Banners have been officially established!

That year, the court recognized the Eight Banners' legal status as a fiefdom, and because of your unmatched loyalty and bravery, the court inside and out had to seriously consider the feasibility of the emperor's new policies……

Some officials thought, since the fiefdoms were already established and had not caused direct harm, and the court could indeed use them to suppress rebels everywhere, they optimistically believed that as long as the balance of power between the fiefdoms and the court was maintained, restoring the Taizu era's prosperity was not a dream!

Another group of officials believed: the court was already in decline, establishing cultivator fiefdoms was merely drinking poison to quench thirst; continuing like this would be……

Why not just give it a push?

Everyone privately concluded: since the court is like a poison pill, we might as well seek another path; in the future, once you establish the new dynasty, we can also gain merit by following the dragon and preserve our wealth and power……

Thus, although everyone had different thoughts, they strangely reached a consensus…… Receiving the officials' collective show of support, the young emperor, who had long wanted to make a big move, instantly beamed with joy, ignoring the empress dowager's gloomy expression, and directly announced the new policies!

……

In the final years of the Shun Dynasty, to maintain the court's waning authority, Emperor Shun issued an edict to implement the new policies!

The new policies completely overturned ancient laws, heavily employing civilian cultivators to form fiefdoms, using the power of these cultivator fiefdoms to preserve the Shun Dynasty's three-hundred-year foundation.

Consequently, the populace was greatly invigorated; the various wild gods who had merely scraped by were overjoyed, crawling out of the gutters one after another, weeping bitterly to the court, declaring that they had long wished to offer their loyalty to His Majesty and protect the territory of Great Shun!

Officials and commoners alike saw the situation and knew full well: this gang surely intended to usurp the throne; their so-called loyalty was merely rhetoric to confuse the court, and trouble would inevitably arise……

Yet everyone chose to turn a blind eye, stepping on the accelerator along the road to the Shun Dynasty's ruin!

The emperor, already feeling elated and daydreaming about the new policies saving the nation, suddenly received countless declarations of loyalty, naturally boosting his fighting spirit even further; on one hand he praised himself as a true savior-sovereign, on the other he lamented that loyal subjects who served the nation were as rare as fish crossing the river, yet the ancestors had discarded them—what a waste……

The emperor, feeling high-spirited, in one breath appointed nearly a hundred fiefdoms, assigning them to the east, west, south, and north of Great Shun!

After the cultivators established their fiefdoms, they did not immediately turn against the court, but continued to maintain a loyal attitude, doing whatever the court asked; thus, the Great Shun Dynasty, which had been on the verge of collapse, was revived all at once!

At least on the surface it was revived……

Although each fiefdom harbored ulterior motives and none were truly loyal, since they held territory, they naturally had to govern it well.

Under the cultivators' power and authority, the annexed land was redistributed to landless peasants, the neglected local militias were retrained and revitalized, local strongmen and bandits were successively subdued, and vagrants vanished; order prevailed throughout the fiefdoms!

Of course, no matter how hard these upstarts try, they will surely never catch up to you, since you have been running your headquarters for over thirty years; the Eight Banners' one-step lead means a continual lead.

While other fiefdoms were still putting their internal affairs in order, you were already driving the Eight Banners war machine everywhere to conquer cities and seize territory!

Your targets, aside from peasant rebel armies, were precisely those so-called 'barbarian lands'……

Great Shun occupied the Southern Continent, while your domain lay on the northeastern coast of Great Shun; due to poor soil and weak agriculture, this area had long been neglected by successive dynasties, thus vast regions fell under the label of 'uncivilized barbarians,' and the court's rule there was merely nominal.

Since you have already decided to contend for the world, you naturally could not rely solely on the six counties; thus, you raised the court's banner and launched an offensive against those 'uncivilized barbarians'!

The Eight Banners' elite forces were already far beyond what the barbarians could match, let alone with the addition of Divine Dao Techniques; this mobilization meant that each soldier's capabilities were off the charts!

Immune to blades and spears, impervious to water and fire.

Where had the local barbarians ever seen such a spectacle? As soon as the fighting began, the chiefs were terrified out of their wits, and after just a few exchanges they decisively knelt and surrendered.

Wherever the Eight Banners' elite troops passed, all surrendered at the mere sight of them……

Thus you effortlessly pacified the vast northeastern regions, accepting the surrender of barbarian tribes numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

And facing the anxious populace, you did not make things difficult for them; you simply registered them as households, shifting their livelihood from hunting and fishing to agriculture.

To this end, you spared no expense in consuming vast amounts of Incense Divine Power, carrying out large-scale soil improvement, driving out coastal salinity and marshes, turning wasteland into fertile farmland.

Under your no-expense-spared transformation, the formerly uncivilized barbarian regions underwent a complete metamorphosis, becoming a Land of Abundance rich in resources……

To integrate the barbarians, you adopted a policy of changing customs and habits, actively promoting Central Plains culture to them, but with both gains and losses—not fully Sinicizing them, instead implementing cultural fusion at a level acceptable to both sides.

Your gentle policy won over the locals' hearts; ultimately, with little dissent, you allowed the barbarians to voluntarily cut their braids, achieving a shift in custom where they kept their hair and adopted new attire……

You are both the Eight Banners, and you practice hair-cutting and attire change, and you cut braids…… The mixture is overly complex, hard to decipher……

However, the local populace accepted it highly; only a few conservatives covered their braids and refused to cut them, all the while cursing: 'My braid is on my head, yours is in your heart! Does cutting a braid make you civilized? It's just parroting others, trying to curry favor with the Eight Banners!'

'Oh, come on!'

The youths who had cut their queues rolled their eyes: "You don't even dare to cut the queue on your head, yet you have the nerve to mock us for having a queue in our hearts? I see you, old thing, are silver-tongued; not only do you have a queue on your head, you even have one in your heart!"

Moreover, Commander Lin didn't force us to cut our queues; it was entirely voluntary!

Exactly! Before, I always felt my scalp itch when I wore a queue; now that I've cut it, it doesn't itch at all!

Strange attire and queues are truly the barbaric customs of a fallen state; cutting the queue and changing clothes are indeed the refined policies of the new dynasty!

Commander Lin is the sun!

Loyalty! Sincerity! ……

The county seat, or rather, it should be renamed "Eight Banner City"! The Eight Banner Commander-in-Chief, Lin Liu, was respectfully bowing down to the imperial envoy.

The envoy looked at him admiringly, the first regional commander of the state, never expecting his power to have grown so great, yet he remained so loyal to the court—truly a pillar of the state!

Lin Liu, receive the edict!

I know you have pacified the sea barbarians, your achievements are outstanding, your loyalty and courage unmatched… I hereby promote you to the rank of Dragon Tiger General; may you continue to strive… Such is the imperial command.

When the envoy finished reading the imperial edict, Lin Liu also said respectfully:

Thank you, Your Majesty, for your great grace!

After the envoy left, Lin Liu held the commendatory edict, and couldn't help laughing: "Dragon Tiger General… His Majesty is truly generous!"

The title of Dragon Tiger General is not an actual post; as the holder of a regional command, Lin Liu could not be given any further actual post by the Great Shun court—this title is purely an honorary title.

But the fact that an edict was specially issued to praise him for defeating a bunch of weakling barbarians shows how much the young emperor values him…

Lin Liu couldn't help but sigh sincerely: "To be frank, the young emperor is really not bad; in governance he is also eager to make progress. Even though he knows that establishing regional commands is like drinking poison to quench thirst, he still went ahead with it for the court's revival! Moreover, he didn't just do it—he did it earnestly. He places great trust in the regional commands, bestowing all the honors he can, hoping that loyal ministers and capable generals will prop him up for a few more years."

Lin Liu also gives face; since establishing the regional command, he has never acted arrogantly toward the court, always observing his duties as a subject, his image of a loyal minister maxed out!

The ruler and his ministers are quite harmonious…

But one day, I, this Dragon Tiger General, will lead the Eight Banner army into the capital to seize the throne…

Whenever he thought about the future, Lin Liu felt a mixture of emotions, which ultimately amounted to a sigh: "Well then… let me give you a dignified abdication in the future!"

Under heaven, seizing is necessary; without seizing, one cannot become a god and ascend to heaven. On this basis, no matter how great the young emperor's favor, it will not change Lin Liu's strategy and resolve.

As for what comes next…

Lin Liu set down the edict and closed his eyes.

……

【Ding! Faced with the current situation, you are somewhat undecided about raising your banner, not knowing what plan to make next… Please devise your own strategy: (?)】

「……」

Zhao Si remained silent for a long time, because he had been dazed by this series of plot developments from the system:

First, he gave the name 'Eight Banners' to the fiefdoms, then he unified the Northeast, and also implemented the policy of keeping hair and adopting clothing, forcing the barbarians to cut their braids.

Now another 'Dragon Tiger General' has appeared……

"You're not Lin Six at all, this is clearly a possession by the Wild Boar Skin!"

Zhao Si could barely muster a complaint; this chapter's worldbuilding is strange, and the plot is even abstract.

But complaints aside, as a high-quality player, Zhao Si forced himself to calm down and carefully analyzed the situation for Lin Six: 'First, Lin Six's self-defined persona is that of loyal and virtuous subjects, so he absolutely cannot ruin his persona; that is, he cannot openly and justifiably rebel against the court. To seize the world, he can only let the court cause trouble itself…'

"Moreover, although the court has been pulling back, it suddenly enfeoffed so many fiefdoms; under the surface loyalty of the fiefdoms, they actually grew stronger."

"If Lin Six openly rebels, he will surely become the target of public criticism; the court deploying the fiefdoms could truly destroy him!"

"So, regardless of whether he is willing, he can only continue to maintain the loyal subject persona for now…"

Zhao Si thought for a moment:

"Stability first!"

"As for conquering cities and seizing land, it's better not to do that now; having swallowed such a huge chunk of the Northeast, we should digest it slowly over a few years."

"Steady and solid; suppress rebellions when they arise, develop agriculture when needed… The essence of Daoist cultivation is incense, and incense comes from population, so to cultivate and grow stronger, we ultimately rely on having many people."

"As long as we manage the Northeast well and increase the population, we can maintain an advantage over other fiefdoms; and as long as we keep that advantage, it will keep growing… until we crush the world."

"This is the way of the Kingly Path!"

Lin Six doesn't need to rush, doesn't need to leap about, and doesn't even need any high-level schemes.

He just needs to farm peacefully; then it's others who will be anxious!

"If things go as expected, some people should already be anxious…"

……

(End of chapter)