All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 372: Troops Marching South
'Zhao Yun's modification has been completed, and rewards are now issued.'

'Note: Distribute roasted dragon meat (one serving).'

Chen Ran'(￣ｏ￣)'

"Lord, lord?" Seeing Chen Ran's strange expression, the people around couldn't help but call out to him.

This kind of thing is very common. After a war, people often go crazy, which is what the post-traumatic stress syndrome in campus beauty literature is called.

They were all members of the emerging military merit group, and they were very worried that their lord, who could ensure their interests, would fall just when they were about to unify the world. That would be disastrous.

"Nothing, nothing."

Chen Ran came back to his senses and waved his hand, his eyes involuntarily falling on Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun looked puzzled. "What's going on? Why are you looking at me?"

"Because he's called Zilong, should we give him dragon meat? If we find a phoenix chick, can we also give him phoenix meat?"

'I know that Zhao Zilong from Shijiazhuang is the most popular, but this is too much!'

"Fortunately, this is a fictional world, so I can at least fool around a bit."

Leaving Jia Xu and others to clean up the entire territory of Yanzhou and Xuzhou as well as parts of Yuzhou, Chen Ran led his army back to Luoyang City.

In addition to fighting, he also focused on people's livelihood.

For example, he sent a fleet to Champa, ordered Ma Chao, who was conquering the Western Regions, to send back the local specialty seeds, had Zhang Liao and Xu Huang conquer and fight in the north, seized pastures and used them to raise sheep, etc.

There were also technological improvements, such as iron farm tools, vehicles with rotating shafts, new textile machines that could spin wool, and the large-scale construction of kilns and brick factories on a county basis.

Before the Han Dynasty, most people lived in tiled houses.

However, after the Qin and Han Dynasties, the homes of ordinary people were mainly adobe houses covered with straw.

After observing many worlds, Chen Ran concluded that this was not a decline in productivity, but rather that national wealth was concentrated in the hands of emerging interest groups dominated by Confucianism.

Since the people could not afford to live in tiled houses, they could only live in adobe houses.

In response to this, Chen Ran announced the abolition of the "Confucianism as the only doctrine" policy, encouraged a hundred schools of thought to contend, and launched the imperial examination system.

From then on, the imperial examination was no longer limited to Confucian scholars, but people from any family could take the exam, and officials were selected based on their ability rather than their background.

In order to avoid the reappearance of aristocratic families like those at the end of the Han Dynasty, the migration system of the early Han Dynasty was implemented again.

If a powerful person appears in a county or prefecture, he will be directly migrated away from his original place.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, they were all moved to Guanzhong to guard the tombs. However, Chen Ran moved them all to the border areas, and they were moved in a dispersed manner. No matter how many generations had lived together, they were all separated into individual households and moved to different places.

Official ranks were set up and the system from top to bottom was confirmed.

He didn't give any salary to the officials because Chen Ran didn't believe in such things.

The strategy of the arrangement is very simple, that is, the highest rank of the father's generation when he retired would be reduced by one level to the maximum rank of his descendants who became officials.

That is to say, someone was promoted to the rank of county magistrate of the fourth rank and then retired.

His descendants, including the descendants of his brothers and sisters, that is, nephews and nieces, could only reach the fourth rank at most if they became officials in the court.

If the descendants of these nephews and nieces serve as temporary officials, they can only be demoted one level at most, all the way to the lowest level of the ninth rank.

From the next generation after the ninth rank, there will be no restrictions.

However, when he retired, the cycle began all over again.

In this way, the inheritance of positions through mother-to-child transmission, blood transmission, and faith transmission can be effectively reduced.

As for those officials who have committed crimes, needless to say, they will not even be allowed to take the imperial examinations for three generations.

In Chen Ran's view, the officials are inward-looking, and the only way is to continue to conquer the outside world.

Therefore, it is a disguised way of encouraging people to join military merit groups, and they can be rewarded as long as they have made military achievements.

Although the five ranks of nobility were reduced in each generation, they would be abolished after five generations.

But their sons and nephews are eligible to enter the Military Academy without taking an exam. As long as they can pass several years of assessment and graduate successfully, they will start as officers.

Compared with civilians who could only start as soldiers, or those who had to compete with thousands of troops to enter the Military Academy, this was already an early starting point.

What's more, the rewards from the military merit groups, the income from titles, and the income from fiefs are all huge wealth.

If there is still anyone who is greedy, Chen Ran certainly wouldn't mind getting rid of him.

In order to ensure that these measures could be implemented and not be overturned in future generations, he simply carved a stele as evidence.

If anyone in the future breaks these rules, people all over the world can take the blame and take their place!
That's nonsense, just like there is no such thing as a crown prince who only lives for 30 years in this world, how can there be a dynasty that will last for thousands of years.

Chen Ran estimated that it would still be useful within three to five generations.

As for what happened afterwards, he had no idea which time and space Run had gone to, so how could he care so much?

After returning to Luoyang and finishing his work, Chen Ran found an opportunity to taste the dragon meat.

"It tastes pretty good." After eating, he drank two bowls of water to moisten his throat, but didn't feel any difference.

"Shouldn't it be?" After feeling his own physical fitness, Chen Ran found that there was no improvement, which made him feel puzzled.

There was no other way, so I had to comfort myself by saying "Just treat it as a new experience."

But when you fall asleep at night, your body temperature starts to rise and your heart speeds up to make the blood flow faster.

Chen Ran felt a little dizzy, and his first reaction after waking up was to hug Cai Yan in his arms.

Two quarters of an hour later, Cai Yan, with a hoarse voice, cried and begged for mercy.

There was no other choice, so Chen Ran had to send someone to call Diao Chan.

Afterwards, Zhen Mi was called over. Even the former queen mother, who stayed behind as Madam He, was called over.

Chen Ran, who was still not satisfied, walked out of the room in his robe and looked at the dawn in the east. He made up his mind, "Build the Bronze Sparrow Tower and bring the two Qiao sisters back!"

Dragon meat does have an effect, but the effect is slow to show.

Chen Ran's physical fitness has doubled, and there is still potential that has not been tapped.

He began to prepare for a southern expedition to completely quell the chaos since the end of the Han Dynasty.

A large number of soldiers were arranged to take turns to go to the Yellow River to board the boat for water training.

Lu Bu was dispatched to the north to continue attacking the nomadic tribes, replacing Zhang Liao and Xu Huang who returned.

Food and fodder were collected from all over the place, transported southward in batches, and stored in various places in Jingzhou.

He ordered Gan Ning and others to build ships on a large scale, expand the navy, etc.

They even found time to hold another imperial examination.

There were only new people in the court, and all the powerful families had been swept away. No one dared to oppose any order, and all of them could be executed quickly.

The entire preparation period lasts almost more than a year.

Preparations of this scale cannot be kept secret.

And Chen Ran had no intention of hiding it.

The Sun family in Jiangdong naturally received the news and were also discussing how to respond.

"Gongjin, what do you think?"

Although the previous strategy of attacking Jingzhou by besieging Wei to save Zhao failed, Zhou Yu still enjoyed the trust of Sun and continued to serve as the Grand Commander of Jiangdong.

"There are only a few heroes left in the world today. We should unite heroes from all over the world to fight against Chen the thief together."

Zhou Yu simply stated, "Cao Cao of Jiangxia and Liu Bei of Runan have both fought against the Chen bandits before and have extensive experience in dealing with them. We should send someone to contact them and jointly deal with them."

Everyone expressed their agreement, thinking that what the Grand Commander said was very normal and that they did need to unite all the forces that could be united to resist.

This time, no one in Jiangdong proposed surrender.

The reason is very simple. They all come from aristocratic families, and that thief Chen has always treated aristocratic families by rooting them out completely. Wouldn't surrendering be seeking death?

Including Gu Yong, Sun Zhao and others became the most determined resistance faction.

They were even willing to contribute their family's money, food, and supplies, and even their family's private soldiers and manor slaves.

"This battle is not on land but on water." Zhou Yu saw clearly that "If we win on water, the Chen bandits will retreat. If we lose on water, our Sun Wu will perish."

"Strengthening the navy is urgent!"

"Okay." Sun Jian nodded repeatedly and instructed, "All resources in the country will be handed over to Gongjin for deployment. We must win!"

At this time, Sun Wu had already seized the Jiangdong area.

However, they did not set the core in Jiankang, but in Chaisang.

On the one hand, the local forces in Jiangdong are too powerful and have not yet been completely stabilized.

On the other hand, the Sun family’s base is in Changsha County. Chaisang can connect to Changsha County and contain various places in Jiangdong. Its geographical location is very suitable.

Jiangxia County is not far from Chaisang, and it can almost be said to be in the north of the Yangtze River.

Originally this was Huang Zu's territory, but Cao Cao's troops forced their way south and quickly defeated Huang Zu, seizing this place as their base.

Faced with the envoys sent by Eastern Wu, Cao Cao agreed without hesitation to join forces to deal with it.

After all, for Cao Cao, if he wants to fight back to his hometown, he must first defeat Chen Ran’s main army.

He doesn't have the ability himself, so it is inevitable that he will join forces with others.

The real problem actually lies with Liu Bei in Runan.

Liu Bei and his two brothers reunited with their released family members and Mi Zhu and others and fled to the vicinity of Runan in a panic.

This was the territory of the remaining Yellow Turban bandits. They used various means to subdue these remaining Yellow Turban bandits and took over Runan County to recuperate and restore their strength.

After finally being able to take a breath, they were willing to form an alliance with Sun's request.

But the problem is that once Chen Ran marches south, Runan County will inevitably be the first to bear the brunt.

Zhou Yu asked Liu Bei's troops to go south and cross the river, but Liu Bei was reluctant to give up his foundation in Runan County.

He had had enough of the days of wandering, and now that he had finally got a piece of land, he naturally couldn't give it up easily.

In Runan County, he could still use the banner of the Han Dynasty to attract people from all walks of life to join him and donate materials.

But if we cross the river and reach Sun Wu's territory, we will have to rely on others to provide us with even the food and fodder. Wouldn't that make us like rootless duckweed?

Faced with Zhou Yu's repeated urging, although he knew that he would not be able to hold on once Chen Ran went on the southern expedition, Liu Bei was still hesitant.

The final conclusion turned out to be "wait for the thief Chen to march south before strengthening our own strength."

As the saying goes, if you don't make a decision when you should, you will suffer the consequences.

Liu Bei, who had no top strategists around him to advise him, trusted his ability to escape too much.

He didn't think about it, or didn't want to think about it. Once Chen Ran launched his attack, he would definitely wipe out both him and Cao Cao with lightning speed.

Sure enough, not long after, when Chen Ran officially began his southern expedition, he first personally led an expedition to Runan County where Liu Bei was.

And troops from all directions marched southward in a mighty force, claiming to be an army of 830,000!

(End of this chapter)