Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 97 Because I really have ancestors!

There was a clang of armor outside the door, but silence inside the house.

The smile on Lin Dao's face gradually faded, and he sat there with his hands spread out.

"I originally set my heart towards the bright moon, but the bright moon shines on the ditch."

He leaned forward, his expression solemn and his words sincere, making his final effort.

"I swear by the Luo River."

"As long as you are willing to deal with the Huan family of Qiao State, I will accept you."

Wang Shu remained unmoved and sneered.

"Swear by the Luo River?"

"Master, do you think I have never read history books?"

"If the Marshal is willing to swear in the name of our ancestors, we are willing to believe it."

"No." Lin Dao immediately shook his head and refused.

His straightforward refusal made Wang Shu a little confused. "Why?"

“Because I really have ancestors!”

The room fell into silence again.

After an unknown amount of time, Wang Shu, with a flushed face, stood up and said, "Marshal!"

He took a deep breath, his eyes locked on Lin Dao, "There are so many wealthy families in this world, can you kill them all?"

"Without us, how will Wenhua be passed on?"

"Without us, who will serve you as an official?"

"It should be possible." Lin Dao responded sincerely, "The barbarians can kill millions."

"How many millions can you wealthy families have?"

"As for Wenhua, a monopolized Wenhua is meaningless."

"Become an official? You who rely on fairy tales like lying on ice to catch carp to become an official, stop joking."

"We, the wealthy and powerful, certainly don't have millions of dollars." Wang Shu took a deep breath, "But those who depend on us for their livelihoods are far more than millions."

"Does the Marshal intend to wear his hair on the left and transform himself into a barbarian?"

"How is that possible?" Lin Dao shook his head repeatedly. "In fact, the troops I brought across the river this time were less than 20,000."

"If it's as you say, even if we were faced with millions of people and everyone peed, we would still be drowned."

Wang Shu suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

There are only more than 10,000 troops?

Originally, people thought that Lin Dao came with an army of 100,000, and many people in the palace were scared to death.

If there were only more than 10,000 troops, as long as they could hold on to the imperial city, they might be able to counterattack when the reinforcements from all directions arrived!

Wang Shu happily imagined a counterattack, and even curled up the corners of his mouth and smiled.

It was as if he had already seen the hundreds of thousands of troops coming to the capital to support the king, surrounding the city of Jiankang tightly.

The soldiers around Lin Dao were exhausted to death one by one, and finally only the beggar general was left, kneeling in front of everyone and begging for his life. This was the scene in the dream.

"You don't think I'll send troops to siege the wealthy and powerful, do you?"

Lin Dao sighed, "The army is used to fight wars."

"." Wang Shu looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

"I've already made arrangements here."

Lin Dao took out a stack of notices and handed them to Wang Shu.

"Announce this to the military and civilians throughout Jiangzuo."

"Jin has fallen, and the land that once belonged to Jin can be taken by the soldiers and civilians of the world."

"To put it simply, I want the people of Jiangzuo to divide up your fields, your property, your estates, your livestock, and everything you own."

Wang Shu was furious. "Who dares?!"

He took a deep breath and said, "We, the wealthy and powerful, all have our own private soldiers and retainers!"

"Those poor peasants who can't even afford to eat, still want to share the land?"

"The private soldiers will slaughter them all!"

"Don't be so impulsive," Lin Dao said kindly. "Have you ever really thought about it? I was able to take Jiankang City in one battle, but why did I surround the palace but not attack the city?"

"." Wang Shu suddenly felt something was wrong.

I feel like something bad is going to happen, but I don't know where.

Then he heard Lin Dao's explanation, "They are using you as bait to lure the local tyrants from all over Jiangzuo, the private soldiers and retainers of the wealthy families, and the Sima clans from all over to bring their troops to rescue the king."

"The soldiers I brought will eliminate them one by one. This is what soldiers should do."

"Once all your private soldiers and retainers are dead, who will be able to stop the common people from dividing up the land?"

"Just based on those young men who took the Five Stones Powder and became dissolute?"

"They have trouble writing with a brush, how can they even write cursive script? How can they lift a sword?"

Lin Dao's move was to mobilize the common people to wage a people's war.

Ordinary temptations are unlikely to motivate millions of common people to pick up hoes, sticks, and dung forks.

The only possible temptation is the fields!
For agricultural people, fields are even more important than life.

If the common people picked up hoes, wooden sticks, and dung forks, they would be suppressed by the thugs hired by the wealthy and powerful families.

Lin Dao had deliberately let those fleeing wealthy families pour into the palace in order to use them as bait to lure all the thugs over.

The common people holding dung forks could not beat those thugs.

But the soldiers of the Qihuo Army were able to kill them all!

Without the suppression of these thugs, the clan members of the wealthy and powerful families in Jiangzuo would naturally be unable to stop the uprising of the common people.

Otherwise, you really think you can rely on more than 10,000 soldiers to kill your way through the entire Jiangzuo.

Wang Shu's body shook and his face turned red as blood.

He stretched out his hand tremblingly and pointed at Lin Dao.

The voice was trembling like a sieve. "You~you are so vicious~~~"

"You occupy the vast majority of the means of production." Lin Dao spread his hands, "yet you make it impossible for the vast majority of people to survive, turning them into your serfs."

"The Shang Dynasty has been gone for ages, yet they're still doing this."

"It's you wealthy and powerful people who are poisoned."

"Wow~Puff~" Wang Shu, furious, suddenly covered his chest and spat out blood. Lin Dao was greatly surprised. "Is it true that you can vomit blood when you are extremely angry?"

"Liu Hu," Lin Dao called out, "Arrange for him to rest and be well taken care of. Ask the military doctor to prescribe some medicine."

"We must take him to the banks of the Luo River to witness Sima Shi's quest to find the Luoshen, fulfilling their vow. We cannot die now."

Wang Shu, who was already extremely angry, fainted after hearing this.

The news of the capture of Jiankang City spread rapidly throughout Jiangzuo as if it had wings.

After going through the stages of disbelief, shock, and terror, people from all over Jiangzuo were wondering what to do next.

According to common sense, once the capital has been captured, it is almost time to issue an order to conquer all other places.

Even if there are still loyal ministers, it is difficult for them to make any waves.

But along with them came messengers from the imperial court and various wealthy families.

Without exception, they claimed that they had gone through brutal fighting before they broke out of the encirclement and delivered the letter.

The messengers said that it was the beggar army that broke into the city.

Although they captured the city, they were short of troops and failed to capture the palace.

The emperor and a number of important officials in the court are still defending the palace.

An imperial edict was sent, calling on all parts of the world to come to the king's defense.

The enemy troops were not numerous, and the leaders of the wealthy families and the emperor were still there.

With these two prerequisites, troops from all over the country quickly began to gather to support the king.

In the entire Eastern Jin Dynasty, the most powerful person was Huan Wen, who guarded Jingzhou.

Most of the most elite and capable soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty were under his command.

But he couldn't move.

On the one hand, the newly joined Qiang people were unstable.

If the army leaves Jingzhou, it may lead to the Qiang people massacring Jingzhou.

In addition, Wang Meng had arranged early on for Qin Lang's army to march south to threaten Jingzhou.

If he went to rescue Jiankang, he would most likely lose his foundation in Jingzhou.

For Jiangzuo, the importance of Jingzhou is unquestionable.

Although Huan Wen was anxious, he had no other options.

He could only hope that the reinforcements from all over the country would be able to defeat the Qihuo Army and recapture Jiankang City.

"Is this Jiangzuo's army?"

Standing on the top of the city wall, Lin Dao held up a telescope and looked at the reinforcements who were setting up camp.

This is an army from Guangling County that is loyal to the king.

Through the reconnaissance of scouts and the statistics of drones, there are about four to five thousand county soldiers, a larger number of private soldiers, and a large number of civilian laborers.

The military system of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was a strange phenomenon that originated from the power of aristocratic families.

The military commanders and lieutenants at the middle level and above were basically controlled by the children of wealthy families.

For people of ordinary background, no matter how capable they are, becoming a tower master is the limit of their career.

When these sons of wealthy families left their posts, the imperial court would take the initiative to send them a group of soldiers to serve as their private troops.

The strong and healthy ones were picked and became the private guards of the wealthy families.

The remaining imperial troops were all old men and children.

As for why this is the case, it is naturally because those in power in the court are all from wealthy and powerful families.

To put it bluntly, it is just sucking blood from the imperial court.

In addition, each family and clan would independently recruit brave men to serve as their retainers.

Their military strength is stronger than that of the imperial court.

"White-haired soldier, Boy Scout."

Lin Dao put down the telescope and told Liu Hu, "Lead the elite troops out of the city for a night attack at night."

"I won't fight anyone else, I'll just fight those private troops."

Liu Hu immediately bowed and accepted the order.

Lin Dao once said that night attack is a very difficult thing.

First of all, there are not many elite soldiers who can launch night attacks. After all, due to night blindness, most people cannot see clearly at night.

The second is the strict defense.

The camp is surrounded by guard posts and various defensive facilities.

If we fail to penetrate, it will inevitably cause heavy losses.

Because of this, every successful night attack is worthy of being included in textbooks.

The reason why Lin Dao is now taking the initiative to fight at night is because of the support of technology.

Among the elite troops he brought with him, there were almost no patients with night blindness.

As for the various defensive fortifications outside the camp, Lin Dao has a crane.

In front of the crane, the so-called fortifications seemed so ridiculous.

At midnight, thousands of elite soldiers, holding torches and forming a line, marched out of the city in a swagger.

It was called a night attack, but in reality it was more like a storming attack.

The military camps of Guangling County were separate, with several camps of varying sizes.

The largest one is the private army gathered by the wealthy families in Guangling County.

The camp was heavily guarded, with the private soldiers wearing armor and holding weapons, nervously awaiting the attack.

'Gee-gee-gee~~~'

Under the cover of night, a deafening and strange noise came from far away.

Due to limited vision, the private soldiers could only vaguely see that there was a blurry but extremely huge thing slowly approaching in the darkness.

The piercing sound was so deafening that it made one's scalp tingle.

Amidst the horrified waiting, the strange and harsh sound finally arrived in front of the camp.

By the light of the whirling lanterns, torches and braziers.

The private troops from several families in Guangling County were finally seen clearly.

".Monster~~~"

(End of this chapter)