You have truly caused me great suffering!

January of the eighth year of Jianwu.

Even in the camps of the Jing army on their expedition to India, there was a festive atmosphere reminiscent of the Lunar New Year.

The grandeur of a dynasty at its peak is incomparable to that of its decline.

Chickens and cattle were slaughtered in the army, and celebrations continued.

Merchant ships and caravans from the Central Plains would often send a lot of supplies to the army in order to maintain good relations with the South China Sea Navy.

Today, businessmen and the military have a mutually dependent and complementary relationship.

Inside the central command tent, Wu Qian and Li Shiyan, brothers, were sitting facing each other, drinking.

Although it was the first month of the lunar calendar, it wasn't very cold in India, making it the perfect weather for fighting.

After the plague was brought under control, they marched off in haste and defeated the Chola army several more times. At this point, their forces were already close to Tandjavur.

The Chola dynasty was not the strongest in India.

There are at least five more of this size in India.

They both attacked and allied with each other.

Wu Qian calculated that it would probably take several years just to conquer the Chola Dynasty.

However, a war to destroy a nation that only lasts a few years is not necessarily impossible.

"It's a pity that we don't have the warhorses we used when fighting in the Central Plains."

Li Shiyan was renowned in Northwest China for commanding cavalry. He was extremely skilled at leading his troops in raids and had historically defeated the seemingly invincible Jurchen cavalry in open field battles.

Back in the Central Plains, he was used to fighting with horses, and the Jing army's configuration was one person with multiple horses.

However, although India is a large country, it does not produce horses, and horses have to be transported over mountains and rivers.

This made him very uncomfortable, as if he were fighting with his hands and feet tied.

"If we wait a few more years, and then the north comes in too, it will be easier to fight."

Once the northern road is opened, a steady stream of warhorses and cavalry will be able to enter India.

Although most of them were Yunnan horses, which were not as strong as the warhorses of the Northwest, they were still stronger than they are today.

The Jing army is far too reliant on warhorses. From the founding of the nation until now, they have dominated the world and always won by cavalry warfare.

"I heard that the king of the foreign kingdom here worships some Shiva and prays to the temple every day, hoping that this bird god will help him fight wars." Wu Qian poured himself a cup of wine, making no attempt to hide his disdain, and laughed, "How come once you leave the Central Plains, you see this kind of scum everywhere?"

Back when he was in the South China Sea, many island lords and rulers prayed to gods and Buddhas, hoping to rely on divine power to eliminate the Jing army.

This has only happened a handful of times in the thousands of years of history of the Central Plains.

Therefore, they find it difficult to understand.

When it comes to warfare, you can rely on military strategy, armor and weapons, and terrain and climate. But you absolutely cannot rely on praying to gods and Buddhas.

In the Central Plains, before you risk your life, you're unlikely to think of gods or Buddhas, but rather to pray for your ancestors' blessings to boost your morale.

“A few days ago, the supply train sent Indians from the Revenge Battalion to deliver cannons. Many Indians were kowtowing to the cannons by the roadside.” Li Shiyan said with a strange expression, “You didn’t see it, they looked very devout.”

The scene seemed incredibly bizarre to them.

If the natives were even slightly ignorant, they might scoff at them, but this level of ignorance was enough to make them a little uneasy.

Wu Qian chuckled, then shook his head; he himself was a believer in God.

He believed in gods and Buddhas, and would mutter a few words when he had nothing to do. If he came across a famous temple or ancient monastery, he would go in and burn incense.

But these are all things I do when I have free time.

When it comes to important matters, he has no time to worry about these things.

"Let them fight it out themselves first."

The fighting power of the Revenge Camp far exceeded their expectations, after all, it didn't take much effort to capture these people in the previous battle.

They surrendered almost immediately upon seeing Jing Jun.

But after surrendering, when they turned around and attacked those lords again, they all roared as if they didn't care about their lives.

This situation was not uncommon in the Central Plains. Li Shiyan was from the Western Army and had fought against the Western Xia.

He knew best those Qiang people; after surrendering to the Song Dynasty, when they turned their horses around to fight the Western bandits, they were the most ruthless.

After all, fighting the Jing army was just an order from the lords; it was a war fought for the masters.

As for attacking the lord, that truly lived up to their name, the 'Revenge Camp,' as everyone there had blood feuds spanning generations.

Looking at the world today, rulers oppress the ruled, but few are as thorough as India.

Even the most abhorrent Tibetan serfdom of later generations, with its many inhumane methods, was transmitted from India.

Wu Qian had personally witnessed former nobles urinating on the heads of commoners in the prisoner camp.

As a result, Commander-in-Chief Wei Ming had that lowly commoner beheaded.

Because you're already in the revenge camp, but you still don't dare to resist, how can you be qualified to join the revenge camp?

All I could say to him was: You're not one of our brothers, you're just a stranger.
These people's hatred was simply suppressed in their hearts, and they dared not let it erupt because of generations of fear.

After the monks from Chengtian Temple arrived, they stirred up the seeds of hatred without much effort.

After all, although India is powerful and knows how to use religion to brainwash people, its people at the bottom are also very resilient.

But how do you compare to the eternally unbroken lineage of Japan?
Even the most perverse Japanese could be turned into the most ruthless and brutal mob by the monks of Chengtian Temple.

In the land where Buddhism was born, the spread of the Dharma of Dajing Chengtian Temple was truly fertile ground.

Many people suddenly understood after hearing this, realizing that their miserable lives were all the fault of the lord.

The Silent Mother and Maitreya's Descent to Earth sound much more pleasant than the suffering caused by Shiva and the like.

This is the true God!
The Eternal Mother is everyone's savior. After killing these lords, the White Lotus will descend to earth, and all your descendants will no longer have to suffer.

Moreover, Buddhism originated from here and has not completely disappeared from India, so it cannot even be considered a cultural invasion.

People here find it easier to accept.

They might even feel that Buddhism originated from their region and is now influencing Jingjun's hometown, which is a special kind of honor.

Wu Qian and Li Shiyan, as the first batch of generals and commanders of the South China Sea Navy on an expedition, originally did not intend to mobilize the local natives to fight this war.

They are used to solving problems themselves, which is both quick and thorough.

However, due to the climate and the severe casualties caused by the pandemic, they had no choice but to adopt this proxy strategy.

It's just like how Chengtian Temple stirred up a mob in Japan to attack nobles.

The art of war in this world can never be judged by the strength on paper.

Today, thanks to its overseas mines, Dajing has made great progress in coal and iron smelting, enabling it to produce hundreds of thousands of suits of armor.

It can also raise millions of horses.

Logically speaking, this should be invincible. These armors and horses are enough to support the Great Jing in winning all wars with extremely low casualty rates.

But once the fighting actually starts, you'll find that things aren't that simple.

The situation varies from place to place. In many places, simply attacking is not advisable; appropriate methods must be used to conquer them.
-
"According to reports from India, although the area is extremely hot, farming there is indeed very productive."

Inside the Dajing Lecture Hall, the first thing scholars from the Central Plains would look at was the environment for farming.

Even though 80% of their current income comes from trade.

But there's nothing we can do about it; it's something ingrained in our bones.

Having enough to eat is more important than anything else.

Don't ever assume that just because an empire is powerful, everyone will have enough to eat.

Even with the level of productivity in later generations, there were still people who went hungry.

Food is the most important thing for people; this is not just a saying.

Which person in the Central Plains doesn't want a peaceful life? If they had enough to eat and a place to shelter from the wind and rain, who would be willing to risk their life?
But throughout history, there have always been rebellions, all stemming from desperation due to hunger.

Liu Jizu pondered, "The war in India has been going on for a year and a half, and it has cost a lot of money and food. The great harvest in the Southern Wilderness has all been invested in, and we don't know when we will see a return on our investment."

You don't know the cost of tea, rice, oil, and salt until you're in charge of the household. Now that he's the prime minister, even if he conquers India, the benefits to trade are obvious.

However, he also had to look at the issue from the perspective of a prime minister.

Rather than looking at it simply from a commercial perspective.

The Central Plains have not had a bumper harvest in the past two years. Japan and Korea, due to the destruction caused by war, have relied on the imperial court to supply them with grain.

The imperial court also had to support the western expedition, a massive army of 200,000 men, the largest of its kind since the founding of the Great Jing Dynasty.

Although many troops within the fortress provided their own supplies, there were still hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed.

The rice from the southern wilderness could have solved the immediate problem.

The land of Western Liao is a mixture of plateau, grassland and Gobi desert, and there are no large-scale grain-producing areas.

Using war to sustain war is simply unrealistic.

Only India, based on current intelligence, can be self-sufficient once it is conquered.

There is even a lot of surplus grain that can be used.

Whether a place is fertile or not can be determined by how many people it can support.

Both the Central Plains and India have always been populous regions, indicating that both places have a large amount of arable land.

Chen Shao's Great Jing Empire has been struggling financially ever since the day he started it.

Although we have a lot of money now, we only have enough food and other necessities.

The main reason is not that they don't earn enough or develop fast enough, but that the things they need to spend money on are constantly increasing.

Therefore, none of his successive prime ministerial teams had an easy time.

Liu Jizu, being a merchant by origin, was already quite tolerant and generally didn't go looking for trouble with Chen Shao.

It was rare to see someone complaining like this in the lecture hall before.

However, the two western expeditions, one by land and one by sea, still put too much pressure on him.

If Your Majesty had not involved the fortified villages in the Northwest in this western expedition, the court could have squeezed some resources out of them.

After all, everyone knows they're fat.

But right now, their own forces are frantically amassing merit in the west.

The supplies inside the fortress were all used to support their own troops.

As dusk fell, the officials of the Secretariat and Chancellery, who had been busy all day, also left one after another.

As Liu Jizu walked out of the lecture hall, he suddenly felt a sense of disorientation.

The sunset was exceptionally brilliant tonight; dusk enveloped the city, and the sky was ablaze with thousands of crimson flames.

The clouds layered from west to east, gradually changing from molten gold to orange-red, and then to a pale apricot yellow.

Sunlight bursts through the gaps in the clouds, like ten thousand golden threads piercing the sky, weaving the entire heaven into a flowing brocade.

Liu Jizu suddenly remembered that in the fifth year of Jianwu, Prime Minister Li had set up an official supervision system, which attracted the attention of all officials.

He submitted his resignation as prime minister and went to visit him in person. While he was at the residence, he was suddenly summoned by imperial decree.

He received the imperial decree and became prime minister; the evening glow was just like that on that day.

He was so excited at that time. After returning home, he went to the room with his father's portrait hanging on it and sat quietly for half the night without saying a word.

Liu Jizu's exhaustion suddenly vanished, and he entered a very mysterious state.

Looking at the sunset over the sky, which resembled a magnificent painting, I felt as if I were a part of it.

He turned and glanced at the imperial city, especially in the direction of the emperor's palace in the inner city.
-
Chen Shao was not in the inner palace at this time.

He was actually busy too.

Inside the Privy Council, a group of military officers, including Han Shizhong, Wu Jie, and Zhong Shizhong, were gathered in the courtyard.

Chen Shao sat on a stone bench and discussed the issue of 'soldiers' with them.

With the Great Jing now engaged in numerous wars, the status of soldiers needs to be different from that of the Great Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was preceded by the Five Dynasties. Zhao Kuangyin learned from the lessons of the Five Dynasties and implemented the policy of "raising soldiers to defend against internal strife"—recruiting refugees and starving people as soldiers, turning social instability factors into national mercenaries.

However, in order to prevent military generals from seizing power, the "rotation system" was implemented, so that soldiers did not know their generals and generals did not know their soldiers.

Soldiers were treated extremely poorly, and their faces were tattooed to prevent desertion ("tattooing"). Their social image was equated with that of criminals and beggars. This was especially true in the Southern Song Dynasty, where the proverb "Good iron is not used to make nails, good men do not become soldiers" originated in this context.

However, the low status of soldiers did not begin in the Song Dynasty.

In fact, during the pre-Qin period, soldiers were still considered "people of the state," and it was a very honorable profession.

It must be said that Cao Cao set a bad precedent.

Cao Wei implemented the "Scholar-Family System," which registered soldiers and their families into a special household register (military households), where they served as soldiers for generations and were not allowed to leave the register.

They were of low status and were often given as rewards or collateral; even marriages could only take place within the military households.

At this time, the "soldier" had transformed from the "people of the state" in the pre-Qin period into a status almost akin to serfs.

After the Western Jin Dynasty destroyed Wu, a large number of Wu soldiers became "military households," further reinforcing the social perception that "soldier = lowly profession."

In the early Tang Dynasty, the Fubing system was implemented. Soldiers farmed in peacetime and went to war in wartime. They provided their own weapons and food, but they could be allocated permanent land. Those who made outstanding military achievements could be awarded official titles, land grants, or even promotions.

At this time, "joining the army" became an honor, and the sons of noble families in Guanzhong also considered it an honor to join the army.

However, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the military system of conscripted soldiers collapsed and the system of recruiting soldiers rose, and the border troops gradually became the private armies of the military governors.

After the An Lushan Rebellion, regional warlords carved up the country, and soldiers became their appendages, causing the status of soldiers to decline once again.

Now that the Great Jing has expanded its territory and conquered so much land, it's time to elevate the status of soldiers once again.

It wasn't just the soldiers, but also the generals who won the battles.

Chen Shao wanted to seize this momentum and rediscover the martial spirit of the Central Plains from the pre-Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties. (End of Chapter)