Chapter 142 Zhang Liao's Reputation
Tian Ze is not a saint, but a very selfish person.
What he pursues wholeheartedly is still his own path to immortality, and other external things cannot hinder him in the slightest.
But this did not prevent him from acting like a saint.
The unique rules of this world and the special effects of the dragon-patterned jade pendant forced him to take this path.
And Tian Ze did not object to this.
As descendants of Yan and Huang, we grew up under the red flag and have the blood of Tian Qi flowing in our veins. It is our duty to do more good things for China.
People are born with an inherent yearning for beauty and order.
Perhaps because he grew up in a relatively good environment, although he has experienced many setbacks, Tian Ze always maintains a positive and optimistic attitude.
Being selfish does not prevent you from doing good things; being lazy does not prevent you from doing great things.
On the basis of taking care of yourself, do your best. It does not go against your conscience and benefits the world. Why not do it?
Therefore, Tian Ze in this life can be described as a typical person who is greedy for life and lustful, upright; lazy and passive, and has a global vision.
Although everyone knows their own business, everyone present was stunned when Tian Ze said this!
Big picture! Big heart!
The eyes of all the counselors were filled with fanaticism. At this moment, Tian Ze's figure seemed extremely tall in the eyes of everyone!
Compared with him, the world's role model Yuan Benchu and the hero of troubled times Cao Mengde are far inferior.
While this group of princes were still obsessed with conquering the world, Tian Ze was already thinking about how to start a new era, reproduce the Hundred Schools of Thought, and create achievements that surpass those of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor Wu.
This is totally not on the same level!
Of course, some words also depend on who is saying them.
If Tian Ze's remarks were put in the mouth of an ordinary small prince, they would be fanciful and nonsense. However, when put in the mouth of Tian Ze, who has more than 20 million people under his command and is about to have 500,000 soldiers, he is broad-minded and has lofty ambitions.
They personally witnessed how Tian Ze built such a huge force from scratch in nearly ten years.
Therefore they firmly believed that Tian Ze could do everything he said.
"My lord is a holy saint! He deserves to be the emperor!" Dong Zhao bowed his head and said.
The other counselors also bowed in submission.
This made Tian Ze feel a little embarrassed. He touched his nose lightly and thought to himself.
It seemed like they had misunderstood what I meant, but to some extent that did not seem to be wrong. Wasn't it enough for me to just get things done?
No matter what the original intention is, as long as the result is good, it's fine.
After figuring it out, Tian Ze no longer felt awkward and accepted everyone's greetings with peace of mind.
Then, Jia Xu seemed to understand something and suddenly asked, "My Lord, you asked me to collect intelligence on the families under your rule. Is it for?"
Tian Ze nodded and looked towards the northeastern plain on the map: "When the time is right, we will conduct a pilot project in Xingzhou first."
"In the future, Xingzhou will be under our rule, but we will not let these noble families work in vain. Their people can all be taken away, and the land they have opened up will be returned to them in multiples in proportion to the land they have opened up in the outside world."
Tian Ze had never thought of completely eliminating the aristocratic and powerful families, because that was almost impossible and not the right way.
Although the aristocratic families of this era were becoming corrupt and dark, they had not yet reached the level of the Jin Dynasty.
There are still many people of integrity among the aristocratic families, such as Xun You, Zhang Zhao and others under his command.
Although they were from aristocratic families, they were willing to follow him to weaken the aristocratic families, and they recognized it from the bottom of their hearts, because they clearly saw the mistakes of the aristocratic families' current path and what the true future of the world should be.
Perhaps in the original historical trajectory, they made different choices due to the changing times, but they are not the same as they were before. When the horizon is opened, the change of thinking may be just a matter of thought.
Moreover, Tian Ze knew very well how powerful the aristocratic families were.
How could Tianze destroy such a precious power that has been passed down for hundreds or even thousands of years? Dig out some of the bad ones, beat the rest, raise them, and then release them outside, wouldn't it be better?
Anyway, if there is a problem, it won't harm us. At worst, we can just exile these people to Europe and let them do whatever they want. Of course, this is a bit far-fetched. The territory of the Han Dynasty has not been conquered yet. Tian Ze quickly restrained his arrogance.
In the next few months, Tian Ze kept running around, using his talent to screen out problematic people among the refugees and "map" the rest of the Northeast Plain.
In fact, Tian Ze wanted to finish these "homework" a long time ago, but Yuan Shao acted too quickly and did not give him any time, so it was delayed until now.
He, who had a hard life, finally breathed a sigh of relief after using his talent to cover the last unknown area of the Northeast Plain.
too tired!
Not physically tired, but heart tired.
The Northeast Plain is so vast that it is almost as large as the entire Central Plains.
This meant he traveled across four or five states in two trips, and many horses were exhausted to death.
And this is not the end yet. It won't be long before he has to head to Taihang Mountains, where Zang Ba is currently suppressing bandits and occupying territory.
Just as Tian Ze was about to take a break, a battle report was delivered to Tian Ze.
The last Xianbei army in the northeastern plain has been caught up by Zhang Liao, and is currently heading towards Zongma Valley, the only remaining gap in the Great Xianbei Mountains.
Moreover, some tribes of the Central Xianbei and Western Xianbei were sending troops eastward, seemingly intending to support this large army.
Zhang Liao's final battle to pacify the Northeast Plain seemed to be about to begin.
After receiving the news, Tian Ze was no longer tired. He hurriedly rode his horse again and rushed to Zongma Valley with his personal guards who came to meet him halfway.
Zongma Valley is located at the junction of the Daxianbei Mountains and the Yanshan Mountains. There are towering mountains on both sides of the valley, and the valley entrance in the middle is about two miles long.
Few people came here in the past, because the border between the Great Xianbei Mountains and the Yanshan Mountains was full of river valleys and grasslands, and there were many more spacious passages than here.
However, now other places have been blocked by Han craftsmen casting the Great Wall fortresses, leaving only this gap for passage.
The moment he saw Taniguchi, the embarrassed Mika finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally escaped!
This past year or so was like a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people from the vast Eastern Xianbei tribe were gone just like that!
The old, weak, women and children were all taken away by the Han people. Although the Xianbei people who came back to persuade them to surrender said that it was true, what did that have to do with him? He was running out of people under his command!
The Han army's methods were too horrific, using both carrots and sticks. Not only did they treat ordinary Xianbei people generously, but their cavalry were also extremely fierce.
This once famous Xianbei leader was beaten and had no choice but to flee everywhere, but no matter how secretive a corner he fled to, he would be discovered by the enemy.
If he hadn't confirmed it countless times, he would really suspect that there was a spy among his own people, or that the other party had sent a trained hawk to follow him.
Of the tens of thousands of soldiers under his command, only 5,000 young and strong men are left. The rest were either killed in battle, captured or surrendered voluntarily.
Only by escaping from the Northeast Plain can he have a chance of survival.
He was completely frightened. This group of Han people was simply invincible, and their pursuit ability was particularly strong.
If he hadn't had fewer soldiers and horses, I'm afraid he wouldn't have been able to escape at all.
"Zhang Liao is coming! Zhang Liao is coming!"
Just when Mika had just caught his breath, the scouts from behind had already arrived, shouting in panic.
Upon hearing these words, the originally exhausted Xianbei cavalry suddenly became like they had encountered a flood and a ferocious beast. They waved their whips like crazy and rushed towards the valley entrance.
Mika was completely powerless to stop it, and he was also desperately riding his horse to escape, so he had no time to care.
Over the past year or so, Zhang Liao's name has spread throughout the entire Eastern Xianbei.
Even now, for those resettled Eastern Xianbei people, a cry of “Zhang Liao is here” can immediately stop the crying of children and turn the place into complete silence.
But for these fleeing Xianbei cavalry, this sentence was a death warrant. They were afraid that they would run too slowly and be caught up by Zhang Liao.
Xu Huang, who was halfway up the mountains on both sides of Zongma Valley, had just prepared supplies and was planning to start defense after the Xianbei cavalry left to make it easier for the logistics personnel to build the Great Wall. When he heard the shout and saw the Xianbei cavalry fleeing for their lives, he couldn't help but smile.
"Wenyuan's reputation is enough to intimidate the Xianbei!"
(End of this chapter)
