28, March on Luoyang

"Desperate times call for desperate measures"—the ancients were indeed right.

That Liu Hong, as a dignified Son of Heaven, would actually take the initiative to perform sorcery and bring a paulownia wood puppet into the ancestral temple, left even God Huang Tian staring in astonishment.

Filial! Truly, how filial!

For such a filial emperor, let us leave him a complete corpse after we conquer Luoyang.

God Huang Tian gradually ceased his laughter, and at this moment, Zhang Jiao's voice sounded from outside the door.

"Enter."

Zhang Jiao pushed the door open and entered. After performing a salute, he knelt before God Huang Tian to report on the situation over the past month.

"...After our army took Ji Province, our momentum surged. Many scions of powerful clans and scholars from humble backgrounds have voluntarily joined the Political Academy, and the Science Institute has also absorbed some personnel. Several prominent families in Ji Province, such as the Feng Clan of Fanyang, the Zhen Clan of Wuji, and the Geng Clan of Julu, have all expressed their intention to submit..."

After finishing his summary of the general situation in Ji Province, Zhang Jiao immediately explained the status of the military:

"After the Great Battle of Guangzong concluded, our army captured various generals and commanders of the Han Army. Among them, Huangfu Song stubbornly refused to surrender and uttered vile insults; furthermore, he had slaughtered too many of our Huang Tian believers, so he was executed according to the law. Lu Zhi did not surrender, but he did not flatly refuse either. Fu Xie struck a pillar and died. Zong Yuan, Li Jue, Guo Dian, Guo Si, and other generals have all surrendered and are currently reorganizing and training troops for our army.

After absorbing the surrendered Han soldiers, and counting the forces garrisoned across the various commanderies of Ji Province, we have a total of 110,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry. Zong Yuan and the others intend to weed out the old and weak, leaving 90,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry..."

God Huang Tian nodded slightly. "Let them proceed with the weeding and reorganization. Of course, you must send men to supervise from the sidelines. This is not because we do not trust them, but to put their minds at ease."

Zhang Jiao understood God Huang Tian's meaning and nodded.

"How long will the weeding and training take, and is the grain supply sufficient?" God Huang Tian inquired.

"Two months will suffice," Zhang Jiao said. "Ji Province is wealthy; the granaries in the commanderies and counties have plenty of surplus, and with the grain offered by numerous powerful clans, it is enough to feed the various armies for over a year."

God Huang Tian smiled. "Since the weeding and training will take two months, then we shall wait. Two months from now, we march on Luoyang. However, before that, first conduct a land survey in Julu Commandery. Make a scene—the bigger, the better. It would be best to startle all the vermin in Ji Province before we set out to conquer Luoyang, catch a good batch of them, and slaughter them ruthlessly!"

Zhang Jiao said solemnly, "This disciple understands!"

The grand and vigorous land survey began in Julu Commandery.

While called a land survey, it was in reality more like "striking the local tyrants and dividing the land," because the great aristocratic families would never allow the imperial court or any other force to measure their fields.

Land was their foundation, an inexhaustible source of wealth, a treasure passed down through generations, and the basis for their retainers, slaves, and private armies. If they lost their land, the powerful clans would no longer stand so high above the rest.

Although the survey did not mean they had to give up all their land, but only surrender the fields and population they had concealed, in truth, the concealed portion was the lion's share...

Therefore, even under the explicit orders of the Dao Court's Political Academy, the powerful and wealthy of Julu Commandery remained sluggish, feigning compliance while secretly resorting to petty tricks.

This was not because they did not fear God Huang Tian, but because they thought: even if you are a god, you still need the support of powerful clans and scholars to rule the world. These mere Yellow Turban bandits are nothing but a bunch of mud-legged peasants; what do they know about governing a state?

A bunch of idiots who can't even read—what do they know!

It was precisely because they held such a mentality that they dared to secretly resist the orders of the Dao Court. However, they did not expect that God Huang Tian and Zhang Jiao were just waiting for them to jump out.

Marking the clans that feigned compliance with the survey order on a list, Zhang Jiao ordered the Yellow Turban Army to follow the list and exterminate their families.

Hundreds of people from powerful clans such as the You Clan, Shi Clan, Bu Clan, and Fang Clan of Julu were all executed, and eighty thousand mu of land and thousands of slaves were confiscated.

The Geng Clan of Julu, which had produced two-thousand-dan officials for generations and had four members who had been enfeoffed as marquises, also had over a dozen direct descendants captured and executed, with three thousand mu of land confiscated.

Julu Commandery was shaken, and hearts were filled with panic. Some clan scions serving in the Political Academy lost the heart to handle official business, and a few agitated individuals even wanted to seek an audience with Zhang Jiao and God Huang Tian to request a suspension of the survey order.

But God Huang Tian would not see outsiders at all; generally, only Zhang Jiao was permitted to seek an audience, let alone ordinary people. As for Zhang Jiao, he ignored the indignant officials from powerful clans, simply ordering them to be dismissed from their posts and never employed again. Consequently, no one dared to urge Zhang Jiao to stop the land survey ever again.

The great commotion in Julu Commandery soon spread throughout all of Ji Province, and the aristocratic families across the region were terrified by the Dao Court's ruthless methods.

Some quietly took their direct family members and moved out of Ji Province, heading toward Yu Province or Luoyang. Others, bolder, conspired with one another, sending their retainers and private soldiers disguised as bandits and marauders to attack the Yellow Turban Army garrisoned in the cities.

For a time, the fires of war rose everywhere in Ji Province.

Facing this situation, the Dao Court, with Julu Commandery as its center, unhurriedly dispatched tens of thousands of Yellow Turban soldiers to radiate outward, exterminating all bandits wherever they arrived.

If the bandits hid in the countryside, were too fast to pursue, or could not be found, the Dao Court ordered the local powerful clans to cooperate with the army in capturing them. If the clans could not find even a trace of the bandits within a set deadline, they were judged to be colluding with the rebels, and their entire families were exterminated!

After the extermination, all land and wealth were confiscated.

The cruelty of these methods left the powerful clans trembling with fear. Those who could flee did so, and those who could not bear to leave their ancestral foundations had no choice but to honestly surrender all their concealed land and population.

In just two short months, Ji Province had undergone a massive transformation.

Previously, Ji Province was filled with famous clans, with great families possessing hundreds or thousands of slaves and countless fields. Now, only a few stragglers remained; the aristocratic families had fallen, the powerful had been exterminated, and cries of grief filled the heavens.

Compared to the sorrowful elite families, the common people were overjoyed.

This was because through the survey, exterminations, and confiscations, the Dao Court had cleared out over two million mu of land and nearly one hundred thousand concealed people. And this was only the roughest of data; the true figures were certainly much higher.

These cleared lands were slowly distributed to the landless and land-poor. The reason it was slow was that after antagonizing the great clans, the Dao Court had too few civil officials, so they could only proceed gradually; rushing for success would only lead to a mess.

After simply sweeping through Ji Province, more than two months had passed. The surrendered Han soldiers and the original Yellow Turban Army had all finished their weeding and training. With Ji Province lacking neither grain, clothing, nor weapons and armor, a grand oath-taking ceremony for the expedition was held at Guangzong.

A full forty thousand elite infantry and ten thousand elite cavalry were arranged in neat phalanxes on the vast training ground. Swords and blades gleamed, spears and pikes stood like a forest, and banners obscured the sun.

God Huang Tian, dressed in a Cloud Pattern Daoist Robe, appeared on the high platform. The fifty thousand soldiers wore expressions of fanaticism, their eyes fixed unwaveringly upon the deity who protected them.

God Huang Tian waved his sleeve gently, and his calm voice spread across the wilderness: "Today, we march on Luoyang, execute the false emperor, and recreate the Great Peace of Huang Tian!"

As his words fell, the ten thousand troops raised their arms and cheered:

"March on Luoyang, recreate the Great Peace of Huang Tian!"

"March on Luoyang, recreate the Great Peace of Huang Tian!"

"March on Luoyang, recreate the Great Peace of Huang Tian!!!"