Chapter 4 Section 34 Thunder Oath

Thunder and lightning were frequent.

On the Guoshi Tower, the lightning that kept falling slashed on the bronze tiles, splashing bursts of sparks, and the heavens and the earth seemed to be shaking. The power of nature was so great that the senators who arrived were terrified and kept shrinking to avoid the thunder.

Liu Bei was wearing a red cloak and stood on the highest step in front of the Guoshi Tower, looking proud.

The Master once said, "What is heaven? What the hell is it? At four o'clock, all things are born. God's for it.

Could this thunder be the heavens talking?

It is always recorded in the history books: because someone has moral problems, lightning strikes someone's house, or even chops someone to death; Because the king did not cultivate virtue and government, lightning struck and damaged the king's palace.

Of course, it is not only thunder, but any disaster in nature can be linked to someone's morality. It's a drought, maybe it's someone, maybe it's a certain minister - in short, whoever the Confucian scholars want to hit, just say whose morality (or practice, or policy) is problematic, and God uses this drought to borrow lightning strikes, locusts to borrow ****, and borrow any disaster they can find to punish the people. In their eyes, God is not a loving father who cares for the people, but a tyrant who can't see the slightest mistake of the people, and will only take advantage of disasters again and again, with countless innocent lives, to take bloody revenge on people's betrayal.

The moral law of man comes from the heart, what does it matter?

"Everyone in the world thinks that there is a thunder god, and the thunder god is in charge of punishing evil", seeing that the elders have arrived, and seeing the frightened and cowering expressions on the faces of countless patriarchs, Liu Bei said intermittently in the interval of thunder: "I want to tell you that there is no thunder god in this world." ”

A rumbling thunder sounded, as if dissatisfied with Liu Bei's assertion, the patriarchs knelt on the ground in fear, their faces were as white as earth, among them, the patriarch from a tribe was the worst.

"There is only one god in this world, and that is our Father God in heaven." Liu Bei proudly raised his hand, pointed to the sky above his head and said, "The Father is loving, and the Father is concerned about his lost child." God the Father does not ask His children to pay for their lives and make amends for their mistakes. So, whenever we suffer, don't complain. ”

The patriarchs all bowed their heads to the ground, and between heaven and earth, only Liu Bei, Guan Ning and a few others were standing.

"Wind, rain, thunder and lightning are just a product of God's creation of this world, and we are His favorite children." Liu Bei took a breath and announced loudly: "Today, we hereby swear that the Father will once again show the power of heaven and earth, and use thunder and lightning to show his love for us and his blessing to us. Thunder moves from the rain, Qingzhou has not rained for two months, and the fields are dry. Now that the thunder is coming, is the rain still far away? ”

As he spoke, a light rain began to fall. In the thunderstorm, Liu Bei loudly declared: "Today, we swear with the elders of all tribes and counties that God of God will come with thunder and lightning and bless us. I declare that this oath is called the Thunder Oath. May our children and grandchildren remember this moment for generations to come, and may our children and grandchildren remember our oath that all beings are children of God the Father, and that we stand here today and swear together that our children and grandchildren may always be brothers for all generations. ”

In contrast to the complete surrender of the tribes before the Han Dynasty, this time, Qingzhou only asked the tribes to be their eternal brothers, not slaves or ruled. At this moment, the tribes forgot their fears, forgot the thunder and lightning, and replied in unison with tears: "Forever brothers." ”

A cluster of lightning struck the tallest thunder tower, and in the burst of lightning emitted by the bronze tiles, Liu Bei shouted loudly: "Enter the tower to sign a contract." Then he turned around and went straight in.

Zhang Fei did not hesitate and followed Liu Bei, Guan Yu groaned slightly, and also followed.

When the civil officials looked at each other, Gao Tanglong stood up and walked firmly into the tower.

The lightning struck the top of the tower again, and the elders let out a scream of terror. At the same time, Guan Ning smiled slightly and calmly walked towards the tower.

The thunder rang out again, as if brewing for the next lightning. Frustrated, he gritted his teeth, crossed his heart, and followed Liu Bei away. Then, the generals swarmed in.

One of the tribal elders shouted, "This is the blessed land of the gods, this is the 'Tiandanyu' that the gods have chosen for us, and the gods have told us by the power of lightning." Every high-ranking official in Qingzhou enters, there is a lightning, which is a blessing. Brothers, let us also enjoy the blessings of heaven. ”

The tribal elders woke up from a dream and scrambled to squeeze into the tower.

At the top of the tower, the lights suddenly lit up, illuminating the gloomy sky. In the constant lightning, it is particularly dazzling.

According to ancient legends, the Yellow Emperor gave birth to nine sons, and these nine sons multiplied into different tribes, and after the great flood came, many tribes took refuge in all directions, so they separated from each other, and bred different languages and scripts, becoming different tribes. In the thunder and lightning, Liu Bei stood in front of the table where the league book was placed, and after each tribal elder signed the contract, passing by Liu Bei's side, Liu Bei gave a warm bear hug and said repeatedly: "Brother, welcome home." ”

All the elders who heard this immediately burst into tears and wept silently.

Now that the Qingzhou Confederation system was complete, the remaining questions for the elders were to consult with Qingzhou: how many administrative officials to send to help them manage their tribes, and how much to determine the amount of "military tax" that their tribes should pay each year. Because of the feeling of coming home, and the heart-wrenching scene in front of Reta, the dispatch official job, which was expected to be slightly boycotted, became the most popular thing. Seeing the prosperity of Qingzhou, and thinking that according to the confederation covenant, these officials nominally belonged to their own management, and the elders of the various tribes were eager to invite more to go back, so as to narrow the gap with Qingzhou overnight. As a result, the number of places to send officials became the most popular thing, and the tribes quarreled with each other about it.

According to the covenant, the tribes that paid taxes to Qingzhou in the form of military tax (blood tax) were required to provide their own Qingzhou standard armor, weapons, and horses, and the tribe also needed to bear the salaries of these soldiers. This salary is paid to Qingzhou and paid by Qingzhou. However, according to the "Law on Rewarding Military Merit", most of the spoils of war belonged to the soldiers, and they could also receive knighthoods and rewards for their military exploits, and they were allowed to settle freely in the rich Qingzhou in the future. In addition, these soldiers can also learn simple Chinese and basic ordnance knowledge in the barracks. This temptation made the senators who wanted to arrange for their children to settle in Qingzhou very excited, so the quota of the military tax became a hot topic of dispute among the elders.

This time, the military tax issued by the Qingzhou Governor's Office was 10,000 cavalrymen, and the military service year was from June of the same year to May three years later. They are divided into heavy cavalry (charging cavalry), light cavalry (combat archers), and rangers (archers and patrols) based on their physical fitness and skills. The Sanhan tribe (counted as three tribes), the Northern Bull tribe, the Tianma tribe, the Aries tribe, and the Flying Eagle tribe are old subordinate tribes, and their upper limit is about 1,000, and the specific number is determined by themselves. The remaining less than 3,000 places were allocated by the newly annexed Kumoxi tribe, Fuyu tribe, Filth tribe, and Wofu tribe.

As for the Nangong Bull Tribe, after five years of settling down and living in Jieshi, raising cattle in captivity, their breeding industry has moved towards great development, and the breeding cattle are in short supply in Qingzhou as cultivated cattle. Although the wealthy Southern Bull tribe still maintained their strong physical strength, they now preferred to pay their taxes normally or serve as a guard in their native village rather than stay away from their own herd.

In view of this situation, the Nangong Bull tribe has completely implemented a compulsory military system like Qingzhou County. Therefore, the Southern Bull tribe is not included in the military tax quota this time.

After the signing of the covenant, the arms sales in Qingzhou were fully opened to the oath tribes. In order to equip their own blood tax soldiers, these days, the weapon store has become the hottest store. At the same time, since most of the steppe tribes did not have their own currency and were relatively poor, they had to pay their bills with fine war horses. A large number of horses poured into Qingzhou, causing the price of horses to plummet. As a result, sales of horse-drawn carriages also boomed immediately.

The prosperity of carriage sales has led to the prosperity of 28 industries, such as the wheel industry, the carriage manufacturing industry, the lamp manufacturing industry, the glass industry, the wood processing industry, etc. In the summer and autumn of this year, it has become the harvest season for many people.

With the assistance of advanced ordnance, coupled with the advanced management technology of Qingzhou officials, it is believed that these tribes will soon rise on the grassland. They will become the northern barrier of the people of the Central Plains, and the Han nation will no longer have to go through the dark age of hundreds of years of chaos and chaos. They will also be the guide and advance team of Qingzhou's meritorious grassland.

With an accurate latitude and longitude positioning system, even if the mountains and rivers change and the vicissitudes of life, the fields of rewards that soldiers have received for their exploits will not change. According to the Law on Rewards for War Achievements, the land of the ruler is not determined to be terra nullius, and according to the principle of who conquers and owns, Qingzhou only has the right to rule, and as long as the new owner of the land confirms Qingzhou's right to rule, Qingzhou will recognize his right to own. For the first 10 years of the new occupation of the land, as long as the lord has paid the same amount of labor or development on the land, he can be exempted from land tax.

Undeveloped land is cheap, which is equivalent to a basic tax exemption for the first 10 years. Tribes equipped with advanced ordnance immediately set off a wave of expansion. Unexpectedly, this wave also swept Qingzhou, so that in one year, Qingzhou had no troops available except for the standing army......

Liu Bei spent the whole month of June, during which Yuan Shao sent three waves of messengers, one wave more arrogant and one wave more eager. Under Kong Rong's repeated urging, on the first day of the seventh month, Liu Bei met with Chen Lin.

"The Guoshi Building has been opened, Qingzhou is about to start comprehensive education, and a large number of education (teachers) are urgently needed in various schools, is Brother Kong Zhang interested in succumbing?" As soon as they met, Liu Bei asked.

"It's just an edification seat", Chen Lin pouted secretly: "My name moves the world, only give me an indoctrination seat, it's too underestimating me." ”

Chen Lin replied with righteous words: "I will follow the original prince, how can I not do my best for the original prince, and if I am not good at being a minister, I will not be ridiculed by the world." ”

This time it was Liu Bei's turn to pout: since ancient times, Confucian treason has been scrambling. The number of widows was originally small, but in history there were fewer Confucian priests than chaste widows. said it so high-soundingly, but he just wanted to sell himself for a good price. It's a pity that Chen Lin is best at chanting poetry. I have not heard of any effect it has on the development of productive forces, the progress of science and technology, the victory or defeat of wars, and so on. Letting him teach others to read is already my greatest tolerance for him. In this way, I was afraid that he would poison the students and make the students lose their blood.

Let's go, let him fly the unripe birds.

Liu Bei shook his head, no longer talked about the topic of soliciting Chen Lin, his face sank, and he ordered: "Submit the letter." ”

A look of disappointment crossed Chen Lin's face, and she respectfully presented the letter. Liu Bei didn't look at it, turned over the letter paper, picked up the pen and wrote a few big characters: "If you want food, beg me, do you dare to come and get it?" ”

Liu Bei returned the letter and said loudly: "There are three waves of envoys, who speak insulting and insulting to the people of Qingzhou. Command: Pull out the teeth of the three messengers and beat them out with their staffs. ”

Liu Bei was furious, and the rest of the officials in the hall were silent, not daring to persuade each other. Chen Lin picked up the letter in a daze, bowed silently and retired.

By the end of July, the soldiers selected by the tribes were gradually in place. The storm at sea passed, the Donglai army was completed, Liu Hun was ready to leave for the Wa Kingdom, and Liu Bei personally came to see him off.

"First establish a foothold in Sunrise City, and then, gradually expand your influence, and then control the entire Kyushu Island, and when Kyushu Island is all in your hands, gradually invade northward." Liu Bei advised: "After taking Kyushu Island, half of the East China Sea is in our hands, and Qingzhou's maritime defense circle will be sound, show your ability to govern the country, let me see." ”

Liu Hun really came to his senses this time, and responded with tears: "Father, Hun Er has made many mistakes, if it wasn't for his father's maintenance, Hun Er would have died before he was nine years old." Now, Hun Er is far away, I don't know if I can see my father again in this life, father, take care, father, remember to come and see me. ”

Liu Hun knelt on the ground, knocked his head three times, and his forehead was bloody.

Liu Bei hugged Liu Hun and said, "When you go out, you have to be alone, don't be childish anymore." You are facing the most vicious barbarian in the world, make a mistake once, and never have a chance to turn over, remember. ”

Liu Hun wiped a handful of tears and asked, "What else does my father have to explain?" ”

Liu Bei stretched out his finger and said word by word: "Eight-character policy: kill all the men and rob all the women." Colonization, his trick is to control the most likely number of people with the fewest people. If there are too many people, it will cost too much, and the cost will be too large, and the local people will be more resistant. The fewer people who colonize, the more abundant the fruits of their plunder, the more they will have the motivation to colonize, and the more they will spare no effort to carry out our colonization actions. It is necessary to implement a soft policy in the territory, but the general policy is: kill all the men and rob all the women. If you can't rob it, you can buy all the women and sell them to Qingzhou. The imbalance between young men and women in Qingzhou is just what we can do to promote 'ethnic integration'. ”