Realm of Power

In the evening, the setting sun shone on the city. Fatty's carriage entered the road of Fengtian City on Dijing West Road. The hustle and bustle that hit his face showed the vitality of the city in front of him. How could there be such vitality and flow of people in the evening? The entire Central Asia is also an area ruled by the empire. Because of the relationship between imperial merchants, the cities managed by the empire cannot help but stay dark at night.

Unlike other areas in Central Asia, no matter how prosperous it was before, once the 800 o'clock night drum starts counting in the evening, everything on the street will become panic, and everyone will look like someone is chasing behind them. Rush home as fast as you can, otherwise when the count is over, the city’s police officers will start arresting people.

When the sun goes down, it is the beginning of the night ban. This is the tradition in Central and South Africa.

The wave of refugees rolling away from the north has had a devastating blow to the security of the entire southern region of Central and Bibia. A large number of refugees poured into the cities and streets of the south, fighting for food and survival on cold winter nights. Anything can happen if we go on. Robbery and murder are commonplace. Every time the sun illuminates the city streets again, we can always find corpses lying in the darkness.

There were many people gathered at the fork in the city street where the notice was posted. It was a notice recruiting craftsmen. There was a table in front of the notice, and a person who looked like a clerk was sitting there, writing down an applicant. The content on the notice is that Xicheng is widening the pier and needs to call in workers. The wages on the notice are not high, but they can barely guarantee the expenses for a family of three.

The Central Asians discovered that the Empire seemed to have a soft spot for expanding docks. Since taking over the Imperial Capital West Road, a large number of people have been recruited almost every day to expand the river terminals in various cities on the Imperial Capital West Road. Imperial West Road serves as the gateway to and from the Imperial Capital. road, land route The construction is first-class in the whole of Central Asia, and the waterway is even more outstanding. Two broad rivers named Fengtai and Fengchang directly run through the entire Dijing West Road, and finally converge into the Dijing Plain, which is also the hundred-mile long Dijing. The origin of Tinghe,

At that time, 60% of the supplies for the capital's over one million people relied on the waterway of the west road of the capital to be transported in continuously. Unfortunately, the grassland people's several attacks on the imperial capital were all along these two large rivers. In order to rely on the advance, hundreds of thousands of defenders of the Central Asian Imperial Capital fought together with the prairie cavalry on these two rivers. After the bloody battles, the originally complete river docks had been destroyed beyond recognition. After the Yelu family occupied Dijing West Road, the grassland people would not care about these rivers. Bertrand Bonnie After taking over Dijing West Road, the first order Fatty issued was to open up water transportation on Dijing West Road.

After all, it has only been more than a month since the Empire took control of Imperial Capital West Road. Even if it was fully operational, only one-third of the repair work had been completed.

The original people on the Imperial Capital West Road have been resettled by the empire and even allocated land. It is now spring and summer, and the rainy season has just passed. It is a critical moment for reclamation and indoctrination, so the manpower for repairing the docks has suddenly become scarce. Bertrand Bonnie had to recruit people from the Central Asians who came back from the south.

Most of the people gathered in front of the notice are refugees who have recently returned from the south. The land on Dijing West Road has been divided long ago and has nothing to do with them. The way they can make a living now is to find various jobs in the city. For The empire has no plans to continue allocating land to these people. The cities on Dijing West Road need these laborers, and the empire has no plans to continue allocating land. It is impossible to allocate land to everyone. If you want to survive, you have to work for the empire. Originally, Bertrand Bonnie was a little worried that these returning refugees would cause trouble, but the result was unexpected. Most of these returning Central Asians were originally It is the residents of the city who fled south to escape the war. Now that they are back, as long as they have jobs, no one will make trouble.

After the turmoil of the war, I realized that living is not easy. No matter how the rule of these aliens is, at least I no longer have to worry about being kidnapped and sold by the southerners with a horse rope while walking on the street. Watching his wife and daughter being bullied and forced to bleed, they will not be beaten by the Southern Sect The nobles surrounded them like herds of sheep and claimed to be their domestic slaves. From then on, they became servants with no status. Even if they were beaten to death by their masters, they were the kind of despicable people who would not be questioned because they were beaten to death by their masters. He is a refugee and a gangster. Even if he reports it to the government, no one will care about him.

The management of the population in Zhongbia is based on the land. The law does not allow farmers to leave the land, otherwise it is illegal. The government establishes the management scope according to the names on its own account books. These refugees from the north are Those who cannot obtain household registration are not under the control of the government, unless they are from above or below. After obtaining documents, these refugees must be included in the regional register. The problem is that the court not only ignores these refugees, but even asks local governments to expel these refugees. This is the situation of refugees in the north. Compared with what they experienced in the south, What the empire has done can already be described as kind.

In fact, no matter what kind of mentality these returning refugees have, they have begun to accept the fact that

No one can tell how long the rule of these aliens will last, and no one can tell whether a large-scale war will break out. But here, they can survive without being expelled or expelled. They will be turned into domestic servants who can be executed at any time. Even if they are full of questions and worries, they are buried deeply in their hearts at this moment. They will never doubt whether the empire can be unified. How long it will last is a topic of conversation after dinner. The only thing you need to pay attention to here is not to blatantly oppose the empire. Although the administrators of the empire don't care much about the opinions of civilians, once someone violates this bottom line, the murderous army of the empire will They will go out and arrest the offenders mercilessly. The next day, these people's heads will appear on the flagpole in the central square of the city.

For example, at this moment, the fat man's eyes fell on a series of kite-like heads, and he smacked his mouth.

"This must be Hu Tianan and his six men who were executed by your order two days ago. I heard that you are very famous now. When you came back from the south this time, people in Central and South Africa called you the murderer king. "Fat Eyebrows" Lifting his head, he seemed to be smiling, completely ignoring the awkwardness that could not be concealed on the cold and pretty face of Bertrand Bonnie opposite him.

"These people coming from the south are completely unaware of the empire's laws. Considering the situation on Dijing West Road that has just been stabilized, they also hope to be as tolerant as possible. I didn't expect that the other party would be so wanton. This Hu Tianan is just When the empire distributed land, a small landowner thought that the empire's distribution was unfair. I ignored him. Unexpectedly, he led his people to beat those who distributed the land, resulting in six deaths and eight injuries. In the end, he had no choice but to I can only order him to be killed."

Bertrand Bonnie's voice stopped, and the anger on her face was like burning

Killing is the least technical method of governance. As a military general, Bertrand Bonnie claims to be able to run and manage the army. She has complained before that Fatty refused to appoint her as the governor of a region. , it is not easy to become a real guard now, managing the imperial capital of six to seven million West Road, naturally hopes to let Fatty see his outstanding ability in government affairs, but in front of these people, any excuse is feeble. Bertrand Bonnie is full of anger now, if this Hu Tianan can survive , Bertrand and Bonnie were ready to kill her again before she could solve the problem.

"Now that you've made a move, why are you still hesitating?" The fat man looked away from the flagpole and curled his lips indifferently.

"What does the teacher mean?" Bonnie Berlant's face was stunned for a moment.

"Those who are not from our race must have different minds. This is the habitual thinking of Central Asians. There are nearly two million Central Asians returning from the south this time. Among them, there are many regional nobles like Hu Tianan. This Huan Tian is just a flag used by others to test the empire. He has made trouble to such an extent that you have just killed a few people. For those larger families, such a ruler is synonymous with easy talk. According to I know that although Hu Tianan was beheaded by the empire, his wife and children received a settlement allowance of one thousand gold, and because of this incident, he achieved the purpose of slandering the empire's land division law. I believe Soon, some people will make a fuss and demand that the land be redistributed. By then, these people who have returned from the south will no longer be able to live in peace. If there is land to get, they will have to fight for it! "

"The teacher is saying that those who came back want to re-divide the land?" Bonnie's face was pale and her beautiful eyebrows were tightly knitted together. She really didn't expect that there would be such a dangerous situation later. There are two million Central and African people who came back from the south at this time. Once there is real trouble, it will not be as simple as a few heads.

"You should kill all of Hu Tianan's thirty-eight people, leaving no one behind..."

The fat man's expression was stern, his black pupils flashed with a cold chill, and he tapped lightly with his fingers: "You should kill his whole family, so that all Central Asians who come back from the south will know the consequences of questioning the empire. They can't afford it at all. Even if someone gives them money, they won't spend it with their lives! Only then will they not take desperate risks."

"Everyone must be deceived by these foreigners." "The distribution of land is not fair at all. Why can other people get the land, but we don't have any land? The land is ours. What do we need from other foreigners?" ! Now that the Southwest Long family has entered the imperial court, the royal army will soon move north, and the recapture of the imperial capital is just around the corner. As long as everyone works together to welcome the king's northward march, we can share the same land as them."

Outside the carriage, there was a loud noise

Bertrand Bonnie's face was already full of murderous intent. She really didn't mean what she was talking about. Then she saw a young man wearing a Chinese military uniform standing in front of the notice, saying something passionately. It sounded like he was saying that the empire was not good. Trustworthy, the division of land is unfair,

"You see, the lives of these refugees are worthless now. Those powerful people hiding behind are waiting for the empire to start killing people. Then they can say that the empire kills people to cover up injustice. Only someone who fanned the flames will start a prairie fire. "The fat man withdrew his gaze from the outside,"

“These Chinese and Biancai elites deserve to die!”

Bonnie's face seemed to be covered with a layer of frost, and she clenched her fingers tightly. She was really angry. Although it had only been more than a month since she had been in charge of Emperor Jing West Road, Bonnie felt that she had put in all her energy. , He is also kind to the Central and Asian people. If he had not ordered the opening of the Imperial Capital West Road, these millions of Central and Asian refugees sandwiched between the north and the south would have starved to death and froze to death. However, the result of his momentary kindness was so chilling. When the Yelu army went south, they fled to the south. Now they heard that the empire controlled the Imperial Capital West Road, and they couldn't wait to come back one after another. Now they are talking about the empire everywhere. These are the people who are bad-mouthing, these people just want to force the empire to return the land that was divided to them. This kind of thing is absolutely impossible!

"I heard that the Berlant family has a kind of punishment called flogging?" The fat man blinked his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Indeed!" Bonnie Berlant nodded dejectedly. That was a whip specially used by my Berlant family to punish knights. It was not only soaked with oil, but also had a centimeter-long spike on the front of the whip. With one whip, you can directly scrape off a layer of skin Come on, even among knights, few people can withstand more than ten lashes. Most people don't have the luxury of healing after one lash for half a year. With five lashes, even those with strong bodies can still survive. The weak ones will die immediately.

"The best opportunity to put out the fire has been missed, so we can only put out the source of the fire directly!" The fat man smiled coldly. "Now that we can't be sure which sects are planning this matter, we might as well kill all the sects first." Centralized control in the name of investigation. As long as the financial support is cut off, these gangsters will be rootless trees. If they are all arrested, it will not have much impact. As for punishment, just use the whip of your Berlant family. Punishment: one person can be whipped three times, and no doctor is allowed to treat "

'Three whips? Wouldn't it be better to kill him? "What's the point of being beaten to death? What I want is that the miserable situation of not being able to die and having a hard life should be seen and remembered by all those who come back from the south."

"The teacher is still wise, I will do it right away." Bonnie's dark blue eyes were shining, with an expression that she wished she could get out of the car right now.

"No hurry, just take this." The fat man took out a secret letter from his arms and handed it over with a small item. He said in a deep voice, "Arrange a reliable person to go. When you meet him, don't ask who the other person is, and don't care. Whatever the other party wants to do, just bring him to me safely!" Bonnie Berlant was curious! After receiving the secret letter, she opened it and found that the small object inside was a strange bird carved from a milky white gem. Bertrand Bonnie knew that according to the people of Central and South Africa, such a gem is called jade, and this strange bird It seemed to be called Fenghuang. He glanced over it and couldn't help but hesitate. "Teacher, who is this person?"

"This person has a special identity, and he is here again this time, so in the name of investigation, I asked you to arrest all the powerful people from the south and mix them in. No matter how many informants there are in the south, how can you tell them apart?" We have to figure out whether we did it intentionally or not!" The fat man laughed and waved his hand.

"Yes, I understand!"

Berlant Bonnie looked strange. She seemed to think that the fat man had been plotting for her for a long time. In fact, it was for this Central Asian, Li Long. Berlant Bonnie still knew this name. The former Central Asian military officer The head of the pavilion was dismissed because of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Linhang. Later, when the Song clan came to dominate the court, he was ostracized from home for three whole months. Now he was appointed by the Long family as the person in charge of the Jiangbei spy network. At this moment, I am mixed in with those who have returned from the south. Among the nobles who came here, anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the Long family was in exile. The Zhongbia forces had long been squeezed out to the north of the river. During the rule of the grassland people, all Zhongbia people were slaves. Where is the existence of any espionage network? Although Li Long is no longer the head of the military cabinet, he is the current head of the Li clan and one of the four original powerful families in Zhongbia. Since the Long family wants to take over the court in Zhongbia, Naturally, the original four gates must be completely squeezed out.

The carriage vibrated and slowly stopped

The fat man opened the car door and walked out. On a high ground on the side of the city in front of him, there was an exquisite and gorgeous Central Asian-style cornice pavilion. The last golden ray of the setting sun was shining on the high-rise cornices. The fat man patted himself. clothes, eyes slightly narrowed into a line, looking at the big man in front of him from a distance On the ground, under the golden sunset, in front of you is a city cluster like a painting. Two rivers like silver ribbons are passing by. Only pedestrians like crucian carp can be seen, and cars and horses compete for the road. All the scenery between heaven and earth is unified into a whole. But the land in front of me is probably going to be filled with flames of war soon.

The geographical location of Imperial Capital West Road has determined that this is actually a land of the Four Wars, and it is also an unobstructed great plain landform. Whether heading north or south, it is the only way to go. If the empire is given one year, the empire will Dijing West Road can be built into the most stable rear area, but the time is too short Now that the Long family has taken over the Zhongbia court in the south, it is like the sound of slowly beating war drums coming from the south. Even standing here, Fatty can faintly feel the atmosphere before the war. Yelu Hongtai's The old fox also felt this, so he hurriedly ran out of his lair.

An unstable foothold is the biggest problem for the empire. It also has to face the Fengtai tribe and Wang Ting in the north. It is obviously unwise to start a war with the Long family now. Whether it is in terms of military strength or strategy, the most important thing at this moment is to quickly On this matter, the fat man specially consulted Li Yuehua for his opinion before coming to make Dijing West Road truly the foothold of the empire.

In terms of understanding of the Central Asian clans, no one in the entire empire can compare to Li Yuehua. When she found out that the emperor of the empire had the intention of using force to eliminate the regional clans, Li Yuehua's face changed. "The Central Asian clans have been ruling for six hundred years, and it can be said that they are a whole from top to bottom. Your Majesty, although you can use force to eliminate the clans in the west road of the Imperial Capital, you will also become the mortal enemy of all the Central Asian clans. Using force is not a good idea." "The Central Asian clans and the nobles of the Western Continent Empire are completely different. As long as the empire really starts a massacre, some of the Central Asian nobles who were originally on the sidelines will also begin to fight against the empire. After all, they have been of the same blood for hundreds of years, and the concept of honoring and humiliating together is deeply rooted. To put it bluntly, the Central Asian clans still control everything." "Since your majesty If they have already intended to use the Yelu family's claim to the throne to stimulate the north to move south, then it is inappropriate to start killing the Central Asian clans in the south at the same time. The Central Asian royal power has fallen into the hands of local clans. Looking at the current provinces in Central Asia, the real leaders are the local clans. The central government has completely lost control. Most of the materials and taxes from all over the country have been intercepted by the local clans. In addition, the Song clan has almost completely drained the financial resources of the Central Asian court for the war in the southwest. It is said that the Central Asian court had officials starved to death last winter. It can be seen how exhausted the Central Asian court has been. Your Majesty, why don't you take this opportunity to establish contact with the Central Asian clans? As long as these clans turn to the empire, even if the Long family enters the court, what can they do without the support of these regional clans? "

(To be continued...)