At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 646: The Divided Seleucid Empire and Classes

Liu Ruyi argued fiercely with the rebel leaders for three days, and finally managed to set up the Taiwei Mansion which imitated the Han Dynasty. The Taiwei Mansion became the military center of the rebels. The rebel leader Qilin was the Taiwei, and the other leaders were the heads of various departments.

The Taiwei Office was responsible for researching all aspects of the war, formulating troop mobility plans and campaign implementation plans, and drawing up combat and mobilization plans. Other rebel leaders were appointed as colonels and dukes based on the size of their armies. The Seleucid rebel army had three dukes, three colonels and the Taiwei Chillon. The seven of them jointly presided over the highest command level of the rebel army.

Liu Ruyi also figured it out. It was impossible to completely replicate the Han system in Seleucus, not to mention that the current system was like a candle in the wind and could be extinguished by the Seleucid army at any time. The rebels had lost the time to build a perfect regime. They could only focus on military first and then politics. They must first establish a military organization that can mobilize all the forces in the northwest region of Seleucus. Only after surviving would they have time to improve other systems.

After barely establishing a military center, Liu Ruyi's first order was to disarm and deploy some veteran soldiers to various villages and towns in the rebel territory, allowing them to organize and train the people in the rebel territory.

The current situation of the rebel army is worse than that of the Han Dynasty back then. The rebel army needs to concentrate all its resources on farming and warfare. Without food, it is impossible to maintain a large army. Without an army, the rebel army cannot hold its current territory. Given the current situation of the rebel army, the wartime system of the tyrannical Qin Dynasty is suitable for them.

While the rebels were sorting out their internal situation, the internal strife in the Seleucid Empire gradually came to an end.

After a fierce struggle within the Seleucid Empire, Antiochus V became the new king of the Seleucid Empire. However, this new king was a good thing for the rebels, because Antiochus V was only nine years old this year and was still a child who knew nothing about the world. He became king not because of his outstanding ability, but because he was young and easier to control. The powerful minister Lysia became the regent, and he and a group of Seleucid nobles controlled the power of the kingdom.

This dispute over the throne once again caused the Seleucid royal family to split, because the most legitimate heir to Antiochus IV was the eldest prince Demetrius. But he was over 30 years old, and Prince Demetrius was obviously not so easy to control. So the nobles in the capital simply excluded the legitimate heir and drove him out of Antioch.

Demetrius was unwilling to accept the loss of his throne, so he led his confidants to occupy the important city of Damascus in the Seleucid Empire. He declared to the entire Seleucid separatist forces that he was the legitimate heir, and ascended the throne and called himself Demetrius I.

The already precarious royal territory was once again divided into two, occupying equal territory, equal population, and similar number of troops. Two kings appeared at the same time in Seleucus, and both declared themselves to be the legitimate heirs. The various forces in Seleucus were in a wait-and-see attitude towards the two new kings, and basically recognized whoever gave them benefits as the king.

But this dispute over the throne has shattered Seleucus' already limited prestige. In the Great Qin Continent, there is no such thing as loyal ministers and filial sons. All forces will rebel and split if they feel they have the chance.

According to historical inertia, the Seleucid Empire would have split into a dozen small countries, and then after dozens or hundreds of years, a hero would emerge to integrate the land and establish a powerful dynasty.

But now because of the threat from the Huns, even though the Seleucid Empire was already in name only, the internal separatist forces still did not dare to give up the Seleucid Empire. Who knew if the Huns would invade their own territory without the Seleucid Empire? As a result, the Seleucid Empire was in a state similar to that of the Han Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Zhou Dynasty.

There were two kings in the central government, each of whom had a group of younger brothers. The local princes also ruled their own territories and tried every means to expand their own power. However, these local princes all maintained the Seleucid Empire.

This situation is most beneficial to the rebels. Their leaders even have the attitude that it is their destiny. Otherwise, how could the Seleucus collapse on its own? It means that the gods are blessing them.

Even Chiron and his men found Liu Ruyi and wanted to attack Antioch again. In their opinion, the Seleucid Empire had been divided, and their rebel army could not defeat Antiochus IV, but they could still attack the Seleucid Empire that had been divided into more than a dozen pieces.

Liu Ruyi said unhappily, "Do you have food? Do you have munitions? We have been fighting for three years and it is not enough. How many civilians have starved to death in the northwest? Do you want to starve everyone here to death?"

These people only care about eating and not fighting. They only see the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire, but don't look at their own situation. There are less than 3 remnants left in the rebel army, and their territory is only a county with a population of only a few hundred thousand. They are even blocked in the inland of Daqinzhou. Even the Han Dynasty finds it difficult to support the rebel army. Now the civilians can only eat two thin meals a day, plus some wild vegetables and tree bark to barely keep themselves from starving to death. What can they use to fight in this situation? I am afraid that as soon as the army gathers, large numbers of people will starve to death in the rebel army's territory.

Chiron could only say awkwardly: "We just think that this opportunity is rare. Without Antiochus IV, we can defeat these nobles one by one."

Liu Ruyi said: "Now the rebel army needs to recuperate more than the Seleucid army. Everyone should wait patiently for three years. Once we have stored enough food and trained the army, it will be easy to eliminate the Seleucid nobles."

It may be because of such an excellent matching mechanism that the Seleucid rebels had poor combat effectiveness and poor organizational ability, and could only be regarded as bandits at the end of the Qin Dynasty, but the combat effectiveness of the Seleucid nobles was not much stronger. Even the weakest Han and Yan in the Warring States Period could become overlords in this area. Liu Ruyi knew that he did not need to train the Seleucid rebels to be the same as the Han army, as long as they were stronger in combat effectiveness and organization than the Seleucid noble army.

"Have we done nothing in these three years?" Qilin said unwillingly.

Liu Ruyi stroked his chin and thought for a while, "It's not like we're doing nothing. Now we're distributing land equally, but because of the three years of war, too many young and strong people died or were injured, and a lot of land is left barren. We should find a way to publicize our policy of equal distribution of land throughout the Seleucid Empire, and start a war of public opinion in advance to prepare for our next war."

"A war of public opinion?" Qilin and his men couldn't even win a regular war, so they had no idea what a war of public opinion was.

Liu Ruyi smiled mysteriously and said, "Public opinion warfare is a very clever tactic. When the Holy Emperor conquered the world, public opinion warfare also played a big role."

"Who created this world? ~~~~~~~~~, how could it allow for parasites? The most hateful things are those poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts that eat up our flesh and blood! We must wipe them out completely."

Starting from April of the 48th year of the Han calendar, this ballad targeting the Seleucid nobles spread throughout the Seleucid Empire. At the same time, the news of the rebels' equal distribution of land in the northwest was also publicized. The people of Seleucid knew that as long as they went to the rebels' territory, they would be given 4 acres of land, which they could use to feed their entire family. For a time, the entire Seleucid Empire was undercurrent.

Countless slaves and farmers who could not survive began to move towards the rebels' territory. The Seleucid nobles naturally could not watch the rebels grow stronger, let alone watch their own serfs escape. They formed patrol teams and capture teams to capture civilians who wanted to escape to the rebels' territory.

At the same time, they also strongly suppressed the rebels' slanderous songs against them. A large number of bards were killed by the Seleucid nobles. The Seleucid nobles even made a decree that songs like "Song of Tyrant", "Song of the Poor Uniting" and "Song of Great Harmony" were all banned and those who sang them would be identified as traitors and would be hanged.

But even so, the Seleucid nobles could not stop the song from being sung in the wild countryside of Seleucid.

Even if they arrested a large number of rebels, before they were hanged, these rebels would loudly chant to the civilians around them: "How can we tolerate parasites? The most hateful are those poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts~~~~~."

The Seleucid nobles suddenly realized that the rebel forces that they had suppressed were thriving again. The civilians under their rule now looked at them with hatred. The city became turbulent and full of rebels. Faced with this situation, the Seleucid nobles wanted to eliminate the source of the rebellion in the northwest.

Especially when the Seleucid nobles learned that the rebels had begun to distribute land equally and set up the Taiwei Mansion to train the army, they knew that the rebel army was beginning to move towards regularization. If they did not find a way to eliminate these rebels, they would become a serious threat to them in the future. However, Antiochus IV had died of illness, and Antiochus V and Demetrius I, who succeeded to the throne, did not have enough prestige to integrate the various forces of the entire Seleucid Empire.

However, if these separatist forces were to take the initiative to attack the rebels, they would not take such a military action that would harm themselves and benefit others. Although the entire Seleucid Empire was torn apart for a while, this half year became a rare period of peace in the kingdom. May 48, 5th year of the Han calendar. The territory of the Seleucid rebels.

Liu Ruyi and Qilun were inspecting the wheat planting situation in the countryside.

Liu Ruyi looked at the sparse wheat seedlings and shook his head, saying, "A few years ago, there was a severe drought in Dahan. The yield per mu was less than 2 dan. Local farmers said that the harvest was completely lost. The density of wheat here is even worse than the situation of a complete loss in Dahan. The farming techniques of the farmers here are too poor."

Qilin had seen the countryside of Dahan before, so he knew that the grain production in Dahan was several times that of here. However, in Dahan there were agricultural scholars to guide farmers in farming, tractors to plow the land, and various fertilizers to fertilize the fields. It was said that the founding emperor of Dahan was still researching machines to make fertilizers even though he was over 70 years old in order to ensure that farmers in Dahan had sufficient fertilizers.

The farmers in Seleucus don't have many tractors or fertilizers, and even iron farm tools. He could only smile bitterly and said, "The agricultural technology in Seleucus is not as good as that of the Han Dynasty. The current situation is already good enough."

Liu Ruyi thought for a moment and said, "I will ask the Governor's Office to send a few students from farming families to guide agricultural production."

He really couldn't stand the fact that such fertile land had a grain production capacity worse than a total crop failure. It was such a waste of land resources.

"How can we tolerate parasites? The most hateful things are those poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts that eat up our flesh and blood! We must wipe them out completely~~~~~~~."

This was the song of farmers while working in the fields. Liu Ruyi could hear the hatred in the farmers' voices. There were few people in the rebel army's territory who had no hatred for the nobles.

Chiron smiled and said, "This song has brought us tens of thousands of followers. Even those nobles cannot stop this song from spreading in Seleucus."

Liu Ruyi said: "They have no lack of hatred for the nobles, and are willing to take action to deal with them. The key is that we must organize them. The rebels did a very poor job in this regard in the first three years. Fortunately, the Seleucid nobles were too corrupt, which gave us time to correct them."

Chiron said sadly, "Yes, we have lost too many lives and taken too many detours in order to resist the nobles. We must not let down the Seleucid citizens for their support this time."

At night, Liu Ruyi summoned some of the rebel leaders and they sat together.

Liu Ruyi picked up the "Han Chronicles" he had bought and said, "After the Holy Emperor occupied Chen County, he had a base, but he did not continue to expand his army and conquer the four directions. Instead, he used Chen County as his base and began to improve the military system, political system, taxation system, etc. Among them, the fastest thing was to distribute land equally. Today I will tell you how the Holy Emperor distributed land equally in Chen County."

After becoming an advisor to the rebel army, Liu Ruyi finally understood why the retired emperor loved to teach people so much. There were too many idiots among the rebel army, and without teaching them, it would be impossible to organize an army or a government.

Looking at these clear-headed but stupid rebel leaders, Liu Ruyi wondered in his heart whether the retired emperor, when he looked at his father and the Duke of England, was also secretly cursing them as hopeless.

"Comrades, why did the righteous army attach so much importance to equal distribution of land? It is because equal distribution of land is the best way to gain the support of the common people. Everyone, please read the first chapter of "The Record of the Holy Words", which teaches us to distinguish between friends and enemies. It clearly shows that the power of the common people in the Qin Dynasty at that time was the most powerful. There were more than 20 million of them. As long as they were organized, they would be the most powerful force at that time. The Holy Emperor did this, so the tyrannical Qin Dynasty with a million soldiers was destroyed by the Holy Emperor in three years."

Although the situation of the Han Dynasty is different from that of the Seleucids, the same thing is that the civilians and slaves of the Seleucids account for the vast majority, and their total population is close to 10 million. As long as our rebel army can win the support of this force and organize them, our rebel army will be invincible on the land of the Seleucids. "

"And what was the mistake made by the rebels in the first three years? You did not win the support of the vast majority of Seleucid civilians. You cannot defeat the nobles just by relying on hatred."

At this time, Qilun asked: "Can we learn from the Han Dynasty to build agricultural communities to increase food production capacity, and in this way our rebel army will be able to control more food."

Liu Ruyi rolled his eyes and said, "More haste, less speed. There are not even agricultural scholars in the rebel territory. How to establish an agricultural society is not something we can talk about when we see the grain production capacity of the agricultural society. We must first have the standards for building an agricultural society before we can establish an agricultural society. And now we can't do this. If everyone really wants to increase the grain, it is better to get more farmyard manure all year round and turn the land a few more times than to build an agricultural society now."

"Okay, that's all for today's class. Everyone, read more of the contents of the Records of the Holy Words, compare the situation that the Han Dynasty encountered at the time with the current situation of the rebel army, and think about why the Holy Emperor succeeded? Why did you fail?"

Reading history makes people wise. Liu Ruyi did not know the history of the Seleucid Empire, but he knew the history of the Han Dynasty, especially the history of the founding of the Han Dynasty. That was a must-learn content in elementary school textbooks, and heroic stories were indispensable in storytelling. The opera "Chronicles of the Han Dynasty" was an enduring repertoire, supporting tens of thousands of opera actors.

In addition to Liu Ruyi's own identity, he had a very deep understanding of the history of the founding of the Han Dynasty, and he could explain it in a simple and easy-to-understand way. For these rebel leaders, Liu Ruyi's way of teaching through entertaining was the one they could understand best.

After listening to the contents of "Chronicles of the Han Dynasty", Qilin admired and said: "Compared with the Holy Emperor, we are simply trash. The land system is so important, but we have never paid attention to it. If we had distributed land equally earlier, perhaps we would have conquered the Seleucid Empire by now." Qilin was annoyed when he said this.

At that time, their uprising also grew rapidly. At its peak, the rebel army had 12 soldiers. Their territory was four times larger than it is now, and they once reached the capital of Antioch.

"We shouldn't have attacked Antioch so early," Chiron continued in annoyance.

In contrast to the Han Dynasty, the Holy Emperor cultivated roots in Chen County, distributed land equally, and established a militia system, which laid the foundation for subsequent wars. However, they were impatient to attack Antioch and completely destroy the Seleucid Empire. However, because they were too impatient, they did not lay a solid foundation. This was the main reason for their disastrous defeat in the next three years.

"Who could have known at that time that Antiochus IV was so powerful and would defeat us miserably?" said another rebel leader with a wry smile.

At that time, they were growing rapidly like a snowball. In half a year, they captured more than a dozen cities and occupied the entire southwestern Seleucid region. Antiochus IV almost died in their hands. Even the city of Antioch was surrounded by them. At that time, they were already dreaming of establishing a new dynasty, who would be the king and who would be the noble, and they also wanted to establish a huge family.

But the reality is so wonderful, they suffered the most tragic defeat when they were at their strongest, and then they kept failing, their territory became smaller and smaller, their army became smaller and smaller, and even some of the rebels could not sustain themselves. They were like drowning people, trying every means to grab at straws, and now with the help of the Han advisers, they have finally stabilized the situation.

However, their enemy, the Seleucid Empire, was facing collapse, and the Seleucid nobles could no longer form an army of 100,000 men to encircle and suppress them.

(End of this chapter)