Chapter 23: Because the Land Was Divided

The moment these words were spoken, the entire assembly of soldiers nearly erupted in chaos.

Why was the previous emperor overthrown? It was because he courted his own destruction—not only failing to provide pensions for the fallen, but continuing to press-gang men into service, raising taxes, and attempting to purge the great nobles. The nobles seized the opportunity to rise up, topple his regime, and wipe out his entire family.

Is the Boliaski family attempting the same?

Fortunately, Zhang Shan was not playing with fire. He held a stack of stiff paper up beside his face and quickly added: "In exchange, each of you will receive a land deed!"

"Eh?"

The soldiers, who had been on the verge of fury, were suddenly stunned.

Wait, what did His Highness the Prince just say?

Land deeds?

The Rasia Empire had been an agricultural nation since ancient times. Only a decade ago, it was still a backward feudal state teeming with serfs, where the fruits of the Industrial Revolution had never been enjoyed by the majority of its citizens. The people’s longing for land was deep-rooted.

One must understand that until recently, a human life was worth only a few hundred rubles. When a ruler suddenly produced a stack of land deeds and called it "life-buying money," the soldiers were completely dumbfounded.

For a moment, the massive military camp fell deathly silent. Every soldier subconsciously held their breath, pricking up their ears to hear what the Prince would say next.

"As everyone knows, the Grand Duchy of Bolia has little money. The national treasury lacks the funds to pay out the astronomical pensions that may soon be required. I have negotiated with the nobles of the Red Tower State and the nation of Buria, trading away our fiefs in the Barovsk region to acquire several vast tracts of land."

"Starting with the Eighth Division, every fallen soldier will receive at least five hundred square *zhang* of land (1 square Rasia *zhang* = 4.552 square meters), depending on their rank."

"This land will belong to the families of the fallen in perpetuity. You need only pay a 'tithe' to the lord and the church each year, and contribute at least one male from the family to serve in the Duchy’s military during wartime. The remaining produce belongs entirely to the landowner..."

"At the same time, officers who receive medals of valor or promotions will also be granted land according to their household registration. The specific details of these rewards will be posted on the camp bulletin board shortly."

"Although this mission to defend Red Tower City is likely a desperate battle where nine out of ten may perish, I do not suggest you throw away your precious lives lightly. Those who survive will be promoted at least one rank based on their combat performance. A higher rank means better treatment and the acquisition of even more land..."

By the time he finished, the soldiers of the Eighth Division had shifted from confusion to rapid breathing, and finally, into a state of sheer fanaticism.

The hot blood in their hearts turned into a torrential current, rushing to their heads and culminating in a single, thunderous slogan:

"Ura!"
"Ura!"

"Ura—"

The cheers soared into the clouds, echoing endlessly.

For soldiers committed to protecting their homes and country, this was the perfect reward. Zhang Shan’s move ignited the fighting spirit of the entire division and set a precedent for the other vassal states.

There was no other way. Red Tower State was still somewhat distant from the northern Khanates, and for the tribal leaders of those Khanates, the threat did not yet feel like a dagger at their throats. They might hold a firm stance and fighting spirit out of sympathy for the brutal slaughter of their compatriots, but they were still far from true desperation.

In the end, compared to the Seres, the entire Far East lacked a true, visceral sense of pain. In the last civil war of the empire, the Cossack cavalry had set a terrible precedent. Their burning, killing, and looting—their victimization of women—was no different from what the Yamato people were doing in Lan-Ude today.

Many Cossack tribes had fought under the banner of the current emperor, Constantine, and faced no punishment afterward.

It was all the Emperor’s fault for overdrawing the credibility of the nobility for the next hundred years, forcing Zhang Shan to prescribe such heavy medicine.

Unless the Far East encountered some extreme event, such as a monstrous massacre of an entire city, it would be impossible to stir the blood and hatred of the entire nation to fight the enemy to the death.

Zhang Shan’s current move was essentially issuing the Boliaski family’s bid: land.

And where did that land come from?

Naturally, from those families who had been devastated by the Yamato assassinations.

This large-scale assassination campaign was not aimed solely at the Boliaski family; every border state had been targeted. Statistics showed that nearly half of the nobility in the Far East had been affected. Among the victims, thirty percent of the families had lost all male heirs, and forty percent had no adult males capable of taking charge.

In the Boliaski family, for example, having a third son left in the next generation was considered a stroke of luck.

In this feudal system, while a vassal might not pay taxes to their lord, they were bound by military obligations. When a national war broke out, the vassal was required to send their own direct male descendants to lead armies in response to their lord’s summons.

Now that the male heirs were either dead or underage, such unfortunate noble families would, under Rasia’s aristocratic laws, likely have their estates seized by others.

In a sense, Zhang Shan was also seizing these estates, but his methods were so gentle that even the most fastidious nobles could not utter a single word of objection. He used the Boliaski family’s coastal fiefs to swap land with the nobles of Buria, Red Tower, and the coastal regions, often at a ratio exceeding ten to one.

Even so, many nobles could only whisper behind his back that "Prince Andrei is generous."

Why?

For centuries, the entire Rasia nation had been obsessed with fighting for an outlet to the sea. Many nobles had not seen the ocean for generations. For a stretch of coastline, they would have happily traded at a hundred to one, let alone ten to one. After all, many of their fiefs were nothing more than barren, frozen wastelands.

The nobles of these border states had been hit hardest by the Yamato assassinations and were truly unable to fulfill their military obligations to follow their lord into battle.

With Zhang Shan doing this, they actually owed him a debt of gratitude.

The widows and orphans were not stripped of their titles, and they were relocated to prime coastal areas, protected by the Emperor’s fleet. A lord like this would be considered a wise ruler even if one looked back three hundred years.

As for Zhang Shan’s distribution of land to soldiers, to the nobles, it was simple: the Boliaski family was playing a high-stakes game. Seeing that the current batch of nobles was useless, he was decisively opening up channels for upward mobility to select a new generation of meritorious nobles from the common folk.

The soldiers cheered, the nobles had no complaints, and theoretically, the only one losing out was the Boliaski family.

Was that really the case?

Regarding this, his cheapskate father had sternly questioned him.

Zhang Shan silenced his father with one sentence: "380,000 square kilometers of land with lower latitudes and numerous ice-free deep-water ports—isn't that worth it?"

Ice-free ports?

A collection of ice-free deep-water ports?!

For the Rasia nobility, this phrase was a killing blow.

The only question remaining was whether the talent suddenly displayed by this son—following the sudden death of his brother—would be enough to match his ambition.