I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1184 A Turning Point in Rome?
As the saying goes, "Where there are people, there is land; where there is land, there is a nation." Su Yao was well aware that without a sufficient number of core people, the conquered lands would eventually fall into disarray.

Therefore, he used the enormous wealth and land he gained from the war of conquest to encourage Han Chinese people, especially landless refugees, veterans and their families, to carry out armed colonization (military settlement) in Liaodong, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and even the Western Regions with generous conditions (such as granting land, reducing taxes, and providing agricultural tools and seeds), and promised them the privilege of "not paying taxes for ten years".

At the same time, Su Yao also ordered the selection of the sons of the conquered local nobles to study Han culture at Luoyang University. The outstanding ones could also enter officialdom. He also encouraged intermarriage between Han people and surrendered ethnic groups in order to accelerate cultural integration and consolidate the foundation of his rule.

Before long, each prefecture and county selected its first group of 300,000 immigrants. Under the unified organization of the government, they carried farming tools, seeds, and resettlement loans issued by the Imperial Bank, embarking on their journey to their new homes. Among them were farmers from the Central Plains who had lost their land in the war, demobilized soldiers eager for military merit and fiefdoms, and tenant farmers who had been freed from their personal dependence under the new policy of "equalizing land tax and poll tax." The empire's postal system and newly built "immigrant guesthouses" provided them with food and lodging along the way.

When the first group of 5,000 Han Chinese immigrants arrived in the distant city of Huashi, they were warmly received by Lü Bu, the Protector-General of India. Following Su Yao's orders, he allocated to them the most fertile, state-owned, unclaimed lands along the Ganges River (originally belonging to the resisting nobles), and dispatched troops to protect them as they established settlements. The curved plow, seed drill, and advanced agricultural techniques from the Central Plains quickly demonstrated astonishing productivity on this land that yielded three harvests a year.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Brahmin and Kshatriya youths from various Indian states were sent to the "Foreign Studies Hall" of the Imperial University in Luoyang as "cultural exchange envoys" to study Chinese language and classical law. Su Yao specifically ordered that those with outstanding academic performance could be granted official positions without regard to precedence, and even allowed to participate in the imperial examinations and assume certain posts. This policy caused a great stir among the local upper classes, and many families that had initially been resistant began vying to send their children to Chinese studies.

The departure of these elites greatly stabilized the local area. Under Su Yao's instructions, they would serve as imperial officials far from their homeland, and then be assigned to other newly conquered provinces. This not only severed their ties with local powers, but also allowed them to use their knowledge to serve the empire, closely linking their personal future with the fate of the Han Dynasty.

In the newly built "Han'an Village" on the Ganges Plain, the family of retired captain Li Gan received a hundred acres of fertile land. When he first turned over the dark, fertile soil with a curved plow, he couldn't help but exclaim to the Qiang auxiliary soldiers beside him, "This land is so fertile it's practically dripping with oil! In the Central Plains, only aristocratic families would be worthy of owning such land." His eldest son, meanwhile, was in the village school, reciting "Heaven and earth were dark and yellow, the universe was vast and desolate" with the teacher, swaying his head as he read.

The most crucial aspect of this was that Su Yao almost completely purged the surrounding Qiang, Xianbei, and Wuhuan tribes, which had always been unstable, through immigration.

The migration of non-Han people to Han lands will never happen again. They rode horses and brandished swords, joining Su Yao's westward expedition in large numbers, and then settled in the west.

Some turned to farming, like the Qiang auxiliary soldiers, and joined forces with the Han people in foreign lands, becoming one with them. Others continued westward, serving as the vanguard and sharpest weapon of the empire, rushing towards the more distant Eastern European steppes.

How could the local nomads possibly be a match for these well-equipped, Sinicized barbarian cavalrymen who had fought countless battles in the East?
Guided by Ma Chao's Xiliang cavalry, the Xiongnu's iron hooves trampled across the Volga River, and the Xianbei archers' long arrows swept across the Dnieper River. These nomadic peoples, who had once plagued the borders of the Han Dynasty, now, under the guidance of the Han's dragon banner, poured all their bravery and ferocity onto the lands further west.

On the East European Plain, the originally scattered Sarmatian tribes and Goths were almost powerless against this iron torrent from the East.

They either surrendered obediently or continued their westward flight, threatening the Roman borders.

The already precarious empire became even more shaky under these circumstances.

While pursuing military conquest and ethnic integration, Su Yao also did not forget the guidance of religion and customs.

Su Yao did not forcibly ban the local faith, but instead adopted the strategy of "supporting the righteous and eliminating the evil". He recognized all the doctrines of various sects that were beneficial to education and encouraged people to do good. He also bestowed the title of "Great Han Monk Master" upon highly respected monks to manage Buddhist temples in various places. At the same time, he strictly banned bad practices such as "Sati" (widows being buried alive with their dead).

In Alexandria, a similar policy was being implemented, requiring the "archbishops" appointed by the empire to swear allegiance to the emperor while gaining official recognition, and their interpretation of doctrines to conform to the basic requirements of the Great Han Law.

With this series of combined measures, the empire's rule quickly took root in the newly conquered lands.

However, all of this will take some time, and some final obstacles need to be cleared.

More than half a year later, seeing that everything was on track, Su Yao, who had long been restless, launched another attack, targeting his last enemy, the Romans, their last territory in Europe. October of the sixth year of the Kaiyuan era, Rome.

"Not good! Not good!"

"Did you hear that?"

"The Scourge of God is coming again!!!"

The name "Scourge of God," which Christians began using to refer to Su Yao and his iron cavalry at some unknown time, quickly spread and gained acceptance within the empire.

Such a terrifying enemy, such a terrible crisis, especially the ruler's power to ascend to the heavens and descend to the earth, summoning thunder and fire, made them believe it could only be a punishment from heaven.

However, the Romans did not sit idly by. In the six months following Su Yao's return, although they lost Severus, the Romans did not split.

Because Caesar Clodius Albanus took over the banner.

When news of Severus's defeat and capture, and the loss of all his eastern territories, reached Rome, the city was plunged into a state of great panic.

By this time, all of Severus's loyalists had lost their foothold in power and were counterattacked. The former senators, together with the remaining Praetorian Guard, quickly and with astonishing efficiency, installed Clodius Albanus, the co-ruler who remained in Spain, as the sole Augustus.

The fact that his competitor had fallen on his own was a huge surprise to Albanus, and he was overjoyed.

But soon he found that he couldn't laugh anymore.

Because Albanus discovered that he had inherited not a glorious empire, but a mess riddled with problems.

All the prosperous provinces in the East were lost, grain ships from Egypt were cut off, the national treasury was empty due to years of war, and even more terrible, the soldiers retreating from the Danube front like a tide brought suffocating news.

Countless barbarian tribes were invading, and the empire was attacked by the Han Chinese in both Europe and Africa, with almost no power to fight back.

The idea of ​​the Scourge of God spread wildly at this time, and at the same time, a mysterious new religion quietly arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire.

At first, Albanus thought they were heretics like Christians and severely suppressed them until they claimed to have a way to deal with the Han army and the Eastern Demon King.

(End of this chapter)