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Ye Qingyun vigilantly watched the hundreds of soldiers before him.
These soldiers wore red long robes with black scale armor over them. Their bodies were covered in fresh blood, as if they had just been through a brutal battle.
“Who are you?” Ye Qingyun asked.
The person who looked like a leading general said, “Sir, we are the defenders of Yangzhou City. The Prince of Wei gave us an order to slaughter the people in the city, burn all the grain and houses, and leave nothing for King Qi’s army. But these people in the city are our parents and brothers. How could we bring ourselves to do it? So I led my brothers and fought against those powerful family members. But they outnumbered us, and we were powerless to stop them. Many of our brothers died, but they still killed a lot of people.”
Ye Qingyun’s brow furrowed. At least some of the Yangzhou defenders still had a conscience. However, he wouldn’t easily believe these people’s words. He said, “I cannot yet believe what you say. I will consider your request after confirming your identities.”
The reason these soldiers were able to walk alive before Ye Qingyun was because they had no weapons and had approached with their hands raised. Now that Ye Qingyun said so, the Dengzhou soldiers immediately took these five hundred men into custody.
Having occupied Yangzhou City, Ye Qingyun immediately organized the common people in the city to put out the fires. Now, the city was engulfed in flames, and if the burning continued, nothing would be left.
“Governor, fortunately His Highness is so brilliant. Otherwise, if we had been one step later, Yangzhou City would truly have become an empty city,” a cavalry commander said.
“His Highness is well aware of the Prince of Wei’s viciousness. He has tried countless times to harm His Highness by any means necessary, so how could he willingly hand over a prosperous Yangzhou City to us in vain? But even so, Yangzhou City has suffered heavy losses.”
After a pause, he said, “You are to immediately lead men to search the entire Yangzhou City. Collect everything usable, otherwise, this time’s supplies will be difficult.”
“Yes, Governor.” The cavalry commander acknowledged and left.
After the cavalry commander departed, Ye Qingyun’s face suddenly turned grim. In marching and fighting, the most important thing was supplies. This time, when they rushed from Tongzhou to Yangzhou, they only brought three days’ worth of dried rations. If there were not enough supplies in the city, the soldiers would go hungry.
Thinking of this, he immediately sent someone to convey the news to Qingzhou.
Three days later, news from Yangzhou reached Qingzhou, immediately causing an uproar in official circles.
Fiji and Pang Yukun immediately arrived at the royal residence to discuss the matter with Xiao Ming. Niu Ben also quickly followed.
“Your Highness, the Prince of Wei is truly insane! I request to personally lead troops to campaign against the Prince of Wei and capture him alive to appease the world!” Niu Ben said angrily.
Pang Yukun, on the other hand, said, “Your Highness, this matter may not necessarily be a bad thing for us. This massacre in Yangzhou will certainly cause the Prince of Wei to lose the hearts of the people in Wei’s territory. Now, we should use this incident to disrupt the morale of the people in Wei’s territory and gain their allegiance.”
“Chief Grand Councillor Pang makes sense, Your Highness. Now we should publish this matter in the newspaper, proclaiming the Prince of Wei’s evil deeds to the world, so that everyone understands the Prince of Wei’s atrocities,” Fiji echoed.
Niu Ben, upon hearing this, said discontentedly, “You scholars are just too wishy-washy! Why be polite to the Prince of Wei? Wouldn’t it be more satisfying to directly attack Jinling City and destroy him!”
Xiao Ming frowned tightly. What the Prince of Wei had done was merely what later generations would call “scorched-earth policy” or “burning away anything useful.” His sole purpose was to prevent Xiao Ming from getting any supplies from Yangzhou City, thereby restraining Xiao Ming’s actions in Yangzhou.
After the agreement was signed, Xiao Ming had some worries, but they hadn’t expected the Prince of Wei to resort to such cruel and inhuman tactics. However, the Prince of Wei’s actions also completely made Xiao Ming break away from his long-held view of the world from a modern perspective.
Unlike modern civilization, human civilization in this period was very low. In other words, they had basically just emerged from the jungle not long ago, and their savage nature was undeniably evident.
Precisely because of this, the Age of Exploration was so bloody, and indeed, there were so many massacres during wars.
Having experienced this, Xiao Ming realized that he was still too merciful. If he wanted to defeat savage enemies, he had to be even more savage than them.
This world was a jungle. The high-and-mighty powerful families and gentry would not believe the tears of the common people. For them, the number of deaths did not matter, as long as they could maintain their rule.
After a moment of thought, Xiao Ming said, “Propagandizing the Prince of Wei’s atrocities is certainly necessary, but the most important issue now is the supply problem in Yangzhou City. What do you all suggest we do?”
“An eye for an eye, massacre the city!” Niu Ben suddenly said at this moment.
Pang Yukun, upon hearing this, said, “Commander Niu, what do you mean? Why should we massacre the city? Haven’t the common people in the city suffered enough?”
“Chief Grand Councillor Pang, I am not talking about the common people, but about completely slaughtering the powerful families of Yangzhou and its surrounding prefectures and counties. This way, not only can we prevent these powerful families from taking the opportunity to cause trouble, but we can also gather grain and supplies.”
Xiao Ming nodded slightly. What Niu Ben said was exactly what he was thinking.
Now that the Dengzhou Army had no supplies in Yangzhou City and faced unstable factors like powerful family militias, only by adopting this method could Yangzhou City be stabilized as quickly as possible.
In fact, many historical massacres also targeted local powerful families, as in times when powerful families held sway, grain was controlled by them.
“Commander Niu’s method is not bad,” Fiji said. “Your Highness, great benevolence is ruthless. At this time, there must be no womanly compassion. In chaotic times, extraordinary measures must be used.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” Xiao Ming said to the scout sent by Ye Qingyun, “You are to immediately return and tell Ye Qingyun to annihilate all the powerful families in Yangzhou!”
“Yes, Your Highness.” The scout responded and turned to leave.
Having settled this matter, Xiao Ming continued, “This truce is merely a temporary measure, and also to avoid an alliance of the four vassal kings. Now that our objective has been achieved, you must take advantage of this time to sort out internal affairs, stockpile grain and fodder, and recruit and train new soldiers. Six months from now, I will launch an attack on Wei’s territory from both Huaizhou and Yangzhou simultaneously, annihilating the Prince of Wei in one fell swoop!”
With that, Xiao Ming slammed the table. The Prince of Wei’s despicable actions had completely enraged him. He would no longer give him the chance to continue.
“Yes, Your Highness.” Pang Yukun and Fiji responded in unison.
Niu Ben also clasped his hands and nodded in agreement.
After instructing the three on some more detailed administrative matters, Xiao Ming dismissed them.
However, as Pang Yukun said, during this period, he had to seize the opportunity to disrupt the morale of the people in Wei’s territory, so that he could gain widespread support when campaigning in Wei’s territory.
Therefore, he immediately sent for Fan Zeng to draft the document.