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The sound of cannons and smoke across the city was the last elegy for Prince Wei’s rule over Jinling City.
Ye Qingyun led the soldiers to storm Prince Wei’s mansion. In the end, they only found some maids and servants who had not had time to escape.
“Prince Wei must have fled.” Ye Qingyun frowned. This was within his expectations. After all, like the previous strategy, they adopted a three-sided encirclement, leaving one side open for the enemy to escape.
Now, fighting with their backs to the wall, the most important objective was to occupy Jinling City. As long as Jinling City fell, the southern and northern parts of Wei would fall into their hands, and Wei would face a pincer attack from both north and south.
“You few stay and guard Prince Wei’s mansion. Other soldiers, follow me to take Jinling’s treasury.” Ye Qingyun’s expression was solemn. Wei was renowned for its wealth throughout the land. Taking the treasury would greatly solve the state’s financial problems, and this would also be a great merit for him.
With that, he continued to lead his soldiers past Prince Wei’s mansion and attack southwards.
Jinling City was still in chaos. Wei’s soldiers had no will to fight; they either surrendered or took the opportunity to loot the city and flee outside. Along the way, Ye Qingyun rarely encountered any decent resistance.
The battle became exceptionally smooth after entering the city. Dengzhou army soldiers surged into the city from three sides. By evening, they had essentially occupied Jinling City, taking over the city’s government offices, treasury, granaries, barracks, and other facilities.
As night fell, Ye Qingyun wiped the blood from his saber. He could no longer remember how many soldiers had fallen by his sword today, but thankfully, the war was over.
“Governor, a man claiming to be Zhang Yi has arrived from outside the city. He says Prince Wei is with him,” a captain said, bowing.
Ye Qingyun’s hand, wiping his saber, stopped. He said, “Zhang Yi? Who is that?”
“Zhang Yi’s Zhang family is the largest powerful family in Jinling City, and his daughter is Prince Wei’s concubine.” At this moment, a voice sounded, and Li San walked in from outside the tent.
“The Zhang family?” Ye Qingyun sneered, “They are truly cunning.”
“That’s not surprising. Even a fool can see that Wei’s power is gone. Now is the time to seek a new master, what else?” Li San said indifferently. He had been outside Jinling City during the siege. Now, every time a city was captured, the Secret Guard had to enter it, on one hand for propaganda, and on the other hand to purge the local powerful families.
This purge included two aspects: providing intelligence to eliminate powerful families with ulterior motives, and supervising the disbandment of their private forces, confiscating their property, and making them completely ordinary common people.
To reduce soldier casualties and break the powerful families’ will to resist, Xiao Ming did not adopt a policy of complete annihilation.
It was precisely because of this policy that many powerful families still harbored illusions, hoping to preserve their foundations by rendering meritorious service. There had already been similar examples in the battles to attack prefectures and counties near Pengzhou City.
“Taking on a new master? Hmph, why not kill them all?” After the Yangzhou incident, Ye Qingyun now harbored extreme hatred for the powerful families.
“That cannot be. If His Highness hadn’t allowed the powerful families to surrender, could your 30,000 men have occupied Jinling City so easily? The massacre in Yangzhou was said to be for revenge, but it was actually just to raise military provisions. Moreover, currently, only the principal offenders among Qingzhou’s powerful families have died; everyone else has been relocated to various places to farm, and now they are quite well-behaved.”
Ye Qingyun nodded. “Is His Highness planning to do the same this time?”
“No, His Highness said that this time, the powerful families of Wei will be tried by the local common people. Those who committed heinous crimes will be beheaded without exception. Those who followed them will be conscripted into forced labor. Those who are innocent will be reduced to common people, and all their family property will be confiscated.”
“Haha, worthy of His Highness! This method is much more severe than that for the powerful families in the state. In this way, the powerful families of Wei will essentially vanish.”
Li San nodded. His responsibility this time was to establish militias and production teams in each prefecture and county. After Jinling City was stabilized, it would be time for the trials of the powerful families. However, even the surrendered powerful families had to be temporarily detained before that.
The two chatted for a while. Then Ye Qingyun gestured to his personal guard to let Zhang Yi in.
Soon, Zhang Yi, dressed in a patched garment, walked in. Behind him was a disheveled Prince Wei.
“Greetings, Governor. I, Zhang Yi, head of the Zhang family of Jinling City, specially present Prince Wei to the Governor,” Zhang Yi said nervously.
Ye Qingyun glanced at Zhang Yi. The man was half a hundred years old, with graying hair and a thin build. Coupled with his patched clothes, he looked like a beggar.
Li San and Ye Qingyun were both surprised by Zhang Yi’s appearance.
Then the two looked at Prince Wei. Ye Qingyun had not seen Prince Wei before, but Li San had. At this moment, he said, “Your Royal Highness Prince Wei, if you had known this day would come, why didn’t you agree to the alliance back then? Now you wouldn’t have to be a prisoner.”
“Bastard! How dare you, a mere dog servant, insult me! Even if I lost, I am still Xiao Ming’s imperial uncle. When I reach Qingzhou City, he will still have to treat me well,” Prince Wei cursed.
Then he turned to Zhang Yi: “You heartless wretch! You greedily stayed for your family’s property and didn’t escape in time, instead, you captured me to claim credit! I truly regret not exterminating your whole family!”
Zhang Yi’s face turned green then white, then white then green. As Prince Wei said, after the Dengzhou army attacked Jinling City, he ordered his household retainers to gather gold, silver, and valuables. But when he was ready to leave, the Dengzhou army had already fully occupied Jinling City.
In his despair, he discovered Prince Wei, who was mixed in the crowd. It turned out that under the persuasion of officials, Prince Wei had finally decided to flee, but it was already too late. So, a plan came to his mind: to capture Prince Wei and atone for his sins with this merit.
Facing Prince Wei’s curses, Li San was unconcerned. He said indifferently, “His Highness Prince Qi has always remembered Your Royal Highness Prince Wei’s collusion with the powerful families of Qingzhou to harm him. Whether you will be treated well then depends on Your Highness’s fortune.”
Prince Wei’s expression immediately turned extremely ugly upon hearing this.
Ye Qingyun, on the other hand, said, “You ordered soldiers to plunder and massacre. Over a hundred thousand innocent common people in Yangzhou City died tragically. How could His Highness forgive a foolish king like you?”
With that, he said to the soldiers in the tent, “Imprison Zhang Yi and Prince Wei. Await His Highness’s command.”
“Yes.” The soldiers immediately raised their bayonets, pointing at Zhang Yi and Prince Wei.
Zhang Yi was greatly alarmed. He shouted, “The Governor must have made a mistake! I captured Prince Wei; even if there’s no merit, there’s no fault!”
“Hmph, you are the head of the Zhang family of Jinling City, and your daughter is Prince Wei’s concubine. Do you take me for a fool? Moreover, you betrayed your master, utterly shameless,” Ye Qingyun said angrily.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yi was instantly devastated, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.
The two were led away. Li San said, “With Jinling City taken, the situation is set. Prince Wei’s son, Xiao Han, being trapped in Chuzhou is only a matter of time. The remaining few prefectures have few soldiers and generals, so they are not worth mentioning at all.”
Ye Qingyun nodded. The Battle of Jinling City could be said to have decided the fate of the war.