Chapter 152 A Good Start

Down below the city gate, the coffin of the Prince of Fu had already been dragged out and tossed at the city gate.

The coffin had collapsed, and inside, there was not only a headless corpse, but also a large pile of burial goods.

These burial goods, of course, did not include those in the Prince of Fu's mausoleum, but given the status of the Prince of Fu, the coffin was naturally luxurious.

More than a dozen knights waited on horseback beside the coffin, while Xue San sat on the edge of the coffin, his short legs dangling.

The Prince of Fu's head had spent several lonely nights with Xue San at the bottom of the well,

So,

Xue San was quite fond of this fat prince.

It was just that no one knew whether the Prince of Fu, down in the nine springs of the underworld, would acknowledge this "affection."

Earlier, it was precisely because the Prince of Fu's coffin was stuck at the city gate that the Yan army was able to successfully storm the gate.

In other words, the Prince of Fu, or rather, the Prince of Fu's remains, had contributed to Great Yan!

When Zheng Fan rode past, he glanced at the coffin and suddenly found it a bit funny. This Prince of Fu was truly a treasure from head to toe.

His head had been used to earn military merit, and his headless remains could help break through the city.

"My lord, how should we deal with this lump?"

The "lump" in Xue San's mouth naturally referred to the Prince of Fu's remains.

"Take care of it for now, tidy up this place, and don't let him be exposed to the elements."

"Alrighty."

Xue San nodded.

From a rational point of view, Zheng Fan didn't really want to cast himself as the executioner. He believed that a slightly more peaceful approach to annexation and occupation was the most effective in the long run.

The Prince of Fu was a vassal prince, and now he was already dead. Zheng Fan's plan was to help the Prince of Fu hold a proper funeral after he was done with the matters in the city.

Important matters of state lie in sacrifice and war.

The sacrifice here doesn't just refer to sacrifices to ancestors and gods, but also includes respect for the other country's culture and customs.

Fortunately, the people of Yan and Qian were not very different in appearance. If one were to nitpick, it might be that the people in the hinterland of Qian and Jiangnan generally had softer facial features, while the faces of the Yan people were slightly more angular and defined.

This was not due to differences in bloodlines, but purely due to geographical climate and landscape.

Therefore, there was no fundamental irreconcilability between Yan and Qian in terms of ethnicity.

By burying the Prince of Fu, a relatively amicable political signal could be sent to the people of Qian, especially the powerful and wealthy. If you really dug up someone's ancestral graves, wouldn't you be forcing them to fight to the death with you?

Zheng Fan had a very in-depth discussion with Blind about this issue.

In the end, the main point was that they couldn't influence how the Yan Emperor would rule the Qian Kingdom, whether with a gentle hand or an iron fist.

But they only needed to insist on being the "good guys." Even if they were all invaders, if you were a "kind-faced" invader, you might even inspire Stockholm syndrome in the Qian people, making it easier and more convenient to win their support in the future.

Look,

The war had only just begun, and it was still unknown how the situation would develop,

But Zheng Fan and his group of devils were already preparing for a rebellion in the future!

After entering the city, there were many corpses at the city gate and on the streets, as well as arrows and traces of fighting. However, the Chuzhou City garrison's will to fight must have been very low, and not many people had died.

On the contrary, when the Northern Garrison cleared the streets later, many city residents who hadn't realized "what was going on" and wanted to come out and watch the excitement were directly killed or shot.

Riding his horse along the way, Zheng Fan felt quite calm. In war, people will inevitably die. It is impossible to quickly stabilize the order of a city without killing people.

But overall, Chuzhou City was now in a state of "panicked" calm.

The military discipline of the Northern Garrison was indeed good, and there were no instances of burning, killing, or looting in the city.

Of course, this was also because the city had fallen too easily, which had not ignited the soldiers' anger, but instead gave the entire army a sense of unreality.

When facing a fierce tiger, if you finally manage to knock it down, you naturally have to quickly finish it off;

But when facing a weak little white rabbit, for a moment, you really can't bear to do it.

So,

Isn't the current situation pretty good!

What is Li Fusheng going crazy about!

Zheng Fan found Li Fusheng,

Who was currently squatting on the city tower of the South Gate.

The Northern Garrison had charged in from the North Gate, quickly defeating the Chuzhou City garrison after a series of charges, and then, starting from the North Gate, fanned out to control the entire city, while imposing martial law on the four city districts.

This caused many defeated soldiers and quick-witted civilians to instinctively flee towards the South Gate. Unfortunately, a force of three thousand cavalry had been waiting there for a long time, completely blocking these people back.

Therefore, a large crowd of people was kneeling in the darkness at the South Gate.

Glancing over, he roughly estimated in his heart that the number of defeated soldiers was about four or five thousand, and the number of civilians was double that.

Northern Garrison soldiers were squeezing them together like herding sheep. Within the encirclement, it could be said that people were packed shoulder to shoulder.

Around, especially on both sides of Li Fusheng, rows of soldiers had already drawn their bows and notched their arrows.

Zheng Fan quickly dismounted and ran up the city tower.

Damn it,

Li Fusheng had reminded him several times before that he liked to kill, so he needed to stop him when necessary.

Zheng Fan had thought that the other party was just making a half-joking remark, but who knew that this guy was really a madman!

The war had only just begun, and they had taken this capital city very smoothly. Did your head get caught in the door that you actually want to massacre the city?

Li Fusheng turned his head and glanced at Zheng Fan, who was running over quickly.

In his eyes, there was a faint red glow.

This was a feeling that Zheng Fan had not seen before when he interacted with him. It was a bit like the demon in Li Fusheng's heart seemed to have awakened.

Of course, there couldn't possibly be any demons in Li Fusheng's heart. According to Blind Bei, the psychologist, Li Fusheng should have a mental illness.

And it had reached a very serious stage.

In his previous life, this type of mental illness often appeared in serial killers. Killing, hunting their targets, for these people, had almost become a mental addiction more difficult than quitting drugs.

"Sir!"

Zheng Fan cupped his fist at Li Fusheng.

"You're here."

Li Fusheng said.

Zheng Fan suddenly had a feeling that Li Fusheng was waiting for him, just like when a person is sick and calls for a doctor.

He was enduring, waiting for his arrival.

Zheng Fan's gaze swept past Li Fusheng's back, where a row of lieutenant generals and guerrilla generals were standing. None of these people, whose positions and status were higher than his, dared to speak to Li Fusheng at this time.

Clearly, Li Fusheng's prestige among this town's soldiers was extremely high.

"Sir, is this...?" Zheng Fan asked knowingly.

Li Fusheng was clutching the wall bricks under him tightly. Zheng Fan saw clear indentations appearing on the wall bricks. This scene really looked like a drug addict going through withdrawal.

"How could this city have been taken down so easily!"

Li Fusheng said through gritted teeth.

The city came down too easily, it wasn't satisfying!

People, didn't die enough, it wasn't satisfying!

They had been on a long expedition for so long, and he thought that there would be a hearty hard battle waiting for him, but in the end, they had taken the entire city in this bizarre way!

The foreplay was too much, and the disappointment was even greater!

Zheng Fan was a little stunned,

Then, his gaze swept towards the dark crowd below the city tower,

Look,

Who told you to be so useless, resist a little longer, fight a little longer,

Now it's good,

You lost and surrendered too quickly,

Making our boss unhappy.

"Sir, this city is already Great Yan's."

Li Fusheng shook his head and said:

"We will not divide our troops to garrison here, we will continue to move south."

Li Fusheng looked at Zheng Fan and continued:

"This city, we will not defend."

The established plan was indeed to continue moving south. This was Chuzhou County. To the south, if you were to go in a straight line without considering detours, there were still Xishan County and Beihe County. After passing these two counties, there was also Bianzhou County. Once you got there, and crossed the Bian River, you could say that you had touched the capital city of the Qian Kingdom.

"But this city, in the end, is still Great Yan's."

Li Fusheng smiled,

In his smile,

There was a hint of coldness.

At this moment, Zheng Fan's body began to feel cold. If he had the chance, he really wanted to ask the Marquis of Zhenbei, can mentally ill people also become generals?

"I am very angry."

"Sir, you are our backbone."

Li Fusheng was not used to this battlefield, because Yan and the barbarians had hundreds of years of blood feud, and it had already risen to the level of racial hatred.

Killing and annihilating the barbarians was politically correct in Yan. Under this political correctness, Li Fusheng thrived.

In fact, the most important point was that Yan was unable to develop and control the desert, because the desert was too barren. But the Qian Kingdom was different. The Qian Kingdom was a piece of fat that the Yan Emperor wanted to swallow.

Li Fusheng reached out and placed his hand on Zheng Fan's shoulder,

And said:

"But, I really want to kill people."

"Sir, there will be opportunities. Please bear with it a little longer."

"What do you plan to do with these people?"

The blood in Li Fusheng's eyes was slowly fading, which meant that this person was recovering from his previous extreme state.

"Sir, our army came on a rapid march, and did not bring much baggage and provisions. This subordinate suggests that we first conduct a selection, confiscate the homes of wealthy and prominent families, and half of the grain obtained will be included in our army's supplies, as a supplement for continuing south, and half of the obtained wealth will be rewarded to the entire army to boost morale."

Li Fusheng narrowed his eyes and said:

"Continue."

Zheng Fan pointed to the dark crowd below and said:

"Find some local military leaders or officials from Chuzhou City, and promote them to power. Sir, you should act decisively and expediently, reappoint the heads of the civil and military officials of Chuzhou City, and then let them reorganize their own teams.

At the same time, confiscating a family's property must mean exterminating the family. We must be ruthless, but not by our Yan army, but by themselves, and our Yan soldiers will only be responsible for suppressing them from the sidelines."

"You said earlier that we will only take half of the wealth and grain, what about the remaining half?"

"Distribute it to them, and to the commoners inside and outside the city."

Li Fusheng pressed down slightly with both hands, supporting himself to stand up.

Zheng Fan then continued:

"However, the matter of confiscating property and exterminating families will be done by them, but the distribution of grain and wealth will be done by us."

"Interesting."

"This is just my humble opinion."

"Not humble, it's very profound."

Li Fusheng reached out and took out a bright yellow booklet from his chest, handing it to Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan opened it and saw that it contained measures to be taken for the occupied cities.

It was very concise and used a very vernacular narrative style, which clearly showed that the person who wrote this had a clear understanding of the cultural literacy of the "soldiers" of this era.

The first rule was to unconditionally meet the supply of this army under any circumstances, that is, to obtain food from the enemy.

The second rule was the measures to be taken when the supply of this army was sufficient.

The general meaning was similar to what Zheng Fan had said earlier, but it was more detailed and supplemented, which showed that the person who wrote this booklet was more meticulous and comprehensive in planning and thinking.

Currently, Zheng Fan's force, that is, Li Fusheng's army of 30,000 cavalry, had entered Chuzhou City. It could be said that this was one of the richest places in Chuzhou County, so naturally, they would implement the second strategy in the booklet.

Finally, two seals were affixed to the booklet, one on top and one on the bottom.

Zheng Fan recognized the one on top, which should be the Yan Emperor's seal. Zheng Fan couldn't recognize the seal below for a moment.

"Earlier, the Marquis said that you, young man, have a very good eye, and I didn't quite believe it. Now, I believe it. Do you know who wrote this booklet?"

"This subordinate does not know."

"My Great Yan's Grand Chancellor, Zhao Jiulang."

Zheng Fan was stunned for a moment. His first reaction was his conflict with Zhao Jiulang, after all, he had once led barbarian soldiers to trample on the other party's alma mater.

Now, he had a more profound understanding of this Great Yan's Grand Chancellor.

A Grand Chancellor could personally write such a booklet for the commanding general on the front line, and the content of the booklet was so detailed, tsk tsk.

"You must not have seen this booklet, you, are very good."

Li Fusheng reached out and rubbed his temples, and continued:

"These things, will be left for you to take charge of."

Saying that, Li Fusheng turned around and glanced at the generals standing behind him, and these generals cupped their hands in agreement.

"If you don't have enough people in your department, you can go to them to ask for help."

"This subordinate will definitely not fail his mission!"

"Hehe, good."

Li Fusheng patted Zheng Fan's shoulder a second time, and then left.

Zheng Fan then took a deep breath,

Everything,

Is easier said than done, but when you really start to do it, it becomes complicated.

However,

Colonel Zheng was not panicked at all,

He had a group of helpers.

In his previous life, Zheng Fan had also fantasized about time travel, thinking about how he would develop, take this path or that path, in short, all kinds of life peaks.

But after time traveling to this world,

Zheng Fan increasingly realized one thing,

If it weren't for these seven devils by his side,

He would have died somewhere long ago.

Reaching out,

Zheng Fan beckoned to a soldier beside him,

The other party walked over and cupped his fist at Zheng Fan:

"Sir."

Zheng Fan pointed to the location of Blind and Fan Li below the city wall, and said:

"Please, help me call them two up."

"Yes!"

Immediately afterwards, a general with thick eyebrows and big eyes in his early thirties walked up to Zheng Fan and said very enthusiastically:

"Colonel Zheng, my unit of 5,000 soldiers has no city defense or sentry duties for the time being, and can be driven by you."

Zheng Fan knew that the other party was called Sun Guyi, and was a guerrilla general under Li Fusheng.

Although Li Fusheng had told him before he left, Sun Guyi took the initiative to say this, and the purpose of building a personal relationship between the two was very clear.

"Thank you, General Sun."

"You're welcome, Colonel Zheng is also from the North, we are originally from the same family, to tell you the truth, this more talk and roundabout, actually not as good as our hometown folks to come to the porcelain, we Northerners are not easy ah, with the barbarians fought for several lifetimes, rely on what, is not a mutual assistance ah.

Colonel Zheng, you say, is this the reason?"

"What the General said is very true."

"Alright, you hurry up and busy, as long as you want to transfer troops to send people to my place to support a sound is, in addition, time has to hurry a little bit, we can only stay here for another day."

"I understand, thank you, General Sun."

"Hey, you are still polite, the army can not drink alcohol when pulling out, if there is leisure in the future, you can come to my tent, I will call those people over, we, together to eat a good meal."

"Good, this subordinate will then lick his face and only bring a mouth."

"Hahaha."

Sun Guyi left, and the rest of the guerrilla generals and participating generals had also left the city tower one after another.

After a while, Blind Bei and Fan Li walked up.

Zheng Fan told Blind what he had said to Li Fusheng earlier,

Actually,

In the eyes of the surrounding soldiers, Zheng Fan was just standing there silently, as if thinking about something. In reality, Blind had already opened a "guild channel" with Zheng Fan in private chat.

"That Zhao Jiulang, is really a character."

In Blind's words, there was a hint of dissatisfaction, and... helplessness.

It seemed like just pulling out anyone from Yan was a remarkable character, so what should they do in the future?

But,

When Zheng Fan told Blind about Sun Guyi's words,

Blind was silent for a moment,

And said:

"My lord, it has begun."

Zheng Fan nodded, indicating that he understood this point as well.

"Earlier, Marquis Zhenbei wanted to dig you, my lord, it was out of public interest, cherishing talent. With Marquis Zhenbei's height, what he did was basically out of true nature.

But Sun Guyi is different. Generally, in the army, the most xenophobic. Although my lord is from the North, he developed in the South, and is already considered to be Marquis Jingnan's man.

In addition, my lord is in charge of this confiscation and distribution of wealth.

An outsider, temporarily entering this army, and also in charge of the power of distributing spoils, logically speaking, should be highly squeezed out."

"That's right."

"Sun Guyi, should be ordered by Li Fusheng. My lord, according to my previous experience, the IQ of mentally ill people is actually not low, even higher than ordinary people.

Moreover, although Li Fusheng is a general under Marquis Zhenbei, his meaning may be different from Marquis Zhenbei's meaning."

Zheng Fan nodded,

And said:

"Yeah, even if the two Marquises and the Yan Emperor are standing together, the people below have already begun to pull up their own factions."

"My lord, don't worry, this is just a trend. From the current point of view, it will not affect the war."

"I know this."

"Moreover, my lord, in the long run, this is a certainty, and at the same time, it is also our opportunity in the future."

"Let's not think about these things for now, let's do the things in front of us well first."

Blind Bei smiled, and said confidently:

"A piece of cake."