Chapter 382: Chapter 382

Under the city gate, Prince Fu’s coffin had been dragged out and abandoned.

The coffin had collapsed, revealing not only a headless body inside but also a large pile of grave goods. These grave goods, naturally, did not include those from Prince Fu’s actual tomb, but given his status, the coffin itself was still quite luxurious.

More than ten knights on horseback waited beside the coffin, while Xue Three sat on its edge, his short legs dangling and swinging.

Prince Fu’s head had accompanied Xue Three through several lonely nights at the bottom of the deep well. Therefore, Xue Three held a certain affection for this portly prince.

However, whether Prince Fu, in the afterlife, would acknowledge this "affection" was unknown to anyone.

Previously, it was precisely because Prince Fu’s coffin had jammed the city gate that the Yan Army had successfully stormed it. In other words, Prince Fu—no, Prince Fu’s corpse—had rendered great service to Yan!

As Zheng Fan rode past, he glanced at the coffin and found it somewhat amusing. Prince Fu truly is valuable from head to toe. His head earned me military merits, and his headless body helped us breach the city!

"My lord, what shall we do about this business?"

The "business" Xue Three referred to was naturally Prince Fu’s corpse.

"Keep an eye on it for now. Clean up this area; don’t let his body be left exposed out here."

Rationally speaking, Zheng Fan did not want to cast himself in the role of an executioner. He believed that a more temperate method of annexation and occupation would be more effective in the long term.

Prince Fu was a vassal prince, and he was long dead. Zheng Fan planned to arrange a proper funeral for him after settling matters in the city.

Among the most important national affairs are rites and warfare. The "rites" mentioned here pertained not only to sacrifices to ancestral spirits but also encompassed respect for the other nation’s culture and customs.

Fortunately, the Yan people and Qian people looked very similar. If one were to nitpick, people in the Qian State’s heartland and the Jiangnan region generally had softer facial features, whereas the Yan people’s facial contours were slightly more defined.

This was not due to differences in lineage but purely a result of geographical climate and environment.

Therefore, there was no fundamental, irreconcilable ethnic conflict between Yan and Qian.

By arranging a proper burial for Prince Fu, a relatively amicable political signal could be sent to the Qian people, especially the elite. If you were to dig up their ancestral graves, wouldn’t that just force them to fight you to the death?

Zheng Fan had discussed this issue in-depth with the Blind Man.

In the end, the gist was that they couldn’t influence how the Yan Emperor would ultimately rule the Qian State—whether through appeasement or an iron fist; this was something they couldn’t influence anyway. They should just focus on being the "good guys." Even as invaders, if you were a "benevolent-looking" invader, you might even trigger Stockholm Syndrome in the Qian people, making it easier and more convenient to win their support in the future.

Look, the war had just begun, and no one knew how the situation would develop. Yet, Zheng Fan and his followers were already preparing for a future rebellion!

After entering the city, there were quite a few bodies at the gate and on the streets, along with evidence of arrow strikes and fighting. However, the Chuzhou city garrison’s will to fight must have been extremely low, as not many people seemed to have died.

On the contrary, when the North Garrison Army was later clearing the streets, many civilians who hadn’t yet grasped the situation and tried to come out to see the commotion were directly cut down or shot.

As he rode past these scenes, Zheng Fan felt quite calm. There’s no war without death. It’s impossible to quickly stabilize a city’s order without some killing.

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

The discipline of the North Garrison Army was actually quite good; there were no incidents of arson, murder, or looting within the city.

Of course, this was also because the city had fallen too easily, which hadn’t stirred the soldiers’ ire. Instead, it gave the entire army a sense of unreality.

When facing a fierce tiger, once it’s down, you naturally rush in to deliver the finishing blow. But when facing a weak little rabbit, for a moment, you might actually hesitate to strike.

So, the current situation isn’t very good! What on earth is Li Fusheng up to!

Zheng Fan found Li Fusheng.

At that moment, Li Fusheng was squatting on the ramparts of the south city gate.

The North Garrison Army had broken in through the north gate. After a bout of fighting, they quickly routed the Chuzhou city garrison. They then spread out from the north gate to control the entire city and simultaneously imposed martial law in all four quarters.

This caused many routed soldiers and quick-witted civilians to instinctively try to flee towards the south gate. Unfortunately for them, a contingent of three thousand cavalrymen was already waiting there, completely blocking their escape.

As a result, a dense, dark mass of people knelt at the south gate.

Glancing over them, Zheng Fan roughly estimated there were about four to five thousand routed soldiers, with at least twice that number of civilians.

The North Garrison Army soldiers were herding them like sheep, pressing them so tightly together that they were shoulder to shoulder.

Surrounding them, and especially on either side of Li Fusheng, rows of soldiers already had their bows drawn, arrows nocked.

Zheng Fan swiftly dismounted and ran up the city wall.

Damn it! Li Fusheng had reminded me several times that he has a penchant for killing, so if necessary, I’ll have to be the one to stop him. Newest update provıded by novｅlfire.net