Under the vicious afternoon sun, over a hundred prisoners covered in blood and filth, their hands bound with ropes and strung together in a line, trudged difficultly toward a dock on the southeast side of the county office along the Mingshi River under the scorching sun.
These prisoners were all soldiers of the Southern Court Imperial Guards who had entered Lishui with Vice General Xu Bin but were abandoned by him.
As elite Imperial Guards, even captured, their faces still retained some fierce color. However, the Prince’s Mansion cavalry guards who attacked the city yesterday were too formidable, routing them so thoroughly they lost helmets and armor and could not resist. After their defeat, unable to escape the city, they could only choose to surrender.
They still did not know what fate awaited them, only knowing that the place they were heading to was the most open area within Lishui City.
Cavalry in solid armor wielding sharp weapons stood guard on both sides of the streets and alleys, preventing these prisoners from daring the slightest struggle.
Even though the killing had only been last night and the city had changed hands, the Jianghuai region never lacked people who loved watching excitement. They gathered in twos and threes. Even those who were timid could not help but poke their heads out from their family courtyards to watch everything before their eyes.
“I heard that Prince of Eastern Zhejiang Li Yu led troops back. Even Vice General Xu, who just days ago was as proud as a red-crested rooster, couldn’t hold out for half a shichen before being routed in chaos and fleeing in utter disarray. Do you know what kind of person Prince Li is? You little brats are still young, haven’t even grown your feathers yet—how would you know? When the late Emperor attacked Shengzhou and fought Yue King Dong Chang, neighbors in all directions who heard Prince Li’s reputation could make children stop crying at midnight. That’s someone whose hands are truly stained with fresh blood. Wen Muqiao, Niu Gengru, Zhang Xiang, Du Chongtao, Yang Zhitang, Yang Tai—each with extremely resounding reputations—in front of Prince Li they didn’t even dare breathe loudly…”
“Prince Li also supports the Third Prince?”
“Of course! The one who supports the Third Prince most strongly is Marquis of Xinchang, who is Prince Li’s own younger brother. If Prince Li doesn’t support the Third Prince together with his own brother, who would he support? The general who led troops into the city last night is Prince Li’s legitimate son—I heard that County Vice-Magistrate Wei, upon hearing Prince Li’s reputation, pissed his pants and hastily knelt to beg for mercy.”
At this time, they saw from afar dozens of people walking out from the county office gates.
Lishui City was not large, with only a few prominent figures. Sharp-eyed people immediately recognized County Vice-Magistrate Wei Zhen:
“Isn’t that Wei family head Master Wei? They’re following behind these hundred-plus bound prisoners—where are they going?”
“You don’t know yet? Master Wei begged for mercy, naturally he must pledge allegiance to the Third Prince. Doesn’t he need to demonstrate his loyalty? They’re picking out the dog-legged soldiers Anning Palace stationed in Lishui City, taking them to the South Street dock to behead them, to show they’ve completely severed ties with Anning Palace!”
“These Southern Court Imperial Guard soldiers helped tyrants commit evil and do not know to suddenly repent, so they cannot blame me, Li, for being cruel and merciless. However, this also gives Administrator Wei an opportunity to demonstrate his loyalty to His Highness.” Surrounded by several guards, Li Pu could faintly hear the surrounding spectators discussing something but paid it no mind. His face beaming, he smiled at Wei family head Wei Zhen, whose face was deathly pale with a freshly scabbed bloody gash on his cheek.
Wei Zhen’s old face, wrinkled like withered vines and ancient trees, found smiling at Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu more difficult than crying. He considered himself an elegant scholar and had some aversion to killing prisoners. Moreover, the prisoners now being marched to the temporary execution ground had, before last night, defended Lishui together with Wei family descendants!
However, first, the cruel reality lay before him. Wei Zhen and over two hundred able-bodied Wei clan members, along with several hundred clansmen who had taken refuge in Lishui City, were now prisoners. Second, although Prince of Eastern Zhejiang Li Yu had been in retirement for ten years, his imposing reputation had not fallen. Last night the Li family sons attacked and captured Lishui with crushing momentum—he had witnessed it with his own eyes, and at this moment his heart still felt cold.
As Wei family head, did Wei Zhen truly have a choice between remaining a prisoner or submitting to Yueyang and to the Third Prince to revive his clan?
Of course, when Wei Zhen and other families expressed willingness to pledge allegiance, Li Pu required them to hand over proof of loyalty before he would trust them.
The so-called proof of loyalty, besides jointly signing a denunciation of the crimes of the traitorous woman Lady Xu for her sexual misconduct in the palace and traitorous usurpation, also required that direct descendants of the Wei clan and other submitting families personally behead over a hundred Southern Court Imperial Guard prisoners captured and surrendered last night at the temporary execution ground beside the Mingshi River, before all the citizens of Lishui.
“Wei Zhen you dog thief! Remember how you begged the grandfathers to defend the city—what kind of face you had, practically crawling over to lick grandfather’s cock. Today you’re willing to be this butcher—aren’t you afraid your Wei family’s descendants for generations to come will be born with rotten hearts, rotten livers, and rotten intestines?” Among the prisoners, a squad leader heard the spectators’ discussions, then saw County Vice-Magistrate Wei Zhen indeed walking out of the county office together with Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu, and immediately began cursing furiously.
Wei Zhen’s old face twitched, the corners of his mouth quivering slightly. He turned his face aside, letting the prisoner curse him.
The expressions of the twenty-plus aristocratic family descendants selected to carry out the executions behind Wei Zhen were even more miserable. Most of them were still quite young. Although they had all trained in martial arts and archery since childhood and considered themselves brave and martial, they had not experienced the bloody warfare of Great Chu’s founding years. After over a decade of peace, only after the recent Jinling incident had they begun to experience how cruel battlefield slaughter was. They had not yet learned betrayal and selling out.
At this moment, requiring them to execute and behead prisoners who had been encamped together just last night—how many could transform and adapt so quickly?
Li Qi followed silently behind with a squad of guards. Having witnessed Li Qi’s illustrious martial prowess, which of these family descendants would dare struggle?
Today would be the most important and most cruel lesson in most of their lives.
“Crack!” A war horse charged over from the side. The rider on horseback viciously lashed down a whip, striking the cursing prisoner to the ground. The long string of prisoners connected to him swayed and nearly all fell down. Dozens of cavalry swarmed over, urging these prisoners onward to the execution ground.
Under the scorching sun, over a hundred heads fell to the ground, blood spurting from severed necks, dyeing the stone-paved dock red. It quickly seeped through stone grooves and brick crevices into the rippling blue waves of the Mingshi River.
Some sighed darkly, some shouted with satisfaction, some were fearfully uneasy, some were triumphantly pleased.
No one paid attention to Gao Shao, whom Li Pu had invited to observe the executions. He stood atop the east city gate tower watching it all.
Gao Shao had originally been a patrol scout in Yue King Dong Chang’s army. When Yue King Dong Chang was defeated by Emperor Tianyou, he was wounded and captured, then escaped back to the countryside. His wife contracted plague and was driven away by villagers, subsequently becoming a vagrant and starving refugee.
Even though he could not prevent Li Pu from wrongly killing prisoners, he would not join this spectacle. He thought to himself that outsiders all said Han Qian was sinister and harsh in dealing with people, but he had never killed prisoners and strictly forbade soldiers from killing prisoners. When Xuzhou was taken and large numbers of stockade slaves and soldiers were incorporated from various clans, they were all directly relocated to Linjiang County and given farmland with commoner status. Those guilty of grave crimes were handed over to officials for judgment.
In this regard alone, he was immeasurably superior to Li Pu.
Of course, Gao Shao was clearer than anyone about the hidden dangers facing the Chishan Army. He was also very clear about the fear and hatred people like Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu had toward Han Qian. Previously when Li Pu remained in Jinling without men or troops, they did not fear what waves he could stir up. But Li Pu so urgently forcing Lishui’s various families to take sides made Gao Shao worry about what Li Pu wanted to do.
Gao Shao had sent someone to Donglu Mountain at dawn to report. By midmorning Han Qian had already sent someone back, asking him to confirm there was temporarily no threat of Southern Court Imperial Guard forces pressing forward from the north, then to lead two battalions back to Donglu Mountain.
Besides this, Han Qian’s letter said little else and had the messenger bring no verbal message, as if he found nothing surprising about the Prince’s Mansion cavalry guards’ performance, Li Qi’s fierceness, or what Li Pu intended to do in Lishui.
Gao Shao could not help thinking—had the Minister anticipated beforehand that Li Pu would incorporate aristocratic clan troops in Lishui City to sing the opposite tune to the Chishan Army?
Gao Shao hesitated whether to send someone again to Donglu Mountain for instructions. He thought that if he truly occupied only the east gate tower of Lishui City with two battalions, Li Pu would have no way to deal with him.
The east gate tower was built on a slightly raised ridge, the highest point in Lishui City’s terrain. Standing atop the east gate tower, Gao Shao could see everything happening within the city.
After beheading over a hundred Southern Court Imperial Guard prisoners, Li Pu withdrew to the county office with Wei Zhen and others. Soon he saw prisoners belonging to the Wei clan and other aristocratic families all gathering in a large compound north of the county office. Able-bodied servants from various families’ compounds within the city continuously gathered there as well.
That large compound had originally been requisitioned by the Southern Court Imperial Guards as a barracks. Inside the compound was a garden of three or four mu. The decorative rocks were removed, the fish pond filled in, and it was made into a training ground. By afternoon it was packed with people—roughly estimated at nearly eight hundred.
This was another important move by the Wei clan and other families in their submission: the families would send out descendants to select able-bodied servants to enlist in the army.
Unlike Han Qian conscripting servants into military service and directly stripping servants away from aristocratic families, Li Pu required the able-bodied servants selected by the families to serve as the families’ private soldiers and retainers, directly commanded by direct descendants appointed by the families, then incorporated into the army to accept overall command and direction—this was also the troop system Emperor Tianyou used in his early years when he rose in Jianghuai and commanded various powers.
For instance, Wei Zhen’s son Wei Huang, and Liu Zishu of the Liu clan who had only fled from Shang Family Fort into Lishui City two days ago—though they directly commanded from dozens to over a hundred clan soldiers, they were all granted the rank of Battalion Commander, leading their troops under the unified command and direction of Vice General Chen Mingsheng.
Through this method, Li Pu completed reconciliation with Lishui’s aristocratic families, obtaining their loyalty to himself and to Yueyang. Although this carried the hidden danger of the tail becoming too big to wag, it also had immediately effective results.
However, this meant the troops Li Pu gathered under his command were fundamentally in sharp opposition to the Chishan Army.
Gao Shao watched all this with considerable worry. At this time he saw Zhang Ping riding over from afar. He leaned out from a battlement and called out: “Administrator Zhang, Anning Palace’s troops at Jiangcheng and Pingling show no unusual movements. I will lead my troops back to Donglu Mountain tomorrow, completely handing Lishui City over to Marquis Li to handle. Would Administrator Zhang like to go to Donglu Mountain with me?”
Zhang Ping was nominally the military supervisor Yueyang sent to Han Qian’s side, but to high-ranking officers at Gao Shao’s level, the secrets of the Divine Mausoleum Bureau were no longer secret. Seeing Zhang Ping’s dispirited appearance, Gao Shao thought his earlier visit to see Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu probably did not go very pleasantly.
“Fine, I’ll return with you.” Zhang Ping raised his head and said.
Zhang Ping had advised Li Pu that requiring Wei Zhen and other families to hand over proof of loyalty could be done through other means. Prisoners were also subjects of Great Chu. Deaths and injuries in battlefield combat were unavoidable, but killing prisoners was truly unnecessary. However, Li Pu did not listen to his advice.
Zhang Ping could also guess that deep in Li Pu’s heart he was too wary of Han Qian, which was why he so urgently needed the Wei clan and other Lishui aristocratic families to stand with him at the first opportunity. Unable to persuade him, what was the point of remaining here?