The Liang army strictly prohibited indiscriminate killing, but that didn’t mean no killing at all.

Along both sides of the post road before Chuzhou’s southern gate tower, dozens of cedar stakes were arranged in a row, each displaying two to three corpses for public viewing. To prevent the bodies from rapidly decomposing under the scorching sun, these corpses—whether killed in battle or executed by hanging afterward—were specially treated with quicklime for dehydration to withstand the fifteen-day public display period, though this made them appear particularly ghastly when hung up.

At this moment, four horse carriages slowly emerged from Chuzhou’s southern gate. Despite the sweltering weather, the carriages were tightly covered.

Over ten soldiers on guard duty at the gate approached vigilantly. The front curtain of the leading carriage lifted, and a woman dressed in water-green robes descended, producing a special travel permit for the leading military officer to inspect.

Seeing that the special travel permit was printed by the General Staff’s Secret Bureau and bore the signature of Commander-in-Chief Han Donghu, which meant that whoever was in these carriages was beyond their authority to question, the leading officer immediately ordered the chevaux-de-frise outside the gate pulled aside to let them pass.

The green-robed woman did not board the carriage again but accompanied the convoy over a hundred paces beyond the gate before saying through the curtain to the lead carriage: “Xiang Yun will see you off to here. Princess Consort, from now on you’ll live under an assumed name, and no one will investigate your whereabouts. But Princess Consort, you’ll no longer be worth ten thousand gold pieces and will likely endure some hardship—if you truly face any difficulties, just write to Xiang Yun.”

The curtain lifted, revealing a haggard, frightened face, showing she had endured several days of difficult inner torment. Even so, her devastatingly beautiful appearance remained undimmed, so dazzling it was hard to look directly at her. The faint traces left by time seemed not to diminish her beauty in the slightest, and she carried an indescribable charm. She looked forlornly at the dozens of corpses hanging on display along both sides of the post road. The first corpse still appeared imposing even now.

“Han Qian’s father also once served in Chuzhou. Can he not spare even a bit of old affection, so stingy he won’t even provide a coffin, and must humiliate the corpse even in death?” the middle-aged woman asked sorrowfully.

“If Prince of Xin and the heir apparent had surrendered, they could have been spared the death penalty. Stubborn resistance means strangulation, with corpses displayed for fifteen days as a warning to others—this was personally decreed by the lord. Even bearing the Queen’s mandate, Xiang Yun can only ensure the safety of Princess Consort and Eighth Prince. After the display period passes, Xiang Yun will arrange for someone to select a burial site for Prince of Xin and the others. When the situation stabilizes, Princess Consort may return to pay respects if you wish, but for now, don’t worry about this anymore,” the green-robed woman said.

The beautiful woman sighed, withdrew into the carriage, and headed south.

The green-robed woman walked leisurely back into the city.

The hostilities hadn’t lasted long. After the northern wall was breached, the city’s defending troops basically abandoned resistance. Over ten thousand captured soldiers were confined in a prisoner-of-war camp outside the city for reorganization.

Now, apart from the patrol soldiers visible everywhere, there wasn’t much panic in Chuzhou City. The streets and alleys had even resumed supply of basic necessities like rice, flour, vegetables, firewood, and charcoal this very morning.

Han Donghu had also ordered patrol soldiers strictly forbidden from entering private residences. The hunt for fugitive war criminals had been transferred to the newly established Chuzhou Criminal Justice Bureau.

The green-robed woman entered Prince of Xin’s palace, currently serving as Han Donghu’s command tent for the Second Central Campaign Army. She saw Han Donghu sitting at his desk reading a yellow-sealed official dispatch and asked: “Has the lord sent new instructions? When do we attack Yangzhou?”

“The lord wants the Second Central Campaign Army to handle resettlement matters in Chuzhou and other areas. He hasn’t required us to advance south for now,” Han Donghu grasped the green-robed woman’s hand and asked, “You’ve sent Gu Mei’er away?”

“Sent her away. Better to send her quickly, otherwise if she were sent to East Lake or Luoyang, who knows whose eye she might catch,” the green-robed woman said. “Tell me, the old master has been living quietly in Liyang with Madam Xu all these years without causing any stir. How did he suddenly come up with such a terrible idea? Could he think Miss is too idle in Luoyang and must find her a formidable rival as an opponent? Women who emerged from the Divine Mausoleum Bureau—which one is easy to deal with?”

“Otherwise, should we follow the High Ancestor Emperor’s example and carry out bloody purges of the previous dynasty’s imperial clan and distinguished gentry families, not even sparing women, children, or the elderly and weak?” Han Donghu shook his head. “The lord is unwilling to use such bloody and brutal methods. Some approaches are taken out of necessity…”

…

…

When news of Chuzhou’s fall reached Jinling, the city that had been clamoring for days suddenly fell silent as a grave.

At this time, besides Han Donghu leading the main forces of the Second Central Campaign Army to fully enter Chuzhou territory for reorganization and pursuit of remnant forces from Prince of Xin’s mansion, Zhao Wuji had already led Cao Ba’s and Chen Qi’s troops across the Yangtze River, assembling at the foot of Cuiluo Mountain seventy li east of Jinling City, poised and ready to strike.

Beyond everyone’s expectations, when the court assembly on the twenty-sixth opened, Zhou Qinian and Huang Huixiang were the first to step forward into the hall, submitting a memorial stating: “What Marquis Yang said on the seventeenth, though shocking, upon careful consideration—when Lord of Liang Han Qian served Chu, he was utterly loyal and repeatedly rendered great service to the state and altars. He was Great Chu’s meritorious minister. When the He-Huai region faced peril, Lord of Liang Han Qian accepted command in crisis and inherited the throne of Great Liang, repelling the barbarian cavalry and preventing the Central Plains from being torn apart—he has rendered service to all creation. Thirty years ago, Liang and Chu were one family, torn apart by war, which was never the wish of the people. If the Lord of Liang and the Empress Dowager could marry, reunifying Liang and Chu, it would be a tale for the ages…”

The twenty-sixth court assembly was mainly attended by civil and military officials of vice minister rank and above.

They all anticipated that someone would inevitably soon follow Yang En in yielding to the Liang army’s coercion, standing forth. They only hoped they could avoid taking a hasty stance. They also wondered who would be the second shameless person after Yang En, but the Huang family’s performance at this moment still caught the vast majority completely off guard.

The Huang family had always been the most resolute war faction. Apart from Huang Huixiang and Zhou Qinian serving in the capital as Vice Minister of Finance and Metropolitan Governor, echoing Empress Dowager Mingcheng in the palace, Huang Hua had wielded military and political authority over Hunan’s Provincial Secretariat for over ten years as consistently as the sun rises. His son Huang Lü served as Commander of the Left Martial Guard Army, one of the Imperial Guard’s great generals.

The Huang clan was moreover the representative and leader of Jiangdong’s hereditary clans and powerful families.

During these past days, over one-third of the Imperial Academy students clamoring to drag Yang En out and beat him to death came from Jiangdong’s hereditary clans and powerful families.

The Jiangdong hereditary clans and powerful families might not wield the strongest influence in the military, but counting Gu Zhilong’s faction, regardless of how Shen Yang and Yang En later tried to suppress Jiangdong hereditary clans’ rise in court, still half the officials in the court had direct or indirect connections to Jiangdong.

The Hunan faction led by the brothers Zhang Chao and Zhang Han, the Jing-Xiang faction led by the Huang clan, and the Jiangxi faction led by Prince Shou Yang Zhitang—whether due to limited literary culture and undistinguished powerful families, war devastation, or long occupation by the Ma clan—all were far weaker in every aspect than deeply-rooted Jiangdong.

In many people’s view, even if surrender ultimately became unavoidable, the Huang clan inevitably should persist until the very last moment.

After the Marquis of Liyang Yang En, the Huang family was first to submit a memorial urging the marriage?

Or had Huang Huixiang and Zhou Qinian acted on their own initiative without approval or authorization from Huang Hua, far away in Yueyang?

However, after Huang Huixiang and Zhou Qinian, Huang Lü—who had handed his general’s seal to Vice Commander Zhang Feng for safekeeping and only yesterday returned to Jinling from Chizhou to discuss defense—now stepped forward to submit a memorial on behalf of his father Huang Hua. He forcefully detailed how High Ancestor Emperor Tianyou persecuted loyal subjects, how Late Emperor Yanyou was suspicious of his imperial tutor, and how he indulged Shang Wensheng’s son and the capital southern hereditary families in persecuting military officers of Guangde Prefecture. This left countless officials, gentry, and clerks utterly dumbstruck.

“Your Huang family has received generations of imperial grace—you are truly utterly shameless!” Among those in court, there were still officials with backbone. Unable to endure any longer, one pointed at Huang Lü and cursed furiously, “Throughout millennia there have been dynastic changes, there have been ministers switching allegiance to new masters, but those as shameless as you—unheard of!”

The Palace Censors originally responsible for maintaining order at the court assembly—two of them also joined the denunciations, causing the court hall to descend into chaos. Qing Yang could only lead the pale-faced young emperor to announce adjournment with an ashen expression.

…

…

“Isn’t the Huang family being too hasty?” Today’s court assembly left Gu Zhilong, who still wanted to observe the situation, somewhat caught off guard. After withdrawing and returning to his residence, he pulled Fu Gengwen to sit down and couldn’t help asking in puzzlement.

“The Huang family isn’t being too hasty. If they don’t take a stance now, their fate probably won’t be much better than Prince of Xin’s.”

Fu Gengwen said leisurely:

“Yesterday another old friend called on Gengwen, saying that Lord of Liang Han Qian has already issued an edict ordering the war criminal list updated. This new war criminal list will settle accounts starting from the twelfth year of Tianyou. All those suspected of rebellion, or even those who held troops but didn’t move and are suspected of regional separatism and nurturing bandits for self-importance, are all on the reckoning list. Once listed in the new first-class war criminal roster, even surrender won’t earn special pardon. Though their nephews and sons won’t be directly implicated, the Supervisory Bureau and corresponding local Criminal Justice Bureaus will thoroughly investigate whether their clans committed any evil deeds or crimes over the past decades. As long as any misdeeds are uncovered, comprehensive reckoning will proceed without mercy. During the Jinling rebellion, Huang Hua treacherously observed the Jinling situation from Huzhou with ulterior motives, even attempting to block the Chishan Army’s eastern advance. The Huang family moreover conspired with Prince Shou’s mansion and Prince of Xin’s mansion in the Battle of Fanchuan River. If they don’t take a stance now and wait until Jinling City falls, which of Huang Hua, Huang Lü, Huang Huixiang, or Zhou Qinian could survive? Of course, if Jinling can be held, the Liang army’s so-called war criminal list is nothing but waste paper. Marquis Gu can completely disregard it.”

Gu Zhilong sat stunned for a long while before suddenly sitting bolt upright and asking: “How should this marriage-urging memorial be written? Please teach me, Gengwen…”