“It’s already taken?” This was faster than Yun Ya had expected.

“It was taken an hour ago,” Lu Ming said with a smile. “The River God retreated in defeat, turning the impassable barrier into an open road. The city’s morale crumbled after that.”

With the Wei army at the gates and the revered River God fleeing, and after yesterday when Yun Ya had stirred such heavenly might, the soldiers and civilians of Ji Yuan City could hardly believe they could hold out any longer.

“What about casualties?”

“Still being tallied,” Lu Ming’s lips curled upward. “Far fewer than before the State Preceptor arrived, both for our side and for Ji Yuan City.”

The sooner a battle ended, the less damage was inflicted on both the army and civilians. Compared to siege warfare that could drag on for days or even months, taking Ji Yuan City in a single night could be considered lightning-fast.

After winning such a decisive victory, the Wei army would only stay in Ji Yuan City for a day to rest briefly. After all, following an entire night of fierce fighting, the soldiers were exhausted, and there was still much aftermath to deal with.

Ji Yuan City was of medium size, but due to its advantageous location, it had a rather dense population. Feng Miaojun was not clear about how prosperous it had been before, because as she walked the streets of Ji Yuan City, what she saw were broken tiles and crumbling walls, damaged and blood-stained city walls, and desolate, controlled alleyways.

Wei Kingdom’s guards patrolled back and forth, with no civilians wandering about. In stark contrast to the triumphantly entering Wei army, every household had their doors tightly shut, with only suspicious or hateful glances cast from windows.

The Wei army had driven the city’s residents from their hiding places to designated gathering points, where they read the Wei King’s decree, which essentially aimed to pacify the hearts of Ji Yuan’s people, reaffirming the policy of not disturbing or robbing civilians, and emphasizing that “those who submit to Wei shall prosper, those who resist shall perish,” implementing collective punishment for those who secretly rebelled.

The Wei Kingdom’s conquest would continue, and they naturally did not wish to see a newly captured city suddenly flying the flag of the Jiao Kingdom again. In the upcoming war, Ji Yuan City would be an important hub and transit station.

Ji Yuan had become a city under high-pressure control, and Feng Miaojun felt that with every breath she took, she smelled fire and blood, which made her quite uncomfortable, so she simply turned to leave the city. However, when passing by the market square, she heard a commotion approaching from afar.

This place was spacious and had been requisitioned as a temporary gathering point, now filled with a large crowd. Everyone turned to look, and Feng Miaojun was no exception. She saw a group of Wei soldiers dragging several people forward. The captives were all in shackles, men and women, old and young, all dressed as common people, with ashen faces.

A high platform had already been set up at the market square, with a crossbeam suspended and nooses hanging—it was a gallows!

Upon seeing this, several captives fainted on the spot, while the rest were either crying uncontrollably or cursing bitterly. Feng Miaojun understood that the way of rulers was to combine benevolence with authority. After the previous act of pardoning the people, there had to be a subsequent act of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, to intimidate the populace. These poor souls about to be executed were merely examples set by the Wei King for everyone.

Strangely, as these captives were dragged into the execution ground, the present civilians showed indifferent expressions, occasionally revealing compassion. At most, mothers covered their children’s eyes, preventing them from directly witnessing the cruel scene, but there wasn’t the restrained, silently angry expression that Feng Miaojun had seen earlier.

At this moment, a Wei army cavalry officer walked onto the high platform and announced loudly: “The city prefect Cao Bing’an has been corrupt and derelict in his duties, allowing the Cao and Liu families to exploit the locals and act tyrannically, as well as fabricating numerous false cases. His crimes are heinous! Cao Bing’an has already been punished, but before the battle, he smuggled his family members out of the city through a secret passage, only to be intercepted by our army outside the city.”

Then, he listed seven crimes committed by the Cao and Liu families one by one.

“Our King judges that the Cao and Liu families have abandoned the hundreds of thousands of people in this city, and their crimes deserve death! Execute them immediately, to give the people justice, to distinguish right from wrong, and to demonstrate fairness!”

After speaking, he pointed to the wooden pole in the market square, and Feng Miaojun noticed a head hanging there, swaying in the wind.

The man appeared to be around fifty years old, with a beard under his chin and white at his temples. This must be the Ji Yuan prefect Cao Bing’an that the cavalry officer had mentioned.

When the city fell, Cao Bing’an, seeing that all was lost, had fallen on his sword. Feng Miaojun originally thought that with such a self-sacrificing act, he would have preserved his reputation for loyalty and righteousness, but who would have thought his reputation in the city was so poor?

Feng Miaojun hadn’t done much research on Ji Yuan City, but from the expressions of the people, she knew the Cao family was unpopular. As for the Liu family, perhaps they were his in-laws? The crimes listed by the cavalry officer, even if somewhat exaggerated, seemed to be based on facts. Cao Bing’an arranging for his family to escape through a secret passage before his suicide was human nature. But the citizens’ anger upon learning this was also human nature:

There was an escape route, and you only saved your own family!

As for the concern that leaking information about the secret passage would lead to a collapse of morale and weaken resistance, how could ordinary citizens understand such matters?

Seeing this, she silently acknowledged the Wei King’s skill in winning people’s hearts by punishing those who had harmed the common folk. What could unite people more easily than shared hatred?

Behind Ji Yuan City lay a vast area of hills, connecting several mountain towns. This position could be defended when retreating or used for attacking when advancing. The Wei army was determined to hold it firmly to establish a logistics and supply line. Its strategic significance was the reason the Wei King was willing to lower himself to please the people.

After the cavalry officer announced the execution, the guards brought all the captives onto the high platform, not sparing even those who had collapsed and lost consciousness, and put nooses around all their necks.

Feng Miaojun turned and left, not wanting to watch anymore.

As she passed behind the platform, a gust of wind carried the conversation between the cavalry officer and his subordinate to her ears: “Still haven’t caught that kid?”

“No.”

“Keep looking, don’t miss any corner. All the Cao family members must be sent to the gallows without exception. This is the King’s order.”

Hearing this, Feng Miaojun understood that some of the Cao family’s descendants were still at large, not yet captured. The cavalry officer saw her too and was about to question her when his gaze fell upon the token hanging at her waist. He immediately stopped and instead smiled at her kindly.

It was her waist token, with a simple design depicting only a fiery red auspicious cloud, yet it guaranteed her free passage throughout the army. This was because it was a token bestowed by Yun Ya, representing the most transcendent status in the Wei Kingdom.

Feng Miaojun returned his smile and quickly left.

Walking toward the western part of the city, she indeed saw Wei soldiers searching every house, rummaging through cabinets and drawers, clearly urgently hunting for someone.

After walking another hundred paces, she saw the Prefect’s Mansion. From tomorrow, this place will have a new owner.

She continued walking without stopping, but from the corner of her eye, she saw a boy jump out from an alley opposite the Prefect’s Mansion.

He was very short, around five or six years old, carrying a tightly covered bamboo basket in his hands. His expression was terrified, and when he saw Feng Miaojun, his face showed surprise, clearly not expecting someone to be standing there.

He froze for a moment, then suddenly turned and ran into another alley.

Just a few breaths later, several Wei soldiers patrolled through the alley and, upon seeing Feng Miaojun’s waist token, politely asked her: “Has the Lady seen a child pass by, about five years old?”