I wield power with my innate talents, and forge the Heavenly Court.

Chapter 84 Occupying the Prefecture City, Monitoring with Spiritual Power

Upon hearing that the People's Salvation Army had arrived outside the government office, Ma Wenchang turned to leave.

However, before he could run two steps, Wang Chao had already kicked open the courtyard gate and rushed in.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Chao had arrived in front of Ma Wenchang.

With a flash of light, the cold, blood-stained longsword was already placed against Ma Wenchang's neck.

Feeling the coldness on his neck, Ma Wenchang suddenly stopped in his tracks, his face turning deathly pale. His lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a single word.

"laugh!"

Upon seeing this, Wang Chao couldn't help but sneer.

"Ma Wenchang? Prefect Ma?"

"You audacious thief! Do you know that trespassing on government premises is tantamount to treason?"

As Ma Wenchang gradually came to his senses, he looked at the blood-stained longsword in front of him and involuntarily shrank back, but still stubbornly rebuked him.

"Pshaw! This is tantamount to treason and rebellion?"

Wang Chao chuckled and brandished his blood-stained longsword.

"Isn't that obvious enough?"

"you you you"
"Hmph! Traitorous scoundrels, the Ming army has arrived and will annihilate you in an instant!"

Ma Wenchang was speechless for a moment, then turned his head and snorted coldly, forcing himself to speak with a stiff neck.

"Tsk, at least he has some backbone!"
I just don't know how long you can maintain this backbone.

"Guards, take our prefect away."
They locked him up with his family.

As Wang Chao gave the orders, he sheathed his longsword.

"Yes!"

The soldiers who rushed in following the dynasty immediately saluted and accepted the order.

"Let's go, Your Excellency!"

After several members of the militia walked up to Ma Wenchang, they saw him standing there motionless and couldn't help but push him, calling him "Prefect" with a sarcastic tone.

After being pushed by the militia, Ma Wenchang stumbled forward and almost fell to the ground.

Fortunately, a member of the militia nearby reacted quickly and grabbed him by the back of his collar, preventing him from falling over.

Seeing Ma Wenchang's legs trembling, the man couldn't help but laugh.

"Haha, it's not that the Prefect doesn't want to leave, it's just that his legs are too weak to walk!"

"Hahaha"

In an instant, everyone burst into laughter.

Upon seeing this, Wang Chao also chuckled.

Being grabbed by the back of his collar and lifted up, while listening to the laughter of the crowd, Ma Wenchang was filled with shame and indignation. His face turned bright red, and he almost fainted.

However, he still had some mental fortitude, at least he didn't actually faint.

However, this might not be a good thing for him.

Without thinking, Ma Wenchang tightly closed his eyes, trying to avoid seeing it altogether.

However, the shrill laughter around him kept penetrating his ears, and his face turned as red as a purplish-red.

"Hey, if you keep carrying him like that, he's going to pass out."

"Ah~?"

After being reminded, the militiaman who was holding Ma Wenchang suddenly realized that his collar seemed to be choking Ma Wenchang and was about to suffocate him. He hurriedly lifted him up.

Ma Wenchang, who was barely able to stand, finally felt a little better, and his purplish-red complexion gradually calmed down.

Of course, it was still a large, red, swollen area.

"Heh, they really have some backbone."

He was being strangled to death, and he didn't even struggle.

Wang Chao glanced at it again, then shook his head and walked away.

There are still many things waiting for him to handle in Lintao Prefecture.

Posting notices to reassure the people, taking complete control of the city's defenses, and so on all need to be arranged one by one.

As he walked out, he thought about the historical records of some scholars at the end of the Ming Dynasty who surrendered to the Manchus faster than a reed on a wall. The dynasty actually thought highly of Ma Wenchang.

Of course, it's also possible that Ma Wenchang was so ashamed and indignant that he lost the will to live in a moment of agitation.

Once he comes to his senses, he probably won't have the courage he had just had.

From sunrise to mid-morning, the fighting in Lintao Prefecture gradually came to a halt.

The truth is that most of the garrison troops of Lintao Prefecture had been transferred to suppress bandits, and those remaining were mostly the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

Ma Wenchang and Zheng Wanchun never expected that someone would attack the city of Lintao Prefecture.

In addition, the dynasty had arranged for people to enter the city disguised as civilians. The sudden attack caught the Lintao Prefecture garrison off guard, and the city walls and gates were occupied by the militia.

Even if a small group of soldiers resisted, they were quickly wiped out.

Therefore, the battle in Lintao Prefecture ended completely before the sun was high in the sky.

Wang Chao sat in the main hall of the Lintao Prefecture government office, listening to the reports from the people below about the war.

"Chief, we lost two brothers this time, five or six were seriously wounded, and more than ten were slightly wounded."

"Ok!"

Wang Chao nodded as he listened to the report from below.

He had already used his spiritual power to ascertain the casualties of the militia.

Especially the two who died, Wang Wu and Zheng Kaishan.

Because their souls are currently being taught by Yun Bing in the military camp within the dynasty's consciousness space, who is explaining their current situation to them.

To the dynasty's regret, even though the souls of the Ming soldiers killed by the rescue army were enveloped in spiritual energy, the dynasty was unable to collect them into its consciousness space. It seemed that due to the advancement of heaven and earth, the souls born now did not seem to erase all self-awareness immediately.

However, precisely because of this, they have a great deal of resistance to the binding and erosion of spiritual power.

Unless the dynasty pays special attention to them and directly manipulates spiritual power to shatter them and completely obliterate them into primordial spiritual power, it will be impossible to erode and transform them.

Otherwise, we can only wait for them to dissipate on their own and transform into primordial spiritual power before we can use spiritual power to erode and transform them.

In short, these newborn souls, unless the dynasty is right beside them.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to collect it through spiritual power, which Wang Chao found extremely regrettable.

While observing the exchange between Yunbing and the other two in the inner consciousness space of the dynasty, the reports below continued.

"Our army killed 83 enemy soldiers and captured 359."
In addition, there were Ma Wenchang and his family and servants, totaling sixty-three people.
A total of over 1.56 million taels of gold and silver were found during the search.
100,000 shi of grain and supplies.

Hearing these reports, Wang Chao's eyebrows twitched. Lintao Prefecture was indeed quite wealthy.

It seems that the Ming Dynasty also collected a considerable amount of taxes.

Unfortunately, none of this benefits the ordinary people.

Moreover, this only includes the gold and silver resources held by the government.

The lion's share is probably still in the hands of those landlords and gentry, right?
Suddenly, as if struck by a thought, Wang Chao asked:

"Was all that gold and silver found in the treasury?"

"Uh"

The person who gave the report was slightly taken aback at first, then said with a wry smile:

"Only a small portion was found in the treasury, about 500,000 taels. The remaining 1 million taels were found in Ma Wenchang's house."

"Oh!"

Wang Chao nodded in sudden realization; that made sense.

The Ming Dynasty was never short of money; it's just that the money wasn't in the hands of the state or the emperor, but rather in the hands of the officials, landlords, and gentry below.

Moreover, of the more than 500,000 vehicles in the treasury, perhaps only a very small portion were actually used or handed over.
With a little manipulation from top to bottom, the treasury would only have a few tens of thousands of taels left.

The real lion's share went to the officials, wealthy merchants, and gentry.

Thinking of this, Wang Chao couldn't help but show a thoughtful expression. It seemed that those landlords and gentry also needed to be cleaned up.

As for whether all the landlords and gentry would oppose their militia, and whether the scholars and officials with official titles would refuse to join them, leaving them without enough talent to manage the occupied areas, remains to be seen.
In any case, in rural areas now, there are agricultural cooperatives that temporarily manage the area.

The cities could be placed under military control, directly administered by their militia.

For the time being, there shouldn't be any major problems.

If there are any, just cut them all down.

In the future, once they have firmly established themselves, given the nature of those scholars, some people will inevitably join them.

In any case, they were all people of the Ming Dynasty, and they were certainly better than the Manchu barbarians, whom they considered barbarians beyond the borders.

So many people joined the Manchus, let alone these orthodox Ming forces?

The only thing to consider now is what excuse to use to get rid of them.

Since the dynasty wants to completely occupy this place, they must consider the legality of their actions.

But to be honest, given the nature of those landlords and gentry, finding an excuse probably wouldn't be difficult for them.

Thinking of this, Wang Chao couldn't help but look up at the sky, a mysterious smile appearing on his face.

The entire city of Lintao Prefecture is now enveloped in spiritual energy.

With spiritual power as a powerful tool for surveillance, how could the dynasty possibly not use it?

During the attack on Lintao Prefecture, Wang Chao had already manipulated the spread of spiritual energy.

After completely occupying Lintao Prefecture, spiritual power has also fully enveloped Lintao Prefecture.

However, due to the increased coverage area, the originally dense spiritual energy instantly became thinner.

However, as the spiritual energy continues to erode and transform the original spiritual power generated by the residents of Lintao Prefecture, it is believed that the spiritual energy will soon be abundant again, and may even surpass its previous level.

With spiritual power, discovering the petty tricks of these landlords and gentry would be incredibly easy.

The only unfortunate thing is that the dynasty could not monitor it in real time.

Monitoring so many people at the same time would require processing far too much information, even for a dynasty whose soul has undergone successive transformations.

However, by using spiritual power when necessary, along with the intelligence of the Military Intelligence Bureau, it would be enough to control their every move.

By the afternoon, with the help of spiritual energy, the dynasty had completely taken control of the entire Lintao Prefecture.

After the residents of Lintao Prefecture realized that there seemed to be no more movement outside, they cautiously peeked out of their homes to check on the situation outside.

When they learned about the current situation in Lintao Prefecture through the public notices posted everywhere, they were all instantly shocked and dumbfounded.

what's the situation?
In just over half a day, how could such a large prefecture like Lintao have changed owners?

Many of them knew about the People's Salvation Army.

Wasn't it said that the People's Salvation Army would only attack rural areas? How come they've occupied Lintao Prefecture now?
This is truly a case of "silent until the moment of truth, then astounding!"

This supposedly militia, which only attacked rural villages, actually captured a prefectural city – this was truly outrageous!

This will surely attract the imperial army to besiege and suppress us, right?
The residents at the grassroots level were not too worried about the People's Salvation Army occupying the city. Although they were somewhat uneasy, they had heard that the People's Salvation Army seemed to only target landlords and officials.

They not only do not oppress ordinary people like them, but also help them with farming.

So I suppose they wouldn't do anything too outrageous to ordinary people like them in the city?

The wealthy merchants and gentry who originally lived in the city, as well as the landlords and gentry who moved in later, were filled with immense fear.

In the east of the city, the Cui family was the most powerful family in Lintao Prefecture.

While not quite as wealthy as a nation, they were certainly incredibly rich.

In the main hall of the Cui family mansion, the patriarch Cui Wenxiu sat solemnly, the finest tea beside him already somewhat cold.

However, Cui Wenxiu had no intention of even touching it; she just kept glancing outside the hall, waiting anxiously.

(End of this chapter)