Memoirs of the Heavenly Khan

Chapter 458: All for Justice

During the Warring States period, King Wei of Chu established Jinling City at the foot of Stone Mountain, which is the origin of the name Jinling.

Today, Jiankang City has become the largest city in the world.

Outside the imperial city of Jiankang, numerous branch cities were built, forming a defensive system protecting Jiankang.

The stone city, built on the foundation of Jinlingyi, is the most important part of this defensive system.

Stone City, nestled against the mountains and beside the river, monitored the ships passing along the Yangtze River, making it an important riverside fortress for Jiankang.

Gao Huan stood on the rock, looking at the wide river and the ships in the harbor in the distance. As a northerner, he sighed inwardly.

The saying that this place is a land where dragons coil and tigers crouch is indeed true.

Dou Tai and Duan Shao arrived one after the other, standing behind Gao Huan, and bowed, saying:
"My lord, the grain and military equipment in the city have been inventoried."

"geometry?"

Duan Shao replied with some excitement:

"The city has 800,000 shi of grain, 8,000 soldiers and armor, tens of thousands of bows and crossbows, 6 million arrows, 30,000 iron soldiers, and hundreds of warships of various sizes."

When Gao Huan heard the number, he was stunned for a moment, almost thinking he had misheard.

"Are you sure?"

Duan Shao smiled and said:
"This is just the weaponry used by the infantry; the weaponry used by the navy is not included."

Gao Huan was even more confused after hearing this.

With so much food and weaponry, the commander of Stone City simply fled, and the garrison in the city actually surrendered.

If it were Gao Huan, he would have dared to gamble even with just one-tenth of the supplies, let alone so many.

Dou Tai and Duan Shao saw Gao Huan, who had been puzzled, suddenly laugh.

"My lord, why are you laughing?"

"Now I understand why the King of Qin dared to lead only a few thousand men south. Such a strategically important place was occupied by a bunch of mediocre people; how could they not be willing to risk their lives for it!"

……

"What did you say?"

In the Eastern City, Yuwen Tai looked at his nephew Yuwen Hu with an incredulous expression.

Yuwen Hu cupped his hands and repeated himself.

"The city has three million shi of grain and tens of thousands of soldiers."

Yuwentai was shocked.

During the Six Garrisons Rebellion, Yuwen Tai was still young, but he clearly remembered that his father and brothers fought to the death with others for a few hundred or a thousand bushels of grain.

Now, a city with three million bushels of grain was taken down with almost no effort.

This gave Yuwentai a feeling of being in another world.

"uncle!"

Yuwen Hu called out softly and asked:

"What should be done about the Liang officials in the city?"

Dongfu City was built by Liu Yu and later became the exclusive city of the prime minister of the Southern Dynasties, with a set of prime ministers in the city.

After Dongfu City surrendered, these officials were imprisoned.

"The King of Qin has ordered that these people be escorted to the imperial city."

"What does the King of Qin intend to do?"

Upon hearing this, Yuwen Tai looked at his nephew and asked:

"Where is this?"

"Jiankang!"

Yuwen Tai nodded and said:
"This isn't Luoyang. If we don't bring these officials under our control, are we just going to rob them and run?"

Yuwen Hu listened, understood, and said:
"Uncle, there is one more thing."

Seeing his nephew's hesitant manner, Yuwentai asked:
"What's the matter?"

Yuwen Hu took out a list from his sleeve and handed it to Yuwen Tai.

“Uncle, this was given to you by the nobles and officials in the city.”

Yuwen Tai glanced at it, took a few deep breaths, and then calmed himself down.

Yuwen Tai, who was used to being poor, couldn't help but sigh:

"With so much wealth, if it were used to reward the soldiers and motivate them, why would we need to go to such lengths!"

Danyang City.

"We are all Your Majesty's servants, how can we be ordered around by outsiders?"

"Exactly, it's just the Suolu, what's there to be afraid of?"

“Before we brothers put on these official robes, when we followed the King to fight, every one of us had a few lives on our hands.”

……

As they spoke, the group of desperados entered the prefectural governor's office in Danyang City.

In the hall, Hou Jing sat in the main seat, with ten armored soldiers on each side.

Seeing this atmosphere, the group of outlaws felt extremely oppressed, and for a moment, no one dared to speak in front of Hou Jing.

"Are you the generals under Xiao Zhengde?"

A scarred man dressed in military uniform stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said:

"Indeed, may I ask who you are?"

Hou Jing looked up and, seeing this scene, couldn't help but complain:

"Why are all the people under Xiao Zhengde so ugly?"

"You think people are ugly when they look like that?"

The scarred-faced general was very dissatisfied, but then he heard Hou Jing say:

"How dare you insult this general! You have violated military law. Guards, seize him and execute him."

The generals under Xiao Zhengde all understood that Hou Jing had come to establish his authority.

They immediately drew their swords.

The scarred man spat and said:
"You ugly man, don't you know that I have more than a dozen lives on my hands? Who in Jiankang City dares to mess with me?"

After hearing this, Hou Jing suddenly burst into laughter, and he laughed heartily.

"why are you laughing?"

The armored soldiers beside Hou Jing stepped down, walked up to the scarred man who had drawn his sword, and slapped him more than a dozen times.

After the beating, the scarred man was stunned, overwhelmed by the newcomer's imposing aura, and even forgot to fight back.

Hou Jing scoffed:
"Back then, when we followed Your Majesty in fighting the Rouran in Shuozhou, we killed more than a dozen people a day. Who are you trying to scare with this talk of killing people?"

After hearing Hou Jing's words, these desperate criminals who only knew how to fight and bully the kind-hearted finally understood why they felt a sense of oppression when they entered the room.
The group of people in front of them were definitely not people they could afford to mess with.

At that moment, the scarred man still wanted to put up a fight.

“We are all the men of the Prince of Linhe. You cannot drag us away and kill us.”

"Of course we won't drag it out and kill him!"

No sooner had Hou Jing finished speaking than the armored soldier who had just struck the man drew his sword and brought it down with a swift motion.

In an instant, the scarred man's head fell to the ground, blood gushing out.

Seeing such a horrific sight, the remaining desperados were filled with extreme fear. Some even wet their pants and knelt down to beg for mercy.

Hou Jing stood up unhurriedly, stepped over the scarred man's corpse, walked to the group of desperados, and stared at the last person, asking:

"Now you know who I am?"

"I know, I know. The Supreme General is the number one general under the King of Qin."

Hou Jing listened, nodded, and said:
"You seem quite clever, unlike the others. From now on, you will be the Commandant of Danyang County."

The man raised his head, looked at Hou Jing, and immediately kowtowed several more times.

"Thank you for your kindness, General!"

"I am new to this place and there is something I do not understand. Please enlighten me."

"No, General, please speak."

"I've heard that corrupt officials in Jiankang City amass vast fortunes, often amounting to hundreds of millions. I wonder which family is the richest?"

"General, you've come to the right person. I know very well who in Jiankang is wealthy."

Hou Jing stood up and, facing the crowd prostrate on the ground, said:

"Excellent! Under the heavens, how can such a parasite be tolerated!"

……

(End of this chapter)