Hyper-Dimensional Player

Chapter 788 - 63: Stabilizing the People! Mixed Tyrannical Ways (Part 6)_3

Hundreds of thousands of people are waiting desperately for food; killing a few more people means nothing.

Duncan felt that he had been quite conservative in his killings already.

Bao Le'an would never know that the relief grain received by these refugees, with strong laborers eating three meals a day, was obtained only after purging the entire Cailong County.

Grain doesn't just appear out of nowhere.

Only after the first spring harvest, these pacified assimilated residents will become truly obedient citizens.

They will remember who it was that allowed them to have full meals.

"The County Magistrate is here." A voice echoed from afar.

He was a middle-aged man with a pale, beardless face, carrying a certain air of dignity. Upon arriving here with the escort of yamen runners, the first thing he did was inspect the congee shelter, and only after confirming that there was no embezzlement of grain did he nod in satisfaction. The work schedule was tight; if they didn't eat enough, there would be deaths.

He then leisurely inspected the development situation of the desolate fields within more than a dozen miles around.

This not only concerned his official hat but also his very life.

Duncan had killed too ruthlessly.

He wasn't worried at all about not having scholars to serve him. For the sake of gaining an official position, the Confucian scholars of Southern Han could even accept castration. What else could they not accept?

If they could bear to give up Ji'er, they could bear to give up anything else.

This County Magistrate was named Xu Hao, and in Southern Han, he had quite a reputation, but it was due to an anecdote. It is said that when he first became an official, he happened to encounter Liu Chang issuing the "Castration Decree." Terrified to death, he resigned overnight to escape being castrated and directly fled back to his hometown.

But it was not to be.

This incident later reached Liu Chang, who made an example of him. Consequently, the head eunuch at Liu Chang's side dispatched a courier at top speed and stormed into his hometown, with experts from the Imperial Castration Bureau, who castrated him right at his home.

And it wasn't just Xu Hao; even monks and Daoists were being castrated together. Gong Chengshu, a man of the Demon Sect, was also the mastermind behind the vigorous implementation of the castration policy.

Under his manipulation, many Buddhist and Daoist people in Southern Han were so frightened that they fled.

After being castrated, Xu Hao resolved to endure quietly and wait for the right opportunity. After the Red Army occupied places like Qiongzhou, he immediately led the surrender with Li Fengji and others, counted among the first group of Confucian disciples to submit.

It was also because of the existence of these people that Duncan could carry out his reforms boldly and decisively.

The aspirations of scholars are just that limited.

In books, there are beauties like jade; in books, there are houses of gold.

Beauties are no longer useful.

The pleasure is more than halved.

As long as the scholar is not excessively greedy for wealth, Duncan can make good use of them, giving them fame and power, avenging them, and giving them the chance to be remembered in history.

These people were even harsher against the lackeys around Liu Chang than Duncan.

If they could be used, then they would be used to their fullest.

What does it matter if the roots are eradicated?

As long as one can be remembered in history, it is not a loss!

Xu Hao happened to be a scholar not so greedy for wealth, administrating the affairs of a county and only wanting to fulfill his ambitions. Since he was already missing something, he naturally had to strive for things others wouldn't dare to think about.

Throughout Southern Han, there were quite a few such people.

Because Liu Chang had castrated too many people.

The registered population of Southern Han was only a little over two million, but there were more than ten thousand eunuchs.

Every time Duncan conquered a place, people would immediately defect over, and most of them had pale, beardless faces. Among them were scholars, officials, monks, and Daoists, all having an irreconcilable enmity with Liu Chang.

The Imperial Castration Bureau established by Liu Chang, in order to boost their performance, was equipped with more than a hundred castration experts, to the point where they could be said to handle a multitude daily.

Xu Hao stood on a high slope, overlooking the busy laborers below.

His political achievements next year depended on two things: one was the spring plowing and autumn harvest, and the other was the defense and pacification of the region. How many of these settled refugees could smoothly survive the winter and transform into obedient citizens was directly related to his performance evaluation next year.

"As long as the spring plowing next year goes well, people's hearts will be completely calmed."

Xu Hao instinctively touched his chin but suddenly seemed to recall something, his face turning sorrowful.

The day the Rebel Army captured the Xingwang Mansion and seized Liu Chang and others, he would be sure to submit a petition to Your Majesty, demanding that this person be subjected to the palace punishment ten times, and all the concubines and mistresses around Liu Chang be brought to offer to Your Majesty, so Your Majesty could avenge them.

Alas and alack.

Xu Hao deeply mourned the loss of Ji'er, still in his prime, yet already feeling that life's joys were few.

Riding fast away.

A courier arrived with frontline battle reports, with an expression of excitement and exhilaration, his voice hoarse as he said, "A great victory! An unprecedented great victory!"

Eight hundred defeated ten thousand.

The vanguard of the Rebel Army had already reached the Xingwang Mansion, which would later be known as Guangzhou.

.........