Chapter 1261 Street Rat

Now, it has been nearly a month since Zhao Cheng took Wucheng.

A month ago, Wucheng was broken by thunder and fire. The five thousand elite soldiers left by Wu Qi in the city died or fled. However, not many of them died, only a few hundred, and most of them were burned. Later, Zhao Cheng opened the city gates and deliberately let these remnants out of the city to ensure the stability of Wucheng.

In this era, burns are indeed serious injuries, but in the period just after the injury, they will not lose too much combat effectiveness. If these wounded soldiers continue to be trapped in the city and have nowhere to go, they will fight to the death with the Yingtian Army.

With the current strength of the Yingtian Army, it is not impossible to kill these people, but the cost is too high. It is not impossible, but not worth it.

Therefore, when marching and fighting, there is often a saying of "surrounding three and missing one", that is, to actively leave a glimmer of life for the enemy.

With the city gates wide open, these defeated troops naturally have no idea of ​​fighting to the death.

What's more, the previous thunder and fire had completely defeated the fighting spirit of Wu Qi's army.

In this situation, the only soldiers in Wu Qi's mansion were actually fighting against the Yingtian Army.

This was the force left by Wu Qi to protect his family, about two hundred soldiers.

Two hundred versus five thousand, the final result is imaginable.

The entire Yingtian Army, in taking Wucheng, only lost more than ten people and injured more than thirty people. In this era, such a record can be regarded as a complete victory.

Afterwards, after seizing control of Wucheng, Zhao Cheng did not take action against other forces in the city, but just raided Wu Qi's house and got a mountain of money and food.

This Wucheng is the pass out of the Southern Wilderness, the key to trade with the outside world, and can be regarded as the economic center of this era. If the Southern Wilderness is unified, it will smoothly become a political center.

In this situation, the wealth of Wucheng can be imagined.

In addition, Wucheng is strong, so Wu Qi went out to fight, but most of his assets were also placed in Wucheng.

In other words, anyone standing in Wu Qi's position would do the same. If Wucheng is not safe, there is no safer place in the world.

Zhao Cheng's Yingtian Army only has 5,000 people. With the money and food seized, even if the number of Yingtian Army is ten times, it is enough to eat for nearly ten years.

Therefore, in this case, Zhao Cheng first strictly restrained his soldiers. Those who dared to offend the people would be killed!

Later, he organized the army to patrol the city to prevent Wucheng from rioting.

The city had just been taken. If the people were instigated by people with ulterior motives, it would be extremely troublesome.

In addition, Zhao Cheng sent his men to bribe beggars, storytellers, and other groups in the city, either through ballads or stories, to tell the magic of General Yingtian, so as to win the hearts of the people.

People outside the mountain have seen and come into contact with many things, so they are naturally not as easy to fool as the mountain people. But when the city was broken, there was a big explosion, then a rain of fire and meteors, and even now, the big gap is still clearly visible. What else in this world can be more convincing than seeing it with your own eyes? !

Even, it is not just those ordinary people who are illiterate.

Even some wealthy families and people from scholarly families in the city, although they are well-informed and know that many Taoists in history used similar rhetoric to pretend to be gods and ghosts, but this time, they seem to have seen it for real.

And Zhao Cheng, under this circumstance, also extended an olive branch to the wealthy and wealthy families in the city, inviting the talented people in their families to hold important positions in Wucheng. Even those who have a marriage relationship with Wu Qi, Zhao Cheng showed that he would not blame them for the past, which made these wealthy families feel a little relieved.

At the same time, taking this opportunity, Zhao Cheng began to recruit soldiers in the city. However, he did not recruit them into the Yingtian Army, but as militia to maintain order in the city. Only the best among them had the opportunity to join the Yingtian Army.

This made people feel more at ease.

If the Yingtian Army wanted everyone, it would make people doubt the legitimacy of the Yingtian Army. Now this kind of recruitment method with a high threshold is not easy to join, but it makes some capable people in the city have ideas.

However, even if it is just a militia, which belongs to the reserve of the regular army, the Yingtian Army does not want everyone, but must be a good family with a clean background.

But even so, because Wucheng was just acquired, there were some cases of people pretending to be good at fighting. Some hooligans pretended to be militiamen and started to bully others in their own area. But soon, they were found and caught by the Taoist officials. They were reported to the whole army in public and then killed in front of everyone. Their heads were still hanging on the rack after being chopped off.

The Taoist official system founded by Zhao Cheng has now begun to show its edge.

Many soldiers are not afraid of anything, but they respect and believe in the Taoist officials.

The way the Taoist officials investigate is not to read pale books, but to go to the field. After disguising themselves, they go to the local area to investigate, or ask the elderly and children nearby, pretending to be tourists, and casually inquire about the situation. If they hear that there are loyal and brave people in the local area, they will go directly to lobby.

Although the number of road officials is limited, there are now more than a hundred of them. If more than a hundred people visit five places a day, that is 500. In ten days, that is 5,000.

They have found out the bad apples and given the people confidence with practical actions. The militiamen are also paid enough. They can choose cash or food.

Now that the new army has just been established, Zhao Cheng is very strict about recruiting soldiers, so there is no deduction.

Under this circumstance, Zhao Cheng had recruited 5,000 soldiers after 20 days of capturing Wucheng. Now, after a full month, there are already 10,000 militiamen in the city.

Wucheng, as a large city and a heavy city, is the largest in the southern wilderness in terms of population, but the total population is actually only more than 500,000.

With 10,000 militiamen and 5,000 Yingtian troops, Zhao Cheng's control over Wucheng is undoubtedly stable.

It was not until this time that Zhao Cheng could finally let go and eliminate the unstable factors in Wucheng.

"There are three big families in Wucheng, Qian, Zhang, and Chu. These three families have in-laws with Wu Qi. I thought that I would let bygones be bygones and not pursue their involvement with Wu Qi. I still let their children serve as officials, but they disappointed me."

In the study, Zhao Cheng stopped writing and raised his head.

"There are many talented people among the big families, but I don't use any of them. I just send some unappreciated bastards to fool them."

"If I don't take any action, these people will probably think I am weak and can be bullied."

"And the great Confucian Wang Qi and Zhu Xian are also famous. My subordinates treated them with courtesy and invited them to serve, but they were scolded as traitors."

"The heaven is unjust. These scholars do not make a living for the people, but instead take good farmland and collect beautiful girls. Such a thief dares to call himself a great Confucian and talk about the world. The so-called knowledge is just a boast of the literati. If everyone in the twelve states of the world is literate, there is no place for such a thief. He is just a rat crossing the street!"