Under La Alik's gaze, the captured Northern Barbarians were all killed. The entire execution ground was filled with the smell of blood. La Alik went from screaming and cursing at the beginning to becoming numb. All of this happened in the short span of an hour. After an hour, the last Northern Barbarian was killed, and the execution ended.
Many people looked at the governor with awe and respect in their eyes, who did not even bat an eyelid.
Xiao Ruxun called Wang Hui over.
"Collect these heads and pile them up. I want to offer them as a sacrifice to the brothers who died in battle and the innocent civilians who were killed by the Northern Barbarians."
Wang Hui nodded and immediately went to do as he was told. At noon, the sacrificial ground was ready. The low-ranking official said that he represented the Emperor to announce the edict, so he should be the one to read the speech. Zhu Minchun also changed into the sacrificial attire and said that he wanted to represent the royal family to express condolences to the soldiers who died in battle and the innocent civilians.
No matter what their goal was, the sacrificial ceremony was completed. The heads of more than a thousand Northern Barbarians were used as a sacrifice to honor the heroic souls and the innocent souls who died in battle. They hoped that they could rest in peace in the underworld.
La Alik was trapped in the center of the sacrificial ground and participated in the sacrificial ceremony as the only living human sacrifice. He allowed the heroic souls and the wronged souls to devour his life force and tear his soul apart as the most vicious punishment and curse for him.
After the sacrificial ceremony ended, the invasion of the Northern Barbarians to the south was more than half over. Next, it was time for the Ming Army to launch an all-out counterattack.
However, for Xiao Ruxun, there were still two things that had not been resolved. The first was Liu Xi. La Alik said that his series of actions had been planned by Liu Xi. At the beginning, Liu Xi's goal was only to lead the way for them. Even so, the fact that La Alik was able to do all these things clearly had something to do with Liu Xi.
If they could find this person, then they could confirm what was going on with the secret tunnel in Taiyuan City. Xiao Ruxun could not ask Zhu Minchun about this. He had to avoid him.
The second thing was that the gold, silver, and jewelry that the Northern Barbarians had plundered in the south had not been found. According to previous estimates, since they had left so many things in Taiyuan City, it could only mean that the things they had taken were much more valuable than what they had left behind. Xiao Ruxun believed that the Jin merchants were all extremely wealthy and would not lack money.
If they could obtain all those things, how much income would it be?
Therefore, Xiao Ruxun withdrew the Liaodong cavalry and Jurchen cavalry from the battlefield and sent everyone back to the barracks. Only Wang Hui and the Zhennan Army were left to clean the battlefield and look for the treasures.
As expected, in the afternoon, the soldiers of the Zhennan Army who were cleaning the battlefield found thousands of sacks under the ruins of a house. When they opened them, their eyes were filled with dazzling gold, jade, and jewelry.
Wang Hui immediately sealed off the scene and ordered the Zhennan Army not to leak this matter. At this moment, the strict training and organization of the Zhennan Army showed their advantage. All the soldiers voluntarily sealed off this matter and then quickly loaded the carriages according to Wang Hui's order.
At the same time, Wang Hui quickly sent someone to report to Xiao Ruxun. Xiao Ruxun was the first to receive this news. After arriving at the scene to investigate, he confirmed that these were the treasures that Lalik had plundered in the south. All of them were gold and jade, and they were all dazzling. He estimated that they were worth at least a million taels of silver.
Needless to say, it was impossible for commoners to have such gold and jade objects. These objects basically belonged to the rich and influential Jin merchants who had been killed. Some of them might even be the grey income of some officials who had been killed. However, all the rich and influential Jin merchants were dead now. In other words, these gold and jade objects were ownerless.
According to the usual thinking of the Imperial Court, these items now belonged to the Imperial Court and the Daming Dynasty.
Considering the military discipline, Xiao Ruxun immediately ordered the Zhennan Army to take care of this batch of jewelry. Then, he packed all the gold and jade items into big boxes and transported them to the military camp of the Zhennan Army. After that, he ordered that the Angel and the King Of Jin not to know about this matter.
When he received this batch of treasures, the first thing that came to Xiao Ruxun's mind was to give all these gold and jade items to Zhu Yijun, so that he could be a loyal and patriotic official. However, this thought only flashed through his mind. After a while, he made a new decision.
No matter how loyal and patriotic an official was, he still needed some capital to develop himself. Previously, he had relied on his own business to raise soldiers in Myanmar. The little bit of funding from the Imperial Court...
To be honest, it was not even enough for the 30,000 people of the Zhennan Army to fill their stomachs. It was to the extent that they would not starve to death. It was a far cry from the funding that the Ministry of War had mentioned. He did not know how much of it had been swallowed by those officials.
These jewels were the wealth of the people. If they were all given to the Emperor, regardless of whether it was secret or public, they would basically be found out by the civil officials. In the end, they would still use various methods to take it away and become their own money.
Rather than being swallowed by those shameless people, it was better for him to keep some of it and use it to raise and train soldiers. It was also considered contributing to the country and fighting for the country. It was better than being swallowed by them.
As for the remaining portion, a portion would be given to Li Rusong, and a portion would be given to the generals of Taiyuan and Datong to comfort these people. It could also be considered as giving a sweet date after hitting them with a stick, so that they would contribute honestly.
After that, the remaining portion would be divided into two portions. One portion of the lower value would be publicly sent to the capital and into the national treasury for those rats to do as they pleased. The remaining portion of the higher value would be given to the Imperial Bodyguard and into the internal treasury.
These days, the Great Ming Emperor's internal funds had almost become an open national treasury. To think that the Emperor would actually need to use his own funds to fight a war, instead of using the national treasury to fight a war. He really couldn't understand what those officials had done to the Great Ming Dynasty's national treasury.
Would these people hand over all these gold and jade artifacts to them? Could they expect them to exchange these things for silver to be used for the disaster relief and reconstruction of Shanxi and Datong?
Xiao Ruxun decisively shook his head.
That was not possible.
Thus, according to his plan, Xiao Ruxun began to write memorials and secret memorials. The memorials were open to the court, and the secret memorials were sent directly to the Emperor through the spies of the Imperial Bodyguard. He first handed the memorials to a minor official.
"I would like to trouble you to escort Talic back to the capital and present him to Your Majesty. I will continue to lead troops north to Datong to recover Datong. Rest assured, Your Majesty, I will not disappoint Your Majesty. In addition, I have seized an innumerable amount of property from the Northern Invaders. The statistics have been completed, and the specific figures are in the memorial. I would like to trouble you to escort them back to the capital and present them to Your Majesty."
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