bayedsolid Chapter 707: The King of Chu’s Order!
Chapter 707: The King of Chu’s Order!
"General Han, the Emperor of Zhao has been beheaded by me!"
Guan Yun carried Zhao Wenyuan's head to Han Xing at the palace gate, bowed and reported.
The head was still dripping with blood, with a pungent smell of blood, and its eyes, unwilling to close, were staring wide open, which was chilling.
Han Xing took a look at the head and confirmed that it was Zhao Wenyuan. He nodded slightly and said with a smile: "General Guan made the first contribution in this battle!"
"I dare not. This battle all depends on General Han's command." Although Guan Yun was arrogant, he admired Han Xing's command very much.
Han Xing laughed and said, "There's no need for you and me to be modest. Clean up this place, count the casualties, and gather at the palace hall in two hours."
"Yes!"
At the order, the Chu army began to clean up the battlefield.
The battle was very fierce. The Chu army did not have a smooth attack on the city at the beginning and lost a lot of people. Their bodies needed to be settled.
When the State of Zhao was destroyed, the bodies of Zhao soldiers and the surrendered soldiers also needed to be dealt with and settled.
There were a lot of things to do and it took two full hours to finish them all. The generals from each camp gathered in the main hall of the Zhao Imperial Palace.
In the magnificent hall, a dragon throne hangs high. Inside the hall, two chairs are placed side by side, and there are many chairs on both sides.
A group of generals came in, and no one dared to sit down first. After everyone was present, Han Xing and Di Wenyao came in last.
"Greetings to General Han, greetings to Lord Di!" All the generals bowed in unison.
"Generals, please don't be polite. Please sit down and talk."
Han Xing gestured to Di Wenyao to sit down, and then he sat down too.
"General Guan, tell me about the casualties in this battle."
Guan Yun, who was named, immediately stood up and said in a deep voice: "In this battle, our army lost more than 5,000 people, the enemy had more than 40,000 people, more than 30,000 were killed, and 10,000 were captured."
"We seized 50,000 weapons and 20,000 war horses. In addition, there were countless gold, silver and jewels from the Great Zhao Imperial Palace. Because the number is too large, we have not yet counted them."
When these words came out, all the generals were very excited.
"I didn't expect our army's losses to be so small!"
"Yes, I thought we would lose 10,000 or 20,000 men in this battle."
"Now that we have captured the capital of Zhao, if we send the news back, His Royal Highness the King of Chu will surely be able to resolve the current crisis."
"Yes, the State of Zhao was destroyed, and the King of Wu, whose country was destroyed, is no longer important."
Everyone was talking about it, while Di Wenyao stroked his beard, nodded and smiled, "The reason why the casualties in this battle were minimized was entirely because of the three-bow crossbow. It seems that I have to urge the craftsmen to forge more in the future."
Han Xing at the side was moved, and he smiled and said: "If we can have more three-bow crossbows, our army will suffer less losses when attacking the city in the future."
"However, after counting these gold, silver and jewelry, what does Lord Di plan to do with them?"
As soon as these words came out, the scene suddenly became quiet.
According to regulations, the seized items must be handed over to the court.
However, the Bingzhou troops were entirely supported by Chu Ning alone and had nothing to do with the imperial court. No one was willing to hand over the Zhao royal family's belongings to the imperial court.
It's impossible that the imperial court will ignore them and instead they should hand over the spoils to the imperial court, right?
Who can I talk to to explain this?
But if it is not handed over, the imperial court will definitely make trouble about this matter.
What's more, the Fourth Prince is now the regent of the court. Judging from the relationship between the Fourth Prince and Chu Ning, he will definitely not miss such a good opportunity to take action.
The problem now lies with them.
Should the seized items be handed over?
Hand it over, I'm unwilling to do so.
If I don't hand it over, I'm worried that the court will take action against Chu Ning.
Di Wenyao raised his eyebrows upon hearing this and said in a deep voice, "General Han, you asked a good question. This is indeed the biggest problem facing our army right now."
After a pause, he turned to look at Guan Yun and asked, "General Guan, how much silver have we counted so far?"
Guan Yun said in a deep voice: "In two hours, we counted out 300,000 taels of gold and 12 million taels of silver. There were too many jewels and jewelry to count yet."
"However, judging from the remaining amount, I estimate that there should be about one million taels of gold and about thirty million taels of silver."
The treasury of a dynasty should not contain just this little gold and silver.
But because they had been fighting with the State of Chu for two years and lost every time, their silver and gold were almost all spent.
These gold and silver were collected by Zhao Wenyuan from all over the place when he was gathering his troops.
However, these gold and silver are a huge sum of money for Di Wenyao and others.
After hearing the number, Di Wenyao couldn't help but chuckle: "Since the number is not large, then leave it to govern Zhao State!"
This made the generals below explode.
"Lord Di, these are spoils of war. If you don't hand them over, His Majesty will not let it go."
"Yes, Lord Di. The Fourth Prince is now the regent. If we don't hand over the spoils of war, the Fourth Prince will definitely have a reason to attack Your Highness."
"This matter is of great importance, please think twice, Lord Di!"
"For such a major matter, why not report it to His Royal Highness the King of Chu for a decision?"
The generals were fully aware of the importance of this matter, and they were worried that doing so would be detrimental to Chu Ning.
But Di Wenyao raised his lips slightly, revealing a hint of smile, and stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, then he slowly said:
"This matter was not decided by me, but by His Royal Highness the King of Chu!"
As he spoke, he took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Han Xing.
"Han Shuai, this is the handwritten letter from His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu. Please take a look."
Han Xing's face straightened, he took the letter, read it, and said in a deep voice: "It is indeed a letter written by His Royal Highness the Prince of Chu."
Guan Yun stepped forward and asked, "What did your Highness write in the letter?"
Han Xing returned the letter to Di Wenyao and said sternly, "Your Highness believes that although Zhao has been conquered, it will take a lot of time and money to govern it."
"At present, our military's financial resources are only enough to support our military pay. If we want to govern Zhao, we can only use Zhao's own silver."
"Therefore, this captured spoils cannot be handed over. We will keep it for Lord Di Wenyao to deal with."
When everyone heard that it was Chu Ning's order, they suddenly fell silent.
Di Wenyao smiled and explained: "This time I brought some officials with me to manage the State of Zhao."
"Zhao has a vast territory, not inferior to Chu. To govern such a large territory, it will naturally cost a lot of money."
"Besides, our army has just occupied Zhao State, and the people of Zhao State must be dissatisfied. Our army still needs to expand its troops to defend Zhao State!"
After saying that, Di Wenyao suddenly stood up and said in a deep voice: "The King of Chu has an order!"
All the generals stood up in unison and listened attentively.
"All spoils of war will be used to govern the State of Zhao. In addition, the army will be increased to 200,000 soldiers!"
"All expenses, if any, will be paid by the Chu Palace."
"I will personally explain the matter of the spoils to my father and my fourth brother. I hope all the generals will work together to govern the State of Zhao well."
All the generals shouted in unison: "We will follow the orders of His Royal Highness the King of Chu!"
Di Wenyao nodded slightly and said with a smile: "For the next period of time, I will stay here and govern Zhao together with the generals."
After he finished speaking, he looked outside the palace and said in a deep voice: "Now that Zhao has been taken, I hope it will be of some help to His Royal Highness the King of Chu."
The battle ended so quickly that he had already written a letter and sent it to Chu Ning.
Not only that, he also sent people to other dynasties to publicize the destruction of Zhao State!