TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 1004: Chapter 414 Iron Fist Operation_3 Chapter 1004: Chapter 414 Iron Fist Operation_3 They were in the midst of their country being destroyed, their families perishing, and their interests harmed; it would be extraordinary if they harbored any favorable impressions of Chu State.

And to openly take up arms against Chu State, every single suppressed rebellion, every family annihilated through collective punishment, served as a stark reminder, deterring them.

Taking up arms was the most foolish of choices.

But if taking up arms was out of the question, surely engaging in some assassinations, some surprise attacks in secret would be fine?

If Chu State had no evidence, how could it possibly deal with me?

As local powers, employing such tactics was all too easy for them.

In fact, these people were indeed successful with their actions.

In the face of those assassinations and surprise attacks, Chu State, despite being furiously enraged and desperately investigating, truly struggled to find any trace of these people and capture any evidence.

Facing these troublemakers in the shadows, within the confines of the rules, the Chu army indeed had no way to deal with them.

Those rats in the dark were probably gloating, mocking the stupidity of the Chu army.

But now, as of this moment, I, the Chu Emperor, Lu Yuan, am not playing along anymore.

I’m flipping the table.

You all thought I wouldn’t dare to cause collateral damage, to implement guilt by association, that I could only abide by the principle that the law does not punish the masses?

Now, I’m done talking about evidence, done discussing the reasons.

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I’ll simply assume that wherever there’s trouble, the locals are at fault, and then I’ll have them all killed.

Lu Yuan doesn’t believe it.

Once those local noble families and sects are wiped out, without these leaders, will those suffering locals, who don’t know what a country even is, still have the awareness to stand up and, in the name of national justice, oppose their own Chu army?

“It’s good to exterminate those powerful families and Jianghu factions.

Without them, the instability in the local area will disappear.

By also cleaning them out, a huge amount of interests in the local area becomes vacant, and the court can step in to take over, acquiring a vast wealth.

Perhaps the expenses of this Northern Expedition could be compensated for through this.”

Lu Yuan whispered to himself, his murderous intent barely concealable.

Perhaps having been the King of Chu, the Chu Emperor for too long, and after coming ashore, I’m concerned about saving face, many think I’m a gentleman, easy to fool.

They’ve forgotten the thunderous methods I’ve employed back when I was a local warlord.

Those smug people from Liang, let them get a real feel for what military governance with an iron fist is like.

Lu Yuan had set his resolve: as long as there was unrest in the region, his butcher’s knife would not cease.

So, even if it meant carrying out a massive slaughter, even if it meant killing everyone in the entire north of the river, the Military Order had to be enforced.

It’s actually better if people are dead.

When Chu State’s immigrants come over, they can directly take over the houses and lands of the deceased, sparing us the need to clear new lands and saving the court a considerable amount of expenditure.

Chu State has seventy million people, plus another twenty million from the vassal states—ninety million in total, enough to fill half of Central State.

He’s not afraid of killing people; he’s only afraid there won’t be enough chaotic people to kill.

…

A crackdown to restore order with an iron fist thus rapidly commenced in the northern territories occupied by the Chu army, swiftly implemented with Lu Yuan’s strong advocacy.

Instantly, irrespective of good or bad, right or wrong, guilty or not, as long as Chu State officials or immigrants were killed, the powerful families of the Baidi, the Jianghu sects, were implicated in turn.

The confrontation between the Chu army and the local Liang powers escalated to a peak in an instant.

Countless local Liang powers rose in rebellion, and Chu State’s previously stable territories were suddenly ablaze with conflict, the world descended into chaos.

Numerous local nobilities rallied the chaotic people, countless Jianghu sects turned into assassins, launching attacks against Chu State.

Lu Yuan retaliated with equal force.

It just so happened that the millions of troops from the unsuccessful Northern Expedition against Liang had withdrawn, lacking a battlefield to fight on.

Now that these rebels had collided with us, it presented a perfect opportunity to extend our military might.

Lu Yuan distributed the millions of troops across the prefectures in the north of the river, and with the deployment of one or two hundred thousand men and twenty or thirty Inborn experts per prefecture, the iron fist swung down with utmost ferocity.

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The rebelling families, after being suppressed, were exterminated.

The chaotic people who joined the rebellion, whether willingly or by coercion, were all branded as criminals.

Their homes and lands were confiscated, and they were sent off into the wilderness to clear new lands.

The confiscated houses and lands were directly allocated to the immigrating Chu State citizens, who moved in right away, instantly obtaining houses and land holdings.

Between the local sentenced criminals and Chu State immigrants, their social statuses instantly reversed.

As for those Jianghu figures who came to assassinate, their family members were pursued directly.

Those Jianghu experts might have formidable martial arts skills that made them hard to trace, but their relatives, disciples, and followers might not possess such high-level martial arts skills.

Facing the pursuit of the Chu army, these people struggled to escape.

Once caught, they were immediately used to threaten the Jianghu figures, coercing them to surrender in exchange for the lives of their loved ones, and then they were executed under the law.

At the same time, the Inborn Grandmasters were deployed, leading the Army’s best in pursuit of the die-hard elements.

This time, Lu Yuan assigned enough Inborn Grandmasters, averaging one or two per prefecture.

This intense deployment was sufficient to severely control each region, allowing no criminal to evade capture.

With the Inborn Grandmasters’ overwhelming strength, those second-rate Jianghu experts, even if they wanted to resist to the end, simply couldn’t last long.

It didn’t take ten days or half a month before they were captured and executed.

And so, a fierce crackdown lasted two months, affecting two states and six prefectures, gradually coming to an end.

Meanwhile, the Chu army, after suppressing over a thousand rebellions, annihilating hundreds of noble families, obliterating hundreds of Jianghu factions, and killing millions of people, finally secured stability over the territories in the north of the river that they controlled.

In the local areas, anyone with dissenting thoughts was either killed off completely, eliminating future troubles thoroughly.

Or they were so terrorized that they dared not harbor the slightest thought of rebellion.

Lu Yuan’s goal of quelling the region was thus perfectly achieved following the iron-fisted crackdown.

At the same time.

Time had also reached October.

The heavy snow of the forty-first year of Shenwu first descended.

And the floods in Jiangnan had gradually subsided over these few months.

The first year of the Northern Expedition thus came to a temporary close.

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