Never in his wildest dreams had Chu Tian thought of capturing a hundred players all by himself in one day. These players set down their weapons and squatted down with their hands around their heads. Among those players was the mayor of Lingyan Town.
The initial performance of free players wasn't even comparable to the recruited soldiers. Only having experienced several intense, bitter battles would the players become seasoned veterans.
"Master, how do we dispose of this batch of captives?"
Hua Mulan pointed at the foreign people, who were all terrified of her.
All the people from Lingyan Town were fearful at the moment, uncertain of how Chu Tian would punish them.
The feudal lords of various civilizations had made foes with each other. Some cruel, vile feudal lords had even destroyed others' villages and slaughtered the ones who tried to resist.
"Imprison those who resist, release the rest."
Chu Tian intended to draw the pro-surrender members to his side and crumble the pro-war ones in order to disintegrate Lingyan Pavilion. Conflicts would definitely arise between the pro-war party and the pro-surrender party, and Lingyan Pavilion would be finished sooner or later.
The pro-surrender players got to leave Shangbi Village safe and sound, secretly rejoicing at the decision they made. They had now quit the precarious Lingyan Pavilion, no longer wanting anything to do with it.
As for the pro-war players who had followed Li Er from the Great Tang, they ended up as prisoners of the Xia Allied Forces.
Chu Tian did not release them immediately. He wanted to use the mayor of Lingyan Town and make Lingyan Town his client town.
Now that he had seized the opponent's mayor, it meant that he could conquer Lingyan Town without shedding more blood.
"Our Shangbi Village has lost 29 light infantrymen, 97 local soldiers..."
The guardian of Shangbi Village, Wu Shang, reported their losses to Chu Tian despite having sustained injuries himself.
Shangbi Village, which only had a population of 700, had lost about a hundred young labor forces, which was a calamity to the village. Fortunately, Shangbi Village was a client village of Xia Town, so Xia Town could mobilize labor forces to replace their losses.
"Stay at Shangbi Village and firmly keep firm guard around it."
Chu Tian arranged for Wu Shang to keep guard of Shangbi Village while he led a thousand professional and local soldiers to go forth and conquer Lingyan Town.
Lingyan Town was situated between Xia Town and Langya Town. It could be made into a transit point of trading.
Lingyan Town still had around a hundred professional soldiers and several hundred local soldiers.
When Chu Tian brought the captive Lingyan mayor to Lingyan Town, the guards of Lingyan Town chose to surrender very soon. Since their mayor was being held captive and Li Er from the Great Tang had not appointed his successor, any resistance would be pointless.
Hua Mulan bravely volunteered to lead her cavalry into Lingyan Town to conduct reconnaissance first, preventing any possible ambushes. The impact of a feudal lord being caught was too tremendous, apparent from how all of Lingyan Town had surrendered without a word. It also exempted Xia Town from rigorous storm fortifications.
Lingyan Town was a town after all. If they really were to attack a town with cob walls as high as 4.5 meters, the attacking party might lose an even larger portion of its military strength than the defense party.
Hua Mulan entered Lingyan Town, and after ascertaining that there were no ambushes, Chu Tian led his huge troop into Lingyan Town to take ownership of it. They headed straight for the feudal lord's office of Lingyan Town, where the details of Lingyan Town were written on the stone tablet.
[Territory]: Lingyan Town (Level 1 town)
[Feudal lord]: Li Er from the Great Tang (Level 3 Zanniao)
[Specialties]: Ordinary celadon (Level D specialty), ordinary warhorses (Level D specialty), refined farming utensils (Level C specialty)
[Population]: 2315/5000
[Popular sentiment]: 55 (mayor has been held captive)
[Public security]: 50
[Overall level of prosperity]: 1576/3000
[Administrative efficiency]: 17/100
[Agricultural efficiency]: 25/100
[Economic efficiency]: 16/100
[Cultural efficiency]: 20/100
[Military score]: 915
[City defense works]: Low-grade rammed earth walls
[Existing constructions]: Level 2 pastures, Level 2 cavalry camps, ancestral halls, Level 2 horse stables, Level 3 blacksmith stores, Level 2 celadon factories, Level 2 camps for attack instruments, Level 3 private schools…
[Client villages]: 3/4
Chu Tian was moved when he saw Level 2 pastures. There were quite a number of horse-producing places around the region too, despite not having grades as high as pastures beyond the custom, as well as quality of horses produced.
There were even Level 2 camps for attack instruments, which were also constructions that Xia Town lacked.
Chu Tian tried to make Lingyan Town Xia Town's fourth client territory.
"Ding! Player, your main territory does not have an adequate status."
Just as expected, Xia Town and Lingyan Town were both Level 1 towns, thus Xia Town was unable to take ownership of Lingyan Town.
"It seems like the only way to make this Level 1 town my client territory is to upgrade to a Level 2 town as soon as possible."
Chu Tian had expected such an outcome earlier, so he wasn't really surprised.
In order to swallow up Lingyan Town, he had no choice but to fight for a Level 2 town at the fastest speed he could manage.
It took a population of 4000 to upgrade a Level 1 town to Level 2, but the population of Xia Town was far below that requirement.
To boost the population in the shortest possible time, aside from recruiting nearby refugees, there was one simple, but brutal method- despoiling from others.
When Cao Cao failed to defeat Liu Bei in Hanzhong, he resorted to shifting the population away from Hanzhong, and embroiling Liu Bei in a population shortage crisis.
Hence, who should he send to execute this cruel mission?
This mission should probably be assigned to Hua Mulan, to breach each and every village in the vicinity and plunder their people.
"Release me now!" Li Er from the Great Tang protested.
Chu Tian did nothing but ignore his protest. After holding Li Er from the Great Tang captive, he found out that he was the chairman of a guild of Langya Nation named "Lingyan Pavilion".
Before merging with Lingyan Town, he would not spare Lingyan Pavilion a single opportunity to rebound. The opponent's guild consisted of at least several dozen small feudal lords, which might form a considerable influence if they joined forces.
Nonetheless, as long as Chu Tian held Li Er from the Great Tang captive, Lingyan Pavilion would be disbanded due to the absence of the leader, unless other members took succession of the post.
Chu Tian sent the local soldiers back to Xia Town first to prepare for the busy farming season, while he led the great army to seize control of Lingyan Town.
Lingyan Town continued to operate under Chu Tian's instructions. The soldiers of Lingyan Town were disarmed and were now fully subject to the control of Xia's soldiers.
This was probably how one took control of a town by seizing its feudal lord.
"Come with me for a while," Chu Tian called Hua Mulan into the house.
"Lead your cavalry to despoil nearby villages and chase all the people to Xia Town. This is an order that I'm giving, so you do not need to feel any pressure about it, just go ahead and execute my commands. These small villages are located near our town, and in the future, our town will become a city, so they would have been seized by us sooner or later anyways. Do you understand?"
Chu Tian wasn't feeling pressured himself, but he still had to be concerned about the loyalty of his commanders. Some commanders would even obey your commands to slaughter cities, but other, more righteous commanders might not be willing to commit such acts.
Hua Mulan only nodded, "Yes."
During the period in which Chu Tian controlled Lingyan Town, Hua Mulan left Lingyan Town with her small troop of cavalrymen and despoiled the villages nearby according to Chu Tian's instructions.
While Chu Tian strove for a Level 2 town, he made an inspection trip to the Level 2 pastures of Lingyan Town.
There were as many as 60 ordinary warhorses captured from the cavalry and pastures of Lingyan Town alone.
"During the early stages, it's easier to amass capital through wars. However, the citizens of Lingyan Town don't seem to be very fond of me."