Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao who returned from Sekiro

Chapter 869 Supporting Compradors (6K)

Many engineers from the Sun Moon Empire and evil spirit masters from the Holy Spirit Cult are busy on the ruins.

One side cleaned up the battlefield and removed the trash.

One side collects the corpses and devours the souls.

The main hall of the city lord's mansion has not yet collapsed.

Now, sitting in the main seat of this hall is a middle-aged man with a weathered yet resolute face.

The middle-aged man's soul-guided armor was nearly half shattered, and his body was covered with wounds of all sizes.

Several Soul Masters pointed their Soul Guidance Devices at him, ready to end his life at any moment.

"Are you the city lord of this city?" an officer asked.

The middle-aged man glanced at him, his eyes full of mockery, and then turned his head away.

Orange simply waved her hand.

The Soul Master standing nearby immediately understood and pulled the middle-aged man away.

Soon, a freshly formed soul was taken away by the evil spirit master next to him.

This happens far too often; it occurs in almost every city I visit.

The defending soldiers might surrender, but the city lord would not.

They either died in battle or remained silent after being captured, leaving no choice but to kill them and hand them over to the evil spirit masters.

At this moment, a soldier ran in and reported: "Reporting, Marshal, all the officials in the city have disappeared, and the city's granaries are empty."

Although Ju Zi had anticipated this situation, she still couldn't help but clench her fists, feeling a surge of frustration.

In each city they arrived in, most of the city's leadership would vanish without a trace, leaving only the city lord and a very few officials.

It is unknown whether the missing person is dead, escaped, or is hiding in the city without showing their face.

This situation forced the Sun Moon Empire to devote more energy to sending officials to take over the affairs of the city.

As for the granary

Orange sighed: "Let everything remain the same. Don't attack the common people. Confiscate the homes of the nobles in the city and use them as supplies to replenish the army's consumption."

She ultimately chose to target the nobility.

It makes sense; targeting the nobility is the best way to offend the fewest people while accomplishing the most.

In addition, since Orange herself came from a commoner background, she naturally wouldn't hold back when dealing with nobles.

Making such a decision is perfectly reasonable.

Now, with the idea that it's better to avoid trouble, Orange is focusing all her energy on how to expedite the process.

"yes!"

The messenger answered loudly and hurried away.

After the messenger left, one of Orange's confidants stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Marshal, if we continue doing this, it might affect our future rule. If this continues, I'm afraid things will get complicated back home..."

Orange glanced at him and calmly asked, "Then do you have a better solution? The Heavenly Soul Empire dumped this mess on us, but we have no choice but to take it on."

"Without plundering nobles, the army can hardly move an inch. But plundering commoners will pose even greater threats to our future rule! It must be said that whoever devised this plan has truly presented us with a huge problem."

As she spoke, she looked at the officer in charge of intelligence and asked, "What's the situation inside the city we previously captured?"

"The situation is not very optimistic." The intelligence officer's face was full of worry. "The nobles and sect members have been temporarily placed under guard as you requested, but they have shown great resistance."

"That's why our efforts to incorporate sects and powerful families have been extremely slow. They're worried that we'll discard them after we've served our purpose, and with very few exceptions, no sect has yet sided with us."

"Although we have quite a few people left behind, they've been exhausted and haven't slept for days. We can't utilize the local population to maintain our rule; we're relying solely on the few people we have."

At this point, the officers reporting the situation all wore masks of pain.

Strategic depth, it's all about strategic depth. A vast area of ​​strategic depth allows the army time to catch its breath and regroup. Besides resting and recuperating, it also allows them to break free from their nasty traps.

"Hmph! These opportunists."

A murderous glint suddenly flashed across Orange's face.

"Pick a few of the most aggressive ones from among those who are pretending to be tough, and kill them as an example to others. The real tough guys died long ago along with those city lords; they just want to gain more benefits. Do they really think my Sun Moon Empire is a charity?"

"But Marshal, doing so might further escalate the conflict."

The intelligence officer replied with a worried expression, his face showing deep concern.

As the person in charge who had firsthand intelligence, he was naturally the one who understood the current situation best.

"How about we cede some of our profits to support some compradors and use people from the Heavenly Soul Empire to govern Heavenly Soul?"

"Their power structure as compradors was established by relying on us. As long as we make them do a few things that are outrageous and resented by the people as a pledge of loyalty, they will have no choice but to follow us wholeheartedly and risk their lives for us."

Upon hearing this, Ju Zi's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly: "Supporting compradors, using one soul to cure another?"

Ju Zi tapped her slender hand on the table, seemingly considering the feasibility of the plan.

"If we do that, after a few pledges of allegiance, these compradors will definitely be completely loyal, but wouldn't that essentially put the local people on the opposite side from us again?"

"You don't need to worry about that."

An eerie female voice drifted in from outside the door.

A graceful figure drifted in, carrying with her a strong stench of blood and a chilling aura.

Who else could it be but Feng Ling, the vice leader of the Holy Spirit Cult?

"Since you don't want to harm the common people, then kill them. Kill the Soul Masters, kill the nobles, let these compradors turn their blades on people of their own class, and give us the heads of these nobles and Soul Masters as a pledge of allegiance."

"Those incompetent nobles in the country, our Holy Church will naturally deal with them. Marshal, you just need to do as you wish. His Majesty and the Church Master are both waiting for good news from you."

Fengling spoke casually and in a very calm tone.

But this simple sentence sent chills down the spines of everyone present.

A chilling killing intent seemed to vanish from the room.

Because of this simple sentence, countless lives will be lost.

After thinking it over and over, Ju Zi slowly nodded.

Between two evils, choose the lesser: support some nobles and kill others. Although the impact is significant, once the compradors take over local rule, these cities can be revitalized and put back into operation, continuously supplying the Sun Moon Empire with resources.

Otherwise, these cities would just be dead cities, not only offering no help to the army, but also constantly draining the Sun Moon Empire's resources. Who could stand that?

Supporting compradors is indeed the best solution at present.

(End of this chapter)