Through countless dynasties, I can summon the heroes of Chinese history.

"That's natural. Every emperor of Cangming has the blood of the Yuan family flowing in his veins."

Yuan You felt incredibly proud, but he still gave her careful instructions.

"This matter must be handled discreetly, leaving no trace whatsoever. Moreover, all actions must be carried out through others. Our Yuan family only needs to operate from behind the scenes, and once the matter is exposed, we can extricate ourselves unscathed."

"Furthermore, you must be careful with your words and actions while in the palace, and do not act so hastily again, lest the Ye family find a handle against you and ruin everything."

The Ye family, also a family of founding heroes in Cangming, although not as powerful as the Yuan family, is not that far behind.

Especially in the military, the Ye family was superior to the Yuan family.

Yuan Bingyan quickly agreed: "I know what's important, and I will certainly not fail my father's trust."

Yuan You looked at her and slowly nodded, his mind already forming a trap.

As the pillar of the Yuan family, Yuan You has always had a sharp eye. From the first moment he saw Jiang Ce, he knew that Jiang Ce was a formidable enemy, which is why he helped his daughter and has been targeting Jiang Ce all these years.

And now, his actions have proven that he is a major threat to the Yuan family. If he is not nipped in the bud, the Yuan family's position in the Cangming Dynasty will be greatly affected.

Thus, this silent power struggle, which began with an imperial decree in the court, will eventually unleash a bloodbath in the distant land of Laizhou.

At this moment, Jiang Ce was unaware that a shocking conspiracy against him was quietly brewing in a secret chamber of Jingren Palace.

However, even if he knew, he wouldn't care.

Although these schemes are ruthless, they are only effective if they can be carried out. Jiang Ce has never placed his hopes on the imperial court, so he is naturally not afraid of the schemes behind them.

As for the invasion of the Eastern Barbarians, he didn't care about it at all. After all, once he integrated the forces of the five prefectures of Laiyang, Wendeng, Penglai, Sendai, and Fengxiang, he would start to recover the entire Laizhou.

At that time, they will naturally face off against the Eastern Yi army.

…………

Laiyang Prefecture, within Changyang City.

Jiang Ce was naturally unaware of the undercurrents in the Cangming court. Even with the Luo Wang intelligence organization, it was impossible for him to know the content of the court's discussions in a short period of time.

Otherwise, wouldn't this imperial court be completely abolished?

Of course, even if he already knew, he wouldn't care too much, because the emperor's reward was nothing to him at most.

He was the Prince of Laiyang, with the power to establish his own government and build an army; the emperor was merely making that power more transparent.

One hundred thousand new troops may sound like a lot, but if Jiang Ce wanted to expand, it would be incredibly easy.

Little did the emperor know that Jiang Ce had more than 80,000 prisoners in his hands, including many strong and healthy young men, as well as many seasoned veterans who had been trained in the army.

Forming a new army was never a concern for him.

His real concern was how to ensure the livelihood of the more than 600,000 people in Laiyang County, so that everyone would have food to eat.

These more than 600,000 people consume an astronomical amount of food and fodder every day.

The daily food rations consumed were equivalent to the food rations of a 10,000-strong army for half a month.

Every day, the burden accumulates, weighing down like a thousand pounds on one's shoulders.

Laiyang Prefecture comprised 21 counties, covering a territory of nearly 70,000 square kilometers. Apart from Changyang and a few other counties, the remaining territory was mostly occupied by peasant armies.

These peasant uprising armies, to put it nicely, were just a bunch of bandits and thugs; how could they be expected to govern the people?

Therefore, in any city occupied by these people, the lives of the people were extremely difficult, and most of them became refugees, or had no choice but to join them in order to survive.

As a result, the Laiyang army's five armies captured tens of thousands of bandits in total, and the addition of refugees gathered along the way further increased the burden on their food supplies.

If it weren't for the presence of Wei Renpu, a prime minister with exceptional talent, assisting Jiang Ce in strategizing and managing the supply of provisions, Jiang Ce would likely have lost all his hair and been restless every night just trying to feed hundreds of thousands of people.

These people absolutely must not be killed.

If they were all slaughtered, not only would we be branded as cruel and inhumane, but it would also make it much more difficult to recapture Laizhou in the future. Even if we were to successfully recapture it, governing it would become a pipe dream.

A vast territory left uncultivated and untouched will only become a dead land.

As for letting them leave, that is absolutely out of the question.

Once these starving people return to the countryside, with no land, no food, and no livelihood, they will soon gather again to cause chaos and reignite the flames of war. At that time, all their previous battles and sacrifices will be in vain.

Fortunately, as the army marched south, although most cities surrendered without resistance, a few stubbornly resisted. The powerful families and wealthy clans in these cities secretly funded the defending troops to fight back, relying on their rich resources.

If they encounter other generals, although they will also establish their authority and intimidate all sides after conquering the city, and slaughter all the powerful families and clans that stubbornly resist in the city, they will eventually restrain themselves.

But Chang Yuchun was different. He was a ruthless killer. As long as powerful families tried to stop him, he would leave no one alive after the city was breached. However, it was precisely because of this that the subsequent siege plans became much easier.

It can only be said that misfortune may be a blessing in disguise, and blessing may be a misfortune in disguise.

Seeing that food was becoming increasingly scarce, Jiang Ce simply continued to implement the strategy of providing relief through labor. Most of the odd jobs that were originally done by farmers and laborers in the army were now done by these prisoners of war.

It is important to know that when a large army goes to war, in addition to the soldiers, the number of people needed for logistics is often several times more than the number of troops on the front lines.

Tasks such as fetching water, chopping firewood, transporting provisions, and setting up camps were assigned to prisoners of war. This saved a lot of manpower and also gave the prisoners something to do, reducing the likelihood of incidents.

This also ensures that they are not the kind of people who work for free, and that they can cooperate at work and build certain relationships.

At the same time, Jiang Ce allocated these personnel to rebuild the official roads and improve the infrastructure within Laiyang County.

Firstly, it can clear the grain routes and facilitate the subsequent transportation of grain and fodder; secondly, it can allow these people to perform their respective duties and provide relief through labor, thus reducing the pressure on grain and fodder. It can be said to be a win-win situation.

The Central Plains have always been a vast land, and the local customs and traditions are different from those of Earth.

Take China on Earth as an example. Although there was a period of intellectual ferment during the Warring States period, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the country began to implement a development policy of suppressing other schools of thought and exclusively honoring Confucianism.

While this was beneficial for unification, it also had a significant drawback: Confucianism became the dominant school of thought, eventually evolving into a religion.

Many scholars thus became idle talkers of benevolence and righteousness, useless scholars who even hindered social development, ultimately leading to the Jia Shen Incident.