Yuzhang had beco a perilous place, and staying there ant nothing but death.
Therefore, upon hearing the news, the two of them abandoned the city and fled before the Chu soldiers arrived, vanishing without a trace.
Without the inherent barriers to stop them, the remaining Ning Army in Yuzhang, leaderless and without resolve, naturally fell into disarray.
Under the assault of the eight Chu armies, it only took about ten days. By the end of April, the region was completely pacified.
And with the Chu army’s strikes throughout the month, as well as their unstoppable and fearso military might, Yuzhang Prefecture had been utterly terrified.
In that period, at the signal from Lu Yuan, nurous local prominent families, who had assisted the Ning Army in resisting the Chu soldiers, were exterminated, along with countless clan mbers.
In doing so, Chu State not only identified a vast number of hidden households, enriching the local population records,
but also amassed a large amount of land, money, and grain through the extermination of families, rapidly replenishing the state treasury that had been depleted by the war.
In the wake of this calamity, the remaining fortunate survivors among the Aristocratic Families were so terrified of Chu that they dared not harbor the slightest disloyal thought, submitting completely.
After a thunderous campaign of cleansing, backed by their mighty troops, Chu State had managed to gain a preliminary foothold in Yuzhang Prefecture.
anwhile, Sun Siwen, who had already returned to the capital, began coordinating within the country to draw capable officials from the Chu court and localities, dispatching them in groups to Yuzhang to take over the newly conquered Prefectures and Counties.
However, despite Sun Siwen’s efforts to requisition officials, the staffing gap in Yuzhang remained substantial.
Since the campaign began last September, Chu had successively conquered Su Country and Nanhai Country, securing three Prefectures and twenty-four Counties in Lingnan -- all places in need of new officials.
Now, with the annexation of Jianan and Yuzhang in Jiangdong, these two additional Prefectures with eighteen Counties also created a vast number of vacancies.
In less than a year, Chu expanded its dominion to five Prefectures and forty-two Counties, nearly doubling its territory.
To staff these five Prefectures and forty-two Counties alone, Chu needed no less than six thousand officials of various ranks, nearly doubling the number of existing officials in Chu.
This huge shortage of officials was not sothing that could be easily redied by hastily conducting several rounds of Enke examinations.
To ensure stable grassroots operations, Lu Yuan even had to retain nearly half of the officials from the Three Nations, after assessing them, to fill the vacancies, supplented by dostic ergency deploynts to just about fill these positions.
However, such asures brought significant potential problems.
The original officials of the various countries, deeply indebted to their forr nations, may harbor resentnt toward Chu, which conquered their holands.
This was particularly true for the officials in Jianan and Yuzhang Prefectures, who mostly ca from Aristocratic families and held no fondness for Chu, which had just purged their clans.
Ning Country was not yet extinguished but still gasping for breath in half of Jiangdong, retaining its strength.
For officials in these two Prefectures, resentnt toward Chu for family destruction was paired with a lingering loyalty to their forr ruler, making their allegiance questionable.
Lu Yuan, lacking better options, could only try his best to transfer the original Ning officials away from Jianan and Yuzhang, dispatching them to remote areas far from Ning, such as Lingnan, the Southwest, and Xichuan.
He then drew officials from these areas to fill the vacancies in the two Prefectures, aiming to eliminate potential risks as much as possible.
After such maneuvering, the newly acquired five Prefectures were relatively stable, and Chu established a foundational presence in the region, no longer a rootless entity.
With a few years of maintenance and the people’s allegiance secured, Jiangdong and Lingnan would be thoroughly Chu’s territory.
With large armies stationed in all directions to quell internal turmoil and repel foreign enemies,
the country also selected strong and capable officials to swiftly stabilize local order.
With the efforts of these able ministers and generals, Yuzhang quickly settled down, sparing Lu Yuan the need for further concern.
Thus, seeing the situation stabilize, he turned his attention elsewhere.
...
Inside the temporary residence of the King of Chu in Nanchang City,
since entering the city, to soothe the public’s heart, Lu Yuan had continuously summoned local scholars and individuals of influence from Yuzhang Prefecture, aiming to control the Yuzhang area by winning over these locals.
At this ti, as the Chu army quelled unrest throughout Yuzhang, anywhere there was rebellion, it was promptly subdued.
While this led to significant slaughter, resulting in the extinction of many prominent families,
it also served to intimidate and instill fear into the people of Yuzhang Prefecture through these executions.
In Nanchang City, Lu Yuan proactively recruited talented scholars and used benevolence to pacify the people, achieving imdiate remarkable results.
Suddenly, throughout Yuzhang Prefecture, everyone who wished to survive, who aspired to advance their careers, or who abandoned darkness for light, all flocked to Nanchang.
Even from Linhai and Guangling Prefectures, many realized that Ning Country’s fate was sealed and Chu’s unification of Jiangnan was inevitable.
Consequently, quite a few scholars from these two Prefectures traveled long distances to join.
Among these people, naturally, were also many mbers of the Coastal Aristocratic Families, all of whom Lu Yuan warmly received. Once examined, they were directly appointed to official positions and assigned to remote areas such as Lingnan, the Southwest, and Xichuan to fill the gaps among officials.
However, most of these new adherents were diocre. Even if so possessed talent, it was only in ordinary statecraft, which was fundantally insignificant in the present era.
Therefore, besides initially receiving several batches of important individuals personally to show his regard,
as the numbers increased and beca botherso, Lu Yuan delegated the task. He instructed the Ministry of Personnel and the Honglu Temple to send relevant officials to handle the reception and assessnt.
He then focused on military affairs, organizing and consolidating the defense of Jiangdong and Lingnan.
Now, with Chu’s territory and population having expanded more than twofold, it was like swallowing a large fattening al in one gulp—the kind that leaves you uncomfortably full.
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