Zhou Sui secretly ground his teeth, though his face showed nothing. Trembling, he dug out forty copper coins from his inner robes and handed them to the city gate guards.
Not long after Jiang Jin and Zhou Sui entered the city, a squad of Jiao tribe cavalry sped up to the city gates. "Have you seen a carriage and soldiers from Dingyang?"
The gate guards, who had just been throwing their weight around in front of the commoners, immediately hunched their backs in deference. "N-no, we haven't seen them. We've been keeping watch all morning."
The leading Jiao cavalryman furrowed his brow tightly, his gaze turning icy as he looked at the gate guards.
Under his stare, the guards broke out in a cold sweat, keeping their heads down and not daring to speak.
After a long while, the lead cavalryman finally looked up toward the direction outside the city.
A tall man slightly behind him spoke up, "Looking at the tracks on the road, no carriage has entered the city today."
The leader gave a soft 'hmm', his brows still tightly knit. "According to the schedule, the escort for the princess should have arrived yesterday. I wonder if there was an accident?"
The tall man thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps they were delayed by something on the road. There are many refugees now, and the journey is arduous. Being a day or two late is quite normal."
The leader shook his head and ordered, "Send a small squad to go take a look. Pay attention to the tracks on the road."
The city was desolate. The dirt on the streets still bore many dried, black bloodstains, and the entire city reeked of a rotting, metallic stench.
Most of the people walking on the streets were of the Jiao tribe; the few Han people present all kept their heads down, hurrying along.
The two wove through the dilapidated, ruined streets. There were no cries of vendors, no shouting of wares—only the occasional vulgar, strange-sounding curses and beatings from the Jiao people.
The language of the barbarians was completely different from that of the Han people.
The Han people also had various regional dialects, but they shared a unified official language. The common folk might not necessarily speak it, but most could understand it.
After the barbarians occupied Han cities, to facilitate faster and easier management, most would learn to speak the Han official language, though their intonation was exceedingly strange.
Jiang Jin and Zhou Sui walked for about fifteen minutes before they saw one or two shops still open for business, but they were completely deserted.
Confused, she asked in a low voice, "Are the ones still running shops in the city from the Jiao tribe?"
Zhou Sui also lowered his voice to explain, "No, they are Han. The Jiao tribe is not skilled at running businesses."
"After the Jiao tribe conquers a city, they slaughter all the martial artists and soldiers, and then they massacre a wave of commoners, using brutal and tyrannical force to suppress the rest of the populace."
"Then they implement a pacification policy. As long as the people are obedient and submissive, they stop killing. If they disobey, the slaughter continues."
The Jiao tribe couldn't possibly kill everyone in every city they occupied. They needed people to repair the city walls, grow their food, and weave their clothes.
They also needed merchants to run various shops to maintain their basic living needs. If all else failed, these people could even serve as their food.
In this chaotic world, cannibalism was nothing new!
This was also why they had seen almost no one leaving the city when they entered that morning. The people in the city were less the Jiao tribe's citizens and more their 'two-legged sheep'. Want to leave the city? Not a chance!
Unless they were Han people who had completely surrendered to the Jiao tribe and made meritorious contributions, only then would they have a bit of freedom under the Jiao's rule.
The other Han people, to put it bluntly, were just free labor and mobile food for the Jiao tribe.
Jiang Jin still didn't understand. "If they kill the commoners first, then the wealthy merchants and nobles should mostly have survived. There shouldn't be just a handful of shops open, right?"
Zhou Sui sighed. "When the Jiao tribe attacked the city, or even before the siege began, most of those people had already fled."
Jiang Jin understood.
The nobles and wealthy merchants were generally more knowledgeable than the common folk and had better access to useful information. They also had the material resources required to flee.
When it came time to run, they were more decisive than the commoners. Coupled with advance preparations, most managed to escape.
Zhou Sui continued, "Furthermore, the wealthy merchants and nobles who stayed behind were forced to hand over most of their family wealth. If they uttered a word of complaint, they were killed and their property confiscated. Therefore, there aren't many merchants left in the city."
The two of them wove their way through the city. In Jiang Jin's words, they were casing the joint. Only by scouting the area properly could they get things done; she never fought an unprepared battle.
Zhou Sui was quite familiar with Liang City. Last night, he had actually drawn a rough map of the city's geography and layout on the ground for Jiang Jin to see. Now, this was essentially a field inspection.
There were quite a few refugees in the city who, like them, had fled from elsewhere in ragged clothes, so their attire did not attract attention.
As for why refugees still entered a city occupied by the Jiao people, willingly walking into a wolf's den, it was actually out of sheer helplessness.
First, they simply couldn't walk any further. In an era where travel relied on walking and belongings had to be carried on one's back, how much rice and grain could common folk really bring?
They also had to carry water, clothes, quilts, cooking utensils, and so on.
Second, most of the commoners didn't have much food to begin with. Once their provisions ran out, continuing the journey meant certain death. Entering the city, at the very worst, allowed them to sell themselves into slavery. A miserable life was better than a good death.
Moreover, eight out of ten cities in the Yan Kingdom were currently occupied by the barbarians. Where else could they go?
It was better to choose a temporarily pacified city to settle down for the time being, surviving one day at a time. It was always better than staying out in the wilderness, where they might be killed, boiled, and eaten by displaced refugees or barbarians on any given day.
Two hours later, the pair arrived at what used to be the most prosperous East Street. Now, it had become the location of several brothels, along with a single operating tavern.
Because of these brothels and the tavern, this area appeared to be the liveliest in all of Liang City. However, those going in and out were all either Jiao people or Han soldiers.
Right in the middle of the street, three emaciated men covered in blood and grime were forced to kneel.
Behind the three men stood six Jiao soldiers holding blades.
A sparse crowd had gathered around them, mostly consisting of Jiao people, both men and women.
Curious, Jiang Jin stopped in her tracks and looked over from a distance, but the three men all had their heads bowed, making it impossible to see their faces.
