Chapter 616

The descendants of the Xiang family have very hard bones.

Their subordinate aides, however, do not have such hard bones.

At Wu Tie's command, all the aides accompanying Xiang Zhuang were seized, roughly interrogated, and they promptly confessed.

Wu Tie sat on the throne, his expression rather strange.

Those beside him, Wu Jin and the others, also wore very strange expressions.

Xiang Zhuang came to Demon-Suppressing City with the same purpose as Wu Tie — to purchase slaves.

With a mere hundred warships escorting several thousand large transport ships, Xiang Zhuang, like Wu Tie, intended to sweep away all the underground ethnic captives of the Demon-Suppressing City's defenses in one go.

However, Wu Tie brought enough genuine gold and silver.

As for Xiang Zhuang and his men, the handful of gold beans and silver lumps they brought, when added together, could only buy a few hundred thousand people at most.

Several aides of Demon-Suppressing City stood at a distance, cocking their ears to listen to the commotion here.

Wu Tie directly asked a military secretary under Xiang Zhuang: "With this little money you brought, you probably can't buy many people, yet you brought so many transport ships that not even a small half can be filled — what are you trying to do?"

Wu Tie crossed his legs, giving the military secretary a strange look: "You mean… you're planning to set these big ships in motion without spending money?"

The military secretary looked embarrassed at Wu Tie: "Our junior general also said our money is surely insufficient… but would Demon-Suppressing City dare accept money from the Xiang family? Just sending over some scrap copper and iron would be enough."

After a dry laugh, the military secretary glanced toward where several Demon-Suppressing City aides stood, knowing his next words would offend people.

"Our junior general said the leaders of Demon-Suppressing City, knowing the Xiang family's reputation, would not dare take money… if they insisted on taking it, we'd beat them to a pulp. Those leaders, formerly in An'yang… oh, no, in Qingqiu City, have been beaten in the streets by the junior general countless times."

"The junior general said the Xiang family's fine young men eat and drink at taverns, visit brothels for girls, all without paying… buying slaves to send to the battlefield as cannon fodder — who would dare take our money for that?"

"Damn!" The several Demon-Suppressing City aides standing far away had grim faces; they stomped their feet, gritted their teeth, and turned to go find Zhao Bao.

These Xiang family fellows are all no good.

Although Prince An also strikes hard — just look at how Zhao Bao and Zhao Quan were beaten — they at least didn't intend to renege on debts.

Wu Tie's transport ships were filled to the brim with genuine gold and silver, coming with full sincerity to purchase.

Xiang Zhuang actually intends to seize by force!

He's truly a worthless piece of trash.

The problem is, those few Demon-Suppressing City aides have been mulling it over: if Wu Tie weren't here, and Xiang Zhuang really moved to seize, he might actually succeed.

The Xiang family is a top-tier military clan; among all military clans nationwide, its strength, influence, and military authority rank in the top ten. Moreover, the Xiang family's style has always been overbearing and domineering; everyone who sees them gets a headache and is reluctant to provoke them lightly.

Setting aside other matters, within the Demon-Suppressing Palace there is a Xiang family vice-palace master, plus dozens of other hall supervisors, hall officials, etc. Even if Xiang Zhuang did something in Demon-Suppressing City and the lawsuit went to the Demon-Suppressing Palace, they could basically do nothing to him.

As for Zhao Bao and those other Demon-Suppressing City leaders who come from military families, in Qingqiu City they really were beaten up by Xiang Zhuang and a bunch of the Xiang family's overbearing thugs over romantic jealousy and such.

That's just how military-family scions behave: after being beaten up, unless you can retaliate, when they meet they naturally have no confidence.

Zhao Bao and the other Demon-Suppressing City leaders, upon seeing Xiang Zhuang and his entourage, will certainly lack confidence.

Xiang Zhuang leads troops to plunder, seizing all the captives of the Demon-Suppressing City's defenses, then casually tosses down a bit of scrap copper and iron as a token — Zhao Bao and company likewise lack the confidence to truly turn against him.

This lawsuit — first, the Demon-Suppressing Palace cannot pursue it; second, it cannot be escalated to the imperial court, because the trade in captives is merely a side business of the military clans behind Demon-Suppressing City's garrison commanders, and in fact it is illegal.

According to the laws of the Divine Kingdom and the divine edicts of the gods, these underground demons, once captured, must all be beheaded.

Selling them as slaves is actually illegal.

One cannot go to the Demon-Suppressing Palace to stage a contest, nor can one take the matter to the imperial court; only the families behind Zhao Bao and the others can go reason with the Xiang family.

But will the Xiang family listen to reason?

Fortunately, fortunately, if it weren't for the reasonable Prince An coming here to make a large-scale purchase, Demon-Suppressing City would truly have been swept clean by this brat Xiang Zhuang and his men… what a damned nuisance. The money gained from selling slaves, aside from paying about seventy percent to the families behind each commander, the remaining thirty percent — those aides beside the commanders — all get a cut.

Hurry and go file a complaint against Zhao Bao — this Xiang Zhuang, this Xiang family, are utterly intolerable.

Wu Tie crossed his legs, his calves twitching, and gave the speaking military secretary a cold glance: "By the way, I've heard the Xiang family has no interest in managing the economy; their fiefdoms have always been left to pasture… purchasing slaves and such… you just said they're being sent to serve as cannon fodder?"

That military secretary gave a dry laugh, his smile full of bitterness.

"They've been wiped out — in the national war of the Great Martial Divine Kingdom, the legions directly under the Xiang family's command were annihilated."

"In just over half a year, the legions commanded by the Xiang family's various junior generals, generals, and senior generals… suffered consecutive losses in over a hundred bloody battles, heavy casualties; the Xiang family generals, with only a few personal guards, barely escaped, breaking out of the encirclement."

"The military could not immediately spare enough reinforcements for the Xiang family, yet the combat tasks the Xiang family bears, the front lines they are responsible for, cannot be abandoned…"

"The clan head, helpless, could only send the Xiang family's private army, the 'Halberdiers,' to the southwest; but the Xiang family generals' combat style is too brutal — they got addicted to killing and neglected to command troops… after just three consecutive engagements, the Halberdiers were entirely wiped out, and the Xiang family generals barely escaped with their lives."

"We really had no choice, so we suggested… coming to Demon-Suppressing City to purchase underground demons and send them to the southwest battlefield."

"It's not that the junior general wants to renege on debts… it's simply that the Xiang family can't come up with any more money."

"Those legions organized by the military, when they die in battle, naturally receive condolence payments from the Military Bureau's Funeral Affairs Office."

"But the Halberdiers are the Xiang family's private army; when they die, all condolence payments and aftermath expenses come out of the Xiang family's own pocket."

"As Your Lordship said, the Xiang family is poor at managing the economy; among military clans nationwide, the Xiang family might be the poorest — not even matching an ordinary mid-tier clan — yet paradoxically, the Xiang family's private forces outnumber those of two or three ordinary top-tier clans combined."

"So, emptied out, the Xiang family's treasury is empty… it's not that our junior general wants to renege on debts; we truly have no money!"

Wu Tie listened, his mouth twisting into a grimace.

The Xiang family has actually come to this point?