Chapter 393: The Fifth Column

The airship quickly reached the battlefield. Below, traces of trampling and destruction stretched across the land, charred black from fire, with scattered weapons and equipment littering the ground.

The harvest season had been approaching, but after this battle, this entire region was as good as ruined—even in the aftermath of victory.

If they had managed to break into Nagrand?

With that thought, Wu Qingsong’s attitude toward the prisoners turned even colder.

Not far ahead, vast sections of farmland had been repurposed into makeshift prison camps. Beastkin soldiers clad in Nagrand’s signature dark red armor patrolled the perimeters. The camp appeared stable for now, but even after being divided into multiple sections, the sheer number of prisoners—black heads packed densely together—was overwhelming.

The airship hovered over the area for a moment, allowing Wu Qingsong to carefully assess the conditions within the camp. Then, without delay, it flew straight toward Nagrand City.

Despite their resounding victory, Ram looked more burdened than ever.

“With so many prisoners, even providing them with the bare minimum is an astronomical daily expense. We need to decide how to deal with them as soon as possible,” she said.

Killing them wasn’t an option—nor was it necessary. Simply releasing them would be too wasteful, too lenient. But converting them into their own people would take too much time and resources. As for turning them into slaves… truthfully, managing such a large workforce would require thousands of overseers to maintain even a fraction of their productivity. Those people would be far better utilized elsewhere.

Nagrand’s greatest weakness was its severe shortage of lower-tier military power. Assigning the knight order to oversee slaves and suppress uprisings was not only a waste of their potential but also went against Wu Qingsong’s vision for them and the values they had been trained to uphold.

“These beastmen are all elite warriors from the southern Pasadena Alliance. If we keep them here, the Sarl Alliance might take the opportunity to expand into the power vacuum left behind. That wouldn’t be in our favor either,” Harold pointed out.

A fragmented landscape of competing clans and tribes was the most beneficial scenario for them. Only in such a state would these beastmen lack the strength to resist the spread of the Xuanyuan Church. Some might even turn to the church out of desperation, either to seek victory or simply to ensure their own survival.

“All the chieftains have been eliminated?” Wu Qingsong tapped his fingers lightly on the table, lost in thought.

“Tribal chieftains, clan leaders, elders, everyone we identified as one,” Ram said, glancing at Xeila. Though she had taken the lead in handling the matter, no one had objected.

“We passed by the prison camp earlier. It looks like they’ve already chosen new leaders,” Wu Qingsong said.

That was inevitable, especially under these circumstances. Beastmen would instinctively band together and elect someone to guide them through hardship. Even within the smallest groups, there was always a leader.

“Want me to kill them?” Xeila asked. Her first instinct was to eliminate any potential threats before they had the chance to escalate.

“No, no.” Wu Qingsong shook his head. “Identify them and have a talk. Let’s hear what they’re thinking. Harold, can you handle this for me?”

“You’re looking for a puppet?” Harold asked.

“Not necessarily a puppet, but someone who understands the situation and knows how to adapt,” Wu Qingsong replied. “I want someone from a lowly background, someone who would never have had the chance to rise to power under normal circumstances. Someone who only gained this position because we wiped out all the previous leaders. Ideally, they should have some level of capability and ambition. Only such a person would truly desire success, and only they could gain the prisoners’ approval.

“Even though Pasadena lost thirty thousand soldiers and all its chieftains, there are still noble-born leaders left behind. We can push the person you select as the new leader of these prisoners, support them with the church, and help them return to compete for power against those who stayed behind.”

“This won’t be easy,” Harold said after some thought.

“I know. If you can’t find a single suitable candidate, then pick several and let them elect a leader among themselves. That might actually be better. We’d have multiple options, and the chosen one would know they could be replaced at any time, while the others would understand that they still had a chance at rising to power.”

Harold nodded silently, already considering how to carry out the task.

“Isn’t that letting them off too easy?” Xeila said, displeased. “They marched straight to our doorstep, and we’re just going to let them walk away?”

“Our support won’t come for free,” Wu Qingsong said. “Through the church, we will control more power in their lands. The people we back will have to follow our directives. We will reclaim everything we lost in this war tenfold, a hundredfold, in the future.”

“Whatever,” Xeila said, finally letting go of the matter. She never liked handling these kinds of affairs anyway. Right now, what mattered most to her was her child.

***

After Nina returned, she expressed her support for Wu Qingsong’s plan. Joanna vividly recounted the scene when she delivered the gift to Storm and the others—their expressions of terror upon opening the boxes and recognizing the identities of the severed heads inside.

“Do you think they’ll take action against the south?” Wu Qingsong asked.

“I think that depends on what we do next,” Nina replied.

“In that case, let’s keep these prisoners detained until spring,” Wu Qingsong decided.

Of course, such a large number of captives couldn’t be allowed to eat for free. Before winter arrived, Wu Qingsong borrowed a large workforce from the Silvermoon, Broken Horn, and Bloodmoss clans to oversee the prisoners. Under strict supervision, they leveled the land around Nagrand, rebuilt the towns they had destroyed, and repaired the routes connecting Nagrand to these three closely allied clans.

During this process, it was only natural that some prisoners emerged as respected figures among their peers. Harold sought out each of them for a private conversation.

Some were swiftly imprisoned and later executed. Others, however, were released and secretly granted certain privileges, helping them gain greater influence among the beastmen.

At the same time, a group of priests began regularly preaching to the prisoners. Those who listened attentively and responded positively soon received special treatment. The first to do so faced hidden yet brutal retaliation from their fellow captives. But before long, Nagrand’s informants exposed those responsible for the attacks, punishing them severely. Once again, those who embraced the Xuanyuan Church were rewarded—not only with preferential treatment but even with authority over their fellow prisoners.

A rift gradually formed among the captives. More and more beastmen made the pragmatic choice to comply, seeking better rations and living conditions. Yet, there were still those who stubbornly resisted, urging their kin to reject this corruption.

The most outspoken resisters soon perished—whether through accidents, illness, or other unexplained circumstances. 

After multiple rounds of purges, few among the beastmen had the courage or conviction to openly oppose the Xuanyuan Church. Eventually, some of those whom Harold had spoken with rose to leadership positions among the dissenters. Under their guidance, the beastmen no longer saw the Church as an untouchable evil. Instead, they began to contemplate why they had suffered such a devastating defeat and what they needed to do to reclaim their lost glory.

If their enemy was overwhelmingly powerful, then the wise course of action was not to confront them head-on. Instead, it was to conceal their true intentions, learn from them, and even submit temporarily—biding their time until the day they could rise again.

Predictably, those who actively aligned with the church never gained the beastmen’s true respect. Instead, it was those who stood firm in adversity, who thought rationally and provided their people with a vision for the future, that earned the captives’ admiration. Under their leadership, the prisoners endured the harsh winter together, emerging from it more united than before.

By the time spring arrived, of the original 26,000 prisoners, over 23,000 remained. Wu Qingsong secretly met with the six candidates Harold had selected. He then observed as they conducted an anonymous vote among themselves to determine their leader.

Finally, when news arrived that the Sarl Alliance’s army had launched an offensive against the south, Wu Qingsong fulfilled his promise. He rearmed the captives with the very weapons they had brought, led them to the borderlands near Dustmother, and set them free.

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson well,” he said to the newly liberated beastmen. “Never make the same mistake again. You have repaid your past sins with your own hands. Now, you are free to return to your homeland.”