Elephant Meat, So This Is What It Tastes Like?

After the capital of Linyi Kingdom was captured, Lan Yuan directly handed over the commandery affairs to Governor Yu Fan, leaving Gao Shun and Shamoke to assist him in controlling the situation. He himself, together with Gao Ling and several hundred personal guards, headed mysteriously south.

Though past sixty, Yu Fan had just assumed office. First, he restored Linyi's Han name: Xianglin County.

Second, he held public mass trials for traitors. Toward Cham officials, he employed the strategy of arresting the major offenders while sparing the minor ones, tempering grace with authority. With Shamoke's Wuxi Barbarian troops enforcing military rule, he planned to introduce Jiao Province's advanced systems once the situation in Rinan Commandery stabilized.

Finally, he built Restoration Square in Xianglin City and erected a meritorious-deeds stele at its center for all to behold. Yu Fan personally wrote down the names of those who had rendered service and had stonemasons carve them into the monument. The list included more than two thousand names, among them Lan Yuan, Gao Shun, Shamoke, Li Yi, and Chu Qing.

On April 28, more than two thousand criminal traitors—including Cham officials, generals, and soldiers led by the former king Qu Jin and the new king Qu Mi—were escorted outside Xianglin's North Gate. Kneeling and facing in Chengdu's direction, they were executed en masse. Yu Fan ordered every household in Xianglin City to send one representative outside the city to witness the execution.

At a quarter past noon, wind and clouds churned.

The prisoners kneeling on the ground were like wildflowers. Cold gleams swept over the earth like a gale harvesting the fields, leaving behind nothing but rows upon rows of stalks.

In troubled times, harsh laws were needed. Standing atop Xianglin's walls like the God of Death, Yu Fan used the blood of the