After Charles led his army in consecutively breaking through several core settlements of the Howling Children of the Wasteland,
there were no more territories in this land that dared resist.
Before and after the war, Charles's way of doing things was completely different.
During the war, Charles did not kill any prisoners. He either brought them under his command or chopped off their toes and such.
As for the wealthy households in conquered settlements, he was rather ruthless—he directly confiscated their property and gathered their wealth into his own hands.
The reason was simple.
Soldiers needed to be won over, and their will to resist needed to be weakened.
Wealth, meanwhile, needed to be collected promptly. Otherwise, if his army was defeated, Charles would at least still have the capital to rise again.
But once the war ended, Charles's manner changed completely.
Any soldiers in any settlement who still dared resist were all hanged in the busiest places of the settlement,
and everyone in the settlement was required to come watch.
At that moment, Charles wanted everyone to know the final fate of those who dared resist and betray him.
The good treatment once given to captured soldiers no longer existed.
If they resisted, there was only one road: death.
Conversely, as long as wealthy households in the towns paid a military support donation, they could keep their assets and continue living in the town.
They lost a sum of floating wealth, but their entire family's lives were preserved, and important assets such as farmland remained theirs.
For many wealthy households, this was not an unacceptable outcome.
War and peacetime called for two completely different ways of handling matters.
After several relatively large core strongholds were taken, the other settlements surrendered at the mere sight of his banners.
Some small