With a single sentence, Yang Ming settled Qian Renxue's fate, but he felt nothing in particular. Sparing her life was already an enormous kindness; all he had done was consign her to prison for the rest of her days.
As for why he did not take Qian Renxue into his fold?
Yang Ming was not the sort of man who could not move his feet at the sight of a beauty. There was no need to do something so unnecessary.
The matter was settled, and no one said anything more. One after another, they presented their work reports. Yang Ming skimmed through them and found that, during this war to unify the continent, the Imperial Allied Forces had suffered their heaviest losses beneath Jialing Pass. Of a full force of one hundred thousand soldiers, over half had been killed or wounded. Of the remaining half, nearly a third had suffered permanent disabilities. Even healing Spirit Masters could do nothing for them—their injuries were simply too severe.
That alone offered a glimpse of how brutal the battle beneath Jialing Pass had been. It truly deserved its reputation as the greatest fortified pass under heaven.
After pondering briefly, Yang Ming turned toward Xue Xing the Great and said:
"For the soldiers who died in the war, we must double the compensation to their families. We must not let our heroes shed both blood and tears. As for the soldiers who lost limbs in the war and had to retire early, they will probably struggle to find work in civilian life. The empire and the Sky-Blasting Gang can open up some positions specifically for these disabled soldiers, giving them somewhere to belong. We should also encourage merchants throughout the empire to give these soldiers priority when hiring, introducing policies to incentivize them. Grant