Under these circumstances, they could easily pull a few strings and make the people around them believe this place was still in the Imperial Court's hands.
Still, they would have to keep such an operation discreet.
Besides, not everyone in Gaotang Prefecture was a fool.
Those people might very well notice something amiss.
But Xu Tong had never intended to let all of them stay.
Their original plan had been to purge every wealthy man in the city.
Now it was time to do just that.
Before the city fell, the vast majority of its wealthy residents had already fled.
Those who remained were mostly people with few assets.
They lacked the means to leave Gaotang Prefecture at a time like this.
Xu Tong had no intention of sparing them, either.
According to their plan, apart from the soldiers who surrendered, only the common people of Gaotang Prefecture were supposed to survive.
The common people were not particularly difficult for them to control.
From the very beginning, they had raised the slogan of ridding the people of scourges and carrying out justice on Heaven's behalf.
Of course, hardly anyone believed that sort of thing.
But that was already enough.
They intended to let everyone in this city see how decisively they carried out their promises.
The common people would play a crucial role in their plans.
Xu Tong had long since devised a whole series of measures for dealing with them.
For the most part, all these people wanted was to live in peace and work in contentment.
That was hardly difficult for the men of Mount Liang to provide.
After all, they had never intended to squeeze any fat out of these common people.
They were not particularly short of money, and if they ever were, they would naturally