If Tu Fang could march south, then Gui Fang, Qiang Fang, and Di Fang could do the same.
Though these barbarians were fewer in number than the people of Tu Fang, they were still a force that could not be underestimated.
The Great Wall was a fine idea, but it would take some time to finish. Tu Fang's southward advance was clearly unusual; perhaps some feudal lord had been stirring up trouble behind the scenes.
And so, following the suppression of the rebellion in Chaoge, Yang Ren once again proposed human burial sacrifice.
The battle against Tu Fang at the Qi River had left even more soldiers dead or wounded, and had also yielded more prisoners.
The prisoners from the previous battle had all been sent to the Northern Border to build the Great Wall. Yang Ren could accept that. After all, they had merely fought under their commanders' orders and were, at heart, subjects of Great Shang.
But the Tu Fang captives were different. Not one of them was innocent. Every one of them had taken part in raids, and their hands were stained with the blood of Shang's people.
Hundreds of young women had been rescued from Tu Fang's Great Tent alone, yet Tu Fang had fielded a hundred thousand men.
Had the Wuti Marquis not exercised some restraint with an eye to the future, that number would have shot straight up.
Zi Shou knew what Yang Ren was thinking. Yang Ren was not an advocate of human burial sacrifice; he was simply constrained by the outlook of his era. He felt compelled to consider the bigger picture, trying to stabilize the situation, ease relations between the feudal lords and Zi Shou, and proceed gradually.
In short, he feared that taking too big a stride would tear his