July arrived, and by rights the hottest days should have passed, but whether it was a trick of the mind or not, the whole Northern Lands still seemed sweltering amid the intense military activity and busy affairs of government.
Li Ding swept through everything like rotten wood and dry stalks. He had only twenty-odd battalions, scattered across a vast territory encompassing two-thirds of the Northern Lands, yet that did nothing to stop him from taking cities, seizing land, killing, and exterminating clans.
There was no helping it. The destruction of the allied army's main force did not mean the Northern Lands were settled, and the Demon-Suppressing Guard's internal strife was still spilling outward. Small bands of roaming troops and resistance forces were everywhere after the war. Lady Lu's decision to take a fight-to-the-death stance after the allied defeat, in particular, had given these people confidence.
Meanwhile, Zhang Xing was reassuring surrendered men and defeated troops, breaking up large battle regiments, converting protectorates and Demon-Suppressing Guards into commanderies and counties, and carrying out the most basic work of a political leader, indispensable throughout this process-political promises and political intimidation.
This tense situation continued for roughly another half month before finally undergoing a change as the Exorcising the Dragon Army's follow-up reinforcements entered the Northern Lands in force.
The southern Northern Lands settled first... not only because of the deterrence provided by Purple-Faced Heavenly King Xiong Bonan and thirty thousand fresh troops, but also because of the involvement of large numbers of officials arriving from Youzhou. As large, organized forces crossed Luye Marsh and continued north along the western route through the Daxing Mountain Range, the western Northern Lands naturally stabilized rapidly as well, which in turn dealt a heavy blow to resistance forces within the Demon-Suppressing Guards everywhere.
By late July,