The autumn rain fell all night. As dawn broke, the city was filled with cries of grief. Some had lost their wives, some their children, and some had lost their entire families, leaving them all alone.

Everywhere on the streets, you can see children crying helplessly. Some are lying in piles of corpses, and some are constantly looking for their mothers. They should have had a happy childhood, but now they have lost their families forever and will only be able to wander the streets in the future. Whether they can survive in this world is a question.

The streets ahead were piled high with corpses, mostly those of the Huaiyang Army. They had died horribly, some with their heads chopped off, others with large gashes cleaved into their upper bodies.

Some people were not completely dead yet, wailing in agony, while others had run out of strength to shout and were just convulsing, waiting for death to come.

Human life is as worthless as grass.

The battle inside the city was nearing its end. The last Huaiyang soldiers were found and expressed their intention to surrender, but the new army did not give them the opportunity to do so.

In Zhao Huan's words: "You've slaughtered all my people, and now you want to surrender because you can't defeat them all? Die, all of you!"

The moment the blade sliced ​​through the head of a Huaiyang soldier, a sickeningly loud cracking sound rang out. The speed was incredible; the soldier's head was severed, and the red and white contents spilled out.

After finishing his first strike, the new army soldier swiftly spun around and cut the Huaiyang army soldier on the left in half at the waist.

He was incredibly strong; the veins on his thick, muscular arms bulged out. Killing this group of cowardly Huaiyang soldiers was like killing chickens for him.

His eyes held little emotion; his mind was filled only with the emperor's command to annihilate the Huaiyang rebels!

Heart-wrenching screams echoed from the northeast corner of the city. Bones were chopped off, heads were severed, and the last of the Huaiyang soldiers were killed as the autumn rains subsided.

Everyone was soaked to the bone by the rain, and their bodies were covered in blood. They quickly rode their horses to the center of the city to assemble, where Han Shizhong was waiting for them.

Hu Yantong's infantry marched rapidly and arrived outside the city, beginning to encircle and annihilate the Huaiyang army that had fled outside the city.

The remaining new army stationed in Yanzhou also set off towards Tai'an City.

The entire city of Tai'an had become a hellish scene. People were terrified just by walking on the streets. Han Shizhong's troops began to gather all the surviving people in the city to move the corpses to the south of the city for burning.

Cao Sheng was escorted to the capital.

After a shower of autumn rain, Bianjing began to cool down.

The ministers waited respectfully outside the imperial study. They heard noises coming from inside. The emperor was smashing things—tables, ceramics, jade… everything in sight, Zhao Huan smashed.

He completely lost control of his emotions, and no one dared to go in. Even Empress Zhu and Consort Han stood outside, holding their breath.

According to previous reports, Cao Sheng of Jingdong Road caused as many as 30,000 deaths by conscripting men alone. In Tai'an City, he killed another 20,000 people. This rebellion in Jingdong Road resulted in the deaths of more than 50,000 civilians and injuries to as many as 100,000.

After an unknown amount of time, things calmed down inside, and there was a long silence before Wang Kui'an cautiously entered.

The ministers were on tenterhooks, standing outside, not daring to move.

After a while, Wang Kui'an came out and said to the ministers, "Gentlemen, you may all go back. His Majesty needs to rest."

The ministers bowed to the inside, then turned and left.

Wang Kui'an said to the Empress and Han Chenchen, "Your Majesty, Consort Han, you should both go back now."

The Empress and Han Chenchen were filled with worry, but there was nothing they could do.

This was the first time Han Chenchen had ever seen Zhao Huan so angry since she met him.

Rather than being angry or annoyed, it was more like self-blame.

For the first time, Zhao Huan felt that being emperor was truly unpleasant. He had two paths before him: one was to force the rebellion in Jingdong and Jingxi, which would bring out most of the opposition and wipe them out in one fell swoop, quickly eliminating obstacles to the new policies and greatly accelerating their implementation, but many people would die, especially ordinary people.

One approach was prevention. Before the rebellion, the Imperial City Guard was ordered to arrest people. However, the Jingdong and Jingxi regions were vast, and the opposition was full of actors with their own power bases intertwined. Even if a few were arrested and beheaded, there were still countless opposition figures rooted in the area. Just as he had beheaded the prime minister in the court, he still couldn't solve the court's administrative problems.

How should an emperor choose? Standing at the highest position in the empire, controlling the entire situation, and setting rules for the Song Dynasty for the next ten thousand years, how should one choose?

Zhao Huan did not hesitate to choose to force the rebellion to its root and eradicate it, but he overestimated himself. He thought he had become so shameless and cold-blooded that he could be indifferent to everything, but when he heard the news, he was completely distraught.

He sat alone in the Imperial Study, where he had smashed everything. He felt as if he had returned to his past life as a clueless clerk. He seemed to hear the cries of the people on Jingdong Road and see young children being killed by the Huaiyang rebels.

He felt as if all his strength had been drained away, and he breathed slowly.

In life, there's no such thing as doing whatever you want. Even if you become an emperor, what does it matter if you stand on the highest heaven?

No one knows how much time passed, or what he was thinking. In the end, he calmed down, opened the door, and asked Wang Kui'an, who had been waiting outside, to arrange for someone to tidy up the imperial study.

He then went to bathe and change his clothes. After everything was finished, Zhao Huan appeared in the Wende Hall.

The high-ranking officials of the two offices received the summons from the palace and went to the Wende Hall. The officials were also unsure of what to do, but when they entered the Wende Hall, they saw the emperor looking calm and reading a memorial, seemingly no different from usual.

This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!