Hundreds of thousands of troops were stationed in the ruined Wuyang City. The Nanyang Kong family had no ambition to occupy Wuyang City, nor did they have the desire to ascend the throne right now - the timing was not right. Therefore, Kong Yingcai completely let his subordinates do what they wanted; to be more precise, he simply let his subordinates rob.
But having learned from Anyang's experience of looting Huaihua County of the State of Cai, Kong Yingcai followed suit - the common people's things cannot be robbed, and you can't rob much, and it will offend people; if you want to rob, rob the official ones. If necessary, you can even throw away some corners and win over the people to share the spoils.
The victorious Nanyang soldiers were even more brutal than the bandits. They looted everything that belonged to the government, or was not clearly marked as belonging to a wealthy merchant. As for the people of Wuyang City, they did not completely give up, but used persuasion, coercion, and inducement to coerce them away - we did not rob the people of their wealth, but we robbed their people.
After such a war, the people of Wuyang City were already like frightened birds. When they heard that Nanyang County was willing to accept them, they of course left quickly.
Nanyang County did so, and the rest followed suit; but on the core issue, that is, who would ascend the throne, everyone was still in a standoff.
The Second Prince and the Crown Prince certainly don’t want to give up; but the First Prince is not completely unqualified!
Although the eldest prince had done something wrong before, he also showed the means of an emperor - an emperor cannot be kind! In comparison, the second prince seemed a little weak and vulnerable.
So who should be made emperor? Now the initiative is in the hands of Kong Yingcai of Nanyang County and Gao Bin of Songzhou County; everyone looks at these two people. These two people are the weights.
Kong Yingcai thought about it and winked at Gao Bin.
Gao Bin was no fool. He looked around and said, "Your Highnesses, please allow me to consider this."
Kong Yingcai and Gao Bin were facing each other. Kong Yingcai, who was a generation younger, spoke first: "Hello, Uncle Gao. I think the eldest prince is too powerful. Baofeng County has a strong foundation and 500,000 elite soldiers. It can't be stronger. Otherwise, after swallowing Wuyang County, the eldest prince will easily sweep it all away."
Gao Bin was no fool, and said without blinking, "Wouldn't it be good to sweep the country away? Reunify the Great Xia Kingdom before the surrounding countries can react."
Kong Yingcai's mouth twisted, and he cursed the old fox in his heart, but he said: "My Kong family can support Songzhou to control Wuyang County, and form a brotherly alliance with Songzhou County to jointly capture Guangling County in the west, Anyang County in the east, Dongyuan County, etc."
Gao Bin laughed when he heard the condition. "I also think that we should support the crown prince. After all, this is the royal orthodoxy. Moreover, when we choose an emperor, we have to choose a weak one. But the crown prince is too weak, and there is Anyang in the middle. I am afraid he cannot control Wuyang County."
Kong Yingcai cursed in his heart, "this greedy old fox", but on the surface he still smiled and said, "So Wuyang County still needs Uncle Gao's help. This is the merit of following the dragon."
Gao Bin nodded immediately: "Yes, yes, if the prince wants to stay in the palace, he really can't do without my help."
After discussing some details, the two walked back to the front of the team. Gao Bin spoke first, with great righteousness: "I, Gao Bin, the governor of Songzhou County, have decided to follow the late emperor's wishes and support the prince to ascend the throne."