With the north thoroughly pacified, every single Uchiha clansman was overjoyed. Xuan and Uchiha Shinji jointly issued an order: a city-wide celebration would be held for three days, during which all expenses incurred by the Uchiha shinobi would be completely covered by the clan.
Out on the streets, jubilant Uchiha clansmen could be seen everywhere, drinking and toasting in groups of two or three. Most of them were Chūnin and Genin; the Jōnin generally held their own private gatherings.
During these few days, Xuan was far from idle. Uchiha Ran roughly took charge of processing the Akahane clan, finishing the complete census of their remaining members and officially designating a new compound for them not far from Xin City. There was also a long string of trivial administrative matters to handle, which Xuan directly delegated to two regular Jōnin under his command.
Xuan picked up the Akahane clan registry compiled by Ran and flipped through it page by page. The Akahane clan had truly suffered catastrophic losses this time. Both of their Peak Jōnin had been killed in action. Of their five Elite Jōnin, only three remained, and they were down to a mere six regular Jōnin. However, their lower-ranking numbers spiked dramatically: there were a full two hundred Chūnin, and their Genin force was the largest, boasting a full six hundred personnel.
Flipping through the pages, Xuan thought to himself, From now on, this is my own private military force. It was true. Although the Akahane clan was nominally a vassal of the Uchiha, in Xuan's eyes, they were his personal private army. Having absolute control over Akahane Yui meant he possessed the absolute ability to control this entire force.
"Excellent work. Pick your own men and go haul all the supplies and wealth from the Three-Clan Alliance and the Ghost Fire Alliance back here," Xuan praised Ran, handing him this incredibly lucrative errand.
His face flushed red with excitement, Uchiha Ran flattered Xuan to high heaven before happily taking his leave.
Starting the very next day, cartload after cartload of spoils rolled into Xin City. The first to arrive, of course, was the money. No matter the era, hard cash is always the most eye-catching prize.
In the Warring States Era, currency was smelted from copper, so the vast majority of the wealth consisted of copper coins. This was exactly why the Uchiha clan, sitting upon massive copper mines, possessed such a colossal family fortune and could afford to sustain wave after wave of brutal warfare. After all, war is essentially fought with money.
Yet, even so, when the convoys loaded with heavy chests of copper coins rolled into Xin City, every single Uchiha shinobi swallowed hard. Even Xuan hadn't expected them to scrape together this much cash.
Following the copper coins came the silver. Silver was a rare metal, naturally far more valuable than copper, so its quantity was comparatively smaller. However, the total volume still vastly exceeded Xuan's expectations. When the chests were opened, the blinding, brilliant gleam of silver was enough to make a person dizzy.
But that wasn't the biggest surprise. The most astonishing thing was that there was actually gold—and a significant amount of it. That night when Uchiha Kawa and Uchiha Ryū returned hauling two heavy sacks of gold, Xuan had assumed they stumbled upon a small hidden vault, but looking at the current haul, that clearly wasn't the case.
After calling Uchiha Ran over to inquire, he learned that this gold was discovered deep within a highly classified secret vault belonging to the Ghost Fire Alliance. Apparently, they had acquired it after ambushing a heavily guarded merchant caravan escorted by samurai from the Land of Iron.
Xuan nodded to himself. That made perfect sense. The Land of Iron was known to possess gold mines. What a pity, he thought. He originally hoped they had discovered a gold mine nearby. Even a tiny, shallow surface mine would be valuable enough to drive people utterly insane.
That night, when Xuan returned to his courtyard, he was surprised to find three massive chests sitting there. Prying them open, a blinding golden radiance spilled out. They were filled entirely with solid gold, and judging by the color, the purity was exceptionally high.
Yui informed him that Uchiha Ran had sent people to deliver it.
Xuan smiled and nodded. This kid really knows how to conduct himself. Although Xuan could casually requisition any of the captured supplies whenever he wanted, and he didn't care that deeply about gold, this was a tribute from a loyal subordinate. Naturally, he had to accept it.
This kid is definitely worth cultivating, Xuan decided.
Following the currency came various precious jewels and gems. Though comparatively fewer in number, they were all moved into the city's storehouses. Of course, exactly half of those jewels somehow quietly found their way directly into Xuan's personal system inventory.
Next came the weaponry. Longswords, armor, kunai, shuriken, and all sorts of assorted ninja tools were hauled back in massive quantities. On top of that, there were millions of explosive tags.
The very last item to be transported was the grain. In this war-torn era where battles raged endlessly in every direction, grain was an absolutely top-tier strategic resource. The sheer volume of a clan's grain reserves was a direct indicator of their rise or decline.
When mountains of grain were carted into Xin City, the Uchiha clansmen had already grown completely numb to the shock. With a grand wave of his hand, Xuan ordered it all dumped into the granaries.
Just the process of hauling back the post-war loot consumed a full week, completely blowing past Xuan's initial estimates. Furthermore, the tedious process of tallying, inventorying, and formally registering the supplies was incredibly annoying. Thoroughly fed up with the endless paperwork, Xuan dumped the entire job onto Uchiha Shinji and the Elite Jōnin, telling them to figure it out and just report back to him when everything was finalized.
When the final tally was complete, Uchiha Ran came to deliver the report. Combining the treasuries of the Three-Clan Alliance and the Ghost Fire Alliance, the total seized funds exceeded fifty million. They had acquired over seven thousand complete sets of weapons and armor, well over a million explosive tags, and an uncountable sum of kunai and shuriken. The captured grain alone was enough to feed the entirety of the Uchiha clan for more than a year.
The only slight disappointment was the Ninjutsu. Because both enemy factions relied heavily on their unique Clan Secret Arts, the Uchiha only managed to find three standard S-rank Ninjutsu scrolls. To make matters worse, two were Water Style and one was Earth Style—meaning absolutely none of them could be practiced by the fire-natured Uchiha clansmen.
Regarding this, Xuan unceremoniously pocketed all three S-rank scrolls for himself.
When the final statistical data was presented to Xuan, even he had to suck in a breath of cold air. He really hadn't expected to reap such an apocalyptic sum of wealth from this campaign.
As expected... clan extermination wars are undeniably the most obscenely profitable business in this world, the thought surfaced clearly in Xuan's mind.
After resting for a few more days, Xuan withdrew a portion of the seized funds and personally distributed lavish cash rewards to every single Uchiha shinobi in the city. He didn't leave anyone out, generously rewarding the Chūnin and Genin as well. In an instant, Xuan's prestige in the north skyrocketed to the absolute pinnacle, completely eclipsing even Uchiha Shinji.
Xuan was extremely satisfied with this outcome. It proved that he had firmly locked the entire northern territory into his iron grip. If Uchiha Tajima were to send a direct order to the north right now, it might not hold as much weight as a single word from Xuan. This was exactly the effect he had aimed for.
"Alright, Shinji. You can formally report the pacification of the north to the main clan now. Write the letter personally. In the letter, heavily emphasize how bitterly we fought and how devastating our casualties were. Do not mention a single word about our spoils of war. In fact, use the opportunity to demand more funding from the clan. Do you understand? Oh, and dispatch scouts to the main battlefield immediately. Find out who currently holds the upper hand—the Uchiha or the Senju."
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