One of the reasons why the city gates opened so quickly was because if they didn't open them soon, they would run out of supplies.
With hundreds of thousands of people in the city, the daily consumption was huge.
Not to mention the many soldiers who needed food and drink. It was hard for the army alone to supply everything, and the transportation costs were very high.
So they decided to open the city gates, allowing the citizens to trade on their own to reduce the army's burden.
Once the gates opened, the PN Soldiers who received the news couldn't sit still.
They all carried goods on shoulder poles and headed into the city.
This was also part of the new rules.
Before opening the city gates, a population survey was done inside the city, and everyone was given a residence permit.
Only those with the permit could enter and exit the city for free. Outsiders who wanted to enter had to pay money.
Recently, only merchants carrying goods were allowed to enter. They were not allowed to take anything out.
So, the PN Soldiers disguised themselves as traveling merchants, carrying things into the city.
After the guards inspected them and found nothing wrong, they let them in.
Although they knew these people weren't good, it still helped solve some of the supply issues in the city.
As long as someone was sent to watch them closely after they entered, it would be fine.
More patrol soldiers were added inside the city. They were given orders that if anything unusual happened, they could kill on the spot.
People in the city hadn't been going out, but when they saw outsiders entering, they all came out to watch.
The goods carried by the merchants were quickly bought up. Real merchants were extremely happy.
But the PN Soldiers were not so happy.
They hadn't even started walking around the streets to gather information before all their goods were bought. So how could they gather intel?
This put them in a difficult position.
In the end, they decided that some of them would go back to bring more goods to sell, while the rest would use the excuse of having a meal to gather at various restaurants and food stalls.
These places were the best for gathering information.
"Before, we were always hoping the city gates would open. Now that they're open, it doesn't feel that different from when they were closed." The diners gathered while eating and chatting.
"Yeah, my wife used to nag every day about visiting her older sister in the next town. Now the gates are open, but she doesn't even mention it anymore," another diner added.
"The next town? Isn't that occupied by the PN Soldiers?" someone asked curiously.
"Yeah, that's why she stays quiet now." The man laughed out loud.
Before, he tried so hard to talk her out of it, and now he thought she would drag him there as soon as the gates opened. But instead, she didn't say a word.
"I heard the fighting over there was pretty intense. No idea what's happening now," another diner joined in.
"Who knows? There's war going on outside. How can things be peaceful?"
"I just came from the next town. It's not as bad as you think. Even though it's under PN control, the people are still living their lives," said one of the fake merchants among them.
"The PN leadership said they came to bring shared prosperity to East Asia."
"Really? You just came from there? Tell us what it's like outside," the others perked up at the mention of an outsider and listened closely.
"Where did you hear that the PN were cruel? That's all nonsense. I've been running goods in this whole region. I've visited several nearby cities.
Before, we had to pay to get into the cities. Since the PN took over, we don't even need to pay entry fees. People can go in and out freely.
And ever since the PN came in, the city is full of goods."
"I get most of my goods from the next town over. I noticed you city folks don't have much," the peddler chatted casually.
You don't need to pay to enter the city? But once you're in, there's no guarantee you can leave.
Plenty of supplies? Most of the people who used to consume them are gone now, so of course, there's more left.
"Is that true? We only heard it from the soldiers.
They said the PN Soldiers were cruel and even massacred entire towns. If that wasn't true, then why would the soldiers lie to us?" the diners asked, confused.
"Maybe they wanted you to stay in the city. If they didn't say that, wouldn't you all be demanding to open the city gates?" the peddler guessed.
"But wait, didn't we hear that your city was also supposed to be occupied by PN Soldiers? Why haven't we seen a single PN Soldier?
When I first saw how peaceful the city was, I thought it must be under PN control.
After all, the cities managed by our own government are in complete chaos," the peddler asked casually.
"We're just regular folks, how would we know anything about the war?
We just knew the PN Soldiers and the army were fighting, so we hid.
Then the PN Soldiers left, and we went back to living like normal," the diners all shook their heads and said.
What happened that night would probably be a nightmare they'd never forget.
The rivers of blood, the bodies stacked one over another, and the fires that burned for several days before finally dying down.
Also, some still had treasures at home, silver, or gold they had taken from the corpses.
If the PN Soldiers knew they had killed everyone, wouldn't they come back for brutal revenge?
They didn't want to live those days of hiding again, with constant bombing from the sky.
After that, no matter how the peddlers asked, they claimed to know nothing.
They insisted they had only been hiding and didn't see anything.
Planes? What planes? They hadn't heard any sound at all.
The peddler still wanted to stay and planned to sneak into the military camp at night.
But it turned out anyone without a residence permit wasn't allowed to stay overnight in the city.
If they really wanted to stay overnight, they had to register and apply for a temporary residence permit.
These people had come on a whim. Their fake identities weren't ready, so they didn't want to register.
So they left the city before nightfall, carrying their loads on poles.
Back at the command center, everyone sat down and summarized the information they had gathered that day.
Those peddlers who had gone back and forth many times noticed their goods were always bought out quickly as soon as they entered the city.
They barely walked down two streets, and the goods were sold. Every time, there were many buyers, and they came from all walks of life.
There were even officers watching from the side, making it impossible for them to ask anything useful.
Those who stayed behind got a bit more information.
Some said, in the middle of the fight, the PN Soldiers suddenly retreated.
Some said the Goddess of Mercy happened to be passing by and couldn't stand how the PN Soldiers bullied people, so she used her bottle to take them all away.
Others disagreed and claimed it was the Earth God.
The PN Soldiers were too loud and disturbed the Earth God's sleep. He got angry and used his powers to make them all disappear.
Though the stories were different, they all meant the same thing.
That is, the PN Soldiers never entered the city, and the people inside knew nothing.
When the data was summarized, the PN Official immediately sensed something suspicious.
When testimonies are exactly the same, there's only one possibility: they rehearsed it.