It's just to extract money from their hands.
The citizens lined up like a long dragon, in considerable pain, but there was nothing they could do. They could only watch one another, and finally, they handed over all their gold and silver treasures. Those who had money gave silver directly, those who didn't gave some jewelry, and those who had nothing were robbed of everything by the soldiers.
...
Outside the small city, a few cultivators kept their heads low and hid behind a small hill in the distance, which was covered with various weeds and some messy trees. These things became their cover for the moment.
"Boss, should we rush over now or wait for reinforcements?" a middle-aged man asked as he looked at another man lying in front of him.
The man's eyes were fixed on the distant city; they were quite far from it, so they couldn't see the city's details clearly—only the corpses burning in raging fires were visible.
