Longzang

Chapter 409 A Deputy Official's Post Leads to a Million-Dollar Scam
Bianning County.

Prefect Xu Xi put down the official documents in his hand, his brows furrowed, and summoned an aide, saying, "Why are there so many more refugees lately? In the past ten days alone, 15,000 refugees have passed through our prefecture. Should we reduce the amount of porridge distributed by half?"

The aide was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Absolutely not, absolutely not! Last time, one soup kitchen didn't give enough, and the refugees rioted, beating everyone at the soup kitchen. Now nobody wants to work at the soup kitchen, but the refugees say..."

"What are you stammering for? Speak!"

"They said... if we can't survive, we should come to the prefect's mansion for a meal!"

Xu Xi slammed his fist on the table and roared, "How dare you! Can't you even suppress these mere vagrants?"

The aide stammered, "Sir, the refugees are ferocious. It's not that we are incompetent, it's just that we really can't defeat them."

Xu Xi suddenly felt a surge of anger and picked up the inkstone, intending to smash it on the ground. But halfway up, he slowly put it down, sighed sadly, and after a moment asked, "Does the soup kitchen still have any money?"

The aide whispered, "They'll be gone soon. Grain prices have skyrocketed; they've tripled in just a few months."

Xu Xi went to the counter, took out a coin of silver and handed it to his advisor, saying, "Here are five hundred taels. Take it!"

The aide took the silver and said, "Sir, this... won't last more than a few days."

"roll!"

The staff quickly withdrew.

Xu Xi slammed his fist on the table, unable to contain his anger. Ever since the entire mansion was looted last time, the refugees had become increasingly arrogant, causing trouble almost every day.

Xu Xi had hired a Dharma Aspect cultivator at great expense to protect him, but the cultivator was ambushed and severely injured in the night after only three days in office. He then refused to stay and hired people to carry him away.

Soup kitchens are now the only way to stabilize the displaced people. However, Bianning County not only has soup kitchens run by the county government, but also those set up by Wei Yuan. As long as the county government provides less than Wei Yuan, the displaced people will still cause trouble. Bianning County is a newly established county, and its treasury was originally empty. The grain in the granaries had long been sold off by Sun Chaoen in collusion with the former prefect Li Weisheng.

Xu Xi's plan to investigate the grain reserves not only offended everyone in Ningxi Prefecture, but also Li Weisheng. Cleaning up the mess left by one's predecessor is an unspoken rule in officialdom, and the mess Li Weisheng left behind wasn't difficult to clean up. However, he unfortunately encountered an unprecedentedly fierce and ruthless group of refugees.

The last time Xu Xi abruptly shut down the soup kitchen, the very night the refugees stormed and occupied the prefectural governor's mansion. Xu Xi was drugged and knocked unconscious that night, and when he awoke, his mansion had been completely looted.

After this incident, Xu Xi realized that he couldn't afford to offend this group of refugees, so he had no choice but to use his own money to subsidize the soup kitchen.

He simply couldn't understand why, having traveled so far to fill the vacancy of a prefect, he had assumed that with the military governor of Dingxi ahead of him, it would be a peaceful and uneventful post. Instead, he was plagued by endless troubles after taking office, not only losing several beautiful concubines but also having to personally contribute funds. At this rate, he feared he would be in debt by the end of his term as prefect.

He cursed Wei Yuan a few times in anger, but dared not raise his voice too high.

At this time, Wei Yuan had already quietly entered the county town and was at Sun Chaoen's residence.

Without exchanging pleasantries, Wei Yuan pushed a medicine box over to Wei Yuan upon meeting him, saying, "This is the Three-Flavor Ascension Pill from my Taichu Palace. It can enhance the spirituality of your Dao Foundation and increase your chances of achieving the Dharma Aspect by 10%."

“This is exactly what I urgently need, so please don’t be polite.” Sun Chaoen accepted the medicine box.

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Brother Sun has taken in and provided relief to refugees along the way. In the past year, more than 200,000 refugees have entered Qingming from here. Such merit is more than enough to exchange for a single pill. It's just that Prefect Xu still refuses to leave, which is quite troublesome. There are many things we can't put out in the open yet."

Sun Chaoen sighed and said, "It's not easy for him to be a prefect. His mansion has been raided twice, and each time it was completely looted. Now there are only a few old women left in the mansion. All the maids have been taken away, and they can't even find anyone to guard the house. He has to pay for the soup kitchen out of his own pocket. It's rare that he still refuses to leave even after all this."

Wei Yuan seemed to be deep in thought, then suddenly said, "Is it because he has nowhere else to go?"

Sun Chaoen had never considered this possibility before, but Wei Yuan's reminder made it seem increasingly plausible. After a moment's thought, Sun Chaoen said, "Why don't we drag him into this?"

Wei Yuan shook his head: "We've already gone this far, so we might as well go all the way. Besides, if we drag him down with us, where will your position be? Once Bianning County is truly stable, this governorship won't be yours anymore."

Sun Chaoen sighed and said, "It seems we have no choice but to do this. Let me think about it carefully and see what crime we can frame him for so that there will be no future trouble."

"There is one more thing. I want all the information on the seven western prefectures of Ningzhou, the more detailed the better, especially on grain, special products, mining, medicine, salt and iron."

Sun Chaoen was startled: "Are you going to target the Xu family again?"

"No, I just want to make some money off them first."

"Oh, by the way, there's something I need to remind you. The imperial court has recently secretly formed a new army in the northern frontier, and it's said that they use firearms."

Upon hearing this news, Wei Yuan's expression also became somewhat solemn. He had personally built up the musketeer unit, so he naturally knew how much of an enhancement such weapons could provide to ordinary mortals.

The Western Jin court kept this a secret remarkably well; Wei Yuan didn't get a word of it. It was only because Sun Chao'en was aspiring to become a high-ranking official, and powerful figures in the court were trying to win him over, that a little information was leaked to him.

Wei Yuan instructed Sun Chaoen to gather more information on this matter before getting up and leaving.

……

The territory of Zhenshan. Li Zhi reorganized his army and was now leading 30,000 elite troops in a standoff against 100,000 mountain people. Both sides were on high alert, and a major battle was imminent.

Since his near-death experience after being surrounded by the mountain people, Li Zhi had been preparing his troops day and night. Now, he was finally fully prepared and led 30,000 elite troops to confront the mountain people's forces, ready to avenge his previous defeat.

In this battle, Li Zhi led a full 10,000 elite cavalrymen from Southern Qi. Li Zhi's own 100 personal guards were all Dao Foundation cultivators. In addition, there were 200 Dao Foundation captains in the army, all of whom were equipped with newly acquired flying swords and spears.

As the two armies faced each other, Li Zhi used his Qi-observation technique to look at the opposite side and saw four Dharma images. He immediately let out a cold laugh.

Li Zhi was well-prepared for this battle, having additionally hired a high-ranking Dharma Aspect cultivator, bringing the total number of Dharma Aspect cultivators behind him to three. With three against four, the human race held a slight advantage. Moreover, this time, the opposing side also lacked giants.

The mountain people had the same lineup in the last battle, but Wei Yuan led thousands of cavalry to easily break through them. After a few back-and-forth charges, Wei Yuan launched a full-scale attack and crushed the enemy. It was so easy and simple that even a fool could learn it.

Li Zhi drew his sword and shouted, "The enemy is no match for us! All cavalry, charge with me!"

Golden light shone from Li Zhi's sword, merging with the military aura. Tens of thousands of cavalry followed behind Li Zhi, surging forward, their military aura like a raging torrent, crashing fiercely against the mountain people!

The mountain people were not to be outdone; their military spirit soared, as majestic as a mountain.

Ten thousand elite cavalry from the Southern Qi army charged straight into the mountain people's formation. In the blink of an eye, they cut through the enemy ranks like a sharp blade slicing through tofu, reaching the center of the formation before stopping there, unable to break through.

Li Zhi slashed forward with his sword, the sword energy sweeping away dozens of mountain people and instantly taking their lives. But more mountain people immediately filled the gap.

Li Zhi slashed several times before realizing something was wrong; he had failed to break through the enemy formation!
How can this be?

The mountain people's army formation remained unchanged from the last time, and Li Zhi's charging position was also carefully chosen. Behind him were 10,000 elite cavalrymen, and their numbers were even greater than Wei Yuan's on that day.

But the mountain people's army was like paper in front of Wei Yuan, so how come it became an impregnable wall when it came to him?
Li Zhi was both shocked and furious. He believed his military skills were definitely superior to that barbarian Wei Yuan, only slightly inferior to Bao Yun. So where exactly did things go wrong?

But now was not the time to dwell on that. Li Zhi was well aware of the danger of being trapped instead of charging into the enemy lines, so he immediately shouted for a fierce battle and led his cavalry in a desperate charge. At the same time, the commander of the rear troops, seeing the situation was dire, immediately launched a full-scale attack to come to the rescue.

The two armies clashed.

An hour later, several thousand remaining soldiers escorted Li Zhi out of the valley. Seeing that no mountain people were chasing them, they slowed down a little.

Li Zhi's face turned ashen, and he stopped his horse to look back.

A cultivator standing nearby said, "Many soldiers will cross mountains and valleys, so there is still a chance for them to return. Fortunately, we have the flying sword and spear given to us by Lord Wei, the military governor of Ningxi; otherwise, breaking through would not have been so easy."

Li Zhi suddenly said, "Send someone to Qingming to buy another three hundred flying sword spears, with two hundred flying swords for each spear!"

A general said, "Sir, only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage can use this gun, and we don't have that many Foundation Establishment cultivators."

"We'll have guns when they arrive."

"Yes, my lord."

Not long after Wei Yuan returned to the realm, someone delivered a stack of jade paper, which recorded the local customs, geography, special products and minerals of the seven western prefectures of Ningzhou, which were the Xu family's territory, as well as the distribution of important figures and forces.

Sun Chaoen is always decisive and efficient in his work.

These documents totaled hundreds of thousands of words, and Wei Yuan read them carefully, an hour passing by in the blink of an eye. Even with his stamina, he felt slightly tired. After all, this was the first time Wei Yuan had considered methods outside of war, and the first time he had thought about a problem from a holistic perspective.

Wei Yuan put down the documents and took a look at the vast landscape.

The family that had just finished welcoming the bride was now beaming with joy. The bride, fair-skinned and lovely, was sitting in the courtyard, gently stroking her slightly protruding belly, her face filled with happiness and anticipation. A spirit tree stood in the courtyard, and in a corner, some newly planted spirit flowers and herbs grew.

After watching for a while, Wei Yuan felt much calmer and then left the place with his divine sense.

The main structure of the cultivation hall has been completed, comprising three halls and six floors, and is quite large. It seems that those who built the hall are quite ambitious, having already planned for its future scale. The rear hall, which has already been built, has three cultivation positions, and three people are currently cultivating.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan knew that the person in the center was exceptionally talented and had already reached the Perfection of Body Tempering, waiting for the opportunity to establish his Dao Foundation. The other person was also quite talented, at the Heavenly Foundation level in the outside world. However, the person on the far left had mediocre talent; Wei Yuan estimated that he was at most at the Earthly Foundation level. He wondered why the person was able to surpass so many talented people outside and sit in the hall to cultivate.

Although the sky was still predominantly dark red, the central patch of dark red had faded considerably, faintly revealing a bluish hue.

Western Jin Dynasty, capital city.

The King of Jin, holding a wine cup, gazed at the sunset and, in high spirits, raised his cup to the setting sun and drank it down. Zhao Tong, standing beside him, immediately asked, "Why is Your Majesty so happy?"

The King of Jin laughed and said, "With the nation's fortunes rising steadily, how could I not be happy?"

(End of this chapter)