Catching Monsters

Chapter 613 Auspicious Smoke Emerging from One's Ancestral Grave

Inside the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Jiang Yun led Qi Da and Zhu Zanyu directly to the Northern Garrison Command to complete the handover of the entire Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Li Wangxin had also arrived, and soon, a large number of high-ranking officials from the Northern and Southern Garrison Commands, all above the rank of commander, were summoned.

In the main hall of the Northern Garrison, Li Wangxin soon announced that Jiang Yun would be taking over his position.

After listening to Li Wangxin's words.

Many people present were shocked, including Yang Liunian, the garrison commander of the Southern Garrison.

Zhou Yi, the pacification commissioner of the Northern Garrison.

The two of them hadn't expected that Jiang Yun would become their direct superior. Fortunately, Jiang Yun was at least an acquaintance, which was better than having a leader parachuted in directly.

However, Jiang Yun's words soon sent a chill down their spines.

Looking at the many commanders in front of him, as well as Yang Liunian and Zhou Yi, Jiang Yun stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "I am trusted by His Majesty to serve as the acting commander, and I hope that everyone will support my work in the future."

"In addition, the current commanders of the Northern and Southern Garrison Commands are Qi Da and Zhu Zanyu, respectively."

At this point, Jiang Yun looked at Yang Liunian and slowly said, "Lord Yang and Lord Zhou are promoted to the position of Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

The Deputy Commander was a third-rank official, essentially the deputy to the Commander.

However, these were merely nominal positions, and Li Wangxin did not actually establish them during his tenure as head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

However, Jiang Yun had to consider the feelings of Zhou Yi and Yang Liunian. Zhou Yi was self-evident, but Yang Liunian, as Jiang Yun's former superior, had treated Jiang Yun quite well.

We must not let Yang Liunian feel disheartened.

Yang Liunian frowned slightly upon hearing this arrangement. He knew perfectly well what it meant: a promotion in name only, but a demotion in reality.

Although he held a high official position, he no longer had any real power.

Yang Liunian took a deep breath and nodded slowly, without uttering any objections. Zhou Yi, on the other hand, frowned, stepped forward, and said, "Lord Jiang, the position of Commander of the Northern Garrison is extremely important. Is Qi Da capable of taking on this role?"

"What's his strength anyway?"

Yang Liunian did not object because, comparatively speaking, the Southern Garrison Commander did not wield much power.

He was only responsible for monitoring the internal affairs of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

But the Northern Garrison Command is different. The Northern Garrison Command oversees all officials, so Zhou Yi was naturally somewhat unwilling.

Zhou Yi showed no respect for Jiang Yun and said in a deep voice, "Jiang Yun, when you first joined the Embroidered Uniform Guard, I was already a commander of a thousand men. You have just taken office and you have already taken over my power. Everyone in the Embroidered Uniform Guard is watching."

"Even if Zidane takes my place, can he hold onto it securely?"

Jiang Yun frowned slightly as she listened to Zhou Yi's words, glancing at Li Wangxin.

Li Wangxin, with his hands behind his back, glanced at Jiang Yun with a smile, not intending to speak up for her. His look seemed to tell Jiang Yun that she had to handle the matter herself.

Of course, Li Wangxin misunderstood Jiang Yun's meaning.

Jiang Yun's glance at him was not an attempt to ask Li Wangxin for help.

On the contrary, Jiang Yun wanted to see if Li Wangxin and Zhou Yi had any special relationship.

If there is a special relationship, Lord Li, you should speak up. If not, you should establish your authority.

Having just taken office as commander today, Jiang Yun was not about to indulge Zhou Yi.

Jiang Yun coughed lightly, interrupting Zhou Yi, and slowly looked down at the commander below, asking, "Lord Zhou, what are you saying? I have just taken office today, and everything must be discussed and agreed upon, right?"

"In that case, Lord Zhou Yi's words make sense. Are there any other commanders present who agree with what Lord Zhou said? Please step forward."

There were quite a few commanders present, and soon, five commanders stepped forward, clearly Zhou Yi's confidants.

"You five also support Lord Zhou's words, right?" Jiang Yun glanced at everyone and then said, "Alright, since Lord Zhou is unwilling to serve as the Deputy Commander."

"Then Lord Zhou, and the five of you, from today onwards, you no longer need to stay in the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Upon hearing Jiang Yun's words, Zhou Yi and the other five men's expressions changed slightly. Zhou Yi hurriedly said, "Jiang Yun, what are you saying? I am an official appointed by the imperial court. Even if you are a commander, how can you dismiss me with just a word?"

“Yes, yes, I will submit a memorial to His Majesty tomorrow and go through the formal procedures.” Jiang Yun nodded slightly and looked at the five people: “What are your names?”

Unexpectedly, the five people, with complicated expressions, quietly and silently retreated back into the crowd.

Nonsense. The commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard wields immense power and is considered a top figure within the entire Embroidered Uniform Guard.

If they were truly kicked out of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the enemies they had made during their time as commanders would have countless ways to kill them.

"I want to see His Majesty! I want to sue you!" Zhou Yi pointed at Jiang Yun.

Jiang Yun remained calm and slowly asked, "What does Lord Zhou want to accuse me of? Accuse me of promoting you?"

Zhou Yi was speechless after hearing that sentence.

Yes.

Although it was a demotion in disguise, on the surface, he was to be promoted to the rank of Deputy Commander.

No matter where you go to talk about it, you can't argue with that.

Seeing this, Yang Liunian stepped forward, coughed, and said, "Lord Jiang, please give me some face. Lord Zhou must have been too happy to hear about his promotion, which is why he acted so recklessly."

"You are a magnanimous person, please don't take it to heart."

Jiang Yun still respected Yang Liunian, after all, he was her former boss and had treated her well.

However, once he was promoted to commander, he would definitely put people he absolutely trusted in charge of the several garrison divisions below him before he could feel at ease.

Otherwise, his position wouldn't have been changed.

I already felt a little bad about assigning him a nominal position, and Yang Liunian even spoke up.

Jiang Yun nodded, agreeing with Yang Liunian's words: "Since Lord Yang has spoken, I will pretend that Lord Zhou's ridiculous behavior just now never happened."

"only."

Jiang Yun glanced at the many commanders present and slowly said, "I am not a kind person. Remember this. If you do well in the future, I will reward you."

"You can all inquire about what I did when I was in the Eastern Garrison Command. I never let my men suffer any losses."

“But if you dare to disobey me, get out of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If it’s more serious, you’ll be punished according to family rules.”

"Understand?"

Soon, many of the thousand households present nodded in agreement.

"Alright, everyone disperse." Jiang Yun waved his hand. Watching everyone leave, Li Wangxin smiled faintly and said to Jiang Yun beside him, "I didn't expect that your personality would allow Zhou Yi to go."

"Of course, you can't blame Zhou Yi entirely; he's extremely obsessed with getting promoted and making money."

“If Lord Yang hadn’t spoken up, he wouldn’t have been able to stay,” Jiang Yun said calmly.

Li Wangxin quickly led Jiang Yun into the yamen, to his original office study. After sitting down with Jiang Yun, Li Wangxin said to him with emotion, "Now that you have assumed the position of commander, there are many things I need to explain to you properly."

"The first issue is the supervision of these officials. The Northern Garrison Command has a well-established system for this, so you don't need to worry about it too much."

"However, contrary to what outsiders think, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is not only responsible for surveillance, but also for many other matters, one of which is assassination."

"This Zhou Kingdom is quite large, and there are countless evil sects and cults operating in the shadows. There are even remnants of the previous dynasty, who have been dead for more than three hundred years but still harbor treacherous intentions and secretly dream of restoring their kingdom."

As the two drank tea, Li Wangxin explained many important matters one by one, and Jiang Yun listened attentively.

After saying this, Li Wangxin took out a bunch of keys and said, "Behind the Northern Garrison Command, there is also an archive room. All the materials in the archive room of the Eastern Garrison Command are actually backups."

"The archives of the Northern Garrison Command contain all the secrets collected over the past three hundred years."

After saying this, Li Wangxin felt a weight lifted from his shoulders and smiled, "If there's anything I can help with in the future, I hope Lord Jiang will..."

"Lord Li, you flatter me. I was promoted by you. If there is anything I need to do in the future, please let me know."

Li Wangxin smiled, then got up and left. Jiang Yun personally escorted him to the gate of the Northern Garrison Command, watching his figure gradually disappear.

Then Jiang Yun turned around with a serious expression and looked at the entire Northern Garrison Command.

Before he could even reflect on anything, he quickly returned to his study and opened the note that Feng Yu had given him.

The note read: Three years ago, the Fang family in the north received a secret treasure, which they cherished greatly, and suspected it to be a meteorite.

Heading north.

Jiang Yun suddenly remembered that when Tuoba Anyi went to the Demon Spirit Sect, he was treated with extremely high regard by the sect because he had disguised himself as a young master of the Xiang family.

Jiang Yun quickly summoned Qi Da over.

Zidane is preparing to hold a promotion banquet. He's been promoted to the position of Commander of the Northern Garrison. I wonder how much silver he'll collect for this banquet.

However, since Jiang Yun has summoned him, the promotion banquet will probably have to be postponed.

After reading the note Jiang Yun gave him, Qi Da frowned and asked in a low voice, "Does the master intend to get the meteorite from the Xiang family?"

Jiang Yun nodded and said, "How much do you know about the Xiang family?"

“I’ll check right away. Our Jinyiwei’s archives must have detailed information.”

Soon, Zidane received the key to the archives from Jiang Yun and left quickly, while Jiang Yun drank tea and waited.

Not long after, Zidane quickly ran back, carrying five thick files in his hand.

Each one is extremely thick.

"My lord, my lord, we've found it."

Upon entering the house, Zidane quickly took a sip of tea before continuing, "The Fang family in the north is no ordinary wealthy family."

"Of course, outwardly, the Xiang family is a wealthy landowner with extremely large land holdings."

"But in fact, the Xiang family has a history of over a thousand years, having gone through countless dynasties."

"Their family is located in Yanzhou in the north. Nearly half of the arable land in Yanzhou is in the hands of the Xiang family, and the Xiang family has more than 10,000 members."

"In our capital city, there are quite a few businesses owned by the Xiang family."

"When the founding emperor was conquering the country, the Xiang family contributed a share..."

Jiang Yun understood. The Xiang family, a powerful clan, had accumulated immense wealth. Whenever the world was in chaos, they would invest in various ways, ensuring that the Xiang family would remain standing no matter who became emperor.

After a thousand years of development, it has become a behemoth.

No wonder the Demon Spirit Cult treated Tuoba Anyi, who was impersonating a young master of the Xiang family, so politely when they wanted to rebel.

Jiang Yun frowned as well. No wonder Feng Yu only told him about the meteorite.

Given the Xiang family's background, even the Tongyou Guard would probably not dare to directly snatch things from them without the Emperor's approval.

After pondering for a moment, Jiang Yun said to Qi Da, "You should set off tomorrow and go to Yanzhou to subtly inquire whether you can obtain the meteorite from the Xiang family."

"Yes." Qi Da nodded emphatically, taking Jiang Yun's arrangements to heart.

"Go ahead, be careful. If it doesn't work out, don't confront the Xiang family head-on."

After Zidane left, Jiang Yun looked at the five thick volumes of Xiang family documents he had left behind. With nothing else to do, he also carefully flipped through them.

However, these documents did not contain much useful information; they mostly recorded trivial matters concerning the Xiang family.

Moreover, the records are basically all information about the main family of the Xiang family.

Tired from watching, and with the sky gradually darkening outside, Jiang Yun stretched and returned to the Jiang residence.

News of Jiang Yun's promotion naturally reached back to the Jiang residence well in advance.

Outside the Jiang residence, steward Yun Pingchuan specially ordered his servants to buy a lot of firecrackers, which were set off at the entrance of the Jiang residence for a full half hour to celebrate his master's promotion.

This is a high-ranking official of the third rank.

Inside the Jiang residence, a large table of food was prepared, awaiting Jiang Yun's return.

Back at the Jiang residence, Tao Yuelan sat in the seat of honor in the living room.

"Master is back," Yun Pingchuan called from outside the living room.

Tao Yuelan looked at Jiang Yun with delight, and secretly thought that her judgment was correct. At such a young age, he had been promoted to a high-ranking official of the third rank and even granted the title of marquis.

He was appreciated by both the late emperor and the current emperor.

Xu Suwen quickly said, "Sit down and eat. Everyone's been waiting for you to come back before they can start eating."

"You guys eat first, I'll make something later," Jiang Yun said with a smile as she sat down.

Soon, Jiang Qiaoqiao happily placed a chicken leg on Jiang Yun's plate. She had always dreamed of her brother becoming an official.

Now that he has become a high-ranking official of the third rank, Jiang Qiaoqiao has carefully calculated that his official position is even higher than that of the prefect of their Nanzhou Prefecture.

This is truly a case of one's ancestors' graves emitting auspicious smoke.

(End of this chapter)