Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

"Xu Jue is a sensible man; he knows which side he should sit on."

"It wasn't for nothing that we appointed him as the head of the Eastern Depot's criminal justice department."

A slight smile appeared on McFee's lips.

"Tell Xu Jue that we know of his loyalty."

"Your son thanks the Ancestor on behalf of Commander Xu."

The eunuch in blue robes quickly bowed and thanked him.

"Ancestor, although Xu Jue is a fifth-rank Jinyiwei commander and concurrently serves as the Eastern Depot criminal officer, it seems that his official position in the Jinyiwei is higher."

However, within the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he had several fourth-rank commanders above him and several third-rank deputy commanders above him, but they had no say in front of Commander Wang.

In our Eastern Depot, it's a completely different story.

Besides Ye Qianhu, the Chief of Criminal Investigation, and Hai'er, the Chief of Criminal Investigation, Xu Jue concurrently held the position of Li Xing Baihu, which was the third most powerful position under the Grand Eunuch.

Unless he's completely out of his mind, he won't betray our Eastern Depot.

"Get up. Back then, our family took you in as our adopted son, and we were right to have chosen you."

"After these two years as the Chief Executioner of the Eastern Depot, you've certainly become quite experienced."

Mai Fu glanced at the eunuch in blue.

"After a few more years of training, we will recommend you to the Emperor for a position in the Directorate of Ceremonial."

"Thank you for your kind words, ancestor."

The eunuch in blue robes knelt down again and kowtowed three times to Mai Fu.

"Alright, Huang Jin, stand up and answer."

McFee raised his hand slightly.

"It's obvious to anyone with eyes that His Majesty has been intentionally supporting the Lu family father and son over the years, allowing them to gradually take control of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

The brothers Lu Bing and Lu Wei rose through the ranks of the Embroidered Uniform Guard extremely quickly. Lu Wei, who is only 24 years old this year, has already become a commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Lu Bing is only twenty-nine years old this year, yet he has already been promoted to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, a third-rank official.

He became one of the deputy commanders of Wang Zuo, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After Lu Song was transferred back to the capital from his post as deputy commander-in-chief of Guangxi, the emperor appointed him as a second-rank military officer in the Rear Army Commandery, assisting in the administration of the capital's military affairs and concurrently in charge of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Like Cui Yuan, the son-in-law of the emperor, and Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, who also concurrently held the authority of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he had the power to supervise the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

I'm afraid that in a few years, His Majesty will have Lu Bing replace Wang Zuo as the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

This Embroidered Uniform Guard office will likely become the domain of the Lu family in the future.

In your opinion, what was the purpose of Lu Bing returning to the Embroidered Uniform Guard headquarters to search the imperial storeroom on the second day after he began his vigil for his father, and then hastily issuing a warrant to be sent out of the capital?

"Our ancestor must be related to his recently deceased father, Lu Song."

Huang Jin carefully stood up.

"If it were any other matter, and if it wasn't too urgent, Lu Bing could have waited until after Lu Song's funeral before returning to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to handle it."

Even for urgent matters, subordinates can be instructed to handle them.

I believe that only a private matter related to Lu Song could make Lu Bing rush back to the Embroidered Uniform Guard headquarters in such a hurry.

Perhaps Lu Song gave him this instruction just before he died.

"Lu Song was a former official of the Emperor when he was still a prince. If he really told Lu Bing about his private affairs on his deathbed, it might also be related to the Emperor."

McFee tapped his fingers lightly twice on the armrest of the seat.

"Since Lu Bing's men got horses at the South City Post Station, they must have taken the post station's route, which is traceable."

Huang Jin, you must return to the Eastern Depot immediately and select two reliable and discreet subordinates to secretly follow along the post stations.

"We'd like to see what personal matter Lu Bing is rushing off to handle for his father."

"Our ancestors were truly farsighted."

Huang Jin flattered,

"I will go back to the Eastern Depot immediately and select capable people to follow along. Whether there are any opportunities or not, let's start by making a move."

"In the future, our Eastern Depot will inevitably have to deal with the Lu brothers. If we can get some leverage over them, it might play an unexpected role at a crucial moment."

. . .

evening.

After a full day of traveling downstream on the Nanhe River in a covered boat, Lu Chen finally arrived near the confluence of the Nanhe River and the Hanjiang River.

Here, Lu Chen saw a real ancient city, the county seat of Gucheng County.

This is just a small county town, far smaller than Xi'an, which Lu Chen had seen before his transmigration and which was also built in the Ming Dynasty.

However, though small, it has all the essential parts.

Like the Xi'an city wall, the city wall of Gucheng County, although much shorter, is also built of rammed earth and covered with blue bricks, and has all the features of a gate tower and a rampart.

A deep moat was dug around the county town, with water drawn from the Han River and the Nan River to form a moat.

The other passengers on the ship were all going to Gucheng County, and they also spoke Southwestern Mandarin, so Lu Chen had no problem communicating with them.

Along the way, Lu Chen had already learned a lot about Gucheng County from them.

The county town is not large; it is said to have a circumference of only four li, or a little over two thousand meters.

Lu Chen roughly calculated that the city's area was only about 300,000 square meters, which was equivalent to a large residential area in later times.

But this small county town has everything: the county government office, the Confucian temple, the City God Temple, warehouses, and more.

There was also a 100-household garrison stationed in Xiangyang, with 180 garrison soldiers.

As far as Lu Chen knew, in another dimension, the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong had once feigned surrender here.

After recuperating and rebuilding their strength in Gucheng County, they launched another uprising and entered Sichuan to establish the Great Western Kingdom.

Outside the south gate of the county town, there is an official post station called "Hanjiang Post Station".

Although it was not large in scale, it still had one postmaster, several postmen, and a number of horses.

They were responsible for delivering official documents from the imperial court and also for receiving passing officials.

According to a fellow passenger, some officials' family members often went to the post stations to freeload when traveling.

Although it violates the laws of the imperial court, if someone has some status or background, they can eat and stay at the post station for free, and even the postmaster wouldn't dare to offend them.

If you don't have a strong background, you can usually turn a blind eye to things by giving the postmaster and postmen some money.

In Lu Chen's view, this was obviously an abuse of public resources and a misappropriation of the court's resources.

Corruption is something that cannot be eradicated even in modern society; in ancient times when the legal system was imperfect, it was only more serious.

After disembarking at the South City Wharf, Lu Chen looked up and saw a small courtyard with a plaque that read "Hanjiang Post Station" not far away.

There are several two-story buildings inside, as well as a stable where several post horses are kept.

By this time, it was already getting dark, and the passengers who had come on the same boat as Lu Chen quickened their pace and hurried toward the south gate.

The gates of Gucheng County will soon be closed and locked. If we don't hurry into the city, we'll have to spend the night outside.

Should we go into town?

Lu Chen glanced at the city gate guarded by several soldiers.

Although the county town is small, it has a hundred or so soldiers stationed there. If any accident were to happen, getting out of the town would be a troublesome matter.

After a moment's thought, Lu Chen turned and walked toward the "Hanjiang Post Station" not far away.

The commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was a dignified seventh-rank military officer. Since he had impersonated Lu Chen, he was naturally considered a family member of an official.

Staying at an official inn is a way of adapting to local customs.