Where Immortals Once Walked

“Yes, right here.” County Magistrate Wu hurriedly handed over the county office’s personnel register. “I have listed each person’s salary, background, and particular qualifications alongside their name. Please have a look, Special Envoy.”

He Lingchuan even praised him. “County Magistrate Wu is very meticulous.”

County Magistrate Wu smiled and said, “You flatter me, Special Envoy.”

Yet He Lingchuan did not even open the personnel register. He simply tossed it onto the table, took another sip of tea, and asked, “What’s the most common surname in Shihuan City?”

“Huh?” The abrupt turn in the conversation left County Magistrate Wu stunned. It took him a while to recover. “Oh, there are more people surnamed Li than anything else!”

“How many do you have in your office?”

County Magistrate Wu silently counted for a few breaths. “There are... seven or eight?”

“Quite a few, just as I thought.” He Lingchuan tapped the personnel register twice with his middle finger. “Dismiss everyone in this register surnamed Li.”

“What?!” Sweat immediately streamed down County Magistrate Wu’s forehead. “Special Envoy, surely that would be inappropriate?” How can anyone cut staff based purely on surnames? That’s far too arbitrary!

“What’s the second most common surname?”

County Magistrate Wu stared at him, dumbfounded.

Is the Special Envoy really expecting me to cut staff like this? Without looking at their backgrounds or abilities, or considering their age or seniority?

This is absurdly crude and heavy-handed!

“I don’t know any of them. I don’t want to assess them, and I don’t care what difficulties they have. None of that has anything to do with me. The state is in crisis. From commoners at the bottom to officials at the top, everyone has to shoulder their share of the burden.” He Lingchuan held his left hand like a blade and made a chopping motion over the personnel register. “The Shihuan county office may have only three salary grades, and no more than twenty people may draw salaries. If County Magistrate Wu doesn’t want me to make one clean cut myself, go back and sort out the list properly. At least leave yourself a few people who are actually useful.” He drawled, “If you can’t even make a decision on something this minor...”

An official incapable of cutting staff might very well find himself cut instead.

County Magistrate Wu shivered inwardly and hurriedly said, “I-I’ll go back and draw up the list again carefully!”

“Quickly!” He Lingchuan raised two fingers. “You have two days. Oh, right, the lame coachman can stay. Everyone has a compassionate heart, after all.”

His position could not have been clearer. County Magistrate Wu had no choice but to clutch the personnel register and leave dejectedly.

Watching his retreating back, He Lingchuan shook his head to himself.

There were tricks hidden in that register. He did not even need to open it to know.

If he truly started playing the game of deciding with County Magistrate Wu who stayed and who left, the whole wretched affair would never end.

But what did any of that have to do with He Lingchuan? He cared only about the result, not the process.

The process could be left for these officials to torment themselves over.

This state’s bureaucracy was far too bloated and inefficient. Work that two people could finish somehow required twenty people to do. Yuan faced trouble both within and without. If it still wanted to survive, it had no choice but to streamline its administration, reduce staff, and improve efficiency.

Otherwise... Heh.

Because the special envoy had been so strict in auditing expenditures, the Royal Court of Yuan had also descended into endless arguments.

Many veteran ministers complained that although the wars on two fronts were certainly important, warfare was not Yuan’s only concern. The state also had matters of governance and the people’s livelihood to attend to. For instance, the embankments along the two great rivers in the southeast needed reinforcement. Otherwise, once the summer floods arrived, countless fields would be destroyed and people killed, and so on and so forth.

Only after he began supervising expenditure items did He Lingchuan realize that a state had countless places where money needed to be spent, ranging from trivial scraps to matters involving the livelihoods of tens of thousands of commoners.

The first installment of more than 3.7 million taels was barely a drop in the bucket. If he loosened his grip even slightly, not a single copper coin would remain.

Money. This state is desperately short of money.

After several days of this frantic work, Madame Ying overheard the two brothers discussing funds while shoveling food into their mouths at the dinner table. She suddenly asked, “Chuan’er, how long are you going to remain the Rongshan special envoy?”

“Huh?” It was the first time anyone had asked him that question. He Lingchuan paused before answering, “Until all seven million taels of the loan have been spent. It shouldn’t be much longer. We’re auditing the final few items over these next couple of days, and the remaining funds should be transferred soon.”

Once that happened, his mission as special envoy would essentially be complete.

“It’s certainly good that you’re impartial and unyielding as special envoy, but you are still a man of Yuan in the end. You’ve offended so many senior officials already. I’m worried that once you’re no longer special envoy, they’ll make things difficult for you.”

His mother was actually worrying on his behalf. He Lingchuan was touched. “Mother has thought this through very carefully. However!”

From his tone alone, Madame Ying knew he was about to say something ridiculous. She pursed her lips. “However what?”

“Just look at who my father is!” He Lingchuan said smugly. “As long as Father keeps rising through the ranks, what can anyone else possibly do to me?”

It was not as though he could tell her that he did not care about the Royal Court of Yuan, or anything here at all.

That was the real reason he could be so impartial and “devoted to the public good.”

He simply did not care.

Yuan’s officials always assumed he looked down on them and was deliberately making their lives difficult.

That was not it at all.

He Lingchuan simply did not see them.

Madame Ying rolled her eyes at him, but she knew he was right and even felt secretly pleased.

She had drawn the most auspicious possible fortune at Immortal Spirit Lake, which said her future would be smooth and prosperous and that she would enjoy wealth and comfort.

Could it be that the fortune was beginning to come true now?

They had not even finished the meal when Steward Wu suddenly strode in and exclaimed, “Good news! Good news! Madame, Young Masters, our Master has won a great victory in the south!”

Madame Ying sprang to her feet, her phoenix eyes widening.

Steward Wu pointed at the dust-covered messenger soldier beside him. “Tell them! Quickly, tell them what happened!”

The man was covered in dust, still panting heavily, and reeked of horse sweat. He had clearly ridden a long distance. “The general reached the area after only seven days of marching, and the rebels had no idea. He deliberately left the elderly, weak, and wounded troops in Buxin City as bait, drawing the rebels’ main force into attacking the city. Meanwhile, our army circled behind them and seized the rebel camp, then set an ambush along the route the rebels’ main force would take when rushing back to reinforce it. We waited, fresh and rested, for an exhausted enemy and won a tremendous victory!”

Madame Ying pressed a hand to her chest, so excited that she could barely breathe. “That’s wonderful!”

A tremendous victory.

One battle had settled the whole situation!

For Yuan, her husband’s victory had arrived like rain in the middle of a drought!

He Lingchuan and He Yue immediately pressed, “And then?”

The messenger had described the battle succinctly, but the two brothers could still smell the bloodshed behind those few sentences.

Who knew how many lives had been lost in that one battle?

He Chunhua’s strategy had been elegant, relying primarily on an information advantage. The rebels had enjoyed smooth progress during their northward advance. Every city they encountered had either surrendered or offered only token resistance, collapsing after the slightest pressure. How could they possibly know that the General of Lasting Peace had already led a major army south?

They had assumed taking Buxin City would be just as effortless.

Instead, He Chunhua had planned everything while they remained completely unaware, catching them utterly by surprise.

An advantage like this could only be used once. Fortunately, He Chunhua had not wasted it in the slightest. He had essentially achieved exactly what he wanted: a swift battle that crushed the main rebel force.

This victory had not come easily.

“Of the rebels’ two principal leaders, one was cut down from his horse on the battlefield. The other led the remaining troops west in retreat. Zhao Qinghe and Wu Shaoyi split their forces to pursue them and eliminated another 3,000 men. Meanwhile, Zeng Feixiong’s unit had already set an ambush at the western entrance to Longchuan and carried out the final interception,” the messenger said. “After all of that, only about 800 rebels managed to escape into Longchuan!”

Madame Ying asked again, “Didn’t you say there was still another rebel leader?”

“That man is named Tan Xian. He escaped into Longchuan.”