Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 246: Chapter 237: Did You Really Massacre 7 Clans?

While Yang Zhenshan was sound asleep, the General Mansion received the latest military report from Jia City.

However, the one presiding over the General Mansion at this time was not Liang Chu, but Lu Chongde.

Liang Chu had already led the troops on an expedition, with Lu Chongde entirely taking over military affairs at Chongshan Town.

”Master, the military report from Jia City!”

In the study, a clerk placed a document on the desk in front of Lu Chongde. Lu Chongde just nodded, not immediately checking the report.

After dealing with the official business at hand, he then picked up the report to read.

However, after only a glance, his eyebrows slightly creased.

These days from Jia City, almost a report per day was received, mainly containing news from Yang Zhenshan, the garrison of An Yuan City.

The general content was about how Yang Zhenshan led his garrison troops to attack a certain tribe on a certain day, the number of enemies killed, heads taken, and items seized, etc.

If it was just once or twice, Lu Chongde would not find it strange, but seven days in a row, with a report each day, this seemed somewhat odd to him.

To say he did not believe it, yet he felt it impossible for Yang Zhenshan to behave so rashly.

Although he had never met Yang Zhenshan, Lu Chongde had heard many things about him, such as the Yang family’s marital alliance with the Marquis Mansion. How could he not know of that?

Furthermore, Yang Zhenshan had once assisted the Secret Martial Guards with investigating a case of collusion, and the relationship between Yang Zhenshan and Zhou Lan, among other things.

Although Yang Zhenshan did not hold a high-ranking position, because of these reasons, Lu Chongde was quite familiar with him, including Yang Zhenshan’s merits at Yinghe Castle.

But to believe it, he just couldn’t bring himself to trust it entirely.

Lu Chongde studied the latest report for a moment, then raised his head to ask the clerk helping him with official business, ”Has Hundred Households Yan set off?”

”Reporting to Master, Hundred Households Yan set off yesterday!” the clerk replied.

Lu Chongde nodded and said, ”Then let’s hold back the military reports from Jia City for now, and send them to the Capital City only after Hundred Households Yan’s confirmation!”

It really wasn’t proper to send the reports to the Capital City before the battle honors were accurately verified.

Because once sent to the Capital City, it would mean Chongshan Town, from top to bottom, acknowledged these battle honors.

Although the General Mansion had already dispatched Yuan Wanli to verify the honors, Lu Chongde felt that Yuan Wanli might help Yang Zhenshan falsify them.

The likelihood was slim, but it couldn’t be ignored.

Therefore, yesterday he specially requested the Secret Martial Guards to verify Yang Zhenshan’s merits, which was the Hundred Households Yan he mentioned.

With the Secret Martial Guards conducting the verification, there shouldn’t be any further problems, right?

Even if there were, it would be an issue with the Secret Martial Guards.

If even the Secret Martial Guards were deceived, the blame would naturally fall entirely on him.

Lu Chongde had calculated everything carefully in his mind.

...

Yang Zhenshan slept until noon, his exhaustion completely vanished, replaced by a surge of vitality.

Upon rising from the bed, Yang Zhenshan stretched vigorously, with muted roars emanating from within his body.

Aow~~

The refreshing sensation made Yang Zhenshan couldn’t help but let out a cry.

”Master, you’re awake!”

Outside the door, Zhou Ren had already been waiting, asking softly upon hearing the noise from the tent.

”I’m awake!”

Yang Zhenshan replied briskly, then picked up the fresh garments and the clean armor beside him to change into.

”Is there something the matter?”

Yang Zhenshan asked Zhou Ren as he got dressed and stepped out of the tent.

Zhou Ren said, ”Master, some people from Chongshan Pass have come again, claiming to be here to verify the battle honors. Mr. Yuan has already taken them to inspect the heads!”

”When did they arrive?” Yang Zhenshan asked, seemingly unconcerned.

”About two hours ago!”

Yang Zhenshan stopped for a moment, they arrived two hours ago and directly went to verify the battle honors without doing anything else?

This was like a surprise raid!

”Do we know who they are?”

”I’m not sure, they only showed the tokens and official documents from the Governor’s Office. There are about twenty in their group; they seem a bit formidable,” Zhou Ren shared his impression of the visitors.

”Formidable!” Yang Zhenshan stroked his smooth beard, deep in thought.

It’s the Governor’s Office, not the General Mansion!

Actually, that’s not unusual.

The governor oversees administration, military, and supervision for Chongshan Town. He is indeed a major official accountable for a large territory, and now with Liang Chu leading troops outside, it seems normal for Lu Chongde to send someone to verify the battle honors.

However, the fact that they went straight to inspect the heads after arriving clearly indicates suspicion of him.

”Forget it, where are they? I’ll go have a look!”

Suspicion was inevitable, but he would see what the specific situation was upon inspection.

Afterwards, Yang Zhenshan and Zhou Ren headed to what used to be Zhaerzi’s settlement.

At that moment, Zhaerzi’s settlement had turned into ruins. However, Zhaerzi’s heads were still there. Wang Sheng and Yuan Wanli had treated them with lime for preservation for a long period.

”Hundred Households Luo, there are only over five thousand heads here. Because there were too many, we didn’t bring them all back!” Yuan Wanli stood in front of a slim middle-aged man, speaking somewhat sorrowfully.

Processing the heads also took time. Actually, with so many heads, it was unnecessary to process them all, as they obviously would not bring all the heads back.

At first, Yuan Wanli had thought of keeping the heads together to ensure no issues would arise during later verification.

But as the garrison camp slaughtered a tribe every day, with thousands of heads each day, they truly could not keep up, so they stopped this somewhat bizarre task.

Luo Chenhu, also known as Hundred Households Luo, looking at the mountain of piled heads before him, his eyes showed unmistakable astonishment.

”If Hundred Households Luo wishes to see other heads, I can take you to see them, but the other heads are scattered among seven Northern barbarian Tribe settlements, and it might take some time to inspect them all!” Yuan Wanli said.

Actually, confirming battle achievements wasn’t difficult. The ruins of the seven tribes were right there, and tens of thousands of corpses wouldn’t decay that quickly.

”Just take a look, and you’ll realize that there’s not a single false detail in the military exploits they’ve reported, and it’s even possible they underreported some.”

”No need!” Luo Chenhu shook his head slightly.

With these severed heads present, there is no longer any need to continue with the verification.

Exaggerating military achievements is actually not a big deal; reporting 500 heads for 300 enemies killed, or reporting 1000 for 500 defeated is not a major issue, and has even become an unspoken rule among the various border towns.

Having several thousand severed heads, reporting over ten thousand beheadings is already more than enough to explain to the superiors.

Moreover, he had just checked, and all the heads were from adult males, devoid of women, children, and the elderly.

The most important thing was that he had already noticed the difference of the garrison soldiers when he was at the garrison camp earlier.

The Songyuan River could wash away the fatigue and filth on the soldiers’ bodies, but it could not wash away the murderous aura on them.

That intense murderous aura made him feel truly alarmed.

The key point is that this was not the murderous aura of one person, but that of all the soldiers.

It’s conceivable that these soldiers must be gods of death on the battlefield.

Just at this time, Yang Zhengshan, accompanied by Zhou Ren, came over.

”Greetings, my lord!”

”Secret Martial Guard Hundred Households Luo Chenhu greets Master Yang!”

Luo Chenhu saw Yang Zhengshan and cupped his fists to offer his greetings.

Yang Zhengshan’s eyebrows rose slightly, it was actually someone from the Secret Martial Guards.

”Hundred Households Luo, there’s no need for formalities!”

He said with a faint smile.

Luo Chenhu looked up at Yang Zhengshan, his heart trembling slightly.

He had heard of Yang Zhengshan’s name; during the investigation of espionage, although it was Wei Cen who had contact with Yang Zhengshan, many people at the Northern Station were actually familiar with Yang Zhengshan.

Before Lv Hua deployed Yang Zhengshan, the Secret Martial Guards had investigated his background, and during the investigation, the Secret Martial Guards had also arranged for many people to work together on the case.

For instance, the Black Cliff Village was surrounded and subdued by Luo Chenhu’s forces.

Yang Zhengshan at this moment was somewhat unexpected for Luo Chenhu; he thought Yang Zhengshan would, like those soldiers of the garrison, be enveloped in a murderous aura, but in fact, there wasn’t the slightest bit of it on him.

His eyes deep and clear, he wore a kind smile, even somewhat benevolent and gentle!

Benevolent and gentle!

Luo Chenhu felt as if he was enchanted, actually perceiving Yang Zhengshan as benevolent and gentle.

How could one who led the garrison and killed tens of thousands of enemies be benevolent and gentle?

There could only be one explanation for this, and that is Yang Zhengshan can freely control his own murderous aura!

”Do you still need to inspect other battlefields, Hundred Households Luo?” Yang Zhengshan asked with a light smile.

Since he was from the Secret Martial Guards, there was no need for him to worry. After all, he had helped the Secret Martial Guards before.

”No, there’s no need. I have already confirmed that your lordship’s military achievements are genuine,” replied Luo Chenhu.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, without saying much, ”In that case, let’s go have a meal first! This official just woke up, and I’m very hungry!”

He was really hungry!

He had been asleep since yesterday afternoon, without a morsel of food; how could he not be famished?

”Please, Master Yang!” Luo Chenhu naturally agreed.

Soon, the group returned to the camp, and a simple meal was quickly set out on the table.

The meal was still centered on dried vegetable soup and stewed meat; under these conditions, even Yang Zhengshan couldn’t have anything fancy if he wanted to.

Luo Chenhu was not a delicate person either; the Secret Martial Guards had endured all sorts of hardships during missions.

After the meal, Yang Zhengshan chatted with Luo Chenhu for a while. He was interested in asking about Wei Cen’s situation, but the Secret Martial Guards had many rules and typically wouldn’t reveal their whereabouts, so Yang Zhengshan dispelled this thought, merely asking about the situation at Chongshan Pass.

...

While Yang Zhengshan was dining, over by Black Cloud Mountain, Wang Bin received a letter sent by Yang Zhengshan.

The messenger was none other than Song Dashan.

Wang Bin, leading the Rescue Camp, had just annihilated a tribe, and now they were resting and recuperating near Black Cloud Mountain, also clearing the battlefield.

Wang Bin was surprised to receive Yang Zhengshan’s letter, but what surprised him even more were Yang Zhengshan’s accomplishments these past few days.

Each day he’d receive supplies and correspondence from Jia City, which included Yang Zhengshan’s battle reports.

Upon seeing Song Dashan, he couldn’t help but ask, ”Did you really slaughter seven tribes?”

”General, not seven, but eight!” Song Dashan honestly replied.

”Eight!” Wang Bin was even more astonished.

He has received only seven battle reports so far; the last one had yet to arrive.

”Eight!”

Inside the tent, all the officers of the Rescue Camp exchanged glances.

Among these officers, Zhang Yuanwu, the garrison commander of Qihe City, was particularly shocked.

Zhang Yuanwu was a capable and ambitious man, eager to kill enemies and achieve merit in this war, so since entering the Northern territories, he’d been diligently searching for traces of Northern barbarian tribes.

Fortune favors the bold, and his efforts were not in vain—he indeed found a tribe.

However, given the strength of his own garrison, he had to seek reinforcement from his superior, Wang Bin.

Although the arrival of Wang Bin with the Rescue Camp meant that he couldn’t claim all the credit, he was at least able to secure some merits.

In his view, this was already quite good, and also matched the situation he had led his own garrison into.

However, now hearing that the An Yuan garrison had eradicated eight Northern barbarian tribes in succession, he even doubted if he was having auditory hallucinations.

Could there be such a big difference?

As Zhang Yuanwu felt shocked, he couldn’t help but wonder this question.

Every officer subordinate to Wang Bin knew that the garrison led by Yang Zhengshan was strong, erm, stronger than theirs, but even so, there shouldn’t be such a huge gap.

A garrison of just over a thousand men, how could they eradicate eight Northern barbarian tribes in just over ten days.

Even if these barbarian tribes were small, averaging a few hundred people each, Wang Bin found it impossible.