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"Shen Yuan?"

This name sounds somewhat familiar...

As Weichi Feihu was recalling, Wei Gongzhan beside him had already stepped forward to pay his respects, "So it is the newly honored Second Place Scholar, Minister Shen. What brings Minister Shen to this place?"

"It really is General Weichi!" The scholar stepped forward excitedly, "Has the Imperial Court finally noticed Chen Qing’s wolfish ambitions and sent someone?"

Weichi Feihu and the two Wei Family members next to him changed their expressions.

After looking at each other and then at the bustling refugee area queue in the distance, realizing no one was paying attention here, they breathed a sigh of relief.

They pulled the other party to the side, where Wei Gongyan was the first to speak up, "What makes Minister Shen say so? "

Wei Gongyan asked seriously, but internally he was overjoyed.

He had always disliked Chen Qing, and he had heard that Wei Gongcheng, that crippled bastard, had also come to rely on Chen Qing.

Just when he was about to be under someone else, he was feeling quite suffocated.

Yet unexpectedly, the tables had turned, and from the looks of it.

.. that Chen fellow seemed to be in trouble!

"The general no longer needs to address me as ’Minister.’ I... ah, no, I have long been stripped of my official seal by Chen Qing. How could I still have the face to call myself ’Minister’?"

"What?" Weichi Feihu was taken aback: "Chen Qing stripped you of your official seal?"

Although he was a military officer, he remembered that removing an official seal was a serious matter that required Your Majesty’s personal judgment, right?

"On what grounds?" Wei Gongzhan next to him asked with a frown.

"Ha..." Shen Yuan sneered, "Chen Qing accused us county magistrates of failing to fulfill our duties in guarding our territory.

He claimed to act on behalf of the Imperial Court in taking away our official seals ahead of time, which is absurd.

Those man-eating zombie demons come in groups of hundreds, if not thousands.

How could our county offices, unlike his Lyuzhou, without a private army, withstand them?

To hold us accountable for such reasons and even to seize our official seals on behalf of the Imperial Court, Chen Qing clearly intends to use this opportunity to monopolize power in Lyuzhou! "

"There’s actually such a matter!" Wei Gongyan was the first to react, "I always felt that this man was no good. I didn’t expect him to be so bold as to usurp the official seals privately!"

"Truly audacious!" Weichi Feihu nodded in agreement.

However, Wei Gongzhan felt somewhat puzzled.

Chen Qing’s act of seizing the official seals was indeed against the rules, but what was the significance?

Was he taking such a huge risk just to collect a few seals?

With so many troops at his disposal, Chen Qing could effectively marginalize these county magistrates in actual terms, so why bother doing something that left him open to such liability?

Thinking this, he spoke up, "Minister Shen, do you know where these private troops of Chen Qing came from?"

At the mention of this, Weichi Feihu also showed interest. He too wanted to know where the troops outside Lyuzhou, whose quality could rival the direct lineage troops of a noble duke, came from.

"This..." Shen Yuan suddenly looked somewhat enigmatic, leaning in and speaking in a lowered voice: "I haven’t been here long, and I’m not clear on the specifics, but to be honest, the troops here in Lyuzhou... there’s something strange about them!"

"Strange?"

Wei Gongzhan felt a tightness in his chest and hurriedly asked, "What do you mean?"

"These troops of Lyuzhou," explained Shen Yuan, "are rumored to have been initially gathered by Chen Qing under the pretext that Lyuzhou’s forces were all drafted and he needed guards to maintain order, hence he requested recruitment rights from the Jiangnan Provincial Governor and recruited these private troops from the civilians. Later, because of the zombie incident, citing urgent measures, he expanded the recruitment from civilians, which led to the current size of Lyuzhou’s army. .."

"Recruited from civilians?" Wei Gongyan couldn’t help but say, "Are you jesting?"

Weichi Feihu also had an incredulous look on his face, alluding to the quality of those troops.

Many powerful families, even after investing heavily from a young age, might fail to train troops to that standard, and Shen Yuan was saying these were recruited from civilians?

He said, "Recruit a few for me to see, will you? "

Seeing the look of seeing an idiot in their eyes when they looked at him, Shen Yuan also forced a bitter smile: "I don’t know the specifics either, which is why I said there is something uncanny about it.

I’ve been here in Lyuzhou for more than seven or eight days, and I have some understanding of the situation here.

From what I’ve observed, the main source of troops really does come from the civilians! "

Pointing towards the direction of South Street far away, he said, "Do you see that big crowd over there?"

Weichi Feihu and the others nodded, "What are they doing there?"

"They are selecting..." Shen Yuan said in a low voice, "Lyuzhou has a continuous stream of refugees, and the recruitment has never ceased.

That South Street is full of temporary recruitment sites.

Anyone with a special skill, be it proficiency in archery, horsemanship, or weapon mastery, can be recruited preferentially.

Even those who are not skilled, as long as they are strong and of the right age, can also have a chance to be enlisted. "

"You mean to say... the troops really come from civilians?" Weichi Feihu hesitated, "Could it be that they are being recruited only as auxiliary soldiers?"

"I do not know that," Shen Yuan replied, "but now, under Chen Qing’s temptation, the trend in joining the army in Lyuzhou is very popular.

Because the conditions offered are excellent, ordinary refugees, as long as they can be enlisted, no matter their background, can immediately become Lyuzhou residents with an allocation of housing provided by the government offices.

Once enlisted, even their wives and children are registered as Lyuzhou residents.

They can go over to South Street every day to collect meals, with meat in every meal. "

"Don’t the refugees here also have meat?" Weichi Feihu swallowed, pointing to the queue in the distance.

"This is for those newly arrived refugees, and they only get meat for three days!

" Shen Yuan complained bitterly, "It’s said to replenish the newcomers’ health.

Once the three days are up, they have to go to North Street to collect food.

The sustenance there is not as good as here, just porridge with occasional meat trimmings. "

Talking about this, he was obviously a bit resentful because for the past few days, he had been sent to North Street for meals.

As an esteemed Second Place Scholar and head of a county, to fall to the point of queuing in North Street for porridge and not even receiving the treatment of a common soldier, was upsetting.

Just thinking about the smell of the meat from his first two days made his stomach grumble.

"It seems there are quite a few Lyuzhou citizens.

.." Wei Gongzhan observed the bustle in the distance, "With such numbers, the government can still ensure everyone has porridge to drink and occasional meat.

This aid is probably better than what one might get in the Capital City if they were in distress. "

"So, this Chen Qing really does have wild ambitions!" Shen Yuan indignantly said, "He must have anticipated this disaster long ago and has stockpiled food early to win people’s hearts!"

Wei Gongzhan looked at some passersby outside, whose spirited and healthy appearance, flushed with good health, was obviously the result of many days without worries of food or clothing.

He fell silent for a moment. Just now, he had noticed that the complexions of the people inside Lyuzhou City were extremely good.

Even the person named Shen in front of him looked well, a sight even rare in the Capital City.

Most common people are pale and yellow-faced year-round, especially in the north, where ninety percent look malnourished.

Farmers with nothing but a loincloth in the scorching heat are a common sight, whereas these Lyuzhou citizens seem to have at least one set of fairly good quality clothes to wear.

If there were more officials like this who bought the affection of the people, wouldn’t it be a golden age?

As he was thinking, suddenly there came a commotion from outside.

They looked out to see many people gazing up at the sky.

The newly arrived refugees squatted on the ground in fright, while those who had been in Lyuzhou for some time showed excitement, bowing from afar as they cried out, "Day Traveling God, sir! "

"What’s that?"

Weichi Feihu and his companions looked up in amazement at the stately general in shining armor in the sky.

"That’s exactly what I was talking about—the strange things about Lyuzhou!

" Shen Yuan also looked at the sky and said in a lowered voice, "Lyuzhou has inexplicably spawned some so-called deities. According to rumors spread by Chen Qing, a disaster has befallen from the heavens, waking the sleeping gods of Lyuzhou to protect the people. Like that giant wolf at the entrance, it’s been labeled as a Gate Deity, said to keep demons out of Lyuzhou City.

In my view, that Gate Deity is probably a demon itself! "

"And this Day Traveling God is even more ridiculous, claimed to be an Underworld deity responsible for capturing wandering spirits, saying that the dead within Lyuzhou’s boundary are all taken into the Underworld to enjoy an Underworld’s lifespan. It’s truly laughable!"

"There’s such a thing?" The others immediately listened with curiosity.

"The key is that it’s being spread convincingly!

" Shen Yuan sneered, "Some common people, I don’t know if they’ve been secretly bribed, actually go around crying the next day spreading rumors that they encountered a dream from a deceased relative, talking about how well they are living in the Underworld.

It’s ridiculous. Chen Qing is using these crooked ways to bewitch people.

He’s already made the people here somewhat blindly follow him, and even some of the teachers are complicit in his tyranny! "

"Why do you say that?" Weichi Feihu took the lead and asked.

"It’s said that the Underworld is busy, needing virtuous and respected scholars to help manage Underworld affairs. Those scholars, who at least grew up reading the sages’ books, actually pretend to be earnest and really spend time every day going to the Underworld to check in for duty... Heh..."

"Uh..."

The three of them looked at each other, finding the situation in Lyuzhou indeed quite unusual.

"Speaking of which, Junior General!" Shen Yuan looked at him eagerly and said, "Has the Imperial Court sent reinforcements?"

"Ah... um... yes, the Imperial Court has sent reinforcements!" Weichi Feihu nodded earnestly.

I’m not lying; the Imperial Court did indeed send us to reinforce Jiangnan; it’s just that the results weren’t very perfect...

"So when do the generals plan to make a move?" Shen Yuan immediately became excited!

He had been impatiently waiting for this day!

"Uh... well..." Weichi Feihu was at a loss for words when suddenly Wei Gongzhan quickly said, "That’s the thing, Minister Shen. The three of us were sent here first to investigate the situation. The Imperial Army has already sealed off Jiangnan, and no demons can escape from here!"

"That’s good, that’s good!" Tears welled up in Shen Yuan’s eyes. He had been living in a daze these days, thinking he would be trapped here forever.

"We need to collect enough intelligence before we can ask for a troop deployment." Wei Gongzhan continued, "I remember before us, the Imperial Court had also sent troops here, led by General Hong and General Wu You. Where are they now?"

Shen Yuan was stunned, then shook his head, "I have only just arrived here and have not heard about this."

"I see..." Wei Gongzhan heard this and his expression became grave, "Then it seems we mustn’t make rash moves and need to find out the situation here. Minister Shen, you’ve been here for many days. Do you have any channels for gathering information?"

"Well..." Shen Yuan was taken aback. All these days, he had been drifting along aimlessly with the refugees, living off handouts—what kind of channels could he have?

But, of course, he couldn’t say that out loud. So he made a show of thinking intently and then said, "Lyuzhou is very peculiar. To obtain more information, I’m afraid you’ll need to infiltrate further. Right now, I’m not yet a Lyuzhou citizen, so what I know is limited."

"How can one become a Lyuzhou citizen?" Wei Gongzhan quickly asked.

"Three ways!" Shen Yuan eagerly explained, "First, as I’ve just mentioned, by enlisting. For you gentlemen, this is the easiest path. You just need to show some of your skills, and you should be able to join the Tiger Guard Army or the Gate Deity Army, becoming Lyuzhou citizens. Second is to sign up to lease land outside the city at Daqing Mountain. It’s said that Lyuzhou is now clearing a large area there for cultivation.

Anyone willing to take over the land can become a Lyuzhou citizen. The third way is..."

"What’s the third way?" Weichi Feihu asked curiously.

"The third..." Shen Yuan’s expression turned somewhat strange, "Is the recruitment event for a school that starts tomorrow. It’s said that anyone who gets admitted into the Lyuzhou Yin Yang Academy can become a Lyuzhou citizen!"

The three were stunned and all exclaimed in unison, "What... what academy?"