Entering from the northern border of Yu State, not a few villages had been ravaged, with an unknown number of villagers killed.
In one village, Lin Zhan looked at the houses emitting thick smoke and the corpses strewn about, his face extrely grim.
"Mr. Si! Only one child is still alive!" A guard, holding a wailing infant wrapped in swaddling, ca before Lin Zhan.
This guard was from the Yang family, and since Lin Zhan was brought up by the Yang family and was a disciple of Yang Zhenshan, younger than Ming Cheng, Ming Zhi, and Ming Hao, the Yang family’s servants and guards thus addressed him as Mr. Si.
Looking at the child in his arms, Lin Zhan’s eyes reddened instantly; he thought of himself, and also of Wang Mingzhe, who was also that small back then.
If it weren’t for Yang Zhenshan taking them in, he might have starved to death a long ti ago, and Wang Mingzhe would definitely have died of hunger, for Wang Yunqiao alone could not have supported him.
"Take good care of him; from now on, he will be my disciple!"
"Yes!" The guard carefully took the swaddling.
Lin Zhan, looking at the scattered corpses, glinted with a chilly gleam.
"Let’s go, we’ll head to the city first!"
He had no ti to bury the dead villagers; the pressing matter was to rush to the city as soon as possible and then organize soldiers and able-bodied n to exterminate those pirates still at large.
A group of more than twenty people galloped on the official road, arriving near Yu State City around noon.
The gates of Yu State City were tightly shut, with many soldiers on guard on the city walls.
Lin Zhan rode to the gates and looked up at the soldiers on the walls.
"Who approaches the city?" The soldiers guarding the city shouted from above.
"I am the newly appointed Prefect of Yu State, Lin Zhan," shouted Lin Zhan loudly.
The soldiers on the wall discussed among themselves upon hearing this and then said, "Please wait a mont, Mr. Lin. Allow to report this first."
Lin Zhan nodded, feeling neither displeasure nor impatience, but instead let out a slight sigh of relief.
With soldiers guarding the city, it ant that Yu State City had not completely lost control, which was undoubtedly good news in the current situation.
After about a quarter of an hour, a middle-aged man wearing cotton armor ca in front of the gatehouse. He first looked at Lin Zhan and his companions, then shouted, "Please place the docunt of your appointnt in the basket!"
With that, a basket was lowered from the city wall. Lin Zhan took out the docunt from the Ministry of Personnel and had a guard place it in the basket.
Another half-quarter of an hour passed, and the closed city gates opened, with the middle-aged man in cotton armor leading a dozen soldiers erging from the gate.
"Hai State Guard Left Thousand Households Li Boran pays respects to Mr. Lin; please forgive any disrespect earlier!" Li Boran stepped forward and bowed.
Lin Zhan dismounted and helped Li Boran up, "There’s no need for such formalities, Thousand Households Li."
Li Boran stood up and sized up Lin Zhan. However, when he clearly saw Lin Zhan’s young visage, he couldn’t help but be slightly startled and feel a touch of bitterness in his heart.
Too young; why had the court sent such a young official.
Indeed, Lin Zhan was young, rely twenty-six years old. Even though he had grown a beard, he still looked very young.
In the current situation in Yu State, Li Boran would have preferred the court send a mature and steady Prefect to take charge.
Clearly, Lin Zhan did not match his expectations of being mature and steady.
"Mr. Lin, let us enter the city first!" Li Boran said.
Lin Zhan nodded slightly and then remounted his horse to enter the city.
The situation in the city was fairly good, although many places were burnt down, the streets were relatively clean, but every household had hung white silk.
"Mr. Lin, the Prefectural Governnt office has been burned down, and we have temporarily found an inn as our working place!"
Li Boran led Lin Zhan to an inn, which naturally had no guests, only so soldiers and officials; it looked sowhat disordered.
"The situation is quite complicated and conditions are sowhat crude. Please forgive us, Mr. Lin," Li Boran said softly while also observing Lin Zhan’s expression.
Lin Zhan just nodded slightly, speaking calmly, "Please arrange a place for these brothers of mine to rest, Thousand Households Li."
Seeing Lin Zhan did not disdain the place, Li Boran slightly relaxed, but then he said, "The rooms here are all occupied, but there are a few side rooms that can be cleared out!"
"It’s alright; a place to sleep will do. We can make do by squeezing together," Lin Zhan said nonchalantly, waving his hand.
Li Boran hurriedly had people make the arrangents and soon cleared out three rooms for Lin Zhan and his group. Surely there were no beds; everyone could only spread out bedding on the ground, but since it wasn’t cold in Yu State now, it was sowhat bearable to sleep.
Once the accommodations were arranged and the luggage was put down, Lin Zhan and the others imdiately went to the inn’s great hall.
At this ti, there were a dozen people in the hall. Li Boran introduced, "This is the newly appointed Prefect of Yu State, Mr. Lin!"
Lin Zhan cooperated by taking out his appointnt docunt and passed it around to everyone.
"Hai State Guard Deputy Thousand Households Wang Ruixuan pays respects to Mr. Lin!"
"Yu State Deputy Magistrate Zhang Yu pays respects to the Prefect!"
Several people bowed and greeted in sequence.
After listening to everyone’s self-introduction, Lin Zhan’s gaze fell on the Deputy Magistrate of Yu State, Zhang Yu.
"Mr. Zhang, tell us about the Prefectural Governnt office first!"
The Prefectural Governnt office was burned down; the forr Prefect and his family, including many officials, soldiers, and Civilian fighters in the governnt office, were killed.
Currently in Yu State City, the highest official was Zhang Yu, the Secondary Sixth-Rank Deputy Magistrate.
Zhang Yu, pale-faced, said, "Replying to Mr. Lin, the Prefectural Governnt office now has nothing left. Eighteen officials were killed, and more than thirty soldiers and Governnt Officials. Apart from a few clerks and record-keepers, only Mr. Ning and I are left!"
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