Chapter 276: In Leting There Is a Blue-Sky Lu, Iron-Faced and Impartial~ Discerning the Loyal from the Treacherous~ Ready, Sing!

Missing a roll call, of course, can't be settled so quickly.

What if Clerk Chen simply caught a chill today?

A basic check still had to be done.

Since all the subofficial clerks lived within the county yamen, the check would be very fast.

Li Liye was the first to report back.

"Reporting to Your Honor, this humble one has been to Clerk Chen's residence."

"In Clerk Chen's residence, his wife, children, and elderly family were all gone without a trace. This humble one led men to break down the door and found, on the main hall desk, one blank register, one official seal of the Revenue Office, and two hundred taels of sycee silver."

At these words, a very faint stir rippled through the hall below, but it was instantly crushed dead silent by everyone.

A moment later, a militia guard assigned to the gate was also brought forward. Trembling, he kowtowed and said:

"Replying to the Father-Mother Official, yesterday at the hour of the rooster, just as the gate was about to be barred, Clerk Chen drove a cart out of the city, saying his father-in-law was gravely ill and he needed to take his wife to visit overnight. This humble one saw his manner was hurried, and the city gate was not actually barred yet, so I let him go. From the tracks, he headed for the northern post road." Immediately after, Lu Guangyu also came to report.

"A simple inventory has been taken. The autumn tax silver already collected in the treasury has not been touched by a single cent."

"Only one horse is missing from the stable."

By this point, the matter was perfectly clear.

This Clerk Chen had made quite a decisive call.

Seeing that the new policies were unstoppable, he had, overnight, hung up his seal, sealed the silver, and fled with his whole family.

Leaving the blank register was a gesture of full sincerity; leaving the silver was a token of regard; the excuse of a gravely ill father-in-law was to leave both sides a way out.

Leaving the official seal was normal enough — stealing a seal to flee, after all, would be sheer madness.

By the old official convention of "blending the light with the dust," this was the meaning of "begging for one's bones."

Since the man was gone and the money was intact, the presiding official would usually turn a blind eye, letting a man off where possible, for going too far could easily chill the hearts of those below.

Everyone's gaze stole furtively toward Lu Zhenfei behind the bench.

Would this newly arrived county magistrate take the easy way out?

Lu Zhenfei pondered a moment, then coldly shook his head.

In the past, to gloss over troubles and steady men's hearts, if Clerk Chen ran, he ran.

But now that he had stepped through the gate of the new policies and glimpsed the truth of good governance, he had resolved to throw himself into the fray. He was determined, in this tiny patch of Leting, to implement the new policies, purge entrenched abuses, and launch a transformative enterprise unprecedented since ancient times!

He would let His Majesty see that he, Lu Zhenfei, could achieve what even Hai Rui could not — he would be more Hai Rui than Hai Rui himself!

In purging the subofficial clerks, either don't do it, or do it to the absolute end!

Crack!

The court gavel exploded like winter thunder, making every heart in the hall below lurch.

"From the hour of the rooster yesterday to the hour of the rabbit now — barely six watches. With a family in tow and a loaded cart, he can't have gone fifty li!"

Lu Zhenfei rose abruptly, his gaze like lightning sweeping the hall:

"Liu Boyuan!"

"Your student is here!" Liu Boyuan strode forth boldly.

"You are ordered to take ten militia, each man with two horses, and pursue along the northern post road! Note the cart ruts along the way, inquire of travelers and village houses. If there is no result, return by sundown."

Liu Boyuan nodded, accepted the order, turned and picked ten men. They left the yamen, mounted, and thundered off.

"Wang Moru!"

"Your student is here!"

"You are ordered to take ten militia, likewise each man with two horses, and intercept westward along the post road! The old clerk is cunning — this may well be a feint to the east while striking west. Guard against him doubling back and fleeing west out of Zhili territory! Sundown is also your limit!"

Wang Moru likewise clasped his hands, accepted the order, and departed.

"Zhang Guangyun!"

"Your student is here!"

"Take a squad of men and strike straight for Clerk Chen's old family home in the countryside. Confiscate all his land deeds, account books, private property, and silver for the public treasury! As the saying goes, the monk may run, but the temple cannot. This official means to see exactly how much of the people's fat and marrow he has swallowed over the years!"

Zhang Guangyun grinned, feeling exactly like Zhan Zhao from the storybooks. He gave a crisp bow, turned, took his men, and also thundered off. Three orders in a row, bristling with lethal intent, leaving no room for retreat.

The subofficial clerks below who had still nursed a sliver of wishful thinking were now ashen-faced, their legs quaking.

This Magistrate Lu meant to exterminate them utterly!

Lu Zhenfei lowered his gaze, letting it fall on the remaining heads of the five other offices. His tone was glacial:

"The matter of Clerk Chen has, in fact, given this official a reminder."

"He who hesitates to act when action is due will be undone by the chaos he breeds."

He swept his wide sleeve and pointed to the eastern side hall: "Liye, kindly invite the heads and accounting clerks of every office to take a seat in the east yamen. Tea and water will be plentiful. Whenever they have clearly confessed the rotten accounts in their bellies, then they may come out!"

"Escort them all in!"

Li Liye had long been waiting for these words. At this, he grinned savagely, waved his hand, and barked: "Brothers, invite these gentlemen to tea!"

"Aye!"

A pack of militia surged forward like wolves and tigers, shoving and jostling, and herded the clerks of the Six Offices — men who had thrown their weight around for years — off to the east yamen. The great hall emptied in an instant.

Only the cold wind still howled beyond the gate.

Wu Kongjia had watched this entire scene in silence, quietly learning in his heart.

Then he saw Lu Zhenfei turn to him and say:

"Come, Brother Yuanhui, these are all trifles. Let us go over the regulations once more — that is the real business."

"In three more watches, the township assembly will begin!"

The first quarter of the hour of the snake. Zhang Guangyun sent men to report: Clerk Chen's old home had been fully searched and confiscated. One thousand one hundred and sixty-three mu of land deeds had been seized, along with one hundred and twenty-three taels of silver. The second quarter of the hour of the snake.

Wang Moru sent a fast rider to report: Chen Dezhang and his family had indeed been intercepted at a rustic inn on the westward post road.

The old clerk had first driven his cart north, then midway turned west, planning to circle south and settle first in Shandong — only to be caught squarely in the act! The seven hundred and eighty-two taels he carried had been fully seized. Wang Moru had personally overseen it; no militiaman had dared embezzle a single coin.

The second ke of the hour of wu.

The main gate of the Laoting county yamen swung wide open, and the twenty-seven village headmen, elders, and rotating squad leaders from the surrounding townships arrived one after another.

Lu Yunqian, the rotating squad leader from Gou'ertuo, shrank his neck and slipped through the ceremonial gate, mingling with the crowd.

He had assumed today would be just another routine roll-call to deal with the yamen, and to listen to the usual clichés about pressing for the autumn tax.

But the moment he stepped into the main hall, he sensed something was off.

Those clerks from the Six Offices, who usually sat behind their desks sipping tea with their noses in the air, were nowhere to be seen today.

In their place were the young faces of the county school students.

Lu Yunqian had sharp eyes, and at a single glance he spotted, seated beside His Honor the magistrate, none other than his own senior uncle — Lu Guangyu, a stipend student!

This senior uncle was normally the most aloof of men; why was he sitting today in the seat usually occupied by the subofficial clerks?

His heart was seized with shock and doubt, but he dared not make a sound. He could only stand obediently with his village headman below the dais.

"Heiya hamlet: headman Song Zhengchen, elder Zhao Danian, rotating squad leader Qian San — all three present!"

"Gaojiazhuang hamlet: headman..."

"Zhanggezhuang hamlet: headman..."

As the names were called one by one, all twenty-seven hamlets of Laoting county, a total of eighty-one men, were accounted for, save for one or two elders who had reported illness and sent substitutes. This was the full extent of the Great Ming imperial authority's reach at the grassroots.

Lu Zhenfei sat high upon the dais, swept his gaze over the assembly, and once again slammed the gavel.

"Bring in the accused!"

The accused? Was this not about the autumn grain? How had it turned into a trial?

The assembled villagers looked at one another in bewilderment. Before they could recover, they heard the clanking rattle of iron chains dragging across the ground.

Then, six bedraggled figures were marched into the hall by the bailiffs.

"That... isn't that Master Chen from the Revenue Office?"

"And that's Clerk Liu from the Justice Office!"

"And from the Works Office..."

A wave of barely suppressed exclamations erupted from the crowd.

These men, who on any ordinary day could make the ground shake in the villages just by stamping a foot, were now kneeling on the floor like beaten dogs, their topknots disheveled, their faces ashen. Lu Zhenfei looked coldly down at them and spoke in a deep voice:

"You, as subofficial clerks of the imperial court, were duty-bound to uphold the law and assist in the governance of this county."

"Yet it seems you colluded in malfeasance and preyed upon the villages!"

"Today, in this very hall, before the elders of the entire county, this official shall interrogate each of you thoroughly on the full extent of your years of graft!" "Chen Dezhang! As head clerk of the Revenue Office, you bear the brunt of the blame. Confess at once!"

The head clerk, who had finally been given a name, knelt on the cold blue brick, his body trembling uncontrollably.

He raised his head to look at the lofty Lu Zhenfei, then at the fierce bailiffs flanking him, and the last shred of hope in his heart was extinguished. It was not that Chen Dezhang had not made an effort.

When Magistrate Lu first arrived at his post, Chen had delivered every customary fee without missing a single tael, and had never failed to express his loyalty.

When the government students began taking over the Revenue Office, he had handed over the White Register the very next day, and privately slipped one hundred taels to Adviser Li to sound out the situation. Yet Adviser Li had refused to take the money!

At that moment, he understood that he was destined to be the "chicken" slaughtered to warn the monkeys, and so he had fled in haste that very night. Now that he had failed to escape, there was no longer any chance of turning the tables.

Under the Great Ming Code, after years of revisions, corruption was no longer a capital offense.

But if one truly offended the county magistrate, would it be difficult for him to kill a man through extralegal torture?

The cangue and the rack, the standing cangue and the grueling interrogation — which of these torments could he endure?

— If you confess truthfully, there may yet be some leeway...

Recalling Li Liye's veiled hint from earlier, Chen Dezhang let out a long sigh and kowtowed heavily.

"Old Father-Mother above, this guilty subject... confesses."

"This guilty subject has controlled the Revenue Office for twenty-three years. The tricks of the trade... are far too numerous."

"The first is called 'forging the stamped receipts.'"

"Whenever taxes and grain are collected, a number of stamped receipts are issued. Half should be given to the taxpayer as proof, and half kept at the yamen as a stub. Only when the silver amounts on both match can there be no error. (Similar to tax vouchers — truly, Ming-dynasty paperwork was highly developed.)"

"However, this guilty subject and others would often leave the silver amount blank on the stub, or tear off the page with the receipt number, making it impossible to verify."

"Even worse, we would secretly slip one or two extra sheets into the batch sent for the official seal. If we were lucky enough to get them stamped, we would issue these private receipts to taxpayers, while the stubs and the official seal register bore no trace of them, and the silver went entirely into our own pockets."

"The second is called 'grafting flowers onto a tree.'"

"In the official register, we would change fen into qian, or li into fen, or even directly erase silver that had already been paid, reducing it to nothing."

"For example, if a taxpayer actually paid one tael of silver, we would record only one qian in the register. The remaining nine qian would be divided among this guilty subject and the clerks."

"The third is called 'altering the comparison ledgers.'"

"Colluding with village idlers, we would alter the comparison ledgers on their behalf, marking tax delinquents as having paid in full, and those who had paid as delinquent. Taxes and grain shifted at our whim, inflating and deflating at will." "The fourth is called 'scattering.'"

"We would scatter the regular tax levies onto unowned wasteland, or onto the heads of impoverished and heirless households, forcing them to sell their children, until their land and property fell into our hands..." "The fifth is called 'privately setting silver surcharges.'"

"Seeing villagers who were ignorant of the regulations, we would extort additional meltage fees from them, one or two qian, calling it a public expense, but in truth using it to fund our own gambling and debauchery..." "The sixth is called 'big measures in, small measures out.' When collecting grain we used oversized dou measures, kicking the measure and heaping it into a peak..."

As his account continued, the mood among the many villagers below the dais grew increasingly restless.

Did they really need Chen Dezhang to describe these things, every single one, for them to understand? Who among them had not experienced it firsthand?!

Yet with His Honor the magistrate present, though the crowd buzzed, no one dared to speak out of turn.

Chen Dezhang continued without pause, enumerating over twenty more schemes — meltage fees, register fabrication, spirit gates, storehouse fraud — before gradually falling silent.

Lu Zhenfei's face was expressionless. He slammed the gavel. "Chen Dezhang, entered service in the thirty-second year of Wanli, drew a salary for twenty-three years. According to the Great Ming Code, your illicit gains are assessed at two thousand four hundred taels of silver! Do you plead guilty?" Hearing this, Chen Dezhang felt a weight lift from his heart. This assessed sum would indeed nearly ruin his family, but at least it left him with a sliver of a foundation.

This magistrate, after all, had kept his word and truly left some leeway.

He kowtowed again. "This guilty subject admits his guilt and accepts the penalty, with no objection whatsoever."

"Make your mark!"

Li Liye slapped a sheet of paper filled with a confession before Chen Dezhang, who pressed his fingerprint onto it with a trembling hand.

Lu Zhenfei's gaze shifted, stabbing like a sharp sword at the head clerk of the Justice Office, Liu Cheng, who knelt to the side.

"Liu Cheng of the Punishment Office — your turn."

Liu Cheng's body trembled violently, but he dared not confess everything the way Chen Dezhang had.

He knew perfectly well: Chen Dezhang had been greedy for money, but what he himself had been greedy for was lives.

Over the years, the life-for-money cases on his hands numbered no fewer than ten. If he confessed, by law the lightest sentence would be imprisonment awaiting the autumn assizes, and he might even be exiled three thousand li. Better to gamble that His Honor had no solid evidence than to confess and face certain death!

"What's this? Refusing to speak?"

"It seems you imagine that everything you've done was hidden from gods and men alike?"

Liu Cheng still steeled himself and said, "Venerable Father, see clearly — this insignificant one is wronged! This insignificant one may have minor faults, but absolutely no great crimes. I beg Venerable Father—" "Wronged?"

Lu Zhenfei gave a cold laugh. He could not be bothered to listen to his excuses.

Since when did an official of the Great Ming actually need evidence to decide a case? A confession — that was the hardest evidence there was!

He had come prepared to beat a man to death right here in court today.

"I see you won't shed tears until you see the coffin! Guards!"

"Here!" the militia men on both sides roared in unison.

"First, twenty strokes of the discipline staff!"

Liu Cheng had not expected this newly arrived county magistrate to resort to torture at the first sign of resistance. Terrified out of his wits, he was about to beg for mercy when two wolf-fierce, tiger-savage militia men pinned him face-down to the ground.

"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"

The heavy water-and-fire staffs landed solidly on Liu Cheng's back. Every stroke split skin and tore flesh.

In the bitter winter cold, Liu Cheng's padded jacket had already been stripped off beforehand.

By the time the twenty strokes were done, his back was a mass of mangled blood and flesh.

One inexperienced militiaman brought his staff down off-target and struck Liu Cheng's leg bone, snapping it outright.

Blood seeped out but had no time to flow before the biting wind froze it solid. Red icicles clung to the tattered clothing — a ghastly, shocking sight. "Aaaah—! Venerable Father, spare my life! Spare me!" Liu Cheng screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

Lu Zhenfei sat upon the dais, his expression as unmoved as a mountain, and spat out a single cold word:

"Still begging for your life — it seems you still harbor foolish hopes. Bring the finger press."

Without a word, the militia men brought out the finger press, already prepared, and fitted it over Liu Cheng's fingers.

"Tighten!"

As the ropes were suddenly drawn taut, the tooth-grinding sound of bone scraping against bone echoed through the great hall.

"Crack—"

"AARGH!!!"

Liu Cheng's eyes bulged out, the veins on his forehead twisting like earthworms. The searing agony nearly made him faint, but a gust of cold wind brought him back to lucidly feel every ounce of the pain.

Sweat mixed with blood streamed down, stinging his wounds all the more fiercely.

Below the dais, the clerks of the other four offices had long since turned ashen, trembling uncontrollably, not daring to so much as breathe loudly.

They had seen interrogations before, but someone like Lu Zhenfei — who went straight to torture after a single unanswered question — this was the first time they had ever witnessed it! This was no county magistrate; this was a living King of Hell!

So ruthlessly harsh — did he not fear ruining his official reputation?

Had they known that the Yongchang Emperor, faced with dozens of impeachment memorials, had forcefully shielded the Shuntian Prefecture Judge Wang Zhaodui back then, they would not have been so astonished.

"Still not confessing?"

Lu Zhenfei's voice remained calm, yet it cut deeper than the winter wind. "This official has all the time in the world to spend with you. Guards—" Liu Cheng was far weaker than he had imagined.

The methods he had once prided himself on — once turned back upon his own person — he could not endure them at all.

And these damned militia men, their technique was simply too crude.

Who in the world operated a finger press by bracing their feet against the ground and yanking backward with full force? Absolutely no technical skill whatsoever!

Liu Cheng watched that simple-faced militiaman — whose expression even held a trace of trepidation — close in on him again, and finally broke down completely. Tears and snot streaming, he cried out in a hoarse voice:

"Stop pressing! I beg Venerable Father, stop pressing!"

"I confess! I confess! I'll confess everything!"

Lu Zhenfei gave a cold laugh and waved the militia men back for the moment.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to speak earlier? Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit."

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze boring into Liu Cheng, who had collapsed limp as mud. "Speak, then! Every case, every deed — spit it all out clean for this official!" Liu Cheng gasped for breath, the agony wracking his body leaving him no courage to conceal anything further.

"This guilty subject... this guilty subject exploited his office to regularly practice the art of 'impersonating officials to extort.'"

"Whenever we came upon a well-to-do household, or one with hidden troubles, this guilty subject would collude with market-place ruffians, forge arrest warrants, and go to their door disguised as official runners."

"We would then threaten to destroy their family with charges of 'aiding bandits' or 'harboring stolen goods.'"

"Terrified of facing the authorities, they would invariably seek a private settlement. This guilty subject and his associates would extort heavy bribes, calling it 'settlement fees,' when in truth we simply divided the money among ourselves."

Lu Zhenfei raised an eyebrow. "What... just one charge? The circumstances? The names? That's all? Guards—"

"Venerable Father! Venerable Father, wait — there is more, there is more! This guilty subject will tell all!" Seeing the militia men about to advance again, Liu Cheng shook his head frantically in terror. "For example, Liu Zhen south of the city — his household secretly worshipped a dark deity. Through the local thug Liang Guangyao as go-between, this guilty subject sent plainclothes runners posing as official constables, falsely accusing him of aiding the White Lotus sect." "Liu Zhen could not clear himself and offered three hundred taels of silver. After this guilty subject and the others got the silver, we never filed any case — we simply divided the silver among ourselves..."

So there is a White Lotus sect presence here after all? Lu Zhenfei noted this inwardly and filed it away, but the gavel in his hand never paused—

"Continue! What this official has uncovered is far more than just this one story!" Liu Cheng shook like a winnowing sieve and went on:

"There is also... also the matter of 'prison abuses' that cost lives!"

"When any prisoner entered the jail, they first had to pay 'cell-sweeping silver,' or else they would be thrown into the filth pit. Every day they had to pay 'rice money' and 'wine money.' The slightest refusal, and their water and food would be cut off."

"Worse still, this guilty subject often set up 'soft confinement' — nominally preferential treatment, but in reality detaining wealthy prisoners to extort their families. If the family's money arrived a little late, we would apply the 'standing cage' or the 'iron coat' punishments..."

"That old man Li west of the city — just because he could not produce five mace of 'settlement silver,' this guilty subject... this guilty subject had men pour water over him on a winter night, freezing him alive to death, and reported it only as 'death by sudden illness'..."

"And the Widow Zhang... the Zhao family's second son..."

If the abuses in the Revenue Office earlier were common knowledge to many in the villages,

then the methods of the Punishment Office were something most people had never encountered. One by one, the listeners felt their hands and feet turn cold, a chill settling deep in their hearts.

Lu Zhenfei heard it all, then brought the gavel down with a heavy slam.

"Make your mark!"

The bailiff threw the confession down before Liu Cheng. Liu Cheng, hands trembling, pressed his blood-soaked finger onto the paper and left his print.

With Liu Cheng dealt with, Lu Zhenfei's gaze swept toward the remaining four.

Works, Rites, Personnel, and War — in terms of graft, none were as heavy as the Revenue Office; in terms of lives taken, none were as terrifying as the Justice Office.

None of them dared try any more of that "deny to the death" game.

Before Lu Zhenfei could even open his mouth, the four office clerks were already falling over each other, kowtowing like pestles pounding garlic.

"Old Father-Mother! This lowly one confesses! This lowly one confesses everything!"

"This lowly one, the Personnel Office…"

"This lowly one, the Works Office…"

With Liu Cheng's example before them, who still dared harbor the slightest hope of luck? At this moment, all they wanted was to empty the rotten accounts in their bellies as fast as possible, to spare themselves the torment of the flesh!

"The Personnel Office confesses! This guilty subject exploited his authority over selection and appointment, engaging in rampant fraud."

"Whenever a vacancy arose, he would first extort a 'vacancy fee'; only when the money arrived would he fill the post. Worse still, this guilty subject often slipped the names of dead men into the rosters, fraudulently drawing their stipends — a practice called 'eating empty quotas'…"

Lu Zhenfei slammed the bench. "Embezzlement: eight hundred taels!"

"The Works Office confesses! This guilty subject, when repairing river embankments and city walls, falsified material reports and commuted corvée labor into silver. Out of every ten taels of silver, a full three went into his private purse…" Lu Zhenfei slammed the bench again. "Embezzlement: six hundred taels!"

"The Rites Office confesses! The Confucian school stipends, the sacrificial offerings — all were skimmed…"

"The War Office confesses! Falsified militia headcounts, eating empty pay…"

Lu Zhenfei slammed — slam, slam, slam!

Case after case, each more shocking than the last.

Throughout the great hall, nothing remained but the sound of the criminals' confessions and the rising and falling of the judicial gavel.

By the time all six had made their marks and confessed, an hour had already passed.

Lu Zhenfei slowly rose to his feet, his gaze sweeping over the crowd below the bench.

"As the saying goes, a new official lights three fires."

"This official's first fire shall burn every last scrap of filth from this yamen clean! Only thus shall I prove worthy of His Majesty's sacred grace, and worthy of the people of Leting!"

He flung his sleeve back fiercely and raised a hand toward heaven.

"Henceforth, should there be any further surcharges, extortions, or shakedowns — no matter who the culprit — any one of you may bring a written complaint directly to me!"

"This official shall adjudicate it the very same day, and pursue the investigation the very same day! I shall never permit any corrupt, people-preying wretch to stand again beneath this plaque of 'Brilliant Mirror Hanging High'!"

In the past, when new officials took office, did any of them deal with the underlings?

Of course they did! How could any not?

Every County Magistrate, upon assuming his post, was bound to assemble the villagers and proclaim the rules and prohibitions.

Prohibitions on paying homage visits, prohibitions on gift-giving, prohibitions on backdoor dealings, prohibitions on private denunciations, prohibitions on customary fees, prohibitions on welcoming and sending-off, prohibitions on extravagance, prohibitions on attendants and runners demanding bribes. Yet these prohibitions were proclaimed in the morning and discarded by evening; the official himself forbade them, while his own kin and friends violated them.

In the end, it was merely the clerks and underlings following old routines to deceive the official, while the official made a show of reform to deceive the common folk!

Were not all the affairs under heaven just a matter of putting on a performance, muddling through, and calling it done?

Yet these villagers had seen County Magistrates of every stripe.

But never in all their lives had they seen a County Magistrate who, the moment he took office, beat the underlings half to death without a care for the consequences.

If you could pick out a few clerks and accountants, give them a scolding, fine them some silver, and dismiss them — that alone was enough to make people cry out "Benevolent Lord, Blue Sky!"

After a brief, deathly silence —

"Heaven has eyes! My poor nephew, wrongly dead — you can close your eyes now!"

From the crowd, no one knew who cried out first. That single wail, like an ant hole breaching a dike, instantly detonated years of pent-up emotion in everyone's hearts.

"Well done! Kill every last one of these beasts who devour men without spitting out the bones!"

"Our Leting is saved! Saved at last!"

"This is no mere county official — this is a living bodhisattva! A living Lord Bao!"

"Thirty years — at last the sky over Leting shows a glimmer of light…"

Weeping, cursing, laughter, cheers — they mingled into one beneath the great hall, like rolling waves of heat, driving away the bitter cold of deep winter.

Then, as if drawn by some invisible force, these chaotic voices converged into a single rhythm, a single name.

"Lu the Blue Sky!"

"Lu the Blue Sky!"

"Lu the Blue Sky!"

The eighty-one village heads, elders, and tithing captains fell to their knees as one. Their voices surged like a tide, shaking the roof tiles, soaring straight into the clouds.

Wu Kongjia, standing to the side, looked at the expressionless Lu Zhenfei, then at the surging fervor below the bench. Suddenly, something seemed to dawn on him.

So this is how a County Magistrate is meant to be?