Chapter 38: Suspicion
Wang Hu wore a friendly smile as he said to Ruan Jing, "Hero Fang, the Magistrate was concerned that some petty officials might give you a hard time, so he asked me to accompany you..."
In truth, Wang Zhenling was not far away on horseback, still feeling somewhat uneasy.
Although the bait had already been cast for the big fish, such a catch could easily slip away.
Unable to set his mind at ease, Wang Zhenling had simply dispatched Wang Hu with strict instructions to escort these men safely into the county office.
Having never seen Wang Zhenling place such high importance on anyone before, Wang Hu naturally dared not neglect the task!
Following this, Wang Zhenling inspected the various townships. Whenever he encountered refugees, he directed them all to the county seat for relief.
Many commanderies and counties viewed these refugees as an immense burden, fleeing from them in terror.
Wang Zhenling, however, warmly welcomed the refugees, providing immediate relief and settlement on the spot, distributing farmland among them.
Xiaji County was naturally remote, with a vast territory and sparse population. Though nestled in the mountains, it lacked an abundance of prime arable land.
However, two to three thousand original residents of the Xiaji county seat had been slaughtered by the cultivators of Misty Valley.
When Wang Zhenling re-established the county seat, he relocated nearly five thousand people into the new city and cleared fields in its vicinity.
Furthermore, a considerable amount of land had been left vacant by those who migrated from other townships, not to mention the tracts of untilled land available!
Consequently, Wang Zhenling felt zero pressure in settling the refugees.
Remote and isolated as Xiaji County was, the number of refugees drifting here could hardly be massive.
Yet, upon learning of Wang Zhenling's actions, the commandery government seemed to recall the situation in Xiaji County and, after a brief word with Wang Zhenling, began sending a steady stream of refugees directly to the county.
As a result, while the refugee pressure across the various districts of Xiami Commandery was suddenly alleviated, the burden on Wang Zhenling's end grew significantly.
Fortunately, the Commandery Governor, Yuan Fan, was a highly capable man rather than some incompetent superior.
While sending all the wandering refugees from Xiami to be settled in Xiaji County, he did not forget to provide various supplies and material aid.
Since that was the case, Wang Zhenling could only accept all who came.
He reorganized these refugees into household registration and village units, assigning them farmland.
Where existing land fell short, he set them to reclaiming new ground.
For Wang Zhenling, population was invariably a blessing.
Not to mention that population represented a labor force and the foundation of taxation; to him, people were the very source of destiny's fortune.
The greater the population within the county, the more destiny-energy it contributed!
This was the most crucial reason why Wang Zhenling acted in this manner.
Shortly after Wang Zhenling finished his circuit of the townships and returned to the county office, Ruan Jing duly arrived with forty or fifty able-bodied young men—far exceeding the number Wang Zhenling had promised could be taken in that day!
Hearing that Ruan Jing had won the favor of the magistrate, many of the young and capable fighters among the refugees had eagerly followed him to the county office.
Bringing so many people at once left Ruan Jing somewhat apprehensive.
Yet to his surprise, Wang Zhenling did not hesitate in the slightest, immediately absorbing all of them into the county garrison and making arrangements for their settlement.
In fact, Wang Zhenling had long intended to draw upon the experience of his past life during the Song Dynasty, where whenever a major disaster struck, the young and able-bodied men among refugees were recruited into the imperial guard and properly settled.
In this way, with the prime young men of the refugee population extracted and controlled, the remaining elderly, weak women, and children would find it impossible to stage a rebellion...
Of course, that rigid Song Dynasty lacked flexibility; it knew only how to absorb refugees into the army without knowing how to demobilize and resettle them, ultimately breeding the calamity of an bloated military. That was a mistake Wang Zhenling would never repeat!
For now, Wang Zhenling's assignment of these young men into the county garrison was merely a casual measure.
Above all, having finally brought Ruan Jing—who possessed a golden destiny-seed—under his command, Wang Zhenling immediately felt a rising tide lift all boats, causing his own destiny-energy to surge dramatically once more!
Yet while the refugee population could be settled, the wandering ghostly spirits could not!
Over the past two years, You Province had suffered first a major plague and then a severe drought, with the death toll surpassing a million.
Even more terrifyingly, countless county seats had been breached by refugees, releasing the condemned ghosts suppressed within the city gods' nether-prisons.
Trailing in the wake of the wandering refugees were countless wild ghosts!
For the local governments everywhere, this posed the greatest threat.
Fortunately, Xiami Commandery did not directly border You Province, so the flocks of ghosts drifting over were not overly numerous.
Even so, every county in Xiami had raised its guard, remaining on high alert against the potential arrival of powerful ghost hordes!
Yet, for reasons unknown, Wang Zhenling harbored a gut feeling that these wild ghost hordes were bound to strike Xiaji County.
"If these wild ghosts truly attack Xiaji County, then clearly there is far more to this You Province disaster than meets the eye!"
Musing thus to himself, Wang Zhenling had already made all necessary preparations and arrangements in secret, while outwardly continuing business as usual, acting as though completely unprepared!
Amidst this environment of internal vigilance and external nonchalance, a massive horde of wild ghosts crossed commanderies and counties, indeed heading straight toward Xiaji County.
"It seems there is indeed something fishy about this..."
Wang Zhenling sneered inwardly, though fortunately, he was already prepared.
On one hand, he ordered the villagers from all districts to gather within the county seat; on the other, he mobilized his five hundred ghost soldiers and three thousand county garrison troops to protect the city.
Fearing that the densely packed refugees might cause chaos, Wang Zhenling simply picked out every single able-bodied young man among them, formed them into military units, and granted them the best treatment.
Nor did he let them sit idle; he set them to either clearing farmland or constructing new water conservancy projects.
Through relief work in exchange for grain, their labor allowed them to support their wives and children.
And now, pulling these men out meant deploying an army that responded instantly to calls and was ready for battle upon arrival.
Though mere flesh-and-blood mortals, the convergence of several thousand able-bodied young men in one place generated a blazing sea of vital blood-qi and manly vigor.
While they lacked the formal martial spirit and killing momentum born of regular troops, the sheer sea of vigor generated by their collective life-force was already formidable.
While Wang Zhenling made these preparations, a ghost horde—not exceedingly large, yet terrifyingly powerful—was making its way toward Xiaji County.
Wherever it passed, the yin-qi condensed into rolling billows of mist, like a thick fog several miles wide surging relentlessly forward.
In its wake, all living creatures—whether villagers, birds, or beasts—were reduced to rotting corpses.
Fortunately, as they traversed the commanderies and counties along the way, they deliberately avoided alarming the local authorities, keeping their objective strictly focused and choosing paths through barren mountains and wild ridges. Otherwise, the death toll along their journey would have been immeasurable!
At that moment, within the heart of the ghost horde, numerous powerful spectral entities clustered around a ghostly chieftain. The leader's body had condensed to appear almost like that of a living human, and bolts of lightning flashed within his eyes as he gazed toward Xiaji County.