My lord, spare his life!

That's quite unusual.

After a long while, the nephew uttered this sentiment.

To put it bluntly, the Eastern Army was a group of bandits who committed all sorts of evil deeds and ruled their own mountain strongholds. Both his uncle and he himself had negotiated with the Eastern Army on behalf of their former master. They were well aware of their behavior. Among a group of bandits who considered human flesh a delicacy, who would suddenly appear claiming to love the people like their own children?

This is somewhat of a joke.

He Zhi asked, "Is she really from the Eastern Frontier Army?"

The nephew was stunned for a moment.

"It should be..."

The tone was not very confident.

After all, all this information was brought by Lü Yuan. A flash of inspiration struck his nephew, and he instantly thought of several suspicious points. He personally overturned his own judgment: "...Perhaps not. The first person to bring news of the change of leadership in the Eastern Fan Army was Lü Bafeng, and Lü Bafeng's contact with the Eastern Fan Army was because the Eastern Fan Army sent a letter requesting assistance, hoping that their allies would lend a helping hand."

Lu Yuan was dispatched from Chesi County.

Here comes the problem-

How credible are Lü Yuan's words?

The former master trusted his adopted daughter quite a bit. Only after several attempts to persuade him did he reluctantly test Lü Bafeng with alcohol. Afterwards, disregarding his objections, he dispelled his doubts and chose to continue trusting his adopted daughter. What was the result of this trust? Lü Yuan launched a coup some time ago.

The former master was replaced by someone who was neither alive nor dead.

Therefore, not a single word of Lü Yuan's words can be believed.

My nephew told me this detail.

"That explains it. Even if she is now the leader of the Eastern Army, she was definitely not originally from the Eastern Army. The real Eastern Army was probably wiped out by her as a political achievement." He Zhi tore off the "Leader of the Eastern Army" label from Zhang Yang's head and put on another label. "In that case, she must be from a respectable family."

I wouldn't dare say that all good people are good, but the probability of finding a normal person among them is definitely higher than in the quagmire of the Eastern Frontier Army.

"But with that handwriting, it's clear the family isn't wealthy."

It's not difficult to get Zhang Yang's calligraphy.

He Zhi saw it and found that it had not been tainted by any trace of a master calligrapher; it was a very childlike and simple style.

This also precisely illustrates that Zhang Yang's family background was not wealthy or prestigious before he rose to prominence; he must have come from a humble background or was among the common people.

Among the warlords of that chaotic era, his starting point was not high.

"The 'Eastern Envoy' who had close ties with Lü Bafeng was surnamed Xiao, from the prestigious Xiao clan," the nephew added.

He Zhi: "Was she supported by the Xiao family?"

Leaning against the big tree is good for the coolness.

Warlords invariably rise to power with the support of powerful families or local magnates; it's a mutually beneficial arrangement where each side gets what they need. He Zhi recalled the sphere of influence of the prestigious Xiao family and guessed that Zhang Yang's territory wasn't in the middle of this area, but rather not far away.

That was indeed a good location to start a business.

The nephew speculated and analyzed: "Perhaps so... She is quite skilled in martial arts, but it's unclear exactly how strong she is. The two people who helped Lü Bafeng defend the city and kill all the children of the former master that night, in terms of individual strength, seemed to be no weaker than Lü Bafeng... For such a fierce general to willingly be driven by a young lord, it's hard to say that there wasn't a powerful family acting as a go-between, helping to bring them together..."

He Zhi simply listened without responding.

Nephew: "It's ultimately a good thing."

He Zhi sighed, "Yes."

As the saying goes, it's good to have a big tree to lean on for shade.

Without the backing of a patron, providing funds and resources, it's incredibly difficult for warlords to accumulate initial capital. They lack the resources to experiment and make mistakes, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they squander every last penny. Who would heed the call of an unknown, hot-headed youth? But with the endorsement of a powerful clan, things are different. There will always be gamblers who give the Xiao family face, trust their judgment, and place their bets accordingly.

Neither the uncle nor the nephew were people who couldn't endure hardship.

But they also knew how fragile a power without a foundation was.

You can't afford to lose even once; one failure means total defeat.

Having Xiao's endorsement is naturally a good thing.

When they ran out of money, they would just rummage through Xiao's pockets.

The uncle and nephew did not keep their conversation hidden from the young child, who listened halfway and vaguely concluded that the grandmother was very powerful and that the father, mother and brother all had to listen to her.

dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the door.

Then came an unfamiliar female voice: "It's me."

Before the uncle and nephew could recognize each other, He Zhi's daughter's eyes lit up, and she jumped up from the bed: "Grandma is here!"

The young grandmother opened the door without the master's permission, ruffled the hair of the girl who ran over, and dismissed the child with a single sentence: "Go play, Grandma will give you a gift next time we meet."

The child was gently sent out of the door by a mysterious force.

Uncle and nephew He Zhi: "..."

This attitude doesn't seem like that of a loving grandmother.

He Zhi chuckled at the thought that popped into his head. On the surface, he stood up with the help of his nephew, and the two men, both suffering from anemia, bowed to Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang accepted the NPC's courtesy without hesitation.

To be fair, game designers do know what makes a game enjoyable.

As the chosen one, the player should be the center of everything.

"Don't be shy, you two sit down. Let me check your injuries." Zhang Yang looked at the uncle and nephew's depleted health bars and felt no remorse. Instead, he marveled at the diversity of the game designers' ideas.

Although the uncle and nephew were not dressed in mourning clothes, they were as frail as paper figures that could not withstand the wind. They were covered in illness and lacked energy, giving them a pitiful and broken appearance.

He Zhi was thin and frail. He had previously vomited blood in anger and had been depressed for many years. Now, his face was almost transparently pale, his lips were bloodless, and he was breathing very softly. He slumped over, his eyes showing only the weariness of being weak and anemic. His nephew He Wen, standing beside him, was in even worse shape. He had been imprisoned for many days, unable to eat or sleep properly, and upon his release, he had been so angry that he vomited blood.

Even when sitting upright, he had to support himself on his knees; he was as frail as a candle flickering in the wind.

All of them suffer from insufficient qi and blood, resulting in a haggard appearance and dejected spirit.

Their clothes were all dressed in a very simple and plain style.

Zhang Yang could confidently speculate that the game designers who created these two uncle-nephew NPCs were essentially after the widower's character. Zhang Yang somewhat understood why Lu Yuan was at odds with them.

Because with their limited fighting skills, they can only reason with people.

Honest and easy to bully.

Lu Yuanhun is quite ruthless and prefers to talk about fists.

"Thank you for your concern, my lord. I am much better now."

He was, after all, a person with abundant star power. Even if he didn't have legs as strong as Lü Yuan's, he wouldn't be completely unable to get up after spitting out a mouthful of blood; at most, he would be weak for a few days. However, the uncle and nephew hadn't yet figured out Zhang Yang's true strength, so they wanted to use his illness as an excuse to observe him for a few days first.

"It's good that you're feeling better. I happen to have some things I need to trouble you two with." Zhang Yang didn't like to use roundabout methods when communicating with NPCs. Having dealt with players for many years, she knew that when issuing a quest, you had to state your needs directly and without beating around the bush.

Some players are too lazy to read the story content when doing quests; they only want to know the quest location, quest objectives, and completion criteria.

The uncle and nephew exchanged a knowing glance.

"Please speak, my lord."

Zhang Yang's mission requirements were very simple.

"I hope one of you can assist Bafeng in stabilizing the carriage market." Zhang Yang planned to have Xiao Sui stay here, but she couldn't be used as many people as he could. "We killed too many people on the night of the mutiny, and we don't have enough."

The uncle and nephew's lips twitched slightly.

It would be strange if Che Si County's current roster was adequate.

The former master not only appointed his own children, but also preferred to use father-son and father-daughter relationships to bind interests, and some important talents were taken in as his children. On the day of the Lu Yuan coup, he sent people to eliminate them all, and naturally many positions in the upper echelons of Chesi County became vacant.

Now there's no one to do the work?

Lu Yuan promoted his trusted confidants to fill the vacancies, but he couldn't fill them all in one go.

"And the other one?"

Zhang Yang only said that one of them would stay.

The other one definitely needs to be taken to the old lair to get acquainted with.

Zhang Yang said, "Come back with me and we'll amend the laws."

Without a second thought, He Wen passed the task on to his uncle.

Should my uncle work with Lu Yuan?

I have no idea how she's going to humiliate me.

It would be better for me to stay and let my uncle go.

My uncle is quick-witted and better at handling unexpected situations.

He Zhi: "..."

Shouldn't his nephew listen to what he'd just said? He's practically a hostage delivered to his doorstep! He Wen staying is exactly what Lü Bafeng wanted. He Zhi closed his eyes, thinking that the new master wouldn't indulge Lü Yuan like the old one, so Lü Yuan probably wouldn't dare to act recklessly.

"My lord, are you referring to the law?"

"How can there be two sets of rules within one person's territory? If someone from Che Si commits a crime in Tian Yue, are we supposed to have Che Si extradite them back and deal with it? Naturally, we need one set of rules to make it easier to eliminate misunderstandings. But I've looked at both the Dou Law and the Tian Shi Law, and neither of them works. They're like two piles of shit." Zhang Yang felt a surge of anger when he talked about this.

The dipper used by the celestial bellows has long been rendered useless.

The counties in the mountains originally belonged to the Tianshi Kingdom and naturally used the Tianshi Law. However, since this area was occupied by warlords, it has long been an independent country, and the laws used are all modified and altered based on the Tianshi Law, eventually becoming unrecognizable and even contradictory.

All laws and regulations are in the favor of the upper echelons.

The county court could also temporarily amend laws and regulations when judging cases.

"I asked Bafeng, and she said the original Tian Shi Law clearly stated, 'Those who sell poisoned meat shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane; those who cause death by selling poisoned meat shall be hanged.' I also asked Xiuying, and she said, 'Those who sell counterfeit or poisonous products that cause diarrhea, vomiting, or discomfort shall be fined ten times the amount and sentenced to three years of penal servitude.' If someone dies, they will also be hanged. However, I looked at the county's case files, and the most severe punishment was only thirty strokes of the cane..."

For a lighter case, a few taps with a stick will suffice.

The key point is that the person who was flogged thirty times appeared in several case files and different cases. There were twelve clearly recorded deaths, four of which involved a family of four, including an elderly parent and two young children, who were all poisoned to death and did not even receive compensation.

This was incomprehensible to Zhang Yang.

"According to this law, if someone poisons the county magistrate, the county assistant magistrate, the prefect, and the prefectural assistant magistrate, does that mean they only have to be given 120 strokes of the cane? That's not how debts are settled after death." Zhang Yang always felt that the atmosphere of the side map of the homestead was more hellish than the main storyline.

Here's a corny joke: the main story map is teeming with alien beasts, zombies, insectoids, and even extraterrestrial threats, yet the survivor base uses the same set of laws, which are effectively enforced. As for the homestead side map… this must be a deliberate design choice by the game developers.

Having considered this, Zhang Yang decided to revise the rules.

"I'll leave this to you." Zhang Yang skillfully issued tasks to NPCs without even asking if they could do it; they had to do it even if they couldn't.

He Zhi's lips twitched.

He actually wanted to refuse.

It's not that he's incapable, but that he feels it's a waste of effort.

Throughout these chaotic periods, warlords typically addressed this issue by simply taking a template, modifying regulations that were detrimental to their own governance, even if the regulations contradicted each other, as the final interpretation rested with the leader. Wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice were commonplace, and no one cared. As long as the overall power remained stable, no one concerned themselves with these minor details.

How should we manage it?

How many years does it take for a set of laws to be revised and actually implemented?

A warlord regime typically lasts only a few years, a decade, or two or three decades. Once the land changes hands, who will still follow the old ways? So, as long as things are acceptable, there's no need to waste precious energy on trivial matters that are not controversial.

If Zhang Yang dislikes the revised laws, he can find the original versions of the Dou Law or the Tianshi Law, which are barely acceptable.

"You don't want to?"

Zhang Yang's tone was somewhat impatient.

"It's not that I'm unwilling, but I fear my limited knowledge and skills will disappoint my lord."

"This is not quite what Bafeng said. She said you are talented, but you said you are not very talented. So do you actually have any talent?" Zhang Yang carefully checked He Zhi's data panel.

A pair of peach blossom eyes revealed a cold suspicion and dissatisfaction.

He Zhi: "..."

He felt a fire rising in his heart again.

Zhang Yang said, "In short, I only care about the results."

It was He Zhi's honor to be given the task. As for how He Zhi would carve patterns on one pile of shit and another, that was not Zhang Yang's concern; it was He Zhi himself who should be concerned.

"……yes."

Zhang Yang was finally satisfied.

He was also instructed to assist Lu Yuan in stabilizing the car dealership.

After issuing two tasks, Zhang Yang left satisfied.

The two men left behind, He Zhi and his nephew, looked increasingly grim.

No matter how incompetent the old master was, he would still outwardly treat his subordinates with courtesy. The new master, however, doesn't even bother with courtesy; his treatment of subordinates has a strange quality to it, he doesn't even pretend. Anyone with a strong temper would have already cursed him as stupid and ignorant and stormed off.

But they, uncle and nephew—

The uncle and nephew exchanged a glance and smiled bitterly.

Lu Yuan wouldn't let He Zhi take his daughter away, and He Zhi only had this one bloodline in his life, so he couldn't leave easily. He Wen and his uncle depended on each other for survival, and the two had a life-or-death bond, so naturally they didn't want to leave either. And if they left, there would be nowhere good for them to go.

"well--"

Thinking about it, it turns out that only "endurance" is left.

Zhang Yang's attitude just now had largely eroded the goodwill that the uncle and nephew had just developed, but they dared not show any resentment on the surface.

Lu Yuan didn't expect Zhang Yang to leave so soon.

"Why don't you stay a little longer, Mother? I've taken a look. Now that we have the Imperial Throne City, we can take a short rest and send people to feign an attack on the Imperial Clan Court or the Imperial Clan Head, while we can send our main force out of the Imperial Throne City to launch a surprise attack on their rear. We'll definitely be able to gradually take over one of the prefectures."

Strike while the iron is hot.

She also desperately needed a victory to restore the prestige lost in the coup.

"If we don't touch the two counties of Zongzheng and Zongren, the county of Huanguan or the nearby county of Hu will also work; they are all persimmons that can be squeezed."

Zhang Yang: "We'll do it all, but not now."

"Does your stepmother think the time isn't right?"

"No, it's because the time for Uncle Yan's descent into madness is approaching. If we don't go back soon, he'll probably be consumed by lust and die of dehydration..." Zhang Yang was completely unaware of the lewd things he had said.

"Burning with lust?"

"He's a lustful devil."

"Oh~ then she is indeed a bit clingy."

??(σ???)σ..:*☆