A family of loyal martyrs, starting with nine wives to continue the family line.

Lin Shimao and Liu Suan arrived in Jingzhou on the same day.

There were no welcoming officials, and no celebratory banquet.

When the carriage drove through the devastated streets and stopped in front of the Jiangling County government office, all that greeted them was an empty office and the quiet afternoon sunlight.

Liu Suan got out of the car first. He glanced at the open gate of the government office, the threshold covered in dust, and a cold smile, as expected, curled at the corner of his mouth.

He turned around and looked at the newly appointed top scholar who was getting off the carriage.

Lin Shimao was wearing a brand-new seventh-rank official robe, which made his figure appear even thinner under the wide robe.

Looking at the desolate scene before him, he showed no anger, panic, or helplessness as Liu Suan had expected.

He simply stood there calmly and watched for a while.

"Let's go," Lin Shimao said to Liu Suan, then took the lead and stepped over the threshold.

The main hall of the yamen was completely empty.

The gavel was covered in a layer of dust. The desks that should have been full of clerks were now occupied by only two or three elderly clerks, all over fifty years old and pale with fright, huddled in a corner, not daring to breathe.

Everyone in the Jingzhou officialdom knew that the newly arrived county magistrate was a knife that His Majesty had used to stab the Liu family in their lair.

Anyone who gets close to him is going against the entire powerful taxi gentry family of Jingzhou.

Therefore, the day before Lin Shimao took office, ninety percent of the clerks in the county government office submitted their resignations.

This is a show of force.

It was a silent yet most direct form of resistance from the officialdom of Jingzhou.

They wanted to let this newly arrived top scholar know that without them, he couldn't even send out the simplest official document.

Liu Suan stood in the center of the hall, observing Lin Shimao's reaction with great interest.

He wanted to see how this top scholar, praised by His Majesty as "clean," would deal with this predicament.

Was it to slam the table and rise up, then use that "execute first, report later" imperial edict to arrest people?

Should we humble ourselves and invite back those resigning clerks one by one?

Lin Shimao did nothing.

He walked up to the two elderly clerks who were so frightened they were practically crawling under the table, and asked gently:

"Gentlemen, where are the case files from previous years kept in the yamen?"

One of the old clerks pointed shakily to the storeroom in the back hall.

Thank you.

Lin Shimao thanked him and then had another old clerk bring a chair from the corner and place it behind the main desk in the center of the hall.

Then, he carried the dusty files out of the warehouse by himself, trip after trip.

Liu Suan just watched.

Watching the young magistrate pile stacks of yellowed files on his desk, then sit down, light an oil lamp, and begin to read them one by one, I was struck by the sight.

He was so focused that it was as if the whole world consisted only of him and the old cases in front of him.

Liu Suan found it somewhat amusing.

Is he trying to spite someone? Or is he putting on a show for his "deputy"?

But as he looked at it, the smile on his face gradually faded.

Lin Shimao wasn't acting out of spite, nor was he putting on an act.

He was telling everyone in the simplest and most direct way that even if he was the only one left in the yamen, he could still take on the job of running Jiangling County.

The sun was setting in the west, and dusk was falling.

Lin Shimao didn't move an inch all day. He even ate a dry, hard steamed bun he brought from Beijing while reading the case files for lunch.

Liu Suan sat on the steps at the entrance of the yamen for the entire afternoon, saying nothing and doing nothing.

He knew very well that this was Lin Shimao's first battle.

He cannot interfere.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking.

Several people returned to the yamen one after another; they were all clerks who had submitted their resignations yesterday.

They didn't want to come back to work; they were just curious and wanted to see if the newly arrived top scholar was already in a state of panic.

But what they saw was still that figure sitting amidst the piles of files.

Lin Shimao hadn't slept all night, and his eyes were bloodshot, but he was in good spirits.

He saw the clerks, but instead of getting angry or trying to stop them, he simply looked up from a pile of files and calmly gave instructions to the two old clerks.

"Go, bring out the red notice from the warehouse."

"Bring me more brush and ink."

Half an hour later, a huge red notice was posted on the notice wall at the entrance of the county government office.

Lin Shimao personally took up his brush, stood in front of the list, and wrote on it stroke by stroke in the largest regular script.

He wrote very slowly, each word penetrating the paper.

"A message to the elders of Jiangling:"

"Liu Ruhui, the traitor of the previous dynasty, plundered the local people and committed heinous crimes. He has been executed in the capital. All of his land and shops have been confiscated and put to public use."

"By His Majesty's decree, in order to appease the people, all 13,700 mu of fertile land under the name of the Liu family shall be distributed to landless or land-poor farmers in the city. Each household shall receive three to five mu according to the number of people in the household. The land shall be measured today, and the land deeds shall be issued within three days. The land shall be permanently registered as private property, and the government shall keep a record as proof!"

boom!

These few lines of text were like a thunderclap, exploding in the sky above Jingzhou City.

The crowd gathered at the entrance of the government office was initially deathly silent, but then erupted into a deafening clamor.

"What? The Liu family's land... is going to be divided among us?"

"It's true! It's an official notice from the government! Written personally by the new county magistrate!"

"My God! Am I dreaming? My family of five is going to get three acres of land?"

The message spread like wildfire throughout the entire city of Jingzhou.

Countless people flocked to the county government office from all directions, completely surrounding the notice wall.

Those clerks who were originally hesitant and observing turned pale and their legs went weak when they saw the frenzied scene before them.

They suddenly understood.

The newly arrived county magistrate had no intention of fighting against these seasoned officials.

As soon as he came in, he flipped the table.

He dealt with the biggest landlord in Jingzhou and then distributed the land to the poorest people.

He's undermining the very foundation of his power; he wants to deeply embed himself in the heart of Jingzhou.

Liu Suan stood on the second floor of a teahouse not far away, looking out the window and taking in all of this.

He watched Lin Shimao standing in the crowd, surrounded by countless grateful and fervent eyes. At that moment, that slender figure seemed incredibly tall.

That's a stupid approach.

The word popped into Liu Suan's mind again.

But this is the most effective method.

That evening, under the lamplight at the post station, Liu Suan wrote a letter to Fang Fuyao, the White-Robed Imperial Advisor, who was far away in the capital.

The letter contained only one sentence.

"I admire you for being the top scholar. I'll see how you deal with those powerful families before I comment on the other half."

He folded the letter and handed it to the secret agent of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After doing all this, he felt no sleepiness whatsoever. He took out the complete map of Jingzhou, personally bestowed by Wei Zhao, from his bag and slowly unfolded it under the lamplight.

This is what he's truly interested in.

His finger slowly traced across the map, mountains, rivers, passes, cities... he knew every mark by heart.

Lin Shimao is putting down roots; he is looking at the sky.

One looks at the land beneath their feet, the other looks at the world beyond this land.

Suddenly, his finger stopped at one spot.

That's the western side of the map, a thin red line winding its way into a blank area.

That was a trade route.

The end of the trade route was marked with two words in tiny vermilion ink: Western Regions.

Next to that red line, there was an even smaller line of tiny, almost illegible characters.

"There have been no caravans traveling here in recent years, and the reason is unknown."

Liu Suan narrowed his eyes.

The reason is unknown...

He stretched out his finger and tapped lightly on those four characters.