In early July, Anyuan Prefecture's newly appointed prefect finally arrived to take office.
This new prefect was named Lin Shoude. He was thirty-nine this year, a jinshi of the fourteenth year of Chengping, and had served as a county magistrate in Jiangnan for twelve years. Although he had been transferred during that time, he had never once been promoted.
This time, however, he had been promoted to the post of Subordinate Fifth Rank prefect of Anyuan Prefecture, though this promotion was clearly no good thing.
What kind of place was Jiangnan? The richest land in Da Rong.
And Chongshan Town?
A military border garrison.
In a border garrison, civil officials had very little room to exert themselves.
Take Anyuan Prefecture City. There was Yang Zhengshan, this garrison commander, as well as the Military Defense Circuit Office. If this were a prefectural city in the heartland of Da Rong, most cities would not have a garrison commander; the city defenses and public order were mostly handled by the local guard stations, and when local chief officials dealt with the guard stations, they held the dominant position.
But in Chongshan Town, it was different. The local chief officials not only could not hold the dominant position, they also had to cooperate with the guard stations and camp troops in every respect, such as repairing guard cities, providing supplies, helping the guard stations transport military equipment and provisions, and so on. For such matters, the guard stations could all go to the local chief officials and assign corvée labor.
Therefore, in the border garrisons, local officials had to obey the arrangements of the guard stations in many respects and coordinate with the guard stations' actions according to their needs.
Of course, there were also areas where the guard stations cooperated with the local