The news Xie Yansheng brought was indeed bad.
More than a dozen administrators appointed by the Sea-Calming Alliance to Qingxu and Yangquan counties had been killed in a single day. The words "blood debts must be paid in blood" had been left at the scenes.
After occupying half the Prefectural City and the counties of Qingxu and Yangquan, Hong Yuan cared little about how much territory he held. But since he had taken it, he certainly would not settle for controlling it in name alone.
First, he purged the gangs within his part of the Prefectural City, along with several wealthy households that had inflicted widespread harm.
As for Qingxu County, with the Zhang Family foremost among them, how could lineages rooted there for more than ten generations possibly remain unstained by sin, now that the central government had lost its power and the law no longer restrained them?
The Zhang Family's head was none other than County Magistrate Zhang, whose ear Hong Yuan had cut off. Hong Yuan did not even need to intervene: the Sea-Calming Alliance swept up the entire Zhang Family in one net, granting them a happy family reunion.
The Huang Family's properties, which the Zhang Family had swallowed up, along with everything the Zhang Family had accumulated over more than ten generations, all passed into Hong Yuan's hands.
Hong Yuan had thus fulfilled the wish he had held several months earlier: safeguarding his good brother Huang Shaotang's family estate.
Once the old powers were cleared away, a new batch of people naturally had to take over their management.
Besides selecting people from within the Sea-Calming Alliance, Hong Yuan had three other sources.
The first was Black Iron Town, where Xu Qingjing lived.
The second was the Unfixed Sword Sect, with which he had some ties.