Plans and preparations, two faces

How should they handle this?

Wang Jian glanced at Inspector Li seated above him, unsure what the Circuit Inspector intended by that question.

His own thinking was simple: when all was said and done, Ci Prefecture could not afford any more trouble.

"This is an emergency. We must strike like thunder." Chief Clerk Wang's gaze swept over the utterly unruffled Xiong Shou and the indifferent-looking Su Che.

"We have roughly two thousand troops available here in Ci Prefecture City. I intend to dispatch them all to Wenning as quickly as possible."

"These sorcerers have likely been plotting for a long time. Surrounding Wenning County may only be the beginning. I intend to keep my own elite troops here to defend the prefectural seat, while issuing orders summoning troops from every locality to the Circuit Censorate for deployment. We will also raise a separate force. There are still some reserves in the treasury, enough to recruit and train a few troops even at such short notice."

His words earned silent nods from both Xiong Shou and Li Yizhen. Though Chief Clerk Wang was rather weak-willed, he was not entirely an embroidered pillow—pretty on the outside and empty within. This was indeed a fairly sound arrangement.

Ci Prefecture had four thousand troops on paper, but only two thousand were in Ci Prefecture City. Wang Jian intended to send all two thousand to Wenning County.

Then he would summon the other two thousand, scattered across the region, to Ci Prefecture City.

If the sorcerers were making their move, Wenning would certainly not be the only place affected. The real fear was that trouble might break out in Ci Prefecture City as well, so keeping Wang Jian's own private troops there was the safest course.

With two thousand men sent ahead to respond to