When Liu Cheng arrived in Qu'a, he did not confiscate anyone's property or even occupy their county town. This was not because Qu'a had no Native Clans belonging to the Way of the Celestial Masters, but because not every such clan stood alone like the Xu family. Since Master Du Ming had eclipsed the Xu family to become the leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters south of the Yangtze, and had subsequently taken in and integrated countless refugees from the North and cultivated friendships with countless powerful men, he naturally had a certain stature.
There was one such household here in Qu'a. By the Immortal Register, its head was a formally ordained disciple of Master Du Ming, but the three manors under it were already managed by Northern Migrants Secondary Clans who had arrived later.
In other words, any further action would mean making a major move, or at the very least serving preparations for one. Naturally, he had to postpone going to their doors to beg with weapons in hand, lest he beat the grass and startle the snake.
In fact, Liu Cheng's principal task after reaching Qu'a was suppressing bandits.
He intended to head south from Qu'a and sweep through the Three Rivers and Five Lakes region at the very heart of the lands south of the Yangtze once more: Tai Lake and the four smaller lakes to its north, the central area of Jinling, Wuxing, and Wu Commandery, the three commanderies at the heart of the Three Wu.
There was no avoiding this sweep. Livelihoods south of the Yangtze had withered over the past few years, and large numbers of bandits had gathered here. They not only threatened the richest commanderies of the Three Wu, but also seriously obstructed the movement of goods within the