By the time Chen Qing reached the government offices in Jiangnan's capital, it was already dusk the following day. Fortunately, Liuzhou was not far from Nanming Prefecture, Jiangnan's capital. Had the capital been established in Suyang as it had been under the previous dynasty, he would probably have needed another two days by boat.
When he hurried to the offices, bailiffs were still guarding the entrance. Clearly, the provincial administration commissioner had not yet finished work, so he quickly approached and introduced himself. "Brother, please announce that Chen Qing, the newly appointed prefect of Liuzhou, has come to report for duty."
The alert, vigorous bailiff, who clearly had a martial arts background, promptly straightened. "Lord Chen, correct? Please come straight in with me. The commissioner has been waiting for quite some time."
"Oh? I see. Sorry for the trouble, then, young man."
"You're too kind, my lord, too kind!" the man hurriedly replied with great care. Few scholars treated petty functionaries like them with such courtesy, leaving him rather overwhelmed by the favor.
Chen Qing's heart sank a little. He had traveled through the night and reached his post well ahead of the other successful imperial examination candidates heading to Liuzhou with him. Few people should have known about that, so why did the commissioner seem to know he was coming?
It seemed the old emperor still had a firm grasp on his movements.
He followed the petty functionary to the main hall. After the man announced him, a refined, mild-mannered middle-aged man personally came to the entrance to welcome him.
"Are you Lord Chen, the newly appointed prefect of Liuzhou?"
"I am..." Chen Qing glanced at the rank badge on the man's third-rank official robes and hurried forward to salute. "Greetings, Commissioner."
"Thank you for making the long journey, Lord Chen. Please come with me."
Gong Qinian treated this newly arrived young official with great courtesy because of the information Education Commissioner Mu Hongqing had revealed yesterday.
According to Mu Hongqing, this newly successful imperial examination candidate seemed to have been the one who saw through the Painted Skin Mister incident in Liuzhou. He had reportedly also rendered great service in the capital, earning an exceptional promotion. So young, and already starting his official career at Subordinate Fourth Rank-there had been no other example like it in Great Jin's twenty years. It was even more extraordinary than Fei Jun and Wang Ye, who had once enjoyed such towering prominence.
Without a shred of doubt, Gong Qinian concluded that, like Wang Ye, this young man was a spellcaster!
Unlike their wariness toward the warriors of the bloodline families, civil officials were eager to curry favor with spellcasters. The bloodline families lived off the luck of their birth; if an ordinary person did not have a bloodline, they simply did not have it. Spellcasters, though mysterious, were something ordinary people could reach out and touch.
Though aptitude requirements were stringent, it felt much like the imperial examinations that scholars like them took. With enough effort and sufficient aptitude, one could rise above the crowd regardless of birth. After all, which successful imperial examination candidate was not one in ten thousand? Thus, civil officials held spellcasters in comparatively higher regard.
Moreover, the court had opened a spellcaster academy, and officials with sufficiently good records of governance had the right to recommend younger members of their families. This system made civil officials all the more enthusiastic.
"You're too kind, my lord..." Seeing the man personally pour tea for a newly appointed subordinate like himself, Chen Qing was overwhelmed by the favor. He hurriedly stood. "How could a junior like me accept this? Please take the seat of honor. I can manage myself!"
At this, Gong Qinian's brows relaxed. It seemed this was another young man who understood proper conduct.
Most civil officials with the aptitude to become spellcasters were extraordinarily arrogant. He had seen plenty over the years, but few were as modest as the youth before him. It seemed his luck was quite good: first Mu Hongqing, and now another promising junior.
Excellent, excellent. It looks like I can visit and associate with him more often. Once we become familiar, if I recommend a younger family member to the spellcaster academy, I can ask him to look after them. Oh, right, this lad looks so young. I wonder whether he's betrothed?
I'll ask later...
"Have you come about supplies for Liuzhou, Lord Chen?" Gong Qinian restrained the impulse to propose a marriage outright and turned to official business first.
"Indeed..." Chen Qing's face immediately turned miserable. "I came from far away and had no idea Liuzhou's situation had deteriorated this badly. The entire prefectural city is like a ghost town. With my shallow experience, I truly don't know what to do!"
"Ah... well, hahaha, there's no need to worry, Lord Chen." Gong Qinian hurriedly reassured him. "There's little to be done when such extraordinary circumstances arise. Rest assured, whatever support you need, I will do everything in my power to help."
That's exactly what I was waiting to hear!
Chen Qing hurriedly said, "My lord, with Liuzhou in its present state, we certainly can't count on tax revenue for the time being."
"Rest assured!" The man waved a hand. "I have already reported Liuzhou's taxes for this year to the court. Nothing needs to be remitted; all of it will go toward rebuilding Liuzhou. I will also allocate Jiangnan's tax revenue to assist Liuzhou."
"Thank you for your support, my lord!" Chen Qing was immediately moved to grateful tears. Then he rose again and said, "There is also the matter of the remittance schedules for the various salt and tea circuits. I'm afraid I will need to delay them."
"You can rest assured about that as well. I have already spoken with the various circuit intendants on your behalf. They will give Liuzhou sufficient time to sort things out and get things moving again."
"There is also the matter of manpower..." Chen Qing struck while the iron was hot. "I visited the Liuzhou prefectural offices, and they are completely deserted as well. I truly have nowhere to find clerks to handle official business. Moreover, the commander's post is vacant, and there isn't a single soldier guarding the city. Please help arrange some transfers, my lord."
"Well..." Gong Qinian was immediately troubled. Money was easy enough, but people would be rather more difficult.
If he could send people to Liuzhou now, he would not have let it end up in its current state...
"To be frank..." Gong Qinian hesitated, then decided to be candid. "Transferring personnel is quite difficult at present. What happened in Liuzhou was far too horrifying. You also come from a farming and scholarly background, Lord Chen, so you must understand that ordinary people aren't very capable of accepting these so-called demon and ghost incidents. After all, their memories were sealed back then. Suddenly encountering something like this is more than most can accept. Everyone is therefore extremely resistant to going to Liuzhou now. It puts me in a difficult position too..."
"Their memories were sealed?" Chen Qing froze.
"You didn't know, Lord Chen?" Gong Qinian was puzzled. Coming from a spellcaster background, surely he ought to know even this?
"I really didn't," Chen Qing said honestly.
He had been wondering about that. He had lived in this world for twenty years, yet had never heard any elder mention demons. According to Wang Ye, peace had not reigned for long at all. Counting the years, peace had only arrived around the time he was born.
How could his parents and the elders older than them possibly know nothing about demons?
The court could ban books from the previous dynasty, but could it also silence the mouths of country folk?
"I see..." Gong Qinian nodded, wondering why this man's spellcaster master had not even told him about this.
So he concealed nothing and told him directly. After all, this was no secret within official circles.
"Back then, a certain existence whose name cannot be spoken proposed coexistence with demons. To achieve that, people first had to forget their fear of demons, so a wide-ranging spell was activated. All the ordinary people throughout Great Jin forgot their memories of demons!"
"Huh?"
Chen Qing simply stared...
There was a spell that badass? Covering all of Great Jin?
He had read geographical records too. Great Jin's territory was vast, roughly ten times the size of China in his previous life. Great Jin's census recorded two billion households. Fuck, what kind of spell was that overpowered?
Altering the memories of two billion households? Even if it only affected ordinary people, wasn't that ridiculously excessive?
"Do you know... what that spell was called, my lord?" Chen Qing asked curiously.
"I've heard certain officials mention it," Gong Qinian promptly replied. "I believe it was called Tsukuyomi..."
Chen Qing: "..."
Tsukuyomi, my ass. Why not Planetary Devastation while we're at it...
Could this King of Qin have been a manga nerd?
After reading Liu Yu's letter, he had become essentially certain that the King of Qin was a fellow transmigrator who had come before him. He simply was not quite certain of the man's identity. After all, much of the King of Qin's history was taboo and difficult to inquire about.
Hearing this rumor now, he was very interested. He could not help wondering how the man had done it.
In his own setting, only the Thousand-Faced Fox could alter memories, but even after evolving into its final form, the Thousand-Faced Fox could not alter two billion people's memories at once!
This transmigrator predecessor really had something going for him. How had he pulled that off?
Could it be...
Chen Qing had an idea, but whether things were truly as he suspected would have to wait until that troublesome, beautiful concubine of his arrived from the capital so he could ask her.
"I see. I understand... So you mean it would also be difficult for you to find suitable clerks for me, my lord?" Chen Qing returned to official business.
"Well..." Gong Qinian said awkwardly, "It is indeed difficult. Why don't you... try recruiting in the subordinate county towns or the countryside, Lord Chen?"
"Recruit them on short notice?" Chen Qing immediately looked troubled. "Some petty clerks for the prefectural offices would be manageable, but what about the gate guards under the prefecture's authority? Surely you would need to transfer them from other commanders? There has still been no word of Liuzhou's newly appointed commander, and the court has transferred away the troops stationed outside Liuzhou..."
"Well..." Gong Qinian sighed. "To tell you the truth, Lord Chen, soldiers are even more troublesome right now. When the incident broke out, even half of Commander Yuchi's personal guards had been replaced by Painted Skin Mister, and quite a few of the soldiers stationed in Liuzhou had been replaced too. Everyone is now panic-stricken, and those above are investigating Jiangnan's military even more rigorously. We won't be able to allocate personnel anytime soon."
"Then what are we to do?" Chen Qing immediately put on an anxious expression.
"Actually, you needn't worry, Lord Chen. Security along Jiangnan's waterways has always been very good. Though Liuzhou's navy has temporarily been transferred away, the other prefectures can all lend assistance. There shouldn't be any major problems for the time being."
"As for the prefectural city's soldiers, I can apply for special authorization allowing you to recruit them yourself. Anything under five hundred should be no problem. As for recruitment costs, you can rest assured about those as well, Lord Chen. Just calculate a budget and submit it to me when the time comes."
"Would... that really be permissible?" Chen Qing's face immediately filled with gratitude.
Inwardly, he was excited too. This was actually what he had come for. He had not expected the man to agree so readily.
"Urgent circumstances call for expediency... There's no need to worry too much, Lord Chen. I will certainly give you my full support in restoring order to Liuzhou."
"In that case, allow me to thank you on behalf of Liuzhou's people, my lord!" Chen Qing hurriedly gave him a deep bow.
It really had gone more smoothly than expected. Had this been a normal city, obtaining military authority would have been somewhat troublesome. It might only be authority over the prefectural troops, but it was crucial to his next plans.
After all, the starting point of his Divine Path Style was the divine gate guardian!