Increased Authority

"Dongfang Shuo, carriage office commandant of the East Sima Gate, is hereby ordered to patrol the imperial mausoleum beginning today. This order must not be neglected!"

Du Rui, the presiding commandant of the Office of the Commandant of the Guard, had issued an order.

When Ma Yuan, who went to the Office of the Jingzhao Intendant every day to deliver documents, brought the order back, Zhang Xuezhou nearly thought he had misspoken.

"We're supposed to patrol? I've never heard of gate officials being responsible for patrols," Zhang Xuezhou complained. "If we go out on patrol, who's going to guard the East Sima Gate?"

"My lord, that's what I thought too, but that's exactly what the order I received said," Ma Yuan explained.

"Are you sure you didn't leave anything out?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"Not a single word. I even brought the order back!"

Ma Yuan coughed repeatedly, then laboriously pulled a bamboo slip bearing the seal of the Office of the Commandant of the Guard from his sleeve.

What was written on the bamboo slip matched Ma Yuan's account perfectly.

"Just how short of people is the court, if even gate officials have to go on patrol?"

Although Zhang Xuezhou's Yang Corporeal Soul had roamed the imperial mausoleum the previous night, he didn't want to run around on patrol.

After grumbling several more times, Zhang Xuezhou held the order and couldn't help reconsidering.

Zhang Xuezhou's Yang Corporeal Soul could fly wherever it pleased, but he had no right to enter the imperial mausoleum in the flesh. Previously, he had been restricted to the East Sima Gate.

This single order expanded his permitted range of movement to the entire imperial mausoleum.

Extra work was no good thing, but holding an order that allowed him to move about the imperial mausoleum undoubtedly