The County Commandant Takes Charge
When Kang Dabao walked out of the main hall of Pingrong County, he still couldn't figure out what Luo Heng and Sun Bingdou, those two treacherous scoundrels, were plotting.
Having only been here for half a day, it wasn't appropriate to return to the sect immediately. So, he first went to his office at the County Magistrate's Temple to await a change in circumstances.
Although the county lieutenant's rank was low, he was still an official with a grade, and according to the regulations of the Immortal Dynasty, the county lieutenant had an independent office.
Pingrong County was a lower-middle-class county. Below the county commandant, there were three clerks, who were low-ranking miscellaneous officials. Below the clerks were county bandit clerks, county soldiers, and village headmen, among other minor officials.
Currently, none of the three clerks have been appointed, Sect Leader Kang Da is thinking that perhaps Ji Wuwu can be transferred to serve as clerks later.
Firstly, this county is Chongming Sect, making it suitable for his retirement.
Secondly, it would also be good to have this old cultivator stay in Pingrong County to gather information with him. Otherwise, he would be completely clueless about the situation in the city, just like now. If those two scoundrels were to suddenly try to harm him one day, he wouldn't be completely unaware of what was going on beforehand.
As for the clerks, they were ordinary people and martial artists from the county; these were all people who had been there since Zhai Le was the county magistrate.
After Kang Dabao entered the county magistrate's office, he gathered the officials and listened to their flattery. He wasn't very interested in dealing with them, so he just gave them a few platitudes about being honest and not bullying the good.
Faced with the "immortal master," these people naturally dared not utter a single word of dissent in front of Kang Dabao, and all bowed their heads and agreed.
With Sect Leader Kang Da to read people's minds, he could tell that there were a few dishonest ones among them.
The higher-ranking officials were almost all Martial Ancestor, and even the lowest-ranking ones were Blood Refining Realm.
Once a person possesses extraordinary martial prowess, it becomes difficult for them not to indulge their desires. These individuals must have committed numerous acts of bullying and oppressing men and women in the past.
However, it is wrong to punish without prior instruction. After taking office, Kang Dabao was very thoughtful. He had not had time to establish rules before, and most people were still acting according to their old habits.
As long as these people behave themselves and don't do anything outrageous, then Sect Leader Kang Da won't bother with them. It's best to leave the affairs of mortals to mortals.
After a day, the constables sent by Luo Heng arrested all the martial artists with some reputation in Pingrong County before they left.
Of course, there were some kind-hearted but unlucky people among them, but the vast majority were ruthless villains. Pingrong County, by a twist of fate, did something good for the people's livelihood.
As night fell, the absence of those urban scoundrels made the people feel a bit more at ease, which ironically made the streets of Pingrong County strangely lively.
Even more bustling than the streets was the prison in Pingrong County, where hundreds of the Bone Refining Realm or above, possessing titles such as "Surprising Wind Sword" and "Tiger Roar Blade," were locked up.
No matter how famous or remarkable they were outside, they are now all beaten half to death, their collarbones locked, and imprisoned here.
After being raised for another ten days, they will be sent to work as miners in the Spirit Stone Mine in Tanggu County.
To ensure that the mortal jailers in the original prison could keep an eye on these people, Luo Heng specially allocated twenty spirit stones to hire cultivators from the Luo family of Black Forest Fortress to guard them.
According to regulations, the authority and responsibility for the county prison belong to the clerk, but Pingrong County is a lower county and is not assigned a clerk. In principle, Kang Dabao, the county lieutenant, should be the head of the prison.
But since Sun Bingdou had volunteered to take on the task of escorting the Master, Sect Leader Kang Da was happy to let him temporarily take over the responsibility of managing the prison as well.
That evening, he received news that Sun Bingdou, in the name of the county, had issued a notice to 37 tax-paying households, requiring each to bring 50 Bone Refining martial artists to the Pingrong County to report.
The governor's office only required Pingrong County to provide a thousand laborers, since Pingrong County was just a small county and shouldn't have to bear such heavy corvée labor.
Moreover, the governor's office and the Cloud Horn Prefecture Court under the jurisdiction of the Earl of Nan'an's Residence, where Kuang Liuting was stationed, were two separate entities.
The governor's office was headed by Huo Bing, an old Foundation Establishment. He didn't have much prestige among the counties, so Pingrong County might be able to negotiate a better deal on the 1,000 men assigned to them.
However, Sun Bingdou wanted to conscript fifty people from each household, which proved that he had the same problem as the recently deceased Magistrate Xie: he didn't value other people's lives.
However, this time the county requires each family to send ordinary people, so the families may not have any feelings about it. In any force with a little size, there are plenty of ordinary martial artists, so they are not worth much.
Moreover, Sun Bingdou is truly setting an example this time, as even the Grass Witch Cult couldn't escape this allocation. Since he's acting this way, he naturally won't let the Sect Leader Kang Da's Chongming Sect off the hook.
However, fifty Bone Refining Martial Artists are indeed not many, and the Lineage of each disciple do not need to contribute.
If we simply gather all the ordinary martial artists from various factions and sects within the Chongming Sect, and then do a quick sifting, we can immediately compile a list, and there might even be some left over.
Just like Pingrong County now, the absence of these self-reliant and unruly individuals is naturally a good thing for the majority of law-abiding families, so Kang Dabao didn't intend to resort to any underhanded tactics.
After Sun Bingdou informed him of his visit, he sent a letter to the Chongming City Lord's Mansion, instructing his cousin Kang Dahou to handle the matter.
He wasn't worried that his cousin, whose abilities were rather mediocre, wouldn't be able to succeed. In the Chongming City Lord's Mansion alone, there were ten Martial Ancestor servants who had been picked up by Kang Dabao.
Kang Dabao not only gave them several advanced martial arts manuals, but also provided them with scraps of talismanic Talisman Artifact to use as "divine weapons".
Even if those martial arts figures really had the guts to clash with the city lord's mansion, it certainly wouldn't escalate into an explosion.
Moreover, apart from Kang Dahou, the heads of the major clans in Chongming City are all Martial Ancestor, so there's unlikely to be any unexpected events.
To be honest, Chongming Sect has far too few capable people at its disposal. Otherwise, it would be more appropriate to send one or two peripheral disciples to guard important places like Chongming City, which is full of disciples and relatives.
If anything unexpected were to happen, Sect Leader Kang Da might have his entire sect wiped out.
The entire Double Brightness Kang Household currently only has three or four hundred male members, which can be killed very quickly. It's not even enough for a few little ghosts to be created by a ruthless person like Gu Laoliu.
Having resolved this minor matter, Sect Leader Kang Da then began inspecting the county's armory. Pingrong County was located on the border, so its armory also needed to be upgraded and equipped according to the standards of a central county.
Since Kang Dabao was unfamiliar with these matters, he asked the clerk in charge of warehouse management to accompany him.
This man was a pale-faced scholar, wearing a pink turban. His waist looked even thinner than the slender woman in the Mandarin Duck Pavilion, yet he was a rare Martial Ancestor Peak Grandmaster.
"Reporting to the County Commandant, according to regulations, our Pingrong County armory should have one Second-Tier Upper-Grade Star-Shooting Crossbow, nine First Tier Second-Tier Lower-Grade Star-Chasing Crossbow, one hundred First Tier standard defensive Law Artifact, three hundred First Tier standard offensive Law Artifact, and also various elixirs, talismans, puppets, and a hundred of each miscellaneous items. However, since the pacification of the barbarians, the Immortal Dynasty has rarely allocated funds to us."
After Lord Bo wiped out the Niu Household, he did provide us with some supplies, but it was far from the amount that should have been provided.
The clerk's explanation was not very intuitive. It wasn't until Kang Dabao personally took the token, opened the meager array of the Pingrong Armory, and glimpsed its true form that he couldn't help but sigh.
Sect Leader Kang Da dark, looked at the innocent-looking warehouse clerk beside him. "Your job is much easier than mine."
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