Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 197: Chapter 193: The New Prefect

At the beginning of July, the newly appointed Prefect of An Yuan State finally took office.

This new Prefect was named Lin Shoude, a thirty-nine-year-old who had earned his degree fourteen years ago, and had served as a County Magistrate in Jiangnan for twelve years. Although there had been reassignments, he had never been promoted before.

This time, he was promoted to Prefect of An Yuan State at the Secondary Fifth rank, but this promotion was clearly not a blessing.

What place is Jiangnan? It is the wealthiest region in Da Rong.

And what about Chongshan Town?

A military border town.

In a border town, there is little scope for a civil servant to exert influence.

In cities like An Yuan City, there are figures such as Yang Zhenshan as the garrison officer and the Military Equipment Department government office. If it were in the core areas of Da Rong, most cities would not have a garrison, and the city’s defense and public security would mostly be handled by the local garrison. In these cases, the local officials usually held a dominant position when dealing with the garrison.

It was different in Chongshan Town, where the local officials not only lacked a dominant stance but also had to cooperate with the garrison and Camp Soldiers in many aspects,

such as repairing Guard City, providing supplies, assisting the garrison in transporting military equipment and supplies, and so on. The garrison could enlist local officials to provide labor for these activities.

Thus, in the border town, the local officials often had to comply with the garrison’s arrangements and assist with the needs and operations of the garrison.

Of course, the garrison also cooperated with the local government office in areas such as capturing thieves, quelling disturbances, and maintaining public security.

Overall, serving as a Prefect in Chongshan Town is far less comfortable than serving as a Prefect in the core areas of Da Rong, or even serving as a County Magistrate in Jiangnan.

The key is that Jiangnan is prosperous; even being a clean official, the yearly income is considerable.

But what about An Yuan State?

If Lin Xuan could have amassed large amounts of Silver, he wouldn’t have taken the risk of his family being executed to join the Liang family’s plot.

From Jiangnan to An Yuan City, besides the promotion in his official rank, Lin Shoude saw almost no other benefits.

However, Yang Zhenshan guessed that Mr. Lin might not be skilled in governmental affairs. If Mr. Lin had been effective, he wouldn’t have remained in Jiangnan as a County Magistrate for twelve years without promotion.

Twelve years!

Typically, officials are promoted once every nine years, but Lin Shoude only got his promotion now and was sent to Chongshan Town. This was likely due to being suppressed and ostracized by others.

Inside the garrison office, Yang Zhenshan curiously examined Lin Shoude.

Mr. Lin was tall and skinny, with a decent appearance but wore no smile on his face, suggesting a no-nonsense attitude.

This was somewhat similar to Xu Jin, except Xu Jin’s seriousness stemmed from his sincerity, and he was quite approachable once you got to know him.

But Mr. Lin was somewhat difficult to get along with.

As the two men took their seats and tea was served, Lin Shoude spoke first: “Master Yang, my visit here involves official business for discussion!”

“What business? Please tell, Mr. Lin!” Yang Zhenshan asked curiously.

Lin Shoude looked at him with an imposing gaze that was formidable not in anger.

Such a demeanor could be effective with subordinates, but not with Yang Zhenshan, who had no subordinate relationship with him and held a higher official rank.

“Mr. Lin wants the garrison office to dispatch military households to repair the roads leading south,” Lin Shoude stated.

“What?” Yang Zhenshan thought he had misheard.

Lin Shoude seriously repeated, “Mr. Lin wants the garrison office to dispatch military households to repair the roads leading south.”

Confirming he heard correctly, Yang Zhenshan gave Lin Shoude a peculiar look.

The road leading south!

That was the official road from An Yuan City to Yuanhe County, which Yang Zhenshan had traveled on his way to the Sky Blue Sword Sect.

Indeed, that road needed repairs as it was full of potholes and hardly presentable.

But why ask the military households to repair it?

“Mr. Lin, shouldn’t this task be assigned to laborers?” asked Yang Zhenshan.

Lin Shoude shook his head, “Mr. Lin, labor work harms the people! The road south of An Yuan City connects to Yuanhe County and Chengyang County, and is the most important commercial route for An Yuan City. If An Yuan City is to develop, this road must be repaired!”

Yang Zhenshan nodded, as Lin Shoude’s words made sense.

The southern official road was indeed the most important, even more critical than the road to Chongshan Pass, because the trade goods of An Yuan City primarily came from the south, not the west.

Yang Zhenshan supported Lin Shoude’s intentions to repair the road.

But~~

“Mr. Lin, you said it yourself, labor work harms the people, but aren’t the military households also the people? If you have the military households repair the roads, won’t they be serving the labor in place of the citizens?” Yang Zhenshan said.

“What’s wrong with that?” Lin Shoude replied, frowning.

Yang Zhenshan stared at him for a long time before letting out a slight sigh.

He finally understood why Mr. Lin was assigned to An Yuan City and why he faced suppression and exclusion in Jiangnan.

Inflexible and lacking practical experience.

It was normal for military households to replace citizens in labor duties such as road repairs, bridge building, or city wall maintenance in the inner areas of Da Rong.

Labor work harms the people, so many officials targeted military households, although they were not required to serve labor. Hence, they exchanged a small amount of grain rations for the military households’ service.

Strictly speaking, this was irregular as not just anyone could mobilize military households.

But as long as the garrison cooperated and local officials were willing to provide money and grain, this became quite normal.

Some garrison officials even took the opportunity to embezzle large sums of money; they enslaved the military households for labor and pocketed the funds and grain from the local government office.