Ren Xiaosu accompanied Ling Chen by Crescent Moon Lake for another three days. For some reason, even though Ling Chen had grown big enough, Ren Xiaosu still remembered it as that little fellow.
Ling Chen found the deeper Hot River at the bottom of Crescent Moon Lake and seemed to like it quite a lot.
Actually, Ren Xiaosu liked this place very much as well. The entire Crescent Moon Lake was like a huge hot spring. There were no complicated disputes here, nor did he have to rack his brains to think about any problems.
All he needed to do was spend his honeymoon here with Yang Xiaojin in peace.
Although they only stayed here for three days, he and Yang Xiaojin were able to set up a small wooden hut on the first day. As the two of them were extremely capable, building a wooden hut was a piece of cake for them.
Ren Xiaosu's palace was equipped with a tent, but Yang Xiaojin insisted that it would be more interesting to build a wooden hut. Furthermore, they might be able to come here often for their vacations in the future.
When they left, Ling Chen reluctantly watched the two of them leave. Ren Xiaosu could feel the loneliness, but he still did not know how to resolve the issue with Dusk.
If only he could bring Dusk along to be its companion.
While Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were heading north to return to Stronghold 144, Luo Lan had just arrived at Stronghold 91, which was located to the north of the Kyung Clan.
Luo Lan had originally planned to head straight back to Stronghold 111 after returning to the Kyung Clan's territory. But when he received news from Qing Zhen, he immediately changed his schedule.
He was now going to inspect the entire northern Kyung Clan strongholds as the imperial envoy to check on the training of the soldiers, as well as the status of their ordnance and food reserves.
This kind of schedule was clearly telling everyone that the Kyung Clan was preparing for war.
In order to protect Luo Lan's safety, Qing Zhen even sent him a special forces battalion to receive him. This special forces battalion was ridiculously well-equipped. Just the armored vehicles carrying the "Mountain Breaker" alone numbered four.
The Mountain Tilt was a high rate of fire heavy machine gun developed by the Kyung Clan. It was one of the best in the Metal Storm. Back then, just a few armored vehicles carrying Mountain Toppers were enough to beat the Experimentals to the point where they did not even dare to show their faces.
At this moment, Luo Lan's convoy arrived outside Stronghold 91's gate. All of the stronghold's officials, as well as the commanders of the troops from the nearby military outposts, were already gathered here.
Everyone stood on both sides of the street. The Public Order Division in the stronghold had even cleared out quite a few of the refugees' shacks and organized a clean-up for the refugees.
The Public Order Division had even set a standard for this cleaning: no blind spots, no cobwebs …
In order to make the refugees look cleaner, the town even distributed clean water for them to use to wash their faces.
All of this was the standard operating procedure for receiving a superior leader.
Although the policies implemented by Qing Zhen after he took over were relatively open-minded, and the living conditions of the refugees in the Kyung Clan's territory had improved a little, an organization was still an organization. In essence, no matter what kind of people Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were, they would not be able to change the Kyung Clan's status as an organization.
Reform had never been that simple.
It was evening. When these officials saw Luo Lan's convoy getting closer and closer, all of them put on smiles.
They were all experts at putting on fake smiles, so it was not to the point where their facial muscles would stiffen after putting on a fake smile for a while.
However, to everyone's surprise, Luo Lan's convoy did not stop when it passed by the stronghold's gate. Instead, it charged straight in through the open gate, leaving the two rows of officials to eat a mouthful of dust.
The officials looked at one another and wondered what was wrong with him. It was fine if he did not get out of the vehicle, but he should at least greet them, right?
But when they saw the Special Forces' vehicles enter the stronghold together with him, no one dared to say anything.
Luo Lan's status in the Kyung Clan was extremely high, and he had a lot of titles: Secretary General of the Kyung Clan's Presidium, Honorary Chairman of the Kyung Clan's Military Council, Executive Director of the Kyung Clan's Commerce Department.
In any case, these titles were as mysterious as they could be.
Everyone knew that if there was anyone in this world that Qing Zhen cared about, Luo Lan would definitely be ranked first.
Just by looking at the line-up he brought with him, no one could compare to him.
When the officials outside the stronghold saw Luo Lan's convoy driving off, they hurriedly called for their secretaries and drivers. "Hurry, hurry, hurry up and follow them!"
Zhou Qi, who was sitting in the off-road vehicle in front, muttered, "You've really not changed at all. You don't give others any face at all. If you and Qing Zhen had been a little more tactful back then, you wouldn't have been targeted by those old fogeys like that. "
Luo Lan chuckled. "Where are those old fogeys now?"
Zhou Qi was speechless.
Where else could they be? Zhou Qi was the one who personally killed those old fogeys.
Luo Lan was sitting in the backseat and looking ahead. He casually explained, "I'm not patrolling the North to make friends with those people. I'm here to do something. If I don't do my job well, what's the point of making friends with them? "
"It's not a matter of making friends or not. It's a matter of making enemies or not," Zhou Qi said with a sigh.
Luo Lan shook his head and said, "That's your biggest problem. You're always thinking of not offending anyone. But if you're not made of gold, how can you make everyone like you?"
"It's fine as long as the majority of people like me," Zhou Qi said.
"Qing Zhen is in charge of the huge Kyung Clan. As his subordinate, of course I have to be the bad guy, and of course Qing Zhen has to be the good guy." Luo Lan said seriously, "If I were to go around being the good guy, how would Qing Zhen be able to buy people's hearts?"
Luo Lan continued, "Zhou Qi, someone has to be the bad guy in this game of fame. I just need to do my job well and take care of these people. When Qing Zhen needs them, they'll be of great use. As for whether they hate me or not, that's their business. They can't do anything to me anyway. "
Actually, it was not that Zhou Qi did not understand this logic. He knew very well that Luo Lan was like a knife in Qing Zhen's hands. Moreover, it was not Qing Zhen who wanted him to be the knife. It was Luo Lan himself who wanted to be the knife.
It was all for the sake of Qing Zhen's power and stability.
But in Zhou Qi's opinion, how could a person only consider for others and not for themselves?
It might seem like Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were very close at the moment, but what if Qing Zhen changed one day?
When Qing Zhen no longer sided with Luo Lan, there would probably be countless enemies who would want to hit Luo Lan while he was down.
Zhou Qi looked at Luo Lan. "Have you ever considered the future —"
Luo Lan interrupted, "You're underestimating me and Qing Zhen."
…
The convoy headed straight for the stronghold's internal office building. After Luo Lan got out of the vehicle, he took the lead and sat down in the lobby.
The officials in the building waited on Luo Lan in awe and trepidation. Meanwhile, the officials who had gone to welcome him chased after him while sweating profusely.
Under normal circumstances, fat people would always give off an extra sense of familiarity.
But the current Luo Lan gave off more of a burly and strong impression, which added a lot of deterrence to him.
A row of officials stood obediently in front of Luo Lan and did not even dare to breathe loudly. They were afraid they had done something wrong to provoke this boss into being so domineering.
Luo Lan sat on the sofa in the lobby and said with a smile, "Everyone here is a respectable person, so there's no need to be so afraid of me."
Everyone lowered their heads and did not say anything. Then they thought to themselves that only a fool would answer such a question.
"Alright, let's cut to the chase. After inspecting Stronghold 91, I'll be returning to Stronghold 111. Bring me all the documents I need." Luo Lan said with a smile, "Y 'all should've heard by now that someone from Stronghold 92 deceived me about the amount of food reserves and the inventory of their assets. That person was executed on the same day. So before y 'all bring me the documents, think carefully about how to remove the water from them. This is for your own good. "
When one of the officials heard this, he wiped his sweat away. "Don't worry, we're already prepared. Little Li, quickly bring the warehouse entry and exit accounts to Boss Luo for verification. Boss Luo, our work here is indeed very solid. After you're done checking the accounts, we can immediately set off for the warehouse for inspection. "
The official could not be blamed for being flustered. Before Luo Lan came to Stronghold 91, he had indeed executed a few people.
A few days ago, after Stronghold 92 received Luo Lan, Luo Lan conducted a surprise inspection just like today. He did not even attend the banquet prepared by the stronghold officials.
When the officials heard that Luo Lan was a beauty, they even specially prepared several guests to accompany him.
As a result, Luo Lan led the special forces to set up a temporary military camp in the warehouse area and even put the entire warehouse on lockdown.
For several days, the entire temporary martial law zone only allowed people to enter but not leave. It was only after Luo Lan had finished taking stock of all the food and military equipment that the place was closed down.
Several of the officials thought they would be fine as long as they entertained Luo Lan well. But in the end, Luo Lan did not even give them a chance to entertain them and shot them to death.
Luo Lan's actions could be said to be ruthless and vicious. As a result, when the news spread, everyone in the other strongholds felt insecure and were afraid they would be the next unlucky bastard to be shot to death.
Logically speaking, no matter how serious a crime was, he would still have to be tried.
However, anyone who used the food and military equipment without permission would be brought before the military court. Furthermore, Luo Lan also had another title, which was the presiding judge of the Kyung Clan's military court.
Wherever this guy went, there would be a military circuit court. According to Luo Lan's way of doing things, he would be tried on the spot if he committed any crime.
It might sound like child's play, but if Luo Lan really did it, there was nothing anyone could do about it.
As for the court's ruling documents, Luo Lan could just get his subordinates to slowly fill them in.
All the cases handled by Luo Lan's circuit court had one thing in common: the defendants did not defend themselves, and the death penalty rate was 100%.
Basically, before the defendant could even defend himself, he was already gone.
In fact, Luo Lan also knew that handling it this way would make everyone afraid and would not be conducive to the stability of order.
But he had no other choice. The Kyung Clan's combat readiness was more important than anything else. Special measures had to be used during special times.
Otherwise, Qing Zhen would not have asked him to verify the food and military equipment.
Usually, something that required Luo Lan to handle personally was already very tricky.
At this moment, the ledgers were all carried to Luo Lan. But when Boss Luo saw the officials sweating profusely, he suddenly smiled and said, "Alright, I know you've all done your best over the past three days. It's not easy for you to fill up the standard warehouses in such a short time, so I won't be going to the warehouses. Take care."
After that, Luo Lan got up and got into the off-road vehicle parked outside the office building. He came and left in a hurry.
Everyone was dumbfounded by this scene. They thought to themselves, 'What are you trying to do? Why did you come and leave in such a hurry? Didn't you even take a look at the ledgers?'
However, a few of the officials who knew what was going on broke out in a cold sweat.
In the off-road vehicle, Zhou Qi said, "It looks like the problem has been resolved?"
"Of course." Luo Lan said, "Actually, it was already resolved before we came here. But what's coming will still come. At the very least, we should teach them a lesson and let them know there's no such thing as an impenetrable wall in this world."
In fact, what Luo Lan had done in Stronghold 92 was just to establish his authority. As for the execution, he was the one who spread the news through the intelligence department. Now that the entire Kyung Clan intelligence agency was in Luo Lan's hands, he could do things like this with ease.
Before Luo Lan arrived at Stronghold 91 today, he had already learned through his internal intelligence department that these stronghold officials were forced to purchase a large amount of food from their own pockets to fill up the standard warehouses of every granary due to the threat of death.
Moreover, these people had secretly bought the high-priced food without letting anyone know about it.
Some of the information was related to the low prices they had used to resell the food in the granary. But now, they were buying it back at a high price. All of a sudden, these parasites were emptied, and it was so painful that they wanted to vomit blood.
Before Luo Lan left, he wanted to tell them, "I know all about your petty tricks. Don't think that there's anything in the Kyung Clan that I don't know about."
By doing this, he was also warning them not to play such tricks in the future. Otherwise, execution would be the only outcome.
Luo Lan said to Zhou Qi, "There are so many strongholds in the Kyung Clan. It'll take too long to go through them one by one, and we don't have that much time. So instead of us investigating, it's better to let these people investigate under the pressure of fear. "
There were three key points to this plan. First, he had to kill people to establish his authority and scare the others.
Second, he had to give these people a chance to tell them, 'As long as you supply me with the food this time, I can pretend that nothing happened in the past.
Third, he had to let these people understand that his spies are all over the Kyung Clan, so they should behave themselves in the future. '
With this set of moves, the entire Resource Reserve System immediately cleared up. As for those officials who still refused to supply the food reserves, Luo Lan naturally had a way to investigate them.
It had to be said that after the Kyung Clan unified the Southwest, although Qing Zhen's reputation was already at its peak, the Kyung Clan still lacked a villain.
This villain would have to do the dirty work that the leader of the Kyung Clan could not and kill people that Qing Zhen could not easily kill.
This was probably the reason why the Kyung Clan had always used the identity of the Shadow Clone. An organization would always need the Shadow Clone to do some dirty work that would tarnish their reputation.
Qing Zhen had previously been the Kyung Clan's Shadow Clone, and now it was Luo Lan's turn.
Although no one had explicitly said that Luo Lan was the Kyung Clan's Shadow Clone, everyone was well aware of it.
With a ruthless official like Luo Lan around, the officials of the various strongholds would have to tuck their tails between their legs and behave themselves.
Luo Lan said to Zhou Qi, "Since Qing Zhen specifically asked me to make this trip, it means that the situation must be very serious and that danger is just around the corner. I have to make these people fear me so that they'll do their jobs properly. Sometimes, I'd like to be more lenient, but the situation doesn't allow it. "
"Alright then. You two brothers have your own ways of doing things, so I can't be bothered to say anything more." Zhou Qi stopped talking. "You don't even care if your elder brother becomes a villain and does evil things for your younger brother, so why should I, an outsider, say anything? I just feel that it's a pity. They've specially prepared quite a few beautiful women to entertain us. If you want to put on airs, just do it. What's the meaning of asking them to just take the beauties away? It's also very tiring for me to be responsible for protecting you every day, alright? "
Luo Lan said righteously, "Zhou Qi, I didn't expect you to be such a person!"
Zhou Qi nearly vomited blood. "Don't think I don't know what you've done in the past. Why are you acting all high and mighty in front of me now?!"
Luo Lan said with a straight face, "Zhou Qi, you're not an outsider. Qing Zhen and I both treat you as our best friend and brother."
Zhou Qi sneered, "Don't try to be so sentimental. I only care about money."
"We'll give you as much money as we should. I'm not telling you this to save money. I just hope you won't always treat yourself as an outsider," Luo Lan explained.
"Don't try to fool me." Zhou Qi said disdainfully, "You say you treat me as a brother, but in the end, Qing Zhen still keeps his itinerary and plans a secret from me."
Luo Lan shook his head. "Those are two different matters. Qing Zhen has his own plans. Not only does he hide his itinerary and plans from you, but he also hides them from me sometimes. It's not that he can't see the light of day, but that he has a need to keep it a secret. The enemies we'll be facing in the future are much more terrifying than you and I can imagine. "
Zhou Qi curled his lips. "Who doesn't know how to talk?"
Luo Lan sighed and said, "You'll understand in the future."
…
At this moment, on Mt. Ginkgo in Stronghold 111 of the Kyung Clan, a Kyung Clan infantry brigade was guarding the entire Ginkgo Manor.
This was the true definition of having a sentry every three steps and a sentry every five. The security was so tight that it made one's hair stand on end.
Actually, it had been a long time since so many soldiers had come to the Kyung Clan's manor. However, today was a little special. Qing Zhen had returned to the huge palace.
The manor's security was tight on the outside but loose on the inside. Looking from the outside, everyone felt that they would probably have to send an armored unit to break in.
However, there were not many garrison soldiers in the manor. In fact, there was not even a single garrison soldier in the main building. Only Qing Zhen's trusted aide, Xu Man, was accompanying him.
There were no servants around, and only the sound of a piano reverberated in the empty main building. Qing Zhen was sitting in front of the piano in the main hall in a white suit. His fingers danced over the black and white keys, but his eyes were tightly shut.
He did not look at the score. It was as though the long note had been firmly engraved in his mind.
The tune was impassioned, but Qing Zhen's expression was calm.
If anyone else saw this, they would find it a little strange. But Xu Man was already used to it. He knew it was not that Qing Zhen did not have any emotional fluctuations, but that he was still in a state of complete restraint.
It was just like how he had to restrain his current preferences and emotions for the sake of the Kyung Clan's future.
In order to think more clearly, Qing Zhen had to be calmer than the others.
At this moment, the soft sound of a mechanism interrupted the piano music. A shelf full of books behind Qing Zhen was pushed open, revealing a secret masonry passageway inside.
Qing Shen's clone walked out with a smile. "I also like the third chapter of the Little Professor's score. I heard from the Pyro Company that the Little Professor is the founder of the Qinghe Group. However, it doesn't seem to be particularly important information, so not many people paid attention to it. However, it's really a blessing that his score was passed down during The Cataclysm. "
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