Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Yang Zhengshan thought for a moment and said, "Not necessarily. Your Majesty must give me some face. If you leave Chongshan Town, His Majesty, in order to appease me, will definitely appoint Ming Zhi to take charge of Chongshan Town, otherwise the balance of Chongshan Town will be disrupted!"

Under the balancing tactics of Emperor Yanping, Zhou Lan is currently the most suitable person to be the General of Chongshan Town.

If Yang Mingzhi is appointed as the General, then Chongshan Town would really become the Yang family's territory.

But if another General is appointed to counterbalance the Yang family, then the close relationship between the Yang family and the court would be broken, let alone others, Yang Zhengshan would become dissatisfied.

Thus, as long as Emperor Yanping hasn't become senile, he wouldn't transfer Zhou Lan away.

Yang Zhengshan then said, "You just stay at Chongshan Town with peace of mind. As for Zhang Zhecheng, if he knows what's good for him, let him stay in Chongshan Town; if not, then let him leave!"

Zhou Lan nodded, acknowledging Yang Zhengshan's thoughts.

However, both Yang Zhengshan and Zhou Lan misjudged Emperor Yanping's intentions, as he enjoys playing with balance and takes pride in it.

In his view, as long as each region's officialdom is balanced, there will be no significant mistakes.

But now a mistake has occurred at Beiyuan Town.

Beiyuan Town has suffered heavy losses, countless military households and civilians died under Wuliang Northern barbarians' slaughter.

Moreover, Beiyuan Town's Camp, mainly stationed at Linyuan City, was utterly annihilated; out of a hundred thousand, only fewer than forty thousand remained, and the eight Assistant General Rescue Camps also suffered heavy losses.

Five out of the eight Assistant Generals died, only three who ran fast enough managed to save their lives.

However, these three won't have long to live either, and will also involve their families.

Now it can be said that Beiyuan Town is essentially ruined. Fortunately, Yang Zhengshan launched a surprise attack on Yemi City; otherwise, Wu Tuo might have captured Beiyuan Town.

What follows for Emperor Yanping and the court is not about how to balance the officialdom of Beiyuan Town, but how to rebuild it.

Beiyuan Town needs rebuilding, from top to bottom, in all aspects.

From the General Mansion to every garrison, every fort needs to be re-established.

So how is Beiyuan Town to be rebuilt?

Emperor Yanping's method is simple, yet shrewd.

On July 8th, the court issued a transfer order.

Zhou Lan was promoted to Right Commander of the Left Army Commander's Mansion, appointed as Protector General, taking charge as General of Beiyuan Town.

Yang Mingzhi was promoted to Deputy Magistrate of the Commander, conferred the title of National Guardian General, serving as Vice General of Beiyuan Town.

Song Dashan, Yang Mingzhen, Yang Chengxu, and Yang Chengze were promoted to Commanders, granted the title of General Zhao Wu, taking positions as the four Assistant Generals of Beiyuan Town.

Tang Feihu was promoted to General of Chongshan Town, Niu Zhuang was promoted to Vice General of Chongshan Town, and Yang Minghao was promoted as Assistant General of the North Route Fuzhou Guard, and so on.

As a result, most of the upper echelons of Chongshan Town were promoted.

However, the original Chongshan Town was divided into two parts, with most of the Yang family's descendants being transferred to Beiyuan Town.

After the transfer, the upper echelon of Chongshan Town was left with only two descendants of the Yang family, Yang Minghao and Yang Mingwu, of course, there were still many descendants in the middle and lower levels.

Seeing such a result, Yang Zhengshan was quite speechless.

Emperor Yanping played this hand beautifully, achieving multiple objectives in one move.

First, transferring Zhou Lan and the Yang family team to Beiyuan Town was indeed beneficial for the reconstruction of Beiyuan Town.

Second, Zhou Lan and the Yang family had no foundation in Beiyuan Town, so even if they took charge of Beiyuan Town, it would not be possible to solidify it as a solid block in a short time.

Third, the situation of the Yang family dominating Chongshan Town alone was resolved, although the Yang family in Chongshan Town is still deeply rooted, their influence in the upper echelons of Chongshan Town has significantly reduced.

Fourth, Yang Zhengshan couldn't be dissatisfied, because everyone was promoted and greatly utilized, if Yang Zhengshan was unsatisfied, he'd appear ungrateful.

Yang Zhengshan had to marvel at Emperor Yanping's wisdom.

He was quite impressed with this maneuver.

But isn't Emperor Yanping afraid of playing Chongshan Town into ruin?

Tang Feihu's ability and qualifications are not an issue, but he lacks prestige in Chongshan Town, his prestige is far lower than that of Yang Zhengshan and Zhou Lan, not to mention Yang Mingzhi.

Without sufficient prestige, how could he control Chongshan Town?

Moreover, he still has a governor like Zhang Zhecheng above him.

If Zhang Zhecheng meddles in Chongshan Town, Tang Feihu would be completely unable to stop him.

The lack of the Yang family's force in the high-level indeed limits the Yang family's monopoly, but it also restricts the Yang family's maintenance of Chongshan Town.

With less of the Yang family's maintenance, can Chongshan Town still develop stably?

Yang Zhengshan felt somewhat worried about this.

Inside the main hall of the General Mansion, after all the officials had reviewed the documents from the Cabinet and Ministry of War, they looked at each other speechlessly.

Yang Zhengshan still sat in the chief seat, his gaze sweeping over the people below.

Zhou Lan, Tang Feihu, Niu Zhuang, Yang Mingzhi, Song Dashan, Yang Mingzhen, Yang Chengze, Yang Chengxu, Yang Minghao, etc.

Among them, Niu Zhuang was Zhou Lan's man, Tang Feihu was a faction of his own, Zhang Chengzhi, and Qin He were also independent factions.

Although the Yang family in Chongshan Town did not exclude outsiders, the core of Chongshan Town was always controlled by Zhou Lan and the Yang family.

Whether it was Tang Feihu, Zhang Chengzhi, or Qin He, they could only fend for themselves within their own domains.

But the situation has changed now, with Tang Feihu being the General, he must support his own forces. Although he had no enmity with the Yang family, he certainly could not be as intimately close with the Yang family as Zhou Lan.

Everyone kept silent, waiting for Yang Zhengshan to speak, while Yang Zhengshan leaned back in his chair, tapping the armrest lightly, and after a long while, he finally said, "Chengye!"