The newly appointed commandant kicked open the broken door of the post station and drew his blade to seize the military horses. "A crippled groom at a ruined post station thinks he's fit to ride an official horse?"
Fifty-two-year-old Lu Shanyue patted the broken blade at his waist and unhurriedly brought out a black wooden case.
Thirty years of border defense orders, vermilion seals from the three commissions, and the Ministry of War's original, specially investigated border pass!
When he read aloud the law condemning abuse of authority, the arrogant commandant's legs shook on the spot.
They adulterated the grain with sand and tried to force him to sign off on the losses? He turned over an iron measure and used an official red-bronze scale to weigh the corrupt clerks to their deaths.
They cut off the water, seized farmland, and forged deeds? He revealed a bronze seal and ancient map from the Ministry of War, preserved for thirty years, and had every one of the wicked retainers executed.
A severe drought dried up the river on the barren plains. He drilled through thirty feet of black rock and tapped a hidden spring beneath the glacier.
The vanguard army was starving and collapsing in the field. He brought out thirty thousand shi of clean, sand-free snow wheat, shaking the heavens.
At last, with beacon fires blazing across the land, the commander himself came to beg for grain. He lifted the curtain, saw the old soldier, and the dignified commander dismounted at the camp gate and knelt:
"Your subordinate, Pei Lie, pays his respects to his old company commander!"
The old soldier guards the frontier, and his rules are as solid as a mountain. Anyone who violates the law of the realm or harms the border folk will have their throat cut, one blade at a time!
