Chapter 360
The deputy prefect had known well in advance that the new official coming to take up the post was a young man—the top scholar from the year before last, who had only been in the Hanlin Academy for less than a year and was exceptionally favoured by the Emperor. His abilities, however, were lacking.
In the beginning, the Emperor had been frantic over the affairs of Hezhou, dispatching one imperial edict after another to the prefecture. The deputy prefect had spent so much time kneeling to receive those decrees that the skin on his knees had peeled off four layers over. But a few months ago, a decree came from the capital ordering him to temporarily fill the position, as Lord Fang—the official the court was dispatching—had a fulang who had not yet finished his confinement after childbirth and would likely be delayed for a while.