Black Fairy, the master is a female ghost

After the two women left, Lu Xunhuan stayed in Dengtianmen for another five days.

He promoted Senior Sister Lan and Senior Sister Bai to the left and right deputy heads, and promoted Xiaoqing to elder, each of them taking on their own responsibilities.

After everything was arranged, he said goodbye reluctantly and left Dengtian Gate and headed for Zhongzhou City.

When he arrived in Zhongzhou City, Qingdai and Ye Feihong had already bought a small courtyard near the south city gate.

When Lu Xunhuan arrived at Zhongzhou City, he entered from the south gate, and the two women easily greeted him.

After he arrived at the yard, he took a quick look around and then sat down in the living room.

"If we want to gain a foothold, we must first get to know people from all walks of life in Zhongzhou City. I will get to know everyone openly, and you will work for me behind the scenes."

Qing Dai asked, "Where do you plan to start?"

Lu Xunhuan looked confident. "The mayor of Changfeng Town has been transferred to the Zhongzhou City government office as a military officer for his contributions in suppressing bandits. He's in charge of military training. Although he has strong backing, he doesn't know anything about military training. He must be in urgent need of help. I'll go and join him first."

Qing Dai asked, "Sir, do you understand military training?"

Lu Xunhuan smiled: "It's a piece of cake."

Ye Feihong asked, "What about us?"

Lu Xun Huan said, "You two stay here and pretend to be my maids and servants. You don't have to show up at other times. I will assign you tasks when there are any."

After the three of them had discussed it, Lu Xunhuan took a short rest and went to visit Lord Sima of Zhongzhou Prefecture the next day.

The mayor's original surname was Cao. After being transferred to Zhongzhou City and promoted to Sima, he is now known as Cao Sima.

He was overjoyed to see Lu Xunhuan: "Hey, Master Lu, why are you here?"

Lu Xun Huan said, "I heard that Lord Sima had been promoted, so I came here to seek refuge with him. So, as one of Sima's subordinates, is there anything I can do for you?"

Upon hearing this, Cao Sima was delighted again: "That's great, Sect Leader Lu, no, Brother Lu, I'm new here and I'm a bit overwhelmed. It's great that you're here. I finally have someone of my own."

He stroked his beard and said, "There happens to be a vacancy among my subordinates. Once I report it to the governor, you can take up your post beside me."

Lu Xunhuan asked, "What position is it specifically?"

Sima Cao said, "I have three captains under my command, each commanding 10,000 soldiers and responsible for daily military drills. However, none of them are my subordinates, and they each act independently, making it difficult to manage them. Coincidentally, one of the captains has been transferred to the capital, and the position has become vacant. Many people are vying for it, so I won't give it to anyone, so I'll leave it to you."

Lu Xun Huan nodded and said, "If I could take on the position of Captain, I would do my utmost to train a victorious army for Sima. However, there are many people eyeing this position, so I'd like to trouble you, Sima, to take more care of it."

Sima Cao said, "You are one of my own people. I will do my best to recommend you. By the way, where do you live?"

Lu Xun Huan replied, "I live in the south of the city. If anything happens, I'll let you know."

After visiting Sima, Lu Xunhuan returned to his courtyard in the south of the city, stayed indoors every day, and waited quietly for news.

He knew in his heart that the position of captain was not an important one and it was not easy to become a captain.

So while he was waiting, he was also making other plans. What if he couldn't become a captain?

As the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket. One more plan means one more choice.

Sure enough, everything happened as he expected. Sima Cao wrote a letter to the governor of the prefecture, asking to recommend the hero who had suppressed the bandits that day to be the captain. Although he got the support of the power behind Sima Cao, he also encountered a lot of opposition.

The reason for their opposition was simple. Although Lu Xunhuan was a bandit-suppressing hero, he had never served in the military and was a complete greenhorn. He could be a soldier, or even a centurion, but did he have the ability to lead troops as a captain?

Because many people wanted to compete for this position, disputes arose and the matter was delayed for many days.

Finally, in order to balance the relationship between all parties, the governor of the state proposed to have several candidates for the captain compete on the spot and choose the winner. This was fair and just, and all parties had nothing to say.

Although open bidding may not necessarily be fair and just, the formalities must still be followed.

The state government quickly issued an internal order to divide the competition into two items.

One is a battle strength test.

Several candidates came on stage to compete to see who had the highest fighting power.

The second is to compete in military leadership strategies.

The military command strategy competition is conducted in the form of questions and answers. The prefect and many officials will set a total of ten questions. The contestants can randomly draw a question and answer whatever question they draw.

One of the regulations is that if someone thinks that others have not answered the question well, they can apply to express their own views on the question after the other person has answered it.

After the decision was made, Sima Cao immediately sent someone to the courtyard at the South Gate to tell Lu Xunhuan the news and asked him to be prepared. The training would be held at the Zhongzhou City garrison camp three days later.

In order to help Lu Xunhuan win, Sima Cao specially brought him a military book and asked him to study it carefully.

Lu Xunhuan took a few scrolls of bamboo slips, flipped through them briefly, and threw them aside.

Seeing that he didn't want to study, Ye Feihong asked worriedly, "Sir, most of the strategies for leading troops come from military books. If you don't read them, how can you win?"

Lu Xun Huan said, "You don't study hard at ordinary times, but only cram at the last minute. It's too late to study now."

Ye Feihong asked, "Did you give up, sir?"

Lu Xun Huan stroked his chin and said, "I don't have time to study, and I have an exam coming up, so I can only guess the topic. If I guess correctly, I might get a good grade."

After pondering for a while, he said, "Let's take a gamble. If it doesn't work, I can only use Sun Tzu's Art of War as a backup."

Ye Feihong picked up the scroll on the table and looked at it: "What is the Art of War, Sun Tzu?"

Lu Xun Huan stood up and said, "I have two tasks for you. First, find me all the cities and divisions along the border between Zhou Kingdom and Nanliang Kingdom, as well as the mountains, rivers, valleys and plains along the border, including the garrisons and population of each border city. "

Ye Feihong nodded: "Okay, what about the second one?"

Lu Xun Huan said, "Secondly, investigate the other three candidates besides me, especially any shameful things they have done on a daily basis. The sooner the better."

Qing Dai finally interrupted and asked, "Master, do you want us to investigate and spread the news?"

Lu Xun Huan nodded: "Smart, the competition has already begun. Let's start a war of public opinion in Zhongzhou City."

Qing Dai hesitated and said, "But during the time we lived at Dengtian Gate, I heard that the young master was quite romantic. If we really started a war of public opinion, I'm afraid he would be affected."

Lu Xunhuan said, "I started the war of public opinion. I took the initiative. Before the other party could react, the official competition had already begun. They had no time to investigate me."

He patted Qingdai's shoulder and said, "Hearing is believing, seeing is believing. You have lived in my Dengtianmen for a while. What is your impression of me? Have you ever seen me being romantic?"

Beside him, Ye Feihong interjected, "Not romantic at all, like a piece of wood."

Lu Xun Huan turned and smiled at her: "Okay, go get things done."

Regarding the Zhongzhou Prefecture's plan to hold a competition to select four candidates for the position of captain, the prefecture only issued an internal order and did not make any public announcement.

But soon, the whole Zhongzhou City knew about it.

The selection of candidates for the position of captain quickly became a hot topic in the streets and alleys.

Therefore, the backgrounds, qualifications, daily deeds, etc. of the four candidates became topics that people were eager to learn about.

Within two days, all the shameful deeds of the other three candidates, except Lu Xunhuan, became widely known.

For example, candidate number one has basically no skills, and he climbed the military ranks with the help of his father's connections.

For example, candidate number two had a good time in almost all the brothels in Zhongzhou City.

There is also candidate number three, who has unclear ties to the underworld and is said to be the sworn brother of the boss of the White Tiger Hall gang in Zhongzhou City.

Such public opinion has had a huge impact on the reputation of the three candidates.

As the news spread, officials at all levels in Zhongzhou Prefecture naturally heard about it.

As for candidate number four, Lu Xunhuan, everyone naturally has to talk about it.

But about him, everyone only knows that he is a bandit-suppressing hero, and only knows about his heroic deeds of destroying the Black Stone Village in one fell swoop and putting an end to the banditry that had plagued Zhongzhou for many years.

It was even said that he was well-versed in various military books.

And there is not a single unfavorable statement.

The most crucial thing is that after public opinion arose, the opponent had no time to react at all. Three days later, the time for the competition had arrived.

Lu Xunhuan, the soul traveler, has seen many elections in the world of his previous life.

An election campaign is not just a test of strength, but also requires various preparations to be made in advance. Overt warfare, covert warfare, public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, etc. all play an important role and affect the final outcome.

In just three days, all he could do was to launch a war of public opinion, first to psychologically attack the other party, and also to influence the psychology of the judges in the state government.