Yan Anzhi continued reading, becoming increasingly interested as he flipped through the pages. The reports from the Minister of the Grand Court, the Ministry of Works, and the Imperial Guard Office were information he received through one ear and let out through another.
As he read on, he came across the testimony of the Lin'an Prefecture Registrar. The registrar was in the capital to report to the Secretariat and had narrowly escaped the catastrophe.
In his testimony, the registrar claimed that a month ago, a group of beggars and some workers from the Granary Labor Camp in Lin'an had a dispute. These workers were harassed and threatened by the local hoodlums and gangsters, who turned out to be members of the Wild Dogs Gang.
The Wild Dogs Gang was a band of outlaws from Qingliang Mountain. At the beginning of the year, government forces had attempted to wipe them out, but some slipped through the net, only to re-emerge more powerful than ever after a while.
