Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 126: Chapter 122 Everything as Before

The following morning at dawn.

Yang Zhenshan got up, washed, and cultivated in the courtyard of the main residence for two hours.

Previously at Yinghe Castle, he wouldn’t practice in the backyard of the government office because the space was not large, and since everyone needed to cultivate, he had to go outside the garrison to practice.

But here it was different, there was only him in the main courtyard, and with so much space, he could train as he pleased.

After the cultivation was done, the Yang family members all arrived at the main courtyard ready to have breakfast.

Nowadays, the Yang family still dined together, including the two young disciples, Wang Yunqiao and Lin Zhan.

“Ming Hao, have you reached the level of Refining Power in your cultivation?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

“Dad, I started to Refine Power more than a month ago!” Yang Minghao said somewhat discontentedly.

He practiced very hard, if not for his young age, he regarded himself as being no worse than his second brother.

As for his eldest brother!

Better forget that.

He truly couldn’t compare.

If you asked who had the highest cultivation among the Yang family, Yang Zhenshan was naturally the undeniable first.

Aside from Yang Zhenshan, it was Yang Mingcheng.

Don’t think that Yang Mingcheng seems very naive and silly, but an honest person has their merits: sincerity, obedience, unafraid of hardship, unafraid of tiredness.

Moreover, since Yang Mingcheng held no official position and only needed to manage the family’s properties, he had more free time, which allowed him to spend the most time on cultivation.

Now, Yang Mingcheng’s cultivation had reached the Postnatal Second Layer, a level higher than both Yang Mingwu and Yang Mingzhi.

As for the other members of the Yang family, aside from Yunyan, all who could become Martial Artists had already done so.

Yunyan’s cultivation was delayed because she was pregnant again; the others were delayed due to their young age.

Yang Zhenshan nodded and said, “After this, follow me to the Front Office with Song Dashan!”

Today, he still had to meet those officials to find out what kind of dragon’s den or tiger’s lair this garrison office really was.

After breakfast, Yang Zhenshan took Song Dashan and Yang Minghao to the Front Office. The clerk, Zhou Ren, had been waiting at the archway that connected the Front Office to the backyard early on. Seeing them come out, he hurried forward and bowed, “This subordinate greets the grand official!”

“Has everyone arrived?” Yang Zhenshan asked indifferently.

“Reporting to the grand official, all the lords are waiting in the main hall!” said Zhou Ren.

The garrison office is a large courtyard, the main hall is the place for discussing affairs, to the left of the main hall is Yang Zhenshan’s work study, then there’s the Grain and Silver Department, Horse Department, Land Department, Lu Bu Storehouse, treasury, Armaments Bureau, Processional Armory, and so on.

The entire government office has over thirty civil servants, more than a hundred vigorous constables, plus over thirty craftsmen, and over a hundred soldiers.

No need to mention the civil servants, as all clerical work within the office needed them to handle.

The robust men and the constables were mainly responsible for miscellaneous tasks, carrying grain, arranging warehouses, assisting with odd jobs, processions, and the like.

The craftsmen were in charge of forging and repairing armaments, fixing carts, shoeing horses, making saddles, and so on.

The armaments of the garrison office were provided by the Assistant General Mansion, but sometimes the armaments would be damaged, and obviously, the Assistant General Mansion wouldn’t repair them or issue new armaments at any time, so the garrison office needed to repair by themselves, and sometimes they also had to forge some armaments by themselves.

As for the soldiers, they were responsible for the defense of the government office. If Yang Zhenshan were to travel, they would also act as his guards.

Therefore, there were many people in this garrison office.

When they saw Yang Zhenshan coming over, they all paid their respects and saluted.

Yang Zhenshan ignored these people and walked calmly into the main hall.

“Greetings to the grand official!”

More than a dozen officers had already gathered in the main hall, who hastily stood up and saluted upon Yang Zhenshan’s entrance.

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, then sat in the seat of honor.

His gaze swept over the faces of the crowd, and he said, “Please take a seat!”

“Thank you, grand official!”

“Who is the thousand commander?”

Yang Zhenshan asked knowingly.

The night before, he had already reviewed the details of the thousand commander Xu Wanfu, and moreover, he had seen Xu Wanfu before entering the city, so how could he not know who the thousand commander was?

“Subordinate Xu Wanfu, has met with the garrison officer.” Xu Wanfu stood up, once again cupping his fists in salute.

“Are there any problems with the city’s defense?” Yang Zhenshan inquired.

“Reporting to the grand official, all is well!” Xu Wanfu replied.

Yang Zhenshan stroked his beard and looked at Xu Wanfu.

From the reception outside the city the previous day to now, he could tell that the officers under the garrison office all looked up to this Xu Wanfu as the leader.

It surely wasn’t like this before. He had met Cao Han too, during the battle at Fushan City, when Chongshan Town’s military camp was defeated, and Cao Han was fleeing and even tried to snatch the military grain he was escorting.

Back then, Cao Han acted quite arrogantly and overbearingly, so with such a temperament, how could he possibly be overshadowed by subordinates.

Obviously, Xu Wanfu took the opportunity of Cao Han’s downfall over the past three months to win over all the officials of the garrison office.

At this moment, Xu Wanfu bowed his head, appearing very compliant, but his heart was filled with scorn.

He had inquired about Yang Zhenshan, knowing that Yang Zhenshan came from Yinghe Castle and was aware of Yang Zhenshan’s relationship with Zhou Lan.

Zhou Lan!

He certainly wouldn’t dare to provoke Zhou Lan, but he dared to target Yang Zhenshan because this was An Yuan State City, not Jianning Guard.

“Then that’s good, let’s keep everything as it was before!” Yang Zhenshan commented blandly.

Then he asked again, “Who is the garrison officer?”

“Subordinate Tian Gui greets the grand official!” Tian Gui quickly stood up.

“There shouldn’t be any problems with your side, should there?”

“No, none at all.” Tian Gui didn’t appear as calm as Xu Wanfu, showing a hint of panic on his face.

“Mm, then everything remains as it was!” Yang Zhenshan said this line again.

“Do you have any other questions?”

The crowd was silent.

“Since there are no questions, then everyone is dismissed!”

After speaking, Yang Zhenshan got up and left the main hall, heading to the study next door.

It was clear what the situation was now; he, as the garrison officer, had been sidelined by his subordinates, and he could no longer rely on either the Camp Soldiers in the city or the garrison soldiers outside.

As for what to do next!

Yang Zhenshan had already made up his mind, to counteract action with inaction.

He was new to the place and hadn’t yet grasped the full situation, so it was certainly not appropriate to take any action at this time.

And since these people wanted to sideline him and were targeting him, they would naturally not stay quiet. They were bound to take some action.

Although this was somewhat passive, it allowed Yang Zhenshan the opportunity to buffer.

The situation with Xu Wanfu could wait for them to make a move, but in the government office, Yang Zhenshan could not afford to stay uninvolved.

This government office was exactly what he needed to control at the moment, and it was also the easiest place for him to gain control.

“Zhou Ren!”

In the study, Yang Zhenshan looked around at the room’s decorations with his hands behind his back.

Compared with the furniture in the back courtyard, the decorations in this study seemed much more ordinary.

Whether it was the writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, or the tables, chairs, and bookcases, everything was very common and ordinary.

“At your service!” Zhou Ren replied carefully.

He stood behind Yang Zhenshan, feeling as though he bore the weight of a mountain on his chest, hardly daring to breathe heavily.

For some reason, he felt an intense pressure emanating from Yang Zhenshan.

“Let’s go. Take this official to check on the Granary and Finance Department first.”

Following that, Yang Zhenshan began to inspect the situation within the government office.

Starting from the Granary and Finance Department, he learned about various aspects of the office, including silver and grain, armaments, warhorses, and personnel.

Getting to know all these was not an easy task because it also included the status of the Camp Soldiers under the office and garrison forces.

It took Yang Zhenshan six days to fully understand the situation within the government office.

How to put it?

At the moment, the supplies of grain and silver in the garrison office were still quite abundant, which gave Yang Zhenshan a sigh of relief.

Having money and grain, one wouldn’t panic.

As long as there was no shortage of money and grain, Yang Zhenshan could sit back and wait.

As for why the garrison office was not short on money and grain, Yang Zhenshan could more or less guess the reason.

Cao Han was accused of embezzling provisions, and logically the government office’s silver and grain should have been embezzled by him, but that was an incident from three months ago.

During these three months, superiors would have necessarily allocated provisions.

Moreover, Chongshan Town is not lacking provisions at the moment. Since Lu Chongde and Liang Chu took office, the provisions of silver and grain at all levels of the government office in Chongshan Town are quite sufficient; plus, this year is a bumper harvest year, so Chongshan Town is even less in need of food.

Therefore, it is normal for the garrison office to have adequate provisions and silver.

Of course, he also discovered many issues.

The main problems were focused on the messy accounting; Yang Zhenshan just skimmed through the accounts and already knew there were many issues.

However, those were problems left by his predecessor, and since Cao Han had already been accused, these accounts had nothing to do with him.

He would not pursue these issues, nor would he be affected by the previous accounts.

Besides the accounts, there was also a problem with the atmosphere.

Perhaps because Cao Han was accused, or perhaps because of Xu Wanfu’s meddling, but now everyone in the government office seemed listless, showing an attitude of just eating and waiting for death every day.

After grasping the situation within the government office, Yang Zhenshan was ready to start addressing the problems.

In the study, Yang Zhenshan was writing at the desk.

“Sir, you were looking for me. Do you have any instructions?”

Zhou Ren bowed his body, came over to the front of Yang Zhenshan, and asked cautiously.

A few days’ interaction wasn’t enough for him to understand Yang Zhenshan’s personality, but he could feel that this new garrison officer was not a simple character.

Therefore, whenever he faced Yang Zhenshan, he was extremely cautious, fearing to displease him.

“Look at that document over there!” Yang Zhenshan pointed to a pamphlet on the tea table and said.

“Yes!”

Zhou Ren picked up the pamphlet and started flipping through it.

However, the moment he opened the pamphlet, his expression underwent a drastic change.

As he continued to look through it, his expression became more and more tense, his face grew paler, and cold sweat began to form on his forehead.

Zhou Ren, aged thirty-eight, originally from Lower River Village, Chengyang County.

Passed the local Scholar exam in the sixth year of the era of peace.

Participated in the provincial examinations in the seventh year of the era of peace; disqualified and stripped of academic honors due to allegations of exam fraud.

In the eighth year of the era of peace, he entered the garrison office Land Department as a clerk thanks to his father-in-law Chen Jian’an’s connections.

Currently resides on Fuan Street, South City, wife Zhou Yang, having four sons and a daughter.

Eldest son Zhou Weian, sixteen years old…

Second son Zhou Weixin, fourteen years old…

…