Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 281: Chapter 272: Having Friends Coming from Afar, Isn’t It Delightful?

In the following days, Xie Yuan and others started a major overhaul of the entire Tenglong Guard.

They first transferred all the Hundred Households and Deputy Thousand Households officials from the Tenglong Advanced Guard, and at the beginning, these Hundred Households and Deputy Thousand Households were nervous. However, when they learned that they were just being moved to other thousand households, they all settled down.

Although transferring to a new thousand households was certainly not as comfortable as before, at this moment, they just wanted to be safe and secure. If they could keep their current official positions, they were already quite content.

As for those who jump out and provoke challenges, heh, they were not so foolish as to step forward and seek their own demise.

Next, Xie Yuan and the others dismissed some officials, mainly those who were older and less capable, such as Yan Shun whom Yang Zhenshan had met before.

The elderly man was getting on in years; it was better for him not to occupy a position and hinder work, and better to retire and enjoy his old age at home.

There were also some who were notorious for their misdeeds who were taken down.

The biggest cancer of the Tenglong Guard was the Lan family, but there were also some other loathsome parasites who, despite the poverty of the Tenglong Guard, loved to leech off the impoverished military households.

For such people, Yang Zhenshan had zero tolerance.

After resolving these useless Hundred Households and Thousand Households, Xie Yuan selected two hundred people from the original soldiers of the An Yuan City garrison and appointed them.

The Tenglong Guard should have twenty Thousand Households, twenty Deputy Thousand Households, forty officials to pacify the thousand households, and two hundred Hundred Households. Excluding the usable Hundred Households and Deputy Thousand Households from the Tenglong Advanced Guard, the appointment of two hundred people roughly filled all levels of official positions.

As for the General Flag and small flag, there was no need for the Guardian Department to worry; after everyone took office, they could solve it on their own.

Thus, each thousand household had officials from the original Tenglong Guard and soldiers from the An Yuan City garrison, with the majority being soldiers from the garrison, and Yang Zhenshan had no problem controlling each thousand households.

A few days later, officials from each thousand households took office, and the Guardian Department began distributing military households.

Based on the principle of assigning nearby to minimize moving for military households and tenant servants as much as possible, the Guardian Department redrew the ownership of each farm and garrison.

Assigning military households was the most troublesome, as it involved all the people under the Guardian Department, including more than twelve thousand military households, amounting to nearly fifty thousand soldiers.

Redrawing ownership meant reassigning farmland, which inevitably caused panic and unrest among the lower ranks of military households.

However, this fear and unrest quickly dissipated because after the assignment was completed, carts full of grain left the Guard City and were distributed to every military household.

By mid-November, the day after the grain was distributed from the Guard City, Yang Zhenshan received two official documents from the Central Army Commander’s Mansion.

In the study, dressed in a dark cotton jacket, with neatly combed black hair, Yang Zhenshan sat calmly in front of the desk.

Han Fei, respectful, stood by his side, placing the two official documents on his desk.

Han Fei was an administrator of the Guardian Department, responsible for the daily official correspondence and archive management of the department.

Yang Zhenshan opened the documents and started reading them; as he finished the first document, his eyes sparkled.

”Hahaha, very good!”

He burst into laughter.

The content of this document was that the confiscated grain and money from the Lan family would be used to cover the Tenglong Guard’s grain allowance and military pay for three years.

Normally, most Guardian Departments are self-sufficient, meaning they use the grain harvested from the garrison farms to meet the daily expenses of the department, including the soldiers’ grain allowance and the officials’ salaries.

Actually, the soldiers’ grain allowance in these garrisons is not much, as the soldiers are required to farm the land, besides being able to keep a portion of the harvest, they also receive half of the grain allowance.

Put simply, military households farming the land is equivalent to paying forty percent of the rent to the thousand households. Of this forty percent, the thousand households keep twenty percent for distributing officials’ salaries, and the remaining twenty percent goes to the Guardian Department.

Of course, this is the normal operation; in reality, most of the garrisons in Da Rong can’t be self-sufficient anymore.

There are many reasons for this, such as military officers encroaching on garrison farmland, turning government land into their own private fields. Or the issue of garrisons having fewer military households than intended – where there should be over a thousand households contributing grain, but in reality, only eight hundred, five hundred, or sometimes even three hundred contribute, naturally making self-sufficiency impossible.

Additionally, some garrisons have other responsibilities, such as guarding cities or important passes.

Guarding cities and passes requires full grain allowances to be issued to soldiers, adding to the garrison’s expenditure. Hence these garrisons would need partial grain allowances from higher government offices.

Currently, the Tenglong Guard has no other responsibilities, but it is also not self-sufficient, so it makes sense for the Central Army to leave the confiscated money and grain with the Tenglong Guard.

It’s just that Yang Zhenshan did not expect the Central Army Commander’s Mansion to be so generous; he thought they would only leave him a portion, not giving it all to him.

This is a good thing; having this money and grain would spare him a lot of trouble, at least he wouldn’t need to ask for money or grain from the Central Army Commander’s Mansion.

”Unexpected, truly unexpected, those officials at the Central Army Commander’s Mansion are actually so generous, tsk tsk, it’s making me feel a little embarrassed!”

Yang Zhenshan was overjoyed.

He did not know this was at the old Emperor’s behest; otherwise, he would definitely set up an altar to offer his thanks to the old Emperor.

That’s hundreds of thousands of Silver Coin and sixteen thousand dan of grain!

However, after the excitement, Yang Zhenshan carefully did some calculations and realized that this amount of silver and grain didn’t seem much.

The gold confiscated from the Lan family was about thirty-eight thousand taels, silver about two hundred twenty thousand taels, and Copper Coin about thirty-four thousand strings. Converted into Silver, that made about over six hundred thousand taels.

This sum seemed large, but when considering military expenses, this amount of money was really not much.

The Camp Soldiers of Chongshan Town needed about twenty Silver Coin in military pay each year, meaning ten thousand Camp Soldiers would need two hundred thousand Silver Coin in a year.

This is only the military pay; although Yang Zhenshan currently didn’t have any Camp Soldiers under his command, the amount of Silver needed to equip a force of elite soldiers was certainly not a small figure.

A regular warhorse cost thirty to forty Silver Coin, a set of Iron Armor over a hundred Silver Coin, and a long spear over ten Silver Coin.

Equip a single Iron Armor Cavalry would cost at least a hundred and fifty Silver Coin, a hundred would be fifteen thousand, a thousand would be a hundred and fifty thousand.

Alright, let’s equip fewer Iron Armor Cavalry, let’s say a thousand.

Then form two thousand light cavalry; leather armor is relatively cheap, but even equipping a light cavalryman costs nearly a hundred Silver Coin, two thousand light cavalry equals two hundred thousand Silver Coin.

And then there’s the infantry.

Let’s not compare to the Yunlong Dragon Guard; Liang Chu’s Yunlong Dragon Guard has five thousand cavalry, let’s form three thousand cavalry and two thousand infantry.

Six hundred thousand taels of silver can barely cover it.

After checking the accounts, the joy in Yang Zhenshan’s heart had completely faded.

No wonder it took Liang Chu more than a decade to train the Yunlong Dragon Guard into elite troops. Training an elite force is truly difficult, with just the issue of money and grain enough to defeat countless people.

Setting aside the first document, Yang Zhenshan then opened the second one.

The second document outlined the handling of the Lan family’s case, with all male direct descendants handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for execution after the autumn, while the female members and collateral relatives were all exiled to Lingnan.

To this outcome, Yang Zhenshan wasn’t surprised—the Lan family had committed many offenses, but not to the extent that warranted the extermination of the entire clan.

”This matter, I will leave to you to handle. When the people from the Inspector General’s Office and Governor’s Office arrive, just transfer them directly!” he instructed.

”Oh, and don’t forget to transfer the case files to the Ministry of Criminal Justice and the Ministry of Justice!” Yang Zhenshan added, as he handed the second document to Han Fei.

Han Fei took the document and with a voiced acknowledgment, he excused himself.

Just as Han Fei left, a personal follower entered the study and presented a visiting card to Yang Zhenshan, reporting, ”Sir, there is someone asking for an audience outside!”

Yang Zhenshan casually opened the visiting card, but upon seeing the name on it, his expression turned to one of surprise.

”Liu Zhe! Why has he come?”

These past few days, he had been waiting for a reply from Liu Zhe, never expecting that instead of a letter, Liu Zhe himself would come.

Despite the surprise in his heart, he still rose to his feet and hurried out of the study to greet Liu Zhe.

Upon exiting the government office, he immediately saw the somewhat disheveled Liu Zhe.

The Liu Zhe he was seeing now had undergone many changes compared to Yang Zhenshan’s memory of him. His hair had more streaks of white, and his face bore more wrinkles, showing that he had aged considerably.

That made sense—back when they were at Yinghe Castle, Liu Zhe was already in his forties, two years senior to Yang Zhenshan, and by now he must be nearly fifty.

Moreover, his current tired appearance made him seem even more worn.

”Brother Liu, how come you’re here?” exclaimed Yang Zhenshan, both surprised and delighted.

Indeed, what a delight to have friends visit from afar.

”Ha-ha, General Yang, don’t tell me you’re not welcoming this self-invited guest!” Liu Zhe said, his demeanor seeming more carefree and relaxed than when at Yinghe Castle.

”How could I not!” Yang Zhenshan laughed and invited Liu Zhe into the government office.

”Many years apart, and Brother Liu seems to have become all the more free-spirited!”

Entering the tea room, while preparing tea, Yang Zhenshan took a moment to scrutinize Liu Zhe.

His weary appearance couldn’t fully obscure the energetic spirit within, and key to all this was his seemingly increased disposition to live unbound by convention.

Indeed, not as concerned with formalities as before.

”I’m but an idle man, naturally at ease,” Liu Zhe casually drank a sip from the tea.

Smiling, Yang Zhenshan asked, ”But tell me, what brings you here? And why do you have only two servants accompanying you?”

Liu Zhe was the eldest son of Liu Yuanfu, a true second-generation official, and yet, astonishingly, only brought two servants on his travels. Yang Zhenshan was confused what he was up to.

”Wasn’t it you who called for me?” Liu Zhe raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Yang Zhenshan was taken aback, ”I sent for you?”

”Yes, I came as soon as I received your letter!” Liu Zhe said, taking out the letter he mentioned.

Yang Zhenshan became even more bewildered as he took the letter and glanced over it.

Alright, the letter was indeed written by him.

”My intention was to ask you to be Lin Zhan’s teacher!”

”Well, that’s why I came!” Liu Zhe responded.

”No, no, my meaning was for Lin Zhan to be sent to the Capital City, not for you to come here!” Yang Zhenshan said somewhat helplessly.

Liu Zhe looked at him in confusion, ”To the Capital City?”

”Yes!” Yang Zhenshan nodded.

Liu Zhe said, ”Isn’t Lin Zhan taking part in the provincial exams next year?”

”He is,” Yang Zhenshan said. ”Though he’s still young, I think it will be good for him to get a taste of it. Even if he doesn’t succeed, it’ll be an experience.”

Liu Zhe rolled his eyes and said, ”If he’s going to sit for the provincial exam next year, what’s the point of going to the Capital City?”

Yang Zhenshan was taken aback, then quickly realized what was happening.

Indeed, if he’s sitting for the provincial exam next year, why go to the Capital City?

Candidates typically sit for the provincial exams in their place of registration, which meant Lin Zhan would have to take them in Jing’an Prefecture. If he went to the Capital City now, he would have to return before August next year.

A journey of over two thousand miles, even if one traveled diligently, would take more than a month for a round trip.

It was indeed better for Lin Zhan to save over a month of travel time and have Liu Zhe come to Liaodong instead.

Understanding this, Yang Zhenshan couldn’t help but smile wryly.

He hadn’t thought this through.