Chapter 79: Chapter 78 Taking Office Chapter 79: Chapter 78 Taking Office Time slowly passed in Yang Zhenshan’s urgency, and three days later, Zhou Lan sent someone over with the official robe and seal.
August 7th.
Yang Zhenshan, accompanied by Yang Mingwu, Yang Chengxu, Yang Minghao, and fifty soldiers, left Linguan Castle.
The soldiers of Linguan Castle were all trained by him, providing a solid foundation for his own authority.
With over fifty people, Yang Zhenshan and others mounted on warhorses, the soldiers fully armed, escorting the grain carts, marched out of Linguan Castle in a mighty procession.
The military households within Linguan Castle came out to send them off one after another, watching Yang Zhenshan leave with admiring and joyful eyes.
Yinghe Castle was located by the banks of the Ying River, which was much wider than the nameless small river at the foot of Linguan Castle, although it was now so dry that only a few small puddles remained.
The entire Yinghe Castle was also much larger than Linguan Castle, stretching over four hundred meters from east to west and two hundred meters from north to south, with walls about ten meters high, fortified with bluestone. As the residence of a defense officer, the scale of Yinghe Castle far surpassed other garrisons, and its sturdiness exceeded that of others as well.
When Yang Zhenshan arrived at the east gate of Yinghe Castle with his troops, officials who had come to welcome him had already filled the front of the gate.
Among them were a few who had met Yang Zhenshan briefly before.
Deputy Thousand Households Xu Zhen, registrar Qian Wanshu, and others had all visited Linguan Castle before.
At this moment, Xu Zhen’s face was ashen as he watched Yang Zhenshan approach on horseback, and the reason his face was so ugly was that Yang Zhenshan had taken his position.
Originally, when he heard that Zhang Zhongxiang was to be dismissed, he thought he could take over the position of the defense officer of Yinghe Castle. For this reason, he had gone out of his way to Jianning Guard and spent a great deal of Silver, only to return to Yinghe Castle and receive the news that Yang Zhenshan was to be the new defense officer.
In his eyes, this was simply a usurpation of his official position.
Actually, he misunderstood. Zhou Lan dismissed Zhang Zhongxiang to make room for Yang Zhenshan. Xu Zhen believed he could secure the position of the defense officer, but little did he know that all his efforts were in vain.
Of course, he was unaware of this; he only knew that Yang Zhenshan had snatched his official position, so it was odd for him to show a pleasant face.
Xu Zhen remained silent with a grim expression, the others also kept silent, not knowing what to say, all stood at the front of the gate, silently watching Yang Zhenshan approach.
“Greetings, Lord Thousand Households!”
Everyone knelt and greeted in unison.
Yang Zhenshan scanned the crowd and nodded slightly, “Gentlemen, please rise.”
Currently under his command as the defense officer was one Deputy Thousand Households, one Fort Commander, four Hundred Households, and two Trial Hundred Households, clearly insufficient for the officials that a thousand households should have.
However, considering he had only a little over four hundred soldiers under his command as the defense officer, it became clear why there were so few officials.
Although Xu Zhen felt bitter inside, he now had to compose himself, stepped forward and said: “The government office has been cleaned up, the Lord please!”
Although he looked down on Yang Zhenshan the country bumpkin in his heart, he couldn’t show it too openly.
Indeed, in his eyes, Yang Zhenshan was nothing but a country bumpkin.
They had already inquired about Yang Zhenshan and knew that he used to be a farmer. Although Yang Zhenshan joined the border army twenty years ago, at that time he was merely a common soldier.
Yang Zhenshan glanced at him; all the dissatisfaction was written on his face, and how could Yang Zhenshan fail to see it.
Of course, he wasn’t bothered by Xu Zhen’s discontent.
Before coming here, he had not intended to speak kindly to these officials who were only warming their chairs.
Chongshan Town had neglected military affairs, mostly due to the inaction from the higher-ups, but the neglect of military affairs in Yinghe Castle was the responsibility of the officials present here.
The previous defense officer, Zhang Zhongxiang, bore the main responsibility, but Deputy Thousand Households Xu Zhen was also inescapably culpable.
As far as he knew, this Deputy Thousand Households had committed numerous misdeeds in Yinghe Castle, enslaving military households, misusing public property for personal gain, claiming salaries for non-existent personnel, and so forth, all with Xu Zhen’s participation.
Especially the claiming of salaries for non-existent personnel, all the officials in Yinghe Castle were implicated.
One must realize that within the Governor’s Office, Yinghe Castle was supposed to have over eight hundred soldiers, but in reality, there were only a little over four hundred. This means that four hundred soldiers were like invisible men, and their provisions and wages all went into the pockets of those officials.
Yang Zhenshan did not pay any attention to Xu Zhen at all, but turned around and said to Yang Mingwu behind him: “Ming Wu!”
“Your subordinate is here!” Yang Mingwu immediately responded with a clasped fist.
“Go!”
Yang Zhenshan said indifferently.
Subsequently, Yang Mingwu led two soldiers carrying small flags into Yinghe Castle.
The layout of Yinghe Castle was similar to that of Linguan Castle; the government office was located in the center, with the residences of military households behind the government buildings, and a spacious training ground in front of the government office.
However, unlike Linguan Castle, the government office of Yinghe Castle was much more refined.
The entire government office was constructed of blue bricks, and there were two crossed courtyards behind it, east and west, with more than thirty rooms, which were even more spacious than the residence Yang Zhenshan had in the fortified city.
This was obviously built by Zhang Zhongxiang, or rather, it could have been built by the defense officer before the last.
Regardless of who built it, now it was all to Yang Zhenshan’s benefit.
Yang Mingwu did not care about the expressions on the other officials’ faces at all and led the soldiers directly into the government office, immediately taking control of the key facilities such as the study, accounting room, warehouse, and grain store.
A new official is expected to kindle three fires upon taking office, but Yang Zhenshan indicated that he did not need three fires; one was enough for him.
First to burn all these parasites to death.
Seeing Yang Zhenshan’s actions, the complexions of all the officials changed.
What did this mean?
Was it a show of power to intimidate upon arrival?
Or was it a signal of an impending shake-up?
They did not know what Yang Zhenshan was thinking. In their eyes, whoever became the defense officer was the same; it was just a matter of changing who to pay respects to.
Inside the castle, quite a few soldiers and military households were stealthily watching Yang Zhenshan and his entourage enter.
Their gazes were very complex, with expectations, disgust, and numbness.
Yang Zhenshan walked into the government office with a straight face, but he did observe those military households.
Their sallow complexions and ragged clothes showed that their lives were not easy.
Their numb or disgusted expressions indicated their dissatisfaction and even hostility towards the officials.
With this condition, hoping to win a war was pure fantasy.
Yang Zhenshan did not go to the study or council hall first but to the accounting room instead.
“Check it!”
He said indifferently, and Yang Chengxu and several others immediately took out the ledgers and started reviewing.
Every government office has its own ledgers, which record the inflow and outflow of silver and grain.
Of course, there were bound to be falsified entries.
But false accounts have flaws and cannot withstand scrutiny.
In the past, everyone held the mindset of mutual benefit, and even when audits were conducted from above, a little gratification was sufficient to get through.
Thus, the accounts of Yinghe Castle were not very meticulously made.
Yang Chengxu and a few others took one look through them, and without the need for Yang Zhenshan to act personally, they spotted many issues.