Chapter 244 New official takes office
Chapter 244 New official takes office
The next morning, Xiao Xia came to the Right Wuhou Guard Military Yamen located in the imperial city. The general of the Right Wuhou Guard was named Qiu He, who was about fifty years old and was granted the title of Pillar of the State. In his early years, he was called Qiu Rui, and he was probably the prototype of Qiu Rui in the Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties.
However, he was not one of the Nine Founding Elders, nor was he the Prince of Changping, nor was he Qin Qiong's uncle. He was a member of the Xianbei Qiu Dun clan, and later changed his surname to Qiu. His father, Qiu Shou, was the General Zhendong of the Western Wei Dynasty. Qiu He inherited his father's title, Duke of Nagano County.
Historically, after Yang Guang ascended the throne, Qiu He began to be valued and was sent to govern Jiaozhi, where he managed Jiaozhi in an orderly manner. Qiu He was most famous in the court for having many sons. He had 15 sons, the third of whom was the famous general Qiu Xinggong.
At present, Qiu He is one of the confidants of Han King Yang Liang. Although he is Yang Liang's confidant, he is useless and has no real power, and he can't make things difficult for Xiao Xia.
The twelve generals of the guards were supported by the imperial court. They had nothing to do in normal times, but were sent out to lead the troops in battle when war broke out. Generals like Yuwen Shu, Shi Wansui, Wei Xuan, He Ruobi, Yuan Min, Yuan Zhou, Dugutuo, Yu Zhongwen, Dou Kang, Yang Xiong, Yang Da, Qiu He, etc. were all generals of the guards.
But in an emergency, such as a rebellion or the capital being invaded by foreign enemies, the emperor would grant power to the general, and the general would have the military power of his own guard. In fact, the general is exercising the military power of the emperor, and it is not his own power.
Of course, at that time the emperor would also replace the general with someone he trusted before empowering him.
At this time, Qiu He had already received the appointment letter from the Ministry of Personnel, and Xiao Xia was appointed as the general of the fourth battalion of the Right Wuhou Guard.
Qiu He smiled at Xiao Xia and said, "General Xiao is really a promising young man! He was promoted to a third-rank general at the age of seventeen. It's really impressive."
Of course Qiu He knew very well that the other party was the emperor's grandson, and was granted the title of Prince of Xihai County. The title was much more powerful than this official position. Because of this, although Qiu He was Xiao Xia's superior, he did not dare to act like a superior.
He continued, "The Left Wuhou Guard is responsible for the safety of the emperor's travel, the Right Wuhou Guard is responsible for patrolling the capital, the Third Battalion will patrol Chang'an County and the Old City in the next two months, the Fourth Battalion will patrol Wannian County, and then they will be replaced every three months. Gao Changshi will tell you the details. I don't have anything to do here. Soon, Gao Changshi will accompany you to the military camp to take up your post!"
Qiu He then signed his name on the back of the imperial appointment letter, stamped it, handed it to Xiao Xia and said, "Go! The general of the Fourth Battalion has been vacant for a month, and there are a lot of things to do. You will have to work hard for a while."
Xiao Xia took the appointment letter and bowed, "I'll take my leave!"
Soon, Gao Biaoren, the chief officer of the Right Wuhou Guard, took Xiao Xia to the Xineiyuan military camp to take over his post. Gao Biaoren was the eldest son of Prime Minister Gao Jiong. He had real power and was responsible for the logistics, food, and soldiers and officers of the entire 10,000-strong army of the Right Wuhou Guard.
As they walked, Gao Biaoren introduced the situation to Xiao Xia, "Although the Left and Right Wuhou Guards and Qianniu Guards have the smallest number of troops, each with only 20,000 people, they are professional soldiers who receive official salaries every month. Almost all of them are from Jingzhao Prefecture, unlike the prefecture soldiers from other guards who take turns to guard the capital. You are the commander of the fourth battalion, and you have five military prefectures under you, each with a thousand people, one Tiger Guard Lieutenant General, and two Tiger Guard Lang Generals."
Xiao Xia asked, "Are you very busy?"
Gao Biaoren smiled and said, "Your position is important, not busy. You do the same things every day, patrol, patrol, and patrol again, or do some trivial chores. By the way, you have three staff officers, and the court will pay your salary. You can find three staff officers to handle miscellaneous tasks for you, write inspection reports, inspect military discipline and appearance, evaluate generals, compile attendance lists, manage warehouses to distribute military salaries and food, etc. The most important time for you is when the army is unusually mobilized. At this time, the emperor will give you an order, and the messenger will bring the tiger talisman to the barracks, and then you will lead the army to act according to the emperor's order."
"In other words, the tiger talisman is in my hand?"
"That's right. I will give you the general's seal, the command arrow, the tiger seal, and the official seal of the Fourth Battalion later."
"Do I have any civil servants under me?" Xiao Xia asked again.
Gao Biaoren smiled and said, "The civil servants under you are not called civil servants in the General's Mansion, but military officials, which can also be considered as civilian positions. There are eight of them in total. They usually do the things I mentioned, and then your staff will review them. Then your staff will stamp the official seal on your behalf and hand it over to us every month. We will conduct random inspections from time to time. It's a bit cumbersome, but this is the system."
Soon, the two arrived at the military camp in the West Inner Courtyard. The West Inner Courtyard was outside the Xuanwu Gate and covered a large area. The fourth camp was located in the northwest corner, very close to the old city. It was surrounded by fences. The camp was long from north to south and short from east to west. There were five military mansions neatly arranged from north to south. The distance between each military mansion was dozens of steps and separated by low fences.
The five military mansions are located on the west side of the military camp. The general's camp is in the southeast corner of the military camp, and the horse camp, fodder area, and warehouse area are in the northeast corner of the military camp.
All the barracks are tents. The largest tent is the general's tent. There are more than a dozen small tents outside, which are the staff tents and military officer tents. Of course, there are also toilets, wells, kitchen tents, military medical tents, confinement centers, detention centers and other functional areas in the barracks.
Everything seems to be in order.
"What is this place used for?" Xiao Xia asked curiously, pointing at a group of tents surrounded by fences.
An accompanying military officer explained: "This is a detention center. Anyone who violates the curfew will be detained here."
"How long will they be detained for?" "It depends on the severity of the offense. If they have a good attitude and honestly admit their mistakes and accept the punishment, they will be released after one night. If they are dishonest and have a bad attitude, they will be detained for a few more days."
"How long can he be detained at most?" Xiao Xia asked.
"According to the Kaihuang Order, the maximum sentence is one month in prison and 100 strokes of the cane, but this rarely happens, and people are usually fined and released."
Xiao Xia nodded and turned to go to the general's tent.
Xiao Xia's predecessor was the veteran general Guo Rong, who was transferred to Yunnan a month ago to serve as the commander-in-chief to quell the rebellions of the Yi and Liao people. Now his position has been vacant for a month, and the chief secretary Gao Biaoren and Sima Wang Hui have been acting as generals.
Of course, this can be done in normal times, but not in times of unrest. At that time, a most experienced Tiger Guard General would be appointed as temporary general.
In the general's tent, Gao Biaoren summoned the lieutenant generals, lieutenant generals and military officers of the five military offices and held a brief appointment ceremony. He solemnly handed over the seal of the general of the Right Wuhou Guard, the command arrow, the tiger talisman and the official seal to Xiao Xia.
Then everyone knelt down to greet him, and Xiao Xia took office.
Gao Biaoren gave him a few more instructions, and then he stopped caring and left.
Xiao Xia immediately ordered: "Order the entire army to assemble, I want to give a speech!"
The troops stationed in Chang'an are also divided into special periods and non-special periods. If there is no major event in the country, it is basically a non-special period, and everyone is more comfortable and free. The commander can go home at night except when he is on duty.
During the day, the military camp is like a factory. As long as everything runs smoothly, it doesn’t matter whether the factory director is in the factory or not. If there is any emergency, someone will come to find him.
During the day, the generals are busy figuring out how to climb up the ladder and currying favor with powerful people. They don't pay much attention to the affairs in the barracks, because their staff will handle things for them anyway.
But if a major event occurs in the country, such as the death of the emperor, the ascension of a new emperor to the throne, a rebellion by traitors, etc., then the country will enter a special period. At this time, the generals must stay in the barracks day and night and are not allowed to go out or go home.
In the afternoon, Xiao Xia came back from the military camp and went directly to the metropolitan city. He wanted to find Liu Wenjing, as Liu Wenjing would take office tomorrow.
The sign of Xihai Trading Company has been hung up. It is currently located in the two-story building that was rented before. The company has recruited twelve people, eight accountants and four managers. The accountants are responsible for checking the accounts and auditing the accounts in each store. This is a must and has been required in every dynasty. If the owner neglects the shopkeeper and does not care about the shop, the shop will be emptied one day, and all the money earned will go into the pocket of the shopkeeper.
Especially if the family owns dozens of stores, it will have to employ a bunch of accountants.
The two major responsibilities of a trading company are auditing and business. The business is responsible for purchasing, arranging freight and negotiating large transactions. Shop owners never take care of purchasing. Individual small shops will go to the United Chamber of Commerce to purchase goods, but if there are dozens of large chain stores, they will generally set up a trading company, which will purchase goods in a unified manner and arrange logistics and freight.
The business shop still seems very crowded and narrow. It's okay to squeeze in for a short period of time, but it's not okay to stay here for a long time.
Xiao Xia sat down in the chief steward's room, tapped on Liu Wenjing's desk and said with a smile: "Move this to the barracks tomorrow. You, the staff member, will have to take up your post tomorrow."
Liu Wenjing smiled slightly and said, "Manager Ma thinks this room is too crowded for two people, but he can't find another room for me. He is looking forward to me moving out every day."
Xiao Xia laughed and said to the chief steward Ma Yue: "Don't worry! I will take over the building of Shangqing Commercial Bank as soon as possible. Now we have power and troops in our hands. It will be easy for me to take over Shangqing Commercial Bank."
Ma Yue and Liu Wenjing looked at each other, both of them showing bitter smiles. Their boss really held a grudge and refused to let Shangqing Commercial Bank go.
Xiao Xia pondered for a moment, then asked Ma Yue, "Have all the shops been accepted?"
(End of this chapter)