Chapter 320 Conflicts Emerge
Chapter 320 Conflicts Emerge
General Manager Xiao Xia's mansion covers an area of about 20 acres. It was renovated five years ago. The previous general manager Hou Mochenying did not care much about government affairs, but paid great attention to the quality of life. He built the general manager's mansion very luxuriously. The back house has pavilions, towers, rockery, ponds and fish. There are all kinds of carved beams and painted buildings. The furniture is all high-quality nanmu. The pond is full of lotus flowers. There are various carp in the water that are up to one foot long. A special lotus viewing platform has also been built.
After the people left, all the servants were taken away. Butler Liu then found a pawnshop and hired nearly twenty servants, including doormen, cooks, coachmen, maids, etc.
Butler Liu was cautious and lied that there were new merchants who needed servants. It was not until he brought these servants to the mansion that everyone realized that it was the General Manager's Mansion that was recruiting.
Time passed quickly, and ten days went by in a flash. During these ten days, Xiao Xia had been shuttling between various military headquarters, meeting with generals, talking with soldiers, caring about the soldiers' sufferings, improving the soldiers' food and accommodation conditions, formulating new training rules, participating in the training of soldiers, and so on.
It took him ten days to finally get a general grasp of the soldiers' situation. But it could only be said that he had a general grasp of it. To truly understand the army's morale, Xiao Xia would have to spend a lot of time to calm down.
That morning, Xiao Xia came to the General Administration's office. He basically didn't come here these days. Liu Wenjing and Pei Wen'an were helping him organize various documents and sort out various things.
Xiao Xia flipped through the documents on the table, but didn't find what he wanted, so he told his men, "Please bring Mr. Liu over!"
Liu Wenjing's official room was in the outer courtyard. Not long after, Liu Wenjing hurried in and bowed, saying, "Meet the chief steward!"
"Where's the inventory of the General Manager's Mansion's property? Didn't I give the order long ago? Why don't you see it?"
Liu Wenjing said calmly: "Reporting to the chief steward, Sima Liu said that I can report to the chief steward verbally, but there is no written report."
Xiao Xia's face darkened, "Why?"
"He said that this is the court system. The property details of the General Manager's Office are confidential and the staff are not allowed to know. In fact, to put it bluntly, he just doesn't want me to interfere in the finances. If there is anything, he will report directly to the General Manager without going through the staff."
"Fuck that stinky dog fart!"
Xiao Xia was immediately furious, "How dare a mere Sima be so arrogant?"
Liu Wenjing added: "This Liu Huan is a man of Han Wang Yang Liang. He is very powerful in the General Manager's Office. The previous general manager did the same thing. He obeyed all the orders of General Manager Hou Mochen, but General Manager Hou Mochen could not control the finances. General Manager Hou Mochen did not dare to offend Han Wang, so General Manager Hou Mochen completely let go of the finances. It is said that he has never been to the granary or the treasury in the five years since he took office."
Xiao Xia narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "What you mean is that he will do whatever I say, but he won't let me get involved in the finances. Is that what you mean?"
Liu Wenjing sighed and said, "I'm afraid he won't follow the general manager's intention to recruit 6,000 soldiers!"
Xiao Xia nodded and ordered, "Go and get Zhou Changshi, Liu Sima, and Zhao Canjun. I want to discuss something with them!"
Liu Wenjing immediately sent someone to go there. Soon, Zhou Mo, Liu Huan and Zhao Guangcai arrived at Xiao Xia's official room and bowed together, saying, "Greetings, Chief Steward!"
Xiao Xia said slowly: "When I inspected the military headquarters, I heard many soldiers say that they often eat coarse grains and brown rice, and the quantity is not enough. I want to know, are all the grains we have in stock brown rice?"
Liu Huan said quickly: "General Manager, in fact, it is not brown rice, but old rice. We have ten granaries. The three in the north are old rice granaries, and the seven in the south are new rice granaries. We have always mixed new rice and old rice for soldiers, and never give all old rice.
As for the shortage, it was because it was a training period, during which the food supply would increase by 20%, to 2.4 jin per day. Now that the training period is over, the food supply has returned to the normal 2 jin, so the soldiers will feel that they are being given less food, which is actually an illusion. "
Xiao Xia asked again: "How much grain is left in Chen Mi Cang now?"
Liu Huan thought for a moment and said, "About 30,000 shi?"
"Is this the actual number or the number in the account book?" Xiao Xia asked.
"The books and the actual numbers are the same!"
Xiao Xia nodded, "That's good. The day after tomorrow morning, I will go to inspect Chenmi Cang. Sima Liu, please get ready!"
With the chief secretary watching nearby, Liu Huan didn't dare to say no and could only nod and agree.
"That's it! The day after tomorrow morning, prepare the account books and we'll go to Chenmi Cang to take a look together." Xiao Xia then came to the recruiting camp, which was just outside Chenliu County. It was a training camp for the government soldiers. On the vast training ground, six thousand soldiers were actively training.
At this time, Sun Lei saw his lord coming and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "Meet the chief steward!"
"I have a mission for you!"
Xiao Xia came to the big tent, sat down and said to Sun Lei: "Do you know Chen Mi Cang of the General Manager's Mansion?"
Sun Lei shook his head, and Xiao Xia handed him a map. "The three granaries with red circles on them are the rice granaries. Bring a few brothers with strong martial arts skills to burn down one of the granaries tonight, the northernmost one!"
"I humbly obey my orders!"
Xiao Xia nodded and said slowly: "Then I will give you another task tomorrow!"
That night, Xiao Xia was woken up from his deep sleep. He quickly got up and went to the front yard. A soldier hurriedly reported: "General, there is a fire in the granary!"
"What? All burned?"
"Not all of them, only the northernmost granary caught fire."
Xiao Xia sneered in his heart, and immediately took a few people on horseback to the granary. From a distance, he saw thick smoke and flames rising into the sky.
Sun Lei was seen leading thousands of soldiers from the recruitment camp to put out a fire, but the fire was too big and they were unable to put it out. They had to quickly wrap the wet bedding on the granary next door to protect the second granary from being affected and to control the losses.
Xiao Xia happened to meet the Chief Clerk Zhou Mo, and he asked, "What's going on?"
Zhou Mo sighed and said, "I heard that someone set the fire, and the current situation is unclear!"
At this time, several officials came over with the warehouse keeper. The warehouse keeper knelt down and cried, "My lord, someone deliberately set the fire. I only saw a few shadows. They ran too fast and I couldn't catch up with them."
Xiao Xia snorted coldly and asked Zhou Mo, "I was going to inspect Chen Mi Cang tomorrow, but it caught fire today. What do you think the problem is?"
Zhou Mo knew very well that someone must have burned the evidence.
He said slowly, "There have been rumors that there are problems with the grain storage, so Chief Steward Hou Mochen never went to inspect the grain, and pretended not to know. The new chief steward wanted to inspect the granary upon taking office. Obviously, someone is scared!"
Xiao Xia nodded. "The soldiers are complaining that their food is being withheld, and they are still trying to find excuses to fool me. I must get to the bottom of this matter!"
At this time, hurried footsteps were heard again. Sima Liuhuan finally arrived. His face was pale and there was fear in his eyes.
Xiao Xia asked coldly, "Sima Liu, what's going on? I have to inspect the grain tomorrow, why is there a fire in the granary today?"
"I don't know what's going on either. Please give me some time and I will find out the reason."
Xiao Xia shook his head. "Don't worry about the investigation. Just figure out the losses first and report to me tomorrow morning!"
After saying that, Xiao Xia turned around and left. Liu Huan wiped the sweat from his forehead. He knew very well that it must be his men who burned the evidence without telling him.
He was filled with hatred, and suddenly rushed forward and kicked the warehouse guard over, cursing: "How can you guard the warehouse, you bastard?"
(End of this chapter)