Chapter 145: Inspection of the Tunbu
The next day, Yang Zhengshan came to Chengguanbao again with more than ten carts of food and two large boxes of silver.

Under the expectant gaze of the soldiers, Yang Zhengshan handed over portions of food and silver to them.

In fact, the amount of food and silver each soldier received was not much, no more than three dou of food and one tael of silver, but this was considered an extra income and was not included in their food and salary.

The soldiers were very happy about this and had more recognition and respect for Yang Zhengshan.

In fact, as the training progressed, Yang Zhengshan's image in their hearts had become taller.

The training is very hard, and many people complain about it.

But every time they ate the greasy food, their complaints disappeared.

Having enough food to eat remains their biggest pursuit.

Even though they used to follow Xu Wanfu, and Xu Wanfu had a lot of money, in fact, whether Xu Wanfu had money or not had nothing to do with them. Xu Wanfu would not be kind enough to share the money with them.

At most, Xu Wanfu did not withhold their food and wages, but the problem was that the food and wages sent down from above were not enough, and Xu Wanfu would not withhold them nor would he make up for it with his own money.

Therefore, these soldiers were unable to receive the full amount of food and wages in the past.

Yang Zhengshan not only ensured that they had enough food to eat, but also provided them with full food and wages, and even gave them a holiday gift during the Chinese New Year.

With such a leader, let alone training, even if they were asked to go through fire and water, they would be able to grit their teeth and persevere.

Of course, now they can only grit their teeth and hold on. If they want to be willing to go through fire and water for Yang Zhengshan, Yang Zhengshan must continue to show kindness.

"Thank you, sir, for the reward!"

On the parade ground, a soldier who had just received food kowtowed to Yang Zhengshan with tears in his eyes to express his gratitude.

The way he knocked his head made Yang Zhengshan stunned.

The soldiers before him had all expressed their gratitude, but they did so by clasping their fists and bowing. This one was the first to kowtow.

"The ground is cold, get up!" Yang Zhengshan said softly.

The soldier stood up from the ground with his head down, raised his hand to wipe the tears from his eyes, and then quickly left.

There are still many soldiers waiting behind, and he can't waste too much time.

Yang Zhengshan looked at his back, thought for a moment, and said to Song Dashan beside him: "Go and ask what's going on?"

"Here!"

Song Dashan responded, and Yang Zhengshan continued to distribute New Year gifts.

There were nearly a thousand soldiers in the garrison camp, and Yang Zhengshan personally handed the things to them all without missing a single one.

By the time the distribution was finished, it was almost dusk.

However, Yang Zhengshan still did not forget the soldier, "What happened to that man?"

"Actually, it's nothing. It's just that his mother is sick and has to spend a lot of money on medicine recently." Song Dashan said.

Birth, aging, sickness and death are inevitable.

But for these ordinary soldiers, a serious illness would not only take their lives, but also make a family penniless.

Not to mention here, even in previous lives, it was not uncommon for people to become poor due to illness.

"Let the doctor in the government office go and see his mother!"

Yang Zhengshan didn't have a good solution for this matter.

He mentioned the idea of ​​training military doctors in his military training records, but there are no military doctors in the garrison battalion now.

Moreover, military doctors and doctors are two completely different professions. Military doctors only need some first aid skills, and their training is relatively simple, but training doctors is much more difficult.

There was only one doctor in the garrison office.

Yang Zhengshan was thinking about training more military doctors and physicians in the future, but for now he decided to let the doctor go and check on the soldier's mother first.

"If you need medicinal herbs, they are available in the government office. You can take them yourself!"

Yang Zhengshan continued to give instructions to Song Dashan.

"Yes!" Song Dashan replied.

Yang Zhengshan nodded and returned to the garrison officer's office.

……

After the New Year gifts to the garrison camp were distributed, Yang Zhengshan led 300 soldiers from the garrison camp and more than 30 carts of food and fodder out of the city early the next morning.

The Anyuan Prefecture Garrison Office had two defense officers and seven garrison officers, which means there were nine garrisons.

Yang Zhengshan certainly could not visit all those fire towers and beacon towers one by one, but he had to visit these nine garrisons personally.

Twenty miles out of the north gate of Anyuan City, they arrived at the first garrison, Shaling Fort.

Shaling Fort had a defense office that was responsible for governing the three surrounding garrisons. One of the defense officers was called Xie Yuan.

Yang Zhengshan didn't have much impression of Xie Yuan. Although he had met Xie Yuan several times, Xie Yuan's presence seemed to be very low and did not leave any impression on Yang Zhengshan.

"Shaling Fort's defense officer Xie Yuan greets the garrison commander!"

In front of the gate of Shaling Fort, Xie Yuan strode over and bowed with his fists clasped.

Yang Zhengshan was riding on his horse, looking at the defense officer with some surprise.

Xie Yuan is neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, has an ordinary appearance, and doesn't seem to have anything special about him.

This is probably why Yang Zhengshan didn't notice him before.

But now Yang Zhengshan feels that this subordinate seems to be very unusual.

His brisk strides did not conceal his aura at all, and his deep eyes were filled with a sharpness that could not be ignored.

"No need to be so polite!" Yang Zhengshan was surprised in his heart but said calmly on the surface.

"Thank you, sir!" Xie Yuan stood up and said, "Please come in, sir!"

Then the group entered Sand Ridge Fort.

Shalingbao is a large fortress with 200 military households. Yang Zhengshan originally thought that Shalingbao would be a dirty and dilapidated garrison, but he did not expect that Shalingbao was very clean and tidy, and the soldiers and military households were full of energy, not as thin and frail as Yang Zhengshan imagined.

Under the guidance of Xie Yuan, Yang Zhengshan walked towards the defensive office while looking at the surrounding situation.

It's no wonder that he had such thoughts before. After all, the garrison commander of Anyuan City was Cao Han, the chief commander was Xu Wanfu, and the garrison officer was Tian Gui.

With these three superiors around, one can imagine what the garrison below will be like.

"Master Xie's cultivation level is not low, right?" Yang Zhengshan asked indifferently.

"I am a stupid person. After thirty years of practice, I am only at the fourth level of the acquired realm!" Xie Yuan said.

The corners of Yang Zhengshan's mouth curled up slightly. The fourth level of acquired realm was indeed not outstanding.

However, among the defense officers, this level of cultivation is already considered high.

"Yes, Sir Xie has done a great job in managing the garrison!"

"I am incompetent and can only manage Shaling Fort!" Xie Yuan said with a guilty look on his face.

The corners of Yang Zhengshan's mouth curled up even higher.

Mr. Xie is an interesting person.

His cultivation is not low, but he has never shown it.

His abilities are good, but they are easily overlooked.

A capable and powerful person who had not left any impression on Yang Zhengshan before.

Moreover, even the Secret Guards did not notice that this person did not have any information about Xie Yuan in the booklet that Wei Cen gave him.

Are you hiding your shortcomings?
"Call all the soldiers!" Yang Zhengshan ordered.

"Sir, wait a moment!"

After Xie Yuan said this, he ordered someone to gather the soldiers.

The sound of clang clang clang gongs rang out, and in just three minutes more than a hundred soldiers gathered in front of the government office.

Looking at the more than one hundred soldiers standing upright, Yang Zhengshan looked at Xie Yuan with more and more interest.

"Master Xie is very good at hiding his shortcomings!"

Xie Yuan lowered his head and said in a deep voice: "I am not willing to hide my incompetence!"

Yang Zhengshan understood what he meant. Hiding one's abilities was just a helpless act, just like Han Cheng had to choose to surrender. Facing Cao Han and Xu Wanfu, they had to restrain their edge and be willing to be mediocre.

In fact, this situation is not uncommon in Chongshan Town.

Over the past twenty years, Chongshan Town has gone from prosperity to decline. A large number of greedy and incompetent people hold power, making it impossible for truly capable people to see any hope of promotion.

Some fools will face up to and fight against this injustice, but there are also smart people who will restrain themselves and choose to hide their shortcomings.

The reason why Zhang Shouwang was defeated was because the senior officials of Chongshan Town were basically all mediocre people.

The reason why Liang Chu brought the Yunlong Guards to take office was because he knew that Chongshan Town was rotten to the core, and he had to bring his own soldiers to help him reorganize Chongshan Town.

The reason why Zhou Lan cleaned out the Jianning Guards was because she saw clearly that those military officers were completely useless.

And what about Yang Zhengshan?
Wasn’t his inspection of the garrison intended to clean out parasites like Tian Gui?

But he didn't expect that there was a useful person hidden among them.

From the soldiers in front of him, Yang Zhengshan could tell that Xie Yuan had not neglected his military duties and should have trained these soldiers regularly.

"Now you don't have to hide your shortcomings anymore?"

"Your Excellency is upright, why should I hide my incompetence?" Xie Yuan said softly.

He knew very well what Yang Zhengshan had done during this period.

It was precisely because he was clear about it that he chose not to hide it anymore.

If you can make a difference and achieve something, who would want to live in mediocrity?

He was already old and his opportunities were running out. He had finally waited for Yang Zhengshan and didn't want to be a useless garrison officer anymore.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, stroked his beard, and said, "Distribute the food, let the soldiers have a good New Year first, and we can talk about the rest after the New Year!"

Yang Zhengshan still needs to be more cautious about Xie Yuan's situation.

Although Xie Yuan's performance today was beyond his expectations, he couldn't believe everything he saw so easily.

Hiding does not mean hiding one's shortcomings, it may also mean covering up one's evil deeds.

He needs to truly understand Xie Yuan before he can decide whether to reuse him.

The food was distributed very quickly. In just half an hour, Yang Zhengshan had distributed the prepared food and money to the soldiers.

Then he did not stay in Shaling Fort, but took Xie Yuan with him to other forts.

Xie Yuan, the defense officer, was in charge of four garrisons. In addition to Shaling Fort, there were three other garrisons, all of which were relatively close to Anyuan City.

Although they are all garrisons under the jurisdiction of Xie Yuan, the conditions of the other three garrisons are much worse than that of Shaling Fort.

Dirty, messy, dilapidated, poor, etc.

It was similar to the situation when Yang Zhengshan first arrived at Yinghe Fort.

This was the situation after Yang Zhengshan warned these garrison officials. What was the situation like before the warning?

With the flattery and ingratiation of the three garrison officers, Yang Zhengshan distributed food and money to every soldier.

He was not in a hurry to deal with these garrison officials, but just left with a gloomy face.

His gloomy face showed that he was very dissatisfied, which made the three garrison officers feel uneasy.

In fact, Yang Zhengshan had already made a decision in his mind that these three garrison officers would only be able to live until after the new year.

(End of this chapter)