Chapter 153 As you expected

"Officialdom is not the underworld. There is no such thing as freedom in officialdom!"

Yang Zhengshan had to give Wu Chongzhe a reminder.

Wu Chongzhe was stunned for a moment, then he burst into laughter. He was not stupid, so how could he not know what Yang Zhengshan meant.

"I just took it for granted!"

He stood up and bowed deeply with his fists clasped.

"Please take good care of me in the future!"

Yang Zhengshan smiled and nodded, "Your Wu family does have a lot of background, at least it's much deeper than my Yang family!"

"But do you know how many official positions my Yang family has now?"

"How many?" Wu Chongzhe became interested.

"Besides me, there is one captain, two deputy captains, more than a dozen centurions, and more than a dozen trial centurion officers!"

Yang Zhengshan continued in a calm voice: "And three years ago, the Yang family, the Anning Yang family, did not have a single official!"

"Since you want to be an official, you must thoroughly integrate into the officialdom."

This is Yang Zhengshan’s attitude, and also a suggestion to Wu Chongzhe.

The reason why the Yang family is what it is today is that Yang Zhengshan owns the spiritual spring water, which has enabled a large number of Yang family members to become warriors and have the foundation for becoming officials. The second reason is that Yang Zhengshan is willing to take them into the army and support them to develop freely.

A hero with three gangs.

Yang Zhengshan never thought that he could accomplish great things on his own. If he wanted to climb up, he needed countless people to help him.

The Yang family members are undoubtedly his most trusted helpers.

Wu Chongzhe showed a look of surprise.

Three years ago, there was not a single official in the Yang family, but now there are so many?
And what about the Wu family?

There was only one centurion garrison officer.

This gap is really huge.

"Tomorrow you will go find Xie Yuan first, and then go to Shuiquan Fort to take up your post!"

"Spring plowing is about to begin. You should prepare for the spring plowing first. When the spring plowing is over, I will train the soldiers in the garrison in batches. You should also make preparations in advance!"

Afterwards, Yang Zhengshan gave an explanation.

Since Wu Chongzhe has agreed to become an official, the rest of the matter will be easy.

Yang Zhengshan invited Wu Chongzhe to have lunch with him. The two of them toasted each other over the wine table, and their relationship became closer.

After a fight and a few drinks, Wu Chongzhe got on Yang Zhengshan's pirate ship.

With Wu Chongzhe, the framework of officials under the garrison office was completed. Next, Yang Zhengshan could integrate the garrison camp and the garrison outside the city according to his own plan.

Needless to say, the garrison battalion is definitely focused on combat, with constant training to turn all the soldiers into elite troops.

For the garrisons outside the city, the top priority is to prepare for spring plowing, followed by training and poverty alleviation.

Yang Zhengshan has also made plans for training, but he still needs to think carefully about the poverty alleviation issue.

The garrisons outside Anyuan City are similar to the original Yinghe Fort. Except for Wujia Fort and Shaling Fort, the military households in other garrisons are all poor households. If Yang Zhengshan wants the soldiers to train with peace of mind without any worries, he must solve the poverty problem.

If even the poverty problem cannot be solved, how can the soldiers train wholeheartedly and how will they be willing to fight on the battlefield in the future?

However, the situation here is different from Yinghebao. Charcoal burning and needlework workshops are not suitable for the garrisons around Anyuan City.

The reason is simple. Anyuan City is not surrounded by mountains, so the demand for charcoal and cloth shoes is not that great.

In fact, the military settlements around Anyuan City also have advantages. Their biggest advantage is that the military farms are fertile enough, much more fertile than those in Yinghebao.

If those officials had not swallowed up so many military farms, the lives of the military households would not have been so poor.

If Yang Zhengshan wanted to alleviate poverty, he only needed to do two things. First, he had to redivide the military garrisons to ensure that every household had enough military farmland. In this way, as long as the weather was good, the military households could have enough food to eat with the harvest from the fields.

The second is to find some side industries for the military households. These side industries do not need to be the kind that make a lot of money, as long as they can make a little money to supplement their household expenses.

As long as these two things are done well, the problem of food and clothing for the military households can be solved.

Time passed slowly, the training of the garrison camp was in full swing, the measurement of military farmland in each garrison was also in progress, and Yang Zhengshan was also busy.

He needs to keep an eye on the garrison camp, and he also needs to visit the garrison frequently.

At the same time, he also had to find some small ways for the military households to make money.

For a while, Yang Zhengshan was extremely busy and was running around all day, so he didn't even have time to cultivate his relationship with Yu Qingyi.

While Yang Zhengshan was busy, in a small courtyard in the west district of Anyuan City, Yi Shan listened to Liang Rong's report with a frown.

After he finished listening to Liang Rong's report, his brows furrowed even deeper.

"Our garrison commander seems to be a restless person!"

What Liang Rong just reported was Yang Zhengshan’s actions during this period.

Training soldiers and measuring military farms are thankless tasks for many officials.

Most officials would rather waste their time on eating, drinking and having fun than do these things.

The reason is simple. Training soldiers requires food and fodder, and asking superiors for food and fodder is a very troublesome matter.

As for measuring the military farms, that was an offensive matter. Whoever dared to measure the military farms would offend all the officials around him.

Well, Yang Zhengshan did not offend the officials around him, he just dealt with all the officials under his command.

Yi Shan naturally didn't want Yang Zhengshan to do these things. He hoped that Yang Zhengshan would only be greedy for money. He was not afraid of Yang Zhengshan's greed, but was afraid that Yang Zhengshan would not be greedy.

Because people who are not greedy are more difficult to control.

"Although Lord Yang has his own ideas, he has no ill will towards us!" Liang Rong spoke for Yang Zhengshan.

Liang Rong's attitude towards Yang Zhengshan is actually different from Yi Shan's.

The Liang family and the Yang family are in-laws. Originally, he looked down upon this relationship, but now he thinks it is a very good relationship.

He believed that with this relationship, the Yang family was tied to their Liang family, and in the future the Yang family would be a helper to their Liang family.

Yi Shan thought about it and felt that Yang Zhengshan’s problem was not serious.

They have had a very pleasant cooperation with Yang Zhengshan during this period, and now their business has returned to its previous state, which is what he wants most.

Moreover, Yang Zhengshan never refuses any gifts from them.

There is no need to say much about the warrants. Each warrant was worth four hundred taels of silver. Yang Zhengshan would accept the silver and give them the warrants very readily every time.

In addition, they gave the Yang family a generous gift a few years ago, and Yang Zhengshan did not refuse it.

That was a generous gift worth five thousand taels of silver. Just based on this generous gift, Yang Zhengshan would never be able to get off their pirate ship again.

In fact, they didn't know that their generous gifts had already been given to Lu Hua by Yang Zhengshan.

These generous gifts could cost lives, how could Yang Zhengshan dare to keep them?

"In the future, you should hang out with Yang Zhengshan more often. If you feel that he can be trusted, let him participate more." Yi Shan said. Their business cannot do without the support of the garrison office. Since he feels that Yang Zhengshan's problem is not serious, Yi Shan naturally hopes to have a deeper cooperation with Yang Zhengshan.

"I understand!" Liang Rong responded with a smile.

But just as he finished speaking, hurried footsteps were heard outside the door.

"Sir, something happened to the caravan!"

The visitor did not enter the room directly, but stood outside the door and spoke.

"What happened?" Yi Shan's face changed instantly.

Their caravan was naturally the one heading outside the Great Wall.

"After the caravan left the country, it was wiped out by the cavalry of the Zhenbiao Camp!"

"what!"

Yi Shan's face changed drastically and he strode out of the room.

Liang Rong also followed behind with a serious expression.

A man in his thirties stood outside the door. He said in a panic, "Just yesterday, the caravan encountered cavalry from the Zhenbiao Camp only thirty miles out of the border."

Yi Shan asked, "What's going on? Why did the cavalry from the Zhenbiao Camp come here?"

The place where they left the country was just north of Anyuan City, and the Zhenbiao Camp had been stationed at Chongshan Pass, which was more than 300 miles away from here.

"Not sure. We only know that there are many cavalrymen from the Zhenbiao Camp around the border now."

Yi Shan's expression changed again and again.

Why are the cavalry from Zhenbiaoying appearing here?
Could it be that something was discovered over at Chongshan Pass?
"Send someone to Chongshan Pass immediately to find out why the cavalry from Zhenbiaoying came here!" Yi Shan said anxiously.

"Arrange someone else~~"

At this point, he suddenly stopped, thought for a moment, and then said, "You arrange for someone to go to Chongshan Pass first! I'll do the rest myself."

"Here!"

The man responded and walked away quickly.

"Sir!" Liang Rong called in a deep voice.

Yi Shan waved his hand, "You go and do your thing first, I need to go out for a while!"

After saying that, without waiting for Liang Rong to reply, he walked quickly outside.

Soon, he left the courtyard in an unremarkable carriage, and just after he left, two figures emerged from the entrance of the alley in the distance. The two figures looked at each other, and then followed the carriage leisurely.

……

In the garrison office, Yang Zhengshan, who had just returned from outside the city, ran into Wei Cen face to face.

"We've robbed their caravan!"

Wei Cen went straight to the point.

Yang Zhengshan's expression changed slightly, and he asked, "What's their reaction?"

"As you expected, Yi Shan went to see Li He just now!" Wei Cen said.

Li He, the dual-sword warrior who injured Yu Qingyi that night.

"Where is Li He?" Yang Zhengshan continued to ask.

Wei Cen said: "Li He left the city, but he went to Jiacheng!"

"Jiacheng!" Yang Zhengshan was stunned.

How could it be going to Jiacheng?

If this Li He came from Prince Qing's Mansion, shouldn't he be heading to Qinghua Mansion at this time?

Prince Qing's Palace is located in Qinghua City, about five hundred miles away from Anyuan City.

Yang Zhengshan had previously guessed that this Li He might be from Prince Qing's Palace.

But why did he go to Jiacheng?

Yang Zhengshan lowered his head and fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.

"Have you come up with any results from your investigation into Sha Pingchuan?"

A strange color flashed in Wei Cen's pupils.

"no!"

"No!" Yang Zhengshan raised the corner of his mouth.

The biggest problem is not having it.

It is obviously unreasonable that the Secret Guards were unable to find any other problems with Sha Pingchuan with their abilities.

Sha Pingchuan must have other sources of money, but Secret Guards can't be short of it!

"Li He went to find Sha Pingchuan!"

"Isn't it the Prince Qing's Palace behind them, but Sha Pingchuan?" Wei Cen asked.

Sha Pingchuan's identity is enough to win over Heiya Village and drag down all the officials in Anyuan City.

However, Yang Zhengshan felt that it would not be that simple.

"It's not clear yet, but you should focus on Sha Pingchuan next!"

Yang Zhengshan suddenly felt relaxed.

Although no evidence was found about Prince Qing's Mansion, finding the clue of Sha Pingchuan was a significant gain.

The key is that the situation in Anyuan City has been clarified, and the focus of the Secret Guard should be shifted towards Jiacheng.

In this way, he no longer needs to cooperate with the Secret Guards.

Wang Bin should be the one who has to worry about Jiacheng.

Wei Cen thought for a moment and said, "I will report to the Admiral first."

"Well, let's go!"

Yang Zhengshan nodded.

After seeing Wei Cen off, Yang Zhengshan let out a long sigh.

Damn, dealing with the Secret Guards is quite stressful for him.

On the one hand, he had to guard against being used as a gun by the Secret Guards, and on the other hand, he had to help the Secret Guards complete their tasks, for fear that he would accidentally offend the Secret Guards to death.

To be honest, this contradictory state is really uncomfortable.

(End of this chapter)