Chapter 78 Taking office
Time passed slowly as Yang Zhengshan was anxious. Three days later, Zhou Lan sent someone to deliver the official robe and seal.

The seventh day of August.

Yang Zhengshan left Linguan Fort with Yang Mingwu, Yang Chengxu, Yang Minghao and fifty soldiers.

The soldiers in Linguan Fort were all trained by him, and they were the basis for him to establish his own authority.

More than fifty people, including Yang Zhengshan, riding on war horses, and fully armed soldiers, escorting grain carts, walked out of Linguan Fort in a mighty manner.

The military households in Linguan Fort came out to see him off, watching Yang Zhengshan leave with admiration and joy.

Yinghe Fort is located on the bank of Ying River, which is much wider than the unnamed river at the foot of Linguan Fort Mountain. However, it has dried up and only a few small puddles remain.

The entire Yinghe Fort is much larger than Linguan Fort. It is more than 400 meters long from east to west, 200 meters wide from north to south, and the wall is about ten meters high. The outer wall is covered with bluestone. As the residence of the defense officer, Yinghe Fort is much larger than other garrisons and is also more solid than other garrisons.

When Yang Zhengshan led his team to the east gate of Yinghe Fort, the gate was already full of officials who came to greet them.

Among them, there were several who had met Yang Zhengshan once.

Deputy Captain Xu Zhen, Assistant Secretary Qian Wanshu and others had all been to Linguan Fort before.

At this time, Xu Zhen looked at Yang Zhengshan who was riding towards him with a dark face. As for why his face looked so ugly, it was because Yang Zhengshan took his position.

Originally, when he heard that Zhang Zhongxiang was going to be dismissed, he thought he could take over the position of defense officer of Yinghe Fort. To this end, he went to Jianning Guard to make a lot of connections and spent a lot of money. As a result, as soon as he returned to Yinghe Fort, he received news that the person who served as defense officer was Yang Zhengshan.

In his eyes, this was simply stealing his official position.

In fact, he was wrong. Zhou Lan dismissed Zhang Zhongxiang just to make room for Yang Zhengshan. He thought he could take the position of defense officer, but he didn't know that everything he did was in vain.

Of course, he didn't know all this. He only knew that Yang Zhengshan had taken away his official position, so it would be strange for him to have a good face.

Xu Zhen had a gloomy face and didn't say anything. The others also kept silent. They all stood silently in front of the door, watching Yang Zhengshan approach.

"Greetings to Mr. Senhu!"

Everyone bowed in unison.

Yang Zhengshan glanced at everyone and nodded slightly, "No need to be polite!"

Currently, under his command as a defense officer, he has one deputy centurion, one pacification officer, four centurions, and two trial centurions, which are obviously not enough for a centurion.

But when you think about the fact that he, the defense officer, only has more than 400 soldiers under him, it is understandable why there is a shortage of so many officials.

Although Xu Zhen felt unhappy, he had to calm down now. He took a step forward and said, "The government office has been cleaned up. Please come in, sir!"

Although he looked down on Yang Zhengshan, a peasant, in his heart, he still couldn't do anything too much in public.

That’s right, in his eyes, Yang Zhengshan was just a peasant.

They already knew Yang Zhengshan and knew that he was just a farmer before. Although Yang Zhengshan had joined the border army 20 years ago, he was just a private at that time.

Yang Zhengshan glanced at him. The dissatisfaction was written all over his face. How could Yang Zhengshan not see it?

Of course, he wouldn't care about Xu Zhen's dissatisfaction.

Before he came here, he had never thought about having a nice talk with these guys who were just sitting there doing nothing.

The military of Chongshan Town is in disrepair, mostly due to the inaction of the top brass, but the military affairs of Yinghe Fort are in disrepair, and the responsibility lies with the officials at hand.

The former defense officer Zhang Zhongxiang should bear the main responsibility, and the deputy captain Xu Zhen is also to blame.

As far as he knew, this deputy captain had done a lot of bad things in Yinghe Fort, including enslaving military households, misusing public property for personal gain, and collecting false salaries, etc. Xu Zhen was involved in all of them.

Especially the case of falsely collecting empty salaries, all officials in Yinghebao are involved.

You have to know that in the Dusi Yamen, there are more than 800 soldiers in Yinghe Fort, but in fact there are only more than 400, which means that 400 soldiers are invisible people, and the food and wages of the 400 soldiers have gone into the pockets of these officials. Yang Zhengshan ignored Xu Zhen at all, turned around and said to Yang Mingwu behind him: "Mingwu!"

"I'm here!" Yang Mingwu immediately responded with a fist salute.

"Go!"

Yang Zhengshan said lightly.

Then Yang Mingwu led the soldiers of two small flags into Yinghe Fort.

The layout of Yinghe Fort is similar to that of Linguan Fort. The government office is located in the center, the military households' residences are located behind the government office, and there is a spacious training ground in front of the government office.

However, unlike Linguan Fort, the government office of Yinghe Fort is much more exquisite.

The entire government office was built with blue bricks, and there were two east and west courtyards in the backyard, with more than 30 rooms, which was more spacious than Yang Zhengshan’s house in Guancheng.

This was obviously built by Zhang Zhongxiang himself, or maybe it was built by the previous defense officer.

Anyway, no matter who built it, it’s now a bargain for Yang Zhengshan.

Yang Mingwu didn't care about the expressions of other officials at all. He led the soldiers directly into the government office and first took charge of all the main facilities of the government office, including the study, account office, warehouse, granary, etc.

A new official has three things to do when he takes office, but Yang Zhengshan said he doesn't need three things, one is enough.

Let’s burn all these termites in front of us to death first.

Seeing Yang Zhengshan's actions, the faces of all the officials changed.

what does this mean?
Discontinued?
Still want to cause trouble?

They didn't know what Yang Zhengshan was thinking. In their opinion, it didn't matter who became the defense officer. It was just a matter of changing the person who was to be respected.

Inside the fort, many soldiers and military households secretly looked at Yang Zhengshan and his group as they entered the fort.

The expressions in their eyes were very complicated, showing expectation, disgust, and numbness.

Yang Zhengshan walked into the government office without looking around, but he did observe the military households.

Their sallow complexions and ragged clothes showed that they were not having an easy life.

Their expressions of numbness or disgust indicate that they are very dissatisfied with the officials, or even hostile to them.

In this situation, it is simply wishful thinking to expect to win the battle.

Yang Zhengshan did not go to the study or the meeting hall first, but went to the accounting office first.

"Check it!"

He said this lightly, and Yang Chengxu and others immediately took out the account books and checked them.

Every government office has its own account books to record the income and expenditure of silver, money and grain.

Of course, there are fake accounts involved.

But fake accounts always have loopholes and cannot withstand scrutiny.

In the past, everyone was thinking, "I'm good for you, everyone is good for you." Even if the higher-ups came to check the accounts, they would just give a little bit of filial piety to get by.

Therefore, the accounting of Yinghe Fort was not very strict.

There was no need for Yang Zhengshan to take action personally. Yang Chengxu and a few others looked through it and found a lot of problems.

(End of this chapter)