"Sir, could you please reveal a little more?" Shen Yu had no choice but to ask Sun Jianzhang for help.
"Do you think it's a good thing for you to be in charge of the reserve troops, auxiliary troops and military settlements?" Sun Jianzhang asked in return.
"No!" Shen Yu shook his head decisively. "It's definitely not a good thing. No one would voluntarily give up the benefits they have already obtained to others, let alone to someone he despises."
"You're quite self-aware. Let me put it this way: the annual pay the court provides to us regular soldiers isn't enough, let alone the reserves and garrisons. In previous years, the grain produced in the military farms could barely sustain everyone's food needs, but this year's drought has meant the harvest is likely to be anything but a total failure. We've already used up most of last year's grain reserves. If there's no new grain this year, what will everyone eat for the remaining months, let alone next year?"
"Isn't it that whoever is in charge of the military settlement will be responsible for the food and fodder of the reserve camp?" Shen Yu asked.
"No," Sun Jianzhang added before Shen Yu could even relax, "I'm not only in charge of the reserve camp, but also the Ningjiang County Garrison, which has over 10,000 soldiers and hundreds of horses."
"Oh my God! How much will it cost? If I can't come up with it, won't I be eaten up by others?" Only then did Shen Yu realize how badly he had been cheated. No wonder Li Yongqing was so proactive in giving up power.
"That's why I told you to be careful!" Sun Jianzhang continued. "Don't come begging me. I can't fight against the heavens. Besides, this might be a good thing for you. At least you'll have real power right from the start. Unlike me, I have no power at all now, which is why I don't even dare to mess with a general."
"Then I will take care of these parts, and you, sir, will give the power of management to others, right?" Shen Yu had to think about the future. He didn't want to take the blame for others and make things worse for them.
"How could that be? As long as you don't mention changing people, I won't change people, right?"
"Why do I still feel unsure?" Shen Yu obviously didn't believe what Sun Jianzhang said.
"How about I issue a military order later to record this matter in the register?" This was a tough job to begin with. Previously, each unit had to rotate responsibility before the generals would agree. Now that this hot potato had finally been handed over, not only would no one argue, but those people would probably be overjoyed.
Besides, they had a new goal: to enter the Dingbei camp, so there was no way they could compete with Shen Yu for this difficult job. Only this foolish boy really thought it was a good thing.
"Then I would like to thank the garrison commander first." The silly boy was sold out, but he still thanked others.
"There's no need for us to be polite. I'll have someone take you to the barracks later and then send you the warehouse keys and account books so you can take care of them."
"I thank you again, Lord Garrison."
Just like that, Shen Yu encountered such a big trouble on his first day in office. However, he said nothing and took Bei Wu with him and followed Sun Jianzhang's personal guards to his future residence.
It is a small courtyard. Although small, it has everything, even a well and a small vegetable garden.
"Although no one lives here, the garrison commander has always asked people to take care of it, so Lord Shen does not need to do anything to clean up and can move in." Sun Jianzhang's personal guard introduced.
"Who lived here originally?" Shen Yu asked.
"That's our garrison commander!" Sun Jianzhang's personal guard replied with a smile, "But that was when he was assistant garrison commander. After he was promoted to garrison commander, he moved to a compound not far from here."
"No one has lived here since then?" Shen Yu asked again.
"Yes! There has been no new assistant garrison commander, so this place has been empty." The military camp has a strict hierarchy like the imperial court. Even if the barracks are empty, people of unqualified rank will not be randomly arranged to live there.
Ningjiang County was so poor, and there were no opportunities for military merit, that the position of Assistant Garrison Commander remained vacant for years, with no one willing to take it. Before appointing Shen Yu, Emperor Lianzong specifically had someone inspect the position and consulted Pei Xuanqing before granting him the position. Of course, Shen Yu's decision to follow Wan Xueying to Ningjiang County was the reason he received this position.
"Then Lord Shen, please go around first. If you need anything, please let me know. I will go get your keys and account books."
"Thank you, you go ahead and do your work."
After Sun Jianzhang's personal guards left, Shen Yu took Beiwu around and found that the things inside were indeed very complete, even the bedding was new, which showed that Sun Jianzhang had no hostility towards him and was quite caring, which made Shen Yu very satisfied.
With no outsiders around, Bei Wu asked Shen Yu, "Sir, you knew it would not be a good thing, so why didn't you refuse just now?" He also changed his address to Shen Yu to follow the local customs.
"We are not here to have fun. If that were the case, I would have definitely turned it down." He then added, "If Li Yongqing didn't want to plot against me, I wouldn't be able to take care of things for a while, and I would definitely be in a worse situation than Sun Shoubei in the future." He is still young, and he must take risks.
When he and Beiwu took the account books to the warehouse to check, they realized that he had been too optimistic.
"How long can the food and grass here last?" Shen Yu asked the accountant in charge of the warehouse with the account book.
"Less than April, barely until the end of the year."
"Are we responsible for the food supplies at the Ningjiang County outpost? Or have they already taken them away?" Although these granaries couldn't hold much food supplies, it was still better to ask clearly.
"They will take away the food and fodder from the Ningjiang County outpost all at once at the end of each year."
"Okay," Shen Yu nodded, "I understand." What he meant was that he had to collect enough food and fodder for the Ningjiang County outpost and their needs before the end of the year.
In previous years, guarding the granary was a lucrative job, but now that there was not enough food to eat, and everyone was watching, even if someone tried to tamper with it, it would be difficult. So after checking around, there really wasn't a problem with the grain and the accounts not matching.
"What is that warehouse?" Shen Yu found that there was another warehouse when he was almost done with the tour, but Sun Jianzhang's personal guards didn't seem to want to take him to see it.
"It used to contain the furs we collected from hunting, but those that needed to be sold had already been sold." How could it be left there until now?
"I see," Shen Yu nodded. "If we've almost left, shall we go back first?" He still had a lot of things to deal with.
"good."
Shen Yu had originally ignored the warehouse, but when the guard in the adjacent warehouse saw Sun Jianzhang's guards approaching, he loudly inquired, "Young General Zhang, what do we do with the scraps of fur in that warehouse?"
"How did you deal with it before?" asked Zhang Qinwei.
"Let's find a place to bury it. But we don't have enough manpower right now. Can you find a few people to do this?"
"Are there a lot?" Zhang Qinwei asked casually.
"There are indeed quite a few. I'm afraid some of the smaller ones might be bad or rotten, and if we don't deal with them, they'll pollute the entire warehouse."
"Lord Shen, what do you think?" Since Shen Yu took over the affairs here, Zhang Qinwei handed the matter over to Shen Yu to handle.
"Let me take a look first." Shen Yu asked Bei Wu to open the locked warehouse door.
It was obvious that there were so many pieces of fur piled up inside that they could be described as a small mountain.
"Why so many?" he asked the guard.
"Your Excellency, the fur scraps have been piled up here for the past few years and no one has dealt with them."
"Okay," Shen Yu nodded, "I understand. I'll send someone over to deal with it later."
On the way back, Shen Yu asked Zhang's personal guard about the reserve team and learned that the reserve team currently had less than a hundred people.
It's not that they can't recruit people. On the contrary, this year, due to the drought, there are a lot of people joining the reserve. However, their reserve camp is already short of food and fodder for the people they have, and it's simply impossible to support so many more people. So this year, apart from some people who came in through connections, no additional people were recruited.
Wan Hesu was lucky. When Shen Yu came, he didn't know the inside story, so he told Sun Jianzhang that he wanted to join the army. Sun Jianzhang then sent someone to arrange him in the reserve team.
"How are the reserve teams divided and managed?" Shen Yu asked.
Zhang Qinwei replied, "The reserve team is not divided that finely. It is divided into two teams in total, and two temporary captains are selected to manage them."
"From now on they are under my control, right?" Shen Yu asked again.
"Indeed, I have already asked General Li, and he said he needs to hurry up and train the new recruits, so he won't be handing over to Lord Shen. He also said there's nothing special to hand over, as every two months a different team takes charge, and everyone is used to it. If Lord Shen has any questions, he can ask the two temporary captains."
"What are the names of the two temporary captains?"
"One is called Lei Yun, and the other is called Yang Fei."
"Thank you!" Shen Yu thanked him sincerely. Knowing that these two people were in the reserve team would make it easier to start.
"Master Shen, you're welcome!"
Not daring to trouble Zhang's personal guards any more, Shen Yu called the Northern Army generals Lei Yun and Yang Fei to the study in his barracks.
"Please take a seat!" After Lei Yun and Yang Fei greeted Shen Yu, Shen Yu asked them to sit down and asked Bei Wu to serve tea.
The two thanked him and sat down. Bei Wu went to the courtyard well to draw some water and boil it in the small kitchen. It should be said that the reserve camp had a good location. The northern region had been suffering from a severe drought for several months, but the several wells in the camp had not dried up and the water was still very sweet, which made Shen Yu even more satisfied.
Shen Yu chatted with the two for a while, then, after tea was served, asked, "What time do you usually get up for training?" He needed to understand their routines first so he could arrange his own time to train alongside them. He had already decided that once he joined the military, he would have to learn the basics like ordinary soldiers.
"Your subordinates will get up at Maoshi (5-7 am), pack up and eat, and start training at Chenshi (7-9 am) sharp." Lei Yun replied.
"How long do you train every day?"
"We train for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. In the afternoon, we start training at 1:00 PM (1:00 PM to 3:00 PM)." It was Lei Yun who answered again.
"What do you train for every day?" Shen Yu asked again.
"It's just basic laps and queue training."
"Is that all?" Shen Yu frowned slightly.
"Yes, that's all."
"Okay, I got it." Shen Yu offered his tea as a farewell. "You two go back and tell your teammates to gather for training tomorrow morning at noon sharp. I'll go there myself."
"Yes, sir." The two men saluted Shen Yu ten times, clasped their fists, and then took their leave.
Shen Yu actually wanted to know a lot, but he knew that he could not digest too much at once. He had to wait until he understood everything clearly before making long-term plans, so he did not keep the two people to chat for long.
Thinking of the pile of fur scraps he had just seen, Shen Yu asked Bei Wu to get a few large pieces of fur and take them back to Wan Xueying when Nan Ying came over. He always felt that it was a pity to throw away those fur scraps in vain.
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