While busy with his apprenticeship, Qin Mu did not forget his official duties. His companions were also helpful, visiting the Qin family in the evening to tell him about the day's events.
"All the files have been transferred to the Court of Judicial Review, and the Ministry of Justice has reviewed them. Those who should have been beheaded have been beheaded," Princess Changning said with an unusually happy smile. She had already heard about what happened today. Li Shentong had gone to see his beloved daughter and had even praised her a few times, a rare occurrence. This change in attitude spoke volumes.
“Yeah! It’s getting boring again! What’s next? There are so many people, we can’t all just sit around doing nothing!” Cheng Huaimo asked.
“We really can’t all be idle. Here’s what we’ll do! Select some clever people to plant spies in Chang’an, and at the same time, join forces with the Bad People to establish some strongholds. This is the plan!” Qin Mu nodded in agreement, then took out a stack of Xuan paper. This was the business he had discussed with Liu Renshi.
It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple. In his view, the "bad elements" were no different from urban management officers. Since that's the case, let them focus on being urban management officers. Chang'an's urban management has many shortcomings, especially in urban sanitation and market management. Although the imperial court has relevant systems and personnel in charge, it's just one or two minor officials—how can they possibly manage everything?
The saying "everyone sweeps the snow from their own doorstep" perfectly describes the current situation. Places with shops and residences are fine, clean and hygienic, but as for streets and alleys where no one opens their doors, it's perfectly normal for them to be overgrown with weeds and dusty.
Of course! These miscellaneous tasks won't be done by the Six Doors or the Bad People, but we can hire idle people. There are quite a few elderly people and so many wounded soldiers in Chang'an City. Giving them a stable job would be quite good.
Moreover, these people, once distributed throughout Chang'an, could easily gather and gather information. Using this pretext to finalize matters would also earn them favor with Li Shimin, achieving multiple benefits in one fell swoop.
As for the criminals, with a new source of income that can provide for the disabled, why wouldn't they agree?
"Okay!" Cheng Huaimo put away the documents without saying a word. They were used to accepting Qin Mu's ideas unconditionally.
"Oh, right, get that short guy, Xi Jun, for me," Qin Mu added.
Having an insignificant person is no problem, of course; as for what Qin Mu wants to do with it, no one asks.
“Speaking of people, I’ve discovered that the Six Doors are still short quite a few!” Li Chongyi said.
Seeing everyone staring at him, Li Chongyi felt a sense of being valued and explained excitedly, "After the two major operations, the people trust us a lot more. In the last two days, people have come to report cases. Of course, ordinary cases won't come to the Six Doors."
Three murders, two of which were revenge killings, were easy to solve and the perpetrators were arrested. But the other case, the rape and murder of a concubine outside the Wang family compound in the east of the city, remained completely unsolved.
"Now that we know it was a rape and murder, how can we not have any leads? Was it an outsider or someone on the inside? Just follow this lead. If it's someone from the martial arts world, ask them if anyone like that has come to Chang'an. If so, arrest and interrogate them. Whether or not such a person has committed a crime in Chang'an, arresting them is never a mistake," Qin Mu said.
"That's precisely because we didn't know! We could tell it was a rape and murder only because of the obvious evidence at the scene," Li Chongyi said with a wry smile. In this kind of situation, let alone Cheng Huaimo and Yuchi Baolin, those two guys who only knew how to fight, even he himself was completely baffled.
"Does nobody know how to survey? Didn't I teach some?" Qin Mu asked in surprise, then realized that he himself only knew theory, let alone the mediocre students he had taught.
"It's not that I don't understand, but at least I can tell how the murderer killed the person." Li Chongyi said with a slight blush. He was a little embarrassed to say this. After all, a group of people who handle knives and guns every day can certainly tell how the murderer killed the person, what kind of weapon they used, and what moves they made. They can quickly identify these things.
"How about this? When the Six Doors was first established, it was necessary to recruit people. Let's issue a notice that the Six Doors is recruiting people, not only constables, but also guest advisors with special skills." Qin Mu thought for a moment and suggested. This plan had already been discussed, but in order to ensure the stability of the Six Doors' foundation, they did not recruit people from outside from the beginning, even though it was permitted by the higher-ups.
“Speaking of guest advisors, it was all thanks to the guest advisors of the Xiangli family that we were able to find those secret passages and hidden rooms. However, the amount of gold and silver confiscated is quite large! Not only are others envious, but I am also afraid to hold onto it. We have arranged for four hundred soldiers to guard it every day. You should decide on the arrangements quickly!” Li Chongyi said with a wry smile.
"Didn't the registrar report it?" Qin Mu asked curiously.
"The report has been submitted, and he still says the same thing: make your own arrangements," Princess Changning said.
"What's the exact amount? Haven't you handed over the last batch yet? According to the usual practice of other departments, how much should we hand over?" Qin Mu asked, somewhat surprised. The last time they confiscated gold and silver totaled over two million strings of cash. They had originally intended to keep some, since Li Shimin hadn't provided much weaponry, and they had personally contributed so much weaponry and ore, plus a favor—it was justifiable. Therefore, they had mentioned it to Qin Qiong and Guo Xiaoke during the last report, and they agreed. But this time, the total was rather alarming. Although the exact amount was still unclear, Qin Mu could guess it was at least twice as much as last time.
Unsurprisingly, the data provided by Princess Changning was somewhat alarming.
"It's hard to calculate the exact value because there are many utensils and jewels, but the estimated value is over six million strings of cash, mainly due to the Caishen Tower."
"According to the interrogation, the reason why the treasures of the God of Wealth Pavilion were kept in Chang'an City was because they felt that Chang'an City was safer," Princess Changning explained.
"Too much! We really can't keep it all! How about this? I'll submit the plan ahead of time, so we can legitimately use a portion of it. We'll use 100,000 strings of cash to subsidize the Bad Guys, since they also contributed this time. And we'll hand over the remaining 5 million strings of cash. What do you think?" Qin Mu asked.
"Can!"
"Isn't that leaving too much?" Some people agreed, while others were still worried.
"The Six Doors serve you lavish meals of fish and meat every day, plus tonics. Are you going to pay for that? Besides, they're recruiting guest retainers. Why would anyone do it if there's no benefit to it?" Cheng Huaimo glared at Li Chongyi and said.
"That makes sense. You've reminded me. When we announce it publicly, we'll say that the Six Doors have cultivation techniques, and elixirs will be offered as rewards!" Qin Mu said. The cultivation methods were, of course, confiscated, along with some martial arts manuals, but they were all just ordinary stuff. They were good at attracting people, though. After all, many people work hard at martial arts schools hoping to obtain the techniques and manuals taught there.
Qin Mu couldn't be expected to become a truly powerful expert, but it was still very necessary to add some martial arts practitioners to the Six Doors. However, martial arts practitioners are used to being undisciplined, so they need to be strictly managed after entering the Six Doors. It would be best to separate them first to ensure the purity of the Six Doors' foundation.
The foundation of the Six Doors must be its soldiers, Qin Mu reminded himself silently. Soldiers from the army are far more obedient and disciplined.
After Cheng Huaimo's suggestion, Li Chongyi had no objection. He silently noted Qin Mu's words in his mind, then looked up and asked, "Should we hire two coroners? After all, they are more likely to find clues from corpses."
"If we can recruit one, that would be best. Let's give it a try! But we in the Six Doors don't call them coroners, we call them morticians!" Qin Mu nodded in agreement.
"What's the difference?" Li Chongyi asked curiously.
"Of course there's a difference! Coroners are just low-ranking officials who are not well-regarded by the public, while our Six Doors' coroners are at least ninth-rank officials," Qin Mu said confidently.
"It's just a nicer name. A ninth-rank official is still not even in the proper order!" Yuchi Baolin muttered.
"Then let's add one more condition: at the very least, they shall enjoy the treatment of a silver-ranked constable!" Qin Mu slammed his hand on the table and said.
“Indeed, a generous reward will surely attract brave men! It is necessary to spend a lot of money to recruit experts, after all, we are likely to face all kinds of criminals,” Princess Changning agreed.
"Now that we have money, let's order a batch of leather armor for everyone in the Six Doors. Yanran, can you do that?" Qin Mu asked.
"Of course, no problem! I'll definitely make them earn less money." Xiangli Yanran put down the pine nuts in her hand and said with a smile.
"It's alright, just take whatever amount is due." Qin Mu waved his hand and said. He wasn't short of money now, so he couldn't make things difficult for Xiangli Yanran, otherwise people in the Xiangli family would definitely gossip.
Xiangli Yanran is a friend, but the rest of the Xiangli family are not. As a public servant, what should you do if you ask them for help today and they ask you for help tomorrow?
Social obligations are inevitable, but it's important to keep personal and professional relationships separate and avoid owing too much favor to avoid putting yourself in a difficult position. Otherwise, you might lose friends and offend others.
She didn't understand why Qin Mu wanted to increase the price for a custom order, but Xiangli Yanran knew that this would benefit her family, so she smiled sweetly and buried herself in her work again.
…………
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Some readers have said that the fifth son is short! The fifth son would never admit to that.
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