The accounts for the initial two hundred acres of land don't show much, so it's likely that Xue Bing wasn't in charge of the accounts back then, as the handwriting in the account books is different.
However, the rent has been significantly abnormal in the past two years. The year before last, the rent was 101,000 yuan, last year it was 92,000 yuan, and this year it is 96,000 yuan.
Of the 500 mu of land, 60 mu were rented to the families of martyrs. The normal yield of one mu is more than 300 jin. Let's say it's 300. So, the rent from these 60 mu is 60%, which should be 10,800 jin. The remaining 440 mu multiplied by 300 and 0.8 equals 105,000 jin of rent. Adding the two together, there are at least 115,000 jin of grain.
There have been no disasters in Kyoto and its surrounding areas in the past two years, so the harvest should not be less than 115,000.
The total amount was reduced by so much, and the amount sent to the General's Mansion was also seriously problematic. This resulted in a loss of nearly 30,000 jin, which amounted to more than 60,000 jin in two years.
Cen Xiao was not married at that time, and he could not finish all the grain by himself. So, apart from the grain sent to the general's mansion, all the rest was used as military rations and sent to the border for the soldiers to eat.
However, it now seems uncertain whether the amount of grain delivered to the border camps was actually as much as recorded in the accounts.
This problem cannot be seen in the account books that Yang Cui has; it needs to be checked.
Yang Cui told Cen Xiao about this.
Cen Xiao was a general and couldn't do everything himself, so he didn't know exactly how much grain was delivered to the military camp.
To be precise, he didn't know how much of the grain from his family's land was sent to the military camp, because this batch of grain was sent to the military camp together with the military pay issued by the Ministry of Revenue, and there was a special grain officer in charge.
"If the grain official and Xue Bing were in cahoots, the amount involved would be unimaginable. He truly is a petty official with enormous greed," Yang Cui sighed.
“Tens of thousands of kilograms of grain is no small amount. It’s impossible to dispose of it without leaving a trace. I will investigate this matter.”
Cen Xiao sensed that something was amiss. How could he possibly sell tens of thousands of kilograms of grain? Retail sales didn't actually have a large market, and with so much embezzled, who would dare to sell it openly?
Because Cen Xiao used all his own grain as military pay, the amount of military pay allocated by the emperor in the past two years has been much less. In a sense, what they embezzled was not Cen Xiao's grain, but the military pay!
Embezzling military funds is a capital offense!
Yang Cui added, "This year's rent has already been collected. The portion destined for the border hasn't been sent yet, but the portion for the General's Mansion has arrived. I'll take some people to take stock later."
Before taking inventory of the warehouse, Yang Cui first asked a few veterans who had entered the mansion the earliest about their meals.
According to them, they had never gone hungry since they entered the general's mansion. They ate two meals a day, mainly porridge made from sorghum and millet, and rice porridge during festivals.
"Aren't there any steamed buns, dumplings, or noodles?" Yang Cui remembered that the most common grain delivered to the General's Mansion was wheat, followed by rice.
"Nobody knows how to make dumplings, and only Lao Xiao knows how to make noodles. There are so many people in our household. If we were to make noodles, he couldn't possibly cook enough for everyone, even if he worked himself to death."
"Old Xiao also said that most of the general's food is sent to the military camp for the brothers on the battlefield. We are now crippled and can't help. We are just eating for free. The general is supporting us because of his benevolence. We can't take it for granted and think about eating well all day long when we haven't done anything. So we usually eat porridge."
"Only when it's someone's birthday will Lao Xiao make a bowl of noodles for us. We usually drink thin porridge. In summer, we drink mung bean porridge, millet porridge, and sorghum porridge. In winter, we drink red bean porridge, millet porridge, and sorghum porridge. During the New Year and other holidays, we drink plain rice porridge."
Upon hearing this, Yang Cui couldn't help but feel a deep respect for the man named Lao Xiao.
Yang Cui then asked them, "Are you full?"
"We eat our fill and we eat well."
Has anyone complained because Lao Xiao only cooks porridge?
The veterans looked at each other, hesitating whether to speak or not.
Yang Cui could tell from their expressions that someone was definitely dissatisfied.
Yang Cui stopped asking questions and smiled as she saw the person off.
Fearing they might overthink it, Yang Cui and her maids simply said that Yang Cui was worried they hadn't eaten enough, which was why she asked.
After hearing this, the veterans felt that Yang Cui was simply a reincarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Afterwards, Yang Cui asked each of the people in the kitchen one by one.
Besides Lao Xiao, who was always the same person, the seven women in the kitchen—Aunt Hua, Aunt Qin, Aunt Liang, Aunt Wang, Qinghua, Guilan, and Tian Dani—took turns helping out. However, none of them knew how much grain they used each day; they had never calculated it.
Finally, Yang Cui asked Lao Xiao, whose full name was Xiao Wu. Only Xiao Wu's answer surprised Yang Cui.
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