Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 362: Chapter 348: Money, Food, Soldiers, and Horses

Yang Zhenshan asked Zhou Ren again, “How much food do we have now?”

“Reporting to you, sir, all sixteen granaries in the government office are full, holding 160,000 Shi of grain. Additionally, the Treasury Division has 8,000 Shi of grain and 30,000 Shi of horse feed!” Zhou Ren replied.

As a military institution, stockpiling food is a necessity, and over the years, they have spent silver as it comes, but have stored as much grain as possible.

As the saying goes, with enough grain in hand, there’s no need to panic.

“What about the silver on hand?” Yang Zhenshan continued.

“Silver on hand!” Zhou Ren thought for a moment and said, “The treasury has exactly one hundred thousand taels of silver, the Treasury Division has over thirty thousand taels, and just two days ago, thirty thousand taels were allocated to the Engineering Division!”

“There should also be one hundred thousand taels of silver available at the docks!”

The management of silver in Tenglong Guard is quite complex as there are many places where silver is dispersed, and each division has its own treasury.

However, the largest treasury is not within the government office but belongs to the Navy.

This is because the Navy’s treasury includes payments for merchant ships and taxes from other fleets.

Altogether, Tenglong Guard can mobilize over two hundred thousand taels of silver.

This number might seem significant but in reality, it isn’t very much.

Don’t forget, a single trade transaction by the Tenglong Guard’s fleet amounts to seventy to eighty thousand taels, and only one hundred thousand taels are kept at the docks, which truly isn’t a lot.

The financial income of Tenglong Guard has also been very high these past years, last year reaching a total revenue of seven hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver, with expenditures at seven hundred and sixty thousand taels, barely saving twenty thousand taels.

High income, high expenses.

Not to mention, just the salary expenses for the soldiers are not a small figure.

The Personal Guard Camp, the Five Army Camps, and the Navy are all considered Camp Soldiers, receiving full salary payments.

A typical soldier receives twenty-four taels per year, which is two taels per month.

The Personal Guard Camp has two hundred people, the Five Army Camps expanded to six thousand people, the Navy has five thousand six hundred soldiers, totaling eleven thousand eight hundred people, costing around two hundred eighty thousand taels in salaries per year.

Aside from this, soldiers also receive salary while training in the camps, the women’s training camp receives salary, the engineers of the Engineering Corps receive salary, and so do the workers in the salt fields, ship workers on merchant ships, and so on, all receiving monthly wages.

Even the officials within the government office have their stipends.

Carefully calculating, Tenglong Guard spends close to four hundred and fifty thousand taels on salaries alone annually.

And this doesn’t even include the regular supply expenses for ordinary soldiers; even if they aren’t training or on missions, they still receive half their provisions.

Provisions are given in the form of food, so it’s not counted as silver expenses.

Yang Zhenshan roughly calculated, Tenglong Guard’s annual expenditures in money and provisions are about eight hundred thousand taels.

Other people simply couldn’t sustain such high expenses.

Of course, other garrisons wouldn’t have such high expenses either.

Not to mention other garrisons, it’s estimated that not even a provincial Governor’s Office has expenses as large as Tenglong Guard.

Governor’s Offices don’t maintain Camp Soldiers or treat the Navy as Camp Soldiers.

Yes, treating the Navy as Camp Soldiers is unique to Tenglong Guard, generally speaking, other Navy Stations do not pay the Navy salary like Camp Soldiers; they provide provisions based on the standard of Garrison Soldiers—full provisions when at sea, and half when not at sea.

However, regardless of whether Tenglong Guard’s expenses are high or not, currently, the financial situation of Tenglong Guard is still very good.

With money and grain, fully equipped, and a large supply of materials, they are ready for a major battle.

Yang Zhenshan glanced at Xie Yuan, “Let’s temporarily halt the expansion plan for Guard City, retrieve all the funds back to the government office’s treasury. We may not have income for a while, so we need to be frugal!”

Once the war starts, all industries will decline.

Previously Tenglong Guard spent money quite freely, now they must learn to tighten their belts.

“Understood, sir!” Xie Yuan had no objections.

Yang Zhenshan stood up, his expression turning serious, “Starting now, Tenglong Guard enters combat readiness—Personal Guard Camp and Five Army Camps be ready to deploy at any moment!”

“All Thousand Households to pull all soldiers; Thousand Households to lead troops to Guard City, Deputy Thousand Households to organize remaining soldiers for garrison duties!”

This is when the benefits of Tenglong Guard’s rigorous training show.

Tenglong Guard trains not only the primary soldiers but also the reserves.

Even if all primary soldiers were pulled out now, each Hundred Households and garrison could still have trained reserves, ensuring there was still some defensive power.

After the deployment of all soldiers, the immediate forces under Yang Zhenshan could expand instantly to sixteen thousand, not including the Navy.

“Yes!” The crowd responded unanimously.

With Yang Zhenshan’s command, the war machine of Tenglong Guard finally started operating.

Tenglong Guard is a military institution, a war机器 that Yang Zhenshan spent five years building.

Everything Yang Zhenshan has done can be said to serve the purpose of war.

The true might of Tenglong Guard was not something any of them could fully grasp at that moment.

But considering the vast amount of silver Tenglong Guard spent over these five years, one should realize how formidable it is.

Not to exaggerate, but three million taels of silver is a given.

Besides silver, Tenglong Guard also has access to the Spiritual Spring Water provided by Yang Zhenshan.

…

Nanling Village.

Two riders rushed hurriedly into the village.

“Where is the General Flag Officer Zhang Hu?”

A person shouted loudly.

In the central squad room of the garrison, upon hearing the sound, Zhang Hu hurried out and was slightly startled upon seeing the visitors, then smiled and said, “How come you two brothers ran over to my place?”

They both were from a Hundred Households, although living in different locations—Hundred Households and Nanling Village—only three miles apart, so everyone was very familiar with each other.

However, at this moment, the familiar duo didn’t joke with Zhang Hu but instead took out a document and said, “Military order, commanding General Flag Officer Zhang Hu to gather all soldiers, fully armed and sharp, and arrive at the Hundred Households within an hour!”

Zhang Hu, with a face full of astonishment, took the military order, looked at the red seal and the contents, and asked somewhat perplexed, “What happened?”

Gathering all soldiers!

This was the first time; even when going to the Guard City barracks for training, it was done in batches, not mobilizing all soldiers at once.

But now they were actually gathering all soldiers!

“We’re not sure. It’s not an order from the Lord Hundred Households, but from the Lord Thousand Households above! We need to reach the thousand households within two hours, so hurry!”

Zhang Hu felt that something serious was happening and dared not to ask more, he replied, “Alright!”

Then, a series of gong sounds rang through Nanling Village, with two soldiers riding horses, hitting the gongs rapidly around the rural areas of the garrison.

Many soldiers working in the fields, upon hearing the gong sounds, were initially stunned, then quickly realized and, dropping their farming tools, told their family briefly and hurried towards the garrison.

“Hurry, hurry…”

Zhang Hu stood in front of the armament storage room of the squad office, urging the soldiers to put on their armors.

Normal soldiers didn’t have iron armor, only cotton armor, equipped with long spears, long swords, shields, bows and arrows, and other weapons.

Generally, the armaments were stored in the warehouse and weren’t distributed unless necessary for soldiers on duty.

“Sir, what happened?” a small flag officer asked quietly.

“Enough with the nonsense, hurry and line up your men!” Zhang Hu glared angrily and bawled.

Damn it, something serious is happening!

Lord Thousand Households is gathering all soldiers!

This might not even be Lord Thousand Households’ order, it could be from the Guardian Department.

The Guardian Department is gathering all soldiers!

This matter is definitely not minor!

Zhang Hu didn’t know what had happened but he knew something serious was afoot, and they might likely be called to march!

Anyway, the military order had been issued, and he must carry it out.

The military law of the Tenglong Guard is no joke!

In about half an hour, all thirty-eight soldiers from five small flags in Nanling Village were assembled.

As for why not fifty-six, because eighteen had been selected for the Five Army Camps.

Without any delay and once the personnel count was confirmed, Zhang Hu immediately led the soldiers to the Hundred Households.

By the time they reached the Hundred Households, they only stayed for a quarter of an hour before rushing towards the thousand households.

If one were to look down from above at the Tenglong Guard now, they would see that on several roads, troops were continually gathering and moving constantly.

Soon, long columns of troops appeared on the official roads, to the astonishment of traveling merchant convoys and pedestrians.

“What’s happened? Why are there so many troops on the move?”

“Probably going for training at the camp!”

“Impossible, going to the camp for training wouldn’t involve so many people, at most a few dozen to a hundred!”

“There are hundreds of men, tsk tsk, had always heard Tenglong Guard’s government officer was formidable, didn’t expect them to be so impressive!”

“Indeed, the government officer of Tenglong Guard often trains!”

…

Many passers-by pointed and discussed the marching soldiers.

Training of Tenglong Guard’s soldiers was no secret; all merchants dealing with the Tenglong Guard understood this, as they too often encountered soldiers heading to the camp for training.

Initially, they kept their distance, fearing the soldiers might trouble them, but once they understood, they no longer feared these soldiers and some even approached out of curiosity to inquire.

However, there are many rules at the camp, and the soldiers wouldn’t answer any questions regarding the camp; if talking about daily life, the soldiers didn’t mind chatting while marching.

But in one day, a large number of soldiers gathered on the south side of Guard City.

The camp definitely couldn’t accommodate so many soldiers, so they had to set up camp in the open fields.

The civil servants inside the Guardian Department were also busy, moving large amounts of tents, food, and bedding from the warehouses to outside the city.

The four city gates of Guard City had been put under restriction, allowing merchants to exit but not enter.

Simply put, Yang Zhenshan had dispersed all the merchants within the city.

Unfortunately, although Guard City was small, it harbored a significant number of merchants, and the crowd was complex.

Normally, Yang Zhenshan wouldn’t care about this because no one dared to cause trouble within Guard City, but once a war state was initiated, any person of unknown origin could not stay within the city.

While this would affect the business of Tenglong Guard, it was an unavoidable situation.

Tenglong Guard had transformed into a war machine; hence, all commercial activities had to halt, aside from the department’s own fleet or trusted merchants, Tenglong Guard could no longer host other merchants.

Many merchants were dissatisfied with this, but their dissatisfaction didn’t last long as the news about Wuliang’s army entering the region had already spread.