Chapter 320: Audit

That night, many people in Yunan City slept uneasily.

Although this was merely the Yunan government's house-cleaning.

But for government affairs, those bigwigs are the ones who care most.

The simplest, most direct point of the government's house-cleaning is that they need to retrace their steps, re‑recognize the gates; as for other deeper problems, there are many more.

Chen Wuji also slept poorly that night.

He had practically fallen asleep in the early hours, only dozing briefly on a simple cot when Xu Zengyi woke him; the accounts had already been traced.

Last night, after the chaos in the camp subsided, he sent people into the city to summon six accountants to audit the Yunan Provincial Troops' accounts over the years.

After splashing cold water on his face to force himself awake, Chen Wuji walked with Xu Zengyi into the room the accountants used for auditing, which had originally been the residence of the Guoyi Commandant.

"Deputy Commander Chen, the accounts have been cleared up…"

The accountant, over fifty, held a bamboo slip, clasped his hands, and said to Chen Wuji,

He was a bit nervous, his words stumbling.

"Thank you for your trouble, sir. Please sit and speak." Chen Wuji gestured for the old accountant to take a seat.

"Eh, eh." The old accountant replied twice, and only after seeing Chen Wuji sit down did he reluctantly lower himself into the chair, then quickly handed the ledger to Chen Wuji.

"In the past five years, the Yunan Provincial Troops actually had 920 soldiers, with no other personnel in the camp. Yet the reports submitted to the Court listed 920 real soldiers, plus another 150 people such as horse keepers and artisans, fraudulently claiming 350 taels of silver each year from the Court."

"The Provincial Troops had no warhorses, yet falsely reported fifty; summer and winter clothing were also falsely reported based on 770 people…"

"Iron ingots, firewood, leather, etc…"

Chen Wuji listened attentively, silently adding up the figures in his mind.

Each of their embezzlements was trifling— for officials, even describable as a drop in the bucket—but when they piled these bits together, the total quickly reached several thousand taels.

They siphoned off phantom provisions for people, phantom provisions for livestock, and even tried to skim something from weapons and armor.

Moreover, a major chunk of this was the Yunan Provincial Troops stationed at Tianchi Pass.

They hadn't seen military pay for several years.

But when the Yunan Provincial Troops reported to the Court, they still included those units in their figures.

Adding that number in, the total steadily marched toward ten thousand.

Over five years, the leaders of the Yunan Provincial Troops could each pocket a few hundred taels of scattered silver—no wonder their motive for joining was profit; this money was indeed easy to earn.

The Dayu Court still had money.

In many dynasties' final years, they basically could not pay the soldiers.

Yet they still had funds to pay the Provincial Troops, which hardly seems like an omen of early death.

"Has the Court been giving this money all along?" Chen Wuji asked.

The old accountant nodded, then shook his head: "In previous years there was always payment, but this year's has not yet been issued."

Chen Wuji suddenly recalled the bandits the former magistrate kept in the mountains.

One of the reasons for their existence, or perhaps the most important, was to make money.

But in five years they had only managed to scrape together ten thousand taels, which had to be split three ways—among the magistrate, the Provincial Troops, and the bandits—each getting a share.

When calculated like that, it didn't seem like much.

After all that hustle, the per‑person take was hardly more than one or two hundred taels.

This clearly shows effort and reward are not proportional.

Unless…

Chen Wuji's gaze fell upon the ledger.

Unless, this is merely the Provincial Troops' ledger, and the falsified silver is split only among the three commandants.

The magistrate keeps his own ledger as well.

"Old Wu, go find the highest‑ranking remaining official of the Provincial Troops and bring him here." Chen Wuji shouted toward the door.

When Chen Wuji woke up, Qian Fugui, Wu Bu Yong, and others had also risen, gathering outside the door, awaiting his orders.

"Yes!"

Wu Bu Yong appeared at the doorway, clasped his fists, and departed to obey the command.

Not long after, he brought in a middle‑aged man.

"Your humble servant Qiu Chen greets the Commandant!"

"What position do you hold?" Chen Wuji asked.

"I dare to hold the post of Brigade Commander."

"How much silver do you receive each month?"

Qiu Chen's expression stiffened visibly, his eyes showing palpable panic.

"Let's not settle accounts; just speak plainly," Chen Wuji said.

"Five… five taels."

"What should a Brigade Commander's military pay be?"

"Two… two hundred cash."

Chen Wuji nodded.

Qin Feng had never mentioned this to him, so Chen Wuji genuinely didn't know.

He only knew that the Provincial Troops' pay was merely a token reward, completely different from that of the frontier armies.

The Dayu Court has always offered relatively generous pay to its professional soldiers.

But the Provincial Troops, as semi‑agricultural semi‑military local forces, are only meant to receive a modest stipend to keep them going.

Moreover, this is because the six prefectures of Shenxian Ling lie on the frontier, constantly facing foreign invasions; they are slightly better off, yet compared to the Central Plains Provincial Troops their scale is smaller, and their pay is pitifully low.

"Are there any other ways to make money?" Chen Wuji asked.

Sweat appeared on Qiu Chen's forehead, coming on strong; it first seeped out from his eyebrows, then quickly spread across his whole forehead, and within a moment it began to pat-pat down.

"Yes, yes," he stammered, his jaw uncontrollably shook.

"Come on, tell me the truth; I don't want your life."

Qiu Chen wiped two handfuls of sweat from his face with trembling hands, stammering: "We have some connections with the mountain bandits; after they lock onto a target, they tip us off, they loot first, and then we bring people to suppress the bandits."

"The bandits will give us a cut, and we'll also ask for some tea money from the looted wealthy households."

"Last year the Court ordered forced marriages; we also profited from this. For townships near the Xianya Clerks, we go to more distant places. For wealthy families we grant a grace period; for those without money we immediately take them away... The Commandant liked this duty very much, calling it... conscription."

Chen Wuji's face darkened.

Qiu Chen's words were vague, but he understood the meaning.

These bastards take Silver if they can; if they can't get Silver, they take women.

One first tries marriage, then after that goes through the marriage process.

Fortunately his luck was decent; Shen Youwei and Xue Hongdou hadn't been tried first, otherwise he'd be damn depressed to death.

These bastards' trial marriage definitely wouldn't be done by one person alone; others would be watching on the side.