Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

Towards the end of the year, officials at all levels appointed by the court arrived one after another.

First of all, Lu Chongde, the former governor of Chongshan Town, was transferred from Chongshan Town and was transferred to the position of Chief Envoy of Liaoyuan. This was considered a demotion. Although the Governor of Chongshan Town and the Chief Envoy of Liaoyuan were both from the second rank, in terms of authority, the Governor of Chongshan Town was undoubtedly a higher level.

Lu Chongde had been the governor of Chongshan Town for ten years. If Ji Feiyu hadn't rebelled, he would have been promoted to the rank of Sixth Minister in Beijing very soon, and he might even be in the cabinet in the future.

Unfortunately, the rebellion in Chongshan Town had a great impact on him, and he almost lost the opportunity to join the cabinet.

After Lu Chongde went to Liaodong, Pang Tang, the governor of Zhongshan Town, was firmly established.

Immediately afterwards, the new commander, chief envoy, inspector and guard eunuch of Chongshan Town arrived successively.

The new capital commander, Ning Qinghe, was originally a fellow commander of the capital in Beiyuan Town and served as the staff general of the Shima Guard on the North Road in Beiyuan Town.

The transfer from the general to the commander-in-chief is actually an overt promotion and covert demotion.

Although the rank of the Du Commander is high, in fact the Du Commander has no military power in his hands. In the border towns, the Dusi Yamen is more like an administrative yamen, similar to the Chief Envoy.

However, Ning Qinghe was promoted not because of his mistakes, but because of his age.

Ning Qinghe was already in his sixties, and his decline in strength and energy did not allow him to charge forward on the battlefield. To promote him to the commander of the Chongshan Town, it almost meant taking a back seat.

This situation is very common in Darongbian Town. Some old generals can no longer go to the battlefield, so they will retreat to the second line, or be promoted to the commander of the capital, or take a job to retire.

The new Chief Envoy Song Ying and the new Inspector Zhang Cong were both promoted from Liaoyuan Province and were recommended by Pang Tang.

Yang Zhengshan did not pay attention to this. Since Pang Tang came to Chongshan Town, he naturally had to bring a few subordinates with him. This was normal operation and had nothing to do with Yang Zhengshan.

The person who really had a greater influence on Yang Zhengshan was the new guard eunuch.

Lu Hua, the guard eunuch, disappeared when Yang Zhengshan came to Beijing, and the new guard eunuch Zhang Mingzhong was appointed.

When Yang Zhengshan learned that the new guard eunuch was Zhang Mingzhong, he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Because he knows this Eunuch Zhang.

Zhang Mingzhong was originally a fifth-rank internal official in the imperial city who was the governor of the Imperial City. Yang Zhengshan had dealt with him once. When Yang Zhengshan was promoted to the commander of the Tenglong Guard, it was Eunuch Zhang who went to Anyuan City to convey the order.

Over the years, Yang Zhengshan has also kept in touch with Eunuch Zhang. During every festival, he would arrange for someone to send him a gift. The gift was not much, but it was still a token of his gratitude.

The eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Zhang Mingzhong came to Chongshan Town, and Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang personally went out of the city to greet him.

Although the guarding eunuch was just a eunuch, there was nothing he could do because he represented the emperor here.

If the guarding eunuchs cause chaos in Chongshan Town, Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang will definitely have a difficult life in the future.

Zhang Mingzhong is not Chen Zuchang. Chen Zuchang was arranged by the deposed prince. Pang Tang can drive Chen Zuchang away at the risk of offending the deposed prince.

And Zhang Mingzhong was arranged by the emperor. Could it be that Pang Tang could offend the emperor?

Therefore, Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang were extremely cautious when dealing with Zhang Mingzhong.

The long horse team arrived in front of the city gate of Chongshan Pass, and Zhang Mingzhong got off the carriage wrapped in fur clothes.

"Oh, asking Lord Yang and Pang Pang to come out of the city to welcome us will ruin our family!"

As soon as he got off the carriage, Zhang Mingzhong said with a smile.

Hearing this, Yang Zhengshan also showed a friendly smile, "Haha, Eunuch Zhang, I've been waiting for a long time. The wine in the General Military Mansion has been cooked. It's freezing cold today. Eunuch Zhang needs to have a few more drinks with me." OK!"

"Let the Marquis worry about it!" Zhang Mingzhong was very polite, his attitude was very humble, and there was no hint of arrogance.

Afterwards, the three of them walked into the city talking and laughing and went to the General Military Mansion.

Yang Zhengshan didn't lie. He really had people prepare drinks, not just drinks but also delicious food.

The three of them sat together and exchanged glasses. After drinking for three rounds, Yang Zhengshan also figured out Zhang Mingzhong's attitude.

Zhang Mingzhong was obviously specially arranged by Emperor Taiping. Maybe Emperor Taiping had already made an explanation, or maybe someone else had made an explanation. Anyway, Zhang Mingzhong treated Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang very humbly.

The power of the guarding eunuch can be large or small. If it is small, it can be used as a decoration. If it is big, it can intervene in the Zhenbiao camp or even lead the Zhenbiao camp.

"Don't worry, Mr. Hou, since our family has come to Chongshan Town, we will definitely contribute to the military affairs of Chongshan Town. If Mr. Hou needs it in the future, our family is willing to obey the command of Mr. Hou!"

Yang Zhengshan felt a little embarrassed when he said this.

However, it can also be seen from these words that Zhang Mingzhong is not the kind of person who causes trouble.

Think about the previous guarding eunuchs of Chongshan Town. When Yang Zhengshan first came to Chongshan Town, the guarding eunuch was Zhang Yude. It's so smoky.

After Zhang Yude fell, it was Lu Hua. Lu Hua was like a decoration. He didn't care about the military and political affairs of Chongshan Town and focused entirely on the secret military guards.

Then there is Chen Zuchang. This guy started grabbing money even before he arrived in Chongshan Town. If Pang Tang hadn't been tough enough and drove this guy away right away, there's no telling how much trouble he would have caused.

Today, Zhang Mingzhong looks pretty good, and Yang Zhengshan doesn't have very high requirements for him. As long as he doesn't cause trouble, Yang Zhengshan doesn't mind turning a blind eye if he is just greedy for money.

But obviously, Yang Zhengshan's worries were unnecessary.

Zhang Mingzhong was more conscientious than he expected, and he had no intention of asking for money.

In fact, this was reasonable.

Zhang Mingzhong was not an ordinary eunuch. He was the eunuch in front of Emperor Chengping. He served Emperor Chengping on weekdays. Naturally, he was not as superficial as other eunuchs.

In the following days, Zhang Mingzhong often went to the various government offices in Chongshan Pass to understand the military and political affairs of Chongshan Town and inspect various aspects.

Although his actions put some pressure on the various government offices, he did not do anything excessive. He even rejected the money given to him in a stern manner.

Seeing that Zhang Mingzhong seemed to be really willing to do things, Yang Zhengshan was completely relieved.

The New Year was approaching, and there were many family affairs and official affairs. Yang Zhengshan had no intention of continuing to stare at Zhang Mingzhong.

With Yu Qingyi and Yang Mingcheng in charge of the family affairs, Yang Zhengshan does not have to worry too much, but he does have to spend some time on official business.

Chongshan Town is not like Tenglongwei. Although Tenglongwei has more than 20,000 military households, the internal situation is actually relatively simple. As long as the Weisi Yamen is controlled, it can be sorted out quickly.

Chongshan Town has more than 800 miles of border walls, more than 1,300 beacon towers, nearly 200 forts, and more than 20 large and small cities.

There are 150,000 military households and 80,000 ordinary civilian households, with a population of more than one million, which is not much different from a province.

Now the territory of Chongshan Town is also very vast. It is connected to Beiyuan Town in the west, Liaohai in the east, Liaodong and Liaoxi in the south, and the snowfield in the north is considered the territory of Chongshan Town.

It is more than 800 miles long from east to west and nearly 1,500 miles long from north to south.

In terms of area, Chongshan Town is now larger than Liaodong and Liaoxi combined.

However, the actual area controlled by Chongshan Town is only 300 miles around the original Chongshan Town and Fuzhou City, and nearly half of the territory is out of control.

Since returning from Kyoto, Yang Zhengshan has been planning for the future development of Chongshan Town.

Although he had thought about a lot before, many details still need to be carefully considered.

Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish!

A small boat is easy to turn around.

In the past, Yang Zhengshan managed fewer military households, so it was naturally much easier to implement the policies he formulated. Even if there were problems with the policies, they could be amended.

But now it is different. Any policy issued by the General's Office will affect hundreds of thousands of people, or even millions of people.

Therefore, in the management of Chongshan Town, Yang Zhengshan must be cautious and cautious to avoid irreparable consequences.

However, in terms of policy, it is actually what Yang Zhengshan did before.

Training soldiers, poverty alleviation, economic development, Chongshan Town adds one more, opening up the north.

Training is the easiest thing to do. Start with the five battalions of the town flag, and then let the various reinforcement battalions come to Chongshan Town in batches for training. As for ordinary soldiers, the local guards can be responsible for training.

Now Yang Zhengshan certainly cannot provide spiritual spring water for every soldier and soldier in Chongshan Town. He has decided that the next training will focus on the five battalions of the town flag, and the various reinforcement battalions only need to train for two to three months.

There is no way. According to his plan, the five battalions of the town flag must have 30,000 soldiers. It will take two to three years to train the five battalions of the town flag. Although the various reinforcement battalions can be trained at the same time, they certainly cannot stay in Chongshan Pass for a long time.

Compared with training, poverty alleviation and economic development are much more difficult.

It took five years for Tenglongwei to develop to be rich today, and it will take five years for Chongshan Town to solve the problem of food and clothing for a million people.

However, Chongshan Town is not without advantages now. First of all, in terms of silver and money, Chongshan Town is not short of it. Yang Zhengshan intercepted the gold and silver property looted by the Wuliang army.

Excluding the money distributed to the imperial guards and the money used to reward the soldiers, there are still more than 1.3 million taels left.

These more than 1.3 million taels are now lying in the silver vault of the general's mansion.

Of course, this is in the public account. Yang Zhengshan has reported it to the Central Army Governor's Office and the Ministry of War, and has also told Emperor Chengping.

When in Kyoto, the ownership of this silver had been determined.

Among them, 800,000 taels were left in Chongshan Town as funds for Chongshan Town to rebuild the town's standard camp and the reinforcement camp, and the remaining more than 500,000 taels were returned to Liaoxi.

After all, these silvers were looted from Liaoxi by the Wuliang army, and now Liaoxi is extremely miserable, with many casualties among the people, and government offices at all levels are short of money and food.

It is estimated that Liaoxi will be difficult to recover every five or six years.

Liaoxi's affairs have nothing to do with Yang Zhengshan. It is already very good that he can leave 800,000 taels of silver to Chongshan Town.

With these 800,000 taels of silver, he can do a lot of things.

In addition to silver and money, Chongshan Town also has the great treasure of the Northland. If the Northland can be developed, it will be easy to feed three million people.

Therefore, Yang Zhengshan's development plan for Chongshan Town is to open up to the Northland.

For several days, Yang Zhengshan discussed the future development plan of Chongshan Town with officials from the General's Mansion and other government officials.

Especially Pang Tang, he must reach an agreement with Pang Tang, otherwise he will get half the result with twice the effort.

Fortunately, Pang Tang is not a bureaucrat who only cares about his position and does nothing. He agrees with Yang Zhengshan's proposal.