If you keep making noise, I won’t stand it anymore!

There was silence in the main room, and everyone was unable to recover from the shock for a while.

"Brother Situ Shi, how is things going in the military camp?" Meixiang saw that it was getting late and there were still many topics to discuss, so she was the first to break the silence in the room.

Situ Yidong, who was called again, came back to his senses, organized his words a little, and said, "According to Haoyue's laws, the Liuzhou Prefecture's military strength is 1.2. After the two days of inventory and verification, the number of people is consistent. In my opinion, the captain has managed well, and the spirit and combat effectiveness of the soldiers are also acceptable."

"It's just that some soldiers are already too old, with more than 3,000 over 50 years old. Nearly one-third of their weapons and equipment are seriously worn out, and their uniforms also need to be replaced."

"In a word, you need money, right?" Meixiang couldn't help but frowned after hearing this.

Situ Yidun didn't answer, but just chuckled twice. His barracks was a place that burned money.

"What about Brother Chu and Cousin Zhen? What's the situation now? Do you know how much money you can take out?"

After Chu Zeming and Feng Yizhen looked at each other, Chu Zeming replied, "Brother Feng and I checked the household office, etiquette office, barracks, criminal office, and workshop of the government office. Just like the barracks, there are problems with the staff being too old and the procedures being bloated."

"I checked the relevant information. Liuzhou Prefecture is of medium size in Haoyue. There are 170,000 registered residents, including about 50,000 households, most of whom are elderly, women, and children."

"The government can now withdraw 30,000 taels of silver. We have also checked the warehouses and granaries. The quantity is the same, but the quality is hard to say. Some of the money was obviously newly replaced in the past few days."

Meixiang was not surprised to hear this. She knew that there would be no fish in clear water. The matching numbers showed that City Lord Wang was an honest man and did not lose too much.

"Well, I suggest that we stop checking the old accounts and start to build new accounts based on the actual situation from the time we took over. There is no need for officials in the same dynasty to do things that are too ugly, right?"

"We now understand the specific situation. We will solve the problems one by one. It is best to deal with the important ones first. Now let's discuss what to do next."

Afterwards, the four of them re-arranged the following matters and rescheduled their schedules. Everyone rubbed their eyes and wished they could go back to their rooms and sleep immediately, as they still had a lot of work to do in the next period of time.

Nanny Chen and Aunt Li promptly served tonic soup to everyone and watched them drink it before letting them go.

The next morning, Situ Yidun brought all the literate people in the Liu Mansion to the military camp to conduct a survey and census. The soldiers in the camp were surprised to see that their leader brought so many strangers to the camp, and they talked about it.

"Boss, why are there so many people? What happened?"

"Yes, the captain was transferred only two days ago, and so many people came today. Could something really happen?"

"Will there be another war?"

"Ah, are we going to fight again? We have only been settled for a few days."

"Where will we attack? When will we send the troops? How many people will we send?"

"I heard that these two will send troops, at least 80% of them will go."

Various discussions continued and became more and more outrageous. Some people even started to prepare to go back and pack their bags.

In the commander's tent, Situ Yidong was explaining today's arrangements to eighty battalion commanders: "After returning, you must explain clearly to the soldiers in your own battalion. You must ensure that every soldier can understand and no unnecessary misunderstandings will arise. If you have any questions, you can come and ask me, or the person in charge of explanations at the registration desk. Do you understand?"

"Yes, we understand." Eighty battalion commanders shouted in unison.

Ten tables had been arranged in order in the open space in front of the commander-in-chief's tent, with pens and ink on them. Two people sat behind each table, one responsible for asking questions and the other for registration. In the open space in front of the tables, there were also a few people standing who were responsible for explaining the soldiers' questions.

The battalion commanders saw this scene as soon as they came out of the commander's tent, and then thought about what the leader had just said. They looked at each other and immediately quickened their pace to leave. It is true that the government office of Liuzhou Prefecture now does things differently than before. As long as they care about ordinary people like them, their lives will be more hopeful.

"Captain, what's going on today? Are we really going to fight again?"

"Captain, how many people are going this time? When will we set off?"

"Will I still have a chance to say goodbye to my parents at home?"

As soon as the battalion commanders returned to their barracks, they were immediately surrounded, and the soldiers asked them questions at once.

The commander of the first battalion, Geng Er, was a strong man of about thirty-one or thirty-two years old. He was five and a half feet tall, with a solid and sturdy build, and a bold personality that was unique to northerners: "Damn it, who told you that there was going to be a war? Can't you guys hope for something good?"

"Ah, aren't we going to fight?" The soldiers in the battalion surrounding him were a little dumbfounded. "Then why are there so many strangers here so early in the morning?"

Geng Er was so angry that he kicked the soldier who was asking questions: "Fuck you, can't you just listen to what I have to say? You just have too many questions."

Then he asked everyone to sit together according to their numbers, and after counting the 150 people, he continued, "The boss called us over just now because of this matter. Now you sit down and listen to me first. If you have any questions, ask them later. Do you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Didn't you ask me about salary a few days ago? Today it's about this." Geng Er glanced at his soldiers and couldn't help showing joy on his face, which made the people who had been looking at him even more confused. However, no one dared to speak or ask questions casually, so they could only use eager eyes to urge him to speak quickly.

Geng Er looked around and laughed even more. "Damn it, don't look at me like that. I'm not a young girl." Then he took a deep breath to calm himself down again, reorganized his words and said, "It's almost halfway through this year. The reason why the salary has not been paid is that the court has not allocated silver. But now my brothers' families are not rich, and they are all counting on these few coins to buy rice and noodles."

"Didn't the captain say a few days ago that Liuzhou Prefecture is now the fief of the princess? The handover has been going on for the past two days. The first thing he did after taking office was to solve the problem of the brothers' salaries that have not been paid, and the payment is slightly different from before. "How is it different? Let's put it this way, didn't we pay silver money directly in the past, and then go to the rice store to buy rice and flour ourselves? The boss can charge as much as he wants? Especially now when the family has almost eaten up last year's stored grain and the new grain has not yet arrived?"