Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Lord Wu Zheng is somewhat incompetent, as he left the Martial Arts Pavilion to have fun for more than half a year.

In this year, the Martial Arts Pavilion has undergone significant changes, this year it recruited another eight hundred disciples, bringing the total number of disciples to over two thousand.

This year also saw more than three hundred disciples graduating from the Martial Arts Pavilion, almost all of the first-year recruits have graduated, most of them joined the border army, a few joined the Martial Arts Temple or the Five Army Commandery as mid-level Military Officers, and others joined one of the three major Navy forces.

This year should be the year the Martial Arts Pavilion truly made its mark, with three hundred disciples joining the military. Although this number is not very large, each one of them holds the cultivation level of Postnatal Fourth Layer, and as soon as they enter the military they can at least secure a position as Deputy Thousand Households.

Unfortunately, when these disciples graduated, Yang Zhenshan did not personally see them off.

After arriving at the Martial Arts Pavilion, Yang Zhenshan made a round inside the pavilion, adding Spiritual Spring Water to the wells in various places.

Not having replenished the Spiritual Spring Water for nearly a year, the Spiritual Spring Water in the well was probably almost depleted, which could affect the cultivation speed of the disciples of the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Yang Zhenshan spent a whole morning pretending to inspect the entire Martial Arts Pavilion, and also uncovered many problems.

There are quite a few officials in the Martial Arts Pavilion, among them are those blinded by greed. When Yang Zhenshan was present in the Martial Arts Pavilion, they dared not cause trouble, but when Yang Zhenshan was away, these people could not suppress their greed.

And embezzling money and cultivation resources from the Martial Arts Pavilion is far too easy. Despite being an inconspicuous small government office in the court, the Martial Arts Pavilion is internally wealthy.

Various medicinal materials and weaponry needed for cultivation, including Elixirs, it only takes a little tampering to gain several hundred taels of Silver.

At this moment, Yang Zhenshan is in the medicinal materials warehouse of the Martial Arts Pavilion, frowning as he looks at the medicinal materials in the medicine box.

"Go call Bao Lang for me!" Yang Zhenshan ordered his Personal Followers.

The Personal Followers responded and went to fetch someone, but returned alone shortly after.

"Marquis, Mr. Bao was transferred from the Martial Arts Pavilion five months ago, the current Supervisor is Mr. Sun Anyang! However, Mr. Sun isn't in the Martial Arts Pavilion right now, I've already sent someone to call him!"

Yang Zhenshan frowned deeper, Bao Lang was actually transferred!

The Martial Arts Pavilion has three main officials, Business Manager Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu, and Supervisor Bao Lang. Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu are mainly responsible for teaching the disciples, somewhat similar to Head Teachers, but when Yang Zhenshan isn't there, they are responsible for overseeing all matters of the Martial Arts Pavilion.

And the Supervisor is responsible for supervising all officials and disciples of the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Yang Zhenshan was quite satisfied with these three people. They managed the Martial Arts Pavilion well in the previous three years, giving Yang Zhenshan much peace of mind.

But now someone had transferred Bao Lang?

Being transferred is one thing, but failing to notify him in advance.

Well, he was not around, so it's reasonable that they couldn't notify him in advance.

Yang Zhenshan glanced at the trembling Warehouse Envoy next to him, then instructed again: "Go find Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu, oh and call Jiang He as well! Have them all come here!"

The Warehouse Envoy and the Storage Envoy are the warehouse managers of various government offices, generally, the Warehouse Envoy and Storage Envoy of the Governor's Office are Secondary Ninth Rank, while those of the county levels do not have a rank.

The Warehouse Envoy of the Martial Arts Pavilion is also Secondary Ninth Rank, and there are a total of three Warehouse Envoys and three Deputy Envoys in the Martial Arts Pavilion, each responsible for the granary, medicinal materials, and armaments warehouses.

They are not only responsible for warehouse management, but also for the in and out of materials in the warehouse, and even for procurement.

The two Personal Followers hurried away again, Yang Zhenshan turned and went to the neighboring weaponry warehouse, randomly picking up a long saber from the weapon rack, pinching the blade with his fingers and lightly applying force, the long saber snapped with a crack.

"Hehe, very good, very well indeed!"

Yang Zhenshan laughed out of anger.

With his strength, ordinary long sabers would break under his grip, but this crisp breaking sound indicates these sabers are of very poor quality.

He then went to the nearby granary, casually opened a few sacks of grain, took out some rice grains and tasted them.

Hmm, the rice is fresh and not moldy, not too bad.

But then he went to the Martial Arts Pavilion's cattle shed and sheep pen, glaring at the sparse cattle and sheep inside with a sinister look in his eyes.

Rice isn't valuable, naturally, no one would target rice to make money at the Martial Arts Pavilion.

But cattle and sheep are different, one cow is worth 20 to 30 taels, enough to buy ten stone of rice.

Can Martial Artists not eat meat?

Don't be joking, Martial Artists each have big appetites, and all of them relish in meat.

If they can't even eat meat, what's there to cultivate.

Therefore, there are dedicated cowsheds, sheep pens, and chicken coops within the Martial Arts Pavilion, and they regularly purchase cattle, sheep, chickens, and eggs.

Last year, there were more than twenty cows and hundreds of sheep here, but now there is less than ten percent remaining.

Soon, Hong Yanfeng, Wan Shu, and Jiang He hurried over.

"Greetings to Marquis Yang!" The three bowed.

Yang Zhenshan looked at them, "Didn't the Ministry of Revenue allocate Silver to the Martial Arts Pavilion this year?"

Hong Yanfeng, sweating on his forehead, said, "They did allocate, and in fact, they increased it by one hundred thousand taels this year."

"Then where did you spend the Silver?" Yang Zhenshan asked coldly.

The Silver of the Martial Arts Pavilion is regularly allocated by the Ministry of Revenue, according to the number of disciples in the Martial Arts Pavilion, roughly two hundred taels per disciple per year.

This was a request made by Yang Zhenshan when he established the Martial Arts Pavilion to Emperor Yanping.

Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu were extremely nervous. Yang Zhenshan turned to Jiang He, "What, you don't know either?"

Jiang He lowered his head, "Marquis, this was all done by Sun Anyang!"

Jiang He was also frustrated, he was just the chief accountant of the Martial Arts Pavilion, and when Yang Zhenshan was present, he played the role of Yang Zhenshan's assistant, involved in all major and minor affairs.

But when Yang Zhenshan was absent, he could only do his own job, and he had no say in other matters.

This was not because Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu excluded him, but it was as it should be.

"Sun Anyang! What's his background?" Yang Zhenshan asked.

"The eldest grandson from the second room of the Marquis Suning Mansion!" Jiang He replied.

Yang Zhenshan immediately understood what was going on.

It is normal for noble offspring to find a job, and the official positions in the Martial Arts Pavilion could be considered civil or military, so it was entirely possible for the noble scions to enter the Martial Arts Pavilion as officials as long as they went through the Ministry of Personnel.

On ordinary days, the Marquis Suning Mansion in the Capital City kept a low profile, but don't forget that Marquis Suning is an Innate Martial Artist. With the face of Marquis Suning Mansion, arranging an official position for their offspring, the Ministry of Personnel would certainly cooperate well.

However, coming to the Martial Arts Pavilion to scoop up Silver, Yang Zhenshan really wanted to crack open this guy's head to see if his brain had water in it.

Others might fear Marquis Suning, but Yang Zhenshan certainly does not!

"Did either of you participate in this?" Yang Zhenshan looked at Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu again.

Both shook their heads quickly, "No, absolutely not!"

Wan Shu also said, "Marquis, we tried to persuade Mr. Sun the Second, but there was nothing we could do if he wouldn't listen."

Yang Zhenshan glared at them fiercely, "What are you afraid of? How could my territory allow him to misbehave!"

"Uh, weren't you not in the Capital City, Marquis?" Hong Yanfeng protested mournfully.

Yang Zhenshan was speechless.

He really couldn't refute that excuse.

Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu had no background or status, and indeed did not dare to provoke the Marquis Suning Mansion.

So all of this could only be blamed on Yang Zhenshan himself!

Who made him go out and have fun, completely neglecting the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Yang Zhenshan waved his hand, "Go audit the accounts, scrutinize every entry, and later I will personally go to the Marquis Suning Mansion to collect the debt!"

"Damn, is the Marquis Suning Mansion that poor?"

Hong Yanfeng and Wan Shu, as if granted amnesty, hurriedly ran to check the accounts.

About half an hour later, a young man about twenty years old hurried over.

Sun Anyang, with sweat all over his head, came to the front of the warehouse, saw Yang Zhenshan standing at the door, and his heart beat violently.

"Lower official Sun Anyang greets Marquis Yang!"