"Yes, right here." Magistrate Wu hurriedly offered up the county office's personnel roster. "Each person's stipend, origin, and traits have been listed in detail beside their name for the special envoy's perusal."
He Lingchuan offered a compliment. "You are very meticulous, Magistrate Wu."
Magistrate Wu beamed. "The special envoy flatters me."
Yet He Lingchuan did not even open the roster. He merely tossed it onto the table, took a sip of tea, and asked, "In our Shihuan City, what is the most common surname?"
"Huh?" Caught off guard by the abrupt shift, Magistrate Wu stood dumbfounded for a moment before managing, "Oh, Li is the most common!"
"How many are in your yamen?"
Magistrate Wu calculated silently for a few breaths. "There are... seven or eight?"
"Quite a few indeed." He Lingchuan tapped the roster twice with his middle finger. "Dismiss everyone named Li from this register."
"What!" Sweat broke out across Magistrate Wu's forehead at once. "Special Envoy, surely that is improper?"
To lay off staff by surname—how could this be treated so flippantly!
"What is the second most common surname?"
Magistrate Wu stared wide-eyed.
Was the special envoy actually going to cut personnel like this? Without looking at track records, ability, age, or seniority?
This was far too crude and heavy-handed!
"I do not know them, nor do I wish to evaluate them, and I certainly have no desire to hear about their personal hardships. None of that concerns me. In this time of national peril, everyone from commoners to officials must face the crisis together." He Lingchuan held his left hand flat like a blade, making a slicing motion over the roster. "The Shihuan County yamen may only retain three pay grades, and at most twenty people may draw stipends. If you do not want an indiscriminate cut from me, Magistrate Wu, then go back and sort the list properly yourself. At least that way, you can keep a few people who are actually useful to you."
He added leisurely, "If you cannot even make a decision like this..."
Those incapable of making staff cuts would find themselves cut as well.
Magistrate Wu felt an involuntary shiver run through him and hastily blurted, "I—I will go back and draft the roster with great care!"
"Make it quick!" He Lingchuan raised two fingers. "I give you two days. Oh, by the way, the lame groom may stay. Everyone ought to have a touch of compassion, after all."
With his stance made crystal clear, Magistrate Wu had no choice but to clutch the roster and leave, thoroughly dejected.
He Lingchuan watched his retreating back and shook his head inwardly.
There were tricks buried in that register; he did not need to open it to know. If he truly engaged with Magistrate Wu in the game of "who stays and who goes," the endless petty squabbling would never cease.
Yet what did any of that have to do with He Lingchuan? He cared only about the result, not the process.
Let these officials torment themselves over the process.
The administrative system of this country was simply too bloated and inefficient; work that two people could finish was invariably assigned to twenty. The Yuan Kingdom was beset by internal strife and foreign threats alike. If it wished to hold on, it had no choice but to downsize, cut staff, and boost efficiency.
Otherwise...
Heh.
Because the special envoy's audit was so unyielding, fierce arguments erupted throughout the Yuan court as well.
Numerous elder officials aired their grievances, protesting that while the two fronts of the war were important, the pressing matters of the Yuan Kingdom did not end with military campaigns. The nation's economy and people's livelihoods mattered as well; for instance, the embankments along the two great southeastern rivers needed reinforcement, lest the arrival of the summer floods wash away countless fields and claim countless lives, and so on.
Only after taking charge of monitoring fund allocations did He Lingchuan realize how endlessly a country could spend money. From trivial, featherlight matters to the livelihoods of millions, the demands were as numerous as hairs on an ox.
The initial sum of over 3.7 million taels was a mere drop in the bucket. If he loosened his grip even slightly, not a single copper would remain.
Money—this country was starved of it to such a degree.
After a few days of such frantic work, Madam Ying listened to the two brothers shoveling rice into their mouths at the dinner table while discussing funds, and suddenly spoke up:
"Chuan'er, how long are you going to serve as the Mount Rong special envoy?"
"Ah?" It was the first time anyone had asked that question. He Lingchuan paused before replying, "Until all seven million taels of the loan are spent. Soon enough—these past couple of days we've been auditing the final few items, and the remaining balance will be transferred shortly."
By then, his duties as special envoy would essentially be complete.
"It is fine and well to be impartial as an envoy, but you are still a man of Yuan. Now that you have offended so many elder officials, I fear they will make trouble for you once you step down from the post."
His mother was looking out for him. Moved, He Lingchuan said, "Mother is truly thorough in her thinking. However!"
Hearing his tone, Madam Ying knew he was about to get cheeky. She curled her lip. "However what?"
"Consider who my father is!" He Lingchuan declared smugly. "As long as the old man keeps rising through the ranks, what can anyone do to me?"
He could hardly come out and say that he did not care about the Yuan court in the slightest, nor about anything here.
That was the fundamental reason he could be so impartial and appear wholly devoted to the public good:
He did not care.
The officials of the Yuan Kingdom assumed he looked down on them and was deliberately making their lives difficult.
In truth, that was not it at all—they simply did not register in He Lingchuan's eyes.
Madam Ying rolled her eyes at him, yet knowing he was right, a spark of joy rose in her heart.
Back by the shores of Xianling Lake, she had drawn the best lot, which foretold smooth sailing and an abundance of wealth for her future. Could that promise be coming to fruition right now?
Before the meal was finished, Housekeeper Wu suddenly came striding in, shouting, "Joyous news, joyous news! Madam, young masters, the Master has won a great victory in the south!"
Madam Ying rose at once, her phoenix eyes widening.
Housekeeper Wu pointed to the windblown, travel-stained scout beside him. "Speak, tell them quickly how it happened!"
The man's face was caked with grime, his breathing ragged, and he reeked of horse sweat—plainly having ridden hard from afar. "The General marched his army there in just seven days, catching the rebels unaware. The General then stationed old, weak, and wounded soldiers at Buxin City as bait to lure the main rebel force into attacking the city, while our forces circled behind to seize the rebels' main camp and laid an ambush along their return route. Resting our troops while the enemy wore themselves out, we achieved a total victory!"
Madam Ying pressed a hand to her chest, breathless with excitement. "That is wonderful!"
A magnificent victory—one decisive battle to settle the realm!
For the Yuan Kingdom, her husband's triumphant victory was nothing less than rain in a drought!
He Lingchuan and He Yue pressed immediately, "And then?"
The scout's report had been concise, but the two brothers could still smell the foul wind and bloody rain behind it. After such a battle, who knew how many lives had been snuffed out.
He Chunhua's strategy had been nimble, capitalizing entirely on an information gap. The rebels' northward advance had been smooth sailing all along; every city they encountered had either surrendered or mounted only feeble resistance, laying down their weapons with barely a struggle. They had no idea that General Changning had already led a grand army south. Believing that taking Buxin City would be just as effortless, they had been struck unprepared by He Chunhua's calculated ploy.
An advantage of that sort could only be used once. Fortunately, He Chunhua had not squandered it in the least, virtually achieving a swift, decisive rout of the enemy's main force.
This great victory had truly not come easily.
"Of the two rebel ringleaders, one was cut down from his horse on the spot, while the other led the remnants in a westward retreat. Zhao Qinghe and Wu Shaoyi divided their forces to pursue them, wiping out over three thousand more; meanwhile, Zeng Feixiong's unit lay in ambush at the western entrance of Longchuan to cut them off at the end," the messenger reported. "After all that, only about eight hundred rebels managed to flee into Longchuan!"
Madam Ying asked again, "Didn't you say there was another rebel chief?"
"The man is named Tan Xian, and he fled into Longchuan."
Chapter 797