Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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A moment later, the director from the second department arrived.
This Director had long wanted to place his son in the deputy position of Ministry of War, but before he could do so, the position was recommended by General Yun.
He was also very dissatisfied and had some conflicts. However, he was much more tactful than those below. Moreover, he worked under General Yun and had to give him some face. Therefore, he did not dare to embarrass Lu Huan in person.
However, now that a problem had arisen, it would be better to ask the new guy to come out and solve it.
If they couldn’t solve it by then, it won’t be them making things difficult for this kid.
He had Lu summoned and asked, “I wonder what the newly appointed Deputy Director thinks of these two urgent matters?”
Lu Huan raised his eyes and asked, “If I give you a plan, will you definitely implement it?”
The officials were filled with contempt. This young man was clearly still a young man. Even in his official uniform, no matter how good-looking his figure or how handsome his face, he was still just a young man just starting out.
Someone among the officials below murmured disdainfully, “He’s just a bast**d who got in through the backdoor. He hasn’t even been to the Imperial Academy for a few days. What brilliant ideas can he have?”
The Second Director still had to put on a show and immediately scolded him, “Stop talking nonsense!”
He said to Lu Huan, “Please speak.”
“Solving these two problems is easy,” Lu Huan said. “First, the horse ran away because of the negligence of the guards. Originally, we could just blame the guards. But now, the guards are from the Third Division’s barracks. Our Second Division is weak, so it’s inconvenient to provoke a conflict with them. That’s why this has become such a headache.”
“Then we just need to negotiate with the Third Division to reduce the number of soldiers and officials guarding the horses and increase the number of hired grooms. Soldiers are not good at managing horses and often leave their posts. But the grooms are hired with silver and are all civilians. They dare not neglect their duties under the noses of the Ministry of War. This will ensure that such things will not happen again.”
Chief A from Rongzhou sneered and refuted, “How do you know the Third Division will agree to us doing this?”
Lu Huan said calmly, “You may not have noticed the official document regarding the Zhenyuan General’s Mansion recruiting new soldiers. Some of the recruits are destined for the Third Department. This shows that the Third Department is clearly short-staffed. Why wouldn’t they agree to reduce their manpower? Besides, the money for hiring grooms comes from our Second Department.”
Tanhualang[1]‘s chief officer, Yi, looked embarrassed and said tactfully, “But these silver taels are another expense. Doesn’t that increase the financial expenditure of our Second Department…”
Lu Huan glanced at him and did some calculations with him: “It costs half a tael of silver to hire a groom a month, and five grooms a month is only two or three taels of silver.”
“And I just looked through the frequent incidents that have occurred in the Second Department over the years. I found that there are at least two such incidents per month, both large and small, involving horses escaping. Each time, the cost of soldiers and officers catching the horses and compensating for the damage to the farmland caused by the horses is over ten taels of silver. Which one is the greater financial burden on the Second Department? Can’t you figure it out?”
Tanhualang’s supervisor Yi immediately looked embarrassed.
Although the leaders did not want to admit it, they had to admit that the young man’s countermeasures made sense.
“What about the second thing? Could it be that you, a genius young man, have also come up with a solution?” The person in charge A looked around and saw that some of the people in charge showed expressions of approval on their faces. He became even more furious and sneered unwillingly.
Lu Huan ignored the rudeness in his words and turned to the Second Department Director to analyze the situation. “Secondly, the disturbance of the people and the loss of weapons were essentially the fault of the transport officials. But why did this happen? Transporting weapons is not a difficult task, so how could so many weapons be lost? It’s quite strange. If you dig deeper, it’s simply because officials of all ranks enriched themselves during the transportation process. When the lower-level officials couldn’t afford the extra money, they took the weapons and sold them, calling them ‘lost’.”
Tanhualang’s chief officer, Yi, said awkwardly, “We’re not unaware of these schemes, but the Second Ministry has so many officials under it, and they’re so interconnected. If we really investigated who was responsible, it would be a massive undertaking, taking months to investigate. The Second Ministry is so large right now, we don’t have the energy to punish each official individually. Furthermore, if the matter gets out of hand and reaches His Majesty, we’ll be held accountable for dereliction of duty.”
The director frowned, obviously realizing the wide range of implications of this matter. So he asked Lu Huan, “Do you have any solutions?”
Lu Huan said succinctly, “Why not let the merchants in the capital take over this? Firstly, it would save two divisions of soldiers and officials, cut some redundant soldiers and officials, and reduce expenses. Secondly, merchants have been transporting supplies for years and know how to transport them safely better than half-baked officials. This would reduce losses on the road and avoid complaints from the people.”
“Thirdly, it can also reduce the chances of officials embezzling money, preventing the Emperor from investigating and holding them accountable one day. Fourthly, we can evaluate the merchants. There are at least dozens of merchants in the capital. Let them each show their sincerity, and then we can select the most suitable merchant to take over. Healthy competition will also make the merchants responsible for this matter more rigorous and cautious.”
Cooperation between officials and the people was not unheard of in Yan State before, and the Second Ministry of War also had the authority to do so.
But these people in charge had never thought of this method!
When they considered this matter before, they had just worried about how to warn those who embezzled money, but they never expected that by changing their way of thinking, their vision would suddenly broaden!
As soon as Lu Huan spoke of his countermeasures, the expressions on the faces of several staff members immediately changed.
The others were also greatly surprised, thinking that the countermeasures proposed by this young man were not just empty talk, but were direct remedies to the problems and solved the current predicament of their second department.
But, this boy is only fifteen years old, how did he come up with these solutions?!
Although the second director wanted his son to take this position, he had to admit at this time that his son was definitely not as capable as the young man in front of him.
If we solve the problem as he said, the problem that has been bothering the Second Department for a long time might actually be solved!
The director’s face immediately showed an expression of extreme joy.
Many of the staff below were actually convinced in their hearts. No wonder the Imperial Academy was the number one academy in Yan State. It taught the princes, and the prince’s teacher also came from the Imperial Academy. The students taught there were indeed extraordinary.
Although this young man was still young, he was indeed not just a pretty face. He had real talent and hard work, and his knowledge and strategies were admirable!
However, although they were somewhat convinced in their heart, they still couldn’t keep a low profile.
They were all young men in their twenties or thirties, and some were even officials in their forties or fifties. How could they be expected to obey the orders of a teenager?!
Chief A glanced around and saw that no one was saying anything, seemingly agreeing with him. So he felt a little angry and couldn’t help but ask, “Do you understand the situation in previous years? You’re making such a suggestion. If it doesn’t solve the current predicament, what will you do?”
The young man behind the desk glanced at him and asked, “Do you know the situation in previous years? How many horses did we have last year? How many officials did we have? How many weapons did we have?”
“…” Naturally, the person in charge couldn’t answer any of them.
Lu Huan replied fluently, “The year before last, we had 3,200 horses. Last year, when there was no fighting, we only had 500 horses. The year before last, we had 123 officials in the two ministries. Last year, there were many more, 163. Some of them probably bought their positions. The year before last, we had two and a half warehouses of weapons. Last year, so many of them were rusty that they filled two warehouses.”
There were more than a dozen account books, all written in a horribly messy manner by the Tanhua Chief B. Only the Tanhua Chief B himself could understand them. But how could he have managed to memorize them all down in such a short time, having only been in the Second Department for half a day?!
What a genius memory!
At this moment, everyone below was shocked and fell silent!
Lu Huan thought, he didn’t know where she found it from, but the account book she got just happened to come in handy.
He just took a quick look and found that they were all simplified and useful numbers, so he scanned them all in a short time and wrote them all down. Now he could use them to fool people, and it was also her credit.
The second director stared at Lu Huan for a long time, his expression changing again and again.
After a moment, he waved his hand and said to the person in charge below, “Just do as the deputy director said.”
As soon as he called out the three words “Deputy Director”, it meant that he had recognized Lu Huan as a fifth-rank official.
The author has something to say:
Su Xi: What’s going on? The “Sleep” side quest has already been completed by the cub himself?! Is this an automated game?!
The cub took a step forward, raised his face, and a bubble popped up on his head – waiting for praise.
——
My back hurts, so I won’t update twice a day today. I’ll update twice a day tomorrow.
The cub’s solution to the second problem was to contract out third-party logistics, which was far superior to large companies managing their own logistics. He then let suppliers bid for the goods themselves, increasing the military’s profits. He had learned this from some of the books Su Xi had given him.
Regarding the previous chapter, a reader asked if the promotion from Ninth Rank to Fifth Rank was too fast. The reason is that if this story were to unfold step by step, progressing through Ninth, Eighth, and Seventh Ranks, it would likely take a million words. However, since this novel is only a little over 400,000 words long, and there are significant emotional plots later on, the career strategy arc will be compressed slightly to allow for faster progression.
T/N: LH is really like a self-cleaning oven (Modern Family reference yo…)
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[1] “Tanhua” in Chinese history primarily refers to one of the top three ranks in the imperial examination system (Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, and Tanhua)