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“Brother Lu, do you plan to stay at the barracks?”

Sun Siwen was surprised by Lu Yuan’s idea: “The bandits in the county have been eliminated, and there are no major problems now. I was planning to disband some soldiers in a few months when the county is stable. Why do you bother training more troops?”

There are currently 500 county soldiers in the county, and the money needed to pay their salaries alone amounts to 1,750 silver taels per month, totaling 21,000 silver taels per year.

21,000 silver taels may not seem much; it is only a tenth of what Lu Yuan seized from the city.

However, the fact that 200,000 silver taels could be confiscated from the city was made possible by the decades of accumulation by several local power families and factions.

What took others decades to accumulate, you were able to plunder and make a fortune.

In a normal year, a remote mountain county like Wugang County would only have an annual financial income of silver taels.

This amount of money is barely enough to cover the salaries of officials and maintain the daily operations of the government office, with only an extra 1,000-2,000 silver taels left over—nowhere near enough to support 500 soldiers.

Usually, a small local county would only support 100 county soldiers, and their salaries would not be as high as 5 silver taels per month; 2 silver taels per month would be considered acceptable.

At present, the structure and financial expenditure of Wugang County is quite unbalanced and distorted.

For this reason, after resolving the bandit issue, Sun Siwen considered disbanding the army.

His objective was to restore a normal structure and balance expenditures.

However, when he mentioned his idea to his friend, Lu Yuan immediately objected: “Although the bandit leader in the county has been eliminated, there are still many remaining bandits who continue to harass the local area.

Moreover, the world is turbulent, and disturbances occur frequently.

There may be no bandits now in Wugang County, but what about outside Wugang County?

Remember, the last time Wugang County was attacked, it was not done by the people in the county, but by the savages from the mountain.”

“During our campaign against the bandits, we captured a messenger from the Mountain Savages in a Miao People’s mountain village. This person was here to make contact with the Miao people in the county and plan to recapture the county town.

If we disband the army now and there are no soldiers to guard the town, who will defend it when the savages attack again?

The Shengmiao in the depths of the mountains in Dongting County have always been deeply connected with the Five Poisons Sect, often even simply acting as the peripheral forces of the Five Poisons Sect.

Therefore, Lu Yuan does not think it is a coincidence that the Five Poisons Sect’s people appeared in the Savage mountain village.

Considering the previous example of Wugang County being attacked, it is not hard to guess that this is yet another attempt by the Five Poisons Sect to weaken the government.

Sun Siwen also learned of this news for the first time, and upon hearing Lu

Yuan’s speculation, he could not help but nod seriously: “You’re right, Brother Lu. The appearance of the savage messenger in the Savage mountain village is definitely plotting something, and they may have even targeted the county town again.”

Thinking of the possibility that the savages who had previously attacked the county might return, he suggested with a heavy heart: “In that case, we should not disband the army yet.

Luckily, we have reaped considerable gains from eliminating the bandits this time.

Even with the high cost of maintaining the army, the county’s finances can hold for two or three years, so there is no need to worry for now.” At this point, Sun Siwen could not help but look at his friend.

During the suppression of the bandits both in and outside the city, over

200,000 silver taels of movable property were seized by the government office.

Of this money, over 10,000 silver taels were divided up and used to reward the officers and soldiers. Additionally, land worth over 20,000 silver taels was also prepared to be distributed to the soldiers as promised, to help them settle down.

However, besides these expenditures, the lion’s share of assets, amounting to as much as 130,000 silver taels in gold, silver, and jewelry, was taken by Sun Siwen’s friend.

What remained in the hands of the government office was a sum of around 70,000 silver taels’ worth of less-liquid assets such as antique houses and shop deeds.

So, in terms of wealth, the richest person in the county is still his friend.

Fortunately, Sun Siwen was aware that he was able to take up his post smoothly thanks to Lu Yuan’s help. The other party taking away the lion’s share of assets was what had been agreed upon beforehand and was entirely justified.

As a result, he was only slightly disgruntled, but soon pushed the thought out of his mind.

“Since Brother Sun has no objections, let’s settle on this.”

Seeing that his friend supported his idea, Lu Yuan was delighted and immediately said: “From now on, I will be in charge of training the troops at the barracks, and you will be in charge of governing the city. I will oversee the military affairs, and you will oversee the civil. Thus, our responsibilities are divided.”

He was happy for a good reason.

Having offended the Five Poisons Sect and killed their people, Lu Yuan judged that they should not dare to retaliate for the time being.

However, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Just to be cautious, Lu Yuan decided to stay in the barracks with the soldiers firmly guarding him, ensuring his safety to the greatest extent possible.

“Let it be.”

This was the same as what had been agreed upon before; Sun Siwen had no objections and agreed with a nod.

Wugang County originally did not have a barracks, as it was just a small mountain county. The number of county soldiers and government officials in the city would never exceed 100.

These 100 people would take turns on duty and typically go home after their shift, so there was no need for additional accommodations for them.

However, since Lu Yuan brought 500 soldiers with him, the question of how to accommodate them needed to be addressed.

Fortunately, after the bloody night, the families of the five clans in the county were all dead, and their mansions were confiscated and taken over by the state.

Just like in Changning County, Wugang County had arranged residences for officials in the area where the wealthy families and clans lived.

Therefore, Lu Yuan simply modified and joined a few of the confiscated mansions to turn them into barracks.

Anyway, the mansions of the wealthy families were spacious enough to accommodate so many people, and the environment was well arranged, making it comfortable to live in.

Lu Yuan felt that this place was much better than the houses he had lived in before.

The soldiers who had always been struggling also felt the same way.

So after more than ten days of renovations, the County Captain moved in with his county soldiers and happily settled into their luxurious new barracks.

Time gradually passed.

The closed shops in the city slowly reopened, and the people who had been hiding in their homes gradually dared to go out to the streets. A few merchants from other regions, having heard that everything was stable, came to do business.

Sun Siwen took this opportunity to find some wealthy merchants and negotiate the sale of the large number of shop deeds held by the government office, in exchange for current silver.

From the conversations Lu Yuan occasionally had with him, it seemed that these transactions were quite successful.

Since they were selling at a reduced price, many wealthier merchant buyers were attracted, bringing in a large amount of operating capital for the government office.

Everything was slowly getting back on track.

After several months of turmoil, Wugang County finally welcomed a time of

peace and stability..