Chapter 39: All Busy with Official Duties

  The Manchu people who lived in the garrison cities across Qing China all resided within a walled city inside the city. In Guangzhou, the east-west range of the area where the banner people lived was from Xicheng Gate to Sipailou, and the north-south range started from Dade Street to the city wall of Guide Gate, extending north to the center of Guangta Street. This area was also surrounded by a city wall, which is why it was also called the Banner City. The Eight Banners officers and soldiers were not allowed to leave the Banner City privately for more than ten miles.

  The Manchu General's Yamen is located in the big city street inside the Banner City, consisting of a five-entrance courtyard, with dozens of houses with blue walls and green tiles, shaded by trees, and majestic in the depths. The front several courtyards of the yamen are the main hall, the hall administration, the left administration, the right administration and other halls, while the last two courtyards are the deputy general's mansion.

  The vice commander-in-chief took office, and all the officials came to pay their respects. In the majestic hall of the commander's mansion, Ye Zhao sat in his military uniform, surrounded by dozens of neatly dressed military officers on both sides. The four deputy commanders, eight assistant commanders, sixteen defensive officers, and sixteen cavalry captains were all wearing armor, although some of the generals had obvious smoke marks on their faces. However, when the military officers stood together, they looked quite impressive.

  Three or four officials in formal attire, including the chief clerks of the Tang dynasty and the directors of the Left and Right Offices.

  The Hall Officer is in charge of the Vice Commander's official seal, and when submitting or issuing documents on behalf of the Vice Commander, or when receiving correspondence from outside through the Left and Right Offices, the document is first submitted to the Vice Commander for review and approval, then returned to the various departments for writing. After that, the Hall Officer takes the key from the Vice Commander, opens the seal box, affixes the seal, and returns the key to the Vice Commander.

  He was the clerk of Tang Zhai, equivalent to the secretary of Vice Commander Ye Zhao. Ye Zhao couldn't help but take a few more glances at him. The clerk, Abu, was over 40 years old, with a goat-like beard and triangular eyes, revealing his cunning and cleverness at first sight.

  In addition, the Left and Right Wings of the Imperial Household Department handled the daily affairs of the Banner people. The Left Wing was in charge of finance, education, household registration, salaries of Banner schools, etc. The Right Wing was in charge of land, water sources, litigation, appointment and removal of officials under the Eight Banners, conscription, military rations, etc.

  The entire Banner City has its own order and is not under the jurisdiction of local officials in Guangzhou. Even if a banner person commits a crime, they must be handed over to the General's Yamen or the Left and Right Dutong Yamen for disposal.

  Ye Zhaoye had just arrived in Guangzhou the night before and paid a visit to his superior, General Mu Te'en of Guangzhou. As for this prince, Mu Te'en naturally couldn't put on airs as a superior, so he chatted with Ye Zhaoye about his journey, showing concern for his fatigue from traveling by boat, and was as warm and courteous as an elder.

  Now Ye Zhao sat in the main hall of the Governor's Mansion, scrutinizing the officials standing on both sides. Seeing them lower their heads and show respect under his gaze, he said, "Chapter 039, can't we just appease the foreign barbarians' resentment? Why bother to make them come north and disturb the capital?"

  Ye Zhijun was unconvinced in his heart, glanced at Ye Zhao and said: "If you can do it once, you can do it again. Foreign devils are notorious for their insatiable greed."

  Ye Zhaomin nodded slightly and said, "Governor Ye has long been in charge of foreign affairs and his vision is much higher than mine." He knew that it would be useless to discuss this with Ye Mingxuan, and if he wanted to take advantage of the geographical advantages and business climate of Guangzhou to open up new sources of wealth and trigger a great development of industry and commerce among the people, he would have to do so secretly.

  ……

  The first courtyard of the mansion in the second row behind the Yamen is arranged for the residence of the four attendants, personal soldiers and family members. The second courtyard is the residence of the Tutar and his wife, as well as the four senior maidservants.

  When the lanterns were lit, red lanterns were hung in the courtyard, with green bamboo and flowers emitting a sweet fragrance. Although it was not as luxurious as Zheng Wangfu's Yu Feng Garden, it was also elegant and unique.

  The main hall, on the round table were several Cantonese dishes, Ye Zhao personally took action again, roasted two pieces of pork chops, golden and fragrant, one piece was placed in Rong Er's eating plate.

  Good fortune and prosperity, the four maidservants are in charge of serving wine and dishes to their master and mistress, while secretly being shocked that they have never seen a man cook before, let alone someone with such a noble status as their master.

  "Don't worry, it won't get tired of eating." Ye Zha saw Rong'er hesitating and couldn't help but smile, saying: "If you think it's delicious, I'll roast some for you when I have time in the future."

  Rong'er said: "If the master likes to eat, he can teach Rong'er, and Rong'er will roast it for the master to eat." Her childish voice was particularly pleasant to hear.

  Ye Zhao just smiled: "No, no, the fun in this can't be told to you, hurry up and eat, it's not tasty when it gets cold!" As he spoke, he again picked up Rong'er's eating plate and helped her cut the pork into strips.

  Rong'er couldn't help but look at her husband's reckless behavior, but in reality, she was secretly delighted. However, thinking that her husband's current "doting" might be treating her like a little sister or even a daughter made her feel deflated.

  Ye Zhaos slowly and elegantly drank and tasted the dishes, seeing that everyone had eaten their fill, and also saw Rong'er no longer moving her bowl or chopsticks, so he clapped his hands to signal the servants to clear the table and wait for them to wash up.

  Zhao Cai came in from outside the hall, lightly nodded and said: "Master, Abu has been waiting for half an hour outside."

  Ye Zhaowu nodded slightly, took the white handkerchief handed over by Ruyi to wipe his face, and pondered. It seems that this seventh-grade pen holder didn't put himself in a high position, otherwise he wouldn't dare to come so late to discuss official business. He asked him to sort out some banner affairs documents for himself to take a look, the efficiency of handling matters is quite fast, it seems that since the court was dismissed in the morning, he has been busy with his own tasks.

  "He was invited to a private conversation in the side hall." Ye Zhao granted him a favor, allowing him to be received in the side hall of the government office, treating him as a trusted confidant.

  Ye Zhaowashed his face and rinsed his mouth, then got up and swayed to the West Wing Flower Hall. Abu had been standing with his hands hanging down, and when he saw him coming in, he hurriedly took two steps forward and saluted: "Slave Abu wishes Master a good day!"

  Ye Zhaowas taken aback. This servant's master wasn't someone to be trifled with, and he wasn't even a personal attendant of the estate. Even if he wanted to curry favor with himself, it was still too much.

  Abu said respectfully: "I am a humble man of the Blue Banner, this time I can serve my master, it is my greatest blessing."

  Ye Zhaowu suddenly realized that the Prince was the master of the Blue Banner, and he himself would be the future master. Although it was just a nominal title, the term "master" did sound good.

  As soon as he sat down, Ye Zhao smiled and said: "Get up, you've been waiting for a long time, you're tired too." Since you call yourself a slave, I naturally won't call you Mr., it's too polite, too distant, and not good.

  Abu got up and presented a thick stack of documents with both hands, saying: "This is the book that Master ordered me to sort out. Please take a look, Master."

  Ye Zhaowen nodded slightly, took it over and flipped through it. First was the item of troop numbers, which included: 120 men for Lei Cui, 150 men for Qianfeng, 730 men for Ma Jia, 8 craftsmen (one per flag), 1 copper craftsman, 4 iron craftsmen, 200 deputy armor, 120 rice hands, 400 foster soldiers, and 20 remaining soldiers. In total, there were 1753 Manchu Eight Banners soldiers.

  In terms of military equipment, there were 421 horses, 5,122 arrows, 2,231 knives, 165 rattan shields, 374 bird guns, mother cannons, Weiyuan cannons, Tiehancannons, Pishan cannons, Tai cannons, and Xingying cannons.

  The bird guns and cannons look intimidating, but in reality, the bird gun's power is not comparable to that of later generations. The loading process is cumbersome, and compared to the West, it lags behind by two or three hundred years. As for those earth-shattering cannons, they may still be useful against rioters, but when facing off against Western countries, they are hardly worth mentioning.

  There were also 612 people in the naval flag camp, with two sailing ships, four oar ships and seven small boats.

  Ye Zhao shook his head secretly, this is also called a navy, isn't it a fantasy? The largest ship, the "Lu Rong Chuan", is just a type of sand boat, according to the documents, it can "hold 40-50 soldiers", and if you add some cannons and artillery, it's considered a navy? It's probably not even enough to patrol merchant ships on the Pearl River.

  Also looking at the salary, a regular low-ranking officer of the Eight Banners could receive 43 taels and 1 mace 5 cents 3 cash in silver, 23 shi 5 dou 9 sheng of rice, a large package of salt, as well as red envelope money and white envelope money. According to current prices in Guangzhou, it was enough to support a family without worry.

  The following documents also detailed the number of Manchu people in the Banner City, with more than 10,000 people including the Eight Banners officials and soldiers, their families who followed the army, and the descendants born after generations of garrison.

  Inside the flag castle, there are government schools, private schools, bookstores, grain warehouses, silver warehouses, military equipment warehouses, gunpowder depots, and prisons. The rest of the houses, wine shops, streets and other living facilities for the people are all available, forming a small society within the city.

  "You go back, still the same words, I like to be idle, things in the government office, you can take charge of what you can, as for me, I don't want to go to the government office every day to deal with some trivial matters." Ye Zha put down the document and smiled at Abu.

  "Ah, I understand now," said Abu Deng, "I am willing to share your worries, Master."

  "Well, you can go." Ye Zhao watched Abou leave the side hall with his hands down, picked up the book and flipped through it for a while, and couldn't help but feel tired. He bitterly smiled to himself, he was indeed getting lazier and lazier.

  ……

  After taking a bath, yawning and entering the dormitory, under the red candlelight, Rong'er was playing with a kaleidoscope. She probably didn't expect Ye Zhaolai to return to her room so early. With a cry of "Rong'er", the kaleidoscope fell to the ground.

  The little guy was influenced by Ye Zhao, and the couple both wore pajamas. According to Ye Zhao's sketch, the master of Rui Fu Long in the capital carefully sewed them with high-quality silk fabric, which was extremely comfortable to wear. The little guy liked it after wearing it once and felt that sleeping in pajamas was indeed comfortable.

  And now she's wearing a lovely pale green silk pajama, squatting on the chair, her snow-white little feet stepping on the chair, and playfully raising her eyebrows, with a beautiful face, delicate and charming, the little beauty is as lovely as can be.

  Ye Zhaoye was also stunned, to know that Ye Zhaoye although treated the little guy as a child, but Rong'er didn't have such a childish air, usually calm and dignified with every word and deed having a sense of propriety, but had never seen her like a little kid with her feet curled up in delight playing.

  Seeing Rong'er's flustered appearance, Ye Zhao found it amusing, but he knew the little one wanted to save face and was most afraid of being treated like a child by her own husband.

  Ye Zhaode knew that if it weren't for his own "patient guidance", Rong'er wouldn't have become so playful.

  Ye Zhaoke worried that after revealing her little fox tail today, she would be in deep trouble. She quickly pretended to be dizzy and rubbed her eyes, scolding: "This damned weather, what's the point of starting a wind? In the territory of the southern barbarians, I just can't get used to living here!"

  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Rong'er patting her chest as if she had let out a sigh of relief. She jumped down from the chair, her snow-white feet slipping into embroidered slippers, and walked over with a gentle gait, saying anxiously: "Master, let me help you blow it." The concern in her voice was genuine.

  Ye Zhaosaw her and thought she was lovely, for a moment he wanted to hug her and take a few bites, unknowingly, he had already treated her like family.

  …………………………

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