Chapter Thirty-Three: A Small Matter in the Mansion

  The first battalion of the Beiziyuan Army was deployed on the outskirts of Chenjiazhuang, while the Wubei Academy was inside Chenjiazhuang. In order to ensure that the two could be in instant contact via telephone lines, the new army camp temporarily cannot leave the range of ten miles outside Chenjiazhuang.

  Liu Shi's deputy was actually managed by Chen An himself, because Liu Shi also started using the new military training manual to train the guards of Chenjiazhuang, or his so-called inspection department. Anyway, Liu Guan Jia is now very healthy and personally oversees all the grain, grass, and horses in the village, and it's not time for Liu Shi to take over as the manager yet.

  Two cannons have been produced, and the third is being produced. Chen An plans to stop producing heavy weapons after this production and hurry up to produce enough water balls and matching bullets. According to the new military camp's ration chapter, officers and soldiers need to be equipped with a Han Yang rifle and fifty rounds of ammunition per person. You can't let your soldiers use fire irons as rifles for training, if you really don't have any, then forget it, but the problem is that Chen An doesn't lack ammunition at all.

  Chen An grew a mind and sent a telegram to the Governor-General, asking the Governor's office for relief and allocation of funds to purchase military equipment.

  The governor's reply made Chen An cry and laugh, Sheng Yun actually said that he would donate his annual salary to Chen An as military expenses if he didn't hand over the 10,000 taels of silver and the two rivers' dividend. In short, it was just one sentence: no money, you deal with it yourself. Of course, the implication was that he hoped Chen An would quickly finalize and hand over the 10,000 taels of silver to the governor as well as the two rivers' dividend.

  The officials of the imperial court, their salaries are only a few taels of silver, and those who make big profits are the ones who take care of the "nourishing silver" and gray income. Don't look at the high-ranking governor, in fact, his real salary is also very low, just a few hundred taels. Xun Yu thinks nothing of it, and Chen An can't even use it.

  Chen An wasn't after those few hundred taels of silver either, but having obtained Sheng You's approval, he wouldn't be accused of using his own family's money to buy people's hearts.

  When recruiting externally, Chen An promised a monthly salary of two taels per person, which was also the standard for ordinary patrol battalions. In fact, Chen An planned to issue regular soldiers according to the Beiyang New Army's standards after three months of new recruit training, that is, at least four taels and five mace silver coins per month. This way, deducting the obvious excess standard clothing and food expenses of the Northern Character Battalion, which was at least two taels per month, regular soldiers could still receive a monthly salary of two taels and five mace, even exceeding the full pay standard of ordinary patrol battalions.

  Those who are willing to follow him to fight to the death, Chen An has never been stingy with silver. The three foreign technicians were paid at a level comparable to that of the Northern New Army's battalion commander, 100 taels per month. As for the sentry officers' salaries, they were 50 taels per month. Each shed head is now replaced by reserve officers, who receive only one more tael of silver than regular soldiers each month.

  Chen An's battalion system was also slightly different from the general patrol battalion system, canceling the long husband system and replacing it with regular soldiers. Therefore, each sentry had ten sheds, each shed had one headman and nine regular soldiers. The number of personnel in a battalion was only three more than the normal patrol battalion, so it would not touch the imperial taboo.

  If it's just this one camp, the annual silver expenses will be nearly 20,000 taels, truly spending money like flowing water.

  In the afternoon, Chen An was in the military camp, personally leading the officers and soldiers to practice crawling and rolling for a day. He returned to Chenjiazhuang exhausted. Today is also the time when the third large cannon is released from storage, he must rush back to take a look. Tomorrow will start producing firearms, and tonight he still needs to arrange with Liu Shi to supplement materials such as iron and tungsten ore.

  As soon as they entered the Chen residence, Chen An felt that something was off. Old Master Chen sat solemnly in the main hall, with Butler Liu whispering something to him on the side, several maids knelt on the ground not daring to lift their heads, and Lin Yue'er sat aside with a huff, her eyes red all over.

  "What's wrong? Moon, your eyes are red, are you sick?" Lin Yue'er was Chen An's heart treasure, and he immediately felt distressed.

  "Young master, you're back. Your study has been burgled, everything is in disarray and it's unclear what's missing. I was just about to hurry and call you back to take stock." Lü the steward looked up and hastily explained.

  Chen An furrowed his brow, what's going on? What does it have to do with Yuè ér?

  "Old Master Chen spoke up, 'As soon as I discovered the theft, I immediately sealed off the house, only allowing people to enter but not leave, and conducted a thorough search of everyone. The front and back yards and other areas were all clear of any stolen goods. According to the maid who helped you tidy up your study, only Moon entered at noon. As soon as I called her over to ask her about it, she burst into tears like this.' He then hastily gave Chen An a signal with his eyes, telling him to go comfort Moon, and the old master was also getting a headache."

  There's a traitor. Chen An's first reaction was, otherwise how could they have rushed straight to my study and armory? I don't know if anything has happened, but unfortunately, the first thing I need to do now is comfort Yuèr.

  Chen An hastily ran up and picked up Yuèr, speaking in a low voice.

  At this time, a maid kneeling on the ground raised her head, with tears in her eyes, and said softly, "But, young master, only Miss Lin has entered your study."

  Chen An's heart skipped a beat, and he turned to Hu Zi and said, "You go and get the cadets from the Wu Bei Academy to come over here, replace the guards at the mansion today, and have the guards go live at the Wu Bei Academy, keeping an eye on each other, not allowing them to whisper to each other. Also, send someone to the county town tonight to ask the magistrate to dispatch his best detective to come here once."

  Hutou immediately went to handle it.

  Soon, neat footsteps rushed into Chen's residence. The officer and soldiers took over the guarding work of Chen's residence immediately.

  Chen An called two guards and sealed off the entrance of the study, waiting for the experienced old hand from the yamen to arrive before speaking.

  The next morning, Hu Zi personally accompanied a middle-aged man with disheveled hair to come in. Obviously, he had been traveling overnight, and the middle-aged man was not in good spirits. What's strange is that although his clothes were new, they were obviously too big for him.

  Chen An was somewhat curious and asked after a moment of hesitation, "What is your honorable surname, brother Catcher?"

  The middle-aged man roughly bowed and reluctantly said, "I am Duan Huizong, reporting to Lord Chen." Then he lowered his head and remained silent.

  Chen An didn't say anything either, just staring at him.

  After a while, Duan Huizong finally couldn't bear Chen An's gaze and knelt down abruptly. "Lord Chen, I used to be the head of the capture team, but because I offended a high-ranking official, I was dismissed early on and have been barely getting by at home. Last night, you suddenly wanted to find an old case handler, and none of the other heads of the capture team in the county dared to come, so the county magistrate had no choice but to personally come to my door and force me to come. This set of clothes was temporarily stripped from another head of the capture team by the county magistrate, so it doesn't fit well."

  "Are you good at cracking cases?" Chen An finally felt relieved.

  "Many of the Qin Jie's two states' catchers are my disciples." The former Duan Catcher was very proud when he said this.

  Chen An's eyes lit up, that was a master, "Who did you offend?" The words were somewhat unclear.

  Duan caught his head off guard and looked at Chen An with a surprised expression, hesitated for a moment, before gritting his teeth and saying, "The Ma family... there's only me left now."

  The people of Ma's family? Chen An thought for a moment, Gansu can directly use Ma's family instead, and will not cause misunderstanding, naturally it is that group of people who are rampant in Hezhou.

  Chen An didn't say anything else, just instructing Duan Captor to carefully inspect the scene. After solving this case, everything will be easy to explain.

  Duan caught his head in a daze, but immediately reacted and suddenly knelt down to kowtow several times. Then, regardless of the blood on his forehead, he stood up and went to see the scene.

  Just a moment later, Duan Tou returned, instantly regaining his usual sharpness. He opened his mouth and said, "Lord Chen, you haven't taken stock of the lost items yet, have you? After investigating the study, it's clear that this was an inside job. Please send someone to take stock of what's been lost."

  Chen An smiled and shook his head, "No need to check, I knew what was lost yesterday when I was at the door. There were no valuable things inside, only book scrolls. Only two volumes of maps were lost."

  Duan caught a glimpse of Chen's eyes lighting up, "So Magistrate Chen had already made up his mind."

  Nodding, Chen An continued, "The real purpose of calling you here is to thoroughly investigate the guards and maids in the mansion through this case, to see if there are any with ulterior motives. I will assign someone named Liu Shi to investigate with you, and also learn from it."

  Pausing for a moment, Chen An still gave a hint, "The stolen map is very precious, but Lin Yue'er will never steal it. Her brother also has the same map in her family's study room, why come and steal mine?"

  Duan Fugui looked at Chen An in surprise and immediately cupped his hands, saying, "I will obey the adult's command and do my best."

  Having a professional good hand is clearly different. A few dozen people, the head of the section almost asks a few questions, and it's clear whether what they say is true or false, the interrogation is surprisingly fast.

  At night, Duan Cai Tou and Liu Shi reported the results of the case to Chen An, but with a very strange expression.

  Chen An took a few glances and his eyes widened too. This case was really too simple, it was unbelievable.

  All the guards were fine, the problem lay with those maids who had been rescued from the horse thieves. The three maids were of good birth and probably thought that now they were people of the Youji Garrison, their status was noble and their beauty could be displayed, so they became arrogant. Seeing Lin Yue'er as young and easy to bully, they wanted to frame her and drive her away in order to gain favor for themselves, and the leader was the maid who had dared to speak up yesterday.

  No wonder Duan Cai Tou and Liu Shi had such weird expressions, it turns out they were waiting for Chen An to make a fool of himself.

  This isn't a big deal, Chen An who is decisive and ruthless, wouldn't get entangled in such trivial matters. The key issue is that these maids can no longer stay in the mansion, after all they weren't raised from childhood, it's not like they're loyal. And they can't be casually released either, if they're not controlled, it would also be a troublesome matter.

  Suddenly, Chen An thought of something and immediately came up with a plan. "Those three who framed Yuer will be executed by beating. The rest will all be handed over to Dr. Gao. Isn't he always complaining that no one wants to learn medicine from him? Let's find some young people willing to study medicine and add these women as assistants, forming a medical department. What was it that Kowal said? In foreign countries, women serve as assistants to doctors, what's it called again? I forgot."

  Liu Shi desperately suppressed his smile and quickly shook his hands, indicating that he had also forgotten the profession Koval mentioned.