Hidden in the court

Su Mengyang has been suffering during the days when Ji Mingshang was away.

After working in the Ministry of Revenue for ten days, checking the accounts every day from morning to night, it was really tiring. The life of the Minister of Revenue Jia Qian and the two assistant ministers was not easy either. They did not expect that this young man was so stubborn. They had not done anything for more than ten days. If this continued, the family's living standard would not be able to keep up.

"Master Jia, what should I do? To be honest, my family can no longer afford the expenses of my spendthrift wife. She has been making trouble for the past two days! My son is planning to get married, but now he can't even come up with the money for the wedding."

Jia Qian rolled his eyes when he heard this. Another assistant minister added, "The people under my command have lost their benefits and are now resentful. I don't know how long we can suppress this."

Jia Qian also knew that the three of them had been watching Su Xiao working all day, and their eyes had turned green. Who was this person?

They looked at Su Xiao like this, and Su Mengyang looked at them the same way. It was strange, he didn't believe that these three people had no problems at all. Just looking at the consumption level of these three people's families, how could you get a normal salary. Not to mention Jia Qian, the Minister of Revenue, even these two assistant ministers were not right.

These days, when the clerks from the Ministry of Revenue come in, they will see four people staring at each other, then they will run away as soon as they put down the materials.

That afternoon, the arrival of a person broke the deadlock.

"My Lords, General Hu requests to see you."

"Please come in."

A handsome and tall figure appeared, reminding Su Mengyang of the fear of being dominated.

"Sir Shangshu, the military pay for this month has been delivered for two days. I came here to ask when the military pay will be delivered?"

Hearing this, Jia Qian and the two assistant ministers could only smile apologetically, and then looked at Su Mengyang in unison, "General Hu, it's not that we don't want to, but this month's military pay still needs to be audited and verified."

The three of them would not be afraid of an eighth-rank official, but they were afraid of Mr. Hu. Besides, it would be great if they could use someone else to send Su Xiao away.

Su Mengyang was also stunned for a moment, and flipped through the accounts on the table. Then he found that he had not yet calculated the accounts for this month's military pay, but the other two assistant ministers had already approved it.

In other words, this work was delayed by him, and Su Mengyang felt a little embarrassed.

The other three people watched with gloating eyes, saying, "Either you give up on going over the accounts again, or you just wait for delays."

Facing Lao Hu's sharp gaze, Su Mengyang said boldly: "General, please wait here for two... no, one hour."

After he finished speaking, the four people present looked at Su Mengyang with strange eyes. The three people from the Ministry of Revenue were even more disdainful. They wanted to finish the calculation in one hour, and this was the military pay of more than 100,000 people.

Hu Die was a little confused. This Lidya Su really hadn't changed at all and was still so stupid.

She naturally knew how much she had to calculate. There were more than 100,000 people, and different types of soldiers meant different amounts of money. The army kept detailed records of military rations, equipment repairs, warhorse expenses, etc. They even reported down to the specific cost of horseshoes for each warhorse.

It is simply unrealistic to think that it can be calculated in one hour. I am afraid that I can't even finish it by just turning the pages.

She didn't say much, but just asked Su Mengyang, "What if the calculation is not finished?"

"I resign immediately."

Upon hearing this, the three people from the Ministry of Revenue immediately perked up. Seeing that these three people had no intention of helping, Hu Die said to Su Mengyang, "Forget it, I'll give you two hours."

"Thank you, General." After saying that, Su Mengyang flipped through the accounts with one hand and used an abacus with the other, then threw himself on the desk and started working.

An attendant immediately turned an hourglass upside down and started timing, but after being glared at by Hu Die, he put it down obediently.

Hu Die looked down on such people from the bottom of her heart. Although Su Mengyang was a little stunned, he followed the rules and was not like these people who only cared about taking kickbacks.

Hu Die thought, what can I say about Su Mengyang? He can't fight, but he still pretends to be tough. He follows the rules, but he's stupid. He's a softie, but he's tough on the outside. He's stubborn, but he's not stupid.

Apart from some unpleasantness at the beginning, Hu Die did not dislike him, but she definitely did not like him either. Now Su Mengyang has even won the first place in the imperial examination and has become a sixth-rank official, two levels higher than her. It was nothing in the first place. After all, he had studied hard for ten years, while she had basically only spent three years in the military camp and had never been on a real battlefield.

Thinking about what happened between Su Mengyang and herself last time during the Lantern Festival, Hu Die resisted the urge to slap him twice and warn him not to be so pretentious.

As he was thinking, time passed by until Su Mengyang's voice rang out, waking up Jia Qian.

"General Hu, the military pay account has been verified."

The minister who was keeping time looked at the hourglass which had not yet run out and said, "More than one hour, less than two hours."

Hu Die nodded, expressing her approval of Su Mengyang's work ability.

"Sir Shangshu, what about the military pay?"

Jia Qian also reacted and said in a daze: "Come here, send someone to go with General Hu to collect the military pay."

Then look at Su Mengyang, how terrifying he is. But there is no other way, the general term of office of the supervisor is two years, Jia Qian wished that Su Mengyang would be transferred right now after making great achievements.

This can’t go on, Jia Qian thought.

"Your Majesty, the Minister of Revenue requests to see you." The chief eunuch Su Youde reported.

"He's probably here to get some fresh air. The Ministry of Revenue has been unusually quiet since Su Mengyang went there. Let him in."

Jia Qian came in and bowed to Nangong Lin. Before he could speak, Nangong Lin asked.

"How is Su Mengyang doing?"

Jia Qian thought about Su Mengyang's work attitude, but decided not to think about it. "Su Zhuangyuan has been conscientious and diligent since he took office. Today, he calculated the military expenses of more than 100,000 people in just one hour, which impressed us."

"Oh, that's strange. I thought you came here to get some fresh air because you disliked him."

"Your Majesty, you are joking. I think Mr. Su is a pillar of talent. On the contrary, it is a waste of his talent to make him a small supervisor of the Ministry of Revenue." Jia Qian said with a stiff face.

Nangong Lin reacted and laughed. How could he let you get what you want? "That's right, but the term of office of the supervisor is two years. He has only been in office for more than ten days and has not made any great achievements. It may be difficult to convince the public to promote him out of the ordinary."

Seeing Jia Qian's smiling face even though he was frozen, Nangong Lin was also happy to see it, and continued to stimulate:

"How about this, when he has been here for a full year and has made some achievements, I will definitely make an exception and promote him."

Jia Qian couldn't wait any longer. If he let Su Mengyang stay for another year, the entire Ministry of Revenue would be in chaos, and his family might even break up.

Without giving him a chance to speak again, Nangong Lin winked at Su Youde, who understood, "Sir, His Majesty has been reviewing memorials all afternoon."

Jia Qian also understood the situation and retreated immediately.