Ch43 - The Truth

The three-day deadline was coming up soon. Mu Hanzhang didn’t seem worried at all. He just looked through the account books in the prince’s tent every day, and occasionally went to the barracks to take a look. 

“What did the military advisor ask you today?” The right protectorate general caught a soldier who was going back to eat and asked the question; he was truly curious to know how this Mr Jun would find the culprit in three days.

“The military advisor asked me when this uniform was issued and how often I’m able to  eat meat,” the soldier replied honestly.

“Military uniform? Eat meat? ” The right protectorate general heard this and was baffled. What did this have to do with poisonous grass? He let go of the soldier and caught another one to ask.

“The military advisor asked me how often I sent letters to my family and who wrote them for me,” the tall soldier said straightforwardly with a simple smile. “The military advisor also said that because I answered well, I could ask him to write them later.” That was the Wang Ye’s military advisor ah. His words would definitely be even better than those written by the village scholar. His old mother in the family could also take it and show off to the other village people. 

The right protectorate general was even more confused after hearing this. What did this have to do with anything?! Unresigned, he caught a few more soldiers, and all the questions they were asked were trivial, short-lived and totally irrelevant.

The left protectorate general came forward and patted the stunned right protectorate general. “Eat.”

“What on earth do you think the military advisor is investigating?” the right protectorate general asked with a bitter face.

The left protectorate general, with no expression on his face, turned around and left. “I’ll eat first.”

“Hey, hey, wait for me!” The right protectorate general hurriedly chased after him. Their meals were delivered together; it would be completely eaten up by that guy if he went late!

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Zhao Meng came out of the military prison early in the morning and waited in the center tent to see the so-called “military advisor” make a fool of himself. Moreover, General Zhao, who was aware that he couldn’t beat a scholar in a battle of words, also pulled the left and right protectorate generals as well as a few other military officers over.

The center tent was where the high-ranking officers discussed tactics and issued military commands. It was about the same size as Jing Shao’s tent, but there was no bed in it. Jing Shao sat on the high platform and looked down at the group of ruthless men. He gave Zhao Meng a sympathetic look.

Mu Hanzhang sat next to Jing Shao. In his hand was a black goose feather fan that was typically held by all the military advisors in the history books. The right protectorate general had actually gifted this to him yesterday, which was why Mu Hanzhang knew this tidbit of information. 

“Military advisor, the three-day limit has come. Old Zhao has come to listen to the military advisor’s wise opinions.” Zhao Meng brought forth the suspects that he had been guarding in the prison cells and spoke in a rough voice as he stood in the middle of the tent.

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When that indifferent yet slightly disdainful gaze swept over him, General Zhao, who never bothered much about small things, was also somewhat uneasy. He wiped his face with his hand and said, “Don’t be so wordy. We signed a military order. Hurry up and tell us: who’s the criminal?” 

Mu Hanzhang’s lips curled up gently and he slowly pointed the fan at the people kneeling below the platform. “They all are, and are not.”

“What kind of words are those?” Zhao Meng didn’t understand.

The young military officers were also puzzled. The infantry military officer quietly asked the right protectorate general what he had heard after asking around yesterday. What he got was a sour expression on the right protectorate general’s face. Yesterday, the military advisor had gone around in circles with him for a long time without saying much of anything, and also took away his feather fan “bribe”.

“I said that they all are not the criminals, because they weren’t the ones to add the poisonous grass, as the wolf’s bane was mixed into the hay before the escort officers received it.” Mu Hanzhang lightly fanned himself two times with the goose feather fan, pleased to see the instant change in expressions on the faces of all the people under the platform. When dealing with these muddle-headed men, one couldn’t be blunt, or it wouldn’t work. On the contrary, one had to make things unnecessarily complicated so that they would attach importance to it. 

“The military advisor sees things clearly!” The caretaker was the first to shout out, and he kowtowed happily to Mu Hanzhang. His spirit had almost been broken ever since the Wang Ye’s horse went mad. However, the military advisor said such a thing, so at least his head was saved.

The rest of the group reacted and quickly followed suit.

“But,” Mu Hanzhang paused, “the poisonous grass was escorted all the way, stored in the warehouse, and taken out to feed the horses. Unexpectedly, none of these people discovered the poisonous grass in the fodder, so these guys shouldn’t escape punishment.”

The people broke into a sweat when they heard this, but they also felt relieved at the same time. This was the so-called escaping the death penalty but still receiving punishment; as long as they could avoid being convicted of a capital offense, everything else wasn’t important. 

“So, the fodder merchant cut the poisonous grass and put it in by mistake?” the right protectorate general followed up with another question.

“Long leaf wolf’s bane grows in the northwestern grasslands. How can it be harvested in the outskirts of the capital?” Zhao Meng remembered what the left protectorate general had said about the wolf’s bane, and obviously didn’t believe Mu Hanzhang’s words.

Mu Hanzhang shook his head. “It certainly wasn’t an accident – someone deliberately wanted to poison the war horses.”

“The army’s main forces have yet to set out. If the horses are poisoned, more can be bought again. This won’t affect the war at all. Who would casually do such an insensible and immoral thing?” Zhao Meng felt that the military advisor was clearly talking nonsense. 

“This, we’ll have to ask the bookkeeping scribes who keep accounts in this camp.” Mu Hanzhang took a sip of tea from the cup on the table.

“The scribes?” Jing Shao, who had been listening carefully at his side, couldn’t help raising the question. Last night, he had pestered Mu Hanzhang for a long time. Not only wouldn’t Jun Qing tell him the actual situation, he also wouldn’t let him eat, which left Jing Shao hot and bothered all night.

The scribes were the people in charge of keeping the account records of the camp. They kept track of the transfer of troops, were in charge of writing letters, and so on. They were civil servants who helped with the administrative work. The military system was rather simple, and there were a total of four secretaries for these five thousand people in the army camp. Except for when it came to writing letters and dispatching assignments, usually no one paid much attention to these people.

Mu Hanzhang nodded and said to Jing Shao, “I checked all the entries in the account books for this camp. Putting aside previous accounts, the money allocated by the Ministry of Revenue for rations and fodder is 30% less than recorded in the accounts for this military campaign. Moreover, the records on expenditure are far from the actual expenses.” 

“What?!” Jing Shao suddenly sat up straight.

Mu Hanzhang showed Jing Shao some of the accounts he had copied down from the past two days. The accounts said that each soldier received three sets of military uniform every season. In reality, there were only two sets. According to the standards for daily food intake, there should be at least one meal a day where the soldiers could eat meat. In reality, they only ate it once every seven days, and most of the time, they only got rice porridge and steamed buns.

When the soldiers under the platform heard this, their expressions turned grave. The right protectorate general couldn’t help saying, “If what Mr Jun said is true, what’s the relationship between the scribes’ fake records and the poisonous grass?”

Mu Hanzhang slowly rubbed the handle of the goose feather fan. “Before the main army sets out, the Ministry of Revenue will send people to carefully inspect the accounts.” 

It was easy to guess the rest. 30% of missing expenses from the accounts wasn’t a small number. If a large number of war horses died, they needed to be replaced promptly.  As long as the Cheng Wang reported this to court, the camp would be allocated a large amount of silver. By that time, those running such a scam could fill in the account numbers that didn’t add up. Furthermore, livestock poisoned with wolf’s bane would immediately become paralyzed. They would get feverish all over and froth at the mouth, which looked quite similar to the horse plague. Once it was judged to be the horse plague, the bodies of these horses would be burned and buried, and no one would check them carefully.

After Mu Hanzhang finished  his analysis, the entire center tent went silent.

“It really is a trick…” the left protectorate general said slowly.

“But most of these scribes were also assigned by the Ministry of Revenue.” The right protectorate general frowned. Did the Ministry of Revenue want to hit itself in the face? A few small scribes certainly wouldn’t have the courage to do such a bold thing. There had to be higher officials protecting them. However you looked at it, it was the Ministry of Revenue embezzling the funds. 

“The Ministry of Revenue may not be of one mind,” Mu Hanzhang sighed and said. He didn’t know who the ministry was sending to check the accounts this time – they probably weren’t of the same party as those greedy people at least, since the latter had been pressured into quickly implementing this scheme.

Jing Shao slowly clenched his fist. Everyone knew that life in the army was destitute. What he ate now was almost the same as when he had gone to battle the Xiongnu, so he hadn’t realized that something was wrong. He finally understood why the Minister of Revenue accused him of embezzling military funds. It wasn’t that he was embezzling the silver, but that the Ministry of Revenue had allocated more money to him, and when he was unaware of the situation, then made that money disappear!

“Drag all the scribes here!” Zhao Meng was so angry that his beard puffed up. Soon, the four thin and weak secretaries were brought over. They knelt on the ground, trembling  with fear. The four naturally refused to admit to such a big crime. They relied on their official positions in the bureaucracy, incessantly quibbling that the army couldn’t punish them.

Zhao Meng didn’t care about this and kicked the nearest one. “It turns out that Laozi can’t eat well every day because all the money goes into your little purses!” His kick wasn’t light, and the man he kicked immediately vomited and fell on the ground. 

Jing Shao ferociously threw the account books in their faces and said in a cold voice, “You’re just small scribes, yet you’re really acting as if you are titled officials in court! If Benwang had you killed today, no one in court would be able to find fault with Benwang!”

Even if these words weren’t completely true, it was well known that the Cheng Wang was ruthless. The right protectorate general sneered and told them that in the army, everything was dealt with according to martial law.

These people had already been scared and on edge for several days. Now, there didn’t seem to be a way to turn the situation around. The man whom Zhao Meng had kicked struggled to get up and was the first to confess. The other three could only follow and do the same. They were just shrimp soldiers and crab generals; they only knew that above them was a landlord official in the Ministry of Revenue, and they didn’t know who was above that.

“Too deceitful!” Jing Shao stood up, prepared to take these four people back to the capital. 

Mu Hanzhang hurriedly grabbed him and gave him a look to calm down. “This is no small issue; it must not be discussed lightly.”

Jing Shao took a deep breath and said, “Lock these four people up first. All of you withdraw; wait for Benwang and the military advisor to discuss the matter first before we make a final decision.”

The left protectorate general personally escorted the four people to the military prison. Zhao Meng still wanted to say something, but was pulled away by the right protectorate general.

“Jun Qing, what did you want to say?” Jing Shao took a sip of tea. Today, he absolutely wouldn’t let this matter go. Even if the campaign was delayed, he would completely uncover all the people hiding behind the scenes! 

Looking at his angry appearance, Mu Hanzhang sighed and said, “If you take them to the palace today, you will only beat the grass and scare the snake. In order to appease you, so that you can get on with the campaign, Imperial Father will settle the case quickly and carelessly.”

All he said was true, but today’s event had touched Jing Shao’s bottom line, so instead of calming down, his heart immediately burst into flames. He swept the cups on the table to the ground and looked at Mu Hanzhang angrily. “Then what should I do? Are you actually asking me to swallow my anger and words?”

Looking at Jing Shao’s appearance, Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips and said nothing. Even though he knew he wasn’t the one Jing Shao was angry at, the look in those eyes still stung him. Those eyes had looked at him in the exact same way in the bridal chamber that day…