Chapter 370: Recruiting talents regardless of their background?

An Miaoyi was a little surprised when she heard Cui Shao's words. Just when she was hesitant, Cui Shao smiled and said:
"Ye Mingsheng gave half of the military officer positions of this new army to our Cui family. Ye Mingsheng wrote to me and said that this is a gift for you, but Miaoyi, why don't you guess what Ye Mingsheng really wants to do?"

An Miaoyi frowned slightly when she heard this, and seriously thought about Ye Mingsheng's intention of doing this, based on her understanding of Ye Mingsheng.

Ye Mingsheng has always been a guy who will not get up early without profit. He will never do anything that has no profit. If Ye Mingsheng pays something, then he must want to get something...

However, when it comes to power, Ye Mingsheng is more like an autocratic and strong leader. He has always kept the personnel and financial power of the army firmly in his hands and never allows others to spy on him. So why is he willing to give the post of military attaché of a new army with 25,000 people to the Cui family?

In fact, the answer to the question is very simple!
The so-called "bride price" given by Ye Mingsheng must be intended to reach some kind of exchange of interests with the Cui family!
But what does Ye Mingsheng want to change?

After thinking for a long time, An Miaoyi tentatively asked Cui Shao:

"Does he want to send troops from the Cui family and Guangning Prefecture to cooperate with their actions?"

Cui Shao shook his head upon hearing this and said:
"I thought so at first, but later I thought about it and realized that it was not the case. Although our Cui family has bought some troops in Guangning Prefecture, they are only enough to protect ourselves. In addition, we don't have any generals who are good at fighting. If we rashly send troops, the risk will be great. I think Ye Mingsheng can understand this point..."

"And I got the news that Ye Mingsheng has issued orders to his subordinates Yuan Song, Lin Huaiwu, and Guo Zhiping, asking them to build fortifications in Xuantu and Lelang, intending to fight a protracted war with the Zhenwu Army!"

As soon as these words came out, An Miaoyi immediately realized what Ye Mingsheng meant. She blinked her beautiful eyes and asked Cui Shao:
"Uncle, are you going to agree to him?"

Under An Miaoyi's gaze, Cui Shao smiled without saying anything.

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Shoucheng, in the study of the general's headquarters.

Ye Mingsheng sat on the armchair with his eyes closed, while Huo San knelt on the ground and reported to him:

"Reporting to the Lord, my General Coordination Office has recently conducted a large-scale search of the Supervisory Office and the Black Dragon Society's bases and spies in my territory. A total of six Supervisory Office bases and 31 spies were found. We have newly discovered five hidden spies who were bribed and planted by them in our army. There are three Black Dragon Society bases, including 18 Japanese pirates, 85 bandits who have colluded with them, and three hidden spies hidden in our army."

"This is the list of spies who have been bribed and recruited by the Supervisory Department and the Black Dragon Society. Please take a look, sir!" After saying that, Huo San took out a list from his arms and handed it to Ye Mingsheng's desk with both hands very respectfully.

Ye Mingsheng seemed not to hear this and continued to rest with his eyes closed. Seeing this, Huo San, who was worried, immediately reported to Ye Mingsheng:

"In addition to the spies we have captured, our Coordination Office also launched an assassination operation against Chen Dechang in Dongning Prefecture the day before yesterday as revenge for the assassination attempt on the Supervisory Department!"

"I arranged for an assassin to lurk with a grenade around Chen Dechang's mansion. The day before yesterday, the carriage of Chen Dechang's mansion drove out of the mansion. The assassin immediately threw the grenade onto the carriage, but unfortunately, the old thief Chen was not on the carriage at the time. He just pretended to kill his master Bai Renxuan."

“However, there is news that Chen Dechang was so furious about Bai Renxuan’s death that he vomited blood and fainted. Many famous doctors in Dongning Prefecture were brought to Chen Dechang’s residence to diagnose him. As of the time I received the news, Chen Dechang is still in a coma and it is unknown whether he is alive or dead...”

After Huo San finished saying this, Ye Mingsheng slowly opened his eyes and looked at Huo San. Seeing that Ye Mingsheng finally opened his eyes and looked at him, Huo San finally let go of his worry.

He knew that simply searching for spies and secret agents within the territory would not satisfy Ye Mingsheng, so he immediately ordered the Supervisory Department branch in Dongning Prefecture to carry out the operation to assassinate Chen Dechang.

In fact, when the Coordination Office failed several times before and the Supervisory Department tried to assassinate Ye Mingsheng, Huo San already had the idea of ​​assassinating Chen Dechang as a retaliation, and he had been making some preparations for this idea. Otherwise, if he had just started the plan now, it would definitely not have been implemented so quickly...
But Dongning Prefecture was in the enemy-occupied area after all, and Chen Dechang lived a secluded life and rarely left the mansion since he entered Cheng. Even the meetings of the Zhenwu Army were held in his mansion. The security around his mansion was very strict, with one person every five steps and one sentry every ten steps, making it difficult to make a breakthrough.

The Coordination Office was a young organization that had just been established, and its personnel composition was not perfect. Therefore, under such circumstances where all conditions were still immature, Huo San's idea was still in the preparation stage. This time, the assassin appeared in front of Ye Mingsheng and pushed Huo San into a desperate situation.

Therefore, for the sake of his own safety, Huo San did not care whether the time was ripe or not. He immediately launched the plan and asked the spies from the Supervisory Office hidden in Dongning Prefecture to start working right away, hoping that he could give an explanation to the furious Ye Mingsheng with this plan.

Although the assassination plan has failed and Huo San feels a little regretful, he is still quite satisfied with the result...

After all, when the Liaoyang Army and the Zhenwu Army started fighting, Song Wenhui sent people to assassinate Chen Dechang countless times. As a result, under the protection of Shen Jianzhong's Supervisory Office, he couldn't even touch Chen Dechang. If Chen Dechang was so easy to kill, he would have died countless times!

Although the assassination led by Huo San still failed to kill Chen Dechang, he did kill Chen Dechang's most important advisor Bai Renxuan. It was not a complete failure. Instead, he gained an extra bonus, which made Chen Dechang so angry that he vomited blood and fainted!

To be honest, this is equivalent to saving the country in a roundabout way. Although Chen Dechang is in good shape and can still eat meat and have sex with several women at night, he is not young after all, and has been fighting for many years, with countless major and minor injuries. He is really having a hard time this time. If he is angry to death all of a sudden, it will really be a blessing from God!
Huo San didn't dare to look at Ye Mingsheng's gaze. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to Ye Mingsheng.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The three loud bangs were so loud that Huo San's head was buzzing. However, he ignored his headache and continued to plead guilty to Ye Mingsheng: "I did not inform the Supervisory Department and the Black Dragon Society of their assassination in advance to thwart their conspiracy. I am guilty of a capital crime. Please punish me!"

Looking at Huo San who was kneeling on the ground with a very sincere attitude, Ye Mingsheng was thinking deep in his heart. He was naturally very angry about being stabbed this time.

He had already begun to doubt Huo San's ability, and had even begun to consider who in the Fengzhou Army could take over Huo San's position at this stage...
However, just before listening to Huo San's work report, Ye Mingsheng had already appointed a preliminary candidate for the next director of the Coordination Office, and he had even begun preparing to summon this person to make more specific arrangements.

However, judging from the current results, Huo San still has some ability, but I need to put some pressure on him!
After glancing at Huo San with scrutinizing eyes, Ye Mingsheng said calmly:

"Don't kneel on the ground, stand up and talk!"

"Thank you, sir!"

Huo San secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, but it seemed that he breathed a sigh of relief too early. As soon as he got up from the ground, he heard Ye Mingsheng continue to say:

"What do you think of Wang Xuecheng?"

When Huo San heard Ye Mingsheng's question, his heart suddenly tightened. He realized that although Ye Mingsheng made him stand up, his punishment was far from over.

Although his surname is Wang, the "Wang Xuecheng" mentioned by Ye Mingsheng is still a relative of Ye Mingsheng.

This man was originally a scholar. He participated in the provincial examination of Fengshan County and even won the title of a student on government aide. However, later on, it was discovered that one of his cousins ​​was a bandit and there was no one in the officialdom to look after him. As a result, he was implicated and his path to the imperial examination was cut off.

Because he was very clever and good at math, he went to work as an accountant for Jin Fusheng, a large local business in Liaoyang. In less than three years, he became the manager of a branch of Jin Fusheng, which took a long time for other accountants to complete.
The reason why this person is said to be related to Ye Mingsheng is because his wife's surname is Ye and according to the Ye family tree, she is Ye Mingsheng's brother-in-law!

Even though he had become the shopkeeper of a branch, and could earn hundreds of taels of silver a year including dividends, in this world he was considered to be a high-income person with no worries about food and clothing.

But in today's society where officials are the most important, Wang Xuecheng, who was born a scholar, participated in the imperial examinations, and experienced the traditional education that everything else is inferior except for studying, still has his dream of becoming an official in his heart!

Although his path to the imperial examination was blocked due to family reasons, Wang Xuecheng had been thinking about how to develop in a roundabout way. When Ye Mingsheng first started recruiting soldiers in Fengshan County, Wang Xuecheng thought about joining Ye Mingsheng and getting a position by Ye Mingsheng's side. But later he heard that Ye Mingsheng was going to Fengshan County, and he was worried about whether Ye Mingsheng could resist the Khitans, so he gave up the idea for the time being.

Later, when he heard that Ye Mingsheng was doing well in Fengzhou and had established himself, he made up his mind to join him. Although Wang Xuecheng was a scholar, his resume was not very good, so Ye Mingsheng did not care too much about him. Since he was a relative of his, he let him participate in the management of Fengzhou's coal and iron ore businesses.

However, no one expected that this guy did a very good job. He managed the work in the coal mine and iron mine in an orderly manner. Therefore, Ye Mingsheng was a little curious about what Wang Xuecheng did before he worked at Jinfusheng Company...
So Ye Mingsheng asked Huo San to check Wang Xuecheng's background. He was shocked to find out that the reason why Wang Xuecheng was able to become the manager of Jin Fusheng's branch so quickly was that he had been helping Jin Fusheng do some shady business!

As we all know, due to historical legacies, land annexation and other reasons, the people of Liaoyang were poor and could not survive, so they had to join the bandits to do low-cost business and do some zero-yuan shopping. This provided fertile ground for the development of the bandits and created the social phenomenon of rampant bandits in Liaoyang.

This has also led to a series of problems such as the development of illegal industries, and selling stolen goods is one of the important businesses of these illegal industries!

When robbing wealthy families and landlords, the bandits would usually get antiques, land deeds, people and other things in addition to gold, silver and food. These things were not necessary for the bandits, so they needed to cash them in to get what they wanted...
However, due to the shady way of obtaining these things, they cannot legally flow into the market and find customers in need, so they can only be traded secretly. Wang Xuecheng has a close connection with the green forest because of his relationship with his cousin who is a bandit.

So relying on this relationship, the clever and shrewd Wang Xuecheng gradually expanded his own network in the underworld. Relying on his ability to offer extremely competitive prices among his peers and his decisive and ruthless style of doing things, he gained more business in the underworld and helped Jin Fusheng Company expand their business in selling stolen goods, making Jin Fusheng Company one of the largest stolen goods sales channels in the Liaoyang underground world!

The stolen goods sold through their hands every year are worth nearly 100,000 taels of silver, and the stolen goods are spread across several provinces in the north of the Great Zhou...

It was precisely because of this achievement, and the huge profits it brought to Jin Fusheng Company, that Wang Xuecheng was able to rise to the top of Jin Fusheng Company so quickly!

Although Wang Xuecheng's resume was not to be seen in public and was an absolute black history, once it was exposed he would be like a rat crossing the street and everyone would shout and beat him. However, Ye Mingsheng, who had no aristocratic family to back him up at the time, was very short of talent, and had a shortage of food and silver. Therefore, due to the financial situation, he could not care about so many things.

Isn’t there a saying that goes, no matter whether the cat is black or white, a cat that catches the mouse is a good cat!
So after using both kindness and force to win over Wang Xuecheng, he was appointed as the sales director of Fengzhou's coal and iron industry, hoping that he could use his past sales relationships to gain more returns for Fengzhou and alleviate the financial situation of Fengzhou Army, which was close to deficit.

It has to be said that as an expert in sales, Wang Xuecheng is indeed very capable. He has the means to sell the coal and iron resources produced in Fengzhou at high prices one after another, subsidizing the financial situation of the Fengzhou Army and alleviating the financial pressure on Ye Mingsheng.

The reason why Wang Xuecheng gave up his high salary at Jinfusheng Company and joined Ye Mingsheng was that he hoped to develop in the officialdom, so he always hoped that Ye Mingsheng could give him a position.

This time, when considering who could replace Huo San, the first person that came to Ye Mingsheng's mind was Wang Xuecheng!
(End of this chapter)