Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

"Father, it seems we'll have to wait quite some time before that day comes."

Yan Shifan pondered for a moment,

"My son went to Guyuan this time and saw the situation on the frontier with his own eyes."

Although there were no major battles on the border in the years following the thirteenth year of the Jiajing reign, raids by the right-wing Mongols, numbering in the hundreds or even thousands, occurred every year.

Chen Rubai had also experienced many life-and-death battles on the battlefield before rising from the son of a convicted official to a sentry officer commanding a hundred-man squad.

On the battlefield, swords and spears have no eyes!

Who knows if he'll survive the next battle?

"Donglou, what you're worried about is indeed very likely to happen."

Yan Song tapped the armrest lightly a few times with his fingers.

"It might take several years before Chen Rubai can be put to use. Before that, we must not let him die on the battlefield!"

As a border sentry officer, going to the battlefield is probably unavoidable, but this is a risk that cannot be taken!

We need to find a suitable reason to transfer Chen Rubo to the mainland.

"Father, that's what I think too, but this matter must be done very discreetly."

Yan Shifan nodded.

"When Chen Chen was executed, his two sons were exiled to Guyuan, and the women in his family were forced into the entertainment industry, Xia Yan was just a seventh-rank official, a Left Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Rites."

Even if he were to be promoted to the position of Supervising Secretary quickly, he would only be a seventh-rank official.

Although this position is a shortcut to the cabinet, it is still just a minor official position, and he has little ability to cultivate his own faction.

After Chen Rubai and his elder brother were exiled to Guyuan, Xia Yan was too far away to do anything about it.

A few years later, Xia Yan rose through the ranks and entered the cabinet, and probably forgot about the two Chen brothers.

However, when the name Chen Rubai reappears before Xia Yan, and is related to us, it will probably arouse his vigilance.

Xia Yan immediately realized that Chen Chen might have revealed something to his son back then.

What will he do?

Without a doubt, they were silenced.

Having become the target of the Grand Secretary's desire to kill him, it would be extremely difficult for Chen Rubai to survive.

Transferring Chen Rubo to the mainland is a necessary step, but it cannot be done by us.

Father, it's not appropriate to let an official in the capital who has close ties with the Yan family do it; it would easily fall into the eyes of Xia Yan's cronies.

The son thought it would be best to have a garrison in the interior find an excuse such as "lax military preparedness" and directly request the Ministry of War to transfer an officer with combat experience from the border troops to serve as an instructor.

There was a secretary in the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War who frequented the same brothel as his son, and they had quite a personal relationship.

I could lie and say that someone asked me to do a small favor for him, so that when he was processing the official letter from the garrison requesting the transfer of personnel, he would designate the military town of Guyuan as the town to be transferred.

This matter poses no risk to him; he will not only receive a sum of money but also do me a favor. He will not object.

Moreover, he had no idea what I was going to do, and simply assumed that someone else had asked him to do it through my connections.

In this way, no one in the capital would know that this matter was related to my Yan family.

Since it has nothing to do with my Yan family, such a trivial matter could not possibly reach Grand Secretary Xia's ears.

As for Chen Rubai himself, once the Ministry of War issues the transfer order, I will personally go to Guyuan to pull some strings and secure him a spot to be transferred to the mainland.

He now sees Xia Yan as his father's killer and will definitely cooperate with me.

"That's excellent."

Yan Song smiled and stroked his long beard.

"The inland garrison is easy to deal with."

Donglou, your uncle's daughter, your cousin, didn't she marry the son of the commander of Pingshan Guard two years ago? I will ask your uncle to go to Dongchang Prefecture and ask his in-laws to send a transfer request to the Ministry of War.

After Chen Rubai was transferred to Pingshan Guard, with Commander Wang there, he was safe.

. . .

Biyang County, Nanyang Prefecture.

"Sir, the carriage has been hired."

A middle-aged man in his forties bowed to Lu Chen.

At this moment, a two-horse "carriage" with a carriage was already parked outside the courtyard gate. It looked much better than the one that Lu Chen had hired in Tang County, and both the carriage and the horses were very clean.

The middle-aged man in front of them was Tao Shihong, the steward of Lin Chaoxi, the wealthy man, at his villa in Biyang County.

In his early years, this steward Tao also had great ambitions and wanted to take the imperial examinations to enter officialdom.

Unfortunately, he took the exams from his teens to his thirties and was still only a student at the lowest level.

At this point, his family no longer had the financial means to support him in taking time off to study for the civil service exam, so Tao Shihong had no choice but to give up his dream and start earning a living.

Although he didn't even pass the county-level imperial examination, all those years of studying weren't for nothing. After all, he was a literate man who could speak and write.

In this small county town, it wouldn't be difficult for someone like him to support his family if he were willing to humble himself.

Over the past decade, he has worked as an accountant, a tutor in wealthy households, and a steward in large families.

Tao Shihong's former employer moved his entire family to another province several months ago, leaving him unemployed.

When Lu Chen and Yun Xiang went to the official brokerage to buy servants and maids, they asked if there were any suitable candidates for a steward, and the broker recommended him.

At this point, Lu Chen only had five or six days left to stay in Biyang County, and it was too late to compare prices even if he wanted to.

Therefore, seeing that his resume was acceptable, they arranged to meet with the broker and then signed an employment contract with him.

The cost of labor in the Ming Dynasty was really low. Even if you hired a cultured steward like him, the annual salary in the contract was only a mere twenty taels.

Even with the agreed-upon employee benefits such as room and board, seasonal clothing, and holiday bonuses, the butler's actual monthly salary was only three to four taels of silver.

Of course, it was still much higher than that of ordinary people in the county town, not to mention the slaves who had their contracts terminated.

Although time was short, Lu Chen still took advantage of his time in Biyang County to personally take Yunxiang to buy more than a dozen maids and servants at the official market.

All the servants signed red contracts that were stamped with the official seal at the yamen (government office).

It was only when purchasing maids and servants that Lu Chen realized that even purchased servants could not be made to work without pay.

Needless to say, the master of the house provided for all their needs, including food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. They also needed to be paid a monthly salary. According to the market rate in Biyang County, an ordinary servant would typically receive three to five qian of silver per month.

At the same time, these servants, like ordinary people, were also required to pay taxes and perform corvée labor in the county.

Each adult male servant was required to pay a stipend of about five qian of silver per year, which was naturally borne by the employer.

If it's corvée labor, either the household servants have to go to the county to work, or the master pays them a substitute service fee, which is about six to eight qian of silver per person per year.

This service fee was paid by all adult men in the county who did not have the academic title of Xiucai or above, regardless of whether they were civilians or slaves, if they did not want to participate in about a month of compulsory labor each year. This included "Lin Chaoxi".

On the contrary, female relatives, even maids, were not required to bear the burden of corvée labor and taxes unless special circumstances occurred, such as war.

For the wealthy, the combined tax and service fee amounted to only a little over one tael of silver a year, which was nothing, but for ordinary people, it was a considerable burden.

Lu Chen heard from Steward Tao that more than 90% of ordinary people in the county would rather participate in about a month of voluntary labor every year than pay that little bit of money in lieu of service.