A Farmer's Lady's Guide to Getting Rich

Chapter 342 Minions
"What's Miss Qin's order?"

A short, fat, middle-aged man stepped forward immediately, nodding and bowing. He was Steward Wang, who was in charge of purchasing in the outer courtyard.

"There are more than 1000 guards and servants in the outer courtyard. June 24th is not a holiday, and there is nothing important to do in the mansion. You bought thirty pigs, even if each pig weighs the lightest 150 catties, there are still Forty-five hundred catties, after all, each person ate three catties of meat that day?"

Chang Ning looked at the ledger and said quietly.

When she lived in Kaoshan Village, there were many pigs raised in the village, and they usually had to be raised to 150 catties before they were slaughtered. [-] catties was really small.

If a person eats three catties of meat a day, the palace doesn't treat him so well, does he?
For this reason, she directly asked: "Guard Wang, I'm new here and I don't understand. Has the food in the outer court of the palace always been so rich?"

Northwest eats more beef and mutton, but less pork. When Changning was in Shuoyang City, he never ate pork a few times, so even if the portion is ignored, the cost is very suspicious.

"Miss Qin didn't know that this batch of meat was not eaten all at once. The rest of the day was marinated, and I ate it one after another until the first two days! And I didn't buy any more meat and vegetables afterwards." Since the steward dared to enter the account, he had already prepared his speech.

Now that the weather is hot, the meat cannot be kept for a long time, and it will stink after two or three days. It takes a lot of manpower and utensils to marinate such a large amount of meat.

Chang Ning sneered at what Wang Guanshi said, and said with a sneer: "But I just asked Zhang Guanshi, who manages the big kitchen, and she said a lot of trivial things, but she didn't mention that she had marinated meat recently. There is evidence."

Before steward Wang could refute, Chang Ning said again: "In the days that followed, although you didn't buy meat and vegetables, your purchases of all kinds of vegetables increased a lot, and you even bought a lot of cheap bones. Butler, since there are bacon to eat, why don’t you buy bones, can’t you make soup for the guards to replenish their health?”

It's ridiculous. Children who grow up in modern society, who has never eaten a big pot of rice? Who has ever seen a place like a school cafeteria or a unit cafeteria that uses big bones to make soup for people to drink?
It takes a lot of time to cook bones to cook, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and firewood costs money!Even if you have enough firewood to make a big pot of rice, you don't have that much time!

"Yes, yes, it's soup. Guanshi Zhang may have forgotten..." In the face of Chang Ning's reasonable questioning, a layer of sweat broke out from Guanshi Wang's head, and he hurriedly replied.

In fact, after buying the [-] pigs, he sold more than half of them on the same day. Then he took the money from selling pork and bought a lot of relatively cheap beef and sheep bones, and asked the kitchen to cook them with the bones and vegetables. Give it to the guards.

Guanshi Zhang also profited from it, but when Chang Ning asked him, Guanshi Zhang forgot that it was summer, and the meat would go bad if he couldn't finish it.

Thirty pigs, Wang Guanshi earned more than a hundred taels of silver from them. The reason why he is so bold is because the master of the inner court would not bother with such matters of eating and drinking?What's more, King Zhenbei was no longer there at that time, Xiao Qian's people were coming to take over, and the guards were also replaced in large numbers, and there was chaos everywhere. Who knows what they ate after time passed?
Therefore, Guanshi Wang never expected that this matter would be found out. He was flustered for a while, and subconsciously refused to admit it.

Seeing that Steward Wang was still stubborn, Chang Ning didn't say much, and directly ordered Xiao Zan who was waiting at the side: "Please, Steward, order some guards from the outer courtyard to come in and ask them if they have bacon for their meals recently?"

Xiao Zan is a tall and thin man in his thirties. He has an ordinary appearance and a gentle temperament. He has followed Xiao Qian for many years. He is an old man Xiao Qian can trust. He came from Shuoyang City more than a month ago.Although he has been taking care of the affairs of the inner courtyard, the current inner and outer courtyard guards in the palace are under his management.

Xiao Qian purposely kept him here, just to give Chang Ning strong support.

Xiao Zan immediately said: "Okay, girl, wait a moment!"

"No, no, girl, I said, can I say anything?"

Seeing that Xiao Zan was really going to send someone out, and what he had done was completely revealed, Steward Wang didn't dare to be stubborn anymore, and quickly knelt down and admitted: "Miss Qin, there is no need to investigate, the little one was fooled by lard for a while, so I overreported The amount, now I am willing to return the full amount of the day's income, and I ask the girl to forgive me!"

"Are you kidding, this kind of thing can also be forgiven? You used your power to enrich yourself and harm the interests of the palace. I found this case just by looking around. God knows how many tricks you have done before?"

Chang Ning said unceremoniously: "Come here, take it down and hit [-] boards first, and at the same time search his residence to see how much money he has saved besides the monthly allowance, and confiscate all of them. There are children and relatives in the mansion Yes, grab them together."

"Miss Qin, please forgive me, girl, the villain is really confused for a while..." Steward Wang struggled desperately, but was dragged out by the guards, and soon there was the sound of crackling boards in the yard.

Seeing this scene, the stewards couldn't help feeling flustered. They never expected that the delicate and weak girl in front of them would act so swiftly and resolutely.

"Guard Zhang?" After dealing with Guanshi Wang, Chang Ning directly called Guanshi Zhang, who was in charge of cooking in the large kitchen, to his front, and asked softly, "Do you know about Guanshi Wang's false claims?"

"Yes, servant girl, I know, I know..."

Guanshi Wang had already been beaten, and sooner or later he would confess himself. For this reason, Guanshi Zhang didn't dare to hide it, so he knelt down and kowtowed to admit it.

"Guan Zhang is considered an old man in the mansion. Since he knows that he has made a mistake, he will be exempted from a beating. As usual, he will search the family property first, and choose a date, and the whole family will be kicked out!"

Chang Ning's voice was soft, but it was like an iron whip, which suddenly hit Zhang Guanshi.

"Miss Qin, I beg you to be merciful. This servant will never dare again. The ancestors of the servant's family are all in the palace, and there is no way out if they go out! Besides, there are more than 1000 people in the outer courtyard waiting to eat. The matter on the stove is really out of date for the time being." No one!"

While Zhang Guanshi pleaded for mercy, he hurriedly reminded himself of his importance.

"It's ridiculous. When did the people from the outer courtyard lose their food without you?"

Chang Ning became more and more disdainful of this, and ordered again: "Please, Steward Xiao, go to the guards in the outer courtyard to pick a few people who are quick-witted, literate and able to settle accounts, and temporarily take over the position of Manager Wang. As for Manager Zhang, go to the big kitchen to pick someone." Veteran cooks should come on top first."

In an instant, Guanshi Zhang collapsed on the ground and was dragged away by the guards.

After dealing with the two stewards in the outer courtyard, Chang Ning casually clicked on the paper full of writing in front of him, and called steward Ding who was in charge of maintaining the flowers and trees in the inner courtyard.

After being called, Guanshi Ding immediately trembled twice, and quickly stepped forward and said, "I don't know what orders Miss Qin has?"

"How much money have you been greedy for?" Chang Ning asked in one sentence, making him jump in fear.

"Miss Qin, you can't talk nonsense. We who take care of the flowers and plants don't buy so much money and oil. The flowers and trees in the mansion are well maintained, and the daily pruning is done by the servants leading the servants themselves. Occasionally, they are too busy. Only when it is time to hire someone from outside, the account of how much money was spent is also clear."

Manager Ding thought he was doing everything impeccably, so he immediately defended himself.

(End of this chapter)