Transmigrating Through the Heavens: Starting with the Silly Pillar of the Courtyard

Chapter 334 The Battle for the Position of Hundred-Household Officer

Wu Tao sat in the small Songjiang Prefecture Thousand Household Office, looking up at all the turmoil in the world.

Commander Liu Peng finally received his transfer order. Because of his merits in the previous rebellion, Commander Liu Peng had been promoted by the emperor to serve as the garrison commander of the capital city.

Upon receiving the transfer order, he immediately took his personal guards and happily went to the capital to assume his post.

By climbing to the position of Zhenfu Envoy, Liu Peng, a commander of a thousand households, had achieved his life's ambition.

Who knows, he might be able to climb to an even higher position in the future. As a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, reaching this point is definitely a meteoric rise.

With the departure of Commander Liu Peng, Deputy Commander Niu Mang successfully took the throne of Commander of Songjiang Prefecture.

Compared to the other deputy commander, Niu Mang had some connections, which enabled him to win this competition. Of course, how much he actually bribed behind the scenes is another matter entirely.

Chen Xiao, a centurion, was also promoted to deputy commander of a thousand households for his meritorious service.

However, after Chen Xiao was promoted, no new centurions were assigned to him for the time being.

Ling Tian, ​​who was originally the most promising captain, was transferred away for some reason.

Now, many people in the Thousand Household Office are wondering if the position of Hundred Households will be given to Wu Tao.

After all, only two flag officers could be promoted to the rank of centurion. Flag officer Ling Tian was suddenly transferred away, leaving only Wu Tao as the only one left.

Even Chen Wu, Wang Liu, Zhao Si, and Niu Er came to ask Wu Tao.

Wu Tao kicked them out and strictly ordered them not to say anything out of line.

Wu Tao knew very well that he couldn't get promoted in a short time.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard was a hereditary system; rising from a junior officer to a senior officer was already an exceptional achievement.

He knew he could never rise to the rank of a hundred-household commander again, and even if he became a thousand-household commander, Liu Peng would not remember his contributions in this rebellion.

Unless it's the original centurion Chen Xiao, who is now the deputy commander of a thousand households, he might promote him out of gratitude to Wu Tao.

After all, without Wu Tao, Chen Xiao, the centurion, might already be dead. However, he certainly wouldn't help Wu Tao get promoted to centurion for free just because of that.

The reason why the newly appointed commander of a thousand households, Niu Mang, has left the position of commander of a hundred households vacant is probably because Niu Mang is waiting for someone to offer him a bribe.

Niu Mang, who rose through the ranks from deputy commander, must have done his fair share of favors to others.

He can't just spend a lot of money and let someone else easily take the position. Wouldn't he be at a disadvantage if he put in so much effort?

Commander Ling Tian was probably too certain that he would be promoted to centurion, so he didn't even think about giving gifts to centurion Niu Mang.

It was precisely for this reason that Qianhu Niu Mang suddenly transferred Zongqi Ling Tian to a lower-level prefecture to serve as Zongqi.

Commander Ling Tian was also frustrated. He felt that he was more senior than Wu Tao, who had just been promoted to commander, so Wu Tao was definitely not comparable to him.

Commander Ling Tian didn't consider the issue from the perspective of Commander Niu Mang: Why would the other party give him such a huge benefit for free?

General Lingtian's transfer seems to be a lateral move, especially at this critical juncture.

The flag bearer of the prefectural city's thousand-household office, who was about to be promoted to a hundred-household officer, was being transferred to a lower-level prefecture as a flag bearer. Everyone knew this was a demotion.

Commander Ling Tian left Songjiang Prefecture dejectedly with his luggage, probably regretting his overconfidence later on.

Niu Mang, the commander of a thousand households, made a grand move, not only leaving the position of centurion vacant, but also temporarily leaving the position of flag officer vacant.

This caused many of the squad leaders in the thousand-household garrison to start thinking about it, and the squad leaders and general leaders in the prefectures below were also restless.

Especially those deputy centurions, while the centurions of the thousand-household garrisons do not have deputy centurions, but the centurions of the prefectures and counties below each have a deputy centurion.

The purpose of having a deputy centurion was to prevent the centurion from dying unexpectedly, as a deputy centurion could immediately take over the work.

However, if there is no vacancy for a deputy centurion, it is very difficult to be promoted to a full centurion in one's lifetime.

So now, the position of a centurion has made more than twenty deputy centurions under the Songjiang Prefecture covetous.

Even some of the centurions wanted to be transferred to Songjiang Prefecture.

In short, after Niu Mang took office as commander of a thousand households, he left the position of a hundred-household officer vacant, which stirred up the entire Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) in Songjiang Prefecture, making everyone restless and uneasy.

Wu Tao said he found it boring, but he was actually secretly figuring out how to make a move.

He knew that if he wanted to be promoted to centurion, he would probably have to spend a lot of money; it wasn't something that could be done with just a few dozen taels of silver.

It would cost at least a thousand taels of silver, and besides, he had just been promoted to the rank of General Flag Officer. It was uncertain whether Commander Niu Mang would take the money and not do the job.

Money? Wu Tao certainly had it.

The problem is how to get this money out. He's not from some big family. Everyone knows how much wealth he's accumulated over the years.

However, this didn't stump Wu Tao. Loan sharking institutions didn't just appear in modern times. They still exist today, albeit in a more sophisticated form.

Wu Tao quickly found a place where he could borrow money: a pawnshop.

This is the original component of ancient usury, which involves buying low and selling high, or borrowing low and lending high.

Wu Tao, dressed in a flying fish robe, was naturally not someone who could be manipulated by the pawnshop like an ordinary person.

Borrow 300 taels of silver for one year, with an interest of 30 taels.

This loan transaction was already the most suitable offer the pawnshop could make; they wouldn't agree to anything lower, and they were worried about attracting Wu Tao's attention if it were any higher.

Although the pawnshop had powerful backers, the recent earthquake in Songjiang Prefecture made many people realize just how brutal the Embroidered Uniform Guard was.

Wu Tao was simply trying to find a legitimate way to make his money, and with the silver he had received as a reward last time, the blacksmith shop had been making a profit for the past year or so.

Eight hundred li of silver is the amount of silver Wu Tao can produce at this stage; any more would be difficult to explain the source of the money.

Under the cover of night, Wu Tao went to the residence of Qianhu Niu Mang, who accepted the congratulatory gift from Wu Tao with a smile.

Wu Tao, who had just left the home of Qianhu Niu Mang, immediately changed his expression from calm to joy.

No one knows how Qianhu Niu Mang negotiated with Wu Tao, but a month later, Wu Tao's appointment as a centurion was issued to the Songjiang Prefecture Qianhu Office.

However, to everyone's great surprise, Wu Tao did not stay at the Thousand Households Office.

Instead, he was transferred to Cangzhou, which was under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture, just like Commander Lingtian. It seemed that Pingdu was about to become a place of exile for the Thousand Households.

Although Wu Tao appeared to have been promoted from a flag officer to a centurion, he lost his position in the Songjiang Prefecture's thousand-household garrison.

It is said that even a seventh-rank official is inferior to the prime minister, so the prefectures below are naturally much worse than Songjiang Prefecture.

Cangzhou Prefecture is more than 100 kilometers away from Songjiang Prefecture. Not only are people leaving their hometowns, but more importantly, it is less than 300 kilometers away from the border.

When the Tartars had trouble robbing Han people of their money and grain at the border, they would also occasionally venture near Cangzhou Prefecture.

Compared to the heavily guarded Songjiang Prefecture, Cangzhou Prefecture was both dangerous and arduous.

Even Zhang Song, a junior officer, went to Wu Tao to ask if he had offended Niu Mang, a commander.

Otherwise, why arrange Wu Tao like this? He could have stayed in the Thousand Household Office for a few years and then looked for an opportunity to be promoted to Hundred Household Officer.

Wu Tao didn't explain much to Xiao Qi Zhang Song; he had already prepared for this transfer.

From the fact that Niu Mang, a thousand-household commander, had vacated the position of hundred-household commander, to the fact that he directly transferred Ling Tian, ​​the general commander, to Cangzhou Prefecture, Wu Tao guessed some of the other party's thoughts.