Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

The layout of the entire mansion is that of a house in the front and a garden in the back, with the residential area on the south side and the garden area on the north side, and the whole house faces south.

Accompanied by Shen Baihu, Lu Chen toured the entire mansion and roughly estimated that the living area was about 2,000 square meters and the garden area in the backyard was at least 3,000 square meters!

In other words, this is a Chinese garden covering an area of ​​five to six thousand square meters!

In the center of the garden area is a pond of about 400 square meters, planted with lotus flowers and koi carp.

In the center of the pond is an artificial hill with a pavilion on it, connected to the shore by a quaint little bridge.

At this moment, Lu Chen was in this pavilion.

Such a large garden was given away, so how could it possibly be an empty house?

When Lu Chen and Shen Baihu arrived, the steward of the mansion was already waiting for them at the door with the servants.

There were six maids and three servants in the inner courtyard, who were specifically there to serve him, the head of the banner.

In addition, there were two gardeners responsible for flowers, trees, and bonsai, and one waterman responsible for maintaining the pond and cleaning the waterways.

The two cooks were said to be skilled in Shandong cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine, respectively.

There was one stable boy in charge of the stable, and five menial workers who did all sorts of rough work.

In addition to these servants, there were six guards carrying waist knives and one steward.

The total number of people is as high as twenty-seven!

There are also three horses kept in the stable, which are said to be good horses personally selected by Commander Gao.

According to the steward, apart from himself who was employed, the other 26 servants, including the guards, had all had their contracts bought out.

The butler also presented the indentures of these people. Lu Chen casually flipped through a few and found that they had all been transferred to Lu Chen, the Chief Officer.

As expected of a commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, his efficiency is truly remarkable when he gets serious.

Lu Chen didn't believe a single word of the nonsense that Gao Qianhu said about being old friends with Lu Chen's father, Lu Kun.

How could a dignified fifth-rank commander possibly interact on equal terms with a mere seventh-rank captain?

It's obvious they knew Lu Kun was dead, and since there was no way to verify it, they were just trying to force a connection with him.

Even I, who had never served a single day in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, could see so many unusual things about Lu Bing's handwritten appointment letter.

As the head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Linqing, a megacity with a population of one million, Gao Qianhu would certainly have a deeper understanding of the illogical aspects of this appointment letter.

He would understand Lu Bing's true intentions better than he did.

Such a large garden, the land and the buildings themselves alone are worth at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Add to that the various furniture, decorations, and exquisite daily necessities inside, and it would cost at least twenty or thirty thousand taels.

The servants in this house are of a much higher standard than those that Lu Chen bought in Biyang County under the name "Lin Chaoxi".

Correspondingly, their net worth is also much higher.

The indentures of these twenty-six people must cost at least several thousand taels of silver!

In other words, the total value of this gift is over 30,000 taels of silver!

That's quite a generous gesture!

Today is Lu Chen's first time taking up his post at the Customs Household Office as a seventh-rank officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Neither the household officer Shen Xuan nor the other officer, Fan Zheng, asked him to do anything that an officer should do.

But on this day, I didn't just drift through the afternoon in a daze.

Although Shen Xuan and Fan Zheng clearly wanted to keep him around as a figurehead to coast along, as Shen Baihu himself said, once his predecessor, General Jiang, finished rotating his five junior officers, he, as the general, would still need to lead his men and General Fan's men on duty at the customs post.

Even if he delegates all official duties to his subordinates, Lu Chen at least has to go through the motions here and make a show of it.

Since that's the case, we can't really be completely ignorant of the business.