Due to the current shortage of talents in the northwest, even Ning Zhiyuan, the number one military leader, has to take charge of local government affairs, and Chi Fei, who is his son-in-law and confidant, will inevitably be arrested.

After knowing that the little son-in-law had worked as a bookkeeper for a period of time before becoming a full-time script author, Ning Zhiyuan simply waved his hand and sent him to the logistics department to take over as the chief quartermaster who had fled from the northwest.

Chi Fei, who never thought that he would be an official, was forced to become the chief quartermaster of the Northwest Battalion by his father-in-law in this way.

As the name suggests, the chief quartermaster is an official who coordinates and manages all military supplies such as grain, grass, weapons, armor, and clothing in the whole army. The level is not low, and it is three products.

Of course, because Chi Fei was appointed temporarily, he is not actually an official, but just a temporary agent for this position.

There are also many ordinary quartermasters below the chief quartermaster, and each guard has one person who is responsible for managing the military supplies of the subordinate guard.

Don't look at the official is equivalent to a modern warehouse supervisor, in fact, this is a very important and sensitive position. The commanders of the guards usually only let their cronies fill this position.

Because quartermasters are in charge of the entire army's military supplies, if they are not properly employed, it is easy to become corrupt and short-sighted.

For example, it is not uncommon to replace some inferior and low-quality goods with good equipment in the warehouse, and then secretly sell these equipment to make money.

Those who dare to buy these military supplies are not ordinary people, but usually those with bad intentions who have hidden a large number of weapons in their own hands, or the front-line guards who want to fight the enemy.

The former is easy to understand, while the latter is more complicated.

No matter which court it is, the annual expenditure on the army is very huge, which breeds all kinds of ways to make money.

Empty pay is the most common method, and it is the case in almost every army.

The so-called empty salary refers to the behavior of the army in making false registrations and paying military salaries.

In ancient society, because the total number of military personnel was not only huge, but also often due to wars, flights, and other reasons, coupled with the relative independence of military power in various places, it was difficult to supervise and verify, so it was easy to form a situation of empty salary.

With the passage of time, this phenomenon of fraudulent acquisition through false quotas spread from the army to the localities, and became a major chronic disease that must have occurred in all dynasties.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Wei, he vigorously rectified the problem of empty salaries, killing hundreds of officials involved in the case in one go, so frightened that no one dared to report the number of soldiers indiscriminately.

After the rectification, the imperial court strengthened its control over this aspect, which greatly reduced the situation of empty salaries in the army.

But the so-called policies and countermeasures, those who want to make money see that this road is not easy to take, so they find another way to find a way from somewhere else.

Soon, they were targeting the munitions supply.

Due to the limited manufacturing capacity of the Ministry of Industry, it was unable to provide sufficient weapons, armor and other military supplies for all the guards in the country.

Therefore, Wei Taizu ordered each province to set up an ordnance bureau, under the jurisdiction of each prefecture and county A bureau, bow bureau, arrow bureau, string bureau, miscellaneous bureau, etc., to manufacture all kinds of military weapons.

Although the production of weapons is not uniformly supervised by the imperial court, in order to ensure the quality, there will still be a special person to check whether the quality and quantity of each batch of weapons meet the requirements after they are completed.

After the inspection is correct, it will be distributed to each local health post in batches, and then the quartermaster will be responsible for the management.

In fact, except for the northwest and southwest, most of the Great Wei was still very peaceful. Many areas have not experienced war for many years, and at most they have only occasionally suppressed bandits, with very little loss.

Therefore, these areas do not have any requirements for the quality of various military supplies, including weapons, because they are not needed at all.

However, as soon as these military supplies issued by the Ordnance Bureau enter the warehouse, they will theoretically become the special materials of each guard, which provides a maneuverable space for those who want to make money.

Some guards would collude with quartermasters to buy some very inferior and cheap goods from some small workshops outside to replace the original good military supplies, and then secretly sell these military supplies to the other guards who really wanted to fight for war to make a profit.

Then, every once in a while, the quartermaster of the guard station would apply to the Ordnance Bureau for another round of windfalls, on the grounds that the loss was serious or the warehouse was on fire, and so on.

Of course, the application for new military supplies needs to be reviewed layer by layer according to the normal process.

But these quartermasters do this as a business, and naturally know how to use gifts and money to honor their superiors to avoid scrutiny, and it is easy to get approval from above.

It is already a relatively conscientious practice to sell only to foreign security posts, and some really bold quartermasters simply do not care who the other party is, and are willing to sell as long as they are paid, and that is the most hateful.

The reason why those foreign guards had to buy additional weapons was because after every battle, the weapons used by the soldiers were greatly damaged and needed to be replenished as soon as possible.

However, it usually takes a long time for the application to be approved for supplementary ordnance, which not only needs to be reviewed at various levels, but also needs to be able to "behave".

If you don't know how to give gifts to Shangguan, it's possible to wait even a year or two.

Because some generals did not want to be exploited by their superiors, they simply found ways to buy weapons from the ordnance bureaus in other places.

If you buy not in large quantities, but in small quantities, it is often cheaper than giving gifts to Shangguan, so more and more military generals choose to do so.

As long as there is demand, there will naturally be a market, and over time, an industrial chain integrating supply and demand has gradually formed.

As for the money for the purchase of weapons, of course, it could not be paid by the generals themselves, but could only be deducted from the spoils of the war against bandits or wars.

Therefore, when the generals who lead the army report the spoils of war, they usually report less, that is, they use this part of the difference to make up for the loss of weapons, which has become a common practice.

The officials sent by the imperial court to supervise the army in the past also knew this, and as long as they didn't go too far, they generally turned a blind eye and couldn't see it.

Doesn't the military department know about this situation? Of course they do.

But the problem is that many of the bigwigs in the military department are the ones who collect money from the commanders and envoys from all over the country, and even they have done this kind of thing before, so of course they will not speak out against it.

Anyway, after so many years, there has been nothing at all, isn't it a good thing for everyone to make money together?

Because this kind of stealing and selling of military supplies in private is like illegal salt, and it is very difficult to prohibit it.

The northwest side is relatively strict in the management of military supplies, but it is unknown whether the previous chief quartermaster stole and sold military supplies without permission. After all, the other party was an official sent by the imperial court, and Ning Zhiyuan was not easy to meddle in.

Now that the northwest has become self-reliant and is no longer under the orders of the imperial court, this military supply must be managed by trustworthy people. It must no longer be stolen and sold by others like before, so Ning Zhiyuan sent Chi Fei to take over this position.

Although Chi Fei didn't want to be the quartermaster, he also knew that there was a shortage of talents in the northwest. Since it was requested by his father-in-law, he had no choice but to do it.

Since he was going to take over the general quartermaster, he naturally had to go and look at the warehouse where the military supplies of the whole army were stored.

The Quartermaster General Warehouse, located on the south side of the Northwest Battalion, is a reinforced townhouse.

The reason why it is called one piece is because there is not only one, but seven general warehouses, each of which stores different military supplies.

According to different types, they are grain storehouses for storing grain and grass, armor storehouses for armor, bows and arrows, guns, guns and clubs for knives, guns and clubs, shields and armor for shields and armor, siege equipment hangars, and miscellaneous warehouses for various miscellaneous items including clothes and saddles.

The depth of the warehouse is seven zhang and three feet, the face is three zhang and four feet wide, and the eaves column is two zhang and five feet high.

Among them, the grain depot and the hangar are much larger than the other five warehouses, with the same height and width, but the depth is 12 zhang deep.

A ditch about one meter wide is dug around each warehouse, and stone slabs are paved with pedestrians, and water is stored in the canal for a long time, which is precisely for fire prevention.

In addition to the hangar for storing siege equipment, the other six warehouses are divided into two floors, each with cabinets and shelves to store materials in partitions.

Because the warehouse was originally a warehouse storage area, and all kinds of military supplies were stored here, it was built with a lot of money.

Not only the material is stout, but also sturdy and reliable. The interior is also covered with wooden floors to prevent moisture, and the floors are about one foot five inches above the ground, which is called a scaffold.

There is fine sand buried under the shed to prevent rats, and there is a large water tank filled with water at the entrance for emergency fire extinguishing.

Needless to say, hundreds of full-time soldiers are divided into three shifts every day to guard and patrol in turn.

Anyone who wants to receive supplies needs to have a handover letter issued by the quartermaster and a matching plate before they can receive the goods and leave the warehouse.

Since he had already received a notice from above, when Chi Fei entered the reservoir area, the adjutant of the warehouse on duty immediately came out to greet him respectfully.

"Good afternoon, Lord Su, Xia Guan Deng Yuanming, please take care of me."

"Lord Deng is polite, I am just temporarily taking over the work of Lord Zhang, and there is no official position on my body, you can just call my name."

The middle-aged adjutant hurriedly said in fear: "This is too rude, since you took over the post of chief quartermaster, you are naturally the subordinate officer, please allow the subordinate to call you Master Su." ”

"In that case, then let it be. Lord Deng, can you take me to the various warehouses? ”

"Of course, please come with your subordinates."

Chi Fei followed Deng Yuanming to visit the warehouses one by one, especially the grain depot for the longest time.

The so-called three armies have not moved, and grain and grass go first. For any army, the availability of food and grass is extremely important.

Chi Fei saw that only the second layer of the grain depot was full, and there was not much left of the lower layer.

In other words, there is only half of the grain in the grain depot now, which is not good news.

If, after capturing Jiujiang, you can't get enough food from the surrounding small countries, then you really have to grab it.

However, if the troops are sent overseas, whether they succeed or not, they will definitely be laborious and laborious.

But again, it is much better to rob outsiders than to rob the people of Dawei, who are also Han Chinese.

As for preserving the reputation of the Northwest Army, it will not be regarded by many people as a thief army like the Hu people.

If you can directly exchange food, of course, it is much better than direct looting, and it is also more stable and durable.

After all, war is only a short-term act, and only trade is a long-term mutual benefit.

But since it's a grain exchange, there must be something to exchange.

Thinking of this, Chi Fei asked Deng Yuanming, "Lord Deng, with our current grain storage, how long can it last?" ”

"Lord Hui, in addition to the general treasury, in fact, the treasury of each guard also has grain in stock.

However, the sum of all the grain stocks can probably only support the consumption of the whole army for half a year, and this can only be done under the condition of relatively economical economy. ”

"Half a year?" Chi Fei couldn't help frowning.

Chi Fei thought about it for a while, and an idea slowly emerged in his heart, but he didn't know if it was feasible.

"Lord Deng, do you know anyone who has lived in Jiujiang or is very familiar with this place in Jiujiang?"

Deng Yuanming thought for a while and replied: "My lord, there is a subordinate in my family who seems to be from Jiujiang, but the other party's status is low, I don't know if the adult minds?" ”

"Of course I don't mind, then please call him over, Master Deng, and I'll ask him some questions in person."

"Yes, sir, I'll do it right away."