Yangling

Yang Mausoleum is the main tomb of Emperor Jing.

As the father of the new emperor, this kind of large tomb undoubtedly needed to be heavily guarded.

"Why would His Majesty use us rookie officials to make up the numbers? Is His Majesty incompetent in choosing his subordinates, or does he truly have no one else to rely on?"

Zhang Xuezhou found it difficult to understand the imperial court's personnel selection mechanism.

If tomb raiding is frequent at Yang Mausoleum, then capable personnel should be dispatched to the area, and security should be strengthened, rather than relying on a handful of disabled people for defense.

Zhang Xuezhou had mixed feelings on his first day in office.

He had already devised various solutions to deal with the infighting, but he never expected that even guarding a tomb like Yang Mausoleum would be so difficult.

"They should learn from King of Liang. His tomb was so professionally built that it didn't need guards, and ordinary people couldn't even find it!"

In the end, Zhang Xuezhou could only criticize the court for being unreliable. If Emperor Jing's tomb had been built in a more secluded way, no one would have been able to find it, so why did they need him to be the gatekeeper?

He used to criticize the King of Liang for his ruthless approach to building his tomb, using the deaths of those who built it and his soldiers to keep it a secret. But Zhang Xuezhou felt it was even more unreliable that building a tomb like Emperor Jing's would attract tomb robbers and cause the deaths and injuries of those guarding it.

Of course, even if he hadn't been the gatekeeper of the East Sima Gate, Zhang Xuezhou would still have thought the Tomb of the King of Liang was unacceptable.

"Xu Wuduo, how can we possibly defend this city gate with just a few people here?"

Ordinary people's tombs are just small mounds of earth a few square meters in size, but the Tomb of the King of Liang was built by digging into the mountain. The interior is laid out like a palace, but even this layout has its limitations in size.

Emperor Jing's Yang Mausoleum area is vast; it is twelve li (approximately 6.5 kilometers) from the East Sima Gate to the West Sima Gate. If one were to walk along the outer road, it would not be surprising to find oneself traveling twenty or thirty li (approximately 10-15 kilometers) around.

The South Sima Gate and the North Sima Gate are only five or six li away.

The entire cemetery is rectangular, but it is so vast that Zhang Xuezhou has no room for complaint.

With such a small number of people, they simply couldn't protect such a vast area.

Zhang Xuezhou asked Xu Wuduo, the fat soldier who had worked there the longest and was the one who led the response to Zhang Xuezhou's question.

Xu Wuduo retired from the Northern Army and was given a government job, but this government job was not easy to obtain.

Emperor Jing had only been dead for a year, and two waves of his superiors had already died. Now, it was the third time that the Grand Master of the Imperial Carriages had died.

If his superiors were having such a miserable time, Xu Wuduo wasn't doing so well either; he hadn't even received his salary for two months.

Now he only hopes that his new boss can live a long time, at least long enough to collect and distribute their salaries.

He answered Zhang Xuezhou's questions honestly, and then led Zhang Xuezhou on a patrol of the city wall.

Standing on the city wall, the two could see the imperial mausoleum in the distance, as well as the mausoleum of the empress, the burial pits in the south and north areas, the cemetery for convicts, and other ritual buildings such as mausoleums and temples.

The imperial mausoleum faces east and is located in the western part of the central part of the mausoleum complex. This is the burial place of Emperor Jing.

The empress's tomb, the southern burial pit, and the northern burial pit are equidistantly distributed at the four corners of the imperial mausoleum, while the concubine's burial area and the sacrificial platform are located on the north and south sides of the imperial mausoleum.

The cemetery for convicts, which holds the remains of tens of thousands of people, is located to the west of the imperial mausoleum. The cemetery is arranged in a line from north to south, with the imperial mausoleum at its center, surrounded by four corners, symmetrical from north to south, and connected from east to west.

Zhang Xuezhou observed the scene closely and sensed that it was an excellent feng shui location, but also harbored hidden murderous intent.

With these oddballs around, breaking into Sima Gate should be easy, but whether the tomb raiders can actually find anything after entering the cemetery is another matter entirely.

After investigating, Zhang Xuezhou felt somewhat relieved.

They were merely gatekeepers, not patrol members of the mausoleum. The safety inside was clearly the responsibility of someone else, and for Zhang Xuezhou and his group, guarding the gate was the only viable option.

"Keep the door closed!"

After thinking it over, Zhang Xuezhou closed the East Sima Gate tightly, following the pattern previously used by the soldiers.

As for the other three Sima Gate, Zhang Xuezhou had no say in them.

If he manages things well, he's overstepping his authority; if he causes problems, he'll have to take the blame.

He wouldn't do anything thankless or difficult at this point.

But being the Chief of the Imperial Carriages at the East Sima Gate was clearly not an easy job.

"What other rules do we have here?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"Sir, this is getting out of hand!" Xu Wuduo said. "Our job here is to guard the gate and prevent thieves from getting in."

"That's outrageous!"

The position of the Imperial Carriage Commander is rife with troubles, but the only good thing is that Zhang Xuezhou is currently in charge, and no one is ordering Zhang Xuezhou around to do anything.

This inevitably requires submitting the inspection documents to the Office of the Jingzhao Intendant for processing every day, but it's not a troublesome matter; someone can just deliver a copy after work.

Compared to the city gates of Chang'an City or the Sima Gate of the Imperial Palace, where people come and go daily, the four gates of Yang Mausoleum saw very few people entering and exiting. Only some craftsmen and laborers who repaired the mausoleum needed to go in and out each day.

After having Xu Wuduo lead him through the area around East Sima Gate, Zhang Xuezhou then sought out Ma Yuan, whose body was so thin it resembled that of someone suffering from tuberculosis.

Ma Yuan was physically weak and unable to do heavy work, but Ma Yuan had learned to read and write and could do some simple clerical work. In the end, his family spent money to send him to this kind of lowly job to earn a government salary.

Amidst Ma Yuan's coughing, Zhang Xuezhou also examined the records of the East Sima Gate written by Ma Yuan.

The records only show the number of people entering and leaving each day, including the actual number of people entering and leaving.

Zhang Xuezhou observed that the number of people entering and leaving the city gate was between twenty-two and twenty-five each day. He felt that the daily flow of people entering and leaving the East Sima Gate was so low that if they couldn't even guard the gate properly under these circumstances, it wouldn't be unjust for them to be beheaded.

"Song Dongjia, Zhu Yuncheng!"

"Only!"

"You two will take the morning shift first!"

"Only!"

"Xu Wuduo, Zhou Botong, you two will guard the middle shift!"

"Only!"

After making some simple arrangements, Zhang Xuezhou decided to take the night shift himself.

Since he only had six people with him, he could only make up the numbers temporarily until the other personnel arranged by the imperial court arrived.

"Sir, I'll keep watch with you at night, this... cough... cough cough cough!"

"You just need to keep a record; you don't need to work the night shift!"

When Ma Yuan came over to ask for instructions, Zhang Xuezhou gestured for him to just do some record-keeping and then go to the Office of the Jingzhao Intendant every day to submit his duty documents.

With only five subordinates in total, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't make any special or appropriate targeted arrangements.

In short, he dealt with things as they came, and if he got into trouble that could lead to execution, he would run away. At worst, he would change his name and appearance and continue to seek official positions.

Having considered the worst possible outcome, Zhang Xuezhou could only find a chair and sit on the city wall to pass the time.

"There's a man named Zheng Wukong who lives by the sixteenth stone lion at the entrance of Old Tree Alley. He boasts of his superb medical skills. As for your cough..."

Just as Zhang Xuezhou was advising Ma Yuan to see a doctor, a group of people came in the distance, standing on a horse-drawn cart carrying goods, carrying baskets, shoulder poles, saws, and other items.

"Lord Dongfang, the craftsmen sent by the Privy Treasury and the Court of the Court of the Imperial Clan have arrived!"

Song Dongjia, who was on the early shift, shouted.

"Those with proper etiquette may enter; those without it will not be allowed to pass!"

Zhang Xuezhou replied, his gaze sweeping over the craftsmen transported by government carriages, beginning his first experience as a gatekeeper.