He came out of the partition and saw Corgi standing outside with a gloomy expression, with two soldiers behind him.
Corgi said coldly, "You think you're so smart?"
Qing Chen shook his head: "I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand what you're saying. It's just that you forgot where that document was, and I found it. I don't think it's clever, nor do I think I did anything wrong."
"Heh," Corgi sneered, "Still being stubborn. I suspect you're a rebel spy who infiltrated the Marquis's office to peek at documents, so I'm going to check you. Don't try to resist; it'll only make things worse. Beat him up! Break his ribs! I know you're a C-rank, but think it over. In this outpost, even an A-rank would have to obey military law!"
The two soldiers behind Corgi slowly approached. Just then, someone in the corridor outside the restroom suddenly shouted, "Hey, you cleaning guy, right, Flash! Flash! Where are you?"
Corgi's expression changed; it was the Marquis Bolton's voice!
But then Marquis Bolton burst into the bathroom, seemingly unbothered by the stench. He grabbed Qingchen's shoulder and stammered, "He added me as a friend! He remembers you! He said your friend is his friend! I really didn't expect him to add me, and he even said we could go into a dungeon together sometime! Come on, come to my office and tell me what to do next. You should have told me you knew him earlier!"
In fact, Qingchen could understand Marquis Bolton's feelings.
To be honest, when Qingchen was younger, if someone had offered to help him become friends with Jay Chou, he would probably have been more excited than the Duke of Bolton...
Qing Chen said, "My lord, I still need to clean the restrooms..."
Marquis Bolton then regained his senses. He glanced at Corgi and the two soldiers behind him. The soldiers were still trying to hide the steel pipes they held behind their backs...
The Marquis knew exactly what was going on, and he said coldly to Corgi, "The three of you will be cleaning the bathrooms for the next week."
Corgi said with a pained expression, "My lord, I also have to be in charge of allocating personnel."
“You don’t have to take responsibility anymore,” Marquis Bolton said, pulling Qingchen’s arm as they walked toward his office.
Marquis Bolton was the local tyrant of the outpost. Although everyone fooled him, no one dared to really provoke him. So, with a single order from him, Corgi's lucrative job was gone.
Upon arriving at the Marquis of Bolton's office, they found the fair-skinned and handsome marquis with his hair swept back, a gesture that resembled Leonardo DiCaprio's appearance in a suit on the Titanic.
"What do you think I should do next?" Bolton asked.
Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "I think we shouldn't get too close to each other yet. Isn't FFF handling things for him? Your Excellency Marquis, you can start with trading and let the White Light help you level up. We can talk about other things after we get to know each other better."
"That's it!" Marquis Bolton had an idea: "It's just money, isn't it?!"
At this moment, Marquis Bolton looked at Qing Chen again: "By the way, you're good at management, aren't you?"
"I wouldn't say I'm good at it, but I've had some experience with auditing before, managing so many slaves and being responsible for logistics," Qing Chen said, not fabricating any experience. This butler had indeed done auditing for the Marquis Kennedy before.
Lord Bolton pondered for a moment: "Turn on the computer and take a look at the accounts at the outpost. See if you can sort them out."
Qing Chen sat in front of the computer for only five minutes before looking up at Marquis Bolton and saying, "Marquis, the accounts are not right. Someone nominally took two units of ammunition, but in reality, there are three units of ammunition missing from the inventory."
Bolton's eyes lit up: "You were able to spot the problem so quickly? I knew my subordinates were lying to me. They kept saying they didn't have enough of this or that, and I had to ask my wife for help in allocating supplies again and again!"
Qing Chen said seriously, "To put it bluntly, when they were trying to fool you, they weren't even trying to fool you properly..."
Marquis Bolton said, "Investigate! You're in charge of this matter. Get to the bottom of it."
“This isn’t right,” Qing Chen said. “I have no authority at the outpost.”
Marquis Bolton laughed: "I know what you want. It's alright. As long as you can find out the truth, I'll make you the second steward of the outpost... no, the head steward! Don't worry, I'm in charge here. I can kill whoever I want, except for nobles!"
Chapter 845, Qing Chen's Anti-Corruption Chronicle
“Isn’t this inappropriate?” Qing Chen asked, feigning hesitation. “Don’t promotions and appointments at the outpost base require formal procedures?”
But the handsome marquis waved his hand and said, "I am the highest-ranking officer of this outpost. I have the authority to apply for merits and hold the power of life and death over everyone. As long as you can find the traitors in the outpost and have solid evidence, I can report to the central capital. In wartime, I can act first and report later. If someone comes to me, I will go to my wife... Actually, even if I don't go to my wife, no one can touch me."
Qing Chen thought to himself, "Your last explanation was really unnecessary."
Marquis Bolton added, "By the way, there are merits for eradicating corruption during wartime. You don't necessarily have to go to the battlefield to earn merits. What rank are you now?"
Qing Chen said, "Level 6 Free Citizen."
“Alright, it’s absolutely no problem to promote you two levels to Free Citizen Level 8. If you find enough problems, Free Citizen Level 9 is even possible,” Marquis Bolton said. “Continue to look at the accounts on the computer. If you have any questions, just call the relevant person in charge for questioning.”
Qing Chen's eyes lit up. He could earn merit before even going to the battlefield?
Qing Chen asked, "What if someone resists? And I need an assistant. Do you have your own people at the outpost, Marquis?"
"Yes, I have a group of experts around me!" Marquis Bolton said confidently.
But Qingchen was skeptical of this.
Marquis Bolton made a phone call, and a short while later a seven-man team walked in. Qing Chen keenly sensed that these people were all experts.
Three white people, three Asian people, and one black person.
Marquis Bolton spoke to the seven men politely: "Um... how have you all been lately? Brian, these seven are members of the Fireline Squad, all of them are experts."
The captain of the Fireline Squad said, "My lord, you didn't call us here just to have us play with you in the superconducting world again, did you? We still need to cultivate; we don't play in the superconducting world. The Fifth Princess said we don't need to play with you; we just need to protect your personal safety."
Qing Chen understood; this was a royal expert sent by the Fifth Princess to protect Bolton and also to keep an eye on him so he wouldn't mess with the female slaves...
Bolton said smugly, "I don't need you guys to play Superconducting World with me anymore. I have the White Light to guide me now."
The fire team looked at each other in bewilderment.
How could they not be playing with the superconducting world?
They just thought the Marquis of Bolton was too incompetent and didn't want to take him along.
So, of course they had heard of the White Light, but they thought it was really a bit outrageous that the White Light would be willing to take this marquis along.
The captain hesitated for a moment before asking, "You didn't give your ancestral home in the Central Royal City to the White Light, did you? Does Her Highness know?"
Marquis Bolton objected: "Do I need to resort to such methods? I rely on my personal charm, and the White Light thinks I'm quite good."
The captain thought for a moment: "What is it you wanted to see us about?"
Marquis Bolton said, "It's like this, I'm going to purge a group of traitors from the outposts, but I'm worried that some people will resist, so I'd like to trouble you to stay here for a while and help keep things under control."
The captain said helplessly, "This is the nineteenth time in five years that you've said you want to clean up the mess, but you can't even read the ledgers, so we're just roughnecks and can't read them either. So let's not waste our time."
The captain glanced at Qing Chen and said without any hesitation, "There are too many people around you who want to take this opportunity to climb the ranks. They keep saying they can help you manage the outpost, but they are nothing more than new parasites."
He regarded Qing Chen as an opportunistic and cunning person, after all, Marquis Bolton was always surrounded by such people.
According to the famous theory that "flies don't land on eggs without cracks," this Marquis of Bolton was simply a rotten egg that had been dropped on the ground and whose shell had been shattered.
Flies' favorite food.
Marquis Bolton pleaded, "Just this once, please help me one more time!"
Qing Chen sighed. This was probably the most humble marquis he had ever seen. So, were all royal sons-in-law in this position? Of course, it was also possible that this marquis was too incompetent, which led to this situation.
They didn't even have their own slave army, so they had to ask the Fifth Princess for help.
Of course, this is also an opportunity for Qing Chen, as he can personally help Marquis Bolton build a slave army.
Lord Bolton said, "If you don't help me, I'm calling my wife!"
The captain sighed, "You don't need to threaten us with this kind of thing all the time. We don't mean any harm. We just think it's good that you can play in the Superconducting World in peace. The princess thinks so too."
Marquis Bolton didn't care about any of that. Seeing that the frontline team had agreed, he said to Qing Chen, "Let's begin!"
The frontline squad leader looked at Qing Chen and said without any hesitation, "How do you plan to investigate? Corruption in the outpost base is intricate and involves many methods. If you can't find anything, just say so now and don't waste our time."
“It’s not that complicated,” Qing Chen said, glancing at the computer screen before picking up the intercom. “Have Sancho come to the Marquis’s office.”
Sancho was a middle-aged white man. The records showed that he was a level 7 citizen and even had the opportunity to be promoted to baron.
When he came in, he saw Qing Chen sitting behind the desk and frowned: "Who are you? Why are you sitting in the marquis's seat?"
Qing Chen looked at the information on the computer and said, "Who I am is not important. What is important is that I will state a few things. If there are no questions, let's proceed officially."
Sancho wanted to curse Qing Chen, but after glancing at the frontline team, he held back and said, "Go ahead."
Qing Chen: "The first thing is that the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division has a total of 1,302 men, and the regimental commander is Baron Vince. Nine days ago, they set off for the Forbidden Forest, but they encountered giants and then retreated back to the outpost, right? You are in charge of registering people entering and leaving the base, so you should know this."
Sancho squinted. "That's how it is."
Qingchen: "In the information you registered, 817 men from the 2nd Infantry Regiment returned, and 487 were killed in action. They were all slaves of Baron Vince. Therefore, the outpost issued pensions to Baron Vince for the 487 men. After Baron Vince replenished his troops, you reissued supplies, weapons, and ammunition to him for another 487 men."
Sancho: "Do you think I'm lying? You can check the surveillance footage at the base entrance yourself. He really only brought back 817 people."
Qing Chen: "Of course you wouldn't make such a basic mistake, but I found something very interesting: Baron Vince returned to the outpost with 816 men 8 days ago, and 6 days ago he added another 487. But I found the surveillance footage of Baron Vince reporting to the outpost, as well as the footage after the reinforcements, and discovered that these 487 new slave soldiers look exactly like the 487 who died... So, did Baron Vince recruit the 487 twin brothers of the fallen slave soldiers? That's quite a coincidence."
Qing Chen looked up at Sancho: "These hundreds of slave soldiers are really veteran actors."
Baron Vince has been colluding with officers at the outpost to repeatedly swindle pensions, receive military supplies, and falsify military intelligence.
The captain of the frontline squad was somewhat surprised and leaned over to look at the screen. Qing Chen could easily see this by simply taking a screenshot from the high-definition surveillance footage and comparing it, but no one had ever investigated this aspect in depth before.
Baron Vince didn't come to the outpost to fight; he came specifically to do business. After the battle, making tens of millions wouldn't be a problem.
Sancho replied, "I'm only in charge of entry and exit registration; I'm not aware of the things you're talking about. Distributing pensions and weapons is not my responsibility either."
Qing Chen nodded and looked at the frontline team: "Isolate him in the toilet, confiscate all communication equipment, and prohibit anyone from colluding with him."
The captain of the frontline squad glanced at him, waved to one of his subordinates, and became somewhat interested as well.
Marquis Bolton originally intended to enter the superconducting world, but ended up stopping and sitting on the sofa to watch Qing Chen's performance.
To be honest, this was the first time he had ever heard that someone down there was repeatedly scamming people out of their pensions...
That's a huge number!
Marquis Bolton muttered, "Baron Vince often sends me gifts, I never imagined he was this kind of person."
Qing Chen said, "It's not just Baron Vince, there are more than a dozen other barons. Once I capture all the officers at the outpost, I can wipe them all out in one go."
Marquis Bolton: "..."
He suddenly realized that Qing Chen was serious.
Marquis Bolton asked, "If you continue your investigation, how many clean officers will be left at my outpost?"
Qing Chen smiled and said, "I don't know."
Ignoring the changing attitudes of others, he dialed the internal line again: "Daniel, who is in charge of the pensions, come to the Marquis's office."
Daniel walked in and looked around: "I heard Sancho was summoned? Where is he?"
Qing Chen said calmly, "His disappearance makes you a little nervous, doesn't it?"
Daniel raised his voice: "Why would I be nervous?"
Qing Chen said, "Sancho has already told you about Baron Vince's fraudulent claim for the pension. What do you have to say?"
Daniel clenched his fist: "Baron Vince? I don't know Baron Vince. I'm only in charge of the compensation distribution. I distribute the amount of compensation based on the number of people the base determines to have died. What's the problem? If Sancho is wrong, that's Sancho's problem."