On the twenty-fifth day of the first month of the ninth year of Xuanli, Shangjing Imperial Palace, Zhongshu Provincial Government Office.

Fu Xiaoguan looked at the pile of paperwork piled up on the desk and felt a headache.

These are all kinds of excerpts that were sent back to Shangjing from the various provinces of the Yu Dynasty at the beginning of the new year, which are simply all-inclusive, and the normal ones are about the governance plans of various places, the arrangements for spring ploughing, the application of official personnel, and the search for financial support, etc. But there are many things that are extremely abnormal in Fu Xiaoguan's opinion.

For example, there seems to be the sound of a dragon chanting on Beiji Mountain outside Xincheng in the north, seeing colorful clouds all over the sky, ten thousand beasts galloping, it seems to be auspicious.

Another example is from a small village in the south, a widow gave birth to a baby, and when she landed, she could speak.

For example, Puzhou from the west, but also the excerpt of Zhizhou, wrote that on the fifteenth day of the first month of the ninth year of the Xuanli calendar, the wind and snow were all over the sky, and a phoenix fell from a plane tree that had already lost its leaves, kowtowing nine times in the direction of the imperial city and spreading its wings.

He casually threw this kind of fold aside, thinking that if I write it, Lao Tzu will write it more wonderfully than you!

He took a sip of the teacup on the table, and began the day's work - from this large pile of excerpts to select those that really need to be dealt with by the imperial court, and then draw up a statement one by one, indicate his own opinions, and finally send it to Zhongshu Ling Shangyu to see, and after screening again, these excerpts will enter the political affairs hall, which will be handled by Prime Minister Yan Beixi and the six Shangshu, and finally decided by His Majesty.

If it is an urgent document, then the document will be stamped with a red mark on the head, commonly known as the red head fold, which needs to be processed in the fastest time.

Fu Xiaoguan didn't have this kind of document in his hand now, so he took the time to flip through them one by one.

He flipped through it quickly, and wrote down the annotations quickly, and the whole morning went by, but he did not see a single book in these folds about economics.

Almost all of them are carried out around farming, and the most common thing is to complain about the hardships and ask for silver.

For this kind of excerpts, his annotations are often one sentence: It is recommended to solve it yourself!

It wasn't until an excerpt from Yan Xiwen from Yao County appeared on his hand that a smile appeared on his face.

This kid really took the development of Yao County to heart, in this excerpt, he wrote a detailed cooperation plan with Xishan, and took the lead in proposing that the development of Yao County would start from the workshop invested by Xishan, and even expanded, and applied to the imperial court to build a new wharf on the Yangtze River fifty miles north of Yao County, so as to facilitate the entry and exit of goods and materials in Xishan Workshop - this made Fu Xiaoguan look at Yan Xiwen twice, this kid can!

So for the first time, he seriously annotated a few big words on this fold: This strategy is excellent, ask for attention! And put this fold on the top of the stack.

Then he called the main secretary Qi Mei, and asked him to send these completed folds to the official office of Zhongshu Ling Shangyu, get up and tidy up his clothes, and prepare to get off work.

Today, Dong Shulan is going to visit her father at the house, so she has to go back quickly.

But as soon as he walked out of the door, Qi Mei chased him out at a trot, "Master Fu, wait!" ”

Fu Xiaoguan turned around, and Qi Mei ran to his side, "Lord Shang, please...... In addition, Yeonjae is also there. ”

What the hell!

There is no overtime pay for overtime!

"What does Lord Qi know?"

"I don't know, I'm afraid it's tomorrow."

Tomorrow is the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month, the day of the Queen Mother's funeral, he thought of what Yu Wendao had told him the night before, so he had to return to the official office with a sigh and went to Shang Yu's room.

"Sit!"

Yan Beixi threw him a word, and then said to Shang Yu: "The snow disaster in the north has suffered great losses, almost affecting the entire Yongning Prefecture, and the two counties of Pinglingyi and Quyi have been the most severely affected, with hundreds of collapsed houses in the two counties, more than 320 dead, and more than 1,000 injured. Because of the special location of these two counties, it is really difficult to save themselves, and I have asked Kangping to mobilize the materials of Lanling City for disaster relief, and let the northern border army mobilize sergeants to escort them, so I don't think the problem will be too big. It's just that this is a symptom rather than a cure, and every year these two counties will be like this, resulting in people in these two counties moving to other places, fewer and fewer people, and these two counties are getting poorer and poorer. ”

Yan Beixi frowned, his eyes were heavy, and he said: "This matter has to find a way to cure its root once and for all, otherwise...... I'm afraid these two places will eventually become two ruined cities. ”

Shang Yu also frowned and nodded, and replied: "Yes, the snow disaster in the north and the flood disaster in the south have consumed a huge amount of wealth in the treasury every year. But Yan Zai, this is not a problem only in the Yu Dynasty, after a thousand years, this natural disaster has often occurred, and it cannot be changed by human beings...... What can be done once and for all? ”

Yan Beixi lowered his head in meditation and sighed.

He also understands Shang Yu's words, and this is indeed the case.

It snows heavily every year in the north, and if it rains for several days in a row, where can those thatched huts withstand the backlog of heavy snow!

The entire Yongning Prefecture can be regarded as the poorest state in the Yu Dynasty, with barren land, numerous mountains, an impermanent climate, and extremely low crop yields.

If the house collapses again, they will have no shelter from the wind and snow, and the final outcome will definitely be frozen to death.

The flood of the Yellow River is also a thousand-year problem, last year in the Golden Palace, the Ministry of Works, Bi Dong told His Majesty that if you want to expand the river, it will cost millions of silver, and in the end Your Majesty did not mention this problem again, because the silver in the treasury is not much left except for the inherent expenses.

In the end, the reason still has to fall on the word silver, so Yan Beixi looked at Fu Xiaoguan.

"I have already read the "Theory of a Rich Country" you wrote, and Concubine Shang has also read it, only Your Majesty has not had time to read it. I have not called you here to discuss with you this "Theory of the Rich Country", but I want to ask you, if you were the county magistrate of Pingling and Quyi, what would you do? ”

"Play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses."

"Speak human words!"

Fu Xiaoguan touched his nose and said with a smile: "I don't know what resources are in those two places, and I heard you say that there must be no future for farming, so why don't we change our thinking?" This goes back to the "Wealth of Nations", so those two places can't attract investment? Can't you build a workshop with the help of merchants? ”

"Two adults, please think about it carefully, if I were the county commander of those two places, I would apply to the imperial court to reduce the tax of merchants to attract merchants to build workshops here."

"That place is already poor, and you can reduce the taxes...... Wouldn't it be poorer? Shang Yu asked.

"No, Lord Shang, you think, the peasants in that place are already hungry, and if they go into the workshops, their income will increase a lot, and they will produce greater value, and these goods will eventually circulate in the market, and in the process of circulating these goods, the state will be able to obtain taxes. And when the peasants have money in their hands, they will spend it. When they consume, the money circulates in the market, and the state receives tax revenues. ”

"It's a triple win, the farmer becomes a worker, the income increases, and the living conditions improve. Because of the tax exemption and because of these cheap labor, the cost of their goods is reduced, the market is wider, they sell more, and the profit is greater. And the third is naturally the state, and the circulation of commodities will inevitably lead to the circulation of money, and the taxes will not be reduced by the reduction of those two places, but on the contrary, will become more. The same is true of the finances of the two counties, which appear to have reduced their tax revenues, but in fact they are bound to increase. ”

"Of course, as for how much it can be increased, it is closely related to the ability of parents and officials in various places to attract investment."

Shang Yu has never read "The Theory of a Rich Country", and he is still a little confused about this simple truth, after all, business has been at the bottom of society in all dynasties.

His thinking was still limited to agriculture, and agriculture in that place could not develop at all.

Don't say that relying on agricultural taxes to support the operation of the county government offices in the two places, even if they don't collect a penny, the peasants in the two places still don't have enough to eat.

Yan Beixi had carefully read "The Theory of a Rich Country" many times, and he began to accept the views in this book, and he understood Fu Xiaoguan's words in his heart.

It's just that His Majesty has not yet come to the court because of the affairs of the Queen Mother, and he does not dare to promote this policy.

Of course, he also has a lot of worries about the policy of this book, especially whether the pursuit of profits by the whole people will lead to farmers not taking care of crops? Sergeants are not in martial arts? Students don't think about learning and so on!

Although Fu Xiaoguan also explained this in that book, and stated that the division of labor in society will only make all walks of life more specialized, because economic development will inevitably lead to the progress of Gewu.

The progress of Gewu will have a far-reaching impact, the production efficiency of the peasants will become higher, the armor and weapons of the soldiers will become better, and the students will not necessarily have to study hard to study the sages, they can even choose the study of Gewu.

At the end of the theory of the rich country, Fu Xiaoguan even proposed to set up a course on Gewuxue in the Jixia School Palace, which was taught by officials of the Ministry of Industry, with the purpose of pursuing the truth of things, understanding the causes, and benefiting the society.

Of course, he also said that in order to reverse the students' cognition of Gewu, we still have to start from economic behavior, only when they see the huge advantages, some students may be interested in Gewu, otherwise, what they want is still a ten-year cold window, just to enter the dynasty as an official.

This is a huge system project, with Yan Beixi's vision, he knows that if it is implemented, it will be a huge social change, but he does not know what the final direction will be, so it is difficult for him to make decisions.

Yan Beixi pondered for a few breaths and looked at Fu Xiaoguan.

"After the Wu Chaowen Society returns, I want to send you to Quyi and Pingling."

Fu Xiaoguan was stunned, and hurriedly said: "Xia Guan is not available!" ”

Are you kidding?

Isn't it fragrant to send me to a place where the bird doesn't poop and nest at home?

"This is not to discuss with you......" Yan Beixi stood up and hammered his waist, "This is an order!" ”

He walked to the door and threw another sentence: "You can go to those two places for a field trip, and I allow you to bring the property of Xishan to those two places." ”

Fu Xiaoguan looked at Yan Beixi's back blankly, eager to slap himself twice, I'm special, this is clearly a cocoon to bind himself!