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The eastern capital in April is already warm and spring, but Liaodong is still cold and awe-inspiring. Chen Ling had already led more than 5,000 of his Zuowu guards to Liaodong to take over the post of left-behind guard.

Before he came, he was very unhappy, and after taking refuge in Pei Ju, he originally thought that he could be promoted and reused. Unexpectedly, the appointment announced by the imperial court in the end was to let him stay in Liaodong.

Although being a left-behind officer, compared to his current idle job, it is quite good at home. And staying behind is a positive position, which can be regarded as a feudal official. Even imperial relatives like Li Yuan vied to stay behind.

However, this place in Liaodong cannot be compared with the original at all. It is far away from the border gate outside the Saiwai, and the people are fierce. The Great Sui expedition was barely defeated after hundreds of thousands of casualties. I heard that although the place is large, it is sparsely populated, and there are many Goryeo bandits in the territory, and there are often steppe tribes who come to fight the autumn wind. In this way, which official of the DPRK and China is willing to come to such a wild place?

When he got the letter of appointment in Dongdu, Pei Yun assured him again that as long as he worked for two years, after the situation in Liaodong stabilized and Yuming's original power was eliminated, he would definitely be transferred to Ren Jiangdu. In this way, he barely calmed the resentment in his heart.

However, Rao was still disappointed when he saw the war-torn villages and the grassland herders everywhere along the way. It wasn't until he crossed the Liao River and saw the almost completed Liaodong City that he saw the magnificent city, which made his heart feel a little more relaxed. Although the city has only built its walls, it has not even repaired its towers. But he has seen from the outline that it is by no means smaller than the scale of the Central Plains cities such as Yuan, Beiping, Chengdu, and Xiangyang.

In the palace of the headquarters of the Liaodong City Camp, when handing over the seals and books left behind in Liaodong, he was originally a little trembling, worried that Yuming's subordinates would not cooperate, but later saw that Du Ruhui, Wei Zheng and others were respectful and polite to him, so he relieved his heart. I secretly thought that most of the people under my command were good at leading military training, and they were really not very good at government affairs. If the officials left by Yuming had been obedient, they would not have to be replaced.

He immediately announced that, in accordance with the resolution of the imperial court, the Liaodong camp would be officially abolished and changed to Liaodong Prefecture, which was divided into six counties: Liaoxi, Liaodong, Buyeo, Heishi, Aoki, and Pyongyang, and the state capital was located in Liaodong City. At the same time, a series of personnel appointments were announced. The original positions of officers and ministers in the Liaodong camp did not change, but Chen Ling appointed several generals he brought with him, such as Yuan Liang and Chen Zhiyong, as assassins and lieutenants to assist him in taking charge of the Liaodong military.

After more than ten days of dull days, Chen Ling finally found that his good days were over, and this Liaodong stay was not so easy to do.

On 25 May, Chen Ling inspected the newly built Liaodong City, which he estimated would be almost complete in June. He will be able to move into the brand-new Liaodong Prefecture Mansion and live in the office of the former Commander-in-Chief. But when he arrived in the new mansion, he found that there were no workers here, and the construction of the mansion had been closed.

"What's going on? Why are the workers gone? If we continue like this, when will we be able to move into the new mansion to live! Chen Ling shouted angrily.

His own soldiers hurriedly sent someone to ask a veteran on duty at the gate of the government office, only to learn that the man who built the government office had left a few days ago. And not only the government office has stopped, but all the construction facilities such as city walls, squares, military camps, and docks have been stopped.

"Why are all the people gone?" Chen Ling walked up to the veteran on duty and asked eagerly.

The old soldier opened a pair of cloudy presbyopia, looked at him like an idiot, stared at the rear for a long time, and said slowly: "Left-behind adults, these people didn't get paid, so they naturally ran away." Who would do anything without money? ”

"What? Do you still have to pay the people for repairing the imperial court? After hearing this, Chen Ling was stunned. Because the imperial court built facilities, repaired the city, etc., it was directly requisitioned and sent to migrant workers for repair, which was called forced labor, and the imperial court would never give a copper coin to the requisitioned migrant workers, at most they only took care of food. The same is true of the construction of the Great Wall, the excavation of canals, and the construction of the eastern capital.

"Yes, this is the rule set by Marshal Yu when he was there, so everyone has always done this, otherwise everyone is homesick and would have all returned to the Central Plains, who would still be willing to stay in the poor and remote land of Liaodong? But before General Yu left, the wages were only paid for April, and the wages for that month should be paid on May 20. But no one paid them, and when those migrant workers saw that no one paid them, of course they refused to continue to work. Seeing that this Lord Chen really didn't seem to know anything, the veteran on duty finally patiently explained to him.

Only then did Chen Ling understand, and he immediately shouted: "Call Du Ruhui!" Ask him how much money we have in the treasury? ”

Since the rule in this place in Liaodong is to pay the people, it is not good for him to break this rule as soon as he comes. But he was secretly thinking in his heart, why did this Yuming have such strange rules? Requisitioned migrant workers to build cities and government offices, and even paid migrant workers? Could it be that he has a lot of money in the treasury and can withstand such consumption?

The new government of Liaodong Prefecture was not far from the original headquarters yamen, and after about half an hour, Du Ruhui ran over panting. Then he saluted Chen Ling and said, "I don't know what happened when Lord Chen summoned the officials?" ”

Chen Ling asked angrily: "Du Ruhui, why don't you pay the people?" Our government office is about to be repaired, when will this stoppage go? Don't you want to move to a new yamen? ”

When Du Ruhui heard this, he immediately shouted: "Lord Chen, you have wronged the lower officials, the lower officials are just a long history, if the adults want to fight, the lower officials will naturally do their best for the adults, give advice, and be a good military advisor, but the treasury finance is controlled by Wei Zheng." The matter of stopping the payment of wages to the people was only learned from the adults! How do you know why? ”

Chen Ling twisted his beard and was silent after hearing this, since he came to Liaodong, he had been thinking about how to get Wei Zheng to hand over the financial power. After all, he had only arrived in Liaodong for more than 20 days, and his foundation was unstable, so if he moved Wei Zheng, the camp Sima, as soon as he came, he was afraid that it would cause a mutiny.

However, at this moment, Du Ruhui whispered to him: "Lord Chen, Wei Zheng mentioned to the lower officials yesterday that he was very tired of managing both the logistics of the army and the finances of Liaodong, and he wanted to ask your Excellency to choose another person to take over the power of finance. ”

"Oh? Wei Zhengken handed over financial power? A hint of surprise flashed in Chen Ling's eyes.

"Hmmm! He is already waiting for your lord in the headquarters and mansion! Du Ruhui bowed and said.

Chen Ling nodded hurriedly and said, "Since that's the case, we can't let Lord Wei wait for a long time." Let's go to the government office first! ”

He couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart. He has already obtained the right to appoint and dismiss personnel, and he is ready to appoint one of his relatives to an important position in the army in a few days, and only this financial power has always been a problem on his mind. Now that Wei Zheng was willing to take the initiative to hand over the financial power, he was really overjoyed.

Du Ruhui looked at him with a surprised expression, and couldn't help but secretly laugh in his heart. However, he still had a calm face, and walked quickly towards the former headquarters with Chen Ling......

Walking into the hall of the government, Chen Ling saw Wei Zheng sitting on a chair, his eyes were already half-closed, and he seemed to be about to fall asleep.

He was a little angry in his heart, so he coughed loudly twice. Wei Zhengfang was suddenly awakened, hurriedly opened his eyes, arched his hands and feet in a panic, and said in a panic: "Xiaguan has visited Lord Chen." Recently, the army has been really busy, working overtime almost every day, so the subordinate officials can no longer take charge of the finances of Liaodong. Now that Wei has counted the account books, he also asks Lord Chen to take a look! ”

With that, he stretched out his hand, and the two soldiers carried a linen pocket account book in front of Chen Ling.

Chen Ling picked up a few account books and looked at them, he didn't know anything about it, so he ordered his own soldiers around him to call Li Qin, this Li Qin was Pei Yun's staff specially equipped for him, not only wise, but also proficient in finance. He also had several staff members like this, all of whom assisted him in handling the political affairs of Liaodong.

It didn't take long for Li Qin to come with several staff members. Immediately they began to count the books.

After a while, he frowned and said to Chen Ling: "Lord Chen, according to the records of these account books, there are still twenty or fifty sets of cavalry armor, four sets of infantry armor, one hundred and eighty spears, two thousand crossbows, two thousand arrows, and forty or twenty shields in the Liaodong Mansion. There are about 80,000 stone of grain, enough for the officials and soldiers of the government to eat for about a month, and the financial ...... There are also eight copper coins that can be used in the warehouse......"

Even if Chen Ling is a big boss, no matter how he doesn't understand finance, he feels that there is a big problem. His own salary is fifteen yuan per month, plus a group of staff masters and accompanying five personal soldiers, he has to pay more than one yuan a month to his subordinates. If you add the officials and soldiers of the whole Liaodong, how can you get thousands of times. The money in this inventory is not even enough for the month of distribution, so how can it be handed over to the imperial court, as well as the construction of cities and mansions?

"How much did you earn that month?" Chen Ling asked eagerly. Although the money in the inventory is small, if the monthly income is high, there is no need to worry.

Li Qin said with a bitter face: "General Chen, according to this account book, from the first month of this year, Liaodong officially shifted its focus from war to production, and it took a total of four months to last month, and only 10,000 yuan was earned. ”

"What? That's it? Chen Ling said in disbelief: "Didn't Liaodong say that there are more than 10,000 residents?" Why do you earn less than 1,000 per month? And I see that there are a lot of merchants coming and going in Liaodong City, how can the tax be so low? ”

The income of 2,000 and a half a month is not even as high as that of a county in the south of the Yangtze River, not to mention compared with other states. Some big businesses, such as Tingxiang Pavilion, have more than this amount of money in a month's operating income. But you must know that although Liaodong is poor, it is a state capital!

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