"Si Kou, if the current rate of spending continues, before the autumn harvest next year, the money in the treasury of Sanyi Mansion will be exhausted!"

Ji Qiao's statement is not groundless, and the slip in his hand full of "Zhou Ji Numbers" is this year's income and next year's budget.

He said bitterly: "Since the beginning of the tax of the Lu State a hundred years ago, it began to change the nationality of Tian Chefa to collect grain tax, but after Si Kou became the government, he not only burned the backlog of bonds in previous years, but also almost completely exempted this year's autumn tax. So not to mention Yuncheng, which has just started for a month, even Zhen and Xiaqiu, who have ruled for half a year, don't have much tax income......"

For this, Zhao Wuxian naturally has his own reasons.

He replied: "The importance of agriculture first is the fundamental law that I formulated when I convened the public meeting of the officials a few days ago. The ancients said that if agriculture is successful, there will be more corn, and if there is more corn, the country will be rich, and everything in the world will be exhausted. Therefore, if you want to be rich in the fiefdom, you can't ignore the importance of food, this truth, Mr. Ji should know. ”

In the past, the governments of Wei, Qi, and Lu were all virtuous, and the taxation was as urgent as a spark, and there was no timing, so the peasants had to borrow 'one to repay two' from the Yi Temple, the clan, or the merchants to meet the levy, so there would be a backlog of so many bonds.

In addition, the government colluded with the merchants to deliberately lower the price of grain during the harvest season, and the taxes of the closed city, the collection of the government treasury, the tenth of the tax, the qiujia, and all kinds of labor were pressed on the peasants. As a result, farming often ends with only one family, and in a disaster year, it is common for one or two people per family to starve to death, which is why a large number of farmers flee to Onozawa.

Wuxian is also bitter about this: "The outflow of peasants is precisely the reason why there is little food and the households have no savings. Not to mention after the army. There will be a year of calamity, where the teacher is. Thorns are born, and Sanyi has only been ravaged by war for a short time. Although the Jin army did not plunder because of me, it was still not in good shape, not to mention having to deal with my conscription. How can I bear to let the people break their homes and wealth and sell their children and daughters because of this, and how can I be willing for them to pour into Onozawa under my rule and increase the strength of the thieves!? ”

Ji Qiao was dumbfounded, but still said: "Although this move is to stabilize the hearts of the people in Sanyi and let the economy recover after the war." But it's too much, just a small amount of reduction. Now that it is winter, Sanyi Farming does not expect to have any income, at least at the beginning of the summer next year, and the winter wheat will only have to be earned......

In a year and a half, powder food has spread from the Jin Kingdom to the Song, Qi, and Cao regions, and even the Lu Kingdom has begun to bloom everywhere. What's so hard to imitate. Although both Zhendi and Xiaqiu built mills early, with the spread of technology, the monopoly of wheat flour is getting lower and lower, and there is no windfall profit expected by Ji Qiao.

He was very unhappy about it. He raised his voice again and said, "The expenses in the past six months are too great, and Si Kou can't help but pay attention to them. Repairing walls, roads, and ditches is an expense. The new policy was implemented, and the subordinate officials were no longer granted food fields. Therefore, the officials had to pay a lot of money every month, and after the autumn and winter, they had to give a jacket and a coat to protect them from the cold. ”

"And the biggest cost. is still Si Kou's nearly 1,000 recruits, and his generation is not a farmer. On weekdays, he only focuses on training and suppressing thieves, and his armor is excellent, and he must be replaced every month, and the dead and wounded are compensated. The conscription is also too tolerant, the secretaries of the Jin State conscripted soldiers, and their generations also had to bring their own clothes and weapons, but Si Kou here should be provided, if he has merit after the war, he will also give clothes and brown food, so that the people are happy to be recruited......

Wuxian smiled: "Isn't it good that the people like to be drafted and no longer deliberately evade labor?" This is precisely the thin taxation, do not be harsh on the people, treat them with loyalty, and the people can make relatives. ”

He knew all these things that Ji Qiao said, but he had read "The Wealth of Nations" in his previous life, which said that as a monarch, whether it is a large or small state, or a feudal lord, he has to fulfill a variety of obligations and pay a lot of expenses at the same time.

For example, the first expense of a monarch is to do his best to maintain his dignity. Therefore, there should be a certain amount of money to repair the mansion, make clothes and belts, maintain the chariot and horse honor guard, and give gifts to the nobles who know each other during the New Year's Festival. These things are precisely Zhao Wuxian's most provincial, in this regard, Ji Qiao is extremely appreciative, diligence and thrift have always been praised by the world's wise men, such as the simplicity of the Bank of China Muzi, the luxury of the Bank of China, so the father and son have different reviews among the corporal doctors in the world.

More important is the second obligation, which is to ensure the security of the territory, for which the monarch must pay a lot of money to protect the territory from the tyranny and remorse of his neighbors and robbers. Therefore, it is necessary to raise standing soldiers, train them every other day, and at the same time fortify the city, make war equipment, etc.

The third obligation of a monarch or state is to establish and maintain the functioning of public institutions and public works. The government offices, prisons, and subordinate officials from the eup, to the pavilion, opened roads, dredged rivers, dug ditches, and built water conservancy equipment that was conducive to farming. There are also Zhao Wuxian's plans to imitate Confucius and Shaozheng Mao's private schools, revitalize public schools, and promote Mongolian education among the people, all of which belong to this aspect......

With a three-pronged approach, the money in the treasury will be consumed so quickly.

Since coming to Pubei, Ji Qiao has been sad when he sees his dwindling savings, but Zhao Wuxian doesn't care about it, and leads his troops to fight outside.

He held it for a long time, and then he spit it out and said quickly: "If it's okay on weekdays, Zigong is running an extravagant business in Taoyi, and he can exchange thousands of stones of grain every month to send to Zhendi." This is the reason why the harvest in Pubei in the past six months is less than in previous years, but there is no famine, and a part of the grain can be distributed to Zhongdu. ”

"But once the war starts, for example, this time, Si Kou mobilized thousands of people, only went out for more than 100 miles, and fought in the territory of Lu for a month, but he still spent a lot of money every day."

When it comes to financial issues, Ji Qiao is ruthless, he strictly controls every expenditure, and every account has to be carefully calculated by the students of mathematics, Zhao Wuxian's housekeeper is not good!

As Sun Tzu said, where the method of war, galloping thousands of cars, leather cars thousands of times, with 100,000 armor, thousands of miles of food, then the internal and external expenses, the use of guests, the material of glue paint, the dedication of car armor, the daily cost of thousands of gold, and then 100,000 teachers are raised. These war raw materials come from a small amount of accumulation in the arsenals of Zhen and Xiaqiu, as well as the production of the newly built craftsman workshop day and night.

Zhao Wuxian has indeed been a little "reckless" in the past six months, but there is a faint meaning in Ji Qiao's words that he will disband some of the recruits after the war. He would never agree to that.

So Wuxian retorted: "What Mr. Ji said is not bad, the most expensive thing in the world is war. But the most profitable thing is also war! ”

Wuxian has the confidence to say this, those gold and jade and Lu Palace treasures carried by Yang Hu. Except for Dadong Baoyu and Bo Bird Big Bow, which were the tools of the town and had to be returned to the Gonggong, the rest were transported back to Xiaqiu, and it was said that they were divided by the Yanghu Yu Party and "disappeared". In addition, under the pretext of suppressing thieves, the arsenal in the west of Qufu City was basically emptied by him, and the weapons and armor that were lost during the battle of the soldiers were replenished, and there was even a lot of surplus, which could be used to equip the Yi soldiers. At last. In the pursuit of the thieves, they also seized a part of the looted money, half of which was returned to Zhongdu and Kancheng, and the rest was counted and placed in the treasury, which was enough to offset the cost of the war.

He finally said: "Mr. Ji, don't forget that the number of people we have lost is far less than that of the more than a thousand captured robbers, and this generation can be reduced to vassals and engaged in the cultivation of public land and the reclamation of wasteland. All the gains were returned to the treasury, which was another big income. ”

Ji Qiao spread his hands and said: "It is true that if there is no such entry, I am afraid that we will not even be able to support the spring planting next year." But even so. Si Kou also had to consider for his subordinates, if there was no new income, Sanyi would arrive in the autumn and July of next year. The government will not be able to maintain its armaments expenditures due to its lack of treasury revenues! ”

This is no longer a small fight when I was a villager. It is related to the food, clothing, and survival of more than 30,000 people in Sanyi! If the governance is smashed, there will be no Zhao Ying from the lower palace to shelter. to help with aftermath support.

But since Zhao Wuxian dared to spend money lavishly, he naturally had the idea of open source for a long time.

"No farming, no stability, no soldiers, no work, no wealth, no business, no life, no soldiers, no prosperity! Shinong industry and commerce, the pillar of the country, are also indispensable. Although the first priority was to encourage the revival of agriculture, industry and commerce would not be pulled down, and this was the way to maintain expenses until the autumn solstice was collected. Mr. Ji, don't forget, the craftsmen who came from Lucheng, plus the craftsmen who came from the Jin Kingdom and the Song Kingdom one after another, as well as the people who were collected in this war, have exceeded 500 people. ”

Speaking of this, Ji Qiao's mood was a little better: "Indeed, there are a large number of them, specializing in hundreds of crafts, from now on, we can be self-sufficient in any handmade goods, and we don't have to look up to outsiders!" ”

Self-production and self-sale should save money than buying from outside, but Zhao Wuxian thinks more long-term.

Zhen and Yuncheng have a wide area, fertile fields, and Liqiu is slightly inferior, so he wants to make this place specialize in craftsmanship and build it into a handicraft center in Yanzhou!

He began to describe the grand blueprint in his mind to Ji Qiao: "Things that have been made by hand have condensed into new values, so they are generally more expensive than raw materials." In this way, I was in charge of coming up with ideas for open source, and the Gongyi clan and Baigong of the artisan workshop turned these ideas into reality, and Zigong relied on the trade routes and connections opened up by the extravagant industry to sell the new goods in Taoyi at a high price and make a profit. Later, he used the profits to buy the raw materials that Sanyi lacked and transported them to Pubei for processing......"

On the other hand, Ji Qiao is responsible for reducing expenditures and allocating expenditures on public institutions, people's livelihood, and the military, so that a virtuous circle can be formed.

Now that Zhao Wuxian has a stable territory, some productivity improvements naturally have to be put on the agenda, such as improving iron smelting and improving agricultural tools and weapons to make them more efficient.

But this requires a lot of copper and iron, and the tragedy is that there is basically no copper mountain in the Lu country, and there are not many left in the treasury. Therefore, it can only be purchased privately with the nobles of the outside world, such as the Wu State and the Chu State. There are several iron-producing mountains in the country of Lu, and although iron is now called "evil gold", it is not cheap.

In addition, leather, feathers, and salt are all lacking in Sanyi.

In exchange for the above, it is obviously not enough to rely only on Zigong's extravagant business in Taoyi, as well as the future agricultural taxes, but also to have the characteristic industries of Sanyi, and the goods that can be exchanged, so that they can form an industrial chain with the imported raw materials, so as to complete the "primitive accumulation"!

Wu Xian said: "After Lu Taoweng's survey, the most clay in Zhendi is the best, so the porcelain kiln should be built there, and the first kiln can be produced after the winter solstice, hoping that it is not worse than porcelain, which is the first thing to collect money." ”

"And the second piece is the 'hemp paper' that I am trying to make in the craftsman's workshop, and after half a decade of development, the first batch of finished products has been made...... Gongxi Zihua likes to write in a simple book, thinking that this thing is useless, and at the same time violates the ancient system, the first one is against mass production, and now he is waiting for me to argue there, Mr. Ji is willing to go with me to see? (To be continued......)

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