As the saying goes: there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below, and Suzhou has enjoyed the reputation of "paradise on earth" since ancient times. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although the war in the north continued and most of the people were displaced, this land south of the Yangtze River and Suzhou and Hangzhou was still prosperous and unaffected by the war.

The north and south banks, which are only separated by a river, seem to have become two worlds.

"Fortunately, the people here should be quite wealthy, as long as they have money, they don't have to worry about the army not being able to develop." Li Hongfei said with relief.

An economic power is basically a symbol of a military power.

The main reason why the Ming Dynasty was defeated by the peasant army was poverty, not that the people were poor, but that the emperor was poor, the treasury was empty, there was no money to buy arms, and there was no money to pay the soldiers.

Where does an army that lacks weapons and equipment and lacks military morale come from?

As for fighting for the faith...... What kind of joke are you expecting these big-headed soldiers who don't know a few big characters to understand what kind of beliefs?

The most basic condition that Li Hongfei needs for military training is money, and what he has to do is to find a way to concentrate the money of the people and the money in the hands of those clans and chaebols into the hands of the government.

Since ancient times, money can make ghosts grind, and the army built with a large amount of silver is equally terrifying in combat.

And such an army also has faith, and their faith is money.

Just like Li Zicheng's peasant army and the Manchu Eight Banner Army, the reason why these armies are so strong in combat effectiveness is because of money..........

The original idea was good, and the city was prosperous everywhere, and Li Hongfei was also full of confidence.

But after coming to the prefect's yamen, he was dumbfounded again.

"Old Wu, have we come to the slum?" Li Hongfei couldn't help but ask the people who accompanied him.

If Suzhou is counted as a metropolis, then after entering the city, the dozen or so streets that Li Hongfei passed through belong to the rich area.

And the place where he will eventually take office is a slum.

The prefect's yamen is dilapidated, except for the two imposing stone lions at the door, there is nothing else that Li Hongfei can see.

The red paint on the gate of the government has fallen off a lot, and the whole door looks red and black, if it is not cleaned, it is still clean and tidy, and it is even inferior to the broken temple where Li Hongfei lived last time.

"My lord, the prefect of Suzhou is like this, the former prefect was honest and honest, so he didn't have the money to repair it." Wu Hao explained respectfully.

Wu Hao is forty and five, and he was in Nanjing before, but he was just a petty official of the eighth grade.

originally thought that this was the only way to do this in this life, but his talent was taken by Li Hongfei.

It's not that there are any other talents, but Wu Hao is a person who has a very good set of business skills, and what Li Hongfei lacks is such a talent, so he implored Zhu Youzhen to let Wu Hao follow him and come to Suzhou to be a fellow acquaintance.

Since ancient times, the status of merchants is the lowest, and when everyone talks about merchants, the most commonly used word is profiteers.

As a court official, he doesn't talk about the way of governing the country, and tinkers with this way of business all day long, which makes Wu Hao and those officials who have read the books of sages and sages unable to talk together at all.

So Wu Hao, who entered politics at the age of twenty, did not rise in rank until he was forty-five years old.

Now thanks to Li Hongfei's appreciation, let him be appointed as the governor of Suzhou Prefecture, with the official rank of five grades, which directly jumped seven levels in a row, causing Wu Tao to face Li Hongfei as if he was treating his own parents with respect, which made Li Hongfei sometimes a little embarrassed.

"For the integrity of the officials? It's not so clean that you don't even have money to repair the gate! "Li Hongfei didn't have a good airway.

This is a government agency, in this flowery Suzhou, the official yamen is not as good as the Lichun Courtyard that passed by before, where does this make the government's face go?

"Lord Prefect, don't you know, now that there are many wars, in order to save expenses, even today's saints are thrifty in food and clothing, and the officials below certainly don't dare to be extravagant and wasteful." Wu Tao finally revealed the fundamental reason.

In order to save military spending, Zhu Youzhen only ate two meals a day, and even canceled a lot of unnecessary expenses, so it can be said that Zhu Youzhen was the most frugal emperor in the entire Ming Dynasty.

The emperor is so frugal, if the people below are extravagant and wasteful, once they are discovered by the East Factory or the Inspection Division, those officials will be in big trouble.

"Formalism, typical formalism! What is the official integrity, to put it bluntly, is afraid of the blame from above, throw away the black yarn hat, so I don't dare to do the main repair, the government is the face of the Ming Dynasty, even the face is tattered, it is not as good as the houses of the people, poor into such an official government, do the people still have confidence in us? Li Hongfei said.

If the whole of Suzhou were similar, Li Hongfei wouldn't say much, but this is simply a slum.

Originally, he wanted to implement reform measures after taking office, make the people richer, and tie their vital interests to the Ming government to fight against the powerful Manchu government.

But with such a poor yamen in front of him, he said that he wanted to bring the people to get rich, and it was strange that the people could believe it.

"The lesson of the lord is that after his subordinates take office, they will immediately mobilize silver taels and repair this yamen." Wu Hao hurriedly agreed.

Wu Hao has a lot of research on business, so he naturally understands it at all.

The door of the government is open, and there are two dozing officials guarding the door, Wu Hao woke him up, and after some inquiry, he learned that the officials of the government are now in the general's mansion, and they are washing the dust for Qi Hongying, the general soldier of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Even the cooks in the government were transferred to help the cooks because there were not enough cooks in the general's mansion.

Now there is no one in the entire yamen except for the two guards who are dozing off and guarding the door.

"Bastard! Don't you know that the new prefect is coming to office today? One by one, they actually ran to the general army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to catch the wind, the generals, the garrison, and the thousand presidents are still excusable, the general judgment, the officials, the governor, these guys, even the direct boss did not come to visit? Wu Hao's face was extremely ugly.

These people didn't come to pick up Li Hongfei, they clearly wanted to give the new boss a boost!

After all, at the level of the prefect, he is basically an important member of the imperial court, and everyone is familiar with each other, but now a person who doesn't know anyone has appeared out of thin air, and after inquiry, the other party is still a young man in his twenties, some old qualified officials, and it is strange that he will give face.

"Forget it, put the luggage in the backyard, and let's go to the restaurant outside for dinner." Li Hongfei said casually.

Originally, according to the normal situation, the officials should wait in the yamen to receive the wind for the newly arrived chief, mainly to make a familiar face in front of the new chief, for which Li Hongfei also declined Qi Hongying's invitation and hurriedly came over to meet his subordinates.

As a result, all the subordinates of this group went to meet Qi Hongying, this is really more popular than people.........

Li Hongfei had already rejected Qi Hongying's invitation before, and if he went over to eat with a dead face at this time, he would not be killed by the old girl's diaphragm, so he could only write down this account, and then slowly settle it with that group of subordinates in the future.