In mid-April, Li Bashao and Su Mai came to Bianliang. They were joined by more than 100 of the best students from Yingtian School. These students are all talented people, and the reason why they voted for Yingtian Public School is to plate themselves with a golden signboard of Sumen disciples.

Most of these students are in their twenties, in the prime of life, and have the ambition to make a difference. On the way to Bianliang, many students were still discussing whether the reason why Yue Shuai personally wrote to invite them students was to arrange official positions for them. There are even students who think they are both civil and military, and they speculate that Yue Shuai may want to ask them to be military advisors. As a result, when they came to Bianliang and saw Yue Fei, Yue Fei smiled and arranged a task for them. That is to let them organize the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Bianliang City, half of them to repair the city walls, and half to repair those abandoned workshops.

What kind of official is this? Many students secretly wonder in their hearts that this seems to be the job of the chief. Many of the students had disapproving looks on their faces.

Most of these students come from Yingtian and Xuzhou. They have the strongest sense of belonging to the Protectorate. They have always believed that the one who will win the world in the future will definitely be the invincible Marshal Yue. And they, the Sumen disciples, will definitely be reused. Yue Shuai doesn't like scholars who can only recite poems. But their Sumen disciples are proficient in miscellaneous studies. After all, Su Dongpo is a miscellaneous champion who invented the seedling horse and the keel waterwheel. Of course, the public school students take Su Dongpo as their idol. In addition to cultural classes every day, their favorite thing to do is to mess around with things.

A student named Wang Fang invented an iron stove for burning coal, and was bought with technology by Yingtianfu Zhangjia Iron Mill for five hundred taels of silver. In just over a month, at least tens of thousands of Zhangjia coal stoves have been sold. What made these students even more excited was that Yue Fei knew about Wang Fang's invention and immediately ordered Yingtian Arsenal to confer the title of inventor on Wang Fang.

However, although these students are pragmatic, they still maintain the arrogance of scholars, and let them take on the work of the lieutenant chief, and they can't turn a corner for a while. Good people don't be officials. From ancient times to the present, there are no good people who are small officials.

Seeing that the students who were full of interest fell silent all of a sudden, Yue Fei immediately guessed their thoughts. Yue Fei smiled slightly, looking at these young faces with his eyes. "Students, I know what you think, good people don't be officials. You may think that being a petty official is a bent. But I just want to say that the fierce general starts from the army, and the prime minister starts from the state and county. You have the talent to learn, you have the ambition, but what you lack most now is experience. Now there are hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Bianliang City, and since the Protector Army occupied Bianliang, the displaced people from all over the world are still rushing to Bianliang. These displaced people come from all walks of life in the north and south, and each displaced group is like a small state and county, and if you can appease these displaced people, it will be very helpful for you to deal with state and county affairs in the future. ”

The students' eyes lit up all at once. Yue Shuai's words were too obvious. It seems that the rumors are true, Yue Shuai really uses Yingtian Public School as a civil official training base. In this case, it doesn't matter if you want to be the chief to manage the homeless, but let them build a wall and become the homeless.

"Students, most of the homeless people are broken families, and they are very pitiful. I only hope that when organizing the displaced people, the students can do four words and compare their hearts with their hearts. You must always remember that we are not an official army, not a gold army, not a bandit army, we are a people's protection army. Our duty is to protect the people of the world, not to kill them. ”

Yue Shuai rest assured. We will not lose the face of the Suman disciples. More than 100 students spoke almost in unison.

Yue Fei assigned more than 300 disabled veterans of the Protector Army to serve as deputies for these students. Then more than 100 students rushed out of the left-behind mansion and rushed to their respective streets and alleys under the guidance of the old soldiers.

Seeing that his students were valued so much by Yue Fei, Su Mai was of course very happy. He is Su Dongpo's eldest son, although he is also famous all over the world, but because Su Dongpo and the old and new parties do not deal with each other, no matter which party comes to power, Sumen's disciples are the targets of suppression. Of course, Su Mai is no exception, he is now half a hundred years old, but he has suffered a lot of trouble. Only in Yingtianfu did Su Mai rediscover the pride and pride of Su Dongpo's eldest son. He is not the material for being an official, but Su Mai is a good miscellaneous champion.

Su Mai came to Bianliang this time, in addition to escorting the students, there was also an important matter to tell Yue Fei. He and his student Zhao Zhi's research on green hair has not yet yielded results, but the two have refined alcohol from spirits.

Su Mai took out a wine jug from his luggage as if offering a treasure, poured out a little of the clear liquid in the jug, and then took out a lit torch and touched the liquid, and the liquid immediately burst into flames.

"The ancients said that water overcomes fire, and fire overcomes water, but now it seems that it is not true!" Su Mai shook his head and said, "Water can still make a fire." ”

Yue Fei laughed, "Gong Su is reasonable. The Five Elements Doctrine is extremely absurd. ”

"What's the use of this alcohol?" Li Bashao, who was standing next to him, suddenly asked.

Su Mai was stunned for a moment. He and Zhao Zhi invented alcohol out of an accidental idea. Zhao Zhi discovered that spirits can ignite, but water cannot. Zhao Zhi said that there must be something in the wine that can be burned. The two of them tinkered with it for half a month, wasting hundreds of catties of spirits, and finally refined this bit of alcohol. But what can alcohol do, Su Mai really didn't think of it.

Yue Fei said with a smile, "Elder Li, the effect of this alcohol is not only to destroy the Five Elements Doctrine, but also to disinfect alcohol. With this kind of thing, the Protectors won't have so many disabled soldiers. ”

In the ancient era of cold weapons, the mortality rate of disabled soldiers was extremely high. Wounded on the battlefield, it is very easy to get infected and inflamed. Sometimes a small wound can cost a warrior's life.

As soon as Li Bashao heard that this thing could be used on the battlefield, he immediately stopped talking. Yue Fei immediately asked Su Mai to sell the refining technology of alcohol to Yingtian Arsenal, and as for the price, he asked Su Mai to negotiate with Xu Qing.

As soon as he heard the word money, Li Bashao's face twitched again. Yue Fei asked worriedly, "Elder Li, could it be that what happened to Ying Tianfu?" ”

Su Mai also looked at Li Bashao a little strangely. Li Bashao usually does not change color before Mount Tai collapses, but this time he came to Bianliang, but he seemed to be very concerned.

Li Bashao glanced at Su Mai and stopped talking. Su Mai immediately understood that Li Bashao and Yue Fei must have something important to discuss. immediately smiled and said, "You two sons-in-law let's talk first, I'll go out for a walk." ”

Yue Fei immediately sent two backswain troops and went out with Su Mai. Although the Protector Army took control of Bianliang City, there were still many remnants of the Ghost Fan Tower hidden in the sewers. Yue Fei didn't want Su Mai to have any accidents in Bianliang.

Seeing that only the two of them were left in the entire hall, Li Bashao said with a stern expression, "Pengju, Ying Tianfu has no money. ”

Yue Fei suddenly became nervous. "How much more?"

Li Bashao said, "There are only more than 200,000 taels of silver left." ”

Yue Fei gasped. As the commander of one side, of course he understands that whether it is fighting, pacifying the locality, or recruiting displaced people, everything is inseparable from money. The emperor is not short of hungry soldiers. The soldiers and horses did not move, and the grain and grass went first. The well-known words of these people illustrate the importance of money and food.

The reason why the Protector Army won all battles was that in addition to the effective command of Yue Fei and others, the more important thing was that the Protector Army's military salary was high, the treatment was good, and the three meals a day could make the soldiers serve the dead. The Protector is paid once a month. Today, there are 100,000 people in the Protector Army, and with the newly reorganized Wandering Army, there are almost 200,000 people. Every moonlight military salary costs hundreds of thousands of taels. More than 200,000 taels of silver is a drop in the bucket. Although Yue Fei believed that even if the military salary was not paid for a month, the Protector Army would not mutiny, but the morale of the army would inevitably be hit. But this point is absolutely intolerable to Yue Fei. Today, in addition to the earliest tens of thousands of elite soldiers, the combat power of other soldiers is far inferior to that of the Jin soldiers. The only thing that can defeat the golden soldiers is the spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice. These soldiers were willing to die on the battlefield of the anti-Jin war, but they believed that Yue Fei could take care of their families. Yue Fei can't let these heroes shed blood, and the heroes' families have to shed tears.

"Is there any other way to raise money?" Yue Fei didn't know anything about how to dislike money, so he could only ask Li Bashao questions.

Li Bashao twisted his beard and said slowly, "Pengju, we have money in Yingtian and Xuzhou, and many rich people have moved to Fucheng, bringing carts of gold and silver. If we can get them to pay some of the money, it will definitely solve the urgent need. ”

Yue Fei smiled bitterly. Didn't these rich people flee to Yingtian Xuzhou just to keep that bit of property? I want them to help the Protector Army, unless they send an army to rob it. But in that case, he is no different from the Jin Bing Imperial Court. In the blink of an eye, the Protector will lose its appeal to the heroes of the world. Although Yue Xiaofei's hostile camp used this method to incite the people, kill the landlords, fight the inferior gentry, and make full use of the evil of human nature, it also made a lot of trouble. But Yue Fei was reluctant to use that method. That approach can work for a while, but it can do a lot of harm.

"Those rich people have paid all the taxes they should pay, and they haven't broken any laws, so I'm afraid it's not appropriate for them to pay. We can't just grab it, can we? ”

Li Bashao laughed and said, "Pengju has a mistake. Of course, we can't learn from the Golden Dog and the Pilgrimage. Huang Zongshi and I discussed it and prepared to hold a fundraising event. These wealthy gentlemen are more profitable and famous. With a little tricking, you can still get them to bleed. Of course, this is only a stopgap measure. In order to keep the Protector Army from starving for military resources, we must find a way to increase revenue. ”

"What is the best way for Elder Li?" Yue Fei asked eagerly.

Li Bashao only said two words, "Tax increase." ”

Seeing that Yue Fei was a little stunned, Li Bashao immediately analyzed it clearly, "According to the statistics of the commercial tax departments of the two places, there are now more than 80,000 merchants in Yingtianfu alone, and there are more than 60,000 merchants in Xuzhou. Although most of them are small merchants, there are more than 5,000 merchants with a daily income of 1,000 taels, and dozens of large merchants with a daily income of more than 10,000 taels. If we can raise taxes by 10%, there will definitely be no financial shortage. Even if you recruit ten more elite soldiers, it will be enough to provide for you richly. ”

"Are the merchants overstressed?" Yue Fei thinks that raising taxes is a solution. But his first concern is still the survival of the merchants. It is not necessary to focus only on the immediate plan of despair.

Li Bashao laughed and said, "Pengju, you are just too kind-hearted." Shi Buyu and I are both big merchants, and Huang Zong's clan also has businessmen, and we all know how comfortable the merchants under the jurisdiction of the Protector Army are. Nowadays, the imperial court collects a hundred and three taxes, that is, goods worth one hundred wen, and three wen is levied. The tax on seafood and spices is heavy, and the tithe is levied, and the goods worth ten cents are levied at four cents. We should be levied on the ordinary goods of Tianfu is a tithe, and the goods worth ten wen are levied on a penny, which is much heavier than the tax of the imperial court, why are the merchants still desperately rushing to Ying Tianfu? Just because our Protector Army adopts a tax system, after paying a layer of tax for goods, all the territory of the Protector Army can pass unimpeded. As for the imperial court, on the surface, they levied three cents, but they had to relevy once after a county, or even once after a town. And what are the bridge tolls, tolls, and fancy renovation collections. In this way, the merchant finally pays a hundred and three taxes, but a hundred hundred taxes, or even one hundred and two hundred taxes. Although the money was eventually passed on to the common people, the life of the small traders was also extremely difficult, and if they failed to sell the goods, they might become beggars. ”

Li Bashao opened a pair of bright eyes and said very proudly, "Look at our Ying Tianfu again, which small trader's life is not thriving?" What merchant's fortune isn't multiplying? Although Pengju can rest assured, Shi Buyu and I are both from big businessmen, and we know better that if a place wants to be strong, it must be business-oriented. We're not going to do stupid things like killing chickens and taking eggs. ”

Yue Fei listened to Li Bashao's analysis, and immediately relaxed. Li Bashao suddenly remembered something, and asked, "Pengju, Hu Shang is mostly very rich. When you cleared Hu Shang some time ago, how much silver did you copy out? ”

Yue Fei thought for a moment before he said, "Thousands of glass products were copied out, as well as some Hu artifacts, as for the silver taels, only a hundred thousand taels were copied out in total, and all of them were returned to the families of the displaced people who died in the early battle." ”

"That's not right!" Li Bashao said loudly, "Hu Shangsu is known as a huge rich. When I came to Bianliang more than ten years ago, I went to several Hu merchants, and there were so many gold and jade treasures that I was dazzled by the rich man. These Hu merchants relied on the connivance of the imperial court, suppressed local merchants, and monopolized their monopoly, and absolutely accumulated a huge amount of wealth. How is it possible to copy out such a small amount of money? They must have hidden their money somewhere! ”

Yue Fei saw that Li Bashao said so surely, and he couldn't help but be moved. However, Zhang Xian did search very carefully in several streets where Hu Shang lived, and in order to find the wealth hidden in the walls and underground, he also deliberately found a few guards who were used to stealing, and went to those homes to investigate, but still found nothing. Later, Zhang Xian found out that the Hu people had sent more than a dozen carts of silver taels to the Jin people, and thought that the Hu people had given all the money to the Jin people, so they gave up. But listening to Li Bashao's words, the Hu people must still have a large amount of money hidden in a secret place.

Li Bashao twisted his beard under his chin, thought for a while, and suddenly asked, "How many homeless people have entered Huren Street?" ”

Yue Fei saw that Li Bashao was already suspecting that the homeless was hiding money, and immediately shook his head. "Elder Li, those homeless people are absolutely fine."

Since Yue Fei said that there was no problem, it must be no problem. Li Bashao fell into thought again.

He came to Bianliang this time, although he came to report to Yue Fei on the issue of tax increases. But more importantly, he came to ask Yue Fei for money. He thought that Zhang Xian must have made a fortune by copying Hu Shang. Not to mention that it will take a few years, it can still be done in a few months to help the people's army.

"Hu Shang is cunning and deceitful, and he definitely transferred his property somewhere before the incident." Li Bashao still said with certainty.