There were bursts of laughter in the yard, Ju Xiang took a few maids to build a snowman in the garden, and Chen Xin's eldest son swayed to the side to help, and there was a burst of laughter from his mouth from time to time.

Chen Xin smiled knowingly, put down the two layers of window leaves facing the garden, the cold wind was blocked out of the house, turned his head back and sat on the drunken chair covered with fox skin, and shook it leisurely.

Liu Minyou, who was sitting opposite, was still calculating something on the small case, Chen Xin squinted his eyes and asked, "It's only a break in ten years, what else do you have to do?" ”

Did Liu Min raise his head and said: "Calculate how much you have to pay for this year's Tan Jing, and check it with the plan of the Foreign Affairs Department." ”

Chen Xin snorted, at the end of each year, it is a time to give gifts to bureaucrats in various places, and generally give more than Bing Jing in summer, so that twice a year can also make the officials of Beijing remember themselves.

Liu Minyou calculated for a while and suddenly threw the pen away, "Wang Tingtry to buy New Year's materials from the trading company again, and he can't say that he is in arrears again, and he won't give it back when he owes it." There are also the fathers-in-law of the 24th Yamen of the Beijing Division, who have to buy the New Year's goods needed for the New Year in the inner court from the trading company this year, and last year's ones have not been settled. ”

Chen Xin squinted his eyes and said, "Has Song Wenxian assessed it, does the foreign affairs side feel the need to sell to them?" ”

"The point is that you can't get the money." Liu Min said impatiently, "Last year, the inner court bought more than 70,000 taels of goods, so far only settled more than 10,000 taels, and this year I owe 30,000 taels, most of which are southern goods. ”

Chen Xin shook his chair and laughed, and after a while, he said: "That's all it takes for the inner court to embezzle money, but they say that it's true to see my face, if ordinary merchants are designated as 'not medium-range', if they don't do it, they will end up with a broken family, so the inner court will give us half the price." ”

Liu Minyou didn't want to count it anymore, so he lay down on his chair and asked: "Jingshi swallows our four or five hundred thousand salaries a year, and the trading company and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs count more than one million vehicles every year, which is about the same as our military spending." ”

"But our income is going up faster." Chen Xin said slowly, "It can be seen that this silver is worth spent, and more importantly, this silver goes into the pockets of those officials, and many people turn their heads and deposit it in the Four Seas Money Bank." We have a nominal salary of more than 1 million, and we have 600,000 left, but we can't count like you, you should think that you have taken an extra 600,000, not a loss of 400,000. Now that's what we can do, don't take it if you can't take it. Those in the capital are indispensable, and if the people of the twenty-four yamen want to buy goods, they will sell some to them, as the amount of silver for filial piety. ”

Liu Min let out a few long breaths, he manages the finances and civil affairs every year, and he still feels heartache when he sees that a lot of silver is given to those officials in vain, Chongzhen's early stage of the ceremony is not bad, and it is a few dozen taels for ordinary people to ask for help, but now it has risen to two or three hundred taels, and Dengzhou Town can only come according to the market. But now there is really no other way, as long as Dengzhou Town does not pull the flag and rebel for a day, then the Foreign Affairs Department and the society have to play according to the rules of the game of Daming.

He shook his head to drive away those annoying things, and said to Chen Xin about the winter, "It has snowed twice in a row, and the land business is about to enter the winter break, and the port will soon be frozen, and the farm work will not be done, and these three or four months will be consumed." ”

Chen Xin shrugged indifferently and said, "Isn't it like this every year, what's the difference?" ”

"This winter, the two cotton mills in Laizhou will continue to produce, after the beginning of the year, the output of the three cotton mills this year should be around 10 million horses, driven by this industry, we are not idle in winter, can drive a lot of economic vitality. Overall, the economy of Lai Chau is now more dynamic than that of Tengju. The winter in Dengzhou is like a backwater, so I thought of a way to make Dengzhou's economy active. ”

"What's the method?"

Liu Minyou sat up and said seriously: "Many of our soldiers come from Laotunpu in Dengzhou, these people have saved their salaries for a year or two, can you give the soldiers a holiday before and after the Spring Festival, let them go back to drive consumption, now there are carriages and horses along the main official roads in various places, and these population flows can also promote the growth of these carriages and horses, and it will be much more convenient for you to temporarily recruit the baggage team in the future." ”

As soon as Chen Xin heard the words of the baggage team, he came to his senses, and he immediately made it and said: "This idea is good, Laizhou to Dengzhou is not too far, anyone with more than one year of formal military experience can ask for leave to go home, these people have money, they have to eat well when they go home, they have to buy some good things for children and the elderly, naturally they have to consume, businessmen have to replenish goods, and car and horse shops also have business." This is a good idea, anyway, no one can come to attack Dengzhou in winter, just keep the first battalion on guard in Qingzhou Mansion. ”

Liu Minyou said: "Don't put it together, take a holiday in several batches, you can continue to boost consumption, and the pressure on transportation will not be too great." Merchants also have time to replenish goods by land, so let's build cards on the road to collect business taxes and develop the habit of paying taxes for these people. We are now relying on a monopoly industry, since you are aiming at the world, you can't always rely on this kind of industry, one day we will turn to taxes, but now our tax revenue ratio is less than 10%. ”

"This is a good idea, you will do it right away, Dengzhou is where we started, but now Wendeng is slowly being driven by Pingdu Prefecture, and it is good to let those veterans pull the economy. I'm just worried that Dengzhou's goods are not well prepared, and suddenly a large amount of military pay is withdrawn and consumed there, which may cause prices to rise. ”

"The comprehensive store can be transferred in various places, at least the main consumer goods will not skyrocket, and the price of other commercial goods will rise reasonably, otherwise the businessmen will not go out in winter, and now there are many small Tunpu business companies in Tunpu around the country, all of which are partnered by the tun households themselves. So for this purpose, I also plan to give the cigarette factory a month off so that they can also go back to Tunpu for consumption. ”

Chen Xin gave Liu Min a thumbs up, "Brother Liu is really the first person in the Civil Department, Mo Huaiwen and Xu Yuanhua are at most executors, and they can't make such decisions." Brother Liu said, is there any other clever plan? ”

Liu Min spread his hands, "There is no clever plan, I want to do a lot of things, but now I have to serve your war plane, so let's leave it at that." In addition, there is only one requirement, now we have no shortage of soldiers, can you clean up the soldiers in your army, and clean up those ordinary soldiers who are only sons and children too much, among the soldiers who died in the war this year, more than 30 people are only sons in the family, and more than 100 have more than two children, the Ministry of Civil Affairs can support it now, but you will definitely fight with Jiannu and Liukou in the future, especially in that place in southern Liaoning, if there are too many casualties, the burden will be very heavy, it is best to retire those veterans with heavy burdens, It's okay to be replaced as a non-commissioned officer in the reserves. Recruit more young ones, which will reduce the pressure on the Civil Ministry. ”

"I still have to study this, but I can first ask Li Donghua to count the only sons of each ministry and see if there are any conditions to replace them." ……

"Dog, your letter has been received, you don't want to play the Tartar, a few soldiers from the neighboring village came back, saying that you became a Tartar, and your mother and I can't even raise my head in the village. The comprehensive store under our family can earn three or five taels of silver a month, which is more secure than the previous small grain store. We don't want to be that soldier, you will come back with it, my mother will marry you a daughter-in-law, don't you know, the Zhang butcher in the village has said a few times, and he wants to marry our family......"

Tang Wei lay on his bed, read the letter in his hand smoothly, threw it aside listlessly, and picked up another piece of stationery, which was written by Guan Xiaomei, with only a few lines on it, "Tang Fatty, I am now in the Qingzhou Theater, my mother wrote to say that I was not allowed to sing anymore, urging me to return to Wendeng, what do you think." ”

Xie Fei leaned over and said, "Fatty, Juanzi is also in the Qingzhou Theater, she wrote to me that Xu Pingjie went to find Guan Xiaomei several times, and Guan Xiaomei also went out with him." That Xu Pingjie's family now drives a car and horse shop, and there is a salt shop, Xu Yuanhua is powerful again, then the Xu family is a prominent family, you ...... Don't wait for Guan Xiaomei. Listen to your mother's words, go back to Aoshanwei to guard the shop, I don't have to accompany you, I go back to Huangxian, I have the capital in a few years, let's partner to build that joint-stock trading company. ”

Tang Wei muttered: "Joint-stock trading company? ”

"I heard that as long as you pay taxes according to the regulations, you will be protected by Dengzhou Town, and if there is any business dispute, the Department of Industry and Commerce will decide on it, and Dengzhou Town will help seek justice."

Tang Wei glanced at Xie Fei, "That's a good thing, if there is a dispute with Jiangnan businessmen, our Dengzhou Town will not be able to kill Nanzhili to seek justice." ”

"That's better than you, you're an only son, it's not cost-effective for you to wait for Guan Xiaomei like this."

Tang Wei sighed, he was extremely depressed in this new barracks, he beat Yuan Guzi last time, and Yuan Guzi became the captain. Although Yuan Guzi took the initiative to be punished with them that day, Tang Wei rarely changed his opinion of this person, but after all, the two had a lot of dislikes. Later, the training was even more difficult, and Xie Fei often talked about returning to Huangxian, Tang Wei also felt a little wanted to go home.

Tang Wei raised the letter in his hand a little unwillingly, "Then why did she send a letter to ask if she should reply to Wendeng?" I don't think she promised Xu Pingjie anything. ”

"She didn't promise you anything, do you really believe you can get a medal?"

Tang Wei sat up suddenly, he pointed at Xie Fei and was about to scold, when suddenly the door was pushed open, "Stand up!" Several tall commanders strode in, and the chief officer of the training base walked in with a few officers they didn't know.

Tang Wei hurriedly stood in the middle of the laneway, and the captain Yuan Guzi ran over to salute, "Yuan Guzi, the captain of the third squad of the second platoon of the thirteenth company of the recruits, I have seen all the adults!" ”

An officer said loudly: "Lao Tzu is the battalion officer of the second battalion of the guards, you can call me Zhong Laosi, Lao Tzu's battalion is still almost a soldier, I heard that your squad has good training results, come and see, did you think of being a soldier in the guards battalion?" ”

Yuan Guzi suddenly said excitedly, "Villain...... Subordinates want to go, subordinates ......" He covered his face and cried twice, and continued: "The subordinate is the righteous son of Yuan Gusheng who died in the war in Fuzhou, and since the day Dengzhou Town adopted his subordinates, his subordinates have heard the name of Lord Zhong, and you are the chief official of my father-in-law." ”

Several officers looked at it at the same time, and Zhong Laosi asked in surprise, "Are you Yuan Gusheng's adopted son?" ”

The two officers next to him also came over and looked at the young man seriously, with a hint of surprise in their eyes.

Xie Fei whispered to Tang Wei beside him: "Fatty, one of them is Guan Xiaomei and her brother, have you seen it?" Beat you up in Qingzhou Mansion. ”

Tang Wei whispered back: "Lao Tzu saw it, this is the fate of Lao Tzu and Guan Xiaomei, Lao Tzu won't go back to Aoshanwei, don't go." ”

When Xie Fei drooped his head and agreed, Zhong Laosi over there patted Yuan Guzi, "The practice is great, Yuan Gusheng is good, don't embarrass him." It is our fate, Lord Chen transferred a group of drummers from this batch of young soldiers to other battalions, and vacated more than 100 soldiers. ”

The chief officer of the training base leaned into Zhong Laosi's ear and said, "There are a few cunning ...... in this team."

Zhong Laosi waved his hand, "There are no soldiers who are not well trained, this team has accepted them and made a book for them." ”