Old man Bi's action was indeed extraordinary, he did not talk to Qiong Haijun at all about salt politics from the beginning, but directly talked about the overall income of the three territories of Qiongzhou, Luzon and Taiwan - Hubu Shangshu was really the most sensitive to this aspect.

"The old man has noticed you before he was imprisoned, and he has some spare time these days, and he has read a lot of newspapers about Qionghai Town. You've done a great job in those three places. The annual income of Qiongzhou Mansion has far surpassed that of Guangzhou, and it can be called the first among all the high-class state capitals of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, and Thirteen Provinces; Although there are only two places available on the island of Taiwan, the food is not only sufficient for self-sufficiency, but also can be transported in large quantities to help you recruit displaced people; Luzon side...... It's called Manila City, right? In the past year, trading with Xiyi alone has yielded tens of thousands of taels of silver in commercial taxes alone...... According to the calculation of the 30 tax, in trade alone, more than 5 million gold and silver were in and out of Manila City last year! And most of this trade is done by the trading house under your name......"

When he said this, Bi Ziyan leaned closer, with the kind of smile on his face that only insiders understand:

"The old man roughly helped you estimate: at least two million or more income per year, it is not a false account of spending, right?"

Lin Hanlong and Guo Yi glanced at each other, and a few beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads - although Bi Ziyan's guess of the actual number was still a little far away, but without seeing the internal accounts of the Qiong Navy at all, he could roughly estimate the financial income of the Qiong Navy just by experience, which was really troublesome to deal with insiders.

Guo Lin and the others were speechless for a while, but Chen Tao next to him reacted quickly, and hurriedly said:

"Old man, don't forget to calculate our expenses!"

Lin Hanlong shook his head slightly, isn't this a disguised admission that we have at least so much income, and it is not a good thing to be listened to by these high-ranking officials.

Sure enough, as soon as I talked about the specific amount of money, I Yanru Qian Qianyi and Yang Yihe ...... Several of them slowed down markedly, and their ears pricked up -- according to the historian Huang Renyu. Ming officials have always lacked digital thinking, and often only looked at problems in a big way, but rarely had the patience to operate in practice. They can study human nature very thoroughly, but when they encounter problems that need to be quantified, they are mostly blind.

But this is not because they want it to be so, but because the education they received since childhood is flawed - China's imperial examination selection system has always focused only on articles and neglected mathematics. Zhou Yanru has been bragging and chatting with Lin Hanlong these days...... Did he really not want to talk to Lin Hanlong about some practical issues? How is it possible, if it is possible, Zhou Yanru would like to kick everyone else away and monopolize this great credit, but he can't do it!

-- Zhou Yanru was in the forty-first year of Wanli, and when he was only twenty-one years old, he was even the champion of the Zhonghui Yuan, which can be described as a young man with ambition and majesty. To say that the mind must be extremely intelligent. But he devoted his life to Confucianism. If you want to talk about the classics of the sages, Confucius's subtle words and meanings are definitely familiar, and it is estimated that it will not be a problem to recite them backwards. But Lin Hanlong talked to him about how much to invest in opening a telegraph office in a certain place, and the rate of return could reach breakeven in a few years...... He can barely understand these topics by virtue of his natural intelligence, but it is only to the point of "being able to understand". If you really want to discuss it in detail, and even bargain with the other party, he knows that he is definitely not a short-haired opponent, and it is better to hide it.

What happens if you insist on talking? ――The previous example was sitting next to him drinking tea: the dignified leader of Donglin, a generation of Wenzong Qian Muzhai. At the beginning, there was really no one to use Zhao'an, and the ducks on the shelves reluctantly talked to Shorthair about economic issues, and finally negotiated a result of an annual tribute of 20,000 yuan. At that time, I thought I had taken a big advantage, but now everyone inside and outside the court knows that it must be a loss. And it's a big loss. Now I will talk to Qian Ge Lao about his achievements in recruiting short hair, and everything else is easy to say, but don't talk about the economy, he will be anxious when he talks about it!

The pit that Qian Qianyi fell. Zhou Yanru will definitely not step on it again. That's why he decisively agreed to let Lao Bi come up. Bi Ziyan definitely belongs to the outliers among the literati, and Shorthair talks about specific numbers in front of him, which is called Banmen Getting an Axe - for Chen Tao's weak rebuttal, the old guy seems to have been prepared. Wen Yan continued to laugh and said:

"That's right, the old man has really roughly calculated your expenses, and it is indeed a lot. The salaries of the posts assigned to you by the Imperial Court are far more generous than those paid by the Imperial Court itself according to the statutes, and there are often substantial additional rewards from quarter to quarter...... This is a well-paid and incorruptible policy, which has been mentioned more than once in the imperial court in the past, but I didn't expect it to be realized, and it was actually on Qiongzhou Island, which is known for its remoteness. ”

As he spoke, Bi Ziyan took out a small note from his sleeve, glanced at it and said:

"According to the rules of my Ming Dynasty, the county order level is seven products, and the monthly salary is seven stones and five buckets of grain and rice, and you are directly given silver according to one stone. There are also various subsidies for the New Year's holidays, and at the end of the year, double salaries will be paid...... All in all, the annual income of a county order on Qiongzhou Island is about more than 360 taels, which is almost exactly one tael of silver a day. ”

"Hehe, this is higher than the old man's official lu, the old man received the silver from the imperial court last year, and the total amount of each item is only more than three hundred and forty taels."

Zhou Yanru next to him interjected with a smile, causing all the bureaucrats in the hall to laugh - everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty's Yulu is purely a decoration, and if an official really expects the court to send money to support his family, he will definitely starve to death.

But Bi Ziyan didn't smile, but nodded very seriously:

"The old man has been traveling for many years, and he also knows a little about the rules and joints everywhere. The position of county magistrate, if you are not too greedy, will have a net loss of three or four hundred taels of silver per year. You directly give this money to the Ming place, but you have avoided a lot of right and wrong. It's just that people's hearts are not enough, and the old man has always wondered: Can you really ensure that all the officials are as clean as water with such a large expenditure? ”

Here Guo Yi shook his head and said:

"It's not guaranteed, but at least it can allow most officials to focus on government affairs, rather than trying to make money to supplement their families. On the premise that the legal income is sufficient to maintain a decent life, most people are still able to abide by the law. In addition, when the legal income is high, the price for outsiders to bribe them will also increase greatly......"

As a member of the management committee, Guo Yi happens to be in charge of the personnel part, so he has a more detailed grasp of this information. At this time, Bi Ziyan triggered a topic, and couldn't help but echo a few words. Looking at several high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty opposite, he added:

"In fact, according to our understanding, the general conduct of officials sent from the Ming Dynasty is much better than that of local employees, and there is basically very little corruption and bribery."

People really like to hear this sentence, and Qian Qianyi on the other side immediately chuckled:

"The people who were sent over were all chosen, and for a while, how could they forget the teachings of the saints for the sake of some blockages."

When it came to this topic, Qian Ge Lao was immediately very proud, no one dared to go to the officials sent to the short-haired territory in the Ming Dynasty in the early stage, and he Lao Qian had to arrange for his cronies and disciples, as well as a group of enthusiastic young people in the Donglin Party to go. And it turned out that the gang had gone to the right place - and now being sent to the Shorthair was already considered the first choice for eunuch travel. In the past, when I went to the Wenxuan Division to seek release, most of the best targets were in Nanzhili and Suzhou and Hangzhou. And now all those who beg their grandfathers to tell their grandmothers are eager to be sent to Qiongzhou or Taiwan Island, or even Luzon, where the Yangyi natives are entrenched, can also become - in addition to getting a high subsidy for short hair, if they go to work for a year, they will often be labeled as "economic talents" in the evaluation of officials, and they will inevitably be promoted and used when they come back, and they will definitely be in the category of superior fat.

Among all the people present, Zhou Yanru and Zhou Dashou assisted him in his own position, and he was in charge of the dispatch of officials, so of course he knew this. It's just that he can't openly sing praises to Shorthair, so he just laughs.

Guo Yi had no choice but to smile, of course, the officials sent from the Ming Dynasty could not all be saints, the reason why they behaved particularly well in the three places of Qiongtai and Lu was mainly because the system in these three places was strict enough - the system implemented by the Qiong Navy was designed according to the bureaucratic system of later generations, and it was definitely more than enough to restrain a few scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

And when Zhao Lide gave them "pre-job training", he also analyzed the pros and cons very clearly: you are honest and don't stretch out your hands, and after a three-year term, at least more than 1,000 yuan will be stable. Coupled with the legal input in commerce and trade, the income of two or three thousand gold in one term is also very good among the six or seven officials, and there is still a good future to be expected in the future.

But if you are not greedy enough, you still want to make a profit outside the rules...... You don't even need our shorthair to take action in person, there are a lot of local "civil servants" around who are waiting to find a way to squeeze you down so that you can be replaced. Not to mention that after returning to the mainland, he will definitely face the wrath of his benefactor and Shangguan - how to choose in the meantime, those who can pass the imperial examination must know.

It's just that there is no need to elaborate on these words here, Bi Ziyan just casually mentioned them with feelings, and then did not talk about them deeply, and still pulled the topic back to the cost aspect:

"According to the imperial court system, the establishment of county governance, there should be a county, a county, a master book, and a canonical history, and the court is only responsible for these four people, and the rest are not counted. That is to say, in a county, the total number of officials should not exceed 1,500 taels per year. On Qiongzhou Island, one government, three states and ten counties, 50,000 silver is enough for the official expenses. And Taiwan's Luzon two places are newly established, the prefecture and county have not yet been determined, and the officials are also insufficient, the old man takes half of Qiongzhou to calculate, and the three places are added together, and the official expenses of about 100,000 yuan a year are almost, right? ”

Regarding Bi Ziyan's confident inference, this time Guo Yi shook his head calmly:

"Old man, this time you miscalculated, and it was a big mistake!" (To be continued.) )