Zhao Huan's inspection of various state capitals this time, in addition to observing the local financial and people's resources, checking the ability, moral character and ability of officials, is also the most important part.

After many days of touring, he found very sadly: most of the morality of officials in this era is higher than that of the era in which he came.

The officials of the Song Dynasty were very high, and the Ming and Qing dynasties and modern times in later generations were far behind. The prime minister and the privy envoy are of the first rank, with a monthly payment of 300 yuan, 20 horses of silk in spring and winter, 100 taels of winter cotton, 1,600 scales of charcoal, 100 stones of corn, 1,200 bundles of firewood and grass, and 7 stones of salt.

The state and county officials descended in order to the lowest level of county officials, which was converted into a modern income, and the approximate monthly income was between 11,000 and 22,000 yuan.

As an official in the Song Dynasty, he reached the central level, and in a few years, he was a millionaire in modern times. Even the lowest-level officials have enough income to settle down and get rich.

In this way, under the policy of high salaries, officials are very despised for corruption. Moreover, the political atmosphere of the Song Dynasty was extremely tolerant, at least before Cai Jing of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was no concept of power. Although after the destruction of Zhezong and Huizong several decades ago, the atmosphere of party struggle gradually corrupted the atmosphere of the government and government, but because of the Jingkang incident, the party struggle was broken again, and the scholars were so bent on saving the country that they rarely cared about fighting and attacking.

It's just that although the moral character is good, the ability is mostly a little problematic. Although the Song Dynasty did not take scholars by eight shares, it also opened a precedent for pure literati to rule the world, and the Tang Dynasty has always been ruled by the old sons of Yun and the imperial examination forces, and even military generals. In the Song Dynasty, during the decades of Taizong's rule, more than 10,000 scholars were hired. When it came to the Renzong Dynasty, even those who were not from Jinshi were not allowed to enter the pavilion as officials.

As a result, most of the local officials have become nerds who are dead readers, and although they are ********, most of them have no problems in morality, but most of them lack ability.

From the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, in the past three hundred years, there were many famous literati ministers who had good manners, but there were very few famous ministers who were known for their ability, which was the problem.

There is more than enough clumsiness, but not enough progress, and the "three redundancies" problem that has been entangled in the Song Dynasty for more than 100 years has not been solved, and it is entangled with the destruction of war, and the destruction of economic production in various places has been presented in front of Zhao Huan's eyes.

Zhao Kai, the judge of Chengdu Fulu Transfer, was also in charge of the tea and horse monopoly of the entire Sichuan and Shaanxi, and after Zhang Jun was in charge of the power of Sichuan and Shaanxi, he added the power of Xuanfu to the system, which was equivalent to handing over the financial power of the entire Sichuan and Shaanxi to him.

After this person was instructed, he reduced redundant fees and changed the tax collection method for tea and horses, which greatly increased the economic benefits of the entire Sichuan and Shaanxi, and Fuping was able to gather so many materials in one battle, and this person's merit was the first.

Zhao Huan came from later generations, naturally knew the relationship between war and logistics, and was extremely interested in Zhao Kai, the logistics officer in charge of the entire campaign.

The living habits of the Song people are different from those of the Tang people, and the Tang people's square city is clearly distinguished, and the streets are tightly divided, like a chessboard. However, the Song people often connected the streets and markets, and the roads were narrow, and the official residences were connected with the people's residences, so it was difficult to have a strict division.

Zhao Kai's residence is in a large ordinary residential area, demarcating an area of dozens of acres of land, beyond the high walls and green tiles, is the residence of the small people in the market, shouting and noisy endlessly, and even next to his mansion gate, there are several poor households' residences, making the residence of this high-ranking civil official a little more lively, a little less majestic.

Zhao Huan refused to reveal his identity at this time, but when he asked to see him, he was a little more hesitant.

But it was Xue Qiang's shrewd youth, and when he saw that the porter was looking at the group of them endlessly, there was already a little doubt in his eyes, so he stepped forward and quietly stuffed a bunch of money in the man's sleeve, and then said with a smile: "The eldest brother replied, and said that it was Zhao, a tea and horse merchant in Xi'an, who asked to see him, and wanted to discuss important matters with the adults, and asked the eldest brother to be accommodating." ”

He expected that Zhao Kai would have to deal with many big businessmen in managing the financial affairs of Sichuan and Shaanxi, so he asked for a meeting with such a statement.

The steward in front of the door really no longer doubted, but quietly pinched the copper coin in his sleeve, and said with a smile: "So far away? It's not easy, so I'm going to give you a good answer. ”

After that, he turned around and went inside, and after a while, he came out and said with a smile: "Lucky for you, your lord is busy at the moment, but many businesses have already entered, and my lord ordered you to come in, and we will talk about things together for a while." ”

Zhao Huan nodded slightly, and didn't talk to the person in charge, so he went straight to himself.

The man bowed slightly, and said in his heart: "This businessman has such a big shelf. ”

wanted to scold, but when the words came to his mouth, he shrank back, just watched Zhao Huan go straight in.

Zhao Huan passed the Yimen, arrived at the side of the main hall, and took a look, but saw that there were already a lot of people standing in the lobby, all dressed in brocade, and they knew that they were all wealthy businessmen.

He didn't talk to everyone, but quietly blended into the crowd and looked at Zhao Kai, who was doing things at the desk.

Xue Qiang and the others did not dare to slack off, and they were not waiting outside like the servants of ordinary merchants, but also followed behind Zhao Huan and stood quietly.

That Zhao Kaixian just lowered his head, buried himself in the copywriting, and wrote the official document. After he finished approving it, someone immediately took out the documents he had approved, handed them over to the messenger who had been waiting for a long time to take them, and quickly sent them to the state capitals for execution.

Although there were dozens of merchants, servants, and officials standing in the entire inner hall, no one dared to squeak, only waited quietly, watching him hold the pen like flying, and when the pen fell on the paper, it was also audible.

After he dealt with dozens of disputes in a row, he coughed, raised his head and said softly, "Tea." ”

A servant immediately stepped forward and offered the tea bowl, Zhao Kai stretched out his hand to take it, but there was no scholar to drink the tea calmly, he actually took one sip, and then did not look at it, stretched out his hand to hand the tea bowl to the servant, and then lowered his head and looked at the paperwork again.

In the middle of this pitch, Zhao Huan saw that his face was thin and wrinkled, and although the hair on his head was still black, he was already old.

Zhao Huan had asked this person's age before, and knew that he was only in his early forties, and he looked like this at this time, obviously because he was too tired.

He sighed slightly, knowing that no matter which dynasty or generation, the person who controls the financial and logistical chores is hard work, but the reputation cannot be shown in future generations, even if there is a record in the history books, it cannot be too high and too good evaluation, at most one sentence: diligent in doing things, good at managing money. It's a very high compliment.

In this way, who dares to be such a fool, naturally he would rather be an important official, and in the future, he can become a member of the Central Committee with his qualifications, and then talk to the emperor a few words, he can leave a name for all generations, this account is calculated by everyone, and there are fewer and fewer officials doing things, but it is not unusual.

In this way, although he was in a group of businessmen with the dignity of the emperor, he had been standing quietly waiting for Zhao Kai to make a decision, but he was not dissatisfied at all.

It was a group of guards, grinning behind him, showing great displeasure.

After half a ring, Fang listened to Zhao Kai cough a few times, pushed away the approved official documents, and let the waiting officials take them, he closed his eyes and rested for a while, before turning his head to the large group of merchants and saying, "You must all be here for the general money?" ”