Xu Meilan is directing the orphans to set up the dormitory. The so-called dormitory is actually a chase shop. Xu Meilan walked around the city a few times, and brought back twenty-six children, including sixteen girls. The eldest boy was fifteen years old with a nine-year-old sister, and the other children were roughly between six and ten years old. In fact, there are more than a dozen children who are not without relatives, but when they heard that they were taken in by the Jiangguo Mansion, they all happily agreed.

Xu Meilan was still worried about how to stay, but Li Congyi said that it was simple, just build a chase shop. The carpenter shop that Luo Zhengwen found was also concerned, so it took one day to finish the frame and planks, and brushed the tung oil three times in two days, but there was no delay at all.

Xu Meilan picked a room, and the left and right compartments were set up as men's and women's dormitories, each with a large bunk. The Chase bunk is divided into two floors, and more than a dozen sleeps are still relatively spacious. At this point, the carpenter's shop mates finished the installation, and then the kids scrambled to take their beds.

Although Xu Meilan couldn't guess the purpose of Li Congyi's doing, she always helped these poor children. Therefore, I don't find these children annoying. When the carpenter's shop had finished installing the simple cabinets, the children went to grab their wardrobes and fought endlessly.

After cleaning up, Xu Meilan drove the children to the backyard yard and handed them over to a captain of the guard team named Wang Damu. These children are also noisy, talking and laughing, and there is a little girl who always likes to pull the corner of her clothes; But as soon as they saw Wang Damu, they were silent one by one.

Wang Damu and Xu Meilan greeted each other, and then went to the courtyard to stand and said, "Line up!" The children immediately ran forward in a hurry, each finding a place to stand. But there are always a few people who are panicked, scurrying around, and can't find their place.

Xu Meilan couldn't help laughing happily, her eyes curved into a pair of crescents. I can't help but think that Guogong's idea of military training is really not bad. It's the matter of writing textbooks ordered by Grandpa Guo, and we really have to hurry up.

turned around, only to find that Li Congyi came over with an unknown tune humming in his mouth. At this time, Li Congyi had just sent Tang Puze away, and he was in a very good mood.

"Lord Guogong is in a good mood today."

"The tiger's eyes opened, the tiger's body was shocked, and a king's eight breath overflowed, and the heroes of the Quartet bowed their heads. How can you say that the mood can be bad? ”

Xu Meilan glared, tilted her head, and chuckled: "Is the prince of the country a tiger, or a king?" ”

Li Congyi snorted.

————

Xu Meilan followed Li Congyi to the backyard, and saw several mothers-in-law and aunts doing laundry in the yard from a distance, while Zhou Yuanying and a few old men squatted aside.

Why is Yuanying like a child this week. Xu Meilan felt strange in her heart. When I got closer, I saw that an aunt under the command of Zhou Yuanying kept fishing out different clothes from the basin, and then took a piece of grease, rubbed it a few times, rubbed it a few times, and then showed it to everyone.

Following the footsteps, everyone hurriedly got up and saluted Li Congyi.

Li Congyi said to Xu Meilan, "This is soap, you try it yourself." ”

Xu Meilan looked at the pile of soap, but there were three different colors. After a moment's hesitation, he took a white one. Xu Meilan sniffed again, washed her hands again, and foamed a little, and couldn't help but look very surprised; An aunt took a spoonful of water and helped her rinse off the foam.

"Wow! Feel so clean in your hands! Xu Meilan jumped up happily. Just why is it called soap? ”

"Because the piece you use is made of lard made of fatty meat." Li Congyi said with a smile.

"Ah~" Xu Meilan covered her mouth.

"The other two are canola oil and soybean oil. You don't feel the difference when you use it. Zhou Yuanying explained. The principle of this ancient soap is very simple, that is, it is mixed with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) and oil, stirred constantly, and a little salt is added to accelerate the solidification of the soap base, and it is placed in a mold for several hours. In ancient China, caustic soda has not been made, and plant ash (potassium hydroxide) is often used instead, but in Li Congyi's case, it is simple.

"This thing is just one word, expensive!" Li Congyi said to Xu Meilan, "I pulled you over to ask you, first, just such a soap, those young ladies from rich and noble families, are they willing to buy it, and what price are they willing to pay?" Second, if it doesn't work, then you have to add coloring and essential oils, is there any ready-made? ”

After pondering for a while, Xu Meilan said: "If it is such a light embryo, even if someone buys it, it may be difficult to sell it at the high price that Guogong wants." Since Koku-sama has been mentioning the concept of luxury, I suggest adding something to it. Xu Meilan frowned, "Does essential oil mean rose water?" I've heard that there are also people who use other flowers to steam the flower dew, which is extremely rare to see in the market. Also Does this pigment refer to a dye? Just adding this soap to this soap will it stain the clothes? ”

Looks like you'll have to start all over again. However, Li Congyi was not discouraged. Spring is coming, and all kinds of flowers are about to bloom, just in time. And his own liquor plan also needs to be distilled. Just prepare these devices in advance.

————

At this time, a small servant came in a hurry and reported that Luo Zhengwen had set a good place to be the manor of the national prince. At this time, he came back with Hou Zhixian, and Hou Zhixian was waiting in the side hall.

Hou Hongye also brought a map and personally explained the location of the manor to Li Congyi. This place is just west of Xuancheng, its northeast is Jingting Mountain, and there is the remnant of Jingting Mountain in the east, but it does not constitute an obstacle to communication with Fucheng; To the south and further west are two hills, and Hou Hongye has drawn them in. Only the north side is more open, but there is also a small hill that can be used as a fulcrum.

"It's a small village with just over 20 families, mostly dry land. It has been agreed that the Guogong Mansion will buy the land of the whole village, but retain the permanent tenant rights of the villagers, and the lower officials will guarantee it, and they will be drawn in black and white. "Hou Hongye obviously played a big role in this matter. In this way, the villagers can still work in these fields, and although they have to pay rent, at least they don't have to pay taxes. After all, the county has eaten leopard gall and dares to collect taxes on Jiang Guogong's head?

But these villagers didn't expect that Hou Hongye worked so hard, and he just wanted to collect taxes on Jiang Guogong. However, this is a concept proposed by Li Congyi himself. That is to collect VAT and income tax from the company. The Southern Tang Dynasty also had a lot of harsh taxes on industry and commerce, such as centigold, which was collected from merchants (that is, merchants) and merchants (that is, when goods were transshiped), and the nominal tax rate was not high, usually one hundred, but on the one hand, it was set up at various levels, just like collecting tolls; On the other hand, the total amount of goods is difficult to estimate, that is, the tax collector can collect as much as he wants. This caused the merchants to complain for a long time, but the middle cost was very large, and in the end, the government received very little.

But the concept of value-added tax mentioned by Li Congyi is powerful. For example, Xuanzhou Construction, how much business income from the county in summer and autumn naturally has to be invoiced, according to the value-added tax rate of one percent, in fact, it is equivalent to Xuanzhou Construction and one percent. In order to pay less tax, Xuanzhou Construction will inevitably require two suppliers to issue invoices for the purchase from Xu's shops and Zhou's bricks, so Xu's and Zhou's must also pay VAT. This VAT can be said to be the goal of forcing everyone to pay VAT through the self-interest of each company.

At this time, Hou Hongye had not considered too much about all taxes. According to what he thought, even Jiang Guogong himself could not make the company very profitable, and then pay a lot of taxes. However, Li Congyi's engagement in the company system is to absorb social capital, so of course investors must see that the company is very profitable and willing to throw a lot of money at the company. Compared to this, paying a little more tax is nothing. What's more, the tax collected by the county, Li Congyi is actually staring at it. But at this time, I can't say much yet.

"Hou Zhi County, the two management measures for the company's value-added tax and income tax proposed by this company, as well as the articles of association of the county industrial and commercial taxation bureau, must be about the same, right?" Li Congyi asked.

I'm just waiting for your words. Hou Hongye was happy in his heart, but he tried not to be quiet on his face. These three plans were not only proposed by Li Congyi, but also he participated in the whole process of revision, while Hou Hongye and Du Zhengchu, who joined the army in Xuanzhou Prefecture, only revised or adapted them according to the current actual situation, and the entire progress was actually stuck with Li Congyi. Hou Hongye was also worried that Li Congyi would change his hexagram, "It's generally good, I probably need to mention one or two things from Lord Guogong." ”

Li Congyi took out two official documents and put them on the table.

Hou Hongye opened it and took a look, first, Jinling urged all prefectures to strengthen city defense and renovate the city walls of various counties; The second is to deliver tribute porcelain to Jinling on schedule from the Xuan kiln. Hou Hongye still has an impression of these two official documents. However, the first one, Hou Hongye directly ignored it, after all, Xuancheng had just rebuilt the city wall in the hands of the previous assassin; The second copy was directly transferred to the Xuanyao supervisor. Hou Hongye looked solemn for a while.

Li Congyi also doesn't play dumb riddles. "My father thinks that strengthening the city defense is not only in the fastening of the city wall, but also in the soldiers who dare to fight and can fight. Jiangnan has been peaceful for a long time, and I see that the sword and archers in each county are not in the army. If the Ning State Army is asked to send a battalion commander with more than a dozen soldiers to train him, if it does not work in one month or two months, it will be enough to make a great difference in the county sword archers. ”

Hou Hongye was shocked. Jiang Guogong is going to make up his mind to rectify the Ning Guojun. In the Southern Tang military system, a team of ten people, ten teams are the capital, five are battalions, and the battalion is the most basic military unit. Although the battalion commander is still a middle- and low-level officer, he is in charge of a battalion, but he is a key level of an army. Jiang Guogong's move is obviously to divert the tiger from the mountain, and it is also a yang scheme.

Hou Hongye suddenly remembered that when Jiang Guogong was at the mouth of the pit, he rarely called the guards to do errands and other chores, and the guards were training in addition to being on duty; After returning to Xuancheng, the same is true. Just like in the past few days, Luo Zhengwen and himself ran a few places, but they didn't see a single guard following, and before, when did Luo Zhengwen go to the street and mix with a group of guards from the Guogong Mansion? It seems that Jiang Guogong is actually a soldier.

After a quick turn of thought, Hou Hongye said, "The sword and archer soldiers in Xuancheng County are scattered and have almost no combat power, and the lower officials also think that it is necessary to ask the Ning Guojun to send a battalion to assist in training for more than a month, or even longer. After the official returned, he immediately drafted a document and reported it to the state capital. ”

Li Congyi nodded, and said, "Xu Senjun said that Xuanyao is a lot of bandits. Bengong thinks that porcelain production is not only related to people's livelihood, but also high-end porcelain is also a source of profit for the government. ”

Hou Hongye has long been dissatisfied with Su Anping, the imperial supervisor of Xuanyao. Under his management, although Xuanyao's tribute to the emperor was not reduced, the output continued to decline, and more merchants sold porcelain from Shezhou to Xuanzhou. However, Xuanyao is not only an official governor, but also an official stationed by the palace supervisor, and the state and county have not been able to intervene over the years. Now Jiang Guogong wants to get involved in Xuanyao, and points out that he can make profits for the government, if he doesn't make a move at this time, when will he wait?

Hou Hongye was ruthless, so he took two steps forward and whispered to Li Congyi.