In the empty warehouse, Gao Bailing spread his hands and looked helpless: "The situation at home is like this, and we really can't support too many people. Although the Western Dynasties could not help large households to support soldiers, the industry was depressed, and people were not as good as things...
"
Li Tai looked at those pottery pots and wooden baskets that were mostly bottomed out, and was a little dumbfounded for a moment. He thought that the Western Wei Dynasty had strict population and household registration controls, so Gao Bailing suggested that he return the soldiers, but he did not expect that this was the reason.
"But last night's meal..."
"It was because last night's meal was too rich that I ate up all the rice and pasta that usually lasts for ten days. Even tonight's meal is barely enough..."
After hearing this, Gao Bailing smiled bitterly: "My lord was in Dongzhou, and he didn't have many plans. In the battle of Mangshan, he was brutally defeated. When he was detained by Zhao Gui's army, he already had death intentions in his mind. When he knew about it, Thirteenth Prince
I'm afraid that Thirteenth Young Master will be too weak to support himself and will be forced to live a lazy life. Even though my family is troubled, I don't dare to complain and cause trouble, so I can only complain to Thirteenth Young Master."
When Li Tai heard this, he was silent for a long time and then said: "I don't care about the difficulty of making a living, and it is really hurtful to be pampered and arrogant. Although my uncle is very loving, I should also be independent. I introduce all the scholars, and I should be free.
To support you, Mr. Liu doesn’t have to worry about this, I..."
"Thirteenth Lang misunderstood, I am definitely not complaining to you!"
When Gao Bailing heard what Li Tai said, he knelt on the ground with a plop, and swallowed with tears in his eyes: "Therefore, when Da Sima was here, he often led his troops to raid the west, and the Westerners also had many resentments. When the lord loses his power and goes west, he will inevitably encounter evil intentions.
Zhao Gui's persecution was just one incident. Since he lived in the city, there has always been blood on the walls. Thirteenth Lang has been in the city for a short time, and he has kept in touch with the powerful people in the Western Dynasty. The whole family must rely on this power.
Only by taking shelter can we live in this hometown..."
The old Sima Gao Bailing mentioned was Gao Aocao who died in the battle of Heyang a few years ago.
Since the separation of the Eastern and Western Dynasties in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Gao Aocao has always been the general of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. He has never been absent from the previous wars, which naturally caused hatred and resentment among the personnel in the Western Dynasty. As his elder brother Gao Zhongmi lost power and became attached to him, it was inevitable that he would be suppressed and retaliated.
.
Li Tai was originally embarrassed to drag down Gao Zhongmi's life anymore and planned to take his soldiers to make a living elsewhere. But when he heard what Gao Bailing said, he was embarrassed to continue talking.
"My uncle and I have both lost our relatives and lost our hometown. We depend on each other for our lives, as we should. We have hands and feet and don't lose our livelihood. It's just that we don't understand the world at the moment, and the trouble is only short-term. Let's prepare tonight's meal first, there is no need
Hou Zhi, I will discuss with my uncle after dinner how we can overcome the difficulties together."
Li Tai thought for a while and then said, whether he lives with Gao Zhongmi or sets up his own business, the food and drink survival of so many of his subordinates is also a problem that he must solve.
At dinner, the food provided in the residence was much shabbier than last night. Li Tai still had a bowl of japonica rice and two spoons of water sauce to go with it, but the servants only had some bran cakes and bran rice to satisfy their hunger.
In fact, this was the normal state of life in the Western Dynasties. Guanzhong had been in chaos for many years, and not long after entering the rule, it suffered a new defeat at Mangshan, and supplies were even more stretched.
Even powerful families are very strict with the supply of soldiers. Private soldiers and the main labor force may be able to get two meals a day, but it is common for women, children, the elderly and the weak to have one meal a day or even less.
That is to say, these people met Gao Zhongmi who was not aware of the financial difficulties. In addition, they were in a good mood last night, so they spent a lot of money. All the men, women, and children in the residence had enough rice noodles. As a result, the meal was empty.
Most of the family’s reserves.
Gao Zhongmi still had a poor appetite. He complained about the lack of wine and drank from a bowl of buttermilk. When he heard Li Tai talk about how to maintain the household affairs, he waved his hands and said: "There are elders in every household.
The plan does not require Ah Pan to be sad. Although he rushed westward in a hurry, he still had some heavy goods in reserve, and his simple survival was enough to support the rest of the year."
Hearing what Gao Zhongmi said, Li Tai also breathed a sigh of relief. After realizing the livelihood problem, he also did some calculations before dinner.
At present, the family has a large population. Gao Zhongmi originally had nearly twenty personal soldiers, and Daxingtai also rewarded hundreds of slaves and slaves, plus more than thirty tribesmen brought back by Li Tai and some fifty-fifty gifts from Hui.
Famous Scholars, that’s nearly two hundred mouths.
In the afternoon, I congratulated Basheng and said that I would send him some soldiers and promised that the number would be no less than Hui. In large numbers, it would be necessary to maintain the food expenses of 300 people.
In terms of staple food alone, an adult needs to eat at least five taels a day. In the Northern Dynasty, one stone weighed 120 kilograms, but one kilogram was only equivalent to about 220 grams in later generations. Based on this approximation, one person per day
The rations required were at least one kilogram today, and one stone of grain could sustain one person for one season.
But this was an extremely harsh situation. Li Tai was not in the mood to eat just now. The bowl of rice weighed at least 220 grams, and it was just dinner.
Therefore, one stone of grain is really not eaten, especially when engaging in some physically demanding work. Each person needs at least two to three kilograms of staple food per day, so one stone of grain can only last for two months at most.
Just now Li Tai took a quick look and found that the proportion of the population in the mansion is relatively healthy. There are nearly a hundred strong men and women, and the same number of women, children, old and weak. If He Basheng gives 100 to the tribe tomorrow, and the proportion is the same, there will be enough strong men.
Food, women and children are slightly reduced, and nearly 300 shi of food will be consumed in two months.
In addition to human consumption, there are more than 20 horses in the stables. Horse breeding is not like people who can be frugal and take advantage of the time. If the feed is insufficient, good horses will be turned into bad horses, so it is also a huge expense.
It’s not that I don’t know, but I’m shocked when I calculate it. If we want to maintain the current scale of the tribe’s population, we will need to consume at least several thousand dan of food and grass every year.
Li Tai also plans to raise a private army. The food and fodder that needs to be raised and prepared will cost at least tens of thousands of stones every year!
"Now that we are based in Kansai, we need to make long-term plans. We may be able to maintain it for a short period of time, but if we plan for a longer period, we still need to make more detailed plans."
Although Gao Zhongmi was firm in his words, Li Tai also wanted to find out how much wealth they had now.
After Gao Zhongmi heard this, he smiled and said: "I am just living in my old age and don't look forward to the long term, but you, Ah Pan, are not like that. It's rare that you have such a desire to do something, so our uncle and nephew will make some plans."
After saying this, he beckoned Gao Bailing in and ordered: "All the accounting records of the household should be paid to Apan. In the future, please don't disturb me again when making expenditure plans."
Gao Bailing nodded in agreement, turned around and handed an account book to Li Tai.
Li Tai only glanced at it and felt his head was spinning. The account book was listed in traditional Chinese characters vertically, and it also contained a running account of mixed income and expenditure. Various types of materials were recorded in a messy manner, which really went against his reading and calculation habits.
In order to make his calculations clearer, he would get pen and paper, draw out a form, list the income, expenditure, and balance, record each item separately, and then fill in the numbers in the form.
"Apan is so good at calculating. Earlier, Aye often blamed you for your incompetence!"
Gao Zhongmi was amazed when he saw how fast Li Tai was immersed in sorting out the accounting books. He paced beside the case and looked down. Then he pointed at the calculations Li Tai had listed in Arabic numerals on the paper and curiously asked: "What kind of talisman is this?"
Draw?"
"I grew up hating writing and being aggressive, and I hated traditional writing the most, so I often used simple writing instead."
Li Tai replied casually. He rarely had memories of burying his head in scriptures. He had many scenes of being chased and beaten by his father to persuade him to learn. Now that his father was not in Guanzhong, he didn't have to worry about exposing his secrets when he told nonsense.
The addition and subtraction of these basic numbers were not complicated at all. He neither knew how to use nor had any need to use the calculation tools Gao Bailing sent him, so he quickly sorted out and calculated the account books clearly.
"According to this, there is still more than 478,600 money in the treasury, thirteen jins and seven taels of gold, eight buckets of rice and six liters, noodles..."
Li Tai held the form and said, and Gao Bailing's eyes widened in shock when he saw this scene: "Thirteenth son is not only good at calculation, he is simply a magic calculation! I also kept the accounting books in Dongzhou household in the past, and I pride myself on being good at calculation.
But it has taken several hours since last night to calculate the number of family members, but it only took Thirteenth Lang more than a quarter of an hour!"
In fact, it didn't take even a quarter of an hour. Li Tai spent most of his time on making tables and writing, and he didn't spend much time on primary school level calculations. The accounting method was just wrong, but the number of discrepancies involved was not large.
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The biggest income of the family is still the reward from Yu Wentai, which is five hundred thousand dollars, which is five hundred guan, one hundred bolts of silk, two hundred dendrobium of rice and miscellaneous grains, which is two hundred stones, and many other miscellaneous materials. There are many changes.
Not big.
As for the gold, Gao Zhongmi brought fifty kilograms with him when he traveled west from Hulao, but he lost it and spent some money, and now only this is left.
From such a rough look, the family's wealth is quite substantial, with more than 400,000 yuan in money, more than ten kilograms of gold, and a hundred pieces of silk still untouched.
But whether the amount of money is large or small, it still has to match the price of goods. In the famine years, it takes a thousand or even ten thousand yuan to fight rice, and the rich starve to death with gold and jade in their arms. It is often recorded in history books.
"Tomorrow I will go shopping with Liu Gong."
The family still had plenty of money, but the reserves of materials, especially food, were seriously insufficient and needed to be replenished urgently. Li Tai also wanted to know the specific prices in Kansai during this period, so he added.
Probably influenced by Li Tai, Gao Zhongmi also said: "The reward in front of Daxingtai is a farm in Xia County. But these days I am just waiting for Apan to arrive, and I have no time to send people to collect it. The number of people in my family
There are more and more people, so we really can’t just eat and do nothing. We need to send someone to collect the garden property tomorrow.”
Li Tai was even more happy when he heard this. Since he was determined to farm in the countryside, he had to have land to farm. When he was settling accounts, he was still thinking about how to obtain land. Unexpectedly, Yuwen Black Otter had already generously given it to him.
.
"In this world, little things add up, and sand makes a tower. But if you can work hard, you will be rewarded for your hard work! It is indeed painful to lose power suddenly, but since there are still bad karma to rely on, my uncle and I will definitely be able to make a comeback!"
Knowing that he still had a considerable career foundation, Li Tai felt full of confidence.