Half coaxing and half frightening him to get rid of these assistants, Li Tai told Gao Zhongmi again at night that he was going to take over He Basheng's industrial management, and secretly reminded Gao Zhongmi to be cautious and not to engage in such shady operations that breed hidden dangers.
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When Gao Zhongmi learned about this, he was a little bit sour: "Grandmaster He Ba's old army has many fierce soldiers in Bei Town, so they may not be willing to hear about it. But since you have agreed, Apan, I won't stop you. I just remember his family's routine.
If you are really arrogant and untamable, you don’t need to worry too much about other people’s household affairs. You should know that you can’t be close if you are not close.”
Li Tai nodded and smiled when he heard this. He had no intention of directly facing and dealing with the personnel disputes in He Basheng's army.
Another night, in the early morning, seven assistants came as requested, and Li Tai took them back to Shang's hometown.
The manor is now very different from when Li Taichu came. The fields are cultivated diligently and the residences are neatly maintained.
All the bricks and tiles extorted from the historians were put into the construction of the manor. The tall brick and stone walls looked pleasing to the eye and were elegant. Many dock walls in the countryside that had been built for generations did not have this appearance.
When they entered the manor and saw the rows of brick and tile houses, the fellow servants could not help but marvel. Since they were willing to buy officials from the Situ Mansion, they naturally had little property. When they saw the residences of the servants in the manor, they were amazed.
It's so neat and elegant, and I can't help but sigh that this manor is well managed.
But in fact, the current manor is still operating with debt. The only real profit is the textile workshop on the south slope, except for the few hectares of millet that are about to be harvested.
Li Tai has also heard some people from nearby villages comment on his wasteful use of materials, which is simply a waste of money. He built a large brick house for his tribe, and the living space is more elegant and comfortable than the homes of some wealthy owners in the countryside.
Li Tai just laughed at this. Of course, he can't help the world at the moment, but it is more than enough to make the lives of his tribe better.
He is not a native of a medieval family, and in later generations he is just a social animal who works hard to produce content. In fact, some people cannot understand the mentality of those capital predators who accumulate addiction.
There is always a limit to people's material enjoyment. Even if they are extravagant and lustful, they will not be so wasteful that they will become immortals. Although the unfair distribution of social resources has been difficult to change in ancient and modern times, there are always people who hoard and accumulate, taking all the benefits, and it is difficult to eat and drink without losing their conscience.
He is really a bastard!
Just like the historian would rather provoke himself and then apologize and accept blackmail, rather than use these building materials to improve the living conditions of his family. He has lost face and lost his dignity. He is really being mean to his core.
Those seven assistants were arranged by Li Tai as transfer students to the manor school. While learning mathematics and arithmetic, they also practiced writing official documents at the grassroots level of the Western Wei Dynasty with Chief Shi Heland, mainly accounting and accounting.
Li Tai also looked through the official accounting documents of the Western Wei Dynasty. The format of the official documents is very clear, but the content is very complicated. To create a household accounting document, there are often hundreds of words. If it is a wealthy household,
The accounting text exceeds thousands of words every minute.
This is because the land equalization and taxation targets in the Western Wei Dynasty were very broad. In addition to household heads and couples, tribes, slaves and even cattle were all granted land. This was not purely a good government that benefited farmers and encouraged farming. It was mainly for the purpose of establishing limited households.
Based on this, we will expand tax sources.
Because as long as the land is granted, it must bear the tax obligation, whether it is people or cattle. With such a policy in Kuanxiang, a sparsely populated area, households can still rely on the equalization of acres of land to increase their income, and the burden is still light.
However, in narrow villages with many people and little land, the average number of acres of land is often discounted and cannot be paid in full. The male and female slaves and even the cattle and horses in the family have to bear the burden of tax and labor. If the harvest is slightly poor, a middle-class family may go bankrupt.
Therefore, the more the elite and fertile villages in Guanzhong are reorganized and dispersed, the more serious the situation of powerful people sheltering the population. Within a few months of Li Tai's arrival in the countryside, his relationship with the villagers improved slightly, and he took in more than a dozen shelter households.
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Because of the wide scope of taxation, it would be more difficult to organize and prepare accounting records, which in turn aggravated the administrative cost consumption and manpower gap of the Western Wei government.
To be honest, if Hou Jing's rebellion hadn't stirred up the unrest in the Southern Liang Dynasty and created an excellent opportunity for the Western Wei Dynasty to seize Bashu and Jiangling, based on the current situation of the Western Wei regime, Li Tai really couldn't see the possibility of the Western Wei regime coming from behind.
At the moment, he is neither a minister nor a general in charge of the army. He is only slightly disappointed with the current situation. He has neither the ability to change nor the motivation to improve.
But from the perspective of his own interests, he came up with some new ideas, that is, can he get a share of the huge administrative expenses of the Western Wei Dynasty?
In order to attract the big households in the village to join his business, he bought a lot of hemp raw materials. Some of them were short of jin or liang like the Shi family and used old things to make up for the new. Although this part of the loss has been earned back by the large households redeeming the purchase orders at high prices, there is still a lot of money.
A lot of old hemp materials accumulated.
These old linen materials are difficult to use for textiles and take up storage space. It would be a pity to burn them on fire.
Li Tai had the idea of using it to make paper, but firstly, he was not familiar with the papermaking process, and secondly, the demand for paper in the private market in the Western Wei Dynasty did not seem to be high. Even if this industry was started, the profit margin would be very limited.
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But after understanding that the accounting work of the Western Wei Dynasty was so rigorous, it can be expected that the consumption and demand for paper must be huge. Li Tai couldn't help but imagine whether he could treat the government as a potential customer and become a supplier for government procurement?
Of course, the accounting and registration project of the Western Wei Dynasty did not start at this time, and the government must have explored and established a relatively mature and stable material supply channel.
Even if Li Tai built a paper mill, the products would be of high quality and low price, but in the political environment dominated by human rule in the Western Wei Dynasty, he might not be able to win the right to supply government office supplies.
But what if these papers are not just paper, but have printed content?
Although the task of compiling accounting registers is tedious and heavy, the format is very uniform. The number of male and female offspring, the number of farmlands granted, and the taxation status are mostly very fixed contents.
Li Tai had already planned to print forms at home before, and this thing could also be directly transferred to the preparation of accounting records.
As long as the relevant official documents are printed out in a certain format, officials only need to fill in the variable content, which will not improve the administrative efficiency of the government even a little bit!
"It's really something!"
If it was before, even if Li Taizhen had such an idea, there would be no channel for it to be implemented.
However, the arrival of his eldest cousin Lu Rou reconnected some of the broken relatives. Especially his other eldest cousin Cui Quan, who is currently serving as Jing Zhaoyin, is undoubtedly an excellent target for printing official documents!
Moreover, He Basheng had recently entrusted him with the management of the manor industry, so he could be roped in to join him. This would not only make up for his shortage of materials, craftsmanship and manpower, but also provide more important political asylum.
In addition to He Basheng, Shuo Hui is also very kind to him. He can also be roped in to join the alliance to make this alliance of interests bigger, and he can also repay Shuo Hui for taking care of him.
The more Li Tai thought about it, the more he felt that this idea was feasible. After arranging the enrollment of the public servants, he summoned Li Zhusheng and asked: "How is the progress of the printing and ink deployment?"
Nowadays, there is a technology for preparing ink, which usually involves blending hemp seed oil with turpentine and ink to make the ink more uniform in color and easy to absorb and store.
However, when these writing inks are used in printing, the proportions still need to be adjusted according to the materials used to obtain the best results.
"Alang, please look!"
Li Zhusheng was already prepared. After hearing this, he took out a printed matter and handed it to Li Tai.
Li Tai took it and took a look, and saw that the handwriting was clear and the color was uniform, and he was immediately happy: "It's very good! This ink formula must be stored carefully. Buy more of other paper materials on the market and experiment one by one.
Keep studying!”
There are no technical barriers to printing official documents, whether it is this idea, engraving, or paper. The only aspect of printing official documents is the use of ink, which may be difficult to imitate in the short term.
As long as we maintain this advantage, open up the market first, and maintain the stability of the interest alliance, there is no need to worry even if another competitor appears.
While talking, Li Tai returned to the room and wrote a template according to the official document format of accounting records. He still used European regular script, which he was best at. Then he ordered the craftsmen in the sect to make another engraving, trying to get one as soon as possible.
Samples come out.
A few days later, He Basheng led his entourage to Shangyuan as agreed, and took Li Tai with him to inspect the properties under his name.
Li Tai has also made preparations here, telling his family that he will be away from home for a period of time, which can be as short as ten days or as long as more than a month.
He Basheng's properties are spread across several states in Kansai. This trip is also an opportunity for him to increase his experience and gain a comprehensive understanding of the current situation of people's livelihood in Kansai.
"I finally understand why you are so good at handling things. When others run a household, frugality is the only virtue. Who dares to waste materials like you!"
He Basheng had been here once before. When he came back after a while, the atmosphere of the manor had changed drastically. He pointed to the bright and beautiful brick houses and said to Li Tai.
Li Tai also laughed after hearing this: "It is true that frugality is a virtue. However, there are many kinds of things, and they must be used to show their value. If a person has no desires, he is no different than a rotten tree. Only when he feels inadequate can he be tireless.
Between heaven and earth, only human beings are the most precious. No matter how beautiful things are, if you can't make sense of it, I would like to invite favors from dead things. I feel that my behavior is far smarter than many self-proclaimed wise men in the world!"
"That's very true! I did not misjudge the person. With this kind of character, Apan, you are indeed worthy of my trust."
He Basheng also laughed after hearing the words, with an expression of excitement and expectation: "Let's go, this journey is not short, finish the journey as soon as possible, and I also look forward to how you can develop all your properties!"
Not only He Basheng was looking forward to it, Li Tai himself was also eager to try it.
In any business, starting out is the most difficult, as he had experienced in his hometown. If he could take over He Basheng's property, even if the property and profits would not be his own in the end, the scope for his efforts would be greatly expanded.