Coming out of Gu Tingye's small courtyard, Wei Chen still felt a burning sensation in his waist.
Grandma, it’s true that Lu Dongbin is bitten by a dog and doesn’t know the heart of a good person. Didn’t Gu Er kindly remind him that he was too frivolous!
Standing at the entrance of the courtyard and cursing in a low voice, Wei Chen took out the invitation card given by Gu Tingye, unfolded it and looked at it. The content inside was almost the same as what Gu Tingye said.
On the day when Wei Chen arrived in Yuzhou, Zhao Zongquan was not present. He felt extremely guilty, so he specially set up a table at Jixian Restaurant this time to apologize to Wei Chen, hoping that Wei Chen would be generous with the honor.
Wei Chen felt Zhao Zongquan's sincere and fearful mood when he wrote this invitation from the lines, and couldn't help but feel a little funny.
This is the future emperor, and now he has to be so cautious when facing a small state like me. Nothing is more bizarre than this.
The banquet was tomorrow, so there was no rush. After reading the invitation, Wei Chen put it in his arms, turned around and headed towards the private courtyard where his other aide Fang Yuan lived.
Before he entered the courtyard, he saw a man holding a book of documents and hurriedly coming from the courtyard. It was Fang Yuan who Wei Chen was looking for.
Seeing Wei Chen, Fang Yuan was slightly startled. He immediately stepped forward and bowed, presented the document in his hand and said: "Fang Yuan has completed the inventory clearance and inventory that Dong Weng asked. This is the account book. I also ask Dong Weng to take a look at it."
."
"So fast?"
Wei Chen was slightly surprised.
As a rule, after a new official takes office, in addition to honorable rituals such as riding in a sedan chair, going to the hall to receive seals, and burning incense and worshiping temples, he must also carry out substantive work such as clearing warehouses, cleaning out prisons, and hanging signs and issuing notices.<
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Wei Chen is busy with the latter two items these days. As for the clearance of warehouses, Wei Chen has left all matters to his staff, Fang Yuan.
After these days of contact, Wei Chen also had a basic judgment on the level of his three staff.
Needless to say, Gu Tingye needs to say that he must be the captain of the Yuzhou Public Security Management Brigade. Wei Chen has already arranged for him to gradually take over the government officials and archers in the state government, and gather these motley crews for rigorous training.
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Wei Shuping is mature and prudent, has rich experience, is proficient in writing, and is good at writing letters. He can be taken with him as a secretary.
However, Fang Yuan is thoughtful, calculating and adaptable, so Wei Chen plans to arrange for him to be his chief steward, in charge of Yuzhou's warehouse money and food.
This time, Wei Chen wanted to take this opportunity to put Fang Yuan in charge of clearing out the warehouse and inventory after taking office.
Now it seems that Sheng Hong is quite reliable, and the staff he recommended to his future son-in-law is indeed effective.
Fang Yuan invited Wei Chen into the room and sat down. He opened the account book and showed it to Wei Chen: "Dong Weng, my subordinates have calculated carefully. There is only less than 500 taels of silver left in the state treasury, but there is quite a lot of grain."
, more than 10,000 stones."
Wei Chen was surprised when he heard this: "In such a big Yuzhou City, there are only five hundred taels of silver in the official treasury? This amount of money is not even enough to repair the official offices, right?"
"Five hundred taels is already quite a lot." Fang Yuan said with a bitter smile: "When I followed Mr. Sheng as the county magistrate, the warehouse was so poor that even rats were unwilling to visit it. There was also a hole of five thousand taels left by the predecessor.
Fill in."
"So, my predecessor is quite kind?" After listening to Fang Yuan's words, Wei Chen was a little bit dumbfounded. Anyway, his predecessor still left five hundred taels for himself, which was better than Sheng Hong's.
My cheating ex is much stronger.
In fact, many officials in the Zhou Dynasty were corrupt, and the official treasury was mostly in deficit. As long as the predecessor balanced the accounts and the hole left was not too big, the successor would have to take care of it for him.
New officials do not count old official scores. The rules in the officialdom have always been like this. After all, the successor will leave office in the future. If you don’t want to be dragged into settling scores by your successor, you have to follow the rules.
If we really want to get to the bottom of it, there’s no telling what day a fire will break out in the warehouse for no apparent reason. It’s all people’s fat and oil, but it’s the people who will suffer.
But having said that, Wei Chen came to Yuzhou not just to go through the motions, but sincerely wanted to do something practical for the people.
Building bridges and paving roads, providing disaster relief, establishing schools and educating people... Which of these things does not require a large amount of money? The five hundred taels in the warehouse are obviously not enough.
It’s hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice!
Wei Chen felt that he was under a lot of pressure, and he humbly asked Fang Yuan for advice: "How did Shanda make up for the shortcomings of his predecessor?"
"Relying on selling ultimatums."
Fang Yuandao: "People from Shanda wrote to the imperial court and requested a quota of one hundred ultimatums. By selling these ultimatums, they solved the urgent need."
"This is treating the symptoms but not the root cause!"
Wei Chen originally expected to learn from Sheng Hong, but was disappointed after hearing Fang Yuan's words.
The certificate is a certification document issued by the imperial court to monks and nuns. With this certificate, monks and nuns can not only prove their identity, but also receive preferential treatment such as exemption from taxes and corvee.
What an attractive privilege it is to be exempted from taxes and corvee. In order to avoid taxes and corvee, ordinary people have become monks. Therefore, the ultimatum has become a hot commodity. When it is cheap, it is twenty or thirty taels per piece, and when it is expensive, it is eighty or ninety taels per piece. Moreover, it is still
There is a price but no market.
The government often relies on selling ultimatums to make up for financial shortfalls. However, although this can save a temporary emergency, the more ultimatums sold, the more people will be exempted from taxes and corvee. In the long run, the national finance will be reduced.
It will only become more and more stretched.
Based on Zhao Zhen's regard for Wei Chen, if Wei Chen wrote to the court asking for a hundred or two ultimatums in exchange for some money, it would definitely be much easier than Sheng Hong's, but Wei Chen is really unwilling to do so.
But if you don't sell the certificate, where will you get the money? Wei Chen also had a headache for a while.
After pondering for a moment, Wei Chen raised his head and asked Fang Yuan: "Before taking office, when I exchanged letters with Chen Jun, the magistrate of Xinzheng County, he once said that Yuzhou is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, connected to Chang'an to the west and Luoyang to the east, so merchants in the state have frequent exchanges.
Is this possible?"
During this period, Fang Yuan not only checked the money and grain in the warehouse, but also read a lot of books. He had a good understanding of the customs and customs of Yuzhou. He nodded and said: "Report to Dong Weng, it is indeed true. The taxes collected in the state are only four
60% is agricultural tax, and the remaining 60% is past commercial tax."
"Commercial taxes actually account for 60%?" Wei Chen couldn't help but widen his eyes when he heard Fang Yuan's words.
Fang Yuan said with a smile: "Dong Weng knows that there is an old site of Juntai in Yuzhou, where Xia Qi, the son of Xia Yu, enjoyed the lordships."
"All Taiwan? All..."
Suddenly a flash of lightning flashed in Wei Chen's mind: "Could it be the Jun from Junci?"
Fang Yuan smiled and nodded.
Wei Chen suddenly realized that Yuzhou was actually the location of Jun Kiln.
You must know that Jun porcelain is known as the first of the "Five Famous Porcelains" and can be called the best of porcelain. As the saying goes, "Gold has a price but everything is priceless" and "A family with thousands of treasures is not as good as a piece of Jun porcelain."
Such artistic treasures as Jun porcelain were produced under the rule of Yuzhou. No wonder it attracted businessmen from all over the Zhou Dynasty and contributed so much business tax to Yuzhou.