Chapter 570: Paying and Presiding over Examinations
In the late autumn of the seventh year of Tianbao, in October, Li Siye returned from Chang'an to Tingzhou City, the seat of Beiting. The first thing he did when he came back from Chang'an was to improve the basic treatment of the three armies in Beiting. The basic treatment of the frontier troops in this era has been determined.
After coming down, the soldiers at the lowest level were given one piece of silk and one stone of corn per month, twelve pieces of silk and twelve stones of corn per year.
How much does this salary translate into? Because silk was a hard currency in the Tang Dynasty, it was much more stable than the Kaiyuan Tongbao currency that sometimes expanded and sometimes contracted. The price of a piece of raw silk was about 500 yuan, and the price of corn was 10 yuan.
Dou, one stone is worth nearly a hundred coins, and the monthly salary of an ordinary soldier is six hundred coins.
The treatment in the four towns of Anxi is slightly higher. In total, it is almost the same. The treatment of the Forbidden Army Yulin Army and Longwu Army is three times that of the frontier army. The lowest treatment is the recruits under Beiting Jiedushi. They have no land in their hands, and every day they have no land in their hands.
Only one piece of coarse linen and one stone of highland barley are distributed every month, and those who own private horses are provided with five liters of horse feed a day. On the surface, the amount seems to be consistent with that of other border towns, but this is purely self-deception. The price of a piece of linen is only more than a hundred yuan.
Highland barley is even cheaper. Even in border towns such as Hexi, highland barley is used as feed.
He once personally inspected the home of a Long March athlete. The soldier’s family had a wife who was sallow and thin, and two children who were half-clothed. The three of them consumed four kilograms of food every day. Even if they ate highland barley tsampa every day, they could reach the same destination with one stone.
There would be no surplus food at the end of the month, the soldiers did not raise any livestock at home, and they had no clothing to keep out the cold in winter, so life was very miserable.
Since the transition from the government army system to the recruitment system was initiated, it was like crossing the river by feeling the stones. There were many flaws in military pay. The Chang'an Forbidden Army was generally high, while the border army was generally low. The ratio of the frontier army's combat effectiveness and treatment was inversely proportional to that of the Forbidden Army.
Li Siye held an internal meeting with Zhao Xun and Zang Xiyan to discuss, and it was decided that only the lower-level officers and soldiers would receive an increase in salary. They would distribute one piece of raw silk, one stone of corn plus one stone of highland barley, one piece of raw silk plus one piece of hemp cloth, and grain every month.
It was the same as before. The article was drafted by Cen Shen, secretary of the army commander, and was finally posted on the walls of Jinman and other cities in Jiaohe, Tingzhou, and also on all the defensive cities in Beiting.
At the same time, Li Siye also ordered that those who had family members in the three armies of Beiting and had local household registration would be granted twenty acres of grain land in Yongye. News of the increase in pay spread, causing a sensation in the military camps of the Han Haijun, Tianshan, and Yiwu armies.
Some of them have served in the army for more than 20 years, but they are unable to start a family because their salary is too low. Even many Hu girls who grew up in Beiting are willing to marry businessmen who are busy doing business, and are not willing to marry those who stick to poverty.
Zhengfu. To put it mildly, the soldiers guarded the border for the Tang Dynasty, but they were so poor that there was no third generation. To put it more seriously, the excellent genes of the Beiting Army that had been baptized with blood were not passed on, which directly made the entire Beiting Army
There is no successor. To put it more seriously, the entire Qixi has no hematopoietic function. Once the Hexi Corridor is cut off and the blood transfusion in the center is lost, the only ones who can hold on are those white-haired veterans with no successor in Anbeiting.
For a time, Li Siye's prestige and military ambition exceeded that of any previous Beiting Jiedu envoy, and the majority of soldiers were full of praise.
This is just his preliminary plan. Within this year, he will use the power in his hands to recruit a thousand troops each for the Tianshan Army and the Yiwu Army, and to supplement their armored troops.
Armor and military warfare are the real internal friction, and money is not easy to use. The various departments of Beidu Ordnance Supervision, including the arsenal, under the supervision of the Shaofu Supervisor need the joint approval of the Shaofu Supervisor and the Ministry of War before they can proceed according to the border regulations.
Centralized procurement of military quotas.
Of course, there are loopholes in the system, and loopholes can be exploited, but more money is needed. There are many forces in Chang'an City, openly and secretly. As long as you have money, they can get you everything you want.
Everything comes back to money. Without money it is difficult to move forward.
Dai Wang has been operating in India and Congling for more than a year. His business route has initially been successful. Now it is time to see how much output this money-making machine can produce.
He took advantage of the opportunity to take exams this year and decided to make a trip from the four towns of Anxi to Shazhou and other places to personally complete the overall decision-making on the trade routes. The management of Beiting was temporarily handed over to Zhao Xun and Zang Xiyan.
The full name of the interview envoy of Longyou Road is the interview envoy. There is no special government office. Generally, the Jiedushi envoy and others work part-time. But this year is unexpected. The person who should also serve as the interview envoy should be the Longyou Jiedushi brother.
Shu Han unexpectedly became Li Siye, the governor of Beiting. These two border towns were not of the same size at all, so Li Siye was not qualified enough to supervise them.
Since this year is a small exam, the governors of Longyou Prefecture will grade the exams of their own officials. Li Siye only needs to put away these exam evaluations and take a brief look at them. As long as they are not too high and outrageous, it will be fine. Jiedu made the governors'
The examinations will be evaluated and issued by Li Siye himself.
Faced with the cumbersome course examination work, past examinations required interviewing and handling envoys to travel around the country in person, conducting on-the-spot investigations on the work of Jiedushi and governors, and then giving judgment results.
Naturally, Li Siye did not have that much time. When he first took office, he decided to change the rules for examinations and ordered border envoys and provincial governors to write a report on the government work within this year, called a summary letter, and submit it.
Give it to him, and then write down suggestions on the back of the summary letter to grade his own exams, and also write down suggestions for the exam scores of the governors in several nearby states. After a unified summary, he can easily get the results.
This method is very reasonable. Everyone likes to give themselves higher than actual results and give their neighbors mediocre results. Taken together, the results are closer to the actual situation.
He himself was already in Qiuci City, his home base in the Four Towns of Anxi. He only took with him the marching secretary Cen Shen and his maid Daorou. He did not leak the itinerary and route to the generals of the Anxi Army because he was one of them in the past.
One of them is now embarrassed because of the disparity in status, especially in front of Anxi Jiedushi Gao Xianzhi. He and the other party didn't think anything of it when they met.
The gap between the two people is actually the gap between one piece of music and one instrument. With a character like Gao Xianzhi, he might not look down on him for not doing his job properly and relying on side tactics to flatter the emperor and get interviews and handle the envoys. Li Siye might not either.
Too cold to Gao Xianzhi's stubborn thinking, people who only know how to fight are afraid that they will see the opportunity but not other opportunities.
After stopping in the city to rest, he set off for Shule on the second day and arrived at Shule thirteen days later.
After entering Shule City, he went directly to the paper mill, but Dai Liulang was not at the paper mill. According to the papermaking craftsmen, Dai Wang might be guarding the city in Congling, and the laying of the post station in the Congling area was the top priority.
Heavy.
He wrote a letter to Dai Wang and ordered it to be delivered to Congling. He himself waited in Dai Wang's hut next to the paper mill.
It has been more than a year since I last came here, and the room seems even more cramped, just because there are many shelves built against the wall, and books and volumes are neatly arranged on them.
He opened one of the books and looked at it. It was full of ideas for the construction of the station system and the method of transporting bulk goods. There were hundreds of novel ideas. He opened another scroll, and on the paper
What was painted with a fine brush was the design of the inn. It was built in a square shape with rammed earth, and it looked like small beacons. If you look carefully, you will see that all parts of the inn are fully equipped and the requirements for materials are also the most economical.