Traveling through history leaving a name

Chapter 39 Taxes

Xun You looked around Yuyang City before he sent his men to inform Li Bai, governor of Yuyang County.

Li Bai didn't expect that Xun You, who was sitting in the rear for Cao Cao, would come to Yuyang County, so he hurried to greet him.

"I pay my respects to your lord." Li Bai saluted Xun You.

"You don't need to be too polite. I'm mainly here to see the situation in Yuyang. Just show me around." Xun You said to Li Bai.

In the next few days, Xun You asked Li Bai to take a look at many places inside and outside Yuyang City.

The textile mills and machinery manufacturing plants in Yuyang City were the main targets of Xun You's inspection.

The first thing Xun You looked at was the textile factory. When he saw various machines turning cotton into exquisite cloth, his heart was shocked.

After that, he went to see the machinery manufacturing factory in Yuyang.

When he saw the strange machine cutting iron like mud and making hard steel into various shapes, he no longer knew what to say.

In addition, he also saw the rumbling steam engine. In his opinion, the steam engine is simply an ingenious item.

After a few days in Yuyang City, Xun You was an eye-opener.

"Prefect Li, can these machines make weapons and armor?"

After looking at all kinds of machine tools, Xun You happened to have a whim, and then asked Li Bai.

Hearing Xun You's words, Li Bai thought for a while and said, "My lord, it should be possible. We have a forging machine here, so we should be able to forge weapons."

"Then I don't know which is faster, forging weapons with machines or craftsmen?" Xun You asked again.

"It depends on what kind of weapon it is?" Li Bai said: "If it is a sword, it should be faster to stamp it with a machine and then forge it than to make it by hand."

"If it is an arrow, it should be a hundred times better than manual casting if it is directly ground and poured."

"If it is armor, such as the armor of fish scale armor, it can also be stamped and formed by a stamping machine at one time, which is not comparable to manual labor."

"Are you serious?" Xun You's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard Li Bai's words.

"Seriously." Li Bai nodded affirmatively.

"That's great." Xun You happily said to Li Bai: "Prefect Li, the imperial court needs to build a lot of weapons and armor. I wonder if you can build them in the shortest time here?"

"This...isn't there a general in the imperial court?" Li Bai asked.

"The prime minister is fighting against Sun Quan in the south. He needs a lot of weapons and armor. The general prison can't handle it for a while. Since you can also make it here, why don't you share some of it." Xun You said to Li Bai.

"I don't know how many weapons and armor the imperial court will build? How much will it cost?" Li Bai asked.

"We need 30 pieces of swords and guns, [-] arrowheads, and [-] sets of armor. I wonder how long it will take you to make them?" Xun You asked.

"So many?" Hearing Xun You's words, Li Bai was taken aback, then he thought about it secretly, and said, "There are too many weapons and armors, and it will take about half a year."

"So fast?"

Now it was Xun You's turn to be surprised. There were 30 swords and guns, [-] arrows, and [-] sets of armor. This is not a small amount.

"It's mainly due to the lack of manpower and machines, otherwise it would be faster." Li Bai said.

"Okay, okay, then I will leave this matter to you." Xun You said happily.

"I don't know how much money the court can allocate?" Li Bai asked Xun You.

"How much do you think is needed?" Xun You asked without answering.

After hearing Xun You's words, Li Bai thought for a while and quoted the price: "A seven-pound Huanshou knife costing one thousand yuan each if made of good steel, and six hundred yuan if made of ordinary iron."

"Three catties of gun heads, use high-quality steel to make each five hundred coins, and use ordinary iron to make each three hundred coins."

"The arrows are made of pig iron, and each is thirty dollars. If the imperial court needs a complete feather arrow, it is fifty dollars each."

"The armor is too complicated to make, so a pair of armor costs at least [-] yuan."

The armor of the Han Dynasty was not as complicated and difficult to make as the armor of the later generations. For example, the Mingguang armor of the Tang Dynasty, such an armor may not be available for 20 yuan, let alone [-] yuan.

According to the "Yanxi Style" of the Tang Dynasty, it takes more than 200 days to make a pair of Mingguang Kai, and 41 people to repair a pair, which shows how precious this kind of armor is.

On the other side, hearing Li Bai's quotation, Xun You's eyelids couldn't help but twitch.

It's not because Li Bai's quotation is expensive, but because it's too cheap.

A steel knife costs only [-] yuan, and a pair of armor costs only [-] yuan, which is almost the same as the cost price.

"Can you have less..."

Xun You still wanted to bargain, but was interrupted by Li Bai. "My lord, this is already the lowest price. If it is cheaper, I won't be able to make it here."

"Okay, then I will pay the price you said, but I need to double the quantity. In this way, there are 50 pieces of swords and guns, [-] pairs of armor, and [-] feathers and arrows. I don't know how long it will take?" Xun You asked.

"It may take more than a year, but as long as the money and manpower can be allocated, I can buy steel and make weapons as soon as possible." Li Bai said.

He secretly calculated that the total price of so many weapons and armor was close to [-] million, and after excluding the cost, he could earn about [-] million. This business can be done.

"I will transfer the money as soon as possible, but what kind of manpower do you need? How much?" Xun You asked.

Hearing Xun You's words, Li Bai thought for a while and said, "We need a thousand craftsmen who can make armor, a thousand carpenters, and some craftsmen who can make gold and silver jewelry. That should be enough."

"Okay, you write a note, and I'll call you as soon as possible, so you should make preparations." Xun You nodded in agreement.

"By the way, Governor Li, I think this Yuyang County is developing so well, so it must collect a lot of taxes, right? Why did I look at the account books and see that Yuyang only had 1000 million taxes and 180 million catties of grain last year?"

"My lord, each county in Youzhou has a fixed number of taxes, and the imperial court promised to reduce taxes for Yuyang County for five years. I paid taxes according to the imperial court's regulations."

Li Bai explained: "And all the taxes and taxes I collect are taken from the people and used by the people. Bridges and roads are built, water conservancy and agricultural reclamation are developed, and schools are run. All the expenses are accounted for. I can check them. I am not greedy for any baht."

"You think too much. I didn't say that you are greedy for money. I just asked. You have developed Yuyang County so well, and you have nothing to do with it." Xun You comforted Li Bai.

Although Xun You said so, the next day, he asked Li Bai to show him Yuyang's income and expenditure account books.

When Xun You saw that Yuyang County's various taxes last year were as huge as 7000 million yuan (equivalent to 67 yuan), he was stunned and stunned.

Afterwards, he carefully looked at the account books, and found that Li Bai really didn't have a penny of the money, and all of it was used for local construction.

Repair city walls, repair roads, repair water conservancy, build schools and so on and so on.

But there is very little cash spent on the books.Most of them used food, cloth, etc. as wages. Under such circumstances, it was sometimes difficult to estimate the true value of these account books.

In fact, most of the taxes in the Han Dynasty were paid with grain, cloth and other materials, and there were very few copper coins, mainly because the court did not have enough coins.

The lack of coins on the market has restricted the development of the market economy, so Yuyang County is also considering whether to make its own coins.

Zhang Qingfeng is even thinking about issuing banknotes, because banknotes are more beneficial to economic development than heavy copper coins.

"Prefect Li, Yuyang County pays too little tax. I think Yuyang has to pay 5000 million yuan in taxes every year." After reading the account books, Xun You called Li Bai and said.

"What? So much?"

Hearing Xun Yu's words, Li Bai was taken aback immediately, and immediately argued: "My lord, you are killing chickens and taking eggs. If Yuyang pays so much money, Yuyang will not be able to develop, and the imperial court has five years to treat Yuyang. Exemption from taxation, I can't agree to your request..."

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(End of this chapter)