Datang: Huchi served as a bodyguard, but refused to enter the court as an official

The economy of the Yellow River Basin has long been unable to support. The north has supported the Central Plains Dynasty for more than 2000 years. If the nutrients in the North continue to be squeezed, the Central Plains Dynasty will collapse sooner or later.

The south is a piece of paradise that has never been developed.

The significance of the Grand Canal lies in this.

Liu Bai is not a person who doesn't discriminate between good and evil.

At that time, Yang Guang recruited [-] civilians, and the construction of the Grand Canal was completed in less than [-] percent.

The number of water thieves caught from Dongting Lake was less than [-], and by the time the Mabu Mountain was captured, there would be at most another six or seven thousand more.

With such a small number of people, there are far from enough canals to build Jiangnan Road.

What's more, building a canal requires not only people, but also money.

Where does the money come from?

"It's obviously unrealistic to ask the imperial court to transfer the money, and it's impossible for our own family to pay for it. This expense must fall on some people."

As a person who used to love empty-handed wolves, no matter how rich Liu Bai was, he was always worried about money.

It is not impossible to ask the Liu family to pay, as long as the Liu family can collect the river tax for a few years, not only can the account be settled but also a lot of money can be made, but the question is, is it possible for the imperial court to hand over the right to collect taxes to the Liu family?

Liu Bai, who doesn't care about Mabu Mountain at all, has already started thinking about how to build the Grand Canal.

Anyway, sooner or later he will take down Mabu Mountain.

He called all the people around him to discuss a solution.

For this reason, he specially called Shen Wansan from Dongzhou Island.

In addition to Shen Wansan, there are also the three big shopkeepers of the Liu family, as well as Li Tai and Li Ke who have been in charge of the construction of Dujiangyan in central Shu.

The tent at Ergui Mountain seemed to be a highly confidential meeting place.

Xu Chu himself stood guard outside the door with a knife in his hand.

More than 80 Taiji masters, together with more than 200 soldiers from Yuezhou Prefecture, surrounded the area at the foot of Ergui Mountain.

"Our main problem now is that besides money, there is indeed not enough manpower. When we were in central Sichuan, Mr. Niu directly mobilized [-] civilians and [-] government soldiers to start the construction. It took three months to get the water conservancy project started. With a certain scale, can we also mobilize the local government soldiers?"

Li Ke is very sensitive to numbers, and asked a question that others wanted to say but were afraid to say.

As the royal family, he can command the government soldiers unscrupulously without worrying about the suspicion of some people.

Because he is the king of Wu, this place was originally his territory.

Shen Wansan knocked on the table, and said: "People's problems are relatively easy to solve. Your Majesty has handed over the entire Jiangnan Road corvee to the young master. At worst, he will call the peasants. The main problem to be solved now is the money problem."

If this meeting is heard by others, I am afraid they will think that they are all crazy.

First, there is no one, and second, there is no money, so you are thinking about starting construction?

They didn't know that the Liu family had always been like this.

Empty glove white wolf is the most basic craft.

The Liu family has long been used to standing in the middle of the road with a bag in broad daylight, waiting for gold to fall from the sky.

This is not bullshit, but requires brains.

From the beginning to the end, for any project built by the Liu family, they did not see much money from them themselves.

In the past, there would always be people who took the initiative to come to the door, but this time the big boss appeared a little late.

It stands to reason that it should almost appear, right?

Liu Bai gently rubbed his temples.

"What's the situation with Li You? Tell him to report the news from Muzhou as soon as possible. Why is there no news yet?"

Chapter 1703 Who is not enough?

In the tent it was discussed where the money for the construction of the Grand Canal would come from, but outside the tent there was already a quarrel.

Liu Hui and Dugu Mou, the two little devils, are responsible for registering household registrations for tens of thousands of water thieves in Dongting Lake.

Registering household registration is not enough just a few names.

Every water thief must investigate their origin and household registration, and it is best to find a guarantor.

Although most of them are locals from Yuezhou, there are still some refugees who escaped from outside.

Some people even don't know where they come from.

Dongting Lake has been in business for hundreds of years, who knows which pit these people came out of.

In addition, water thieves have an unruly character, so if you ask him a few words, he will dare to use a knife or a gun if he gets impatient.

More than 2 people gathered at the foot of Ergui Mountain, like [-] ducks, chirping back and forth.

The two little devils wiped the sweat from their brows, looked at each other and smiled wryly.

The old master who was specially invited from Yuezhou City looked weak in writing, and when he got angry, he picked up the inkstone and threw it at his forehead.

The person who was smashed was bleeding all over his face, and his mouth was not forgiving. He grabbed a handful of loess and threw it at the old master's face, with a mouthful of saliva.

The people around wanted to stop but dared not.

It wasn't water thieves who were fighting.

The old master in Yuezhou City is a rare capable person.

He is familiar with the big and small things in Yuezhou City.

Even most water thieves know him.

In this land, if you find someone casually, you may be related.

The one who was beaten to the ground by the old master was an old subordinate of Yuezhou Governor's Mansion.

Many people think that the county magistrate sitting in the lobby, holding a gavel, and surrounded by a group of government servants holding their feet, is considered to be all the political institutions in a county.

In fact, even in the lower county, the internal personnel composition is very complicated.

Like various departments in later generations, the three shifts and six offices of the county government supported the organizational structure of a county.

Those in charge of household registration, those in charge of money and food, and those in charge of soldiers all have their own departments.

It seems that it is not much different from a small court, it is nothing more than replacing the three provinces and six ministries with three classes and six houses.

People in households talk about population, and people in money and grain houses talk about money.

Add one more household registration, and the household will have credit.

But correspondingly, the money and grain room will have one more person's ration.

There is an irreconcilable contradiction between the two.

Even at the state level of Yuezhou, there is not much difference between the master book and the subordinate staff.

The only difference is that the master book has a rank, and the dignified officials from the eighth rank are well prepared to support them.

As for the subordinate staff, to put it more delicately, they are actually externally hired talents.

Rather than saying that the Tang Empire is governed by officials, it is better to say that it is governed by officials.

The difference between an official and an official lies entirely in whether there is a body prepared by the official department.

It seemed that the officials were going to slap the subordinates hard.

In the imperial court, in the administrative regions at the Dao level, this is indeed the case.

But in terms of inheritance, the status of officials and officials is really similar.

Except for the top lord, the other officials are not necessarily more capable than the subordinate staff.

Because the people who work as subordinate officials are generally from the local gentry family.

They are the ones who hold the power of the people.

Although it was only a short day, the quarrel between the two rooms has already been carried out no less than ten times.

Dugu Mou and Liu Hui are powerless.

In this strange place, their eyes were also darkened.

It stands to reason that they should support serious officials.

But once the old subordinate was not happy and said something casually, all the helpers present would definitely follow him.

Under such circumstances, the only way to stop is to hit [-] big boards each.

Fortunately, Liu Bai sent some soldiers from Yuezhou Prefecture to them.

Pulling the two old men down to beat the board, Liu Hui and Dugu Mou's faces were tense, knowing that there would definitely be a quarrel.

Sure enough, someone broke up again in the distance.

This time there was a lot of trouble.

More than a dozen water thieves, surrounded by two simple-looking men, punched and kicked without mercy.

Before Dugu Mou and Liu Hui arrived there, they heard someone screaming, "Killer!"

The two hurriedly pushed the people in front of them away, and when they got closer, they realized that the two men were not breathing.

Dugu Mou's face was livid, and he was about to explode when he was gently pulled by Liu Hui.

"Protect the scene, don't worry!"

Dugumou has always used the worst thoughts to speculate on others.

But Liu Hui is much more rational.

But correspondingly, Dugu Mou had courage, but Liu Hui was a little more cowardly.

This has something to do with their living environment since childhood.

But the two of them complement each other, making them a very good partner.

"Even the weapons have been confiscated. If you beat someone to death at this time, isn't it just looking for trouble? There is a strange energy in it. I will ask someone who understands it."

Liu Hui whispered in Dugumou's ear.

Dugu Mou nodded with a cold face.

"Tie them all up!"

A group of government soldiers stepped forward and tied up the murderers.

Liu Hui ran away from a distance, and got into an inconspicuous tent.

Soon, he came out.

Back at the scene of the murder, he whispered in Dugu Mou's ear again: "I asked, and that person meant to leave it alone for now, there will definitely be other things happening later, let's wait and see what happens."

Dugu Mou nodded imperceptibly.

From the very beginning, the two knew that getting a household registration was not something they needed to do.

What they really want to do is to find out the spies among the water thieves.

Dongting Lake has been in operation for a hundred years, and there are many complicated relationships inside. People have no background at all, and they may be undercover agents infiltrated by some forces.

Even if this group of water thieves is destined to become coolies, it is probably enough to do good things, but bad things, one bad one is sure!

Let them build it, as short as a year or two, but as long as it grows, it will be endless.

The Liu family didn't have so much manpower and material resources to watch them, and the court was beyond their reach.

If some people with ulterior motives rebelled, Yuezhou would be in chaos.

It's normal to quarrel.

It is estimated that this group of people felt that they had quarreled many times, and if they killed a few more people, they might not reveal anything.

If this matter cannot be handled properly, it will definitely be a knot in the hearts of these water thieves.

In fact, there was no need to be so polite to them, but who is not enough?

Dugu Mou asked the murderers to be hung up, squatted on the ground and looked at the two corpses, without saying anything, turned around and left to register the water thieves.

Liu Hui asked someone to carry the two corpses to a certain inconspicuous small tent.

For a while, there was no movement.