Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

After careful searching and rummaging by Cangcao's scribes, the archives of the past nine years of Datong were sorted out one after another.

However, as Huangfu Mu said, most of these documents were seriously damaged due to poor storage, moisture, or insects. Even if there are some that are still intact, the paper has become brittle and lacks toughness, and cannot withstand frequent handling and repeated display.

After Li Tai saw this, he simply stopped ordering him to return to the main hall and went to work directly on the spot. He found a free and quiet room in the scripture writing area, leaving a few small officials here to help answer questions, and then began to read carefully. Get these papers.

Huangfu Mu watched for a moment and saw Li Tai with his head buried in the file and his mind focused on it. Although he didn't know what his specific thoughts were, he finally felt more balanced and stopped disturbing him. He returned to the straight hall to continue. Things that haven't been done yet.

When people are focused on doing things, time flies. When Huangfu Mu Zai raised his head and looked out of the hall, the afterglow of the setting sun was shining into the hall from the western edge of the sky. Some of his colleagues in the hall had finished their desk work, while others were planning to burn the midnight oil.

Seeing that Huangfu Mu stopped what he was doing, the officials waiting on the side hurried forward and summarized today's matters and submitted them to the case.

Huangfu Mu looked over these things and found nothing wrong, so he subconsciously touched his waist to use the seal. When his hand was empty, he suddenly remembered that he was no longer Chang Shi, and he felt a little sad. , and then he remembered Li Tai who had stayed in the scripture writing field before.

"Perhaps he has left..."

After walking out of the straight hall, the sky was already a little dark. Huangfu Mu, who had been busy with the case for most of the day, felt hungry, so he guessed that Li Tai might not have the patience to stay there any longer, and planned to have dinner first before asking, but after thinking about it, I still lifted my legs and walked towards the sutra writing field.

When Huangfu Mu arrived at the scripture writing site, it was already completely dark, and lights were already on in some scripture writing rooms. The room where Li Tai stayed before was even brighter.

Huangfu Mu stepped into the room and saw a dozen people sitting or standing in the room. They were all Cangcao officials. They all held their breath and concentrated. Even if they noticed Huangfu Mu's arrival, they just nodded and said nothing. Vocal greeting.

When Huangfu Mu saw this scene, he felt suspicious. He turned around and looked into the room. The first thing he saw was the pile of business books and documents about half a person high on the desk. After passing through the piles of documents, he saw Li Tai sitting behind the case.

"Have these documents been reviewed?"

Looking at the pile of papers as high as his chest, Huangfu Mu asked in disbelief.

As he spoke, the silent atmosphere in the room was suddenly broken. Li Tai stopped flipping through the transcripts. Cao Junjun, the governor of Cangzhou, who had been spreading paper, serving ink, and observing and studying next to him, suddenly raised his head and scolded with an unhappy look on his face. Said: "Who is making noises to disturb... Huangfu Changshi, joining the army..."

Huangfu Mu ignored Na Cang Cao's joining the army, pushed aside the people beside the case and walked to Li Tai's table. Then he pointed at the pile of books and said to Li Tai, "Has Li Changshi approved these documents?"

As soon as Li Tai stopped, he suddenly felt some soreness and stiffness in his shoulders and limbs. He stood up from the table and moved for a while, then nodded to Huangfu Mu and said, "It was just a rough reading."

As soon as he said these words, Cang Cao, the military officer next to him, shook his head repeatedly and said: "The long history records everything in great detail and precision. I have never seen such a skillful and skillful management of affairs, and I have never seen such a humble position!"

As the soldier spoke, he dug out the dried ink notes that Li Tai had made before, showed them to Huangfu Mu, and explained the convenience of this way of recording.

In fact, Li Tai didn't use any complicated techniques. He just used some basic statistical applications. He first sorted out the event elements that appeared in the document, outlined the frequency of recording of different events, and then compared the related events. By reviewing the dynamics of material revenue and expenditure for a period of time, we can naturally get an overview of changes in financial revenue and expenditure during this period.

There is not much difference in intelligence between the ancients and later generations, but the information that later generations receive and need to process every day is beyond the reach of the ancients. Even a dead man in later generations will see and think more than a county magistrate in ancient times.

So when it comes to extracting the key points and sorting out and summarizing complicated information, because of the different living environments, future generations are far better than their predecessors. Of course, we have to exclude some people who give up on self-thinking and indulge in public accounts for novelty and popularization.

Li Tai's former subordinates were already not surprised by his almost natural ability, but they did not expect that it would arouse a wave of surprise after he came to Longyou. It can be seen that when people lack a sense of accomplishment in life, they may not have to improve themselves to regain it. Changing the map will also work.

When Huangfu Mu Zai saw the financial balance and expenditure of Qinzhou in recent years compiled by Li Tai, he couldn't help but stare in amazement.

He has been here for a long time and has a clear understanding of many situations, but his memory will also become blurred with time and energy. The detailed numbers recorded on this paper make the memory in his mind vivid again. up, and there is little difference between them.

When it comes to his understanding of state finance alone, Li Tai's efforts in one afternoon were comparable to his years of study! Of course, this is not the only thing he has done in the past few years, but Li Tai's efficient grasp of state affairs undoubtedly proves that he has very outstanding talents.

"No wonder my lord praised Li Changshi many times in the past, but I was narrow-minded and praised him too much because of my preference. Now that I have seen that the long history is as complicated as it is simple, I realize that I have been short-sighted and failed to recognize the great talents. I hope Changshi can tolerate his previous cold-faced offense!”

Huangfu Mu carefully put the notes written by Li Tai back on the case, and then apologized to Li Tai in a deep voice.

Li Tai's mind was naturally not open-minded. He had been unhappy with Huangfu Mu's attitude towards him before, but he also knew in his heart that it was because there was such a person in the state who could concentrate on things that his father-in-law could safely arrange for him to stay and stay. Oversee matters.

So when he saw Huangfu Mu bowing his head and apologizing to him with a look of shame, he did not laugh at him like a villain, but just said with a generous smile: "Ning and a gentleman are separated from each other, and they have nothing to do with each other." People talk about friendship. Huangfu Junjun, you are open-minded and sincere towards others. It is human nature to be suspicious because of ignorance before, but there is no need to worry about it. I still have many doubts about state affairs. I hope Huangfu Junjun can give you some advice. ”

"Please rest assured, Li Changshi, but if you ask any questions, I will tell you everything you know!"

After Huangfu Mu heard this, he quickly added that he was not good at interpersonal communication. He already recognized Li Tai in his heart and wanted to do more in his work. But after saying this, his stomach rumbled uncontrollably.

This sound seemed like a signal, and several people in the room began to growl in their stomachs. Although Li Tai had eaten a lot for breakfast, he felt hungry after hearing the news. Seeing that it was getting late, he smiled and said: "Because of my order today, the people in Cangcao are very tired and may not be hot when they return home." If you want to eat, please stay in the public kitchen.”

When everyone heard this, they all burst into laughter. Although there is a public kitchen in the state capital, only high-ranking subordinates can enjoy the benefits of breakfast and dinner. Generally, subordinates have to pay for their own meals.

Generally speaking, powerful children from better-off families would not commit themselves to serving as subordinates who would be beaten and punished at every turn, so a meal was very satisfying to them.

When Li Tai was flipping through the papers, he noticed that the state government kitchen spent a lot of money on materials every year. The largest amount was in the eleventh year of Datong that just passed. The amount of various food materials consumed in the whole year reached as much as Hundreds of thousands of horses.

So during dinner, Li Tai personally went to the public kitchen on the side of the state capital to see how good the food standards of Qinzhou's working meals were. He actually ate more than a dozen Gao Aocao every year!

The public kitchen is quite large, with two rows of large rooms leading to the hall, and a stable for raising cattle, sheep and other meat animals. When they learned that Chang Shi, who had taken office in person, had arrived, all the cooks and cooks in the public kitchen lined up to greet him. There were more than a hundred male and female servants, but none of them had a fat figure.

Being a cook in this era is not a lucrative job. If you really meet a boss like Wang Yan who has to weigh the food and wine himself when treating guests to dinner, if he dares to do any small tricks, he is looking for death.

Although Dugu Xin is not so petty and harsh, his generals are not kindhearted people, so there are not many people in the canteen of the state capital who want to enrich their own pockets.

While Li Tai was ordering dinner, he took the opportunity to observe and inquire about the daily food standards of this state capital. It is necessary to provide meals for more than a hundred people in the two mansions every day, each with different grades of food depending on its quality. The daily food consumption is about fifty bolts of silk.

This kind of food standard is already very generous. Even in Longyou, where the price standard is higher than that in Guanzhong, it is enough to provide a sumptuous meal. Even if the banquet is held every day, according to normal standards, the state capital's annual consumption is only two Gao Aocao.

While waiting for the public kitchen to prepare the meal, Li Tai asked Huangfu Mu why the state government's public kitchen expenses were so high last year, many times higher than the normal level!

When Huangfu Mu heard Li Tai raise this question, he sorted out his thoughts and said: "Last year, Tuyuhunyuan formed an alliance with the East bandits, which caused tension in Longbian and Hexi. It also involved Deng Yan in Guazhou, Yuwen Zhonghe in Liangzhou and other Fang Mu's arms. Unpredictable.

The lord was afraid that the disaster would not come from the outside but from within, so he had been trying to appease the wealthy families in the country and invited the Di Qiang Qushuai to hold banquets in the palace twice every three days. The former applied for the Hui envoy to Hexi, so he was able to successfully capture Deng Yan. He also made a great contribution to win over powerful people from the state here. "

Li Tai finally understood after hearing this. Qinzhou had been eating and drinking with public funds for the past year, which ensured the stability of order in the territory, and even Guazhou was fed back.

This part of the matter will not be recorded in Cang Cao's income and expenditure account book. After Li Tai pondered for a while, he asked: "Does the state government have a list of all the wealthy families and Qu Shuai who attended the government banquet last year?"

After hearing this, Huangfu Mu nodded and said, "Yes, after every banquet, the lord will order people to record the gifts distributed to the people present, as evidence of the techniques used to govern people in the future."

Li Tai was overjoyed when he heard this. It seemed that his father-in-law was not just showing off his extravagance. He recorded everything he ate and took in a small notebook.

Anyone who can attend the government banquet is naturally not a simple person. The list formed in this way is equivalent to recording the local sentiments and forces of the Longyou states, which naturally has great application value.

The food and wine prepared by the public kitchen were served one after another, so the problem was temporarily suspended. While eating, Li Tai sorted out in his mind the financial situation of Qinzhou that he had learned today.

Generally speaking, the largest and most stable input to a state's finances must be the rent paid by each household per capita. Other incomes have their own fluctuations, variables and contingency, and it is difficult to treat them as a constant increment. Pre-plan your expenses.

But this is not the case in Qinzhou. Although there are more than 10,000 registered households under its rule and it has a large-scale military industry, the income from this part does not even reach one-third of Qinzhou's overall fiscal revenue. In other words, more than half of Qinzhou's fiscal revenue is unpredictable and may be more or less.

However, Qinzhou's financial situation has not increased risks or worsened because of this. Instead, it is very healthy. Not only can it meet the huge military and administrative expenses, it even has a considerable surplus every year. It is as poor as Bafu Yin of Huazhou. Compared with the green light in my eyes, it is not very moisturizing!

This is because Qinzhou has a large-scale official manufacturing workshop, which is involved in everything from people's livelihood to military manufacturing. Even at the beginning of the ninth year of Datong, a batch of bows and arrows produced by Qinzhou's official workshops were handed over to Bafu as a substitute for renting and used to arm the Sixth Army, but they were all lost in Mang Mountain.

The handicraft industry in Qinzhou or Longyou is more prosperous than that in Guanzhong. Li Tai wouldn't believe it if he hadn't drawn the conclusion from a pile of data.

In his impression, Longyou Han was a messy and chaotic place, and even agricultural production could not be guaranteed, let alone handicrafts that had higher environmental requirements.

But the fact is that not only the general handicraft industry has developed on a large scale in Longyou, but also some high-end gold and silverware, including the coffins and coffins used in the funerals of princes and ministers in Chang'an City, were made by craftsmen from Wudu Palace in Qinzhou.

Li Tai's understanding of this phenomenon is that the land suitable for farming in Longyou itself is very narrow, and has been mostly occupied by local powerful households. Perennial disputes cannot provide ordinary people with a long-term and stable environment for reclamation and production. Many people If you can't get stable output from the land, you can only find other ways.

The numerous Di and Qiang tribes in Longyou cannot be self-sufficient in their lifestyle and production methods, so they must obtain the means of production and living through external transactions. In addition, Longyou is an important trade route in the Hexi Corridor, so the handicraft industry has developed rapidly. People no longer need to be tied to the land, and their living space can instead be expanded.

As for the creation of high-end luxury goods, firstly, there was a steady stream of gold and silver materials brought by the Western Regions trade routes; secondly, at the beginning of the establishment of the Western Wei Dynasty, Longyou was still under the jurisdiction of the Yuan and Wei Dynasties, so a considerable number of Fengyu craftsmen came from Luoyang. He was relocated to Longyou.

Coupled with the handicraft industries developed by Longyou based on religious needs, such as pottery, carving, painting and scripture writing, etc., this makes the development of Longyou's handicraft industry far more active than that of Guanzhong, and they are not as profitable. shallow.

For example, the scripture writing field that Li Tai originally wanted to cut down was second only to the scripture writing field in Dunhuang in Guazhou and the second largest in Longyou and Hexi.

Although interpreting and copying scriptures is an extremely religious act, it is also accompanied by huge benefits, not only monetary benefits, but also huge local prestige and political resources.

Li Tai naturally knew how to use religion to make money, so he built the Shifo Temple in northern Shaanxi and attracted a large number of Jihu people to rely on investment.

This kind of atmosphere is stronger in Longyou Hexi, and the market operation is more mature. After all, Buddhism is more prosperous here. Even if many monks in the country cannot go to Tianzhu to learn Buddhist scriptures, they at least have to walk around Longyou Hexi to be considered gilded. Otherwise, you are not worthy of being called an eminent monk.

This scripture writing field in Qinzhou has existed for many years and has been well-operated. It can bring tens of thousands of silk benefits and tens of thousands of labor to the state capital every year. Every year, the governor of the state government gathers here to give lectures and spread the meaning of the law. It is of great significance to the governance of Qinzhou and cannot be shut down by Li Tai at a single thought.

In addition, Qinzhou also has official and animal husbandry industries, salt and iron revenue, and considerable commercial tax revenue. Li Tai was jealous when he saw it. No wonder everything east of Longguan was in chaos during the Five Husties Rebellion, but there were things in Longyou and Hexi. The various Liang regimes, including the Li family in Longxi, lived quite well.

With such an asset in hand, even if he operates with his eyes closed, even if he cannot compete with Guanzhong, Li Tai feels that it is impossible for him to be so stupid that Yu Wenhu forces him to commit suicide at home.

Looking at Qinzhou's fiscal revenue structure alone, Li Tai saw a fatal flaw in Duguxin, which was that his influence was insufficient and he had almost no power to allocate and dispose of core resources.

To be honest, it was a bit of a waste of this historical opportunity. In addition to the fact that Duguxin himself did not have the confidence to compete with or even replace Yuwentai, it was probably also because he had been wandering around for most of his life, which had left him wondering how to deepen his business. Develop your own power and slip out of inertia.

Nowadays, the political lives of Li Tai and Dugu Xin are closely related, and they both prosper together. Although it is quite difficult in terms of time, they still want to work hard and take care of things that Dugu Xin has not been involved in before and has not done enough. Hope to get more rewards in the future.