At the same time, Master Li, who had been sitting aside fiddling with an abacus, also stopped what he was doing.
He gently put down the slightly old abacus, stood up, and bowed slightly to Zhang Wenyuan and said,
"Master Zhang, this account book records the detailed information of taxes collected by the prefectural yamen over the years. We have carefully compiled the statistics."
Master Li bent over and placed the account book on the table in front of Zhang Wenyuan.
His old waist has been bent over using the abacus these days, and now it is difficult to stand up straight.
There are only a few things in the treasury of the prefectural government's silver and money warehouse. You can see at a glance what they are used for.
The prefects in other cities did engage in corruption, but as God is witnessing, their Prefect Deng really did not engage in corruption.
These officials are also suffering and are so poor that they are starving.
They also want to embezzle some money and live a good life.
However, there are so many soldiers to support on the border, and the court does not care about their food and drink, so they have to take care of it.
Who made their lives depend on these soldiers?
Zhang Wenyuan looked at the account book on the table with a worried look on his face, and glanced at the accountant in the room who was exhausted.
All the capable accountants in the city were gathered here.
Zhang Wenyuan had no choice, as he didn't understand anything about accounting.
He doesn't understand and can only find a professional to do the liquidation.
Liu Yi looked at the account book on the table and frowned.
He had counted all the money in the treasury, but he had never seen such a poor prefectural government office.
Damn it, there’s only two thousand three hundred taels of silver in total.
If this money belonged to him alone, it would indeed be a huge sum of money, and he could live comfortably for the rest of his life.
But this money belonged to the prefectural government and was to be used to pay salaries to the yamen runners and soldiers guarding the city.
This amount of money can't even pay out half a month's salary.
Zhang Wenyuan frowned, opened the account book and saw the final summary of the data, and his eyes went dark.
He is not cut out for accounting, so why should he be in charge of these things?
Where can he make up for these losses? It's really terrible.
"Why!"
Zhang Wenyuan sighed and flipped through the account books. The densely packed accounts made his head throb.
"Salaries haven't been paid for four months. Where's the money the prefectural government uses to collect taxes?"
Master Li glanced at Zhang Wenyuan, pursed his lips, stepped forward and opened the account book.
"Master Zhang, please take a look. Due to the drought, no taxes have been collected in the past six months."
"The drought in Qianhuang City came much earlier and was much more severe than in other cities. If we continue to collect taxes, the people will die."
"The silver that was originally in the treasury was used to buy food during the two months of drought."
"Otherwise, the soldiers of Qianhuang City wouldn't have been able to hold out until King Qianhuang arrived, and would have already—"
Master Li lowered his eyelids and stopped talking.
To be honest, ten days ago, he thought he was going to die.
How can we survive without water and food?
He could follow Magistrate Deng and defend Qianhuang City to the death. Even if he died, he would be considered a meritorious service and not a deserter.
But his family couldn't just wait to die with him.
When he was about to send his family away, King Qianhuang suddenly arrived and single-handedly rescued all the people in Qianhuang City.
He is now very glad that he did not send his family away so quickly.
Zhang Wenyuan's eyes fell on the page that Master Lu had opened, and he couldn't suppress his sad expression.
He would like to collect taxes now, but he doesn't dare.
King Qianhuang distributed food to the people, and then he went to collect taxes. King Qianhuang must have killed him.
However, if taxes are not collected, where will the money come from to pay the soldiers' salaries?
Zhang Wenyuan scratched his head in distress.
Liu Yi's eyes rolled and he leaned close to Zhang Wenyuan's ear.
"There are still many wealthy businessmen in Qianhuang City. It's time for them to contribute."
"The water is free for them to drink. During droughts, water is very valuable. We must make them pay for it."
Zhang Wenyuan's eyes lit up when he heard this.
Yes, there are still those wealthy businessmen.
These wealthy businessmen are so tactless that they don’t know how to show respect to King Qianhuang.
Zhang Wenyuan looked at Master Li with shining eyes.
"Master Li, do you know any wealthy businessmen in Qianhuang City?"
Master Li rolled his eyes with his eyelids drooping, and the corners of his mouth twitched twice.
"The wealthy merchants in Qianhuang City had all evacuated as early as the third month of the drought."
"Lord Deng pressured those wealthy merchants and bought their food and fodder at a low price. Otherwise, how could the prefectural government have bought so much food and fodder with the little money it had?"
In years of famine, the rich businessmen are the ones who run the fastest.
Rich businessmen have plenty of money, so why should they stay here and be fleeced?
The wealthy businessman wanted to make a fortune from the disaster and drove up prices, but in the end he lost all the money he earned. How could he still stay in Qianhuang City?
Although Magistrate Deng had a hot temper, he was indeed a good official who served the people and the soldiers.
If this were any other city, the prefect would have colluded with the wealthy businessmen to make a fortune from the disaster, and would not have cared about the lives of the people.
Zhang Wenyuan, "......"
It's over, this road is gone.
He messed up the first task King Qianhuang gave him.
Aaaaaahhhh!!!
Zhang Wenyuan couldn't help but roar in his heart.
At this time, he would rather guard the plane than deal with these accounts.
When Shen Yong asked him to be in charge of the accounts of the prefectural government office, he was pleasantly surprised.
The fact that Shen Yong allowed him to manage the accounts showed that he treated him as his own.
This----Hey!
Liu Yi's eyes twitched twice, and he was suddenly at a loss.
All he could think of was that those wealthy businessmen had money.
Of course, the hundreds of thousands of people in the city have some money in their hands.
If each person pays one penny of silver, that would be more than 100,000 taels of silver, enough to solve any problem.
However, he didn't dare to say this suggestion out loud, he could only think about it in his heart.
After so many days, he had finally realized that Chen Yong valued and cared about the people very much.
Look at how generous the salary is. Normal yamen runners don’t even get this kind of treatment.
Those are all white rice and white flour.
White rice and white flour! ! ?
Liu Yi's eyes flashed, and he leaned over to Zhang Wenyuan's ear and whispered softly,
"We can take the rice and flour in the warehouse and sell them to Bailong City at a high price. That way we will have money."
The severity of the drought in Baikong City is not much better than that in Qianhuang City.
"You're crazy!!" Zhang Wenyuan widened his eyes and looked at Liu Yi in shock.
"Don't even think about this. If you miss, go ahead and try it."
Zhang Wenyuan looked Liu Yi up and down, and he looked down upon him more and more.
The things in the granary were all obtained by King Qianhuang and used to pay salaries to the new soldiers.
They sold the food and supplies, probably because they wanted to die quickly.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
