Chapter 3031 Huge Cost
Beihai County is poor, and the Taoist priests are not rich either. Some time ago, when Yin Huo went to the mountains to play and escape the summer heat, he saw a small Taoist temple in the mountains and stayed in the temple at that time.
He donated a sum of money, not a lot, but he had a very pleasant conversation with the abbot. Before leaving, he sent his servants back to the county government office to collect two scriptures from Bai Shan and Zhou Man and gave them to the abbot.
Thus he gained the friendship of all the Taoists including the temple master.
It was the autumn harvest season, and the Taoist temple had few fields. The Taoists harvested the beans and rice, leaving enough food for themselves, and carried the rest to the county town to sell.
When I entered the city, I picked some wild vegetables to visit Yin Huo.
They felt that Yin Huo would not be interested in other things, and only these wild vegetables might be to his liking.
Yin Huo really liked it. Not only him, but Zhou Man, Bai Shan and the other three also liked it.
Although it was already autumn, the weather was still very hot. Eating the crispy cold wild vegetables, the five of them felt their appetites were whetted.
After enjoying the meal, Bai Shan announced something, "Once the autumn tax is collected, I will start issuing conscription orders."
He had previously thought of issuing the conscription orders during the short twenty-day farming off-season between summer and autumn harvests, but at that time, the Xiaoliu Village robbery case occurred, and the weather was getting hotter. He suddenly realized that Qingzhou was even hotter than the capital.
Therefore, in order to stabilize the people's hearts and for the health of the people, he did not issue the conscription order as planned.
His eyes sparkled as he turned to look at Bai Erlang. "The county government will be responsible for their food. All you have to do is inspect and make sure the people below don't embezzle food."
Bai Shan said, "The workload and diet assigned to them are based on the article we wrote when we were young. I also want to compare the efficiency of labor service over the years. If it is possible, I will report to His Majesty and improve the labor service conditions."
He looked at Zhou Man.
Zhou Man nodded and said, "I will prepare some emergency pills and soup recipes in advance."
Bai Shan said, "It has to be cheap. Otherwise, even if our county has the money, other counties may not be willing to spend so much money."
Bai Erlang, "Just the food expenses are huge, right? Will other counties agree to this?"
He is no longer a child. The article they wrote when they were young had a good idea, but it cost a lot of money.
Bai Shan said, "We can't just look at the cost and ignore the results of their labor. Servants are free, after all. If they weren't servants, they would have to pay extra wages in addition to food and drink. That would be considered high."
He felt that the value of the labor order was far greater than the price they paid, so even if their costs increased, the government offices and the court would still gain a lot.
Of course, the infrastructure built by the servants will eventually benefit them.
Even though he was working for them, Bai Shan was unwilling to let them down. After all, the food expenses came from the county government's treasury. He felt that he was still good at business and would not be unable to support even a group of servants.
Bai Shan simply gave the conditions, and then it was County Magistrate Fang who wrote the plan, and the specific implementation was naturally done by his subordinates.
County Magistrate Fang was very hesitant. He glanced at the terms of Bai Shanyi Ling and asked, "Is your Excellency sure?"
Bai Shan nodded. "It's confirmed. The autumn taxes will be collected in the next two days, and the village heads will also come to the county. Let's inform them first. There are many roads and water conservancy projects that need to be repaired this year, especially the official roads in and out of Dajiawa and Longchi. These two roads must be repaired."
Those two roads are not in very good condition now, especially the Dajiawa road, which is full of potholes. I always ride a horse when going in and out of Baishan. I would rather avoid taking a car if possible because it is too bumpy.
It will probably take a lot of manpower to repair these two roads.
County Magistrate Fang agreed, but after a moment's thought, he offered a warning, "Sir, if we provide food according to your list, it will probably cost quite a bit. Over at the warehouse..."
Now the warehouse is no longer managed by Song Zhubu. Ever since Bai Shan took a pile of salt to Qingzhou City to sell it, the warehouse has been completely controlled by Bai Shan. Not to mention County Magistrate Fang, even Song Zhubu, the chief official, doesn't know how much money the county government has now.
Although County Magistrate Fang didn't know, he could roughly guess it because the county government's expenses had been too high recently.
Now they are still receiving a steady stream of people looking for jobs, including people from other counties as well as people from this county.
The autumn harvest had already ended or was about to end for some families, so they had some free time. When they heard that the county government was recruiting workers and that wages would be paid every three days, they came here excitedly.
Of course, the county government didn't want everyone who came. First, they announced that they were looking for long-term workers, so those who only planned to work for a few days or a month or two would not be accepted.
Then, because the government was going to issue a conscription order, there was only one adult in the family who was not accepted.
But even so, there are still many people who are selected.
Sometimes when County Magistrate Fang went outside the city, he was frightened to see so many laborers. The business was too big, and he was afraid that the county magistrate would tell him the next day that there was no money in the treasury.
With so many laborers outside the county town, if they start to make a fuss, something big will happen.
Bai Shan smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, there is still enough money now."
County Magistrate Fang was silent for a moment before nodding. He then went out and brought back a list, handing it to Bai Shan and saying, "Sir, since we have enough money, why not buy some more things for the county government?"
Bai Shan took the list and looked at it, frowning slightly. "Shouldn't I ask Song Zhubu to buy something like this?"
County Magistrate Fang said, "Master Song called back and said he had no money."
Bai Shan was displeased. "Every month, the county allocates a sum of money to the household office he manages, specifically to cover the expenses of the county government."
Now, all the expenses of the farmhands came through Bai Shan, who handed them over to Zhao Ming. However, things like the salaries of officials, various expenses of the county government, and some routine expenses of the villages and towns were still handled by Song Zhubu.
Bai Shan looked through the previous account books and directly allocated funds to Song Zhubu every month.
It is equivalent to the county government having two warehouses now, one managed by Bai Shan and the other managed by Song Zhubu. For the purchase of office supplies such as pens, ink, paper and inkstone, you can go directly to Song Zhubu.
County Magistrate Fang rarely spoke up for Chief Clerk Song. "Sir, paper is very expensive. Your paper expenses in the past five months are equivalent to the amount spent in Beihai County in two years."
Not only because of the large influx of people recently, but also because he had previously asked each village chief to count the population, and all of this required paper.
Bai Shan: "...it costs so much?"
County Magistrate Fang nodded, and since the county magistrate had the habit of keeping files for verification of everything, there would definitely be a lot of paper used for the subsequent labor, so he mentioned buying pens, ink, paper and inkstone at this time.
"Last month, Lord Cui took away a box of paper, and the day before yesterday he sent someone to take away another box." Not to mention the various pens and ink sticks, which cost a lot.
Cui Wei now lives in Longchi and does not move. The daily measurements and drawings require a lot of paper.
Could Bai Shan let the big boss from the Ministry of Industry, whom he had invited with great difficulty, suffer in such a matter?
Today was such a bummer. I wanted to update all four chapters at once, but I couldn't write them. So I'll see you at 9pm.
(End of this chapter)
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