Chapter 584: The Imperial Examination Is Coming, Linzhou Has a Fiscal Deficit

The next morning, the summer sun shone on the window. It was already August, and even the early morning sun was still so hot.

Chen Mo was leaning on the pillow, with his left and right arms held by two sisters. The soft squeezing feeling in front of him made him enjoy it very much. Looking at the two faces that were not much different from each other out of the corner of his eye, he thought in his mind Zhongyou couldn't help but recall the scene when they first met.

When he was in Pingting County, Xia Zhining whipped him.

He swore then that he would repay him with a hundred lashes.

He did abide by his oath. Not only did he repay them, he also repaid them twice as much, and he also brought them all into his room, so that they were both physically and mentally satisfied.

He took his arm out of Xia Zhining's arms, pushed up the millstone, and began to sort out what he had to do today in his mind.

At this moment, the whispers of maid Xia Zhiqing were heard outside: "I heard from the little spirit next door that Mrs. Xiao is handing out money in the hall. As long as the servants of the house are in the house, they will have a share, so let's go quickly."

"Mrs. Xiao? Who is it?"

"It's Miss Xiao Ya whom the master has brought back recently. I heard that she is the niece of the Tenth Madam. Both are named Xiao. Isn't she Mrs. Xiao? Don't say anything. Let's go quickly. If it's too late, we might be gone."

"But Madam hasn't gotten up yet. If I leave, she will blame me when she gets up later and sees that I am not here."

"Don't worry, didn't the master come over last night? The fourth lady can't get up so early. Let's just go and get back soon."

"Isn't this bad?"

"It's ten taels of silver per person. If you don't want to go, I will go."

"What, ten taels? That's enough for me for half a year. Wait for me, I'll go."

"."

With Chen Mo's strength, all these whispers reached his ears.

"What did Xiaoya do with the money?" Chen Mo was a little curious. He didn't wake up the two girls. After all, he only fell asleep at three quarters of the Yin hour. It hadn't been two hours yet. He put on his clothes and walked out of the room.

In the backyard hall.

Xiao Ya was wearing a warm yellow skirt and her hair was combed into a girl's bun. She was sitting on the chair at the top, handing out money to the maids in the backyard.

As the legitimate daughter of the Xiao family, even though she has not yet slept with Chen Mo, she already has the demeanor of a hostess in the house. She is very polite when making friends with others. Facing the greetings from the maids, she also nodded. Yili: "Hello to you too."

As he spoke, he took out a ten-tael silver ingot from the tray on the table next to him and gave it to the other party.

Seeing how generous the new lady was, the maids' eyes gleamed, and they also felt a lot of affection for Xiao Ya.

"Xiaoya, what are you doing?" At this time, Chen Mo walked into the hall.

The maids in line quickly saluted Chen Mo: "Good morning, sir."

Chen Mo waved his hand and came to sit next to Xiao Ya. He looked at the big box placed in the hall and the silver ingots taken out and placed on the table. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Xiao Ya, isn't this your dowry?" ?”

"ah?"

Hearing this, Xiao Ya hadn't said anything yet. The maids who had received the silver ingots suddenly looked startled. They felt that the silver ingots in their hands were like hot potatoes and wanted to return the silver ingots.

Chen Mo said: "Since it is given to you by Xiaoya, then you can take it."

Xiao Ya nervously asked them to go down first, then looked at Chen Mo and said, "Brother Mo, are you angry?"

"Why am I angry? This is your dowry, Xiaoya. You have the right to control it freely. I'm just curious, why do you think of giving them money, and ten taels to each of them." Chen Mo said in surprise.

Ten taels, ordinary people cannot earn ten taels of silver a year.

Xiao Ya lowered her head, clasped her two little hands together, and said, "I just came here. I want to have a good relationship with them, so I want to give them money."

Chen Mo: "..."

Indeed, for the servants in the house, the fastest way to have a good relationship with them is to pay them money.

"Aren't you afraid that your sister Mi and the others will be angry if you do this?" Chen Mo took Xiao Ya's little hand, held it in his hand, and played with the delicate fingers to tell her that he was not angry.

"Ah?" Xiao Ya was stunned and didn't understand. Why were Sister Mi and the others angry about giving money to the servants?

"Many of these maids are the maids in the rooms of your Sister Mi, Sister Xiaolu, and Sister An. If you pay them openly like this, you are suspected of bribery."

"Ah, I didn't, I didn't have anything to bribe them." Xiao Ya was startled, and then hurriedly explained, saying that she just wanted to have a good relationship with them, not bribe them to make Chen Mo believe in her.

Chen Mo narrowed his eyes slightly, raised his hand and pulled Xiao Ya into his arms, letting her sit on his lap, and said: "I know you are not bribing them, but your method is wrong, and you give too much. Well, if you only give me one or two taels, it may not be a small favor, but if you give me ten taels, it will make people think blindly. "

"But ten taels is not much." Xiao Ya said.

Chen Mo: "..."

Also, the Xiao family is not a small family, and Xiao Ya is the legitimate daughter of the Xiao family. In her eyes, ten taels is indeed not much.

After all, her dowry was more than two million taels.

"Xiaoya, this probably wasn't your idea."

Chen Mo knew that Xiao Ya was introverted and shy, so it was impossible for her to think of handing out money to her servants in front of a large audience.

"It was my idea."

"Um?"

"My mother taught me this."

Under Chen Mo's direct gaze, Xiao Ya still told the truth.

When she came to Linzhou, Xiao Ya's mother asked her to enter the Duke Anguo's mansion and give money to the servants to build closer relationships.

"It turned out to be my mother-in-law's idea." Chen Mo narrowed his eyes slightly. Xiao Ya didn't know that her behavior was bribery, but her mother couldn't have been clearer. The reason for doing this was not to simply let Xiao Ya stay in the house. There may be a deeper meaning to maintaining a good relationship with your servants.

People in big families have many minds.

Chen Mo sighed.

When Xiao Ya saw Chen Mo like this, she hurriedly said: "Brother Mo, don't be angry with mother. She is doing it for my own good. If you want to blame, blame me."

"Silly girl." Chen Mo pinched Xiao Ya's little face and said with a smile, "How could I blame you? It's too late to hurt you."

He immediately changed the subject: "Are you still used to living in the house?"

Xiao Ya nodded and said, "The bed is just too big."

Chen Mo blushed. Every bed in the backyard room was specially built to accommodate four or five people practicing. Isn't it big?

"It's better to be bigger, so Xiaoya doesn't have to worry about falling off the bed when sleeping."

"Brother Mo, I don't move around when I sleep." Xiao Ya said with a blushing face.

"I will know about this later." Chen Mo kissed Xiao Ya's little face, and then said, "Have you had breakfast?"

"Eat some."

"Then eat some more with me."

"good."

…

After breakfast, Chen Mo asked Sun Meng to call the chief craftsman in charge of bow and arrow manufacturing in the city.

The manufacturing of these cold weapons has workshops in all four states, maintaining the supply of equipment, and is separate from the Suzaku Guard's firearms manufacturing.

However, Chen Mo thought again and would combine these two aspects into one later.

Chen Mo called someone over and gave him the drawings of the compound bow and asked him to make a sample of the compound bow to see the effect.

If it can reach the power of Chen Mo's compound bow in his previous life, and then manufacture it in large quantities, we can strive to arm the entire army in the future.

The chief craftsman of Xiangyang bow and arrow production is called Bai Quanmin. After reading the drawings, he saw that it was not too difficult, so he promised Chen Mo that samples would be ready in a month.

Chen Mo was overjoyed and promised a big reward if he succeeded.

After the Baiquan people left, Chen Mo asked Sun Meng to call Chen Xiu, Zuo Lianglun, Geng Songfu, and Wei Linchun.

Sun Meng works very efficiently.

In less than half an hour, everyone was invited.

In the study, the maid poured a cup of tea for each of them, then retreated and closed the door.

When we first started chatting, there was naturally a lot of politeness. We first paid attention to Chen Mo's assassination in Jiangnan, and then got down to the main topic.

Because the imperial examination was about to take place, Chen Xiu spoke first: "This is the provincial examination paper that Xiaguan, Master Geng, Master Zuo and other officials have drawn up during this period. Please take a look at it, Duke Anguo."

After Chen Xiu took it out, he first let Zuo Lianglun and Geng Songfu take a look at it to prove that it was unopened. After opening it, he handed the confidential provincial examination paper to Chen Mo.

After Chen Mo took it, he looked at it.

The imperial examination questions were very different from the college entrance examination questions in Chen Mo's previous life.

It has no multiple-choice questions or fill-in-the-blank questions.

Are the above topics all about poetry, policy questions, policy theory, historical theory, etc.?

For example, the title of the poem is, [Fu De: Clouds fill up all the gaps in Cangshan Mountain. The word "Deshan" has five characters and eight rhymes. 】

Because candidates from Jiangnan can also apply from Linzhou, there is also a poem titled "Looking at Mountains, Lakes and Summer Lotuses".

The historical topic is "On the Perfection of Rewarding Honesty".

The policy topic is "How to secure the country and the entire army".

Policy issues include [floating expenses and widening the scope].

[Those who govern the world together with the emperor are scholar-bureaucrats. Nowadays, the moral style of scholars is not correct, their desires are boundless and their knowledge is short-sighted. If you want to be a righteous person and follow the old way, how can you solve it? 】

[In the first year of Yong'an, An Guogong went north to fight against the Jinxia barbarians according to the order, and won the first battle. In July, in order to restore the decline, the Jinxia barbarians drove the people from Yao'er City in Gaozhou to serve as vanguards to resist our army. The choice before our army was There are two, one is..., the other is..., which one do you choose and why? 】

In addition to these, there are also questions about how to restore the cleanliness of officialdom by taking advantage of the current corruption problem in the imperial court.

There is also the issue of how to restore people's livelihood and order when the north is in ruins and needs to be renovated.

To be honest, Chen Mo couldn't understand many of the questions above.

But in front of so many subordinates, Chen Mo would definitely not show it, and said: "Yes, if I guess correctly, this is a test question from the south, right? What about the northern one?"

Zuo Lianglun took a step forward and said: "Go back to Duke An, because it takes a certain amount of time to travel from Linzhou to Yu and Qingzhou, and you haven't come back yet, so the lower official took the decision to decide the examination questions in the north, and then Let the brave guards go to Yu and Qingzhou to avoid delaying the provincial examination. "

Zuo Lianglun also took out an unopened document and handed it to Chen Mo.

Compared with the test questions in the south, the ones in the north were relatively easy. At least Chen Mo understood all the questions.

"There's nothing to change, just leave it as it is." Chen Mo said.

Chen Xiu nodded.

At this time, Wei Linchun stepped forward to report on Linzhou's recruitment situation.

This recruitment was much smoother than the previous two.

As of August this year, a total of 21,000 new soldiers have been recruited in Linzhou area.

Wei Linchun gave Chen Mo a booklet, which accurately recorded the number of people in which county, who was a warrior, and what grade they were.

These situations were sorted out by the army and reported to Wei Linchun.

Because when Chen Mo left Linzhou, he taught Linzhou to Wei Linchun.

After talking about the recruitment situation, Wei Linchun suddenly became a little hesitant.

Chen Mo told him not to worry about it and just say it.

Wei Linchun took a breath, lowered his head and spoke in a deep voice.

To sum up, it is Linzhou’s fiscal deficit.

Linzhou's financial expenditure this year is too much.

Datou naturally sent his army north to resist the Jinxia barbarians, which cost too much.

Throughout the ages, wars have been fought with money.

In this regard, Yu and Qing states can't help much.

Before, King Huai invaded Qingzhou. In order to give King Huai an empty Qingzhou, Chen Mo had people destroy the arms workshops in Qingzhou and moved the population and resources to Qingzhou. Although they moved back later, how could they recover in such a short period of time.

And Yuzhou was invaded by the Jinxia West Route Army.

In addition to the bulk of military expenditures, the money for the development of red cannons, explosive bombs, and clay bombs also came from Linzhou's finances.

There are also settlement allowances for recruiting soldiers, infrastructure, salaries for subordinate staff, etc.

Linzhou's taxes are only so much a year, which is not enough.

Although Chen Mo used his own money, that is, the money earned from Fuze Restaurant, to subsidize military expenses and finances, these are Chen Mo's personal money after all. Without Chen Mo's permission, how could Wei Jinchun dare to collect Fuze privately? The money from the restaurant is used for Linzhou’s finances.

"How big is the gap?" Chen Mo asked.

"At least one million taels difference."

"so much?"

Chen Mo frowned and said immediately: "I will figure out how to pay for it, and you can give it to me."

Wei Linchun had already prepared it and handed the account book to Chen Mo for inspection.

"Well, I will deal with it as soon as possible." He had to go back and ask Ning Wan to see how much Fuze Restaurant still had on its books.

If it is not enough, their dowries can only be used.

After Wei Linchun finished talking, Zuo Lianglun stepped forward and said: "Dong An, there is a letter from Qingzhou, saying that there is a locust plague in Xialin, Nanyang and other counties, and there is no harvest. Qingting and Pingting counties have carried out disaster relief, and they can Get through this year.”

Hearing this, Chen Mo frowned again, but soon relaxed as usual.

In recent years, there have been frequent locust plagues in the north. As long as the scale is not particularly large, it is fine.

"Pay more attention. If there is a critical moment, you can ask Pingting County to open a warehouse to release grain." The warehouse Chen Mo mentioned here refers to the reserved military rations.

"No." Zuo Lianglun nodded.

After they finished talking, Chen Mo talked to them about the "Retired Soldiers' Benefit Plan" and the "Medal of Honor".

After receiving support, Chen Mo hoped that they could work out a charter as soon as possible.