Qin Official

"Chief, the money and food in the county are already stretched thin!"

At the end of March, Heifu had just finished his vacation and went to work in the county government again. As soon as he entered the door, Jin Bucao, who was in charge of finance, began to complain to him.

Jin Bucao is the department in charge of finance in the Qin State County. Cao Cao's name is Ku Ni. From the first meeting with Hei Fu, this person has a bitter face. Every time Hei Fu wants to do something, he asks the finance department to pay for it. , the suffering face is even more ugly.

The bitter-faced man pointed his fingers and said: "After the county magistrate took office, he first built a school building and distributed scholarships to students who excelled in exams. He also built public toilets in various places to prepare for the promotion of composting and retting next year. Repairing paper mills, waterwheels, water vertebrae and many other things... County Lord, you have only been in office for two months, but you have done more than the previous five years of service combined!"

Hei Fu couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this. When did he do something wrong?

Ku Li said again: "That's all. Now we still need to repair roads, build palaces, build wharves, and build ships. Lord, do you think the county's gold, cloth, money and food can't be used up?"

Listening to what this guy said, he really wanted to cut off more than half of Heifu's plan!

Heifu was upset by what he said, but his attitude was still firm:

"The money for the palace comes from the Shaofu. Xianyang has agreed that Jiaodong can transfer the Yantieshanze city tax that should be paid to the Shaofu to build the palace. As for the docks and ships, this is a long-term plan and cannot be delayed. .”

Roads and palaces were prepared for Qin Shihuang's eastward tour in summer and autumn. Jimo, Zhifu, and Chengshan, at least three places, right? This must be repaired, and it will cost about 3 million yuan. The widening and repair of the road will also cost 2 million yuan.

If Heifu thinks about it, Linzizhuang and Yue Streets can get a city rent of 5 million within one month... No matter how bad Jiaodong is, the city tax for a year can still reach this amount, right?

As for the docks and ships, it is Heifu's idea: to open the road from Jimo City to Jiaozhou Bay, to prepare for the future development there and to turn the currently deserted Jiaozhou Bay into a new fishing port. This plan will cost about 500,000 yuan. money……

He raised his neck and gave up on the burden: "Jiaodong is not rich to begin with. Even if the county guard kills me now, the officials will not be able to come up with more money!"

Heifu was also angry, so he called Chen Ping over on the spot and asked him to lead someone to check Jin Bucao's account.

You wouldn’t know if you didn’t check, but you’d be surprised if you checked and found out whether the complaints about hardship were true or not. There was only 5 million left in Jiaodong County’s financial books! Among them, 3 million are planned to be handed over to the Shaofu.

So after all the calculations, Heifu only has two million dollars on hand that he can actually use...

The Qin Dynasty had its own system. The central finance was divided into Sosu Neishi and Shaofu, who were in charge of public finance and royal finance respectively. Among them, land rent, adult head tax, and fine income were all owned by Sosu Neishi.

The income from Shanzeyuan, the salt and iron monopoly, as well as industrial and commercial taxes, customs taxes, and the money paid by children aged 7-4 must be handed over to the Shaofu.

These money and grains were collected by the local government, leaving two-thirds for county finance, and the remaining one-third were given to Sosu Neishi and Shaofu respectively.

The Northland where Heifu stayed was a poor county that could not make ends meet and had to subsidize a large amount of money and food from the central government every year just to pay the wages of soldiers and minor officials.

Jiaodong is different. It has the advantage of mountains and seas and a large population. It is considered a developed area in the whole world. It should be financially wealthy. It shouldn't be so difficult!

Heifu did the math. Even though he had put in a lot of effort in the past two months, he only spent two to three million, right? How could such a big hole appear?

"Could it be that someone is corrupt!?"

But Ku Li also came from Guanzhong and had a clean resume. When Chen Ping checked the accounts, he found no problems. Ku Li even found out every expenditure this year one by one, filling Heifu's desk.

"Jiaodong is far less wealthy than the county governor imagined."

Kufu explained the truth: "It stands to reason that there are 30,000 households in Jiaodong. Even if each household only pays 0 acres of land rent, they still have more than 2 million shi of grain, totaling 60 million yuan! But in fact, the land rent is only 100 hectares." Two-thirds of the 10,000 shi were handed over to the captain of Sosu, leaving only 300,000 shi left in the county. After paying salaries to the officials and providing rations to the county soldiers and pavilions, there was not much left."

This is a big problem, and Heifu guessed the reason: "The reason why the land rent is so small is because of hiding the land and hiding the house?"

"Of course!"

Ku Lai held his palm and said: "The county governor should know that in winter, His Majesty has issued an edict, ordering Guandong Guizhou to return to the field."

"Why should we be honest? The reason is that in many places, the government cannot leave the county at all. It can only control the surrounding areas of the county, and cannot take care of the villages further away!"

The black man nodded, the language was blocked, the head of Guizhou was hostile, and the rich village officials covered the top and bottom. These were the reasons why the Qin Dynasty's rule in Guandong was difficult to reach the bottom like in Guanxi and Nanjun.

It was difficult for the imperial power to reach the countryside. In this case, it became impossible for the government to measure the actual number of acres of land owned by each household. In order to collect some tax at least, we can only take a step back and let the head of Guizhou voluntarily report it.

People seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. The Jiaodong people bullied the Qin officials and could not penetrate into the countryside, so they repaid one hundred acres of land as fifty acres, and fifty acres of land as thirty acres, in order to avoid heavy rent.

As a result, the annual rent collected was not as much as expected. And in the process of collecting rent from one level to the next, who knows how much the local tycoons and village officials have exploited? In the end, all the blame was placed on Qin officials, which led to the hatred of Qin among the people...

Heifu asked again: "If the land rent is like this, what about the salt industry?"

Ku Li said: "The ancients said that Fu Chu has the gold of Ru and Han, Qi has the salt of the canal, and Yan has the cooking of Liaodong. The three countries are rich because of this. The salt of the canal is in Jiaodong! The Weishui River flows into the sea. place."

"It is said that at its peak, the Qi people boiled the sea into salt and could earn 200,000 shi a year! One hundred thousand shi were in Jiaodong!"

Heifu did the math and found that more than 100,000 pieces of rock salt was a lot of money. The average person in Jiaodong had one piece of rock salt, which was too much to eat. Most of it could be exported. When converted into money, the amount was more than 20 million, which was the bulk of Jiaodong's finances.

But Ku Li told Heifu an astonishing fact: "Five years after Jiaodong was established as a county, although the salt and iron were taken back to the government, the result was that the annual salt production was getting less and less year by year. Now it is only 50,000 shi." Already..."

As a result, the income of the salt industry also dropped sharply. Looking for the reasons, one is that the salt and iron industry were government-run and became a state-owned enterprise. The salt workers lost their enthusiasm and muddle along.

Secondly, there were serious pirates and anti-Qin forces along the coast, which affected the operation of the salt field.

Thirdly, on the long coastline of Jiaodong, there are still many wealthy people and salt traders engaged in cooking and selling private salt! These people collude with officials internally and bandit externally, which is also a chronic problem in Jiaodong.

Land rent and salt tax, the two main sources of Jiaodong's finances, were withheld. It is not surprising that the treasury was short of money and food.

After clarifying the whole matter, Heifu pondered for a while. Although he had taken care of the intellectuals and stabilized the farmers near the county, it was still too early to control the entire county.

This is not something that can be solved with a few inventions, but a problem with the entire administrative structure, not just in Jiaodong, but in more than 20 counties throughout Guandong...

The Qin Dynasty's rule in the east was like a high-rise building without a solid foundation. It could burn down and collapse with any fire, even involving the originally solid west.

"Governing Jiaodong is so difficult..."

For a moment, Heifu even secretly regretted that if he had known this, it would have been easier to stay in the empty Helan farm and fight against Rongdi.

But he immediately cheered up. There were still several years before the building was about to collapse. Whether it was for the country or for himself, he had to give it a try.

After that, Heifu began to make plans with Chen Ping: "The problem of government power being difficult to transfer to the countryside will have to be conquered county by county when the first batch of public school disciples leave in a few months!"

"After solving this matter, the common people Yintian can't control it for the time being. We must concentrate our efforts and start with the hidden households who are attached to Zhutian, and use this as an excuse to uproot them."

"Then we will march from the inland to the seaside, crack down on illegal salt, and firmly control the salt industry. Finally, we will even build ships and go to sea, clear out the bandits, seize the islands where they are entrenched, and avoid the evil waves of Jiaodong!"

This is what Heifu decided to do during his term of office. It is really a hellish difficulty.

"If I want to do this, first of all, I need an armed force that can stand up to Zhuda. County soldiers alone are obviously not enough."

So, they went back to the original problem: money!

Hei Fu came to Ku Lai again and asked him what would be the fastest way if the government needed money urgently?

Ku Ni tilted his head and thought for a while, then spit out three words: "Take the money."

But Hei Fu shook his head: "This method is tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst!"

He heard Chen Ping say that in Wei, some families had their children strangled to death at birth because they could not afford to pay for their children.

Logically speaking, 23 cents a year doesn't seem to be much for a person. As for strangling his own child alive?

But the actual situation is not that simple. Unlike the annual land rent, the Qin Dynasty's oral money can be added multiple times depending on local conditions. After repeated attempts, the amount has already been several times the stipulated amount. It was the head of the Qin Dynasty in Guizhou. A heavy burden.

It took Heifu a long time to recruit Jiaodong Confucian scholars and stabilize the farmers near the county. Once more money is collected, all these efforts will be in vain, and Zhutian will definitely smile.

So he rejected the idea and asked Chen Ping to find the map of the entire county and check it county by county.

Hei Fu was looking for a place, a place that would become famous in later generations. Hei Fu also knew that it was in Jiaodong, but he didn't know where it was exactly.

"Zhaoyuan...where is Zhaoyuan?"

Heifu remembered that in his previous life, when he was at school, there was a classmate from Zhaoyuan, Shandong, who always boasted about how great their gold mines were. He also said that among the top ten gold mines in China, Yantai accounted for 5 of them, including 3 in Laizhou. Zhaoyuan 2!

If Niu boasts too much, Hei Fu will remember it.

"If we can find this gold mine, everything will be solved..."

Heifu's gaze swept back and forth in Huang County, Ye County, and He County in the northern part of the Jiaodong Peninsula.

"The governor is looking for... gold mines?" At this time, Ku Li whispered.

Heifu looked at Ku Ling. At this moment, his bitter face was not that ugly.

"you know?"

Ku Ling said: "In the southwest of Huang County, there is a famous township called Qucheng. There are mountains in Qucheng. It is said that gold comes out of the mountains. The locals often pan for it in the streams, but the quantity is rare..."

He sighed secretly in his heart, maybe the county guard was crazy about money, and he began to get sick urgently and seek medical treatment. Qi State has never heard of any big gold mines since ancient times, otherwise Guan Zhong would not have to go to great lengths to obtain gold from Chu State. It’s golden…

Hei Fu was overjoyed when he heard this, and ordered Chen Ping: "Immediately ask people to collect rumors about gold withdrawals from various places, and then find some Yin and Yang alchemists who know how to look at mountains and rivers to find pulses!"

He walked around the room for a while, and then called the thief Cao Cao Shen: "Go and call Liu Ji who has just returned from Chengshan. Tell him that the county governor has important errands to send him to do again!"