Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

Chapter 584: Imperial Examination Arrives, Linzhou's Fiscal Deficit

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

Chen Mo leaned on the pillow, his arms were held by the two sisters respectively. He enjoyed the soft pressure in front of him. He looked at the two faces that were not much different from each other out of the corner of his eye, and his mind couldn't help but recall the scene when they first met.

When they were in Pingting County, Xia Zhining whipped him.

He swore at that time that he would lash out a hundred times in retaliation.

He actually kept his oath. Not only did he repay the money, he also repaid it double. He also took them all into his room and enjoyed them both physically and mentally.

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

At this time, the whispering voice of Xia Zhiqing's maid was heard outside: "I heard from Xiao Ling next door that Madam Xiao is distributing money in the hall. All servants in the mansion will get a share. Let's go quickly."

"Mrs. Xiao? Who is that?"

"It's Miss Xiao Ya that the master just brought back. I heard that she is the niece of the Tenth Madam. They both have the surname Xiao, so she must be Madam Xiao. Stop talking, let's go quickly, otherwise she might be gone if we're late."

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

"Don't worry, didn't the master come over last night? The fourth lady can't get up so early. We just need to go and come back quickly."

"Isn't this bad?"

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

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

"."

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

"What does Xiaoya want to give money for?" Chen Mo was a little curious. He did not wake up the two girls. After all, they had just gone to bed at 3:15 in the morning. It had been less than two hours now. He put on his clothes and walked out of the room.

In the hall in the backyard.

Xiao Ya, wearing a warm yellow skirt and a bun like an unmarried girl, sat on the armchair at the head of the table and distributed money to the maids in the backyard.

As the eldest daughter of the Xiao family, even though she had not slept with Chen Mo yet, she already had the manners of a mistress of the mansion, being friendly and polite. Facing the greetings from the maids, she nodded and returned the greetings: "Hello to you too."

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

Seeing the new lady being so generous, the maids' eyes lit up and they also developed a good impression of Xiao Ya.

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

The maids in line hurriedly bowed to Chen Mo and said, "Good morning, Master."

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

"what?"

Upon hearing this, before Xiao Ya could say anything, the maids who had received the silver ingots were stunned. They felt that the silver ingots in their hands were like hot potatoes and wanted to return them.

Chen Mo said: "Since it is Xiaoya's reward to you, then you should take it."

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

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

Ten taels of silver. Ordinary people can’t even earn ten taels of silver in a year.

Xiao Ya lowered her head, clasped her hands together, and said, "I just got here, and I want to build a good relationship with them, so I thought of giving them money."

Chen Mo: "..."

Indeed, for the servants in the mansion, the fastest way to get along well with them is to give them money.

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

"Ah?" Xiao Ya was stunned. She 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 Niang. You are publicly giving them money like this, but it seems like you are bribing them."

"Ah, I didn't. I didn't bribe them." Xiao Ya was shocked, and then hurriedly explained, saying that she just wanted to build a good relationship with them, not bribe them, so that Chen Mo would believe in herself.

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 trying to bribe them, but your method is wrong, and you gave too much. If you only gave one or two taels, it might not be a big deal, but if you gave ten taels, people would think too much."

"But ten taels is not a lot." Xiao Ya said.

Chen Mo: "..."

Yes, the Xiao family is not a small family, and Xiao Ya is the eldest daughter of the Xiao family. In her eyes, ten taels of silver is indeed not a lot.

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

"Xiaoya, this shouldn't be your idea."

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

"It was my idea."

"Ok?"

"My mother taught me."

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

When she came to Linzhou, Xiao Ya's mother asked her to enter the Anguo Mansion and gave money to the servants to build closer relations with them.

"So it was 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 could not be unaware that the reason for doing this was not simply to let Xiao Ya get along well with the servants in the mansion, there might be a deeper meaning.

People from big families are always cunning.

Chen Mo sighed.

When Xiao Ya saw Chen Mo's expression, she hurriedly said, "Brother Mo, don't be angry with my mother. She did it for my own good. If you want to blame someone, blame me."

"Silly girl." Chen Mo pinched Xiao Ya's little face and said with a smile: "How could I blame you? I can't wait to love you."

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

Xiao Ya nodded and said, "It's just that the bed is a little too big."

Chen Mo's old face turned red. Every bed in the backyard room was specially built to accommodate four or five people for cultivation. How could it not be big?

"It's better to make it bigger, so Xiaoya won't have to worry about falling off the bed when she sleeps."

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

"I'll know about this later." Chen Mo kissed Xiao Ya on the cheek, then said, "Have you had breakfast?"

"Eat some."

"Then eat some more with me."

"it is good."

……

After breakfast, Chen Mo asked Sun Meng to call the chief craftsman in the city who was responsible for making bows and arrows.

The manufacture of these cold weapons, all four states have workshops, to maintain the supply of equipment, and the manufacture of firearms is separate from the manufacture of firearms by the Suzaku Guard. However, Chen Mo thought again, and later on, these two aspects will be integrated into one.

Chen Mo called the man over and gave him the drawings of the compound bow, asking him to make a sample of the compound bow first to see the effect.

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

The chief craftsman of Xiangyang bow and arrow production was called Bai Quanmin. After looking at the drawings, he found that it was not too difficult and promised Chen Mo that he could produce samples within a month.

Chen Mo was overjoyed and promised a huge reward after success.

After Bai Quanmin left, Chen Mo asked Sun Meng to call Chen Xiu, Zuo Lianglun, Geng Songfu, Wei Linchun and others.

Sun Meng is very efficient in his work.

In less than half an hour, all the people were invited.

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

When they started chatting, of course, there was some politeness. After asking about Chen Mo's assassination in Jiangnan, they got to the point.

Because the imperial examination was approaching, Chen Xiu spoke first: "This is the provincial examination paper that I, Lord Geng, Lord Zuo, and a group of officials have prepared in the past period of time. Duke Anguo, please take a look."

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

Chen Mo took it and started reading it.

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

It does not have multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions.

The questions above are all about writing poems, policy questions, policy essays, historical essays, etc.?

For example, the title of the poem is, [Fu De: Clouds fill the gaps in Cangshan Mountain. De Shan character, five words and eight rhymes.]

Because candidates from Jiangnan could also apply for the exam in Linzhou, there is also a poem titled "Looking at the Summer Lotuses in the Mountains and Lakes".

The historical essay topics include [On Rewarding Loyalty and Honesty].

The policy essay topics include [Ways to keep the country and the army safe].

Policy issues include [expenditures are increasing].

【The scholars and officials are the ones who govern the world together with the emperor. Nowadays, the scholars are not upright, their desires are boundless and their vision is short. How can we correct the scholars and restore the ancient way?】

[In the first year of Yong'an, Duke Anguo was ordered to go north to fight against the Jinxia barbarians. The first battle was a victory. In July, in order to reverse the decline, the Jinxia barbarians drove the people in Gaozhou Yaoer City to serve as the vanguard to resist our army. There are two choices before our army, one is..., the other is..., which one do you choose and why? ]

In addition to these, there is also the question of how to restore clean government by taking advantage of the current problem of corruption in the imperial court.

There is also the issue of how to restore people's livelihood and order in the north, where a lot of work needs to be done.

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'm not mistaken, this is the test question for the south, right? What about the north?"

Zuo Lianglun stepped forward and said, "Duke Anguo, because it takes a certain amount of time to get from Linzhou to Yuzhou and Qingzhou, and you were not back at that time, I decided to set the test questions for the north, and then let the brave guards go to Yuzhou and Qingzhou to avoid delaying the provincial examination. This is the northern test paper."

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

Compared with the test questions in the south, those in the north are relatively easier. At least Chen Mo understood all the questions.

"There's nothing to change, let's leave it like this." Chen Mo said.

Chen Xiu nodded.

At this time, Wei Linchun stepped forward to report on the recruitment situation in Linzhou.

This time's recruitment went much more smoothly than the previous two times.

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

Wei Linchun gave Chen Mo a booklet, which accurately recorded which county had how many people, which one was a warrior, and what rank they were.
These situations were sorted out by the army and reported to Wei Linchun.

Because when Chen Mo left Linzhou, he handed over Linzhou to Wei Linchun for management.

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

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

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

To sum it up in one sentence, that is Linzhou’s fiscal deficit.

Linzhou’s fiscal expenditure this year is too much.

The main reason was naturally that the army spent too much money on marching north to resist the Jinxia barbarians.

Throughout history, wars have been fought for money.

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

Before, Prince Huai invaded Qingzhou. In order to give Prince Huai an empty Qingzhou, Chen Mo had the military workshops in Qingzhou destroyed. All the population and resources were moved to Qingzhou. Although they were moved back later, how could they recover in such a short time?

And Yuzhou was invaded by the Jinxia Western Army.

In addition to the bulk of the military expenditure, the money for developing red cannons, shrapnel bombs, and clay pot bombs also came from Linzhou's finances.

There are also resettlement allowances for recruiting soldiers, infrastructure, salaries for clerks, and so on.

The annual tax revenue of Linzhou is only this much, which is not enough.

Although Chen Mo used his own money, that is, the money earned from Fu Ze Restaurant, to subsidize military expenses and finances, these were Chen Mo's personal money after all. Without Chen Mo's request, Wei Jinchun would never dare to take the money from Fu Ze Restaurant and use it for Linzhou's finances.

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

"At least one million taels short."

"so much?"

Chen Mo frowned, then said, "I'll find a way to get the money, just give me a list."

Wei Linchun was already prepared 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 was left on the account of Fuze Restaurant.

If it is not enough, we can only use their dowries.

After Wei Linchun's story was finished, Zuo Lianglun stepped forward and said, "Duke Anguo, there was a letter from Qingzhou saying that Xialin, Nanyang and other counties were hit by a locust plague and had no harvest. Qingting and Pingting counties provided disaster relief and were able to overcome this year's difficulties."

Hearing this, Chen Mo frowned again, but soon relaxed as if he was used to it.

In recent years, there have been frequent locust plagues in the north, but as long as the scale is not particularly large, it's okay.

"Pay more attention. If it comes to a critical moment, you can ask Pingting County to open the granaries to release grain." The opening of the granaries that Chen Mo mentioned here refers to the stored military rations.

"Yes." Zuo Lianglun nodded.

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

After getting support, Chen Mo hopes that they can work out a charter as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)