One day at the end of August, the canal construction site in Nanyang County.

Liu Bei, who was visiting Luoyang in the east, has been inspecting and understanding the grassroots situation in recent months, studying and improving himself, and planning a plan to assimilate the barbarians in the future.

As the autumn tax collection season approached, because the tax source gap was found to be large and the fiscal expenditure accounts were far beyond expectations, Liu Bei himself could not sit still and went to Nanyang, Xiangyang and Wuchang for inspections.

I saw why these places cost so much money to build. I have been wandering around for nearly two months and have quite understood the people's sentiments.

Especially since Liu Bei became a prince, he has not set foot in Jingzhou. He has always been in Chengdu in his early years, and later, he has been stationed in Chang'an for many years after his success in the Northern Expedition. At most, he only went to the surrounding counties in Guanzhong in person.

Even Luoyang has only returned this year, let alone Jingzhou. This time, it is also making up for shortcomings, so as not to get out of touch with the actual situation, and it is also a preparation for becoming the co-lord of the world in Kansai and Kanto.

After two months of wandering, Liu Bei finally stopped at the Nanyang frontline because he also realized that the biggest uncertainty in fiscal expenditure this year was the canal that Li Su urged him to build.

It took billions in a year, and it would cost billions more next year! So much so that Liu Bei had to visit the construction site in person to see if there was any way to save money.

Fortunately, after a round of inspection, he also saw some relief.

At the end of August, Li Su's refined sugar and rock sugar workshops have begun mass production.

The crude brown sugar and slag sugar raw materials that were continuously transported from Yizhou were transported into the workshop at a scale of thousands of stones per day, and were then decolorized and refined by the smectite powder slurry. The source of montmorillonite is naturally selected and separated from the expansive soil dug out when digging the canal.

About 90% of the expansive soil dug out of the canal is kaolin, and only about 10% is montmorillonite, so it still costs a certain amount of money to separate the two. The main thing is to pick it up roughly first and pick out the obviously clumpy stone-like ones, so as not to soak too much soil in water.

However, because the sugar industry requires very little stone powder slurry, relatively speaking, the porcelain industry uses much more kaolin, so this component ratio can be used as much as possible.

Li Su considered that the additional cost of sorting and screening montmorillonite for civil servants and the amount of sugar needed to make, so the purchase price of montmorillonite he paid the imperial court was much higher than that of kaolin. One stone could be given several hundred yuan, which was more expensive than the price of grain of the same weight. It was impossible for anyone to accuse the Li family of the factory for the unscrupulous businessman.

Anyway, one stone of Montmorillonite powder can be decolorized at least seven or eight stones of refined white sugar. The price of brown sugar can be sold for more than one thousand yuan per stone. After decolorization into white sugar, it is temporarily considered a luxury product because the amount on the market is small, and it can be sold for three or four thousand yuan, which is extremely profitable, and rock sugar can even get ten thousand yuan per stone.

However, the price of luxury and expensive is that the sales volume is not large at the beginning, and it is only for freshness to sell it so expensive. In the future, if you eat sugar, rock sugar, and there will be no more wealthy people to give high premiums. The stable price of sugar in the future is probably more than 2,000 yuan per stone.

Even if you calculate this way, the raw material price of one stone of montmorillonite is 500 yuan. The added value of the seven or eight stones of white sugar produced is about 10,000 yuan compared to the raw material brown sugar, so the cost of consumables is only 5%, and the remaining 95% is the value created by chemical technology.

...

"Boya's sugar industry is expected to sell more than 100,000 stones of sugar this year, and the additional profit is more than 400 million yuan. The price will definitely fall next year, and the profit per stone will drop from two to three thousand to more than one thousand. However, the amount can be increased several times, and the total is estimated to be 80 to one billion yuan.

A Liang's white porcelain has not yet been sold, and he will probably earn so much next year. However, these are all the money from Boya and A Liang's family, and the labor costs of feeding the canal construction are only 300 million to 400 million, which is a drop in the bucket. They have made so much contribution to the court, and the court will not be able to keep lent their money with shame...

Originally, when Boya was about to blow up the Tongbai Mountain Pass here, he would sell the hard stones he picked for money or transport them to Luoyang for use in the construction of canals and new cities, which would reduce part of the construction cost.

Why did I think the freight was too expensive later, so I changed to re-mining the quarry at Yique Longmen, Luoyang? Here, Bowang, isn’t the extra exploded stones in Ye County a waste?”

After inspecting the canal construction sites and surrounding supporting industries in Bowang and Ye County, Liu Bei couldn't help but have the above problems and feelings in his heart.

He urgently needed Li Su to discuss with him to solve these problems in a package.

Fortunately, Li Su was running between Luoyang and Nanyang for a while, supervising these work every day. So while Li Su and Zhuge Liang came to Nanyang again, Liu Bei summoned them to hold an temporary imperial meeting.

...

Because it came with questions, Liu Bei asked Li Su right away:

"Boya, I know that you have added money three or four times, and I have made a good reason. I don't care about you. I'm still assured that I trust you. Isn't my trust in you worth hundreds of billions?

However, the stone consumption of the two projects in Luoyang New City and Nanyang Canal is more than the latest addition. At first, it was said that the granite produced at Tongbai Mountain Pass would be used in Luoyang, but now it is not used anymore. It is necessary to pick it up separately. Isn’t it a waste of the extra one?"

Li Su is also very familiar with the situation, so he can answer directly without asking the following people:

"Your Majesty, that's it. At the beginning, we really thought that we would not bother the second master in one thing. Since Tongbai Mountain had to explode the pass and dig the canal, and the biggest cost of stone mining was to dig gravel, we thought of using it for Luoyang.

However, after actually transporting two batches, it was found that the transportation from Nanyangliang County to Yinxincheng, Henan was really laborious and labor-intensive. At the same time, Aliang and the Roman engineer Titus explored on the field in the past two months and discovered that the mountain rocks were easy to be excavated in the Yique Longmen area of ​​Luoyang.

The rock formations there are obvious layers, but the rock texture is hard enough. Yique is on the banks of the Yishui River. The stones mined can flow directly along the Yi and Luo Rivers to the old city of Luoyang and next to the new city. There is no need to transport land to a mountain road.

So in the future, even if the elevated water diversion channel is built for Luoyang, it will be convenient to directly quarry from Yique Longmen. I decided to temporarily delay the stones blown out of Tongbai Mountain Pass, and use Yique first. If there is not enough rock layer suitable for digging there, then transport the ones dug out here."

What Li Su said was that the plan could not keep up with the changes. Because he didn't know at first that he could find cheap large-scale quarries around Luoyang and close to the banks of the Yiluoshui River, so he made the decision.

Later, Titus made a deepening design plan for the elevated aqueduct and conducted in-depth geological exploration on the spot, and discovered an unexpected surprise.

In fact, this is also very consistent with historical facts, because in history, from the Northern Wei Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, because of the prosperity of Buddhism, the Yique location was built into the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang. The remaining stones were mined and materials were provided for later dynasties to rebuild the Luoyang city walls.

Facts have proved that the rock formation faults in this place are obviously layered, and it is easy to divide and mine between the rock formations.

Nowadays, this world is influenced by Li Su, and the Han Dynasty will continue to exist. The rulers do not need to use Buddhism to reduce the intellectual class's attention to infidelity. Therefore, the Longmen Grottoes will probably not appear. These stones were mined in addition to building a city wall for Luoyang, and they were created to create elevated canals.

(Note: The two Jin Dynasties began to talk about the prosperity of metaphysics, and later worshipped Buddhism in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. One of the main reasons was that the ruling class changed from suppressing Buddhism and Taoism to inducing it. Because there were too many consecutive changes of dynasties and abdications, I was embarrassed to promote the Confucian values ​​of loyalty and filial piety, so I introduced Buddhist Taoism to downplay loyalty and filial piety and replace loyalty with mystery.)

After hearing Li Su's explanation and looking at the latest Roman engineers' exploration results, Liu Bei did not continue to worry about this matter. He only emphasized how to deal with the extra stones on the construction site in Tongbai Mountain and don't waste them.

In response to this, Li Su and Zhuge Liang came up with a new plan: "Your Majesty, after our latest accounting, I feel that the newly exploded stones on the Tongbai Mountain Pass construction site should be used to strengthen the urban defenses of Ye County and Kunyang.

Especially Kunyang County, which borders Cao's army, is at a critical point and the city is not large in size. It can be transformed into a military fortress and an additional wall made of hard stone is built. In this way, there is no need to garrison many troops, and we can also stand up for the possible attacks of Cao's army in the future."

Liu Bei was stunned. If these stones could be built nearby in Ye County and Kunyang's urban defenses, they would be the most cost-effective way to use them. After all, they are used on-site and they don't need to be transported.

However, is there any need to be a place like Kunyang to guard against it? Liu Bei seemed to hear a funny joke.

In the past two years, the canal has not been built, so Liu Bei's camp is the richest, and the strategic materials for the best construction of Yizhou and Jingzhou cannot be transported to the North China battlefield efficiently and at low loss, which has led to the forced slowdown of Liu Bei's expansion.

So in Liu Bei's opinion, it would be good if he didn't beat Cao Cao. Why did Cao Cao dare to beat him?

If it was a two or three years back, it was possible. After all, Yuan Shao had not been severely weakened at that time, and the Sun family was not destroyed. Cao Cao and they worked together to have this strength.

But now, Liu Bei's opinion, Cao Cao can only be trapped! His national strength has slightly exceeded the sum of the remaining parts of Yuan and Cao. It would be great if the two opposite families fought a defensive battle!

Li Su also noticed Liu Bei's surprise. He smiled and explained: "Your Majesty, don't be surprised. This matter was reminded by A Liang. After discussing with him, I felt that it was very likely. Even if the opportunity is not great, we can take the initiative to promote it."

Liu Bei: "How can I explain this?"

Li Su: "So far, Cao Cao has no intention of attacking us, because we have done a very good job of keeping the canal project confidentiality. Although Cao Cao knew that we were building a large-scale project in Luoyang and Nanyang, he didn't know what we were doing specifically.

I also deliberately used the plan of Luoyang New City to cover up the rest. Cao Cao's people may still think that we are cutting down trees, collecting stones, taking soil and burning bricks, and preparing materials for the construction of the new city in Luoyang.

However, as long as we are willing, we can deliberately leak the construction progress of the canal at any time. Moreover, if it is not fake, as long as it is leaked, Cao Cao will definitely send reliable and meticulous works to inquire on the spot.

As long as we turn a blind eye and let Cao Cao find out, they will know that we are really building a canal between Bowang and Kunyang-Ye County.

It is not difficult to infer that 10% of this river, the entire war mobilization ability of Yizhou and Jingzhou can be poured down along this river to the Yingchuan River Basin and launched a catastrophic offensive against the battlefield in Yuzhou.

In this case, Your Majesty, do you think Cao Cao will sit by and watch us build this canal? Will he not take the initiative to attack and try to destroy it? He will not want to retake Kunyang and Ye County, the two counties on the northeast side of Tongbai Mountain, and restore our army to the point of confrontation across Tongbai Mountain, and completely block our river construction plan."

Liu Bei was a little dizzy when he heard this and raised his hand to interrupt: "I know this, but what is the purpose of our doing this? It is to turn off offense to defend and lure the enemy to attack like in the Battle of Hanoi-Shangdang? We will fight back and reduce the cost and loss of our army to eliminate the enemy's live power?"

Zhuge Liang hurriedly took over the question and explained on behalf of his mentor: "Your Majesty, that's the case. General Guan has not reached a secret agreement with Lu Bu. After completely accepting Yanmen County this month, Lu Bu will send an edict to the world next month to expose Yuan Shao's scandal.

According to our previous plan, Yuan Shao will sooner or later be able to kill him. With Yuan Shao's physical condition, it is estimated that it will only take several months to the year. Yuan Shao's men, "If you want to be urgent, you will share the same hatred of the enemy, and if you want to be slow, you will suffer each other." This is what we expect.

In this case, if before Yuan Shao and his sons faced a struggle for their father's business, a news broke out that our army and Cao's army were at a quagmire between Kunyang and Xuchang, and were trapped in the quagmire of war, wouldn't it just encourage Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan to fight?

Similarly, did Cao Cao not want Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang to fight? He definitely hoped that only when Yuan Shang was brave enough, Cao Cao could actually annex Yuan Tan and help Yuan Tan destroy Yuan Shang under the pretext of helping the eldest son Yuan Tan to stand out.

Therefore, as long as that time comes, Cao Cao will be willing to fight with us in Kunyang. If the progress goes well, he can capture Kunyang and Ye County and cut off our canal, which is the best situation for Cao Cao.

Even if he failed to win Kunyang in a simple battle, he could at least show Yuan Shang, so that Yuan Shang would be brave about harming his brother. Therefore, I concluded that as long as the news from all sides was promoted together, Cao Cao would be willing to tentatively attack Kunyang with the cost controllable, and Ye County would be hit by a stick.

Before winter came, we took the stones that had been opened at the Tongbai Mountain Canal construction site directly to Kunyang to pile them into a new city wall and add fortifications, which will soon be used for military purposes."

Liu Bei heard it slightly refreshed his cognition.

He hasn't tried to "dividing and disintegrating the enemy" for several years, mainly because he is too strong in hard power and has been "encircled" in the game. Therefore, Liu Bei has already agreed that the princes of Kanto have joined forces to fight him.

Unexpectedly, at this time, the Kanto princes may induce the drama of "Cao Cao and Liu Bei join forces to act, so that the Yuan brothers can let go of their hands and feet and kill each other" when necessary.

Yuan Shao's poor family tutoring can be seen.

You can try this, anyway, the additional cost is not very high. Repair the Kunyang City Defense, even if there is no war, it will be useful in the future. As both ends of this key canal, Kunyang and Bowang will be the throat of traffic in the future, and the defense will be repaired without losing.

Liu Bei finally nodded and made a decision: "Boya and Aliang are thoughtful, so let's do this as you said. The extra few hundred million stones spent is considered additional. But then again, it's still a shortage of money.

Originally, if the commercial tax revenue of 7 billion this year, plus the other agricultural tax of 5 billion and 20 billion, the gap would be only 5 billion. Now, because the commercial tax this year was overdrawn in advance last year, the gap would be as large as 12 billion.

It’s easy to say no matter how you spend it, you have to find this money. I don’t want to go back on my word and plunder the people’s wealth without any evidence. It’s not a long-term solution to find you nobles and wealthy people to pay the commercial tax. It’s not a long-term solution. I will definitely continue to owe it next year, and it will be an expanded owe it. If you want to fight Yuan and Cao in the decisive battle the year after tomorrow, it will definitely owe it.

After all, we can only expect balance in income and expenditure in at least three years, and only after four or five years will it start to repay the debts in the process of pacifying the world. Is there any way to make me not lose my trust in business and the people?"

Li Su had already thought of a solution, but at today's meeting, Liu Bei changed the topic and talked about the issue of budget overspending. At this moment, he immediately answered, first comforting:

"Don't worry, your Majesty, although it will take five years to repay, the amount you pay back will be very large every year, and it will be paid back in a few years. After all, the court has only recovered 60% of the Han Dynasty and can collect 6 billion commercial taxes a year.

In the future, commercial tax reform will be promoted to the whole country, and in accordance with the national policy of encouraging industry and commerce, it is possible to stimulate the public to improve productivity by 10 billion yuan in a year. In this way, commercial tax alone can reach 2.5 times the total tax of the world during the Huanling period, and the prosperity of the ZTE is just around the corner. It can also curb the re-mergers of the powerful and extract their mergers potential.

As for the moment, after discussing with A Liang, I thought of a solution, which is to promote the "dealing of business tax treasury bonds from great wealthy people" last year to be effective for all merchants, and guide merchants from all over the country to subscribe to business tax treasury bonds.

The batch of salt, iron, tea, wine industry licenses, water energy licenses, brocade licenses that we are about to sell this year... I discussed with Zichu and I planned to give all the seals to the Ministry of Finance and Economics to mark the year name of "Zhangwu Third Year" when we use seals.

Then the imperial court issued a policy: In the future, the commercial tax deductions issued will be divided into two types, one is to seal the year name without additional stamping, and the other is to seal the year name.

Those who do not cover the year number are encouraged to subscribe as much as the franchise tax they have to pay in the year. If they hide the New Year, they can still be used in the coming year, but there is no interest.

The one with the year number stamped can be used in the past year and then again in the next year. If the copy of Zhangwu for three years is left for Zhangwu for four years, it can be taxed at 1.1 times the denomination, and the tax will be 1.2 times the tax will be taxed at 5 years. Regardless of compound interest, the annual interest will be 10% of the denomination principal. You can deposit it for up to ten years, and the tax will be doubled after ten years.

Such citations with year names are only issued in years when the fiscal deficit is tightened. If it is a year of balance of income and expenditure, it will not be issued if it can be issued. Therefore, merchants may not have the chance to subscribe to such citations with year names. If they have no money and no place to earn interest, don’t be idle. If you have the opportunity, buy it.
Chapter completed!