After a few moments of thought, Zhang Xiaobao seriously said, "You're right. I've truly been delayed. Then how about this: the students of Hongnong County, starting from now, help me out. I will give you all the tasks that officials should do.
Be it the storehouse or the chao, the stratagem or the scribe, the punishment or the worker, the farmer or the farmer, the official or the proprietor. As long as you do your job well, I will give you an official position. If anyone can come up with a better post-disaster reconstruction plan or a locally improved method of trade, I will give you an official position based on your ability.
If anyone can truly understand the situation of the Great Tang, come up with a reasonable development plan for the Great Tang, report it to the Imperial Court, and obtain approval, I will give you a position under the Secretariat. "
As soon as his voice fell, it caused an uproar.
The fact that he had mentioned so many officials was already shocking enough. Fortunately, given the statuses of Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, it might have been possible. But now, he had even mentioned the Secretariat, and that was the Prime Minister.
After the uproar, the crowd fell silent once more. Putting aside whether or not the position of Prime Minister was up to Zhang Xiaobao, they first needed to see if they had the ability to be Prime Minister. The students lowered their heads in shame.
The student who had just said that he had been affected blushed. He didn't even dare to think about the Prime Minister, because he didn't even know the locations of the various provinces of the Great Tang, let alone the land, population, specialty products, agriculture, industry, and taxation.
"Then … then do you know the situation of the various places in the Great Tang?" a child standing at the front of the crowd asked.
Zhang Xiaobao paused. Why was there a child? Why didn't he go with Xiaobei?
But he immediately put aside these thoughts and asked with a smile, "What do you think? How old are you? "
"Fourteen. You're young." The child was very smart and clearly understood why Zhang Xiaobao had asked about his age. He then excitedly said, "You must know. I heard that you're in charge of the Great Tang Bank. If you knew less, the current Emperor wouldn't have held the fall imperial examination for you. That's what they all say."
Zhang Xiaobao nodded in agreement. He truly did know. Not only did he know all the provinces, he also knew the written data of all the counties of the Great Tang. He even knew the special specialties of certain provinces and counties or important strategic villages.
Wang Juan nodded as well. She was more familiar with the terrain and the natural weather under normal circumstances. She had learned a lot about the needs of war back then, because many classic battles were inseparable from the terrain and weather.
Seeing that this child was smart, Wang Juan asked casually, "Who told you that?"
"Many people, including my father, my mother, my third brother, the housekeeper, and the officials who came to visit during the festive season. Last time, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the Hall of Secretaries ordered … Ah, I'm wrong. I heard it from the common people."
Perhaps the elder child was too excited, or perhaps it was because Wang Juan asked in a calm tone, as if they were chatting, but the elder child blurted out a lot of things. Halfway through, he realized and covered his mouth. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand and stamped his feet as if he was angry with himself.
Seeing this action, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan looked at each other and understood. She must be from a family of an official in the capital, and she was a girl. No wonder she was so small and smart. Why did a little girl like her have to dress up like a boy?
Wang Juan sighed and said to the elder child, "You know so much. Now there is a difficult task for you to do. Do you have the confidence to do it well?"
"Yes, what is it?" The elder child puffed out his chest and raised his head.
"The yamen needs a clerk. From now on, you will come with us. When we are done, we will go back to the yamen together." Wang Juan pointed to the place beside her and signaled for him to come over.
The elder child really came over. He looked excited and unknowingly enjoyed the benefits of the power in his family.
Zhang Xiaobao had no time to ask about the specific identity of the little girl, so he continued to talk about the compensation.
Next, he talked about the people who did not have much income and received relief. They would continue to receive relief. At the same time, he would check the actual situation of their family, whether there were patients, whether there were people in the house, whether there were people in the house, the patients would be treated, and the labor force would be arranged to work.
Finally, he had to deal with the businessmen.
For the merchants, Zhang Xiaobao didn't actually compensate them with money or goods. Who asked the merchants to be so adaptable? The compensation he gave them was based on the tax receipts they had paid in the yamen and the various transaction registers to calculate the size of their properties.
They were divided into several grades and provided with the corresponding three years of interest-free loans from the Tang Bank, and two years of business tax exemption. If the fixed shops were damaged, they would be repaired.
If they were willing to continue to play the special role of the businessmen and help to circulate and prepare materials during the reconstruction process, they would be given the right to sell various specialties in the north of Hebei Province.
As for the businessmen who had previously paid less tax through various means, resulting in a lower grade of interest-free loans, which was inconsistent with their actual situation, Zhang Xiaobao did not care. Who let them evade tax?
Fortunately, the businessmen were smarter than the students. Even if there was such an existence, they would not be stupid enough to mention it. Evading tax was punishable by jail.
After the compensation plan was settled, the people in various industries who were no longer worried began to listen to orders and busy with the reconstruction.
They did not know who would pay in the end, whether it would be Luoyang, Chang 'an, or Zhang Xiaobao and Wang families. They only hoped that the reconstruction work would be completed quickly and that a new year would come.
"Are we really not paying?" Wang Juan and Zhang Xiaobao returned to the yamen. They first settled down the children they had picked up and then sat in Yan Zheng's study to discuss matters.
"We are not paying. Since Xiaobei said that she would pay in advance, we must use their pocket money. When we return to the capital, they will ask Li Longji for it. If Li Longji does not give it to them, then they will pay the bill themselves." Zhang Xiaobao respected the decision of his younger brothers and sisters.
Wang Juan saw Zhang Xiaobao's serious look and helplessly shook her head. "Then they will probably lose all their money. I don't know when they will be able to earn back the millions of strings of coins."
Zhang Xiaobao also knew how much pocket money his younger brothers and sisters had. They were rewarded when they did well in their studies and gave gifts during festivals. They were also the "image ambassadors" of Liu 'er's business group. When they made new snacks and toys at home, they felt that they could earn money. They also invested in opening a shop, wrote all kinds of children's songs, printed them into books, and sold them to families with children and those who were about to have children. They gave half of the royalties to their brothers and sisters.
They even rented a space to the left of Chang 'an's Top Scholar's Restaurant and hired two chefs to specially make soft and sweet children's meals. They did not pay any less than they should, and they even took advantage of Top Scholar's Restaurant's loophole. The manager of Top Scholar's Restaurant would never have dreamed that a place that sold children's meals could earn so much money. He sighed in amazement at the magic of the owner. This was because the advertisement said, "Top Scholar starts with children."
Just like that, Xiaobei and the others saved up less than 1.3 million strings of coins. According to the terms of the compensation, it was estimated that they would be able to empty it all in one go.
*****
When the sun set and rose, a new day had arrived.
The children in Old Willow Village began to work hard under the sun after the haze passed.
The plan to 'grow a doll that belonged to oneself' had entered the production phase.
Looking at the prototype of the doll being produced one by one, besides the seriousness on Xiaobei's face, there was also a hint of reluctance. Xiaoyuan and the others also buried their heads in work.
Last night, they had received news from their brother and sister, allowing them to use their own pocket money to pay for it. They had also estimated the size of the expenditure and found that it was about the same as their reserves.
Xiaobei carefully pressed the grass seeds into the doll, added some sawdust and rice husks, and then pressed a new layer of grass seeds. He appeared very sincere. As he pressed the seeds, he spoke to Xiaoyuan.
"It's over. We've become the proletariat that brother and sister talked about. If we go back to Chang 'an and ask Uncle Emperor for money and he doesn't give us, we'll have to foot the bill."
Xiaoyuan was also in low spirits. Money. As a child, was it easy to earn money? At the same time, he felt sullen in his heart.
"What do you think this is? Not only did they trick us to come here, but they also want us to pay for it. They really know how to choose people. In the entire Great Tang, there are tens of thousands of children, but we're the only ones who can afford this. How are we going to live in the future? "
"In fact, we haven't used that money, but why do I still feel bad?" Xiaobei thought for a while and found this problem. More than a million strings of pocket money in the bank seemed to have no effect on the nine of them, but they just couldn't feel happy.
After Xiaohai, who was in charge of the overall planning, sorted out the data, he came over and said, "Do it quickly. If we don't have enough money, we can ship this batch to the capital and sell it. The use of money for us is in the present. When we want to make our own decisions, we can take out the money. But this time, we took out too much.
We don't have money now. If we run into trouble again, we can't take it out even if we want to. After we showed our autonomy once, we lost the opportunity to show our autonomy again. That's why we feel bad. In the near future, we'd better think of ways to make more money. "
Xiaohai's analysis made Xiaobei and the others understand. When they had money, they could be self-righteous. They didn't need to discuss with their elders, and they didn't need to care about other people's feelings. But this time, they were too self-righteous. They didn't know how long it would take for them to save up for the next time.
Xiaobei was in low spirits as he was loading the grass seeds. He accidentally pricked his finger by a rice husk. He lowered his head and put his finger in his mouth, sulking. After a while, he looked up and said, "I found something."
The other eight people looked at him.
"We are here to patrol Hongnong County. Because of Yan Zheng, Hongnong County suffered a disaster. He got a lot of money himself, but the people lost money. Then … why are we only responsible for giving money to the people and not raiding his house? Who else is colluding with him? "
"Colluding with him," Xiaoyuan said.
"You understand, don't you? Why? "Xiaobei was fuming.
The other eight people suddenly understood. They were here to patrol, not to distribute money. Even if they were asked to spend money, they would spend it. But the result was the same, but the purpose was different. Spending money was just spending money, while patrolling had its own way of saying it.
"That is to say, our rights and obligations are not proportional. We have to do something." Zhang Hu, who was relatively the oldest child, spoke up.
Xiaobei regained his spirit and said, "Yes, we have to continue arresting people. This is our right. Even if it's our brothers and sisters, they can't take it away. Even if the people we catch can't spit out a single copper coin, it's still our right. Now I feel much better. Let's arrest people."
The others were also happy. They began to divide the work and arrange for the investigation and arrest.
The younger children working around them only knew that they had taken out money. They did not have a concrete idea, but the older children, who were close to twelve years old, understood.
They knew that the nine children in front of them, who were younger than them, had taken out more than a million strings of cash and spent it all on their hometown.
A million strings of cash was not a concrete idea for the children in their teens, but they knew that if they had more than a hundred copper coins and it was all gone one day, they would cry to death.
But from the nine children's words, they did not care about how much money was spent, but how the money was spent. After figuring out the reason, the million strings of cash did not seem to be that important.
The older children could not understand, but they understood that they could not be compared to the children of the Zhang Family and the Wang Family. When they were sad about losing some money, the others were thinking about something else.
The adults of the Seedling Protection Team also listened from the side. When they heard what their young masters were talking about, a knowing smile appeared on their faces. These were the children of the main family. No one could compare to them. They did not ask about the amount of money, but only how to use it.
Xiaobei and the others were busy arranging for people to catch the bad guys. They wanted to find a psychological balance. However, before they could take the initiative to find others, someone came to find them first.
Three people came over from the iron chain bridge that had been paved with boards. They left three horses on the opposite side. Obviously, they were afraid that the horses would fall off the bridge.
One of the three people was carrying a knife. Xiaobei and the others immediately recognized that it was a halberd, or what the Japanese called a halberd. They remembered it so clearly because their older brother had once said that in the future, many ethnic groups who might promote civilized eating with knives were still using their hands to catch food, but they did not know that they had long had knives. Therefore, they should not argue with them about food culture because they were not worthy.
Therefore, Xiaobei and the others, who were proud of their ethnic food culture, guessed the identity of the other party. There was at least one Japanese.
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