Chapter 675 Good luck
In July, the heat in Guanzhong subsides.

General Zhenbei Ma Teng was summoned to the court and appointed as Weiwei.

There was no emperor, not even a decent capital, and all that was left for Ma Teng was a newly built Weiwei Yamen.

The Weiwei Yamen was located in the south of Longshou Mountain. The Taichang, Tingwei, Da Si Nong and other Yamen were all built in the south of Longshou Mountain. They were not concentrated together but were arranged in a scattered manner.

Many people speculate that the new Chang’an City will be located south of Longshou Mountain. However, there are currently only government offices, the Institute of Gewu, the Institute of Breeding, and various hundred-household offices, but no residential buildings and no way for private migration.

Ma Teng first went to take up his post in the government office. When he arrived, he saw a trench being dug outside the government office, which was seven feet deep.

The loess ground here makes it easy to dig trenches.

Ceramic sewage pipes were being laid in the trench, and Ma Teng was no longer surprised by this.

Compared to steam engines and hot air balloons, sewage pipes were something he could understand at a glance.

He then entered the Weiwei Yamen, which was the largest among all the nobles’ Yamen. It had its own stables and military barracks, and a large piece of land nearby was allocated for military settlement.

Ma Teng was not in a hurry to inspect the office area of ​​the yamen, but instead checked the barracks area.

The barracks are quadrangular buildings built with boards. There are eight quadrangular buildings forming a nine-square grid, with a huge two-story cafeteria in the middle.

A casual inspection revealed a stone tablet with inscriptions erected at the doorway of the quadrangle building. A quadrangle building could accommodate 500 people.

There are 4,000 guards stationed in the Weiwei military camp, which is neither too many nor too few, but it is enough for Ma Teng’s troops to stay.

These quadrangle buildings have unified heating. Ma Teng checked them carefully, but it was difficult to test the heating effect…but the exterior wall panels were very thick.

The bedroom has a neat bed and wooden floors. One side of the exterior wall is covered with wooden wall panels and the roof is also covered with wooden boards. Only the fireplace is exposed, but it is also painted with lime.

All woods are oiled and smell good.

Seeing that the soldiers under his command were so attentive, Ma Teng began to look forward to his own Weiwei Mansion.

At the same time, black bears were spending the summer in Ganquan.

The heat had mostly subsided, also because of the drag of the Yuanshi battleship, otherwise he would have gone to the counties outside the Great Wall; even if he didn’t go to the Great Wall, he would have gone to Longshang.

Zhou Yu’s document requesting war had just been dealt with not long ago, and now Zhong Yao took the lead in proposing that he be promoted to prime minister and take charge of state affairs.

Holding the document, Black Bear handed it to Yang Jun: “Why do you always bother me with these empty names? Send Dezu to come and let him see this proposal.”

“Here.”

Yang Jun agreed, took a few steps back, turned around and walked faster. He loosened his pace and walked briskly only when he walked farther and farther away.

When he arrived near the door of the compartment where Yang Xiu was, Yang Jun’s steps became steady.

He walked in, and Yang Xiu and several other secretaries on duty stopped writing: “Ling Gong.”

“Dezu.”

Yang Jun called out softly, and Yang Xiu put away his brush, took a piece of fine felt to cover his desk, and then came out.

After walking a dozen steps with Yang Jun, at the corner of the corridor, Yang Jun took out Zhong Yao’s proposal and handed it to Yang Xiu: “Dezu, please take a look. The emperor will summon you later.”

“Here.”

Yang Xiu flipped open the meeting list, glanced around quickly, and smiled: “This is just a trivial matter.”

Seeing that he was sure, Yang Jun turned around and led Yang Xiu to the side hall without asking any questions.

Inside the hall, Black Bear continued to process official documents. He breathed a sigh of relief after finishing several documents worth more than 2,000 shi on his plate.

He leaned sideways to look at the scenery outside the window, then turned his head to look at the second Yang: “Busy times are always short. I don’t know why Zhong Yuanchang is so free.” As he said this, even he couldn’t help laughing. Yang Jun had a stern face and was very restrained. Yang Xiu raised his hand to cover his mouth and nose, but the corners of his mouth were raised, and his eyebrows were full of smiles.

What can Zhong Yao do now?
After the establishment of Taichangqing, the administrative area of ​​Lingyi County in Guanzhong was taken away by Wei Duan.

Although the released more than 200,000 registered residents added about 10 million more head taxes, the head tax money was used for specific purposes. Every cent of the 50 cents paid by each person had a corresponding destination, and there was no office expenses for the Inspector of the Capital Region at all.

Of the fifty coins, five were reserved for the imperial household.

At present, there is no emperor, no harem, no palace maids, and no palaces, so this money is stored in the treasury of the Minister of Agriculture, waiting to be used to build palaces and for the emperor to spend in the future.

Even though the treasury of the Minister of Agriculture was in alarming deficit due to Black Bear, and the arrears of military expenditures had an annual interest of two percent…then the imperial funds, which accounted for one-tenth of the head tax, were still not touched.

Soon after Liu Qi took office as the chief ancestor, some things had to be done, such as the annual ancestral temple sacrifices.

When the princes participated in the sacrifice, they had to share the meat and pay the sacrificial money.

This year, the finances of the Sili Xiaowei Yamen were further squeezed. Although Zhong Yao personally held the title of Tinghou, he still had to pay a sum of zhujin.

Fortunately, the Sijin Duwei Mansion now issues gold coins. Zhong Yao has a fief of 300 households, which only gives him 15,000 coins per year. He has to offer 3,000 coins worth of zhujin as an offering.

Although Black Bear had a fief of 10,000 households and would also pay this amount of money… Zhong Yao had too many people to support and was truly overwhelmed.

The well-dressed women in Zhong Yao’s family were transferred there as hired slaves. Zhong Yao not only had to take care of their food and clothing, but also had to pay them wages… This wage would be collected by the relevant agency, and half of the total amount would be paid out when they were released.

In five or six years, some of the first children turned ten years old and their wages were cut in half.

What’s even more terrible is that the head tax coefficient of these people is four times, and each person has to pay a head tax of 200 coins per year, which is only 50 coins less than unmarried women of childbearing age.

When the head tax was levied in September of this year, Zhong Yao’s hard days began.

Life is simply unbearable. Even if one is poor, one can still live a decent life by setting up a hut at home and giving lectures and collecting tuition fees.

Now, even if he goes to various academies to give lectures, the academies only provide him with meals and fodder for his horses.

If Zhong Yao cannot find a stable source of income before September this year, he will have to repatriate most of the slaves, which is really embarrassing.

Zhong Yao felt uncomfortable, so he wrote this “Memorial to the Prime Minister”, which was a relatively important memorial.

In the absence of an emperor, such matters would be discussed routinely at gatherings of ministers.

Black Bear never participates in the discussion and only looks at the results of the meeting before making any decision.

Except for Weiwei Ma Teng who had no time to participate and the Tingwei seat being vacant, Liu Qi, Liu Ye, Liu Ai, Wei Duan and Shangshu Ling Pei Mao who participated in the meeting had all signed and seconded the motion.

The laughter stopped, and Black Bear also felt that this year was a bit too much, so he said: “Dezu went to see Zhong Yuanchang for official and personal matters. The official matter is the copying of the stone scriptures. I hope that Yuanchang can take the time to copy three copies so that they can be printed in the future. His regular script is also considered to be the founder of a school, and it should be circulated in the world. I will give him 100,000 coins as a fee for the three copies of the stone scriptures, and he must copy them all within this year.”

“The private matter is that there are not enough women for the service in Dongxiang and Xixiang, so the women in his family were transferred to Dongxiang and Xixiang. He still has no children, and there are rumors in the market, which are quite bad, so we must be on guard.”

“When Dezu goes there, explain these things to him. And ask him to write a memorial to Liu Fu. I will give him 500 coins as a reward for writing this memorial.”

After hearing this, Yang Xiu asked, “Your Majesty, do you mean that the false emperor was coerced and now he is dead, and you are offering sacrifices to him as a friend?”

“Well, why punish a puppet who can’t rule himself? Liu Fu has made great contributions to the country by stabilizing Huainan. I have also heard of his virtue and kindness when I was in Liang State.”

Black Bear continued to look out the window. The mountain slopes were covered with alfalfa and the geese were sweeping the land. He didn’t want to say anything more: “That’s it.”

“Here.”

Yang Xiu bowed deeply, Liu Fu was also an old friend of his.

Hei Xiong was not suitable for writing sacrificial texts, so Zhong Yao, who had the most experience, was suitable for writing.

(End of this chapter)