Fan Xian's eyes jumped over the green trees beside the official road, the endless fields behind the trees, and the rushing river not far away, getting farther and farther away, as if he wanted to see through everything here. It landed in the big workshop where the river went, and there was faint smoke rising into the air, but it was not the faint smoke from the farmhouse, but black smoke with a familiar smell.
Could it be a blast furnace
The people in this large area were conscripted by the imperial court to work in the inner treasury, and the wages were much higher than growing grain, so the minds of taking care of the farmland became weak. In a large fertile field, weeds and early rice competed for growth. Mixed mess.
Fan Xian took a deep breath, smelled the fresh smell in the air, and felt relieved. It seems that the environmental pollution here is not as serious as he imagined in advance. Of course, the environment in the Tongshan mine, which is farther away, must be worse than here. Much worse.
Looking at the scenery in front of him, it seems that a feeling that has been separated from him for many years has gradually returned to his mind, but the oncoming force is still gentle and not turbulent, so that he is a little at a loss. In September last year, he I always feel that I long for something deep in my heart, but I have never found it.
Seeing him distracted, Haitang folded her hands like an old man, frowning and looking at the handsome face by the window, she also fell into deep thought—what exactly does this young official want to do
"How do you feel?" She saw that Fan Xian was a little restless today, and asked with a smile.
Fan Xian said quietly, "I should be the one to ask you."
Haitang smiled: "It's indeed a rare sight. I never thought that Qing Kingdom's internal treasury would be so large. I can't even name the things I saw before."
Fan Xian replied: "Just look at it, you can't go back and make one after all."
A strange light flashed in Haitang's eyes, and she asked with a smile, "Are you so confident in Neiku?"
Fan Xian was slightly startled, and then replied softly: "It's not that you have confidence in the inner treasury, but this kind of thing that shouldn't have appeared in this world, you can learn to do it just by looking at the outside... Then There's a ghost."
I don't know what came to mind, Haitang fell silent, and said after a long while: "The current internal treasury, the people inside are all Xinyang's cronies, how do you plan to take over?"
Fan Xian frowned, and a slight smile appeared on his face: "Whoever it is, it's always mine now."
Haitang glanced at him suspiciously: "Are you really planning... to never end with the other party?"
Fan Xian became quiet, and after a while he said in a deep voice, "You seem to be asking this question a bit late."
Haitang frowned: "I believe that your mother-in-law is not a fool, and she will not see the current situation clearly. Logically speaking, both you and her have the desire to renegotiate and make peace with each other. At present, you and her are tearing apart, which seems to be something that neither side wants to see."
"I don't want to tear myself apart with her. I guess you and His Majesty the Emperor of Northern Qi will not want to see it." Fan Xian smiled sarcastically and said, "Don't worry, I won't join hands with my mother-in-law again to bully your orphans and widows in the north."
Haitang was silent, but she didn't know whether she believed it or not.
Fan Xian was not worried about the attitude of the Northern Qi. Anyway, as long as there was an internal treasury, the people of the Northern Qi had to rely on themselves for a day. As for what Haitang said earlier, it is not unreasonable. In the eyes of big figures who play politics, any enmity in the past years can be discarded in the face of a sufficiently large profit chip, especially Fan Xian and the eldest princess and Wan'er. As a lubricant in the middle, in the eyes of the world, as long as the eldest princess is willing to make concessions, Fan Xian has no reason not to accept the peace agreement.
And in fact, the eldest princess has already made a concession—after the assassination in Cangshan, the most beautiful lady in the Qing Kingdom really felt Fan Xian's powerful power, and she tried to write several books in this regard—but Fan Xian Leisurely did not accept it.
"Relax your heart." Fan Xian didn't look away from the car, and said softly, "The eldest princess is already willing to accept the fact that I am in charge of the inner treasury, but I... ignored it."
Haitang suddenly raised her head, her bright eyes stared at Fan Xian's back, wondering why he rejected Xinyang's compromise.
Fan Xian explained softly: "She wants 30% of the shares, and she can cooperate with me to easily take over the internal treasury... This condition is not harsh."
Haitang frowned, and after a long silence said: "Not only is it not harsh, but it is already a very sincere condition. Originally... from the standpoint of my Daqi government and the opposition, Anzhi, the more rigid you are with that eldest princess, the more you treat us. It is beneficial, but from the standpoint of a friend, I would like to advise you, in the final analysis, your power was given to you by the royal family of the Qing Kingdom, and she is your mother-in-law after all, so there is no reason not to accept such a good offer."
Fan Xian laughed at himself: "Is that so? I don't think so. Perhaps in my core, I thought that I would not allow anyone to compete with me on the matter of the inner library."
"Why?" Haitang still couldn't understand his thoughts.
"This is the property left by my mother." Fan Xian said with a gentle smile, "I don't have her ability, so I have to be a second-generation ancestor, but... I can't ruin this family."
There was silence in the carriage.
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After a long time, Haitang said softly: "But the current internal treasury belongs to the Qing court after all."
"The imperial court is just a very illusory image." Fan Xian said, "What is the imperial court? The emperor? Officials? The queen mother? Or the common people?"
He finally said: "The key is to see what kind of effect this internal treasury will have in my hands, and how the money can be used. If... if the imperial court can't use it well, then I will use it on behalf of the imperial court." , turn this illusory image into a real word of common people."
Haitang smiled and said, "You're habitually wanting to pretend to be a saint again."
Fan Xian replied with a smile: "I told Yan Bingyun that occasionally being a saint is a very beneficial supplement to one's spiritual world."
After Haitang was reassured by the secret negotiations between Tiao Ming and the eldest princess, Fan Xian fell silent again, staring at the scenery outside the car in a daze. Those waterwheels by the river, the sound of some kind of mechanism in the workshop, and the black smoke from the furnace in the distance are all urging the unknown desire in his heart.
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"My lord, we are here."
The humble voice of the internal warehouse transfer department officer woke Fan Xian up again from his contemplation. He looked at the two women in the car in a daze, and only then did he know that the inner warehouse transfer department had arrived, so he quickly tidied up his clothes. , opened the curtain and jumped down.
He jumped down instead of walking down slowly and steadily with the appearance that an official should have. Just this one action showed Fan Xian's inexplicable tension and excitement. Where can we still maintain the consistent calm.
With his feet on the somewhat hard ground, Fan Xian narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at everything around him. I found that there was an ordinary yamen next to the street, but there was no scene of the Great Leap Forward that I had imagined. The street is a bit deserted, although the surrounding buildings are new and beautiful, but... it doesn't look like a construction site.
The official of the transshipment department who was in charge of picking him up from Suzhou, perhaps because he had seen the look of the officials in Kyoto too much, carefully explained: "The three major squares are still far away from the Si Ya, my lord, take a rest today, and go down below tomorrow." Check it out."
Fan Xian was a little disappointed. He had originally planned to blow glass, weave cotton, and shake hands with the workers, but he didn't want to wait another day.
The gates of the yamen were fully opened, and the officials from the Internal Treasury Transit Department and the military supervisory office responsible for the security work were divided into two rows to welcome the arrival of the imperial envoy.
Fan Xian walked in first, and Gao Da followed behind him silently with a few tiger guards. A team of more than a hundred people was settled in a very short period of time. It seems that the internal warehouse is still operating at an extremely fast speed. Haitang and Sisi were naturally taken to the back house, together with the newly bought maids on the way, the transshipment department, which had always been extremely deserted, made the mansion suddenly lively.
After the officials greeted Fan Xian, everyone sat down in the yamen one by one, waiting for Fan Xian to speak.
Fan Xian was not very familiar with the situation of the internal treasury, and this was also his first time sitting in a government office, so he felt a little weird. He signaled to Su Wenmao to say a few nonsense on his behalf, and then let everyone disperse first, just waiting for tomorrow Officially opened.
After returning to the back house, before he had time to familiarize himself with his official residence, he immediately summoned the chief official of the Overwatch Council stationed in the inner treasury. This official was about forty years old with gray hair. Work is indeed exhausting.
He motioned for the other party to sit down, without saying any nonsense, and asked directly: "Tell me about the situation."
This Overwatch Council official was under the jurisdiction of four departments. Since last autumn, he had obtained the secret letter from the Yan family and his son, and he had already made preparations. When he saw Fan Xian questioning him today, he quickly cleaned up everything he knew.
Of course he understood that Fan Tisi didn't have any cronies in the inner library when he first came to the inner library. If he wanted to grasp the situation as soon as possible, he must find someone trustworthy in the library. Naturally, you have to climb quickly so that you can live up to the opportunities God has given you.
Fan Xian nodded as he listened. The official of the Overwatch Council spoke and acted very neatly. During the conversation, he explained the current situation of the internal treasury clearly.
"Why has the treasury lost so much in these years?" Fan Xiansheng was so courageous that he asked this kind of question in an open and aboveboard way, and he didn't care at all about the inconvenience of speaking to the Overwatch Council officials.
The Overwatch Council official, surnamed Shan Mingda, did not dare to be bold in front of Fan Xian. How could he, a low-ranking official, explain the matter of the internal treasury clearly in a few words, but he still considered it carefully and said: "Actually, it is not a loss, it is just a loss." Over the years, the taxes paid to the capital have indeed decreased by several percent."
Fan Xian had no choice but to smile bitterly and said, "Such an old hen that gave birth to golden roosters earns less money every year. What's the difference between it and a loss? I don't know how my predecessor managed it?"
The former envoy of the Department of Neiku Transshipment was the cousin of Huang Yi, the chief counselor of Princess Xinyang Li Palace, Lord Huang Wanshu. Fan Xian took over the internal treasury, but he didn't meet this Mr. Huang. The two sides were in dire straits, so he didn't bother to go through the superficial formalities of taking over, because they were all bachelors.
Dan Da did not dare to accept his words to derogate the eldest princess, and said sincerely: "The reason why the profits are shrinking every year is that the expenses of the three major workshops are getting higher and higher. .Secondly, there have been some problems with the sales channels in recent years. The pirates at sea are too rampant, so I dare not say too much, but at least one or two of the ten stops are off the sea. The third is the supply problem to Northern Qi. , the accounts were too messy a few years ago, and I don’t know how many private goods the Cui family took away, but no one dared to investigate this matter... Fortunately, Mr. Tisi took the initiative to verify the Cui family years ago. item, it will be able to recover a lot of losses for the court."
Fan Xian listened with interest, but he was very clear in his heart that all pirates were a trick of the Ming family to snatch their own goods. He looked at Shan Da hesitant to speak, and asked curiously, "What else is there?"
Shan Da glanced at him, and said with a wry smile: "Also...the funds in the courtyard have increased too fast these years. You also know that most of the courtyard's expenses are directly paid out of the inner treasury. These years have not raised much, but the courtyard has spent too much, plus the aforementioned items, such a cut, no matter how much the internal treasury can earn money for the court, and so many supplements, it is no longer as grand as it was in the past. "
Fan Xian took a deep breath. He didn't expect his Overwatch Council to be one of the vampires in the inner treasury. Then he thought about it. Those brothers in the third division were developing weapons of mass destruction every day, and the crows in the second division were all over the world looking for news. , no matter how you pretend, you always need financial support, not to mention the black hole yamen like the Five and Six Offices, which have no construction, only destroy and attract money... Of course, even these court affairs are not counted. Many times, the old cripple raised so many peerless beauties and lived a luxurious life comparable to that of an emperor. Not all the money came from the internal treasury.
He shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "Don't mention the matter in the courtyard, it would be embarrassing to spread it out, just check those routes."
Su Wenmao behind Shan Da and Fan Xian couldn't help laughing, thinking that Mr. Tisi spoke directly.
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"I'll solve the problem of sales channels and pirates." Fan Xian stared into Shan Da's eyes, "Eliminate the second of the four evils, I just don't understand, how can the treasurers of the three major workshops be compared with these evils? Those officials stay in the south of the Yangtze River all year round and are not allowed to leave without authorization. It is indeed hard work, and the imperial court should give them more generous salaries, which should be."
Shan Da didn't dare to look him in the eyes, he lowered his head and replied: "The three major workshops are responsible for all the production of the inner warehouse, and those goods are all made by them, so...so..."
"So what?" Fan Xian sneered, "Could it be that they dare to threaten you with this?"
"Of course I don't dare to threaten." Shan Da replied with a wry smile: "But the imperial court has strict management of the internal treasury. As for the procedures, ingredients, and prescriptions, only the treasury officials at the upper, middle and lower levels know what is in their minds. If it is a silver production machine of the imperial court, as long as they use a little thoughtfulness, they can reduce the output of the inner treasury, so their status has always been a bit special in the inner treasury, and the imperial court also treats them differently, even... some Arrogant."
"Oh?" Fan Xian narrowed his eyes amusingly, thinking that those little helpers who came out of Ye's family have now become technocrats who monopolize and get rich
"What is this if it's not a threat?" Fan Xian felt that the matter was absurd and funny, he laughed and said, "Then how did the eldest princess deal with these treasurers?"
Shan Da thought for a while, then answered with a frown: "The eldest princess only wants to keep the output, and basically tries her best to satisfy the requirements of the treasurers, and raises their status extremely high...Of course, if there are treasurers who don't know how to measure, The eldest princess will also have her means. Six years ago, she killed seven treasurers who were making trouble. Since then, the treasurers have learned to make a fortune in silence. But I still dare not be disrespectful to the imperial court."
Fan Xian sneered, "Arrogance? High status...then the official has to knock them into the dust first."
He was a little annoyed, his mother-in-law was really not a material for a manager, and managed such a super-large enterprise like this, no wonder His Majesty the Emperor complained every day, and his father also had a headache about the empty treasury.
Shan Da was taken aback, thinking that Master Tisi is young after all, if the new official takes office three fires, Thunder will be angry, and those treasurers will be offended, not to mention the internal warehouse sales channels, their own output and goods quality I'm afraid it's hard to guarantee.
He bowed his hands and said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, think twice, you might as well respond with a gentle heart first, and then take it slowly."
Fan Xian smiled and shook his head: "You can't draw it slowly, ten thousand years is too long, just seize the day and night, after ten days, I will return to Suzhou to preside over the opening of the inner treasury. The unconvinced people inside have been convinced, how will you manage things in the future? I am not in the mood to run to this place every day."
Shan Da said with a bitter face: "This matter is not easy to deal with. Even if the treasuries who beat up are superficially convinced, they secretly do some tricks in the workshop, and they don't even need to do any tricks to reduce the production of the inner treasury. , I checked... I can't figure it out at all, and I'm afraid the adults will still bear the responsibility in the end."
Fan Xian admired this person's one-on-one attitude. The atmosphere of the Overwatch Council officials was indeed much stronger than that of Jiangnan Road officials. He waved his hand to stop the other party's persuasion, and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid, if you kill Butcher Zhang, do you want to eat pigs with hair?"
Shan Da and Su Wenmao were stunned, wondering where the chief executive got his confidence, the treasurer was in charge of production, and the Overwatch Council was not good at this matter... Suddenly, Su Wenmao's mind moved, thinking that the internal treasury was originally the Ye family property, while my lord is... a descendant of the Ye family, could it be said that lord Tisi has his own way
Fan Xian didn't explain anything, he just asked them to prepare for the actual office opening tomorrow, while he himself went to the backyard, drank two bowls of porridge with some displeasure, and then sincerely invited Haitang to go with him to the third night. Dafang walks.
A subordinate has already obtained a pass for him, so even if he doesn't reveal his identity at night, it should be fine. And the reason why he wanted Haitang to go with him was not because he wanted to extend the brilliance of the Neiku to Northern Qi, but because he needed Haitang as a powerful bodyguard.
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The cock crows, the sky turns white.
The Department of Neiku Operations was approaching the back wall of the emissary's mansion, and Fan Xian and Haitang returned to the study after their one-night expedition.
Fan Xian frowned and said with a calm face, "Singing every night, management is corrupt... Are these two words?"
Haitang was still immersed in shock. She followed Fan Xian for a walk around the three workshops this evening. That kind of spinning machine is woven, and it doesn't use manpower, it uses that kind of water power... But how can the power of the river be so tame? Thinking back on what she had seen and heard tonight, she was even more amazed by the mistress of the Ye family who had long since disappeared in the long river of history, and her gaze on Fan Xian became a little hotter.
Isn't Fan Xian the son of the mistress of the Ye family
Fan Xian was not as shocked as she was. The initial sense of novelty was slightly removed. Although he still felt the comfort of appreciating his mother's legacy, Qing Neiku was actually worse than the township enterprises in his previous life. Things, if it wasn't for the fact that Emperor Qing was extremely smart and took all the properties seriously, I'm afraid they would not be as valuable as they were back then.
However, in Shunde Town, where refrigerators cannot be produced yet, Fan Xian would not be surprised. He was surprised by another thing. The treasurers of the internal treasury really live in an extremely luxurious life, and his heart can't help itching. If these If the money eaten by others is swallowed into one's own stomach, how much money would that be
As for things that the eldest princess was worried about, he didn't worry too much about it. What kind of bullshit technology monopoly is not a particularly difficult way to survive. Although he didn't have a science background back then, blowing a few glasses is not a big problem. The most important thing is, Who told us there was someone behind us.
Knowledge is power, knowledge is confidence, and knowledge is money—this is Fan Xian's strong cognition on his first day in Neiku.