In the blink of an eye, it was the beginning of November.
Balipu, which is located in the mountain, has already had two snowfalls.
When the snow stopped, the toll booths organized bandit Luba, who were reformed through labor, to clean the road.
The Balipu toll station is in charge of the front and back roads of 25 miles each, adding up to 50 miles.
They had to ensure that the snow on the 50-mile concrete road was cleared up as soon as possible, so as not to delay the travel of merchants.
If the road surface subsides or cracks appear, it is necessary to report it in time.
When the weather improves next year, engineering teams will come to repair the road.
Boss Niu, the head of the toll booth, is away. He has gone to Fucheng for a meeting and study. He has been away for four days.
In his absence, the toll booth is in charge of the two deputy station masters.
One is in charge of money and the other is in charge of accounts.
"The snow stopped yesterday, the station master should be back."
"Maybe. I'm afraid of being delayed on the road."
"I'm back, I'm back."
A toll collector shouted outside.
The donkey cart at the toll booth wobbled towards them, and sitting on it was Boss Niu who was going to Fucheng for a meeting.
Behind him, there were two carriages following.
"The accountant is here too, get the account book ready."
Both deputy station masters got busy.
There are two of them, one is in charge of the ledger and the other is in charge of the money.
If the money accounts don't match, both of them will have to walk around.
Boss Niu got out of the donkey cart and called the accountant to the toll station for tea.
The accountant said: "Let's settle the accounts first, and then drink tea after finishing the accounts. It's almost the end of the year, and the boss is waiting for us to hand over the accounts and estimate the profit of next year. The higher-ups are urgent. We have no choice but to urge you. The ledgers are all recorded according to the format."
"That's right, it's all accounted for according to the method taught in the training class." Boss Niu said hurriedly.
Several accountants brought up the account books and money, and sat in the signing room to start to settle the accounts.
Boss Niu took two deputy station masters and waited outside in case the accountant wanted to ask about the situation.
Boss Niu was impatient with this kind of waiting and couldn't leave. He sat on the bamboo chair, and the room was warm, and he fell asleep after a while.
He had a dream, in which he returned to the northwest and the Sirius Army.
He joined the army at the age of eighteen and served for twelve years.
Just in the Sirius Army, he has worked for nearly five years and made a lot of contributions.
Until the age of thirty, an ambush injured his left arm.
His left arm was saved, but he couldn't use his strength, so he was half disabled.
In addition, over the years, there have been countless injuries, large and small, and he fell ill every winter.
However, the Sirius Army fought more battles in winter than in summer, and they were all vicious and bitter battles.
No choice but to retire.
General Pei personally handed over twenty taels of silver for his retirement.
It was hard at the time.
General Pei asked him, "What are you going to do when you go back?"
He chuckled, "I'll just eat and wait to die."
"You bastard!" General Pei was about the same age as him, but he called him a grandson.
After scolding, General Pei drank his saliva and said, "There is an errand here. There is a salary of two or three taels a month. If you do well, you will be rewarded. The premise is to pass the exam. Go to the training class to prepare for the exam."
He prepared a stomach full of objections, but before he could say a word, he was escorted to the training class.
Going to the training class together, there are also hundreds of Sirius Army brothers who have retired together.
It was September last year, and Jinju in the northwest was already relatively cold.
They are a group of rough people who have never even held a pen, but they want to learn literacy and arithmetic from their master. One test per month.
If you pass the exam, there is no reward. If you fail the exam, you will be directly deducted from rations, money, and a board.
How hard it is to read! It is more tiring than killing the enemy in battle.
That day was really miserable.
A group of big bosses want to rebel against Mr.
As a result, General Pei fell from the sky, and hundreds of people, who followed the military law, were almost not killed.
Since then, they have been honest.
Literacy and arithmetic are really not easy.
Niu Lao had been in college for nearly a year before he passed the post examination and was hired to Balipu as the station master of the Balipu toll station.
This is his dark history, and he won't tell anyone who asks.
He would not tell the people below that he studied for a whole year before passing the exam.
He wants to maintain a majestic image in front of people, so naturally he can't expose his shortcomings.
The few robes who came to Balipu with him will naturally not expose his faults.
If they dare to expose his faults, he dares to expose everyone's faults.
There are a total of thirteen people at the Balipu toll booth. One webmaster, two deputy webmasters.
The other ten people are all toll collectors.
Half veterans, half locally recruited.
Even the two deputy station masters are from different places and from different training classes.
Thinking of Lehe, Boss Niu laughed in his sleep.
"Boss Niu, Boss Niu, wake up..."
Someone pushed him.
"Who? Grandma's who pushed me."
Boss Niu opened his eyes and blinked before he saw clearly that it was Mr. Accountant.
He chuckled and scratched his head, "Mister made me laugh, I accidentally overslept. These bastards don't even know how to wake me up."
The bastards in the mouth of Niu Boss all laughed.
It's rare to see Boss Niu's jokes, so of course you can't miss it.
The accountant said: "The accounts have been checked, and the money in the account is correct. You and the other two deputy station masters will sign and seal below, and we will take the account book and money away."
"Oh!"
Since Boss Niu became literate, he has been very careful about various documents. During the meeting above, they also repeatedly emphasized that they should read the content clearly before signing.
After confirming that there was no problem with the content, he picked up a pen and signed and stamped it.
Then came the two deputy station masters.
After finishing the handover and drinking tea, the accountants took the account book, a box of silver, and two baskets of copper coins into the carriage, ready to go to the next toll booth.
After seeing off the accountant, everyone at the toll station breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm so nervous! I'm afraid there will be problems with the accounts."
"As long as everyone follows the rules and registers every transaction truthfully, there will be no problems with the accounts."
"The station master said so."
…
A few days later, the capital was three hundred miles away.
Located in Xinmin County outside the South City Gate, next to the county government, a magnificent house was newly built.
The house here is where the headquarters of the Universal Commercial Bank is located.
It's very lively here today, there are luxury carriages parked in the yard.
The cement road from Beijing to Luozhou will be completed at the end of September.
In October, 20 toll stations were fully rolled out, and the toll collection project was launched at the same time.
The ten-month accounts of the twenty toll stations are the most intuitive inspection of the value of this cement road.
Look at the account book and look at the future.
Whether this cement road is going well or not, we have to look at the account book for October before we can draw a conclusion.
The reason why there are 20 toll stations for the 800-mile distance is that not all toll stations are set strictly according to the distance of 50 miles.
A toll booth must be set up on a major traffic road, or near a freight terminal.
These places, between two toll stations, may only be separated by thirty or forty miles.
In the round table meeting room, all the shareholders who could come have come.
Those who could not come, also sent people to listen.
Gu Jiu sat on the main seat, flipping through the ledger silently.
The meeting room was noisy.
Cheng Enbo Zhu Ci personally attended the shareholder meeting.
He just wanted to see if his original judgment was right. Is this road the hen that lays golden eggs in his mind.
"Madam Zhao, when will the accounts be published?"
Someone dared to ask.
Gu Jiu tapped lightly on the desktop, "I don't know how much everyone expects from the October accounts?"
"In October, no matter what, there must be three thousand taels of income. Twenty toll booths support so many people. If there is not so much income, then this road is not worth doing."
"What do you mean by not doing well? There are only a few people in the toll booth. How much does it cost to support these people?"
"It's not cheap to keep those toll collectors. Twenty toll stations, one month's labor costs, food expenses, charcoal fire expenses, etc., at least one or two thousand taels. I also need to use part of the income as road maintenance fees. I forget it If the bill is less than three thousand taels a month, it will be a big loss to build this road."
Many people present nodded their heads.
Three thousand taels is the bottom line.
If the income in October is less than three thousand taels, everyone has to re-evaluate the value of this road.
Everyone was noisy, but Gu Jiu didn't refute everyone's words.
Cheng Enbo Zhu Ci snorted secretly, and muttered to himself: "A bunch of ignorant idiots."
Even if the income in October is less than three thousand taels, this road is also a golden road.
In October, it has snowed in many places. The weather is very cold, there are few business trips on the road, and it is understandable that the income of the toll booth is low.
When the spring of next year begins and the weather is warmer, the number of business travelers running on the cement road will definitely more than double.
"Madam Zhao, it's useless for us to guess, why don't we announce the result directly."
Gu Jiu nodded, indicating to Deng Cunli to preside over the meeting.
Deng Cunli bowed to accept the order and cleared his throat.
"Twenty toll stations, starting from the Luozhou side, will be reimbursed one by one."
"That's good, it's clear at a glance."
Deng Cunli picked up the account book and began to reimburse the account.
As he reported the numbers one by one, the shareholders present frowned for a while, were shocked for a while, frowning for a while, and surprised for a while.
Very expressive.
The accounts of the 20 toll stations were quickly reported.
"The toll stations with the highest income are the Beijing toll stations outside the capital city and the Luozhou toll stations on the other side of Luozhou. These two toll stations earned 3,721 taels in October alone."
boom!
The atmosphere in the conference room was lively.
Deng Cunli continued: "The toll station with the lowest income is the Wuliba toll station in the mountainous area, with a total income of ninety-eight taels in October.
There are eight toll booths, and the income is between 100 and 200 taels, including the Balipu toll booth... There are six toll booths, and the income is between 200 and 300 taels.
There are two toll booths whose income is between 300 and 400 taels. There is also a toll booth, and the income in October broke five hundred taels.
Adding up the income of all the toll stations, the income in October was unexpectedly broken by 7,000 taels, a total of 7,127 taels of silver. "
boom!
The meeting room was boiling again.
"It really exceeded seven thousand taels in October?"
"Why are the incomes of the two toll stations in Beijing and Luozhou so high in October? Are there any problems with the accounts?"
"The toll station in the capital city is thirty miles away from the south gate of the capital city. Goods going north to Beijing must pass through here. Can the income not be high?"
"The situation in Luozhou is similar."
"At these two toll stations, there are three times as many toll collectors as there are people coming and going from morning to night, and the income is normal."
"The income in October is 7,000 taels. After that year, wouldn't it be 100,000 taels?"
"I'm afraid it's more than one hundred thousand taels."
"After deducting the cost and road maintenance fees, the rest doesn't need to be invested in other projects, so it can be used for dividends. After a year, you can also distribute a lot of money. In a few years, you can earn back the capital."
"Where does it take a few years? Don't forget, last month was October, and there was snow in many places, and the caravans on the road were reduced by more than half. And many people don't know that the cement road has been connected. Wait until next year, I'm afraid everyone You can earn tens of thousands of taels a month.”
"Haha, that's great."
All the shareholders were excited.
I thought it would be good to collect money to build roads to gain a reputation, but I didn't expect that there would be dividends.
For many people, this is definitely a surprise.
Seeing that the discussion was almost over, Gu Jiu gave Deng Cunli a wink.
Deng Cunli nodded, and distributed the transcribed ledgers to each shareholder.
The above not only records the accounts of each toll station in detail, but also does data analysis.
The cement road from Beijing to Luozhou has more than 400 miles, all of which are located in mountainous areas.
Fortunately, it was built along the official road, so it could be completed within a year.
These toll stations located in mountainous areas all have a common feature, that is, they are extremely far away from the pier, and they have to walk more than a hundred miles at the nearest.
This means that caravans transported by water will not disembark at these places and switch to land transport in order to avoid checkpoints.
This also limits the development of these toll stations.
Earning one or two hundred taels a month is considered excellent.
All the other toll stations with an income of 200 taels have relatively flat terrain without so many mountains.
In these places, people's livelihood and economy are relatively good. Some toll stations are relatively close to the wharf, and there are often caravans passing through to avoid water transport checkpoints, so the income of toll stations is naturally higher.
Gu Jiu knocked on the table.
The noisy conference room fell silent in an instant.