Chapter 6816: High and Low

Chapter 6816: High and Low
"That is indeed true." Liu Bei pondered for a moment and nodded slowly. As someone whose intelligence system had penetrated deeply into the civilian population and who had a good understanding of various types of intelligence, Liu Bei had to admit that what Li You said was true.

Is it a big deal for the people of this county to sacrifice a 600-stone person in exchange for a member of the Kuaiji Wang family who can come to this county to repair the Leijitai? If the county magistrate is willing to sacrifice, that's the best. If he is not willing to sacrifice, there are tens of thousands of righteous men in this county who can make the county magistrate look decent.

Is this a question of the six hundred koku official position? This is not it!

"Besides, some things are easier for bureaucrats to communicate with each other. Take the early Jiaozhou as an example. Why didn't the bureaucrats in Jiaozhou counties and prefectures try to seize the local coconut processing factory? You should know that the local clans there are very powerful. It's because the director of the coconut processing factory also has a rank." Chen Xi said with a sigh.

No matter how powerful a local clan is, it cannot defeat the bureaucracy. Since ancient times, clans have needed the support of bureaucrats to run rampant in the countryside. Even for aristocratic families, the core point of their influence is the bureaucratic system. Without this thing, the right to interpret scriptures and laws, and the right to interpret universal morality will be destroyed in a short time.

So at that time, the clans in Jiaozhou watched the coconut processing factory raking in huge profits, just like running a money printing machine, making money like crazy, but they resisted the urge to make any investment because the people on the other side were also officials.

“Many things are difficult to push forward by individuals, and sometimes the process traps of the bureaucratic system can really kill people. Therefore, large factories, mines and workshops must have job levels. Otherwise, if you encounter a scumbag bureaucrat, you will be buried if you are not careful.” Chen Xi said helplessly. It’s not that all bureaucrats are like this, but if you encounter one in the process of development, it will be enough to drag you to death.

Liu Bei thought about when he was the county magistrate of Anxi County and met the Inspector, he almost exploded with anger.

"As for bureaucrats, as long as they are not in charge of each other, they will give each other some face when discussing things. At least they can follow the normal process instead of falling into traps at every step. The many technical bureaucrats in the Han Dynasty now are basically added for the sake of efficiency." Chen Xi thought for a while and said, this is also the reason why Chen Xi kept splitting up the Shaofu and the road traffic, as there were too many technical bureaucrats involved in these two.

"Is that so? But I feel like there are indeed too many bureaucrats." Liu Bei could understand Chen Xi's explanation after hearing it, but based on his experience, there were indeed too many officials.

"Regarding this, Lord Xuande could have carefully investigated and confirmed it when he was on tour. If we really have to say anything about this situation, we can only say that the times have changed." Chen Xi thought for a moment and said, "Just like in the past, among the 103 counties of the Han Dynasty, no more than actually had county lieutenants. Now, at least more than counties have clearly arranged county lieutenants."

Liu Bei did not comment upon hearing this, but nodded, indicating that he would verify it later. For now, just continue to push forward according to this. After all, there have been no problems for so many years, and the Han Dynasty as a whole is also thriving. According to Liu Bei's experience, if you can avoid moving forward, just keep moving forward.

In short, Liu Bei was somewhat conservative. For policies that have always been beneficial to the country, even if there is sufficient evidence to prove that the policy will have problems in the future, Liu Bei would still adopt an attitude of implementing them first. As for his own subconscious suspicion that there is something wrong with the policy, forget it. As long as the people live and work in peace and the country is thriving, it doesn't matter if it goes against common sense, as long as it works.

To some extent, Liu Bei was a typical pragmatist. He did think that increasing the ratio of officials to civilians was not a good thing, and he had sufficient reasons to support this idea. However, after Chen Xi increased the ratio of officials to civilians, he also further improved the living standards of the people. So Liu Bei would definitely not criticize this thing as a bad thing.

Liu Bei would only think that he really knew nothing!
"The main thing is that a rank of 100 shi will really make some people work hard with all their heart." Chen Xi looked up at the beams and said with a complicated expression, "They really believe in this. Even though the technocrats don't have many opportunities to show off. They only don't engage in technology and production for a few days a year, but having this layer of skin is really effective."

Nonsense, of course I worked hard, this is an official, okay? Even if he had a hundred shi, he was still the lowest level official. A county magistrate usually had two hundred shi. Although a hundred shi was low, sometimes a pavilion chief did not even have this level. After all, a pavilion chief was equivalent to the current police station chief, who also served as a post office. There were very few who had more than a hundred shi.

If a county itself has a small population, then in the entire county, there may be only three people with an official salary of over 100 dan, namely the county magistrate, county lieutenant, and county magistrate. To be precise, the county magistrate should have an official salary of 300 to 500 dan, and the county lieutenant and county magistrate should have an official salary of 200 to 400 dan. This is generally the configuration.

However, the population of most counties in the Han Dynasty did not reach 10,000 households, so the county magistrates were mostly below 500 dan, and the unlucky ones were directly 300 dan. In this case, the county lieutenant and county magistrate only had 200 dan. As a result, the official officials at the county level, such as the head of the pavilion, the servant, and the youjiao, would not exceed 100 dan. In other words, a position of 100 dan was enough to be among the top five in an ordinary county.

Therefore, most of the time, an official position of 100 stones is enough for those senior technical talents to rack their brains to study technology. After all, most people who take the technical route these days do not expect to become bureaucrats. Having the opportunity to have a good time in the county or township and make a decent living is enough for many people.

This is also the reason why the number of Han Dynasty bureaucrats has increased from 7567 to nearly in recent years. The administrative bureaucracy of counties and prefectures has basically not changed. There are still the same number as before. The number of clerks may have increased, but overall there is no obvious change in the administrative positions in counties and prefectures. The only real increases are positions for technical personnel.

In Chen Xi's words, with such a small salary expenditure, this group of people racking their brains to do research is making great money!

Therefore, Chen Xi has issued many such official positions in recent years, and positions below 600 dan do not need to be reported. The salary is paid by Chen Xi anyway, so the salary has increased so much in ten years...

"Anyway, you are the one who pays the salaries. With more officials, you will need to calculate more salaries." Liu Bei did not intend to dwell on this. Most of them were bureaucrats with salaries below 170 dan. He had reviewed every one of the technical bureaucrats with salaries above dan, and they all agreed that these people should be given such a rank. To put it bluntly, taking the Northland Ranch as an example, which managed million livestock, Liu Bei was afraid that something would go wrong if Jiang Qi, the director of the ranch, did not give him dan.

That's 170 million large heads of livestock. If Jiang Qi is given a rank of 10 stones, Liu Bei will be afraid that the governor of Beidi will go and ask for money. Not to mention how corrupt it is, I'll take % from you. It's no problem for me to pass it on. I, a high-ranking official with a rank of stones, passed by your place, and your ranch is also on my Beidi land. It's no problem for it to be counted as my political achievement. At worst, it should be no problem for you to pay taxes to our Beidi!
Therefore, Liu Bei made on-site inspections of every thousand-stone technical bureaucrat in the eastern prefectures and counties, and basically they all agreed with Chen Xi's arrangement. Although he did not realize at that time that this group of people were so-called technical bureaucrats rather than administrative bureaucrats, considering that these professionals did run the state-owned factories and mines very well, and that the scale and output of their subordinates were very good, Liu Bei felt it was reasonable to give them this rank.

But what I didn’t expect was that nearly 10,000 technical personnel were given official positions.

"There's no need to calculate this. If I give someone a rank of 100 shi, then he or she has at least created 10,000 shi of profit for the country. If I can give someone 300 shi, then he or she has basically improved certain technologies and can produce continuous profits for a long period of time, even for decades. If I can give someone 600 shi, then he or she has increased the overall output by a certain percentage." Chen Xi said with some admiration. It was all thanks to the enthusiasm of the technical staff!

Although Chen Xi is very capable, he simply does not have time to dwell on these minor details, so these links mainly rely on these technical talents. The current prosperity of the Han Dynasty is all due to the hard work and perseverance of these technical talents. Without these talents, the total output value of the Han Dynasty would have dropped by at least several points. With the current total output of the Han Dynasty at only a few points, how can you talk about salary?

"I think, when it comes to criticizing, it has to be Zichuan." Guo Jia sighed, this is a person who adds several points to the overall output!

"So I really agree with their contribution." Chen Xi did not refute, "And they are also very satisfied with this plan of directly becoming an official without any prerequisites or thresholds. The copper seal and yellow ribbon also have seals, and everyone is very satisfied."

"That's fine, as long as you think it's appropriate and it's really beneficial to the country." Liu Bei didn't want to dwell on this matter, because in terms of government affairs, Liu Bei had already determined that all the people present were not as good as Chen Xi. Letting Chen Xi do it would be beneficial to everyone.

"These are the things that need to be discussed at the grand court meeting. Although the other things are important, they are generally directional or directive. Only these two things are prone to resistance." Chen Xi smiled when he heard this. He was also trying to be as stable as possible. At this point, for Chen Xi, radical plans are no longer acceptable. Stability is Chen Xi's basic requirement at this stage.

"Come to think of it, I didn't see Gong Lu and Ji Yu today." Liu Bei looked around. He had noticed this before and felt a little strange. After all, this was the hundred-day banquet of Fa Zheng's son. Given the situations of Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang, they would basically come as long as they were in Chang'an. But he didn't see them. Was it because they were not in Chang'an?

"Their housekeepers said they were going to the southwest to conduct a new round of research." Fa Zheng explained casually, "The business they have been doing recently is quite big, and the wine is indeed good."

Lijiu has many shortcomings in this era when rice wine is prevalent, but its incredible cost-effectiveness has put it on the fast track since Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang made the first jar of Lijiu. Coupled with the Zhen family's sales network channels and personal connections, the sales of Lijiu increased rapidly after it was rolled out. If Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang had not misjudged the demand even with Chen Xi's advice, Lijiu would now occupy one-third of the Han Dynasty's wine market.

In addition, Lijiu, rice wine and white wine are basically two tracks. After Lijiu came on the market, it even opened up a new track for itself. Now it is said to occupy one-third of the market share of Dahan Liquor Industry. This means that in just half a year, Lijiu has built a new track outside the original wine track that is half as wide as the original one. The question is, is this the limit of Lijiu?
No, this is the limit of Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang!

If Lijiu continues to develop, it will not be a matter of occupying one-third of the market, but a matter of how many liters per capita the entire Han Dynasty consumes!
Is this a rival that rice wine and white wine can beat? Even if it is Chen Xi, no matter how large-scale it is, it is impossible to lower the price of rice wine and white wine to a level lower than that of Li wine. Even the so-called craft beer, compared with rice wine and white wine, basically cannot reach the so-called entry price. This is the gap!

Therefore, Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang, who underestimated how powerful this card in their hands was, are now carrying out the transplanting and planting of hops in northern Sichuan, as well as protecting it.

To put it simply, after the Central Asian family came back, they were unhappy to see Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang picking up money with sacks, and they felt that they also wanted to do this business. There was no threshold anyway, so they just went for it. They might lose if they engaged in other industries, but this one was obviously a blue ocean, so they just invested money and went for it!

Ordinary families cannot afford such an industry that requires large-scale investment at the beginning, nor do they have the channels. In addition, ordinary families cannot afford to offend Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang. But do the noble families in Central Asia lack money? Do they lack channels? Are they afraid of offending Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang?
When this group of people came back and found out about this, they immediately called their friends and started to copy Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang's path. Various brands of Li wine were quickly launched. However, Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang had the hegemony advantage in Chang'an, so they had an absolute upper hand. However, in other places...

Is there any need to learn something like local protectionism? You can learn it by yourself!
The area around Taiyuan in Bingzhou can only sell Lao Wang's Lijiu, an ancient liquor passed down from the Shang Dynasty. It is Lao Wang's specialty. The technology was stolen from Yuan Shu, and the staff was poached from Liu Zhang. What is the sales channel? Lao Wang's locals, that family reputation, that reputation, locals can be trusted!

The taste and flavor are quite good because the Wang family found a master from somewhere and blended it. It is different from Yuan Shu's first generation Lijiu, but each has its own advantages. Then it is sold in Bingzhou at the same price as Yuan Shu's Lijiu.

There is no need to say what happened next. Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang were driven out of Bingzhou after only making money for half a year. The Zhen family’s sales channels in Bingzhou were also borrowed by the Wang family. The locals strongly support local industries, and the Wang family with a thousand-year-old heritage is trustworthy!

Yuan Shu found it outrageous that the Wang family had brought out a master of making Li wine on the spot. Although his technology had been stolen and his key personnel had been poached, Li wine could not be made just because one wanted to. Normally, no one had much technical reserves for this thing, so the Wang family just went for it because they said so.

As a result, before Yuan Shu could even ask, Yuan Sui immediately informed Yuan Shu to protect his family's wine-making technology. Among the outstanding university students snatched from Lao Wang's family, there were professional wine-making personnel, and there was a whole team of them!
Although Yuan Shu did not understand why university students were studying winemaking, those who could enter this school were all outstanding students, and it was not outrageous that they could come up with their own unique flavor. Yuan Shu turned around and asked Yuan Sui, "Where are the winemaking personnel our family recruited from the university? Lend them to me first!"

Only then did Yuan Shu realize that his family, a prosperous and powerful one and a leader among the aristocratic families, had been stolen by the Wang family in collusion with the Yang family.

Next, before Yuan Shu could gather all his men to raid the Wang family's lair and rescue the hostages, he heard that the two Cuis and Yang had brought a group of people to raid his base in the north of Yizhou, preparing to transplant his hop plantation to their own base as a masterpiece of nature.

This rumor sounds outrageous, but in fact this group of people really did it. Yuan Shu really didn't seem to have any better solution, so Yuan Shu took Liu Zhang to northern Sichuan. As a result, after arriving there, he found that his base was fine, but the two Cuis and the Yang family, a group of bastards, had begun to mobilize the locals to dig wild hops all over the mountains, and then found professionals to prepare to transplant them to their own land.

In short, Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang's plan to make a lot of money has collapsed by 70%. The large aristocratic families are now joining in. They are very good at playing this capital and labor-intensive industry. Besides, it doesn't matter whether things like wine and beverages make money or not. Being able to earn happiness is a victory. What's more, after suffering a wave of locust plagues, the large aristocratic families heard that this stuff can not only keep them full but also keep them from getting hungry. Why not stock up?
To the extent that now Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang didn’t even have time to attend the 100-day banquet for Fa Zheng’s son.

"That's all outdated news. There are already more than a dozen new kinds of liquor, and they're selling very well everywhere. The noble families from all over the country are very grateful to Mr. Yuan and Mr. Liu for opening up the market for them, and they kicked them out without hesitation." Chen Xi briefly explained the background and what happened. Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Is the market for Li wine so big?" Li You asked with a hint of surprise.

"If we expand it casually, there will be no problem with a few hundred million liters." Chen Xi said calmly, "The market prospect is very huge. Unlike the current rice wine and white wine, Li wine has obvious advantages. Its positioning is completely different from the previous two, so the consumption explosion is inevitable."

"This is very strange. Shouldn't you be involved in this kind of business?" Zhuge Liang looked at Chen Xi and asked, "You look down on ordinary businesses, but you shouldn't look down on this kind of business."

"Because I didn't realize we had the raw materials at first. Yuan Gonglu and his team found the raw materials and made it. I thought about it and decided to let them take the lead. But who knew the major families would be so enthusiastic." Chen Xi said calmly, "But it's indeed a bit too much. Local protectionism is really nonsense, and it's too self-righteous."

Increase the income of local people! We, the Wang family, the Yang family, the Zhang family, the Cui family, etc., do this not for the sake of making money, but for the sake of our local people!
This time Chen Xi really believed what he said. This group of families really did recruit people and then aim to balance income and expenditure. If they sold more sweet wine, they would invest the money earned in the construction of the winery and continue to recruit local people into the winery. They would even prefer to lose some money to drive the Yuan family out.

Therefore, Chen Xi chose to turn a blind eye to such outrageous local protectionism. There was no other way. The people really benefited, and it’s not that Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang couldn’t make money, they just made less. There are not crazy people like the Wang, Yang, and Cui families in every place. There are also people willing to cooperate with the Yuan family for mutual benefit. This can be considered healthy competition. Anyway, the people benefited, and they were happy!

"No wonder I went around the gambling houses in Chang'an twice and didn't see those two guys. It turns out they are not in Chang'an." Liu Bei heard about the many things that had happened recently surrounding Lijiu and couldn't help but feel deeply moved. It turned out that they had turned over a new leaf.

"The gambling houses in Chang'an are actually quite formal. I've been there in person." Man Chong said quietly. Since he dared to sign, he must have conducted thorough investigations and was responsible for it.

"I went there too, but is this kind of blatant cheating considered gambling?" Liu Bei asked with some doubt, "And I saw some veterans were quite addicted."

“How should I put it? There are some veterans who are addicted to this, but they are addicted to the skills rather than the gains and losses of gambling. Those who really care about the gains and losses of gambling basically don’t enter this place because they can’t win. People who go to gamble can always see some incredible cheating methods.” Chen Xi said with his hand on his forehead, feeling a little tired. He had also watched it. How should I put it? It was amazing. A six-sided dice rolled out twenty-one. Is that reasonable?
"It was a game of tossing a pot, with twenty people playing. To win, someone threw a materialized arrow of will into the pot. The arrow maintained its gold and iron color after leaving the body and did not change. With this arrow, he crushed all the arrows thrown in before him, and then blocked the mouth of the pot. In the end, he still didn't win." When Guo Jia saw Chen Xi's expression, he remembered the scene when he disguised himself to participate in the gambling.

"How could they lose? This is already a normal violation of their willpower. The bottle has also been reinforced." Hua Xiong had a look on his face as if he had seen a ghost. Guo Jia was only a military advisor and didn't quite understand this. He just thought it was outrageous. Hua Xiong understood this and just wanted to ask, how could they lose?
"Because someone saw that he couldn't win, he didn't throw the arrow in his hand at the bottle, but at Tian Wen himself, which blew Tian Wen away and the bottle was blown up by the aftermath." Fa Zheng said with a depressed look on his face. He was really screwed. He saw with his own eyes that the bottle was completely enveloped by the talent of will, and it was covered with glory. As a result, because Tian Wen capsized, the bottle was blown up by the aftermath, and then the dealer licked the bag with tears.

It was also at that time that Fa Zheng felt that Yuan Shu's place would definitely make money, because there were some bad guys who didn't want to win at all and just went there to cause trouble.

"In fact, the most outrageous thing is cockfighting. Until now, I still cannot understand when cockfighting is considered over. The chicken heads are fired as weapons..." Liu Yan said with a dry laugh. He has also experienced it, but how can I describe the experience? After going there once, Liu Yan just went to be a spectator and was not worthy of going on stage!
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