Feng Jiutian suddenly understood, and a relieved smile appeared on his face. He offered advice to Li Jun on personnel selection from the perspective of his own position as a staff member, but Li Jun took it a step further and suggested that one person should be used to maximize their effectiveness.
“The other person is worth noting,” Feng Jiutian said, seemingly lost in thought.
After a moment, he looked up and said, "Zhao Xian and Wang Erlei are in charge of intelligence, but they are really willing but unable to do so. They may be able to do some practical work, but as for overseeing the overall situation, someone else is needed."
Li Jun frowned slightly. Zhao Xian and Wang Erlei had followed him when he was wandering and had made many contributions. He knew that the two had limited intelligence and could not be used as leaders of the intelligence agency indefinitely. But now that the problem was in front of him, he was still a little unhappy.
“Those who achieve great things should not be too attached to past relationships.” Feng Jiutian seemed to be talking to himself.
“I understand about this matter. I’m thinking about how to deal with these two. If we leave them idle, they’ll definitely cause trouble.” Li Jun hesitated for a moment. “Besides, it seems that no one can replace them in the short term.”
“Someone, that tavern owner Zhuo Tian, if he really has the photographic memory he claims to have, then he would be a suitable candidate.”
"The question is whether he is reliable. Intelligence agencies are no small matter. With such extraordinary abilities, why would Zhuo Tian be content to be a restaurant owner?"
Feng Jiutian frowned slightly upon hearing this. Zhuo Tian's actions were indeed somewhat strange. For example, if he was the boss, why would he personally stand behind the counter on the first floor, where most of the people were peddlers and laborers? This was puzzling.
"Let's put this matter aside for now and have Zhao Xian investigate Zhuo Tian, but make sure he doesn't find out. First, settle Lu Yuan down. I think that under the old system, it's impossible to both give Lu Yuan a chance to use his talents and make the most of this opportunity." Li Jun pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "This will require Mr. Feng's help. Could you come up with a framework for a new system within three days?"
Feng Jiutian laughed and said, "What's so difficult about that? Commander, please take a look." Feng Jiutian handed over a small folded document; he had been prepared for Li Jun's request.
Li Jun was eager to open the folded booklet, but Feng Jiutian stopped him, saying, "Commander, please take a closer look tonight. There are many more things to do during the day, and the most important thing right now is to get the money."
Li Jun was taken aback and asked, "What, you're out of money?"
Feng Jiutian said to the guards outside the tent, "Please invite Jiang Tang, the financial officer, here."
A moment later, Jiang Tang, carrying an abacus and wearing slippers, came over. He was also taken aback when he saw Li Jun. Not only were the common people unaware of Li Jun's return to the city, but even among these generals and officials, few knew of it.
"You're back just in time, our business is out of money!" Jiang Tang shouted.
Li Jun was quite used to his fussing; he always complained about being broke, but that wasn't necessarily true. "If you're short of money, I can borrow some from you first," Li Jun said half-jokingly.
Jiang Tang gripped the abacus tightly, glaring warily at Li Jun, muttering, "I'd rather die than lend it." Feng Jiutian pointed to the seats and interjected, "Sit down and we'll talk. The commander doesn't know the situation yet."
After sitting down, Jiang Tang cleared his throat and a helpless smile appeared on his face. Although he had exceptional talent in economics, he also felt that the current economic situation was not optimistic.
“Peng Yuancheng has besieged Kuanglan City for nearly a month. During this month, our income from trading has been zero, but our expenses have reached a staggering 2.6 million gold coins. In short, the treasury is empty. You need to find a way to get money.”
Hearing him announce this enormous figure, Li Jun was taken aback. Since handing over the finances to Jiang Tang, he had rarely inquired about the matter, but he hadn't expected his monthly expenses to be so high.
"Why spend so much money?" Like Chen State, Yu State also suffered from famine. Li Jun exempted farmers from taxes, and the daily expenses and military expenditures were supported by commercial taxes from cities such as Kuanglan City and the profits of Peace Merchants. Therefore, the siege of Kuanglan City would inevitably lead to zero income, but the huge expenditure was hard for Li Jun to understand.
"Two million six hundred thousand gold coins, military expenditures amounted to one million five hundred thousand, including military pay, supplies, and losses, two hundred thousand for the salaries of Yuzhou officials, relief for the people, resettlement of eight hundred thousand immigrants, and other expenses of one hundred thousand." Jiang Tang briefly discussed the expenditures, then his eyes widened as he glared angrily at Li Jun: "You spent so much money, but made a losing deal. You're such a spendthrift!"
Li Jun and Feng Jiutian could only smile wryly. When it came to money, it was like Jiang Tang's life. At this moment, even Li Jun would be scolded without hesitation. Li Jun also felt quite ashamed. The huge military expenditures were all accumulated by Jiang Tang one by one. Any expenditure in the Peace Army exceeding one hundred gold coins required Jiang Tang's approval before it could be implemented. He was well aware of the importance of thrift.
"How much money do we have left?" Li Jun asked.
Seeing that there was no one else around, Jiang Tang whispered, "There are less than 60,000 gold coins left. In addition, there are 50,000 bolts of plain silk in the treasury. The income from overseas operations is about 500,000 gold coins, but this is to be used as capital for continued operation and cannot be transported back for the time being."
"Sixty thousand..." Li Jun groaned. This was less than what he had earned when he first raised his army. In fact, he was already bankrupt, because even now, outside of wartime, his daily expenses exceeded twenty thousand gold coins. No wonder Feng Jiutian sent him a letter urging him to return secretly. Having just weathered a military crisis, he was now facing an economic one. (Section 2)
Li Jun's financial difficulties forced him to confront the problem he had been trying to avoid. He could have pushed it onto Jiang Tang before, but this time Jiang Tang was also powerless to help, so he had to find a solution himself.
"Could we borrow some money temporarily from the wealthy merchants in the city?"
Li Jun's suggestion brought a bitter smile to Jiang Tang's face: "Why do you think that way? Merchants value profit over the country. We might be able to borrow a small amount from them, but we need a huge sum. How can we borrow that much? Even if we can, it will definitely be at high interest rates. How will we repay it in the future? This is a very difficult business to do."
Li Jun also felt a little uneasy. He shifted his gaze and noticed that Lü Wubing, who was standing behind Lei Hun, had a flushed face. He then asked, "Wubing, do you have any good ideas?"
Lu Wubing's face turned bright red, and after a long while he said, "I think the people and merchants of Kuanglan City are all very wealthy. Why not just tax them or let them take out their own money?"
Everyone burst into laughter, the troubles caused by the difficulties swept away by the laughter. Lü Wubing realized he had misspoke, and a somewhat naive smile appeared on his face. Jiang Tang said, "Increasing taxes is absolutely unacceptable. We promised the merchants a tax of one-fifteenth, and Commander Li even boasted that it would be one-thirtieth. Now, instead of reducing taxes, we are increasing them. The Peace Army will surely lose credibility and will find it difficult to do business with them again in the future."
“Then we’ll just have to let them come up with the money themselves.” Feng Jiutian frowned and pondered for a moment, then asked, “Didn’t you say there were still 50,000 bolts of plain silk in the treasury?”
"Fifty thousand bolts of plain silk could not find a buyer in a hurry. Even if they were sold at the market price, they would only be worth 150,000 gold coins, and they would be used up in the blink of an eye."
“What’s so difficult about that?” Lei Hun, who had been silent all along, sneered, and the temperature inside the tent seemed to drop by half. He said, “The citizens of Kuanglan City are wealthy and vain. As long as they feel that plain silk is a symbol of status and wealth, the price of plain silk will inevitably rise and the supply will fall short of demand.”
"Exactly!" His words seemed to awaken someone from a dream. Feng Jiutian clapped his hands and laughed, "This reminds me of a story. Twenty years ago, a similar thing happened in Liuzhou, the capital of the Su Kingdom. A grand ceremony to worship Heaven was held in the country. Because the king loved purple, all the court officials and princes wore crimson robes to welcome the king. For a time, the million people in Liuzhou were all dressed in purple, and the price of purple cloth skyrocketed dozens of times."
Lei Hun's eyes flashed, but he remained silent. Li Jun asked curiously, "Isn't everyone wearing purple?"