Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 1118 Putting aside the facts, are you, Zhu Chongba, without any fault?

Yang Shaofeng, holding a teacup, said with a smile, "In addition to establishing more bookstores, we can also require that all published books have an ISBN."

"If any book has a problem, we will start by tracing the responsibility from the book number."

"As for those bookstores that don't have book numbers, or even register with the government..."

Zhu Biao said without hesitation, "Arrest them! Arrest one if you catch one, arrest two if you catch two, kill those who should be killed, exile those who should be exiled, punish those who should be punished, punish them until they are bankrupt!"

At this point, Zhu Biao secretly calculated for a moment and tentatively asked, "But my brother-in-law just said he wants more than a thousand libraries. With all these books, how much will it cost in total?"

Yang Shaofeng took a sip of the small dragon ball and said, "Building a library won't cost much; a hundred or so strings of cash will be enough."

"The Ming Dynasty now has more than a thousand prefectures and counties. Considering that the size of the counties varies, the number of county schools will also vary. In addition, there are the provincial-level and prefectural-level academies. Two thousand academies should be a very reasonable number."

Zhu Biao's eyes started to dart around—you just said there were more than a thousand libraries, and now it's two thousand!

Yang Shaofeng continued, "If we calculate based on 100 strings of cash per library, then the cost of building 2,000 libraries would be 200,000 strings of cash."

“The scale of the community library can be smaller, and the cost will be only thirty strings of cash.”

"If we calculate based on ten community schools per prefecture or county, then roughly 20,000 multiplied by 30, which is about 600,000 strings of cash, would be enough."

"In other words, the total budget for building the library should not exceed one million strings of cash."

"As for books..."

Yang Shaofeng took another sip of tea and said, "The market price of a book is about thirty to fifty coins. It is printed by the imperial court's printing bureau and then transported and distributed to various bookstores through the post stations. The cost of a book should be controlled at about ten coins."

"Based on the calculation that each library at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels has 10,000 books, each library's collection would be approximately 100 strings of cash. Therefore, the collection of 2,000 libraries would be approximately 200,000 strings of cash."

"If we calculate based on the fact that each community library has a collection of 5,000 books, then each library would have a collection of about 50 strings of cash, and the collection of 20,000 libraries would have a collection of about 250,000 strings of cash."

"In other words, the expenditure on books was approximately 500,000 guan."

"The cost of building the library was around one million strings of cash, and the cost of the book collection was also around one million strings of cash, so the total cost was only two million strings of cash."

Zhu Biao stared blankly at Yang Shaofeng.

Only two million guan?

I just want to ask, how are the four words "only" connected with "two million strings of cash"?

The laborers in Dengzhou Prefecture, whether they are short, stout, or monkey-like, work themselves to the bone for five or even six hours a day, and they can only earn a total of twelve coins.

I don't even need to count on my fingers to figure it out. Two million strings of cash is enough for a laborer to work himself to the bone for hundreds of thousands of years.

Even if we calculate based on the daily wage of 60 coins for ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty, it would still take about 100,000 years of hard work.

Seeing Zhu Biao's dumbfounded look, Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes and sneered, "Is two million strings of cash a lot?"

Just as Zhu Biao was about to nod, Yang Shaofeng scoffed and said, "The plow case, the blank seal case, the ironware case, the child case, the laborer case, the tax collector case—which of these cases, big or small, doesn't involve millions of strings of cash?"

"Even excluding these cases, just looking at the Dengzhou border market, two million strings of cash is only a turnover of ten or twenty days, and at most a profit of three to five months."

“Like the Ministry of Transport planning straight roads, the Ministry of War planning post stations, and the Ministry of Railways planning railways and steam engines, which of them didn’t have budgets of several million or even tens of millions of strings of cash?”

"..."

After Yang Shaofeng said that, Zhu Biao immediately realized what was going on.

Damn it, they were so focused on the manpower in Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture that they forgot about the lucrative border market in Dengzhou Prefecture.

Zhu Biao chuckled twice and said with a grin, "I'm just afraid of being poor, aren't I?"

“Brother-in-law, you really don’t know. In the first year of Hongwu’s reign, the national treasury was practically empty. The seeds, farm tools, and oxen allocated to your Ningyang County were all things that I had to squeeze out of the Ministry of Revenue.”

"Although life has been a bit better these past few years, I haven't quite adjusted yet and am still thinking about how to save money."

"It was my fault. I'll offer you a cup of tea instead of wine to toast you, brother-in-law."

Zhu Biao picked up his teacup and drank the small dragon-shaped tea soup in one gulp, while Yang Shaofeng became wary.

What are these black sesame dumplings up to now?

Is he trying to take this opportunity to harm my Little Dragon Gang, or is he eyeing something in Ningyang County or Dengzhou Prefecture again?

……

While Yang Shaofeng and Zhu Biao were scheming against each other in Quanzhou, Emperor Zhu in the capital was also plotting against Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen.

Emperor Zhu directly instructed Chen Zhong to deliver the memorial titled "Vegetable Basket Project" to Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen.

"Karma has come."

Just as Li Shanchang was reviewing the memorial, Emperor Zhu said expressionlessly, "Brother Shanchang dumped the task of revising the Confucian classics on that bastard, and he just turned around and used this memorial to disgust us."

Li Shanchang stared blankly at Emperor Zhu.

Explain to me what you mean by "I dumped the job on Yang the Madman".

When the task of revising Confucian classics was to be handed over to Yang the Madman, you, Emperor Zhu, were the first to jump out and cause this.

Now look what's happened! The decision we three made together has been turned into my fault all because of that one memorial from Yang the Madman.

Putting aside the facts, does Zhu Chongba have no faults?

Li Shanchang handed the memorial to Liu Bowen, stroked his beard, and said, "Your Majesty, if you can delegate the task of revising Confucian classics to the Imperial Son-in-Law, you can certainly do the same with this vegetable basket project..."

Before Li Shanchang could finish speaking, Emperor Zhu said with a dark and sour face, "Let's not even talk about whether we can pass this matter on to him. Even if we can, Brother Shanchang, aren't you afraid that he'll write you a few more even more troublesome memorials next?"

At this point, Emperor Zhu simply pulled out another memorial from the table and had Chen Zhong give it to Li Shanchang: "Take a look at this one too."

"They said they were requesting that we set poverty standards for each prefecture and county, and then formulate different development paths for each prefecture and county, and that the wealthy prefectures and counties should help the poor ones."

"I'm saying, is it possible that, according to this memorial, all of the more than a thousand prefectures and counties in our Great Ming Dynasty are actually below the poverty line?"

"Even Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture cannot be considered prosperous!"

Emperor Zhu couldn't help but rub his forehead and sigh, "We've lost one of those weirdos, Zhou Jingxin, but we've gained another one, Wu Ju, who lies through his teeth."

This damn emperor's reign is just too much!