Late October.
On the last day of October, the clouds in the sky were getting thicker and thicker, and it was so dark that it seemed like the sky was going to collapse in the next moment.
At the first post station outside Liaoyun Pass, Zhao Duan and his party saw that the weather was not looking right and hurried into the inn station without daring to continue on their way.
After paying some money, they booked a room and asked the postman to drive the carriages and carriages to the backyard to set them up. Zhao Duan and his party sat in the lobby of the post station and looked at the increasingly strange weather outside.
The postman put tea and some cakes on the table for them, and said as he put them down:
"You guys are really lucky to have arrived at our inn before it started to snow. Otherwise, if it were later, it would be difficult to leave when the snow comes!"
Zhao Duan picked up the tea. Cao Shuang on the side saw it and was about to stop him, but he secretly raised his hand to stop him. After taking a sip, he asked:
"Is your inn run by the boss himself?
Your boss is quite business-minded. If you open an inn here, you can make a lot of money from people coming and going. "
The postman immediately laughed when he heard this, put the rag for wiping the table on his shoulder, and then laughed and said:
"A few of them were joking, although our station looks like an inn, we are a well-established public sector.
Although our postmaster has no rank and is not a high official, he is still employed by Yunzhou County. He is a proper member of the public family, not a businessman! "
"Oh? Are you a member of the public?"
His words immediately aroused the interest of Zhao Duan and his party, and they all looked over.
The postman seemed to be very proud, nodded heavily, and said while refilling the cups of tea for the four of them:
"No, all the stations we have along the way were built with funds from Yunzhou County. Although we are responsible for our own profits and losses now, we receive public food.
Even if we don't have a single guest, we all have salary, which is much better than farming. The former scholars in our village may not have lived as well as me. "
Zhao Duan keenly noticed the key information in his words and asked: "Did you just say that along the way?"
The postman nodded and said indifferently: "Yes, starting from our first post station to the vicinity of Yunzhou City, there are a total of sixteen post stations, all of which were built with funds from the Yunzhou County Sheriff's Office. Guests, you only need to walk along the inn to reach Yunzhou City."
"There are sixteen inns along the way. Are each of your inns as big as yours?"
Zhao Duan asked.
The postman nodded: "They are all the same size."
"hiss!"
Zhao Duan couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. He didn't blame him for this.
He had already taken a rough look when he came in. This inn covers an area of nearly five acres. Not to mention Ma Peng and other places, if the accommodation in the inn is full at one time, the three-story wooden building can accommodate two to three hundred people. .
Not to mention the lobby, which is nearly an acre in size.
If such a large post station were to be located in Bianjing, it would cost ten thousand taels of silver.
But the Yunzhou County Sheriff's Office actually built sixteen buildings directly on this road!
This is the cost of 160,000 taels of silver.
This is only the initial investment. After the station is put into operation, the materials and personnel's salaries that will be consumed every day are estimated to be around a hundred taels of silver a day.
Judging from what Zhao Duan has seen so far, there is not a lot of traffic in this inn right now. Most of them are just caravans coming and going, and half of them are probably not satisfied.
With such an occupancy rate, this station is completely operating at a loss at the end of the day.
In other words, these sixteen stations not only fail to recoup their capital, but also lose money year after year.
This is not much easier than raising an army of about a thousand people. The Yunzhou County Sheriff's Office actually does such useless work. It has a lot of money!
That’s right, it’s just wasted effort.
In Zhao Duan's opinion, there is no need to build so many inns like this. Two or three along the way are enough. Building so many is a complete waste of money.
Little did he know that in terms of the money spent on building and maintaining these stations, having such a station that could quickly circulate materials and information would be more beneficial than harmful to Yunzhou County.
That small amount of money consumption may be a lot for Zhao Duan, but it is only a drop in the bucket for Yunzhou County.
"Is your Yunzhou County so rich? Your station is operating at a loss, losing at least nearly a thousand taels of silver every day!
In response, the postman was very proud and said: "Hey, what is this little money?"
Just when Zhao Duan wanted to say that you, the postman, might not understand what one thousand taels means, the guests at the table next to him smiled and said, "Brother, is this your first time coming to Yunzhou County?"
Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, but he quickly reacted, cupped his hands and replied, "It's indeed my first time here."
"That's no wonder."
The man said: "You don't have to worry about whether you have money for the Yunzhou County Yamen. I came to Yunzhou County after the autumn harvest this year. Yunzhou County has been closed to the public before. Even if you get out of the customs, you can't come." When you get to Yunzhou City, no one will come here.
After the autumn harvest this year, I don’t know why the ban was suddenly lifted. I thought I would come here to collect some cattle and sheep skins and sell them back. This was always the case.
Who would have thought that when I arrived at Yunzhou City, oh! I was immediately shocked!
That's not the Yunzhou City in my impression. It's so prosperous that even Bianjing is probably not that prosperous.
To be honest, brother, since I started running a business, I have traveled all over the country and visited countless big cities, but I was naturally shocked when I saw the current Yunzhou City.
Considering how prosperous Yunzhou City is, I can only say that the Yunzhou County Sheriff’s Office is definitely not short of money!
The consumption of a mere few thousand taels of silver is nothing more than soup leaking out of the corner of one's mouth.
With this inn, they can attract more merchants to Yunzhou City, and then they can make a lot more money than this! "
The guest sounded excited, but Zhao Duan and his party were confused.
Is Yunzhou City more prosperous than Bianjing?
How can this be?
This is Yunzhou County. It would be great if Yunzhou City could be like a normal city. It is impossible to be as prosperous as Bianjing no matter how you think about it.
But looking at the businessman's solemn words, Zhao Duan also became a little doubtful.
But when Zhao Duan went to ask about the prosperous method, the businessman had a mysterious smile on his face, shook his head and said, "Don't say it! You guys, you'd better see it with your own eyes. You may not believe what I say. That place is very different from what you imagine now. I had the same idea as you at the beginning.
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it, where would Yunzhou City be? "
After saying that, the businessman stopped talking and turned his head to continue eating, making it difficult for Zhao Duan and the others to ask questions.
At this moment, snowflakes finally began to fall outside the inn. Everyone who was sitting in the lobby all stood up and came to the door, looking at the snowflakes outside with great emotion.
Zhao Duan stretched out his hand, caught the falling snow and said with a smile: "This is the first snow this year. The auspicious snow heralds a good harvest. I hope the climate will be better next year and the people will be better off!"
The others also stretched out their hands, feeling the cold feeling of the first snow falling on their hands this year, chattering non-stop.
As soon as it snows, the temperature begins to plummet.
At this time, in the lobby of the inn, a stove was lit at some point. As soon as the stove started burning, everyone in the hall immediately felt warm.
…
(End of chapter)
