In November of the first year of Emperor Zhangwu of the Han Dynasty, Zhuge Liang bid farewell to Zhuge Jin and Lu Fan who were on an envoy to Chengdu, and at the same time sent Deng Zhi as an envoy to Jiangdong to pay tribute.
Zhuge Jin came as an envoy in the name of congratulating Liu Bei on his succession to the throne, so no matter what kind of agreement the two parties reached in private, or whether Liu Bei recognized Sun Quan's throne as emperor, he had to send an envoy to respond.
As for whether the envoy should go to reach an agreement with Sun Quan or scold Sun Quan, it doesn't matter, but the envoy must be sent.
This is the etiquette of this era.
Deng Zhi obviously knew the true purpose of his mission. This time he went to Jiangdong. His purpose was not only to reach an agreement with Sun Quan, but also to deal with Liu Ba without arousing the suspicion of the people in Jiangdong. Economic war lays the groundwork.
In this regard, in fact, the most suitable person is not Deng Zhi, but Fei Yi. When Fei Yi went to Jiangdong as an envoy to promote paper a few years ago, he made friends with many Jiangdong families, especially the Zhang family in Wuzhong. Advocate Wen, the two can be said to be irreconcilable friends.
However, although Fei Yi's mission was highly praised by the Jiangdong family and even Sun Quan, it also caused Sun Quan to be wary of Fei Yi, fearing that Fei Yi would collude with the Jiangdong family, so if Fei Yi was sent as an envoy again this time , it would be bad if it arouses Sun Quan's suspicion.
So Zhuge Liang sent Deng Zhi as an envoy, and also told Deng Zhi that he could visit Fei Yi when passing through Jingzhou and communicate with the Jiangdong family through Fei Yi's introduction.
After all, in this kind of mutual trading, the most active person would not be Sun Quan, but rather these Jiangdong families.
If these Jiangdong aristocratic families promote mutual trade, Sun Quan should not object. As long as the mutual trade is settled, the preliminary preparations for the subsequent economic war can easily begin.
After all, Liu Ba's plan is poisonous. Before it is launched, you will really think that this is a good policy that benefits the country and the people.
For this reason, Zhuge Liang has been holding Deng Zhi in the palace to discuss things during this period, telling Deng Zhi what to pay attention to, for fear of exposing his secret.
And Deng Zhi was not only able to fight in battle, but also had an extremely flexible mind. As soon as Zhuge Liang mentioned the purpose, he probably knew what he should do.
In this way, in November of the first year of Zhangwu, Liu Bei personally bid farewell to the envoy headed by Zhuge Jin, and at the same time sent Deng Zhi as an envoy to Jiangdong to pay tribute.
At this time, Zhang Xi, the Minister of the Ministry of War, was in the Hubu Yamen, frowning and troubling with Liu Ba at a pile of documents.
This is a very strange thing. The dignified Minister of the Ministry of War does not stay in the Yamen of the Ministry of War, but goes to the Yamen of the Ministry of Hubu to review official documents with the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu. It is really incredible.
The blame is on Zhang Xi for being a bitch and saying things he shouldn't have said.
Originally, Zhang Xi came to the Ministry of Household Affairs to collect money every day when he had nothing to do, but he came more often. Liu Ba was very dissatisfied when he saw that Zhang Xi was so free, so he simply asked Zhang Xi to see how much he had to do, and threatened him. Zhang Xi, if these things are not completed, the Ministry of War will not get any money.
Originally, Liu Ba was just saying angry words to express his dissatisfaction.
But Zhang Xi may have really had something to do. He actually picked up the documents on Liu Ba's desk and looked at them for a while, and then said half-mockingly, "It's just such a small thing, but why have you been busy for so long?" !
I was angry with Liu Ba at that time. OK, if you have the ability, come and do it!
Let's face it, the relationship between Liu Ba and Zhang Xi was not very good in the past.
Liu Ba was a noble person. Even Liu Bei looked down on him back then, let alone someone like Zhang Xi who came from a poor family.
As for Zhang Xi, because Liu Ba was disrespectful to the lovely Third Master in history, and when Zhang Xi took refuge with Liu Bei in the early days, he had the best relationship with Zhang Fei, so he also looked down upon Liu Ba, and felt that this People are just putting on airs to gain fame and reputation.
Later, after a period of getting along and getting along, we got to know each other somewhat and recognized each other's abilities.
Liu Ba recognized Zhang Xi's ability in leading troops in combat, and Zhang Xi also saw the results of Liu Ba's presiding over Liu Bei Group's economic work.
But that's all.
Liu Ba still regarded Zhang Xi as a vulgar martial artist, and Zhang Xi still had a bad impression of Liu Ba.
All this was not until Liu Ba put forward his economic strategy a few days ago that the relationship between Zhang Xi and Liu Ba was completely improved.
Liu Ba specializes in economics, and he has very rich practical experience, but most of him only knows what to do, but he doesn't quite understand why he should do it.
Although Zhang Xi is not an economics expert, he has seen how the beautiful country does it in his previous life, and his understanding of this kind of economic warfare is better than that of Fa Zheng and Pang Tong.
Therefore, in the process of formulating the economic war, as soon as Liu Ba's ideas were put forward, the person who resonated most was Zhang Xi, and Zhang Xi could help Liu Ba from time to time to explain why he was doing this, making Liu Ba's ideas more clear. Clarity and a deeper understanding of the control of economic warfare.
To be honest, not even Zhuge Liang can do this.
Zhuge Liang is an all-rounder, but if you ask Zhuge Liang to discuss economics with Liu Ba, then Liu Ba can really beat Zhuge Liang, let alone understand each other's ideas and inspire Liu Ba's ideas.
It was at that time that the relationship between Zhang Xi and Liu Ba slowly heated up, and each other formally recognized each other's abilities.
But this time, Zhang Xi came to press for money when he had nothing to do. Liu Ba felt a little unbalanced at that time.
This guy obviously has that ability, but he just wants to be so idle with nothing to do. He can't let himself work so hard here, but this guy is so leisurely.
So Liu Ba deliberately said that. On the one hand, he was made angry by Zhang Xi, and on the other hand, he also dug a hole for Zhang Xi.
As a result, when Zhang Xi replied, Liu Ba was furious again, but he finally caught the guy and asked him to help deal with the documents from the Ministry of Household Affairs.
As for Zhang Xi, he also knew that he had been fooled, but he had to grit his teeth and do it even after the words were spoken.
But Zhang Xi really doesn't understand why the work of the Household Department is so unorganized and unplanned? !
The household department, according to Zhang Xi's thinking, if Dahan is a company, then the household department is the finance department. How many finance departments have you seen that give money based on the approval slip? !
It’s okay for a small company to do this, since it doesn’t have much income or expenses anyway.
But you are one of the three largest companies in the world today, and you don’t have any plan or foresight in doing things. What do people say, just hand over a note and you can get paid, right? !
What about the plan? !
What about the budget report? !
What about the signatures authorized at each level? !
Finally, and most importantly – where are the financial reports? !
If there is no financial report, how can you ask the audit team from the province to check the accounts? !
The Ministry of Industry has put forward a report on repairing water conservancy facilities next year. It talks in vain about how much it will cost to repair which water conservancy facility, how much each water conservancy facility will cost, how to repair it, how long it will take to repair it, and what the estimated labor costs are. How much is the cost of consumables? There is nothing, just a name is given, and the Ministry of Accounts must allocate money? !
Are you kidding me? !
Zhang Xi couldn't bear to look at this request report, but Liu Ba was still scratching it back and forth. He would do some internal calculations, look for repair information from previous years, get a 30% discount, and then the money would be spent. I plan to approve it.
I showed it to Zhang Xi, and I was frightened. Are you really afraid that the people below will be corrupted? !
But looking back, it was right.
As for the Ministry of Industry, Qingshui Yamen, which seems to be working hard throughout the ages, is actually the most corrupt place. This is really not unreasonable.
That is to say, Liu Ba still knows a little bit about the affairs of the Ministry of Industry. If he were to change it to someone who didn't understand it, he wouldn't be worried about it, and he wouldn't directly approve it with a 30% discount. Then wouldn't he just have to pay as much as he wants? !
Zhang Xi couldn't stand it anymore and quickly stopped Liu Ba.
Just return the request form for repairing water conservancy facilities to him and rewrite it.
It’s time for the Ministry of Household Affairs to reorganize itself. How can they approve everything without even a budget report? This is not just a fool’s errand. Huh? ! What, you, the Minister of Household Affairs, don’t know what a budget report is? !
Have you seen the request form that the Ministry of War gave you? It is a budget report.
Our Ministry of War has calculated how many county soldiers are expected to be recruited next year, how much of it is the corvee for the conquest, how much is the cost of the recruitment system, how much the ordnance inventory is now, how much it is expected to increase next year, and how much new armor weapons are forged every month. , and how many are to be eliminated are listed one by one, and they even thoughtfully leave room for you to move up and down.
Unless there is another bad situation like nationwide mobilization next year, the money will be enough for the Ministry of War for a year.
This thing is called a budget report.
When Liu Ba heard this, he immediately found the settlement document from the Ministry of War and read it carefully.
Indeed, the settlement report of the Ministry of War is written in detail, the figures listed are very real and detailed, and the amount given is also very reasonable. But that’s all. Liu Ba really can’t see any difference between the settlement report of the Ministry of War and those of other ministries. the difference.
Zhang Xi was anxious at that time.
How can there be no difference? In order to prepare this report, do you know how many surveys I did and how much data I asked Jiang Wei and Zhang Yi to compile? !
Zhang Xi told Liu Ba the entire process of writing the report on the spot.
If you want to recruit county soldiers and garrison soldiers, you must first know the number of Dingkou in each state and county. At first, Zhang Yi went to the Ministry of Household Affairs for this matter, and checked the number of Dingkou registered in the prefectures and counties every day.
To build ordnance, you need to know the production capacity of the General Supervisor from the Ministry of Works. Now there is only one General Supervisor in the entire Han Dynasty. The Ministry of War does not have an independent General Supervisor, so you need to figure out the ironware manufacturing arrangements for the General Supervisor. The Ministry of War's When will the equipment be completed and how much can be completed per month? Jiang Wei went to the engineering department and almost pissed off the good-tempered engineering department member Zhuge Jun.
These are just two simple examples. There are other things like going to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to check the quota of officials with military positions, the salary payment standards for low-level military attaches, formulating the number of newly recruited county soldiers and low-level military attachés in the garrison, etc., and many more There is a lot of data to be collected.
After the two collected all the data, Zhang Xi had to take two people to calculate the data again and again, formulate a recruitment plan for next year, think about special situations that may be encountered, and what needs to be done if the recruitment or ordnance update cannot be completed as planned. What supplementary measures are needed, and how much will these measures cost?
Zhang Xi is a little idle, but Zhang Yi and Jiang Wei are not idle at all.
(End of chapter)
