Chapter 18 The family is rich

Chapter 18 The family is rich

In the empty warehouse, Gao Bailing spread his hands and looked helpless: "The situation at home is like this, and we really can't support too many people. Although the Western Dynasties could not help large households to support soldiers, the industry was depressed, and people were not as good as things... "

Li Tai looked at the mostly bottomed clay pots and wooden baskets, and was a little dumbfounded for a moment. He originally thought that the Western Wei Dynasty had strict population and household registration controls, so Gao Bailing suggested that he return the soldiers, but he did not expect that this was the reason.

"But last night's meal..."

"It was because last night's meal was too rich that I ate up all the rice and pasta that can normally last ten days. Even tonight's meal is barely enough..."

After hearing this, Gao Bailing smiled bitterly: "My lord was in Dongzhou, and he didn't have many plans. In the battle of Mangshan, he was brutally defeated. When he was detained by Zhao Gui's army, he already had death intentions in mind. When he knew about it, Thirteenth Prince I don't feel inspired to ask for help. I'm afraid that Thirteenth Lang will be too weak to survive. Although my family is troubled, I don't dare to complain to Thirteenth Lang, so I can only complain to Thirteenth Lang."

When Li Tai heard this, he was silent for a long time and then said: "I don't care about the difficulty of making a living, and it is really hurtful for me to be arrogant and pampered. Although my uncle is very loving, I should also be self-reliant. I introduce all the scholars and I should be free. To support me, Mr. Liu doesn’t have to worry about this, I..."

"Thirteenth Lang misunderstood, I am definitely not complaining and chasing you!"

When Gao Bailing heard what Li Tai said, he knelt on the ground with a plop, and choked with tears in his eyes: "So when Da Sima was here, he often led his troops to raid the west, and the Westerners also had many resentments. When the Lord loses power and goes west, he will inevitably be attacked by malicious people. Peeping. The persecution of Zhao Gui was just one incident. Since he lived in the city, there has always been blood on the walls. Thirteenth Lang has been in contact with the powerful people in the Western Dynasty for a short time, and his family has to rely on this power for protection. , can we live in this hometown peacefully..."

The old Sima Gao Bailing mentioned was Gao Aocao who died in the battle of Heyang a few years ago.

Since the separation of the Eastern and Western Dynasties in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Gao Aocao has always served as the general of the Eastern Wei Dynasty. He has never been absent from the previous wars, which naturally caused hatred and resentment among the personnel in the Western Dynasty. As his elder brother, Gao Zhongmi lost power and came to be attached to him, so it was inevitable that he would be suppressed and retaliated against.

Li Tai was originally embarrassed to drag down Gao Zhongmi's life anymore and planned to take his soldiers to make a living elsewhere. But when he heard what Gao Bailing said, he was embarrassed to continue talking.

"My uncle and I have both lost our relatives and lost our hometown. We depend on each other for our lives, as we should. We have hands and feet and don't lose our livelihood. It's just that we don't understand the world at the moment, and the trouble is only for a short time. Let's prepare tonight's meal first, there is no need Hou Zhi, I will discuss with my uncle after dinner how we can overcome the difficulties together."

Li Tai thought for a while and then said, whether he depends on Gao Zhongmi or sets up his own business, the food and drink survival of so many of his subordinates is also a problem that he must solve.

At dinner, the food provided in the residence was much shabbier than last night. Li Tai still had a bowl of japonica rice and two spoons of water sauce to go with it, but the servants only had some bran cakes and bran rice to satisfy their hunger.

In fact, this was the normal state of life in the Western Dynasty. Guanzhong had been in chaos for many years, and not long after entering the rule, it suffered a new defeat at Mangshan, and supplies were even more stretched.

Even powerful families are very demanding on the supply of soldiers. Private soldiers and the main labor force may be able to get two meals a day, but it is common for women, children, the elderly and the weak to have one meal a day or even less.

That is to say, these people met Gao Zhongmi, who was not aware of the financial difficulties. In addition, they were in a good mood last night, so they were able to spend a lot of money. All the men, women, old and young in the residence had enough white noodles and steamed pancakes. As a result, this meal ate up most of the family's reserves.

Gao Zhongmi still had a poor appetite. He complained about the lack of wine and drank from a bowl of buttermilk. When he heard Li Tai talk about how to maintain the household affairs, he waved his hands and said: "There are elders in every household. The plan does not require Ah Pan to worry about it. Although he was in a hurry when he rushed west, he still had some heavy goods in reserve, which was enough to survive for the rest of the year. "

Hearing Gao Zhongmi say this, Li Tai also breathed a sigh of relief. After realizing the livelihood problem, he also did some calculations before dinner.

At present, the family has a large population. Gao Zhongmi originally had nearly twenty personal soldiers, and Daxingtai also rewarded hundreds of slaves and slaves, plus more than thirty tribesmen brought back by Li Tai and some fifty-fifty gifts from Hui. Celebrities Wu, that’s nearly two hundred mouths.

In the afternoon, I congratulated Basheng and said that I would send him some soldiers and promised that the number would not be less than a certain amount of benefits. In large numbers, that would be the food expenses needed to support 300 people.

In terms of staple food alone, an adult needs to eat at least five taels a day. In the Northern Dynasties, one stone weighed 120 kilograms, but one kilogram was only equivalent to about 220 grams in later generations. Based on this approximation, one person's daily ration would be at least one kilogram today, and one stone of grain could sustain one person for one season. of rations.

But this was an extremely harsh situation. Li Tai was not in the mood to eat just now. The bowl of rice weighed at least 220 grams, and it was just dinner.

Therefore, one stone of grain is really not eaten, especially when engaging in some physically demanding work. Each person needs at least two to three kilograms of staple food per day, so one stone of grain can only last for two months at most.

Just now Li Tai took a quick look and found that the proportion of the population in the residence was relatively healthy, with nearly a hundred strong soldiers and the same number of women, children, old and weak. If He Basheng gives 100 to Bu Qu tomorrow, and the proportion is the same, the strong men will have enough food, and the women and children will have less food, and nearly 300 shi of food will be consumed in two months.

In addition to human consumption, there are more than 20 horses in the stables. The raising of horses is not like people who can take advantage of the time. If the feed is insufficient, good horses will be turned into bad horses, so it is also a huge expense.

It’s not that I don’t know, it’s just that I was shocked. If we want to maintain the current scale of the tribe alone, we will need to consume at least several thousand stones of food and grass every year.

Li Tai also plans to raise a private army. The food and grass that needs to be prepared will cost at least tens of thousands of stones every year!

"Now that we are based in Kansai, we need to make long-term plans. We may be able to maintain it for a short period of time, but if we plan for a longer period, we still need to make more detailed plans!"

Although Gao Zhongmi was certain, Li Tai also wanted to find out how much money they had now.

After hearing this, Gao Zhongmi smiled and said: "I am just living in my old age and don't look forward to the long term, but you, Ah Pan, are not like that. It's rare that you have such a desire to do something, so our uncle and nephew will make some plans."

After saying this, he beckoned Gao Bailing in and ordered: "All the accounting records of the household should be paid to Apan. Don't bother me again when making expenditure plans in the future."

Gao Bailing nodded in agreement, turned around and handed an account book to Li Tai.

Li Tai only glanced at it and felt his head was spinning. The account book was listed in traditional Chinese characters vertically, and it also contained a running account of income and expenditure. The various types of materials were recorded in a messy manner, which really went against his reading and calculation habits.

In order to make his calculations clearer, he would get pen and paper, draw out the form, list the income and expenditure, record the various materials separately, and then fill in the numbers in the form.

"Apan is so good at calculating. Earlier, Aye often blamed you for your incompetence!"

Gao Zhongmi was amazed when he saw Li Tai immersed himself in sorting out the accounting books very quickly. He walked around the case and looked down, then pointed at the calculations written by Li Tai using Arabic numerals on the paper and asked curiously: "What kind of talisman is this?" Draw?"

“I’ve been tired of writing since I was a child, and I hate complicated writing most of all, so I often use simple writing instead.”

Li Tai replied casually. He rarely had memories of burying his head in scriptures. There were quite a lot of scenes of being chased and beaten by his father to persuade him to learn. Now that his father was not in Guanzhong, he didn't have to worry about exposing his secrets when talking nonsense.

The addition and subtraction of these basic numbers were not complicated at all. He neither knew how to use nor had any need to use the calculation tools sent by Gao Bailing, so he quickly sorted out and calculated the account books clearly.

"According to this, there is still more than 478,600 money in the treasury, thirteen pounds and seven taels of gold, eight buckets and six liters of rice, noodles..."

Li Tai held the form and said, and Gao Bailing's eyes widened in shock when he saw this scene: "Thirteenth Master is not only good at calculation, he is simply a magic calculation! I also kept the accounting books in Dongzhou Household in the past, and I pride myself on being good at calculation. But it has taken several hours since last night to calculate the number, but it only took Thirteenth Lang more than a quarter of an hour!"

In fact, it didn't take even a quarter of an hour. Li Tai still spent most of his time making tables and writing, and he didn't spend much time on primary school level calculations. The accounting method is just wrong, but the number of discrepancies involved is not large.

The biggest income of the family is still the reward from Yu Wentai, which is 500,000 yuan, that is, 500 guan, 100 bolts of silk, 200 dendrobium, or 200 shi of miscellaneous grains, and many other miscellaneous materials. There are many changes. Not big.

As for the gold, Gao Zhongmi brought fifty kilograms with him when he traveled west from Hulao, but he lost it and spent some money, and now only this is left.

From such a rough look, the family's wealth is quite substantial, with more than 400,000 yuan in money, more than ten kilograms of gold, and a hundred pieces of silk still untouched.

But whether the amount of money is more or less, it still has to match the price. In famine years, it cost thousands or even ten thousand yuan to fight rice, and the rich starved to death while holding gold and jade in their arms. This is often recorded in history books.

"Tomorrow I will go shopping with Mr. Liu."

The family still had plenty of money, but the reserves of materials, especially food, were seriously insufficient and needed to be replenished urgently. Li Tai also wanted to know the specific prices in Kansai during this period, so he added.

Probably influenced by Li Tai, Gao Zhongmi also said: "The reward in front of Daxingtai is a farm in Xia County. But these days I am just waiting for Apan to arrive, and I have no time to send people to collect it. The family population It’s getting more and more. We really can’t just eat and do nothing. We need to send someone to collect the garden property tomorrow.”

Li Tai was even more happy when he heard this. Since he was determined to farm in the countryside, the prerequisite was that there was land to farm. When I was settling accounts before, I was still thinking about how to get the land, but I didn't expect that Yuwen Black Otter had already generously given it to me.

"In this world, little things add up and sand becomes a tower, but if you can work hard, you will be rewarded for your hard work! It is indeed painful to lose power suddenly, but since we still have bad karma to rely on, my uncle and I will definitely be able to make a comeback!"

Knowing that he still had a considerable career foundation, Li Tai was full of confidence.