The maid Doudou's voice was mysterious:

"Five thousand cowhides, each of which is two cents of money. This is the price paid by the private households to the government. It has been like this since the 20th year of Kaiyuan."

"Since we purchased defective products, the price of each cowhide was reduced by half. Hehe, it only cost 5,000 guan."

"But in private, we also paid a fee, which was the hard work given to the treasury officials. The sixteen treasury officials gave a total of 500 stagnants. Hehe, a small amount of money."

If you can make the little money fan speak the word "small money", there will inevitably be an inside story that will make the little money fan profit.

Especially this girl, Doudou, is not the one who can hide things on her face. Her little face is full of excitement, and you can tell at a glance that she has made a big profit.

Guo Ziyi couldn't help but be curious and asked, "Doudou girl, tell me the truth, is this transaction very profitable? How much cheaper have we made?"

"whee!"

Doudou's smiled eyes narrowed into a slit.

Unfortunately, although this girl smiled happily, she never expressed how much she made.

Obviously, she wants to leave the opportunity to seek credit to Linglong.

Linglong was slightly proud and said, "For all dynasties, cowhide has been forbidden items, and the people are not allowed to sell it privately. Cowhide must be handed over to the government."

"If someone violates the ban, the punishment will be extremely strict."

"For example, the law was established during the Western Han Dynasty. After the death of the ox, the people must report it immediately. Then the government will send a business officer to the door to collect forbidden items such as cowhide and cow tendons. Only after the prohibited items are collected will the farmers allow the meat to be cut and eat."

"The laws of our Tang Dynasty are not as harsh as those of the Western Han Dynasty, but the control over cowhides is equally strict. If the people sell cowhides for one inch, they can be sentenced to three years in prison. If they sell cowhides for more than three feet, they can be directly sentenced to beheading."

"So cowhide is not available in the Tang Dynasty. Because all cowhides are taken over to the government and then piled up in the warehouse after being made of nitrogen."

"After the local governments accumulate a certain amount of cowhide, they will pay it to the Ministry of War according to regulations, and the Ministry of War will issue storage documents and go to the Ministry of Revenue to collect the money..."

"This set of regulations is very strict. It has been implemented since the beginning of the country. Farmers pay cowhide, the government collects cowhide, the Ministry of War collects it, and the Ministry of Revenue pays it. In the end, the government will benefit from the government and farmers in various places."

"But this benefit is very little."

"For example, if the cow in a farmer's family dies, they will be reported to the yamen according to regulations. The yamen will send someone to confiscate the cowhide, and only two stagnant of a piece of skin is given to each piece of skin."

"Then the yamen hired a cowhide to make the cowhide into the warehouse. This process would cost about 100 cents, mainly expenses for the wages and saltpeter cost."

"At this time, the cost of cowhide is two straits and one hundred straits."

"Next, the Ministry of War will pay the cowhides from all over the country, issue documents, and the Ministry of Revenue will give you money... How much? A cowhide will only be given two or one hundred and ten cents."

When Guo Ziyi heard this, she couldn't help frowning and pondered: "The cost of cowhide is two silos and 100 silos, and the Ministry of Revenue only pays two silos and 110 silos. This means that the final profit of a cowhide is only 10 cents? Do the government departments in various places work hard to implement the regulations, but they can only get the benefit of 10 cents?"

Linglong laughed softly, her tone became sneaky, and said, "So, the people in the government are unwilling to do this, but there is no way. The confiscation of cowhide is a dead rule and is included in the assessment of local officials. Local governments have to do it if they don't want to do it."

Guo Ziyi slowly breathed and said, "Treatment is not proportional to gain, and it will inevitably breed a complaint. If you encounter some temptation, this complaint will turn into personal gain, right?"

Lingqing's eyebrows and eyes were as bright as she said, "If they don't seek personal gain, how can we make a cheaper one? The armor made of cowhide is as high as 15 jin, and the tung oil and iron powder consumed during the production process is at most 2 jin. In addition to the craftsman's expenses, there are at least 12 jin left. So can it be understood that the real value of cowhide is 12 jin?"

"It is obviously worth 12 guan, but the official price is 2 guan. However, we don't have to give the price of 2 guan, because the cowhide we purchased is all defective...hehe."

Linglong deliberately aggravated the tone of the word "defective product".

Guo Ziyi suddenly realized and said, "I understand that these cowhides are not defective at all, but they are just declared to be defective, with the intention of reducing its value."

Linglong said twice, "There is another reason, only defective products are allowed to be sold to the people. According to the Tang Dynasty's laws, high-quality cowhide is for military purposes, but leather goods are also needed by the people, so defective products are sold to the people."

Guo Ziyi thoughtfully said, "No one dared to exploit this loophole in the prosperous times, but now it has become a way for officials to make money, right?"

Linglong smiled and nodded, saying, "If they gathered cowhides according to regulations, each cowhide can only make a profit of ten cents. But they sold us cowhides, and one cowhide could be sold for the same amount."

"This money is absolutely pure profit, and officials at all levels in the yamen can share the profit. However, it is not only this money that they participate in the money, because the Ministry of Revenue of the Court will also make up for them again."

This statement made Guo Ziyi a little confused and couldn't help but say, "Why does the Ministry of Revenue need to make up for Yi Guan again?"

Yang Yuhuan, who had been closing his eyes and resting, opened his eyes slightly and said, "Because the price of cowhide is two stakes, the local governments paid farmers two stakes in advance, but after collecting the cowhide, it was found that it was a defective product. The value directly plummeted, and selling it can only recover the usual capital."

Yang Yuhuan said with a faint smile and said sarcastically: "Please pay two coins and only recover the capital is Yizheng. So what should I do if I lose Yizheng? I will definitely need to compensate the Ministry of Revenue for the court."

Linglong's tone was also ridiculed and continued, "Otherwise, the yamen will be deficit, who is willing to implement the regulations? Right!"

Guo Ziyi sighed slowly and murmured: "Cowhide is taken back to the country and used for making armor, for military use, and for sale in the private sector. If the local governments pay the debt in advance, the court's Ministry of Revenue will provide corresponding compensation... This law is very reasonable in the prosperous times, but it becomes a loophole in the chaos. Officials want to seek personal gain, who is willing to hand over the cowhide to the Ministry of War."

Linglong smiled and said, "Okay, don't worry about the country and the people. If there is no such loophole, how can we buy cowhide? If we can't buy cowhide, how can we make military armor?"

As he said that, he looked at Guo Ziyi and said proudly: "A pair of armor costs 15 slabs. We only need one or two slabs to make it by buying cowhide. This kind of advantage is a fool if we don't take it."

Guo Ziyi took a deep breath and said softly: "Yes, it's a fool who doesn't take it. But I suddenly realized that it's probably not only us who take advantage of this. For example, the nine major military governors in the border town, would they be fools? If they weren't fools, were they also secretly buying cowhide?"

Linglong was obviously stunned and said subconsciously: "They must have bought more than us."

Guo Ziyi suddenly looked at Dou Dou and said in a serious tone: "Girl, keep reading, I want to hear how much money we have spent in total."

Doudou nodded quickly, picked up the note and started chanting:

"Five thousand cowhides were claimed to be defective when purchasing, so the discount was half, and the cost was only 5,000 guan..."

"The total price of beef tendon and animal tendon is 10,000, and the official price is 200 yuan per person. However, when we purchased it, we also claimed that the defective products, so the price is also discounted by half."

"The cost of this procurement is 2,000 guan, and the additional benefit fee of 500 guan to the yamen is 2,500 guan, totaling 2,500 guan..."

"Pig iron procurement costs the most, with a expenditure of up to 50,000 jin, which is the largest expense of all goods."

When Dou Dou read this, he looked at Guo Ziyi and asked in a low voice: "Son-in-law, do you need to listen specifically to the huge cost of purchasing pig iron?"

Guo Ziyi nodded solemnly and said, "I was about to ask this item, why did it cost so much? As far as I know, although pig iron is a strictly controlled thing, the price of pig iron should not be as good as cowhide, right?"

Doudou said "yes" and looked at Linglong.

Linglong sighed and said helplessly: "This is nothing to do. This is the procurement regulations for pig iron. If it is a small amount of purchase, it can be based on the market price, but if it is a large amount of purchase, the price of pig iron will double..."

"For example, there is a iron shop that purchased pig iron for one time. Since 100 kilograms is the upper limit of civil use stipulated by the law, it is not considered a violation as long as it does not exceed this limit. Then when this iron shop purchases pig iron, it only takes ten cents of money to pay for 100 kilograms of pig iron."

"But if this shop purchases 200 kilograms, the purchase price will immediately double, because 200 kilograms of pig iron is illegal, and the price per 100 kilograms will become twenty coins."

"And in addition to this, you have to pay an extra tax to the yamen. How heavy is this tax? It is so heavy that people dare not buy it illegally... The excess tax per 100 kilograms of pig iron is exactly the same as the purchase price."

"For example, it's still the iron shop that buys 200 kilograms of pig iron at a time, and the cost is forty guan, and the heavy tax paid is also forty guan."

"The total expenses of his family are as high as 80 trump cards."

Guo Ziyi was stunned when she heard this and said subconsciously: "Doesn't this mean that the cost of a hundred kilograms of iron has become forty stagnant?"

Linglong nodded, with a wry smile on her face, and said, "This is only one hundred kilograms."

"The next law stipulates that it is to purchase more than the limit of 500 kilograms of iron, 1,000 kilograms of iron, 5,000 kilograms, and 10,000 kilograms..."

"When the limit exceeds 500 kilograms, the price of iron doubled again. Originally, ten jin of jin of iron was turned into forty jin of jin of iron. Then the heavy tax was also forty jin of jin of iron, so the expenditure of 100 jin of pig iron was eighty jin of jin of iron."

Guo Ziyi's scalp was numb and murmured: "It only exceeded 500 kilograms, and the price has become 80 kilograms per 100 kilograms. This means that 500 kilograms of iron will cost 400 kilograms of iron. However, I heard Li Guangbi tell me that 500 kilograms of iron can only make ten pairs of heavy armor."

It's 400 guan, but you can only create ten pairs of heavy armor.

Linglong's pretty face became even bitter and she whispered: "Do you still want to continue to listen to the following regulations?"

Guo Ziyi's eyes were ruthless and gritted her teeth and said, "Listen, I want to hear how cruel this regulation is."

Linglong let out a sigh of relief and said, "The price exceeds the limit of 1,000 kilograms of iron, and the selling price doubles again. With the heavy tax paid, it is equivalent to 160 jin of pig iron per 100 jin... Then the total price of 1,000 jin of pig iron will be 1,600 jin."

Guo Ziyi looked up at the top of the carriage and murmured: "When purchasing 500 kilograms of iron, the total price was 400 jin. When purchasing 1,000 jin of iron, it directly turned into 1,600 jin. The amount of heavy armor that can be made of 1,000 jin of pig iron is only ten more than 500 jin of iron."

That means that the cost of twenty pairs of heavy armor increased sharply to 1,600 guan.

And what if you want to create two hundred pairs of heavy armor?

I'm afraid the cost of pig iron will not be 16,000 guan.

Guo Ziyi couldn't help but give her thumbs up and said with admiration: "The person who made this law was definitely an amazing ruthless person."

Linglong nodded and said, "This is using price to control the circulation of pig iron, and limit pig iron from the most fundamental point to be purchased. After all, iron is a dangerous thing, and it can be made of armor or swords."

Guo Ziyi said slowly: "But it cannot be controlled too strictly. Because the people need iron tools, this law was formulated to kill the possibility of large-scale procurement through the means of skyrocketing prices..."

He said, looking at Linglong and asked in a deep voice: "There are regulations that exceed 5,000 kilograms and 10,000 kilograms next. I believe the price will continue to double, right?"

But Linglong shook her head and sighed, "You see the person who made the law too simple. How could his methods be just a little bit?"

Guo Ziyi was slightly stunned and said in surprise: "Is there a more ruthless backhand behind him?"

Linglong nodded bitterly and said softly: "If you purchase 5,000 kilograms of pig iron, the whole family will be restricted from traveling for three years, and the iron price has increased by five times more than 500 kilograms of pig iron. The cost of 100 kilograms of pig iron is 800 jin."

hiss!

Guo Ziyi took a breath of air conditioning.

Linglong looked at him and said slowly: "Five thousand kilograms of pig iron can create 100 pairs of heavy armor, but the total price of five thousand kilograms of pig iron is as high as 400 jin, which is equivalent to the cost of each pair of heavy armor is 400 jin... The key purchaser restricts his family from traveling for three years, and he has no chance to make these pig iron into heavy armor."

Only 100 pairs of heavy armored units cost up to 40,000 guan.

Even though I paid this money, I didn’t have the opportunity to build it. The reason is very simple. The so-called restriction of travel for the whole family is actually the family being monitored...

Purchase 5,000 kilograms of pig iron, right?

Can!

Want to make it into armor?

impossible!

Guo Ziyi took a deep breath, asked the last question, and said, "What is the rule for purchasing 10,000 kilograms of iron?"
To be continued...