Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 169 Liu Ye's Next Target

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After arranging for Zhang Ming to assist Duan Mengrou in taking over the money shop's affairs, Liu Ye boarded the ship back to Lingao. The money shop's consolidation and layoffs would take some time, and he couldn't stay here; there were more important things waiting for him in Lingao.

Upon returning to Lingao, Liu Ye immediately convened a meeting to discuss matters. He reported on the results of the trip to Guangzhou and announced the decision to open a factory there.

Li Fu asked, "Sir, are all the factories being moved there?"

Liu Ye shook his head: "No, the steel mill, arsenal, and shipyard will all remain in Lingao. These are our core secrets, and we can't let anyone discover them. We'll start a new operation in Guangzhou and recruit people locally. As for the distillery, we can consider setting up factories in both locations. The factory in Lingao can upgrade its processes to refine the liquor more thoroughly, specializing in high-end liquor, while the factory in Guangzhou can produce ordinary spirits."

Li Fu understood: "That means all the military factories will remain untouched, and only a new winery will be opened in Guangdong."

"Exactly."

Liang Xiaoming was very pleased. He suggested, "Yezi, you brought back so many shipwrights and timber this time. Our shipyard will definitely need to expand. Building two more docks is imperative. You need to allocate enough construction workers to me."

“No problem. I’ll conscript laborers in the name of the county government, specifying that food and lodging will be provided, and wages will be paid. I’ll pay for it myself.” Anyway, this wasn’t the first time he’d done this. Practice makes perfect. Besides, the Lingao County government had completely become an appendage of the Qiongzhou camp. He could write the proclamation however he wanted. Once it was written, he could just have the county magistrate stamp it with the county government’s official seal.

Mentioning the county government office, Liu Ye thought of the county magistrate and instructed Li Fu, "The county magistrate has already given in. In order to curry favor with the Qiongzhou Camp, he even betrayed the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Our Qiongzhou Camp should at least show some appreciation. Now that the county government office has lost all its sources of income, how can a dignified county magistrate live on just the meager salary from the imperial court? Send him some silver every month in the name of the Qiongzhou Merchant Guild."

Li Fu asked, "How much will be given? Under what accounting terms will it be recorded?"

"Let's call it a subsidy for officials stationed in the capital, and use that as the accounting title. Our territory will inevitably expand in the future, and there will be more and more officials like county magistrates. Even if we take their power, we still need to subsidize their daily living expenses to prevent them from doing anything rash. As for the amount... can anyone tell me how much a seventh-rank county magistrate's salary is?"

Yan Guang replied, "The monthly salary of a seventh-rank official is seven shi and five dou. If converted into silver, it is worth about twenty taels of silver, but when it is actually sold to a rice shop, the actual amount received is less than ten taels of silver."

The county magistrate's monthly salary was only ten taels of silver, which shows how low the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were. With such a small amount of silver, he had to cover his living expenses, support his wife and daughters, and pay the tuition of his secretary. No matter how you looked at it, it was not enough. It would be strange if he didn't become corrupt. Liu Ye thought for a moment and said, "Let's make it a monthly subsidy of twenty taels."

After dealing with matters at the county government office, Yan Guang asked, "General, have you made up your mind to attack Liu Xiang?"

"That's right. If our Qiongzhou camp wants to interfere in trade between Southeast Asia and Japan, even Zheng Zhilong has to deal with it, let alone Liu Xiang."