In the afternoon, Li Yuanxing was sitting in his small living room. Yuan Chun was playing the piano there, Lan Qiu was making tea, and Li Yuanxing was leaning on a soft chair, listening to He Shu reading to him various reports on the recent visits to Qin Wangzhuang.
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A very luxurious aristocratic life!
Li Yuanxing just stretched out his hand and gave a signal, and a cup of tea was brought to his mouth. It was lukewarm, not hot, just right.
The tea was sent by tea merchants for Li Yuanxing to comment on. It is fresh green this spring.
Luxurious?
Eunuch Gao came to Qin Wangzhuang, and the first thing he said after entering the small gathering was: "Your Highness is still so frugal!"
Qingjian! Li Yuanxing didn't know how to answer. He could only smile and said: "Here comes the old man, take a seat. Here are the new spring greens sent by the tea merchant, and they haven't participated in the competition yet. It would be rude to give them to the emperor brother, etc.
At the end of the competition, the imperial brother drank the best tea of the first or third grade!"
Eunuch Gao bowed his hands and sat down at the bottom: "I have always heard that His Highness's residence is short of manpower. Do you want me to find some profitable jobs for Your Highness? The Zhejiang-Hangzhou Silk Business Association trained a group of musicians, but Jiangnan Xiaotiao
It’s very interesting, it’s a pity that His Highness refuses!”
Li Yuanxing waved his hand: "If we accept theirs, what about the other business associations?"
"Your Highness, the justice of the Prince of Qin has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people!"
"Stop flattering me. There must be something wrong with you. Judging from your attitude, it will either make things difficult for you or make things difficult for me."
Eunuch Gao smiled awkwardly and told Li Er what he meant.
After hearing this, Li Yuanxing was stunned for a moment, but then he smiled: "Yuan Chun, stop playing the piano and prepare your pen and ink."
At this time, Eunuch Gao noticed that Yuan Chun still had a gold hairpin on his head, but there was a small badge on his collar. This was the badge of a civil servant in the Prince of Qin's Palace. This style seemed to be equivalent to the rank of the eighth rank official.
Is this a female official?
Of course, Eunuch Gao wouldn't talk too much about the affairs of Prince Qin's Mansion, he was just curious.
"Write the bill!" Li Yuanxing said, Yuanchun only cares about recording, regardless of the content.
"First-grade fine steel costs seven guan per kilogram. Second-class fine steel costs five guan per kilogram. Four thousand pairs of armor, a total of 60,000 kilograms of steel, and a total material cost of 360,000 guan! Cowhide costs one thousand and two guan.
One hundred pieces, six thousand for pig skins. The total price is ten thousand guan!"
As Li Yuanxing spoke, Eunuch Gao just sat quietly. He would not interrupt or ask questions.
Yuanchun only focused on recording and wouldn't ask for any extra words.
"The design fee for a pair of armor is 8,000 guan. I will give you a discount and accept a total of 30,000 guan for the design fee."
"A pair of armor requires 1,200 man-hours. I will charge you 20 cents for each man-hour. I will also give you a discount on the total labor cost. I will only charge you 50,000 cents for the work."
"Underwear, coat, boots and other items, I charge five guan for each set of armor. The total is 20,000 guan!"
"The matching weapons are designed and built. I will suffer a little loss. Each set of weapons has six pieces in total. I include the material cost in it and charge fifteen guan. This is 60,000 guan. The cost of transportation and maintenance. I will give it to you.
Come on. Calculate how much money there is in total and add it up."
Yuanchun was writing a note, took out the abacus from under the table, and slapped it on.
"Your Highness, the total is: 530,000 yuan!"
"Okay, write a formal seal to my imperial brother, and then send a copy to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, Tianying Pavilion, and the Admonition Court."
Li Yuanxing is just talking nonsense about the price.
Eunuch Gao stood up at this time: "Your Highness, I think this price is too high, why not let me write it?"
"You said it, Yuanchun wrote it!"
"Your Highness's first-class fine steel is worth a thousand smelting steel, and the second-class fine steel is a hundred smelting steel. What if one pound of first-class steel is twelve guan, and one pound of second-class steel is 9 guan? The total amount is six hundred thousand guan. And let's talk about the labor.
The fee, Your Highness uses a lot of slave labor, please reduce it by one. A pair of armor is paid at 500 guan, which is 2,000 guan."
"Continue!" Li Yuanxing secretly praised, this old eunuch is not ordinary smart.
Naturally, Eunuch Gao also knew that the relationship between the Holy Emperor and the King of Qin was very close, and there was no need for His Highness the King of Qin to collect such money. The straight road from Yaozhou to Chang'an only asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to make up a sum of money to repair the bridge. The real cost of that road was calculated.
If you say it, it is equivalent to being paved with copper coins.
Therefore, this matter must have deep meaning.
At least what the deep meaning was, Eunuch Gao cleverly avoided this idea.
Eunuch Gao re-ordered a price for Li Yuanxing based on the current market price. For example, the boots were only ordered for 300 ren. The fine linen underwear was only 50 ren for a set.
Fifty cents is already an extremely high price, considering that a piece of fine linen only costs three hundred cents.
However, Eunuch Gao's calculations were more detailed, and he paid only one penny for two pairs of socks and one penny for a pair of gloves.
After everything was written, Li Yuanxing used his private seal, and Eunuch Gao went back with the seals given by Li Yuanxing to Li Er, and those to various ministries were delivered by official personnel from the Prince of Qin's Palace.
Li Yuanxing did not let anyone keep this matter secret. Within an hour, everyone in the entire Qin Prince's Palace knew about it!
Many guardsmen touched their military uniforms and armors. Their first reaction was that they were wearing clothes worth hundreds of guan, hundreds of guan. What is the difference between this and walking on the street carrying a piece of gold?
An ordinary sergeant in the palace immediately became a wealthy man.
During dinner, Wu Zhao asked Li Yuanxing: "Why did you quote such a high price?"
"Two prides of lions were fighting on the grassland. Many animals came to help, and some tried to break up the fight. Which lion pride would be killed or injured in the end?" Li Yuanxing asked with a smile.
Wu Zhao also laughed and stopped talking about this topic.
The seven Princesses of Qin were discussing in a lively manner, and Wu Zhao explained to them that the lion was another kind of very powerful tiger.
The seven princesses of Qin are very interested. The wolves and foxes are all out. Who will help whom?
Wu Zhao understood what Li Yuanxing meant.
When two lions fight, only those who dare to approach will die, whether they are trying to stop the fight or helping. At the end of the fight, nothing happens to the two lions and they each go back to their homes.
Could it be that Li Yuanxing wanted to take the opportunity to purge some forces in the court?
Li Yuanxing did not answer Wu Zhao. In terms of political ability, Wu Zhao is no longer the same Wu Zhao in history.
Even Wu Zhao in history could only truly understand these things after he was forty years old.
When Li Er saw Li Yuanxing's watch seal, he was stunned for a moment and then laughed: "Okay, what a good Wulang." He turned to Eunuch Gao and said: "Starting tomorrow, all the watch seals for me to change the uniforms of the Imperial Army will be sent to them in categories.
, not one portion less!”
Killing two birds with one stone! Li Erxin said, they are really brothers. He wants to adjust his officials. With Li Yuanxing's help, he will first keep those censors who are truly discerning. Those who will only follow the crowd or talk nonsense.
Or if they are too pedantic to be annoying, they will be sent to other positions.
How much does Li Yuanxing's fine steel cost per pound?
Lu Chengqing of Yaozhou made a very serious and accurate calculation of the first-class fine steel. And it wasn't just him, Cheng Motou also took part in the calculation with his army commander.
Each thousand kilograms of first-grade fine steel, after being turned into steel ingots, is divided into ten kilograms per piece.
The cost is only eight thousand three hundred and eleven cents. Moreover, the second-class craftsman Ma Jianshi also said that the process is still being improved. If everything goes well, it will definitely drop to less than six thousand cents in six months. Okay.
He said that the price of first-class fine steel in Li Yuanxing's newspaper was two hundred times the actual price.
Of course, Li Yuanxing said that environmental protection and river protection also cost money, and money must be included in the cost.
Even if you add in the rewards for craftsmen and miners.
Li Er believes that Li Yuanxing's quotation is still more than a hundred times higher. The price of one thousand kilograms of first-class fine steel will not exceed ten thousand dollars. This is the performance of Yaozhou's industrial steelmaking.
So, will Li Yuanxing take this opportunity to promote the industrialization of various workshops in Datang?
Li Er guessed that Li Yuanxing had this plan. If these things became cheaper, the people of Tang Dynasty would live better and be richer, and the tax revenue of the national treasury would also increase exponentially.
A set of Blazing Feather Armor together with all the equipment, excluding weapons, costs nine hundred coins for the complete set!
Nine hundred cents. In terms of modern prices, the purchasing power of one cent in the Tang Dynasty was about four yuan and a half to five yuan and two cents in modern times. In total, it was more than four thousand yuan per set.
Li Er smiled with satisfaction and ordered an extra bottle of wine for dinner.
The price in Li Yuanxing's mind is 1,500 liters. He and Lu Chengqing's calculation method is different. If the coal mines and iron mines are not slaves, and those who do rough work are not slaves, but normal workers, 1,500 liters will be the price.
It is a truly reasonable cost price.
Selling it to the Ministry of War for two bucks is not excessive at all.
After receiving this seal, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, and the Admonition Council were all excited to fight. If they remonstrated with the Lord, they would have the opportunity to leave their names for eternity. Civil servants would die to remonstrate, and military generals would fight to the death. This would be the opportunity to be remembered for eternity.
Only Cui Junsu, the Minister of Household Affairs, found an excuse not to participate in this matter.
"Master Shangshu, this is an opportunity to make a name for yourself!" Cui Junsu's cronies asked after everyone left.
Cui Junsu took a sip of tea: "Stupid, this is a game between two big shots. They want to clean up the old stubborns in the Yushitai. If you want to go on the list, just say that it is imperative for the Imperial Army to change their uniforms. But please recommend it.
Finally, please also ask His Highness the King of Qin to consider this cost. The national treasury is under huge pressure because we have to build roads!"
"I understand!" Cui Junsu's cronies bowed heavily and then withdrew.
Cui Junsu didn't know the cost of fine steel, but after seeing the huge stamping machine, he believed that the price was exaggerated.
Needless to say, the Cui family has a weaving mill. Now the price of a piece of silk is not counted as raw silk. Just the cost of silk weaving craftsmen is only a tenth of the original. The Cui family can rely on water-powered looms to reduce costs.
.Don’t you think His Highness the King of Qin can’t do it? So this must be a trap!
Who would be stupid enough to jump into this trap? Does Cui Junsu believe that it must be those old stubborns who are immovable? By the way, letting these people go home to retire is also a great thing for the Seventh Family. (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, novel updates