Chen Jinjun narrowed his eyebrows and returned to the house, sat down in his seat leisurely, and calmly took a sip of the slightly cold tea.
Huo Tingyu was worried. He was afraid that Chen Jinjun could really afford that much money, but he was even more afraid that Chen Jinjun wouldn't be able to afford that much money.
The former is a competition between two people, and the latter is peace in Yongzhou.
The whole room was extremely quiet. Chen Jinjun raised his eyelids and glanced at Huo Tingyu, deliberately making a difficult-to-speak look: "I have something I want to talk to Huo Shuai alone."
Shen Xiaoxiao understood immediately and led a team of accountants out first.
Huo Tingyu's heart skipped a beat, and he waved stiffly to signal the master to take Yongzhou's financial officials out.
Chen Jinjun's meaningful eyes fell on several officials walking out. Seeing Huo Tingyu looking at her in confusion, he immediately lowered his head and drank tea as if nothing happened.
When there were only two of them left in the whole room, Huo Tingyu couldn't help but ask: "What's going on? It's not like the boss boasted about Haikou before, but he can't do it now."
He frowned tightly, with anger and anxiety in his eyes.
Chen Jinjun smiled and shook his head to signal him to calm down, and then spoke carefully: "Have you ever read the account books on weekdays?"
Huo Tingyu was startled, not sure why she asked that, but he still said honestly: "I have seen it, but not much."
"Which one are you reading?" Chen Jinjun raised his chin towards a pile of account books next to him.
Huo Tingyu looked at it again and again, and finally found a familiar account book, took it out and put it on the table in front of the two of them.
Chen Jinjun took the account book, flipped through a few pages and sighed, glanced at Huo Tingyu, took out a few more books from the side and placed them in front of Huo Tingyu.
"Where are these books?"
Huo Tingyu shook his head honestly. He always felt that as long as the army was strong, no matter how much money he spent, it was worth it.
Chen Jinjun raised his forehead and didn't know what to say for a moment.
She pointed out the problematic areas in the basic account book to Huo Tingyu one by one according to what the old man in the Chen family's accounting office told her just now.
"This is..." Huo Tingyu couldn't understand things like ledgers, but he also knew what the difference between these numbers meant.
"Shuai Huo, you are just being taken advantage of." Chen Jinjun looked at him helplessly.
Huo Tingyu was stunned on the spot, not knowing what to say. He had just made a rough calculation and found that this was not a small sum.
"Excessive delegation of power to the people below will happen sooner or later. You have to thank me for helping you discover this problem." Chen Jinjun raised his eyebrows at Huo Tingyu, "otherwise, your Yongzhou will be finished sooner or later."
"I will handle this matter." Huo Tingyu's eyes were sharp and he clenched his fists.
Chen Jinjun nodded and took out the contract again: "Now let's talk about the deal between us."
She pressed the contract with one hand and took out the Yongzhou military camp's internal expenditure and expenditure account book with the other hand. While comparing it, she said: "Then let's use the figures above to calculate the approximate military expenditures required each year. The four solar terms of Beginning of Spring, Beginning of Summer, Beginning of Autumn and Beginning of Winter are equally distributed to the Huo family."
Huo Tingyu nodded.
Chen Jinjun glanced at him and sighed. This Marshal Huo looked strong and talented, but it was a pity that he had no business acumen.
"Shuai Huo, why don't you call Master to come in?" Chen Jinjun suggested.
Huo Tingyu was immediately relieved. If he was asked to march and fight, that would be his strength, but the dense numbers and all kinds of unfamiliar vocabulary really made it difficult for him.
He immediately called the master in.
The master looked at the figures given by Chen Jinjun, nodded secretly, then looked down at the Chen family's conditions, and raised a question: "My boss's conditions..."
"When the Chen family does business in Yongzhou, they need to be given the minimum tax policy. Is there any problem?" Chen Jinjun doesn't think there is anything wrong with his conditions.
Only the Huo family has given this condition to the Chen family. She is keeping costs down for her shopkeepers. The selling price can naturally be reduced appropriately, but the money in her pocket will not decrease but increase.
"The current tax rate in Yongzhou is 7%. Do you mean it will be reduced by half?" The master is indeed much better in this regard than Huo Tingyu, a soldier with only muscles and no brains.
Chen Jinjun shook his head: "What I want is the lowest tax. If the tax rate meets my inner expectations, then I can spend another sum of money at the beginning of each year to purchase the most advanced arms for the Yongzhou army, and this batch of arms comes from the Chen family.
The Huo family doesn't have to worry about being held accountable by the Republic of China government."
Huo Tingyu and his master exchanged glances. Both of them knew that this was a very tempting offer. The Chen family had connections on this matter that the Huo family did not have.
"Then... what tax rate does the boss want?" Master asked tentatively.
Chen Jinjun stretched out a finger with a kind smile on his face: "This is the number."
"One centimeter?" The master's eyes widened, "No, no, no, no, this is too low."
"Don't you believe in my ability? This penny is already a lot." Chen Jinjun's eyes widened.
"Too little, maybe three centimeters." Huo Tingyu also shook his head. He, who knew nothing about numbers, also felt that the direct reduction from seven centimeters to one centimeter was too little.
Chen Jinjun curled his lips: "Well, if one cent doesn't work, just two cents. If it's three cents, I won't be able to pay for it."
"Okay, let's take two cents." The master nodded to Huo Tingyu.
Chen Jinjun originally expected three cents, but now he actually got two cents. It seems that the Huo family is really poor.
Suddenly Huo Tingyu thought of something and said to Chen Jinjun: "There is one more condition."
"Tell me about it."
"Now that you have entered the Huo Mansion, you are Pingyan's widow. Naturally, you have to pay tribute to Pingyan. It is best not to leave the Huo Mansion on weekdays."
Chen Jinjun stared at him with confusion on his face, feeling very unbelievable: "Don't you know, Commander, that in business you have to run around and get the lowest price? You want to put me under house arrest in the Huo Mansion?"
Huo Tingyu waved his hand: "It's not considered house arrest, but it's better that my boss doesn't go out and show his face in the future."
"Then what should I do if I talk about business?"
"You can ask your attendant, Xu Sheng, to pass the message for you." Huo Tingyu took a sip of tea and avoided Chen Jinjun's questioning gaze.
Chen Jinjun laughed angrily: "Xu Sheng doesn't know much about business. Is the marshal doing this to ask me, Chen Jinjun, to compensate your Huo family for not being able to make any money in Yongzhou?"
Huo Tingyu felt that he was not wrong. Chen Jinjun's appearance and figure were outstanding. If he went out like this, he would be easily noticed by outsiders, which would tarnish the reputation of his Huo family.
"I heard that my boss came to Yongzhou and brought many shopkeepers with him. If anything happens, he can ask the shopkeepers to come to discuss it." Seeing the tense atmosphere, the master had to come out to smooth things over.
Chen Jinjun snorted, those shopkeepers came to Huo Mansion? How could they really let Huo Mansion know who were from the Chen family?
"The marriage given by the emperor cannot tolerate any stain." Huo Tingyu took out the imperial edict to suppress her.
Chen Jinjun just wanted to reply to him about the fall of the Qing Dynasty, but then he remembered that he had also used an imperial edict to force him to take her into the Huo Mansion, so he had to give up.
This time, Chen Jinjun was defeated.
She agreed, but she had already been thinking about how to get more communication with the outside world under such circumstances.
The master brought a pen and an inkstone, ground the ink and placed it between the two of them.
The two signed an agreement, Huo Tingyu returned satisfied, and Chen Jinjun gritted his teeth.
"Xu Sheng!" Chen Jinjun called Xu Sheng directly.
"My boss."
"Go tell Yu Ce and the others that the Chen family merchants only need to pay a tax of 2% to the Yongzhou government office. Let them lower the price as quickly as possible. Now Yongzhou is on a firm footing." Chen Jinjun played with the jade Ruyi in his hand.
Looking at the contract in front of him, he said angrily.
Xu Sheng immediately left the courtyard and left the inn where the shopkeepers of the Huo Fumiao and Chen family stayed.