In my dream of returning to the Tang Dynasty, I snatched Wu Zetian from my lap.

It should be noted that the entire Liangzhou region only has four counties.

……

Over the next three days, Liangzhou was shaken, and all the counties and villages in the area restrained themselves, no longer daring to defy the law.

The officials, led by Gao Shen and the other two, no longer dared to underestimate Li Yuanchang, nor did they dare to openly confront him.

The two sides have always maintained a delicate balance.

During this time, they delivered many of the files and account books that Li Yuanchang needed.

However, as officials within Liangzhou Prefecture have said, there is a severe shortage of manpower, and calculating the prefecture's annual revenue and expenditure is an extremely large undertaking.

Of the trusted men he brought from Chang'an, only a few, such as Wang Hongzhi, were truly helpful. Li Yuanchang dared not use any of the original personnel from Liangzhou City.

Most of them are unreliable, and even the few that are reliable don't necessarily prove their credibility.

"no."

"This can't go on any longer."

Li Yuanchang suddenly stood up from the pile of files, his eyes already bloodshot.

"What's wrong, Your Highness?"

Li Yuanchang frowned: "It's too slow. Not to mention checking the accounts and sorting out the backlog of internal affairs, the affairs of the six ministries alone are about to overflow."

"At this rate, we won't be able to do anything. Just flipping through tax records will be exhausting, not to mention the judiciary, household registration, land, and so on."

He originally thought that with his 21st-century office and computing skills, there shouldn't be any problem, but the Tang Dynasty's files were just too complicated.

Their formats and calculation methods are completely different, and sometimes it takes a lot of time just to understand a single ledger.

However, it wouldn't be right not to compile everything, since understanding the basic situation of Liangzhou is the foundation of all government affairs.

Upon hearing this, the eight people who were busy in the New Han Prince's Mansion all looked up and stopped what they were doing.

"Your Highness, why don't we notify Lord Gao and the others to bring their men over? They are the most knowledgeable about many internal affairs, and they can handle things much more efficiently," Wang Hongzhi suggested. He was also extremely busy and hadn't slept all night, with "old calendars" all around him.

Li Yuanchang shook his head: "No."

"I think nine out of ten of these people are full of wicked schemes. These files may be complicated, but there are bound to be people who have tampered with them and deliberately muddied the waters."

"I have already discovered several problems."

"Then, Your Highness, what should we do?"

"Post notices to recruit talented people," Li Yuanchang blurted out. This was the simplest method, equivalent to the recruitment process in later generations.

Wang Hongzhi and the others' eyes lit up simultaneously.

"feasible!"

"I just don't know if we can recruit enough talented people."

"Go and fetch that man, Liu Yishou, the military advisor in charge of grain storage," Li Yuanchang said.

"yes!"

The distance from the government office to the new Han Prince's residence was very short, only a quarter of an hour, when Liu Yishou, the military advisor in charge of grain storage, arrived.

The Sicang (司仓) was in charge of taxes, warehouses, and other related matters.

In other words, this person is the money purse manager of the entire Liangzhou.

"Your Highness, this humble servant greets you."

"Go and allocate three hundred strings of copper coins. I want to recruit talented people to serve in Liangzhou Prefecture." Li Yuanchang didn't even look up, continuing to organize the account books.

For self-made entrepreneurs in the 21st century, doing accounting in ancient times was a piece of cake. Their calculation speed was novel and extremely fast, which once shocked Wang Hongzhi and others.

If it weren't for the differences between ancient and modern times, and the lack of computers, he might actually have been able to manage the entire Liangzhou account all by himself.

Liu Yishou was stunned for a moment. He glanced at the large number of files around him and roughly understood what Li Yuanchang was going to do.

The round-faced woman hesitated slightly: "This..."

"Your Highness, the Treasury has no extra money left. The last sum of money is reserved for paying salaries to officials and soldiers throughout Liangzhou."

"It would be against the rules to use it in advance."

"Why not wait until next year, after delivering the annual revenue to Chang'an and waiting for the Six Ministries to make their decision, before launching the recruitment drive?"

During the Zhenguan era, the various prefectures and counties of the Tang Dynasty were not entitled to distribute their own revenue. Their annual income consisted of taxes, including rent, labor service, and corvée labor.

All of these major taxes must be handed over to Chang'an.

After Chang'an makes its decision, the funds will be distributed, leaving only necessary expenditures and some special funds for local governments, such as charitable granaries.

Li Yuanchang frowned: "Besides the last month's salary, there's not a single penny left in the warehouse?"

"Your Highness, there's none left, not even a penny more. Liangzhou is too poor; everyone's competing to get what they can. All the government offices are dilapidated and leaky, and they don't even have the money to repair them," Liu Yishou said with a bitter expression.

Li Yuanchang frowned.

"Then take out my salary and use it as a supplement."

He knew Liu Yishou wasn't lying; embezzling salary was extremely dangerous, just like the suspension of salary in later generations.

But as both a governor and the King of Han, his monthly salary was extremely high.

During the Zhenguan era, the monthly salary of a prefect was around eighty strings of cash. Of course, the prefect couldn't use all eighty strings of cash by himself; he had a team of staff in his residence, and various advisors needed to be paid, so the expenses were also high.

Liu Yishou's expression was strange.

"this……"

"Hmm?" Li Yuanchang said unhappily.

Liu Yishou quickly explained, "Your Highness, no, what I mean is that the imperial court has issued an edict to confiscate your salary for three years."

"Giving you such a large sum of money secretly, how will I keep the accounts later?"

Li Yuanchang was stunned for a moment, then slapped his forehead, only then remembering this mess.

Li Shimin not only demoted him, but also cut off his source of income for three years, which is equivalent to a fine of hundreds of millions in later generations.

"Never mind, you can go now."

"Your Highness, please forgive me."

Li Yuanchang waved his hand, indicating that although he was wary and cautious of officials at all levels in Liangzhou, he was not going to get angry over this matter.

After all, that's really what happened.

After Liu Yishou left, Li Yuanchang got up and went to the backyard, where he found Fang Tong, who was managing the household affairs.

"Old Master Fang, how much money do you have at home? Go and withdraw three hundred strings of cash."

"Three hundred?" Old Fang was startled.

"Yes, three hundred."

Recruiting talented people is not like hiring servants or anyone else; basic skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic are essential.

In ancient times, those with such skills were generally capable people, and supporting such people was not in accordance with the standards for servants.

"Your Highness, the Prince's mansion still has three hundred strings of cash, but..." Fang Weng hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

Li Yuanchang said, "What's wrong? Speak if you have something to say."

"But Your Highness, if we continue spending money like this, the Prince's Mansion may not be able to operate."

"In previous years, you employed a large number of servants and advisors, which resulted in huge expenses. Before leaving Chang'an, you had less than five hundred strings of copper coins left in your household."

"The wedding cost 100 strings of cash, and the gifts that had been presented were forced to be returned because the wedding was canceled."

"His Majesty has confiscated your royal stipend and privileges, and you have no income left."

"In addition, you have increased the salaries of all the servants in the Prince's mansion in the past two months, which has caused expenses to increase several times over."

"Also, when you left Chang'an, you left a lot of money for the four sons of the Duke's mansion. I have all the accounts here, Your Highness, please take a look."

"If we spend these three hundred strings of cash, I'm worried that the balance that our Han Prince's Mansion maintains will be broken. Let alone three years, we won't even be able to hold on for one year."

Fang Weng solemnly handed over the account books, which he always carried with him.