Please give me a monthly ticket!

No matter how hard the six years of Wude were, it was almost over.

The 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year.

Li Shimin couldn't help the prime ministers to make a cow and horse every day. Early that morning, the morning court was held. Then the prime ministers discussed with Li Shimin in the political affairs hall and went back to the yamen. The yamen explained that half a day's vacation began in the afternoon.

Li Chao came back from the yamen and was busy cleaning inside and out.

The 23rd Little New Year is also a day for home cleaning. Especially when you have to clean the kitchen well and worship the Kitchen God. According to legend, the Kitchen Lord will go back to the Heavenly Court to report to the Jade Emperor on the 23rd Day. Of course, everyone must show it well, so that the Kitchen Lord will speak good things in front of the Jade Emperor in the Heavenly Court, and bless the family with peace and prosperity next year.

The Li family’s house in Xiangyang is very large, with multiple depths inside and outside, with large courtyards set up small courtyards and multiple households. Fortunately, the Li family has many servants and servants, and such a big family doesn’t have to do it themselves.

"I think I'll pay you a salary today and give you a reward for the New Year!" Li Chao said to Cui Yingying, "Everyone has been busy and hard for a year. It's time for the New Year, so let everyone have a happy New Year."

"The family has prepared the account book a long time ago, and I'm waiting for you to come back to send money and rewards. You are the head of the family, how can you do it if you are not here?" Cui Yingying said with a smile. The head of the Li family has just been diagnosed with pregnancy again.

This news made Cui Yingying very happy, but Li Chao was a little happy and surprised.

Generally speaking, women recover their reproductive ability about one and a half months after giving birth and can get pregnant. But normally, it is better for women to get pregnant after giving birth. If the interval is too short, it will be unfavorable to the fetus and prone to miscarriage, etc.

But in this era, there are no contraceptive pills, no safe condoms, and lack of contraceptive methods. And women will not always abstinence after giving birth.

Three months later, Li Chao and Cui Yingying returned to sex. He had been carefully calculating the safety period, but he didn't expect that it was still time for the horse to fall off.

The last child was triplets, and the child was only over half a year old. Now he is pregnant again. Li Chao didn’t know whether it was joy or sorrow, but since his little life has come, he can only welcome him. He invited a doctor to check his health frequently and an experienced servant lady to take care of him.

"Then let everyone know and pay the wages."

The servants of the Li family are also mainly slaves, some are troops, and some are free good people, and they are hired servants of the Li family. Generally, those who work in the backyard of the inner palace are basically contract slaves. These people are completely from the Li family, so of course they are more at ease.

Those who work outside have more troops and good people.

Every year, the Li family will give out several quotas for exemption to reward those servants who work diligently and loyal to the Li family. Of course, most people will not leave the Li family, whether they are free from the Li family or the good people, but they will not be able to stay in the Li family by hiring them.

The Li family is treated well, who is willing to leave?

Being a slave to the Li family actually means having a golden job. If they leave the Li family, they will be unemployed and even have no place to settle down.

However, even if he is a slave in the Li family, Li Chao will give them wages.

There are monthly, and there will be some bonuses during the New Year holiday. Even their food and consumption are basically made by the Li family. Speaking of which, although the requirements for doing things in the Li family are quite strict, the treatment is indeed good.

"This year, I will give you all the rewards for everyone."

The Li family's grain was also sold to the court, but in addition to leaving enough food, the Li family also had many official positions, titles and edicts, and they all had salary. The court also took good care of these officials and nobles, and had many privileges. The grain quota was given high, so that they could not only receive full salary and food coupons, but also buy more food coupons for exchange for food.

Li Chao didn't need to buy grain from the Guancang, he transported grain directly from the southeast to Xiangyang.

The court now has strict control over food, but for those nobles, if they have the ability and channels to transport grain from non-stricken areas, the court will let it go. This is also a good thing for the court. The court only restricts the flow of grain in the disaster area and prohibits private transactions of grain in the disaster area.

From other places, you can transport as much as you can. The government will not intercept the card.

The Li family has been transporting grain from there. Although the cost of transporting grain in is very high, now it is more than just a matter of how much it costs.

In addition to the Li family's own needs, the food shipped can also be given to the tenants, workers, friends, and those who are close friends with Xunqi's family.

The court ignored these things.

This is actually privilege. No matter when, privilege is inevitable. No matter how famine is in the world, the nobles of Xiangyang will not go hungry.

Their servants and tenants will not go hungry either.

"Rice, dried fish, cloth, give some more money."

Nowadays, even if you are in Xiangyang, food has become a hard currency. If you have food in your hands, it is more effective than money. If you have money, you may not be able to buy food, but if you have food, you can get money at any time.

There is also a black market in Xiangyang, which is the grain trading market. The court also knows this place, but as long as it is not openly reselled, those who are not very large in number of food transactions in private by ordinary people will turn a blind eye.

The Li family’s recent wages have always been about feeding food.

When servants receive the grain, they often don’t want to eat these fine grains. Some servants even work as servants in the Li family. They eat and live in the Li family, but they can’t eat them even after they get the grain. So they exchanged the grain for copper coins and silk, or even gold and silver coins, gold, silver jewelry, etc.

At this time, such transactions are always very cost-effective.

Some servants had family members outside, and they were reluctant to eat these fine grains, so they took the rice and wheat to the black market to exchange for relief grains, which could be exchanged for several buckets. In this way, they could eat more when they were taken home.

Li Chao held Cui Yingying's hand into the hall. There was floor heating in the hall, which was very warm.

The two sat down, and Li Chao said to Cui Yingying, "I have notified our managers in Shuofang, Longyou, Jiangxi, Lingnan, Jiangdong, Annan and other places to let them have more food next year."

"If you don't grow sugarcane, you won't raise cattle and horses?"

"Let's get more food first. This year I've survived it, but the disaster will be even worse next year. The real consideration will be next year."

The disaster will be inevitable next year, but it will mainly be concentrated in the northern Central Plains area, and other places will be less affected. The imperial court has survived this year. If it is handled properly next year, even if the disaster is serious, it will not necessarily be more terrifying than this year.

After all, there are many fewer people in the Central Plains and are still moving out slowly. Once winter passes, grain transportation can be restored.

"Next year, we have to move people to various places, first move people out, and then move them back after this disaster year."

In fact, Li Chao felt that this disaster was not entirely a bad thing. First of all, this disaster forced the powerful landlords to release many of their slaves, hidden houses, etc.

The imperial court added more than 10 million new people.

Secondly, a large number of victims were forced to move out, and some people would come back. But when some people moved out, the court distributed land to them, and they would not come back.

Although the Central Plains have fertile land and vast plains, they are also extremely dense in population and are narrow towns with a large population and a small land area, just like the Guanzhong Plain.

The court first moved the court out this year, and then continued to move people around. In this way, those surrounding undeveloped areas can also accelerate their development after having a large number of immigrants to the Central Plains.

In the east of Shannan, west of Shannan, west of Jiangnan, Qianzhong, Jiannan, Lingnan, Shuofang, Longyou, etc., immigrants from the Central Plains not only developed the local area, but also changed the local population structure of the Hanyi people, allowing the Central Plains dynasty to assimilate and stabilize the surrounding areas that were not civilized.

Moreover, taking advantage of this opportunity, many emerging wealthy upstarts like the Li family also took the opportunity to recruit a lot of tenant workers, and their factories and mines also received many industrial workers. Their sugarcane plantations, shipyards, iron ore, coal mines, etc. also had workers.

After a huge disaster, the population of the official household registration in the Tang Dynasty rose from 15 million to more than 30 million.

Of course, this has to be said to be a blessing in disguise.

The shipyard, the shipyard that the prince never forgets, has quietly started construction in Xiangyang. By next year, the first batch of new sailboats will be able to sail to sea.

Li Chao and Prince's Nanhai Commercial Bank have officially begun to issue shares. Nowadays, many nobles of honor have invested money. How could it be wrong to participate in the matter led by Prince and Li Xiang? As for what this Nanyang Commercial Bank is doing, there are not many people who really pay attention to it.

Many nobles have invested a lot of money with the Li family. Anyway, the dividends are very good every time, so they have already known each other. They invested money with Xiangye Li, and didn't have to do anything, just wait for some dividends to be paid.

"Prince, madam, the servants are already lined up outside. Will they start paying wage rewards?" The housekeeper came to report.

Li Chao nodded, picked up the roster in front of him and opened it.

"Well, call me your name, come in one by one to get the money, grain, and sign the signature."

"Zhao Siniang!"

Li Chao read out the first name above in front of the roster. Zhao Siniang, the chief manager of the inner courtyard of Li's mansion, and Qi Niang's goddaughter, has a special status in the Li family. He is both the steward of the inner court and half of the master.

Zhao Siniang came in with her skirt and bowed to Li Chao. The woman no longer returned to the Zhao family in Bashang, and had been focused on staying in the Li Mansion, and no longer had any thoughts about Li Chao.

Li Chao handed Siniang a wage bill. As the chief supervisor of the inner courtyard, Siniang had a high salary and a higher reward. Siniang took it with a smile, then picked up a pen and wrote her beautiful name on the signature book.

Seeing her turn and leave the hall with the order and go to the other side to get money and food, Li Chao was still a little dazed.

"What are you thinking?" Cui Yingying asked her husband with a smile.

"I'm thinking that Si Niang is also a family in our mansion. You can't watch her be single all the time. I think there is no suitable person, and see if I can introduce her to her."

"This matter depends on Si Niang's own intention. I have persuaded her several times, and she said she would stay in the mansion and not go out."

"I have to try again. I can't bear to see her alone."

"Or why you just take her away." Cui Yingying said with a smile. She had said this several times a few years ago, but she was actually not happy when she said that. But now, for some reason, she was sincere.

Zhao Siniang stayed in the mansion for a few years, and Cui Yingying had a relationship with her, but the two were like sisters. She also liked Zhao Siniang very much. With her as her helper, the mansion handled the matter very well.
Chapter completed!