Volume 7: Doing Business with the World Chapter 230 Cub Subsidy
The Welfare Department only opens in the evening. When Aisha followed the lame old man there, the employees of the Welfare Department were still busy in the preparation room.
"Teething biscuits?"
The lame brother picked up a new type of biscuit as a sample. It was half the size of a palm bone and light yellow. He squeezed it a little harder and said, "Why is it so hard? Aren't all biscuits crispy?"
"The dough is relatively fluffy, and with lard added, the cookies are crispy when baked. This one uses only a small amount oil, is rolled very firmly, and is pressed into a mold by a machine, so it's that hard." Dahe said proudly, "It's added with soybean powder, wheat starch, a little pork floss and fish bone powder, and a little bit of sugar, honey and milk powder. It smells good, and the taste is very rich when you bite a little bit, and it's not too sweet."
"I asked Ruhua to try it, and she had to grind it for a while before she could eat a piece. The little ones' milk teeth are enough for them to chew."
The lame brother's eyes lit up and he immediately said, "Give me two boxes."
"Take them all. They are made for the kids." Dahe waved his hand and immediately... took out a book. "There are five boxes weighing 300 kilograms in total. The workmanship and materials used are more complicated than ordinary crispy biscuits. I charge twice the price of ordinary biscuits. It's not too much, right? If you have no problem, just sign the order."
The lame brother hesitated for a moment, took out the rolled-up "kindergarten" account book from his waist bag, unfolded it, squinted his eyes and looked through it: "Hmm... the kids have spent too much this month, so such an expensive account is a bit of a stretch?"
"What are you afraid of? It's the end of the month anyway." Da He said indifferently, "In a few days it will be the next month, so there will be another subsidy quota, right?"
The lame brother ignored Dahaha's deception. He carefully calculated for a long time and figured out whether the remaining expenses were enough to cover the expenses. Then he only signed the order for four boxes of teething biscuits.
She wrote her name on the Welfare Department's IOU account book, and when Dahe brought out four boxes of teething biscuits, the lame brother looked at her sharply and said, "We signed for four boxes, and you won't be able to sell the remaining box anyway, so why don't you just give it to us?"
Da He almost jumped up: "So that's what you were thinking?! No way! I'm telling you, no one can take advantage of me, Da He!!"
Aisha, who was listening to the whole thing, looked at the lame brother blankly, "You, you, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, are so scheming? !
"Don't be so excited, or half price." The lame brother said emotionlessly, "This kind of biscuits are specially made for the little ones, right? Apart from us, no one else would specially come to buy such expensive biscuits. The same price can be used to eat several meals of Xiangguo, right?"
"At most 30% off! Otherwise, no deal!" Daha roared.
"Okay, 40% off." The lame old man answered immediately.
Dahe: “…”
Aisha: “…”
The lame brother took out a charcoal pencil and said expressionlessly: "Use the remaining money from the discount to buy me two bags of soybean powder and ten kilograms of sugar. I have calculated it and it is just enough."
"So you were calculating this for so long!" Da He shouted, and after a pause, he continued to shout, "What do you mean by just enough? It's five copper coins more!"
"Does the small change count?" The lame old man remained calm and emotionless. "It's hard for me to carry five boxes of biscuits. Lend me the trailer."
Taiga: “……!!”
The lame old man pulled the trailer, Aisha helped hold the cake, and carried the soybean powder and sugar. The two of them walked out of the Welfare Department, and Taiga shouted from behind, "Don't come again! Let Ayi do it instead!!"
"If Ah Yi comes to buy, he will suffer a loss. Da He is too smart." The lame brother explained to Ai Sha. After all, the other party helped him for the whole morning . Although he still didn't look happy, the lame brother already regarded the young man as his own.
Aisha: “…”
Well...you snow wolves have quite diverse personalities.
However, seeing that annoyingly handsome guy so angry that his features were distorted, I felt secretly happy...
As soon as they left, Xiao Yun brought two spellcasters, Aldoni and Adrian, to the Welfare Department.
The flour mill lost a spellcaster laborer, and Balke's face was already a little ugly; Xiao Yun came to ask for Aldoni again, and Balke almost got angry - fortunately, Xiao Yun prepared for the rainy day and brought Alman with him, so Alman stayed and Aldoni was replaced...
"Check the accounts, Daha!" Xiao Yun shouted loudly as he entered the Welfare Department.
"Take it, take it!" Dahe threw the account book over with an unhappy look on his face.
"What's wrong? Who made you angry?" Xiao Yun quickly grabbed the account book.
"Hmph!" Dahaha snorted arrogantly. He was in no mood to pay attention to Xiao Yun. He put on gloves and an apron, and went into the preparation room to get busy.
Xiao Yun flipped open the account book and took a look. When he saw the latest name signed, he smiled and said, "It turns out that Ah Mo has been here. No wonder."
A Yi's tribesman, Amo, was also an elite warrior of the Snow Wolf Tribe. When attacked by the Tiger Tribe, Amo's leg bone was broken. After that, he suffered for more than a year in the Tiger Tribe's stronghold. His wounds did not heal, his strength was wasted, and his personality became somewhat withdrawn.
Xiao Yun asked him to take care of the cubs in the hope that he could be infected by the wolf cubs' liveliness and adjust his mentality; his efforts were not in vain. Although Amo was still unwilling to look at people in a good light, at least he talked more now than before.
Although he is disabled, Amo still has his brain. There are not many people in the tribe who can defeat Dahe...
Xiao Yun spread out the account book for the two human spellcasters to see, and used it to explain the Fire Department's financial management policy to them, directly taking the "kindergarten" for which he had just signed the bill as an example.
The kids eat at public expense, and each kid can get a three-silver-coin subsidy every month. Seventy-two kids in total get two gold coins and sixteen silver coins, which are managed by the kindergarten teachers as a subsidy for the kids' expenses other than regular meals (the kindergarten teachers' salaries are also paid from this). There is no expense on regular meals, as children under fourteen can eat in the cafeteria for free.
Anyway, the Fire Tribe has a small population, so it’s not a big deal to raise all the cubs together, and it will also allow young parents to free up time to work with peace of mind... cough cough cough!
Establishing a policy to encourage childbirth will benefit the entire tribe for generations to come. Of course, the Fire Tribe is only at the level of "not well-off but having a good life", so this subsidy for cubs is only provided to children aged 0 to 5, regardless of race. (This year, the Fire Tribe will be trialed, and it will be extended to the new hilly area next year. As for the Cat Tribe Farm and the Snake Tribe, we have to wait and see how it goes.)
When you turn five, you have to earn your own pocket money... cough cough cough!!
After all, non-human children are much tougher than human children - Xiao Ruhua has gone to Evelyn with Moss to earn pocket money, so they can't do any real work, so there's no problem for them to be vehicles... cough cough cough!
A five-year-old goblin can dig holes and mine, a five-year-old gray dwarf can easily go to the cafeteria to wash vegetables and earn snacks, and a five-year-old cat can learn to spin yarn... cough cough cough!
Anyway, after seeing with their own eyes the treatment the wolf cubs were receiving, the goblins and cats in the tribe (more than 200 each, with slightly more cats) have decided to have cubs next year...
Xiao Yun focused on the distribution, management and reconciliation of the cub subsidy: this money is not directly handed over to the kindergarten teachers, who can only receive their own salaries; all expenditures are signed by the relevant responsible persons and settled uniformly at the work meeting at the end of the month.
In other words, we will never give anyone the opportunity to deduct the snack money from the cubs...
Xiao Yun, who had worked in the provincial construction industry and had come into contact with a lot of [beep——] (404 warning!), knew how much of the national grant funds in certain regions and projects could be used for real work. It was too common to see tens of millions of project grants being eaten up layer by layer and only a few hundred thousand yuan (or even less) being used for the projects in the end!
Although the cub subsidy is not such a large sum of money, we must nip it in the bud from a systemic and fundamental perspective!
"It's only two silver coins and sixteen silver coins per month. It's not a lot of money, but we have to do enough work on how to use it. Every expenditure must be accounted for, and every order of materials must be checked for price, quantity, and whereabouts. At the end of each month, when settling accounts, the accounts must be clear and unambiguous. There must be no confusion such as unclear persons in charge and unclear purchase of materials."
"If the purchased materials are not reasonable, for example, if they are clearly purchased for the kids but they can't use them, or if the quantity is wrong, as long as there is a problem, the person who directly handled it and his direct supervisor will be held accountable."
The two spellcasters tried very hard to understand Xiao Yun's words. When they heard the last sentence, Adrian was surprised: "Wait, the boss of the person who handled it is also responsible?"
"Of course, if a direct subordinate has problems with the public account, who will be responsible if the boss is not responsible?" Xiao Yun said calmly, "Ayi is the overall leader of our cubs and the battle tree planting area. Amo is Ayi's direct subordinate and is in charge of the cubs. Only Amo and Ayi are qualified to sign the bills for the cubs' consumption. If Amo has problems, Ayi must naturally be held responsible."
Seeing the two spellcasters showing disapproval and shaking their heads, Xiao Yun simply threw a landmine:
"Let me put it this way. If the boss doesn't get involved himself and lets his subordinates do the bad things, and then takes the lion's share, or if the boss steals the money from the public account and puts the blame on the subordinates, this is far more likely than the subordinates doing bad things behind the boss's back and succeeding, right?"
Two spellcasters: "Uh..."
"Is it more likely that the king will be able to pass the blame to his trusted ministers, or is it more likely that the trusted ministers will be able to pass the blame to the king?" Xiao Yun used another metaphor that the locals could understand better. "What is the probability that the trusted ministers are secretly using tricks and the king is completely unaware of it from beginning to end? I know that generally this kind of blame will be passed on to cannon fodder who has no ability to resist, and neither the king nor the ministers will be involved, but anyway, as a metaphor, this is what it means."
"..." The two spellcasters looked regretful. Okay, okay, you are right.
"Continuing with the issue of the baby subsidy, only A-mo and A-yi are held accountable, even though the Finance Department has carefully verified the implementation of the baby subsidy and has not made a unified settlement. If the Finance Department did not carefully verify the situation and settled the muddled accounts, then while holding A-mo and A-yi accountable, the people in the Finance Department who handled the matter must also be held accountable."
"If the problematic accounts were not exposed at the time but were discovered at the end of the year, then all those responsible at the time should be held accountable. There is no reason to avoid responsibility just because they have left the company or have been promoted."
“If there are obviously problematic accounts discovered, but the disciplinary inspection team does nothing and does not hold the relevant responsible persons accountable, then the team leader and the A-li tribe leader will be held accountable!”
Aldoni & Adrian opened their mouths wide: "..."
"Just the whereabouts of two gold coins and sixteen silver coins, but you have to be so strict?!" Aldoni said in disbelief.
Xiao Yun smiled slightly: "It's not a question of how much money is involved. As long as it involves public expenditures of the tribe's common property, even if it's just a copper coin, there must be a strict management system, responsibility system, and accountability system to supervise and strictly prevent all possible malfeasance and corruption."
After the two spellcasters understood for a while and showed thoughtful expressions, Xiao Yun said seriously: "To be honest, I don't believe in morality. We grassland people never judge whether someone is capable or qualified based on whether he is morally noble."
" This--" Aldoni, who had just tried to accept the previous point of view, suddenly looked as ugly as if he was constipated.
It was simply that for this local spellcaster and literary scholar, such words were a slap in the face to his worldview; if it wasn't for the sage Ayun who said this, Aldoni would definitely have spit in the face of this boastful and disrespectful guy.
Xiao Yun laughed and pulled the Elf King's tiger skin without hesitation: "The Snow Elves held a Frank Feast in the Ice and Snow King City, inviting sages and fourth-level spellcasters to make up the numbers. Everyone knows this, right?"
Aldoni was silent immediately, his face flushed red - which race doesn't know how the human nobles use their reputation to become sages? !
"Talking about trust, morality, and affection in such serious matters means not treating the tribe's common property as money. I believe Mr. Aldoni, who works in the flour mill, knows how hard it is for everyone to make money." Xiao Yun said calmly, "Saying some beautiful and touching words like trust, morality, and ethics, but throwing other people's hard-earned money to someone to throw away, waste, and embezzle in order to win people's hearts, and calling it a harmonious relationship between the master and his subjects, and a wise king and good subjects, is really shameless."
The two human spellcasters listened with distorted mouths and squinted eyes...
Adrian's mouth twitched constantly. Really, Mr. Sean's reputation for being harsh and venomous was nothing compared to what this Snow Wolf sage said. It was like stabbing someone in the heart!
"You two don't have to react like that. After all, we grassland people are just afraid of trouble." Xiao Yun concealed his sharp edge and smiled, "Let's treat everyone equally as suspected suspects who are greedy for money and will do bad things. We should work hard to formulate strict enough rules and regulations that leave no loopholes for people to exploit, or as few loopholes as possible, to persuade, deter, and constrain everyone to walk on the right path and not take detours. Isn't this much simpler than searching for everyone's money after it disappears for no reason?"
"..." Aldoni had a lot to say, but after a moment of hesitation, he decided to use a more tactful approach. "But, Mr. Ayun, wouldn't it make others uncomfortable if we treat everyone as robbers and thieves?"
Xiao Yun smiled calmly: "Mr. Aldoni, you are wondering if there will be people who are unwilling to work under such a system, right?"
Adrian had an awkward expression. He wanted to speak and hold his old friend back, but it was not appropriate.
"Yes." Aldoni said cautiously, "The management of the grassland tribes and the officials in our human world all require talented people. But talented people have their own pride and self-esteem. If they are guarded, cautious, and distrusted like this, how can these talented people do their work with peace of mind?"
Xiao Yun laughed: "Please allow me to ask a question. When the governor of a human city is accused of embezzling a large sum of money in a certain matter, how can the governor prove his innocence?"
"If it is groundless and nonsense, no one will believe it. The consul can be cleared of all charges." Aldoni said without hesitation.
After answering this question according to his own thinking pattern, Aldoni felt that something was wrong.
Silently turning his head, Aldoni met his old friend Adrian's indescribable gaze, and then he realized that he had made a stupid mistake...
Xiao Yun looked at the embarrassed Aldoni with sympathy: "... On our grassland, if a certain manager is accused of tampering with something, all we have to do is make the detailed accounts of the project public... Anyway, we check the accounts every month, and the account books are open to the public for anyone to read. Isn't this much more powerful than the innocent being cleared by themselves?"
Aldoni's face turned red and he was embarrassed for a long time before he nodded reluctantly.
"As you said, this strict and harsh system doesn't seem to respect people very much, but on the other hand, isn't this a kind of protection for managers?" Xiao Yun paused and smiled again, "As for the worry that no one will become an official... Mr. Aldoni, you must be from a very high-ranking family (not worldly), Mr. Adrian may have a different opinion, right?"
"Uh..." Adrian hesitated and looked away silently, "Based on what I've seen... even if it's just a city gate officer, there will be countless people vying for the position."
Xiao Yun smiled happily.
Aldoni was so embarrassed that his facial features looked like the shape of the word "囧".
Among all races, including the Snow Wolf Clan, whose IQ needs to be recharged and whose stupidity makes Xiao Yun want to cry, no one has mentioned that the entire clan is disdainful of power~!
Otherwise, where would all these managers in the Fire Department come from?
Can Xiao Yun force people to work, and can he also force people to manage others and be good managers?
After all, all intelligent creatures have the same moral character. After their basic needs for food and clothing are met, they are interested in holding power and being able to direct and arrange things for others!
The pursuit of power is the same for all races and absolutely not gender-specific: in feudal society, women who were oppressed and exploited became wives and were keen on becoming feudal lords.
It's just that some people are crazier, while some people are relatively calm.
No one will become an official if there are too many rules and regulations. Only this literary scholar can say this - Zhu Yuanzhang, who came from a peasant family, was so cruel to bureaucrats that he would skin them alive and stuff them with straw at any time. So, was there no one who could become an official during the Hongwu period?
hehe.
Xiao Yun did not mean to mock Aldoni for his otherworldliness. Seeing that the spellcaster was blushing and ashamed, but still trying to accept the reality, he smiled and continued, "You humans appoint officials, and we grassland tribes appoint managers. Ultimately, we are handing over the collective power of manpower and resource allocation to them. What we hope is that they exercise their power prudently and benefit the collective."
"Where does this power come from? It is granted by the collective. Without ordinary tribesmen, there would be no management. Without citizens, there would be no mayor. Without soldiers, the title of general would be worthless."
"In order to make those who are collectively empowered serve the collective rather than abuse their power, we need to lock power into a cage formed by institutions."
After a pause, Xiao Yun smiled and said, "Those who are locked in the cage must be all those in power. There can be no exceptions. People like me in the Fire Tribe, such as the Fire Chief and the Grassroot Chief, all of us must act according to the rules and regulations. No one among us is allowed to take the initiative to break the rules... In this regard, we learn from you humans."
Adrien: “???”
"When formulating the rules, we referred to the management methods of the human race's countries and cities. We grassland people all agree that the human race's management system is actually very comprehensive, and that the human race has taken into account many things that we can't think of. But--"
When Adrian heard this turn of events, he immediately had a bad feeling - the wise man Ayun would always praise someone before insulting them, and he had seen through this guy's tactics!
"——The human race has carefully formulated rules and regulations, but the enforcement is really regrettable. Not to mention those more troublesome problems, even the simplest and easiest to implement, 'killing is punishable by death, injuring is punishable by punishment', cannot be implemented. The royal family, nobles, and big businessmen flaunt their privileges by breaking the rules without being punished. In this case, no matter how perfect the laws and regulations are, what is the difference between them and the paper used to wipe your ass?"
"If I hadn't seen with my own eyes the root cause of the chaos in human society, it would not have been so easy for the management of our tribe to reach a consensus and put the right to enforce the accountability system before all other powers."
"..."The faces of the two human spellcasters turned pale and then red, red and then blue, and blue and then black. It was so exciting that it could not be described in words.
"If 'J' wants to do better than other human officials, then I think the punishment for violations must be severe." Xiao Yun had no intention of letting them go and stared at the two with sharp eyes.
"——Of course." Aldoni almost gnashed his teeth. After a pause, the literary scholar said with a desperate attitude, "If there are people among us who break the rules and escape punishment, I swear, I will definitely hold them accountable."
Adrien nodded slowly and forcefully: "Me too."
Only then did Xiao Yun nod in satisfaction.
The idealistic "profession" of spellcasters is very particular about the state of mind, and their promises are valuable. With these two, Xiao Yunlong has collected the promises of three spellcasters in total (Alman had already surrendered his knee)... it's very stable.
Why do we have to force these guys to swear to abide by the rules?
Because these poor bastards simply can’t pay for the goods… After completing the “training”, the first batch of goods delivered to them must be sold on credit, and they can only pay after they are sold.
Xiao Yun absolutely sneered at the nonsense that the other party was a wild revolutionary with lofty ideals and believed in their moral character! It was hard to prevent a sly person from jumping out among three people, let alone more than 80 people?
So, Xiao Yun could only spend a few more bottles of water to help these poor people who were even poorer than the people on the grassland to set up the anti-camp team first...
After completing today's brainwashing and letting the two spellcasters go back to work, Xiao Yun did not rush to leave. He just walked into the preparation room.
"Dahe, I saw the compressed biscuits that Ruhua was chewing... Teething biscuits are pretty good. You should prepare some and make a batch of samples in the next two days."
"What do you want to do?" Dahe, who was staring at the oven, asked vigilantly.
"To expand the business of your welfare department." Xiao Yun had a blank expression. He was too lazy to even put on a show for this guy. "No need to make it into bone shapes, the simplest cubes will do. Add more oil, and you can omit the pork floss, or replace it with low-cost fish floss. Add some dried onions and pickles to enrich the taste, and sell it to the underground city as military rations."
In the war in the underground world, at least 50% of the food in the logistical supplies of both sides were products of the Fire Department... ahem.
Why is the military food business stuck at 50% and cannot go higher? The reason is simple: vermicelli is indeed a very convenient food, but it still has to be cooked if you want to eat it.
So after seeing Ruhua chewing on the teething biscuits, Xiao Yun naturally thought of the compressed biscuit business - if the steel production in the hilly new district had not reached the level of oversupply, Xiao Yun would have already thought of tinplate cans; now, it would be appropriate to start with compressed biscuits.
Dahe is such a smart guy. When he heard the word "military rations", he quickly shook his head and said, "No, we can't do it. We only have so many people in the Welfare Department. We can't produce such a large amount."
"That's not a problem. The agricultural production team doesn't need that many people now. We'll have a meeting later and arrange someone for you."
Dahe: “…”
"Make the samples first and send them to the underground city for people to taste. If there are no problems, increase the production." Xiao Yun walked out and reminded him before leaving, "Don't deliberately make it unpalatable. I will ask all the chefs in the cafeteria to come and sample it. Do you understand?"
Dahe: “…”
