Ai Zhixin
Ai Zhixin is Ai Zhixin emerges as a pivotal and methodical figure within Guangzhou’s evolving bureaucratic and financial landscape during a period of radical institutional transformation. Serving initially as an administrative assistant or tax collector with sharp numerical acumen—highlighted by his exceptional abacus skills—aided in navigating the city’s chaotic currency reform and complex taxation systems, where Delong Bank’s role as a transitional central bank clashed with emerging commercial levies. His expertise becomes critical not just for fiscal planning but also in overseeing the bureaucratic tensions between state mandates and local inefficiencies, such as the abolition of dysfunctional commercial taxes in favor of punitive land taxation. As Deputy Director and later Director of the Finance and Tax Bureau, Ai Zh
Context from Novel
"Chapter 1801 - The Tax Bureau Chief The financial machinery for Guangzhou's currency reform was already grinding into motion. Delong Bank had seeded the urban landscape with branch offices and opened exchange counters at every Credit Cooperative, prepared to convert the chaotic flood of silver taels and copper cash into standardized currency. Deep within the stone vaults of Delong's Guangzhou headquarters, wooden barrels and wicker baskets waited like hungry mouths to swallow the miscellaneous c"
"Chapter 1802 - Industrial and Commercial Taxes In some localities, the dysfunction had metastasized to the point where collection costs actually exceeded revenue, prompting authorities to simply abolish commercial taxation altogether and make up the shortfall through punitive land tax increases. Guangzhou's commercial taxes hadn't been formally abolished—they simply existed in a state of functional death. In their place had emerged an entirely separate system of local commercial levies. After th"
"Chapter 1803 - Staking Claims By any reasonable standard of administrative procedure, Minister Hong should have first coordinated with the Delong banking system to assess the fiscal situation, then dispatched military representatives to accompany Delong personnel in a monitoring capacity. But this was a period of profound institutional transition—Delong Bank was transforming from a central bank into a commercial institution—and a thousand administrative threads hung loose with no one available t"
"Chapter 1900 - The Public Memorial The Public Memorial After intensive planning and preparation, the public memorial ceremony officially entered its implementation phase. According to Liu Xiang's plan, the memorial could not be permitted to take on too strong a religious character—especially not one favoring any particular sect. Cui Hantang's original proposal to erect a ritual altar at the memorial site and conduct an eighteen-day Grand Luotian Jiao to pacify souls, pray for blessings, and reas"
"Chapter 1916 - Interview (Part One) This was absolutely out of the question. First, though the Zeng family were modest urbanites, they still observed the proprieties of parental arrangement and matchmaker's words. Having just passed the civil service examination at this moment of triumph, there was no way he could simply be dragged off into marriage. Second, Zeng Juan had long harbored secret feelings for Zhang Yu's cousin Zhang Ting, and had also been exchanging glances with the young miss from"
Appearances
Appears in chapters: 1802, 1803, 1804, 1901, 1917, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020, 2045, 2047, 2051, 2052, 2053, 2054, 2055, 2056, 2057, 2058, 2059, 2060, 2313, 2314, 2344, 2371, 2372, 2381, 2388, 2390, 2391, 2392, 2484.