On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, outside Yingtian Prefecture, the official pavilion was connected.

Zhu Gaochi stepped on the hard road and looked at the crowds of people woven on the road, thinking.

"Is this...a new road?" He turned his head and asked Li Jinglong, who was sitting in the pavilion with a bright python robe next to him.

In the winter sun, the python robe on Li Jinglong seems to be shining. Looking closely, his python robe is very different from other people's python robe. It is more exquisite and more atmospheric...

First of all, he is really tall and strong, and looks good in whatever he wears.

Secondly, his python robe seems to be specially woven for him, and it is unique.

Zhu Gaochi added in his heart, "Burn the bun!"

"This has been repaired for two years, don't you know?" Li Jinglong said with a smile, holding a warm stove in his hand, "Did you not pay attention to the previous times you left Beijing?"

"The waterway I took the previous few times! I never walked here!"

Zhu Gaochi said in a muffled voice, then turned to look at the surging crowds on the official road.

Most of what he saw were caravans, or horse-drawn carriages loading vegetables, rice and grain by farmers around him. There were all kinds of people from all over the caravans, some were driving flocks of sheep, some carried baskets of chickens and ducks, and carrying cloth and various seafood... countless.

The official road in the past was just passed by the official.

The middle is high and the sides are low. When it is rainy, it is difficult to move forward. The big beasts rushing to the whip and then barely pull the trucks.

But now, the road is flat and the truck wheels are spinning very fast.

He squatted down with difficulty and touched the slightly concave and convex road surface with his hands.

"It's all mixed with sand bricks and stones!" At some point, Li Jinglong came over and whispered.

"Hiss..." Zhu Gaochi gritted his teeth and took a breath of air conditioning.

The cost is too high!

Only emperors built tombs or built the city walls of the capital can have such high specifications, but now they are used for road construction!

At the same time, he was a little annoyed, and he lived in the capital, so why didn’t he pay attention before?

"This road started planning five years ago when Emperor Taizu Gao was still there!" Li Jinglong continued to smile, "The five-year tariffs of Ningbo Customs have not moved at all. After saving enough money, it started to work. It started to cover the surrounding eight counties from the capital, connect to Fengyang to the north, and to Yangzhou to the south..."

"Yansui also said that Ningbo's tariffs cannot be moved in the next few years. Didn't we start to build the Qingzhou Ancient Road last year? Connect the Qingzhou Ancient Road to the capital...Yansui said that if you want to be rich, you must first build the road..."

"He is really willing to give up!" Zhu Gaochi said in his heart.

He has always thought that the son of the sage is very happy!

But we have to admit that the son is really willing to spend a lot of money on people's livelihood.

"At the time, some people in the Hanlin Academy said that it would be no more to make a profit to repair such a good road, but after this road was repaired, the city gate tax of Yingtian Mansion was 40% higher than in previous years!" Li Jinglong smiled, "No need to do more. Even if this road can only be used for twenty years, the court will make a lot of money!"

Zhu Gaochi thought about it, "How can such a good road be gone for nothing?"

He looked at the crowd on the road and continued, "The road is depleted, and you can't just count the input! It also costs money to maintain. There are many rainy and tides in the south of the Yangtze River. Even if you can't keep it, the road will easily rot for three or five years! There is also the north, which is frozen in winter and sunbaqiao in summer, and it takes less than two or three years to support it..."

As he said that, he stood up and said, "Since the road was built by the court, the merchants had to give money to the road if they wanted to walk, so that the money they had to maintain it would be...."

"Someone said you before!" Li Jinglong raised his eyebrows, "The old man was still there, but after hearing this, he almost used the soles of his shoes to draw people! The old man said that the road was originally for people to walk. The imperial court used the people's money and cream, but his mother was not allowed to walk? She still had to charge money? She was so poor that she was crazy?"

"In the countryside, wealthy families pay to build bridges and roads to facilitate the people, but they didn't say they set up a card and thought about collecting money. The court built roads and also set up a card... Is he shameless?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Gaochi smiled.

This is indeed something the old man can say!

Suddenly, he savored something from Li Jinglong's words just now.

"The money from Ningbo Customs cannot be moved in the next few years?"

Li Jinglong looked ahead from a distance, then looked at Zhu Gaochi, "Don't you know, our master? We have always been after making plans... Not only can the money from Ningbo Customs, but the money from the city gate tax in the capital cannot be moved!"

"Hiss..." Zhu Gaochi grinned again.

The money from Ningbo Customs is the money from the national treasury, but the city gate tax in the capital is the emperor's own small treasury!

In a big city with a population of tens of millions, the annual city gate tax is only a lot higher than that of Ningbo Customs’ customs tariffs, or even far more than that.

"I have lived in the capital for so many years, but I just live in the city. I never thought of looking outside the city..." Zhu Gaochi said in his heart, "I am in the court, he is in the palace. My heart is only above the court, but his heart is not only above the court!"

At this time, Li Jinglong looked at Zhu Gaochi's expression and said, "Do you still remember the story of Li Zhigang's letter two years ago?"

"I have too many books on it, who remembers?" Zhu Gaochi snorted.

This name made him feel uncomfortable instinctively.

"That time did he write to the emperor to build a tomb?" Li Jinglong whispered.

Zhu Gaochi suddenly remembered that when Li Zhigang was still the Minister of Rites, he first took the lead and asked the emperor to start choosing a site to build a tomb for the sake of the Ming Dynasty's ten thousand years of planning. The second thing was to move the capital...

"What does it have to do with road construction?" Zhu Gaochi asked again.

"The mausoleum workers, the money given by the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works is 2.62 million yuan!" Li Jinglong said again, "The emperor may have saved the money from Li Zhigang's memorial!" As he said, stepping on the road, "One is counted in the budget for road construction!" Then, he looked around and said, "I haven't seen Lian Zining much in the past few years, right?"

"Yes!" Zhu Gaochi responded.

"I'm staring at the road all day!" Li Jinglong grinned, "When you were in Myanmar, I saw it once outside the Qianqing Palace. Lian Zining was only in his thirties and his hair was white!"

"A capable minister!" Zhu Gaochi thought about something.

At this moment, Li Jinglong suddenly stretched his neck and looked out again, "Here is here!"

Zhu Gaochi also followed the other party's gaze, as if at the end of the sky, a team of cavalry with distinctive armor came overwhelmed with a roar.

~~~

Through the north, Zhu Di actually saw much more than Zhu Gaochi.

The world of Ming Dynasty seemed to change every day.

There are construction sites everywhere, either building roads, bridges, mountains, or reservoirs...

As a prince who once guarded a place and controlled the civil affairs of the army, he knew how much civilian efforts these projects would cost.

Once the court has more corvee labor, the people will complain, and if there are complaints, there may be chaos in the people...

However, the men he saw when he came to the capital from the north these days were definitely not full of bitterness and revenge.

Because now the court calls on the civilians and actually gives money!

Although the wages are not much, only ten large amounts of money...

Ten big money can be exchanged for twenty steamed buns and a bad towel in the city...

But in the eyes of the farmers who have never seen cash for the whole year, they are real money!

And if a person costs ten big money a day, how much does it cost to have ten thousand people and one hundred thousand people?

With so many people giving money, how much gold does the imperial court have?

Wherever you pass along the way, the civilians were transferred to build various projects, and the elderly, young, women and children at home made some soup and some washing work, and they could earn an additional income.

The civilians are reluctant to spend money, but the merchants who transport various materials of sand and gravel, as well as the guards who monitor tens of thousands of civilians are willing to spend money!

Damn, the price of meat has increased!

Zhu Di looked at the majestic Yingtian Prefecture Gate again, feeling indescribable.
Chapter completed!