People, so many people!

This road is built directly to the toll station in Zhengxing County, and you need to pay to enter the city.

Zhu Youxiao also queued for a long time before he was eligible to pay.

There are many people here.

A considerable number of them are merchants. When they enter Yongding County, they want to purchase Yongding County’s grain, peppers, soybeans and other crops.

Everyone was communicating, and as soon as the road in Zhengxing County was built, a large number of merchants came immediately.

Nowadays, many commercial workshops have been established in Yongding County, and the soybean oil, lard, chili sauce, and various other commodities produced are basically sold to the capital.

From the beginning when the Dog Emperor began to feed these refugees, until the land was divided later, Yongding County has been enjoying dividends, and its population has continued to expand, and now it has a population of hundreds of thousands.

These people are all paid, and the products they produce are sold well in the capital. They can even be transported directly to Jiangnan along the Tianjin Gate and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Yongding County has a great demand for supplies.

Apart from anything else, the three-legged golden toad and lucky cat now require a large amount of wood. Now that logging has been banned near Yongding County, the wood can only be transferred from other areas.

However, this requires transportation and freight.

In the past, Zhengxing County was not without wood, but it was a waste of effort to transport the wood to Yongding County.

The transportation in Zhengxing County cannot be said to be bad. It is almost non-existent. Although there are official roads, you may travel there every ten or eight years. Zhengxing County is a relatively close large county to Yongding County, but it still maintains the

A state of isolation.

It was not until last year that the imperial court allocated land to Zhengxing County to build farms. Then, under the leadership of government officials, they led the labor force of Zhengxing County to build roads during the slack period.

And Yongding County was really interesting. They brought in a lot of gunpowder and forcibly opened up a road.

These naturally require the imperial court, a political system with strong administrative capabilities, to implement it.

Once the road opened, the feeling immediately started to feel different.

In the past, it was only dozens of miles from Zhengxing County to Yongding County. However, the road was rugged. Even with a carriage, it would take three days and three nights to go back and forth. Moreover, your carriage can pull so much wood at one go, which is also difficult for the carriage.

damaged.

If we rely on people to carry burdens and wood, the time will be stretched infinitely, and it will be impossible to complete it every five or six days. Moreover, manpower also costs money. How many pieces of wood can you ask one person to carry at one time?

The roots are pretty good.

You still have to pay this person, and you also need to let him eat and drink along the way. All in all, not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive, but all the money is spent on transportation. As for how much you earn, don’t ask. If it’s not a loss, it’s pretty good.

.

For a long time, this Zhengxing County cannot be regarded as isolated from the world, but it can almost be said to be a pool of stagnant water with no liquidity at all.

As soon as the road was repaired, a large number of merchants immediately came in. Not to mention the pressure, there is still a lot of good wood in Zhengxing County. Now we have arranged for carriages to be transported directly to more than a dozen pieces of wood in one go.

However, now it is more direct. Yongding County has simply established a branch in Zhengxing County to directly process and produce the wood on the spot, and then transport it directly to Tianjin for sale through this cement road.

The price of this kind of lucky cat and three-legged golden toad has become lower and lower, and it has gradually become a small profit but quick turnover thing, but it is extremely popular in the south.

When Zhu Youxiao arrived here, he couldn't help but start to admire: "It's so prosperous here? It's really similar to Yongding County!"

Nowadays, the number of merchants visiting Yongding County is not a small number, and they come from all over the world.

For example, this chili sauce, as soon as the imperial court and the mutual market in Datong opened, there were people who wanted to sell this chili sauce directly to the Mongolians. Even if the journey is far away, even if the lower class of Mongolia cannot afford it, I can still do it.

Isn’t it the senior management who sold it to the Mongols?

Now, Zhengxing County is basically filled with businessmen from Yongding County.

Next are the businessmen from the capital.

Zhang Haogu smiled and said: "Brother Xiao, these people are all looking at Zhengxing County and know that Zhengxing County is profitable!"

"Why?" Zhu Youxiao asked curiously.

Zhang Haogu smiled and said: "Brother Xiao, do you know how much the price of food in the capital has increased?"

Zhu Youxiao was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know!"

"It's about five cents per catty of grain, but other things are still more expensive!" Zhang Haogu said with a smile: "Today's prices in Beijing and Yongding County are at least twice as high as in Zhengxing County!"

"Is this so possible?"

Zhu Youxiao was stunned. He really didn't care about these things during this period. He did a grain business with Zhang Haogu and made a lot of money, but he didn't care about it all the time.

these things.

Zhang Haogu said with a smile: "First, the tax revenue of the imperial court has increased, and secondly, the salary of bureaucrats has increased. In addition, Yongding County has re-stipulated that people must be paid for corvee work. For example, for building this cement road, they must be paid.

Money. When the imperial court increases taxes and starts infrastructure construction, these workers will have to pay!"

Zhu Youxiao frowned slightly, and Zhang Haogu continued: "The chili sauce workshop has to pay wages, the textile factory also has to pay wages, and the glass factory, etc., these all have to pay basic wages, although

What was given was copper coins, although what was given was silver, and although the fields were divided, prices in the capital and Yongding County began to increase slowly, because now that they have money, they start to consume!"

"For example, if a common man goes to work in a chili pepper factory, the most basic thing is to take care of the food. In some places, it is still more strict, and food and accommodation are provided. There are many people during the slack period. Even women can work, and some

Merchants make more money, such as our Jinchan Factory, which provides flour and rice, and those with poorer conditions also provide sweet potatoes and potatoes."

"In this way, the problem of food is solved, but these hundreds of thousands of people are no longer exploited by the government, and they have money in their hands. Their spending power is even more amazing."

"Is this a good thing?" Zhu Youxiao frowned: "I have only heard that the price of this food will increase in years of famine. This year's harvest should be very good, but the price has still increased. This is very important to the capital and Yongding.

I’m afraid it’s not a good thing for the people of the county!”

"Brother Xiao, don't worry. In the past, these people just wanted to have food and clothing. But now, they want to wear new clothes, and they also want to consume this old godmother. In addition, there is learning,

If you are proficient in arithmetic, congratulations, your monthly money will increase a bit."

"Some people have begun to produce pens, inks, paper and inkstones on a large scale, because these formerly poor people have become rich, and they begin to want their children to study well and be literate. As for what you are talking about, Brother Xiao, the capital and Yongding

The price of food in the county has increased, Brother Xiao, let me ask you the simplest question!"

Zhu Youxiao became interested and couldn't help but said: "Ask!"

"If you were a grain merchant and you knew that the price of grain in Zhengxing County was only half of that in Beijing and Yongding County, what would you do?" Zhang Haogu asked with a smile.

"Then I will definitely buy grain from Zhengxing County and sell it in the capital!" Zhu Youxiao said matter-of-factly: "Master, I understand, this is the purpose of your road construction, right?"

Zhang Haogu laughed, nodded and said: "That's right. The purpose of building roads is to break up the restrictions between them, make transportation more convenient, and also allow the poor areas around the capital to enjoy the benefits of the development of the capital and Yongding County.

dividend!"

"No wonder the master is trying his best to promote this kind of large-scale infrastructure construction. It turns out that the real purpose is here. Before, I was still wondering whether the scale of doing this was too big, but now it seems that the scale must be even bigger!"

Zhu Youxiao felt that he had received a lot of goods, and he nodded immediately and said: "It seems that this road not only needs to be repaired, but also needs to be repaired on a large scale, so that things from remote areas can be sold to the capital, to Jiangnan, and even to Jiangnan.

Sell ​​it overseas, sell it to the Mongols, and sell it to the Jurchens!"

"Brother Xiao is right!

"

Zhang Haogu said: "Speaking of which, if Brother Xiao can really build this steam engine, we can use the steam engine to pull more goods in the future. In this way, it will be ten times or a hundred times more convenient than a horse-drawn carriage."

more than!"

Zhu Youxiao was slightly startled, but he couldn't help but think of Zhang Haogu bragging in front of him when they first met, saying that it was Zhuge Liang's wooden cow and flowing horse, an iron cart that could walk automatically.

At first, Zhu Youxiao still didn't believe it more or less, but now, Zhu Youxiao really believes it. The steam engine he built is still far from successful, but he also has a good grasp of the principles.

Thorough.

Although he didn't get it out, he had a vague and strong feeling that this thing would definitely be successful.

At this time, Zhu Youxiao started to flirt. If it was like what Zhang Haogu said, and there were really some kind of railways built all over the Ming Dynasty to transport goods and soldiers, what would the Ming Dynasty be like?

What does it look like?

Speaking of which, can Zhuge Liang really compare with himself?

"He Fei, please take us to the county government office to have a look!" Zhang Haogu smiled.

"Okay, but sirs, the county government may be a little busy. I wonder if the county magistrate has time to see you!" He Fei said with a smile.

"Don't worry, if you take us there, he will make time even if he doesn't have time!" Zhang Haogu said with a smile.

Today, the magistrate of Zhengxing County is named Cui Jingyuan.

This Cui Jingyuan was not from the imperial examination. He was one of Zhang Haogu's own who was promoted by Zhang Haogu. He was the acting county magistrate.

Although he is an agent, his basic salary and salary are no different from those of a normal official.

When he will become a full-time official depends on Cui Jingyuan's political performance.

When Zhang Haogu and Zhu Youxiao came over together, Cui Jingyuan was still meeting people. Zhengxing County and Yongding County are different these days. Yongding County relies on the Yongding River, and it is easy to live and do nothing.

It's better to get water locally.

However, Zhengxing County was unable to do so. It was extremely troublesome to obtain water. At this time, Cui Jingyuan's main focus was still on building a reservoir. Naturally, it was not the kind of reservoir that could regulate floods. At most, it was just some reservoirs specially used to store water.

However, the construction plan of this reservoir is not simple, and it requires repeated discussions.

This also involves all walks of life, and there is also the fact that you cannot build a reservoir during the busy farming period, you have to wait until the slack farming season. In addition, in the past few years, you have experienced disasters from the Little Ice Age from time to time, which also made Cui Jingyuan extremely interested.

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To be continued...