"Bet? What are the stakes? ”

Not only was the emperor surprised, but the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty also looked at Chen Xu in a daze.

"Bet on a road, the minister is willing to bet on the construction of a cement road leading from Xianyang to Qi County in the same way as the three chapters of the law, so that you can see the vitality of the merchants after the relaxation of the Shang Law and the great changes it has brought to my Daqin, if it succeeds, Your Majesty and you will support my request to revise the Shang Law......"

"Is the Marquis of Qinghe saying that you can ask the imperial court to let the merchants build a cement road from Xianyang to Qi County without spending a stone?" Li Si looked up at Chen Xu suddenly, his face distorted with surprise.

"Not bad!" Chen Xu nodded, looking at Li Si with a warm face, "I know that Li is the most dissatisfied with my proposal, but if I use a year to build this road leading to Qi County, and it doesn't cost the imperial court a stone of money and grain, and use it as a bet in exchange for Li Xiang's support, I don't know if Li Xiang dares to gamble with me!" ”

Li Si's surprised expression slowly became extremely solemn.

In fact, in the eyes of everyone, national policies and decrees are not immutable, whether they are changed or not, how to change them, are just driven by interests.

Li Si could refuse to change the commercial law for the sake of a bureaucracy representing his own interests, but he had to accept Chen Xu's bet in the interests of the country.

To refuse, to disregard the interests of the country, will inevitably make the emperor dissatisfied with him.

This road must not be repaired by the emperor, has been said several times in person, ordered the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Industry to set up a special bureau to prepare for this matter, but the investment of nearly 10 million stones can be said to account for nearly one-third of the annual financial revenue of Daqin, if the construction starts, this nearly 10 million stones must be squeezed out, the three provinces and six ministries have to endure tremendous pressure for this, forced labor and preparation of tools and money, at least nearly one million people must be used, no less than fighting a protracted war to destroy the country, in the current situation of heavy labor, One carelessness will shake the country's foundation, and if there is another famine, the consequences will be unpredictable.

The emperor knew about this consequence, Li Si also knew it, and the civil and military officials also knew it.

At the moment, the Marquis of Qinghe suddenly proposed that the emperor could pick up a road without spending a stone, and the emperor had no possibility of refusing, even if the emperor did not speak, Feng Quji would definitely jump out to support, because all the things about building the road would inevitably be pressed on the head of the six departments in the end, in the face of such a big hot potato, it was natural to throw as far as he could, if possible, the Marquis of Qinghe asked Feng Quji to run naked in Xianyang to help repair the road, and Feng Quji would not have too much hesitation.

Because after running around naked, Feng Quji will definitely not become a joke, but a national hero, and the officials of the three provinces and six ministries and the chief officials of each county will be inexplicably grateful to him.

But if you take the bet, then once Chen Xu's plan is successful, Li Si has to support Chen Xu's reform to loosen the law of commerce, and Shangjia has since turned into a huge force, and Chen Xu will continue to promote the reforms he needs one after another, and Li Si's position will inevitably begin to decline.

This gamble is actually a bet on their respective futures and status.

After victory, he received strong support from the emperor and many ministers to dominate the court.

If you lose, you will either accumulate strength and make a comeback, or you will completely withdraw from the power struggle at the highest level of the court.

The civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty all turned their heads to look at Chen Xu and Li Si.

This is the second time that the Marquis of Qinghe and Zuo Xiang have faced each other in the court.

Regarding the relaxation of the law to suppress Shang Jia this time, in fact, the biggest opposition force comes from the Legalist disciples represented by Li Si, because the formulation of the law has always been the confinement of Li Si and the Legalist disciples, and outsiders cannot touch it at all.

But today, Chen Xu forced Li Si into a corner.

In public or private, Li Si has no possibility of refusing.

"Okay, the old man will bet this game with Qinghe Hou!" After a short silence, Li Si smiled and bowed his hand to Chen Xu.

"Huh~" The officials in the entire court almost unanimously breathed a sigh of relief, and even the emperor's clenched fist slowly loosened.

If Li Si refused, Qin Shi Huang would definitely be very disappointed in Li Si.

Regardless of whether Chen Xu's plan is successful or not, if Li Si refuses, it will be an absolute selfish performance.

"Your Majesty, since the gambling contract between the Marquis of Qinghe and Zuo Xiang has been concluded, the minister is willing to be a witness for this gambling contract!" Feng Qu stood up with a smile and gave up his hand, at this time he felt that the bones in his body were lighter than ten catties, and his soul was about to float out of his body.

"Haha, what Feng Xiang said is that I will naturally have to be a supervisor in the supervision province, and I hope that Qinghe Hou and Li Xiang will abide by the gambling contract!" Meng Yi laughed heartily and stood up.

"Okay~" Qin Shi Huang, who was sitting on the dragon chair, also stood up with a happy expression, and waved his sleeves: "The two Aiqing have never made this bet for thousands of years, and they have passed on the edict that from today onwards, all the property and property needed by the Marquis of Qinghe will be agreed, and the six departments of the three provinces will cooperate closely, and those who innocently shirk and delay will be severely punished!" ”

"Your Ministers obey!" The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty all stood up and bowed down to receive the order.

"Qinghe Hou, since the gambling contract has been completed, I don't know when you plan to start building the road?" Li Si asked with a calm face.

"After the beginning of spring next year, the time limit is one year, and Cheng hopes that Li Xiang will fulfill his promise, but if it doesn't work, Ben Hou will no longer put forward any recital to loosen the business law from now on!"

"Good!"

……

"Eternal bet, this is really a eternal bet!"

After the dispersal of the dynasty, this incident in the court quickly swept through Xianyang like a hurricane, and it was almost a household name in less than an hour.

Whether it is the princes and princesses, the rich businessmen or the hundred scholars, they are all stunned by Chen Xu and Li Si's huge bet of tens of millions of stones.

Whether it is the streets and alleys or the Quyuan Miscellaneous House, countless people have gathered together to talk about this latest topic, some are surprised, some are afraid, and some have nothing to do with themselves, but most people are curious about how Qinghehou successfully built this road of more than 2,000 miles out of thin air.

In the Daqin Metropolis Newspaper, after Chen Ping and the others learned the news, they all looked sluggish, and then they became a pot of porridge, I don't know why Chen Xu had to bet on such a big game with Li Si, which not only forced Li Si into a corner, but actually forced Chen Xu himself into a corner.

"Hurry up, Master Hou is here!" Just when a large group of people gathered in Chen Ping's general affairs room and were arguing, a steward sweating profusely ran in and said loudly.

Chen Xu's carriage drove into the newspaper office, and Chen Ping Jitong and other high-level officials of the newspaper office had already greeted the courtyard.

"Master Hou!"

"I've seen Master Hou!"

After a group of people greeted the ceremony, they hugged Chen Xu to the general affairs room, surrounded Chen Xu and began to noisily ask about the gambling contract.

"Master Hou, this gamble is thankless, once you fail, your reputation will plummet from now on!" Chen Ping was so excited that he couldn't wait to press Chen Xu under the table.

Chen Xu drank the tea slowly, moistened his throat and said, "Where does the reputation come from?" What's the use of fame? It wasn't something I did on the spur of the moment, but it was very difficult, so I'm here to ask for your help! ”

"Master Hou, even if we all go to help you move stones and level the roadbed to burn cement, we won't be able to build a hundred and ten miles of roads in a year, and I heard that this road will invest tens of millions of stone in money, where does this money come from?" Fu An smiled bitterly.

"Could it be that the Hou Ye will also turn stones into gold immortal arts?" Ji Tong's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Nod your head, if Ben Hou will turn stones into gold, what am I going to do with opening Qinghe Garden to make money?" Chen Xu couldn't cry or laugh.

"Then it will be difficult to do, this matter will undoubtedly be lost, Li Si and his group of disciples and grandchildren of the Legalist family may be even more arrogant in the future!" A group of people rubbed their hands and pulled their beards in a hurry.

"Don't be impatient, although this matter is extremely difficult, it is not unsolvable, but it needs to be carefully planned, and also, help me plan a full-page advertisement, Benhou will raise funds to build the road......"

"Master Hou, what is fundraising?"

"Fundraising is to raise funds, I don't understand such a simple meaning, how did I get mixed up in the newspaper?" Chen Xu couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Hou Ye said quickly, how to raise funds? I'll help Hou Ye publish this fundraising advertisement as soon as possible! Chen Ping urged eagerly.

"Don't worry, I'll explain to you the construction method and process of this road first, and then discuss the fundraising plan in detail......" Chen Xu put down the teacup and stood up and walked to the front of the blackboard in the general affairs room, and an editor-in-chief hurriedly came up to wipe the contents of the blackboard clean.

"Everyone is optimistic, this is the big river, this is Xianyang, Luoyang, Xinzheng, Daliang and Linzi, but also the Oriental Road through the Central Plains to the East China Sea several major cities, in addition to more than ten counties, these counties are at least 100 miles apart, each of them is at least two ......hours of carriage and horse travel at least two hours"

Chen Xu took the chalk and first drew a few zigzag Yellow River on the blackboard, and then roughly circled the locations of several county towns along the way and wrote the names with a few strokes, all in very scribbled italics, and everyone in the newspaper was also accustomed to Chen Xu's unique font.

"The places where this road passes are the prosperous and rich areas of the Central Plains, densely populated along the way, rich in products, and it is also the most active area of Daqin merchants at present, boats and boats transport goods along the big river, and the Oriental Road built is basically parallel to the big river, forming a parallel traffic situation of waterways, and the goods transported by boats and boats need dry road traffic connections to gather and evacuate, so this Oriental Road is basically the busiest avenue for goods, and the caravans of cars and horses come and go every day......"

"If this eastern road is built into a flat cement road, it will greatly promote the flow of goods and information transmission between Xianyang and the entire eastern region, the four-hundred-mile expedited fast horse now takes about ten days to reach Xianyang from Qi County, but if the road is repaired, this time will be shortened by half, and the efficiency of cargo transportation will be increased by at least ten times, if a caravan transports a large number of sea salt from the East China Sea to Xianyang, it may go to Huai'an, Xuzhou, Suzhou, Bozhou, Wancheng, and then take the Wuguan Road to Xianyang, But if this cement soil is repaired, the salt merchants will inevitably go to Suzhou Shangqiu and then go on the Oriental Road, so that the number of cars and horses passing on this road every day will be several times, and when you go out, no matter the people and horses can not escape from eating, drinking, Lasa and sleep, and there are goods transit and carriage repairs, etc., you need to have a place to deal with these things, my idea is to set up more than ten large service stations along the Oriental Road to provide rest services for business travelers, and to five large cities as the transit core, Set up five large-scale logistics trading market ......"

"Therefore, this fund-raising plan is to use the operating rights of these five logistics markets and more than ten service stations as collateral, and collect funds from all the merchants in Daqin to build this road......