After the "Railway Law" came to an end, Zhu Youxiao said: "In the "University", it is said that there is a way to make money. I would like to use this sentence here today to reiterate another point of view, because there is a great way, so you can make money. ”

The ministers laughed together, and the original text of this sentence was "There is a way to make money, there are many people who live, there are few people who eat, those who are sick for it, and those who use it are comfortable, and the wealth is enough." It refers to the path to abundant wealth. And now the avenue that Zhu Youxiao said is pointing the way.

Zhu Youxiao also smiled: "The importance of the road, you don't need to say more, everyone naturally understands." How many minerals cannot be transported out of the mountains, and how much grain rots and deteriorates because they cannot be transported, wealth must be circulated to be useful, and the road is the channel of circulation. I decided to start building roads across the country, and we were going to build not only railways, but more importantly, roads. Highway people, everyone public road also. Roads that are not afraid of rain and snow are built with cement, so that all parts of the country can be connected all year round. ”

Zhong Yuzheng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, said: "Your Majesty, the imperial court doesn't have so much money to build roads across the country." Moreover, the manpower and material resources it mobilized are afraid that the imperial court cannot afford it. ”

Bi Ziyan said: "The problem of money is easy to solve, first find a bank to borrow money, and after the road is built, you can charge a fee, so that it only takes a few years to pay off the construction costs." This adjustment of manpower and material resources is indeed a troublesome matter, and our number of officials is insufficient. ”

Zhu Youxiao said with a smile: "Bi Gelao's idea of borrowing money first and then repaying the money is very good. The use of new coins, especially when five coins were used for fifty coins, greatly reduced the cost of our coinage, and the banks had enough money to lend to the imperial court to build roads. As for the issue of manpower and material resource adjustment, I have another idea, why must the imperial court build the highway itself? Why can't we contract out some of the construction to the private sector? ”

Sun Chuanting reacted the fastest: "Your Majesty Shengming." If we leave the leveling of the roadbed to the people, we only need to pour the cement ourselves, which can indeed greatly reduce the number of our workers. ”

Zhu Youxiao said with a smile: "No matter how bold you are, in fact, the matter of pouring cement can also be handed over to the people, we only need to survey the route and provide technical guidance." ”

Bi Ziyan said: "In this way, the burden on the court will indeed be lighter." However, in this case, the quality of construction cannot be guaranteed, and if there is a behavior of cutting corners and shoddy, it will be troublesome. ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "To prevent the quality from not meeting the standard, we have two methods, one is quality supervision, if you do not meet our requirements, we will not accept, we will not give you money, let you work in vain." The second is the quality assurance period, after you repair the road, if there is a big quality problem within ten or twenty years, it is confirmed that it is related to your construction, then you will be punished according to the law. Punish you ten times your gains, and you will never be able to turn over. ”

Xu Guangqi said: "Your Majesty, this law is very good. Then the law must be set in place, so that people know that it cannot be done, so that the punishment after the fact will be justified. ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "Don't bother the two masters, Master Fang already has the successful experience of the "Railway Law" in the past, and this "Highway Law" will also trouble Master Fang." ”

Fang Congzhe said: "The old minister will live up to his holy hopes. ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "I am going to set up a Daming Highway Committee, and I will personally serve as the chairman. Zhong Shangshu served as the chairman of the executive committee, and selected officials from the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Crime, and the Ministry of Agriculture to form a committee, organized route survey personnel from the Geography Section of the Research Institute, and transferred personnel from the Dongchang, Jinyiwei, the Independent Office of Integrity, and the Economic Investigation Bureau to form the Quality Supervision Bureau, so that the Ordnance Bureau could manufacture a large number of road-building machinery, and set up a gunpowder blasting bureau. Students are selected from the school to form a highway investment bureau, and the bank issues road bonds. I want to make the township through the highway in my lifetime, all the gentlemen, by that time, the Ming Dynasty will be connected by these roads into a whole, this is a greater project than Qin Chi Road, all the monarchs will be famous in history because of this great project. ”

The ministers said together: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "The construction of the railway cannot be undertaken by the private sector now, so the royal construction team has to recruit more technicians and laborers, I want to build two railways first, one is from Jingshi to Nanjing, and the other is from Shanhaiguan to Mugu Hewei by the mixed river, from here we can directly lead to Nuergan City by water." In the future, we will repair to Shaanxi, Hetao, Sichuan, and finally let the whole country be connected to the railway. ”

When they heard about the Hetao, some of the ministers looked puzzled, isn't the Hetao now in the hands of the Mongols? Zhu Youxiao saw it in his eyes, and he waved his hand and said, "After the Eastern Military Region settles down, I will take back the land of the Hetao." ”

The matter of the Loop is clearly not the issue under discussion. Zhu Youxiao also said: "The exploration of navigation rivers in the whole country has already begun, water transportation is less expensive, the carrying capacity is large, and China's river network is dense, so we must vigorously develop water transportation. I have ordered Chen Shilang to go to the south to investigate, Zuo Shilang to go to the Tongjiang and Liaohe rivers to investigate, the admirals are also surveying the sea routes, and the Qingjiang shipyard is stepping up construction to build all kinds of ships suitable for rivers, lakes and seas. ”

The ministers were also excited, and the emperor's willingness to put his focus back on the country was more satisfying to the civil officials than to grab space outside. And through the road, the river network connects the world, which is also popular with everyone.

Soon, the Daming Highway Committee was established, Zhong Yuzheng was so busy every day that his left foot couldn't catch up with his right foot, and everyone lost several pounds, but his complexion was much better than usual. The Committee has a Quality Supervision Bureau, which specializes in managing the quality of roads; Highway Investment Promotion Bureau, which is responsible for bidding in various places and attracting private capital and human resources; the Directorate of Route Exploration, which is responsible for delineating routes, taking into account the impact on agriculture, rivers; The Gunpowder Demolition Bureau, which is responsible for providing explosives for construction to deal with difficult-to-pass places such as mountain peaks in the route.

The Highway Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is composed of personnel from Dongchang, Jinyiwei, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and the Economic Investigation Bureau, is to ensure fairness in the bidding process and prevent the occurrence of power-for-money transactions. It is under the direct management of Wei Zhongxian and is not under the jurisdiction of the Daming Highway Committee. The road bonds issued by the bank are also issued by the Royal Bank of Daming alone, and the bonds are divided into three years and five years, with maturity rates of 20% and 40% respectively. This is much higher than the bank's deposit rate, and the first tranche of 10,000 yuan of bonds was snapped up within a month.