Chapter 259: The Great Wedding (I)

Although Huaidefang belongs to the west side of Chang'an, the terrain is by no means remote, only next to the West Market. It is not too far from the Taiji Palace, so many officials choose to live here.

The southeast corner is the mansion of the giant businessman Zou Fengchi, because there are many taboos, the mansion does not dare to build how high, but the flying building is no less than Xu Jingzong's mansion in Luoyang. See only the outside, the interior decoration is even more extravagant to the extreme, even the floor of the living room is paved with exquisite white marble, there are many furniture with rare mahogany to beat, this is the real mahogany furniture, not the later counterfeit painted red paint "mahogany furniture". In the room where he lives, the walls are inlaid with dozens of night pearls, which glow with a faint green light every time night comes. The other rooms were also covered with smooth wax, and from time to time a gold or jade or ivory ornament or two sprang up.

The extravagance is not even as good as the decoration of the interior of the palace.

At this time, Zou Fengchi was sitting under the grape trellis in the courtyard, and the tea he drank was also the old tree tea in Xiazhou, that is, the kind of precious tribute tea that Li Wei was usually reluctant to drink.

It can't be said that he has a low status, for the court, he is still an ant who can be trampled to death at any time, but after all, he is an ant, and he can make the ministers of the court and the central government see it. The common people and other businessmen are not even ants in the eyes of the officials, they are unknown gravel.

At this time, he was talking to the housekeeper. The housekeeper looked at the master very respectfully, because Zou Feng's shoulders were high and his back was bent, so people called him Zou Camel again. The camel is big, can carry heavy loads, and there are many camel goods, Zou Fengchi is not ashamed, but proud of this nickname.

Zou Fengchi said: "Give a certain reserve of 30,000 yuan." ”

"Ah Lang, what do you want so much money for?" The housekeeper was puzzled, 30,000 yuan was not 30,000 yuan, or it was a business, and it didn't take so much capital. With Zou Fengchi's wealth, 30,000 yuan is also not a small amount.

"I'm going to sea."

That is, competing for the 100 places mentioned by the prince, the housekeeper was even more puzzled, and said: "Ah Lang, although your family property is all over the country, the center of gravity is still in Guanzhong, not in the southeast. And Alang, your wealth is in silk weaving, and it has nothing to do with shipping. ”

There are many wealthy businessmen in Chang'an City, some rely on shipping, some rely on smuggling, some rely on usury, some also operate real estate, sit on countless shops to collect rent, some make a fortune is very strange, some people make a fortune by selling porridge, or collect garbage to make a fortune, and some people make a fortune by digging horse manure, but Zou Fengchi is very orthodox to make a fortune, opened countless silk workshops, and made a fortune by the mainstream silk industry. There were other estates, or fields, but none of them had a small share of his wealth.

Zou Fengchi shook his head and said, "The prince's new canal is mainly finance. He didn't want to hurt the people, so he didn't use forced labor to make the people open canals, but opened canals in the form of raising funds to raise people, and the financial court was even more insufficient. Therefore, the way to come up with a way to allow businessmen to go to sea and raise money is not that businessmen are not enthusiastic, but that in addition to finance, the other is the difficulty of opening the canal, and the Sui Dynasty had no way to solve the risk of the three doors in the past. and with the Dan water canal, I don't know how much money is needed. Everyone is worried that it has become a bottomless pit, and the Ming Dynasty has donated it, and the Ming Dynasty still has it. emptied the name of a good businessman, but emptied his own family. ”

"Alang, exactly."

"The crowd is angry, and everyone is very worried." Encouraging wealthy businessmen to donate to the imperial court was not Li Wei's head, Wu Zetian's father Wu Shi Tong was not counted, he was friendly with Li Yuan before Li Yuan had an incident, and he made many contributions to the founding and governance of the Tang Dynasty. But in the hands of Li Shimin, Peng Tong, a merchant from Anzhou, offered 5,000 pieces of cloth for the military expenses of Liaodong, and asked Li Shimin to give the title of Xuanyilang (Congqipin), an official of Wensan. When Li Zhi conquered the east, Peng Zhiyun, a merchant from Anzhou, donated 30,000 pieces of cloth to sponsor the military and gave Feng Yilang (from the six products), which in a sense was equivalent to conferring an official title.

However, some ministers think that it is not good for businessmen to be officials, after all, money is already very powerful, and obtaining an official position is even more powerful, which is conducive to exploitation. Regular merchants are better, like some merchants who have already accumulated money from bad money, or smuggling, or usury. Obtaining an official position is even more harmful. But as a businessman, they also have their own ideas, and if I cut the meat, it must be more or less beneficial. Even when going to sea, there are still many rules and regulations, coupled with the opposition of the government and the opposition, so the businessmen are timid.

The two talked, and did not talk about the owner of the island from beginning to end. The owner of the island has more frames, and he is overseas, who is interested. If it is clearly stipulated that the first-class owner is the seventh grade, the second-class owner is the eighth grade, and the third-class owner is the ninth grade, the merchants will immediately flock to it. There is not a single grade, and after decades of operation, it will have to be returned to the imperial court, so it is not regarded as a thing. Of course, it's not like that, if there is really a great voyage, these island owners are also very noble, and even this one-tenth of the eternal succession can recreate a family. But Li Wei is not sure, who businessman has this eyesight?

But Zou Fengchi changed the topic and said: "But with the quarrying technology, the new canal is not impossible to achieve, and the prince sent the official to visit the three gates, which shows the prince's determination." Xinqu Yicheng, the crown prince succeeded to the throne, and no one could stop him. Even if Xu Jingzong was alive in the past, he couldn't hinder it. We are just lowly merchants, a king and a courtier, a certain degree of wealth, crowned the first in the capital, if we do not express our position here, I am afraid of disaster in the future. Besides, it is also beneficial to go to sea, and give it a try. ”

"But Liang Lu and the others only took out 20,000 yuan."

"It can't be said that they have donated 20,000 yuan to the imperial court many times, far more than that. Although their business has been prosperous in recent years, and they have been somewhat stained with the prince's light, so no one dares to touch their interests, but in general, their family property is still less than one-tenth of mine. If you donate too little, it's better not to don't. ”

What cannot be described as a donation is actually a two-way benefit, and it is possible that the benefits in the future will far exceed what they pay today. But I don't know anything about navigation, and I don't even know the specific situation of Dashi and the countries in the South China Sea, so I don't know the bottom of my heart. The money was taken out and treated as a donation. (Note, Tang Shang Ren Lingfang was fined and confiscated his family property for lending usury to the people, and more than 600,000 yuan of family property was seized.) The most likely donation is Wang Jiuhu, a merchant in the late Tang Dynasty, who only repaired the Vermilion Bird Gate and Anguo Temple for the imperial court, and the two donations amounted to 400,000 yuan)

After saying that, I was envious in my heart, if I could climb the clue of the prince, even if it was a donation of 100,000 yuan, it would be worth it. But Zou Fengchi didn't expect that Li Wei had considered him, he was not too bad, and he was the richest man in Chang'an, but he was timid and cautious, so he threw money everywhere and kept it as a friendship. Although it has made his door wider, but to describe it in a bad word, a pair of jade arms and thousands of pillows will be compensated for a few thousand people. The door is too complicated, which is not conducive to keeping your mouth shut, and eventually missing.

……

Yanguan came back from Sanmen, some of them softened, but some of them were still very hard, and they said that water conservancy can be done in a few years, but Wang Hua is the foundation of governing the country. You can't discard Wang Hua because of a little money raised, Yunyun.

However, seeing that there were two new quarrying laws, which made it possible to govern the three gates and Kaidan water transportation, the opposition voice finally weakened. These officials were the leaders of the opposing voices, and when they were weak, they followed the government and the opposition to be much quieter.

And after careful exploration, in the area of the northbound sixteen or seventeen miles east of the north bank of Sanmen, there is a small platform, surrounded by mountains on three sides, facing the water in the south, and the terrain is relatively low and flat. In the area of Sanmen to the west of the road, there is another section of the river beach with relatively gentle terrain. The two places are straightened, but only ten miles of roads are built, and the land route for transshipment is not very far, and the freight can be saved.

And when it is built, it can also be used for a section of the land route that Chu Lang failed. But in general, it is necessary to open a little mountain road, and the project is not too big and not too small. In the final analysis, the simple method of opening the stone is still very much needed, and if there is a simple method, the speed of opening this road will be fast, the cost will be saved, and the people's power will be saved.

At the same time, Zou Fengchi participated in the voyage and drove many merchants from the two capitals. Liang Lu and the others are not counted, and they have earned a lot of shouting, but among the businessmen, they are very hateful, after all, they have opened the head of the commercial tax. Zou Fengchi's reputation is very good, at least for now, it seems that there will not be a miserable consequence that a hundred places can be vacant in the end.

In this regard, Li Wei is not in a hurry, this is the beginning. I don't know if I don't check, I was shocked when I checked, the amount of work is huge, far beyond his imagination, if he can't mess around like Yang Guang, three years and two years are just a dream, even if there is black powder, I'm afraid it will take five or six years, or even longer.

This year, the main thing is to re-dig the Guangtong Canal, the cost is not large, and when it comes to digging the mountain and digging the ridge, the cost is expensive. When the mountain roads are excavated on a large scale, it is possible at least until the year after tomorrow, and when the profits brought by the voyage are seen, the participating merchants will really become enthusiastic.

Gradually, October is coming, and the whole canal project of Guangtong Canal has been measured. Li Wei and Yan Liben's recommendation used Wei Hongji to supervise the work, and it involved the demolition of houses, the destruction of cultivated land, etc., and let Zhu Jingze supervise the project. With this direct supervision, there will be no forced demolition teams, or greedy ink, and even if there is, there will be very few. It was also Yan Liben's last admonition, and after the admonition, Yan Liben's condition began to worsen and he was bedridden. For an elderly man in his seventies, with such a serious illness, the result can be imagined.

Then began to recruit people through two forms: recruiting people and recruiting people. The water in the canal is starting to drop, and it's a good time to start work. After a while, the water level will be lower, but when the weather gets colder, it will be inconvenient. Even in the month of Layue, because all the river mud formed thick ice, it had to be stopped.

However, there is good news that Li Wei gave Xiong Jiaoyan 2,000 yuan, maybe it is nothing to some people, how much Zou Fengchi's sensational marriage in the capital spent, the world does not know, some people say 200,000 yuan, some people say 300,000 yuan, but it must be more than 100,000 yuan. Later, Li Bao'er spent 100,000 yuan on a dress. But for ordinary people or officials, it means that in today's bumper harvest year, they can buy 40,000 stone of grain, which is the average grain price of the year before, and they can also buy more than 3,000 stone of grain for seven or eight hundred people to eat for a year. Or another algorithm, you can buy more than 5,000 pieces of cotton cloth, or a decent house in the capital, or a hundred strong tribesmen, or more than 100 acres of good land. As a result, many people and low-level officials felt their eyes were hot and meditated at home.

A Jiupin petty official surnamed Zhu, Du Shuilin, came up with a solution. It is not a new method, but it is an improvement in the original method of burning stones and opening stones.

First, the whole stone is chiseled out of a tic-tac-toe, one end of the tic-tac-toe leaves three fire openings, the tic-tac-toe trench is covered with soil, and two tall chimneys are erected at the other end, and the fire inlet is made into a furnace shape when smelting iron, and the wind is pulled with a bellows to make the fire flow in the trench. This principle was remembered by Zhu Qucheng when he saw his wife cooking. In the past, all kinds of burning stones were only burned outside the air, and more charcoal was used, and no fire was gathered. With this method, the temperature is higher and a lot of charcoal is saved.

Then while burning, spray white vinegar with some pipes, that is, the method of burning stone and fermentation, especially with the cannon hammer, Xiong Jiaoyan invented it very primitively, and later put it in the ordnance supervision and made modifications. Because of its great power, some people affectionately call it a cannon hammer. The difficulty of digging a stone trench has been reduced, making this method easy to implement. After the white vinegar has been burned, the stone has softened. The other end of the tic-tac-toe is connected to a water source, and when the stone is red, the charcoal is extinguished, the water valve is opened, the water is placed in the trench, and cold water is immediately sprayed on one side. This causes the stone to not only soften, but also to burst. Then apply gunpowder to blow up, and the difficulty of opening the stone is reduced.

As he spoke, he handed over a drawing.

Li Wei looked at the drawings and pondered, the Wo Liquor method is actually a chemical reaction, the cost of use is very large, the effect is not large, of course, there are some effects. Mainly thermal expansion and cold contraction, water conservancy construction is generally in late autumn to early spring, the water potential is small, easy to construct, at this time the temperature of the water is very low. It was only under the cold and the fierce that the stone burst.

The temperature of charcoal in a closed furnace can reach nearly 1,000 degrees, and it can be burned in the open air, only three or four hundred degrees, so Zhu Qucheng's method is also very good. But he suddenly thought of another thing, since the heat expands and contracts cold, isn't the higher the temperature, the better?