The development of commerce and trade in the south is like a blowout, in just three years, commerce and trade cover most of the places in the south, and the biggest change is that ordinary people can afford to eat salt, which has the role of business operation, and Li Rupei's painstaking work, when he entrusted Zou Shiming and He Yugui and others to operate salt and iron and other monopoly commodities, the purpose is to let ordinary people can afford to eat salt.

Li Rupei remembers very clearly that when he just crossed, the salt in the people's homes was very precious, and the average farmer's family did not think about what salt could be saved, and the only little salt was wrapped in a white cloth, and no one licked the white cloth when eating, and tasted the taste of salt, even if they ate salt, more farmers could not afford to eat salt, which led to the lack of salt, and many farmers were in a weak state.

Salt is an indispensable thing for people, Li Rupei is very clear about this truth, in the south under his governance, whether it is the common people or farmers, the basic daily necessities must be able to afford, and salt must be included.

In fact, the cost of salt is very low, and it doesn't cost much at all, but the reason why the price is high is mainly because the government profits from it, followed by those salt merchants, who are so rich that they are oily.

Li Rupei carried out a merciless blow to this situation, especially after taking Yangzhou and Suzhou, and ruthlessly rectified the salt merchants, and the means were tough, so that Cui Anqian and others were extremely surprised, these years, with the spread of commercial outlets, as ordinary people and farmers can afford to eat salt, Cui Anqian and others finally understood Li Rupei's good intentions.

It is an indisputable fact that the government also received a large amount of taxes from the salt and iron trade.

In the previous practice of the Tang Dynasty, in the salt and iron trade, the government could obtain about 70% of the profits, and the remaining 30% of the profits were basically obtained by the salt merchants. However, this so-called practice comes at the cost of tens of thousands of illicit salt dealers, and the huge profits from selling illicit salt cannot stop someone from doing it.

Li Rupei fundamentally changed this situation, he first lowered the price of salt, and then made clear regulations on the profits of salt, not allowing the existence of huge profits in salt, but salt can only be operated by merchants designated by the government, and the rest are not allowed to sell, and at the same time the profits of salt trading. The government takes eighty percent of it, and the businessmen take two percent of it.

The windfall profits of salt do not exist, and the shops specializing in salt can sell good salt, and the smugglers will naturally lose the market, and no one will do anything that cannot make money.

It was through this governance that the smugglers disappeared in the South.

As for the smuggling of salt in the north, as well as the smuggling of salt in Tibet, Hui, Turkic and other places, that is not something that Li Rupei needs to worry about.

Of course. In order to achieve this step, Li Rupei is ruthless, that is, to ruthlessly control salt merchants, especially those who control salt trading channels and are unwilling to reduce salt prices. Under Li Rupei's strength, these salt merchants suffered a devastating blow.

The development of the blowout of commerce and trade has had a huge effect, and the local governments have felt it. The people also felt it, but then the problem arose, and that was the transportation conditions in the south. Restricting the development of commerce, the ruggedness of the roads, and the firm belief in the roads, invisibly increased the transportation price of goods.

Zou Shiming, He Yugui and other businessmen have long been miserable in terms of transportation.

Li Rupei also considered this matter, but after calculations by local governments, Li Rupei could not bear the huge expenditure required to renovate official roads and open up new roads.

By the first year of Guangqi, the Southern Dao Daxingtai Government had gathered a lot of money, and the time for the three years of tax exemption in the south was over, and agricultural taxes would become a large amount of income.

According to the plan of Cui Anqian and others, although road construction requires expenses, it does not require a lot of expenses, although the people are exempt from taxes, but forced labor still exists, that is to say, to build roads to recruit farmers, farmers must be obliged to build roads, this is a matter of course, and even without food, such road repairs, naturally do not need any expenses.

But Li Rupei's approach is completely different, that is, the government pays for road repairs, and this concept of money means that according to the size of the road repair project, the government pays money and lets the people build the road, and the government is mainly responsible for providing money and supervising to see if the road is built to meet the requirements, if it does not meet the requirements, it cannot be allocated silver, and the person responsible for building the road must be severely punished.

As for the person who undertakes the task of repairing the road, it is still the businessman, after the businessman undertakes a certain section of the road, he organizes people to repair it, and after meeting the requirements, the government accepts the inspection and approves the money allocated to the businessman, and as for the remuneration of the person who repairs the road, the businessman pays in advance, but he must not default on the wages of the people who work hard, otherwise the government will also severely punish him.

Li Rupei's concept of road construction, in the view of Cui Anqian and others, is similar to listening to the book of heaven, the Tang Dynasty road repair has always been completed by the people in the service of forced labor, and the government does not need much investment at all.

Li Rupei also insisted on his own philosophy, but Cui Anqian and others succumbed.

This has become the norm, after all, every time Li Rupei thinks about it carefully, he makes decisions that have achieved incredible results, such as this salt and iron monopoly, which has brought income to the government and basically put an end to the flood of private salt.

The fifth day of August in the first year of Guangqi

Nanfang Road Daxingtaifu.

The first official road that the Daxingtai government decided to renovate was huge, and this official road started from Xiangyang and connected Liangzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Zizhou, Hongzhou, Qianzhou and Guangzhou, that is, the location of all the Jiedu envoys.

I don't know how much money it will cost to renovate such a huge scale after a thousand years, but this era is still different, that is, the quality of the road is completely different, the construction period of the road is not long, after all, there are no cars or the like, walking on the official road is supreme, it is the people and the carriage of transportation, and the weight of the road is not very large.

It is precisely because of this that the investment in road construction is not too high, so Li Rupei dared to make such a decision.

The road from Xiangyang to Liangzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hongzhou and other places, the quality is good, but there is the problem of road widening and reinforcement, it is relatively simple to repair, but the official road to Chengdu, Zizhou, Qianzhou and Guangzhou, the difficulty is a bit greater, either because of the distance of the road, involving too many officials, or because of the steep road, for example, the official road into Chengdu and Zizhou, because of the topography, it is very difficult to repair.

The officials dispatched by the Daxingtai government spent half a year, and even used the scouts of the Shence army, to survey the road, draw countless drawings, and after many revisions and discussions, finally at the end of July the official road was officially renovated.

All the Jiedu envoys under the jurisdiction of the Southern Dao Daxingtai Prefecture all came to Xiangyang to discuss the renovation of the official road.

The first day was for the road surveyors to explain in detail the plan for repairing the road, the second day was the time for many knots to discuss, and the third day was the morning for Cui Anqian and others to make arrangements, requiring many knots to coordinate with each other in accordance with the requirements.

On the afternoon of the third day, Li Rupei personally spoke, emphasizing the importance of cultivating official roads.

“…… Ladies and gentlemen, the importance of renovating the official road, a certain has been said very clearly, unnecessary words, the renovation of the official road is inseparable from your hard work, yesterday's discussion, some people raised objections, the key is the matter of the government to pay the money, this is undoubted, must be implemented, the people and farmers work hard to repair the road, must be paid, otherwise heaven will not allow it. ”

“…… The act of building the road is to benefit the cause of all generations, so the government at all levels must firmly grasp the hands, as a big thing to treat, the project started at the same time in early September, planned to be completed in three months, the most difficult lies in Lingnan Road, Qianzhong Road, Xichuan and Dongchuan, these places are either because of the long distance, or because the road is steep, after the road construction begins, these places will personally go to the inspector. ”

“…… If anyone is unable to complete the task of building roads issued by the Daxing Taifu well, or even does not pay attention to it, resulting in the renovations of the official road being affected, the Daxingtai Government will severely punish you, and the board will fall on you first, you are the highest local governor, and the Daxingtai Government will first investigate your responsibility. ”

“…… I believe that you will be able to do this well, the autumn harvest has begun, there are many things in the local government, the three-year tax exemption has ended, this year the agricultural tax will be levied, plus the matter of road repair, the officials must be very hard, but since they are the parents of the people, it is necessary to complete the tasks assigned by the Daxing Taiwan government at the critical moment, taking into account the suffering of the people. ”

After the three-day meeting, many of the Jiedu envoys stayed for one to two days, and they did not understand Li Rupei's concept of road construction for a while, especially for the government's payment of money and supervision, they were not able to understand it thoroughly, and all the Jiedu envoys directly found Li Rupei and Cui Anqian and others, and inquired in detail, including how to find businessmen to be directly responsible for other matters.

Li Rupei and Cui Anqian gave a detailed explanation, it should be said that the Daxingtai Government has issued a document, but for such a practice that has never appeared, many festivals are still difficult to understand, but with a detailed document, His Royal Highness King Fu and Cui Ge Lao have made an explanation, and many festivals have been implemented according to the requirements. (To be continued......)