"Your Majesty, this plan is indeed not just formulated, although the plan has been formulated before, the minister does not dare to take it out. Shang Yang didn't wait for Wang Mang to ask, so he said: "The financial situation of the imperial court has not been very good, and although the minister's plan is good for the development of Chang'an and Daqin, the problem is that the cost is not small, and with the previous finances of the imperial court, this money cannot be taken out." ”

After hearing what Shang Yang said, Wang Mang smiled and said: "After talking for a long time, it turns out that I also fell in love with the silver I got back from Nanyang!"

In the first battle of Nanyang, Wang Mang got a total of 2.58 million taels of silver, and Li Hong and Wang Yongji took 1.2 million taels of silver from the merchants of Chang'an, so that the imperial court suddenly had 3.78 million taels of silver, plus Wang Mang got silver from the inner treasury to the household department before, and now the household department has more than 4 million taels of silver in his hands.

This was unthinkable before, Wang Mang still clearly remembers that on the first day he came here as emperor, he almost couldn't get off the stage with the voices of the ministers asking for money.

But in just a few months, the treasury of the household department was quickly enriched under Wang Mang's management, and now, there are more than 4 million silver in the account of the household department.

Does this mean that I did a good job?

Wang Mang said in his heart, you must know that the more than 4 million silver is only the silver that Wang Mang handed over to the household department, and Wang Mang still has hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in his hand that can be used at any time.

The use of this silver, although the court has discussed it until now, no one has opened his mouth to ask Wang Mang for silver, but Wang Mang knows that someone will definitely speak, but what Wang Mang didn't expect was that the first person to open his mouth was Shang Yang, and he put forward a reason for asking for money that he couldn't refuse at all.

Regarding Wang Mang's words, Shang Yang blushed a little and said: "The minister is also for the sake of the Great Qin Dynasty for thousands of generations. ”

"I know you're open-minded, so I don't need to say more. Wang Mang smiled and said, "In this way, you can directly say how much silver you will need for this project." ”

"The project is divided into three phases, the first phase of the project is to dredge the river channel of Luoshui, the Luoshui river channel has been patched for many years, has long been overwhelmed, the existing river simply can not meet the future use, so it is necessary to dredge and widen first, this phase of the project is estimated to require about 200,000 taels of silver, the second phase of the project is the river in Nanyang and Xinyang to Luoshui to excavate the river, divert the water of the Nanyang River and the Wei River into Luoshui, alleviate the shortage of Luoshui water source, the second phase of the project needs at least 500,000 taels of silver. ”

Shang Yang paused and continued: "After the completion of the second phase, the third phase of the project can be completed, and the water from the Shenshui in the area of Shenmu County will be diverted to the Nanyang River and the Wei River, and the third phase of the project will require at least one million taels of silver. ”

"What, why do you want so much money?" Li Hong was the most sensitive to silver, so he picked it up as soon as possible, and said: "I think this phase of the project and the second phase of the project are acceptable, but I don't think these three phases of the project are necessary." ”

Li Hong now has a few million taels of silver in his hands, and the first and second phases of 700,000 taels of silver, Li Hong doesn't pay attention to it, but the one million taels of the third phase of the project, Li Hong can't accept it, and said: "You need a total of 1.7 million taels of silver for the three phases of the project, how can the imperial court have so much money." ”

"The area around Xinyang in Nanyang is also a densely populated place, Nanyang City is in the planning, and it will be a gathering place for various workshops of the imperial court in the future, and there will be a lot of water. Shang Yang said: "We can't ignore the lives of the people of Nanyang and Xinyang in order to alleviate the water supply in Chang'an." ”

As he spoke, Shang Yang pointed to the three counties of Shenmu and said: "This place is sparsely populated, but the water resources are quite sufficient, and it is best to use the water here to develop the area of Nanyang and Xinyang and Chang'an." ”

In the face of Shang Yang's statement, Li Hong was speechless, but said: "Anyway, the household department can't come up with so much money now." ”

"Isn't there a lot of money in the household department now? You said yesterday that the household department has too much money to spend. "Yuwen Kaidao, he is the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, the biggest contractor in Daqin, and his favorite is large-scale projects, he doesn't care whether the imperial court has money or not, he only cares about whether the project is big enough.

Facing Yu Wenkai, a fool, Li Hong said directly: "It is true that the household department has money, but it is useful, the south needs money for wars, officials need money for distribution, and money for disaster relief, and now the South-to-North Water Diversion Project also needs money, and there are places everywhere that use money, how can you invest all the money in one place." ”

Yuwen Kai was silent, he really didn't have much say about money.

Seeing that the scene was a little stiff, Wang Mang said: "That's good, first repair the first phase of the project and the second phase of the project, and it's still too early to talk about the third phase of the project, after all, the three counties of Shenmu are still in the hands of the rebels." ”

As soon as Wang Mang said this, the atmosphere in the court suddenly eased a lot, and Li Hong and Shang Yang also agreed to Wang Mang's statement, first repairing the first and second phases.

Shang Yang opened the conversation, and the first one to leave the silver, Yu Wenkai said unrelentingly: "Your Majesty, a few months ago, Your Majesty asked Weichen to study the straight path, and now Weichen has already done it here." ”

Saying that, Yuwen Kai also took out a map, on the map, east and west, north and south with Chang'an as the center, eight straight lines were drawn in eight directions, pointing to these straight lines, Yu Wenkai said: "These straight lines are the straight road developed by the minister according to the geographical appearance of Daqin, this is ...... The first phase of the project, after these straight roads are repaired, the Ministry of Industry will also start the second phase of the project, connecting all the straight roads to each other through the straight roads, and then there will be three phases of the project, connecting all the large cities in Daqin, and then there will be four phases......"

Yu Wenkai excitedly described his lofty idea, in Yu Wenkai's thoughts, he wanted to cultivate the straight road to the four seas.

Wang Mang has always been very interested in the ancient highway of the straight road, but Yu Wenkai is not only reliable at the beginning, but the more he goes on, the more unrealistic it becomes.

Pointing to the map, Wang Mang said directly: "How many of the eight straights of your project are urgently needed?"

Yu Wenkai looked disappointed, and then pointed to a few straight roads on the map and said: " This is the straight road to Shenmu County, Shenmu County is now the place where the rebels are entrenched, and it is also the place where the country of Yu is handed over, no matter from which aspect, this road is to be repaired, this is the road to the clouds, the clouds and the grassland are connected, this road is not said, Your Majesty also knows, and this one is to Hangu Pass, after Hangu Pass is South Korea, we have been at war with South Korea for generations, there are conflicts in Hangu Pass every year, and it is necessary to build a straight road to here. ”

"Is that all there are three?" Wang Mang raised his eyebrows and said, the three roads that Yuwenkai pointed to are indeed important roads and must be built.

Yu Wenkai nodded and said, "For now, these three are the most important. ”

Wang Mang glanced at the map and asked, "How much does it cost to repair these three roads?"

"Back to Your Majesty, the workers are ready-made, and they don't need money, mainly for materials. Yu Wenkai counted with his fingers and said, "The minister just calculated that it will take at least one million taels of silver to repair these three roads. ”

"I think the imperial court is rich, right? Everyone is so big?" Li Hong shouted: "In the past, one or two opened their mouths for tens of thousands of taels and thousands of taels, but now they are hundreds of thousands of taels or one million taels when you open your mouth. ”