Su Mo invited the businessmen in Xianyang City to become rich as the prime minister.

Although these people have money in their families, they don't have any status in Daqin, so after hearing the invitation of the prime minister, they naturally don't dare to break the appointment.

At this time in the Zhao tavern.

More than a dozen people stayed here restlessly, these people were the likes of the extremely wealthy merchants in Xianyang City, among them, two people were the leader, one was a rich-looking man sitting in the middle, and the other was a woman holding a woman's hair in a bun, they were Wu Shi Lu and Ba Widow Qing.

"Widow Qing, what do you say the prime minister is looking for us businessmen?" Wu Shilu looked at the people present, among these merchants, only the Ba widow Qing is had the same financial resources as him, and the others were far worse than the two of them in terms of wealth.

And in Daqin, although women have not been persecuted by Confucianism like later generations, they still have the idea of patriarchy.

Faced with this problem, other businessmen were also very concerned and pricked up their ears to listen.

The widow was expressionless, and said lightly: "Our Chinese prime minister, Wen Taowu, is very smart, and everything he has done in the past two years is unexpected, I am just a widow, how can I guess what others think." ”

"You can't say that, the imperial court has been too strict with us businessmen over the years, and they will take our businessmen at every turn, just say that the last time the first emperor wanted to build Afang Palace, let us businessmen donate money, and build the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum, didn't your Ba family also donate hundreds of millions of mercury?" Wu Shilu shook his head, and said with a somewhat pessimistic expression, "I guess that this time the prime minister came to us, won't he be using our businessmen again?" ”

"Even if the imperial court wants to kill us merchants, can you still resist, what else can we do except break the fortune and avoid disasters?" Hearing this, even Widow Ba Qing sighed, and her expression was a little complicated.

After hearing this, others were also a little helpless.

In the Qin Dynasty, the status of merchants was too low, and they were not as good as dogs.

And at this moment, Su Mo walked in from outside with Xiao Yue.

Looking at the dozen or so people in front of him, most of them were businessmen from Xianyang City, and the least assets in their families were millions of taels.

"Hello businessmen, Zhao Gao, the prime minister in Xiazhong!"

Su Mo walked in and greeted with a smile.

Seeing Su Mo appear, the other businessmen saluted one after another: "The grass people have seen the Prime Minister!" ”

"You're welcome, I have good news to tell you businessmen this time." Su Mo smiled and said, "The imperial court has decided to hand over the three projects of the Great Wall, Afang Palace, and Lishan Imperial Mausoleum to the merchants to build. ”

The other businessmen fell silent.

In the end, it was Wu Shilu who stood up and asked in a low voice: "Prime Minister, shouldn't the imperial court let us businessmen pay for these projects by ourselves?" ”

"Don't worry, the court will give you a lot of money for the construction project." Su Mo had already expected it, and took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to them: "This is the quotation for the Great Wall, the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum and the Afang Palace, you can take a look, I guarantee that you will not suffer a loss after taking these jobs, and you can even make a lot of money."

For example, some of you are experienced in stone, some are in the copper and iron mines, some are in the livestock business, almost all walks of life are involved, and you can work together to build these projects and do more at a lower cost. ”

The quotation proposed by Su Mo this time was not low, and it was even deliberately increased by three percent compared to the original price.

But in fact, the imperial court still earned.

If the imperial court is allowed to build these projects, not only will it consume countless manpower and material resources every year, but the raw materials will still be purchased by these merchants, and there will be problems such as corruption and kickbacks by officials, which will lead to the imperial court spending a lot of money and grain to build these things.

But businessmen are different, they will strictly control costs for the sake of profit, and will not cause unnecessary waste.

After Wu Shilu and the others saw this quotation, they thought about it in their hearts and found that they did make a lot of money, and they were instantly moved.

"This offer is indeed good, but the imperial court is willing to come up with such generous conditions, presumably not only for this, right?" Widow Ba looked at Su Mo with a calm expression, and was not carried away by interests. ”

"Yes, although the imperial court is willing to contract these projects to you, there is also a condition." Su Mo looked at Widow Ba Qing with a hint of appreciation in her eyes, and said: "Recently, there have been many natural and man-made disasters in Great Qin, and the people have been displaced, resulting in a lot of disaster victims, so the imperial court needs you businessmen When building these projects, the manpower needed must be selected from these disasters. ”

Hearing this condition, all the businessmen present suddenly realized.

Originally, I wanted them to help with disaster relief, but this condition is really nothing, they need manpower to build these projects, and it is the same where they recruit them, even if they use these disaster victims.

"You also know how low the status of our merchants is in Great Qin, and this construction of the Great Wall is an opportunity for everyone to let the imperial court know how much energy our merchants have, and only in this way can the status of merchants be improved.

I guess you don't want to be a businessman for the rest of your life, do you want your children to be discriminated against and looked down upon like you? Su Mo decided to give the final blow, and said with a smile in his mouth: "As long as everyone can do this perfectly, I, Zhao Gao, promise here that I will propose to the First Emperor to improve the status of merchants, so that merchants can also enjoy all the rights of the people of Great Qin, and your children and descendants can also become officials and be awarded knighthoods, these are not problems." ”

In Daqin, businessmen have the same status as sons-in-law and fugitives, and they are not qualified to be officials.

Moreover, the hierarchy of the Qin State is strict, and the merchants will be restricted from wearing any color clothes, and if they break the law, they will be severely punished, etc., but Su Mo is now willing to give them a hope, a hope to improve the status of the merchants.

Originally, these businessmen were moved by the benefits given by Su Mo, but now they heard that the status of businessmen will improve in the future, and everyone will have the opportunity to be officials and receive knighthoods, etc., and their hearts are full of excitement.

"Ahem, cough, cough~"

Wu Shilu was the first to stand up, and said with righteousness: "It doesn't matter if you can be an official or not, but I just like to solve problems for Daqin, and my Wu family is the first to participate in this project bidding." ”

When others saw Wu Shilu standing up, they were also willing to support the bidding for the project.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Su Mo had a smile in his eyes.

At this time, Xiao Yue also stood up and said: "In this project bidding, I, Zhao's firm, am willing to contract all the projects of the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum and recruit 200,000 victims. ”

During this time, Zhao's firm was simply making money every day under the management of Xiaoyue.

Especially the buying and selling of paper and distilled spirits, it is simply a huge profit, faster than grabbing money.

When the others saw Xiao Yue speak, the last trace of worry in their hearts was gone.

Who in the entire Xianyang City doesn't know that the Zhao family firm is the industry of Zhao Gao, the prime minister, and even Su Mo himself has participated in the bidding for this project, so others naturally don't have to worry about the imperial court pit themselves.

"My Ba family is willing to contract the construction of the entire Afang Palace and recruit 150,000 victims." Ba Widow Qing also spoke.

Although the Afang Palace and the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum are gone, the real big head is the Great Wall.

The Great Wall, which is a big project that far surpasses the Afang Palace and the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum.

None of the families present could swallow it alone, so they could only cooperate in the construction, and in the end, Wu Shilu took the lead and united a large number of merchants in Xianyang City to contract the Great Wall project.