Fengtian Temple.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Queen Ma, under the leadership of Li Jin, carried out the ribbon-cutting ceremony of Longjiang Bao Shipyard.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Yingtianfu non-stop.

Li Jin's problem needs to be observed for the time being, and there is no need to do anything to Li Jin now.

After Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Yingtian City, he immediately convened hundreds of civil and military officials to prepare to discuss major matters.

"Long live my emperor."

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the dragon chair, and after the civil and military Baiguan Mountain shouted long live, the court meeting officially began.

"Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever heard of the highway?"

The first sentence that Zhu Yuanzhang said was a bewildered look when he asked the hundreds of officials below.

Only Liu Bowen looked thoughtful, Zhu Yuanzhang disappeared again in the past two days, and the officials didn't know where he went, but Liu Bowen was clear.

must have gone to Shanghu County again, and the only place that Zhu Yuanzhang can go to frequently is Shanghu County.

Originally, Liu Bowen's impression of Li Jin was just a young man with few talents, but now it seems that Li Jin occupies an increasingly important position in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

Liu Bowen's heart was constantly calculating, his eyes were obscure, as if he had thought of something.

Above the court, in addition to Liu Bowen, there were also Li Shanchang and Hu Weiyong, who looked suspicious.

The two of them are naturally very concerned about Shanghu County now.

In the two days when Zhu Yuanzhang disappeared again, Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had gone to Shanghu County again.

Now that Zhu Yuanzhang has just come back, he put forward the concept of expressways, and it seems that these two expressways have impressed Zhu Yuanzhang very much.

Except for these people, all the officials in the court looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.

The Ministry of Industry Shangshu stood up directly and asked Zhu Yuanzhang:

"Dare to ask the emperor, what is this so-called highway?"

"Chen has never heard of such a road in this world?"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said:

"This is also a whim, we just came up with it, and I want to share it with you and discuss the feasibility of the expressway."

"All the ministers know that our official road in the Ming Dynasty has not yet been completely built."

"This has greatly affected the business of Daming and the travel of the people."

When the officials heard this, they speculated, did the emperor want to build an official road for the people? It's just that now the name has changed?

It's just that building an official road is an official road, so why call it a highway? It's really a fart off your pants, and it's too much.

"But building official roads is very labor-intensive, and it is also a burden on the national treasury."

"Therefore, I decided to build a highway, not only to reduce the forced labor of the people, but also to build a road that is several times wider than the official road without spending a penny of the national treasury."

Zhu Yuanzhang was full of confidence and seemed to be high-spirited.

But the civil and military ministers below were directly dumbfounded, and without spending money, and without the help of the people, they could build a highway that was wider than the official road?

This kind of thing can only happen in dreams.

Tang He went out directly and said to Zhu Yuanzhang:

"Superior, are you mistaken?"

"As long as the road is built, it will cost money, which is justified, even if manpower does not cost money, but those materials for road construction will also cost a lot of money."

"I have never heard of the lowly position, and the road can be automatically repaired without spending a penny or one person in this world."

The surrounding officials nodded in agreement.

They feel that Zhu Yuanzhang's words cannot be said to be a fool's dream, but can only be said to be wishful thinking.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the hundred officials with a look of disbelief, but still did not explain, but continued:

"Let's say that we don't spend a penny on the treasury, and we don't say that we don't spend money on building roads."

"Building highways is a major event for the people of the world, and this kind of thing naturally can't let us alone pay money."

"What does the emperor mean by this, does he want the people to give out money?"

Liu Bowen was shocked when he heard this, could it be that Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to raise taxes and use this tax to build roads?

The Ming Dynasty has just been established for only five years, and the most important thing to do at present is to recuperate and recuperate.

If Zhu Yuanzhang wants to forcibly raise taxes, this will not be a blessing for the people of the world, but will make the people's lives more difficult.

Liu Bowen thought that he had to persuade again, but was interrupted by Zhu Yuanzhang directly waving his hand:

"The lives of the people are hard enough, so there is no need to put a burden on the people."

Hubu Shangshu Lu Chang stood up at this time and asked:

"Your Majesty, if you don't collect money from the people, whose money will you collect to build this road?"

"Of course, whoever has the money will be expropriated."

Zhu Yuanzhang said as a matter of course:

"There are thousands of gentry in the world, as the saying goes, Zhumen's wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road."

"This money, let's let the gentry come out! And he came out of it willingly. ”

As soon as these words came out, the bottom instantly exploded.

Although it is now the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, most of the civil officials in the court are still gentry groups.

After all, in that era, only the gentry family could afford to go to school.

Otherwise, the children of poor families will starve to death, how can they have time to gain fame?

Now the civil officials from the gentry heard that they wanted the gentry to pay for it, and they would voluntarily pay for it, and they immediately sneered in their hearts.

For them, it was worse to want to take money out of the pockets of the gentry than to kill them.

Which of these people is not a human being, careful calculation, otherwise how could he save such a pair of belongings?

The secretary of the ministry was the first to stand up and said:

"Your Majesty, although the gentry have a small amount of money, this is also accumulated from generation to generation, and it is not easy to obtain."

"And is it biased to build roads to benefit the people of the world, but only let the gentry pay?"

"The ministers seconded it!"

"The minister agrees!"

The proposal of the Ministry of Rites was approved by most of them, all of whom were from the gentry and were naturally reluctant to spend such a huge amount of money.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't seem to hear it, and still said with a confident face:

"What do you think, merchants, especially caravans, are traveling on our official roads now?"

Hubu Shangshu Lu Chang out of the list said:

"The personnel on the official road are complicated, and now the official road is in disrepair, although caravans generally use horse-drawn carriages to pull goods."

"But the speed of the real rush has not been improved by the carriage."

Lu Chang is responsible for the livelihood of the people in the world, and he naturally knows everything about it.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said:

"In other words, on the current official road, caravans or merchants are very slow to travel."

"And the transportation of bulk goods is even more troublesome."

"Are we right?"

Lu Chang bowed and bowed:

"The emperor is aware of everything, and the current situation of the caravan is like this."

"Then if we build a special road, it will not only be very wide, but also very flat, and no pedestrians will be allowed to pass through."

"Only carriages and people on horseback are allowed to pass, what do you think these merchants will do?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked proud, and finally said his purpose.

He came back in a hurry this time, just to implement the operation of the highway that he learned from Li Jin to various places in the Ming Dynasty.

And he is different from Li Jin, this time he will not pay a penny, so he will do things.

Li Shanchang couldn't sit still anymore, and stood up and said:

"The merchant will definitely flock to it."

"For businessmen, time is money, and with this road, businessmen can also save a lot of transportation costs."

"In addition, if this road leads to all parts of the country in Daming, merchants will have the ability to sell goods to all parts of Daming."

"And some goods, sold to different places, this difference is not half a point."

"If this is the case, presumably this highway will become the main traffic artery for Ming merchants in the future."

"It's just that if the upper level wants to build such a road, the cost will definitely not be in the decimal."

"Why did you say that you wanted the gentry to pay this money?"

Li Shanchang was very puzzled, even if Zhu Yuanzhang said that it was of great benefit to the merchants, what did it have to do with the gentry?

All this is just making wedding dresses for others, how can the gentry group be willing to do it?

Hu Weiyong's eyes lit up next to him, and he said:

"Could it be that the emperor asked the gentry of those merchant families to give this silver?"

At this time, everyone suddenly realized, it turned out that this is what the emperor meant?

That does make sense, after all, the gentry who were born as merchants were rich and wealthy, and they were the most beneficial to them.

At this moment, the hearts of most civil officials were relaxed, after all, most of their families were cultivators.

There are no merchants in the family except land is land, so this kind of thing will not happen to them at all.

But Zhu Yuanzhang's next sentence directly frightened these people.

"Wrong, let's let all the gentry in the world participate!"