Zhu Yuanzhang's words directly stunned everyone, and everyone looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in disbelief.

Obviously, their gentry don't do business, why do they still have to do this unjust and pay such a huge amount of money?

However, they didn't dare to speak directly and anger Zhu Yuanzhang, after all, Zhu Yuanzhang, as the founding emperor, has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

No one dares to challenge Zhu Yuanzhang's authority, even if Zhu Yuanzhang has not launched the Hu Weiyong case now, it is an existence that cannot be provoked.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to speak:

"Let's let the gentry pay, it's because we value them, otherwise this kind of good thing won't be their turn."

The officials below are slandering, can this kind of thing be regarded as a good thing?

They would rather not and do not want to take out so much silver for nothing to make wedding dresses for merchants.

"Superior, the minister doesn't understand."

As the leader of the Huaixi group, Li Shanchang is naturally also a representative of the gentry group.

The current Huaixi Group, which family does not have tens of thousands of acres of land, and they are all large families in the local area, so they can naturally be called gentry officials.

"Although the circulation of goods is very important in Daming, the minister thinks that the official road is enough, why does the superior have to build a highway?"

"Highways are indeed of great benefit to businessmen, but it takes time and effort to build a highway at such a cost."

"And the people and the court can't enjoy the benefits, the minister thinks this matter is inappropriate, please think twice."

"Please think twice!"

"Please think twice!"

Li Shanchang looked down on businessmen at all, and businessmen were just the lowest level of society.

Even though they are rich, they smell of copper, which is annoying.

In his view, highways are only good for merchants, but not good for the country or the people.

As for the merchants, can they be considered common people? Isn't this an insult to the people of the Ming Dynasty!

After Li Shanchang stood up, as the head of the civil officials, naturally many people took the opportunity to stand up and echo Li Shanchang.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his eyes narrowed slightly, the smile on his face gradually converged, looked at Hu Weiyong, and asked:

"Hu Weiyong, what do you say?"

When Hu Weiyong heard Zhu Yuanzhang's question, he suddenly felt like a man's back.

With his mentor on one side and the emperor on the other, Hu Weiyong suddenly didn't know what to say.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Hu Weiyong's speech, and asked again:

"Hu Weiyong, let's ask you!"

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Li Xiang must have his own reasons for saying this."

Cold sweat broke out on Hu Weiyong's forehead, and he lowered his head and said in a deep voice:

"Since the emperor wants to focus on agriculture and suppress business, there is naturally no need to build a highway, so the minister thinks what Li Xiang said is right."

The smile on Zhu Yuanzhang's face was completely restrained, his eyes stared at Hu Weiyong, he sneered, and was about to speak.

"But since the emperor said so, he naturally has a long-term plan."

Before Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, Hu Weiyong hurriedly continued:

"How can the ministers understand the emperor's intentions? If there is anything wrong with what the ministers say, please don't blame the emperor! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang's face softened slightly, but he was still not satisfied with Hu Weiyong's answer.

Since Hu Weiyong was promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang, the power of the Huaixi Group in the court has become increasingly huge.

And Liu Bowen is difficult to support alone in the court, and it is difficult to withstand the two-sided attacks of Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang.

Zhu Yuanzhang urgently needed to split the Huaixi clique.

Seeing Li Shanchang coming out just now, Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to test Hu Weiyong's attitude, but found that Hu Weiyong was still on Li Shanchang's side.

This shows that the Huaixi Group is now very united, and Liu Bowen is destined to be suppressed.

But this is not in line with Zhu Yuanzhang's expectations at all, what he wants is balance, not one-sidedness.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes kept rolling on Hu Weiyong and Li Shanchang, since the two of you have to wear a pair of pants, then let's kick you out.

Subsequently, Zhu Yuanzhang finally said his original plan and said:

"You've all misunderstood."

"This time, although we let the gentry pay for the construction of the railway, we will subsidize them."

"This highway will become a toll road in the future, and all merchants who pass by will have to pay tolls before they can pass here."

"And half of this toll will be taken out and fed back to these gentry as a reward."

"Now let me ask you, do we give the gentry the most preferential treatment?"

Shocked, absolutely shocked.

The civil and military officials were completely stunned by Zhu Yuanzhang's remarks.

Since ancient times, although it has often been heard:

I opened this mountain, I planted this tree, if I want to live from now on, I will leave words to buy road wealth.

But it was all done by bandits and bandits, and they had never heard of any country where the imperial court had to charge for the official roads it built.

And this kind of thing was proposed by Zhu Yuanzhang, who has always loved the people like a son, which is really incredible.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that this matter is really inappropriate, how can there be a reason for the court to build roads and collect tolls from the people?"

Lu Chang, the head of the household, was the first to jump out and object.

Although the silver would be received from the household department in the future, Lu Chang felt that this matter was too ridiculous for him to accept at all.

But this time, no one echoed Lu Chang, and all the officials were thinking about the feasibility of this matter.

Lu Chang, as a minister of the former dynasty, is also from a humble family, so he naturally does not think of the interests of the gentry when doing things, and only the people in his eyes.

Otherwise, he would not have chosen to surrender to Zhu Yuanzhang, he just thought that Zhu Yuanzhang could calm the world and save the people from fire and water, so he chose to surrender.

But Lu Chang was reduced to a lonely minister in the Ming Dynasty, after all, the subordinate can achieve the position of the head of the household, which has proven his ability.

Zhu Yuanzhang also admired Lu Chang very much, but at this time, Lu Chang seemed to be alone, and no one spoke for him at all.

After thinking for a moment, Li Shanchang once again came out and said to Zhu Yuanzhang:

"The superior is really far-sighted, it's not that it's beyond our reach."

"I didn't expect the superior to have such a whimsical idea, which made the ministers suddenly realize."

"It is wonderful to borrow the gentry's silver for the well-being of the people of the world, and then use the collected silver to return the gentry's silver."

"It's simply wonderful, and only the top can think of such a method, and ordinary people like us can't even think of it."

"Yes, the emperor is really the first saint in the world, and he cares about the people wholeheartedly, which makes us ashamed."

"The Emperor Shengming!"

The civil officials below have all changed their tone one by one.

They can stand in the position of Fengtian Temple, and naturally they are all human spirits.

Otherwise, he would not have been favored by Zhu Yuanzhang and selected into the Fengtian Palace.

You must know that the officials of Fengtian Hall are all dressed in red and purple, and the lowest is a five-grade official.

Their minds were spinning fast, and in just a moment, they thought about the pros and cons of things.

If it is really as Zhu Yuanzhang said, he is willing to take out half of the toll collected by the expressway and distribute it to the gentry, then the gentry will definitely make a lot of money.

Even if each person is only one thousandth, that's a lot of money.

And this huge amount of money can be passed on to future generations.

If there is really a loser among the descendants of the future, as long as the equity of the highway remains unchanged, then there will be a large amount of silver to take every year.

With the development of the Ming Dynasty, commerce will inevitably be more prosperous in the future, and correspondingly, there will be more and more natural tolls on the expressway.

It's really, a one-time investment, a lifetime return, and it's the kind of massive return.

Almost at the same time, all the civil servants quickly changed from the initial state of opposition to the wait-and-see state, and the state of being eager to participate in the shares immediately.

"Dare to ask the emperor, when will the construction of the highway start?"

"You must know that the current merchants are still in dire straits, their goods transportation is too slow, and the minister still can't wait to build a highway for them to relieve their transportation pressure."

The Ministry of Industry Shangshu stood up and played towards Zhu Yuanzhang.

After all, if the highway is really to be built in the future, it will naturally be the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the civil and military officials with shiny eyes below, the smile on the corner of his mouth hooked again, and asked Liu Bowen:

"Berwyn, do you think this is possible?"

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that this matter is not feasible!"

Liu Bowen's words successfully attracted the attention of civil and military officials and everyone.

But this time, it's hatred, it's hostility.

Even the officials under his Zhedong Group looked at Liu Bowen incomprehensibly, not understanding what Liu Bowen meant.

After all, blocking people's money is like killing parents.

If Liu Bowen does not give a reasonable explanation at this moment, then after the next dynasty, Liu Bowen is likely to be hit by a black stick.