Liu Bowen looked unhurried in the face of the forced gaze of the Manchu civil and military.

Tidy up his clothes, walked out slowly, met Zhu Yuanzhang's indifferent gaze, and said fearlessly:

"Your Majesty, since ancient times. The construction of roads is a heavy burden of forced labor, which requires a lot of manpower. ”

"Not only that, but the construction of official roads can be as short as half a year or as long as two or three years."

"I heard that the highway that the emperor is going to pave is two or three times wider than ordinary official roads."

"Then the time it takes, and the population will grow exponentially."

"It will take four or five years at the latest, so the minister wants to ask the emperor, what will happen to the land of the Ming Dynasty during these times?"

"If the emperor wants to build a highway all over the country, then the manpower requirements will be astronomical."

"Now that the Ming Dynasty is in ruins, it is the time to recuperate and make great efforts, if the emperor rashly raises heavy servitude, the ministers are afraid that it will not be the blessing of the common people."

Liu Bowen's meaning is very simple, if you want to build roads, you need people.

However, the Central Plains has just experienced war for less than two years, and the people have withered and the population has withered.

From Yangzhou Mansion, you can see the scenes of other Central Plains now.

Can't be compared with the flowery city of Shanghai County, the current Ming Dynasty is still full of holes.

Although it is full of vitality, it is not allowed to promote the seedlings, and it is afraid of quick success, otherwise it is afraid that it will encounter disaster.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Liu Bowen's resolute face, and knew in his heart that what Liu Bowen said made sense.

But he had to build the highway, not just for a little money.

If highways are built throughout the country, it will be of great benefit to the Ming court to control the locality.

After all, Mongolia has been entrenched in China for hundreds of years, and the Han people have lost it for three hundred years in the northern Central Plains.

These people are not familiar enough with Da Ming, nor are they loyal enough.

If the high road can be connected to all parts of the country, then no matter where war breaks out, Zhu Yuanzhang can send troops from Yingtian and rush to the place of war within half a month.

It will be able to extinguish the riot before it has completely fermented.

Not only that, but in addition to quelling the rebellion, there is also disaster relief.

The relief materials from Yingtian can quickly reach the affected areas, and will not cause the people to starve all over the place because of the lack of rescue.

However, these are Zhu Yuanzhang's ideals, but the reality is cruel, as Liu Bowen said.

People are needed to build roads, and Daming is now short of people, not to mention the construction of highways in the entire Ming Dynasty, and it is very difficult to build highways in the Jiangnan area.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked away from Liu Bowen and slowly looked at Li Shanchang.

As Liu Bowen's old opponent, Li Shanchang is about to play his role at this time.

When Li Shanchang saw Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze, he immediately understood what Zhu Yuanzhang meant, and said:

"Superior, the minister thinks what Lord Liu said is not correct."

"The construction of highways is a great thing that will benefit the present and future generations, and it should not be abandoned because of a lack of manpower."

"The people do need to recuperate, but we can't delay the progress of national affairs because of this."

"Chen thinks we can do it in some areas first and see the effect."

"If the role of highways is huge, then we will continue to work hard to promote it to all regions of the country."

"The loss of manpower and material resources in this way will be minimized."

"No matter how few people in the Ming Dynasty are, they can't even get together the manpower to build a highway in Yifu."

As for the agricultural problems that Lord Liu is worried about, it is even more surprising. During the farming period, we can let the people go back to farming first. ”

"Wouldn't this delay the agricultural season and the construction of the highway wouldn't affect it, wouldn't it be the best of both worlds?"

Li Shanchang's words were completely tricky.

Everyone knows that what Liu Bowen said is right, the world is withering, and it is really not a good strategy to raise money to draw people to build highways.

But Zhu Yuanzhang is now determined to do it, and Li Shanchang has no choice but to use this method.

After all, if the pilot is only carried out in one prefecture and there is no need to build a nationwide highway, then the people of Daming will be affected very little.

If we don't delay the agricultural season, we can definitely minimize this impact.

As soon as Li Shanchang's words came out, he ushered in a lot of echoes.

After all, the construction of highways and the collection of tolls are the first time since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Even if they guessed that Shenhe Highway would definitely be able to make a lot of money, but before the results came out, who could say for sure about this kind of thing?

It is better to follow what Li Shanchang said, first take a place to do experiments, and if the income is really considerable, then continue to invest in silver in the future.

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment, a smile bloomed on his face, and said:

"Okay, you deserve to be our prime minister, and you have rules to do things."

"I'll do as you say."

"This time, we want to open up the road between Yingtianfu and Songjiang Mansion, and build a highway between the two prefectures."

"I'll leave this matter to Hu Weiyong, I hope you won't let us down."

Hu Weiyong didn't expect that this incident would finally fall on his head, and he was overjoyed.

"The minister will never live up to the emperor's trust."

Liu Bowen originally wanted to persuade again, but when he saw Hu Weiyong's appearance, he suddenly sighed and shook his head helplessly.

The ministers below were also confused, and they didn't understand why they had to open up the road to Songjiang Mansion?

You must know that among the prefectures and counties surrounded by Yingtianfu, Songjiang Mansion is definitely the poorest one.

Why did the emperor choose Songjiang Mansion alone?

The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty can understand Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts, and it is estimated that there are only three people: Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong and Liu Bowen.

Next, Zhu Yuanzhang discussed with the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs, other government affairs, and then announced his withdrawal from the court.

....

After the next dynasty, Hu Weiyong followed behind Li Shanchang and walked towards Zhongshu Province.

"Teacher, now that the emperor has handed over this kind of errand to me, I am really shocked and frightened."

As soon as Hu Weiyong sat down, he complained to Li Shanchang, and he pretended to have a frightened look on his face.

Li Shanchang was very calm, reaching out to pick up the teacup from the table, planning to take a sip of tea first.

Seeing this, Hu Weiyong hurriedly got up, poured tea for Li Shanchang, and kept saying:

"The emperor doesn't know where he saw this highway again, and it is really incomprehensible that he has to make such a show."

Li Shanchang took a sip of tea, and then said;

"It can only be that place."

"And things, I'm afraid it's not that simple, the old man hasn't seen Xu Da for a long time."

Li Shanchang didn't point it out, but he had already said everything.

Hu Weiyong thought of the rumors in Beijing a few months ago, and now Zhu Yuanzhang insists on opening up the road between Yingtianfu and Songjiang Mansion, is it...

Hu Weiyong was suddenly startled and asked Li Shanchang:

"The teacher means that the emperor intends to be in Shanghu County... Open the sea? ”

Hu Weiyong's voice was very low, even if there was no one around, Hu Weiyong was afraid of being heard by others.

Li Shanchang smiled and said nothing, and did not say much on this issue, but said:

"Don't worry about that, you just need to do your part."

"If this matter is done well, the emperor will only pay more attention to you."

"The old man is already fifty and eight this year, and in two years, it will be the age of Huajiazi."

"At that time, the old man will ask the emperor to resign, and the position of the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, the old man is very optimistic about you."

After Li Shanchang finished speaking, he looked at Hu Weiyong with a smile on the corner of his mouth, as if he really wanted to pass on his position to Hu Weiyong.

But when Hu Weiyong heard this, he hurriedly stood up again, bowed to Li Shanchang and said:

"The teacher is in such good health, how can he ask the emperor to resign? If you are gone, what will happen to this Ming court? ”

"The students are still too young to be reminded by their mentors from time to time."

"Students can't do without their teachers, the court can't do without their teachers, and the people of the Ming Dynasty can't do without their teachers, please don't say this again."

Hu Weiyong was restless at the moment, looking like if Li Shanchang resigned, the Ming Dynasty would collapse, and resolutely kept Li Shanchang.

Li Shanchang sighed and said:

"It's not that the old man wants to resign, but the upper position can't accommodate the old man."

"Forget it, don't talk about it, you better do your own thing first."

"If this matter is done beautifully, the old man will recommend you to sit in this position in the future, and it will be more confident."

Hu Weiyong saw that Li Shanchang didn't want to say more, so he could only nod and say:

"The teacher can rest assured that the students will do their best."

"It's just a matter of collecting money from the gentry, what should the students do?"