These two sections of the road were finally sold at a price of 8,600 taels, and to be honest, there was still nearly a thousand taels of silver to be earned.

According to Xia Yuan's estimates, the cost of buying cement alone to repair these two sections of the road will be about 7,700 taels.

It does not include labor.

And the reason why it is said that there is a profit of nearly 1,000 taels of silver is because of the 72-mile road, the three-month construction period, and 200 people can work overtime to complete it.

With only 200 people, there was no need to hire workers for these merchants.

They are merchants, or merchants who are famous in Beizhili, and even the entire Ming Dynasty, who does not have a caravan under their hands.

Hundreds of people, thousands of people.

Usually, you don't have to go to business, and you can also raise it with starting money.

So these businessmen can call these people to build roads, and this thing has no technical content.

Knowing the proportions, light and mud will do.

This is one of the advantages of subcontracting the construction of the road to these merchants, who have a large number of men and a small salary.

It's estimated that it's a few hundred dollars.

In this era, a few hundred wen is already a relatively high salary.

Xia Yuan initially set a minimum monthly salary of two taels of silver for his employees, which really had various considerations.

For example, what kind of high salary is raised to prevent these people from eating inside and out, such as what palace head participates in shares, this is forced to go up, such as what wants to be a conscientious entrepreneur.

In short, no matter what it is, once this high salary is set, it will be difficult to go down.

If he were to be asked to repair these two sections of the road, a worker would have to pay at least two taels of silver a month, plus the sale of cement, which would be about nine thousand taels.

With the bidding for the first two sections of the road, and then subcontracting the rest of the road, these merchants also learned to be smart, and they did not need childcare, and they started bidding spontaneously.

In this way, all the roads of the entire Jingshi Shuntian Mansion were auctioned out, costing a total of 156,400 taels of silver.

As for the Northern Zhili outside the Beijing Division, he can only wait, the treasury is poor and there is no silver.

Just these more than 100,000 taels are still the proceeds from the sale of cement in the past month or so, and most of the dignitaries and nobles in Beijing have purchased this cement, either to repair their mansions or to pave the ground.

Not to mention, it's really sturdy and sturdy, and the price is fair, an absolute conscience product.

"At the beginning of the new policy, the steps should not be too big, now we will build the road of Jingshi and Shuntianfu first, and those who have not won the competition will wait until next time, as for you businessmen who have contracted to the road, you have signed this road repair document first. Come, send them these papers,"

Hearing this, several clerks picked up a pile of documents on the case, which were all printed in advance, and the contents were all similar.

Except for the orientation of the road, how many miles long, how many zhang wide, and the planned construction period, the rest of the content is the same.

In duplicate, stamped with the large seal of the Yamen of the Land Division.

One copy was given to the Yamen of the Land Route Division for safekeeping, and one copy was given to these merchants.

"There are two copies of the paperwork, and at the bottom of each copy are your names and the wages you have just promised, and then you will put your fingerprints on them."

The merchants who got the document did not rush to sign and seal it, but read the content of the document first.

The content was not long, but it was only a few hundred words, but it made the pupils of these people shrink, and some even raised their heads to look at the governor, and saw that his face was calm, so he dared to say out: "My lord, this document."

"The punishment is too harsh, isn't it?"

“.”

The person who spoke choked for a moment, it turned out that this adult also knew that the punishment was too harsh, this was not only ruthless, but also terrible.

It's scary to behead and raid your home.

Someone stood up and said stubbornly: "My lord, this road construction matter has a lot to stake, and it is responsible for the country. Villains, villains, businessmen and the like, I am afraid that it will be difficult to take on this great responsibility, and I am even more afraid that it will harm the major affairs of the country, otherwise it is better to leave this matter to the adults in the DPRK and the central government."

The more he spoke, the quieter his voice became, until he shut up, but the rest of the businessmen seemed to have found a reason and excuse, stood up and said: "My lord, it's not that the villain is unwilling to serve the country, but the villain is just the last businessman, and he can't take on this big responsibility, which is unworthy of the imperial court." ”

"Yes, yes, my lord, it's really a loss of the imperial court, and we are just the last lowly people."

"Losing the imperial court? The last lowly? Coincidentally, when this national policy was decided, it was intended to adopt the contract system and hand over the road to the merchants to build. The princes of the court also said the same thing, the merchants are pariahs, how can they be worthy of great responsibilities? Merchants are lowly people, how can they trust state affairs?

Businessmen see profit and forget righteousness, the ancient way of governance, Shang Li is chaotic, Shang Yi is rule, and righteousness governs the country, this is the right way, why bother to talk about profit? How to make a profit? How can it be profitable? ”

"Heh" Xia Yuan sneered, with playfulness and mockery at the corners of his mouth, and he didn't know who he was aiming at.

Then he got up from his chair, walked around the bookcase and walked to the bottom of the hall, scanning the group of merchants in the lower seats, and scanning the rich men in coarse linen clothes.

"You all have a lot of wealth, guarding the mountains of gold and silver, but you are not allowed to ride in a sedan chair, you are not allowed to wear brocade clothes, you are not allowed to call slaves, so you even go to the street to walk, you have to walk to the side, the country is cheap, the people are ashamed, what do you think about this?"

“.”

Some of the merchants moved their lips, as if they wanted to speak, but in the end they fell silent and were silent.

"Nothing to say? I'm used to it, I've been like this for thousands of years anyway, and I've long been used to being a pariah.

At the beginning, this official urged the imperial court, His Majesty, and urged you to bear the national policy of this court, let you bear the burden of this court, so that you can straighten your waist and be a person, but you don't dare. ”

"Or are you afraid that the punishment will fall and make you behead and raid your house?"

"If so, can this official think that you originally planned to cut corners on the envoys of this imperial court, shoddy ones, and make profits?"

Hearing this, a group of businessmen had to answer, and some even knelt down and kowtowed: "Adults are Mingjian, villains never dare to have such thoughts." ”

"So what are you afraid of? Afraid that you won't be able to do this errand? Afraid that you won't be able to mix this lapis lazuli? How to mix sand and gravel with this lapis lazuli, this official has taken you to visit.

This lapis lazuli road official has personally led people to repair, as long as you don't cut corners, you will be able to repair it properly. ”

"What's more, this document is clearly written, and the first inquest found that it was not up to standard, and it was overturned and rebuilt. The second inquest, still not up to standard, or overturned and rebuilt, as the saying goes, there are only three, until the third time, the beheading will be carried out. ”

"Are you afraid that you won't be able to repair this section of the road three times in a row?"

"That official is strange, if you are such a pig brain, how did you save this huge net worth?"

Speaking of this, Xia Yuan had already walked back from the hall and sat down on the chair again, "If the imperial court lets the people serve and gives some money and food, it will inevitably save more than letting you cultivate."

And this official strongly advises the court to leave this matter to you, so that you can earn money, not to mention, and let you wait to participate in the affairs of this country. If you can do the errand properly, you may be able to gain the grace of the country and elevate the status of the people, but you can't be on the table. ”

"Come, if you don't want to, hand in the paperwork to the official, and then go out of this main hall, and then go on to be the untouchables you are waiting for."

PS: My uncle let the car hit, the day before yesterday was busy with this, just out of danger in the morning, these two chapters are I worked overtime to rush out, I have to go to the hospital in the afternoon, until the evening cousin can rush back from abroad, I see the situation tomorrow try to give you three more.

That's it, I'm really sorry.

(End of chapter)