eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 379 Whitelist

After Gu Zuo entered the palace, Zhu Houzhao did not summon him in the Qianqing Palace.

Instead, he chose the gazebo by the lake and took him for a walk.

"Recently, the imperial court has three main issues. First, some salt merchants have been arrested in Yangzhou. Some of them need to be sent to the capital. However, I have ordered Han, Min, Wang, and the British public to try this matter together. After that, they can be convicted according to the law. The crux of the matter is whether I, the emperor, can carry it out resolutely."

"This is the second one." The emperor turned to face Gu Zuo, and made a 'two' gesture, "It means that after the imperial court confiscated the wealth of many illegal salt merchants and officials, they copied too much money all at once. I originally estimated that it would cost 500 million taels, but now it seems that I have underestimated Yangzhou and those salt merchants and corrupt officials. In fact, it should be more than [-] million taels."

It's really fattening them up.

The wide, soft, and loose officialdom atmosphere of the eighteen years of Hongzhi alone has fostered an unknown number of wealthy people.

"...There are some words that other people don't understand. But you, Gu Liqing, should understand."

"Yes." Gu Zuo arched his hands, "The imperial court has accumulated too much silver, and if it is not done properly, there will be a silver shortage among the people."

Zhu Houzhao showed admiring eyes.

In fact, this matter can indeed be ranked as one of the three major events.

Others, such as the library garden and the planning of the capital, are not major events that affect the overall situation.

Even to provide relief to kitchen households, this matter is handled by Yang Tinghe, who just takes the money and distributes the food in place.As the emperor, he will carefully supervise the problems, but it will not require him to expend much energy.

"Once there is a shortage of silver, there will be unforeseen consequences, so the money must be spent as soon as possible. Besides, once the third thing is moved, money will come in again."

Zhu Houzhao reminded, "It's the saltworks auction."

If Gu Zuo realized something, he could understand it completely, "...the imperial court has confiscated many big salt merchants, who will the auction be for?"

Zhu Houzhao didn't think so, "These salt merchants are too powerful. It's not beautiful to bully the small and the strong to bully the weak in the auction field. The Lianghuai Salt Field is the top salt industry in the world. Are you afraid that you won't be able to sell it?"

This is true.

Gu Zuo asked again: "Now that the city that never sleeps is coming to an end, I wonder where Your Majesty wants to spend the money?"

Zhu Houzhao sat down and said in a relaxed tone, "What do you think about building roads?"

"Build the road?"

"Yes, build a road that is wide, straight, and as flat as possible. This will promote the flow of goods, and travel between the north and the south. Liu Xixian, governor of Shandong, once told me that the traffic in the three eastern prefectures is inconvenient, and food and crops cannot be transported out in time. Many businessmen are unwilling to go in, resulting in long-term poverty. But the three west mansions are different, because the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal passes by, the population is dense, and the business is prosperous, so they are much richer than the three east mansions.”

This is a vivid and accurate example,
In fact, it is not difficult to understand.

"So I want to build a road. First connect the two capitals. From the capital down, pass Jinan, Xuzhou, Huai'an, and Yangzhou to Yingtian."

This road is a relatively prosperous big city.

"Such a long distance, it must be a big project, and many people will be recruited to serve. There will also be opposition in the court."

Zhu Houzhao said: "First, the road construction court should also refer to the city that never sleeps, and choose the way of employment. Although it will cost a lot of money, but the money will be in the hands of the people, so why not increase the burden on the people? There are many people who oppose it, so I will use the 800 million taels to expand the army, beat the Tatars to move westward, and beat up the people's ten houses and nine empty houses, and I will be a very happy king."

"Your Majesty is joking."

Gu Zuo didn't believe it, because the emperor's philosophy was to get back the money spent.

The political effect of laying down a large grassland and Gobi is huge, but it is a pure cost economically.Of course, as the son of heaven, the two must be balanced.

So the imperial court is also allocating money to the frontier.

And since there is a balance, where is the reason to spend all the money?

Besides, the military supplies for the complex set still have the support of Kaihai.

"My minister is just a hunch. But in the end, it shouldn't hinder too much. There is only one problem."

Zhu Houzhao has enough patience, "You say,"

"This is also the difficulty that Wei Chen encountered when he was building the city that never sleeps—difficult to manage. A city that never sleeps needs to recruit 3 or [-] people. How to manage so many people is really a headache. The city that never sleeps is okay. It is different, the distance between the north and the south is far away, and more people are needed, so how to manage it effectively will be very difficult.”

After Zhu Houzhao listened, he nodded and began to think.

"...Academy, the city that never sleeps, plus so many buildings invested and built by private businessmen, is there any workshop or shop dedicated to bringing a group of people to work?"

Gu Zuo thought for a while, "There are, but they are not shops. Most of them are established by fellow villagers. For example, if one person does a job and thinks it is good, many fellow villagers will go to him. So gradually there will be a few One hundred people were transferred from this venue to another venue as a whole."

Zhu Houzhao thought it was so,

It appears that this phenomenon is a spontaneous one.No one has thought about it yet, and unifiedly undertake the project in the name of the whole.

But this is not a problem, as the government should do a good job of guiding it.

"Liqing, after you go back, create a white list in the Shaofu. This white list is not a list of individuals, but a list of workshops. For the subsequent road construction projects, the Shaofu will no longer directly recruit personnel, but will change from white to white. A number of people were selected from the list to undertake it. For example, this section of Baili Road, the Shaofu has full authority to entrust the implementation of "Meiji", "

"Meiji recruits personnel to work, while Shaofu is responsible for supervision, management, and acceptance, and finally pays Meiji a total price, such as 80 taels. The payment will be made in batches until the road is completely repaired. Pay the money."

Gu Zuo's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help standing up, "In this way, the Shaofu only needs to manage a few or a dozen 'Mei Ji' stores along the line, going down one level at a time, and Mei Ji itself It can also be broken down again."

"Yes. There is another advantage of this. The Shaofu can put forward some specific requirements for the white list, such as labor management should not be too oppressive, as well as the quality, speed, and even price of the project. So another purpose, It is also to promote the standardization of these loose groups of fellow villagers. In addition to escort bureaus, restaurants, and teahouses, there will be another form of commercial organization in the Ming Dynasty, which can be called construction teams for the time being."

"More importantly, the Shaofu can put forward more specific requirements, such as the materials used for road construction. Whoever has a good material formula will have a better road quality, and the Shaofu will entrust them to do more work in the future."

From direct employment to indirect employment.In fact, Zhu Houzhao, a latecomer, helped them grow up step by step.

As for whether cement will appear and when it will appear, no one knows.

But Zhu Houzhao established a mechanism for them to compete with each other and improve continuously.

In a way, this is actually more important.

It does not mean that with concrete technology, roads can be built everywhere.The road is a big project, not a balloon, just blow it up.Among them, project organization, funding sources, and conflict resolution are all big problems.From a few shovels of concrete to thousands of miles of roads, this is not something that can be done casually with a few people.

In the final analysis, the human problem cannot be solved well. Just a pile of concrete will create a road with cracks if you step on it twice.

What shall we do then?This amount of funds, do it again?How can there be so much money.

Gu Zuo has gradually gotten used to Zhu Houzhao's forward thinking.It was as if the emperor was guiding him forward.

Through the white list, the Shaofu still controls everything. Anyone who doesn't follow the above will be eliminated. Where can I find a job?

"With His Majesty's method, each fellow team will be reformed according to the imperial court's wishes, and the imperial court can use their arms and fingers without restraint."

"En. You should think about this matter. I know that there are dragons and crouching tigers hidden in the Young Mansion. When you think about it in detail, you can hand in the note and enter the palace."

"The minister obeys the order!"

When Gu Zuo entered the palace this time, he didn't mention a single word about the previous incident.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao originally wanted to say something, but later felt that it was unnecessary.

And Gu Zuo just said some words of gratitude. As for the pragmatic and honest government affairs of the emperor today, he also likes it the most.

Daming can only grow stronger day by day through such efforts.

(End of this chapter)