Molested Zulong at the beginning

Holding an oil-paper umbrella, she looked at the straight official road in the distance, and a gleam flashed in her phoenix eyes: "Is this the official road you want to build?"

At this time, the streets in Xianyang City have completely taken on a new look. The dirt roads in the past have been turned into solid brick roads. Looking around, they are very impressive.

In the surrounding restaurants and teahouses, many people pointed curiously.

Bai Su said with a smile: "This is only part of it. The rest is still under repair. Although it has not been completed yet, its advantages have already begun to show. The ground is not only solid, but also extremely flat, suitable for carriages to run on."

Sister Zheng stepped on the ground, nodded lightly: "It is indeed a good road, but I don't know how much it can bear and whether it will last."

Bai Su said: "This official road is divided into three layers, which is much stronger and more durable than before. Even if a carriage weighing several thousand catties passes by in heavy rain, there will be no problem."

Saying that, he clapped his hands.

A carriage drove up next to it, and the carriage was filled with heavy sandbags. It was so full that it seemed to weigh a thousand catties.

There was a hint of curiosity in Sister Zheng's phoenix eyes: "Are you going to let this carriage test?"

Bai Su nodded and said: "This official way has just taken shape. Naturally, we need to experiment how well it works. Let the carriage drive across the wet ground to see if it will sag and see how fast it is."

Sister Zheng looked at the wet ground and was suddenly curious: "It's so good, let's try it."

After explaining a few words to the coachman, Bai Su lit a stick of incense, and after noting the time, let him set off.

The coachman flicked the reins, the horse neighed, and gradually went away.

The ground that was rammed with soil in the past, after being run over by the carriage, more or less left a wheel mark, which gradually sank and slipped.

But now there is no problem at all, driving steadily all the way, even the things hanging on the carriage did not shake too violently.

It quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.

Xianyang City is not a small city. It is almost a hundred miles away when it circles around.

In the past, even when the weather was fine, it would take at least two or three hours for the carriage to come back.

Bai Su, who had nothing to do, walked towards Sister Zheng with a smile on his oiled paper umbrella.

Seeing Bai Su standing side by side with her, Sister Zheng couldn't help raising her slender eyebrows: "You're suddenly so close, what are you doing?"

Bai Su blinked and looked at Sister Zheng: "Naturally, I want to follow His Majesty's instructions. I have made great achievements this time. I don't know how Your Majesty will reward me?"

Sister Zheng turned her head, bit her red lips lightly with her bright teeth, glanced around with her phoenix eyes, and saw that there were no outsiders.

She opened the mouth and said: "I have married my most beloved daughter to you, are you not satisfied, you thief?"

Bai Su held an oiled paper umbrella and said with a smile: "With a beauty like His Majesty in front of you, it's like jewels and jade in your arms. Who in the world would not be tempted."

"You greedy sycophant..."

"As long as I can be with His Majesty day and night, what's the harm in being a courtier?"

Bai Su raised his head and looked at Sister Zheng in front of him. For a while, the surroundings were quiet, only the rustling sound of the drizzle slapping on the oiled paper umbrella.

When the two looked at each other, time seemed to stand still.

Sister Zheng looked at the obviously mature Bai Su in front of her, and her phoenix eyes couldn't help being absent-minded for a while.

She immediately came back to her senses, shook her head, and said in a firm tone: "I can't be sorry to Qi'er, now that you and I have broken up, it is impossible for me to go back."

The clear voice seemed extraordinarily determined.

Bai Su was not disappointed at all, but smiled: "Since Your Majesty has already let go of everything, why...why do you still want to wear this string of bracelets?"

As he spoke, he touched Sister Zheng's right hand.

Sister Zheng's pupils shrank suddenly, and she wanted to withdraw her hand, but it was too late, her sleeve was pulled away by Bai Su, revealing a bracelet made of red beans inside, which looked exquisite on her white arm.

"May you pick more, this thing is the most lovesick..." Bai Su said softly.

Sister Zheng withdrew her hand, touched the bracelet on her wrist, looked at Bai Su with complicated phoenix eyes, and was speechless for a long time.

After a long silence, she said: "This is just to leave a thought. You and I are already destined. From then on, the relationship between mother-in-law and son-in-law will not change in the slightest."

After finishing speaking, he pulled up his sleeves and walked a few steps away holding the oil-paper umbrella.

Seeing this, Bai Su couldn't help but sighed regretfully, Sister Zheng still cared about her reputation, and in the end she couldn't pass the test in her heart.

However, what he didn't see was that after Zheng Jie took a few steps, her footsteps suddenly stopped, and an inexplicable feeling of nausea surged, causing Zheng Jie's eyebrows to frown, and she subconsciously covered her mouth for a long time. subside.

She was a little puzzled: "What's the matter, why is it so uncomfortable all of a sudden, could it be because of the cold?"

While Sister Zheng was contemplating, a loud noise suddenly came from a distance, interrupting her thoughts.

I saw that the carriage that had left before had returned.

As soon as the coachman pulled the reins, the carriage slowly stopped in front of Bai Su.

"My lord, it's a good luck not to disgrace my life." The coachman clasped his fists and said.

Bai Su took a look at the incense burning in the censer, and couldn't help laughing: "That's right, it took about an hour, and the speed is faster than I thought."

After all, there are still thousands of catties of sandbags in the carriage, and it is not easy to get back in nearly an hour.

After recording the time, Bai Su held an umbrella and came to Sister Zheng's side: "Your Majesty, the speed is three times faster than before."

When Sister Zheng heard Bai Su's words, a hint of surprise appeared on her graceful and luxurious face: "Three...three times!!!"

Bai Su nodded: "This is still carrying thousands of catties of goods. In the case of driving in rainy weather, if you just pass the message on horseback, the speed will only be faster."

"For example, in the past, it took at least a month to get from Baiyue to Xianyang, but with this official way, the efficiency will be greatly accelerated."

"If the Maxie people don't stop, you can ride eight hundred miles all the way, and it only takes four or five days to send the letter from the Baiyue land. When the time comes, your Majesty wants to eat the Baiyue land, and the freshly produced lychees are not enough. question."

Sister Zheng gave Bai Su a funny look: "It costs so much to build official roads just to eat a few lychees, it's your fault for saying such things."

Bai Su laughed lightly, and said: "As the saying goes, food and sex are also human nature, and you can eat them in the north, and fresh fruits in the south have always been my minister's long-cherished wish."

"By the way, Your Majesty, why are you so pale? Are you sick?"

As he said, he glanced at the sister Zheng in front of him with a strange expression. She was fine just now, but this time her face was slightly pale.

Sister Zheng shook her head slightly: "It's nothing serious, but I feel a little uncomfortable. Maybe it's because the weather is too cold and I caught the wind and chill."

Chapter 230 Eight Strange Political Sister

"Fengchi?"

Bai Su was stunned for a moment, and looked at Sister Zheng worriedly: "Your Majesty must pay attention to your health."

"Of course I know."

Sister Zheng touched her lips, and immediately pulled the shirt on the collar, her phoenix eyes looked at the official road in front of her: "Your official road is really good, but you just want to build it in various parts of the Central Plains. The amount of work is really huge. A little too big."

"In a short period of time, it will be a big financial burden for the imperial court."

Although Bai Su did all this for strategic considerations, as well as future trade development and taxation enhancement, he also specially improved the firing of stone bricks, which solved a lot of costs.

But there is a problem that has not been solved for a long time.

That is, for a long period of time in the early stage, the court only invested, but it was difficult to get returns.

After all, it is impossible for the tax to increase suddenly in a short period of time, and unilateral expenditure is indeed a headache.

Although the current treasury of the imperial court is much more generous than in the past, the territory of Great Xia has also expanded several times, and money is needed everywhere.

If in order to build an official road, the expenses of other parts of the court were overdrawn, then a good policy may lead to a series of troubles instead.

Moreover, although this official road is durable, it does not mean that it will never be damaged. It needs to be repaired occasionally after continuous investment every year.

Even if the imperial court has a golden mountain, it can't bear the expenses like flowing water.

Bai Su smiled and said: "Your Majesty, there is no need to worry, I have already figured out a financial solution, so that the official path will not only not lose money, but also make money for the court."

After Bai Su finished speaking, Sister Zheng couldn't help being stunned, and gave him a strange look.

This is really novel.

This is the first time she has heard of the construction projects in the past dynasties, which are not a loss-making business that costs money like water, but can also actively make money.

There was a hint of curiosity in Sister Zheng's phoenix eyes: "What good plan do you have?"

Bai Su stroked his chin and said, "Block the road and rob."

"Root... Robbery?"

Sister Zheng looked stunned, wondering if she had an auditory hallucination.

Bai Su coughed lightly for a while: "Sorry, I made a mistake at the moment. It is to set up checkpoints on the official roads and charge tolls from people who come and go."

Sister Zheng said with a strange look: "Should I add that I opened this mountain and planted this road?"

Bai Su couldn't help laughing, he coughed a few times, pretending to be serious, "I'm a government official, not a gangster, how could I do such a thing."

"But what you do is different from the gangsters. They charge tolls from the people." Sister Zheng couldn't tell whether to laugh or cry.

Bai Su shook his head slightly: "That's wrong. The gangsters are doing murder and robbery. They are public enemies of the common people. I am here to benefit the country and the people, and win-win cooperation."

Sister Zheng couldn't help but curiously said: "This statement is a bit novel, I would like to see what you say."

Bai Su said with a smile: "Your Majesty, think about it. If the court wants to build official roads, it needs to spend money. Where does the money come from? It's not taxes."

"If the court invests money unilaterally, it will be difficult to maintain it. If it wants to continue, it will sooner or later increase the tax burden on the people to maintain the infrastructure. If this is the case, why not let the people take the initiative to share the cost from the beginning, as the saying goes. For the people, for the people."

After pondering for a moment, Sister Zheng said, "But in the past, officials never charged money. If they suddenly charge money, the common people may not be able to accept it."

Bai Su said: "If you want to maintain a policy for a long time, a virtuous circle is essential, and you must go through some infamy. Besides, our main target is not the common people, but businessmen."

"For example, ordinary people live in villages all their lives and can't walk dozens of miles a day. We might as well set a standard, such as charging five cents for every one hundred miles."

"Ordinary people can't travel so far, so they don't need to spend money to use this convenient official road for free, and the caravans that really bring goods and come from afar don't care about the mere pennies."

"After all, the leather, herbs, spices, etc. that the merchants are pulling, once they encounter heavy rain on the road and get wet, the goods in that car are basically moldy and useless."

"If you can spend a few pennies to shorten the original ten-day journey to three days, I believe there will be a lot of businessmen who will take the initiative to send money."

"Everyone in the world is profit-making. There is nothing better than the word profit to describe these businessmen."

"In this way, ordinary people will not have any objections when it is free. Although businessmen have some opinions, they will not say much in the face of huge benefits. The implementation of the policy will be much smoother."

"At that time, this official road will provide the court with a considerable amount of tax every year, and use this money for daily maintenance. The damage to the official road will form a virtuous circle."

"With the Beiting Protectorate, there will be more and more caravans from the countries in the Western Regions. I believe that within ten or twenty years, all the investment in this official road will be recovered, and there will even be a new one. source of tax revenue..."

After hearing Bai Su's plan, Sister Zheng opened her mouth slightly, and a look of disbelief flashed in her phoenix eyes.

She was completely in admiration of Bai Su's ability to collect money. This kind of talent in governing the country was no less than that of the former Prime Minister Guan Zhong.

This large-scale project of the imperial court since ancient times has always been a money-losing business.

For example, when Daxia went to build Dujiangyan to support Li Bing and his son, Daxia almost exhausted most of its national power, and its finances were once poor.

Huddled in Hangu Pass, it took more than ten years to recover.

And after she unified the world, she built roads and the Great Wall all over the country, which caused even more anger and resentment. The people of the six countries wished that she would die earlier.

But Bai Su was lucky, not only completed the project for the imperial court, the common people didn't have much opinion, and even made countless businessmen line up to give money, which gained a good reputation.

Forcibly turning a loss-making business into a profit.

With such talent, as a monarch, she is really loved to death.

With such a virtuous housemate who manages finances by his side, why worry about the treasury running out of money?

It took a long time for Sister Zheng to come back to her senses, and said with a smile on her face, "I don't worry if you do the work. Since that's the case, I'll leave this matter to you. I suddenly got tired, so I went back to the palace to rest."

After she finished speaking, she rubbed her temples, wondering if she was thinking too much, and she always felt tired and sleepy.

"Your Majesty looks a little strange today..."

Holding an oil-paper umbrella, Bai Su couldn't help muttering as he watched Sister Zheng receding away, accompanied by Gong'e.

I don't know if it's an illusion, but I always feel that today's sister Zheng seems to have a special demeanor of a wife, and the eyes that are accidentally turned over are extraordinarily interesting.

Chapter 230 Nine Touching the Wrong Leg

The pouring rain made a rustling sound on the leaves.

Wearing a white robe, Bai Su came to Shaofu with an oil-paper umbrella, asked someone to prepare some drinks, hot pot came, and informed Liu Ji, Mo Xundeng, the senior management of Shaofu, to come over for dinner together.

It's raining harder and harder, and it's time to rest for a while.

Not long after, Liu Ji and Mo Xun, the giant of the Mo family, walked over together.

The two were dressed in red and black official robes, with tight girdles, outlining their graceful figure curves. Just standing together was enough to attract attention.