Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1154 Official Road Optimization
The businessmen who jointly proposed to the Ministry of Industry to contract the operation and construction of official roads did not expect that Chu Yun would personally bring officials from the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Industry to negotiate face-to-face with them in the inner hall of the Ministry of Industry to see if they had the ability and responsibility to contract the capital city. A large section of official road to Tianjin Wei.

The twenty or so businessmen originally thought that officials at the level of Minister of Industry at most would find them.At this time, they couldn't help but get nervous.The improvement of their status as merchants and the beginning of trade with the whole world are all thanks to the mercantilism practiced by this man in front of them.

The businessmen looked at each other from the corner of their eyes in private, and they could see the tension in each other's eyes.

"I have read the proposals submitted by all of you, and I am also very interested in your plan to contract the official road. Ji Yuyong, you are the main proposer of this official road contracting plan. You were an official in the Ministry of Officials during the Wanli period. Now I returned to my hometown in Taixing to run the salt business, so I have a wider vision, so let me tell you what you think." Chu Yun said.

"Yes!" Ji Yuyong used to be an official in the court, so it is not difficult to imagine that his resume is well known by Chu Yun.

"The capital city is the most prosperous place in the world, and it is also the capital of the country. Every day, a steady stream of goods are transported to the capital city from all over the world by land, sea, and water. Now that the sea transportation is becoming more and more developed, the connection between the capital city and Tianjin Wei is increasing. Closely packed, the number of goods coming in and out is increasing, and the official road has not been repaired for many years, and it was partially destroyed during the war. Some dirt roads are muddy in the rainy season, and the water is very serious. Large carriages need to wait for the water to drain. Passage. There are also road sections located on the side of the hillside. When it rains or the ground dragon shakes, the mountain will collapse and block the road. Once this happens, the goods will be stranded, and we will not be able to deliver the goods to the seller. If it is fresh or rotten, it will lose everything.”

"If we rebuild the official road, we will improve it from three aspects. One is to dredge the official road, send workers to clear the blocked road section, raise the road surface as much as possible, and dig drainage ditches on both sides of the official road. The second is Widen some official roads according to unified standards, and gradually widen the original narrow road section to allow four or even eight horse-drawn carriages to pass at the same time. The third is to operate the official road on behalf of the government. In case of water accumulation or blockage, we will hire workers as soon as possible Go to clear it. If there is a larger volume of cargo transportation in the future, we will consider expanding the official road a second time to make it more spacious." Ji Yuyong described to Chu Yun the vision of his group.

Chu Yun listened carefully.After inspecting the road, these businessmen put forward their own demands, which has made a lot of progress compared to passively accepting the government's arrangements.Moreover, the ideas and measures put forward by Ji Yuyong are indeed very close to the actual road needs.

After Ji Yuyong finished speaking, he held his breath to observe Chu Yun's face. The other businessmen who came with Ji Yuyong were also agitated, wondering if Chu Yun would criticize them.Although Chu Yun was regarded as a patron saint by the businessmen, they had never dealt with Chu Yun before, so they didn't know his temper.Ji Yuyong didn't even propose to set up checkpoints to collect fees, because he was afraid that Chu Yun's temperament would change and he opposed their proposal.

"Your ideas are very good, and there are almost no major flaws. But this is a plan designed from your perspective, and our government has our government's views." Chu Yun said.

"Does the military leader think that our proposal is not in line with the government's opinion?" Seeing that Chu Yun believed that the plan only considered the interests of businessmen, Ji Yuyong couldn't help worrying that Chu Yun would veto his proposal.

In order to investigate the official situation from the capital to Tianjin Wei, he spent a lot of time to form the current report.Moreover, it is not easy to gather more than 20 big businessmen from all walks of life to support his idea. Not all of them are willing to spend so much money on such a costly project as rebuilding the official road.If his idea is rejected by Chu Yun, then his efforts during this period of time will be in vain.

"No, considering the government's opinion does not mean denying your ideas, but that both parties are working hard to do a better job of rebuilding the official way." Chu Yun said, "The minister of the Ministry of Industry will explain to you the situation of the Ministry of Industry. the opinion of."

The minister of the Ministry of Industry was prompted by Chu Yun, so he spread out a topographic map of the Beijing-Tianjin area on the big wooden table where the merchants were sitting.

After Chu Yun came to power, the map gave up the relatively primitive image drawing method, but used theodolite as the basis to draw more realistic topography.The topography, terrain, roads, villages and towns near the capital have been surveyed and mapped in detail in recent years.

For such a detailed topographic map, businessmen such as Ji Yuyong had never seen it before, so they were stunned for a while.

"This map is very detailed, and the red line in the middle is the current official road. When the official road was built, it paid more attention to water transportation and despised sea transportation, so your judgment is correct. The most suitable and practical pipelines in the past are somewhat inadequate now. Now coastal The maritime transport in the region is becoming more and more developed, and how to transport the goods from the mainland to the port as soon as possible has become a top priority.”

"However, we don't want you to just repair and widen the original section after contracting the official road. We hope that you can thoroughly optimize the original official road. For example, if this section of official road can be straightened If the trend passes through these three villages, the distance can be shortened ten miles, and it can also promote the development of the three villages. Our government hopes to shorten the distance between the capital and Tianjin Wei Port as much as possible, and also hopes that the official road can be as straight as possible so that in the future Upgrade and transform the road surface of the official road.”

The minister of the Ministry of Industry expressed his opinion instead of Chu Yun.

"If the distance between the capital city and Tianjin Wei can be shortened as much as possible, it will indeed be a good thing for the country and the people. But for us ordinary businessmen, it is quite enough for us ordinary businessmen to dredge and broaden the original official road just by investing in the bank." It is laborious. To shorten the distance requires building a new, straight official road from scratch, you may need to build a bridge on the way, and you have to pass through villages to have disputes with the villagers, so the cost is too high..." Ji Yuyong said embarrassingly.

The other businessmen who were present nodded as if they agreed. They all knew that the cost of building a new road was much more than widening the old road.

When it comes to cost, the official from the Ministry of Household Affairs said: "Our government can subsidize you to a certain extent to open up new official roads with shorter distances, and can also help you deal with disputes caused by roads passing through villages and farmland. New The shorter the official road, the old official road does not need to be dredged and rebuilt, and the maintenance cost of the new official road will be lower in the future.”

(End of this chapter)