Water Margin people

"Brother, let's go. I'll treat you to a drink today!"

Yu Yunwen pulled Sun Lei to find a corner on the second floor to sit down. Although he was outclassed in couplets, he was able to come up with one that showed his talent, so everyone was still very polite to him.

“Haha, I didn’t expect a couplet to be so lively.”

Sun Lei said with a smile that his original intention was to suppress those idle candidates so that they could concentrate on their studies and think less about messy jealousies.

"This first couplet is extremely mysterious and can be considered the best of all time. People who like it will naturally want to give it a try. Since ancient times, there has been no best in literature."

Yu Yunwen said with a smile.

"Haha, what a great article!"

Sun Lei said with a smile.

"By the way, what have you been learning about recently?"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and asked.

"I am studying the prosperity of Liangshan City. If there is a chance, I would also like to build such a city in Shu. Brother, don't underestimate a prosperous city. It can drive the surrounding area for thousands of miles!"

"From your accent, you seem to be from the Central Plains. Perhaps you don't know Shuzhong. It is a land of abundance, surrounded by mountains and fertile land. If there is a city like Liangshan City, the whole Shuzhong will become prosperous."

Yu Yunwen said excitedly that this was his dream.

Sun Lei listened while drinking and smiling, but he shook his head slightly to express his opinion.

"Brother, do you have any other opinions?"

Yu Yunwen saw Sun Lei shaking his head and asked in confusion.

“It’s a good idea, but it’s hard to do!”

Sun Lei said.

"Brother, are you willing to speak out? I am all ears!"

Instead of being angry, Yu Yunwen was extremely delighted. He was very willing to listen to different opinions.

"Shuzhong is a good place, with a pleasant climate and fertile land. This has been established since the Qin Dynasty. But have you ever thought about why such a good place has not developed for more than a thousand years?"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and asked.

"Occlusion!"

Yu Yunwen immediately thought of the reason. Being surrounded by mountains and with fertile land for thousands of miles, this was an advantage and could withstand wars, chaos and natural disasters. However, it also hindered development. The journey was inconvenient and merchants were unwilling to go there. Goods could neither go in nor out. How could the country develop?

"Yes, you have been in Liangshan City for so long that you should have seen how Liangshan City developed. It is surrounded by plains, with roads extending in all directions and rivers connecting the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. The traffic is smooth and the business is prosperous."

"If we still rely on farming as before, what's the point of having a thousand-mile plain and convenient transportation?"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and said, the young people’s ideas are good, but it is too difficult to put them into practice.

"We can open up a road, just like the Five Dings opened up the mountains!"

Yu Yunwen spoke.

"The Five Dings Opening the Mountains is just a saying. Just because people and the army can move doesn't mean that carriages and horses can move. The Shu Road is as difficult as climbing to heaven! This is not a joke!"

"Since you can get out of Shuzhong, you should know how difficult it is to get out of Shuzhong. Merchants have to consider not only the cost of goods, but also the transportation cost!"

Sun Lei shook his head and said, it is easy to build roads for people to pass through, but if you want to prosper trade, one or two mountain trails are just a drop in the bucket.

"Look at my clothes. They are made of top-quality Shu brocade. You should know how much it costs in Liangshan City, but is Shu brocade the best? Yun brocade and Su brocade are not worse than Shu brocade, but the price difference is too big!"

"The price of one piece of Shu brocade can buy two pieces of Yun brocade or Su brocade. Why is there such a big price difference? The key lies in the transportation cost. Brocade is just a glimpse of the whole picture. You can think about the rest yourself."

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and said.

"Brother, your opinion is brilliant. Yunwen admires it!"

Yu Yunwen looked at Sun Lei with admiration. He was not angry at all. Instead, he was delighted by the frank remarks of the man in front of him. The man in front of him pointed out the shortcomings of Shuzhong incisively and accurately.

"How is it? Now you know how difficult it is!"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen with a smile.

"Only those who know the south can be considered a real man! I am from Shu, and I will do it no matter how difficult it is!" Yu Yunwen said with a determined face.

Sun Lei immediately looked at the young man in front of him with new eyes. It was rare to face challenges head-on, and it was even rarer to remember one's roots.

"Do you have any ideas? You will never achieve anything just by being passionate."

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and asked.

“Well…”

Yu Yunwen was asked, but he couldn't think of a good solution for a while.

Sun Lei did not interrupt Yu Yunwen's thoughts. He smiled and watched Lu Zhishen and Wu Song drinking with everyone.

There are more and more people in the restaurant.

"I thought of it!"

Yu Yunwen looked surprised, but immediately lowered his head sadly.

"Still no! No one will agree to that."

Yu Yunwen shook his head helplessly.

"You might as well talk and listen."

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and smiled.

"Water transportation in Shu is also very convenient. You can go directly to the south of the Yangtze River along the Yangtze River, and then you can transfer it to Huguang and the Central Plains along the way. It is also very convenient to sell it overseas."

Yu Yunwen spoke.

"Then do you know the risks of water transportation? It's not an easy journey from Shuzhong to Jiangnan. Otherwise, you won't get to think about it."

Sun Lei shook his head and said that water transportation was indeed convenient, but the waterway from Shuzhong to Jinghu was too difficult to travel. If one was not careful and encountered wind and waves, the entire ship would capsize. This kind of loss was enough to bankrupt a merchant.

Therefore, road transportation has always been the main force, and the only trouble with land transportation is bandits. But now bandits are almost extinct in the territory of Qi, so land transportation is the safest.

"Don't we have steamboats? They should be safer!"

Yu Yunwen quickly realized that Qi State did not have any steam-powered ironclad ships, which were much safer than ordinary ships.

"Smart, you know about steam ironclad ships!"

Sun Lei smiled and nodded, saying that this was the way to break the deadlock.

"But isn't land and water enough?"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and asked, no matter how inconvenient land transportation is, it is indispensable.

"Yes, we need to build a road, a wide and flat road."

Yu Yunwen said that the most important thing is to develop the road in Shuzhong.

"What I want is to reduce taxes and use that to build roads. It only takes twenty... no, ten years to build several roads that pass through Hanzhong and connect to Guanzhong."

Yu Yunwen spoke.

“Great idea!”

Sun Lei nodded.

"But this is impossible. Ten years of taxes cannot be reduced just like that. The court will not agree to such a large investment."

Yu Yunwen shook his head helplessly. He felt that such a large investment was not realistic.

"why?"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and asked.

"Brother, you don't know that the annual taxes in Shuzhong are not much to begin with, and the court has also invested a lot in Shuzhong in recent years. If the court reduces taxes for nearly ten years... Hey!"

Yu Yunwen said that with the development of Qi, the once prosperous Shu had begun to fall behind the times, and it was simply a dream to reduce or exempt taxes now.

"Nothing is impossible. Taxes are just a small problem. The key is whether you can persist for ten or twenty years? Can you persist to the end like Yugong moving the mountain?"

Sun Lei looked at Yu Yunwen and asked. (End of this chapter)