The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 241

The super project of [-] million taels was divided into five phases after some planning by Zhu Cihong and the construction supervisor.

The first phase consists of two Class-A official roads and some Class-B official roads. The construction period will be at the end of September next year at the latest, and the total construction cost is expected to be 3000 million taels of silver.

In just two months, before the end of the year, all the routes along the route were surveyed and divided into [-] sections for bidding.

Almost every construction section is only a dozen miles, or a bridge, and the actual cost is only a few thousand to tens of thousands of taels. Tens of thousands of contractors, competing for these two thousand construction sections, almost beat their brains out, and finally quoted The lowest [-] military officers won this bid.

During this period, many military officers learned to play tricks, go out of their way, and wanted to bribe the construction supervisor of the bidding. Fortunately, Zhu Cihong personally presided over and supervised it this time, so he did not succeed.

Regarding this situation, Zhu Cihong also knew that it was unavoidable, so he just warned the military attaches who had given bribes, and expelled the construction officials who accepted the bribes and sent them to prison for questioning.

The reason why Zhu Cihong dared to build large-scale construction projects is because the reputation of building prisons has been established now, and there is no need to spend money by himself. He can borrow chickens to lay eggs and use the money of these military officers to build first.

Almost all of these military officers are very rich, and have accumulated wealth through farming and exploitation for more than 200 years. The smallest hundred households may have tens of thousands of taels of wealth, because it has been accumulated by dozens of generations.

Now all of them have been moved to the capital to sit and eat. Although they have to spend some money on daily expenses, Zhu Cihong is obviously dissatisfied with the speed at which they spend money.

It can be imagined that when these guys take money and go to various places in the north to recruit people to work, the people will have money and increase their purchasing power, which will definitely stimulate the economic and commercial development of the entire north.

Although the two thousand military officers who did not win the bid had habitually borrowed a sum of money from the bank, most of them only borrowed a few hundred taels symbolically.

After all, they have a lot of money. In the past, they used to borrow because they were afraid that the court would not give money when the construction period was over. Now almost no one is worried about this, so naturally they don’t want to bear the high interest rate of the bank and spend that unjustly money.

If it weren't for the fear of offending Her Royal Highness, I'm afraid I wouldn't loan a penny.

This bidding system, which involves paying in advance by yourself first, checking and accepting later, and paying by the court, is suspected of being a white wolf with empty gloves, but there are many gentry and landlords who want to apply to become contractors.

However, the most important one is the hereditary military officer background, which made many gentry and landlords very dissatisfied, so they became envious and jealous of those military officers in the capital. Although they all belonged to the rich class, they formed opposition invisibly .

As everyone knows, all of this is in Zhu Cihong's calculations.

No matter how large-scale construction was carried out in the north, the south was also not idle. After nearly a year of exploration and planning, officials from the Nanjing Ministry of Industry finally finalized the plan for the reconstruction of the Yellow River and the widening of the canal.

Compared with the construction of official roads, the diversion of the Yellow River and the widening of the canal are undoubtedly much more complicated, so the officials of the Ministry of Industry have been busy for nearly a year.

It can be said that they are not working hard, this kind of efficiency is rare in all dynasties.

The two projects are also divided into five phases, each one year, and the estimated investment is as high as tens of millions of taels.

But when the Ministry of Industry made everything ready, Ma Shiying and the Minister of the Ministry of Industry came to Zhang Yan for final approval with the plan, but Zhang Yan hesitated.

Obviously, although he was mentally prepared and Zhu Cihong had explained it when he left, he was still frightened by this huge project and did not dare to make decisions without authorization.

"Ma Aiqing, will this cost too much?"

"Returning to the Empress Dowager, although tens of millions of taels may sound a bit scary, but with the current financial revenue of the imperial court, it is completely affordable to divide it into five years, and according to the bidding system formulated by His Majesty, the imperial court does not need to take money by itself in the first year. Those who come out will be paid by the contractors."

Ma Shiying obviously also saw Zhang Yan's hesitation, and had no choice but to explain that he really had nothing to do with the Queen Mother's courage.

Zhang Yan is naturally aware of the contractor system. She picked up the plan, read it again, and finally said: "This matter is too important and involves a lot of things. Let's report it to His Majesty before making a decision!"

"What the queen mother said is very true, the ministers and others will leave first."

Ma Shiying and Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry both looked disappointed, but they could only agree with each other, and then bowed and bowed to leave.

After all, the Queen Mother has already said what she wants to report to His Majesty, what else can they say?Could it be possible to persuade the Queen Mother that there is no need to report to His Majesty?
Nanjing City also gathered a large number of military officers, and the situation in Beijing had already been passed on. These military officers were also eagerly waiting, and almost all of them were gearing up to bid.

As a result, news came from the Ministry of Industry that the plan was finally stuck with the queen mother, and I am afraid they will have to wait for a while. Everyone is also extremely helpless towards Zhang Yan.

Princess Kunxing was also anxious, because the bank was also waiting for a loan. Not long after the news spread, she hurried back to Nanjing from Zhejiang.

"Auntie, didn't Brother Huang explain clearly when the Yellow River diverted and the canal widened?"

"My son, you should take a look at this plan first."

As Zhang Yan said, she handed over the proposal from the Ministry of Industry.

Princess Kunxing took it, looked it over carefully, nodded and said: "This plan is very complete, it has been considered comprehensively, and the estimated price is reasonable, so there is no problem?"

After finishing speaking, he looked at Zhang Yan puzzled, wondering why she refused to approve.

"But after all, it's tens of millions of taels of silver. Although the court doesn't need to pay the money for the time being, it still has to pay the military officers in full in the end."

"Auntie, you are worrying too much. It is only 2000 million taels per year. It is nothing at all. Whether it is the diversion of the Yellow River or the widening of the canal, it is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, and it is completely worth investing in."

"Auntie naturally understands, but for such a big matter, you have to report it to your brother first, right?"

"Auntie, Brother Huang will definitely agree without hesitation. What's more, Auntie can completely decide this kind of trivial matter by herself. There is no need to report to Brother Huang. It will not only delay the time, but also easily involve the energy of Brother Huang."

Regarding Zhu Cihong's character, Princess Kunxing is very familiar with it. In her opinion, since the emperor's brother has already explained it, there is no need to cause trouble for the emperor. She has never asked the emperor for instructions about the bank and the chamber of commerce. .

Because she knew that Brother Huang was the one who was going to do big things, and he actually handed them over to them. For some small things, don't ask for instructions one by one.

"Why don't we let the Ministry of Industry invite bids and report to Brother Huang at the same time, so that there will be no delay, and the construction can start as soon as the new year begins."

"Well, I think you are in a hurry to give loans to those people."

Zhang Yan thought about it, finally nodded, and then said with a smile.

"Oh, my aunt doesn't know something. Those contractors in the capital have learned to be smart. It is difficult for them to borrow more money. It is the first time for these military officers in Nanjing. This time, they must be fully loaned... Bo Mother, why don't we just ask the Ministry of Industry to directly issue a regulation that for all projects in the future, the contractor who wins the bid must get a loan from the bank..."

Princess Kunxing is the most enthusiastic about the money-making business of lending, and now she can't stop at all. She is thinking hard about how to get people to borrow money. However, the results have not been great in the past two years, and the merchants in Jiangnan are not short of money.

"No, there is no reason in the world to force others to borrow money from the bank. This is absolutely impossible."

Zhang Yan immediately shook her head and rejected Princess Kunxing's ridiculous proposal.

"Well, this is indeed a bit inappropriate."

Princess Kunxing had no choice but to smile wryly, she was just talking casually, after all, the emperor brother didn't have such a rule back then, so she couldn't do it like this.

Immediately Zhang Yan ordered Ma Shiying and the Minister of the Ministry of Industry to call over so that the Ministry of Industry could start bidding.

Both of them were overjoyed. The Ministry of Industry started the bidding the next day, and Princess Kunxing also went to the battle to fool her.

Sure enough, the more than 2000 military officers who won the bid were not yet familiar with the bank's routines, so they all chose the full loan in a daze, and all of them took out a one-year loan.

The bank loaned out 2000 million taels of silver at once. According to the monthly interest rate of 3%, the monthly interest would be as high as 60 taels, and it would be 700 million taels a year. It was simply a money grab.

This made Princess Kunxing so happy that she couldn't close her mouth.

Of course, she also knew that this was just a one-shot deal. After this lesson, these military officers will definitely not continue to make such generous loans next year.

And those profiteers who had suffered a lot, they all scolded these military officers as idiots in their hearts after they got it, but no one dared to say it outright because of the power of the princess.

But everyone knows that these military attache contractors will definitely not make any money this period, and they may have to lose money. The end result is to work for the bank. The little money they earn is just enough to repay the interest.

(End of this chapter)