After being divorced, my identity as a poet was exposed

Li Chenan spoke with great force.

The room suddenly fell into silence.

Li Wenhou looked at Li Chenan and his face gradually turned darker.

His eyes were filled with doubt, and he felt that he could no longer understand this emperor.

Doesn't he really know how much silver is in the national treasury?
Although Ningguo has the most silver in its treasury in the past 20 years, compared with the huge expenditure of billions of taels of silver... these hundreds of millions of taels of silver thrown in will not make much of a splash.

In the next five years, according to his plan, what he called compulsory education would be gradually implemented throughout the country.

This is a bottomless pit for spending money, and it is also the thing that Li Wenhou criticized the most.

In addition, there is a Yanjing City in Youdu County which only has a wall!

He was the one who tinkered with the Yanjing City two years ago, and now it's just rotting there. We can't just let it rot like this, can we?

Building the city of Yanjing would cost hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

Although Ningguo's business has shown signs of picking up, Li Wenhou cannot predict when the commercial tax revenue will be able to support Ningguo's finances.

Li Wenhou is sober.

Even though there were hundreds of millions of taels of silver in the Ministry of Revenue's account, he still spent the money carefully, fearing that such a large amount of expenditure would lead to the collapse of Ningguo's finances.

The tone set by the emperor at the end of last year was to make money...

Does the idea I come up with now count as making money?
This was just to ease the financial difficulties so that the construction of the Lingdong Road would not be abandoned halfway due to lack of money.

Li Wenhou took a deep breath and said in a very deep voice:
"Your Majesty, billions of taels of silver..."

He didn't finish.

There are so many businessmen here, but we cannot let them know that Ningguo’s treasury simply cannot come up with so much silver.

Li Chenan understood what he meant, but he did not give Li Wenhou a solution to the problem of the silver.

His eyes swept across the shocked faces of Guo Shanyi and others.

He said earnestly:
"Since I want to vigorously promote industry and commerce, I must provide the best business environment for you and the merchants of Ningguo as a whole."

"This road needs to be repaired not only in Lingdong Road, but also in Shuzhou!"

"I didn't bring this up today because I asked you about it. I've been thinking about it for a long time."

“For goods to circulate, there must be the best transportation!”

"We have good water transportation in Ningguo, but it is far from enough."

"By land... what I want is to build two straight Ning roads from south to north and from west to east that run through Ningguo!"

As soon as he said this, everyone showed an expression of extreme shock.

There is now an unfinished Ningzhi Road from Youzhou to Youdu County on the Beimo Road.

This method has become famous throughout Ningguo.

Because it's straight!

And wide!

The roadbed has been built, and I heard that the next step is to start laying stone slabs on the roadbed!
The distance from Youzhou City to Youdu County is three hundred miles, and the terrain is not very undulating, with no mountains or ridges.

But even such a road is said to cost nearly 10 million taels of silver.

How far is Ningguo from south to north and from east to west?
What's more, both Shuzhou Road and Lingdong Road are full of mountains and rivers. How can these roads be repaired?

If the emperor insists on repairing it, the money required will be...

Li Wenhou didn't dare to think about it.

No one dared to think about it.

Because even when Dali was at its most glorious, it was difficult to raise so much money to build two such roads.

Of course, if Ningguo really has these two paths, the benefits will be obvious.

The circulation speed of goods will be much faster than it is now.

Goods from areas that previously had inconvenient transportation can now be sold throughout the country thanks to such roads.

The economic benefits it can bring are also immeasurable. For these businessmen, they certainly hope to have such a road.

But for the officials in the imperial court... this was simply an impossible task.

"This one……"

Wen Zhuyu didn't know where Li Chenan got the courage from, but this topic had to be ended for now.

He was worried that Li Chenan would go too far and make the pie too big so that it would leak the filling.

He stroked his short beard and smiled slightly:
"This is the emperor's grand ambition!"

"Now you should understand the importance the emperor places on business and merchants."

"You should understand the emperor's painstaking efforts... Then you can boldly build workshops in various places in Ningguo."

"Patriarch Chen did a great job on this!"

Chen Dingmao was praised by Wen Zhuyu, and his old face suddenly glowed with glory.

He quickly cupped his hands and said modestly:
"Prime Minister Wen, you are so kind!"

Wen Zhuyu waved his hand: "No!"

"The Chen family is at the forefront of Ningguo merchants!"

"Youdu County Magistrate Zhuge Buliang reported that Chen has already selected a location in Youdu County and will soon invest a large amount of silver to start building a smelting workshop."

"Youdu County was established not long ago. The area is vast and sparsely populated, and there is currently no industry."

"Mr. Chen's move not only solved the problem of making money for many people in Youdu County, but also made a huge contribution to the finance and taxation of Youdu County..."

“This is vision!”

"The Emperor was saying a few days ago that if all the merchants in Ningguo had the vision of Old Chen, there would be no worries about Ningguo's business booming!"

"Everything that the emperor and the court are doing now is for the merchants in Ningguo to make money!"

"But you must remember that while you are making money, don't forget to pay taxes according to the law!"

"You are all aware of the emperor's intention. The court's main source of income is shifting from agricultural taxes and head taxes to commercial taxes. The silver you earn each year will increase significantly, and at the same time, the taxes you need to pay will also increase accordingly."

"As the Prime Minister of Ning State, I hope you can play a leading role among the merchants of Ning State."

"Not only should we help Ningguo's merchants expand their business...we should also help them pay taxes according to the law!"

Wen Zhuyu's heartfelt words were remembered by Chen Dingmao and others.

They understood the emperor's good intentions and knew his earnest expectations for them.

The king was so frank with the merchants that these merchants, who originally had no status, were extremely excited.

They are lucky.

They now clearly knew that they had met a wise ruler who was rare in a thousand years.

He is so young, but he cares about the people of the world.

He is extremely open-minded.

He broke the lowest social status of businessmen and allowed them to make money openly!
Once you get the money, of course you have to fulfill your tax obligations.

Cui Sangeng, the head of the Qinghe Cui clan, bowed with great excitement:
"Your Majesty, Prime Minister, and all the others, please rest assured!"

"We...will definitely live up to His Majesty's expectations. We will work hand in hand with the merchants of Ningguo to boost the prosperity of Ningguo's commerce. We will also pay taxes according to the law and fulfill our due obligations with the merchants of Ningguo!"

Li Chenan high-fived: "Good!"

"I hope that you can lead the merchants of Ningguo to prosper the Ningguo market while also crushing the goods of other countries in the world's big market and making more money!"

"Go ahead and do it with confidence. The imperial court will definitely protect you!"

"Remember, merchants from Ningguo must not suffer any injustice in other countries!"

"Our Ningguo soldiers are used to protect your legitimate interests!"

"We have just started trading with the Wu Kingdom. Although Wu Hui, the Emperor of Wu, is my brother-in-law, if you are treated unfairly in Wu..."

"What's wrong with me falling out with this brother-in-law?" (End of this chapter)