Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 459: It's Not Easy to Be the Master (Part 2)
"The above, plus regular expenses, total expenditures have reached 62.4 million yuan. The remaining 20 million yuan is mainly for infrastructure construction."
At this point, Xu Honggang left the table after getting Zhu Youdong's permission, and walked to the map of the Ming Dynasty behind Zhu Youdong and stood still: "Everyone, as of the second year of Tianqi, the country has completed the construction of eight cement roads, namely Beijing-Tianjin, Beijing-Zhangjiakou, Beijing-Luoyang, Luoxi (An), Beijing-Ji, Chengdu-Chongqing, Wu (Chang) Changsha, Ning (Nanjing) Song (Jiang). Since the steam engine technology matured, according to the plan of the Ministry of Industry, the emperor approved that the country has completed the line planning of the four railways of Beijing-Tianjin, Beijing-Zhangjiakou, Chengdu-Chongqing, and Luoxi since the year before last, and began laying rails last year.
At the same time, last year the country also started construction of eight cement roads, namely Luowu, Changguang, Jining, Songjiang-Fuzhou, Wuyichang, Yiyu, Yugui, and Chengkun.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don't need to say much about the significance of building these roads and railways. What I want to say here is that in addition to mobilizing a large number of civilians to work on these new roads, the demand for cement, rails, sleepers and even blasting gunpowder has also increased rapidly. As a result, the country must spend a lot of money to build cement plants and steel mills in various places. And these factories and mines also require a lot of manpower.
In short, by the second year of the Tianqi reign, the imperial court had built four new steel mills and six cement plants for the four railways and eight highways, and expanded the Fangshan gunpowder factory in Beijing twice. For these factories alone, the imperial court recruited more than 40,000 new people. As for the hundreds of construction sites for the twelve new roads, there were more than 200,000 strong laborers working intensively. And the wages, food, and work-related injury compensation for these people were all in the form of silver dollars! "
No matter how bad the Ming Dynasty scholars were, they had not fallen to the level of the corrupt scholars of the Qing Dynasty. And the officials who were able to attend the State Council meeting at this moment were the elite among the elites.
So, at this moment no one stood up and said that the road should not be built.
Through Xu Honggang's explanation on the map, the ministers present saw very clearly that the emperor's intention was very clear: first, use highways to connect the main cities in each region, taking this opportunity to train the engineering team. Then, through the skilled engineering team, more difficult new roads will be built to connect different regions, and finally form a dense national road network.
At present, it seems that the progress in the highway sector is relatively fast. If the eight new highways started last year can be successfully completed in the future, then at least in the economic center of the Ming Dynasty - the eastern provinces, the north-south longitudinal line will be basically formed, and the next step will be the construction of the horizontal line.
The ministers attending the meeting were very clear about the benefits of the new cement road: because the road surface became harder and smoother, four-wheeled carriages were widely used. As a result, compared with the previous two-wheeled carriages, the freight volume generally increased by 40% to 60%, and the time on the road was reduced by more than 50%: In fact, if horses were not too delicate, this ratio could be increased - compared with cattle, the only advantage of horses is their speed. This kind of livestock has poor endurance, is prone to disease, and has average strength. Even if the Yunnan horses and Mongolian horses, which are known for their hard work and endurance, are used for transportation, they cannot be driven continuously at high intensity. And if you want it to transport freight, you can't let it eat only grass, you have to feed it with concentrated feed, which increases the cost of freight.
In fact, during the expedition to Mongolia and the Western Regions last year, the commanders had already discovered that the imported Western horses were more delicate: at the beginning of the march, the cavalry waited for the infantry, but within three days, the infantry stopped and waited for the cavalry.
The construction of railways is a bit more troublesome. Some senior officials who are close to the Ministry of Industry have learned that railways are different from highways. Highways can build winding roads when they encounter mountains, but if railways build winding roads, the cost is ridiculously high and the safety is extremely poor. Therefore, in many cases, it is better to dig tunnels directly. However, tunnel construction puts forward extremely high requirements on understanding of geological structure, blasting technology, and tunnel stability.
Therefore, the current construction cost and time of railways are much higher than those of highways.
However, no matter how high the cost is, it is worth building: once the railway is built, the cargo capacity and the reduction of transportation time will not be a matter of increasing by a few percent, but will directly double, several times, or even dozens or hundreds of times!
Once the road is built, the economy along the route will naturally grow rapidly, and the tax revenue received by the country will increase exponentially. By then, the money invested will be earned back dozens or hundreds of times. Once the road is built, the deployment of the army will become faster when there is trouble in the country. Once the road is built, the issuance of court orders and the response of local governments will also become extremely fast - a road will drive the overall improvement of the country's politics, military, and economy!
So, whether or not to repair it is not the question.
"Your Majesty, I think there is no problem with building roads. But can we build fewer roads each year? If we build eight new roads every year, the court will suffer such a huge deficit. If this continues, what will happen?"
The person who stood up and spoke was the Minister of Personnel Zhao Huan. After he said this, many ministers in the meeting hall nodded in agreement.
Alas, I also know that haste makes waste. But isn't this because of the competition from other travelers? Besides, China is so large. Even at this speed, I don't know when we can achieve full access to highways between provincial capitals.
"The words of the Grand Chancellor are words of concern for the country and the people. However, I also have some considerations here."
"Your Majesty, please give us instructions."
"First, the issue of money. Although the loss last year was nearly 20 million, you should understand that the court collected more than 30 million dan of grain last year. This grain is also more than 10 million silver dollars. Therefore, the loss is not particularly large. Moreover, the war in the Western Regions may continue this year, but there is no need to fight Mongolia in the north. In other words, if there is no new war this year, the court's revenue and expenditure will automatically achieve a large surplus.
Secondly, even if we suffer losses this year, we can still barely break even through the bank without using the remaining salt mine fund and war fund. "
"Huh?"
Amid the doubts of the ministers, Cao Sanxi stood up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the court currently has a salt mine fund of more than 40 million yuan and a war fund of more than 13 million yuan. If these more than 50 million yuan are placed in the bank and nothing is done, just by earning interest, it can generate more than one million yuan in added value. Not to mention, the bank has been using this money to lend over the years to encourage merchants from all over the country to open various factories. In fact, after the bank's income and expenditure were offset last year, the actual profit reached more than 7 million yuan. This money, including the discount on grain, is actually a balance between income and expenditure."
"Oh, I see."
"My Lords." Seeing the ministers below all heaving a sigh of relief, Zhu Youdong smiled and said, "I don't do things as I please. How much money should be spent and how much money can be spent each year are all carefully calculated in advance. In the past few years, the court had too many things to do, and had to use up a lot of the principal of the salt mine and war funds. Now these more than 50 million silver dollars are the country's treasure. I will not use this principal unless it is absolutely necessary. In fact, with the end of the Mongolian war, the grassland has ushered in peace and business opportunities, and the pressure on the nine border towns has been reduced. Even if the new roads and railways do not see benefits for the time being, the court's revenue and expenditure will continue to remain in surplus. The principal of the two major funds will also be replenished."
"Your Majesty is wise and wise, and we, the subjects, are sincerely convinced."
"Hmm..." Just when the ministers realized that the court had not actually lost money this year and they all breathed a sigh of relief, Zhu Youdong's next words made everyone nervous again: "My lords, I plan to start the construction of the Xi'an-Lanzhou and Lanzhou-Dunhuang highways in the third year of Tianqi."
"Ah? Your Majesty! This won't do."
"Yes, it is estimated that the income will continue to rise in the third year of Tianqi. However, from Xi'an to Dunhuang, we need to cross the Long Mountains and cross the desert, stretching for thousands of miles. How much money will it take to build such a long road?"
"Your Majesty, why not wait until the highways in the eastern provinces are completed before opening the new road?"
"Ah..." After a long sigh, Zhu Youdong stood up and said, "My dear people, I have difficulties too. It's really not that easy to be the head of this family."
