Chapter 97: A group of people who were ignored

There is nothing to say about the spring in Yanjing City except for the wind and sand.

The omnipresent sandstorm is the main force that ruled Yanjing City, and the emperor Yun Zhao is nothing.

Zhang Guozhu, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, is now further deepening the urban cleaning and hygiene campaign.

There are only two main tasks, one is to eliminate the stinky ditch in Yanjing City, and the other is to clean drinking water plan.

In Yanjing City, there are two huge stinky rivers, one is called the Tongzi River and the other is called the Gaoliang River.

Yanjing City has been one of the most important cities in China since the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, for the past few hundred years, the people living in this city have also ruined this land.

Among them, the two sides of the Gumliang River were originally a low-lying swamp. After hundreds of years of changes, the low-lying areas on both sides of the Gumliang River have been filled with garbage and gradually higher than the river surface, forming a new residential area.

Since ancient times, garbage has been one of the main reasons for the demise of cities and the most important reason.

Many ancient cities were not artificially destroyed, but forced to relocate by garbage. According to archaeologists under Sitianjian, the reason why many cities during the Shang Dynasty disappeared during the Shang Dynasty was because people polluted the cities. In order to have clean water sources and more resources, people had to give up those cities and move elsewhere to continue to pollute.

The sections of the Tongzi River and Gumgu River that enter Yanjing City must be covered. Otherwise, the shit and urine that the people in Yanjing City poured into each day will completely turn this good city into a stinky city.

The most unbearable thing is that with this two-smelting river, it becomes a place for mosquitoes and flies to breed. After the arrival of summer, the mosquitoes and flies here are covered with the sky, like thick black fog.

Lay cement pipes!

This is the decision made by Zhang Guozhu.

To be honest, the premise for making this decision was not to improve the living environment of Yanjing people, but because Xu Wuxiang built several huge cement workshops at the foot of Yanshan Mountain.

I thought that the products produced by these cement workshops would be in short supply. On the one hand, they would supply Shanhaiguan’s urban defenses to build cities, and on the other hand, they would meet the needs of the people in Yanjing to build houses.

Unfortunately, reality was different from expectations. Li Hongji, a native of Jianzhou in Liaodong, ran away. At this time, there was no need to build the Shanhaiguan Fortress, and the road to Liaodong? The state dynasty seemed to have no intention of building it.

This is very troublesome.

Seven or eight cement workshops support no less than 50,000 people.

I don’t know how many families these 50,000 people have supported? Now that cement cannot be sold, these people are about to drink the northwest wind? There is no way? Zhang Guozhu had to launch this Yanjing drainage and water supply plan.

Want to use these two huge projects? Use all the cement produced by cement plants near Yanjing, and at the same time drive the Yanjing people to use cement? Prosper the market.

Such an operation? It is a basic operation for the Lantian Dynasty, and nothing is strange about it.

Therefore, the entire Yanjing City became a huge construction site because of the simultaneous construction? Most of the main roads were dug out with a wide and deep trench.

Yun Zhao liked the feeling of turning the city into a large construction site... Back then? He also wanted to dig the city like this, but he always had no chance.

Now, he can dig where he wants. This feeling of freedom is very exciting.

This behavior of modifying a city is also a process of gradually improving a city? Every time a city is destroyed, the city's function can be improved by one level.

Since the transformation of cities costs national treasury? That is, the people's money, this means that the people are working hard to transform their own cities? They are preparing to give themselves a better living environment. In short, this kind of behavior is a pre-action.

Although it seems stupid to see this behavior sometimes? However, this scene can only be seen in cities that are constantly improving and thriving. If the city lacks its enterprising ability, it is basically impossible to see such a grand occasion.

This time, the renovation of Yanjing City only faced water supply and drainage. When it came to real action, it almost required the entire streets of Yanjing City to dig. This was not a small project. Judging from the current progress, it would take at least three years.

When Zhang Guozhu came back from Miyun, Xu Wu wanted to build a reservoir in Huairou. After seeing it today, Zhang Guozhu felt that Xu Wu wanted to do things a little stingy. The reservoir was in the mountains and was not big. Its main function was to irrigate farmland. Because it was not large enough, the irrigated farmland was very small and could not play a big role.

He was planning to expand the reservoir more than ten times, and only in this way could he not irrigate all the farmland near Yanjing City.

"The money in the treasury must be spent as soon as possible..."

Zhang Guozhu sat down tiredly when he came to Yun Zhao's palace, his expression seemed to be even more depressed.

Yun Zhao looked at Zhang Guozhu and said strangely: "Didn't you always worry about not being able to make ends meet before?"

Zhang Guozhu sighed and said, "The prices of commodities have fallen all the way. If they fall again, everyone will lose money."

Yun Zhao smiled and said, "Aren't the linen and local cloth in the National Prime Minister's Mansion already made out?"

Zhang Guozhu smiled bitterly and said, "Where is grain? Where is steel? Where is cement? I never thought that one day in the Ming Dynasty, I would have too much food to eat."

Yun Zhao looked at Zhang Guozhu and sneered: "The rich one is your Prime Minister's Mansion, and the one who can't finish eating too much food is also your Prime Minister's Mansion. As far as I know, in the Ming Dynasty, there are still a small number of people who can afford white rice and white flour. Most of them still use corn, millet, sweet potatoes and potatoes to satisfy their hunger.

In the past, I suggested lowering taxes. None of you agreed with this. I always said that I am full and didn’t know that hungry men were hungry, and they all wanted to collect all the last bite of food from the people’s food bags.

Okay, I have collected enough now, so I will see what you do, how you can make the grain in the grain warehouse rot slowly, how you can make so much steel rust slowly, and how you can make so much cement slowly get damp and fail."

"Taxes are the foundation of the country, how can you decide because of your Majesty's words?

Besides, we have waived 80% of the harsh taxes, and only charge regular taxes and one tax. The most important thing is that we pay taxes based on the land acres. If there is no land acre, there is no need to pay taxes.

This is the great benevolent government, right?

It is not impossible to reduce the agricultural tax to thirty-one taxes as per His Majesty. However, if we do so, the people will forget that there is still a state, and will greatly reduce our political foundation - the village chief system.

If the rural chiefs do not collect agricultural taxes, the village chiefs will not have the basis to rule the local people. If the village chief system is destroyed, we will not cry at that time.

That's right, the Han Dynasty was indeed considered as light taxes and taxes. The state stipulated that only one fifteenth of the people's income per year, but in fact, only one thirty of the people was collected. During the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, no agricultural tax was collected even in eleven years.

But have you calculated the military service, the hard work, the calculation of adults, and the oral tuition of children during the Han Dynasty?

If we count these, the taxes of the Han Dynasty were more than a hundred times heavier than those of our Ming Dynasty!

Just one military service took up most of the time for all men in the world. The tuition of 23 cents a year, and the tuition of 60 cents a year.

My Ming Dynasty is a heavy tax in business, and the agricultural tax is already low so that it cannot be lower.

Your Majesty should now consider how to spend what is pressed into his hands, rather than mocking the empress here.”

"Take it to build the road-"

"The roads under renovation this year are more than 37,000 miles. If there are more, they will affect people's livelihood."

"Build a railway—"

"Two railways have been laid out this year, Baocheng Railway and Luoyan Railway have been launched. We have no extra technical staff to expand new railways."

"Then build ships and build iron armored giant ships!"

"Sixteen ironclad ships are under construction, among which, even the expected steam giant ships are being tested and manufactured, which is our greatest ability."

Yun Zhao frowned and walked around the house for two rounds, saying, "Are we really going to the point where we have too much money and nowhere to use it?"

Zhang Guozhu shook his head and said, "No, it's because the things we produce are a little oversupply, such as grain, steel, cement, beef and mutton, and many things like this. I haven't mentioned porcelain, silk, paper, and things that can be traded by sea.

The people are not so rich that they lack nothing. On the contrary, they lack everything, just because the price of food has fallen, the price of pigs, chickens, ducks and geese has fallen, and they don’t have much money to buy anything else.”

After hearing Zhang Guozhu finish his words, Yun Zhao was silent for a moment. He finally understood why this problem occurred in the Ming Dynasty - that is, the process of industrial and commercial production far exceeded that of agricultural production.

This will make the progress speed of the two no longer match, and there is no way to form a closed loop circle.

The consequence of this problem is that industry, commerce, and large output. The Ming people, who were mainly engaged in agriculture, could not keep up with their pace because of their low input-output ratio.

Seeing Yun Zhao thinking, Zhang Guozhu found a piece of pleasing from the snack plate and put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly. It seemed that after throwing the problem to Huangdi, he, the prime minister, could rest assured.

"Do you have any good solutions?"

Yun Zhao asked in a low voice, gritting his teeth.

Zhang Guozhu threw the remaining pastries into his mouth, took a sip of tea and pressed them down, and said, "Yes, we all agree that what the Ming Dynasty needs to do now is to increase the price of agricultural products. The price of 100 kilograms of white rice and half a silver dollar is no longer in line with the current national conditions."

Yun Zhao said: "I remember that the food prices were the cheapest in the prosperous times. Only in the troubled times did the food prices soar."

Zhang Guozhu sneered and said, "Now, I am a Ming Dynasty with few people, many livestock, good seeds, advanced farm tools, and complete water conservancy facilities. Does Your Majesty think farming is a difficult task?

In addition, the Annan people were transporting food to the Ming Dynasty in ships, and the grassland was continuously transporting cattle, mutton, and dairy products to the Ming Dynasty. After the sea ban was lifted, people began to plow the sea, animal husbandry and fishery again.

The farmer was the one who was most impacted by the Ming Dynasty!

They have no other strengths except farming, and when food is not valuable, they naturally become vulnerable people."
Chapter completed!