Prince of Chaos

Chapter 143 Toll Road
Amidst the sound of gongs and drums, after nearly a month, the cement road of Jingxi Expressway was finally put into operation!

Zhu Changluo looked at the flat concrete road with a width of nearly 20 meters in front of him. In the middle of the road, there was a wooden fence that completely separated the road into two halves.

On both sides of the fence are straight two-way lanes. Keep to the right when going to the capital, and keep to the left when going to Xishan. The two sides do not interfere with each other.

According to Zhu Changluo's request, the concrete road was marked with blue bricks, and one side was divided into four parallel lanes, plus an emergency lane on the far side.A total of five lanes!

Zhu Changluo was very excited. This road was a road that crossed the times that he had been thinking about.

With this concrete road, the speed from Xishan to Beijing will be more than three to five times faster. Carriages carrying goods can run quickly and effortlessly on the road, and the goods coming and going will be more colorful. Zhuang will completely become a place to attract wealth.

Even Emperor Wanli came out of the Forbidden City today to join in the fun.

He wants to see how much money this road can help him earn!
Zhu Changluo told him that the road was built for a distance of about [-] miles. According to the previously agreed price, a horse-drawn carriage would cost a penny for driving a mile of cement road.

This sixty-mile journey costs sixty Wen in a carriage.Considering the business caravan traveling to and from Xishan to buy briquettes and fairy happy water, Emperor Wanli felt that he was about to send out!

There are at least 60 train trips back and forth on this day!600 trips back and forth is 30 paid traffic charges, 8000 multiplied by [-] Wen, that is [-] Wen, converted to [-] Wen and one tael, [-] taels a day, [-] days a month, that is [-] taels!

Zhu Changluo promised to mortgage the right to charge to internal funds for 20 years, which would be 430 million taels!

Thinking of this, Emperor Wanli's fat body trembled with excitement.

He saw that this road was no longer a road, but a broad avenue that continuously transported money inward!
"Prince, when will this road be open to traffic? I can't wait."

Emperor Wanli sat beside Zhu Changluo beamingly and asked.

Zhu Changluo looked at the excited Emperor Wanli, and Zhu Changluo said: "My father, the traffic will be opened on time. At that time, all the vehicles of our Xishan Commercial Bank in Xishan Huangzhuang will be driving on this cement highway. As a guide in the early stage, the minister also decided You can drive for free for the first three days, and you will be charged after three days!"

Emperor Wanli said: "Okay, okay, everything is handed over to the prince. I will wait for the final collection of money."

Zhu Changluo said with a smile: "Okay, don't worry, father. At that time, my minister will ask people to settle the settlement once a quarter, and send the received tolls to the father's internal funds after throwing away labor costs and road maintenance costs. Let the royal father keep the income."

Emperor Wanli said happily: "Okay, okay, then I will wait to collect the money."

Emperor Wanli excitedly emphasized his own role, which is to collect money!

He really likes this flat concrete road. This morning he took a carriage to Xishan Huangzhuang, and it took him less than half an hour to arrive. This is something that Emperor Wanli would not have dared to think about in the past. too fast.

The horse ran on this road, and the speed was completely free.Even pulling the car slowly as usual, it is much faster than usual.

More importantly, there was no feeling of bumps today, and Emperor Wanli fell asleep again on the road.It can be seen how well the cement expressway is repaired.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Zhu Changluo winked at Wang An.

After receiving Zhu Changluo's wink from Wang An's side, he immediately took small steps to the rostrum that had been built a long time ago.

Wang An stood on the stage with a radiant face again, holding a simple loudspeaker newly produced by Xishan Institute of Technology in his hand.

Wang An held a big trumpet and announced loudly.

"I announce that Jingxi Expressway is officially in operation!"

Then there was a burst of enthusiastic firecrackers.

The [-] carriages of Xishan Commercial Bank full of fairy happy water are ready to go, followed by [-] carriages of Xishan Coal Mine full of briquettes waiting to go on the road.

Behind it is the carriage of the Liuli Guild who was invited to try it out for free.

It turned out that these vehicles had to be crowded for two hours before queuing up one after another to arrive at the cinder block road that Zhu Changluo had asked to lay before.

However, it is different now.

Now the cement road is twice as wide as the original cinder-block soil road, and four horse-drawn carriages can go on the road at one time, and after going on the road, the speed of the horse-drawn carriages is also much faster than before, and soon the horse-drawn carriages that are congested at the intersection They all got on the cement expressway.

The big noble families in the capital who were present at the scene were deeply shocked when they saw the speed of the horse-drawn carriage on the cement road!
This road is even more convenient than a flat road paved with bluestone!

The carriage can run at such a fast speed when galloping on it.

It used to take two hours, but now it seems that it can be completed in less than an hour.

Doesn't this mean that a carriage used to only carry goods two to three times a day, but now it can pull eight or nine times?

These nobles are not fools. They are smarter than anyone else in doing business. When they see the speed of this road, they have already thought of the huge profits of this road in the future.

However, this group of people still calmly told other wealthy friends around them: "Our family will not take the toll cement road today. The Sanhe dirt road next to it is so good. It is smooth and steady. It's free. Why spend such a fool's money?"

The people around him immediately echoed: "What Cheng Anhou said is very true, the road will be paid for, and our convoy from Yi'anhou's mansion will not leave."

The big households in Beijing and China also said: "The tolls on this road are too expensive. How can there be cinder and three-in-one soil roads on the side? Our Xuji Commercial Bank will not go."

All the rich and noble households chatted together and confirmed to each other that their caravans would not take the toll cement road in Xishan Huangzhuang.

The news spread quickly in the capital, and the common people laughed when they heard the toll for walking. They were not optimistic about the toll road, and teased Emperor Wanli that he was crazy about money.

They said: "This emperor really knows how to play, and he really plays the business of blocking the way to collect money. Ordinary people like us will definitely not spend such unreasonable money."

Soon the discussions on the street reached the ears of Emperor Wanli. After hearing these words, Emperor Wanli's face turned dark with anger. He took a sip of the fairy happy water in his hand and said: "If you don't leave, you won't leave. Well, I don't care either!"

But in fact, Emperor Wanli panicked a lot. He was really worried that no one would walk this road in three days, and that the road he "paid" to build would really lose a lot of money.

Therefore, Emperor Wanli quickly asked Zhu Changluo who was in Ciqing Palace to be called.

(End of this chapter)