Sir, you have to pay more

Chapter 635 Fellow, Come and Chat
After riding Jia Liu's horse for a while, he changed the carriage.

The reason is that there is no one on the road.

In the car, Jia Liu called two deputy heads of the Governor's Special Reporting Group of the "Daqing Daily" to get on the car and talk cordially, and gave some instructions on the direction of the newspaper's public opinion in the near future.

It's nothing more than repeating the same old tune, one is to pay attention to agriculture, the other is to prevent disasters, the third is to promote health and civilization, and the fourth is to clean up accumulated prisons.

It's all routine.

It was nonsense, because Jia Liu had said similar things in newspapers many times before, but the problem was that he knew it was nonsense, and he had to ask the newspapers to report his meaning again in words every now and then.

This is the difficulty of being a high official.

Don't talk, no way!

Finally, let the editorial team publish an open letter calling on the military and civilians of Zhili province in the name of a special commentator.

It is to let everyone have money to contribute money, to participate in the vigorous road construction project, so that Zhili, the central province of Gyeonggi, can be reborn, and lay good transportation conditions for reform and development.

"If you want to be rich, build roads first!"

Jia Liu naturally put forward this advanced and factual slogan.

Yao, the deputy head of the reporting team and the former Secretary of the Governor's Office, was a little puzzled: "My lord, what is a special commentator?"

"Well, it is the meaning of ordinary people, or this call is the voice of the people. The newspaper listens to the public opinion and reports it. The governor's office attaches great importance to it."

Jia Liu explained it this way.

If you have to give an accurate explanation, this special commentator is the incarnation of him, the governor.

The people are him, and he is also the people.

What he thinks of the people may not be what they want, but he definitely wants what the people want.

Therefore, calling on the people to donate is also a manifestation of Jia Liu's respect for public opinion.

The survey results of the provincial road mapping and surveying team organized by Yang Jingsu have come out, and the construction of two provincial roads will be put on the agenda soon.

Considering the reason of the hot weather, construction will be started in all parts of the province at the same time after the autumn is ready, so that the busy farming will not be delayed, and the construction period can also be saved.

According to the Governor-General's standardized and streamlined road construction requirements, the Buzheng Yamen and the provincial roads passing through various prefectures and counties have already started to build road construction teams.

I heard that the six sons and virtuous brothers are going to build roads in Zhili. The purpose of building roads is also to facilitate the transportation of goods, promote Beiyang trade and bring new taxation growth points to the Ministry of Households. As the actual leader of the Qing government, the old rich will not He opposed it, but he didn't have the money, so he asked the Ministry of Industry to send an expert group to guide the road construction work in Zhili.

It can be said that everything is ready, only the east wind is missing.

What is Dongfeng?
Silver chant!
The two east-west, north-south trunk provincial road projects add up to more than 1600 miles, and more than 380 bridges need to be laid, including eleven super-large bridges. If you want to completely repair the two provincial roads, you need at least [-] million taels of silver.

This does not include food and accommodation costs for migrant workers, follow-up maintenance costs, and road guard costs.There are also "county-to-county" projects in various prefectures and counties.

If it is done completely according to the governor's wishes, Zhili's ten-year fiscal revenue will not be enough to fill this hole.

Building roads and rivers has been a major project since ancient times, and some dynasties even used millions of manpower to build a road.

The Sui Dynasty built the Grand Canal, and the Meng Yuan ruled the Yellow River. Didn’t they all lead to the subjugation of the country?

Now the main road (post road) in the Qing Dynasty actually still uses the road built by the Tang Dynasty thousands of years ago. On the basis of this post road, the past dynasties have carried out regular renovations, but no dynasty has said that the road will be rebuilt. Which governor is full? In addition to the original post roads in the territory, some provincial roads of thousands of miles will be built.

A purely agricultural society does not need many roads.

There are too many roads, and it is not easy to calm the chaos.

Even road maps are top secret.

Otherwise, all the rebels would know the roads from the local area to the outside world, which road the officers and soldiers would come from, and which place would occupy a strategic position, so there would be no need to fight.

So what Jia Liu is doing now can be said to be unprecedented since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, and it is also very radical, which makes many people in Beijing watch his jokes.

If there is a real disturbance and it cannot be contained, Jia Liu, the governor of Zhili, may not be able to continue.

The old rich did not mean to see the jokes of the six sons and sages. As the "rich dad" of the twelfth, he also had to be wary of the rebellious six sons and sages who grew up in Zhili and threatened the country and society of the Qing Dynasty.

The deaths of Wen Fu, Agui, Mingliang, and the Fu brothers had sounded alarm bells for him.

Who knows if Guizi Liu will miss the throne in the future.

Therefore, if the six virtuous brothers stumble, it will actually be a good thing for Qing Dynasty.

Even if the Beiyang trade cannot continue because of this, the old rich don't care.

The way to govern the country lies in stability.

As long as the bad habits of the old four devils, who used to be military, extravagant and wasteful, and frequent parades, can be changed, the Qing Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue of nearly 40 million taels can completely achieve the prosperity of the country and the people.

Of course, Huguang's rebels had to be defeated before that.

Gui Ziliu had an accident, taking the opportunity to demote or dismiss him from office, or transfer him back to Beijing to raise him, it would not be a bad thing for both parties.

Jia Liu knew the consequences of all this better than anyone else, so he desperately made money and tried his best to release water in Shanhaiguan.

He is also afraid of civil unrest.

If he wanted the people of Zhili to build roads happily, without worrying about getting money for food and drink, and without worrying about the young and strong laborers coming out to build roads and miss farm work, he had to use money to subsidize them, instead of simply replacing them with corvee.

Although Yang Jingsu said that the province has no money, he can somehow squeeze out 50 taels, so the remaining 300 million taels of provincial road construction costs will have to be resolved by the governor.

Although Jia Liu has received 450 million taels of investment from Sichuan, he wants to use the money for trade and industry. If it is used to build roads, Tianjin will definitely become a mess.

There is not much money left that can be transferred over. The second and third phases of the Baolong project are in progress, and a few 100,000 taels can be collected before the end of the year, but the further the future, the worse the income will be.

The reason is that Lao Fu's stock has risen sharply recently. If he has risen, the stock of Lao Si Devil must be green.

Besides, the anti-Qing elements who were loyal to the fourth devil were not all wealthy.

Therefore, Jia Liu naturally thought of calling on Zhili soldiers and civilians to donate money to build roads.

In fact, it's not impossible for him to implement the "donation system for officials and food" in Zhili like Lao Fu in Sichuan. Didn't he buy the ninth-rank Lanling Zhang when he became an official?

However, Zhili was a pilot site for the industrialization of the Qing Dynasty, and the official administration was not to mention Qingming, at least it was passable.If he sells officials indiscriminately and makes a mess of this place, he is shooting himself in the foot, and he is sorry for the image of Qingtian he has painstakingly created.

To rectify the administration of officials with great fanfare, redress unjust cases, severely punish corrupt officials, and sell officials wantonly on the back foot, isn't it a slap in the face of oneself.

Jia Liu calculated that the population of Zhili province is close to 30 million, among which there are as many as 286 million urban residents, accounting for about [-]% of the total population.

If the rural population is five fen per person and the urban population is ten fen per person, the people in Zhili province can solve as much as 500,000 taels for road construction.

In addition, all those who work in the government, whether they are officials or officials, or run errands, donate according to their ranks, and they can also collect a few 100,000 taels.

When the two are combined, wouldn't you have 100,000 taels of silver?

Once it is started in the early stage, fines will be imposed from the entertainment industry in the later stage, and various guilds will be rectified, business licenses and so on, and the provincial finance will be squeezed again, and the two provincial roads will probably be settled.

In the future, [-]% of the trade will be made, and the financial resources will flow, so there is no need to worry about the lack of money.

Of course, Jia Liu must emphasize the principle of voluntariness.

All government-run units and subordinate agencies, including the three major yamen, the governor, the chief executive, and the inspector, must make unconditional voluntary donations.

Schools in the province, the government, and the county should also take action. If scholars refuse to voluntarily donate money to build roads, can we consider allowing them to study at home, and whether they can also be educated at the age of scholars? Let's see if this talent contributes to the country.

The common people are unwilling to donate money. Can the helpers of the third shift and the sixth house be allowed to run errands to do work frequently, and persuade them.

In short, under the premise of voluntary, this item must be collected.

This open letter was the trigger for donations from officials, soldiers, civilians, merchants, and academic universities in Zhili province.

There will be no trouble.

Officials, businessmen, and academics are naturally unable to make trouble.

Soldiers and civilians donated very little, but five and ten, how could someone want to hang the governor on a street lamp just because of one or two steamed buns?

What's more, the governor is really using their money to do their affairs, but he didn't lose a penny, but instead subsidized several million taels.

The kind that can't be clearer!
In addition to donations, there is actually another way to raise funds.

It is a loan to build roads.

Loans to banks in Zhili, including other provinces, are mortgaged by the future lijin tax collection rights of provincial roads.

This method is the most effective and safest.

The problem is that Jia Liu doesn't want the big development that he has worked so hard to do, and in the end it will be cheaper for those business groups.

Since it is raising funds and donating money to build roads, the roads should be free in the future, so how can they be used for profit?

If this is charged tolls for decades, it will definitely seriously affect the development of the local economy.

It also violates the sage teachings of taking from the people and using it to take the people.

After talking to the two deputy leaders of the reporting team about the precautions for the newspaper's publicity, Jia Liu ordered the car to stop, and he wanted it to be convenient.

After getting off the car, I saw a fertile field in front of me, but the growth of the rice didn't look very good, which may be the reason for the hot weather this year.

The soldiers looked around to make sure there was no danger, and then Jia Liu walked comfortably to the side of the road under a row of poplars.

After some booing and trembling, he finally put away the crime tools in satisfaction after shaking three times. He could not help enjoying the rice scent coming from his nose.

Seeing several farmers pulling weeds in the field not far away, Jia Liu immediately jumped over the small ditch, and hurried over to have a few words, questions, and conversations with fellow villagers.

This is his usual style of being close to the people, a virtue that will not change wherever he goes.

This was not arranged in advance. The soldiers were terrified when they saw this, and jumped over the ditch to follow.

If the governor was beaten to death in the rice field by the farmers, their heads would have to be moved accordingly.

The farmers in the field also saw the long line on the official road, and they knew which high-ranking official had passed by, and they all watched curiously. They were shocked when they saw a group of officers and soldiers running towards them.

"How are you, folks!"

"Come and have a rest, fellow!"

Jia Liu greeted people and farmers warmly with waves and voices from afar.

Seeing an official calling them, the farmers hurried back to the field, all nervous and restrained, for fear of offending the official by doing something wrong.

"Don't be nervous, folks. I just passed by here and saw you working hard in the fields, so I want to chat with you casually. Come and smoke."

Jia Liu knew that the peasants naturally rejected him as an official, so in order to make the peasants less wary of him as an official, he took out a small iron box from his pocket and opened it, took out a few cigarettes and handed it over.

Needless to say, this loose smoke really made several farmers let down their vigilance and relieved their tension.

Everyone looked at the cigarettes in their hands curiously, took the cigarettes from the young adult and lit them one by one.

As the smoke rings continue to spit out, the atmosphere comes alive instantly.

Jia Liu took the opportunity to pull him to sit on the edge of the field, and he sat down on a big dry clod, pointing to the rice in the field and asking him, "This year's harvest should be okay, right?"

"If you want to say this year's harvest,"

An old man in his sixties felt that the young official was better, so he said casually, "Maybe the hair is similar to that of an adult."

(End of this chapter)