The Great Han Dynasty: From Feng Lang Juxu to the Eternal Emperor

Chapter 383 Taihu Water Conservancy Project
The Ministry of Water Conservancy Engineering in Jiangnan is in charge of construction, and every water conservancy project requires huge financial expenditures.

This is not something that the Minister of the Ministry of Industry can decide alone. It has nothing to do with Lu Chongguo. The people below have quoted prices one by one. The Ministry of Industry has already paid so much. If the Ministry of Industry lowers the price, the government offices below will not be able to do it with excuses, and the Ministry of Industry will also I can only look at the ocean and sigh.

The officialdom of all dynasties has been like this. Governance has been a problem that has plagued China for thousands of years, and there is no effective solution at all.

Unless the people in charge of officials are not humans but machines, as long as they are humans, there must be loopholes and corruption that cannot be eradicated.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty understood these truths, Wei Ning understood them, and Sang Hongyang, as the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, understood them even more.

But what surprised Sang Hongyang was that Weining's Haikou boasted too much!
If the water conservancy project in Jiangnan is contracted to a businessman, can the businessman save twice the financial expenditure?

Sang Hongyang couldn't believe it.

……

In early April of the fifth year of Yuanshou, the project bidding meeting in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs officially began.

The meeting was held in Guifu Garden in the northeast of Chang'an. Previously, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development had already warmed up the news of Jiangnan water conservancy contracting to businessmen in Gyeonggi and even the whole country.

After a month of fermentation, businessmen from all over the country have already gathered in Chang'an, waiting for the Taihu Lake Project bidding meeting.

These businessmen must have inspected Taihu Lake before, how to remove silt, how much manpower and time is needed, what the approximate budget is, how to make profits, etc.

The merchants of the Han Dynasty are so shrewd that they will never make a loss-making business.

But the conditions given by the Ministry of Household Affairs caught them off guard today. There was no quotation from the Ministry of Household Affairs, so the merchants were asked to make their own quotations, and then the Ministry of Household Affairs selected the merchants to contract.

After saying this, the businessmen immediately understood that the imperial court was looking for cooperation with the lowest quotation and budget.

As a result, various merchants began to lower prices as much as possible, and then continued to send their own prices and information.

By evening, all the price information of Guifu Garden was sent to the Ministry of Finance for summary.

The lights in the household department are bright, and Sang Hongyang works alone in the household department.

When he saw the first businessman's information, he was slightly stunned.

This is a businessman from Lantian. His family is in the silk and satin business, and he quoted a contract price of 2.05 million yuan.

In other words, as long as the imperial court paid the other party two million and fifty thousand Chinese five baht, the other party could contract to build the Taihu Lake water conservancy project.

If the Ministry of Industry needed 3 million yuan to build Taihu Lake, Sang Hongyang originally budgeted 2.3 million yuan for Weining.

really!

As Weining said, the price offered by the merchant was actually lower than Sang Hongyang expected!

But what surprised Sang Hongyang was still later. Another businessman made an offer of 1.96 million yuan, which was already less than 2 million yuan!
Most of the merchants' quotes were not much different, and the lowest quote was 1.83 million yuan!

This far exceeded Sang Hongyang's expectations and greatly reduced the fiscal expenditure of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Sang Hongyang was beyond shocked. Wei Ning was right. These businessmen would indeed lower the prices themselves, and there was no need for the court to negotiate!
He never expected that a huge Taihu Lake desilting project could be completed with only 1.8 million yuan.

This is already more than twice lower than the price quoted by the Ministry of Industry!

From this we can see how much more the Ministry of Accounts spent on the Ministry of Works!
Sang Hongyang hurried to Weiyang Palace with information and quotation papers.

In the Qilin Hall, Weining was accompanying Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to review memorials.

After Sang Hongyang arrived, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty put down the pen in his hand and said with a smile: "How is the situation with the project bidding today?"

Sang Hongyang clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, the whole Guifu Garden is already full of people!" Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty chuckled and said, "It seems that there are still many merchants in Han Dynasty. What's the price?"

Sang Hongyang pretended to be calm and said: "The minimum is 1.8 million yuan, the maximum is 2.1 million yuan."

Swish!
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty stiffened his hands, looked at Sang Hongyang in shock, and said, "What?"

The Ministry of Industry has built other water conservancy projects in the south of the Yangtze River, but the projects are not as huge as those in Taihu Lake, requiring three million yuan.

Your businessman only needs two million to contract Taihu Lake?
He frowned and said, "Will businessmen cheat and cheat?"

Wei Ning said for Sang Hongyang: "Father, there is no need to worry about this. Every contractor must be responsible for the project."

"If something goes wrong, the court will hold them accountable. They don't dare to mess around."

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty thought about it and realized that this was indeed the case. Businessmen did not have the courage to quote random prices, so it could only be said that there was still an opportunity to make money at this price.

In this case... how much money did the Ministry of Industry and Trade embezzle from the imperial court?
A hint of anger appeared on Emperor Wu of Han's face, but he quickly suppressed it.

He glanced at Weining slightly, and seemed to understand why Weining wanted to use businessmen to contract instead of the Ministry of Works.

At first, Weining just wanted to allow merchants to completely enter the stage of history, so that the social system of the Han Dynasty could completely transform from agriculture to business.

Now it seems that it not only has this effect, but also the Ministry of Industry has tried it out.

However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not intend to publicize this matter. If he really wanted to deal with it, the Ministry of Works would have to deal with so many officials, and they would have to peel off a layer of skin from top to bottom.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty nodded and said to Sang Hongyang: "Your Ministry of Revenue will follow up on this matter."

"One more thing. Jiang Chong has negotiated trade with the Western Regions in the Western Regions. When he comes back, your Ministry of Revenue will have a good discussion with him."

Wei Ning was stunned for a moment, but didn't say anything.

Sang Hongyang hurriedly clasped his fists and said: "I obey the order!"

When Wei Ning returned to the East Palace, his face was full of thoughts.

Did Jiang Chong actually negotiate the trade between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions in the Western Regions?
Looking at Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was obvious that he was very satisfied with Jiang Chong's mission to the Western Regions. When he came back, he would definitely promote Jiang Chong.

Can Jiang Chong be eliminated at this time?

Wei Ning fell into deep thought. Jiang Chong and Han Shuo were different. Han Shuo had not contributed much to the Han Dynasty after all, but Jiang Chong had just returned from the Western Regions. If Wei Ning was really to get rid of him, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would naturally not agree.

Now that the power of the country is still in the hands of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Wei Ning does not dare to make too many mistakes.

Without a reasonable excuse, it would be difficult for him to get rid of Jiang Chong, but if Jiang Chong was allowed to continue to develop, Wei Ning was afraid that it would eventually develop into history and eventually lead to a major witchcraft case.

If a major case of witchcraft really breaks out, then not only myself, but the entire Wei family will disappear.

After Jiang Chong comes back, let's wait and see how he performs.

……

At night, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came to the harem with his hands behind his back. Wei Zifu stood outside the Jiaofang Hall, intending to greet Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. She had already ordered someone to prepare hot water for Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to relieve his fatigue.

But she found that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not come towards Jiaofang Palace at all, but turned around and went to Yaomu Palace.

This is Zhao Jieyu's palace. After Zhao Jieyu gave birth to Liu Fuling last year, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty unexpectedly changed the name of Zhao Jieyu's palace.

These three words, Yao Mu Palace, carry too much weight!
(End of this chapter)