Princess, he is rich enough to rival the country

Gu Yanshu's question was not entirely polite.

In fact, if it wasn't for the accidental bump into Wen Qingxiao in Guiyuanju today, Gu Yanshu would also plan to take some time to go to the newspaper office in the next few days.

The most important thing is also related to Qin Lu's choice.

In order to win over the Wen family, Gu Yanshu also spent a lot of effort, and the decision and performance of the Wen family later never disappointed Gu Yanshu.

Seriously speaking, he personally dragged the Wen family onto the boat, but now, he is ready to disembark after telling Qin Lu to disembark, which is really not very kind.

At the beginning, the Wen family would resolutely stand on the side of Prince Li's mansion, presumably there was also his friendship with Wen Qingxiao.

In terms of emotion and reason, Gu Yanshu should give the Wen family and Wen Qingxiao an explanation.

"It's not bad, and it's no different from before."

How sensitive is Wen Qingxiao?

Almost at the moment when Gu Yanshu's voice fell, he understood what Gu Yanshu meant.

With a slight smile, Wen Qingxiao gave the answer directly:

"It's just that my father has been valued by the emperor and was appointed as the chief examiner of this exam. He has been a little busy recently."

The imperial examination has always been a national priority, and every examiner in charge of the imperial examination is also a courtier who is favored by the emperor.

As soon as Gu Yanshu heard this, he knew that the conflict between him and Qin Lu and the emperor these days had not affected the Wen family.

Even though he was relieved a little, he showed a smile and said a rare flattery:

"Master Wen is very knowledgeable and highly respected, and he is indeed capable of taking on this important task."

But in the end, it was rare to do this kind of flattering work in the past. It was rare to do it once, and the business ability was slightly inferior, so that outsiders could hear it with one ear.

Wen Qingxiao naturally heard that Gu Yanshu was not used to it, smiled lightly, and changed the subject thoughtfully:

"Your Highness congratulates me. Speaking of which, Fourth Brother mentioned His Highness to Qing Xiao a few days ago."

"Huh?" Gu Yanshu cast a puzzled look at Wen Qingxiao.

"It's still about the cement road."

Wen Qingxiao picked up the teacup and moistened his throat slightly, then gave the answer.

Almost all of the cement roads that are in place today have been laid.

Although the merchants who contracted other cities are not as rich and powerful as Prince Li's Mansion, they directly paved the cement road all over the entire capital, but they also covered the entire main road.

Half a month after the cement road was first laid, the effect was not satisfactory.

Although the people in other places thought the concrete road was strange at first, they complained when they heard the rule of paying tolls if they want to walk on the concrete road.

Among them, the most widely circulated and most frequently appearing words are:

"I don't see anything unusual about this cement road. You have to pay tolls to cross the road. Isn't this a bandit?"

"It looks like it's flatter than the usual dirt road, but you still have to pay tolls? Then I might as well go on the dirt road!"

……

These remarks at the time made the Ministry of Household Affairs and the merchants who contracted the cement road underneath anxious.

That's all for the Ministry of Households, relying on the auction of the contracting quota for cement roads, at least they made a fortune.

The big deal is that when the emperor asked about it, the grades were not so good.

But those merchants who have contracted cement roads will feel uncomfortable. The initial investment is not small. If in the later stage, no one is willing to pay tolls, how can they get back their money?

However, just when everyone was in a hurry to get angry, everyone discovered that the cement road gradually became popular.

Although some people are quite dissatisfied with the toll, there are also those who are willing to try new things.

Of course, there are also people who try it with the mentality of "I want to see what's so special about this cement road, and I'll charge tolls if I use it".

However, if you don't try it, you don't know. After trying it, everyone found that the cement road was much easier to use than they imagined.

Not to mention stability, the key is extremely fast.

It usually takes three days to walk, but on this cement road, one day can reach the destination.

It turned out that those people who complained about the cement road stopped talking immediately.

It even strongly demanded that the contracting merchants should also pave the cement road where the cement road has not been paved.

what?

Why don't you worry about tolls now?

Is not this nonsensical?

Everyone is not a fool!

With this cement road, the time has been shortened by more than three times. Before, it was only enough time to pull goods for one trip, but now it can be pulled three times.

After a few more trips, the tolls for a year are all over, so why do we need to worry about the tolls of dozens of Wen and tens of Wen?

Therefore, half a month after the cement road was laid, the cement road directly opened up the market.

Even in cities with many merchants and relatively prosperous economy and trade, such as Nancheng, plans are now being made to lay concrete roads throughout the city like the capital city.

In addition, there are other conveniences brought by the cement road.

As Gu Yanshu said at the beginning, after the cement road was paved, the convenience of transportation drove the economic take-off.

Not to mention other things, just say that the trade between the adjacent cities is much more frequent than before.

In future generations, even those who know a little bit of common sense in life will know that when there is more trade, it will drive the growth of GDP, and the tax revenue will naturally be much higher than before.

Nowadays, Hubu can be said to be the most beautiful existence among the six.

Wen Qingyan did a rough calculation two days ago. According to incomplete statistics, this year's Tianqi treasury may more than triple compared to last year.

Of course, the Tianqi treasury was already empty and the base was too small, but the efforts of Gu Yanshu and Wen Qingyan also contributed a lot.

You must know that this is the first year that Wen Qingyan has temporarily managed the affairs of the household department.

Now that such an achievement can be made, won't the position of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs be in Wen Qingyan's pocket in the future?

Gu Yanshu contributed a lot to the household department's good results this year, and Wen Qingyan is naturally very grateful to Gu Yanshu.

Gu Yanshu didn't expect Wen Qingyan to remember the concrete road after so long, and he laughed a little:

"The fourth son is exaggerating. The matter of the cement road is not entirely due to me alone."

When it came to the cement road, Gu Yanshu just provided a solution.

The specific implementation was actually done by Wen Qingyan and the people from the household department.

In other words, if Wen Qingyan hadn't been outstanding, the concrete road would not have covered the entire sky in such a short period of time.

Gu Yanshu was also aware of this point, so he said such a thing.

"That would not be possible without His Highness's help."

Wen Qingxiao shook his head and insisted on his point of view.

After finishing speaking, he seemed to think of something again, glanced at Gu Yanshu, and stopped talking.

Gu Yanshu could see Wen Qingxiao's embarrassment almost at a glance:

"Sixth Young Master, if you have something to say, you may as well speak up."

"It's like this. The court has seen the flood control ability of the Yizhou dam this year. Now that the cement road has been fully completed, the fourth brother believes that the emperor will want to use this cement in more places next year."

Since Gu Yanshu had already asked, Wen Qingxiao was not polite to him, and directly said what was in his heart:

"Whether it's building dams or strengthening the city walls, it's a big project. Although the situation of the household department has improved a lot this year compared to before, it's not relatively rich..."

Wen Qingxiao didn't say the following words, but Gu Yanshu understood the meaning.

Cement dams, city walls, etc., are all big projects.

Since it is a big project, it cannot escape the support of money.

The treasury that is now complete today can at most block one or two natural disasters, so that there will be no situation where the snowstorm in Shaocheng is severe during the Chinese New Year, but the treasury has no money to relieve the disaster.

But if you want to engage in these big projects, it will be more than 01:30.

In the past, Wen Qingyan and the Ministry of Household Affairs never cared about the money for building the city walls and dams, it was all because of Gu Yanshu's support.

They believe that as long as Qin Lu intends to be the crown prince, Gu Yanshu will naturally contribute money and effort to these projects that benefit the country and the people.

However, now that King Li had such a fight with the emperor because of Princess Li, he obviously didn't want to fight for the position of the crown prince. It seems unreasonable to ask Gu Yanshu to pay for these things.

Afterwards, Wen Qingyan led the people from the household department to settle the accounts.

Who knows that this is not ignorance. After the calculation, I found out that without the support of Prince Li's Mansion, let alone rebuilding the dams and city walls, next year it will be the New Year if we can give the people an extra meal of meat.

But the meaning of the emperor is equally clear:

Neither cement dams nor city walls can fall down.

No, it can be said that Wen Qingyan is worried about the huge expenditure next year.

But since Qin Lu had a falling out with the emperor, Wen Qingyan led the officials of the household department to discuss for so long, but still had no clue.

The brothers of the Wen family have always had a good relationship, so Wen Qingxiao naturally took into account his brother's troubles.

Now seeing that my elder brother is very upset about the expenditure of the household department next year, and thinking that Gu Yanshu is an expert in this field, he can't help but want to find a solution for his elder brother.

If someone else came to ask Gu Yanshu this question, Gu Yanshu would definitely refuse without even thinking about it.

But at this moment, the person who brought up this matter was Wen Qingxiao.

After getting along for so long, Wen Qingxiao rarely asked Gu Yanshu to do something.

Gu Yanshu originally felt a little guilty for dragging Wen's family into trouble, but he patted his ass and left.

Now the words of refusal came to his lips, but he couldn't say anything.

In the end, Gu Yanshu could only give an inaccurate answer after pondering for a while:

"The situation of the treasury, I haven't seen the specific account analysis, and I am not very clear. If the fourth son can make the decision, show me the general accounts, and maybe we can find some solutions."

The accounts of the treasury can already be regarded as confidential.

Except for the officials of the household department, no one else can contact them at all.

But Gu Yanshu didn't mean to be embarrassing when he said this. After all, she didn't even know the specific situation, so how could she provide a solution?

Wen Qingxiao obviously knew this too, but it was indeed not up to him to decide this matter.

In the end, Wen Qingxiao could only say to take the words home, and to reply to Gu Yanshu after Wen Qingyan gave an answer.