The 20,000-tael super project was divided into five phases after some planning by Zhu Cixiang and the construction supervisor.
The first phase consists of two Grade-A official roads and part of a Grade-B official road. The construction period will be at the end of September next year at the latest, and the total construction cost is estimated to be 30 million taels of silver.
In just two months, before the end of the year, all the routes along the route were surveyed and divided into 2,000 construction sections for bidding.
Almost every construction section is only a dozen miles long, or a bridge, and the actual cost ranges from a few thousand to tens of thousands taels. Tens of thousands of contractors competed for these two thousand construction sections, which almost broke their brains, and the final quotation was
The lowest 2,000 military attaches won this bid.
During this period, many military attachés learned to be careful and find ways to bribe the construction supervisor of the bidding process. Fortunately, this time it was Zhu Cixiang who personally presided over and supervised the project, so that he did not succeed.
Zhu Cixiang also knew that this situation was unavoidable, so he just warned the military attachés who paid bribes, and fired and jailed the construction supervision officials who accepted bribes.
The reason why Zhu Cixiang dared to build a large-scale construction project was because the reputation of the construction supervisor had been established. There was no need to spend any money himself. He could just use the money from these military attachés to build the building first.
And almost all of these military attachés are extremely rich. With the wealth accumulated through more than two hundred years of farming and exploitation, the smallest householder may have tens of thousands of taels of wealth, because this is accumulated by dozens of generations.
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Now they have all been moved to the capital and are living with nothing. Although they have to spend some money on daily expenses, Zhu Cixiang is obviously dissatisfied with the speed of their spending.
You can imagine that when these guys take the money and go to various parts of the north to recruit people to work, the people will have money and increase their purchasing power, which will definitely stimulate the economic and commercial development of the entire north.
Although the two thousand military attachés who did not win the bid had habitually obtained loans from banks, most of them only borrowed a few hundred taels in a symbolic manner.
After all, they have plenty of money. In the past, they were just afraid that the government would not give them money when the construction period was over. Now almost no one worries about this anymore, so they naturally don't want to bear the bank's high interest rates and waste money.
If it weren't for the fear of offending Her Royal Highness, I probably wouldn't have lent a penny.
Although this bidding system, in which one pays in advance, then inspects and accepts, and the court pays, is suspected of being a waste of money, there are still many gentry and landowners who want to apply to become contractors.
However, the most important one was the hereditary military attache background, which made many gentry and landlords very dissatisfied, so they developed envy, jealousy and hatred towards the military attachés in the capital. Although they all belonged to the wealthy class, they formed an invisible opposition.
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As everyone knows, all of this is part of Zhu Cixiang's plan.
No matter how large-scale construction is carried out in the north, the south is also not idle. After nearly a year of exploration and planning, officials from the Nanjing Ministry of Industry finally finalized the plan for the Yellow River reconstruction and the canal widening project.
Compared with repairing official roads, diversion of the Yellow River and widening of canals are undoubtedly much more complicated, so officials from the Ministry of Industry have been busy for nearly a year.
It cannot be said that we are not working hard, this kind of efficiency is rare in all dynasties.
The two projects were also divided into five phases, each one year, with an estimated investment of tens of thousands of taels.
But when the Ministry of Industry had everything ready, Ma Shiying and the Minister of Industry took the plan and came to Zhang Yan for final approval, Zhang Yan was a little hesitant.
Obviously, although he was mentally prepared and Zhu Cihong made an explanation when he left, he was still frightened by this huge project and did not dare to make decisions without authorization.
"Ma Aiqing, will this cost too much?"
"Back to the Queen Mother, although tens of thousands of taels does sound a bit scary, with the current financial income of the imperial court, it is completely affordable over five years. Moreover, according to the bidding system established by your majesty, the imperial court does not need to take out the money in the first year.
When it comes out, the contractor will pay for it all."
Ma Shiying obviously saw Zhang Yan's hesitation, and had no choice but to explain that he really couldn't match the Queen Mother's courage.
Zhang Yan was naturally aware of the contractor system. She picked up the plan, read it over briefly, and finally said: "This matter is too important and involves many things, so we should report it to His Majesty first before making a decision!"
"What the Queen Mother said is absolutely true. I will retire first."
Ma Shiying and the Minister of Industry both looked disappointed, but they could only agree, then bowed and left.
After all, the Queen Mother has already said that she wants to report to His Majesty, what else can they say? Could it be that they are trying to persuade the Queen Mother that there is no need to report to His Majesty?
Nanjing City also gathered a large number of military attachés, and the situation in Beijing had already been reported. These military attachés were eager to wait and see, almost all gearing up, waiting to bid.
As a result, news came from the Ministry of Works that the plan was finally stuck with the Queen Mother, and I was afraid it would have to wait for a while. Everyone was also helpless to Zhang Yan.
Princess Kunxing was also anxious, because the bank was also waiting to lend money. Not long after the news came out, she hurried back to Nanjing from Zhejiang.
"Mother, didn't the emperor already explain clearly the diversion of the Yellow River and the widening of the canal when he left?"
"娖儿, please take a look at this plan first."
Zhang Yan said and handed over the plan from the Ministry of Industry.
Princess Kunxing took it, looked at it carefully, nodded and said: "This plan is very complete, it is also comprehensive, and the estimated price is also reasonable. Is there no problem?"
After saying that, he looked at Zhang Yan in confusion, somewhat confused as to why she was stuck in disapproval.
"But after all, it is tens of thousands of taels of silver. Although the court does not need to spend money for the time being, it will still have to pay the military attachés in full in the end."
"Mother, you are worrying too much. It is only 20 million taels per year, which is nothing at all. Whether it is changing the course of the Yellow River or widening the canal, it is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, and it is completely worth investing in."
"Of course I understand, but for such a big matter, I have to report it to your imperial brother first, right?"
"Auntie, the emperor will definitely agree without hesitation. Besides, can the aunt make the decision on such a trivial matter? There is no need to report it to the emperor. It will not only waste time, but also easily affect the emperor's energy."
Princess Kunxing knew Zhu Cixiang's character very well. In her opinion, since the emperor brother had already explained it, there was no need to cause any more trouble to the emperor brother. She had never asked the emperor brother for his instructions regarding the bank and chamber of commerce matters.
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Because she knew that the emperor brother was the one who wanted to do big things, so he actually left it to them to handle some small things, so there was no need to ask for instructions one by one.
"How about this? Let's let the Ministry of Industry invite bids first and report it to the emperor at the same time. This way we won't waste time and can start construction as soon as the new year starts."
"Well, I think you are in a hurry to give loans to those people."
Zhang Yan thought about it, finally nodded, and then said with a smile.
"Oh, I don't know something. The contractors in the capital have learned a lesson and it's hard to let them borrow more money. But this is the first time for these military attachés in Nanjing. This time I must let them borrow the full amount... Uncle
Mom, why don’t you just let the Ministry of Works directly issue a regulation. For all projects in the future, the winning contractor must obtain a bank loan..."
Princess Kunxing is the most enthusiastic about lending money, a lucrative business. Now she can't stop at all. She is thinking hard about how to get people to lend money. However, she has not achieved much in the past two years. Businessmen in Jiangnan are not short of money.
"No, there is no reason in the world to force others to borrow money from banks. This is absolutely not allowed."
Zhang Yan immediately shook her head and rejected Princess Kunxing's ridiculous proposal.
"Okay, this is indeed inappropriate."
Princess Kunxing could only smile bitterly. She was just talking casually. After all, the emperor didn't have such a rule at the time, so she couldn't do it like this.
Immediately, Zhang Yan ordered people to call Ma Shiying and the Minister of the Ministry of Industry so that the Ministry of Industry could start bidding.
Both of them were overjoyed. The Ministry of Industry started the bidding process the next day, and Princess Kunxing personally went into battle to deceive them.
As expected, the more than 2,000 military attaches who won the bid were not familiar with the bank's routines, so they all chose full loans and repaid them with a one-year term.
The bank immediately loaned out 20 million taels of silver. At an interest rate of 3% per month, the interest a month would be as high as 600,000 taels. In a year, it would be 7 million taels. It was simply a money grab.
Princess Kunxing was so happy that she couldn't even close her mouth.
Of course, she also knew that this was just a one-time deal. After this lesson, these military attaches would definitely not continue such generous loans next year.
As for those profiteers who had suffered losses, they all cursed these military attachés in their hearts as idiots, but no one dared to say it directly due to the power of the princess.
However, everyone knows that these military attache contractors will definitely not make any money this time, and may even suffer losses. The final result will be to work for banks, and the little money they earn can probably be enough to repay the interest.