Outside Tonghua Gate, on the bank of the Chan River, at the construction site of the majestic Chang'an East Station, Wu Shun was really shocked to see the civilians having lunch with slices of meat in their bowls.
"Only when you have enough food can you have the strength to work." Li Yunze, who was standing next to him, stepped forward to check the fragrant stove. "Especially this kind of heavy physical work, you can't do it without enough meat."
After explaining a few sentences, Li Yunze focused on the construction site.
The time at this time was already close to the autumn harvest of the fifth year of Zhenguan.
Even if Li Yunze can provide enough food and wages, the migrant workers who come to work still have to go home to work on the autumn harvest.
Even Li Er can't stop this kind of thing. If he doesn't let the people go home to harvest in autumn, his chair will be shaken.
"master."
Wu Hua, who is getting smarter, also knows this. "Don't worry so much. Didn't His Majesty say that he will mobilize prisoners to do the work?"
"He has a brain problem, but I don't."
Hearing this, Li Yunze immediately darkened his face, "I said he has the appearance of Emperor Qin and Emperor Wu of Han, and he really did things like Emperor Qin and Emperor Wu of Han. Prisoners? Let's not talk about management issues, because they will definitely run away if they have the chance, causing chaos and losses.
"
"The prisoners are generally hungry and sick. I have to make them strong and cure their diseases before they can work. When they can really work hard, the autumn harvest will be over.
The peasants will definitely come back. Besides wasting time
Nothing can be done outside."
Wu Hua was very puzzled by what she said. She asked in confusion, "Master, the book says that when Emperor Qin and Emperor Wu of Han mobilized the prisoners, they didn't say that they were given food, meat, and medical treatment. They were all used directly to death. They were used until they died."
never mind."
Li Yunze paused and turned to look at Wu Hua with a deep look in his eyes: "Don't say such words again in the future."
Wu Hua lowered his head and responded angrily, "I understand."
In ancient times, when prisoners were mobilized to work or fight, they were essentially treated as consumables and used until they were defeated.
Both Emperor Qin and Wu of Han were experts in related fields.
Li Er, who is obviously drifting, is also developing in this direction.
The atmosphere was a bit unharmonious, so Li Yunze took the initiative to change the topic, "Do you know why the station was chosen here?"
Wu Hua adjusted faster, and when he raised his head again, he was already smiling, "Master, please clarify my doubts."
"Mainly because of the terrain." Li Yunze pointed to the Chan River not far away. "The Chan River runs north-south. The railway track goes all the way north along the river to the shore of the Wei River. You can cross the river from Han Chang'an to Qin Chang'an on the other side.
Go straight to Yunyang. This section of the road
We only need to build a bridge over the Wei River."
Speaking of bridges, Wu Hua's eyes were full of admiration, "The master used millions of kilograms of iron to build a bridge across the river. It is truly a gift from heaven."
"A million pounds?"
Li Yunze waved his hand, "This is almost the limit. I can't give you any more."
Wu Hua wondered, "Why is this?"
"I will have to leave one day. When the level cannot keep up, the only result will be scrapping. So I need to plan in advance and control it within the range of the productivity that can be achieved."
Wu Hua seemed to understand these words but not quite.
"Let's go have dinner together."
Arriving at the construction site, a group of civil servants from the Ministry of Works hurriedly stepped forward to salute.
"What are we eating today?"
"Beef soup in the morning, boiled beef at noon, and stir-fried eggplant with green onions in the evening. Just enough rice." The clerk in charge of the accounts thought Li Yunze was here to check the accounts, and hurriedly read the account books.
Li Yunze waved his hand, "Is there any deduction?"
All the civil servants immediately called out to Chong Tianqu, "Your Majesty is so concerned that all the superior officials come here to see me every day. Even if you give me some courage, you won't dare to do this."
Li Yunze was nominally responsible for the Changsheng Railway, but such a large project involved hundreds of thousands of civilian workers along the way, and even the people of Lijiazhuang could not handle it even if Li Yunze divided it into ten percent.
Moreover, according to the tradition in China, even planting a tree would be troublesome without the help of the government office, let alone such a big project.
Therefore, Li Yunze mainly ensured technology and logistics, and left other matters to the Tang government.
Li Er and his ministers were not stupid either. No matter how effective this thing was, it would remain in the Tang Dynasty after it was built.
In this case, of course, we will spare no effort to provide assistance.
As for cheating and corruption, etc., it is naturally inevitable.
After all, in the eyes of the officials, this is a form of corvee work, but the peasants who do the corvée work not only earn enviable wages, but they can also eat so well every day, at least one meal of meat every day. This is really amazing.
Jealous.
Therefore, there are many cases of withholding wages and exorbitant food expenses.
In the eyes of many officials, these were all members of Li Yunze, one of the richest merchants in the world, and they were not money from the imperial court. So it was no big deal to use some of it to improve their lives.
Li Yunze didn't care about this kind of matter and passed it directly to Li Er.
As for Li Er, what they take is not money or meat, but their own face.
There is no such thing as crying and repenting in Li Er's place and you will be forgiven. It's just a matter of losing your head.
At its peak, wooden poles were hung almost every distance on the construction sites from Chang'an City to Shengzhou.
At this time, when these civil servants heard that Li Yunze asked about this matter, all of them were frightened and feared that they too would be hung on the wooden pole.
Li Yunze nodded, checked the food, filled two bowls, and sat down to eat with Wu Hua.
Li Er is a man who loves great achievements and attaches great importance to the railway station in Chang'an City. He requires it to be beautiful, grand, and majestic, so that foreigners who come there will be in awe.
So the project here at the train station is very huge, like building a palace.
Because of this, there are thousands of civilians working here.
While eating, everyone squatted on the ground with their bowls in hand, and the atmosphere was dark and overwhelming.
"Master." Wu Hua gave the beef in her bowl to Li Yunze. It wasn't that she didn't like it, but she was tired of eating it every day in Lijiazhuang. "The first batch of woolen fabrics has come out.
Soft and elastic, it will definitely be great for making clothes
Very popular. When will it be sent to Baibaozhai for sale?"
"The first batch of woolen clothes will not be sold." Li Yunze, who was eating, responded, "The quality of this batch of wool is not high. It will be used directly to develop the market and all of it will be given away."
"Give it away?" Wu Hua was surprised. "It cost a lot of money to buy wool. There are so many people spinning and making clothes. Give it away for nothing?"
"Yes, free of charge."
Li Yunze explained with a smile, "You have to understand that after the productivity breakthrough, only the market is the most important. Giving away for free is to quickly expand the market. When the market becomes big, you can earn back ten times or a hundred times as much as you give away."
In terms of doing business, Wu Hua admired Li Yunze very much. Since the master said so, he should do it.
Now Wu Hua is in charge of many businesses in Li Family Village as Li Yunze's disciple, and she even manages the account books.
The reason why she is interested in the wool business is because she manages it from beginning to end, which gives her a sense of accomplishment.
After dinner, he continued to inspect the construction site to make sure that it could be completed before the autumn harvest and would not affect the first passage from Chang'an City to Yunyang. Only then did Li Yunze return to Lijiazhuang with Wuhua with satisfaction.
"You're not going home again today?" Li Yunze, who was on horseback, looked down at Wu Hua, who was riding a pony specially purchased for him. "Your father sent someone to the village to look for you last time."
"snort."
Hearing this, Wu Hua frowned slightly and turned around, "They are not looking for me to go home. They just want money."
Wu Hua is in charge of the economic power of Lijiazhuang, so the Wu family naturally wants to benefit from her.
It's shameless to ask for money directly, but it's inevitable to ask for some ways to make money.
Li Yunze burst out laughing when he heard this, "All the money for spices has been spent?"
The nobles of each family got their share of the spices brought back from the last trip to sea.
But before they could cheer and want to sell, they were shocked to see that the market was full of low-priced and slimming spices.
Watching the price plummet from comparable to gold to comparable to copper coins, the value of the spices in my hands naturally shrank rapidly.
After asking around, I found out that it was actually the emperor and Li Yunze who were selling the goods at low prices.
The two of them account for 80% of the share, which really means they have absolute pricing power.
The low-priced spices not only defeated the foreign spice merchants who came through the Silk Road, but also put the nobles who were allocated shares into a dilemma.
If you continue to hoard and wait for the price to rise, you will probably have to spend it in your hands, because this time the spices have not been sold out, and Li Er is already preparing for his second voyage to the Spice Islands.
But if you don’t invest, you are really in a dilemma because the price is so low and you are unwilling to accept it.
Then, as every household bought a lot of cheap spices, the market gradually became saturated, and they couldn't sell them even if they wanted to.
Seeing that the manpower for the second voyage has been arranged, the nobles were afraid that their hands would be smashed, so they could only ask Li Yunze to find a way.
Li Yunze's method was very simple: use the spices to pay for the money to buy the ship and the money borrowed from him.
After the compensation is completed, the rest is purchased at market price, and each family can be considered to have made thousands of dollars no matter what.
This is not a small amount of money, but it is nothing compared to the previous value of those spices.
"They want to contract a section of the project." Wu Hua hummed and said, "They opened their mouths and wanted to contract for two hundred miles, but they were only willing to give out five thousand strings. It made me laugh to death. Five thousand strings is not even twenty miles."
It can’t be fixed.”
The railway project was huge, and Li Yunze couldn't spend all day at the construction site doing work, so he decided to subcontract the project in sections.
Each family will pay a deposit and get materials and materials from me to build the project. After the project is completed and accepted, you can get the project payment according to the length.
The most active one is the Changsun family, who also takes the lead in doing things. The Changsun family is responsible for repairing the section from Chang'an City to Yunyang.
Li Yunze is not stingy either. The project payment settled can basically make his family more than 100 yuan per mile.
From Chang'an City to Yunyang, which is less than a hundred miles away, the Changsun family made as much as ten thousand yuan, which was much more than what they earned from selling spices.
When the nobles heard the news, they all wanted to contract the project, but Li Yunze was very picky, especially when it came to the deposit.
The Wu family didn't have much money and wanted to make a lot of money by contracting a long-term contract, so they sought help from Wuhua.
"How big of a deal do I think it is?"
Li Yunze smiled cordially and said, "After all, it's your family. Isn't your face worth a section of the project? Well, five thousand guan is just five thousand guan, and the whole journey from Yunyang to Fangzhou will be done by them."
"
Hearing this, Wu Hua immediately blushed.
Two hundred miles, let alone twenty or thirty thousand, were earned just because of my own face.
Wu Hua lowered his eyelids and said, "Thank you, Master."
"By the way." Li Yunze seemed to remember something, "What's your nickname?"
Wu Hua's pretty face turned even redder, "Ah Ye, call me Ernan."
Li Yunze grinned, "This is too common, why not just call me Mei Niang."
Wu Hua was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Well, from now on I will be called Wu Meiniang."