Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 227 Chapter 229 Great changes unseen in a thousand years
Since Lu Mengzheng was appointed as the prefect in the Chanzhou affair, it was naturally not just a matter of disaster relief, but had become a new political focus and the final main battlefield of the New Deal reform.

Zhao Guangmei's support for Lu Mengzheng was also very simple, just throwing money. However, Lu Meng's work in Chanzhou was actually nothing more than spending money.

Work-for-relief?

Under normal circumstances, money distributed to the people from the court down will inevitably be exploited and exploited at all levels, and finally distributed to ordinary people through the hands of gentry and merchants. No matter how much reform is done, it will be useless. After all, even in modern society, in times of great crisis At this time, people still dare to openly broadcast live broadcasts on the Internet to make a fortune for the country, and the court has nothing to do with them.

No matter how the system of the Song Dynasty was changed, it would not be better than the modern society with Internet supervision 1000 years later.

So, don’t give out money, just invite bids.

At the first moment, Lu Mengzheng thought of the broad road that Zhao Guangmei and Xiao Siwen had agreed upon before, leading directly to Yanyun.

Since the main road already exists and is being built, can we add auxiliary roads on top of the main road?Can a few more extremely wide roads be built to connect the four counties of Dunqiu, Linhuang, Guancheng and Qingfeng?And is it possible to connect the entire Hebei Road and make Chanzhou a transportation hub, so that this place can be connected in all directions as much as possible, completely replacing Damingfu?

If this is the case, then naturally this money cannot be distributed directly to the victims. Therefore, although the disaster was urgent, Lu Meng did not leave immediately after receiving the order. Instead, he directly summoned his new Confucian classmates to A small yamen was quickly set up to be responsible for bidding for the road construction project in Chanzhou. With the help of Zhao Guangmei, half of the bidding was quickly completed, and then he went to Chanzhou to complete the other half.

With just a wave of his hand, a total of 700 million yuan was passed through his hands in just half a month, which was almost as much as the imperial court's annual income in the following week. And such a large amount of money was spent on Where and how to use it, he actually has the final say.

So much so that Lu Mengzheng, who had just started his official career, actually felt thrilling.

This world has become different.

How many people in this world would not be tempted by such a large sum of money?Although he was not greedy, it was not because of any noble moral sentiments, but because he knew that the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty and His Highness the King of Qin were staring at him, and he already had a promising future, and his huge political future was enough to help him resist temptation.

But what if it were another person and another time?That's really hard to say.

The world seems to be no longer what it used to be, and being an official no longer seems to be the logic it once was.

In fact, apart from Tanzhou, few people drowned in this flood. Most of the areas in Hebei and Henan were in plain areas. Except for a few mountainous flood discharge areas, most areas did not require swimming. the point.

In addition, the Xiang army here is quite powerful, which is completely different from that in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty. They have also organized themselves to participate in the rescue work, so there are not particularly many people who are directly washed to death or drowned by the water, but The property damage would be too great. In more serious cases, houses would collapse, and in more serious cases, at least the whole year's income would be lost. This place is relatively far from Kaifeng, so the urbanization rate is not very high. Go to Kaifeng There are still few people working.

To put it bluntly, floods will not kill many people, but the property damage caused by floods can cause many people to starve and freeze to death. This is no longer a matter for Tanzhou Prefecture.

This time, the work-for-relief program requires 18 roads to be built at the same time, and the consumption of cement and masonry is huge. At the same time, a cement factory and a masonry factory that are not inferior to Kaifeng are also in full swing. Under construction.

Not only that, the first thing Lu Mengzheng did after arriving in Chanzhou was to demolish the city walls of Fucheng, completely abandoning its important position as a strategic military location.

Anyway, His Highness the King of Qin has said that there will be no large-scale military decisive battle between Song and Liao for at least the next ten years. Even if it does happen, it is meaningless whether Chanzhou Prefecture is defended or not. Song and Liao will not fight decisively here.

Kou can go, so can I.

As long as Lu Mengzheng was not blind, he would naturally be able to see what the newly built bicycle factory in Kaifeng City, which His Highness the King of Qin was most nervous about, was doing, and he could also naturally figure out who built this Kangzhuang Avenue of Song and Liao Dynasties.

The situation of passively being beaten due to lack of cavalry may not last long.

The army in the early Song Dynasty did not like to engage in city defense battles. Generally, when the Liao army came over, the generals were used to going out of the city to fight in the field. This was the strong self-confidence brought by military literacy, so the city wall could naturally be demolished. .

After demolition, the urban area can be greatly expanded, and then the river can be dredged, a port can be built, and finally, investment can be attracted, a development zone can be established, and a new community project can be started to build buildings.

However, it is impossible to build a power plant in this place. Hydropower is too demanding on the terrain. This means that although the new residential building is six stories high and has a large area, since it cannot have electricity, it naturally cannot have water supply. , and after all, this place is far less crowded than Kaifeng, and the living conditions are much better, so after all, this building cannot be as hard to find as Kaifeng and create huge profits. On the contrary, it is more like it is built to absorb the working population. Achievement projects.

Zhao Guangmei is also sparing no effort to promote the Chanzhou New City project. Although it is certainly not as good as the Luoyang development, the scale of this project is actually not small. Luoyang is certainly fat enough, but where is it? Is it something that ordinary merchants can eat?The eight major developers currently contracting projects in Luoyang are all retired Jiedu envoys. The big bosses who can attend the general meeting of shareholders of commercial banks are all married to their old Zhao family, including his father-in-law Zhang Lingduo. .

Of course, if the project is subcontracted, the actual person doing the work is another matter.

Chanzhou is much better.

However, because there is no electricity in Chanzhou Prefecture, handicraft industry is destined to be impossible in this place. At present, merchants in the Song Dynasty have reached a consensus that in the future, only cities with electricity will be suitable for the development of large-scale industry and commerce. Although Kaifeng is the only city with electricity in the country, many factories are gradually using motors, and engineering design institutes have also manufactured more and more electric machine tools, such as bicycles. If these things are rubbed purely by hand, the cost It would be exaggerated.

Without water flow and a large terrain difference, it is destined to be impossible to go to the power plant. If you do handicrafts in the future, you will suffer a lot. Kaifeng is special after all. If the terrain difference is not too big, you can dig out a few artificial waterfalls. , although the power generation capacity is certainly not large, in ancient times it did not use much electricity, and there were no requirements for the stability of electricity use, but it was barely enough.But it is obviously impossible to dig waterfalls manually in other places. There is no need.

You must know that the cost of the power plant in Kaifeng is extremely high, almost as much as that of the Luoyang Imperial Palace. Most of it is spent on water conservancy. It is impossible for other cities to bear such a huge cost.

Therefore, since industry and commerce cannot be established, what can be done specifically has become a difficult problem before Lu Mengzheng and others.If the city itself cannot develop, then it will be a waste for him to spend so much money on road construction. Then, although the roads are extending in all directions, there will be no horse-drawn carriages on the road. Wouldn't it be embarrassing?

Although the main purpose of this road construction is to provide disaster relief, as long as the disaster relief is achieved and the people can make money through road construction to survive the most difficult period, he has actually completed the task of the court, but by doing this, wouldn't it Is he just a mediocre official?
Who doesn't know how to spend money on bidding, building roads, and building infrastructure? It's just a matter of efficiency. It's really not worth bragging about, and it can't be said to have any political achievements.

His Highness King Qin would naturally be disappointed with him, which would naturally be a great disadvantage to his career.

As the leader of the New Confucian school, how could he, Lu Mengzheng, be so mediocre?
So soon, after the disaster relief work became regular and no one would starve to death within at least half a year, Lu Mengzheng's main focus was on attracting investment.

Unfortunately, the effect is average.

Although some were recruited from Kaifeng, especially from the school's family members, and they boldly offered excellent investment policies to local landlords, the results were still not satisfactory to him, and those who came were all small workshops. .

"Gentlemen, I won't say any more. Nowadays, the imperial court's assessment, employment, evaluation, and the post of magistrate are top priorities. I heard rumors in Beijing that in the future, the magistrates and prefectures of our Song Dynasty will be The level of the government will be further improved. Individual well-developed state capitals can receive the second level or even the second level. Other general government offices will also consider giving them from the third level to the third level, with light counties and high prefectures.

This is the New Deal. This is a change that has not happened in thousands of years. We live in such a prosperous age and are fortunate enough to be rewarded by His Highness the King of Qin. We should make a difference. How can we accept mediocrity?Do you know how many civil servants in the world are watching our jokes?
As for judging a prefect, the most important assessment at the moment is really not how many taxes he collects or how many talents he cultivates, but employment. The urban employment population and employment rate have become the first assessment goals of the state government. Therefore, gentlemen Ah, think of a way, I demolished all the city walls, I don't want to be that stupid person who builds roads just for the sake of building roads. "

Everyone looked at each other, but Lu Duan, who was also a rising star and had been included in the King of Qin's party, said: "The prefect's words are true, but...it's difficult. Now Luoyang is developing. Because Luoyang is developing, Kaifeng is also developing. I was originally nervous. The land in the two places has become less tense, freeing up a lot of space, and both places also have electricity, creating too many opportunities. To be honest, it is not an exaggeration to describe the two places as full of gold, and even more What's more, it's very easy to get a loan from a money bank in Kaifeng now, and the interest rate has dropped to 6% per year. My brother told me... With the current situation in Kaifeng, if you take out the money and take out a loan to buy a house, even if you don't do anything, You can still make money by collecting rent to repay the loan, and maybe the house price will double in a few years. If you have a little brains, connections, and accumulation, it will be too easy to make money. You can make money by doing whatever you want."

Lu Mengzheng frowned when he heard this: "What do you think this has to do with us?"

"How can it not be related? It's not that you don't know, Governor, but you are just pretending to be confused. The biggest shortcoming of Chanzhou is that it is too close to Kaifeng and Luoyang, but not close enough. Therefore, those people who have If wealthy people can come to invest in us, they can naturally invest in Kaifeng. To be honest, even if I were to choose, even if I was a rich man in Hebei, I would definitely rather buy a bed in Kaifeng than a bed in Chanzhou. For a suite, it’s a hundred times more convenient to get a loan in Kaifeng.”

"If it's close enough, then of course it's not necessarily a bad thing. His Highness once said in a lecture at the Third Division that the economy has a spillover effect. Didn't the Yingchuan generation take orders from the horse factory of the Liao Kingdom? Around the two cities In the area, we can make some supporting facilities, do some handicrafts that require a lot of land, or even raise pigs, and we can always live well, but this is too far for us."

"So... to put it bluntly, we are building roads, but if we really want to keep money and jobs in the city, we have to compete with Kaifeng for people, that is, compete with His Highness. Can we compete with His Highness?" Isn't this a joke? Yes, I believe that you can make money by investing in Chanzhou, but the money you make is far less than by investing in Kaifeng. My eldest brother said that Mr. Xue mentioned to him that the peak development in Kaifeng City is electricity. Insufficient supply, insufficient water supply, and unacceptably high housing prices and rents. In the past, peripheral areas like Henan were useless."

Lu Mengzheng was naturally unhappy when he heard this. Although he and Lu Duan both had the surname Lu and were both members of the King of Qin's party, their relationship was not actually very good. Lu Duan was a conservative in the new party. After all, he was a serious person. He came from a scholarly family and joined the King of Qin's party. He learned New Confucianism by mistake. And to put it bluntly, people can have a good future without relying on His Highness the King of Qin. Therefore, the New Confucianism he advocated is really the same as Lu Mengzheng's. Two different things.

When he said this, he seemed to be resigned to his fate, which naturally made him more and more angry. He couldn't help but sarcastically said: "His Highness once said that people like you are called doves. They are always right, but they can never accomplish anything. Big things, it seems now, are indeed what they are. Before the battle is even fought, let’s discourage ourselves first.”

Lu Duan was also angry. Just as Lu Mengzheng looked down upon him, in fact he also looked down on him. He couldn't help but curl his lips and said: "If you had the solution, Grandmaster, you wouldn't worry about this anymore. Why don't you tell me, what's going on here?" Bian, what are the regional advantages?”

"I……"

"Prefect, we still have the advantage."

"You mean..."

"We produce grain, and the north and south of the river have always been production areas and iron smelting areas, and... and... we are also close to the Liao Kingdom, and there is a direct road to it."

"Bold!"

Before Lu Mengzheng could speak, Lu Duan became furious: "What do you mean, do you want to sell grain to the Khitans? Or do you want to smelt iron for the Khitans?"

But the staff member stiffened his neck and pushed back: "Why not, why not? Song and Liao are close friends. Isn't that what they are talking about now? Your Highness also advocates in-depth cooperation with Liao."

"With in-depth cooperation, can we sell grain and iron? If something goes wrong then, who will be responsible?"

"I am in charge."

Lu Meng is right.

"You...are you crazy about money? His Highness has done this, can you do it too? Officials don't dare to scold His Highness, why don't they dare to scold you? Do you know that no matter how much you do, Well, no matter how much you earn, as long as a traitor is slapped on your head and everyone talks about it, you will be finished for the rest of your life! Not only you, but also your descendants will be finished, you are so confused!"

"Humph, you are the one who is confused, Lu Biejia, because you don't understand what a major change that has not happened in a thousand years is. I think this can be done."

Just as he was talking, someone suddenly came to report, saying: "The prince of the government, Xiao Chuo, the envoy of Liao, has come... to Chanzhou. Let's entertain him. He said... he wants a donation."

"Haha, it seems that this woman came with me. This is a great change that has not happened in a thousand years. Please arrange a reception. Even if she is really accused of being a traitor, traitor, traitor, etc., I will bear it. Don't worry if you don't If you wish, you can resign."

(End of this chapter)