Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

Chapter 1142

The first step is to allow wealthy businessmen to participate through bidding, which can speed up the progress of Ming Dynasty in road construction.

Secondly, those who were released as illegal households due to the land tax system had no land or houses, and they couldn't even find their families.

If the imperial court does not take action, these people will have a hard time making a living and may end up begging on the streets.

However, through bidding, a considerable number of unregistered residents can be resettled so that they can earn a living through their own physical labor.

This would save the court a lot of money. After all, with so many people, the amount of food needed for relief alone would be considerable.

Of course, only a part of them can be arranged for road construction, and the remaining illegal households will be arranged for railway construction projects.

Originally, this project was intended for people who were not busy with farming, so that they could increase their income and improve their family's life.

But no one expected that the equalization of land tax would release so many people, so they could only arrange for those in more difficult situations to work first.

After all, normal people can still have food to eat, but if these illegal immigrants are left alone, many people will probably starve to death.

So Zhu Biao gave an order to use the existing resources first on these illegal households to ensure that they could live a normal life.

These are two of the three birds with one stone achieved through bidding. As for the last bird, it is a win-win situation for the court and Wei Wu.

Building cement roads requires a large amount of cement, and currently only the Sihai Chamber of Commerce has obtained cement authorization from the Academy of Science and Technology.

Today, the merchants of the Sihai Chamber of Commerce are making a lot of money, and there are more orders waiting for them to make money in the future.

At the same time, the Institute of Science and Technology can also earn a lot of funds through patent fees, which can be used for the practice and research and development of various projects.

Apart from providing materials to the Academy of Science and Technology, the imperial court does not need to provide any other financial subsidies, saving a lot of money.

However, although the initiative of bidding for road construction and resettling unhoused residents is a good one, it has also caused some problems for the railway sector.

The main reason was that no one expected that the land tax system would be so effective, releasing more than one million unregistered residents.

Even if a part of them are resettled through the road construction project, there are still quite a lot of people left and they can only be accommodated on the railway side.

The problem was that the original plan to build the railway was to use the Japanese, and Lan Yu's arrangement was simply inhumane.

He sent shiploads of Japanese slaves here, but because there were so many illegal immigrants on the railway side, there weren't many people who could receive them.

Those illegal immigrants already have high costs, including wages and two meals, which costs a lot.

These Japanese slaves sent here not only failed to increase construction efficiency, but instead added hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed.

Although Wei Wu said that the Japanese slaves should not be treated as human beings, they are still labor after all, and very cheap labor at that.

It is impossible to leave these laborers unused and let them starve to death. It is not only a waste but also troublesome to deal with the bodies.

Finally, after discussion, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao decided to prioritize the construction of a railway as a pilot project.

Then he summoned wealthy businessmen from all over the country to come to the capital to experience the superiority of the railway for themselves and let them know what it was.

When the imperial court issues external tenders in the future, these people will be willing to invest money from their pockets.

Just like building cement roads, it not only speeds up railway construction, but also solves the problem of surplus labor.

With the full support of the court and the sincere cooperation of the Academy of Science and Technology, it took about four months to complete the survey of the line.

The final route is a direct railway from Nanjing to Xuchang, with a total length of about 700 kilometers.

For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang specially sent someone to deliver the news to Wei Wu outside the pass at full speed, wanting to hear his opinion.