When he was in Cangzhou, the extremely richly decorated carriage that Li Ze gave to Xiang Zhen was very comfortable, and the spacious interior of the carriage could accommodate seven or eight people without any problems.

The road from Zhenzhou to Wuyi is extremely flat, and the straight avenue can accommodate two such carriages in parallel, and along the way, Xiang Zhen saw a large number of heavy-duty carriages driving on this road, but the road was not pressed out of the ruts at all.

"The roads on our side are excellent, and they were built with care." Tian Lingzi, who was in the same car, proudly told Xiang Zhen: "General Xiang, you look at this road as smooth as before, but in fact, it is not like this, the middle is slightly higher, and the two sides are slightly lower, so that the water can be discharged into the canals on both sides of the road on rainy days." After laying the roadbed, first lay the stones, then put on the steamed Sanhe soil, compact, and finally pave with small gravel, and then let the cattle and horses drag the huge stone mill to roll it repeatedly, and so on, it is considered to be completed. ”

"Zhenzhou and Wuyi are both important towns, and it is also appropriate to have such a road." Xiang Zhen nodded and appreciated, such a road, if it comes to wartime, it is a fast way to transfer troops.

"Not only here, but in our jurisdiction, as long as it is a major traffic road, it must be built to this standard!" Tian Lingzi shook his head and said: "This standard was set by Li Xiang himself, and he called it a national highway. ”

"National highways?" Xiang Zhen was surprised: "In this way, there are state roads, government roads, and county roads? ”

"Yes, yes!" Tian Lingzi said with a smile: "Guozhou, government road, county road. This is a three-level road system formulated by Li Xiang himself, and there are clear regulations on what kind of roads should be widened and how they should be repaired. Li Xiang also said a sentence that is regarded as a classic by current officials, saying that if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. ”

Xiang Zhen was silent for a moment and said, "If it's all such a high standard, how much silver money will it need!" ”

"Yes, yes!" Tian Lingzi felt the same way: "At that time, when Xue Shangshu was still the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, he also vigorously opposed it, saying that such a method is purely a waste of the country, and this money can be used to form more armies and build more weapons, and it is even enough to launch a war to destroy the country." ”

"What Xue Shangshu said is very true." Xiang Zhen sneered: "In order to invite people to buy people's hearts, Li Xiang has done a big image project, and such a road has been built, that is his Li Xiang's exploits, everyone can see it, but if the money is consumed like this, how can he counterattack Chang'an as soon as possible, recover the capital, and defeat the pseudo-Liang!" ”

Tian Lingzi sighed: "But no one can convince Li Xiang, now Xue Shangshu is far down, General Qin is imprisoned, Han Shangshu is lonely, above the court, almost no one can elbow Li Xiang, and Li Xiang will decide the affairs of the court." ”

"Tian Qingzheng is also one of the Nine Qings, and he can also speak up!" Xiang Zhen looked at the other party and said.

Tian Lingzi lowered his head silently, and slowly shook his head for a while. "It's better to retreat and hide it. Emperor Taishang is like this now, His Majesty the Emperor is studying in Wuwei Academy again, and I am in this position, and I can still take care of one or two after all. If Li Xiang finds my mistake and sends me back to retire, then the emperor's life will be even more difficult. ”

At this point, both of them fell silent.

After a long time, Tian Lingzi lifted his spirits and said: "However, after such a road is built more and more, the benefits are not without benefits, such as our journey from Zhenzhou to Wuyi, the time required is reduced by half, but as Li said at the beginning, a good road can greatly stimulate the development of the local economy." Nowadays, there are a variety of goods on the market, delicacies from the mountains and seas, everything, but they are all thanks to the blessing of these roads, and they can always reach the destination as quickly as possible from the production area. ”

"Has such a road spread all over the north?" Xiang Zhen asked.

"Of course not, but the main areas have been built, the imperial court is only responsible for the construction of national highways, the government roads need to be raised by the states themselves, the county roads need to be built by the county itself, and as for the village roads and the like, the local government needs to raise their own funds."

"I'm afraid it's hard to finish, right?"

"Quite the opposite." Tian Lingzi shook his head and said: "Now that the people have money in their hands, some places are the first to repair the village roads, and then the county has to build the county roads, which is an important indicator for the assessment of magistrates!" Except for those remote states and counties, the roads of the whole north are no worse than this one under our feet. ”

Xiang Zhen was a little frightened, it was hard for him to imagine that the entire northern road would be like the road under his feet that he was walking now, which required a huge amount of money and countless manpower, but Li Ze completed these tasks almost silently.

"The last time I came, I saw the Datang Monthly, which was printed once a month, and there was only a thin one, this time again, the change is also very big, but it is a thick stack, and it has been renamed Datang Weekly, what does this week mean?" Xiang Zhen picked up a thick stack of Datang Weekly from his side.

"We don't know either!" Tian Lingzi spread his hands and said: "Regarding Zhou, it is related to the new work and rest system stipulated by Li Xiang. Li Xiang stipulated that starting from the first day of the Lunar New Year this year is Monday, seven days will be a week, of which six days will be working days and the seventh day will be a rest day. The Datang Weekly is based on this cycle, with a weekly edition. ”

Xiang Zhen was dumbfounded. "He's so idle! Even this cares, if you have time to think about this, why think more about how to counterattack Chang'an? And there is no one to object? ”

"How could anyone object?" Tian Lingzi said: "In the past, people like us could only rest during the festival, and the senior officials were better, and those lowest-level officials couldn't even get much rest time during the festival. Whoever dares to go to the book is afraid that everyone will immediately betray their relatives and leave. It's like I'm upright in Taichang Temple, but aren't the officials who really do things? Opposition is tantamount to depriving these people of their welfare, and that official is willing to do such a thing? ”

"Invite people to buy people's hearts, do everything!" Xiang Zhen shook his head angrily.

"But it's not without its benefits." Tian Lingzi said again.

"What's the benefit? Those who eat official food have dozens of days a year and don't have to do things. Xiang Zhen said angrily. In Lingnan, those officials are all doing things for his family, and he can eat, drink, and have fun for dozens of days a year with Xiang's family's money, and he is a little annoyed when he thinks about it.

"It still has some effect on the local economy." Tian Lingzi said.

"What? Can it still have this effect? It's Li Ze's nonsense again, right? "Bow your nose to the truth.

"That's not what Li Xiang said." Tian Lingzi said: "The first county order in Zhenzhou, also surnamed Tian, is my own family, and when I was eating wine with him, I talked about this problem. According to him, people from all over the country now rush to the market every weekend to sell their belongings, whereas in the past, there was at most one opportunity to go to the market once a month. Just the commercial tax, he can collect a lot more every month! And the common people sold more things to get money, and they were much more generous in other ways, making the local economy more prosperous than before! The county where he is located is a remote and poor county, not to mention those prosperous cities. ”

The more the fire in Xiang Zhen's heart accumulated, he originally talked to Tian Lingzi, and wanted to hear Tian Lingzi pour out his dissatisfaction with Li Ze, and vent his emotions about Li Ze's perverse policies in his opinion, but from Tian Lingzi's mouth, every time he heard it, it turned into beautiful words in the end, as if Li Ze's random messy actions could be of great help to the economy of the Northland.

This person can't be too trusted. Xiang Zhen squinted at Tian Lingzi, and thought to himself, although it seems that he is loyal, but if it really comes to some time when he needs to decide to take sides, this guy is definitely the kind of guy who is not strong-willed, and traitors are generally born from such people.

"Li Ze's invitation to buy people's hearts has reached the point of shamelessness." Shaking the Tang Weekly, Xiang Zhen said: "Look at this, there is a whole page written about his son, and his little daughter?" As a prince and the appearance of a country, he doesn't even want a face? I've watched these issues, and every one of them is available. But our Emperor of the Tang Dynasty has never mentioned a word, as if there is no Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. ”

Speaking of this, his face was extremely gloomy: "In the Datang Weekly a month ago, in the Tang Weekly, there was only a little bit of tofu the size of a block, and if you don't look carefully, you can't find that these bullshit things about his son and daughter have been published on the whole page, Tian Qingzheng, Li Ze's disobedience has been revealed!" ”

Tian Lingzi smiled dumbly: "General Xiang, Li Xiang's disobedience has long been revealed, what is so strange about this, but now the north is like this, everyone only recognizes him." What can we do? Xue Ping was sent away, although Han Shangshu is in power, the cold bench seems to be sitting, although I am the Qingzheng of Taichang Temple, but I am only in charge of some miscellaneous matters, speaking of which is one of the nine Qings, what's the use? Qin Zhaoyou didn't go out at home, and Li Cunzhong competed with the Tubo people every day in Lingzhou. Just tell me, who else can argue with Li Xiang? In my opinion, unless you Xiangjia opens up the situation in the south and forms a rivalry with Li Xiang, it is useless to say anything. ”