Li Zicheng didn't know what kind of jewelry the three people bought, only glanced at the package, and paid more than 1,000 taels of silver, in order to show that she didn't have heartache, she took the three girls to the rouge shop on the banknote street, and bought a set of rouge gouache for each of the three women, this time, Liu Ru did not refuse.

Back at the Qianqing Palace, it was already lunch time, and the three daughters happily accompanied Li Zicheng for lunch, and each went back to the room to try on jewelry.

Li Zicheng took a nap and asked his soldiers to summon Guo Weijing, director of the Jiangnan Provincial Department of Communications, and Su Fu, a businessman.

Taking advantage of Guo Weijing's absence, Li Zicheng unfolded the march map alone, and sure enough, the rich places in the south of the Yangtze River started from Nanjing Mansion, went east to Zhenjiang Mansion, and then turned to the southeast, Changzhou Mansion, Suzhou Mansion, and finally Songjiang Mansion along the coast.

Songjiang is about the Shanghai of later generations, but what Li Zicheng cannot be sure of is whether the city of Songjiang and the city of Shanghai in later generations completely coincide.

Originally, there was an almost straight official road here, connecting the various prefectures and cities, and the official road passed through Wuxi, which was very famous in later generations, but now Wuxi is only a county under the jurisdiction of Changzhou Prefecture.

What makes Li Zicheng feel incredible is that after the official road passes through Suzhou, it does not point straight to Songjiang Mansion in the southeast, but after a very big turn to the north, and then turns to Songjiang, it wastes a lot of distance.

After the official road leaves Songjiang, it points to Jiaxing and Hangzhou in the southwest from the south of Taihu Lake, and this section is almost straight all the way.

From Hangzhou to the north, the official road passes through Huzhou Mansion in Zhejiang Province, and finally returns to Nanjing Mansion in Jiangnan Province.

It is indeed around Taihu Lake.

Li Zicheng does not understand why the area around the Taihu Lake has become the richest area in China, but this circular official road should be the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Nanjing region in later generations, which is the core area of the Yangtze River Delta Economic Belt.

It turns out that the wealth of Jiangnan has lasted for hundreds of years.

If the Taiping Mansion (Wuhu), Ningguo Mansion, Guangde Mansion and Huizhou Mansion in Jiangnan Province in the west and the Yanzhou Mansion, Shaoxing Mansion and Ningbo Mansion in Zhejiang Province in the south are included, it is not inferior to a medium-sized country in Europe in terms of population and land......

An industrial zone of this scale, together with Jingshi and Xining-Lanzhou, has the potential to drive the industrialization of the whole of China!

Li Zicheng was still thinking about it, and He Xiaomi came to report: "Your Majesty, Lord Guo Weijing and the proprietor of Su Fu are here!"

Li Zicheng's gaze continued to stare at the marching map, and said casually: "Let Guo Weijing come in!"

After a while, Guo Weijing followed He Xiaomi to the imperial study of Dongnuan Pavilion, and when he saw Li Zicheng, he hurriedly bowed to the ground, "Weichen Guo Weijing, knock to see the emperor!"

"No rudeness!" Li Zicheng finally raised his head and said, "Guo Aiqing came over to take a look!"

"Wechen obeys!" Guo Weijing walked over quickly, followed Li Zicheng's line of sight, his eyes also fell on the marching map, but he didn't know what to mean for a while, "Your Majesty ......"

"Guo Aiqing is the Minister of Transportation of Jiangnan Province, so it is natural to be familiar with the traffic conditions in Jiangnan Province...... If you are not familiar with it now, you will always be familiar with it in the future," Li Zicheng pointed to the official road on the map, and said lightly: "The official road from Suzhou to Songjiang, why does it turn so north?" Can this place be blocked by mountains? ”

"This ......" Guo Weijing's face suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and he said: "Weichen really doesn't know ......"

Li Zicheng did not punish him, but said lightly: "Guo Aiqing was not originally an official of the Ministry of Industry, if you don't understand, it is understandable, but Guo Aiqing must understand that you, the director of the Department of Transportation, cannot stay in Nanjing forever, you have to go to various places often, where you need to build roads, where you need to build bridges, where roads are blocked by mountains and rivers, you need to be rerouted, etc., you have to know clearly." ”

"Wechen is ashamed ......"

"I'm ashamed that I can't solve the problem," Li Zicheng said: "I plan to build a road around Taihu Lake, and Aiqing will organize people to survey the road as soon as possible, relying on the original official road, especially to investigate the section from Suzhou to Songjiang and Hangzhou to Nanjing via Huzhou, so as to make the road as straight as possible, and also take into account the states and counties along the way." ”

He was worried that Guo Weijing would not understand, so he said his idea and asked Guo Weijing to supplement it appropriately.

Li Zicheng specially told Guo Weijing that in the future, the standard width of the official road is one long five, and the width of the roadbed shall not be less than one zhang eight!

Guo Weijing was very surprised, most of the roads around Taihu Lake can reach this width, and there is basically no need to widen, "Your Majesty, do you need to organize people to compact the roadbed?" ”

"If it is the original roadbed, after a long time of travel, there is basically no need to compact, unless it is a special road section," Li Zicheng said: "But Aiqing must prepare for the youth, and I will rebuild this avenue." ”

"Rebuild?"

"Ao, I forgot to tell you that the area around Taihu Lake is the richest area in the south of the Yangtze River, with many carriages and horses," Li Zicheng said with a smile: "In order to facilitate the passage of ordinary people and merchants, I plan to build a flat avenue, and the future avenue will not be affected by the weather, even if it is a rainy day, the carriages and horses can pass normally." ”

“……”

"Aiqing's task is to survey and improve the roadbed first," Li Zicheng said: "By the way, we must also prepare a large number of young people for building the avenue!"

"Wechen obeys the order, Wechen will immediately investigate, no, Wechen will personally investigate......"

Li Zicheng nodded, and said: "We must also organize experts in road construction and bridges to accompany the survey, I see that there is no wide river on this official road, and there is no need to avoid the avenue," after a pause, he said: "The river within thirty zhang can be bridged on the river surface, and there is no need to consider the factors of the river." ”

"Wechen obeys!"

After Guo Weijing said goodbye and left, Li Zicheng summoned Su Fu.

After a brief investigation, Li Zicheng believed that Huang Qing, Su Fu, and Zhou Xianglin, the three wealthy businessmen in Nanjing, and Su Fu were the most business-abiding and had a good character, so he was ready to hand over the production of bicycles to him.

But Su Fu didn't know why Li Zicheng summoned him, and after entering the imperial study, he trembled and made a big salute, "Grass people Su Fu, knock on the emperor!"

"Ho proprietor is exempt!" Li Zicheng beckoned, asked Su Fu to lean over, pointed to the red line circled on the map and said, "Lord He, look at it, what is the significance of this red line?" ”

"Red line?" Su Fu had the courage to lean over and take a look, frowned, thought for a moment, his brows suddenly relaxed, and he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, this is the richest place in the south of the Yangtze River, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang in Jiangnan Province, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou in Zhejiang Province ......."

"Su Dongzhu has good eyesight, and he deserves to be the leader of Nanjing's business community!" Li Zicheng said with a smile: "The part I circled with red lines is indeed the richest place in the south of the Yangtze River, how about it, in addition to these areas, is there anything else?" ”

"The emperor has a good sense of everything, and the grass people admire it!" Su Fu arched his hand and said: "Although there are some areas in the periphery that are also rich, compared with these areas, they are no longer the same!"

Li Zicheng nodded and said, "According to Su Dongzhu, is there any obvious difference between these regions?" ”

Su Fu pondered for a moment and said: "If you talk about the difference, the grass people really know something, these areas, their own development is not balanced, Nanjing is the first in the region, followed by Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou and second!"

Li Zicheng knows that a region is developed, there will always be a leading city, and then there are second-level cities and third-level cities, although Nanjing is a little far away from Taihu Lake, but as the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty, the political advantages are too obvious, and it is not unusual to stand out from the cities around Taihu Lake.

He glanced at the map of the march, Nanjing, as the regional center, but in the northwest corner of this "red line", it is not conducive to giving play to the radiation role of the central city, and when the construction of the Taihu Lake Avenue is completed, the transportation network centered on Nanjing should be built as soon as possible, at least extending to Taiping Mansion in the southwest and Chuzhou in the north of the Yangtze River.

Li Zicheng said again: "Is the reason for the prosperity of the eight provinces in the south of the Yangtze River the same?" ”

Su Fu pondered for a moment and said: "As far as the grass people know, Nanjing's wealth is due to the accumulation of years, plus it is where the southern capital is located; The wealth of Suzhou, Songjiang and Hangzhou mainly lies in weaving, and the share of weaving in the other four prefectures is also very large. ”

Li Zicheng saw that Su Fu was thoughtful, and estimated that he was thinking about it, so he smiled lightly: "The wealth of Jiangnan can't just rely on weaving!"

"The Emperor's Meaning ......"

"If one day, the weaving industry is damaged, and the whole of Jiangnan, won't it decline sharply?"

Su Fu didn't seem to agree with Li Zicheng's opinion, but he couldn't categorically deny it, so he whispered: "Your Majesty, no matter what you wait for, the people always have to dress ......."

Li Zicheng smiled faintly: "Maybe the owner of the Su is right, the weaving industry will never decay, but more and more experts join the weaving industry, and the overproduction of cloth is a matter of time, even if the manufacturers who produce cloth will not go out of business, I am afraid that the profits will be greatly reduced!"

Su Fu's face did not change color, but he was very surprised in his heart, how did the emperor know the current situation of the weaving industry? Now that he knows, there may be a solution, he hurriedly arched his hand, and said: "The emperor is worried, the grass people have been engaged in the weaving industry for three generations, every time they see the weaving industry continue to join the business, the grass people are also worried, do not hide from the emperor, the current weaving industry, the profit has been less than one and a half, and the grass people are also relying on many factories, barely maintaining the operation. ”

"Haha!" After Li Zicheng laughed, he was silent.

Su Fu's heart moved, and he hurriedly said: "The grass people are dull, ask the emperor for advice!"

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "'I have no one', 'I have no one', 'I have one', which one is Su Dongzhu willing to choose?" ”

"Ah...... This ......" Su Fu was shocked, the emperor really had a solution, he thought about it a little, and said: "The grass people naturally 'no one has me'!"

Time is precious, Li Zicheng decided not to hide it anymore, and said with a smile: "Can the owner of the Su know that in order to promote the flow of people and materials between the eight prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, I plan to build the 'Taihu Lake Avenue', which is not a simple tamping, but a real flat cement avenue, I don't know if the owner of the Su has ever heard of it?" ”

"Cement Boulevard?" Su Fu remembered, "It seems that proprietor Mu said that Xining has this kind of flat avenue, which seems to be unaffected by rain......"

"Su Dongzhu is right, this is this kind of avenue," Li Zicheng said with a faint smile: "Once the avenue is passed, ordinary cars and horses will be more smooth, in addition, it is also suitable for a vehicle called 'bicycle', although the load capacity is only one or two hundred catties, but the speed is very fast, almost comparable to a galloping horse, I don't know if Su Dongzhu is interested?" ”