Dai Xuan left Jingle Villa satisfied, got off Wudang Mountain, and immediately rushed to the Han River, jumped on the boat and immediately let the boatman sail back to Xiangyang. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

A preliminary cooperation agreement was reached with Li Chao, but all this had to be approved by the emperor.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Zhao Guogong's proposal is completely feasible, and it is too cost-effective to use thirty salt works, iron mines, and coal mines to offset the loan of four million."

As soon as he returned to Xiangyang, Dai Zhou immediately entered the palace to face the saint, he couldn't take a sip of water, and hurriedly told the emperor what he talked about with Li Chao.

When Li Shimin heard that he hadn't borrowed money, he was a little unhappy. He twisted his beard, frowned and asked, "Li Chao will never do a loss-making business, four million is worth the contracted mining fees of thirty salt farms and iron ore mines, and it seems that the imperial court has made a lot of money." But have you thought about it, he proposed to reduce the mining tax from 205% to 10%, how much less mining tax does he have to pay this year? ”

The Li family produces more than 100,000 catties of steel a year alone. In the past, the imperial court directly collected nearly 30,000 catties of steel from the tax of two to five, but now Li Chao asked to change it to one percent tax, and the imperial court will collect 20,000 catties of steel less in a year. This is steel, and steel is precious.

And salt and iron.

Li Kee's annual iron production is even higher, reaching nearly one million catties. This means that if the imperial court changes the tax, Li Chao's family alone will receive less than 150,000 catties of iron in a year, and other private iron mines will have more than 1 million catties a year, and they will have to collect 150,000 catties less. In a year's iron class, 300,000 catties will be reduced.

"Dai Qing, Li Chao has always been cunning, didn't you see the last additional condition of Li Chao? He also added a clause at the end, Li Ji agreed to sell 100,000 catties of iron and 100,000 catties of steel to the imperial court every year, have you seen this? ”

Dai Xuan replied, "Your Majesty, now Li Ji's smelter has a annual output of one million catties of iron and 100,000 catties of steel." ”

"It's true that there are so many now, but have you ever thought about it, Li Kee's steel plant has only been built for a few years? But they already have an annual output of one million catties of iron and 100,000 catties of steel, and if they add these new mines, then doubling the output is not a problem. And with this additional condition, Li Chao only needs to pay one million catties of iron and 100,000 catties of steel to the imperial court every year in the future. Then they can take the excess steel and sell it directly. ”

Although the Tang Dynasty liberalized the private mining of minerals, it was still very tightly controlled, mainly through the high tax on physical minerals, and the fact that minerals must be purchased by the imperial court and not sold freely.

But Li Chao is adding one now, which is to prepare for the free sale of excess production.

If private minerals can be sold freely, then the imperial court will not be able to control the price, in a small way, the imperial court can no longer buy low and sell high to make the difference, in the general direction, it is to lose control over these important materials.

Dai Zhou thought about it for a moment.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that as long as Li Chao can guarantee to hand over 1 million catties of iron and 100,000 catties of steel every year, and then hand over 100,000 catties of iron and 10,000 catties of steel, then he can really have surplus production and sell it freely to merchants, in fact, it doesn't matter. The imperial court got so much steel tax and purchase share, which was fully able to meet the needs of the imperial court. ”

Li Chao directly sold these excess steel to the market, as long as it was not sold outside of Datang, so what did it matter. The people can also enjoy the convenience, the increase of iron farming tools, the increase of iron tools, and the national strength of Datang can also be improved. ”

Of course, the most important thing is that after this agreement is reached, the four million loans owed by the imperial court to the Li family will be forgiven.

Four million, that's not a small number.

Steel, iron, salt, if these things can be produced in higher quantities, it will only be a good thing, and it will never be a bad thing.

"Well, it makes sense to say this, it's cheap for him Li Chao. Now that the treasury is already able to run horses, the imperial court is really in urgent need of money, and it would be good if it could reduce the arrears of four million. However, Dai Qing, it is not enough to just forgive four million arrears, what the court needs now is money. ”

"Your Majesty, I think the Li family is still rich, and those wealthy families in the imperial court are also very rich, but they will not be willing to lend money to the imperial court, but if we can come up with something in exchange, they will still be willing."

went to Wudang Mountain once, and Dai Guan's brain was also much more active.

borrowed money directly from those wealthy relatives, and no one wanted to borrow. But if you exchange things, there is still something to talk about.

"Tell me what you think." Li Shimin is also poor and crazy, and he has a way to get money, but he is unwilling to let it go.

When the minister was on Wudang Mountain, Li Chao said some things, and the minister felt that it was very reasonable. Li Chao said that the imperial court wants to develop the frontier, but also to defend the frontier, to develop the frontier to immigrate, to build roads, to defend the frontier to build castles and post stations, these all require money, for the imperial court, at the same time to develop the four sides, the money needed is a huge amount. ”

Li Shimin nodded, these words are very reasonable, the Tang Dynasty has taken down Longnan, laid down Hetao, laid down Liaoxi, and even captured Monan. But it's easy to fight, but it's hard to guard.

If you don't emigrate and build a castle, you can't hold it at all.

But if you want to emigrate and build a castle, you need a huge amount of money, which is a heavy burden, like a bottomless pit devouring the money of the imperial court.

"Zhao Guogong proposed a plan that can solve the pressure on the imperial court."

"Tell me about it." Li Shimin is very interested in Li Chao's proposal, this person can always propose some solutions from an unusual angle.

Tricky angles, but very useful.

"Zhao Guogong is going to set up a road company, issue shares, raise shares, and then build roads on the four sides."

Li Shimin was a little confused, "What about the specifics?" ”

"The specific operation method is to issue shares to raise funds as start-up capital, and then recruit workers and build roads when you have money."

Li Shimin said, "What I ask is how to make a profit by doing this, after all, if this company can't make a profit and has no good prospects, why should people buy their shares?" After all, buying their shares is definitely looking for good prospects and wanting good returns. ”

Companies and stocks, these are not uncommon things in Datang now. Even the imperial court successively established a salt company, a tea company, etc., and issued shares.

But what he doesn't understand is how this road company can make profits.

"Your Majesty, the development method proposed by Zhao Guogong is that they build roads on the four sides for the imperial court, and the imperial court does not have to pay them for construction, but where the road is repaired, then the land within a range of miles on both sides of the road will be allocated to their company."

It's a very simple way to operate.

Li Chao's road company built roads for the imperial court, not for wages, but for the land on both sides of the road. Wherever the road is built, the land by the wayside shall be theirs.

The specific amount of land within the roadside belongs to them, which can be discussed in detail.

Even the route can be discussed by the imperial court with them, but this is the way of cooperation.

Land for roads.

"Zhao Guogong also said that if the imperial court can accept this model, he can also initiate the establishment of a construction company, raise share capital, and then build castles, post stations, beacons, etc. for the imperial court in the frontier, they build cities and forts for the imperial court, and then the imperial court will allocate how much land near the castle to them."

It's a whole new model of cooperation.

Li Shimin was greatly surprised when he heard this.

The imperial court built roads and forts, and it really couldn't come up with the money, but it couldn't help but repair them.

Was the land on the frontiers of the imperial court worth anything? Of course it's worth the money.

Compared with the imperial court directly selling land and then organizing the construction of roads and cities by itself, the model proposed by Li Chao is better. The advantage is that the imperial court does not need to be involved in this matter.

Li Chao and they formed a company, and then issued shares, raised share capital, and recruited workers at the same time, responsible for road construction and management, from beginning to end, what the imperial court needed to do was to plan the route of the road with them, the address of the castle, and then agree on how much land to give them as compensation.

Where the road is built, how much land is allocated to them on the side of the road, where the castle is built, then the road next to the castle, or the shops in the castle, are built for them to sell and rent.

The road company and the construction company take these lands, which is a return, and they build farms, pastures, or even shops on these lands on the roadside, and they are responsible for their own profits and losses anyway.

Holding these lands, how to convert them into income in the end, how to increase their value, and how to increase the value of their investments in the hands of those partners and those who buy stocks, this is Li Chao's business, and it has nothing to do with the imperial court.

But Li Shimin believes that the land will definitely be very valuable in their hands. After all, this is land.

This is similar to Li Chao's previous presiding over the construction of Hanjing, the imperial court built Hanjing, and the investment was huge, but these investments were finally distributed to those merchants. The imperial court sold the land plots around Hanjing, and the recovered funds from the sale of street shops and houses in Hanjing offset the huge expenses for the construction of Hanjing. ”

"Hanjing has been under construction for more than two years, and the construction is going very smoothly, and the imperial court will be able to move the capital to Hanjing next year, and the construction method of Hanjing is very successful. Li Chao is now using this method to undertake the construction of roads and castles on the four sides, and I think this is a good way. ”

Moreover, compared with the direct construction of the imperial court, the imperial court saved the cost of management and operation and saved a lot of trouble.

Li Shimin also knows that sometimes, it is better to leave professional things to professional people, and the imperial court will do it itself, and there may not be those businessmen who will do it faster and better.

The reduction and exemption of more than 4 million guan of Li Ji's loans, coupled with the huge expenses of building roads and forts on the four sides, saved tens of millions of huge expenses for the imperial court.

"This Li Chao, as always. Dai Qing, I bother you to go to Wudang Mountain again and talk to Li Chao again. ”

Although Li Chao's several plans have saved tens of millions of dollars for the imperial court, the imperial court is still short of money, and Li Shimin urgently needs to get a large amount of money, otherwise, he will still not be able to open the pot next year.