Chapter 278: More Prosperous

In contrast, Xiao Yuyang had so many people coming to propose marriage that his door was almost broken down. In the end, he married a girl from his village and lived a happy life.

Master Wen has regretted it a long time ago!

Unfortunately, there is no use regretting.

Zhong Jing tried to delay again and again, but it didn't last long. After all, who could resist the lure of a mountain of gold? Zhong Jing could only secretly feel lucky. Fortunately, he had seized the opportunity and kept a low profile on the ship for so long, and had already made a lot of money.

Otherwise, you will really lose a lot of money.

Sooner or later, the harbor and shipping routes would have to be shared. Zhong Jing didn't offer them up without asking for anything, but instead requested that the local government build roads and repair the harbor. Furthermore, the local government wouldn't be in charge of the existing ships, but could collect the fees for new ones, but one-third of the fees had to go to the garrison.

In short, this port and shipping route were all built from scratch by the garrison and its people with great effort. It is a dream for local officials to reap the benefits without paying any price.

The county magistrates of Suixi and Guangzhan naturally had to bargain with each other. After several rounds, both sides made concessions and finally reached an agreement.

At this time, even the routes to Hainan Island have been opened normally.

As more and more ships joined, the routes became busier and the prices of various local specialty goods immediately increased.

Zhao Liya, Zhong Jing and others are doing very well in planting and breeding. When it comes to local specialties, who has more than them?

Just by selling some of them, we made a lot of money.

Furthermore, even if this route is very busy, the market in Jiangnan is very large, and it is very convenient to travel from Hangzhou to other cities in Jiangnan. The goods from Lingnan are still in short supply, and the price has not changed fundamentally because more ships have joined the business.

With the fleet shipping booming, wouldn't the 500 acres of land that Zhao Liya and Zhong Jing each bought at the dock come in handy?

All of them are built into large warehouses and rented to merchants. This is a goose that lays golden eggs!

Anyone who sees this will be convinced and exclaim "Amazing!"

Zhong Jing took the opportunity to persuade local officials to build an official road from Guangzhan to the provincial capital. If the official road was built, it would strengthen the exchanges between merchants in the two places and speed up the circulation of goods. The provincial capital would gather more goods from Lingnan and send them to Jiangnan through the route. Similarly, goods from Jiangnan could be transported to the provincial capital at a very fast speed after arriving in Guangzhan.

This is a very beneficial and good thing!

The county magistrates of Guangzhan, Suixi and Gaolian were all tempted, but they were worried that it might not be easy to persuade the prefect.

To accomplish this, the support of the prefect was necessary, and some funds had to be allocated. Road construction was always a major undertaking, and it was not something that could be accomplished solely by a small county magistrate's office.

Of course, the current garrison had money, but Zhong Jing certainly wouldn't claim to have it, and he definitely wouldn't spend a cent. Road construction was the local officials' responsibility, and he wouldn't get involved! He certainly wouldn't spend any money.

However, he said he could help communicate with the prefect.

The magistrates of the three counties were overjoyed and grateful upon hearing this. They felt like they owed Zhong Jing another favor.

They don't have much personal relationship with the prefect, and although they have official dealings with him, how could the prefect easily agree to spend money to build a road?

Zhong Jing didn't go looking for it himself.

At this time, wouldn't the favors Zhao Liya and the others had with the prefect's family be of great use?

Besides, Zhao Liya and the others saved the young master of the prefect's family, and they did not do it out of any desire for repayment. The prefect and his wife had a very good impression of them, and Min Yanqi even called her "sister" all the time.

With the idea of ​​taking care of Chunxi Restaurant, Zhao Liya's family's restaurant, Mrs. Min asked someone to go to Chunxi Restaurant to reserve a few dishes and have them brought back.

Unexpectedly, after trying it, they loved it. They had never expected Chunxi Restaurant's dishes to be so delicious. The entire Min family loved them, and they became regulars. When Zhao Liya and her friends came again, they happened to run into them again, and Mrs. Min met them. Min Yanqi still remembered them and came up to greet them with a smile on his face.

After that, whenever Zhao Liya and her friends went to the provincial capital from home, they would definitely bring some local specialties to the Min family. Over the past two years, they had developed some friendship.

The shipping business in Guangzhan was developing so rapidly and so impressively that many wealthy merchants in the provincial capital made two or three trips there each month. Prefect Min was naturally aware of this. Building the road, it seemed, was indeed a good thing.

After discussing with his staff, Prefect Min nodded in agreement.

The prefectural government took a portion of the silver, the counties along the route took a small portion, and the remaining portion was donated by wealthy businessmen.

After all, once the road is built, they will be the ones who benefit the most! They have money, so if we don't let them donate, who else will?

The wealthy businessmen did not hesitate at all, and they managed to pool together almost 100,000 taels of silver from just a few thousand or a few hundred.

The Zhao family also donated 5,000 taels.

On behalf of the garrison, Zhong Jing took out 10,000 taels.

Ten thousand taels, it hurt a little. Even though he wasn't short of money now, it was still ten thousand taels. He secretly decided that he must find a way to make up for it.

Once the money is in place, everything else will be easy.

Because the idea of ​​building a road came up two years ago, Zhong Jing and Zhao Liya had already found reliable people and surveyed the best route in these two years.

Most of this route is built by widening and leveling the original road, with a small section being re-excavated. The new road will be smoother and have fewer bends.

Zhong Jing presented the blueprints, and Prefect Min sent people to walk through the route to compare them. They found that they were indeed more reasonable, so they ordered the road to be built according to the blueprints.

Countless people started working at the same time from different sections of the road and immediately began to work in full swing.

Traffic was inconvenient during the road construction, causing a lot of trouble for merchants and travelers, but construction started at the same time with extremely high efficiency, working day and night, and it was expected that it would be completed soon.

Zhao Liya was eager to make cement. It wasn't that hard to make. While she couldn't produce top-quality cement like modern cement, ordinary quality would be fine. Regardless, it was still much better than this gravel road.

But after careful consideration, she gave up.

It’s not appropriate to come up with this thing now.

Once cement is born, everyone will see its huge value. Prefect Min would never dare and could not hide it. He would definitely report it to the court, and it would definitely cause a sensation.

Zhao Liya doesn't want this result.

The Zhao family is already famous enough in the Lingnan area, so it would be inappropriate to go any further.

Nowadays, in the Lingnan area, not to mention her earning money, even her father's school has attracted many students from other places to study.

(End of this chapter)