Qiao Xin didn't brag. Zhang Yun went back to make preparations on the same day after receiving Qiao Xin's instructions. With the help of Wu Shiye, who was an expert on the local area, it didn't take long for everything to be prepared. The convoy transporting supplies appeared at the entrance of the village that afternoon. The leader was Shunzi.
When Qiao Xin turned around, she saw Shunzi, who was almost crying with excitement, and said with a smile: "General Manager, you are not happy to see me, your boss. Why are you crying like this?"
"Master, please don't laugh at me. I haven't seen you for a long time, and I miss you so much! This time when I went to Yuncheng, I happened to meet Guard Zhang, and he told me that you needed help, so I came here!"
"You've been out for so long, and you haven't learned anything else, but you've learned to speak differently to different people!"
Shunzi chuckled and didn't refute. He just followed Qiao Xin and served her diligently.
Qiao Xin urged him to go see Qiao Yunqing: "I won't be polite to you. We don't need you here. Go and help your Second Master. If he needs anything, help him get it over here as soon as possible!"
"Don't worry, the message has been sent back and they are ready. This is just the first batch of supplies for emergency use. The team behind is still preparing and should be on the way."
While Qiao Yunqing arranged people to carry out the registration work for each household, he also had to deal with the endless stream of villagers rushing over from nearby.
The houses on these dozen cars are just enough for the villagers in this village to share, but we can’t just ignore other people!
While Master Wu had the herbs loaded into the car so that they could be taken back on the return trip, he was complaining to Qiao Xin about the difficulties of being an official.
How can this be an official road? I don’t know what the government used to do when they forced the people to do corvée. It seems that the road has never been repaired. If it remains like this in the future, even the best things will be difficult to transport. Isn’t it a waste?”
It took them more than four hours to walk just twenty miles, and they had to constantly pay attention to whether there were rocks rolling down their feet or overhead.
Everyone was on high alert along the way, which was really hard. How many opportunities to get rich were blocked by such a road!
"Didn't the old lady say that if you want to get rich, you must build roads first. Our Laohu Town has just had enough to eat, and the old lady has already rectified all the passages connecting to the outside world. Look, it hasn't been long since, and our Laohu Town has become crowded with merchants and tourists. Even Weizhou City can't compare to our hometown!" Shunzi smiled and comforted him.
"But how much will it cost to repair all of them?" Master Wu took a deep breath, he really didn't dare to think of the number!
"Although the villagers are all using small corvée labor to help, our family has indeed emptied out their savings. Not everyone is willing to spend so much money. We definitely can't let our Qiao family pay for this. Fortunately, the senior official is our Second Master, so you have the final say on how to repair it."
"Although this is for the benefit of the people, the expense still hurts!"
Qiao Xin suggested: "I'm not asking you to fix it all at once. You can plan the main road first, and then repair the branches. Repair a section every few years. One day it will be connected from top to bottom. First, take out the plan, let the court know, and let the people know. If it is really done, your master will be famous in history.
In such a matter, the rich contribute money and the strong contribute their strength. After the main road is repaired, appropriate tolls will be collected from passing merchants, and then the fees will be used to continue road construction. In this virtuous cycle, one day the matter will be accomplished."
Qiao Yunqing thought it was okay: "I'll discuss it with everyone later and see how to implement it."
The next day, Qiao Yunqing gathered the people around him and told them about this matter. It was just as Qiao Xin said. Few people would object, especially the native yamen runners and clerks.
The city of Yuncheng was built, and the good thing was that they who lived here benefited from it. The adults could have fooled around for a few years, and when their term was up, they could have just walked away. Why bother doing all this?
What's more, there are so many refugees with nothing to do under the city wall. We can't just let them eat relief food for free every day without doing anything. There will never be a better opportunity than this!
But Master Zeng scratched his head and couldn't come up with the first batch of start-up capital.
Qiao Xin brought timely help again.
"I want to buy the dilapidated dock near Changjiang River in Fuliang County and rebuild it. How much money do I need? Count it out as soon as possible!"
Once her kiln in Changnan Town was put into operation, a steady stream of ceramics would be shipped out every month. For such fragile goods, the loss would be much lower if they were transported by water than by land.
While no one has reacted yet, Fuliang County's wharf on the Changjiang River must be taken into our own hands.
Besides, Changjiang River is a major tributary of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It connects to Qingshui River in the middle, and can go directly to Weizhou Prefecture in the north, Nanliang in the south, and the sea in the east, passing through many prosperous towns along the way.
The pier in front of him was in a dilapidated state and had been abandoned for who knows how many years. Qiao Xin had been thinking about it from the moment she boarded the ship and went ashore.
Master Wu thought he had heard wrongly. No one was more familiar with that pier than he was. There was nothing there except a few long piles, a dilapidated wooden corridor and three or four berths. Not a single foreign ship came there in a whole year.
"Madam, please think twice. That place is really desolate and dilapidated. It's really not worth your trouble!"
Qiao Xin: "If it's a place that everyone likes, the local gentry would have taken it long ago. How can we go and pick it up? If we want to ship things out of Changnan Town, we have to go by water. If this wharf is in the hands of others, they can strangle us anytime and anywhere. I don't like it!"
After hearing what he said, Qiao Yunqing realized that Qiao Xin was not making this decision out of spontaneity to help him. It was obviously a decision that had been planned for a long time.
"How many acres of land do you plan to buy?"
"Fifty acres around the dock will be enough! Just give it to me at the current price!"
Hiss~~~, according to the normal price, this is a considerable sum of money!
This is really a big deal, old lady!
Qiao Yunqing nodded: "After we get back, I will prepare it for you!"
The two of them finalized a deal while chatting casually!
Shunzi took a deep breath. With the speed at which the old lady was spending money, he had to work harder, otherwise there wouldn't be enough to spend!
The 100,000 taels of silver that were just handed in were spent in the blink of an eye before they could even warm up!
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