A penny stumps a heroic man.

Throughout the years of Zhenguan, the level of courtiers was very high.

At the court meeting, so many ministers couldn't find a solution. Li Kuan's light "It's very simple" can be said to be a slap in the face to many people.

After Dai Zhou asked the question, before Li Kuan could answer, Kong Yingda also stood up and said, "Your Highness, Prince of Chu, what you said is very simple. Could it be that your Prince of Chu's Palace is willing to pay this money?"

Li Kuan was too lazy to pay attention to Kong Yingda, but looked at Dai Zhou and said: "Dai Shangshu, in my opinion, the answer to this question is really simple. If you don't have money or food, then just borrow it."

"Borrow? Millions of guan, or even tens of millions of guan. Where can I borrow it? Who can come up with so much money? Your Highness, King Chu?"

When Dai Zhou heard that Li Kuan's answer was so unreliable, he immediately became angry.

He had worked hard for the Tang Dynasty. He was already over sixty years old, and he was still busy leaving early and returning late every day. As a member of the clan, Li Kuan actually teased himself like this.

Was your past self too talkative?

"Kuan'er, please speak more clearly. Don't stop there halfway."

Li Shimin on the throne couldn't stand it.

It was obvious that Li Kuan did not fully explain his proposal and deliberately misunderstood everyone.

Li Kuan: "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm going to say half of it, it's that you didn't leave time for me to say it in full."

Dai Zhou's face turned even more ugly, "His Royal Highness King Chu, if you don't tell me something today, I will personally impeach you for teasing the ministers."

Seeing how angry the old man looked, Li Kuan stopped showing off.

"Dai Shangshu, you may have forgotten that there is a Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty next to the West Market."

"Datang Royal Bank?"

Dai Zhou didn't realize what Li Kuan meant.

However, Li Shimin's eyes lit up and he felt that he understood a little bit.

"This bank was originally established to facilitate the storage and borrowing of people in the Tang Dynasty. If the Ministry of Revenue has no money, it can naturally borrow money from the Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty. In this way, the Ministry of Revenue does not have to spend a large amount of money at once.

, as long as you pay a portion every year, that’s enough.”

When the finance department ran out of money, it was a standard operating procedure for governments in later generations to borrow money from banks.

However, in the Tang Dynasty, people had not yet developed the habit of borrowing money from the yamen.

So, it’s not that everyone is not as smart as Li Kuan, it’s that no one thinks about it at all.

"His Royal Highness the King of Chu, the household department went to a bank to borrow money. If word spreads, where will the court's face be?"

Dai Zhou was stunned for a moment. Although he felt that Li Kuan's method seemed feasible, it was difficult to accept it.

What will the history books say then?

Will it be mentioned that it was me, Dai Zhou, who pioneered the court's practice of borrowing money, thus causing a lasting infamy?

"Yes, His Majesty the King of Chu, although this Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty is no better than ordinary merchants, it is not a court office after all. Letting the Ministry of Revenue borrow money seems to undermine the majesty of the court."

Wen Yanbo was beside him, also a little worried.

Even Fang Xuanling frowned, weighing the pros and cons.

Cement roads must be built. Li Shimin has made this clear in private.

However, the majesty of the imperial court must not be damaged, otherwise the impact would be huge.

Li Kuan: "No, I don't think so. On the contrary, I think this will not only not damage the majesty of the imperial court, but will actually make people all over the world praise the Tang Dynasty as a good country that considers the people, and it is extremely honorable."

Dai Zhou: "Your Majesty, how do you say this?"

"The construction of cement roads, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, and the people along the way will all benefit. This is a project that benefits the country and the people. In order to enable these projects to be implemented as soon as possible, the imperial court reduced unnecessary expenditures and used money wisely.

With just a little guidance, the people can feel it in their hearts, but how will it affect the majesty of the imperial court?"

So many high-speed rails and expressways have been built in later generations, but no one has ever had any objections because of too many roads.

Of course, building the same road over and over is another matter.

"His Royal Highness, King of Chu, doing business to gain profits is a businessman's behavior, and the court has always discouraged it. Now, if you ask the Ministry of Revenue to borrow money from the Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty, doesn't it mean that you are encouraging people to do business to gain profits?"

Kong Yingda saw that Dai Zhou seemed to want to agree to Li Kuan's suggestion, and immediately couldn't help but stand up.

Emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce is an important point in Confucianism.

This King of Chu placed various erotic techniques in a more important position than Confucianism in Guanshishan Academy, which already made Kong Yingda very unhappy.

Now, he actually wants to promote the ways of merchants to the imperial court.

If things continue like this, who will still care about Confucianism?

"Yes, Your Majesty, it is difficult for the Ministry of Household Affairs to accept ordinary debts, let alone debts."

Although Dai Zhou was inclined to accept Li Kuan's suggestion, it would be best if he could use the money from Datang Royal Bank without paying interest.

"If you don't give it, you won't give it. As long as the Ministry of Revenue accepts some supervision from the Tang Dynasty Royal Bank when using the money, it is okay not to charge interest this time."

There is no interest for saving money now.

On the contrary, storage fees will still be charged.

Therefore, if you take a loan, even if the interest rate is zero, you will not lose money.

Of course, what Li Kuan is interested in is not how much profit Datang Royal Bank can get from this loan.

Rather, I hope to take this opportunity to make everyone fully aware that banks can lend money.

Moreover, the construction of cement roads will inevitably involve the purchase of various materials. When the time comes, it will be mandatory for the household department to use gold and silver coins, which will also be of great significance for the promotion of gold and silver coins.

To put it bluntly, the seigniorage tax alone is not a small amount.

Of course, the most important thing is that Li Kuan hopes that the system will set for him the task of building 10,000 miles of cement roads, and he must complete it as soon as possible.

Otherwise, the all-rounder system will soon become a useless system.

"Your Majesty, if this is the case, I would like to approve the construction of cement roads from Chang'an City to Luoyang, and from Luoyang to Dengzhou and Jinyang."

In fact, Dai Zhou didn't know that Li Shimin wanted to build a cement road. He had always opposed it because he really couldn't afford so much money.

Now that it's okay, Datang Royal Bank is willing to lend money, so I naturally have no objection.

As old as I am, I can only work for another two years before I have to go home and take care of myself.

By then, it shouldn't be my turn to worry about paying back the money.

"Your Majesty, since we want to build it, let's just build all the main cement roads. This will save us from having to argue about road construction every year."

Changsun Wuji stood up and added his own opinions.

The Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty was created by Li Kuan.

Now, the money used for the construction of the cement road was borrowed from the Tang Dynasty Royal Bank, so in his opinion, it would be best if he could borrow more.

Anyway, in the end, the only way to suffer a loss is the bank.

…

The court meeting on the first day of February in the twelfth year of Zhenguan came to an end amidst the hustle and bustle, and the Tang Dynasty also started vigorous road construction. This further stimulated the nobles of Chang'an City to devote themselves to the construction of workshops.

Gravel workshops, which many people looked down upon in the past, are now very promising.

Cement workshops should expand production quickly, otherwise others will seize the market if it is too late.

Various blacksmith shops have also become popular, and the demand for various tools is also very strong.

Even the sales of horse-drawn carriages at Mercedes-Benz Carriage Shop seem to be constantly rising.

It can be said that in the twelfth year of Zhenguan, the economic construction of the Tang Dynasty fell into a boom.

As Nanshan Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. has undertaken the construction of the cement road from Chang'an City to Liangzhou, it is natural that it deserves to be the cement construction company from Chang'an City to Luoyang.

The role of this cement road is of extraordinary significance to Datang. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development required Nanshan Construction Engineering to complete the construction within half a year.

Fortunately, the distance from Chang'an City to Luoyang is not that far. Before Nanshan was built, we had our own craftsmen, captives from Tuyuhun, slaves provided by the slave-catching team, and other people totaling 70,000 to 80,000 people. They were divided into more than a dozen sections for construction at the same time, which was barely enough.

Can be completed on time.

However, as a result, the other paths are temporarily powerless.

This brought new opportunities to other businesses, and suddenly the labor shortage in Chang'an City suddenly became apparent.

"Master, the newly recruited craftsmen's wages have been increased by thirty cents per month, but we haven't recruited enough people yet."

Jintai Blacksmith Shop has successfully moved to the Workshop City last winter, becoming the first workshop outside the Chu Palace.

When Nanshan Construction Engineering started to build cement roads, a large number of tools needed to be used, so naturally they continued to be entrusted to Jin Tai Blacksmith Shop.

This made Mrs. Jin secretly pleasantly surprised that her relocation was indeed not in vain.

Needless to say, the land rent is very low. Even the workshop was built with the help of Nanshan Construction Engineering. It is said that they only charged their own cost price.

However, there are too many orders now and we are overwhelmed.

I feel pain and happiness at the same time.

"I heard that there are some slaves from Japan, Goguryeo and other places in the human market in the West City. If we really can't recruit people, we should go to the human market and buy a group of slaves first."
To be continued...