Chapter 72 Mentougou to Beijing Line

What Yang Shiqi said was not entirely false. Yang Shiqi no longer had much attachment to the government, especially as the emperor grew older and became more and more independent.

Yang Shiqi is such a smart man, but he doesn't know when to retire after his achievements. The affection between him and the emperor will be worn away bit by bit with the political friction between the two.

Yang Shiqi will not live long, and he wants more to leave some political resources to his descendants.

What is the greatest political resource in the Ming Dynasty? It is Jane in the heart of the emperor.

Yang Shiqi sensitively felt that as the power in Zhu Qizhen's hands grew, the longer he stayed, the less likely he was to gain favor, and he might even bring trouble to his descendants.

Naturally, I want to leave.

But if you want to go, it is not easy. At least the Empress Dowager will not let you go easily, and things in the court are coming one after another.

Wherever you say you can just leave.

Because of this, Yang Shiqi used retreat to advance, which blinded Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen understood more and more that it was actually easier to deal with a person than to deal with the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, and it was easier to deal with an old man without ambition than to deal with a new chief minister who could not figure it out clearly.

Not to mention that although Yang Shiqi is old, in terms of presiding over government affairs, there are probably not many civil and military people in the Manchu Dynasty who can beat him.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen's attitude towards Yang Shiqi has evolved from hostility when he first came to the throne, and even wanting to overthrow him, to now, he wants to use Yang Shiqi until he is old.

Yang Shiqi was still able to convince hundreds of officials.

Zhu Qizhen immediately said: "Sir, you have misunderstood me. What I mean is that although I have this plan, my husband is an old minister. He has followed Taizong's Northern Expedition several times and is familiar with the trends of the mountains and rivers outside the Great Wall, but he does not know whether my plan will work?"

"

Yang Shiqi said: "Your Majesty, I only took one look, and I can't see many clues. But if Your Majesty is willing to give it a try, then give it a try. However, this route cannot be too long, no more than a hundred miles. It's just the Ministry of Household Affairs.

We are short of money and food. I heard that the Mentougou Coal Supervisor has nearly 100,000 taels of food per year, so why not-----"

In fact, it is not that Yang Shiqi cannot see the benefits of this Chidao.

How was grain transported in ancient times? Although there were horse-drawn carriages, the horse-drawn carriages generally could not move because the roads did not allow it. The traffic capacity of most roads in ancient times was not very high.

This improvement in transportation capacity has great benefits for both the military and domestic affairs. Not to mention anything else, the annual freight savings alone are an astronomical figure.

Therefore, even though Yang Shiqi doesn't have much trust in the Chidao system in front of him, he is still willing to give it a try.

When Zhu Qizhen heard what Yang Shiqi said, he knew that he would not get any advantage. He said: "Okay, in that case, I will make Cao Jixiang take charge of this matter."

Yang Shiqi said: "Your Majesty

Why do you need to do this? The old minister has already seen Liu Dingzhi here. Your Majesty's intention is to use Liu Dingzhi. I also think it is very good. Liu Dingzhi is the number one scholar selected by your Majesty. He will definitely join the cabinet one day in the future. It is precisely to add more

Exercise in preparation for the future, let Liu Dingzhi be responsible for this matter."

Zhu Qizhen felt a little depressed. He kept feeling that he couldn't hold back his anger. He fell into the trap of the old fox again.

Yes, Zhu Qizhen’s original intention in calling Yang Shiqi over was to give the already formed Chidao a chance to test. After all, this Chidao is a system. It’s not just a few cars, but two wooden rails.

Things, many problems can only be discovered during use.

Zhu Qizhen called Liu Dingzhi over, naturally he also wanted to make Liu Dingzhi responsible.

As Yang Shiqi said, Liu Dingzhi was the first number one scholar chosen by Zhu Qizhen, and he was a disciple of the Emperor. If I had to add another adjective, it would be the senior brother among the disciples of the Emperor, Miao Genzhenghong, who was very fond of Zhu Qizhen.

Qi Zhen was loyal, and Zhu Qizhen valued Liu Dingzhi from the beginning, which can be seen from Liu Dingzhi's resume.

He started as a horse-breeding official and worked his way up step by step.

It can be said that he knows the local conditions and disadvantages very well.

Maybe others didn't understand Zhu Qizhen's thoughts and felt that Zhu Qizhen treated Liu Dingzhi poorly, but Yang Shiqi couldn't understand why.

The number one scholar is usually assigned to the sixth rank, but Liu Dingzhi was in the army. He went back and forth on the horse farm. Where there was hardship, there was nothing. It took him two or three years to get to the sixth rank of Daxing County Magistrate. But with a solid resume, he is expected to be in the cabinet in the future.

, definitely not just talk.

Zhu Qizhen actually had three reasons for asking Liu Dingzhi to come. First, he wanted Shuntian Mansion to pay for it, because after Yu Qian's reforms, Shuntian Mansion could be considered a wealthy yamen. Secondly, he wanted Liu Dingzhi to be responsible.

This matter, because Chidao cannot be considered as dealing with horses.

In fact, the imperial court did not lack horses, but it lacked war horses.

There are hundreds of thousands of horses fostered by the imperial court in Northern Zhili, Shandong, Henan and other places in people's homes. Most of them are not suitable for war, but if they are used to pull carts, they are good.

Liu Dingzhi had stayed at Taipu Temple before and was familiar with raising horses, so it couldn't be better to take charge of this matter.

Third, he wanted Liu Dingzhi to show his face in front of Yang Shiqi.

After all, according to Zhu Qizhen's plan, Yang Shiqi would stay in the position of chief minister of the cabinet for at least a few years. When Liu Dingzhi encountered something, he could not directly come to Zhu Qizhen.

This is inappropriate.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen introduced Yang Shiqi, thinking that Yang Shiqi was an experienced person and would definitely take care of him.

I just never expected that I would suffer such a big loss from Yang Shiqi.

Not to mention the money wasted in vain, Zhu Qizhen's plan was to build a line from Mentougou to Beijing, and also build a route from Beijing to Tongzhou, because the transportation to the capital was

Grain has to be disembarked in Tongzhou. After disembarking from the ship, it must be transported by land.

Just where a road is needed.

But now Zhu Qizhen has completely miscalculated.

"Come on, with Yang Shiqi's nod, I think the imperial court won't object too much." Zhu Qizhen thought to himself: "Slow down, just slow down."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, let's do as you wish." Then Zhu Qizhen waved and called Liu Dingzhi over and said: "The Chidao from Mentougou to the capital can be started. If anything happens, you can report it to Yang Shoufu.

"

Yang Shiqi said to Liu Dingzhi: "Zhu Jing, you and I are fellow countrymen. In my opinion, it is natural for me to find an old man to preside over such an important matter. It's just that His Majesty values ​​you, and I can't help it. You must do your job well."

, we must not let down His Majesty’s grace.”

Liu Ding, whose courtesy name is Zhujing, is also from Jiangxi.

He was very moved at this moment and said: "Grandmaster, please rest assured that I will definitely do a good job in this matter." Then he saluted Zhu Qizhen and said, "I am determined not to let down your majesty's love."

Zhu Qizhen said: "You just have to do your job. When you are done with this task, I will transfer you to the military department and take charge of the post." Although Zhu Qizhen said this to Liu Dingzhi, Zhu Qizhen said

His eyes were looking at Yang Shiqi.

After Yang Shiqi listened, he knew that he had heard the hidden meaning of Zhu Qizhen.

What kind of scene will it be when the Yi Station is combined with Chidao? With his rich political experience, Yang Shiqi suddenly thought in his mind: "I'm afraid that the three departments in each province will become the fourth department again, which is the transportation department. But I probably

Out of sight."

The post station and Chidao became a whole, and the money and grain from various places no longer needed to be transported by the grain chief, but only through this system. The importance of this system suddenly increased. It was not appropriate for the chief envoy or the inspector to be responsible.

Management by one official is a matter of course.

I thought it would be best to use the old name of the transport envoy from the Song Dynasty.

Yang Shiqi calculated the time and found that even though the project was not big, it would only be more than a hundred miles from Mentougou to the capital. But it would take several years to spread it throughout the world.

This requires not only repeated testing of Chi Dao, but also waiting for the court's financial resources to recover.

After all, Zhu Qizhen is determined to control Hebei's water conservancy, and it may not be completed in a few years, or even in ten years. When it is time to implement Chidao and cover a whole province, we don't know when it will be.

For the first time, Yang Shiqi didn't say anything, but in his heart he had a sense of expectation for the future described by Zhu Qizhen. He lamented that he was approaching old age and probably wouldn't see that day.

However, Yang Shiqi's worries about Zhu Qizhen completely dissipated.
Chapter completed!