After hearing Huang Laifu's words, all the merchants felt relieved. Although Huang Laifu levies commercial tax, which made them feel a little painful, according to the current development trend of Wuzhaibao, if the commercial tax is 30, or 1.5%, their profits in the year are still very generous.

As for the management of merchants in Wuzhaibao and the collection of commercial taxes in the future, this is the matter of He Vice-Chunhu and others. However, Huang Laifu is now going to talk about another thing, which is the main thing he is recruiting merchants today.

He whispered a few words to He Vice Qianhu and others, saying, "My Wuzhai Fort is becoming more and more prosperous now, and it all depends on the credit of the shopkeepers. However, my Wuzhai Fort turned out to be just a small military fort, with streets and roads, and they cannot keep up with the needs of development. In order to further improve the situation of Wuzhai Fort, I decided to repair the streets and roads in Wuzhai Fort."

"However, the financial resources in the fort are difficult now and the funding gap is still large. Wuzhai Fort belongs to everyone, so I need the help of all the shopkeepers. For this reason, I will give you an initiative to use your hands of caring and helping to care about and support the development of Wuzhai Fort and donate money to the construction of Wuzhai Fort. We will give monuments to those who donate more than ten taels of money in person."

The main street in Wuzhai Fort is Dadong Street, which leads to Qianhuzhai and the official office. It is paved with bluestone. The others are dirt roads, even Niangniang Temple Street next to Dadong Street. Every rainy day or in the sky, these streets are covered with mud or dusty, which is really impossible to keep up with the development needs of Wuzhai Fort. To build roads, you have to use Huang Laifu's cement. After the road is repaired, you have to advertise your own cement. This is indeed a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.

The merchants below looked at each other, except Qu Yuanrui, all looked ugly. It turned out that today, it was Lord Qianhu who came to them to fight for the autumn wind. Deputy Qianhu He, Jiang Baihu and others next to Huang Laifu looked at each other with smiles on their faces. Lord Qianhu was the Lord Qianhu, and even the merchants who were placing Qiufeng to fight for the autumn wind could be said to be so high-sounding.

Qu Yuanrui said first: "Building bridges and roads to benefit one's own country is a good thing that benefits the present and the future. Yuanrui is not talented, and is willing to reward the people and follow the advice of the people of Wuzhai Fort to benefit the military and civilians."

Qu Yuanrui is now tied tightly with Huang Laifu, so he naturally spoke out with Huang Laifu. Besides, Wuzhai Fort has developed to this point. If the streets and roads are repaired, it will also be beneficial to the businessmen in Wuzhai Fort.

Huang Laifu said: "It is admirable that Manager Qu is kind and generous, devotes his efforts to bring kindness to his hometown." His eyes swept to other merchants and said: "Everyone, what do you mean?"

The shopkeeper Du Maozhen of Derun Buzhuang first responded to Qu Yuanrui. For him, he actively donated funds. First, he could leave a good impression in the hearts of the Qianhu Adults, and second, it would change the street appearance of Wuzhaibao, which would be conducive to the future development of Wuzhaibao. After Wuzhaibao developed, his business would be better. He was a shrewd businessman, and he would still be able to make a decision.

Seeing this, other merchants also spoke out, willing to donate generously and actively participate in the construction of Wuzhai Fort. Raising funds from merchants is a common phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty, and it is not just Wuzhai Fort. Although many families are strong, the merchants below are unwilling to make Huang Laifu unhappy in this small matter. Besides, repairing the streets and roads in Wuzhai Fort is also beneficial to the merchants. At that time, everyone was thinking about how much they wanted to pay.

Huang Laifu was very happy when he heard this. He said, "Okay, all the locals donated generously to do good deeds. This virtue of benefiting the fort and the people will always be remembered by the soldiers and civilians of Wuzhai Fort."

He pondered for a while and said, "I have been working diligently for the development of Wuzhai Fort and thought about it. As early as a few months ago, I had expected this day, so I created the Dawuzhai Fort Cement Factory and developed a cement object. This object is still a powerful tool for building bridges and paving roads. Compared with the Daqingstone that paves the road, it is cheaper and more affordable. For the development of Wuzhai Fort, I decided to give up my love and sell it at a low price for the road repair of Wuzhai Fort."

According to the rural cement roads in later generations, the average construction funds per kilometer were about 250,000 yuan, which was about 400 taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty. However, in fact, even if cement roads were built, the standards were lower at this time. After all, there was no need to run through the large trucks in later generations, the average construction funds per kilometer were about 2 or 300 taels.

In Wuzhai Fort, all the streets and roads that need to be repaired need to be added, less than 2 kilometers, and the materials, labor and repair costs are less than 1,000 taels of silver. Just in the past few months, my cement factory has developed 2,000 tons of cement, which is just used. One ton of cement in later generations is about 300 to 400 yuan, so I don’t need to spend more than one ton of cement.

After hearing Huang Laifu's words, the merchants below suddenly realized that the Qianhu recruited them today mainly for his cement. They also knew that Huang Lai built a cement factory in Fujian, but they didn't know the use of cement. So before, everyone just waited and watched, but no one bought it. Today they knew that this thing was originally used to build bridges and pave roads, but the effect was how it worked. After the street was repaired, it might not be another way of wealth.

Finally, everyone donated money. Qu Yuanrui donated 200 taels of silver, Du Maozhen, the shopkeeper of Derun Buzhuang, donated 50 taels of silver, and the others donated 50 taels to 100 taels respectively. Soon, more than 1,000 taels of funds were raised, which was enough to repair the road surface of Wuzhaibao Street.

In fact, when these merchants did not come, Huang Laifu had already agreed to establish a city management bureau with Deputy Qianhu and others to take charge of various construction of Wuzhai Fort. The director was He Chaoxun and Deputy Qianhu.

At this time, a road construction committee was established on the spot in the lobby, which belongs to a branch under the Urban Management Bureau. It is currently supervised and managed by Yang Anzhang and Yang Baihu, and cooperated by Qu Yuanrui and other merchants. The committee first surveyed the street situation of Wuzhaibao, then purchased raw materials, and after it was prepared, it began to repair the streets.

※※※

While Huang Laifu in Qianhu's house was discussing repairing the streets with various merchants, on the way outside Wuzhai Fort, Master Sun, the commander of Xiwei in Guilanzhou Town, looked at everything in front of him unbelievably with several servants.

Is this still the poor Wuzhai Fort in my mind?

Along the way, the wheat fields on the road were continuous, and the continuous wheat fields surrounded by farms and manors, like a lively village and town, the men and women walked out of the farm, each wearing new clothes, with rosy faces and satisfied smiles, while some children were playing happily near the manor. These scenes were lifeless compared to the refugees around the area near Kelan Prefecture, which was like two worlds.

In fact, Master Sun saw many refugees from Kelanzhou. They were helping the elderly and young, carrying their simple luggage, and were constantly heading towards Wuzhai Fort. Everyone had hope on their faces, as if they could live well when they arrived in Wuzhai Fort.

In the fields next to the farm, Master Sun saw the Tun Dings chopping wheat straw and burning it back to the fields. The thick wheat straw shows the great harvests obtained in these fields. There are also the wells in the wheat fields, especially the water trucks standing by the Qinglian River, which show that Wuzhai Fort is different from other places.

After several months of construction, the farms that Sun Shiye and others have seen have formed places similar to small military forts, including walls, fort gates, mercerized ridges on the fort walls, high-rise buildings, etc. When encountering any thief attacks, the Fort Gate will be led by the supervisor to the fort walls. Do not think about attacking these farms with more than a thousand people.

In each farm, there is now a Huang Laifu hand press well, which is definitely full of water. There is no problem. In each farm, they are still following Wuzhai Fort and built living facilities such as temples and stages in the farm for entertainment to the Tunding Ding and his family members in the fort. Although the buildings in these farms are relatively crude, they are already very good compared to many folk forts and mountain villages.

Among the various farms in Wuzhai Fort, each farm generally has hundreds of garrisons, especially the first farm in Wuzhai Fort, which has five hundred garrisons. In addition to the military households in Wuzhai Fort, many of them are also civilian households outside the fort and refugee residents.

Because these residents now have abundant monthly food, they are enough to support their families. These people brought their families to the farm together, making the population of each farm exceed one or two thousand. During the Ming Dynasty, this was enough to have a population size of each town.

Of course, now the original civil servants and their families have all the military household registration of Wuzhai Fort and enjoy all the treatment of Wuzhai Fort. From the desire of civil servants to the identity of military households, this psychological change is incredible in other prefectures and counties.

Farms with a population size in each township have now become the second choice for merchants in addition to Wuzhaibao. Some merchants who cannot compete for big merchants in Wuzhaibao have also settled for the second best and targeted the business targets at these garrisons. Every few days, at the intersection outside the farm, markets are spontaneously formed. On this day, various merchants who operate cotton, salt, cloth, coal, tea, and liquor have set up stalls here and started business.

There are also various chowder noodle stalls, mutton bone stalls, and fruit stalls, which have also taken up seats here. Some nearby villagers also come here to shout and sell their own local specialties such as vegetables, garlic, onions, and leeks. This has formed a messy but full of vitality.

Today may be the agreed trading day for each farm. The intersection of each farm is filled with vendors and shopping people. Mr. Sun and others just passed through the intersection of the farm and arrived at the gate of Wuzhai Fort in a daze.

Not far from Wuzhai Fort, there were chariots and horses coming and going outside the fort, and there were merchants with distant grain and goods everywhere, showing the prosperity of the commerce in the fort. After entering the fort, some Wuzhai Fort flag soldiers were staring at everyone on the fort wall and on the fort gate.

Strangely, when entering Wuzhai Fort, there is no need to lead the way or enter the fort tax. However, the flag soldiers guarding the fort are strong and do not have the common age and weakness in the guards. These flag soldiers of Wuzhai Fort are all wearing brand new mandarin duck battle jackets and holding sharp weapons in their hands. This kind of impulsive spirit, but people dare not have any desire to spy on Wuzhai Fort.

Master Sun discovered that even though he was commanding the commander, he would be unable to fight against more than a thousand flag troops in Wuzhai Fort. When did Wuzhai Fort become so powerful? Master Sun thought.

After entering Wuzhai Fort, I saw that it was even more lively. The street seemed to be crowded with people, with shops everywhere, and merchants with accents everywhere, squeezhai Fortress like sardines in cans.

On the street, except for some ragged and hopeful refugees, as long as the local military households in the fort were looking strong and leisurely. From what Master Sun had seen a few years ago, the skinny and numb and desperate expressions of life, they were completely different. Master Sun found that although his building in Gulan Prefecture was taller and wider than that of Wuzhai Fort, the spirit of this military household was not as good as that.

After entering Dadong Street, Master Sun was even more stunned. He saw that the street was filled with grain shops and rice shops, and white rice and flour were filled with all the streets. In addition, the street was filled with cloth shops, tea shops, oil sugar shops, etc.

Various rice merchants came and went from shops, and some of the refugees carrying rice were panting and carrying heavy rice bags, following them, crowding the streets with people. There were also trucks of cars and horses, and after filling the grain, they went out of the fort, forming a strange and busy situation.

When I heard the sound of firecrackers coming from afar, I was afraid that some shop would open again. Master Sun finally sighed and said to the servants beside him: "Is this really Wuzhai Fort? Will we go to the wrong place?" (To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please log in to www.qidian.com. There are more chapters, support the author and support genuine reading!) (To be continued)
Chapter completed!