Scholars and Wealthy Merchants All Stuck on the Roads of Shu? To Get Rich, Build Roads First!

Xie Wanqing walked up to him, holding a storybook, and stood in front of him.

Your Highness.

Gu Moran lifted her face from behind her knees.

Xie Wanqing handed him the storybook.

Please take a look at the preface.

Gu Moran took it and turned to the first page.

The preface reads:

" Brocade City Poetry Notes, Volume One. It is said that after His Highness Prince Yi arrived in Shu, he was greatly inspired to write poetry. Whenever he was moved, he would write it down and give it to his close friends. It circulated among the people, and scholars vied to copy it. With His Highness's permission, three shops jointly published it."

Gu Moran stared at the four characters "poetic inspiration strikes," and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Wanqing.

"Um?"

"When I wrote those poems, you were on my mind."

Xie Wanqing's eyelashes fluttered.

"Know."

"And you..."

"Your Highness's kindness is appreciated, Wanqing," Xie Wanqing said softly, putting away her storybook. "But we still need to earn money."

She turned and went downstairs.

I paused for a moment when I reached the corner of the stairs.

"The version you wrote yourself." She didn't turn around. " Wanqing didn't give it to the shop. The original manuscript is under her pillow."

The footsteps faded into the distance.

Gu Moran squatted by the window, looking at the empty stairwell.

The corners of his mouth finally turned up.

"... Okay then."

He stood up and dusted off his knees.

Love poems turned into coasters, earning two hundred taels in one morning.

Good deal.

Seven days later.

Inside the main hall of the old Prince's Mansion, Gu Moran leaned back in a rattan chair, flipping through a first draft of a storybook edited by Xie Wanqing.

The sound of Su Yao's abacus coming from next door, click-clack, click-clack, counting silver with each stroke.

Strange.

That's so strange.

Gu Moran felt a little uneasy with all the free time.

All he did every day was eat and drink; apart from being a little tired at night, his life was quite comfortable.

With the help of those books from the system, these women planned their business strategies and didn't include him at all.

But a period of comfort rarely lasts more than three days.

Just as I was thinking this, a series of frantic footsteps came from outside the main hall.

Thud--

The door was pushed open.

Si Renyou scrambled across the threshold.

The official's hat was askew.

His face was covered in sweat, and the hem of his official robe was stained with mud. He was so out of breath that he could barely speak.

"Your Highness... Your Highness!"

Immediately after, Zhen Daijin squeezed in from behind him.

He was in slightly better shape than Si Renyou; at least he still had his waist knife, but sweat was still visible on his forehead.

The two men stood in the middle of the main hall, one a scholar and the other a warrior, both staring intently at Gu Moran on the rattan chair.

Gu Moran closed the storybook.

"Why have you two come together? What happened?"

Si Renyou opened his mouth, still catching his breath. "Your Highness, those poems..."

He paused for a moment, then wiped his face with his sleeve.

Something terrible has happened.

Gu Moran didn't move.

"What's up?"

Si Renyou finally caught his breath, slapped his thigh, and took a step forward.

"Since those poems spread, the name ' Brocade Official City) and ' Chengdu Prefecture) have been known throughout Chuan-Shu! And it's still spreading!"

His voice was urgent and loud.

"In these seven days, seven days! No fewer than five hundred literati and scholars from various prefectures of Jiannan Circuit have poured into Yi Prefecture City!"

Gu Moran raised an eyebrow.

This has boosted the tourism industry!

Collaboration!

"That's a good thing."

"Good news?!" Si Renyou's hat flapped again.

"Your Highness, the scholars have arrived, and what followed them? Wealthy merchants! Booksellers! The owner of a silk shop!"

It's all sorts of shrewd people trying to capitalize on the " Brocade Official City " name to do business!

He held up three fingers.

"The inns in the west of the city are fully booked. The inns on the South Street are fully booked. Even the woodshed next to the stables in the north of the city is being booked with people offering two taels of silver!"

Zhen Daijin chimed in from the side, "People are even asking at the entrance of the military camp if they can pay to borrow a bed."

Gu Moran sat up straighter.

"Isn't that great? The money goes into Yi Prefecture's pocket."

"The money's in!" Si Renyou stamped his foot, "But the people are stuck in traffic!"

"Repairing only the Black Wind Pass section won't be enough."

He pulled a crumpled document from his sleeve and spread it on the table.

"The official road thirty li outside the city was completely blocked. Horse-drawn carriages, oxcarts, and donkey carts coming from the south were all crammed together, forming a line that stretched for seven or eight li. A scholar in a blue robe overturned his cart in a mud pit and broke his leg!"

He pointed to the crooked handwriting on the document.

"This is what he wrote while lying in the mud: ' The Shu Road is difficult, Prince Yi wrote poems but not roads, deceiving me into traveling a thousand miles to have my leg broken!'"

Gu Moran's eye twitched.

"How dare he insult me, Your Majesty?"

Si Renyou spread his hands, "The news that the road is difficult to travel has been circulating for three days. Tea merchants from Jia Prefecture have been waiting outside the city for two days but haven't been able to get in, and their tea leaves have all turned yellow."

A bookseller from Mei Prefecture got his cart wheel stuck in the mud and couldn't pull it out. He hired four strong men to pull it halfway out.

Zhen Daijin rubbed his hands together. "Originally, I was thinking of using the silver to repair the Black Wind Pass section and that would be fine."

As a result, a group of bodyguards from Mian Prefecture came from another place. They complained that the road was too bad and cursed the prefectural government for doing nothing.

It seems there are too many roads to repair. Even if we build them all to the same standards as Black Wind Pass, we still won't have enough money.

Si Renyou turned and glared at him. "How dare you say that! That section of road is under the jurisdiction of your military camp, and you haven't repaired it in three years!"

Zhen Daijin his neck. "You allocated money for road repairs?"

Have you submitted a road repair request?

"Damn it, if I had money, would I need to report it?"

The two are about to start arguing again.

Gu Moran tapped on the armrest of the rattan chair.

"Don't make a sound."

The two shut up.

Gu Moran stood up, walked to the table, and turned the document over.

The back is blank.

He picked up the charcoal pencil on the table and drew a thick line on the paper.

How many li is the official road outside the city?

Si Renyou paused for a moment. "From the South Gate to the Jia Prefecture intersection, it's about forty-seven li."

"From the West Gate towards Jiannan Circuit?"

Zhen Daijin replied, "Thirty-two li, after passing Black Wind Pass, you'll connect to the main road."

Gu Moran drew several vertical lines on the thick line.

"A total of seventy-nine li. Divided into ten sections, each seven to eight li long. Build them to the highest standards, and improve the post stations and other facilities as well."

The two looked at the pen in his hand.

Gu Moran wrote down two words: "Naming".

"To get rich, build roads first."

"But the money will not come from the prefectural government, the military camp, or the prince's residence."

Si Renyou frowned. "Then who should step forward?"

"Whoever wants to do business in Yi Prefecture, whoever pays."

Gu Moran put down the charcoal pencil and turned to face the two of them.

"What are these merchants, wealthy households, and booksellers who have flocked in these past few days doing here? Making money. What are they most afraid of? Blocked roads."

He drew a square next to that line.

Along each section of the road, there stood a merit stele, eighteen feet tall. Names were engraved on the stele; whoever donated the most silver had their name at the top, in the largest characters, and outlined in gold.

Si Renyou's eyes lit up.

"It's not just about engraving names," Gu Moran continued drawing, "The monument will also be engraved with the amount of donations and their rankings."

The stretch of road that the first-place winner traversed is named his road. For example, "Chen Ji Trading Company Road".

Merchants traveling this route see his name every day.

Zhen Daijin interjected, "That's it? You think you can swindle money from us?"

"Of course not."

Gu Moran drew a circle at each end of the line.

"After the road was repaired, checkpoints were set up at both ends of each section. Tolls were charged: three coins for a horse-drawn cart, two coins for an oxcart, and one coin for a donkey."

Si Renyou's breathing rhythm clearly changed.

"Of these toll fees, forty percent go to the prefectural government, forty percent to the military camp for road maintenance, and the remaining twenty percent to the person who initially paid the most money."

Zhen Daijin.

He rubbed it very quickly.

"Does Your Highness mean that those merchants spend their own money to build roads, and then they can recoup their costs from the toll fees?"

"More than just breaking even." Gu Moran tossed the charcoal pencil back onto the table. "The flow of people to Yi Prefecture will only increase. Today, a hundred cars pass by; next year, it might be three hundred. The names of the sponsoring merchants are seen every day, and the tolls are collected every year. The money spent will be earned back in three to five years."

The main hall was quiet for three breaths.

Si Renyou's hat wings finally stopped shaking.

He stared at the line on the paper, his Adam's apple bobbing twice.

"Your Highness... this method..."

Zhen Daijin direct. "This is trying to get something for nothing!"

Gu Moran back in the rattan chair and crossed her legs.

"I am ill and weak, and cannot think of any complicated ideas. What do you two think of this simple method?"

Si Renyou was already quickly calculating the costs in his mind.

If there are three or five wealthy merchants vying to contribute silver for each of the ten sections of road, and even at the lowest price of five hundred taels per section, the cost of road repair alone would be five thousand taels.

The prefecture government won't have to pay a single penny of the five thousand taels; in fact, it will even get a share of the toll fees after the repairs are completed.

The political achievements are his.

The money has been deposited.

The road was repaired and the people stopped criticizing him.

The businessman was even grateful and felt he had made a profit.

⊙ω⊙

[Thanks to Xiaoxiao for the flowers, Liu Tai for the likes, Bei Yu for the love letters x10, Han Ye for the likes, Shen He for the likes and flowers, and WANG for the likes x2. Everyone, please give more likes to support this cause, hehe. It's been a while since I've made a short comic.]