He has a spatial ability and saves three children on his escape route.

Chapter 215 Xue Yifeng's Worries

Upon seeing the memorial submitted by the magistrate of Fancheng County, Xia Yichen smiled.

The cement roads in Fancheng have brought convenience to all the residents of Fancheng, and have also attracted more ships to dock at the wharf. Merchants trading goods are also willing to spend more time traveling around Fancheng to look for new business opportunities.

With the addition of smooth mountain roads, the remote mountain villages were no longer isolated from the world. Villagers brought all sorts of mountain produce, both dried and fresh, to the town, where merchants then transported these uncommon mountain goods to the county seat.

Mountain products, which were rarely seen before, appeared in large quantities in Fancheng. The people enjoyed delicious food, the villagers earned money, and the villagers deep in the mountains were no longer isolated from the outside world. They ventured out of the mountains in groups to see the world beyond.

Most importantly, taxes have increased. Fancheng has received twice as many taxes in the past three months compared to previous years. Xia Yichen realized that his previous decision to build roads from remote counties was a mistake.

Incomes are higher in prosperous cities than in remote counties. We should prioritize road construction in prosperous cities to ensure a faster return on investment, preventing the national treasury from being depleted by road construction.

In fact, Xia Yichen did not touch the silver in his private treasury, nor did he touch the funds in the national treasury designated for military use, nor did he touch the funds used to pay the salaries of court officials.

The construction of roads in five remote counties used less than 500,000 taels of working capital; the rest came from donations from court officials.

To date, Wen Yunhong still has over a million yuan available for road repairs, all of which came from donations from officials across the Great Xia Dynasty.

The wealthy and powerful figures in the capital, and throughout the Great Xia Dynasty, are the ultimate source of funding for road construction. Xia Yichen has no intention of exploiting them for the time being.

He planned to change the order in which cities were prioritized for road construction, placing the more prosperous cities first and allocating the tax revenue from these cities to road construction funds.

"Uncle Zhang, inform Minister Wen that the road construction project in remote counties is suspended. Have him estimate the funds needed for road construction in the capital," Xia Yichen said slowly.

"Yes, Your Majesty, this old servant will take care of it immediately," Zhang Gonggong bowed respectfully and withdrew. He was the old emperor's most loyal subordinate. After the old emperor abdicated, he left him to Xia Yichen, instructing him to continue serving Xia Yichen.

A budget list for road repairs in the capital was delivered to the Princess's residence. The list was handwritten by Xia Yichen. Looking at the prices of limestone, volcanic ash, and pumice on it...

Nangong Wenrui smiled and said, "Mu Hua, your good brother has been coming to the manor every day these past few days to catch up with you. It turns out he's been asking about the cost of repairing the road!"

Wen Yuxia chuckled, "Rui-ge, you're only realizing it now? How silly!" She knew Wen Yunhong's intentions from his very first day at the manor.

Wen Yuxia paused briefly before continuing, "The cheapness of cement raw materials will be exposed sooner or later. I intentionally leaked the price of the raw materials used for paving to Yunhong."

As Wen Yunhong had predicted, she informed Xia Yichen of this matter, which is why Xia Yichen set the budget for road paving within the capital at 150,000 taels of silver.

“Mu Hua, after the cement roads within Fancheng are paved, the small world seems to have become more expansive. Since paving roads can change the small world, it doesn’t matter if we earn less silver. I approve of the list Xia Yichen has given us,” Nangong Wenrui said calmly.

Repairing roads can expand our little world, that's wonderful! Even if it means losing tens of thousands of taels of silver, I'd rather lose money to repair the roads for Xia Yichen.

Wen Yuxia said excitedly, "Brother Rui, tell the Emperor to arrange for construction to begin simultaneously in three more cities!"

Upon receiving the news, Xia Yichen immediately arranged for Wen Yunhong to select three cities around Beijing to budget for road repair funds.

The elders of the Nangong family recruited road pavers throughout the capital, while Wen Yuxia supervised the cement workshops. The number of black market cement workshops increased from one to five.

Nangong Wenrui traveled throughout the capital, delivering thoroughly mixed cement to the paving sites on a timely basis. Five days later, Wen Yunhong presented the paving budgets for three counties surrounding the capital.

Nangong Wenrui transferred some workers from the workshop to these three counties to serve as supervisors, recruit road pavers, and provide on-site demonstrations of cement paving. All of these tasks were the responsibility of the supervisors.

As the road paving project progressed, Xue Yifeng, the Minister of Works, and Wen Yunhong, the Minister of Revenue, also became busy. In order to make the streets of the capital grand and magnificent, Nangong Wenrui demolished many houses.

According to the contract, the Ministry of Revenue would temporarily resettle the people who lost their homes, and the Ministry of Works would be responsible for selecting sites and rebuilding their houses.

Wen Yunhong arranged for the homeless people to stay temporarily in the homes of wealthy families in the capital, while Xue Yifeng, along with officials from the Ministry of Works, traversed the streets and alleys of the capital.

Two months later, all the roads in the capital were paved with cement, the streets became clean and wide, horse-drawn carriages traveled more smoothly and quickly, the number of merchants and travelers increased, and the capital's commerce flourished even more.

Xue Yifeng purchased a large quantity of cement bricks from Nangong Wenrui, and in just six months, the rebuilt houses in the capital were finally completed.

Wen Yunhong smiled at Xue Yifeng: "Grandpa Xue, you've worked hard. Rongcheng, Pingcheng, and Jiangcheng are still waiting for you. Would you like to set off now or rest for a couple of days before going?"

Construction in Rongcheng, Pingcheng, and Jiangcheng started a few days later than in the capital. After Nangong Wenrui demolished the houses that were obstructing the road, Wen Yunhong resettled the homeless residents who were left without housing after the demolition.

The roads in the three cities have been completed for several months, and they are just waiting for Xue Yifeng to lead people to rebuild the residential areas. Xue Yifeng smiled bitterly. So many people have no place to live. How could he dare to rest at home?

"I'll leave now," Xue Yifeng said, leading officials from the Ministry of Works and construction workers to Rongcheng.

Upon arriving in Rongcheng, Xue Yifeng learned from the county magistrate that Nangong Wenrui had already planned out the residential area for him, and the cement bricks needed for construction had been prepared in advance. A relieved smile appeared on Xue Yifeng's face.

Cement bricks are stronger than blue bricks, and one cement brick is equivalent to one blue brick. Building a house with cement bricks is much faster than building a house with blue bricks.

Xue Yifeng led everyone to work day and night, and the residential area in Rongcheng quickly took shape. At the same time, Wen Yunhong was in the capital compiling statistics on the various benefits after the road construction.

The results were surprising. Not only did commercial tax revenue increase significantly, but the public satisfaction survey also showed an unprecedentedly high level. Xia Yichen was overjoyed when he heard about this.

Xue Yifeng completed the reconstruction of the Rongcheng residential area, and the people happily moved into their new homes. Xue Yifeng then continued his journey on the official road to Pingcheng without stopping.

Sigh, Nangong Wenrui's pace of paving the way is just too fast. He's already piling up housing reconstruction work in ten cities. I wonder how much longer his old bones can hold on.

Thinking of this, Xue Yifeng's wrinkles deepened even further.