From a freeloader to a world leader

After the high-level meeting of the Datong Chamber of Commerce was over, several pieces of news spread throughout the city, and then within two or three days, throughout the entire empire.

First, the real estate society under the Datong Chamber of Commerce is publicly recruiting a top-notch architect with an annual salary of 10000 taels from the entire empire to build a bridge connecting the north and south of the Xiangjiang River for Hengzhou, and to design a large residential community for the people of Hengzhou that can accommodate people.

This one thing alone made the entire Hengzhou City completely crazy.

Although some people know that after Shanzhong Xiucai fell into the water yesterday, he said he wanted to build a bridge.

But after all, few people know about it, and everyone is skeptical.

Now, everyone in the city knows that the bridge can definitely be repaired.

Then, more details about the bridge repair were leaked intentionally or unintentionally by employees of Datong Chamber of Commerce.

The bridge will be built to the highest standards, with an estimated investment of 100000 taels of silver, of which Shanzhong Xiucai will personally contribute %, and Prince Heng and President Yue of Datong Real Estate will each contribute %.

By then, with this first bridge connecting the north and south of the Xiangjiang River, the two sides of the Xiangjiang River will be completely connected to form a close whole, and the people on both sides will be freed from the suffering of time-consuming and laborious ferry rides.

Especially for large horse-drawn carriages carrying cargo, the journey from Jiangdong to Jiangxi could be shortened by half a day.

This is undoubtedly absolutely exciting good news.

Second, the Datong Chamber of Commerce will build the empire’s first library, gymnasium, and first all-women’s academy on Jiangxinzhou Island where the Chuanshan Academy is located.

You may not know or understand the library sports hall.

However, the incident at the girls' academy immediately caused a sensation in the whole city.

Some people applauded, while others cursed, saying it was immoral and that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent.

However, when it was rumored that this women's academy was funded and built by Princess Heng, and that she served as the principal of the first women's academy, the discussion immediately died down.

Moreover, they all gave thumbs up and praised Princess Heng for being worthy of being the first wife of the virtuous Prince Yang Yuanqing and for having a compassionate heart like a bodhisattva.

Then, there was another rumor that Princess Ke Xin of Prince Heng's Mansion, the princess whom Shanzhong Xiucai openly admired, would also teach in person at the Women's Academy, guiding women all over the world to learn various talents.

I rely on!

The top-level participation of the Princess and the Princess of Prince Guangheng immediately raised the women's academy, which had not yet been built, to the top level.

Many wealthy families in Hengzhou City asked privately.

When will the construction of this girls' college begin and when can students enroll?

Sun Shan was very clear about this. These wealthy families would not care about the small amount of money for admission to school.

They were eyeing this opportunity to see if they could use their daughter's schooling to establish a relationship with Prince Heng's Palace.

After all, this world places great emphasis on master-disciple inheritance. Once you successfully become someone's apprentice, it's like you have half a parent.

Moreover, some far-sighted parents built the boys' and girls' colleges together.

From this, I saw a way to catch a good son-in-law.

There are so many outstanding students in Chuanshan Academy, and more than twenty of them can pass the imperial examination and become Juren in each class, and four or five Jinshi in each class.

By then, if my daughter picks any one of them, she will become rich, right?

This is much more reliable than catching a son-in-law from the list!

Thirdly, Datong Real Estate Association issued an announcement that from now on, the real estate association will begin to be established, and all construction materials and peripheral construction will be open to public bidding from the whole society.

What does it mean?

Whichever company provides the blue bricks, black tiles, river sand, etc., we'll use whoever is cheaper and of better quality.

Oh my god, there is such a good thing!

Those who had the qualifications and resources in Hengzhou City went crazy.

Everyone was asking frantically, how can we cooperate?

You know, the projects released by Datong Chamber of Commerce require a huge amount of general materials.

Not to mention anything else, just to build such a big bridge, how many stones would be needed!

As for a community that can accommodate 100,000 people, there is no need to mention the building materials needed.

Anyway, as long as you win one bid, you will never have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of your life.

Zhang Ping'an and other high-ranking officials in the Hengzhou government certainly knew more details than ordinary people.

It is known that the Datong Chamber of Commerce will raise funds to build houses and hand over 1000 houses by the end of the year.

Suddenly, everyone in the yamen went crazy.

One after another, they clamored to raise funds to build houses and demanded that high-ranking officials such as Zhang Zhizhou immediately negotiate with the Datong Chamber of Commerce to build welfare houses for the yamen runners who had worked hard all their lives.

In addition, when Wang Fuzhi, the head of the mountain who lived in Jiangxin Island, heard that a large-scale construction would be carried out on Jiangxin Island, he did not even have time to eat lunch. He hurriedly found Sun Shan to inquire about the specific matters.

Then, an additional clause was added, requiring that during the construction, the Chuanshan Academy should also be repaired and expanded.

In addition, the library should be open to all teachers and students in the college.

When Sun Shan personally promised that all students studying in the male and female academies could read for free, Wang Fuzhi smiled so hard that his teeth almost fell out.

He immediately decided to donate all the books in Chuanshan Academy.

Sun Shan was so happy that he immediately responded by offering to build a small gymnasium inside the Chuanshan Academy to facilitate students' exercise and activities.

Anyway, after the discussion was over, Wang Fuzhi almost called Sun Shan his biological son!

Finally, he followed the top management of Datong Chamber of Commerce to Hengzhou Yamen and participated in the top-level meeting that afternoon.

There were not many participants in this meeting, only about thirty people.

They are mainly the Hengzhou government office, the senior officials of Datong Chamber of Commerce, and the wealthy families in Hengzhou city.

But the level was so high that even Prince Heng Yang Yuanqing and his princess attended in person.

The meeting lasted for five hours, from after lunch until late at night.

The main reason was that Sun Shan, the soul of the entire meeting, had to go to school the next day.

During the meeting, everyone once again witnessed Sun Shan's pioneering thinking and put forward a series of proposals to improve people's livelihood.

Among them, the most praised by the people of Hengzhou was the abolition of the head tax for entering Hengzhou City from that day on.

In other words, starting from tomorrow, anyone can enter and exit Hengzhou freely after passing the inspection, and no longer have to pay the city entry tax of five copper coins each time.

This not only saves money, but also avoids the pain of waiting in line for half an hour.

However, certain commercial taxes are still required for goods.

However, Sun Shan suggested that the appropriate proportion of fees to be collected must be set in a civilized manner, and no difficulties or arbitrary demands should be made.

To this end, Sun Shan made huge concessions on behalf of the Datong Chamber of Commerce.

Half of the shares of the two cultural and characteristic commercial streets on both sides of Chuanshan Academy will be handed over to the Hengzhou Yamen Financial Department to be established.

In addition, we are willing to raise funds to build houses for the Hengzhou government office in accordance with the same principles as those within the Datong Chamber of Commerce, and provide 500 commercial houses to the government office at cost price.

Moreover, in the future, public rental housing available to the whole society will also be under the jurisdiction of the Hengzhou government and supervised by both parties.

In this way, it became a political achievement project of the Hengzhou government.

However, this part of the land was provided free of charge by the Hengzhou government and built free of charge by the Datong Chamber of Commerce, and then both parties shared the profits equally.

In this way, the entire Hengzhou government office benefited greatly from the inside to the outside, and had both substance and appearance.

Of course, they don't mind giving up the fat piece of meat from collecting city entry tax.

In addition, Wang Fuzhi, the principal of Chuanshan Academy, proposed to name the women's academy Chuanshan Women's Academy and the bridge to be built Hengzhou Bridge.

Regarding these two points, high-ranking officials in the yamen, represented by Zhang Ping'an, agreed without hesitation without waiting for Sun Shan and others to refute.

Only Prince Heng Yang Yuanqing expressed his disagreement, thinking that he and Sun Shan had spent huge sums of money to build the temple, so how could the name not even belong to him.

Finally, after discussions, it was decided that all buildings constructed on Jiangxinzhou would be provided free of charge by the Hengzhou Yamen.

The library was named Hengzhou Library, and the gymnasium was also named Hengzhou Gymnasium, but the operating rights belonged to the Datong Chamber of Commerce, which was in full control of the business and was responsible for its own profits and losses.

This made Yang Yuanqing and Yue Yunfei, the two foxes, cover their mouths and laugh.

Because among all these projects, only the gymnasium is the most profitable.

And it’s a one-time investment with lifelong returns.

Anyway, after the meeting, everyone was happy.

Each of them got what they wanted most.