Chapter 2811 2813 [The first furnace of steel]
"Mr. Chai, I also want to take Gao Mingshen down immediately, expose his crimes one by one, and kill all his family members without leaving any chickens or dogs behind." Xiang Nan said again, "But Gao Ming has been prime minister for twenty years. The church has long been deeply rooted. His disciples are spread all over the six divisions and ten sects, and the forces are intertwined.
Not to mention that the father had a lot of trust in him, and he only helped his daughter marry him three months ago. So we can't act rashly, we must get rid of it slowly.
The purpose of my workshop now is to lull Gao Ming and make him think that I am not doing my job properly and have no intention of governing, so he will not be on guard against me.
In this way I can find a way to deal with him. Otherwise, how can a prince of the East Palace win against the party of Gao Xiang? "
"I understand. I was too impatient. Please forgive me, the prince." Chai Mu apologized, "As long as the prince does not forget the grievances of the Gu and Chen families, and is willing to bring down the traitor."
"No need to be like this, Mr. Chai, I can't ascend to the crown prince without your help." Xiang Nan waved his hand and said, "I hope you will help me a lot in the future."
"Prince, please don't worry, I will be so heartbroken that I will die." Chai Mu said immediately.
Xiang Nan nodded, "To bring down Prime Minister Gao, I need a lot of intelligence, and try to catch their braids, so that I can make a difference. Mr. Chai, I hope you can help me form a team all over the world to collect intelligence .”
For rulers, intelligence is crucial. Many rulers are often kept in the dark and act like monkeys because of lack of information.
For example, Emperor Qianlong chatted with the minister and asked him what he had for breakfast. The minister replied that he was in a hurry to go to court and had no time to eat, so he ate a few eggs to make up for it.
Qianlong was shocked when he heard this, and said that an egg was ten taels of silver. If you actually eat a few eggs for breakfast, it will cost you dozens of taels of silver, which is even more extravagant than what I eat.
The minister quickly explained that his eggs were broken, so he covered it up.
Qianlong is also considered a generation of Mingjun, but because he was raised in a deep palace and the information was not smooth, he didn't even know basic common sense, so that he was deceived to this extent.
Xiang Nan didn't want to be such a king. So he needs an intelligence team. Although Chai Mu is suspected of using him, he has to be said to be a loyal minister.
He will organize the intelligence agency, Xiang Nan can rest assured. And he plans to hand over this intelligence agency to Gu Jian in the future. He believed that with Gu Jian's ability, he could do well.
When Chai Mu heard this, he immediately agreed.
The Qianlong Envoy organized by him is doing intelligence gathering, assassination, surveillance and other work.
"I know that the establishment of such a team is inseparable from the support of funds." Xiang Nan said again, "In the future, you will set up a company, and you will be responsible for the sales of the products produced in my workshop."
Qianlongshi is the ancient 007. Not only must he be smart and good at martial arts, but also he must be literate, quick-witted, strong and brave. It is impossible to recruit such people on a large scale without sufficient benefits. Moreover, they cannot act without money.
Chai Mu nodded. He knew that the icing and soap produced by Xiang Nan's Tiangongfang were very popular and could make a lot of money, which was just enough to be used as Qianlongshi's funds.
"By the way, Gao Zhen, Gao Ming's third son, is a troublemaker. I heard that he likes to go to Mingyufang to find an oiran named Mingyue." Xiang Nan said again, "Go and have a look, maybe there will be clues."
Chai Mu was taken aback for a moment, then nodded.
…
In the evening, Xiang Nan returned to the East Palace very late.
The blast furnace is about to be ignited, and the first batch of steel is being tested.
If the first furnace of steel is successful, it will herald that the industry of the rich dynasty has reached a new level.
From then on, the border countries will be greatly left behind, and it will be difficult to compete with the Rich Dynasty.
"The concubine sees the prince~" Gao Ruyi said.
"Get up." Xiang Nan ordered, "It's so late, why haven't you slept yet?"
"The concubine has been waiting for His Highness the Crown Prince." Gao Ruyi explained, "Your Highness, the concubine has something important to discuss with you."
"Let's talk about it." Xiang Nan nodded and said.
"The concubine knows that His Highness's workshop will cost a lot of money." Gao Ruyi said immediately, "The concubine is willing to share the prince's worries and problems."
"How to solve problems?" Xiang Nan asked puzzled.
"The concubine is willing to dedicate all her dowry to His Highness." Gao Ruyi said hastily.
"Dowry?! How can that work?" Xiang Nan waved his hand when he heard this, "How can I make good use of your dowry? No, no, absolutely not."
In ancient times, a woman’s dowry was her private property, and even her husband had no right to use it. In case of divorce or the death of her husband, the woman can take away the dowry, fields, and maids.
Of course, the law is the law, and it is not the case when it is applied.
Although the husband’s family cannot forcibly **** the dowry from the wife, they can get the wife to hand over the dowry by coaxing, deceiving, coercing, playing emotional cards, moral kidnapping and many other means.
In ancient times, such cases were not uncommon.
"The concubine who marries the prince is the prince's man. The concubine belongs to the prince, so why bother with the dowry?" Gao Ruyi said, "Besides, these dowries are dead things in the hands of the concubine. It is in the hands of the crown prince that it will play the greatest role, so please accept it, Your Highness."
Xiang Nan hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.
He has seen Gao Ruyi's dowry before, among other things, there are 30,000 mu of fertile land alone, and there are dozens of shops in the city. There are as many as 30,000 guan of gold, silver and copper coins, and there are as many as two large boxes of jewelry...
He didn't say he wanted all of them, even if he only needed half of them, it would be worth 300,000 pennies. He has several big projects to launch recently, and he really lacks funds, so he accepted it immediately.
Besides, he also knows that he can't always ignore Gao Ruyi, there must always be a time for relaxation.
After all, Prime Minister Gao has not yet fallen, and he still needs the cooperation of Prime Minister Gao, so let's use this dowry to give each other a step down.
…
That night, Xiang Nan rested in Gao Ruyi's Chongming Palace.
A week later, the first batch of steel was finally smelted under the auspices of Xiang Nan.
Looking at the quality of this steel block, the color is bright, the material is fine, the flexibility is strong, and the sound is crisp. It is really a very good steel.
"Good steel is at least comparable to steel that has been forged more than 50 times." Experienced iron smelters couldn't help admiring when they saw such good steel.
Although it is still not as good as Baisteel, the quality of this steel is still good. The key is that it has a large output, and it can smelt thousands of catties in one furnace. But today's production of Rich Chao Steel is only 10,000 to 20,000 catties a year.
One furnace in Xiangnan can produce steel in a day, which is comparable to the output in a year in the Toyon Dynasty, which is really unbelievable.
"Well, there is still room for improvement." Xiang Nan said.
The strength of the steel that has been cultivated now may not even reach the strength of first-grade steel. Xiang Nan hopes to be able to develop first-class steel and second-class steel. Only with strong enough steel can he be able to build artillery, muskets, steam engines, steamers, etc.
After all, they require higher steel strength, so they cannot be fooled.
(end of this chapter)