Daming: I became Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest son

Zhu Di opened his eyes wide.

"What's the use of doing these things? You can't eat or sell them. Isn't this a waste of time?"

Zhu Tao was really speechless: "Brother Si, when you see the real thing, you will know what it is, and then you will know what it is useful for. You are now working for the State Commercial Department, looking for someone, and thinking about it." If there is a way to get a cannon, let's verify it on the spot."

Although the process of making cement is quite complicated, fortunately Zhu Tao had read a lot of books and memorized a lot of encyclopedic knowledge before traveling, and this is one of them.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't talk nonsense, so he handed over the matter directly to Zhu Di. As for his eldest son, Zhu Biao, he continued to manage the thorns in the village.

After hearing about the urination of these guys that day, Zhu Yuanzhang secretly ordered Zhu Biao to extend the working period of these second-generation ancestors.

Zhu Di was also quite quick. An order was issued, and soon a general banner of the Imperial Forest Army was called in, and he specifically ordered them not to reveal their whereabouts, but to pretend to be ordinary workers.

These people were led by their general banner, and when they arrived in front of Zhu Tao, everyone respectfully called "Young Master".

Zhu Tao looked at the vigorous and resolute appearance of the fourth cousin, and admired him very much, and gave him a thumbs up.

"Fourth cousin, I have convinced you, these guys you found are really energetic."

These people traveled long distances to the mountain full of limestone and started the mining project.

It's just that we are doing experiments now, and we can't collect many. After collecting these stones, we will use self-made machinery to grind them all into powder, and then process them according to a fixed process. Not long after, the first generation of artificially prepared cement in the Ming Dynasty was produced. .

After seeing the real thing, everyone was still puzzled: This is obviously powder, how can it be called mud?

Zhu Yuanzhang was still concerned about building a city wall that could not be penetrated by artillery, so he asked Zhu Tao: "Tao'er, do you mean to put these powders directly on the wall? It works just like that."

Zhu Tao didn't speak either, and asked someone to find a lot of stones and iron rods. According to his instructions, they tied iron wires to form a wall skeleton, and then weaved a wooden film on the side, and put the cement, stones and sand according to their order. Concrete was synthesized in fixed proportions and poured into the wall formwork he had tied.

Then ask people not to remove the mold, please pour water on it when it solidifies, and see the effect after three days.

Yingtian was extremely hot in this place, and the cement was quickly loaded. Three days later, Zhu Di was also struggling. Somewhere, a red-clothed cannon was actually dispatched, and a Western missionary was the gunner.

With a bang, a shell hit the temporary wall, and everyone looked at it with a thread of suspense.

At that time, the shells were all solid iron pellets, even if they were fired, they would not explode. When they hit the wall, only a shallow scar was left, and they were thrown aside.

Everyone opened their mouths wide, they couldn't say anything else, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately made a decision, "Tao'er, offer this cement, father promises, I can get you a county king!"

Unexpectedly, Zhu Tao shook his head: "My son doesn't want to be the king of the county, so you should be your father. If you follow my son's temperament, even a ninth-rank subsistence allowance would not be willing to do it."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled wryly, this kid is too bad, do you think this county king is a Chinese cabbage in the field, and he can get a big piece of it with just a hug?Is it easy for me to make you a duke and make complaints?
Just listen to Zhu Tao say again.

"As for dedicating it to the imperial court, you only need to let the most important people in the imperial court know the manufacturing method of this thing. Don't say who invented it, let alone spread it to everyone."

"Our family is already a duke, what are we afraid of? Besides, isn't this a good thing for the court to benefit and eliminate disadvantages? This invention of yours can make the court's city walls truly as solid as gold."

Zhu Tao said: "People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. Some people know where we are and come to make trouble in a different way. Then we will get into trouble. It is the court's business to use this thing to make contributions. Our family can make money in peace. That's it."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while, and then said: "Since this is the case, you don't have to force it. You teach these guys first, and I order them to keep their mouths shut."

Only then did Zhu Tao feel relieved, so he handed over to these guys the basic knowledge of various techniques for making cement and some blueprints needed to build this kind of wall.

These things are some systematic common sense. Although he said it clearly and logically, it is beyond his ability to interfere with how much these people can understand.

For several days in a row, Zhu Yuanzhang watched Zhu Tao play with some novel gadgets in his Zhuangzi.

Even Zhu Di, who had a deep prejudice against him in the past, admires him so much at this moment.

I feel that as long as we don't talk about government affairs and only talk about these technology and business things, this guy is still a good friend.

So besides managing the affairs of the State Commercial Department, he always ran here when he had nothing to do, asking Zhu Tao for some ways to improve the national economy and the people's livelihood.

Fortunately, Zhu Tao is also a key politician. He has some rough ideas about the national economy and the people's livelihood, and he accidentally talked about the importance of business.

He can prompt workers to systematically produce some more complicated tools, and can also create more lucrative profits. Therefore, the imperial court should not blindly emphasize agriculture and suppress business, but pay equal attention to business and agriculture, and use a two-pronged approach.

On this day, it happened that Zhu Yuanzhang was spending time in this manor after dealing with some government affairs. Apart from thinking about Zhu Tao's newly invented food, he also liked to listen to him talk about some political matters.

Hearing his idea of ​​emphasizing both agriculture and commerce, Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while and said.

"Tao'er, you know that a businessman values ​​profit and has never been loyal. One day he can come to the imperial court for profit, and he can betray the imperial court for profit tomorrow. Once he is asked to take power and become an official, where is the imperial power and the king's law?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang himself was talented and general, he still escaped the limitations of that era. What he thought was still a common problem of the monarchs of large agricultural countries, and he was indifferent to the importance of the economy.

So Zhu Tao drank three glasses of wine and began to speak at length again.

"Father, your thinking is wrong. If the imperial court wants to be stable, it needs to hold the economic power in its hands. Otherwise, even if the imperial court does not do business, those courtiers will do business in private, and take all the profits into their private pockets." If there is a natural or man-made disaster and the people have no way to survive, the imperial court will have no money to relieve the disaster.”

Zhu Yuanzhang was a little dazed and didn't speak, Zhu Tao continued.

"Where did the rebels start? If you want to quell the chaos, there is no military salary. Is it possible that the emperor will borrow money from the ministers himself? Even if the emperor is willing to show his face, are those ministers who are miserly willing to lend money to the emperor? Wait for them If your eyes are covered by money bags, you would rather see the country ruined than lend a helping hand!"

"Tao'er is talking nonsense, if you say that again, you will really invite disaster!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's face drooped suddenly: "The emperor of the Ming Dynasty is an upright minister, how can there be such an unworthy minister?"

Zhu Tao smiled disapprovingly, and said to himself: If Daming had always been an upright and virtuous minister, there would not have been the famous edict of Emperor Chongzhen that "all the officials can be killed, but not one of the people".