My Daming New Empire

If you want to make money and gain a foothold, you still have to rely on your own efforts.

In the inner city of Osaka, Zhu Zhanji was looking at the third letter from Zhu Di urging him to go back.

In the letter, Zhu Di was obviously in a very happy mood, because he has become a great-grandfather, that is to say, Zhu Zhanji has become a father.

On July 28, Hu Liangdi gave Zhu Zhanji his first child, a daughter.

It was a girl, which was probably for the best.

Hu Liangdi gave birth to a child before the concubine, if it was a boy, that would be a big problem.

As the second highest-ranking woman in Zhu Zhanji's harem after the grandson concubine, her child is no different from a legitimate son even if she is not a legitimate son, and she also occupies the name of the eldest son.

If the concubine also gave birth to a son, there would be years of struggle in the harem surrounding the status of the two children.

At this time, Zhu Zhanji could only hope that Sun Xian would definitely give birth to a son this time, and his thoughts were only outside the harem, or even Daming, and he didn't want to be bothered by these bullshit things.

In addition to the happy event of giving birth to a child, there are also a few minor worries. One is to set up a bank, and the household department and the internal supervisor are at odds with each other.

The Ministry of Accounting believes that they are in charge of the world's property, and the bank should be managed by them.

However, the internal supervisor believes that as the royal supervisors, they control the world's commerce, and they should be in charge of the bank.

The two parts are not in agreement, and Zhu Zhanji, as the initiator, wants to be the arbitrator.

This matter is easy to solve, because Zhu Zhanji has long been prepared to open two banks at once. On the one hand, they can compete with each other and have a comparison, and on the other hand, they will not allow any party to monopolize finance.

But there is another small matter that has to worry Zhu Zhanji.

That is, the reserves of gunpowder are running out...

In this expedition, apart from leaving a batch of gunpowder for Zheng Heng in the north, they took away most of the gunpowder that had been made.

Although this battle went smoothly, it was based on the massive consumption of gunpowder.Without gunpowder, the Shenji Battalion would not be as effective as ordinary soldiers.

The three raw materials of gunpowder are sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal.Sulfur and charcoal are everywhere, especially now that Daming owns Sado Island and Hokkaido, both of which are producing areas of sulfur, and there is a large amount of extremely high-purity sulfur.

As for charcoal, there are more, don't worry about it at all.

There is only saltpeter, which is very rare in nature.

In Zhu Zhanji's impression, it seems that only Russia, India, China, and Chile have saltpeter mines in the world.

He has been to the saltpeter mine in Chile and knows the exact location.However, the sky is far away, and it is currently impossible to obtain saltpeter from there.

The saltpeter mines in India were discovered in the [-]th century, and were dug up by the British in the [-]th century, so Zhu Zhanji didn't know the specific place of origin at all.

It was also because India's saltpeter was dug out. When Chile discovered high-purity saltpeter mines, a saltpeter war broke out.

As for Russia and China, Zhu Zhanji doesn't know the exact location, because after the [-]th century, saltpeter can be chemically synthesized, and people don't need saltpeter mines at all.

Later, he once read the news that a saltpeter mine with astonishing reserves was discovered in the northwest, but he didn't care at all.

What's more, the current Northwest does not belong to the territory of Ming Dynasty.

As for chemical synthesis, for a scumbag like Zhu Zhanji, don't mention it at all.

"Li Liang, go and get me the map of Xichuan, especially the map of Jiangyou."

Although he didn't know what Zhu Zhanji was going to do, Li Liang hurried to the library on the ship to look for a map.

Zhu Zhanji asked for Jiangyou's map because he had the impression that Jiangyou used to have several large saltpeter mines.During the Qing Dynasty, it was also the largest producer of gunpowder in China.

Of course, he didn't know this because he was interested in gunpowder, but because he was interested in martial arts. When reading the information of Master Hai Deng, he was introduced as a Chinese who was born in Chonghua Town, the hometown of gunpowder in China.

But this little memory is not enough for him to find this place, because Master Haideng will not be born until five hundred years later. As for Chonghua Town, I am afraid it is not called by this name now.

He can only look at the map now to see if there is a place that matches his memory.

Liu Wan came to the door and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, the gold and silver antiques have been shipped and sealed."

"Understood." Zhu Zhanji looked up at him. This month, Liu Wan sent a batch of gold and silver to respond to Tianfu, and then came to Dongying to busy celebrate the property. He was originally thin, but now his face is sunken .

However, this war is finally coming to an end, and he will naturally have some free time when he goes back. "Go to the various departments of the army and check to see if there are any soldiers from Jiangyou. Gather them all. I have something to ask."

"Yes……"

Liu Wan didn't even know where Jiangyou was. After he came out, he asked a few people to confirm that it was somewhere in Xichuan.

Immediately, he sent an official letter to the ministries, asking the generals to report the soldiers from Jiangyou.

The Habayashi guards are mainly from the Jianghuai nationality, and the navy officers and soldiers are mainly from the coastal area. It is really difficult to find soldiers from the Sichuan nationality.

It wasn't until the next day that a total of three Jiangyou soldiers were found in the Shenji Battalion.

They were a little nervous to see His Highness the Grandson, and they were all very excited.

But to Zhu Zhanji's disappointment, none of them knew where there was saltpeter.

Just when Zhu Zhanji was about to send them away in disappointment, a soldier named Shao Sanjiang boldly said: "Your Highness, although there is no saltpeter in the humble layout, there is Laojun Mountain not far from the humble home. Go to the place where Laojun made alchemy. If there is saltpeter, it is probably in this mountain."

Zhu Zhanji couldn't help laughing, but then restrained his smile.It is true that the Taishang Laojun concocted alchemy is a legend, but since it is called Laojun Mountain, maybe there really is saltpeter!

He ordered: "One person rewards two liang of silver, let them go down!"

I have already made up my mind, and after I go back, I will send someone there to check the situation.

After dismissing these soldiers, Li Liang reported outside: "Your Highness, the Navy Huang Yuan Huang is on guard."

"Let him in."

Huang Yuan wasn't wearing a general's uniform, but a book-length gown, looking more like a scholar.After saluting, he said loudly: "Your Highness, I heard today that the internal supervisor intends to arrange for Ma Qi to serve as the guard of the Osaka City Shipping Department. I think that Ma Qi is greedy for money and ungrateful. As the chief official, he is prone to trouble."

Zhu Zhanji admired Huang Yuan quite a bit, and was not angry because of his actions. He pondered for a while and asked, "This is an internal supervision matter. Why would Qian Jiu take the risk of intervening in this matter? Or, do you still want to intervene?" Remember that Ma Qi once reported Huang Shangshu's treason."

Huang Yuan has already figured out Zhu Zhanji's temper, and said without hesitation: "It is false to say that there is no resentment, but Yuan will not abolish the public for personal reasons. Ma Qi has a violent personality, and he caused several riots by torturing and killing civilians in Jiaozhi , and disregarding the sentiments of the people, he was violently conquered and forced to suffer, and no one knows about it. If he is appointed as the guardian envoy of Osaka, it may ruin His Royal Highness's plan."

Zhu Zhanji laughed and asked, "What's my plan?"

This time Huang Yuan hesitated for a moment, but still said: "Although it seems that His Royal Highness is only punishing the first villain, but now that the King of Japan is being detained and brought back to the Ming Dynasty, and he is trying his best to win over the famous general of Dongpu, he will not even be held accountable for being assassinated. A bigger plan. Yuan Bucai arranged His Highness's deepest intentions, but he couldn't bear to see the villain ruin His Highness's important affairs."

Zhu Zhanji knew very well in his heart that Huang Yuan might have seen through his plan, but he didn't dare to speak out, following in Yang Xiu's footsteps.

He smiled and said, "You can rest assured that Gu has not yet reached the stage of knowing people..."

Of course Zhu Zhanji knew what kind of person Ma Qi was. He was an old pervert with a twisted mind.In addition to being loyal to the royal family, he is greedy for money, mean, and cruel.

Such a person should be used with caution even in a barbaric land, not to mention the need for a stable Japan at present.