Prodigal Son of the Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 981 Your Majesty, pig iron is here

  Zhu Houzhao tilted his head and thought about it for a long time, but he was happy: "From now on, you will be called a dolphin, not a pig."

  Continued: "If I become the emperor in the future, all pigs in the world will be called pigs. It is forbidden to eat pigs in the palace, but I must eat cows."

  Fang Jifan was speechless.

  In fact, Zhu Houzhao did this in history. According to the records of Emperor Wuzong, after Emperor Zhengde ascended the throne, the common people were not allowed to call pigs pigs.

  This guy is really stingy. If someone surnamed Hou became the emperor, wouldn’t everyone be allowed to act as a monkey? Such people are really domineering.

  Only we, Fang Jifan, are different. If we, Fang Jifan, were the emperor, would I do things like ban the square table? I am an open-minded person, absolutely not so.

  After a while, someone came to report again, saying that the price of iron was still falling, so that people in the market began to change their colors when they heard about iron.

  Fang Jifan didn't care about this.

  This time countless pig irons were transported to the capital, and they were directly smashed. He had expected this to happen.

   This can be regarded as a lesson for those merchants. Hoarding goods for strange things is harmful to the national economy and people's livelihood. Sooner or later... they will suffer retribution.

   On the other hand, the soaring price of pig iron, to some extent, also made the mining industry begin to prosper.

  In the past, most of the mining was government-run, but now, people can really see the mining industry in Hexi.

There are mountains of gold and silver there, and now a group of merchants are going back and forth, and the trade route is considered to be open. The reason why Fang Jifan will buy a large amount of pig iron at a price of around 100 yuan is, on the one hand, to make these merchants Merchants are profitable, even if they go to and from the Hexi Corridor, there is a certain profit margin. Although the profit may not be as good as some windfall profits, at least it can guarantee that they will not lose money. In the future... more and more merchants will be willing to go Hexi, the various minerals in Hexi are also marketable.

   You know, the iron ore in Hexi is very cheap. A catty of pig iron can only be shipped at the price of forty or fifty yuan. When it arrives in the capital, it will double the profit.

At this time, Fang Jifan couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I was almost cheated by Liu Wenshan, a dog-like thing. Fortunately, these merchants arrived in time... Your Highness, there is enough pig iron now. Next, this rail, We have to step up production. Let's not be afraid to spend money, money is something outside of us, the most important thing is..." Fang Jifan stared at Zhu Houzhao: "We are in the old city, and we have already collected countless lands. We are just waiting for when to transfer these The land and real estate are being speculated, Your Highness, let me tell you the truth, I have embezzled money from the Xishan Bank in the old city. If something goes wrong in the old city, I will tell you the truth, Your Highness, I'm going to sea, I'm going to Jinshan..."

  Zhu Houzhao shuddered: "I also owe a lot of money to my father-in-law, so I will run with you then."

  Fang Jifan: "..."

   "..."

   "Work!" Fang Jifan patted the case, and suddenly felt that his whole body was full of fighting spirit.

  He doesn't like to cross the ocean, he just wants to live a good life, grow old with Her Royal Highness, and support Fang Zhengqing's prodigal son.

  But now... Fang Jifan suddenly panicked.

  This road needs to be repaired quickly. Once a run occurs, God knows that Xishan Bank will not be able to sustain it.

Zhu Houzhao chirped and hummed: "At the beginning you said that it would multiply by ten times and dozens of times. I believed your nonsense, but I pinned all my hopes on this railway track, but let me build the railway. If you fix it, you will make a fortune, but if you don’t fix it well, I will be in bad luck with you.”

  Fang Jifan patted him on the shoulder: "Your Highness, don't complain, the foundation of road construction is to benefit the country and the people, and you are doing a good deed."

  Zhu Houzhao shook his head and went in a cool way.

  …

   Daming Palace.

  Emperor Hongzhi sat anxiously behind the desk.

  He was in a daze.

  How did you believe in Fang Jifan and Liu Wenshan’s evil?

  In his case files, there are impeachment memorials one by one, and most of them are impeachment of Wang Bushi.

   These censors probably think that we can't afford Fang Jifan, and you, Wang Bushi?

   This Wang Bushi is really shameless. In order to curry favor with Fang Jifan, he lost his face and has no character.

  The purpose of impeaching Wang Bushi is self-evident, and it is naturally to attack the theory of the wealth of nations.

In the eyes of many people, the theory of the Wealth of Nations is simply a blatant discussion of interests. How can Confucianists speak so profitably? However, this book is still very popular. In Xishan Academy, it is published wantonly. I still have to study this book to prepare for the exam in the future.

  In the past, everyone was frightened by Fang Jifan. After thinking about it, bear with it. Just think of yourself as being bitten by a dog. If a dog bites a person, do people have to bite a dog?

  But now it is different, the nature has completely changed, who is your Wang Bushi?

  Emperor Hongzhi felt dizzy from reading these dozens of memorials, so he couldn't help rubbing his temples, and said, "Xiao Banban."

   "The servant is here."

  Emperor Hongzhi said: "Have you read The Wealth of Nations?"

   "Look... read some."

  Xiao Jing’s heart is dangerous, but luckily he read it himself, otherwise... His Majesty asked today, and it was inevitable that he would be reprimanded again, what are you doing for food.

  Emperor Hongzhi pondered: "What do you think of this book?"

  Xiao Jing doesn't have too much position on any book, he is not a scholar, we are eunuchs, what position can we have?

  He looked at Emperor Hongzhi motionlessly, hoping to see something from His Majesty's face, he chuckled: "What does Your Majesty think?"

  Emperor Hongzhi glared at him, and said displeasedly, "I'm asking you."

  Xiao Jing had no choice but to nod embarrassingly, thinking to himself, although His Majesty has read the Wealth of Nations Theory, most of the time, it seems that he did not mention too much The Wealth of Nations Theory.

   It can be seen from this that His Majesty, nine out of ten, disagrees with this theory of the wealth of the country.

   It should be so.

  Xiao Jing said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this servant thinks that this theory of the wealth of the country is a bit grandstanding."

  Emperor Hongzhi cheered up: "Huh? Is that so, you continue talking."

Xiao Jing was shocked, guessed right, sure enough, His Majesty agreed with him, he continued: "This book is called The Wealth of Nations, but it exaggerates the role of merchants, Your Majesty, you see, our Ming Dynasty has been doing this for so many years. Come here, without merchants, wouldn’t the world still be stable and the people live and work in peace and contentment? Your Majesty, the servant said something that shouldn’t be said..."

  Emperor Hongzhi kept nodding: "You don't need to say what you shouldn't say. Well, what you said makes sense. It seems that you have made progress recently. Eh, but the problem of pig iron at the moment..."

Xiao Jing got a rare compliment, almost burst into tears, he hurriedly bowed down, kowtowed, and said with deep emotion: "Your Majesty only needs to give the servants three days, and within three days, the servants will send those **** merchants All the pig iron in your hand was confiscated..."

  Emperor Hongzhi hesitated after hearing Xiao Jing's words.

  But only in this flash of effort.

  Xiao Jing was encouraged instead, this is a good time to show his loyalty: "Your Majesty, you should not stop, but you will be disturbed by it. In the past, it has always been like this, but Liu Wenshan..."

   "Your Majesty..." At this moment, someone hurried in.

  Xiao Jing looked back, but it was a little eunuch, he recognized this eunuch, he was his godson...

  Xiao Jing was stunned for a moment, and said in his heart, you **** guy, come in at this time, don't you know where we and His Majesty are?

  Damn it.

  When the **** saw Xiao Jing's eyes, he was startled, and subconsciously wanted to back away.

  Emperor Hongzhi said: "What is it?"

  The **** looked surprised, stepped forward, and bowed down: "Your Majesty...pig iron...pig iron..."

   "What?" Emperor Hongzhi said in his heart, could it be that the pig iron has skyrocketed again?

   This also makes the soldiers and civilians in the world how to live.

   "Say it!" Emperor Hongzhi blushed, and the next sentence was, Xiao Jing, let me go to the trading market!

  The **** said: "The price of pig iron...has plummeted."

  Emperor Hongzhi: "..."

  Xiao Jing was also stunned.

  He thought he heard it wrong. Is it a skyrocketing or a plummeting?

  He stared at the **** for a long time: "What's going on?"

The **** said solemnly: "In the early morning, a convoy came back suddenly, saying that they had heard that pig iron had skyrocketed, so as early as three months ago, they used the convoy to go to Hexi, and today they brought back 300,000 catties of pig iron... "

  Three hundred thousand catties...

  Emperor Hongzhi took a deep breath. This amount is quite a lot, equivalent to the annual pig iron production of a prefecture.

The **** continued: "So, early in the morning, they began to list the price. At that time, the price was two hundred and seventy cash... But later... Later... Later, there was a continuous stream of convoys. So far...the pig iron shipped in is roughly It is estimated that it has exceeded 7.9 million catties..."

  7.9 million catties...

  Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but said: "Huguang province only has an output of 7.9 million catties. How about so much pig iron in Hexi?"

"Your Majesty, I heard that the pig iron in Hexi is of very high quality. Not only that, but has Your Majesty forgotten that there are many Hu people settled there, and many refugees migrated there, and the iron mines there are everywhere. ...They started to mine pig iron a few years ago, and they had already stocked up a batch of goods in the warehouse. When they heard that someone came to pick up the goods, their production increased greatly..."

  Emperor Hongzhi was also convinced.

  In fact, the Ming Dynasty monopolized all pig iron mining in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and appointed the guarding eunuchs to take charge. The output has always been relatively stable. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the present, it is difficult to change anything.

  On the one hand, Daming was originally a low-desire society before, and the demand was probably only so much, so there was no need to deliberately increase production.

  But now... Emperor Hongzhi was stunned. He couldn't imagine why the amount of iron produced would be so terrifying.

  ...

  The third chapter has been delivered, this chapter is more difficult to write, well, there will be more later.

  (end of this chapter)