July 20, the first year of Dalong Ruian.
Young Master Liu, who had just gotten married, was still living leisurely in his mansion for three months.
Liu Ying's behavior of listening to the wall still left a deep shadow on Young Master Liu.
To this day, I still haven't recovered from my emotions. When I hear Liu Ying's name, I get chills in my heart.
It was the custom of the Dalong Dynasty that ministers should go back to observe mourning for three years during the mourning period in their families, and that weddings in the ministers' families would be followed by three months of mourning.
The benefits are so good that they are simply unnecessary.
The reason why Young Master Liu was promoted to the position of Zuo Shilang of the Household Department was because the previous Zuo Shilang had to go home to observe mourning for his late father for three years.
At the same time, Young Master Liu was promoted to the position of Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Revenue. As for the position of the former Zuo Shilang when he returned to the capital after the three-year term was over, it was not Liu Mingzhi's concern. Since the emperor did this, he must have his own reasons.
"Brother, there is news from people in the East China Sea!"
An Gouer let go of a falcon standing on his shoulder and hurried over.
Liu Mingzhi was startled and put away the folding fan in his hand: "What happened?"
An Gouer sent a piece of paper to Liu Mingzhi: "Brother, the people in Donghai have found a suitable place to study artillery. It is a deserted island in the sea, more than thirty miles away from the coast. It is completely suitable. It is the best place to accommodate more than 4,000 people to study artillery in peace, and the sound will not reach the ears of the local officials!"
Liu Mingzhi took the note and read it carefully. When he saw the last few sentences, Liu Mingzhi frowned slightly: "With nearly a thousand people, don't you want to go to the island?"
An Gouer nodded calmly: "They are worried that they will not be able to come back. If we force them to go there and be different from the agreement when we first approached them, I'm afraid it will be counterproductive!"
Liu Mingzhi took a deep breath and said, "Add more money and tell them that as long as they are willing to go to the island, each person will receive one hundred taels of silver as a settlement fee and an additional five taels of silver as their monthly salary!"
An Gou'er sat on the stone bench and poured a cup of herbal tea. After drinking it, he looked at Liu Mingzhi with a somewhat embarrassed expression: "Brother, the expenditure will be too high. Researching artillery itself is a bottomless pit, plus plate making is required after landing on the island. There are various supplies and houses, so it’s hard to get hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. It’s too wasteful to pay so much settlement expenses all at once, and it costs millions of taels of silver. If they don’t want to go, they can just change people. One month There are plenty of people with a salary of ten taels of silver, so we can’t let them get too spoiled!”
Liu Mingzhi shook his head: "No, let's not talk about the replacement. The efficiency and skills of the new ones are incomparable to those of the old people. If the news of more than a thousand people is about to leak, wouldn't the artillery incident be a big fuss? As we all know, you know the power of artillery better than anyone else. What would the emperor think if he knew that my eldest brother and I had done such a powerful thing in private without telling him? Although we are now in-laws, my eldest brother’s surname is always Liu is not named Li, so we have to guard against him!"
An Gou'er clutched the teacup in his hand tightly and thought deeply. After a moment, An Gou'er's eyes had the same gloomy look as Liu Yi's.
"Brother, apart from the more than a thousand brothers who are willing to go, these remaining one thousand people are all stragglers recruited from all over the country. Now they have such a generous salary and want to be a white-eyed wolf who raises prices after they are full. Do you really think An Gou'er and I are easy to bully? In my opinion, it's not as good as..."
An Gouer's gloomy eyes showed a hint of murderous intent and gestured towards Young Master Liu.
Liu Mingzhi frowned and stared at An Gou'er with some seriousness. He didn't know when An Gou'er became so murderous!
"Jiang He, what you said is certainly a good idea, but don't forget one thing. Once you put the butcher's knife on these people who are unwilling to land on the island, what will the remaining people think? They will have no intention. I am studying artillery but have no intention of making cannons. I am worried that the butcher's knife will fall on my head one day. If we do that, we will suffer even greater losses. Isn't it not worth the gain!"
An Gouer hesitated for a moment and looked at Liu Mingzhi apologetically, with a hint of regret in his eyes.
"Brother, I'm sorry. My younger brother thought too simplistically and almost made a big mistake! What should I do, brother?"
Liu Mingzhi pondered while playing with his tea cup. He didn't have any good ideas for a while. The settlement fee was not a big sum of money, but cannon-making was just like An Gouer said, it was a bottomless pit and the cost was too great.
Half of the tens of millions of taels of silver notes given to him by the old man when he handed over the Sixteen Qinglong Men to him were spent just on the research of artillery, and the development of the number of people in the relevant departments was another drain, and now there is not much left.
Only now did Liu Mingzhi realize that money was so useless.
I have already agreed to the old man to set up his own business. It is nothing to ask for hundreds of thousands or twenty thousand yuan in pocket money, but it will be difficult to deal with large amounts of money.
To be honest, my salary is not enough to have a nice dinner with people like Song Qing.
The tax revenue from his fiefdom is only tens of thousands of taels of silver a year, which is a drop in the bucket.
"Husband, I have made you an icy sour plum soup to relieve the heat. Please try it quickly to see if it tastes good!"
Liu Mingzhi's thoughts were interrupted by the soft voice of the third princess. He looked back and saw the third princess standing behind Liu Mingzhi wearing a pleated phoenix smoke-dot green skirt, a double-breasted phoenix tail coat and a light veil.
The personal maid Ping'er held a tray with a colorful glaze bowl from the official kiln on it, braving a slight chill.
An Gou'er immediately stood up and saluted the third princess: "Jiang He, my little brother, meets my sister-in-law!"
The third princess smiled lightly and returned the gift: "Uncle, please forgive me. Please sit down quickly!"
"Thank you sister-in-law!"
Liu Mingzhi stood up: "Yan'er, please sit down too. It's so hot outside. Why did you come out if you don't stay in the house?"
The third princess scratched her head naively: "Sister Yun and Sister Qingshi were making watermelons in the ice cellar. I was kicked out because I was clumsy. I had nothing to do, so I asked Ping'er to teach me how to make a bowl of sour plum soup for my husband. Got it!"
Liu Mingzhi pretended to have a serious look on his face: "Yun'er and Qingshi are too shameful. How can we drive you out? I will teach them a lesson then!"
"My husband doesn't want me. It's my fault that I'm not working hard in the palace. It's not my sister's fault. If they knew that I was telling you this, they would think that I was making a complaint against you."
"That's fine, I will listen to you as my husband!"
Liu Mingzhi was extremely happy about the third princess's efforts to protect Qi Yun and his daughters. He was worried that a fire in the backyard had never happened since they got married.
Family harmony is the happiest thing for me.
"Husband, please try and see if it tastes good. If you don't drink it, the effect will be gone!"
"Okay, let me try your craft for my husband!"
The third princess smiled brightly and placed the sour plum soup in front of Liu Mingzhi. She nodded apologetically to An Gou'er: "My sister-in-law didn't know that uncle was here, so she prepared a bowl. Uncle, please forgive me!"
An Gou'er shook his head indifferently: "Sister-in-law, don't worry, I'm fine with you!"
Use a spoon to put the sour plum soup into your mouth. Young Master Liu's face suddenly became embarrassed.
The sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty taste on the tip of the tongue stimulated Young Master Liu's taste buds.
It has the sour taste of sour plum soup, the taste of cornel powder, a light salty taste, and the bitter taste of lotus seeds. The sweetness is quite good, but the taste of royal jelly is a bit cloyingly sweet.
The most important thing is the smell of rice vinegar. Is this sour plum soup?
Looking at the expectant eyes of the third princess, Young Master Liu endured the discomfort and swallowed this mouthful of sour plum soup!
"Husband? Does it taste good?"
"Well, it tastes good, it's sour and refreshing, it makes your heart soar and your heart is chilled, but it's just Yan'er!"
The third princess suddenly became nervous: "Husband, what's wrong? Is there something wrong?"
"Is there still a kitchen?"
"Gone!"
"It's fine if I don't have it... How can this be done? Jiang He must be upset and angry after just practicing a set of boxing skills. How can you, a sister-in-law, not make her a bowl?"
"This... I will go right away!"
"Wait a minute, it's too late now. Let Jiang He drink this bowl for me. Remember to make a few more bowls next time for emergencies, okay?"
"I must keep this in mind!"
Young Master Liu nodded with satisfaction and pushed the sour plum soup in front of An Gouer.
"Jiang He, try it quickly, this is your sister-in-law's wish!"
"Thank you, brother!"
An Gouer looked moved as he watched Young Master Liu pick up the bowl and raised his head without any courtesy.
An Gouer's body trembled at the entrance of the sour plum soup. He held up the soup bowl and drank the sour plum soup in one gulp while groaning and looking at the rays of sunshine in the sky with tears in his eyes.
"belch........."
Young Master Liu waved his sleeves to dissipate the smell of vinegar.
"Uncle, why are you crying?"
"Yan'er, don't worry, Jiang He is so moved that he cried!"
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