Zuo Shun's words and Chen Ze's words basically went in one ear and out the other.
He didn't believe that the man in front of him was an honest and caring bureaucrat. The gift he gave him was quite valuable, at least several thousand taels of silver. As for where the money came from, he could figure it out with his toes.
However, according to what Chen Ze has learned so far, Zuo Shun is indeed a relatively honest bureaucrat compared to Song Zhizhang.
Song Zhizhang's kind of corruption can be described as crazy. Zuo Shun is definitely corrupt, but the amount of corruption is not huge.
The main reason is that the situation in Anzhou is too special, and Zuo Shun dare not be greedy even if he wants to.
There is no way, there are more than 100,000 Zhennan Army stationed in Anzhou, which also leads to a large number of royal nobles to have their own spokesmen or collaborators in Anzhou.
Those who are really greedy are the nobles of the royal family.
Most of these inns, restaurants, brothels, etc. in Anzhou City must be the property of the royal family, including those evil forces, and they are more or less connected, and the eight southern states are within the sphere of influence of the royal family. This also led to the fact that Zuo Shun, the governor of Anzhou, had to look at the eyes of these royal nobles before he could act.
Most of the greedy profits here have been divided up by the royal nobles. It would be good if Zuo Shun could drink some soup.
Judging from Zuo Shun's appearance, he probably wanted to build on his connections. After all, with Prince Zhennan as his backer, Zuo Shun, the magistrate of Anzhou Prefecture, would be able to do things more comfortably, otherwise anyone could bully him.
After thinking about this, Chen Ze had already made a decision in his heart. He would definitely not give Zuo Shun a platform.
Now Chen Ze doesn't want to stand on the opposite side of the palace's nobles, let alone any conflict.
You can eat, but Chen Ze won't agree to other things.
When he came back to his senses, Chen Ze had already arrived at the banquet. It can only be said that this banquet was relatively simple. The dishes were not rich and there were no dancers. There was just a geisha holding a pipa waiting aside, waiting for Chen Ze to sit down. Afterwards, Zuo Shun asked the geisha to play a ditty.
"Your Highness, these are local delicacies that I specially invited the chef to come to the mansion to cook. You can try them."
Chen Ze moved his chopsticks, thinking that Zuo Shun was treating him to dinner alone without even calling his counselor, so he was probably preparing to give a big gift.
When it comes to building relationships these days, it’s not practical without gifts.
As for whether the gift was gold and silver or a beauty, Chen Ze couldn't guess, but as long as it was given, he would definitely want it, or it would be a bad check.
They were chatting for a while, and seeing that Chen Ze didn't seem very interested, Zuo Shun knew that he had to place a bet, and quickly waved his hand to let the geisha go down first, and then moved a very exquisite wooden box.
"Your Highness, this is an heirloom of my Zuo family, a priceless treasure!"
Chen Ze raised his eyebrows: "What?"
"Please take a look at it, Your Highness!"
Zuo Shun quickly opened the wooden box and saw a small cup wrapped in silk inside. When Zuo Shun opened the silk, Chen Ze was stunned.
"Your Highness, this is a translucent glass cup. It is extremely transparent and there is no trace of debris..."
However, this thing has no appeal to Chen Ze at all, because it is just a glass, but it has a distinctive shape.
Chen Ze directly picked up the glass and inspected it. In terms of material, it was still somewhat different from the glass he had come into contact with. There were still some flaws in some places, but in terms of transparency, it was no different from the glass he knew. What a difference.
"Is this your family heirloom?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"How long has it been circulating?"
"Passed down from my grandfather."
"Where did your grandfather find this thing?"
"To be honest with you, Your Highness, my grandfather is actually a glass craftsman, and this thing was made by my grandfather. At that time, someone paid 120,000 taels to buy my grandfather's translucent glass cup, which almost caused my grandfather to be killed. disaster!"
"Later, my grandfather hurriedly took this translucent glass cup to hide in Tibet, running all the way from the north to the south, and then settled in Luzhou."
"Is your grandpa still alive now?"
Zuo Shun was stunned for a moment: "He's still alive."
Chen Ze played with the cup in his hand: "I'm not interested in the cup. I'm more interested in the secret recipe for making this thing. If you can get your grandfather to get the secret recipe, you can do it."
Zuo Shun looked bitter and hurriedly explained: "If there is a secret recipe, I will definitely give it to His Highness, but my grandfather can't remember things at all when he gets old. What's more, when he was young, he was frightened by this incident. I was so frightened that I forgot about it.”
In fact, when talking about this matter, the Zuo family is extremely sorry.
When the old man came to Luzhou, he was also tinkering hard, trying to make this kind of transparent glass cup again, because once this thing can be turned into a business, the Zuo family's money will be inexhaustible. Inexhaustible.
But the problem is that when the old man still remembered the making method, he disagreed and never mentioned it.
As the saying goes, a common man is not guilty, but he is guilty of carrying a jade.
Once you try to use this thing to do business, you will be killed immediately, and the Zuo family will definitely not leave anyone alive.
Finally, Zuo Shun passed the exam and became an official. Now he no longer had to worry about being bullied by others. As a result, the old man had forgotten and couldn't remember how he did it.
Finally, he told Chen Ze the whole story, just because he was afraid that Chen Ze would think he was hiding it.
After listening to Zuo Shun's explanation, Chen Ze hurriedly asked: "Where is your ancestral home?"
"Back to Your Highness, your ancestral home is from Wuzhou."
"Wuzhou..." Chen Ze frowned: "Tell me about the situation in Wuzhou."
Chen Ze didn't know much about Wuzhou at all, he only knew that it was roughly in the northwest.
Zuo Shun couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "Your Highness, I, I actually don't know the situation in Wuzhou. I have been in Luzhou since I was born. I only heard some things from my grandfather. The most common thing he said was that we should be certain We must cherish food and water. The water where he lives is not drinkable at all,"
"Why can't I drink?"
"The water is salty. People will get sick if they drink it. Animals will die if they drink it. If you water the farmland, even the crops will be watered to death."
Chen Ze was suddenly enlightened: "Salt-alkali lake?"
"Ah? What salt lake?"
"Is this translucent glass cup made in winter?"
Zuo Shun was stunned: "Yes, it was indeed burned in winter."
"I remember, Soda ash!"
Chen Ze was awakened to part of his memory.
Once I went to the northwest with my company to do a charity project, and the local tour guide took me to some salt-alkali lakes.
It was introduced at the time that salt-alkali lakes would crystallize on the shore in winter. That thing was soda ash, which was the main chemical raw material in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times and could be used to refine glass!
