The young minister of Honglu Temple accepted the promise and then retreated. Liu Jin also returned from Li Yan at this time and led the Shangshan Supervisor's people in carrying food boxes. Seeing this, Zhu Biao also got up and walked to the side hall.
When Zhu Biao sat down, the dishes were all ready. The eunuch in charge of the meal announced the names of the dishes in a brisk tone, and then led the young eunuchs back outside the palace gate. They were not qualified to serve the prince.
Colorful beef tenderloin, golden bergamot rolls, Longjing bamboo fungus, sweet-scented osmanthus fish sticks, a few seasonal pickles and a bowl of rice are the prince's lunch today.
In fact, according to the regulations of the inner court, Zhu Biao's lunch should have twenty-three main courses and twenty-two side dishes, not counting the staple food and pastries. It was only Empress Ma's hard work and frugality that reduced it to this point.
There was no need for anyone else to serve this order of food. Zhu Biao picked up the rice bowl neatly and started eating. Liu Jin took a step back, lowered her head and began to chatter about the recent interesting events in the palace.
Zhu Biao was still in the period of physical growth, and his appetite was quite large. He stopped after eating two large bowls of rice, but there was still a lot of food left. After all, if the quantity was not enough, the portion must be enough.
He took the towel, wiped his mouth and rinsed his mouth with tea, then stood up and said, "No need to come here in a hurry, just put everything away."
"Slave, thank you for your consideration."
Liu Jin quickly thanked him and bowed to send the prince back to the main hall. The maid on the side offered him a bowl of white rice. Liu Jin took it politely. The eunuchs and maids who served in the Jinshen Hall full-time were not under his control. They were all the emperor's people.
Liu Jin finished the meal standing up, but she stopped after only eating one bowl of rice. She felt that she was six or seven points full, and she would have to worry about eating too much.
Although my grandfather is tolerant, he is always obviously not respectful enough. He usually only goes back to the house to have a full meal after serving him to bed at night. There are many people in this palace who want to serve His Highness. People who are careless in everything are not enough. He is qualified to serve at the side of noble people.
Zhu Biao walked through the palace and saw a tall and strong figure kneeling inside the palace. It was Shang Honghai, the newly appointed commander of the pro-military Duwei Mansion.
"I will finally meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness Qianqiu."
Shang Honghai is full of energy now. His predecessor Jiang Yu has left for Fengyang today, but he knows that it is just a cover-up. Jiang Yu is going to Korea to make contributions.
As the emperor's eagle dogs, they actually have a very clear understanding of themselves. The princes, generals and ministers are all within the scope of their surveillance and inquiry. They have great power, but the ending is basically doomed to be miserable. This has been the fate of eagle dogs since ancient times.
But Jiang Yu's incident did let them know that the person in front of them was not the master of the rabbit and the dog. This was what they wanted, and from this they had the motivation to go up the mountain of swords and the sea of fire.
Zhu Biao simply responded and walked past him to sit behind the desk and said, "Unless it's urgent from now on, you don't need to come in person. Just ask Liu Jin to pass on the message."
"promise."
After all, Shang Honghai was the new person in the position, so it was understandable that he wanted to show off more in front of him, so Zhu Biao didn't criticize anything harshly and simply went along with his wishes and felt at ease.
"What did the generals in the capital camp do after they dispersed?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, after the generals came out of the Meridian Gate, they first surrounded the Minister of Punishment, and then gathered next to Hu Xiang to discuss for a while. Finally, they went back to their camps. Just now, another Qingqi went north with a letter. It should be a secret message for the Holy Majesty. letter."
Shang Honghai paused and continued: "The person who sent the letter was a secret agent from the pro-military Duwei Mansion. Do you want to..."
Zhu Biao knocked on the table expressionlessly and said: "It is a crime of death to arbitrarily explore the secret message given to the Holy Emperor. This palace will not tolerate it. Forget it today, you can go and die on your own next time."
"promise!"
Shang Honghai was showing his loyalty. Even when facing the supreme emperor, he chose to be loyal to Zhu Biao. This was his attitude and his choice. There was no chance of regret.
Why did the emperors of all dynasties suppress the prince and prince? It was so threatening. Even if he had no disobedience, he would actually take away some of the power of the people's hearts.
At this point, Zhu Biao didn't bother to say anything to him anymore and waved him off. This man was very ambitious, but he underestimated the relationship between their father and son.
In fact, it is not that there have been no rumors in Beijing recently. It is secretly rumored that the Holy Emperor took the Queen away specifically this time just to test the prince's ambition. Otherwise, why would the prince have recently delegated most of the government affairs to Zhongshu Sheng.
When it comes to power and position, I don’t know how many people in the capital are thinking hard to get involved. Some feel that the Holy Father is young and powerful, and the prince has not yet ascended the throne. It is not known when, and it is necessary to stand firm at this time.
Some people also feel that His Majesty suffered a lot from old ailments and hidden wounds during his early battles. Sooner or later, His Highness the Crown Prince will be the sole ruler of the Ming Dynasty, so he should take this opportunity to show his loyalty and service, even if he is suppressed for a moment, and he can ride the wind when His Highness ascends the throne.
Zhu Biao could only deal with it coldly. No matter how he responded, it was actually wrong. When Lao Zhu came to visit the north, everything would stop. Officials and generals dared to play tricks in front of him, but they would never dare to do it in front of Lao Zhu. of.
Zhu Biao bent over his desk and began to review the memorial. The first was the report from the Ministry of Industry. Last year, the number of iron smelters in each province was 7.533820 kilograms. This number is not low, crushing all previous dynasties.
Although there is no huge breakthrough in smelting technology, it is a fact that it continues to advance. The quality of Yunzi iron from Jiaocheng in Shanxi mines is the best. Originally, it could only produce 60,000 kilograms a year, but now it has exceeded 100,000 kilograms. , exclusively for the imperial court to manufacture weapons.
Iron ore smelting is still government-run, and production has actually reached a bottleneck. Zhu Biao intends to open up private smelting, but officials are quite vocal in their opposition. After all, salt and iron have always been government-run.
But now that the imperial court is relocating people to open up wasteland for farming, and is constantly encouraging marriage and reproduction, the demand for iron tools among the people is also expanding. In the first year of Hongwu, the imperial court ordered the Baoyuan Bureau to widely cast iron plows, harrow teeth, hoes, and rice forks. , iron tools, shovels, wedges and other agricultural tools for the common people to use.
It has not stopped until now. A lot of the annual output is actually invested here, but in addition to the private use of iron in the imperial court, there are also many places where iron is used. Yesterday, the Shaanxi Dusi announced the annual production of 314,000 wrought iron for weapons and firearms. catty.
This is true for all of Shaanxi, not to mention the southwest states and northern Xinjiang where there are a lot of wars. The navy also uses a lot of iron. From time to time, all sides will beg for replacement of weapons, and hundreds of thousands of kilograms of them are easily lost.
We still have to wait until Lao Zhu comes back to talk about this matter. Some things are guaranteed by the government, but the restrictions of the government are unavoidable. Zhu Biao cannot live in the mine to supervise work and accelerate production.
Following the memorial is a report from the Ministry of Industry to Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan Province. From Xiaomu to the 18th gate of Shahekou in Chenzhou, 63 places are blocked by siltation. It is advisable to dredge and dredge them for water transportation. The estimated work is 250,000. It can be completed with 25 days of labor for 10,000 people. Of.
The river course must be cleaned, but forcing the people to do so during critical seasons such as spring plowing would be a waste of time and resources. Unfortunately, the Japanese slaves were too harsh last year, otherwise they would be on top.
When there are Japanese prisoners again in the future, we have to keep a close eye on them, but we can't let the officials below wantonly damage them. Maybe we can let Wu Zhen capture more prisoners, and don't kill them. There can never be too many animals.
Zhu Biao thought for a moment and could only order that the people must be recruited from the many households in Dingkou, and that the taxes of the recruited households would be reduced or exempted this year. Then he emphasized that local officials should strictly implement it, especially not to deduct the people's food and wages.
The local officials couldn't believe it, so they still had to send a supervisory censor to inspect the matter, and it had to be done openly and sometimes covertly, otherwise it would still be difficult to feel at ease.
The captain of the Guangxi Province reported that the barbarians Wei Bu's Party and others were causing trouble in the village of Liuzhou Dao. Zhou Yi, the commander of the capital guard, led his troops to quell the rebellion. One hundred and eighty people, including the Wei Bu Party and the thieves Huang Buzi and others, were captured. After hearing the incident, Bu was ordered to be executed. The leader of the party lord and the remaining thieves in the stronghold were sent to the capital. After Zhu Biao saw them, he reviewed and commended them, and the Ministry of War discussed and rewarded them.
The Ministry of Rites reported that the local officials in the Taiping caves of Xuanhua Prefecture could be in charge of whatever, and they used Zinan Mohu and others to pay tribute.
Xuanhua Mansion was far away in Annan and belonged to the Chen Dynasty. It was a good thing for its local officials to pay tribute. Such a small envoy was not qualified to be received by Zhu Biao, but he was pitiful.
Zhu Biao commented: "The barbarians in previous generations faced many dangers and were not ordered by the court. Nowadays, you all come to the court to pay tribute. They all rely on my emperor's virtue and enlightenment. I heard that the kings in ancient times would treat people who are far away with kindness but not with kindness. The Ministry of Rites each gave them elegant clothes in response."
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