"My beloved concubine, hahaha!"
Zhou Qian was so excited that he hugged Imperial Concubine Jing and spun her around.
Concubine Jinghuang exclaimed in surprise, which frightened Su Peiyuan next to her and quickly turned around, covering her face, unable to bear to look directly.
I never expected that His Majesty, who has never been close to women, would live the life of an old couple like a young couple in his later years.
Concubine Jinghuang also did not expect that the scene she had dreamed about when she was young would actually come true at this time.
After exclaiming, she realized that His Majesty must have had some big happy event to be so strange. She said nothing more and allowed His Majesty to hold her and spin her around for a few more times. It wasn't until His Majesty's pace slowed down that she said softly. : "Your Majesty, I am a little scared. Can you please let me down?"
"Okay, okay."
It happened that Zhou Qian was also tired.
It was just that he had to keep up his face in front of his own woman, so he didn't put her down.
At this time, Imperial Concubine Jing said so, and he walked down the steps.
But after putting the person down, he suddenly picked him up and carried him until he sat down in front of the imperial concubine's couch. He moved the person to his legs, folded his arms, and whispered the memorial presented by Qin Shangshu.
"Does horseshoes really have such a miraculous effect?"
Concubine Jinghuang was a tiger girl, so she naturally knew that those horses were severely damaged by the hoofs. They were originally good horses, but in the end they could only be trapped in the stables, either bred or reduced to horse meat.
Now that he learned that horseshoes are a thing, he couldn't help but said with joy: "Your Majesty, if those old horses that were injured on the battlefield but can still move can be used for pulling goods with horseshoes, even if they can pull less than when they were young and strong. At least there is a way to survive.”
The military horses were eliminated and ended up miserable because they could not be reused.
But if they can be put to good use, and then collect the surplus horses from the people, the dealers who raise horses can make a lot of money in a short period of time. Although the strength of the old horses is not good, they can pull some light objects or short distances It can also reduce transportation costs.
The most important thing is that with such a turn of events, it has become very simple to recruit soldiers and horses from the civilian population during wartime.
"My concubine, this is a good suggestion. I will ask the Ministry of War to draft a specific process tomorrow. As long as the horseshoes are in the hands of the Ministry of Works, those horse dealers will also have to remember my feelings. I will not compete with them for profit, but they will also take good care of me. Planning for me and mutual benefit with the people is the way to development!"
Zhou Qian rubbed Concubine Jing Huang's rough hands excitedly and blurted out.
"When the winter hunting comes after the tenth day of October, how about my wife and I go to the hunting ground in the northern suburbs together?"
"Can I ride an old horse with horseshoes? I'm old, and I haven't ridden a horse in this palace for decades. I'm worried that my horsemanship is unfamiliar and I'll be thrown off."
What Concubine Jing Huang said made Zhou Qian feel uncomfortable.
He couldn't help but think of Imperial Concubine An.
Concubine An Huang likes all kinds of strange objects. When he has free time, he will send people to search for them and send them to Concubine An.
But Imperial Concubine Jing had been guarding this deep palace alone for decades. He should have known what she liked most as a general, so what if she brought one more person along for the winter hunt every year?
Exactly.
But it was only now that he saw the goodness of Imperial Concubine Jing.
"We don't ride old horses. I'll ride with you. If you're unfamiliar, I'll teach you. If you don't teach me this year, you'll have to do it next year. From now on, you'll accompany me on winter hunting in the northern suburbs."
“A gentleman’s word cannot be changed.”
Imperial Concubine Jing stretched out her palm.
It was rare for Zhou Qian to see that she was greedy, but not for enjoyment, but just to go to the hunting ground and race horses. He raised his palm in confusion and struck her three times to make an oath.
Imperial Concubine Jing was originally just curious about what was going on outside, but she actually made His Majesty laugh all the time.
Now that she knew it was a court affair and had an opportunity to follow you to the hunting ground in the northern suburbs, she yawned.
"I'm sleepy. Your Majesty is slowly thinking about the use of horseshoes. I'm going to sleep first."
"I'm not very proficient in these new things. Su Peiyuan, please send the Ministry of Works to send the horseshoes to Ning Aiqing to make him happy. Maybe he will be happy and come up with some other uses."
Zhou Qian was not sleepy.
But he still wanted to use all his strength to cope with tomorrow's morning meeting.
The advent of horseshoes has been brewing in his mind for a long time, but due to financial and material constraints, he was finally able to start a plan that could not be implemented.
You can imagine what kind of obstruction there will be.
But the time, place and people are favorable, and the advantage is on his side. If he misses it, he may not have a chance in the next life. Take this opportunity to expand the Daxing cavalry.
Raising cavalry, one soldier and one horse for a year is not a cost. Just maintaining daily fodder and manpower costs more than fifty taels. Excellent horses and excellent cavalry even cost a hundred taels of silver.
Nowadays, the Daxing cavalry is said to have five thousand people. In fact, they have died of old age, and only two or three thousand are left on staff.
Many of them are still local garrison cavalry, which can only cover areas of thousands of miles and cannot travel longer distances.
When a war actually breaks out, he mobilizes his troops to act as cavalry temporarily, which is what he did before when he put down rebellions from all sides.
But if they were to face the long-planned Beidi cavalry and the wolf warriors on the snowfield, they would have no chance of winning.
He wanted to expand his army to two thousand elite cavalry.
That’s two hundred thousand dollars a year.
In addition to a fine war horse, another two hundred taels of silver would be spent, and two thousand horses would be four hundred thousand taels.
With so much money invested, and the horseshoes extending the service life of the horses, the horses must be kept for at least ten years.
Spending so much money just to deal with the possible sudden war, the Ministry of Household Affairs was the first to bear the brunt and disagreed.
Good thing.
The Ministry of Industry's 20 million taels of silver income can be withdrawn from his private treasury.
But when you think about subsidies for increasing troops, winter clothing, and strengthening military supplies, money will be spent on all aspects.
Zhou Qian called Su Peiyuan back who had just walked out of the door.
"When you send the horseshoe to Ning Aiqing, ask him if there are any other uses for the glass besides glass windows?"
Regardless of whether Ning Aiqing could do anything about it, Zhou Qian couldn't increase the budget for the radiator anyway.
To increase troops, they cannot go to the battlefield naked, wearing warm clothes, with full stomachs and bare hands.
Plus there is the consumption of horseshoes.
No matter how much surplus Daxing Iron Mine has, he still has to save some.
The radiator cannot consume too much iron at once, but there are so many stones for making colored glaze that there is no place to put them.
"If Ning Aiqing can think of another way to use it, I will reward him with another raw material mine of colored glaze."
"..."
Su Peiyuan quickly lowered his head to prevent His Majesty from noticing that his expression was strange at this time.
But he really couldn't control the inner slander.
His Majesty.
You are using Ning Huangshang as a mule.
It's not enough for Liuli Chuang to make 20 million taels in one night. He also needs to trick Ning Huangshang into thinking of another way to make money.
The Ning family has one in the glazed mine. It is enough to replace Ning's mansion and the future prime minister's mansion with glazed windows when I have nothing to do. If there is another one, wouldn't it be just the icing on the cake?
Su Peiyuan felt that His Majesty might as well give him some other reward to show his sincerity.
