In the palace late at night, although Zhu Yuanzhang kept saying that he would delegate all his power to Zhu Biao, he was still looking at the memorial that Zhu Biao had processed.
Although Zhu Biao handled everything well, no matter how big or small, Zhu Yuanzhang still had to read it again.
After conquering such a huge country, he did not dare to relax at all and worked conscientiously. He only wanted the country to be stable and the world to be stable.
And while he was flipping through one memorial book after another, Erhu, dressed in brocade clothes, came to him silently.
And he handed over a memorial with both hands.
This memorial was different from those submitted by other courtiers. He did not approve it or sign it.
If you don't open it, you might even think it's just an unused fold.
"This is?"
When Lao Zhu noticed the memorial handed over by Er Hu, he frowned slightly and asked.
And took advantage of the situation.
"Today King Yan took Chu Ze to Commander Xu's mansion. This was sent by the Jin Yiwei secret guards."
Zhu Yuanzhang, who had just received the memorial, paused slightly when he heard Erhu mention the word Xu Shuai.
But then, he silently opened the memorial in his hand.
After only seeing half of it, the memorial book in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand was closed tightly by him.
Others also stood up from their positions, and the expressions on their faces gradually became complicated.
Xu Da is dying.
This news was definitely a very heavy blow to Zhu Yuanzhang.
With Xu Da here, the morale of the Ming army will be stable.
And with Xu Da here, Zhu Yuanzhang could just grab someone and use it at any time when he wanted someone.
Even if hundreds of thousands of troops were put into Xu Da's hands, he would not feel uneasy or panic.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang knew Xu Da very well, even if he could not win completely during his expedition, at least he would not suffer a disastrous defeat.
It can be said that Xu Da is the sharpest sword in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand.
However, now he has received news, and it is accurate news.
Xu Da's life is long gone.
"No, there should be a way to do this. Tiande can't just leave like this."
After getting up and pacing anxiously back and forth for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang discovered that there was nothing he could do about the news that Xu Da would soon die.
Birth, old age, illness and death are beyond human control.
But when I think of Xu Da, who has followed me through that hellish time, now he is about to leave first.
Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but feel an inexplicable reluctance.
These are all old guys!
And he's an old guy who never lets anyone worry.
"Chu Ze, Chu Ze, you are really stubborn. You just brought us some good news... but now, after a little effort, you hit us in the head again. Hey, you brat."
After pacing back and forth for a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang found that he had no choice but to sit back on his throne helplessly.
Looking at the memorial in his hand, his eyes were full of helplessness and helplessness.
Maybe at this time, the only thing he could do was complain about Chu Ze.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that his complaints would have almost no effect.
"Burn this memorial and pretend it was never delivered."
After Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, he handed the memorial book that he had not finished reading to Erhu.
He no longer wanted to know the follow-up news.
In other words, he didn't want to know anything.
Nowadays, none of this matters.
After Erhu took the memorial handed over by Zhu Yuanzhang, he turned around respectfully and retreated.
In the imperial study room, only Zhu Yuanzhang's slightly old figure remained, sitting alone on the dragon chair that symbolized the throne of the emperor.
As the lights flickered, it seemed that he was getting a little older at this moment.
"This disease, that one is also a disease, from beginning to end. The most common ones are all diseases! Damn it, God."
early morning.
From the sound of birds chirping, Chu Ze stretched out comfortably in bed.
Although in the imperial court, he still held the position of chief registrar.
But given his current special nature, no one would stipulate that he must go to work.
Even Lao Zhu couldn't let him just be a bookkeeper and wander around all day long.
What if this guy can't keep his mouth shut and talks nonsense everywhere.
Then there will be more trouble.
Therefore, compared with other officials, they have to get up before dawn every day, and then they should deal with government affairs and go to court.
Chu Ze basically slept until he woke up naturally.
When he woke up, the other courtiers had been busy for a long time.
After a simple wash, Chu Ze came to his front yard in high spirits.
After the hard work of the craftsmen hired, half of the front yard has been completely compacted, and the ground has been paved with floor tiles. Basically, a small square can be completed.
As soon as he woke up, the Jin Yiwei who revealed his identity silently handed a list into Chu Ze's hand.
After Chu Ze took it and took a look, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"The efficiency of this work is quite impressive! In just one sleep, graphite was delivered to me. Not bad, not bad."
"Brother, please do me a little favor. Help me get some gypsum, which is white crystal stone. Do you know this?"
After Chu Ze read the list of materials sent by Zhu Biao, he remembered that he had promised to teach the two little guys.
Anyway, Lao Zhu and the others now have a lot of work to do.
He himself had nothing to do for the time being, so he could just prepare to teach his children.
And this matter is not a trivial matter in Chu Ze's opinion.
It is light to teach Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Bai.
Chu Ze's purpose is to try to see if he can sow seeds.
If you want to promote the development of science and technology, you must at least have that initial spark.
And now, he wants to ignite this initial flame.
But before that, he had to prepare himself.
It would not be fun to be ignited by a flame and then extinguished it with a backhand.
After hearing Chu Ze's description, Jin Yiwei, who was asked by Chu Ze, thought for a while and finally nodded silently.
Gypsum is also called the 'White Tiger'.
This is a traditional Chinese medicine that can be found in many pharmacies.
So he is no stranger.
"It would be great if you know this stuff, so you can go and get some for me. About ten kilograms."
"."
I originally thought that Chu Ze wanted the plaster to be used as medicine, but then I heard that this guy wanted ten pounds in one breath.
The corner of Jin Yiwei's mouth suddenly twitched.
This thing is not a regular medicine...
Ten pounds, where could he find so much?
Although Chu Ze posed a difficult problem, he was placed next to Chu Ze, basically to be his housekeeper, and by the way, he was also to monitor and contact Chu Ze.
So after receiving Chu Ze's order, he turned around and left silently.
"The quality of this Jin Yiwei is really terrible. He won't say anything unless necessary. I don't know, I thought he was mute."
"Emperor Hongwu is really awesome for being able to create such a monster."
Chu Ze looked at Jin Yiwei who turned around and left silently. He couldn't help but shook his head and marveled.
These guys are really scary, especially after you gradually get to know these guys, the more you know, the more you can understand how scary they are.
The person who has been with you for several years or even more than ten years may appear to be your die-hard loyalist, but in fact he may be Jin Yiwei's eyes and ears.
Normally you can't notice them, but when they really start to work, you will find that these guys are almost everywhere and pervasive!
"Forget it, forget about it, it has nothing to do with me anyway."
After thinking about it again, Chu Ze shook his head indifferently.
Whether Jin Yiwei is scary or not, he is not afraid anyway.
In other words, he didn't intend to keep any secrets.
As long as he can tell it, he is not afraid of being known, at least not by Zhu Yuanzhang.
After arriving at the tidied front yard, Chu Ze called two of the workers who were still compacting the ground, and then asked the guards of the house to go to the warehouse to fetch some of the graphite sent by Zhu Biao, and then asked others to do so. I prepared some fine clay and some soft wood and gum.
With these things in hand, the next step is to try to make a pencil.
The quill pen can be said to be just a turning point. There are basically several common problems in reading in this era.
First, there is no one to teach and there is no unified education model.
Rich families will hire gentlemen or some famous people to take care of their heirs.
As for poor people, if they are lucky enough to be able to attend a private school for a few days, this is considered good.
The second point is that the cost of learning is too high.
In this era when everyone is worried about eating, pens, inks, paper and inkstones are not a big deal to wealthy families.
But for ordinary people, this consumption is huge.
To say it is a luxury item is an understatement.
And the third one is time-consuming.
Nowadays, the imperial examination tests eight-part essay. This is correct.
Almost all the topics come from the Four Books and Five Classics. This is correct.
But since there is a title, you can’t just copy the content into it, right?
If you want to write good articles, you have to read and memorize a lot of allusions and classics.
The complicated classical Chinese texts need to be understood and comprehended.
If you do this, you will be half dead.
Moreover, a huge amount of time is consumed. For ordinary families, one person is one labor force.
You spend a lot of time practicing calligraphy, memorizing, and understanding those classical Chinese texts.
The time spent studying is a waste of labor for these families.
And there may not be a return.
So Chu Ze's current plan is to change this situation step by step.
First of all, we have to change the cost of learning.
He didn't just want to teach the prince, his purpose was to advance some processes.
Pencils, a relatively cheap learning tool, are very necessary.
Distribute the graphite and let several workers who come to help crush the graphite into powder and then collect it.
After that, there is the sifting and grinding of clay, the carving of fine wood, etc.
These tasks are not tedious and can be mastered quickly after a little explanation.
After all the raw materials are prepared, all that remains is the mixing ratio.
Chu Ze knew that the ingredients of pencils were graphite and clay, but he didn't know what the proportions were.
So all he can do is keep trying.
When Jin Yiwei, who had gone out to arrange for people to collect plaster, came back, he saw Chu Ze squatting on the ground and mixing mud with a few people.
But he was just here to report on the progress of his work, but he was dragged along by Chu Ze to experiment with the ratio of graphite and clay.
When the passing maids saw the situation on Chu Ze's side, they couldn't help but stop and watch, then covered their mouths and left with a smile.
"What are you doing? Don't tell me that you are planning to make porcelain yourself."
Even the pencil lead raw materials that have been mixed in proportions still need to wait for drying and firing.
So in order to save time, Chu Ze simply made many proportions of pencil lead raw materials at one time according to different proportions.
And he also specially asked the carpenter to make him a grinding press plate.
The raw material of pencil lead is pressed into thin long strips.
After this set of processes, the most tiring part is completed by the workers, but the subsequent tedious work will have to be polished slowly over time.
I worked from morning until noon.
Chu Zedu still hasn't finished yet.
After all, no matter how many samples you make, you can't just make one or two. It would be funny if there is a probability of failure.
When Zhu Di, who had nothing to do, came to see Chu Ze, what he saw was Chu Ze, whose hands and clothes were all dark. At this time, he was squatting on the ground and playing with mud.
Zhu Di wouldn't have been able to handle this scene directly.
"Yongle, you came just in time! Help me crush the gypsum over there into powder, then mix it with water and make it into a paste like noodles."
"I asked the master to help me make many molds over there. You help me fill the molds with plaster paste and dry them in the shade."
"I'm sorry to trouble you."
When Chu Ze saw Zhu Di who came to work as a free labor force, he couldn't help but feel overjoyed as his waist was sore after working all morning.
Without waiting for Zhu Di to speak, he immediately began to issue tasks to him.
After he finished speaking, he didn't care whether the other party agreed or not, and just continued to work on his own affairs, completely ignoring Zhu Di.
After Zhu Di heard Chu Ze's words, others froze on the spot.
"Let me help you go"
Zhu Di, who originally wanted to complain, was interrupted by Chu Ze before he finished speaking.
"Do you want to mix the black mud or press the plaster? You can choose."
You can choose...
Then you might as well give me another choice!
If I really had a choice, I would choose to have never been here.
Zhu Di looked at the small stone mill not far away, and then looked at Chu Ze who was squatting on the ground with his hands full of black.
He finally walked to the small stone mill nearby.
The majestic King Yan of the Ming Dynasty, the original future Emperor Yongle!
At this time, he was actually treated as a donkey and was even driven to Mo Shang.
Hehe, there is an extra chapter in the evening and a late-night chapter, but the author recommends reading it tomorrow.
By the way, please give me a monthly pass... I have so few monthly passes! Don't you all have pity on me?
(End of chapter)
