"Actually, I don't think there's any need to worry about going to the venue..."
A little above the bumpy carriage, Chu Ze was semi-kidnapped by the two brothers Zhu Di and Zhu Zhen, and successfully got into their thief's carriage.
Looking at the Zhu Di brothers who were in high spirits and even a little overly excited, Chu Ze silently reached out and pressed his stomach.
"You two bastards, why don't you just wait for me to have a meal?"
Chu Ze, who hadn't even eaten dinner yet, had his stomach growling.
However, Zhu Di just patted him on the shoulder indifferently.
"It's just missing one meal, so it's not a big problem. Lao Liu and I haven't eaten all afternoon. Let's go, we are about to reach the city gate. The road after leaving the city may be a little difficult."
Chu Ze, who was already a little depressed, suddenly wanted to kill these two bastards after hearing Zhu Di's words.
If you haven't eaten yet, can't you let me eat first?
After the carriage left the gate of Nanjing City, Chu Ze truly realized what Zhu Di meant when he said it was difficult to leave.
The uneven road surface required the carriage to jump at least four or five times every meter it advanced.
Several times, Chu Ze, who was sitting on the carriage's splint, was almost thrown off because of the bumps.
When he finally arrived at the place, Chu Ze felt as if his whole body was about to fall apart.
"I won't come out with you next time, even if I beat you to death, I won't come..."
As soon as he arrived, Chu Ze got off the carriage and sat down on the grass.
The muscles all over his body were shaken excessively, causing him to feel soreness all over his body even if he moved casually.
"Your health is not good! Look, we all came here in a carriage together. There is nothing wrong with me and Lao Liu."
"How about this? Come with me to the military camp for training tomorrow. In half a month at most, you will definitely be much stronger than you are now. What do you think? Do you want to go?"
"roll"
Seeing Zhu Di's face full of gloating after jumping off the carriage, Chu Ze easily grabbed the clod of soil on the side and threw it directly towards him.
However, it was a pity that his whole body ached as if he had run ten kilometers in one breath.
The clods of soil thrown from his hands were completely harmless, and Zhu Di easily dodged them.
"Okay, okay, the place chosen by Lao Liu and I is just ahead. We also asked someone to clear a place there and make roasted lamb legs in advance. Come on, let's go over and eat first."
"You still have some sense of conscience and know how to give me something to eat."
After being helped up from the ground by Zhu Di, everyone walked forward with a large number of guards, and Chu Ze also observed the surroundings.
There are huge exposed stones everywhere on the ground, and the surrounding weeds look a little yellow.
Just by looking at it, you can tell he is malnourished.
This place is indeed not suitable for growing food.
The surrounding terrain is barely flat, and it doesn't take much effort to lay a solid foundation.
Compared with the surrounding areas, the terrain here is also higher. If the river rises, this location will not be easily submerged.
After observing the surroundings, Chu Ze couldn't help but nodded.
It would not be impossible if a bullet manufacturing plant was built here.
After all, only boilers and stamping equipment need to be installed here.
It is close to the river, and the water flow of this river seems to be quite large.
Just build a row of water trains, and water power can replace manpower.
"How about it? Is the location we picked suitable? Today Lao Liu and I traveled all over the upstream and downstream areas within a dozen or so radius. Only this place is the most suitable. And have you seen the mountain next to it?"
"That area of the mountains is full of poisonous salt veins. Where poisonous salt mines exist, the surrounding areas are basically not suitable for growing crops, so if we build an ammunition production site here, it will basically not disturb the people's farming! "
“This place was literally tailor-made for us.”
After Zhu Di noticed that Chu Ze nodded from time to time, he also began to brag about his great achievements.
Although this guy was a bit unbeatable when he spoke, I have to say that the place he picked was really good.
But compared to the venue they chose, what made Chu Ze more curious was the poisonous salt mine mentioned by Zhu Di.
"You mean that the mountains over there are all salt mines?"
After seeing Chu Ze pointing to a mountain not far from the venue they chose, Zhu Di also looked in the direction of his finger.
Then he turned around and nodded firmly.
"We have already sent people to do a rough survey. There are only some ferns, ducks and other shrubs growing around the mountain, and they are also very sick. At a glance, we know that this is a place of poisonous salt. Mine.”
But after hearing Zhu Di's affirmative words, Chu Ze's eyes couldn't help but narrowed slightly.
Mineral salt veins!
How could he forget this thing?
“When purchasing a venue, take down the mountainous area as well.”
"No. You don't want to tell me that you want to sell those poisonous salts as table salt!"
"No, this is absolutely not possible. If my father and eldest brother knew about it, neither my fourth brother nor I would be able to live without food."
When he heard that Chu Ze wanted them to take down the poisonous salt mine, Zhu Di looked at Chu Ze in horror, frowning and trying to make sure he had said something wrong.
Zhu Zhen on the side shook his head crazily at this time.
He formed a caravan privately. If his father found out, he would be beaten at most.
But what if he dared to sell this life-threatening poisonous salt as table salt?
If his father knew about it, he might really beat him to death in a fit of anger!
So this is absolutely something that cannot be done.
Especially if the poisonous salt is sold as table salt, the common people are not stupid.
You can tell the difference in taste just by tasting it.
Doing this kind of thing is a completely thankless and stupid thing.
He won't do it.
"This thing is a treasure mountain. The reason why you call it poisonous salt is because you don't know how to operate it."
"This mineral salt is a good thing. To have such a small, almost open-air salt mine here...is like a golden mountain."
"Have someone go get some pieces and take them back. I'll teach you how to get them later."
"If I had known there was a salt mine here."
Chu Ze originally wanted to say that if he had known that there was a salt mine here, Zhu Di would not have had to worry about money before. He could just take over the salt mine and mine it directly for money.
Not to mention one ammunition dump, even ten can be built!
But halfway through his words, he realized that it seemed inappropriate to say such words at this time.
After all, Zhu Zhen has already joined the game. If you say this at this time, isn't it just disgusting for him?
So after Chu Ze was halfway through speaking, he quickly forcibly reversed the rest of his words.
"If I had known there was a salt mine here, I would have asked your elder brother to get some for me in advance so that I could get out the salt."
"When the mineral salt is used as economic income, the funds at my test site will not gradually become tight!"
After the conversation changed, Chu Ze did not forget to glance at Zhu Di and Zhu Zhen beside him.
"By the way, hasn't the Ming Dynasty been resuming production? Why are your eldest brother's finances still tense? Although I have indeed spent a lot of money these days. But it's not like I can't support my consumption, right?"
After hearing Chu Ze ask about these tax matters, Zhu Di directly spread his hands.
Asking him about this kind of thing is simply a waste of time.
He himself is not interested in these things, so naturally he seldom cares about them.
Zhu Zhen on the side is a little more reliable than Zhu Di who is thinking about war.
After hesitating slightly, he spoke.
"The main reason is that my father wanted to encourage scholars to obtain fame so that students from all over the world can be used by our Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he set up rules. Anyone who has fame does not have to pay taxes or perform corvee service."
"It was nothing at first, but in recent years, there has been a clear downward trend in the royal court's taxes. Although it is very small, it is obvious."
"In recent years, there have been many disasters in various places, and the national treasury has basically been busy providing money for disaster relief. This has caused the eldest brother to become a little nervous."
"."
When Chu Ze finished listening to Zhu Zhen's words, he was speechless for a moment.
Those who have merit and fame in their bodies are exempted from taxes and corvee.
He actually forgot about this!
After Zhu Zhen mentioned it like this, he remembered Lao Zhu's rules that were another trap for killing people.
Those who have a good reputation are exempt from taxes.
This privilege of being a scholar can be said to be a complete nonsense.
Especially during the Ming Dynasty
The imperial court vigorously encouraged poor people among the people to take the imperial examination.
Then, after these people obtain fame, the first major life event they need to experience is to be robbed of their son-in-law!
That's right, it's robbery.
Literally grab.
Many wealthy businessmen and gentry will arrange for people to wait at the place where the results are released. Once they know who has passed the examination, they will take this person home as soon as possible and then marry him.
The fundamental reason for this phenomenon is not that people who have achieved fame are highly favored and sought after by wealthy people.
It's because if a son-in-law with a good reputation is born in the family, a large amount of land can be put under his name.
Thereby legally and reasonably exempting these lands from taxes.
So this also caused the birth of two problems.
First, because of the attention and competition from these wealthy businessmen and powerful people, the identity and status of those who use their fame are gradually being touted higher and higher.
It is almost completely superior to other professions.
The second problem is that as time goes by, more and more land is merged into the names of these famous people.
As more and more taxes were exempted, the taxes the court could collect became less and less.
Once the imperial treasury is empty, the most likely thing to happen is to increase taxes.
And these increased taxes will be distributed to those who originally paid taxes honestly.
Once these people discover that farming for one year is not even enough to pay taxes.
They will sell the land at a low price and become tenants.
And these lands will naturally end up in the hands of those who do not have to pay taxes.
As a result, the tax revenue collected by the court became less and less, while the real people became poorer and poorer.
This is one of the reasons why in the end, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty even had to kneel down to the ministers and beg them to provide money to support the Ming army.
Because the land and money eventually fell into the hands of these people.
"Chu Ze, are you thinking of something again?"
Seeing Chu Ze's increasingly frowning brows, Zhu Di seemed to have noticed something.
He quickly asked.
And when he asked this, he interrupted Chu Ze's train of thought.
"It's okay. Let's eat first and then look around. I'll also see how to design the hydraulic system here. Then let's go back first."
Seeing that Chu Ze didn't say anything, Zhu Di had no interest in continuing to ask questions.
Because he knows that there are some things that are useless even if told to him, but will only increase worries.
Since Chu Ze didn't say anything, it meant that he couldn't handle this matter.
Today, Zhu Di can be said to have just let himself go.
He didn't worry about matters within the Ming Dynasty.
Anyway, his father is watching over him, and his eldest brother and Chu Ze are worrying about him below.
He was completely out of touch.
The only thing Zhu Di needs to consider at this time is how to fight after he arrives in the fiefdom, and how to make progress in his fiefdom as quickly as possible.
Let those brothers who have not yet been entrusted with enfeoffment be envious and jealous.
After having a simple meal, the Zhu Di brothers and Chu Ze carefully observed the surrounding environment.
And Chu Ze also took out the drawing board and the pencil he carried with him directly from the carriage.
While checking it, I didn't forget to draw a sketch.
The whole process is quite fast.
All the work was basically finished before it got completely dark.
Of course, this was the initial sketch.
After that, we need to put in some effort to specifically set up the waterwheel and convert the water power into controllable power.
After the survey work was basically completed, Chu Ze once again stepped onto the carriage that he regarded as a nightmare.
Two bumpy trips back and forth almost killed him
He originally agreed that when he returned home, he would teach Zhu Di how to make mineral salt into an edible state and how to extract plant essential oils through distillation.
As soon as I got off the carriage, I immediately changed my mind.
With a dark face, he drove away the two brothers who still wanted to hang around.
Only then did Chu Ze drag his exhausted body back home.
He originally wanted to take a hot bath to relieve his fatigue, but while soaking, he fell asleep directly in the tub.
This night, Chu Ze always felt very tired.
It was as if something was pressing down on him.
However, in his groggy state, he was too lazy to care about this.
However, he did have a pretty beautiful dream.
(End of chapter)
