"Oh! It turns out to be Mr. Zheng, the Minister of Rites. Sorry! Sorry!" Lu Chen casually raised his hand to Zheng Shanguo and said with a smile. Lu Chen would never give any face to such a person who relies on his elders, let alone The other party was from a noble family, so Lu Chen would not give him a good look.
All the civil and military officials also noticed Lu Chen's perfunctory look, while Chai Shao and others, who were familiar with Lu Chen, were suppressing their laughter. Wang Gui and Wei Ting had been cheated out of 15,000 acres of fertile land by Lu Chen just now. , this old boy is probably not much better.
As for what Lu Chen said about increasing iron-making output, Chai Shao immediately thought of the blast furnace that Lu Chen had mentioned to him. However, he was visiting the training of Beiwei Guards at that time, and Su Chang's incident happened later, so Chai Shao Shao had not seen how a blast furnace made iron or what its output was, but Princess Li Yanjun of Langya who had really seen the output of blast furnace iron was sitting in Langya Palace on an embroidered bed, holding Lu Chen in her hand. The song "Qing Ping Diao" written for her was so trance-inducing!
"A branch of red dew condenses the fragrance, and the clouds and rain in Wushan are heartbroken. I ask who in the Han Palace is like it, but the poor flying swallow leans on the new makeup." Li Yanjun murmured poems while reading "Qing Ping Diao", and the more he thought about it, the more he thought about it. The pretty face looks better, and when I think of Lu Chen's high-spirited look, I can't help but snicker.
"Princess, what's wrong?" Chun'e, the palace maid standing at the door, couldn't help but ask the other palace maid Liancui when she heard Li Yanjun's snickering.
"How did I know! The princess has been reading that poem for almost a whole morning. She laughs sometimes after reading it. Could it be that she is hysterical?" Lian Cui guessed in a low voice.
"Don't talk nonsense! Let me tell you, the princess may have met her lover, and this poem may have been written by her lover!" Chun'e said to Liancui with a smile.
"Really?" Lian Cui looked at Chun'e in surprise. The two palace maids were not very old, only thirteen or fourteen years old. "If the princess becomes the consort, will we also have to follow her out of the palace?" ?" I don't know if Lian Cui's thinking is faster than Chun'e's, and it is directly related to Li Yanjun's future affairs.
"Then who knows, we probably have to wait and see if the princess still wants us to serve her, right?" Chun'e thought for a while and said, because in the past, after some princesses appointed their consorts, some of the maids who had served them were still left in the palace.
"I don't know who is so lucky to be so remembered by our princess!" Lian Cui said with a smile.
"I heard that His Highness left the palace and went to Lujiazhuang! Could it be the newly promoted Marquis of Chang'an County?" Chun'e whispered to Liancui.
"Really?" Lian Cui looked at Chun'e in surprise.
"It's hard to say! Although I heard that some ministers proposed marriage to His Majesty, they were all rejected by His Majesty. But His Highness came back from Lujiazhuang this time and was a little restless. I guess we are inseparable!" Chun'e guessed. said in a tone of voice.
"What are you two talking about?" At this moment, Li Yanjun suddenly appeared in front of the two palace ladies. The two palace ladies were muttering here just now. Li Yanjun didn't notice it at first. When Li Yanjun noticed it, , walked over, and what the two palace maids said later was clearly heard by Li Yanjun.
"Your Highness, I...we didn't say anything!" Seeing Li Yanjun, the two of them hurriedly saluted and said, looking trembling. You must know that servants outside who casually talk about the master's affairs will be punished or even beaten to death. There are quite a few of them, not to mention that this is the inner courtyard of the palace. Li Yanjun beat the two of them to death in a rage. They both deserved it. After all, they were discussing Her Royal Highness in private.
"Hmph!" Li Yanjun snorted coldly, "Isn't the Marquis of Lu County someone you can discuss at will?"
"Huh?!" Chun'e and Liancui were stunned when they heard Li Yanjun's words. "Shouldn't it be said that we were talking about your affairs? Why did it come to Lu Xianhou?" The two secretly glanced at each other. , whispered secretly in their hearts, but they did not dare to say it out loud, and it seemed that Li Yanjun was not angry because of what they whispered quietly.
"Your Highness, the two of us are just talking about whether His Highness will let us continue to serve you if he becomes your consort in the future!" Chun'e directly reported to Li Yanjun what the two of them had been muttering about just now.
As soon as he heard the word "Shang Consort" and thought of Lu Chen, Li Yanjun's face suddenly turned red, "Who said I want to be your consort! Stop talking nonsense and slap your mouths!" Although Li Yanjun's face suddenly turned red. Yan Jun said this, but there was no threat at all in his words. Instead, it was more like he was trying to save himself from blushing.
"Your Highness, what kind of person is that Lu County Marquis?" Lian Cui approached Li Yanjun with a smile and asked.
"Marquis of Lu County?" Hearing Lian Cui's inquiry, Li Yanjun couldn't help but recall what Lu Chen had done in front of him in the past two days, but he immediately reacted, "Why do you ask this? It's troublesome! Go and do your work!" Li Yanjun glared at Lian Cui, then flicked his sleeves and returned to the embroidery bed to continue reading the song "Qing Ping Diao" written by Lu Chen.
"We are inseparable!" Liancui and Xiu'e looked at each other, smiled at each other, and then went about their business. As for this matter, they both had a tacit understanding and never mentioned it. thing.
In the Tai Chi Hall, Lu Chen still looked at Zheng Shanguo with a smile.
"There is no need to be polite to Marquis Lu. I am just skeptical that Marquis Lu can increase pig iron production on his own!" Zheng Shanguo looked at Lu Chen with a condescending attitude, but he did have the capital. , you must know that Zheng Shanguo is not only a member of the Zheng family in Xingyang, but also has a close relationship with the Cui family in Qinghe. Zheng Shanguo's biological mother is a member of the Cui family in Qinghe, and three-fourths of the iron mines in the Tang Dynasty are controlled by In the hands of the Zheng family in Xingyang, and in the hands of the Cui family in Qinghe, they also control part of the iron ore.
If all the iron ore in the hands of the Cui family of Qinghe and the Zheng family of Xingyang are calculated together, these two families basically control nearly half of the iron ore in the Tang Dynasty. If Lu Chen really has the means to increase pig iron production, Technology is definitely a huge threat to the two families.
"Oh! It turns out that Zheng Shangshu also doubted what I said!" Lu Chen looked at Zheng Shanguo with a smile, and people who are familiar with Lu Chen knew that Lu Chen was preparing to dig a hole for Zheng Shanguo.
"You always have to doubt me. I don't have that much time to talk to you. How about this? How about we also establish evidence as evidence?" Lu Chen smiled at Zheng Shanguo, "As far as I know, Your Zheng family has many mines, and I don’t want many. How about two mines?" Lu Chen said, holding out two fingers towards Zheng Shanguo.
"What if the county magistrate cannot confirm it?" Zheng Shanguo looked at Lu Chen with a gloomy face and asked in a deep voice.
"If it can't be confirmed, have you seen this?" Lu Chen pointed at the iron stove, "How about I hand over to you, Zheng, the manufacturing method of this iron stove and the technology of cleaning charcoal?"
Hearing Lu Chen's words, Zheng Shanguo's eyes lit up. You must know that both the Zheng family in Xingyang and the Cui family in Qinghe hold a large amount of iron ore. If they can get the technology in Lu Chen's hands, then this technology alone will create The wealth is enough to strengthen the Zheng family and the Cui family again.
"Inappropriate!" However, Zheng Shanguo still felt that compared with these techniques, it would be more cost-effective to have Lu Chen in his hands. After all, Lu Chen had too many secrets.
"What's wrong?" Lu Chen raised an eyebrow and looked at Zheng Shanguo, "Isn't this thing and the technology for cleaning coal not enough to replace the two mines of your Zheng family?"
"I feel that if Marquis Lu is included, it will be about the same!" Zheng Shanguo sneered at Lu Chen and said, "Isn't it possible that Marquis Lu doesn't dare?"
"You have a big appetite!" Lu Chen glanced sideways at Zheng Shanguo, "If I were included, there would be more than two mines!" Lu Chen said with a sneer.
"I wonder how many mines Lu County Marquis thinks he is worth?" Zheng Shanguopi looked at Lu Chen with a smile. As the family with the largest number of iron mines, they are very familiar with the production of pig iron. It's not like they haven't thought about it. Increase production, but their increase in production is nothing more than increasing labor, but the input and output are obviously not proportional.
"Five seats!" Lu Chen stretched out a hand directly towards Zheng Shanguo, "Do you dare to bet?" Lu Chen looked at Zheng Shanguo and said.
"Okay!" Zheng Shanguo agreed simply. Zheng Shanguo really didn't believe that Lu Chen had a way to significantly increase pig iron production. "But we have agreed in advance that if we increase production by adding labor or other methods, I will not do it." Admit it!" Zheng Shanguo also suggested the methods he could think of in advance to block Lu Chen's path.
"No problem!" Lu Chen nodded and agreed, "As long as you use more labor to increase production, I will lose!"
"Your Majesty, please give me pen and ink. I want to establish calligraphy with the Marquis of Lu County as evidence!" This time it was Zheng Shanguo who asked Li Yuan to use pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
"Yeah!" Li Yuan had been sitting behind the long book desk this time and watching the two people talking. After Zheng Shanguo made the application, Li Yuan simply agreed. The reason why Li Yuan did not interrupt or stop Lu Chen was because From the incident just now, Li Yuan knew that Lu Chen's purpose in going to court this time was to target these aristocratic families, and if Lu Chen was not completely sure, he would not make such a bet with Zheng Shanguo.
Soon, the chamberlain brought over pen, ink, paper and inkstone again, but this time it was Zheng Shanguo who wrote the notes, while Lu Chen dictated it. After Zheng Shanguo finished writing, Lu Chen confirmed again that it was indeed what he said, The two of them signed and stamped the documents respectively. This time Zheng Shanguo wrote three copies directly.
