Chapter 145: Princess of Goguryeo

Charles looked at the people outside the window with a strange expression: "Your Majesty, you Daqi people are really versatile."

Song Yuzhu asked: "Do you know him?"

"Not really an acquaintance. My wallet was stolen on the street this morning and he helped me get it back. I haven't thanked him yet."

"That's great. I'll ask him to come in and have a chat." Song Yuzhu waved to Liu Yanzi.

Liu Yanzi walked in awkwardly: "Your subordinate greets His Majesty."

"No need to be polite, Commander Liu. I heard that you helped Duke Charles get his money bag back today?"

Liu Yanzi looked up and saw that this foreigner was also there. He looked quite good without the veil on his face.

"Yes, it was the purse that my subordinates helped him get back."

Charles stepped forward and bowed: "Thank you for your help, and I'm sorry about what happened today."

Liu Yanzi fanned herself, her eyes lingering on him. Seeing that he was about to get angry because of being stared at, she closed the fan and said, "It's just a small favor, not worth mentioning."

After a while, Zhao Xiao also walked in: "Since you are all here, why don't you stay and have dinner together."

Charles originally wanted to refuse because his daughter was still in the mansion, but he was so curious about the emperor of Daqi that he finally nodded and stayed.

The four of them had lunch at Shengyun Palace. As the weather was cold, Song Yuzhu asked the imperial kitchen to prepare a hot pot.

There were four copper pots the size of incense burners, separated by iron plates in the middle. One side was a hot pot of spicy red oil, and the other side was a pot of pork bone soup. The peppers in the pots were what Zhao Xiao brought back from the West.

There is a small charcoal stove under the pot, and a eunuch would come over to change the charcoal every once in a while.

There were more than ten plates of fresh beef, mutton, beef tripe, tripe, beef tongue, as well as fresh vegetables and vermicelli on the table.

Zhao Xiao and Charles had never eaten hot pot, but Liu Yanzi had tried it once in the palace and had been thinking about it for a long time.

Song Yuzhu taught the two: "When the pot is boiling, put the vegetables you want to eat in the pot and dip them in the sauce when they are cooked." After saying this, he demonstrated it himself.

The tender and thin mutton is cooked by boiling it in boiling water, and then dipped in the prepared dry sauce, it tastes delicious!

Zhao Xiao couldn't wait to pick up the chopsticks, picked up a piece, put it in the pot and boil it. When it was almost done, he took it out, dipped it in dry sauce, and put it into his mouth.

Song Yuzhu looked at him and asked, "How does it taste?"

Zhao Xiao's eyes lit up: "This is so delicious! Did you invent this?"

"This way of eating was invented by nomadic people. They often carry small pots like this to cook when they are grazing outside. I just improved it a little bit."

Zhao Xiao can eat spicy food, and the beef is even more delicious when it is cooked in a red oil pan! There is also crispy tripe, which no one has ever eaten like this before, and I didn’t expect it to taste so good!

Charles also followed their example and cooked some meat in the bone broth, which tasted really good.

He picked up a piece of beef tripe and put it in a small pot to cook. When he put it in his mouth, he was conquered by the novel taste.

"What is this? Why is it so delicious?"

Liu Yanzi said: "Niu Baiye, do you know what it is?"

Charles shook his head.

"It's the cow's stomach. See those little burrs? They're what the cow uses to digest grass..."

Charles' face turned pale. He couldn't spit out the tripe in his mouth, nor could he swallow it. Finally, he gulped it down under Liu Yanzi's smiling peach eyes.

Zhao Xiao asked someone to fetch some wine. In the West, wine was not stored in bottles yet, so they used oak barrels. A barrel of wine weighed about 40 kilograms, and Zhao Xiao brought back more than ten barrels.

You need to use special cups to drink wine. Song Yuzhu has a set of glass cups that are made to imitate modern red wine glasses. The color of the red wine is very beautiful when filled with it.

Charles had always used silver cups to drink in Anton Tepu before, but this was the first time he had used this kind of glass cup. The cup was crystal clear, like it was made of ice, and even the taste of the wine was enhanced. He was so amazed that he was speechless.

After dinner, Charles asked where he could buy this kind of glass cup.

Song Yuzhu smiled and said, "If you like it, I'll have someone send you a set."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Charles placed one hand on his chest and bowed deeply.

After he left, Liu Yanzi also found an excuse to leave, leaving only Zhao Xiao and Song Yuzhu.

"Does your waist still hurt?"

Song Yuzhu glared at him: "How dare you ask."

"Cough." Zhao Xiao clenched his fist and coughed. "I held it in for too long last night and couldn't control it... I won't do it again next time."

"Do you want a next time? Move back to your own house and sleep tomorrow!"

"I was wrong, Azhu~"

*

Time flies and it is now the sixth year of Changzhi. After several years of development, Daqi has gradually matured.

All the roads in the 18 states were paved, and each road had its own name, post station, and checkpoint, all of which were managed by local governments.

The benefits of the highway gradually became apparent, and the speed of merchants more than doubled. Many sections of the road were very difficult to travel on in the past, and when it rained, they were so muddy that horse-drawn carriages could not pass. Now the newly built cement road will not get stuck even in heavy rain.

Take Shunfeng Escort Agency as an example. In the past two years, the profit of escorting was about 30%.

The freight cost for one item was thirty taels of silver. After deducting the labor costs on the road and the wear and tear of the carriage and horses, the maximum profit could be ten taels of silver.

Nowadays, the roads are well built, so it doesn’t require much effort for horses to run, and the speed is fast and economical, with profits as high as 50% to 60%.

As Sun Biaotou got old, he simply retired and handed over the business to his daughter and son-in-law.

Miss Sun married Liu Changzhou, who had broken his leg a few years ago because he angrily criticized the government for collecting taxes privately. Although he was later praised by the court, his health was not very good.

Last year, his elderly mother also passed away, leaving him alone and lonely.

When Miss Sun passed through Changji County again, she went to visit Liu Changzhou. The two fell in love with each other, and Miss Sun asked him if he was willing to go back to Baoding Prefecture with her.

Liu Changzhou had no relatives or friends so naturally he was willing, and they got married not long after. Miss Sun had the courage to take care of the outside affairs, and he had the brains to take care of the inside affairs, and the two of them lived a very comfortable life.

Shunfeng Escort Agency also developed new business, which was to purchase goods on behalf of others while delivering escorts. This made money while avoiding wasting resources by having empty trucks. The agency became bigger and bigger in the hands of the two men.

*

Back to the matter of rubber, the rubber brought back from Johor was sent to the research institute. Chen Lun, Jiang Yida and a group of subordinates focused all their attention on this pile of rubber balls.

At first they put rubber balls in a furnace. If the temperature was too high, they would degrade. When the temperature was controlled at around 100 degrees, the rubber balls would soften and could be put into molds to make objects of various shapes.

However, one disadvantage of good rubber products is that they are afraid of temperature changes.

When the temperature is hot in summer, rubber products will become soft and sticky. When the temperature drops, the rubber will harden and lose its elasticity, making these things completely unusable.

The research department conducted experiments for three consecutive months and used all available catalysts, but they were unable to subdue this tiny piece of rubber.

Just when Shen Lun was at a loss, during a rubber experiment, Jin Yan from the Military Industry Department next door came to watch the fun. He happened to be holding a bag of sulfur that was going to be used to make explosives in his arms, and he accidentally spilled it into the rubber barrel.

Jin Yan was startled and quickly apologized to him: "I'm so sorry, I forgot I had this with me and ruined your bucket of rubber."

Chen Lun waved his hands helplessly: "It's okay, I'll change it for another bucket later." The amount of rubber wasted was more than this, so it was not a big loss.

When the time came, Shen Lun asked his subordinates to open the mold, but unexpectedly, they took out a very elastic rubber sheet from it!

"This...this, this, this!" Chen Lun was so surprised that he was speechless. Normally, when opening the mold, the rubber would stick to the mold and could not be removed until it was completely cool. But today's rubber was not sticky at all!

He quickly put the rubber in the cold water prepared in advance to try it out. As time passed, he took a deep breath and took the rubber out.

The completely cooled rubber did not harden into lumps like before.

Chen Lun hugged Jin Yan excitedly: "Old Jin, you helped me a lot!"

Jin Yan was confused. Why did he help?

"Sulfur, it must be the effect of sulfur! Go to the Military Industry Department and fetch ten more baskets of sulfur!"

Jin Yan hurriedly asked, "Wait a minute, why do you need so much sulfur?"

"Adding sulfur to rubber will stabilize its properties and make it more elastic and tough. I will send someone to the palace right away to ask for a reward for you!"

Jin Yan quickly held him back and said, "No, no, no, you've all been busy for so long, don't give me this reward, just treat me to a drink when you have time."

Chen Lun nodded gratefully. In the past three months, the people in the research institute have been busy from morning till night. Everyone has been working hard for this small piece of rubber. Now that it has finally been successfully developed, many people have shed tears of joy.

However, this period was not without results. More than 300 rubber molds were produced and more than ten catalysts were developed, which were confirmed to be of use.

Soon Jiang Yida brought back half a carriage of sulfur from the Ministry of Military Industry. Chen Lun led the people from the research institute and spent three days to successfully mix the optimal ratio for vulcanized rubber.

They used rubber to make wheels, toys, rubber tubes, rain boots, and all kinds of strange things. These things were sent to the palace.

Chen Lun knew that rubber was a good thing, and with it Daqi's industry would develop rapidly.

Song Yuzhu smiled knowingly as she touched the familiar rubber product. This time she could finally ride a bicycle with rubber wheels.

He immediately opened rubber factories in Binzhou and Fuzhou, and then planted rubber trees in Yunnan. The Hope set sail again for Johor.

In addition to collecting rubber, they also brought advanced textile machines and food seeds suitable for growing there.

No matter what, Johor is also part of Daqi. Only if they can live a good life will they be willing to be loyal to Daqi.

*

At the end of March, the prince of Japan came to visit the capital.

This was the first foreign emperor to come to Beijing on his own initiative after the establishment of Daqi.

The Japanese prince was named Matsumoto Tsuru, in his twenties, and wore clothes similar to those of the Wu Dynasty. This was because when they came to the Central Plains to study, they also learned the culture of the Wu Dynasty.

Matsumoto Tsuru can speak Chinese, and he speaks it quite well, comparable to Charles.

This time he came with a very humble attitude, kept apologizing for his country, and brought a lot of gold, silver and treasures as atonement.

However, Song Yuzhu didn't really buy into his talk. He had always hated this shameless nation since ancient times, so naturally he didn't give him a good look. He only sent the Honglu Temple to entertain him, and he himself didn't show up.

Last time, Song Yuzhu sent the navy to bombard the Japanese, scaring them so much that they didn't dare to go fishing for half a year. Matsumoto He came all the way to Daqi at the risk of his life just to learn how to make explosives.

When Liao Yu, the Minister of the Honglu Temple, heard this, his face changed. What a joke! How can I teach you something as important as gunpowder? I taught you to attack our country? This Japanese is really shameless. I can't give you explosives. If you want to learn Daqi culture, please do as you please.

Matsumoto Tsuru probably also sensed the attitude of Emperor Daqi, and said indignantly that they looked down on small countries. The Wu Dynasty did not treat them like this in the past. Not only did it teach them culture, but it also gave them many treasures.

Song Yuzhu directly instructed Liao Yu: "The Wu Dynasty has been gone for more than three hundred years. If Japan wants to follow the Wu Dynasty, I can satisfy them at any time."

Matsumoto Tsuru was terrified when he heard this and wanted to go back the next day. Before leaving, Liao Yu did not let him go back empty-handed and gave him three trucks of cement as a gift. To deal with a shameless person, you have to be more shameless than him.

Not long after, the princess of Goguryeo also arrived, bringing with her many precious medicinal herbs such as ginseng and ganoderma lucidum, intending to marry into the Daqi clan.

*

More than ten horse-drawn carriages were traveling on the official road to Shangjing, loaded with precious herbs and jewels.

In one of the carriages, a woman dressed in luxurious clothes looked out of the window nervously. This woman was the eldest princess of Goguryeo, Li Xianxiu.

The road we were driving on was the one that appeared after we entered the border of Daqi. It was incredibly flat.

A few years ago, she heard from her father and brothers that the Daqi Road was built to the border line, but she didn't expect it to be like this!

The maidservant who was traveling with them said excitedly: "Princess, Daqi Kingdom is really different from our country!"

"Yes." Li Xianxiu was a little uneasy. She wanted to refuse this marriage, but her father and brother kept persuading her to give it a try.

Because Emperor Daqi has not yet appointed a queen, as long as she enters the harem and gives birth to a boy or girl, she will definitely have the opportunity to inherit the throne in the future.

Although she felt that her father's idea was a bit naive, after arriving in Daqi, she suddenly became curious about the young emperor. Perhaps marriage was a good option.

(End of this chapter)