Chapter 566: Being mistaken for Chen Ning, Chen Xinghe becomes suspicious
It turned out that just after the New Year, Chen Xinghe and officials from the Ministry of Works showed the emperor a new steam engine.
After more than three months of improvements, the steam engine finally looked like a working machine.
Automatic feeding port, residue treatment port, cooling water device, etc. have been added.
The most important piston driving force has also been further optimized, and the load capacity can reach ten stones.
This time it won't stop after dragging for a certain distance, and the fuel is enough to support driving for several miles, which is definitely a huge improvement!
Therefore, the emperor was so happy that he rewarded all the participants.
In addition to silver, money and food, officials below the fourth rank were promoted one level.
The initiator Chen Xinghe was even promoted to the fifth rank of Langzhong of the Ministry of Works.
Of course, there was also the factor of pleasing Xiao Ying, after all, it was she who proposed the steam engine.
But Xiao Ying was already the imperial teacher and it was impossible for him to be an official, so he attributed the credit to Chen Xinghe.
From then on, Chen Xinghe became a formal official appointed by the imperial court, which was much faster and more powerful than the imperial examination.
But others could not follow suit because it was difficult to make a contribution comparable to that of the steam engine.
After being promoted to Langzhong in the Ministry of Works, he also had his own office in the Ministry of Works and became the youngest official in the Ministry of Works.
In addition, he is the son of the national teacher, which aroused the curiosity of many people.
Not only officials from the Ministry of Industry, but also officials from the other five ministries found excuses to come and watch, which made Chen Xinghe speechless.
Fortunately, I don’t spend much time in the Ministry of Industry every day, and most of the time I continue to study steam engines as usual.
They wanted to develop a more perfect steam engine that could carry heavier loads and travel farther.
That day, Chen Xinghe went to the Ministry of Works to report for duty when he was suddenly stopped by someone.
"Master Chen, Brother Chen, weren't you appointed as the prefect of Lingzhou? When did you get transferred to the Ministry of Works... Oops, I'm sorry, I recognized the wrong person."
Chen Xinghe didn't realize someone was calling him until he was patted on the shoulder.
When he turned around, he found that it was a man in his early thirties, who was also a fifth-rank doctor like him, but he was from the Ministry of Revenue.
As soon as the man saw his appearance, his face turned red, his eyes showed embarrassment, and he apologized repeatedly.
"I'm sorry, I recognized the wrong person. I thought it was another Mr. Chen."
"It's mainly because your backs look so similar, and your profiles are the same too. I'm really embarrassed."
The man became more and more embarrassed as he spoke, but he was muttering something in his heart.
Not to mention the background and the side profile, the front face is also quite similar. It’s not his fault.
Chen Xinghe's heart moved. Another Mr. Chen? He looked a lot like him?
He said amiably, "Sir, there's no need to be so polite. It's just a case of mistaking someone for me. I won't take it to heart."
"However, I wonder who this Mr. Chen you are talking about is? Does he really look like me?"
If she just looked like him, it would be fine. There are many people in the world who look alike.
But his surname happened to be Chen, which made him curious.
Seeing that he was not angry, the man relaxed and smiled.
"My surname is Li, my given name is Zhou, and I am a doctor in the Ministry of Revenue."
"The Mr. Chen I was talking about is called Chen Ning. He used to be a doctor in the Ministry of Revenue, just like me."
"But a few months ago, he was transferred to Lingzhou as the prefect, and was directly promoted to the fourth rank. He has a bright future."
“Your Excellency, Chen Ning is really alike. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be mistaken even though I’ve worked with him for so many years.”
"But he's much older than you, already thirty-four this year, yet he's still very elegant, gentle and refined."
Li Zhou was very talkative. He had already recognized the man in front of him as the son of the imperial teacher who had been promoted directly to the fifth rank.
Telling it in such detail also shows the intention of making friends.
"I see."
Chen Xinghe nodded, but felt a little strange in his heart.
He continued calmly, "That's quite a coincidence. It's a pity I never got the chance to meet him. Otherwise, I'd really like to see how much I resemble him."
Li Zhou smiled and said, "Then I'm afraid we can only wait for him to come back and report on his work at the end of the year."
Suddenly remembering something, Li Zhou lowered his voice.
“Don’t say that, sir, you and Chen Ning are indeed destined to be together. He is also from Yun’an County.”
"Besides being the prefect, he is also the son-in-law of Qi Shangshu, the Minister of Rites."
"When he comes back after a few years of being sent out, he will probably be promoted to the position of Vice Minister. We can't compare with him."
Chen Xinghe's smile suddenly froze and his expression became serious.
He stared at Li Zhou without blinking. "Master Chen Ning is also from Yun'an County? Are you sure?"
At that moment, he thought a lot.
Last name: Chen, looks a lot like him, from Yun'an County...
I even heard that Qi Jinxian had deliberately approached the eldest brother before.
Everything seemed so suspicious.
"I worked with him for seven or eight years, so I'm not wrong about that."
Li Zhou didn't understand, but he answered honestly.
"It seems we are destined to be together."
Chen Xinghe suddenly smiled, and the atmosphere became a little more relaxed.
He said nonchalantly, "I'm a little surprised because I've never heard of such a high-ranking official emerging from Yun'an County."
Li Zhou suddenly realized and lowered his voice again.
"Maybe Brother Chen Ning felt that marrying into the Qi family was not very glorious, so he didn't tell the elders and fellow villagers."
Chen Xinghe's eyes flashed. "I see. By the way, I wonder in which year this Master Chen Ning passed the imperial examination? His promotion is indeed quite fast."
Li Zhou smiled and said, "I know that. He was a Jinshi in the 19th year of Tianning, which is eleven years ago, because I was in the class before him."
As a result, everyone else was promoted to the fourth-rank prefect, but he still took his place and was only promoted to doctor last year.
It’s different to have a good father-in-law.
Chen Xinghe's smile did not reach his eyes. Eleven years ago... that was such a coincidence.
However, all of this was just one-sided statements from the person in front of him. He had to investigate the truth himself.
While he was verifying his guess, Xiao Ying in Jingnu Kingdom was already preparing to return to Shangjing.
After becoming the Imperial Master, she tidied up the Imperial Master's Mansion.
Together with Yu Qianli and others, they built various formations including the spirit gathering formation, the courtyard protection formation, the teleportation formation, etc., and made them as solid as a rock.
The Queen has also distributed the potatoes. They will be planted in the capital in the first season and the people can buy them freely.
The minimum is ten kilograms and the maximum is fifty kilograms.
This is to prevent the rich and powerful from taking too much and competing with the people for profits.
People knew that this was a high-yield crop, so they basically bought more.
When the news spread to other states and counties, the people in these places were all envious and could only wait for the next season or the next season.
"I'll leave this to you. You'll be in charge of these resources. If there's anything you can't resolve, you can tell me directly."
In the Imperial Master's Mansion, Xiao Ying handed Xia Yu a storage ring filled with cultivation supplies.
It was impossible for her to stay in Jingnu Country forever, so she handed this important task to Xia Yu, and also left her with several cultivators to help her, as well as a contracted beast of the eighth level of Qi Refining.
With Xia Yu here, I believe he can manage this place well.
If worst comes to worst, we can still use the teleportation array to travel between each other.
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