Chapter 113 You Can Become the Minister of Revenue
Looking at Qin Kui's dry smile, Zhu Chong forced a smile on his face and bowed to him, "Master Qin is polite. I hope you can understand what happened just now."
"Oh, Your Highness the Prince of Qin, you are embarrassing me. Please stand up quickly!" Qin Kui was startled by Zhu Chong's salute.
If Zhu Chong was still just a treasure bank supervisor and had not yet restored his title of King of Qin, it would not be excessive for him to accept Zhu Chong's courtesy. After all, he had once been a tutor in the Eastern Palace and had taught Zhu Biao and Zhu Chong, a group of princes, so it would not be wrong for him to accept his courtesy.
But now it is different. Zhu Chong has restored the title of King of Qin. He is now a real royal relative. Any official, even Prime Minister Hu Weiyong, has to pay his respects to Zhu Chong when he meets him. Naturally, he dare not force himself to accept Zhu Chong's courtesy.
As for Old Zhu's arrangement for him to assist Zhu Chong, Qin Kui of course did not say a word.
From Zhu Chong's performance just now, Qin Kui could already see that His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin, who had his title restored, was not as unreliable as the rumors said. At least Zhu Chong respected him, and that was enough.
"Your Highness, Prince Qin, if you have any instructions from now on, just tell me to do it. I will do my best, even if it means death!"
Zhu Chong smiled wryly, "Lord Qin has shown me such kindness. I am just lucky. From now on, I will have to rely on your control and supervision."
Hearing Zhu Chong's genuine humility, Qin Kui felt even more relieved, but after thinking for a moment, he suddenly asked a question.
"Your Highness, Prince Qin, I heard that the artisans in the Treasury and Banknote Administration are being paid their wages daily. Is this true?"
"Yes, what's the problem?" Zhu Chong felt strange. It wasn't the first day that the Baochao Tizhusi had paid wages, and Qin Kui asked at this time. He didn't know what he really wanted to ask him.
"May I ask, Your Highness, Prince Qin," Qin Kui pressed on, "Why did you consider paying the craftsmen?"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Chong immediately understood Qin Kui's thoughts, so he smiled faintly and said, "Don't you think that those craftsmen should not be paid?"
"I heard that you were once a craftsman, working for the court. It doesn't make sense to ask the craftsmen to work for the court for free, and then not even have enough to eat. If this continues, won't the court be left with no more craftsmen?"
"Hahaha..." Zhu Chong's words touched a nerve in Qin Kui. The old man laughed uncontrollably and nodded repeatedly.
"Alright, alright, it's worth our relationship as master and disciple. So, I'll give you a promise. As long as I'm in the Ministry of Works, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin can command anyone in the Ministry to do anything he wants!"
Hearing Qin Kui's promise to him, Zhu Chong's heart skipped a beat. He bowed and said, "Then I would like to thank you, old sir!"
"Okay, okay!" This time, Qin Kui accepted Zhu Chong's gift and left with a big laugh.
Zhu Chong looked at Qin Kui's back as he left excitedly, and thought to himself. He didn't understand why Qin Kui was so happy, and why he specifically asked about the payment of wages to the craftsmen.
"What are you thinking about!" When Zhu Chong walked out of the palace gate, he unexpectedly found that Prince Zhu Biao was waiting in front of the palace gate.
"Brother, you didn't leave?" After leaving the palace, Zhu Chong addressed Zhu Biao more casually. "You waited here for me? Is there something wrong?"
“I just forgot to tell you, Master Qin, you can use it with confidence. You don’t need to be too cautious. The old man is a man who can get things done.”
Zhu Chong could tell that Zhu Biao's words were suggestive, but he couldn't guess the key point.
"Have you heard about the evil spirit technique in the early years?" Zhu Biao pulled Zhu Chong into his carriage, and the carriage moved slowly forward.
When Zhu Biao suddenly talked about the Zhongdu witchcraft, Zhu Chong couldn't help but frown, and suddenly it became clear to him. No wonder Qin Kui was so excited just now, it turned out to be because of this.
Speaking of which, this matter is related to Lao Zhu.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he set up a special Ministry of Works to build Zhongdu, which was dedicated to the construction of the capital. He did everything in a way that was convenient for him and even assigned a luxurious leadership team for this purpose.
Among them were Li Shanchang, Xue Xiang, Tang He and Wu Liang. They all had one thing in common, that was, they were the team of generals from Huaixi who led Zhu Yuanzhang to start the rebellion.
In order to show off himself and bring honor to his family, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Ministry of Works to mobilize tens of thousands of craftsmen across the country to build the central capital Fengyang.
Fengyang is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, and was once considered by Zhu Yuanzhang to be the birthplace of the emperor. In order to build Zhongdu Fengyang into the capital, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Li Shanchang to preside over the entire construction project.
But in the eighth year of Hongwu, when Zhu Yuanzhang led his ministers to inspect Zhongdu, he encountered a strange incident.
When Zhu Yuanzhang walked into the newly built palace, he unexpectedly heard the sound of clashing metal above his head. It sounded like thousands of soldiers were fighting with weapons overhead.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very superstitious, so he took what happened in the Zhongdu Palace very seriously and went to the supervisor Li Shanchang to question him on the spot.
After checking, Li Shanchang gave the answer, saying that it was the art of exorcism. The craftsmen who built the palace used the art of exorcism to affect the feng shui of the palace, causing Zhu Yuanzhang to hear sounds that he should not have heard.
After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang flew into a rage and ordered the extermination of all the craftsmen who had participated in the construction of the palace.
Finally, the then Minister of Works Xue Xiang and Qin Kui pleaded with Zhu Yuanzhang together, using the reasoning that the art of exorcism had nothing to do with iron and stonework, and saved thousands of craftsmen.
So, Qin Kui knew too well that the Ming Emperor did not value craftsmen. Suddenly, he saw that Zhu Chong valued craftsmen so much and even borrowed money to pay them.
Now that he had found a coal mine, he could squeeze out 10% of the profits from the emperor to use as capital to pay the craftsmen. Naturally, Qin Kui had an unusual opinion of Zhu Chong.
Zhu Chong nodded after understanding what Zhu Biao and Qin Kui meant. His original intention was simply that the emperor would not be short of hungry soldiers, and he had never thought of anything else. He did not expect that it would be seen by someone with ulterior motives.
"Let's go to my East Palace and have a seat." Zhu Biao took the initiative to invite Zhu Chong, and Zhu Chong naturally obeyed.
"You performed well today, far beyond my expectations." Zhu Biao sighed as he walked. "You actually gave up almost the entire coal mine. I'm afraid you planned this all along, didn't you?"
"It's all thanks to you, big brother." Zhu Chong laughed dryly, "If it weren't for your 100,000 strings of treasure notes, I wouldn't dare to do so many things."
"No wonder you dared to say that you would pay me 10 million guan a month. It turns out you were just trying to get me to do the mining!" Zhu Biao smiled and patted Zhu Chong's shoulder. "It's a good thing I didn't say anything. I might as well have really calculated it for you."
Zhu Chong looked puzzled. "Brother, why don't you accept it? If you have the mining rights, our father will be relieved. I see that you and Mother are used to being frugal. It's a perfect opportunity to enjoy yourself. It's not too much!"
"One percent a year is 100 million coins, plus the money leaked from mining and your braised meat. Second brother, I find that you are getting better and better at making money. Why don't you become the Minister of Revenue?" Zhu Biao joked, and then sighed.
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