However, no matter how Bai Ang struggled, Lin Hai never agreed to let him go alone to visit the Phoenix Mountain Military Camp and Qinghe Industrial Zone, let alone visit them freely.
Bai Ang was very dissatisfied with this, and felt that Lin Hai was hiding something from him, which was equivalent to hiding something from the empire.
However, Lin Hai solved this problem with two sentences.
"Is Lord Bai here to investigate me on behalf of the Empire? Do you have an imperial decree to prove it?"
"You don't want to watch it, forget it."
Well, of course it would be a waste not to watch it.
Bai Ang was very clear about this. After all, the imperial center had always been quite curious about Qinghe's mysterious pig iron production and military combat effectiveness.
Don’t mention the nonsense that Qinghe had iron mines before the war.
If the pig iron production before the Battle of Qinghe could reach the current level, the empire would not have been able to reach Xichuan. With enough steel-armed Chen Dynasty troops, the empire could have launched the Battle of Zhongdu decades ago.
Obviously, all this happened after Lin Hai started to settle in this place.
Lin Hai had researched Bai Ang's background. He was a typical bureaucrat. He studied diligently, took the imperial examinations, passed, and became a Jinshi (a jinshi), becoming a basic official. He then diligently worked his way up the ranks for a full six months. Then, the Bai family, a prominent family in the empire, used their connections to pry him out of his internship position. From there, he rose through the ranks...
Just tell me whether they are in compliance with the regulations or not. The internship period at Guanzhengshi is at least six months. If they really investigate, they will be flawless, right?
Simply put, Bai Ang is indeed talented in official relations and governing the country, but no matter how you look at it, his talent is definitely not in industry and technology, so Lin Hai confidently and boldly let him enter the Qinghe Industrial Zone.
But all of his dozen servants were turned away.
This is called official time being too short to find out the details of each of his servants. Everyone knows that the servants of senior imperial officials often also serve as advisers in certain areas. What if there is one who knows the business among them?
Since they were all servants anyway, Lin Hai simply acted like a count and asked them to wait obediently outside the gate of the industrial zone. This is what is called "a higher-ranking official can crush a lower-ranking official."
As for whether this group of servants would wait obediently at the door, Lin Hai was not worried at all. His sworn brothers, armed with powerful crossbows to maintain order, could solve any problem.
"So you just... just smelted the iron like this?" Bai Ang found it incredible after just looking at a blast furnace. Although he didn't understand the principle, he still had some idea of how much pig iron other iron mines in the empire could produce in one furnace.
"That's about it. This is just one of our furnaces. In fact, due to a lack of orders, a considerable number of our furnaces are just for fun. After all, this furnace is difficult to shut down, so we always need to be refining something."
Lin Hai tried his best to pretend to be calm and collected.
To be honest, if he had a tail, it would have been up in the air. Only Shi Zhener knew that Lin Hai had been wanting to say this for several days, and he had practiced the right expression and tone of voice for several days.
The purpose is to show off in front of Bai Ang.
"To be honest, it's not necessary. Otherwise, I can equip every vegetable seller in Qinghe with full body armor, so that they will be safer when bargaining." Lin Hai said proudly.
"Oh? In this way, when they raise the price of salted fish three times and sell it to me, they will be less worried about me finding out?" Bai Ang replied unhappily.
"We believe in clearly marked prices. As long as we tell you the price before selling to you and you agree to buy, then the transaction is free. You can sell it at any price." Lin Hai deliberately provoked, "But Lord Bai is an official of the central government after all. I have to give him this honor. So, I will immediately order that the salted fish seller be taken out and chopped into pieces in my name to vent Lord Bai's anger."
After saying that, Lin Hai ordered people to do it.
"Forget it. It's not easy for me. I'm a widow. I'll just earn more... I, oh no, I don't need that little money either." Bai Ang stopped Lin Hai's disorderly behavior in time and successfully defended the majesty of Qinghe law.
"Oh, so Lord Bai already knows that she is a widow..." Lin Hai muttered to himself, seemingly thinking about something.
"Ahem." Bai Ang coughed twice. "When on duty, it's best to focus on official business and refrain from idle chatter. Lord Qinghe, I simply want to ask you: with the empire mired in war, and with so much pig iron in your possession, why don't you contribute to the empire's service?"
"Of course I can. I can." Lin Hai replied with a smile on his face. "Look, I even use pig iron to offset my taxes. You can see how much I want to use pig iron to serve the empire."
"Oh? So how much pig iron does Qinghe Bo plan to continue contributing to the Empire? Don't just talk about taxes. You have to understand that the price of pig iron is rising, but the ultimate measure of tax is money. In other words, as the price of pig iron rises, the amount of pig iron you pay to the Empire actually decreases. The Empire suffers greatly from this."
Bai Ang was very unhappy with Qinghe's way of manipulating iron prices to reduce taxes in disguise, and he pointed it out directly in one sentence.
"Well, it's true. As the price of pig iron has risen, I remember it has increased several times. The pig iron we handed over has indeed become less and less. So, Master Ben has decided to use the pig iron price of Tianxian in one year as the benchmark to supply pig iron to the empire to offset the tax.
We will do this from now on. We will also make up the difference next quarter when we escort the taxes to Jinguan City. What do you think, Lord Bai?"
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