Zhao Hao and the Duke of England took a carriage out of the capital and headed for the western suburbs, because Li Wei was not in the city at that time.
He was staying in the private garden of Tsinghua Garden in the western suburbs. This Tsinghua Garden is not the one in later times, but the one in Peking University. The garden area is very vast, with a radius of ten li. The spring water from the West Mountain is drawn to form a lake in the garden. The water surface alone accounts for most of the garden area, which can be said to be a unique advantage.
The most amazing thing is that this garden was built brick by brick by Li Wei, his son and the servants at home, in order to save the wages of the craftsmen.
In fact, his craftsmanship is quite good, but he is short of manpower and works too slowly. He got this piece of land in the third year of Longqing, and it has been eight years now, and he has not even finished half of it.
So Li Wei took his two sons to work in the garden every day and rarely returned to his mansion in Beijing.
This way he can avoid the poor relatives who come to him for help and save a lot of money.
He worked hard, but his two sons were depressed. They were the real uncles of the emperor, and they should have been bullying men and women and living a life of debauchery. But now, they had such a father, who had to move bricks and plaster every day, and was as dirty as a mud monkey, and had no time to rest for a day...
"Brother, do you think there has ever been such a miserable uncle throughout history?" The second brother, Li Wengui, complained in frustration while beating cement mortar with a wooden hammer.
"It would be strange if there is." His eldest brother Li Wenquan turned the soil pile with a bamboo stick. Sanhe soil has a process from raw to cooked. The more times and longer it is refined, the better the effect. "Otherwise, the third brother would not be willing to enter the palace to serve the queen!"
Actually, they were three brothers originally. Later, the youngest brother was so tired that he would rather castrate himself and go to the palace to help Empress Dowager Li than be a bricklayer all day... This is a true story.
"Oh, the third brother is really good at foresight. He has become the chief steward of the Imperial Stables. He has many disciples and followers serving him. He is living as happy as a god now." Li Wengui was extremely envious.
"Alas, this is called enduring the pain for a moment in exchange for a lifetime of comfort." Li Wenquan sighed.
“How about asking Her Majesty some other day if there is any vacancy in the palace?” Li Wengui was also tempted.
"Okay, I'll ask." Li Wenquan nodded and said, "Let's go into the palace together and let the old man do it himself!"
"Bullshit!" Li Wei came in with a tile knife in hand, pointing at his two disappointing sons and scolding them:
"You all come to the palace and leave me alone? Are you planning to tire me to death?"
"Dad, then you will come with us?" Li Wenquan said, "You will be the chief of the Imperial Household Department, and I will be in charge of the East Factory."
"I'm in charge of the Imperial Kitchen." Li Wengui immediately reported the position he desired.
"Who will live in this garden after we build it?!" Li Wei was so angry that his nose was crooked. "Look at what you have accomplished. You just did some work. Do you think you have to follow the example of the third brother and get stabbed?"
"Dad, we are not without money, can't we hire some workers?" Li Wenquan said with a sad face, "If we hired some workers, we would have lived in Tsinghua University and enjoyed a comfortable life now."
"Bullshit! Hiring someone doesn't cost money?" Li Wei rolled his eyes and said, "Once you use up your strength, it will grow back the next day. But once you spend the money, it won't come back."
After a pause, he said proudly, "Besides, bricklaying is a craft passed down from our ancestors. Before he came to Beijing, your father was the best in Tongzhou. Those second-rate guys want to make as much money as I do? No way!"
As he said this, he squatted down, pinched a handful of soil in his hand to test it, and shook his head, saying, "It's not usable yet."
The dryness and wetness of the mortar should be controlled so that it can be kneaded into a ball, but can be spread out when kneaded, so that it can be waterproof and strong. This is the valuable experience of the old bricklayer!
"It can't be used? Then we don't have to work today?" The two sons were immediately delighted.
"Dream on, there's plenty of life to do! I'm going to plant flowers today, have you bought the flower pots?" Li Wei snorted.
"Oh." The two sons immediately wilted. The eldest pointed behind him and said, "That's not it."
"Take this and have a look." Li Wei stretched out his hand.
Li Wengui slowly took a large blue-gray flower pot for his father. Wu Qinghou took it and knocked it with his hands. The sound was crisp and soft, with a lingering sound, which was pleasant to listen to.
"Good stuff." Li Wei finally smiled.
"Of course, who dares to fool the emperor's uncle?" Li Wenquan was also proud.
"How much?" Li Wei suddenly asked anxiously.
"Not expensive..." Li Wenquan was about to lie.
But his second brother was a little simple-minded and blurted out, "Five taels each..."
"What?" Li Wei got furious immediately. He put down the flowerpot, picked up a tile knife and started chasing after him.
"You two are two spendthrifts. You spent five taels of silver to buy a broken flowerpot. Why don't you just go to heaven?"
"There's no such thing as a cheap product, Dad..." The two sons ran away in panic.
"Bullshit, five hundred coins are not enough for such a broken thing! Tell me, did you take kickbacks?!" Li Wei asked angrily.
"No!" No matter whether he did or not, the two sons would definitely deny it.
"Stop talking so much and get out of here!"
"If I don't retreat, I won't be able to lose face."
"This is outrageous! I'm going to beat you to death!" Li Wei was furious and raised a tile knife to cut his son's head.
However, the knife stopped in mid-air because his son blocked it with a flower pot.
Li Wei was reluctant to destroy the flowers that cost five taels of silver, so he had to stop abruptly.
The father and his two sons were standing there in a stalemate when the housekeeper came in and reported, "Master, we have guests."
"No, no, do you think I'll see you if you catch me at the construction site?!" Li Wei put away his tile knife angrily and said, "You want to take advantage of me? No way!"
"It's the Duke of England and the young minister who are visiting." The butler said stiffly.
"Oh?" Li Wei's expression changed immediately and he said, "Please come on, go to the yard and pick a plate of apricots, pick the ones that are half ripe."
~~
The front hall of Tsinghua Garden has been built. The huge hall is paved with gold bricks and has nanmu beams. These are really good materials. Li Wei secretly withheld them when he was building the Yongling Mausoleum for Emperor Shizong. He was reluctant to spend money to buy such expensive materials.
But they hadn't really bought any furniture yet. There was only a jujube wood table that had been used for who knows how many years, with shiny oil stains on the surface, and a few stools around it. This was where Li Wei and his son had their meals.
Zhao Hao and Zhang Rong sat on the stools, looking at the plate of green apricots in front of them, feeling flattered. This is actually all real...
"Come on, don't be polite." Li Wei sat at the top and generously let the two of them eat apricots.
The Duke of England and the young cabinet minister were drooling, not because they were greedy, but because of reflex. How could they eat something so green? Whose fault was it that their teeth were sour?
Seeing that both of them politely said that they had eaten a lot before coming, Li Wei poured water for them and said, "The water from Yuquan Mountain is a waste to make tea. Drinking it this way will give it its original flavor."
"Yes, yes, Your Majesty is very polite." Young Master Zhao took the coarse porcelain teacup and took a look. It was indeed filled with plain water without a single tea leaf.
"That's right. Old Li won't serve others when they come." Li Wei agreed, "But if the God of Wealth comes, we still have to treat him well."
As he said this, he looked at Zhao Hao eagerly and said, "I have long wanted to ask the young minister if I can also help Old Li get rich together with him?"
"That's great!" Zhao Hao said happily, "It's my honor to be able to make a fortune with the Marquis!"
"Good! That's great!" Li Wei rubbed his hands excitedly. Over the past ten years, he had witnessed how Zhao Hao made wealth.
It is no exaggeration to say that all the nobles in Beijing now have a good life thanks to Zhao Hao. Li Wei wants to grab anything that can make money, but how many big shots have been gathered together by the Xishan Group and the Lugouqiao Group? He is the grandfather of the emperor and he dare not do anything reckless. Otherwise, the first person who will not forgive him is the empress dowager.
Moreover, he had robbed the eldest princess of her livelihood. Although the Queen Mother and the eldest princess were close now, he was still afraid and had never dared to deal with the eldest princess's godson and son-in-law.
Now that Zhao Hao has come to our door on his own initiative, there is no reason to let him go.
~~
In fact, Zhao Hao had long wanted to have something to do with Li Wei.
Although he had a green dragon on his left, a white tiger on his right, an old cow on his waist, and a dragon head on his chest, and could kill anyone who stood in his way, he had to think about what he would do in a few years.
If the original historical process had been followed, my father-in-law would have only lived for five years. Although under his intervention, Zhang Xianggong no longer ate southern shad, which should have alleviated the lead poisoning; he also stopped using the sea dog whip presented by Qi Jiguang, and instead used the milder aphrodisiac prescription prescribed by Wan Mi Zhai, which should have alleviated the hemorrhoids.
But it is very difficult to change one's fate. For example, Zheng Ruoceng only lived for two more years under the treatment of Jiangnan Hospital; Ma Yilong also died at a certain age...
So Zhao Hao still had to prepare for the five-year period. If his father-in-law died by then, he had to prevent that bastard Wanli from counterattacking!
For this, he had to make various preparations and plans. For example, he had led Wanli down the path of becoming a wealthy man since he was young; for example, he asked his godmother to coax the empress dowager and to love Wanli and Prince Lu; he asked his eldest brother-in-law and nephew to stay by the emperor's side, etc.
He even prepared a cold stove for Wang Xijie and Zheng Mengjing's family in advance, waiting to see if there would be any pillow talk.
In short, it's a matter of trying. Who knows which cloud will bring rain?
Emperor Li Wei's grandfather and the Empress Dowager's biological father. Just based on this reason, Zhao Hao has to invest in him.
So the two sides hit it off and had a very lively conversation.
Zhao Hao asked Li Wei what he was interested in.
"I'm interested in anything that can make a lot of money." Li Wei smoked the cigarette handed to him by Mr. Zhao and said with a face full of longing: "It would be great if there was a business like Xishan Group."
The British man almost spit out water and thought to himself, what the hell do you want!
Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhao smiled and said, "How difficult is that? How about we build a Northeast company?"
"Northeast Company?" Li Wei blinked and asked, "Liaodong?"
"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile: "Including Liaodong Dusi, Daning Dusi and Nurgan Dusi, these three Dusi are the territories operated by the Northeast Company."
"What can we do?" Li Wei's mood dropped. The Northeast was too cold in those days. If ordinary people could survive in the interior, they would not go to the Northeast.
"There are so many things we can do. Northeast China is a treasure trove. We can mine coal, dig ginseng, and cut wood! We can definitely make money!" Zhao Hao said excitedly, "If we make a profit in three years, we will issue stocks at the Dashilan Stock Exchange. Then we will make a fortune, right?!"
"That's right, you have the final say on whether the product can be listed..." Li Wei's eyes lit up immediately.