The eunuchs came in carrying two big bags, four of them were carrying them. Chief Steward Chi handed Qin Fang's memorial to the emperor.
When the memorial was sent up, everyone in Yu's study saw it. Du Ke was a little embarrassed. He knew that Qin Fang was verbose and liked to write trivial things in his letters, but he didn't expect that the memorial to the emperor could be so thick. He remembered that he had taught Qin Fang that memorials should be short, concise and to the point. How could it be...
"Hahaha..." The emperor laughed. The monarch, who had a sullen face just now, now laughed cheerfully and happily, which shocked the ministers in Yu's study. "Du Ke, only Qin Fang would write such a thick memorial to me. Speaking of which, Qin Fang is also your disciple, why didn't he learn your skills?"
Everyone looked at Du Ke after hearing what the emperor said.
In fact, Qin Fang can indeed be considered Du Ke's disciple. In the literary examination, the candidates can be said to be the disciples of the chief examiner. The imperial edict that Qin Fang was conferred the title of Wude General was brought by Du Ke that day, and Du Ke was also an imperial envoy on the matter of Huanshui County. Moreover, Qin Fang sent two consecutive letters to the residence of the Minister of War, so it is also possible to say that Qin Fang is Du Ke's disciple.
Du Ke was relieved when he heard the emperor say this. He was afraid that the emperor would not say anything and would guess about him in his heart. Du Ke hurriedly said: "No matter whose students they are, they are all pillars of the court and subjects of the emperor."
The emperor raised the memorial in his hand and said: "You have always understood him. Tell me, is there any trivial matter in his memorial this time? My time is precious. If he writes trivial matters into the memorial again, he is far away and I cannot punish him. I will hold you, the teacher, accountable."
Du Ke thought to himself, this is really a case of finding excuses to accuse someone? However, he could not say this. Du Ke stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, if Qin Fang wrote about things that are not worth the money, I am willing to accept the punishment. But if Qin Fang wrote about things that have made contributions to the court, will the credit also be given to me?"
The emperor laughed and scolded, "You shameless man, why are you competing with Qin Fang for credit?"
The emperor and Du Ke often joked that although the people present were all the emperor's confidants, there were also close and distant confidants, such as Du Ke was the emperor's closest confidant.
Therefore, they were used to the things between the emperor and Du Ke.
The emperor then read Qin Fang's memorial. While he was reading the memorial, there was silence in the study. Many people were curious in their hearts, who is this Qin Fang? How did he become Du Ke's disciple? The emperor valued Du Ke. If Qin Fang was Du Ke's disciple, then Qin Fang's future would be amazing. And judging from the emperor's tone, he must have had a very good impression of the man named Qin Fang.
Some ministers had their own plans in mind and began to want to inquire about Qin Fang.
Qin Fang started by praising the emperor. Qin Fang was not a literati, so his praise was very straightforward, so straightforward that the emperor could understand it at a glance. For example, when people say that the emperor is great, they will say that the emperor is wise and intelligent. Qin Fang will say, "Your Majesty, you are really great. I read your letter..." and so on. Such straightforward words would make even the emperor, who is so shameless, feel a little embarrassed.
However, the emperor always had a smile on his face, and everyone observed him carefully. If the emperor talked about a person, his expression could be used to judge the weight of this person in the emperor's heart, and Qin Fang, who had never been mentioned before, was already very important in the emperor's heart.
Some people thought that Qin Fang was Du Ke's student, and Du Ke must have reminded him many times in front of the emperor.
The emperor smiled secretly at first, but after a while, he pursed his lips, his eyes gradually sharpened, and finally he said: "Du Ke stays, the others leave."
Everyone was stunned: "Yes, I will take my leave."
Several ministers came out of Yu's study, and someone walked to Wei Hong: "Sir Wei, do you know who Qin Fang is?"
Wei Hong smiled: "Sir You has to ask Minister Du." His son Wei Ting is still working on gunpowder in Yunxiang County. The emperor told him about such an important matter. He is confident that he has a lot of weight in the emperor's heart, so he is not jealous of some things. Moreover, the gunpowder matter is a secret, so he naturally won't say anything about Qin Fang's identity.
However, seeing that the emperor mentioned Qin Fang so much today, he had an idea in his heart. In the past, when his second son Wei Wu wrote to him, he mentioned that Qin Fang's wife was a maid of the Yang family, and she was also a maid of Miss Yang. He also joked that he recognized her as his sister. It was his son who recognized his sister, not the Wei family who recognized their daughter. Moreover, Wei Wu could not represent the Wei family, so Wei Hong had no opinion on this matter. He just wrote back to ask his son to be careful and not to do such a senseless thing in the future.
But now... the man named Qin Fang first discovered sulfur and saltpeter mines. It must be said that this man is indeed lucky. And the emperor likes people with luck the most. If a lucky person is in the royal family, the emperor will definitely not like it. Because the royal family does not need lucky people except the emperor and the prince, but if it is a minister, and a minister without a backer, it is different. The emperor has a lucky minister, which means that the monarch and his ministers are of one mind. It is the emperor's blessing to have such a minister.
Therefore, Wei Hong's eyes sank, and he had a plan in his mind. However, he was not impulsive. The emperor said today that Qin Fang was Du Ke's disciple, which was a disguised way of finding a backer for Qin Fang. Why did the emperor find a backer for Qin Fang? The
emperor didn't care about the thoughts of outsiders. At this moment, the emperor showed the memorial to Du Ke: "Old Du, your disciple is really... really a good minister of mine." What a lucky person. After Qin Fang discovered sulfur and saltpeter mines, and his wife discovered that saltpeter could make ice, the emperor said that Qin Fang was lucky. And now, how long has it been? It's only been a month, and Qin Fang gave him another surprise. Although it was his wife who found out, they were a couple, and there was no difference between what Qin Fang found out.
Du Ke didn't understand why the emperor said that, but judging from what the emperor meant, Qin Fang must have done something great again. Du Ke muttered in his heart, could this Qin Fang be God's biological son? How could he do such a great thing? Then he read the memorial written by Qin Fang while complaining. The memorial was very long, and Du Ke wanted to write a letter to reprimand Qin Fang.
Fortunately, although this memorial was long, it was not full of trivial nonsense like the previous ones. The reason why this memorial was long was because Qin Fang wrote a plan for potato flour and sweet potato flour franchise in it. After Du Ke finished reading the plan, he had only one thought: "Your Majesty, it's a pity that Qin Fang is a general defending the city. He should be transferred to the Ministry of Revenue. If our Ministry of Revenue has money, why worry that Qiguo can't unify the world?"
Unifying the world is the ambition of every emperor in history.
The emperor laughed when he heard it. He liked to hear Du Ke say such ambitious words the most. He dared to seize the throne, and he was brave and capable. Du Ke came from the Ministry of War, so he was naturally warlike, so they got along so well as monarch and minister. "The unification of the world is far away. What do you think of the plan in Qin Fang's memorial? I will set up a grain alliance and recruit franchisees from all over the country. Franchise fees are required, and the franchise fee will be auctioned. The highest bidder will join. I will give the secret recipes for making potato flour and sweet potato flour to those who join. In this way, the potatoes and sweet potatoes grown by the common people will be bought by others."
Duco: "In terms of current grain production, potatoes and sweet potatoes have the highest production. However, although potatoes and sweet potatoes have the highest production, they are also the cheapest. Therefore, potatoes and sweet potatoes are not easy to sell. If potatoes and sweet potatoes can be made into powder like flour, then the income of ordinary people can indeed be improved. Moreover, it can also improve the flour whose production has always been low. In fact, the flour is more durable and not easy to spoil." The reason why potatoes and sweet potatoes are not easy to sell is because wealthy families look down on such things and think that they are things that poor people eat.
The emperor said, "There is one franchisee in each prefecture, and there are a total of 120 prefectures in Qi State, which means there are 120 franchisees. How much franchise fee do you think the 120 franchisees can receive if they join?"
Du Ke said, "Even if each person pays 10,000 taels of silver, there will be 1.2 million. But there are hundreds of thousands of people in a prefecture, and there is only one franchisee in a prefecture. There is also only one producer of potato flour and sweet potato flour, and the sales volume is very high. So if it is an auction, I'm afraid each person will pay more than 10,000 taels of silver. If each person pays 50,000 taels of silver, it will be 6 million taels."
The emperor swallowed his saliva after hearing this. He realized one thing, the power of a franchisee is limited, but if all the franchisees unite, it will be different. For example, fifty thousand taels of silver from one franchisee cannot solve the treasury problem of the court, but six million taels of silver from one hundred and twenty franchisees can indeed temporarily enrich the treasury of the court.
The emperor thought for a while: "Who should be responsible for this matter? Qin Fang mentioned in his memorial that this plan represents me, and franchisees are of vital importance. If franchisees exploit the people, then I will lose face. And if the franchisees have good conduct, this is an opportunity to lead the people to become wealthy. What is this called... the rich first lead the poor, oh, what Qin Fang said is, I will lead the people of the whole country to become wealthy. Hahaha... This slogan is also very interesting."
Du Ke thought to himself, it was not Qin Fang who said it, but Qin Fang's wife who said it. Although Qin Fang wrote in his memorial that he and Zhuo Jing came up with this plan... But Du Ke had met Qin Fang, and Qin Fang was indeed an honest man, not a philandering person. At the same time, he was not well-informed. He did not look down on Qin Fang. It might be possible for Qin Fang to lead troops to fight, but Qin Fang certainly did not have the ability to come up with such a plan. Not to mention Qin Fang, even he could not think of it, so the real smart person should be Qin Fang's wife behind him. "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. Who do you think can take on this important task in your name or in the name of the court?"
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