Zhu Houzhao, the lonely Ming Dynasty, angrily snatched Yan Shenggong at the beginning!

Chapter 39 There are no useless people, only useless masters. (Kneeling for investment, collection, follow-up!)
"Your Highness, Eunuch Ma Yongcheng is here!"

Zhu Houzhao had just sent Wang Zhi away, sat down at the dining table, and hadn't eaten a few chicken legs when a boy scout walked in quickly.

"What... Little Orange is back, that's great, what a good day today, we're all here together!"

Excitedly jumping down from the chair, Zhu Houzhao greeted the guards and hurriedly let Ma Yongcheng in.

Ma Yongcheng, one of the Eight Tigers, is relatively low-key among the Eight Tigers, but he is very reliable in his work.

Zhu Houzhao sold the teachers’ calligraphy and paintings, half of the money was given to Qiu Ju and Gao Feng’s cousins, and the other half was given to Ma Yongcheng, so that he could go to Shanxi to buy coal mines and other mines.

Ordinary coal is not enough for ironmaking. The ignition point of ordinary coal is too low to meet the requirements for turning iron into molten iron.

To get good refined iron, high firepower is necessary, and coke for ironmaking is essential.

In addition, coal is also related to Zhu Houzhao's other money-making plan, so Zhu Houzhao attaches great importance to the purchase of Meishan, and puts it in the first place.

A year ago, when he was still planning to leave Beijing, Ma Yongcheng left the capital with his money and went to various places in Shanxi to buy mines and set up mines.

During the correspondence, Ma Yongcheng stated that he had purchased three mines, namely an open-pit coal mine, a saltpeter production site, and a sulfur mine.

Although he encountered a lot of troubles during this period, Ma Yongcheng still took advantage of his status as a eunuch and his relationship with the East Palace to take down these three mining areas and set up a purification and processing plant in the surrounding area.

I have to say that this place in Shanxi is really a blessed place. The three things Zhu Houzhao wanted can be found in Shanxi.

After Gu Dayong bought the iron mine with a report last month, Zhu Houzhao asked Gao Feng to write to Ma Yongcheng, asking him to send coke and other mined minerals.

After the letter was sent, there was no reply. Zhu Houzhao planned to write another letter to remind him in the next few days, but he did not expect Ma Yongcheng to come today.

Soon, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and a dark-faced, beardless man dressed as a member of staff stepped in, and when he saw Zhu Houzhao, he immediately knelt down and saluted excitedly.

"Slave Ma Yongcheng, pay homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Well, good, thank you for your hard work!"

Zhu Houzhao stepped forward and helped him up. Looking at the other person's dark skin that had been running around in the mountains all year round, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of emotion.

Ma Yongcheng's eye circles turned red all of a sudden, and the bitterness of trekking through mountains and rivers for more than a year, intrigues with those local tyrants, was wiped out by Zhu Houzhao's hard work.

Wiping the tears seeping from the corners of his eyes, Ma Yongcheng replied with a smile: "Being able to serve His Highness is a blessing that I have cultivated in several lifetimes. It's too late for me to be happy. There is no such thing as hard work."

"Haha, you!"

"No food, right? It's just in time for dinner, let's eat together."

"This, this, this... slaves don't dare!"

"If you don't dare to come and sit, this is my reward for you, as compensation for your hard work outside for more than a year."

He stretched out his hand and pushed the other party onto the chair. Under the envious eyes of Gao Feng and Liu Jin, Ma Yongcheng sat down half of his buttocks nervously.

"How much coke and raw materials did you bring this time?"

Enthusiastically added a chicken leg to the other party, Zhu Houzhao urgently asked Ma Yongcheng how much coke, saltpeter and sulfur he had brought.

"Back to Your Highness..."

Ma Yongcheng got up quickly.

"Eat and talk."

Zhu Houzhao waved his hand to let the other party not be restrained.

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Ma Yongcheng sat on half of his buttocks again, and reported seriously: "This time the slaves brought 80 carts, of which 50 were coke, 20 were sulfur, and 10 were saltpeter."

"so little."

Zhu Houzhao frowned when he heard that there was only so much.

"Please forgive me, Your Highness!"

Ma Yongcheng knelt on the ground nervously, and explained repeatedly with a distressed face: "Your Highness, coke is easier to deal with, and coal mines are easy to mine. As long as the fire is well controlled, mass production is no problem."

"But saltpeter and sulfur are too slow, and need to be raised bit by bit. There are not many servants, and the output is still more than a year. If you want to increase the production, Your Highness needs to send more servants to the servants."

"Get up, it's not your fault!"

Zhu Houzhao naturally understood Ma Yongcheng's difficulty. As Yicheng said, the coke was fine. As long as the coal was dug out, the furnace was set up and the heat was controlled, and there were too many people, he could make as much as he wanted.

But saltpeter and sulfur are different. This thing not only needs to be mined but also purified, which is a waste of time and manpower.

Looking at Ma Yongcheng, who was too nervous to eat, Zhu Houzhao pinched his chin and thought for a while and said, "How about this, I will give you another 50 taels of silver, and you can take it back and continue to recruit people. I heard that there are many refugees among the people. You Just recruit people from this area, as long as you give them a bite to eat and enough wages, I believe they will not refuse."

"And you can also assure them that if the work is done well, the house and land will be distributed in the future, and you will help them settle down, so that they, including their children, will no longer suffer from exile."

"By the way, there are also those children. You can invite a few talented people who failed the exam to teach them to read, and we will provide all the supplies for eating, drinking and studying. In this way, the appeal to those refugees will be even greater."

Zhu Houzhao's thoughts made Ma Yongcheng's eyes light up slightly, and he didn't care about eating anymore, so he quickly took out a small notebook and wrote Zhu Houzhao's confession in it.

"By the way, when teaching, don't forget to tell those children, whoever gives them food and drink, who gives them hope, we can't raise a group of white-eyed wolves."

"Your Highness, don't worry, the servants will definitely stare at him. If anyone dares to be a white-eyed wolf, the servants will fill his whole family in the mine."

"Hehe." Zhu Houzhao smiled with satisfaction, "It's just as long as you know how to do it."

"Little Chengzi, among the eight of you, I am the most optimistic about you. I have always regarded you as my most intimate confidant. I have always seen your sacrifices. I am here to assure you that when Gu ascends the throne, the inner palace will The prison is none other than you!"

"Your Highness..."

Ma Yongcheng knelt down on the ground, wiped away his tears excitedly, and kept away from His Highness, never expecting His Highness to remember him so deeply.

Liu Jin, who was hugging his godfather, secretly rolled his eyes: What a poor guy!

Without noticing Liu Jin's expression, Zhu Houzhao smiled and helped Ma Yongcheng up. After the two sat down, Zhu Houzhao warmly entertained the hero Ma Yongcheng.

"Come on, come on, don't be idle, come on..."

"Your Highness, Bachelor Xie, please see me!"

Just as Zhu Houzhao warmly entertained Ma Yongcheng who had worked hard for a year, the boy scout guard who had just reported came in again.

Listening to Ma Yongcheng's story about Zhu Houzhao's experiences over the past year, his little brows frowned slightly.

"Did he say something?"

The guard shook his head, "Xie Xie didn't say anything, but he seemed to be in a hurry."

Hearing this, the first thought in Zhu Houzhao's mind was that Yan Shenggong was unwilling to spend money to buy back the seated statue of Confucius.

Thinking of this, he sneered in his heart, it's fine if you don't want to spend money, just don't cry in the future.

Anyone in this world who dares to take my Zhu Houzhao's money and refuses to do anything for me has not yet been born in the womb.

"Let him in!"

Zhu Houzhao waved his hand, wanting to hear what the Kong family had to say.

Ma Yongcheng, who was sitting on the other side, stood up quickly when he heard the cabinet bachelor came.

Zhu Houzhao didn't say anything, picked up the chicken leg that Ma Yongcheng hadn't eaten, and gnawed on it, thinking about how to attack the Kong family.

"Deng deng deng deng dang..."

Not long after, there was a sound of hurried footsteps approaching from far away.

Zhu Houzhao, who was eating the chicken leg, turned his head to look, and saw Xie Qian, who was always calm, rushing in with a hem of his clothes.

Zhu Houzhao was even more puzzled now.

Even if the Kong family didn't want to spend money, the old man wouldn't be in such a hurry.

However, before he could ask, Xie Qian, who walked in quickly, shouted at Zhu Houzhao before he could catch his breath.

"Your Highness, Wang Zhi is not available. If you use him, you will have endless troubles."

PS: I have slightly modified the strength of the previous protagonist, which will not affect the later reading.

In addition, I beg you brothers, don't stop reading before it is on the shelves, please brothers.

(End of this chapter)