Uncle Lai in the Red Chamber

Chapter 429

More than ten days passed in a flash. On this day, Emperor Zhenglong had just had lunch and was reviewing memorials in the imperial study room. He saw a eunuch in charge of Fengzao Palace coming to report with a look of horror.

"Your Majesty! Someone wants to murder His Highness Prince Qi. My Majesty, please come over!"

"what?"

Emperor Zhenglong suddenly jumped up from the dragon chair. He didn't have time to call Yu Hui and ran towards Fengzao Palace.

When they arrived at the residence of King Qi in Fengzao Palace, they saw Queen Tian covered in blood and lying limply on the ground. Next to her lay the bodies of two palace maids. One of them had a hairpin stuck in her neck. The palace was full of eunuchs. The palace maid fell to her knees, trembling and frightened.

"emperor!"

Seeing Emperor Zhenglong step in, Queen Tian seemed to have seen her backbone. She stood up from the ground tremblingly and threw herself into Emperor Zhenglong's arms.

Pointing to one of the corpses, he said intermittently: "My... I took a nap at noon, leaving only two maids to look after the emperor. Fortunately, I was a light sleeper and woke up in time when I heard the noise."

Emperor Zhenglong patted the queen's pink back, and said furiously: "Check it out! Let me check it out! Who on earth has the guts to murder the prince!"

Then he said angrily: "I have given you an oral order to keep Concubine Duan under strict supervision. Send an order to Tienwang Mountain to return to the capital with Prince Jing!"

Whoever benefits is the most suspected, Emperor Zhenglong immediately thought of Prince Jing and his biological mother, Concubine Duan.

"Your Majesty! His Royal Highness Prince Jing is extremely filial and pure. He has had nothing to do with his concubines these years. He has treated him like his own son. He will definitely not do such an unconscionable thing! If Your Majesty calls him back to Beijing now, he will inevitably be criticized. People will The words are terrible, by then it will be him or him, so please, Your Majesty, think twice!"

The autumn hunt was already halfway through, but the queen didn't know the specific time of the operation. Even if the two places summoned the messenger, it would not be faster than the person reporting the news.

Therefore, the queen could only act decisively. She could express her goodwill towards Prince Jing and prevent the emperor from recalling Prince Jing.

However, she deliberately did not intercede on behalf of Concubine Duan. After all, she was considered Prince Jing's legitimate mother. She had always had nothing to do, and she was indeed good to Prince Jing, but interceding for Concubine Duan was too deliberate.

Emperor Zhenglong did not doubt that she had it. While praising the queen for her kindness and caring for the world, he asked about what happened.

Queen Tian told the story with lingering fear.

Pointing to another corpse, he said: "Fortunately, this palace maid is loyal, otherwise I would not be able to stop it in time!"

The results of the interrogation cannot be achieved in an instant. Fortunately, King Qi was fine. Although the queen also suffered some minor injuries, it was not serious, but she was inevitably too frightened.

Emperor Zhenglong summoned the imperial physician and stayed with him every step of the way.

Although the two palace maids on the ground were both completely cold, one was loyal to protect the Lord, and the other was plotting to murder the emperor's heir. Not only were they treated differently after death, but the situation of their families was also completely different.

Although the prince is involved, this kind of harem crime case will be dealt with by the Criminal Division, and will not be notified to the Civil and Military Affairs Bureau. The trouble will go to Jing Zhaoyin and the Criminal Department Yamen.

Therefore, Lai Shangrong still knows nothing.

At the moment, he is in the duty room of the State-owned Enterprise Department, handling official business.

"How is the construction of the breeding plant and the receiving of the pasture going?"

Thanks to the experience of delivering warmth to workers last year, Lai Shangrong deeply felt the difficulty of buying meat.

The breeding industry in a farming society is very backward. When people don't have enough to eat, how can they have surplus grain to raise pigs?

Therefore, raising pigs is only something that wealthy landowners do. In the periphery of the city, although the situation has improved slightly, most people are self-sufficient.

The social status of craftsmen these days is low, which also brings a lot of inconvenience to the recruitment of workers. Even with his current social status, it is difficult to improve it in the short term.

Therefore, we can only find another way and start from the standard of living.

Food is the most important thing for the people. Not only should workers be fed, but they must also be well fed in order to attract employees.Originally, this did not require the state-owned company to build its own breeding plant, but when he purchased pork last year, he discovered that the pigs around the capital had lower litter sizes and meat production than later generations.

In addition, the fleet that returned to Beijing with Liu Xianglian this time also brought many fine Western varieties, which prompted him to have the idea of ​​building a breeding factory.

In addition to breeding pigs, there are also many horses, cattle, and sheep.

Even if the diesel engine is developed, there are still difficulties in oil refining. Moreover, it is limited by factors such as cost and production capacity, and industrial transportation needs to be shared. It is not easy to popularize tractors.

Lai Shangrong still remembered that when he was a child in his previous life, the fields were still cultivated by animal power, so he enclosed a few pieces of pasture.

"Sir, the breeding plant has been built. In addition to the breeding pigs shipped back from Xiyi, many good breeds have also been collected from the country."

The differences between breeds are also quite obvious. Take sheep as an example. Some produce sufficient wool, and some have delicious meat.

Lai Shangrong plans to establish breeding centers across the country and slowly select them after the scale expands.

The same is true for food, but the relevant land policy cannot be implemented yet.

It has to be said that Lai Shangrong is still very pragmatic. Queen Tian is helping her son seek the throne, but he focuses on the food, clothing, housing and transportation for future generations.

It cannot be generalized as to which one is higher or lower. We can only say that the butt determines the head.

After finishing the production and construction matters, Lai Shangrong turned to the duty room of the Security Department.

"Have training arrangements been made for the newly recruited personnel?"

Chen Wu and Sun Yun immediately replied: "Sir, the one hundred people recruited this time have been arranged!"

This group is considered a special recruitment, and more than a hundred of them are orphans adopted by Lai Da.

Otherwise, Lai Shangrong would not have particularly interfered.

"Okay! After the training of this group of people, there is no need to rush into the establishment of the development zone. After a while, new firearms will be installed in Jinmen, and the security department will be responsible for the transportation. At that time, I will give this group of newcomers some experience."

It was a pity that the emperor did not agree to his proposal to expand the security department. Otherwise, he would have planned to divide some of these [-] people into the expanded team.

Although they are bound to be sent overseas, once they need to escape far away, these people can be responsible for the response tasks.

Regarding Lai Shangrong's instructions, the two of them had no doubts about it and immediately nodded in agreement.

Sun Yun said flatteringly: "It's better for you to think carefully. If these people are merged into the development zone, they will have to be transferred later, and their work schedules will have to change accordingly. It's better to save trouble this way."

Lai Shangrong nodded and said: "Arrange them to go to the firearms factory to learn common sense about maintenance!"

After explaining the matter, Lai Shangrong left the security department duty room, watched the sunset, hummed a tune, and went straight to the carriage home.

People are in high spirits when happy events happen, and Aunt Zhao has already sent word that everything has been arranged for Tanchun, just waiting for him to go over and accept it.

Considering Tanchun's astute character, he did not act too hastily, but maintained the frequency of Aunt Zhao's services, and this has been delayed until today.

Unlike Youshi's time, this time he pretended to be confused while pretending to understand.

Of course, in order to avoid things going wrong during the period of national filial piety, Aunt Zhao would be required to act as a firefighter and join in midway.

This is done in one go, saving a lot of follow-up instructions.

Thinking of this, Lai Shangrong couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly.

(End of this chapter)