The rise of the prince

Chapter 246 Army Commander + Shipyard + Trivia
"What exactly do you want to write?" Shiyu looked at the writing on the wall in puzzlement: "Dignified and upright?"

Li Xingzhou had a smirk on his face and didn't speak. He tidied up the hut and said, "When will you move to the palace?"

"No." Shiyu replied immediately.

Li Xingzhou put down the towel that was wiping the table in his hand, and gently picked up the woman. He was tall and powerful, and he was beyond comparison with poetry: "Why?"

"No reason." Shiyu avoided his gaze.

He asked puzzledly: "Didn't you still go before, why did you suddenly go back on your word?"

Shiyu answered the question: "The Zhenbao Pavilion is about to open, and I'm going down."

"Just let them watch, don't be in such a hurry."

"No, I'm the shopkeeper. I'll be lazy if I don't look at them." As he said that, he hurriedly broke away from him, and soon came a person coming downstairs from behind. After a while, the beautiful figure had disappeared at the stairs.

Li Xingzhou felt the lingering warmth in his arms, and felt lost. He felt that Shiyu was a little strange these two days.
In the afternoon, Li Xingzhou personally went outside the city to talk with the Wei family about the shipyard. The head of the Wei family of this generation is already in his fifties, and he was considered desperate at first, so he only asked for 3 taels at the beginning.

Li Xingzhou is naturally a veteran negotiator, and he understands how to completely crush his opponent in a negotiation. The most important point is that the pressure given cannot be interrupted.

Interruption of pressure means giving people a chance to breathe, so gradually applying pressure may seem cumbersome and complicated, but it is one of the best ways to resolve the deadlock. Yan Kun and Shiyu gradually applied pressure, and when Li Xingzhou came out in person, the pressure on the Wei family had already to reach maximum.

In the end, when Li Xingzhou met with the Patriarch of the Wei family in the Listening Tower, he just talked for one night, and he couldn't hold it anymore. After all, the other party was the palace, and now there was no waterway and no source of income. The biggest source of income for a big family was cut off, and it was almost impossible to support him. Next, we can only compromise.

5000 taels is the final transaction price.

Compared with the 3 taels proposed at the beginning of the period, it has been reduced by half, but it is still a huge sum of money. Apart from Li Xingzhou's pressure, various objective reasons also forced the Wei family to make concessions. .

There has been a lot of discussion about this matter in Jingchao recently, and people can hear people talking about it everywhere. The 10,000+ army went south, and it took them several days to leave the camp.

With such a huge team, not to mention fighting, it would probably take a month or more to travel from the capital to Suzhou. Solving the chaos in Suzhou is almost destined not to be a quick fix, and there may be no results in a year or so.

A savvy person can understand that the emperor's dispatch of troops has indeed blocked everyone's mouths, but it does not mean that the problem can be solved immediately.

Without the support of the shipyard, the Wei family is not sure that they can survive this disaster. If they miss this time, no one will buy the shipyard at this time, and if they don't sell it, they will offend the palace and make things worse.

In the end, the Patriarch of the Wei family gave in. The 5000 taels are not only the shipyard, but also the wood, tools, and contracts of the shipyard workers stored in the shipyard warehouse. Otherwise, it would not be so expensive. This is the biggest sum the palace has ever made deal.

That night, Li Xingzhou was very excited. He called Shiyu, Qiu'er, Yan Kun, Yan Shen, Yan Chu, and Ji Chunsheng, who had acquired the shipyard, to the third floor of Tingyu Tower, and had a banquet for everyone, including Yue'er and Ah Jiao.

Although the two little girls have no credit, they can't be left alone in the mansion.

Few people can go up to the third floor of Tingyu Tower. Now the critics of poetry have changed from the public to celebrities who often come and go. After all, this is the Matthew effect. The strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. The bigger it is, the more celebrities and Confucians gradually gather here.

For them, criticizing poems can greatly increase their reputation and be known by more people, and their arrival will further expand the reputation of Tingyulou. The two are mutually beneficial, win-win and grow stronger. Under the various psychological hints he devised, Tingyulou's reputation is growing day by day.

But in any case, Tingyulou is still just a restaurant. Its potential is gradually being discovered, but there will always be an upper limit, but shipping is different, with endless potential, which can drive countless other industries.

Everyone at the dinner party was very happy, and it was rare for the serious old man Yan Yan to laugh, not to mention that Li Xingzhou was a prodigal.Because in the past two days, he and Gillian's second uncle had just finished the ceremony of accepting Cai and asking for names, and the two sides exchanged birthday characters, which shows that there is a mistress in their palace, and the blood of King Xiao can continue.

Everyone at the table referred to Gillian as Mrs. Shizi, and Gillian blushed shyly from beginning to end, but she did not object.

Li Xingzhou, Ji Chunsheng, and Yan Shen also had a great time drinking. This business meant that the palace's next phase of planning had completely started. Although there were still many obstacles, the beginning was always good.

That night, he was so drunk that he didn't know how to get back to the palace.

Although he was still a little dizzy the next day, he also started to send people to take over the workers from the shipyard, led by Yan Shen.

Many things have to be re-planned. Unlike the temporary workers in the palace who are paid according to the amount of work, the workers in the shipyard cannot do the same.

Most of the shipyard workers are technical jobs, and their relationship with the Wei family is not simply employment, but long-term employment, almost like prostitution.

In short, similar to the unequal treaty, the workers had to work for the Wei family for decades, at least ten years, and at most more than fifty years.

There are a total of 170 workers. They live in shacks next to the shipyard when they work. Of course, some of them have houses on the outskirts of Kyoto.

This is almost an inherent mode of operation in an era of low productivity and material scarcity. No matter what kind of culture there is, only after layers of exploitation can the upper class live a life of material abundance.

His 5000 taels not only bought the shipyard, warehouses, materials, but also all the contracts of sale of the workers.

As long as these deeds are in hand, all shipyard workers need to work for the palace before the deadline stated above, and the work is compulsory. In theory, he only needs to provide food to prevent the workers from starving to death. Will they give rewards at the end of the year? It all depends on whether he wants to or not.

The reason for providing food is also because the workers are afraid that they will starve to death, unable to work and continue to create wealth.

Of course, according to Jing Chao's laws, if he starved to death of his long-term workers, Kaiyuan Mansion would ask him for the crime, but he is the son of Prince Xiao, so Kaiyuan Mansion would definitely turn a blind eye to it.

For the workers, their pursuit is to live a life without being starved to death.

As time passed, Li Xingzhou asked Zhu Rong to clean up the wrought iron pieces, and then sent Zhao Si to do the necessary things, and then asked the workers who grind graphite powder to stop temporarily to grind some iron powder. This is a necessary preparation.

At the same time, he wrote a lot of things overnight. In fact, it is a new labor contract, which can further stimulate the enthusiasm of the workers. That night, he was taken to the south of the city and printed. The palace has gradually entered the next stage, and the old order can no longer be used. Do things according to the rules, and an inappropriate system will limit productivity.

Two days later, Gillian became obsessed with making perfumes with Yue'er in these two days. They also created new perfumes such as narcissus and osmanthus. In fact, the process and principle of making perfume are very simple. The problem lies in the fineness of the processing and the details. , As long as you have the heart to keep improving, you can do better and better.

Qiu'er is still very busy, but no matter how busy he is, Li Xingzhou will teach her some new knowledge every night, but it is very complicated, he can teach whatever comes to mind, and often come to listen to poetry with her after dinner.

There is a gap between learning and application, and it is difficult for people with insufficient thinking depth to cross, but it is good for them to just remember.

Sometimes he would go to Shiyu's bed in a shameless manner, but no matter how hard he tried, Shiyu would not move to live in the palace. Li Xingzhou was actually a little guilty. Although he was not a good person, he could make Shiyu live better no matter what. I want to.

Later, when I thought about it, perhaps for an independent woman like Shiyu, freedom is what she longed for. Although I have thought about it, letting her live in the palace would be a constraint on her, so I just let her go.
In the past few days, Ji Chunsheng also talked to him about the affairs of the court every day. After a few days of court discussions, the matter of the new army has been finalized.

The emperor newly designated the fifth chamber of the Shenwu Army as the new army, and assigned it to the Privy Council and directly under the Central Government.

The five chambers of the Shenwu Army are all organizing the Imperial Army with 1000 people, and the 1000th Army, each with more than [-] people.

As a result, the emperor directly ordered in the court that the twelve armies were merged into ten armies, with two thousand soldiers in each army, and 3000 soldiers in the tenth army, which were under the jurisdiction of Li Xingzhou, the grandson of the emperor, the son of King Xiao, and the lieutenant of Zhaowu.

Li Xingzhou, the son of King Jiaxiao, is: General Ranger, Commander of the Tenth Army of the New Army.

Zhong Daoyu and Yu Chengan stood up to oppose it, but the emperor ignored it at all. The imperial edict had already been drafted by Zhongshu, and the emperor's imperial painting was handed over to his subordinates for refutation. It is estimated that they will arrive at the palace in a few days, and the emperor will Will call him into the palace himself.

Li Xingzhou himself was shocked.

He originally expected about 2000 people, but he didn't expect the emperor to give him [-] at once!

Three thousand banned troops is not a small number. Although the Shenwu Army has not fought for a long time, it is definitely not as good as the Wulie Army and Lingjie Army who have been stationed and changed all the year round. But it is only the standard equipment made by the Military Weapons Supervisor, plus the Ministry of War pays the two points. Let him have a good foundation and his own armed forces!
After hearing about this, Li Xingzhou immediately asked Yan Yan to prepare the general brew, as well as the perfume, and pack them in batches. He had to thank many people.

Two days later, most of the ministers who spoke for him have come to thank him one by one.

Li Xingzhou took Qiu'er and asked Yan Shen to lead thirty armed guards to the newly purchased shipyard.

The Wei Family Shipyard is upstream of Yuanmen Ferry, located in the north and south of the city, and it is a big river bend.

It was sunny in the morning, it had just rained last night, and the air was still fragrant with earth. There were puddles of different depths on the bluestone road from time to time. The carriage in the middle was pulling two large boxes, and the wheels creaked. A group of people headed to the west of the city. Get out of town and head to the Wei family shipyard.

Li Xingzhou rode a horse by himself, Qiu'er didn't know how to ride a horse, so he prepared an extra carriage for her.

I heard from Yan Shen that the Weijia shipyard is located in the north and west of the city. It is located in a river bend. The river bend is very wide and the water flow is not turbulent. There is little siltation, and the draft is very deep, which is just suitable for launching a new ship.

The road to the shipyard is not far away. Although it is sparsely populated, it is wide and the road is in good condition. It is paved at any time. It is better than many main official roads outside the city. transported over the road.

On both sides of the road, Li Xingzhou saw several villages, not many people, only a few dozen households. The villagers looked at their people with curious and vigilant eyes. In the distance to the west, by the woods, there were a few small, newly reclaimed villages. land, but there is not much land, and the harvest should not be enough to feed these villages.

The canal dug from the north of the village is also not well maintained, less than a foot wide, overgrown with weeds, and very narrow.

There are also a few children grazing cattle nearby, and they are also looking at them curiously. I am used to seeing the many pavilions in Kyoto, but now I look at these small villages, and I suddenly feel that they are out of place. Like two worlds.

"Whose land is this?" Li Xingzhou asked on horseback.

After a long period of practice, not to mention superb, his riding skills have been considered proficient, and he couldn't help but think of Wei Yubai who taught him how to ride a horse. She wrote to him several times and told him about Guanbei. Life is hard, but it's not bad. The Guanbeixiang Army has been reorganized. No matter how miserable the world is, life must go on.

Yan Shen rushed up to answer him: "This is your land, my lord."

"Mine?" Li Xingzhou asked back.

"That's right, this was originally the place where the Wei family settled the family members of the shipyard workers. Now that the prince has bought the shipyard, this is also the land of the Wangfu." Yan Shen said.

Only then did he understand that the ownership of land in ancient times was not so strict and clear. Most dynasties were eventually destroyed by land annexation, which led to the expansion of the family.But the village does look nice, flat and close to water and forests.

Following the road beside the village, they turned over a small hill, and the terrain began to descend. In the distance below, at the end of the hill, a huge shipyard came into sight.

The shipyard is located in the river bend at the foot of the mountain. There are solid asphalt stone walls on the edge of the river bend, many wooden scaffolding entering the water, lifting frames, simple pulleys, hemp ropes, and wooden boards. After more than a mile, the lush green surface suddenly changed its appearance, turning into the light brown of wood, as if entering another world.

There is also a half-built boat on the river bank, surrounded by scaffolding, and several workers are climbing on it to remove the planks one by one.

Li Xingzhou was shocked. For such a big place, not to mention the solid foundation and many workers, even the high-quality wood all over the floor is worth 1 taels. It seems that the Wei family is really desperate.

Qiu'er also got down from the carriage excitedly, looked at the huge shipyard under the hillside, exclaimed, and was speechless, this was exactly what she longed for day and night.

Li Xingzhou pulled the little girl onto the horse, put it in front of him, and walked down the horse slowly: "How about it, this place will be given to you later."

"Yeah." Qiu'er nodded, her little face flushed with excitement, and she shrank back again: "Your Majesty is so kind."

Li Xingzhou smiled: "Well, is it touched in my heart, and I want to make a promise with my body?"

"No. Me, I want to move here in the future." Qiu'er said, after thinking for a while, she added: "It's good that the prince also moves here."

"No!" Li Xingzhou almost fell off his horse.

When they came down to the foot of the mountain, many workers had gathered around. After all, such a large group of people would not be discovered. The workers didn't know Li Xingzhou, but they knew Yan Shen who took over the shipyard.

The workers all leaned over, and Yan Shen immediately stepped forward and said with a grand air: "This is your future master, the Emperor Sun Xiao, the son of the military supervisor, the young supervisor, the ranger general, the new army and the commander of the Tenth Army Li Xingzhou grown ups!"

The workers didn't understand this, they were dumbfounded, you look at me, I look at you.

"Stop, stop, stop" Li Xingzhou couldn't laugh or cry, he felt goosebumps all over his body, and couldn't bear to listen: "What are you talking about, the workers don't understand."

Yan Shen chuckled: "Your Majesty, it's fun to talk, how majestic."

"You are majestic!" He gently put Qiu'er down, then got off the horse and took a few steps forward.

All of a sudden the workers knelt down. Although they couldn't understand a series of titles, the ones in front of them were the sons of Prince Xiao, the sons of the Tian family, and their future masters. These workers all understood.

Li Xingzhou looked at these workers, most of them were dressed in rags, covered in sweat and dust, and no one knew how to wear clean clothes to work.

The terrain here is flat and there is no high ground, so he simply looked at the people kneeling on the ground and said, "You don't need to stand up, just sit on the ground."

The workers were stunned for a moment before they realized it, and only a few of them sat down hesitantly.

"Sit whatever you want, you don't have to be polite with me." He emphasized again, and then the workers understood, and they all sat down on the sand by the river.

That way, all workers can see him and hear him.

"I bought the shipyard and you, everyone must have heard about it. I wanted to come and see it earlier, but I didn't expect that I was too busy these two days to spare time."

"Even if the prince doesn't come to see it, we will work hard!" Someone shouted.

Li Xingzhou nodded: "I believe you will work hard, but what you do here is different from what you do at Wei's."

He said the last step, and then asked loudly: "Which of you can explain why you work?"

The workers looked at each other and shook their heads in confusion
"In order not to starve to death, to support the family, or to live on for the rest of my life and wait for a good pregnancy in the next life?"

When he said this, the workers all laughed, no one was waiting to be reincarnated. After the joke, there was nothing to say. Although Shizi said it cruelly and straightforwardly, the truth probably was like this.

After a while, Qiu'er carried a stack of papers from the car and handed them to Li Xingzhou. He held up the papers in his hands: "These are the long-term contracts for all of you that the Wei family sold to me."

As he spoke, he tore the thick stack of deeds into two halves: "From now on, you owe neither the Wei family nor my palace."

The workers were dumbfounded, and many of them got anxious and hurriedly knelt down. Although they didn't owe any debts, it also meant that their jobs were gone!

At this moment, Qiu'er handed over another stack of papers, Li Xingzhou took it, and said solemnly: "Don't worry, I'm not going to fire you, but to establish new rules, I don't care how things are done in the Wei family, but now you are People in the palace must follow my rules!"

(End of this chapter)