Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1406 Kunming New City
"Last year, Feng Shui master Wang Canghai was ordered to come to Kunming for feng shui. He said that Kunming is a place of great fortune, with mountains representing wealth and water representing fortune. To the north, it is like Wuhua Tuxiu, and a little further south, it opens up Yuping, which is the most noble Ziwei dragon. A Confucian temple can be built there, and Yunnan's literary style can flourish. Further south, a large south gate can be erected, which is the place of the dragon's lair."

While Pan Yuanming was relaying the master's geomancy results to Zhu Zhen, he unfolded a carefully drawn sketch so that the prince could form an intuitive feeling.

"In addition, the main mountain of Yunnan City is a snake, so the city must have six gates to form a turtle shape. One is the head, one is the tail, and four are the feet, so that the city can be formed into a turtle shape.
When snakes intersect and their heads and tails sway, the city will be full of vitality and all industries will prosper. Five hundred years later, Yunnan will surpass Jiangnan!"

"Five hundred years is too long, we must seize the day!" Zhu Zhen slapped the rough sketch of the new city drawn by the geomancer and said, "This design is not good, the area is too small. The southern city of the Yuan Dynasty is drawn outside the city. How can this work?"

"The new city designed by Master Wang is nine li and three fen in circumference..." Pan Yuanming said, "It is two li and five fen larger than the original one."

"That's only 1.4 square kilometers," Zhu Zhen calculated briefly and said, "that's 2,100 acres, which is still too small. Such a small city, you want to surpass Jiangnan? Dream on!"

"What do you think, Your Highness?" Pan Yuanming asked.

"When my father-in-law built the city of Beiping, its circumference was forty miles, so it was roughly this size," Zhu Zhen said.

"Isn't that too big?" Hu Quan objected, "The city is too big, it's not good for defense."

"Not big. The circumference of the capital is seventy miles, and we only have a little more than half of it. There is no problem. It doesn't matter if we can't use it now. We should leave space for the future!" Zhu Zhen waved his hand and said, "As for the defense problem, build more artillery batteries on the city and station more guards outside the city, won't it be solved?"

"The budget specified is far from enough." Pan Yuanming said worriedly.

"Let's come up with a budget first." Zhu Zhen waved his hand. You don't have to worry about money in Yunnan. If you really can't do it, just go dig in the fields.

"Your Highness, you are going to Kunming because of its population of one million!" Daotong sighed, "This new city is six times larger than Guangzhou."

"You should always have dreams. What if they come true?" Zhu Zhen laughed. "Besides, cities are not just for government offices and for the military and civilians to live in. We can also build many schools, hospitals, factories, and trade centers... Don't worry, every inch of land will still be worth a lot of money!"

"Well, all right. I will ask Master Wang to revise the draft." Pan Yuanming nodded and said, "He has gone to Yongchang for an inspection now."

"Well, when the time comes, I will invite him to dinner, and Master should still show some respect." Zhu Zhen said with a smile.

Everyone also laughed.

As they were talking, Deng Duo reported that Gu Yuanchen wanted to see him.

Zhu Zhen smiled and said, "Oh, the God of Wealth is here, let him in quickly."

Then he said to Pan Yuanming, "Aren't you worried about the budget? If you give more thanks to the God of Wealth, won't you have it?"

"That's true." Pan Yuanming said with emotion: "Chairman Gu's business is very big now. I think Shen Wansan was no better than him back then."

"The governor dare not say that." Upon hearing this, Gu Yuanchen hurriedly laughed and said, "Don't I rely on the prince and the governor to make a living?"

"If you just want to make a living, then we will be left with nothing." Hu Quan said with a smile.

"Even the Marquis wants to make fun of me?" Gu Yuanchen entered the pavilion carrying a bamboo basket and saluted to the prince and the other big men.

"Please sit down." Zhu Zhen waved his hand, and the guards brought him a stool.

After Gu Yuanchen sat down, Zhu Zhen said with a smile: "Why do people have a keen nose for business? It was my first day at work and you came here just because I was looking for you." "I haven't seen you for a long time, Your Majesty, and I miss you so much?" Gu Yuanchen said with a smile: "I was just wandering outside the palace when I had nothing to do. Today, I saw the cars of the two governors coming, so how could I resist?"

"No, something must be wrong with you." Zhu Zhen shook his head and smiled.

"Hehe, as expected, nothing can be hidden from the prince." Gu Yuanchen smiled as he opened the bamboo basket lined with bamboo shoots, took out a round cake the size of a plate, and presented it to Zhu Zhen with both hands, saying, "In two days, the third Yunnan Tea-Horse Trade Fair will be opened. On behalf of the Yunnan Tea-Horse Association, I respectfully invite the prince and all the gentlemen to come."

As he spoke, each person was presented with a round cake, not more, not less.

Gu Yuanchen smiled at Zhu Zhen and said, "This Tea-Horse Fair was held by order of the prince. However, the prince was not in Kunming during the first two sessions, and everyone was extremely disappointed. This time, the prince is finally here, and everyone is looking forward to it, counting on me to invite him. Three times is the limit, so please do me a favor, Your Majesty."

"It's already the third session." Zhu Zhen couldn't help but sigh: "It's getting more and more formal, and people even bring souvenirs."

The invitation card is pasted on the round cake, and the round cake is naturally a souvenir.

"Oh, Pu'er tea!" Zhu Zhen opened the invitation and looked at the round cake wrapped in white tissue paper underneath. He knew what it was without opening it.

"Your Highness, you know what's good!" Gu Yuanchen gave a thumbs up and said with a smile, "This is the finest Pu'er tea refined by the Tea Bureau of our Tea and Horse Association. Your Highness and the others are welcome to taste it."

"Oh, it's Pu'er tea." Everyone opened the colorful packaging and saw that there was indeed a tea cake inside.

They were no strangers to Pu'er tea, because the tea used in the tea-horse trade was Pu'er tea! It was just that it was called Pu'er tea in those days, and it was Zhu Zhen who proposed to change the name to Pu'er tea to make a distinction from the past.

Because Pu'er tea is produced in the remote areas of Xishuangbanna, Pu'er and Lincang, and is limited by the local economic and cultural level, the processing technology of Pu'er tea was very backward. There were no tea people or tea experts who studied its process and taste like green tea, so the taste was quite bitter, to put it bluntly, it was not good to drink.

For the natives in the snowy areas and the southwest, tea is a necessity, and they cannot buy the expensive green tea from the Central Plains, so they can only drink this rough Pu'er tea. Of course, the princes, nobles, and chieftains still have to drink the green tea shipped from the Central Plains.

Not to mention the people in the mainland, they completely reject this coarse tea, which is why this kind of tea can only be popular in remote areas.

After Gu Yuanchen was kept in Yunnan by Zhu Zhen and served as the president of the Tea and Horse Association, he has been trying to expand and strengthen the tea-horse trade.

Especially after the Ming Dynasty conquered Pegu and gave Yunnan an outlet to the sea, Gu Yuanchen was obsessed with letting Yunnan's tea take advantage of overseas trade.

However, the merchants rejected it because they thought it was too crude and would not be marketable, so they were unwilling to purchase it.

Gu Yuanchen learned from his mistakes and decided to change the backward appearance of Yunnan tea. So he set up a Tea Bureau under the Yunnan Tea and Horse Association to manage the Yunnan tea trade.

They bought the top six tea mountains in Yunnan, selected the best tea leaves, and had tea makers hand-make them into round cakes that look like full moons. Then they packaged seven cakes of tea into a tube, weighing 49 taels, for easy transportation and weight recording.

Moreover, Gu Yuanchen is worthy of being a big businessman from Jiangnan. He has a strong sense of trademark. The origin, grade, and tea maker of the tea cakes are printed on the packaging, and a big stamp of "Supervised by Yunnan Tea Bureau" is also stamped on it, which makes the grade much higher indeed.

Gu Yuanchen has been busy with this matter for the past two years. These tea cakes are his masterpiece. In order to quickly open up the market for them, he came up with the idea of ​​sticking invitations on the tea cakes and sending them out.

This will not only promote his "Seven-piece Tea Cake" to the upper class to the greatest extent, but also arouse people's curiosity. They all want to taste how much improvement has been made in the high-end tea cake that Mr. Gu has painstakingly launched.

Zhu Zhen ordered someone to brew a pot of tea on the spot. The tea soup was clear, refreshing, slightly bitter and sweet. The taste was really much better! So he happily agreed to participate in the Tea Horse Trade Fair two days later.

(End of this chapter)