Nuclear Warlord

Chapter 274
"Humph!"

Zhang Haihui sneered, the contempt on his face was undisguised.

The scene became noisy.

"57 taels of silver, this is not a small amount of compensation, why does His Royal Highness the Ninth Prince do this?"

"Isn't it? It's completely unnecessary to be so impulsive."

"It's not such a waste of money, and it's unpleasant to keep up with the Shangguan family."

"When Shangguan's family reported 68 taels, they should have given up and let them build it!"

"..."

Shangguan Yunfei was so angry.

How can there be such a business?

Even if you don't make money, you can't lose money like this!
He and the top steel-making masters in his family have repeatedly discussed and demonstrated that no matter how strong the smelting technology mastered by Li Changfeng, it is impossible to reduce the cost to this level.

This is clearly aimed at their Shangguan family.

But he really didn't dare to accept the move.

A mere 10 taels is nothing to the Shangguan family, but if they continue to be tough, it is tantamount to completely turning against Li Changfeng.

Turning against Li Changfeng completely is equivalent to turning against Emperor Qianwu and Dagan.

Now that Dagan has artillery and muskets and other state-defending weapons, the barbarian temples can't do anything about it. How dare they have the courage.

The fact that Wang's home in Yunzhou was blown into ruins is still vivid in my mind.

Shangguan Yunfei could only choose to compromise.

"Cough cough!"

Seeing the noisy scene, Feng Quji coughed loudly twice.

After he calmed down, he looked at Shangguan Yunfei.

"Has the Shangguan family confirmed that they won't follow?"

Shangguan Yunfei squeezed out a smile: "I won't follow."

Feng Quji nodded, and announced loudly: "Okay, then this project will belong to His Highness the Ninth Prince, and the auction is over."

As soon as the words finished, Shangguan Yunfei couldn't wait to leave with a gloomy face, and the others also left after saluting to Li Changfeng.

Feng Quji stayed at the end, found Li Changfeng and sighed, "Your Highness, why do you have to be so arrogant? You have made a loss-making business and offended the Shangguan's family. The gain outweighs the loss!"

Li Changfeng couldn't help laughing: "This prince will do business at a loss?"

When he offered an olive branch back then, the Shangguan family didn't respond for a long time, so they asked people to calculate the cost with the smelting technology that is now common in Daqian and throw out a budget.

In fact, with the iron ore screening and purification technology he now masters, and the technology of removing impurities, the cost can be greatly reduced, and the support of quenching technology does not require manual forging repeatedly, which reduces the cost even more.

Even in the new steelmaking plant that is about to be put into operation, steam engines are used in many processes, and the efficiency has been greatly improved.

This kind of gap is the gap between the era of industrialization and the era of manual farming, which people like Shangguanjia and Feng Quji can't imagine and understand.

Feng Quji was stunned for a moment: "Your Highness, are you sure you don't want to lose money?"

Li Changfeng smiled and said, "That's natural."

Feng Quji took a deep look at Li Changfeng, apparently still not believing it, thinking that Li Changfeng was just trying to compete with the Shangguan family.

But he didn't delve into it, and said with a dry smile, "It's fine if you don't lose money."

Then we chatted a few more words and left.

As the people who participated in the bidding left, what happened today quickly spread in the capital.

Apart from praising Li Changfeng for being open and transparent, the most discussed topic is that he is being taken advantage of.

His Royal Highness the Ninth Prince, who has always been the best at making money, actually started a business at a loss?
Just outrageous.

Li Changfeng looked indifferent.

He won't lose money on this deal.

Of course, it's true that you don't earn much.

But he doesn't care, he just wants to show the arrogance of the Shangguan family, so that other families who are ready to make a move know his determination on this matter, and don't create obstacles for him.

To Li Changfeng, this incident was nothing more than an insignificant episode, but it was indeed a great insult to the Shangguan family.

After Shangguan Yunfei returned to the mansion, he was furious, and crazily smashed everything he could see in the mansion, like an angry wild boar.

"Asshole! Just asshole!"

"It's been hundreds of years, and no member of the royal family has targeted my Shangguan family like this!"

"Damn it! Li Changfeng, this bastard is really damned!"

"..."

After venting madly for a while, Shangguan Yunfei gradually regained his composure, his eyes were cold.

"Gunpowder! It's all because of gunpowder!"

"Without gunpowder, there would be no artillery, muskets, or grenades!"

"If we also get gunpowder, we can also make artillery, muskets and grenades. By then, will the Li family dare to be so arrogant?"

"We must do everything possible to get the formula for gunpowder!"

Shangguan Yunfei's mind is very clear, gunpowder is the fundamental support for the retreat of the major families and the aggressiveness of the Li royal family.

In fact, he is not the only one who has such an idea, the other aristocratic families of the Eight Great Aristocratic Families, important officials in the court, and even the First Prince and others are also making gunpowder ideas.

It's just that the gunpowder factory in Huangzhuang is heavily guarded, except for Emperor Qianwu and Li Changfeng who can come and go freely, no one else can enter.

Not even a bird can fly in.

Even if they fly in, they will be stared at by the guards and will not stop until they are shot and burned.

The purpose is very simple, it is to avoid such things as birds passing on books and leaking the secrets inside.

In terms of keeping secrets, no matter Li Changfeng or Emperor Qianwu, they did everything they could.

After the establishment of the Ministry of Railways, under Li Changfeng's single-handed control, the construction of the Dagan Railway Network officially started.

Such a large project requires a huge amount of manpower and material resources, similar to the infrastructure investment and construction of the country where Li Changfeng lived in his previous life, which not only provided a large number of jobs, but also stimulated the development of related businesses.

Daqian's economy is developing rapidly under his promotion.

The people earn wages through labor, the merchants allocate and provide materials to earn profits, and they collect business taxes from merchants to subsidize the finance.

Up and down, everyone is happy.

Just when everything was progressing in an orderly manner, a letter of credence from Korea was delivered to Emperor Qianwu's desk.

Different from the last time, this time the letter of credence was written by King Koryo himself, and the words were extremely respectful and sincere, praising the Dagan artillery and other state-killing weapons that shocked the world, and asking Dagan to send troops to help kill the Japanese pirates.

He even called Emperor Qianwu Tian Khan!
This is tantamount to completely letting go of dignity and flattering Emperor Wu.

It is true that the Japanese pirates are like hyenas, and they have caused so much harm to the country of Koryo that the king of Koryo had to ask for a big job.

Although Emperor Ganwu knew that the title of Tian Khan was a compliment, he was still very happy and laughed in the imperial study.

However, he did not lose his mind and did not intend to send troops at all.

In the early morning of the next day, Emperor Qianwu asked Gao Dali to read the letter of credence to his ministers.

The ministers deliberated, but there was no result.

Now that the Hu people in the north are eager to fight against Dagan, and the money from the treasury is going to be used to build the railway, where is the energy and money to help Korea?
Just let them fend for themselves.

(End of this chapter)