Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 82

Lai Zongdao had already retired from his old age and returned to his hometown. Although he was called back to be the Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and joined the cabinet, he was not happy in his heart. After all, the party struggle in the court is intensifying. I have suffered losses in the party struggle, but I really don’t like this kind of worrying life where every day is full of open and covert fighting.

Therefore, Lai Zongdao has always had a sad face since he returned to the capital. He was led by Wang Yuanbao to the Qianqing Palace, knelt down and kowtowed: "I come to Zongdao to kowtow to your majesty. May your majesty be safe!"

However, Zhu Tianqi came forward to help Lai Zongdao himself with great enthusiasm: "Teacher, please get up quickly!" Then he said to Wang Yuanbao: "Hurry up, give me a seat!"

Lai Zongdao was really flattered. Although the emperor had always used him very highly, he had never shown such enthusiasm as today, so he had to stand up and hand over his hand: "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Tianqi took Lai Zongdao's arm and asked him to sit on the chair, and then said: "Teacher, I know you want to go back to your hometown as soon as possible and spend a few days in peace, but I have no choice. But I have other options. You can trust me, and I won’t bother you anymore, Teacher!”

After hearing this, Lai Zongdao hurriedly stood up and bowed his hands in salute, "Your Majesty, your words are serious. Serving for Your Majesty is my duty as a minister of Lai Zongdao. How can I shirk it?"

Zhu Tianqi looked at Lai Zongdao with a grateful face, patted Lai Zongdao's shoulder gently, and motioned him to sit down, "I know that you must be considerate of me, teacher. Now that the Donglin Party is powerful, they bully me as a young man." , if I don't find a few loyal veterans like you, teacher, to support me, what else will I do as an emperor?"

When Lai Zongdao heard this, he was even more frightened and stood up in a hurry, "Your Majesty is the True Dragon Emperor. You must not take yourself lightly. I believe that both the Donglin Party and other courtiers are loyal to Your Majesty and loyal to your Majesty." Ming Dynasty, I hope your majesty will not listen to rumors and make wild guesses, causing the monarch and his ministers to be alienated from morality!"

When Zhu Tianqi heard this, he immediately felt that he had punched cotton. This Lai Zongdao actually helped the Donglin Party to excuse him. He really can't blame anyone.

Lai Zongdao didn't wait for Zhu Tianqi to speak again, and then continued: "Your Majesty, please relax. Since I have returned to the court to serve as an official, I will naturally be loyal to your Majesty wholeheartedly. No matter what your Majesty's orders are, I will definitely die without hesitation." !”

If Lai Zongdao had said the following words directly, Zhu Tianqi might have been very moved, but with his previous words, Zhu Tianqi would have put a question mark on his next words. Although Zongdao said nicely and would not give up even if he died, I am afraid that he would not even ask him to help him deal with the Donglin Party.

Thinking of this, Zhu Tianqi stopped talking nonsense to him and said directly: "I brought you here today because I have something to do with you, teacher."

When Lai Zongdao saw that Zhu Tianqi was serious, he quickly stood up and raised his hands and asked, "What are your orders, Your Majesty?"

Zhu Tianqi sat back on his chair and said: "Teacher, you must have heard that the group of Taixi people in the capital were recruited by Sun Yuanhua from Haojing'ao. I wanted to raise them. Let them help our Ming Dynasty cast the Hongyi cannon.

But now the artillery has not even started to be cast, and the ministers have already begun to clamor for me to expel these Thais from Beijing as soon as possible. You say, if I really have to drive these Thais away, our Ming Dynasty's cannons will not be cast. Cast? Lai Zongdao nodded and said: "The artillery must be cast, of course. The Taixi people were recruited by Mr. Sun after a lot of effort. Naturally, they cannot be driven away in vain." "

"Yes, so after thinking about it, I had no choice but to move the cannon foundry outside the capital. Let these Taixi people leave the capital and hide far away, so there won't be so many problems. Zhu Tianqi said. "I plan to build a secret cannon foundry in the Yulinwei area of ​​Shaanxi Province to house these Thai and Western craftsmen. I wonder what you think of this, teacher?"

After listening to Zhu Tianqi's words, Lai Zongdao naturally understood what Zhu Tianqi meant and immediately expressed his position directly: "The construction of a cannon foundry for the imperial court is a matter within our engineering department. If your Majesty has chosen Once the place is ready, I will go down to make arrangements and prepare a plan for the Emperor as soon as possible."

Zhu Tianqi didn't expect that his words would reach this point. Now Zongdao was doing Tai Chi with him and pushed him back. He immediately didn't give him the chance and said directly: "You don't have to draw up a plan. , the Taixi people's cannon casting is much different from our Ming Dynasty. The new cannon casting factory must be built according to the requirements of the Taisi people, so let Sun Yuanhua do the details of this matter. You, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, just do your support work. alright!"

When Lai Zongdao heard this, he realized that the emperor trusted Sun Yuanhua more than himself when it came to building the cannon foundry. But after all, he was the top leader of the Ministry of Industry. Since the emperor wanted to delegate power to himself, he also had to He had to take away all the responsibilities in advance, so he immediately said: "Since His Majesty has arranged for Mr. Sun to be responsible for this matter, the cost of the construction..."

"You don't have to worry about the expenses. I will personally instruct Xu Shangshu to raise them!" Zhu Tianqi interrupted him directly, "Just do a good job of coordination and recruit craftsmen as soon as possible. People who used to work in the Firearms Bureau, They were all summoned and sent to the new artillery foundry in northern Shaanxi!"

Lai Zongdao had no choice but to obey.

Zhu Tianqi then said: "There is also the matter of disaster relief in northern Shaanxi. I sent people to visit the Chief Secretary of Shaanxi and learned that there is likely to be a severe drought in the Chief Secretary of Shaanxi this year. In order to prevent the disaster from spreading, someone took the opportunity. In order to incite the victims to rebel, I plan to set up relief centers in various prefectures and counties in advance, and your Ministry of Industry needs to take the lead in doing this."

Lai Zongdao couldn't shirk the matter, and with the precedent of the cannon foundry, he didn't have to worry about money, so naturally he didn't have any psychological burden, so he just accepted the order and went on the errand.

Zhu Tianqi was not worried about this matter being leaked by Lai Zongdao. Although Lai Zongdao had summoned craftsmen and people from the former Firearms Bureau with great fanfare after returning, he naturally could not hide the matter, but he wanted to build a new cannon foundry to cast red cannons. The matter of Yi Dapao is not a secret.

It would be fine as long as the specific location of the newly built cannon foundry is not publicized. Furthermore, Lai Zongdao himself has not told Lai Zongdao about this location. Currently, only Sun Yuanhua knows about it.

Zhu Tianqi naturally did not dare to delay the matters arranged by Zongdao. After returning, he immediately arranged for people to recruit thousands of craftsmen. Most of the people from the Firearms Bureau were still in the capital, although there were many casualties in the explosion at Wang Gong Factory. people, but many people survived and survived, and in the end more than 300 people were gathered.

(End of this chapter)