Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 28
In the evening, at the East Palace, the Crown Princess asked a little surprised: "Why is the wine so expensive?"

She promised Wenpo Wang and others to provide them with 70.00% wine dew for disinfection to see the effect.

Although she had already considered that wine dew would be more expensive than ordinary liquor, she did not expect that the price would be about ten times worse than she imagined.

"Back to the Crown Princess, the store owner said that wine dew is the essence of wine, so it is naturally more expensive. There are only two stores in Nanjing that sell it, and the prices are the same!"

The Crown Princess felt a little strange and said: "Only two stores sell it, so few?"

She had heard Zhang Yifan talk about it before, and even a country boy knew it, so she thought it was very common.Unexpectedly, there are only two companies selling them in the entire city of Nanjing, so no wonder the price is so high!

Li Shizhen, who lived in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, recorded in "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Shochu is not an ancient method, it was created since the Yuan Dynasty. The method is to put strong wine and grains into a steamer, steam it, and use a vessel to collect Dettol... It is as clear as water , the taste is extremely strong, and it is also covered with wine dew."

In other words, distillation technology has been spread in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but it only existed in the Yuan Dynasty. After the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, I don’t know how many people died, but it is reasonable that not many people still know the distillation technology. .

As for Zhang Yifan's knowledge, it was a special case for the Ming Dynasty. If you use this as a reference, it will be strange if you don't make a mistake!

At this time, the Crown Princess had no choice but to buy it even if it was expensive.However, after such an incident, the princess took another high look at Zhang Yifan.

At about the same time, in the Yan Palace in Nanjing City, Yan King Zhu Di was also listening to his subordinates' reports.

Just hearing that, he got a little excited: "What? My eldest sister actually ran away to Liujia Village without permission?"

Zhu Di did receive an order from the palace to start preparing for the marriage.However, Zhang Yifan's matter still concerned him.This is not to say that he misses Zhang Yifan, but that he misses Zhang Yifan's ability!
For him, Zhang Yifan also had many things that confuse him.

Zhu Di is a serious person, otherwise he would not be able to achieve imperial hegemony.Therefore, he wanted to find out what abilities Zhang Yifan had and how many abilities he had?For this reason, although he could not go to Liujia Village in person, he still sent his men to Liujia Village to watch.

The result was good, he was given a surprise on the first day: Zhu Jingjing ran away to Liujia Village privately!
After the initial shock and anger, Zhu Di quickly calmed down.

For him, Zhu Jingjing's matter was a bit difficult.

A simple way is to go to the palace and complain.Even if you don't tell Zhu Yuanzhang, you can tell Empress Ma, and Zhu Jingjing will definitely be banned.

However, Zhu Di has a very good relationship with Zhu Jingjing, and he does not want his eldest sister to be punished by her father, queen and mother.He couldn't do anything about complaining unless it was absolutely necessary.

However, if he didn't complain, Zhu Di was sure that if he tried to persuade the eldest sister, even if he tried to persuade her, she probably wouldn't listen.

Therefore, Zhu Jingjing's matter gave him a little headache.Since I can't think of a solution for the time being, I'll put it aside for now.

So, he continued to ask about Zhang Yifan's situation.Especially since Zhu Jingjing was involved, he asked more carefully.

"What, a village community was established? What does this mean?"

"What, you need to build houses for the whole village and pave roads?" "What?"

"..."

What Zhu Di never expected was that there would be so much commotion in Liujia Village, so many things going on, and some weird village communities. It was really funny!
However, there was one thing that made him happy.It's just that Zhang Yifan really cares about his eldest sister and wants his eldest sister to be the largest shareholder.

"Your Highness, what they are doing is simply nonsense. They are wasting money in vain and can't accomplish anything!"

As soon as Zhu Di heard what his men said, he immediately asked curiously: "How can you see it?"

After hearing this, his subordinates quickly replied to Zhu Di: "Your Highness, I know a little bit about business. With the 1000 taels of silver from Your Highness the Princess, they want to replace the whole village with brick houses and pave the ground with stone slabs. And these Things have to be completed before the rainy season, and my subordinates dare to say that they will not be able to complete this, let alone that they are still thinking about building the river in their village..."

Zhu Di did not interrupt his men's speech, but listened carefully.

"... Nowadays, everyone with some money has to renovate their houses, so the price of bricks and tiles has been rising. Especially the stone slabs suitable for paving the floor are in short supply. Liujia Village is short of time, so the cost is even higher High. That 1000 taels of silver is definitely not enough..."

Because Zhu Di was ordered to visit privately, he also knew about local civil affairs.Therefore, he quite agreed with his subordinates' statement.

Not to mention anything else, especially the stone slabs for paving the floor, they have to be dug out of the mountain and then polished flat before they can be used to pave the floor.Now is the time when many people want it, and the price is particularly expensive.

That Zhang Yifan actually overestimated his ability and even replaced the thatched house with a tiled one, but even had to lay the floor. Isn't this a fool's errand, thinking that 1000 taels of silver can be used by more than 100 households?
But Zhu Di is actually not surprised by this. After all, Zhang Yifan's age is such that as a young man, it is understandable that he is reckless!
With this thought in his mind, he said nothing and continued to listen to his subordinates' analysis.

After his men finished speaking, Zhu Di sat there and thought for a while, and finally asked his men: "Which quarry is closest to Liujia Village?"

His subordinates thought for a moment, and then reported, "They belong to the Li family of Taipu Temple."

The name of the Prime Minister of Taipu Temple was Li Cunyi, and he was the younger brother of the Korean Duke Li Shanchang.

After hearing this, Zhu Di frowned slightly, as if a little hesitant. After thinking about it for a while, he finally told his subordinates: "Just wait and see, if they go to the Li family's quarry to buy stone slabs, they will give it to the Li family's quarry to buy stone slabs." Just to say hello, I will deliver the goods to Liujia Village first, charging them half of the price, and Prince Yan’s Mansion will give the other half."

He always remembered the scene when his eldest sister was on the verge of death. At that time, he was really scared and afraid of losing his eldest sister.Therefore, Zhang Yifan always remembered the fact that he saved his eldest sister despite his scolding.

Although he had already paid Zhang Yifan, he objected to his eldest sister always running to find Zhang Yifan, but he still felt that the life-saving friendship had not yet been repaid, so secretly helping Zhang Yifan was an explanation for himself.

His men were a little surprised when they heard this, but they had no objections. Seeing that Zhu Di did not give any orders, they retreated.

As for Zhu Di, he started to worry about his elder sister again.This person has grown up and is no longer easy to control!It's not like when I was a child, it's okay to beat her, it's a headache!
He was sure that if this girl dared to run away privately once, there would be a second time!
Don't tell me, Zhu Di guessed it right. The next day, Zhu Jingjing happily ran away to Liujiacun again.

(End of this chapter)