Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 59 The Unexpected Incident
"You previously drew a map of gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan for Wang Xuan, the son of Qianhu in Yiliang. How did you know about it? And why didn't you tell your eldest brother and grandson?"

In the Wuying Palace, when Zhu Yuanzhang said these words, not only Zhu Gaoxu was frightened, but Zhu Yunwen next to him also opened his eyes wide and turned to look at Zhu Gaoxu in disbelief.

In an instant, countless possibilities flashed through Zhu Gaoxu's mind. He even thought that Wang Xuan was Lao Zhu's spy, but he quickly rejected this idea.

Wang Xuan is not qualified to act as a spy because he does not have enough weight, and he was the first to help Wang Xuan and Yang Zhan in the teaching field, and then the two of them approached him.

As a newbie in the teaching field, I was not qualified to be monitored by people arranged by Lao Zhu in advance.

Moreover, even if Wang Xuan was a spy, he would have a better reason to explain, because he had already made such preparations.

"What? Are you thinking of how to lie to me?" At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was extremely scary to Zhu Gaoxu, but he was not frightened, but was quite calm.

There were thousands of thoughts in his mind, but all of them completely dissipated after he saw Zhu Yunwen. He had an idea in his mind and immediately raised his hands to bow:

"Returning to grandpa, the gold and silver mine map was drawn by my grandson based on "Guanzi Di Shu Pian", "Compendium of Materia Medica" and other books, combined with the terrain of Yunnan described by Wang Xuan."

"Because it was just my grandson's inference, I didn't tell my eldest brother and grandson."

"I gave the map to Wang Xuan in the hope that Wang Xuan would investigate it for his grandson after he returns to Yunnan after completing the college entrance examination."

"My grandson is not sure whether there are mines in these places, but if there are mines, my grandson thinks that Wang Xuan is his friend and he can make a fortune through that mine map."

"My grandson also told me that if there is a mine in the place shown on the mine map, he can present the map to the court and seek wealth."

Although Zhu Gaoxu was frightened by Lao Zhu's words at the beginning, he responded calmly and calmly, which Lao Zhu admired quite a lot.

"Are you sure that's what you said? I heard something different."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhu Gaoxu in return, but Zhu Gaoxu insisted: "That's what my grandson said."

Zhu Gaoxu was betting that Wang Xuan did not betray him.

"Well..." Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment, then leaned on the chair and said:
"I sent someone to see Wang Xuan. He is an honest person. He has become more capable after working with you. If he can pass next year's exam, he can go to Dali and Yongchang to serve as a thousand-household official."

"If he can't pass, then I won't be stingy and give him a false title of ninth rank so that he won't be in trouble in the future."

"Thank you, Grandpa!" Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief. He made the right bet.

"Besides, you said that the map of gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan was drawn by you after studying "Guanzi" and "Compendium of Materia Medica" and combining it with the terrain. Are you sure there will be mines in these places?"

Compared with the affairs of Wang Xuan and Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Yuanzhang was more concerned about whether the Yunnan gold, silver and copper mines were true.

"My grandson is not completely sure, but based on what Wang Xuan and I said about the topography of Yunnan, we guess that there are likely to be mineral veins in these places." Zhu Gaoxu replied Hu Hao.

"Absurd!" Hearing Zhu Gaoxu's answer, Zhu Yuanzhang was a little disappointed, but Zhu Yunwen smiled and said:

"Grandpa, although Gao Xu's words are a bit exaggerated, there is indeed a rumor among folk mountain workers that he has the ability to 'look at the mines in the mountains'."

"Folk mountain workers can learn such skills. Gao Xu is so smart, it's not surprising that he is a little more capable."

"How about someone give him a map of the south of the Yangtze River and ask Gao Xu to show grandpa all the places with mineral veins. If he can find them, it will be a good thing."

Zhu Yunwen took the initiative to speak for Zhu Gaoxu, which Zhu Gaoxu himself did not expect.

But after he thought about it for a moment, he felt that Zhu Yunwen might not be so kind, it was just that he wanted to see himself embarrassed.

However, his calculation was wrong. He, Zhu Gaoxu, really knew that there was a mine near Nanjing City, and it had not yet been discovered. This could give Lao Zhu a little surprise.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu did not resist, but took the opportunity to step down and said: "Grandpa, if you believe me, you can let me give it a try. Although it is not guaranteed to be effective, it can at least be [-]% correct!"

"Really?" Zhu Yuanzhang didn't believe it, but Zhu Gaoxu nodded like a groundhog: "Confirmed!"

Facing Zhu Yuanzhang's doubts, Zhu Gaoxu was very sure. After all, that place was the place he had visited personally when he was on a business trip in his previous life. Although he could not point out the specific location, he could still circle the general location.

"Someone, bring me the map of South Zhili!"

Before Zhu Yuanzhang could speak, Zhu Yunwen asked someone to bring up the map of South Zhili. This move made Zhu Yuanzhang glance at him, but he didn't say anything in the end.

Soon, a map of Southern Zhili was placed in front of Zhu Gaoxu, but at this time he was dumbfounded.

Facing the slightly abstract map of Southern Zhili in front of him, Zhu Gaoxu would not be able to tell where is where if it were not for the text. "The mountains and rivers on this map were also drawn..."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know what to say, so he could only put his hand on Jiuhua Mountain in the east of Nanjing City and pointed at the mountainous area: "There are mines here."

"Why, that's all you have?" Zhu Yuanzhang showed a bit of impatience, because the area painted by Zhu Gaoxu was too large, and even if he sent people to search, hundreds of people would have to be mobilized for more than half a year.

"It should be here." According to his memory, Zhu Gaoxu circled a place in the Jiuhuashan mining area in later generations.

According to the circle he drew, the scope has indeed shrunk a lot, and it only takes a hundred people to search for a few days to find out.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not believe him. After all, the ability to "look at the mines in the mountains" is not something ordinary people can learn. Moreover, even if there is a mine in Jiuhua Mountain, it is impossible that no one will know about it. After all, Jiangnan is now densely populated, and Jiuhua Mountain is There are many people around, and woodcutters come into the mountains every day.

If there really was a mine in that place, it's impossible that no one would have discovered it until now.

"Okay, you should be honest and study at Song Guogong's Mansion and Ying Guogong." Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and was about to drive Zhu Gaoxu out.

Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang no longer pursues the case, Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, in order to perform well, he bit the bullet and continued to bow:

"If grandpa believes me, you can send someone to search. Even if there are no mines, there should be mines left hundreds of years ago."

Having said that, Zhu Gaoxu turned around and walked out of Wuying Hall without waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to issue the eviction order.

Looking at his back, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know what to say. He just felt that Zhu Gaoxu was talking nonsense just to show off.

"Call Shouchun the Prince Consort is coming in." Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the eunuch, the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and upon seeing this, the eunuch quickly followed Zhu Gaoxu.

Not long after, Zhu Gaoxu walked out, and when he met Fu Zhong, the eunuch happened to summon him.

The two nodded, and then Fu Zhong stood up and walked into the palace, while Zhu Gaoxu sat down in his previous seat, completely losing the restrained feeling in the palace.

Such a change made the eunuch who summoned Fu Zhong feel that there had been a huge change.

"It's been fooled..."

Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath, and his eyes briefly glanced in the direction of the side hall where Lao Zhu and the others were.

He dared to draw a mine map, so he was prepared to be questioned by Lao Zhu, so before he gave the mine map to Wang Xuan, he prepared ancient and modern classics such as "Guanzi", "Pingzhou Ketan", "Compendium of Materia Medica", etc. Keep reading every day.

Although these classics do not directly record the affairs of mountain workers and mineral deposits, they do contain a lot of space on how to search for minerals.

In addition to these, there were many medical books before the Ming Dynasty that also recorded tips on how to look at mountains to find medicine, and some of these tips were related to mineral veins.

Although the skill of "looking at mountain points for mines" is a folk boast, there are indeed some experienced mountain workers who can roughly judge whether there are mineral deposits in the mountains by observing the trend of the mountains.

However, for this kind of ability, the person concerned must see the mountains and rivers in person to make a general judgment.

For someone like Zhu Gaoxu, who has never been to Yunnan in person, but can mine mines thousands of miles away, no matter how many years we go back, he is the first in this industry.

Because of this, Lao Zhu found it very ridiculous, and even Zhu Yunwen wanted to see his joke.

At that time, Zhu Gaoxu thought he would be kicked out, but he didn't expect that Zhu Yunwen would take the initiative to stand up and 'speak for him'.

Even though his original intention was to prevent him from getting off stage, he did save himself.

From this point of view, he really has to thank Zhu Yunwen. He just doesn't know what Zhu Yunwen's expression would be if he knew that there was a mine in Jiuhua Mountain.

"The bet won..."

He breathed a long sigh of relief. At this moment, Zhu Gaoxu felt like he was dancing on the tip of a knife. Although he was a little scared in retrospect, he was more excited.

This feeling is wonderful, like a roller coaster, very exciting.

Regardless of whether Lao Zhu would send people to Jiuhua Mountain to look for minerals or not, he just got there because he didn't know what Lao Zhu was going to talk to Fu Zhong about.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu looked into Wuying Hall.

Under his gaze, Fu Zhongye and the eunuch on duty walked into the side hall of Wuying Palace...

(End of this chapter)