Daming: My boss Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 378 The prince is here to get closer

Seeing that Zhu Biao did not speak, Zhu Yuanzhang did not urge him, but said softly: "Don't worry, you can have more contact with this brat in the future. If you can, we will leave him to you. If not..."

"Father, don't worry, my son will be able to control him well." Zhu Biao hurriedly interrupted Zhu Yuanzhang's next words.

He didn't want to hear what Zhu Yuanzhang said next, nor did he want to accept that arrangement.

After all, Li Wei is An Qing's husband, and his brother-in-law is a family member. He must not be treated with extreme means unless forced to do so.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded gently: "That's good."

He also hopes that Zhu Biao can really control this person. After all, he is an irreplaceable talent. There is no second person in the world. If he is gone, he will really be gone.

Zhu Biao also understood this very well, so he secretly made up his mind to conquer Li Wei.

Li Wei left the palace and returned directly to his house.

Today's family dinner gave him a very bad feeling.

Zhu Yuanzhang is old. Regardless of his rough understanding of history, the emperor is probably ready to attack the nobles in the court.

And now, like Xu Da, Li Shanchang and others, he is one of the top people among the nobles.

This time, Zhu Yuanzhang asked his navy to transport grain and grass, but he estimated that once the navy went there, it would not be able to come back. It would either be stationed abroad permanently, or it could be dismantled and arranged separately in various guard posts.

No matter which one it is, he will gradually lose control of this navy. Even if he can still influence some generals, it will be difficult to mobilize troops.

After returning to his house, Li Wei ordered people to find Abu.

"How are Lu Hong and the others doing during their training?"

When he saw Abu, Li Wei asked directly.

Abu pondered for a moment and said: "Fortunately, they are all very good. Although their personal martial arts abilities are poor, their command skills are very good."

Li Wei nodded. This was normal. Lu Hong and the others had just joined the army and had been studying all their lives. They had not received much training. It was normal for them to be poor at individual combat.

"Well, take some time to go to the navy station and hand these students over to Shi Jun and the others."

"Okay." Abu agreed happily.

After giving the instructions, Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

Although these students' combat ability is not as good as that of Shi Jun's veterans, their minds are more flexible. The most important thing is that these students have no ideological shackles such as loyalty to the emperor. The emperor's order does not matter at all. As long as he gives an order, These students will find a way to do it for him.

After sending Abu away, Li Wei sent someone to find Chen Shaofeng and gave him some instructions.

Chen Shaofeng, Lu Hong and others are all classmates, so it is easier to contact them.

After this period of development, the number of Night Guards has exceeded 3,000. At the same time, they have also used money to win over some peripheral personnel. These people are distributed in various places in various capacities, inquiring about news and passing on intelligence, and also performing some special tasks.

With these people around, he can keep track of the navy's movements at any time. If something unexpected happens, he can convey orders to Lu Hong and others through Chen Shaofeng and others.

After making these arrangements, Li Wei stopped asking the navy questions and focused all his attention on the new academy.

The new college is not far from the Ordnance Bureau and is located in the west corner of the capital. Only such a remote place can free up nearly a thousand acres of land for him to build a college.

As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers. After a year, this original wasteland has been repaired and leveled, and gray buildings have risen from the ground.

These buildings are as short as two or three stories and as high as eight or nine stories. They are all square and square, which is completely different from the style of the brick and stone houses in the Ming Dynasty.

After Li Wei arrived here, Lu Ti, Tao Sheng and others came to greet him.

"Master."

"teacher!"

Everyone greeted them, and Li Wei nodded lightly and asked, "How is the project going?"

When Lu Ti heard this, he immediately looked at Tao Sheng.

He was responsible for coordinating the craftsmen. The construction of this new college was mainly led by Li Wei's students, Tao Sheng and Yue Wenjun and Shao Yongqiang.

Tao Sheng said with some guilt: "The main body has been completed, but the water and electricity aspects have not been completed yet."

"Oh, really. If there's any problem, tell the teacher. You and I will figure it out together."

Li Wei smiled and patted his shoulder.

Building water and electricity was not a complicated technology in later generations, but it is not easy to realize now, and Li Wei did not expect these students to solve it easily.

Seeing that he didn't blame him, Tao Sheng breathed a sigh of relief. He led him and said, "In terms of water delivery, the main problem is that the water pressure is unstable. The teacher said that those faucets must be opened at any time for use. This requires stable water supply." "Hey, the students have thought of some ways, but they are not very convenient and cannot achieve what the teacher said. The other thing is the electric lights. We made them according to the method you gave us, but those inert gases are too difficult to make..."

Tao Sheng explained the problems he encountered one by one, and Li Wei frowned slightly after hearing this.

Some things are very common in later generations, but they are very troublesome to make. For example, electric lamps were initially vacuumed, but not only did they have a short lifespan, but they were also dangerous. The later method was to fill the lamp with inert gas.

The purpose of these practices is to slow down the oxidation of the filament and extend the life of the lamp.

Of course, later generations of electric lamps have developed into LEDs, completely eliminating these problems, but he definitely couldn't build that thing.

As for constant-pressure water supply, you need to use controllers, frequency converters, and various pressure sensors. These things are impossible to even think about.

But it doesn’t matter if you don’t have these advanced gadgets. You can use other methods to make low-level ones first.

"The water pressure does not have to be constant. In this case, you can build a water tower or set up a water tank at a high place. First pump the water up, and then use the height difference to let it flow by itself."

"As for the problem of electric lights," Li Wei thought for a while and said, "You can try to use some flammable substances to consume the oxygen in the air and collect the remaining gas. It should be able to be used with some effort."

The main components of air are nitrogen and oxygen. As long as the oxygen is consumed, a mixture of nitrogen and a small amount of other gases can be obtained.

Tao Sheng silently wrote down the method taught by Li Wei, and was ready to lead others to try it immediately.

Li Wei watched as he walked and climbed up the stairs to a seven-story building.

Today's capital, except for the relatively tall palace buildings, are mostly bungalows. Standing on this nearly 20-meter-high building and looking around, the entire capital can be seen at a glance.

The tallest palace in the palace is more than 30 meters, but that's plus the platform below. The real house is not that high. There is no such thing as a four-story building like the one under his feet.

For the ancients, living in a high-rise building without water and electricity supply was simply torture, but it is different with water and electricity.

Of course, without an elevator, the top seven or eight floors is already the limit, and going up and down any higher would be too strenuous.

"When it's finished, give me a room upstairs."

Li Wei told Tao Sheng beside him that he really wanted to recall the feeling of living in a high-rise building.

Of course, this kind of building is still incomparable with the mansions of princes and princes that often cover dozens or hundreds of acres. After all, the truth is that the yard is big!

When these water and electricity facilities are completed, Li Wei plans to renovate his own house so that he can live more comfortably.

Tao Sheng nodded and wrote down his instructions.

Then Li Wei asked again: "By the way, are all the extra water pipes I asked you to make finished?"

"It's done, but teacher, these water pipes are not used at all, why do you do so many?"

Tao Sheng asked doubtfully.

The water pipes Li Wei asked him to make were very different from the water pipes used in the Construction New College. Not only were they made of better materials, but they were also very difficult to make, making them useless for making water pipes. Li Wei smiled and said nothing and did not explain much.

The steel pipes he asked Tao Sheng to make were all seamless steel pipes. Of course they were not used to make water pipes. The reason why they were made together with the water pipes was just to deceive others.

Now that motors have gradually matured, machine tools are slowly being renovated and upgraded, and manufacturing processes such as cold rolling, hot rolling, and cold forging can also be gradually developed, so making these seamless steel pipes is not a problem.

There were a wide variety of materials used in building a new college this time. He took the opportunity to arrange many things that were not for construction. But he didn't say these things, and others didn't know what they were used for. Maybe students like Tao Sheng could guess something. Two, but others can only turn their eyes dark.

Although Tao Sheng was a bit dull and introverted, he was not stupid. Seeing him smiling and saying nothing, he didn't ask any more questions. At the same time, he also realized how special these things were.

After looking at the progress elsewhere with Tao Shengluti and others, Li Wei left.

Returning to the Prince Consort's Mansion, Li Wei immediately learned from the servants that a distinguished guest had arrived.

"His Royal Highness?"

As soon as Li Wei entered the backyard, he saw Zhu Biao chatting with An Qing in the lobby.

Zhu Biao smiled immediately when he saw him: "Duke Han is back!"

Li Wei felt a little surprised and walked into the room to greet him. Zhu Biao raised his hand kindly.

An Qing, who was on the side, had long been a little impatient. When he saw him coming back, he said directly: "You accompany the emperor, I will go back to the house first."

"Okay, slow down."

Li Wei nodded lightly and did not forget to give his instructions.

An Qing waved his little hand and turned to leave accompanied by Xiao Hong and others.

"Why did His Royal Highness come here in person today?"

The two sat down separately, and Li Wei asked.

"There are some state affairs that I can't decide to pay attention to, so I came here to ask for your opinion." Zhu Biao said.

"If the prince has something to do, he can just be summoned. Why do you need to go there in person?"

"It doesn't matter, I just came to see Anqing." Zhu Biao responded casually.

Li Wei thought about An Qing's impatient look just now and curled his lips secretly.

Although Zhu Biao was kind to others, he was serious and boring just like those literati. Anqing didn't want him to visit.

"Your Highness, please tell me. I will tell you everything I know." Li Wei said directly.

However, Zhu Biao didn't say anything. Instead, he changed the topic and said, "Hey, we are all a family. You don't have to call me the prince all the time. It seems to be alienating. How about this? We all talk about it separately. I call you the prince." Brother Li, how about you call me Emperor Brother?"

Li Wei glanced at him and said secretly, you kid is not cool enough yet!

"The prince can call me whatever he wants, but I can't be rude." Li Wei said calmly.

"Okay." Zhu Biao had no choice but to agree.

"What's the matter?" Li Wei asked again.

Zhu Biao looked around and said, "Is it almost time for dinner? Why not chat while we eat?"

Li Wei: "..."

He could tell that Zhu Biao had nothing serious to do when he came here today!
The prince wanted to have a meal, so of course he couldn't refuse, so he could only order his servants to prepare it. After a while, a large table of good wine and food was served, and the two of them drank together and chatted about state affairs.

Li Wei didn't hide anything, he told Zhu Biao everything he could say without reservation.

The two chatted, and Li Wei, who was backed by countless netizens' whims and whims, could always make surprising remarks, which made Zhu Biao admire him very much.

"Brother Li is very knowledgeable and talented. Listening to you today is really better than ten years of reading!"

Zhu Biao sighed with emotion, and was even more determined to convince this great talent.

Li Wei glanced at him and thought that luckily he didn't just listen to what he said.

In fact, most of his views are nonsense, or some extreme remarks to vent dissatisfaction, which are of little use in governing the country. Just listen to them.

Zhu Biao is obviously not stupid. It is impossible not to hear it. The purpose of complimenting him is obviously impure.

"Prince, you might as well tell me what you are doing today."

After drinking for three rounds, Li Wei couldn't help but ask again.

"Didn't I tell you, I just came to ask you for advice on state affairs, and to visit Anqing by the way," Zhu Biao said seriously.

Then he emphasized in a sincere manner: "We are all a family, and we should get closer to each other in the future."

Li Wei looked at him, feeling a little confused.

Did Zhu Biao make this trip just to get close to him?

Although he and Zhu Biao have a good relationship, they don't have much contact. After all, Zhu Biao is so busy, while he seems to be "free" at home, and the two rarely meet.

Now that Zhu Biao suddenly came to get close to him, there must be something wrong here.

"Of course that's good."

Li Wei remained calm on the surface and agreed.

Zhu Biao showed a satisfied smile and raised his glass to invite him to drink together.

After eating until dark, Zhu Biao stood up and left. Li Wei personally walked him out the door and watched him and the guards disappear before turning around and returning home.

The next day, the decree for the Northern Expedition was officially issued.

It has been twenty years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, but the Northern Yuan Dynasty is still lingering on and difficult to eliminate. This is also a worry for Zhu Yuanzhang.

Now that he is older, he is even more anxious.

According to past practice, Xu Da was naturally appointed as the general of the Northern Expedition, but this time Xu Da declined due to poor health, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not force him.

In this northern expedition, Feng Sheng was the general, Fu Youde and Lan Yu were the left and right lieutenants, and they led 200,000 troops to march to Liaodong.

In addition to them, there are also Wang Bi, Zhao Yong and other marquises accompanying them, and the lineup is very luxurious.

In addition, some young nobles who inherited the title also went with the army, including Chang Mao, Li Jinglong and Deng Shen, the heirs of three princes.

This expedition was not only to quell the border troubles, but also to cultivate these young noble generals.

Before these people set off, the navy had been mobilized and began to transport grain and grass to Peiping.

In addition to mobilizing the navy trained by Li Wei, Zhu Yuanzhang also mobilized the Shenji Battalion.

All the princes are about to go to the front line, and only Li Wei is left in the capital to enjoy his leisure time.

Oh, and Xu Da, who was ill, stayed with him.

(End of this chapter)