Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 214 Zhu Yuanzhang lamented that Zhang Cheng was rare and expressed that he did not want to be a landlord!
"It's just a little tea."

Hu Weiyong said this with a smile.

Guo Tianjue sighed and said, "Aren't you making things difficult for me? If my brother is not here, how can I dare to make the decision to accept your gifts?"

"Who doesn't know that Privy Councilor Guo has left all these small matters at home to the Second Young Master? Besides, it's just a little tea. The Second Young Master still has the final say in this little matter."

Hu Weiyong chatted with Guo Tianjue for a while, and then when he left, he quietly dropped a small gold bar here.

Guo Tianjue accepted it after seeing it.

Hu Weiyong was very satisfied with this.

He didn't feel that he was corrupting the Datong Society. He just felt that he was indeed very powerful, unlike his dull colleagues who joined the Datong Society at the same time as him. They didn't know how to get involved and were still serving as local officials until now.

Next.

Hu Weiyong went to visit the people around Feng Guoyong and Shao Rong again.

However, Hu Weiyong also knew that Li Shanchang was right. He should not just focus on opportunism, but should also show his abilities.

"Yes, sir, please rest assured, I will not let you down."

"Nothing escaped Mr. Ge's eyes."

"Humph!"

This is called the following system!
Hu Weiyong was very satisfied with this result.

"It's just that the disciple wants to make progress too much!"

After all, he had already accepted Hu Weiyong's money, so he could no longer raise the issue with Hu Weiyong.

When Li Shanchang saw him coming, he said: "Do you think the superior and Mr. Zhang are all blind or fools? You didn't come to see me until now, and you are not as anxious as you are to visit the dock!"

And now he just wants to copy this result on people like Zhang Cheng, Zhu Yuanzhang, Guo Tianxu, Feng Guoyong, and Shao Rong, so that people like Zhang Cheng and Zhu Yuanzhang can also be controlled by him.

Li Shanchang only said: "I have said this, you can take care of yourself!"

But after leaving Li Shanchang, he immediately put away his humble expression in front of Li Shanchang and showed a proud look.

After Hu Weiyong replied, he left Li Shanchang.

"That's what Mr. Ge criticized."

Hu Weiyong did not make any excuses, but honestly admitted his mistake.

Hu Weiyong replied humbly.

Because whether you are strong in ability is also an important criterion for whether you can be valued by the top level of power and be willing to let yourself join, or even be willing to control it for yourself.

Li Shanchang's face darkened: "If you don't put your mind on the right path and only do these opportunistic things, you will be ruined sooner or later!"

After visiting these people, Hu Weiyong went to see Li Shanchang.

Because he couldn't really do anything to Hu Weiyong.

Li Shanchang just hit the cotton with a fist.

Because he could feel it, even if he didn't go to see Li Shanchang until the end, Li Shanchang couldn't do anything to him. He even had to treat him as one of his own and kindly remind him.

Therefore, Hu Weiyong still started working on railway construction seriously.

For this reason, after Hu Weiyong studied and understood the railway planning in detail at the cabinet, and after knowing that the cabinet was planning to build a railway from Pingjiang to Taiping first, he personally ran along Taiping and Pingjiang, and personally gave advice to those who wanted to requisition the goods along the way. The people went to the fields to do work and negotiate compensation matters.

Zhu Yuanzhang had always controlled the power of internal investigation, so he soon learned about Hu Weiyong's visits to the docks on his way back to the court.

But because what Hu Weiyong gave him was not a big gift, and because his main focus now was on cleaning up the die-hards who refused to join the Datong Society, he chose to remain silent.

In fact, he even knew that Li Shanchang had received Hu Weiyong's gold.

But because it was not the right time yet, Zhu Yuanzhang also chose to turn a blind eye.

Zhu Yuanzhang just suddenly felt that people like Zhang Cheng who asked for money openly and never accepted money or bribes secretly were actually quite rare.

Because for Zhu Yuanzhang, what he had to admit was that there were indeed too few people like Zhang Cheng who were willing to focus on making the world more beneficial. Most people just wanted to climb up, want to have greater power, and even I don't even want to climb the ladder by doing things down-to-earth, I just want to take chances!

Even if you do practical things for the world for a while, the purpose is just for personal advancement so that you can step on more people.

Zhu Yuanzhang is a practical person.

Therefore, it's not that he dislikes people doing this, he just doesn't know why most of the people he meets focus more on fighting for power and gain, and are always less concerned about doing things that benefit the world.

Originally, his feeling was not very strong. He could only get along with Zhang Cheng, and saw that Zhang Cheng allowed more people to survive by making new firearms, which greatly reduced the advantage of the Yuan soldiers, allowing the rebellious Han people like himself to occupy a larger territory, and saw that Zhang Cheng cultivated new Grain - potatoes, which allowed many people to survive, and allowed people to build four-wheeled carriages and sailing ships, which saved a lot of manpower and material resources. Only then did he feel more strongly the difference between Zhang Cheng, a scholar-official and other scholar-officials. different.

The difference lies in Zhang Cheng's willingness to make changes, his willingness to benefit the world, and his willingness to use fair and honest means to capture and deliver benefits.

But other scholar-bureaucrats were not interested in changing things, and lacked initiative in doing good for the world. They even preferred to use sneaky means to seize and convey benefits, using shady bribery and bribery methods.

Because of this, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly felt that Zhang Cheng's way of clearly stating how much money he wanted, how much profit he wanted, and what kind of treatment he wanted to receive was much more pleasing to the eye.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang is not someone who is stingy and unwilling to give up profits.

If he had been digging around, he wouldn't be where he is now.

Now he just prefers that everyone wants it openly and not be so disgusting and hypocritical.

Especially now when compared with Zhang Cheng, he felt disgusted by some behaviors that were full of benevolence and morality but only focused on fighting for power and profit.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang is also a thinking person.

So he had to think deeply again, and he also thought of the contents of the sacred book given to him by Zhang Cheng, and could not help but say to Zhu Wenzheng who was following him back to Jiqing:
"Sure enough, the landlord class is backward. Apart from being able to collect land rent and strictly guard against the people below them to prevent them from riding on their heads, they have no other skills!"

“We can’t open up new territories, we can’t make the people richer, we can’t even make our own family richer and stronger!”

"Wen Zheng, if we really win the world in the future, don't just think about being a landlord, otherwise you will destroy yourself. My uncle is really worried that because you only want to be a landlord, you will force my uncle to do things that will make your relatives and enemies happy. ”

After Zhu Yuanzhang said this, he gave Zhu Wenzheng a meaningful look.

Zhu Wenzheng nodded: "Mr. Zhang also said the same to us. He told us that if we really become rich in the future and have too much money to spend, we should try not to think about buying fields, but try our best to open factories and mines, and put the money in We should focus on developing industries instead of just collecting rent and interest, as that would be greedy and stupid.”

"Mr. Zhang is right. He is saving you, and he is also saving our uncle and nephew from getting into a sword-to-sword encounter."

"After all, you are so good that even my uncle is jealous of you."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled as he spoke.

Regarding Zhu Wenzheng, Zhu Yuanzhang did have complicated thoughts.

Emotionally, he is very willing to see Zhu Wenzheng being very good.

But if he also wants to be a landowner and just wants his children and grandchildren to be peaceful and honorable, the better Zhu Wenzheng is, the more uneasy he will be, and the more worried he will be that Zhu Wenzheng will annex because of the weakness of his children and grandchildren.

But fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang is now influenced by Zhang Cheng. He no longer wants to be a landlord, but a capital holder who benefits the world, so he doesn't mind if Zhu Wenzheng is outstanding.

Because as long as he still has the need to benefit the world, he will continue to need to cooperate with outstanding people like Zhu Wenzheng.

Zhu Wenzheng also nodded solemnly at this time: "I understand!"

Affected by Zhang Cheng, neither of them actually wants the other to become a landlord.

Zhang Cheng also learned about Hu Weiyong's running to see him through Qi Xiang's report.

Zhang Cheng was naturally not surprised by this.

He knows that there will always be people in this world who want to make progress through shortcuts and don't want to work so hard. Even though he knows that the risk of failure is higher, he still can't help it.

After all, people just like gambling and taking risks.

It goes against human nature to be down-to-earth.

Zhang Cheng knows that what he can do is to try to raise the threshold of people's self-corruption and improve it from all aspects, such as technology, system, etc.

After the Second Army was purged, Zhang Cheng could finally safely install the flintlock rifles into the First and Second Army.

This will naturally have great positive significance for ensuring the armed strength of the entire Datong Society in the future.

Zhang Shicheng did not refuse Zhang Cheng's offer to sell him potatoes, and immediately asked someone to bring 50,000 taels of silver to Jiqing to exchange for Datong cloth.

However, after Zhang Shicheng agreed, he said to Zhang Shide and others with great annoyance:

"We rely on Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng to supply firearms, we also rely on Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng to supply iron ore, and now we also rely on Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng to supply food. If this continues, we, the Great Zhou Dynasty, will become Zhu Yuanzhang's power!"

"There is nothing we can do about it. Their firearms are indeed better. In order not to be annexed by forces such as the Tatars and Liu Futong, we have to buy them without saying anything."

"Besides, these potatoes are indeed cheap right now, and they are really hungry. It is really cost-effective to use them to help the victims in our territory. It can not only win the hearts of the people, but also expand the number of troops without leaving a large number of young men to farm the land. It’s better than watching the people in our territory starve to death. Wouldn’t that really make the people think that we, Zhou Yuan, are not as good as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng?”

Zhang Shide spoke helplessly at this time.

Zhang Shicheng nodded after hearing this, sighed, and then looked at Zhang Shide and other ministers:
"You tell me, why don't Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Cheng rely on us to supply firearms and food, but why do we rely on them to supply?!"

(End of this chapter)