golden scales

The criteria for the selection of female officials in the Ming court were mature and steady, knowledgeable and reasonable, regardless of appearance. .During the Hongwu period, there were even those who were selected as widows. Most of the female officials served in the palace for several years or more than ten years, and they were still virgins when they left the palace.This is also praised by the literati as "it can be seen that the gentleman is polite".

Although the female officials and female scholars were not selected for their beauty, they could not prevent the emperor from being picky.Occasionally, some female officials were favored by the emperor because of their virtue and talent, and they were accepted as concubines.These people often become the prototypes of the heroines of the later Gongdou novels, and become legendary figures among female officials.

The situation in the inner palace of the crown prince is a bit special now.

The concubine had already decided on Ning's daughter, but when the Jiashen state changed, Ning didn't flee with her, which was basically a rebellion.Now that the Qing soldiers occupied Beijing, the Ning family still did not escape. This kind of staying again and again is extremely shameful even for ordinary scholar-bureaucrats, let alone imperial relatives?So let alone being a crown princess, it is not bad for Ning's daughter to escape conviction.

Now that the position of Crown Princess has been vacated, and the Empress has not mentioned the matter of engagement to the Crown Prince, it is hard to say who will occupy this position.

Although the selection criteria for female officials are different from those of concubines, as long as they are good-looking female officials, their competitiveness will be higher than that of ordinary concubines.Yao Tao and Lu Suyao belong to the same category, so it is inevitable that they will have some thoughts.

When Lu Suyao came out of Yao Tao's office, she also realized the slip of the tongue just now, and said in her heart: In terms of assistance, now she is by the crown prince's side almost all the time, not weaker than Yao Tao; in terms of relationship, she was originally sent by the empress. Those who guide His Highness the crown prince's Dunlun ceremony are obviously closer than the female officials like Yao Tao.Since the candidate for the crown princess is vacant, why can't I fight for it?

——It seems that it is a great opportunity to show filial piety for the crown prince.

Lu Suyao's heart moved, and she decided to think about how to please the empress, even if she failed to become the princess. .It is also good to be a concubine.Of course the crown prince can be promoted to queen, but the concubines and beauties in the hidden mansion can also be directly canonized as concubines.

……

"Grassman Xu Jiafu pays homage to His Highness the Crown Prince! Your Highness is a thousand years old!" Xu Jiafu dragged his fat body and was about to salute.

Zhu Cihong stretched out his hand to support Xu Jiafu, and said with a smile, "You saw it from the stage, right? This is the first time I've heard someone say that."

A layer of oily sweat appeared on Xu Jiafu's round face.Mouth gaping and tongue trembling, not knowing how to speak.

Zhu Cihong motioned for him to sit down, and he himself sat in the chair.Said: "Those steels are indeed the best Su steel, more suitable for my needs than Fan's steel. Your family's willingness to donate so much good steel is really commendable for your loyalty."

Xu Jiafu laughed foolishly, and said: "The villain really donated the entire family to His Highness."

Zhu Cihong didn't believe it, but just smiled and said: "There are not many righteous men like you. I can't privately gift the royal title, only from the East Palace, how about making you a baron?" There are still some differences.But ordinary people don't care much.Zhu Cihong spoke clearly.It's not coaxing him.

"The villain didn't come here for the title." Xu Jiafu hurriedly said: "The villain wants to dedicate himself to His Highness. Uh, I want to ask His Highness for an errand... It's not all an errand..."

"Don't worry, talk slowly." Zhu Cihong clapped his hands to signal the waiter to pass the dishes, and said, "Talk while eating."

Xu Jiafu was able to get an interview with a white body because he donated [-] catties of high-quality Sugang.

Calculated according to the market price of two cents of silver per catty of Sugang, the 2000 catties of iron is 2000 taels of silver. .It seems that the amount is not very large, but ordinary people may not be able to buy enough [-] catties of high-quality iron with these [-] taels of silver.Especially Su Steel, a strategic material that has reached the quality of tool steel for later generations.Large quantities of orders also need to take into account the seller's production capacity, as well as price policy.

Dong Gong bought Su Gang from Fan's family only twice, and the price has already increased by [-]%, which made Zhu Cihong secretly depressed when he had no choice but to do so.

Similarly, for Su Steel produced in Wuhu, the steel material of the Fan family is better than that of other companies.The reason why the iron mold casting cannon has not been tested until now is also because the iron mold used before is not made of good material, and the molten iron will bubble when it enters, so it really can only make the Fan family earn enough money.

The [-] jin of Sugang donated by Xu Jiafu has completely reached the level of Fan Jiagang after testing.

Xu Jiafu took a sip of wine before calming down, and said: "Your Highness, after the villain got the book "Experimental Method", he was greatly inspired. After doing all the experiments, he finally found a formula close to Fan Jiagang's, and then created Today's Xu Jiagang."

Zhu Cihong nodded. The author of "Experimental Law" is a student of the Technical College, named Xue Shuyan.Originally a scholar, he entered the academy for free board and lodging. Other book friends are reading:.He summed up various experimental methods and compiled them into this book.

From a technical point of view, there is not much innovation, but in terms of thought, it has cross-age significance. From now on, various experiments, especially material science, have general guiding ideas, so that people will no longer be confused.The book also made demands for various units of measurement, which stimulated the spread of formulation.

Because of this, after meeting Xu Jiafu, Zhu Cihong would also meet Xue Shuyan to encourage him.

"When it comes to steel materials, everyone knows the truth inside, and the method is not a secret, but the formula is not easy to make." Xu Jiafu said with a smile: "I asked people to start from every small place, a total of six hundred furnaces, and finally I tried out this recipe. Your Highness, please forgive me for being bold. The villain wants to use His Highness’s name to open an iron factory in Xuzhou, and is willing to give half of the dry shares to Your Highness.”

——With a pig face and a loud heart.

Zhu Cihong smiled at each other and didn't speak, which made Xu Jiafu feel uneasy for a long time.

"You are a little bit interesting," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "Shouldn't you go to the eunuch for this kind of donation? You came directly to Gu here."

Xu Jiafu didn't know whether he really didn't understand or pretended not to know, he still said cheerfully: "His Royal Highness, asking eunuchs to donate is just to reduce local troubles and evade taxes. According to the villain, only one catty of iron is collected in the country. One-fifteenth of the iron tax is not worth the fuss."

Zhu Cihong nodded slightly.No matter which dynasty or generation, the iron tax of [-]% is definitely considered light.However, most of the iron merchants are still evading taxes. The Fan family is unwilling to sell more because they are worried about dealing with the public, which is too easy to fall into the trap of tax evasion.

"The villain thinks that the reason why the country has no money today is because of the flood of iron smelting!" Xu Jiafu's face suddenly showed righteousness, which made Zhu Cihong a little uncomfortable.

"In the past dynasties, how can there be such a mighty imperial grace?" Xu Jiafu's aura was fully opened, but he also had a bit of courage.He recited aloud: "So in the fourth year of Song Yuanfeng, people's pits were widely opened to smelt iron, but two out of ten were selected. In the 18th year of Hongwu, the Guochao completely dismissed the government and opened up private businesses, and the tax was one for fifteen, and later it was fixed. An iron tax of ten thousand catties of iron and three taels of silver has been imposed. If this is not enough, you are really not a son of man!"

Zhu Cihong nodded, very satisfied with this person's political consciousness.However, based on his experience, those who talk high-soundingly may not be reliable in doing things. We still need to investigate their behavior and not draw conclusions easily.

"The villain thinks that today's state-owned internal thieves, Tartars are rampant, and the national treasury is useless. It's time to take the iron industry back into the official camp!" Xu Jiafu changed into the smiling face just now: "Such an official uses iron, naturally it needs more or less money. No matter how much, the price has also come down. The iron tax will not flow out, and it will fatten those profiteers who have no king and no father."

Zhu Cihong continued to nod, it turned out that this guy is really a person who spends a small amount of money to take advantage of the big advantage!

As long as the iron industry is state-run, although he gave away half of the shares, under the protection of the government, he has obtained the monopoly market in the entire Ming Dynasty - even if there is a black market private iron, that is an extremely terrifying market share.This is no different from those high-profile coastal wealthy families who banned the sea and engaged in sea trade in private.

"Steel will definitely become the lifeblood of a country." Zhu Cihong picked up the wine cup and said, "I am also willing to take it back to the country."

Xu Jiafu's face was full of smiles.

"However, in the first year of Jiajing, the iron output of Guangzhou and Huizhou alone was 850 million catties. In ten years, it increased to 760 million catties. Ten thousand catties!" Zhu Cihong emphasized the unit, still smiling Looking at Xu Jiafu: "Don't you think your appetite is too big?"

Xu Jiafu's smile froze completely, and he couldn't figure out why His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would care about the iron production in places like Guangzhou and Huizhou!And it was still in Jiajing time!He was confident that he had done enough homework, but he didn't pay attention to such unpopular data!

Ps:

Ask for monthly tickets, recommended tickets.A side note: The iron production data in this chapter comes from Internet data. Xiaotang really has limited energy, and this book is actually a novel, not a true history, so I didn’t check the original historical records one by one. If there are any errors, please forgive me.