Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

There is a precedent for coal-fired building materials, and Lu Chen is too evil. Now they dare not insist that the magical building materials Lu Chen talks about will never exist in this world.

Moreover, the Tiangong Department was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Three Pavilions, Six Ministries and Nine Temples, and became a special yamen responsible only to the emperor. This was undoubtedly a major loss for the Ministry of Revenue.

Let alone talking about it, the mere presence of charcoal is enough to make any Ministry of Household official hang his head.

Now another opportunity similar to that of coal is placed in front of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that if the Tiangong Division can really develop new building materials that can significantly reduce the cost of road construction, not only road construction, but also any project can be significantly reduced in the future. Material cost.

To ease the financial pressure on the empire, there is nothing more than to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. If costs are reduced, the next expenditures of the Ministry of Household Affairs will naturally decrease sharply. The sale of new building materials can also generate income for the court.

If there is such a good thing, at this stage, there is no need to worry about selling it, and even the court itself does not have enough.

The benefits are considerable, but as for the risks...that's a matter of opinion.

After all, the Tiangong Division only had one result: coal, and its persuasiveness was limited. Success once did not mean success every time.

Under the strange gazes of everyone, Wu Yue forcibly suppressed the entanglement in his heart and began to think carefully.

Just when he was thinking about whether to give it a try, Lu Chen continued: "But if Wu Shangshu feels that the treasury is tight and the Ministry of Revenue cannot come up with the money, it doesn't matter. Wei Chen will think of another way. In short, the new building materials matter is It must be done, no matter what, the Tiangong Division will advance this matter as soon as possible.”

Lu Chen only said this and didn't go any further.

There is no need to go on.

All the courtiers understood what he meant.

According to the patent law advocated by the Empress, since the Ministry of Household Affairs did not pay for it, the research results of the Engineering Department that day had nothing to do with the Ministry of Household Affairs. The patent for new building materials belongs to whoever pays for it. Anyone who produces new building materials can Patent fees must be paid to the person who owns the patent, otherwise it is illegal and will be directly confiscated.

Moreover, this thing is a new thing promoted by Lu Chen, and it naturally has Lu Chen's background. Anyone who dares to make things difficult for him is making things difficult for Lu Chen, the most famous person in the current generation.

If the imperial court wants to build roads, it will have to spend money to buy new building materials. The money that will be spent will be much greater than the investment in research and development.

The problem before Wu Yue now is very simple.

Or, try every means to squeeze out money to invest in the research and development of new building materials for Tiangong Division. If you succeed, you will make a lot of money. If you fail, you will consider yourself unlucky.

Or, like before in Coal, don’t invest a penny and let nature take its course.

Should we believe in Tiangongsi and believe that it can achieve greater glory, or should we believe that Tiangongsi just got lucky and cannot replicate the miracle of Coal.

For a time, Wu Yue was in a dilemma.

After a moment, he suddenly tightened the wat board in his hand, took a deep breath, and then stood up.

"Shilang Lu, can I ask you a few questions?"

Lu Chen looked at him leisurely, smiled and said, "Of course, Wu Shangshu, please ask."

That smile inexplicably gave Wu Yue a strong sense of déjà vu.

It seems that Lu Chen seemed to have this kind of smile when he gave up on the Tiangong Division and allowed it to be captured by the empress during the Coal Mine matter.

Realizing this, Wu Yue suddenly looked stern.

Although the entire world belongs to the emperor, for the long-term peace and stability of the Great Xia Dynasty, it is better to keep certain things clear.

Just like this national finance.

The emperor's private internal funds and the treasury used for the world should not be confused. This is also the view that scholar-bureaucrats have always insisted on.

If the emperor uses internal funds to subsidize the national treasury, he is an unparalleled benevolent and righteous person who cares about the common people; but if he uses the national treasury to subsidize internal funds, he is a completely foolish emperor.

Therefore, since the Tiangong Division is already in the Empress' pocket, and the money earned by the Tiangong Division has also gone into the Empress's private treasury, under the premise that the Empress has not touched the treasury, if he wants to use this money again, he will only It can prove that he is incompetent and cannot manage the national treasury well, so he needs the emperor to use money to subsidize the treasury.

At that point, he, the Minister of Household Affairs, has reached his end. If the empress removes him, he cannot complain at all.

After all, he is no longer qualified.

And he missed an opportunity on the charcoal matter. Although this is actually not his fault, after all, no one expected that charcoal can really turn waste into treasure, but if you miss it, you miss it. In the court, the result can determine many things. As for the process, it depends on whether the boss is willing to be considerate.

After a while, Wu Yue calmed down and asked slowly: "Master Lu, may I ask how much money it costs to research the removal of poisonous smoke with charcoal? How will the charcoal mine be developed in the future? Can charcoal be used only for heating and cooking?"

As the Minister of Household Affairs, his focus is as critical as ever.

Every question is critical.

In this regard, Lu Chen's expression remained unchanged.

"Back to Wu Shangshu, from the establishment of the Tiangong Division and the launch of the carboniferous impurity removal project to the present, it lasted one month and three days, and a total of 10 taels of silver was spent, most of which was used for collecting materials and testing."

After all, there is no serious laboratory in this world. If you want to observe the reaction of substances under different conditions as much as possible, or control variables and adjust the distribution and concentration of spiritual energy, you have to use magic circles constructed of mithril, spiritual stones, etc. , such as the suspended array, which directly suspends the reactants in mid-air, and the mimetic array, expanded shadow array, etc., the observation effect is many times better than the glass bottle in the Blue Star.

No matter in which world, scientific research is a very expensive thing.

In just one month, 10 taels of silver were burned. If the research was not successful in the end, all the investment would be in vain.

The risk was frighteningly high, and he couldn't do it without any financial resources. Only the empress's trust in him was enough to be willing to use her own treasury to burn it for him. Otherwise, I really don't know when this charcoal would be worth developing.

Of course, high risk means high reward. You can imagine how rich the empress' pocket will be when the coal is mined and processed on a large scale and refined into harmless coal.

Not to mention anything else, just by selling special potions that can remove harmful substances from coal, she can build herself a garden palace or something like that in a year and a half without using the treasury.

The same is true for today’s new building materials.

The rewards are obvious. As long as the cost of road construction is reduced, the treasury can save a lot of expenditure on building bridges and roads every year. And since it can be used to build roads, it can be used to build cities, houses, palaces, etc. , at least it is better than the current technology of burning the soil, using various magic circles to condense the spiritual power of the soil, and smoothing and strengthening the road surface.

With such high returns, the risks are naturally not low.

After all, new building materials almost subvert traditional construction techniques and create a new thing from scratch.

The difficulty is naturally not low, and it is much more difficult than removing impurities from charcoal. After all, charcoal is a real thing that can be seen and touched, but new materials have almost no clue to people in this world.

What material should be used, what method should be used, whether it should be burned, soaked in water, or frozen. After that, the cost must be reduced for mass production. All aspects must be started from scratch, which means continuous burning of money.

Therefore, even if Lu Chen had a direction in his mind, he could not guarantee 100% that this would be successful, nor could he guarantee that the empress's family would be able to burn through until the day the research was successful.

It is best to bring the household department together to share the risk.

Wu Yue couldn't help but twitch his mouth when he heard that Lu Chenguang had spent 10 taels of silver in one month just for an experiment.

Damn it, this Tiangong Division is really selling out the gold cave.

Then, before he could recover, Lu Chen continued: "As for the development of coal, I plan to build a coal plant in Heishan, Taihe County, and use it as a pilot project for coal development. The mined coal will be cleaned. After processing, they are sold to the people in the Sili area for heating at a price of two cents per piece, with a limit of one piece per person per day."

"When the weather gets warmer and the people's use of coal decreases, the coal will be sent to the smelting workshop of the Ministry of Industry for use in forging weapons, smelting copper, and iron..."

Wu Yue was shocked when he heard this.

"Wait, Minister Lu!"

He suddenly stopped Lu Chen and asked with a surprised look on his face: "Can coal be used for forging and smelting?"

Zhongzhou is a world of cultivators. The imperial court relies heavily on spiritual power, spiritual arts, magical formations and other great powers. Especially the magical formations are filled with almost every aspect of a dynasty, which naturally includes various engineering, forging and Metallurgy, and as long as the magic circle is involved, the cost cannot be low.

For example, iron smelting involves using a magic circle to condense the fire spirit, smelting the ore with the flames of incineration, and then forging it.

Of course, charcoal can also be used to smelt iron, but its cost...is not much better than using a magic circle to smelt it.

If only the almost endless supply of coal could be used in blacksmithing and metallurgy...

How much money will be saved?

Lu Chen nodded: "Yes, the Tiangong Department has already verified it."

As soon as these words came out, everyone couldn't help but take a sharp breath.

Coal making iron…

Will it be necessary to use magic circles or charcoal to make iron in the future?

As a result, the imperial court must consume a huge amount of coal every year, and if you want to obtain coal that can be used for smelting, you have to use Tiangongsi's technology and pay a huge amount of patent fees...

hiss!

Wu Yue couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart.

If he had agreed to Lu Chen's suggestion and incorporated the Tiangong Department into the six-department system, with profits and losses directly linked to the Household Department, there would have been no way to spend the patent fees, and he could have made a lot of money from the patent fees.

But now, if you make one wrong move, you will lose everything.

Even if the successful development of charcoal means that the court will save a lot of smelting expenses in the future, which is good news for the Ministry of Household Affairs in charge of the national treasury, Wu Yue is still heartbroken and can hardly breathe. After all, such a large amount of income comes from him. What was lost in my hands...

The others came back to their senses and looked at Wu Yue with strange eyes, especially the left and right ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs. They even looked at Wu Yue with a hint of ambition.

"Wu Shangshu."

Lu Chen said slowly: "Everything has risks. I can't guarantee that this project will be successful, so don't expect me to issue a military order or anything like that. If it fails, a loss is a loss. The only thing I can guarantee is dedication. Try your best, if Wu Shangshu thinks this project is too risky and not worth investing in, I have nothing to do."

After saying that, he looked at his eyes, nose and heart, and said no more.

The empress was not in a hurry, and just sat on the dragon chair, taking her time to watch the scene below.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that she didn't have a lot of money in her treasury, and that from the development to the official sale of coal, she still had to leave some money to develop and build factories, recruit people, etc., she would have opened her mouth and asked Lu Chen to go there boldly. Withdrawal of money from internal funds.

If Wu Yue doesn't let go and is still short of money here and there, she has a solution.

The worst possible outcome is selling off the palace treasures.

Anyway, even if she was trying to sell the pot, she would still support Lu Chen, no matter how much money the research and development of new building materials cost, whether it could succeed or not.

I just don't know if she really did this, whether the previous emperors would climb out of the imperial mausoleum and scold her as a prodigal girl with her elbows turned outward.

Chapter 227

Under the gaze of almost everyone, Wu Yue's expression was gloomy and uncertain, and he was obviously at war between heaven and man in his heart.

He has already missed an opportunity. If he misses it again this time, his prestige will be greatly affected.

If this happens, one handsome person will cover up all the ugly ones. He will still be the shrewd and capable Wu Shangshu. Wu Aiqing in the empress's mouth. If he fails, it will be difficult to lead the team of the Ministry of Revenue.

While struggling, he raised his head inexplicably and glanced at the dragon chair on the jade steps.

Under the nine jade curtains that covered Tianji, the empress's expression was still invisible. It was as mysterious and unpredictable as ever. It was impossible to figure out the empress's thoughts through her expression.

But the next second, Wu Yue didn't know what he thought of, and a flash of enlightenment quietly flashed in his muddy old eyes.

Then he gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice: "In that case, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will pay for the research and development expenses for new building materials!"

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but be startled.

Ok?

Their expressions were slightly absent-minded, and they were a little unable to react to Wu Yue's words.

After a moment, everyone's eyes widened almost simultaneously.

Voted?