Chapter 159 Hu Weiyong’s Distress
Zhu Chong followed Yang Chen out of the Eastern Palace. The servants around him didn’t know what to do for a moment. According to Zhu Biao’s instructions, the King of Qin could not leave the Eastern Palace. In desperation, Yang Chen had to take out the token given to him by Zhu Biao.

Zhu Chong, who already looked at Yang Chen with a different eye and admired him very much, admired him even more now. He never thought that Yang Chen could actually take out the token that his father had.

You have to know that this small token placed outside is equivalent to an imperial edict.

Seeing his second uncle and teacher were about to leave, Zhu Xiongying suddenly became anxious. He quickly stood up and wanted to leave with them.

He was the only one left in the huge palace. How could he, at such an active age, be willing to be abandoned?

However, Yang Chen directly scolded the other party, saying that the world outside was very dangerous and Zhu Xiongying could not go out with them.

Finally, he directly instructed the Jinyiwei placed in secret by Zhu Yuanzhang to bring Zhu Xiongying back to the harem.

As for Zhu Chong, he simply packed up and followed Yang Chen back to his residence outside.

Some were happy and some were sad, and the news of his impending departure soon spread throughout the capital.

Deep inside the Prime Minister’s Mansion.

As usual, Hu Weiyong received news from the six ministries in his official residence.

At the same time, a man who looked like a butler leaned close to his ear and whispered something, which instantly made Hu Weiyong’s eyes widen.

“What! You said Yang Chen is leaving? He’s taking King Qin with him?”

The man, who was so fat that his butler uniform was stretched out, touched his sharp beard and nodded.
“Yes, sir, the people below have seen it clearly. It is His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin. The Prince of Qin left the East Palace last night and moved into his mansion with Yang Chen. According to reliable information, they are going to Zhenjiang Prefecture managed by Zhou Shizhong.

If nothing unexpected happens, we will set off tomorrow.”

Hu Weiyong did not speak immediately, but he wanted to know who had spread the news.

The butler hesitated for a long time, pursed his lips and said:

“It’s based on a notice posted on a fence at Yang Chen’s gate.”

Upon hearing this bizarre source of information, Hu Weiyong couldn’t help but twitch his mouth.

“You mean to say that Yang Chen told everyone around him about his departure? Do you think I’m stupid? As the Imperial Censor of the capital, how could he reveal his whereabouts in advance?”

It’s no wonder that Hu Weiyong was suspicious, but Yang Chen’s actions were really hard to understand.

As an important official responsible for monitoring all directions, the first task of the Censor is to protect his whereabouts and not expose them at will. Otherwise, if they are discovered by others, corrupt officials will make preparations in advance.

Now Yang Chen not only told, but also spread the news throughout the entire imperial city, which was equivalent to publicizing it with a loudspeaker. This was completely inconsistent with the job of the censor.

When Liu Bowen was the Chief Censor, he was very cautious when he went to a certain city to investigate Zhu Yuanzhang’s cousin and did not dare to reveal his identity.

Looking at Yang Chen again, not only did he not have any intention of hiding his whereabouts, he actually took the initiative to expose himself, which was completely the opposite of what he did.

The fat butler seemed to see that Hu Weiyong was not satisfied with his explanation, so he hurriedly said:
“To reply to Prime Minister Hu, this is absolutely true. I have also read it myself. The content of the notice is very concise. The general meaning is to inform the surrounding people that from now on, Yang Chen will not do anything in the mansion that disturbs the peace of the people. I hope that the people can forgive him for the disturbance today.

For this reason, he even ordered people to distribute money at the gate of the mansion, saying that this was a small token of his apology. “

“Pay money?”

Now Hu Weiyong was even more confused and had no idea what Yang Chen was doing.

In the end, he didn’t think much about it, but thought about other things.

Zhenjiang Prefecture!
He remembered very clearly that Yang Chen was ordered to go to Zhenjiang Prefecture to launch a pilot policy there.

If it is successfully carried out here, his entire interests in the Ming Dynasty will be damaged in the future.

Especially regarding land, you have to know that the grain tax paid by the people is converted into silver tax, which means that he and his subordinates will not be able to use fire consumption to embezzle.

What is fire consumption?
The people originally needed to pay ten kilograms of grain, but local officials took into account that some of the grain would be lost during transportation, so after being transported to the capital, ten kilograms of grain would become nine kilograms and three ounces.

In order to prevent the loss of grain from being counted as their own, and to seek personal gain, a very small number of officials would let the people share the cost.

Ten kilograms of grain become twelve kilograms, and one hundred kilograms become one hundred and twenty kilograms.

Some bolder ones could raise the fire consumption to half of the grain tax.

This is just one of the methods, and there are endless other means of corruption.

Once the tax payment is changed to silver cash notes, it means that the fire consumption will no longer exist, and their income will naturally be reduced by more than half.

“The prefect of Zhenjiang Prefecture is Zhou Shizhong. This guy has shady hands. If Yang Chen takes the King of Qin there, they will definitely find out something.

Zhou Shizhong gave me a lot of good things back then, and the account books are in his hands. If His Majesty finds out, I will be…”

When he thought of this possibility, Hu Weiyong’s eyelids couldn’t help but twitch.

Zhou Shizhong did not have a high position and did not have much power, but he was one of the few people under Hu Weiyong who was most willing to give money.

Every year, he could plunder nearly 600,000 taels of silver from local resources. In addition, Hu Weiyong knew this man well and knew that he could not tolerate any punishment.

He believed that with the means of the King of Qin, Zhou Shizhong would confess everything with just two sentences from Zhu Chong.

This gave Hu Weiyong a headache.

At present, he is the leader of all the Huaixi nobles.

After years of planning and strategizing, the Huaixi clique has become the main speakers in the court.

In Hu Weiyong’s view, Zhu Yuanzhang was the emperor sitting in the court, while he had absolute say among the people. As long as the emperor’s orders did not conform to the interests of most of the Huaixi nobles, he would try his best to misinterpret Zhu’s instructions.

Changes were made without violating orders. In the end, Zhu said one thing, Hu Weiyong implemented two, and his subordinates understood it as three.

In the end, the people achieved a result of four, and Zhu Yuanzhang could do nothing about it.

However, Hu Weiyong also knew that they could not anger Zhu Yuanzhang too much, otherwise none of them would survive, so he kept many things to himself. His purpose was to prevent Zhu Yuanzhang from killing people and causing any signs of damage to his network of relationships.

Zhou Shizhong’s matter was minor; the real big problem was that Hu Weiyong needed to take a stand at this moment and could not let his subordinates down.

Even if he could ignore the prefect, he had to consider the chain reaction that would result from sacrificing Zhou Shizhong.

The relationship of interests is like a complex spider web, and everyone can be traced, and it is impossible to have fewer knots.

When dividing the spoils, everyone shares it together, and when problems arise, they naturally solve them together instead of choosing to cut losses.

How could anyone follow him in the future if he betrayed his younger brother? After much thought, Hu Weiyong looked at the fat man and asked coldly:
“Is your Majesty seen in the capital today?”

To be honest, as a third-rank official in the prime minister’s office and Hu Weiyong’s closest steward, the fat man naturally needs to know a lot of information.

This includes Zhu Yuanzhang’s movements.

The fat man narrowed his eyes slightly, pinched his goatee under his nostrils and replied:

“Someone saw His Majesty, the Empress, and the Crown Prince leave the capital together to go out on business. They went out yesterday and haven’t returned since. Zhang Erdan, who sells mutton at the East Gate, said that after leaving the East Gate, the car seemed to go south.”

“south?”

Hu Weiyong thought about it for a while and had a general idea in his mind.

“Since His Majesty is not in the capital, there is no need to hide anything from now on.”

Originally, he planned to summon Yang Chen secretly to avoid being seen by others. But now, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao are not here, so why should Hu Weiyong continue to hide?
He waved at the fat man and said:

“Go prepare a generous gift, a bit more than last time, and send someone to tell Yang Chen to come to Yanxiang Pavilion to find me. I want to have a couple of drinks with him.”

“My subordinates will do it now.”

The fat man agreed without any hesitation and turned to leave, while Hu Weiyong stood up from the recliner, holding the handle.

He walked to the fish tank in the courtyard, then picked up a piece of porcelain, took out some feed and sprinkled it randomly on the water surface, causing the fish to fight for it.

“Haha. Yang Chen, ah Yang Chen, a greedy guy who doesn’t know it. Zhou Shizhong is really unlucky. Yang Chen actually appeared in his mansion, and now he wants me to clean up his mess. He must do more in the future.”

At the same time, at Yang Chen’s home.

The entire mansion was mobilized, no one was idle, and he oversaw all the dismantling of the sand location.

Sitting on a platform that was lifted up seven or eight meters from the ground, Yang Chen slowly asked Zhu Chong for help.

“King Qin, be careful. These things are all made of glass. If you touch them, they will crack. The cracks will cause the airtightness to be insufficient and they will need to be remade. If you are not careful, glass shards will break into pieces. Handling them with care is the key. Don’t use too much force!”

Unlike in the past, Zhu Chong did not have any bad temper as a prince. He did whatever Yang Chen said.

He alone served as three men. He carried the glass jar with both hands and gently placed it into the straw-filled mold. He then lifted it onto the carriage. After tying it up, the driver slowly whipped the horse and left the imperial city with these valuables.

With more operations, Zhu Chong no longer needed Yang Chen’s instructions and could complete them by himself.

Yang Chen was sitting on the stage basking in the sun, with Tao Chengdao beside him.

Tao Chengdao was flipping through a booklet, and was amazed by the contents inside. He couldn’t help but ask:
“Master Yang, can the steam engine you mentioned above really be manufactured? With this thing, we will be able to fly freely in the sky in the future without having to rely on the wind’s temper?”

Yang Chen opened his eyes lazily and glanced at the contents of the album. It was the conceptual drawing of the steam engine that he had spent two days drawing.

The manufacture of a steam engine is both complicated and simple. It is nothing more than a furnace filled with water for combustion, an inlet and an exhaust port, and then the device rolls back and forth.

He was just giving a concept, which might be difficult for people in the Ming Dynasty to understand at that time, but with a little guidance, they would be able to understand it.

Because he remembered that there was a record of “fire ships” in an ancient book called “Illustrated Explanation of New Instruments” hundreds of years after the Ming Dynasty. However, with the passage of time and the lack of environment, these miracles gradually disappeared in the Central Plains.

With his hands resting on the back of his head, Yang Chen said calmly:

“Of course, but the industrial technology required is very complicated. As long as you can slowly build the components one by one, I guarantee that Ming will have the ability to soar into the sky.

Let me tell you the truth, Lao Tao. The steam engine is the thing that can enable the Ming Dynasty to achieve a leap forward in technology. With the steam engine, weaving, manufacturing weapons and realizing the Ming Dynasty’s dream of becoming the overlord are just around the corner.

As for flying into the sky, I can guarantee you with confidence that within fifteen years at the latest, the Ming Dynasty will be able to manufacture an airplane!
You can fly wherever you want, free and more powerful than a bird.”

Apart from anything else, the atmosphere created by Yang Chen’s words had already made Tao Chengdao feel his breath stagnate.

These days he was very clear about how capable the young man in front of him was.

At present, the gunpowder manufactured by the Ming Dynasty is infinitely close to yellow gunpowder, and diatomaceous earth has also been discovered under a lake and mined for preservation.

Yang Chen used the residual glycerin from the soap-making process to make nitroglycerin and mixed it with it. The manufacturing industry of three acids and two alkalis was gradually improved, but the purity was definitely not as good as modern ones.

But in all cases, the first thing to solve is whether it exists or not, and then whether it is good or not. No matter how poor the quality of extraction is, the power can be many times greater than that of black powder.

Just take Tao Chengdao’s rocket launching area as an example. Originally, it could only shoot two hundred meters using black gunpowder as the accelerating fuel. However, since the addition of semi-finished yellow gunpowder, the range has been increased to five hundred meters!

The range of the musket was increased to an astonishing 300 meters. Although it became erratic at 100 meters, it did not affect its armor-piercing and deadly power within 300 meters.

“Oh, Lao Tao, if you have time recently, find some people to make a hot air balloon.”

“Hot air balloon? Is it the thing that’s similar to a Kongming lantern and can carry people into the sky?

I remember you told me, Lord Yang, that the principles of hot air balloons are the same as those of Kongming lanterns. A large amount of hot air is filled inside a huge curtain, and the upward force inside drives people into the sky.

Compared to flying an airplane, hot air balloons are a lot more dangerous. If you’re not careful, you could end up getting smashed to pieces. So why would you do it?”

Tao Chengdao has been staying in Yang Chen’s mansion for quite some time. Yang Chen has already told him everything he should and should not know.

This was also the decision Yang Chen made after much consideration, so as to avoid the two of them being out of agreement when dealing with some things in the future.

As a price, Tao Chengdao would be the target of the Jinyiwei from now on. Yang Chen was fully aware of this, and he himself understood it as well.

For Tao Chengdao, this is nothing. After all, he is a madman who is willing to sacrifice his life for flying.

Yang Chen smiled and replied:
“As the elders, do you think we should support what the Crown Prince wants to do?”

The short answer made Tao Chengdao stunned at first, then he smiled with relief:

“So this is the wish of the Crown Prince. In this case, I will do my best to satisfy it. However, Lord Yang, when we go to Ningming County, I’ll ask you to take care of the hydraulic press equipment we made. I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it at the moment.”

No matter how precise manual hammering is, it is not as good as machine equipment. It’s not that there are no good masters, but the main reason is that the work efficiency of a good master is too slow.

It is completely impossible to create a firearm with an unprecedented configuration and stamped bullets without external help.

Yang Chen took this up directly. Anyway, he had already arrived in Ningming County, Zhenjiang Prefecture. After dealing with the matters, all that was left was to get back on track.

The two exchanged some ideas about what would happen after they moved to Zhenjiang Prefecture, and then Yang Chen went down from the platform to do other things.

But he was told that someone was looking for him at the back door.

(End of this chapter)