After entering the Taiping Mansion, Zhu Cihong saw from a distance that various places had begun to reclaim and dig ditches, and tall Lanzhou waterwheels were also being built one after another.

The Taiping and Luzhou provinces were completely replicating the operations of Fengyang Province, digging canals, erecting water wheels, and irrigating the fields with the surrounding rivers and lakes.

While the Taiping Mansion is close to the Yangtze River, the terrain is flat and the water network is quite abundant, but the Huizhou Mansion in the south is different, surrounded by mountains and lacking in water, Zhu Cihong has recently been considering how to reclaim and irrigate the Huizhou Mansion.

Three months ago, the original road leading to the Ordnance General Administration was an ancient official road, full of potholes, up and down was very difficult to walk, but now it is flat and hard, and Long Yuan can't feel too much bumps when walking on it.

Zhu Cihong leaned through the curtain and looked around, only to see that the neighborhood was lively, full of men and women in summer clothes, some pushing coal carts, some pushing prepared weapons and armor parts, all very busy, and there were some heavily armed sergeants guarding and supervising around.

Hearing that the crown prince was coming, Wu Zhong and Zhou Yuji hurriedly came, and as soon as the two met, they hurriedly said, "Your Highness, are you okay?" ”

Zhu Cihong waved his hand and said, "Some treacherous villains are just doing it, this palace is fine!" ”

Although they heard him say this, Wu Zhong and Zhou Yuji were still very worried, and at the same time, their teeth itched with hatred, and they wanted to peel alive the treacherous person who plotted to kill the crown prince.

I haven't seen him for a few months, Wu Zhong's originally white and slightly chubby body is now black and thin, and he has obviously suffered a lot.

Zhu Cihong sighed: "Wu Daban, you have lost so much weight, you have worked hard!" ”

With the crown prince's concern, Wu Zhong was very happy in his heart, and said busily: "With your Royal Highness's words, the slave and maid are willing to lose ten pounds of weight!" ”

Wu Zhong continued: "Your Highness, the Iron Works and the Ordnance Bureau are on the right track, and the slave will take you on a tour." ”

Zhu Cihong nodded and entered the Weapons Bureau to take a look.

Most of the craftsmen in the War Bureau worked in the Ordnance Bureau, and some of them were transferred to the Fengyang Ordnance Bureau, where each of them was given a hundred acres of fertile land, and in addition to their salaries, they were also paid five stone of grain every month, and their families lived in abundance.

Zhu Cihong also canceled their status as craftsmen, so that their descendants could freely choose their careers, and were no longer limited to inheriting their father's business as artisans.

Zhu Cihong felt that military households, artisan households, and other households must be abolished, and the emperor and the sons of officials in this world will be comfortable inheriting their father's business, and most of the other industries are pitfalling, delaying the development of future generations.

In particular, the artisan households have an empty body of craftsmanship, but their status is extremely low, which is too unfair to them, and it simply chills the hearts of the craftsmen.

In the future plan to revitalize the Ming Dynasty, craftsmen played a great role, so Zhu Cihong decided to elevate the status of craftsmen and improve their treatment, so that more people are willing to learn some crafts and contribute to the country.

The current iron factory and the Jiangnan Ordnance Bureau, from mining to smelting, to transportation and building weapons, have formed a complete industry, looking at the surrounding hot scene, Zhu Cihong is very excited, and the army's armor and firearms are expected to be produced from here in the future.

Wu Zhong said: "Your Highness, when you first started building the factory, you spent a lot of money, and the follow-up is quite stable, there is a supply of coal and iron ore, and the main cost is to build and transport, and the wages of craftsmen and some tun households. ”

Zhu Cihong said: "Don't save this part of the money, the entire Ordnance Bureau, craftsmen are the core, they can not only build weapons, but more importantly, some people can become scientific researchers!" ”

Although he didn't know why scientific researchers were so important, Wu Zhong still kept in mind the words of the crown prince and couldn't treat the craftsmen harshly.

Wu Zhong said with a smile: "These miners and transport personnel are all hoarders under the Taiping Mansion, these people used to not eat two meals in three days, but now they work here, not only three meals a day, but also two taels of salary every month, everyone is very satisfied, and they are very motivated, they all treat slaves and maids as Buddhas!" ”

Zhu Cihong said: "The iron factory and the ordnance bureau under your jurisdiction need miners for mining, laborers for transporting ore, and smelting personnel, and people for transporting coal, and people for smelting coal into coke, and then smelting wrought iron, and transporting it to the ordnance bureau to build all kinds of firearms and armor, all of which require people, not to mention more than 10,000 people, right?" ”

Wu Zhong nodded and said, "What Your Highness said is right, there are a total of eighteen thousand six hundred and thirty-two people needed in these places. ”

Zhu Cihong glanced at him approvingly, and said: "There are more than 18,000 people, each of whom has family members, so that there are more than 100,000 people who rely on you Wu Zhong to support alone, do you know now why they treat you as a Buddha?" ”

Wu Zhong was very surprised, he didn't expect him to be so great......

Zhu Cihong said: "Not only that, but the food, cloth, salt and other needs that these hundreds of thousands of people usually need to eat and wear are all purchased from the local neighborhood, and how many people do they feed?" ”

"All walks of life are connected, the richer the people, the more people will be fed, and the Ming Dynasty will get better and better!"

Not only Wu Zhong, but even Li Tingbiao, Xu Sheng, and some officials of the Taiping Mansion who accompanied him were stunned, and the crown prince's words were really unique.

"The crown prince is really the reincarnation of the Ziwei Emperor Star, far beyond the reach of others!" There are officials who pat the horse.

Zhu Cihong ignored everyone's expressions, he looked at the men and women who were working hard with smiles, and sighed in his heart: "Now the requirements of the people of the Ming Dynasty are not high, as long as they can eat enough, they will be satisfied......"

After staying in Taiping Mansion for a few days, when Zhu Cihong crossed the river and returned to Fengyang Mansion, he did not take the dragon boat re-produced by the local government, and ordered a few merchant ships to be transferred from the nearby Chizhou Mansion and Chuzhou Mansion.

In the end, Zhu Cihong did not take any of these merchant ships, but temporarily changed to civilian ships transporting troops, and what is shocking is that when crossing the river, the newly built dragon boats and several newly transferred merchant ships all leaked and sank into the river.

This incident had a huge impact in the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and many people were terrified, not knowing who wanted to murder the crown prince, and they were so mad!

Zhu Cihong was furious, and put all the craftsmen who made dragon boats, more than 1,000 people who had recently come into contact with dragon boats and several merchant ships, put them on death row, interrogated them strictly, and held hundreds of officials in Chizhou and Chuzhou Mansions accountable, all of whom were held accountable and demoted by three levels!

Li Tingbiao was under great pressure, and while roasting more than 1,000 people on death row, he strictly ordered the Jinyiwei Intelligence Sub-offices in various parts of Jiangnan to strictly investigate the masterminds behind them, and the person who solved the case was promoted to three levels.

Zhu Cihong even in the name of the crown prince, in the south of the Yangtze River to offer a reward of 100,000 taels of silver and 10,000 acres of fertile land, as long as strong clues are provided, they will be rewarded, and the officials will report the masterminds behind the scenes, and the official will be promoted to the fifth level and given a knighthood!

After the matter reached Jingshi, the ministers were in an uproar, Chongzhen was even more furious, the prince was assassinated one after another, and the other party slapped the royal family in the face without concealment, so that he couldn't bear it, Chongzhen ordered on the spot to destroy the nine clans of the mastermind.

The imperial court also sent the Qincha to the south to inspect Nanzhili to deal with the matter, and the Qincha was still halfway through, and Jinyiwei had already found out a group of people, and there were more than one or two people who planned it, from which a large number of people were involved, including officials and gentry.

Zhu Cihong exterminated several main criminals of the nine clans, and killed hundreds of accomplices, and after cutting off thousands of heads, Zhu Cihong forcibly took the land of Anqing Mansion, Chizhou Mansion, and Chuzhou Mansion, and threatened: "As long as your head is iron enough, your family has enough heads, if you want to retaliate, come here, this palace is not afraid!" ”

After finishing the cruel words, Zhu Cihong walked around the mansions a few times, and the accompanying army was 10,000 people, and every time they were waving their flags, the ironclad army was like a torrent, which made people shudder.

The domineering of the crown prince made the officials and gentry of the provinces south of the Yangtze River feel that there was a huge stone in their hearts that made people breathless, especially the Tuntian soldiers stationed in various provinces, which were more like a sharp sword hanging over their heads, which made people uneasy.