The blue sky was full of white clouds, and on the clear blue sky, there were occasionally a few white clouds suspended on it, as if marshmallows were engraved in a sapphire-like mirror.

In a corner of the palace in Hua'an City, there was a young man in a purple robe and a young man in dark black, the young man hunched over and listened to the young man's speech, and when the young man spoke vividly, he waved his hands and gestured, and there were a few weeds next to him that had not had time to be harvested, swaying back and forth with his gestures in the wind.

These two people were none other than Jing Zetian and his personal eunuch Xiao Zhuozi, who was here at the moment when Concubine Zhen was thinking about him.

"Xiao Zhuozi, have you found the workshop in the past few days?" Jing Zetian asked his personal eunuch Xiao Zhuozi. Xiao Zhuozi's original name was Zhuo Bufan, because the family conditions were too poor, he was sold into the palace as a eunuch, this kind of thing in this era, it is not easy to be sold to the royal family as a slave, the only thing is to give up the happiness of the lower body.

"Your Highness, some time ago, due to the arrival of the army of the Youth League, it was chaotic outside the city, many merchants were piled up in the city, and the slaves and maids contacted a few workshops, but they didn't have time to go, and the slaves and maids hurried over as soon as they were calm in the past two days." Xiao Zhuozi said neatly.

Jing Zetian has lived in the palace for more than ten years, and with the continuous development of age, he found that the monthly monthly gifts in the palace are no longer enough for his "research and development", after all, no matter what era it is, the research and development of new things will cost a lot of money.

Although Jing Zetian has the help of Duanzi, the things he wants, the manufacturing methods and other things can be easily obtained from Duan You, but after all, the era he is in is too far away, some things are difficult to find in the first place, and even if there are in this era, some names are different. Now these things made by Jing Zetian have already cost him a lot of effort, and the most important thing is that he is now paying less money, most of them are subsidized to him by Concubine Zhen, and he is now understaffed, every time he asks someone from the Ministry of Industry to help, although the cost is not large, but it is not convenient to use people.

He is young, and the right to speak is in his concubine Zhen, as a person in the harem, Concubine Zhen can't interfere too much in the yamen of the imperial court.

"Well, you hurry up and focus on the progress of the past few days, and you will hurry back to participate in my mother's entrance ceremony to the temple." Jing Zetian urged.

Xiao Zhuozi also knew the seriousness of the matter, so he picked up the key points and said: "This time I found two merchants' workshops, both of them are making wooden tools, and both merchants agreed to sell completely, and the craftsmen inside are also included in the transfer price." ”

Jing Zetian no longer gave his speech at this moment, with his hands behind his back, walking back and forth, listening to Xiao Zhuozi's report, and the weeds next to him no longer continued to swing.

"How much do the two of them cost?" Jing Zetian asked the point.

"That's right, now that the news of the civil strife in the country has been pacified all over the world, these two merchants are in the capital, and they must have known the news early, so the price has risen a little. Among them, there is a shopkeeper called Huang Lesong, his workshop is in the southern suburbs of the capital in Xinghe County, the workshop covers an area of half an acre, backed by a barren mountain, so the raw materials are more convenient, there are three old carpenters in the workshop, six apprentices, and the price is 20 taels of silver. After Xiao Zhuozi finished speaking, he carefully looked at Jing Zetian's face, and saw that his master didn't say anything, so he continued: "Another shopkeeper is called Zhang Rang, his workshop is in Qingquan County, some time ago the army of the Youth League was stationed there and killed a lot of people, the imperial court is investigating the losses in Qingquan County in the past two days, and Zhang's shopkeeper's workshop has also been affected, according to what you told me before, the advantage of this workshop is that it is close to the river, easy to get water, and if there is a fire when the weather is dry, it is easy to save the emergency. However, the only drawback is because Qingquan County is now short of people, and it is estimated that if you recruit people, you will have to draw from the surrounding counties, which will be a little troublesome, and the price of the shopkeeper is also 20 taels of silver. Xiao Zhuozi briefly said the key points, and then stood quietly next to Jing Zetian, waiting for Jing Zetian to indicate the next task, Xiao Zhuozi is the only one among Jing Zetian's personal subordinates, who is more reliable and very obedient to him.

After listening to Xiao Zhuozi's report, Jing Zetian carefully analyzed the pros and cons of these two workshops in his mind, the bids were 20 taels of silver, the currency of Dahua was Shenghua Tongbao, and the currency rules were the copper standard. 20 taels of silver is 20 copper coins, and copper coins have always been equal to 1,000 copper coins, and the price is more real now.

20 copper coins is not a small amount for Jing Zetian, Jing Kaige is a Ming monarch, now the country is just stable, pay attention to frugality, so the queen also strictly requires the harem to be thrifty. And Jing Zetian didn't want Concubine Zhen to interfere in the matter of opening a workshop, so even Qiu Xiang didn't know about it, because Concubine Zhen was very opposed to Jing Zetian's participation in business, and it was not easy for him to tolerate the work of a craftsman.

Xiao Zhuozi saw that Jing Zetian's face was a little tangled, and he knew what the reason was for being familiar with the affairs of Zhengyang Palace, so he immediately said: "Your Highness, if you want to borrow some money from your uncle and use it first, I think they should be happy." ”

"Hey, I'm worried that the mother concubine knows, you must know that the mother is very strict in this regard, and she doesn't want to do anything to embarrass the mother until she has to." Jing Zetian said helplessly.

His mother, Concubine Zhen, formerly known as Zhen Caier, was a descendant of the Zhen family, one of the four major commercial families during the Three Kingdoms period. Among his ancestors, it is Zhen Mi, the heroine of Luo Shenfu. Since Zhen Mi was transferred to the Cao family, the Zhen family began to decline gradually, although the Cao family did not become the emperor in the past history, but the Zhen family, a legendary business family at that time, eventually declined.

However, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, with the continuous operation of the descendants of the Zhen family in the past few decades, the former business family has slowly recovered, but now it is mainly in the business development is very strong, after all, they have their own unique business experience, but the political strength has been far less than before after the turmoil, and now it only has some prestige in its own base camp Yizhou. In order to have the opportunity to restore the glory of the past, the Zhen family also spent a great price to send the family's daughter Zhen Caier into the palace as a concubine, wanting to rely on Concubine Zhen's background to develop their family's power in the court, after all, in this era, businessmen are the lowest existence, although the Zhen family enjoys fame in Yizhou, but there is not much real power.

For this reason, the Zhen family spent a lot of resources on Concubine Zhen and wanted to develop the Zhen family through Concubine Zhen.

However, after Concubine Zhen entered the palace, she cooperated with the family's arrangement at first, but since she gave birth to Jing Zetian, she completely changed her mind.

Because Concubine Zhen is walking on thin ice in the palace, first of all, the queen is in the harem, and her prestige is unmatched, if he goes too far, he is not afraid of being punished, but if it affects his children, then Concubine Zhen will not be able to accept it. Moreover, since the dictatorship of foreign relatives in the Han Dynasty took precedence, the Chinese court was also very wary of this, and as for the queen's Zhao family, it was naturally ignored.

Therefore, Concubine Zhen no longer obeyed the family's arrangement, and raised Jing Zetian with peace of mind, from a weak woman who obeyed the family's instructions to a mother who protected her calves, Jing Zetian, who knew the reason, really couldn't bear to do something to disappoint her mother.

Women are weak, but mothers are strong!