Wei Zhongxian immediately expressed his approval of the establishment of the Imperial Engineering Corps. He said this, but he sneered in his heart. "Yue Su, Yue Su, you did this, although it had a slight impact on me, but it was nothing. How many projects are there in Yanjing City all year round, and the Ministry of Industry really makes a lot of money, which is outside, and the projects across the country are approved by the Ministry of Industry. However, there are many people in Yanjing City who point to the Yamen to make money, and you have offended them all, I think you will still be mixed up in the future? ”

Leaving the Palace of Cultivating the Heart, Wei Zhongxian drafted the decree according to the emperor's intentions, punishing Feng Quan lightly to not causing any fluctuations, and setting up a royal engineering team, which really caused an uproar among the ministers. The Cabinet immediately objected, and although it could not find any good excuse, it still withdrew on the grounds that there was no precedent.

The Ming Dynasty has always advocated that the emperor and scholars jointly govern the world, and the emperor's will, if the cabinet does not agree, can not be implemented at all, which is called Fenghui.

Of course, Wei Zhongxian likes to see this situation the most, the cabinet is controlled by the Donglin Party, and the more you make the emperor unhappy, the better. Of course, Zhu Youxiao was very unhappy, and made a note in his heart to these old guys. Aren't you not obeying the order, okay, Lao Tzu issued the order.

A decree is a decree issued directly by the emperor without going through the cabinet. Although the effect is the same, it is still slightly worse in terms of authoritative surnames. In particular, the officials promoted by the emperor's decree are basically looked down upon by others.

Yue Su received the decree and began to organize the imperial engineering team, not only all the craftsmen who are now working in the Jiaotai Palace, but also the craftsmen who are recruited and transferred in the people.

The name of the royal engineering team is really loud enough, and many craftsmen have come to admire it, and after Yue Su has been selected, a total of 500 people have been established. Yue Su, as the Yin of the Shuntian Mansion, naturally did not have much effort to manage these craftsmen, so he agreed with the emperor, and finally asked for the title of a thousand households in the imperial engineering team, and let Li Haoran lead this position.

As soon as Li Haoran heard that he could hold the official position of a thousand households, he was grateful, and he never thought that he could be an official in his life, and he was still such a big official. That night, he and his younger brother bought a lot of wine and food, and invited everyone to celebrate together, and during the banquet, Yue Su had to urge him to guard against arrogance and rashness, do things well, do not live up to the emperor's trust, and never bend the law for bribes.

Li Haoran followed Yue Su because he respected Yue Su as a person, and he also stated at the moment that he would never harm the public and private.

The next day, Li Haoran took office, personally organized craftsmen to work in the Jiaotai Palace, all the costs can be saved, and according to Yue Su's design, some new furnishings were added to the Jiaotai Palace. Two months passed, the maintenance task was finally completed, and Carpenter Zhu accepted the site for acceptance, which was full of praise. After the repair, the main hall is not only beautiful, but also the silver does not cost much, not even three thousand taels. The main reason for this is that the materials are already complete, and the cost is mostly labor. You must know that Wei Zhongxian returned a lot of 150,000 taels of silver to the emperor, and the materials needed were purely given by Feng Quanbai. But for him, how dare he care about this, if he can keep his official position, even if he burns high incense.

In the past two months, it has rained almost three days at both ends, but the project has not been delayed at all. Standing in the Jiaotai Palace, Carpenter Zhu was in a hearty mood, first praised Yue Su, and then said: "Yue Aiqing, you not only reduced my losses for me, but also earned silver for me, I want to reward you." Aiqing, what do you say you want? ”

Yue Su hurriedly bowed down and said, "This is the duty that a minister should do, how dare he ask for a reward." ”

"Where is this, meritorious service should be rewarded, there are many people who should do their duty, but in the end there are a few people who do their duty. Yue Aiqing, I know that you are humble and loyal, if you don't mention it, I will reward you directly. Zhu Youxiao said this, and raised his voice, "Liu Mingguo, pass on my will, and reward Yue Su with 20,000 taels of silver from the inside." ”

Twenty thousand taels! This amount is too big, Yue Su hurriedly knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, the minister does not dare to accept Lu without merit, and I hope that Your Majesty will take back his life." ”

"I said that you have merit, you should be rewarded, do you dare to resist the decree and disrespect!" Carpenter Zhu stepped forward and pulled Yue Su up. He also said: "I am happy today, and I will have dinner with me." I now feel that my attainments in carving wooden figures have improved again, and we will have another discussion in the afternoon. ”

Since the emperor said so, Yue Su didn't dare to refuse, so he had to thank him. I had lunch with the emperor, and in the afternoon, I competed with the carved wooden figures, and after some competition, the emperor's carving was slightly better. Zhu Youxiao laughed with satisfaction and said, "Very good, this time it's a tie again." By the way, Aiqing, you said that this wooden man would be great if he could move it himself. ”

If you want the wooden man to move, you must add bearings to it, Yue Su understands this truth, but he doesn't know how to make it. At the moment, he said: "Your Majesty, your idea, the minister has also considered, if you can add some organs to the body of the wooden man, it should be able to move." It's just that what this organ is going to do, Weichen hasn't figured it out yet. ”

"It turns out that Aiqing also has this idea, so in a few days, you and I will discuss it together. Aiqing, now that the project of Jiaotai Hall has been completed, and there is no project at the moment, how about letting these craftsmen build another garden for me? I have already made a model of the castle you designed for me last time, and I always want to see what it looks like. Zhu Youxiao said with a smile.

The western castle designed by Yue Su for Zhu Youxiao was the Buckingham Palace that I had seen on the Internet, but the impression was not too deep, so it was integrated with some oriental colors, but the appearance was beautiful. Now that Carpenter Zhu mentioned it, Yue Su said, "Naturally, you can." ”

Zhu Youxiao nodded, and then said embarrassedly: "It's just that it must cost a lot to build this castle, and the household department always says that there is no silver, I'm afraid it can't be allocated." ”

The emperor wants to build a palace, but not every time there will be opposition from ministers, it mainly depends on whether the household department has money. This time, it was already very gritty to be able to take out 150,000 taels to repair the Tai Palace, but after the construction was completed, the remaining money became all internal money. Immediately let the household pay for it, Zhu Youxiao also knew that it was unlikely.

The household department has no money, and of course Yue Su also knows that he can't suggest that the emperor force the household department to pay for the silver. He pondered for a moment and said: "Your Majesty's words are wrong, although the palace was built in previous years, although it was hundreds of thousands, but there were a lot of cats among them, if it was done by the royal engineering team, it is estimated that a fraction of it would be enough." The minister thought that His Majesty could choose a good location in the city, and then allocate internal funds to build it, 50,000 to 100,000 taels would be enough. After the completion of the building, His Majesty first toured, a few days of stay, when it is boring, you can sell it at a price, I believe that several times the price, there are also people willing to buy. When Your Majesty gets the silver, you can build a second building, and in the long run, it will not be more and more silver, and you can build whatever you want. ”

"Well......" Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded again and again, and said: "Aiqing's words are reasonable, I guess some people want to buy the garden I built." It's so decided, I will let Liu Mingguo choose a place later. ”

Looking at the world, where Carpenter Zhu wants to build a house, it is not a matter of one sentence, who dares to care. It's just that the house built by the emperor must not be gathered with the common people, and the choice must be chosen in the rich land where the dignitaries live. If there is a house of the convict, take one set and rebuild it, and it will be over.

After talking to the emperor and having dinner, he returned to Shuntian Mansion. The 20,000 taels of silver, naturally, were escorted by the forbidden army and helped them move into the house.

Because of the completion of today's Jiaotai Palace, the emperor is particularly satisfied, the stewards and craftsmen involved in the project have a certain reward, Li Haoran bought good wine and meat back to celebrate, and now he has drunk it, Yue Su has nothing to do, he walked to the back office, and was ready to drink two more glasses with everyone.

As soon as he arrived, the atmosphere was lively, and the brothers frequently raised their glasses and drank merrily. When the wine was drunk, I heard Li Zhong get up and say, "My lord, my subordinates have something I want to plead with my lord." ”

"Oh?" Yue Su was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said: "Everyone is your own person, there is nothing to ask for, as long as I can do my best, I will definitely help you." ”

The others were also stunned, and they all looked at Li Zhong, not knowing what he was asking for.

Li Zhong clenched his fists and said, "Then Li Zhong thank you first." Your Excellency, you also know that your subordinates are people who run the rivers and lakes, and last time because of the loss of a dart, you had no choice but to go to Beijing to join a friend, but you met an adult and were taken in. Two months ago, I found a friend in Beijing, and my friend also opened a dart game in Beijing, and many of my brothers who had been in the past settled here. I never thought that last month, the dart bureau took a heavy dart and escorted it to Anhui, who expected to go to Henan, encountered a gang of bandits, not to mention the loss of goods, and suffered heavy casualties, only eight people fled back. Now the employer has come to claim compensation, and my brother's bankrupt property is not enough to cover the amount, so he can only sell the title deed to barely pay the compensation. Now that the brothers have nowhere to stay, they would like to ask the adults to take them in. Don't worry, my lord, those friends of mine are all well-known men, and they are by no means rats and dogs, and they will never cause trouble for adults. ”

"That's just the little thing." Yue Su smiled and said, "You can arrange this matter with the golden cicada." The courtyard that the yatou entered after this was not small, enough for everyone to live, and let them all come over when the time came. ”

Seeing that Yue Su immediately agreed, Li Zhong and the others were very happy, and they toasted Yue Su a few times in a row. Drinking and drinking, Yue Su suddenly remembered something and said: "Li Zhong, I remember that you said last time that your previous Tiger Dart Game was reluctantly closed because you lost a dart in Henan, why was Henan robbed this time." Henan is the land of the Central Plains, and I have never heard of rampant banditry, so I don't know where you were robbed. ”

"Speaking of this, I am really angry, I went north to Henan that time, just entered the territory of Henan, and was robbed in Yituling. My brother was passing through Henan on his way south, and he had just entered Henan, and it is said that he encountered robbers when he passed through a forest. I am ashamed to say that my brothers and I have been traveling for a long time, but we have never heard of the origin of these two groups of thieves. I only remember that among the gang that robbed me, the leader had a purple face......"

As soon as he heard the purple face, Yue Su's heart was shocked, and he couldn't help but remember that he had also met a purple-faced man in Yinjiang County. In this world, there are not many people with purple faces, so Yue Su was extremely impressed, and couldn't help but ask, "What kind of weapon does the purple-faced man use?" ”

"I still remember that guy used a ghost head knife, the knife technique is very powerful, and the strength is also great, and he is a difficult character. I've played him and I've been able to get a draw. Li Zhong said truthfully.

"The ghost head knife that I use too!" Yue Su asked, "Then do you know this person's name?" ”

Li Zhong shook his head, "I really don't know this. ”

"Then have you heard your brother tell him what happened to his robber?" Yue Su asked again.

"According to my brother, the one who robbed him was also a strange man, with a nose like a hanging gall, eyes like brass bells, a face like loess, and especially a nose, which was no different from the nose of a cow. If you just look at the head, you think it's an old scalper. Li Zhong said.

"I didn't expect that this land in Zhongzhou would be so unpeaceful, so many strongmen were rampant, and the local government didn't care about it." Yue Su sighed and said suddenly, "Li Zhong, you said how much silver is needed to reopen a dart game. ”

"The cost of the dart game is not large, and the main thing is to have a house to settle in, generally speaking, 10,000 taels should be about the same." Li Zhong didn't know what Yue Su meant, but just answered truthfully.

"That official is still responsible for it, you said that if the government pays to help you reopen the dart game, are you willing to continue to operate?"

(To be continued)