Emperor Xuanwen and his father, Emperor Yongle, had very different personalities, preferences, and governance styles. But in the history books of this dynasty and in the literati circle, he is a very respected benevolent monarch. Most scholars believe that he was a Confucian gentleman, which was completely different from his father's style of emphasizing martial arts, commerce, and industry, so he was more respected by scholars.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanwen, all the large and small workshops and businesses built by Emperor Yongle were nationalized. The recipes have all become royal secrets and are not to be leaked. All craftsmen who know the recipe must be included in the register of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and work in the workshops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and their children and grandchildren must live in the places designated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and they must not leave without an order.

As for the sharp weapons in the army, not to mention. Since Emperor Yongle had basically beaten the enemy on the northern border during his reign, the border was flat, so naturally there was no need to continue to reuse military generals. Ordnance was unified under the management of the Ministry of War, and craftsmen were no exception. It is said that when the control was at its strictest, the border army and even a guard post could not necessarily have a firearm, and after the gunpowder was used up, it could not be replenished for three or four years, and the firearm could not even be used as a burning stick.

It wasn't until a small group of enemy troops went south to attack a guard, causing a large number of casualties, so that the empress dowager and the emperor found out that the guard should have defeated the enemy with firearms, but was defeated because of the lack of gunpowder, and this news is likely to have spread among the enemies, and it may cause many border towns to be attacked at any time, that the imperial court relaxed a little and provided a certain number of firearms and gunpowder to the border army every year, just in case. But in the inland guards, it was a firearm that could not be imagined. As for the army under the Yanwang Mansion that guarded the border passes, they received the same treatment as the inland guards.

Empress Dowager Xu and Emperor Xuanwen were very worried that the little prince of Yanwangfu would use the advantage of firearms to break into the national capital and snatch the supreme throne of Emperor Xuanwen. Even if the Yan Wangfu did not act, the other vassal kings who had lost the military and political power of the vassal country because of the cutting of the feudal domain would secretly be unfavorable to the imperial court.

Throughout the Xuanwen Dynasty, military generals, craftsmen, and merchants were suppressed and attacked. The generals became honest, and no one improved their ordnance or studied firearms; Merchants do business honestly and dare not let people know that they have a lot of money, lest they be beheaded by raiders; The craftsmen only had to accept orders from above to work, and they did not dare to innovate or fight for more welfare for themselves, and gradually became a pool of stagnant water.

Even the cement, which everyone knew was a good thing, also because Emperor Xuanwen accepted the proposition of some courtiers, thinking that the official roads in the world had been repaired enough, and then sending conscripts to build roads was unkind and not conducive to the people's recuperation, so he stopped the official road construction action, and transferred the craftsmen who knew the cement formula to the northern border to build the Great Wall, and gradually disappeared from the people in the south.

In fact, during this period, it was not that no one intended to resist, and openly and secretly wanted to regain the glory of the Yongle Dynasty, but everyone failed. And with their defeat, a large part of the craftsmen who had mastered the secret recipe were also affected by their old masters, or lost their lives, or were exiled to remote areas, and then lost their lives. In short, there are fewer and fewer people who know about those royal exclusive formulas.

Emperor Xuanwen reigned for a long time, and in his later years, there was a small rebellion, which was small in scale and was quickly quelled. However, since the rebellion took place on the border of Jinling or was started by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the consequences became very terrible.

Few craftsmen died in that rebellion, but many died after the rebellion. After Emperor Xuanwen finished dealing with this rebellion, and then because of old age and decrepitude, he finally couldn't hold it anymore, hurriedly announced the candidate for the prince, completed the canonization ceremony of the East Palace, and died in the new monarch......

When Song talked about that past, he couldn't help but sigh. Her hometown is in Wanping County, which is under the jurisdiction of Beiping Prefecture, and she moved to Beiping City with her parents when she was a few years old, until her father was admitted to the Jinshi and stayed in Beijing as an official. She knows the situation in Beiping very well, and knows that the royal family has always been wary of Beiping, and from generation to generation, she doesn't know how many times she has succeeded the prince, for fear that the bloodline of the prince of Emperor Yongle can still survive in the world.

Under the name of Yanwangfu, there are actually special craftsmen who inherit those magical formulas, but it seems that the inheritance is not very good, and the things made are much worse than what the ancestors made. But even so, the people in the Yan Wangfu are still very strict, and they only use it in the Yan Wangfu. The local big families who have access to the door can see some sporadic outflow things, but whoever gets it will put it away tightly, and no one dares to dedicate it to Beijing. Because everyone knows that once the Yan Wangfu hears about it, they will go crazy, no matter what kind of family they are, they can't escape their lives, and there is a precedent for this. No matter which prince is succeeded to the Yan Palace, it is the same practice, without exception.

When the Song family was in the city of Beiping, they were just ordinary scholars, so the Song family had never seen those rumored curiosities, but had seen several houses or paved roads made of cement. She saw some sporadic records from the books in her home collection, and knew that it was cement.

Song sighed to Xie Mulin: "You don't know where you got the old book from to find this recipe." I am afraid that it was a master of the Yongle Dynasty who left a text and passed it on to future generations in secret. What a bonus! This cement was originally an excellent thing, but at the moment in my Daming, I am afraid that only the border army and Beiping, and there are craftsmen who know how to match cement. ”

Xie Mulin coughed: "I don't know who wrote that old book. When I saw it in the bookstore, it was badly damaged, and there were traces of insect damage, and the author's signature on the book cover was a big hole, and I couldn't see anything, so I could only guess that the author might be surnamed Wang based on a little trace on the edge of the hole. I saw that the book was so worn-out that the bookstore guys didn't throw it away, and I guessed that it should have some value, so I flipped through the book and found a cement recipe in it. I was curious, thinking that the materials for this recipe were not rare, and I could try it later, and if it worked, it would be good to use it for paving at home, so I bought it. ”

This statement sounds very reasonable, and as for the author's surname, it is possible that the surname is Wang...... There are more people with the surname Wang in the world, and during the reign of Emperor Yongle, there must be more than one craftsman surnamed Wang who knows the cement formula, and there is no shortage of people surnamed Wang for the unjust dead, so Xie Mulin is very calm.

She also directly told Song that the book had been burned by her because of the severe moth.

Song lamented: "There may be more recipes and skills recorded in the book, but now I can't see them." ”

"When I brought the book back to the boat, I found that there were moths in it, and if I put it together with other books, I was afraid that even the other books would be damaged, and if I kept the book itself, the book would be quickly bitten." I immediately copied all the words I could see in the book, and then burned the book in one fell swoop, so that the moths would not run around and cause damage to the rest of my collection. But I have copied all the recipes and techniques that can be used, and I will not waste them. Although it is a pity that the book burned, and we don't know who the author of the book is, but who told it to make it so moth-eaten? ”

Song sighed, approved of her approach, and asked, "Did you buy a lot of these books at that time?" I'm a little interested, when will you show it to me? ”

Xie Mulin smiled: "I'll take it all." When my grandmother wanted to see it, she just sent someone to fetch it. ”

Wen was a little worried: "Since these recipes are confidential, will we be taboo when we use them to open a workshop?" ”