Following.

Zhu Si dragged his "sick body" to the court meeting, sat on the dragon chair and coughed from time to time, lacking interest in what the ministers discussed.

In this court meeting, no one mentioned anything about the mining industry.

Lin Jun, as the "thorn" at the DPRK meeting two days ago, was instructed by Yang Tinghe not to come out to express his opinions this time, and even the thorn was suppressed, so naturally no one came out to find fault again.

At the end of the court meeting, Zhang Zuo sent a message and invited Yang Tinghe and Jiang Mian, together with Sun Jiao, the secretary of the household department, and Zhao Huang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, to discuss matters in the Qianqing Palace.

What is discussed, a discerning person knows at a glance that it is related to the opening of the mine, the two factions are looking for two people each, Zhao Huang is not considered Sun Jiao and others in the strict sense, but it is rare that Zhao Huang belongs to the neutral faction among the civil officials in the DPRK, and Yang Tinghe is called a second auxiliary university scholar here.

However, Lin Jun, who provoked the incident before, was not invited to participate in the discussion, which can be regarded as a punishment for him.

Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Si expressed his meaning clearly and unmistakably in front of Sun Jiao and Yang Tinghe.

「…… I agreed to let the prefect of Yongping Prefecture take care of the local iron ore mines, but the premise was that Zhu Hao, the prefect of Yongping Prefecture, would be directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Household and Ministry of Industry would each send a director to be responsible for specific mining matters. The Household Department supervises the accounts, while the Works Department supervises the works."

Zhu Si did not speak quickly, but he spoke calmly and powerfully.

Jiang Mian knew that this was an agreement reached between Yang Tinghe and Sun Jiao and the emperor, and he had a lot of opinions to mention, but at this time he could only hold back.

Sun Jiao asked: "The old minister asks for an order, after Zhu Hao, the governor of Yongping Prefecture, ends his term of office, he will be transferred to the household department and appointed to a matching official position."

As soon as these words came out, the three ministers now looked at Sun Jiao with strange eyes.

Not only did you openly recruit Zhu Hao into your command and become your henchman, but you also directly asked the emperor for his life, so that Zhu Hao could enter the household department in the future and get a guarantee for his career?

You Sun Zhitong kept saying that he didn't want to get involved in court disputes, which is really duplicitous!

Zhu Sidao: "Since Sun Qing's family has asked for this, I can't help but agree, if Zhu Hao steps down as the prefect of Yongping Mansion, he will at least give him a household to do when he returns to the court."

In this way, the emperor directly consulted with the ministers about personnel changes, without going through the ministry, and regarded the first and second assistants in front of him as transparent people...... Is that really good?

"What is Elder Yang Ge's opinion on this?"

Zhu Si asked Yang Tinghe decently.

Yang Tinghe said, "The old minister has no objection."

Meaning, even if it's a little unreasonable, I'll accept it.

Sun Jiaodao: "Your Majesty, if you go to take care of the mine with the two heads of the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry, but you don't know whose opinion should be the main one? I'm afraid that the time will come...... There will be disputes over the division of labor."

With six court officials, he went to the local government to take care of a certain matter, and also cooperated with the local prefect...... It is easy to say, but in practice, it will lead to differences in the three regards or dominant opinions.

Zhu Sidao: "Headed by the local prefect, even if the Ministry of Household and Ministry of Industry sends a director, they only occasionally go to supervise it, and there is no need to stay in the mine at all times."

The emperor's words are tantamount to highlighting Zhu Hao's dominance in the matter of mining.

Zhao Huang, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, suddenly interjected and asked, "Now that the iron mine in Yongping Mansion has been decided, what about the Xishan Coal Mine?"

The atmosphere in the Qianqing Palace suddenly became tense.

is good, you didn't even mention Yang Tinghe and Jiang Mian, you Zhao Huang, who has never been close to Yang Tinghe, actually asked a fatal question at a critical time, do you want to get involved in the dispute between the two factions?

Even Sun Jiao felt that Zhao Huang's question was a bit inappropriate.

Zhu Si seemed to have expected this scene for a long time.

Before, we were talking about just an iron mine, but now we are talking about the Xishan Coal Mine, should we also talk about what other mines the emperor will open in the future?

Zhu Sidao: "Xishan Coal Mine, my people have always taken good care of it, and this is not what I did first, there were many coal kilns in Xishan before, and most of the coal produced was used in Jingshi

and the people of the surrounding prefectures and counties to heat and cook. I've spent a lot of effort and money on the Xishan Coal Kiln, so if I want to hand it over directly to the household department, I'm afraid it won't be appropriate?"

The meaning revealed in the words is that this matter can still be discussed, but it must be on a condition that satisfies me.

Jiang Mian arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, mining costs the people and money, and it is very easy to endanger local stability, please put an end to the matter of opening mines with Zhongguan and Jinyiwei, and strictly prevent the yamen at all levels of the imperial court from participating in specific matters."

Zhu Sidao: "That means that in the future, if you find a huge reserve of ore veins, you won't mine them, right? How many mines are there now, keep the fixed number, and can't add anything in the future?"

Jiang Mian replied without even thinking about it, "Yes."

This sounds extremely unreasonable to Zhu Si, but in the minds of civil officials, he takes it for granted.

Since ancient times, civilian officials have been in power like this, abiding by an established principle, being conservative and not knowing how to change, and paying attention to everything according to the rules......

Even if the rules are very unreasonable, if they are not changed, whoever carries out the reform will be a sinner, and the civil officials will rush up to attack, even if they cannot be changed for a while, when the reformers lose power, they will rise up and attack them, causing people to die and the government to rest.

This is also an important reason why science and technology have been stagnant in Chinese society for thousands of years.

Zhu Si smiled and said, "Okay, in the past, Yang Ge Lao set a rule for me that I can't open a new mining kiln, but now Jiang Ge has brought up the old things again...... The household department hasn't allocated a tael of silver to the mine in the past two years, right? If it damages the place again...... The Xishan Coal Mine was originally there, and now the Yongping Mansion Iron Mine has also been handed over to the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, and the local government to take care of it, so I haven't crossed the line, right?"

It's rare that the emperor can still laugh at this time.

This time, Sun Jiao was impressed by the little emperor.

The young emperor has a very good mentality.

Jiang Mian said: "Xishan Coal Kiln, Your Majesty should no longer use Zhongguan and Jinyi Guards to take care of it."

Zhu Si smiled and shook his head: "I have already said that the Xishan Coal Mine, from exploration to completion, and now to large-scale mining, is all done by my people, let me directly hand it over to the household department to take care of, I have lost too much. Unless...... I have an idea, didn't I say I was going to build a train? Now the trains around Xishan are more than ten miles long, and I am going to set up the trains in Xishan to Jingshi, and I am still short of silver......

When Yang Tinghe and Jiang Mian heard this, they couldn't help muttering in their hearts.

So what about waiting for us here?

Let's just say that you can't do that iron lump and railway, you can't do it with your ability, how much manpower and material resources do you need? Now that you are short of money, you want to hand over the coal mine in exchange for the support of the Ministry of Households?

Think beautifully!

Jiang Mian hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, this kind of thing costs the people and money......

"Elder Jiang Ge, don't worry, listen to me."

Zhu Sidao, "I said that there was a shortage of silver, but I didn't say that the imperial court and the local government would allocate it, and I wanted the merchants to contribute money and efforts to help me complete the construction of the railway."

Jiang Mian smiled bitterly.

And let the businessman pay?

In the eyes of the emperor, are those merchants stupid?

When opening a mine, find some mines that have just been explored and have not been officially excavated, and directly find merchants to participate in the auction.

Do you think that all the money of the merchant family is blown by the wind?

Yang Tinghe finally spoke and asked, "Your Majesty, I don't know how much food Your Majesty plans to raise in this matter?"

Zhu Si almost pulled his fingers in front of several ministers, but finally gave up and said to Zhang Zuo on the side, "You come on."

Zhang Zuo said with a smile: "Several ministers, that's the case, someone has calculated for Your Majesty that it will cost 800,000 taels of silver to complete all this, and now the steel and coal produced by Your Majesty through mining, as well as the manpower currently allocated, are about 400,000 taels of silver, which is still in short supply...... Half."

Missing half?

400,000 taels?

Last year, there was a war in the northwest, and a hundred or two hundred thousand taels of silver were allocated, and the imperial court quarreled every day.

Really

Is the introduction just a casual deal?

To say that the existing manpower and material resources are equivalent to half of 400,000 taels is also bragging, right?

Zhu Sidao: "My idea is this, I only raise 400,000 taels, which can guarantee the erection of the railway, but I can't guarantee the construction of a few more trains, so I plan to raise 600,000 taels at a time...... At present, I can provide 400,000 taels, but in terms of design and operation, it is equivalent to 200,000 taels. I intend to hand over half of the operation of the railway to the merchants in exchange for their money and support."

Yang Tinghe was very angry when he heard this.

Although it sounds nonsense to build a railway and build a train, the emperor is going to hand over this thing to the merchants to take care of, which means that in the future, in terms of railways and trains, you plan to divide power to those mercenary businessmen?

Jiang Mian stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's inappropriate, right?"

"Wait until I'm done."

Zhu Si added, "Railway, this thing doesn't have any benefit, don't say it's you, even I feel that there is a great possibility of losing money, and it is very likely that in a few years, this railway and train will be completely invalidated...... What I mean is just to hand over the operation rights for ten years, and after ten years, all the profits will go to the imperial court. If you agree, I will agree to hand over the Xishan Coal Kiln to the Household Department to take care of."

After Jiang Mian listened, he could only look at Yang Tinghe with an inquiring gaze.

Now the little emperor himself has analyzed that the train and the railway are originally very bizarre, if the merchant is really willing to contribute, then the court will not have to bear the cost of any trial and error.

After all, from the very beginning, the imperial court did not contribute a penny to the railway, and now the emperor still uses the right to operate the Xishan Coal Mine in exchange for the support of several ministers present, and it seems that the emperor has not made any money in this matter.

Then ...... Consideration may be given to acceptance.

Yang Tinghe was silent for a moment, and then came forward and asked, "Your Majesty, I am afraid that the businessmen are not willing to contribute to such a thing."

"Huh."

Zhu Si said with a smile, "Regarding the question of whether to contribute or not, you don't have to worry, I plan to let Tang Yin go to the private sector to raise funds, he is close to the Hui merchants, and it is most suitable for him to come forward." And as long as you agree, I will immediately hand over the Xishan Coal Kiln to the household department to take care of, you can choose!"