Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 338 No Regrets
Xiao Huasheng's face turned red when Xian Yunhe glared at him. He wanted to clarify that he didn't say that. He was vague and perfunctory when Zhang Shou asked him. But Ah Liu revealed his secret and he had to admit it. But this was a waste of Xian Yunhe's efforts. So he dodged and didn't dare to look at Xian Yunhe until someone patted his shoulder. He looked up and it was Ah Liu.
Seeing the look in his eyes clearly showing "don't worry, it's okay", he mustered up the courage to look at Xian Yunhe and said, "Uncle Yunhe, Dr. Zhang and the eldest lady are both very good people. All of Old Man Qi's rich and unkind families have been dealt with!"
Those families who colluded with the eldest prince would never have a good end. This was what Xian Yunhe had already concluded in his heart after he surrendered and saw Xu Cheng's official hat shot off by Zhu Tingfang. Therefore, when he listened to Xiao Huasheng's explanation, he was more concerned about the two strange names that Xiao Huasheng said, not how those families were dealt with.
Soon, he recognized Zhu Ying, who was dressed as a man, and immediately his eyes fell on the handsome young man who had just said that Xiao Huasheng was also guilty of a serious crime. He knew more than the inexperienced Xiao Huasheng, or the playboy like Jiang Dashao. After all, he not only beat up the eldest prince, but also secretly tested the eldest prince in the dead of night, so he knew some inside information.
So, he stared at Zhang Shou for a long time before he said in a deep voice: "Young Master, are you Dr. Zhang? You created the new spinning machine that is several times more efficient than before, but now you see the situation in Cangzhou. How do you feel?"
Old Salted Fish was silent at this time. He was very clear about his nephew's temper. Most people who were forced into a desperate situation would at most occupy the mountain and become the king. It was already very courageous to dare to take action against the court officials. As for Xian Yunhe holding the eldest prince hostage... hehe, that was simply a bold move.
Therefore, although he was a little worried about angering the doctor of the Imperial College, he did not stop anyone who dared to question Zhang Shou at this time, but just quietly peeked at Zhang Shou's expression.
Zhang Shou stopped Zhu Ying from losing her temper and said calmly, "As early as when I made the product, I knew it might be beneficial or harmful. But if I kept it secret and opened one or two workshops to make some money, someone would try every means to steal the technology, and it would be known to the world in no time."
"Unless the product is made but shelved, once such a sharp tool is released, it will be impossible to bury it. It is a great harm for unscrupulous merchants to exploit spinners and oppress ordinary machine owners. But if it can be promoted well, more and more people will grow cotton, more and more cotton yarn will be spun, and more and more cotton cloth and cotton clothes will be made."
Xian Yunhe's eyes suddenly became sharp: "Dr. Zhang has never thought that now it is just profiteering by big businessmen, and they will force a group of textile workers to lose their homes. If farmers all over the world stop growing rice and wheat and grow cotton instead because cotton is expensive, then how much less grain fields will there be in the world, how much more food will be lacking in the world, and how many people will starve to death?"
"Besides, how can you guarantee that the cotton cloth will really be cheap? How can you guarantee that the poor people in the world can afford that 'cheap' cotton cloth? What you consider cheap is not the same as what ordinary people consider cheap!"
Peanut felt that what Zhang Shou said made sense, and what Xian Yunhe said made sense too. He could only look at Ah Liu for help, but found that the indifferent boy next to him, who was about the same age as him, had no expression on his face. As if he had noticed his gaze, Ah Liu glanced at him sideways, then shook his head.
Seeing Xiao Huasheng's bewildered face, Ah Liu said calmly, "I never think so much."
Since you still can’t understand it, just trust the person you should trust.
Zhu Ying didn't notice the awkward exchange between Ah Liu and Xiao Huasheng, because Xian Yunhe's words really irritated her. Before Zhang Shou could speak, she said bluntly: "According to what you said, Suiren should not have drilled wood to make fire, because once people mastered the use of fire, if they let the fire spread carelessly, it would destroy houses, fields and even forests, causing great losses."
"Moreover, people with ulterior motives will set fires for their own selfish reasons!"
"Besides, if that's the case, there's no need to make swords or weapons, let alone think about gunpowder, because with these things, not only will more people die in wars, but conflicts in daily life will also cause casualties. When developing gunpowder, how many people died in the explosions at the Armory? But today, many mines in the world are all blasted with gunpowder by the Armory. How many miners don't need to use fire and water to explore the caves?"
Zhu Ying spoke louder and louder, especially when she saw Xian Yunhe staring at her with eyes full of disbelief, she felt even more unhappy: "Am I wrong? The good things made by A Shou are obviously to reduce the work of textile workers all over the world, but those unscrupulous businessmen profit from it. What does this have to do with him? Before Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu went to Xingtai, he asked them to make various response plans and asked Zhang Chen to help them! As for what you said about people chasing profits, there are other ways to deal with this!"
Seeing Zhu Ying's face flushed with anger, Zhang Shou suddenly felt that he didn't need to worry about this young lady at all.
Seeing Xian Yunhe suddenly fell silent, he said calmly: "What Yingying said is also what I want to say. What you are worried about is indeed very likely to happen, but people should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I haven't done something, then maybe someone else will do it. So, I don't regret it."
"The world is so big, there is not just one Ming Dynasty. If people from other countries discover this opportunity, and merchants pursue profits and continuously improve technology, do you think they can reduce the price to half, or even one-third or one-fifth of the current price of cotton cloth? And if there is too much cotton cloth and the country cannot sell it all, it will be shipped to the Ming Dynasty where the price of cloth is high. Isn't this impossible?"
"When these cotton cloths are all over our country, do you think spinners, cotton farmers, and weavers like you can survive? Of course, cotton fields will definitely occupy grain fields on their side. There will be two possibilities at that time. One is to expand the territory and grow grain on the land of other countries. The other is to study how to efficiently grow grain, just like studying how to efficiently spin yarn and weave cloth."
"If the latter attempt succeeds, and they can grow one, two, three, or four times as much food as we do on the same land, then who knows if there won't be shiploads of food shipped in from overseas and sold all over the world? We don't even need other people's ships. As for those profit-seeking merchants you mentioned, they will buy low and sell high all over the world and won't miss this opportunity to make money."
Not to mention Xian Yunhe, even Lao Xianyu was frightened by Zhang Shou's simple yet terrifying truth.
They were not the ignorant common people. They knew that when the imported rice and cloth were cheaper than the local ones, it would not be something that the masses would applaud. At that time, countless people would starve to death or freeze to death in front of the cheap rice and cloth...
But even so, Xian Yunhe still pretended to be indifferent: "Where in the world can a great country overthrow the Ming Dynasty with rice and cloth?"
"The world is so big that there are all kinds of strange things." The person who answered Xian Yunhe was not Zhang Shou, but Lao Xianyu. His expression was extremely complicated. Seeing Xian Yunhe was slightly stunned, he said, "Don't forget that there are actually big countries in the far west..."
Zhang Shou saw the uncle and nephew looking at each other with eyes that were obviously not right. He drew a bigger question mark in his mind and then said directly: "So, I am very interested in the crops your uncle got from overseas. If they can be cultivated successfully, not only will there be more fresh dishes on the table, but the poor may also have other choices when they want to fill their stomachs."
"I have reported his case to the emperor in detail. I suggest that an agricultural department be established in the Imperial College and that he be hired as a doctor of agricultural science. Of course, the prerequisite is that he can really guide people to successfully cultivate crops, and those crops can indeed be proven to be non-toxic and edible."
Xian Yunhe was stunned. When he looked at Lao Xianyu again, he saw that his uncle was not much better than himself, and he was even mumbling to himself and slapping his face with both hands, clearly trying to make sure whether he was dreaming!
He took a deep breath and said in a dry voice, "The Imperial College has an agricultural department... Doctor Zhang, aren't you afraid that those Confucian scholars in the court who think that the Imperial College should read sage books and write sage articles will abuse you and poke your spine every day?"
"Of course I am...scared."
Zhang Shou paused deliberately before saying the word "afraid", and then said nonchalantly: "But thanks to Emperor Taizu, he left many good precedents. And at his time, the Imperial College already had these subjects. So, the previous reopening of the mathematics subject was to restore the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu of our dynasty. The reopening of the agricultural subject is also... to restore the ancestral system!"
When Zhang Shou mentioned the four words "Emperor Taizu", Lao Xianyu suddenly became excited as if he had been injected with chicken blood.
When Zhang Shou kept talking about restoring the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu, Zhang Shou, who had previously wanted to politely and modestly decline, suddenly blurted out words that even surprised himself.
"Those old pedants who study too hard are nothing... It's not like I didn't study in my past!"
Hearing this, Zhu Ying finally couldn't help laughing out loud. When Lao Xianyu looked embarrassed, she immediately said seriously: "Among the officials in the court, there are reasonable ones, tolerant ones, far-sighted ones, and those who are self-satisfied and unreasonable ones... You will know when you go to the capital. There are all kinds of people, not just old pedants who read books blindly."
Although he felt weak due to the reduction in meals and frail due to untimely dressing changes, Xian Yunhe now looked much more energetic after talking with Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou.
He looked at his energetic uncle and the surprised and delighted Peanut, and finally laughed softly, "It seems that those unscrupulous merchants will not be able to escape. May I ask, Dr. Zhang, what are you going to do with those spinners and cotton farmers who followed me into this palace because they had no other way to make a living and were temporarily released by General Zhu because their crimes were minor?"
He emphasized, "I know that if we follow the court's laws, beheading, exile, or border guarding... any of them is possible."
"Only the main culprit will be questioned, and the rest will not be questioned. If I'm not mistaken, most of them are like this." Zhang Shou seemed not to notice that Peanut's face turned pale again in an instant, and said with a smile, "But the specifics will have to wait for the court to decide. By the way, I sent a capable guy and the eldest son of the Jiang family to visit each family. When the nest is overturned, how can the eggs remain intact? If you don't show some responsibility at this time..."
Zhang Shou put away his smile, and his voice became a little chilly: "Then they should follow their evil master and go to starve together! Although I don't like the phrases of "a county magistrate who ruins a family" and "a county magistrate who exterminates a clan", I don't mind killing a chicken to scare the monkeys... Oh, I should not mind asking General Zhu to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys. As for me, I can only kill two real chickens."
Zhu Er, who had been silently playing the background, finally couldn't help but suck his teeth when he heard this. However, the next moment, his stomach growled loudly. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he coughed dryly and said, "Aren't we supposed to go to the palace to find the small kitchen to make something delicious? It's getting late, shouldn't we also offer sacrifices to our internal organs?"
It would have been fine if Zhu Er hadn't said anything. After he said that, Zhu Ying couldn't help but feel a little hungry. Especially when she saw the basket that Lao Xianyu was carrying, she immediately urged him, "Ah Shou, let's go. It's almost noon!"
Seeing that Xiao Huasheng rushed over without thinking, grabbing Xian Yunhe's hand and whispering something, Lao Xianyu sighed, patted his nephew on the head, and turned around and left. Zhang Shou hesitated for a moment and said, "I'll ask Xiao Huasheng to bring you some food later. Of course, you can only eat light meals since you didn't have a meal before."
"I have brought this upon myself. Dr. Zhang, you don't have to sympathize with me...Some of the people who surrendered with me that day couldn't help but scold me, asking why I didn't think of reporting the incident to the police instead of leading them to cause a huge uproar."
"Is it so easy to beat the Dengwen Drum? I might be stopped before I even get to the place where the Dengwen Drum is beaten, or even die silently on the way before I reach the capital. But now that I have made a fuss, the affairs of Cangzhou can at least be heard by the emperor. Even the eldest prince cannot cover up everything. Now that things have come to this, I feel relieved to know that only the main culprit will be questioned. I have no regrets."
When Zhang Shou came to the small kitchen of the palace, he was still thinking about Xian Yunhe's words "no regrets".
Therefore, he didn't wake up until he found a delicate hand waving in front of him. Seeing that it was Zhu Ying, he smiled and rolled up his sleeves and said, "What's the matter, are you impatient? Even if you are impatient, don't go into the kitchen, I'm afraid of you!"
"I'm not going in, or else you'll yell at me if something falls!"
Seeing that Ah Liu had already followed Old Salted Fish into the kitchen, and that Little Peanut was in a daze, while Zhu Er was talking nonsense to others, Zhu Ying lowered her voice and said, "Ah Shou, do you think that Old Salted Fish is a bit cold-blooded? Little Peanut is so sad, but his uncle doesn't take it seriously?"
"He may not be cold-blooded... He is probably good at disguising himself." Zhang Shou smiled and pointed towards the kitchen. "Otherwise, why does Ah Liu stick with him all the time? But it doesn't matter. I'm not afraid of people having secrets, I'm afraid of people having no ability. Just . I'm worried that he will be sold out by that old salted fish!"
