Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

When the group arrived at Nike Workshop outside the city, the gong had just struck at the hour of Mao. The workshop's exterior walls were painted bright yellow, and a wooden sign hung on the door with eight large characters engraved on it: "No entry for idle people, violators will be severely punished." Zhu Yuanzhang looked up at the towering chimney, and suddenly thought of the leaky adobe houses in Zhu's workshop, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

"Why is this chimney taller than the city wall of Yingtian Prefecture?" he frowned.

"Your Majesty," Ouyang Lun explained with a yawn, "That's exhaust gas, which is harmful to the human body. I'll emit a higher level so that it won't harm others."

"Yes, that makes sense!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly after hearing this. He turned his head and thought, "No, how can textiles and clothing production produce waste gas?"

"Ouyang Lun, are you kidding me?"

Ouyang Lun did not answer, but walked into the workshop first.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly followed.

As soon as he entered the workshop, a wave of hot air hit him in the face. Zhu Yuanzhang squinted and saw dozens of looms neatly arranged. In front of each loom sat a weaver, stepping on the pedals and fluttering his hands like a butterfly. What was even more surprising was that a bamboo "hopper" was hung above the loom. Cotton was poured in from one side and it could be automatically spun into cotton thread, which stunned the old emperor.

"Is this magic?" He reached out to touch the hopper, but was held back by Ouyang Lun.

"Don't touch it, the gears will pinch your hands." Ouyang Lun pointed at the wooden wheel under the loom, "This is the 'water-powered spinning wheel' that your son-in-law had improved. It uses water from the stream outside the city to drive it. It's five times faster than manual labor."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked in the direction of his finger and saw a huge sluice gate opened on the back wall of the workshop. The rushing stream pushed the wooden water wheel, making a "creaking" sound. The water wheel was connected to the looms in the house through a belt, making the entire row of looms rotate at the same time, creating a spectacular scene.

"Wow..." Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and suddenly remembered the scene of the embroiderers in Zhu's workshop sewing clothes stitch by stitch. His ears felt a little hot.

Further in, there is the garment making area. Dozens of embroiderers are divided into two rows, the front row is responsible for cutting, and the back row is only responsible for sewing. Bamboo baskets are used to pass fabrics in the middle. Zhu Yuanzhang noticed that each embroiderer has an oil lamp with a reflector in front of him, and the light is focused on the fabric, so that even the stitches can be seen clearly.

"Why aren't they talking?" he asked in a low voice.

"It's piecework," Ouyang Lun explained. "You earn two cents for sewing a vest, and the more you sew, the more you earn, so there's no gossip."

As they were talking, a young embroiderer suddenly stood up, took down a copper bell from the wall and rang it. A servant immediately ran over, put a bowl of hot soup on her table, and hurried away.

"What kind of rule is this?" Zhu Yuanzhang widened his eyes.

"At 5 p.m., everyone gets a bowl of mutton bone soup to replenish their blood." Ouyang Lun said, "If anyone gets dizzy or weak, they'll lose their bonus for the month, so they take better care of themselves than anyone else."

Zhu Yuanzhang's face suddenly turned red to his ears - he was still scolding Ouyang Lun for "putting on a show" last night, but now he saw the embroiderers holding soup bowls with gratitude in their eyes. Thinking of the scene in Zhu's workshop where the embroiderers were eating cold steamed bread, he felt his throat tighten and couldn't speak.

Walking to the innermost room of the workshop, there was a huge wooden table on the ground, covered with all kinds of fabrics. Ouyang Lun picked up a piece of light green fabric and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, please feel it."

The old emperor stretched out his hand and pinched it, and his eyes immediately lit up: "Why is this cloth so soft? It feels like silk!"

"This is 'flying cotton'," Ouyang Lun said with a smile, "It is made of Nanyang kapok mixed with silk. It is breathable and wear-resistant, and is most suitable for summer clothing."

"Mixed with silk?" Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyebrows. "How much would that cost?"

"High, but it's expensive." Ouyang Lun pointed to the price list on the wall, "Three taels of silver per piece, five times more expensive than Zhu's coarse cloth short coat, but rich kids are scrambling to buy it."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the price list, then at the busy weavers, and suddenly remembered what Ouyang Lun said last night: "What we sell is not clothes, but rules." He reached out and touched the broken jade belt around his waist, and suddenly felt that the jade belt was uncomfortable and not as comfortable as the cowhide belt around Ouyang Lun's waist.

"What do you think, Retired Emperor?" Ouyang Lun smiled, "Did you figure out what's going on?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and turned away: "What a joke! It's just some tricks..."

"Oh?" Ouyang Lun followed behind, "How about I have someone dismantle all these 'odd tricks' and give them to Zhu's?"

"Are you really willing to give it to us?" Zhu Yuanzhang turned around abruptly, but saw the smile on Ouyang Lun's face, and then he realized that he had been tricked. He glared at his son-in-law, but stopped at the door of the workshop, staring at the plaque on the door that read "Nike Workshop, Hundreds of Clothes Made Every Day", and whispered: "Tomorrow... send a copy of your 'assembly line' drawing to Zhu's."

Ouyang Lun suppressed his laughter and bowed, saying, "As you wish. But there is one more thing——"

"What else?" Zhu Yuanzhang said impatiently.

"Your Majesty, please follow me to the dock to check out the cargo ships." Ouyang Lun pointed to the east, "There is a cargo ship unloading right now."

Zhu Yuanzhang was about to refuse when he heard a commotion outside the workshop. He lifted the curtain and saw hundreds of porters standing in two rows, unloading cotton bales from the carriage. Each porter had a copper plate with a number on it hanging around his waist.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Work badge." Ouyang Lun said, "Use the badge to get your wages. The more you work, the more you get."

Zhu Yuanzhang watched the porters shouting in unison, and suddenly remembered the scene of his training soldiers. He touched his chin, and suddenly turned to the Jinyiwei and ordered: "Go, tie up Wang, the manager of Zhuji Workshop!"

"What is the Emperor doing?" Ouyang Lun raised his eyebrows.

"I suddenly remembered," Zhu Yuanzhang sneered, "that it's time to take back his nephew's 30% stake in the Songjiang cloth shop."

Ouyang Lun looked at the old emperor's back as he strode forward, and shook his head helplessly - it seemed that this "business war" would eventually turn into a "father-in-law and son-in-law joining forces."

Outside the workshop, the rising sun makes the word "Nike" shine with golden light.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his shadow on the ground and suddenly felt that it was much straighter than last night in Taile Palace.

"Ouyang Lun, I see there is a large factory behind your workshop. Why don't you take us to see it?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

"Your Majesty, I have shown you everything I can show you. What's in there are my core business secrets, so you may not be able to see them anymore. You must have some secrets of your own, right?" Ouyang Lun said with a smile.

Forehead.
After hearing Ouyang Lun's words, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know how to refute for a moment.

"You are pretending to be me again!"

Zhu Yuanzhang rolled his eyes immediately. He was of course curious about the secrets of Ouyang Lun's workshop, but he had seen enough today. As long as he strictly followed the methods given by Ouyang Lun, he believed that his Zhuji Clothing Shop would improve soon.

Zhu Yuanzhang took a quick look at the tightly closed factory building, and silently told himself that he would find an opportunity to find out what was going on in the future.

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes and stared at the closed factory building. He saw a few strings of copper bells hanging under the eaves, jingling in the morning breeze. He suddenly noticed that a few wisps of light blue smoke seeped out from the cracks in the bricks of the factory building's outer wall, looming in the morning sun.

"Ouyang Lun," Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at the smoke, "are you refining the elixir in there?"

Ouyang Lun laughed: "Your Majesty, you are joking. I don't know the tricks of the alchemists. They are just some secret recipes for dyeing cloth. They can't be exposed to the wind." "Dyeing cloth?" Zhu Yuanzhang sniffed suspiciously, "Why do I smell a sulphur smell?"

As he was talking, a muffled "boom" suddenly came from the factory, shaking the ground. The Jinyiwei immediately drew their swords and surrounded Zhu Yuanzhang, but Ouyang Lun waved his hand and said, "It's okay, it's the new printing machine that is being debugged."

Zhu Yuanzhang refused to give up, and shrugged off his guards and strode towards the factory: "We must see today--"

"Wait a minute, Your Majesty!" Ouyang Lun stepped in front of him and said in a low voice, "They are trying out military uniforms inside."

"Military uniform?" Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned.

Ouyang Lun took out a piece of dark red cloth from his sleeve and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang took it and touched it, and found that the cloth was as thick as cowhide, but the surface was covered with honeycomb-like holes. What was even more strange was that the cloth gradually turned into a yellowish brown in the sun, and returned to a dark red color in the dark.

"This is."

"Dyed with the blood of chameleons from the Western Regions," Ouyang Lun said mysteriously, "it's made into military uniforms. It's yellow in the desert and green in the woods. I'm working with the Ministry of War."

Zhu Yuanzhang's pupils suddenly shrank. When he was young, he was most troubled by the reflection of the white clothes of the soldiers during night attacks. If there really is such a magical cloth,
"Good boy!" Zhu Yuanzhang slapped Ouyang Lun on the shoulder, "If this thing succeeds, we will give you the credit for the first achievement!"

Ouyang Lun rubbed his shoulders with a grin: "So you see, this factory..."

"I understand! It's a military secret!" Zhu Yuanzhang twisted his beard and suddenly leaned closer to whisper, "But next time we test it, we have to ask the people from the Five Military Command to come and see it."

"Of course." Ouyang Lun smiled and bowed, but turned around and made a hidden gesture in the direction of the factory. Zhu Yuanzhang did not notice that in front of the small window on the second floor of the factory, several craftsmen were busy putting away the smoking copper pot and wiping the cold sweat from their foreheads.

On the way back, Zhu Yuanzhang kept stroking the magical cloth. When the carriage passed the Qinhuai River, he suddenly asked: "Ouyang Lun, where did you learn all these strange things?"

Ouyang Lun looked at the merchant ships on the river and said softly, "When I was seven years old, I went to sea with my father. I saw the French chime clocks and the Siamese water dragons. Later, when I read Mengxi Bi Tan, I found that our ancestors had these skills long ago, but...

"What's this?"

"It's just that the scholars think that strange and frivolous skills are not worthy of being accepted by the upper class," Ouyang Lun turned his head and looked directly at Zhu Yuanzhang, "Just like the officials in the court now, they would rather let farmers use wooden plows to cultivate the fields for a hundred years than promote the curved plow of the Yuan Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a moment, then suddenly lifted the curtain and said to the Jinyiwei: "Go to the Ministry of Works and tell them to find all the "Wujing Zongyao" and "Tiangong Kaiwu" for us! And tell the Ministry of Revenue to add the "Gewu Ke" to the next spring examination!"

Ouyang Lun's mouth curled up slightly. He caught a glimpse of a clerk from Zhu's Cloth Shop on the side of the road, looking furtively in the direction of the carriage. When the clerk saw Ouyang Lun looking at him, he hurriedly hid in the alley, revealing a half-cut charcoal pencil and an account book in his arms.

"By the way," Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly came over, "your Western slave girl who knows how to settle accounts"

"Luna is not a slave girl," Ouyang Lun corrected, "she is an accountant hired by my son-in-law at a high salary."

"Whatever it is," Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, "Let me borrow it for two days to teach those idiots in the Ministry of Revenue how to calculate the new account book."

Ouyang Lun looked embarrassed: "You have to ask Luna herself."

"You brat!" Zhu Yuanzhang cursed and laughed as he kicked him. "You're playing tricks on me? Aren't you just afraid that I'll poach you?"

"Let's go!" Zhu Yuanzhang left directly.

When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, Zhu Yuanzhang changed into coarse clothes and quietly returned to the Nike workshop with two trusted Jinyiwei.

"Your Majesty, do you really want to visit at night?" Jinyiwei Commander Ji Gang whispered, "If Prince Consort Ouyang finds out..."

"What are you afraid of?" Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "I am the emperor, is there any place in this world that I cannot go?"

The three of them climbed over the wall and groped their way to the mysterious large factory building in the moonlight.

Zhu Yuanzhang leaned against the wall and heard the "clicking" sounds of machinery coming from inside, as well as the craftsmen talking in low voices.

"Quick, put the sulfur powder away and don't let it smoke too much!"

"The boss said that people from the Five Military Commanders' Office will come tomorrow, so we have to hide 'that thing' well."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and thought, "There really is something fishy going on!" He signaled the Jinyiwei to pry open the side window, and the three of them climbed in silently.

The factory was brightly lit, but empty, with only a few strange machines still running.

When Zhu Yuanzhang approached and took a look, he discovered that these machines were actually cutting the cloth automatically. The blades flew up and down, and dozens of pieces of clothing were cut out in the blink of an eye, which was many times faster than the manual cutting by the embroiderers.

"This..." Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked.

Suddenly, a chuckle came from behind: "Why didn't the emperor tell me in advance that he was visiting at night? I can prepare tea for you."

Zhu Yuanzhang turned around suddenly and saw Ouyang Lun leaning against the door frame, playing with a strange piece of metal in his hand.

"Did you know we were coming?" Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes.

Ouyang Lun smiled and shook his head: "I am just used to checking the machine every night." He paused, "Since the emperor is here, why not take a look at the real 'core secrets'?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly: "Lead the way!"

Ouyang Lun led them to a secret room deep inside the factory. When he opened the door, Zhu Yuanzhang's pupils suddenly shrank.

Inside the secret room, there is actually a huge steam engine!
The copper boiler gurgled with hot steam, driving the gears to rotate rapidly, connecting dozens of spinning machines and looms, which operated independently without any human operation.

"What is this?" Zhu Yuanzhang's voice trembled slightly. He felt that it was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't remember where it was.

"Steam engine." Ouyang Lun said softly, "Boil water to produce steam, which drives the machine and can work day and night. It's the thing on the train."

“No human power? No water power?”

"Need not."

"That thing on the train!! It was actually that!" Zhu Yuanzhang remembered.

Zhu Yuanzhang approached the steam engine, reached out and touched the hot copper pipe, and murmured: "It turns out that it can be used like this" (End of this chapter)