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

The most fatal accident happened when the train stopped. Li Shanchang, smiling, helped Zhu Yuanzhang walk towards the carriage. Suddenly, there was a crisp "click" sound, and the copper hook connecting the carriage broke on the spot. The whole train slid forward half a meter under inertia. The old officials on the viewing platform were so frightened that they ran away, and screams broke out among the people. Several children were so scared that they burst into tears on the spot.

The rails and carriages were built by the Huaixi Party members in the past three days.
Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Li Shanchang lying on the ground with a sullen face, and saw several banknotes fall out of the purse hanging from his waist - it was the special funds allocated by the Ministry of Revenue yesterday for the opening of the railway. Looking at the "Merit Stele" next to the railway track, the inscription "Li Shanchang supervised the construction" actually had a typo, and the word "supervised" was missing a "目", and it became "叔造".

"What a Huaixi nobleman!" Zhu Yuanzhang kicked over the gilded incense burner at his feet, and the incense ash sprinkled on Li Shanchang's pale face. "It's fine to cut corners and enrich yourself, but you can even make a train into such a joke! Do you still have the law of the country in your eyes? Do you still have me?"

Li Shanchang climbed up trembling all over, and his crutches poked on the twisted rails, making a hollow echo.

He wanted to argue that "the railway project should have been managed by Ouyang Lun", but he saw Zhu Biao supporting Zhu Yuanzhang as they turned and left.

At this moment, the morning breeze blew away the gold foil on the colorful archway, revealing the straw stuffed between the wooden frames. The people dispersed cursing, leaving only a few children picking up the lost candies beside the railway tracks. Li Shanchang looked at his reflection in the muddy water.

"It's not unfair that we lost this round." He muttered to himself. His crutches could no longer support his body and he collapsed on the red felt covered with cigarette ash.

When Li Shanchang woke up, he felt his temples throbbing and there was dried blood on his forehead - he didn't know whether it was caused by the crowd pushing him during the opening ceremony or the unsuccessful banging of his head against the wall in prison last night. The candlelight in front of the bed swayed, and the faces of Lan Yu, Zhou Dexing and others were distorted like ghosts.

"The old prime minister has finally woken up!" Zhou Dexing threw himself in front of the couch, his official uniform still stained with grass debris, "Just now someone from the Ministry of Justice knocked on the door, saying that Your Majesty wants to thoroughly investigate the money used for the opening ceremony."

"All our farms have been seized!" another old official from Huaixi cried at the top of his voice, "We only took 30,000 taels of the 100,000 taels special fund."

Lan Yu clutched the jade belt buckle at her waist, her knuckles turning white. "Mr. Li, you have to think of a solution! You took the knife for us in the Hu Weiyong case."

Li Shanchang stared at the dark pattern on the ceiling of the tent, and suddenly he started to cough violently, causing the golden embroidered qilin on the brocade quilt to wrinkle. He raised his hand and pointed to the messy medicine bowls on the ground, and said in a hoarse voice: "Bring the ginseng slices." Zhou Dexing hurriedly handed it over, but he knocked it down: "Ginseng slices? You guys are so full of food!"

"Your Majesty allocated 100,000 taels, and you dared to embezzle half of it?" He struggled to sit up, and his crutches slammed on the edge of the bed. "The railway foundation should be made of glutinous rice paste mixed with lime, but you used loess instead! The copper hooks should be forged with fine iron, but you used raw copper instead!" He became more and more angry as he spoke, and phlegm rose up in his throat. It took him a long time to catch his breath. "Now the train has derailed and the merit stele has typos. Even a three-year-old child knows that our Huaixi Party is drinking human blood!"

Just as he was cursing, he suddenly heard the sound of golden melons hitting chimes outside the palace. Li Shanchang froze all over - this was the imperial decree.

The eunuch who announced the decree read out in a shrill voice: "The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, proclaims: Li Shanchang, the Duke of Korea, failed to supervise the construction, which led to the collapse of the grand ceremony. He is ordered to have his Duke salary cut off and remain in office to investigate; the other officials involved in the matter, those who are corrupt will be sent to prison, and those who are derelict in their duties will be demoted three levels."

Zhou Dexing knelt down with a thump, his knees hitting the blue bricks with a dull sound: "Eunuch, please allow me to report." Before he could finish his words, he was hit in the face by Li Shanchang's walking stick.

"Your Majesty, please have mercy!" Li Shanchang forced himself to get out of bed to thank him, blood seeping out from his forehead again, "I, an old minister, will make up for my crime and make sure the railway is reopened!"

After the eunuch left, the room became as silent as a grave.

Lan Yu suddenly grabbed Li Shanchang's sleeve and said, "Mr. Li, what should we do?"

Li Shanchang stared at his own trembling shadow in the candlelight, and suddenly remembered the half piece of paper that Ouyang Lun had revealed from his sleeve on the day of the opening ceremony. He clenched his cane tightly, his knuckles turning blue and white from the excessive force: "Prepare the sedan chair. Go to the Prince Consort's residence."

"Are you crazy?" Zhou Dexing exclaimed, "That cunning fellow wants to eat us alive!"

"Shut up!" Li Shanchang coughed up a mouthful of bloody phlegm, "Now the only one who can save the Huaixi Party is Ouyang Lun." He looked at the waning moon outside the window, and his voice suddenly became hoarse, "Even if I have to serve that cunning guy as a dog today, I have to get him out."

"I was wondering at the time why Ouyang Lun agreed so readily. It seems that he had long seen clearly that our Huaixi Party could not accomplish anything!"

As the bearers carried the empty sedan across Zhuque Street, the night watchman was just striking the fifth watch. Li Shanchang huddled in the shadows of the street corner, looking at the lights coming from the high walls of the Prince Consort's Mansion, and suddenly remembered the snowy night in the first year of the Hongwu reign - he also huddled his neck like this, waiting outside the palace gate all night, just to ask for a golden medal of immunity from death for his brothers.

"Ouyang Lun, Ouyang Lun!"

"Now the situation has changed, it's my turn to kneel before you."

The candlelight flickered in the clan residence. Ouyang Lun leaned on Xiang Fei's bamboo couch, letting the beautiful maid pick up Lingnan lychees with a silver stick and feed them to his mouth. He stroked his gold pocket watch with his fingertips, listening to Zhou Bao's vivid description of the farce of the opening ceremony, and suddenly laughed out loud: "The merit stele is engraved with 'Shu Zao'? This old man must have forgotten how to write the word 'Du'."

"That's right!" Zhou Bao came forward and lowered his voice, "When the locomotive slid half a meter out, Li Shanchang lay on the ground like a toad, and the silver bills that fell out of his belt were all official seals of the Ministry of Revenue - Your Majesty's face turned green at that time!" Ouyang Lun raised his eyes lazily and saw a servant coming in with a Western glass bowl. The bowl was filled with freshly chilled sour plum soup, and two freshly picked lotus petals were floating on the water.

Just as he was enjoying himself, a doorman suddenly stumbled in and said, "Your Majesty, the Duke of Korea, Li Shanchang, is outside the palace asking to see you!" Zhou Bao's face suddenly changed, and he hurriedly stood up and blocked the couch, "Master! This old guy is probably here to call for punishment! If he doesn't blame you for the mess of the opening ceremony, who else can he blame?"

Ouyang Lun raised his eyebrows and spit the lychee pits into the agate plate, making a crisp "pop" sound: "Punish? The account book of the Huaixi party's shoddy work is in our hands, who should be punished?" He tapped the small table beside the couch with his fingers, "Go and tell him that this prince consort is tired and we will discuss it another day." Unexpectedly, after a cup of tea, the doorman came in a panic and reported: "Li, Lord Li, he, he is kneeling in front of the mansion!" Zhou Bao was so shocked that he knocked over the glass bowl, and the sour plum soup spilled on the Persian carpet, spreading a dark purple stain: "What is this old fox singing? Is he trying to blackmail us?"

Ouyang Lun sat up straight, his gold pocket watch spinning rapidly between his fingers. He looked out the window, the moonlight shone through the carved window lattice, casting Li Shanchang's hunched shadow on the blue bricks - that shadow was half a head shorter than in the court, like an old dog with its spine removed.

"Forget it." He stood up with his sleeves swung, the pearls on the brocade shoes gleaming coldly under the candlelight, "Let him enter through the corner door, don't alarm the person in Taile Palace."

When Li Shanchang was helped into the flower hall, his official uniform on his knees had been worn out, his forehead was stained with night dew and mixed with undried blood, and he looked very embarrassed. He was about to speak, but Ouyang Lun raised his hand to stop him, signaling the beautiful maid to leave, leaving Zhou Bao standing behind the screen holding the account book.

"My Lord," Li Shanchang said in a hoarse voice like a broken gong, "I am here today to ask you to save the lives of the Huaixi Party."

Ouyang Lun leaned back on the rosewood chair and tapped the table with his fingertips: "Save? When the Huaixi Party was at its peak, did they ever think of leaving us a way out?"

Li Shanchang's face suddenly turned red, and his cane made a harsh sound on the ground: "Don't mention the past! His Majesty is furious now. If the Huaixi Party falls, only your Ouyang Lun family will be left in power in the court - will His Majesty tolerate you?" He suddenly coughed violently, his hunched back almost touching the ground, "You are good at business, you should understand the principle of 'a single tree cannot support itself'"

Ouyang Lun suddenly laughed, and laughed so hard that he fell backwards. The gold pocket watch chain on his chest shone with tiny lights: "Old man, you are sober. But -" He suddenly stopped smiling, his eyes were like knives, "What can make me believe that saving you is not raising a tiger to cause trouble?"

Li Shanchang took a half step forward with the help of his crutches, his cloudy eyes were bloodshot: "I guarantee this with my own head!"

Ouyang Lun raised his eyebrows and signaled Zhou Bao to fetch the abacus. As he fiddled with the abacus, the sound of the bamboo beads striking each other startled the birds sleeping under the eaves and flew away. "I can help you. Ten million taels of silver, to be delivered to the Nanyang Trading Station within three days."

"Ten million?!" Li Shanchang almost fell down, "You are taking advantage of the situation!"

"Wrong." Ouyang Lun wiped his pocket watch carelessly, "This is a 'letter of surrender' for His Majesty to see. Your Huaixi Party has embezzled 100,000 taels, and we took 10 million. Only when it is spread out can it appear that we are 'selfless'." He suddenly moved closer to Li Shanchang, and his warm breath fell on the old minister's ear, "Besides-"

"Don't you still have 200,000 mu of private land? You have to sell your property to make up the difference. Besides, there are so many people in the Huaixi Party, and they have rich family backgrounds. It may be difficult for you to get 10 million taels by yourself, but if we all get together, it will definitely be no problem!" Ouyang Lun straightened up and snapped his fingers. Zhou Bao immediately brought the contract document. "Sign it, Lord Li. When the railway is reopened, I will speak well of you in front of His Majesty."

Li Shanchang stared at the cinnabar seal on the contract and suddenly remembered the broken copper hook at the opening ceremony.

"Good Ouyang Lun." He bit his tongue and pressed a bloody fingerprint on the contract, "I'll sell my old bones to you."

Ouyang Lun blew the ink with satisfaction and put the contract into his sleeve: "Don't worry, we are honest in business. But next time you want to embezzle, remember to ask our Abacus first." He waved his hand to signal Zhou Bao to send him away. When he turned around, he caught a glimpse of the jade pendant on Li Shanchang's waist and suddenly chuckled, "By the way, the jade pendant is of good quality. Can you give it to me to play with someday?"

When Li Shanchang's sedan disappeared around the corner, Ouyang Lun unfolded the account book and wrote down a string of numbers in the column "Huaixi Party Rescue Fee". Zhou Bao came closer and exclaimed, "Master, this is 10 million taels."

"It's just a fictitious account." Ouyang Lun closed the account book and looked at the rising sun outside the window. "When the railway is completed, His Majesty will be happy and reward more than this amount. As for Li Shanchang, we are just doing business!"

Two days after Ouyang Lun took over, the cracks between the blue bricks of the Beijing Railway Station were filled with a sense of urgency. He paced back and forth on the construction site in his long boots. As soon as the ink line on the waist of the craftsman of the Ministry of Industry popped out half an inch, he stopped him: "The foundation must be dug to a three-foot square, and then use glutinous rice paste to mix the three-cement soil!" When the Persian craftsmen were debugging the steam furnace, he simply moved a Hu bed and sat beside them. The crisp sound of the opening and closing of the gold pocket watch made the craftsmen sweat in their palms. When the roadbed mixed with loess was completely dug up, revealing the earthworms wriggling underneath, he sneered: "The Huaixi party dares to be greedy even for the job of digging holes for earthworms?"

On the day of the opening ceremony, when the morning light first appeared, the sunshade brocade awning of the viewing platform had been tidied up to be as smooth as a mirror. Li Shanchang, leaning on a cane and mixing with the old ministers, saw Ouyang Lun personally helping Zhu Yuanzhang onto the viewing platform, his gesture was more thoughtful than serving his own father - the blood contract he had bitten his tongue to press in the Prince Consort's Mansion the day before was now hidden in the purse next to his chest, making his heart ache.

"Your Majesty, please look!" Ouyang Lun raised his hand, revealing a half-inch of moon-white flying cotton on his sleeve, which was exactly the "thrifty style" designated by Empress Ma. Following his gesture, 28 salutes roared in turn, and the startled pigeons flew in neat arcs in the sky. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the "Da Ming" slowly approaching at the end of the railway track, and saw the dragon pattern on the front of the car looming in the morning mist. He suddenly remembered the treasure ships of Zheng He that he had seen when he was young - they were all huge ships that could carry the majesty of the Ming Dynasty on long voyages.

The moment the train stopped, Zhu Biao involuntarily took a half step forward. He saw that his father's hand holding the imperial pen was slightly bulging with veins, but it was much steadier than when he was reviewing memorials. The four characters "Da Ming Tong Qu" were written, and the last stroke was exactly the same as the arc of the railroad track. The audience suddenly erupted in a tsunami-like "Long live". The Minister of War touched the sword at his waist and sighed: "If we had this iron thing during the Northern Expedition, General Xu Da would have been able to attack the northern desert!"

Among the common people, old man Wang who was selling candied melons pulled his grandson to the front of the stage and said, "Look! The smoke coming out of the iron ox's mouth is more vigorous than the fire on your mother's stove for steaming buns!" The little girl clutched the newly distributed "commemorative candy for the opening of the railway" and smiled with her eyes like crescents: "Daddy, can I ride on this iron ox when I go to grandma's house in the future?" In the teahouse in the distance, weavers in short clothes raised their wine bowls and cheered. They had just received double the reward from Ouyang Lun's weaving workshop and were now thinking about how to earn a few more cents by transporting cloth by railway.

Among the civil and military officials, Lu Chang looked at Ouyang Lun and Zhu Yuanzhang standing side by side, and suddenly remembered the words in "The Book of Lord Shang": "The way of governing the world is not the same, and the way of benefiting the country is not based on the old ways." Although the Chief Censor still had a stern face, he wrote in his notebook: "Railway freight can be classified according to the type of goods, and this article may be included in the new commercial tax regulations." Only Li Shanchang stared at the jade pendant on Ouyang Lun's waist - it was his ancestral Hetian jade, which was shaking slightly with the movements of the prince consort, like a silent mockery.

At 5 p.m. on that day, the first freight train blew its whistle and departed, its carriages filled with Jiangnan brocade and Nanyang cotton. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the rising steam and suddenly turned to ask Zhu Biao, "Biao'er, how far do you think this train can run?" Zhu Biao looked in the direction of the extended track and remembered the "World Railway Map" he had seen when he had a secret conversation with Ouyang Lun last night: "To my father, one day, we will be able to reach the Western Regions directly from Yingtian."

As dusk fell, Ouyang Lun sat alone in his study, immersing Li Shanchang's jade pendant in a sandalwood basin. Zhou Bao came in with the account book, and seeing the bloodstains floating on the water, he was surprised and said, "Master, this is..."

"The blood of the Huaixi Party." Ouyang Lun carefully wiped the jade pendant with a soft cloth until all the blood was gone. "But from today on, their blood should be used to fertilize our trade routes." He tied the jade pendant back to his waist and opened the latest "Nanyang Cotton Industry Report". His eyes fell on the words "The per-acre yield of Luzon Island's golden cotton increased by 30%", and he suddenly chuckled.

Outside the window, the headlights of the "Da Ming Tong Qu" car penetrated the night like a moving star. (End of this chapter)