Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 85: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu works part-time as a junior minister?
The fully automatic conveyor belt loads very quickly.

This thing is not high-tech and can be bought online.

Some cost more than 800 yuan per meter, while others cost more than 3000 yuan per meter.

Zhu Yunfeng installed several of them in his warehouse, and then bought a few more and secretly placed them at the back of the warehouse.

The warehouse is divided into front and back warehouses. The front warehouse is a large warehouse, and there is a small warehouse at the back.

The back door of the small warehouse is connected to Zhu Yunfeng's house. It is blocked by an iron plate from the outside and leads directly to Zhu Yunfeng's backyard and is connected to the utility room.

In this way, they put the things in the front warehouse during the day, transport them to the back warehouse at night, and then turn on the conveyor belt from the back warehouse to the cellar.

It's very exciting to steal your own things, just like stealing.

In early April 2025, Zhu Yunfeng sent the first batch of good things to Daming - a large number of primary school textbooks, barefoot doctor manuals, traditional fertilizer making manuals, seed selection, breeding and grafting theory manuals, and the steelmaking method manual of the First Industrial Revolution.

The printing factory was stunned when it received this kind of order. How come there are still people wanting these things in 2025?
But Zhu Yunfeng made an excuse to export it to Africa, and everything went smoothly.

After all, Africa is underdeveloped.

And the most important thing is that the printing factories here are not very formal, because they are the most powerful printing county in the country, and 90% of the typing and copying shops in the country are run by people from their county.

Not to mention 90% of the pirated books in the country, but at least 80% or more come from their county. Printing can be said to be the pillar industry of their county.

So don't talk about these.

Even if you want to sell 10 million copies of "My Struggle" to Germany, they can work overtime to produce it for you.

The metal processing plant has also been built. The factory is located in Furong Village on the border of Lansha Town and Jixiang Town. It is a depression between two mountains with a small plain area.

The most important thing is that the transportation is very convenient. The two-lane cypress road and asphalt road were built the year before last, and there are very few vehicles traveling. To go north to Lansha Town, you have to pass Shangfeng Mountain, and to go south to Jixiang Town, you can take the S322 Provincial Road to the county.

It is easier to find technical personnel. There are many metal processing factories in their local area. The overall environment has not been very good in recent years. Many factories have gone bankrupt due to poor performance. There are a lot of skilled technical workers.

April 24th was the day when the Yunfeng Metal Processing Plant was officially completed. They started preparing in March, renting land to build a factory, and in less than two months, the factory was successfully completed.

A punch press is also handy.

Who imports stamping machines and lathes these days? It’s foreigners who import our machines.

Go directly to an online precision machinery company. A good stamping machine costs more than 20 yuan, and a worse one costs tens of thousands. If you also buy a better lathe, you can spend money on even a cannon, not to mention silver coins.

The raw materials are purchased from local non-ferrous metal listed companies in Hunan.

You can even order it directly.

For example, Zhu Yunfeng required a silver coin weighing 26 grams, with a silver content of 70%, or 18 grams, and the rest could be made of copper, tin, or zinc, and it had to be the kind that could be blown.

Those non-ferrous metal listed companies can send you this kind of melted silver coins.

After it is delivered, a stamping machine can be used to process the silver coins, press out patterns and designs, and then take them to the Ming Dynasty for use.

The cost is just a little higher, about 100 yuan per piece.

But it's not bad either.

Because I originally thought that the price of silver was 7 yuan per gram, but when I actually bought it, I realized that 7 yuan was the price of jewelry on the market.

Buy from non-ferrous metal companies, in large quantities, the wholesale price is 5 yuan per gram.

Only 500 million per ton.

If taken to Ming Dynasty, with the current ratio of gold to silver of 1 to 4, one ton can be exchanged for 250 kilograms of gold, which is equal to 1.6 million, a profit of 32 times.

However, Lao Zhu and Zhu Yunfeng finally negotiated and lowered the price to a gold-silver ratio of 1:80.

In other words, Zhu Yunfeng only got 12.5 kilograms of gold in exchange for one ton of silver.

no way.

It is definitely unrealistic to exchange according to the current ratio in Ming Dynasty.

Because there aren't that many gold reserves.

Old Zhu has raided many houses of corrupt officials recently, but has only collected more than 8 taels, which is equivalent to about 3000 kilograms and can only be exchanged for 240 tons, which means that one year's supply of silver is gone.

Moreover, the large influx of silver would inevitably cause the ratio of gold and silver among the people to be far lower than the official ratio stipulated by the court.

以后黄金与白银1比8，1比10，乃至1比20都是有可能的事情。

Lao Zhu himself also had to collect a lot of gold.

Therefore, it was impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to give Zhu Yunfeng such a high proportion.

But even so, Zhu Yunfeng was very satisfied.

The current market price of 12.5 kilograms of gold is about 800 million, which means that one ton of silver can make 300 million.

Transporting 20 tons a month, with a monthly income of 6000 million.

If this is not satisfying, then what else can satisfy you?

As for why silver coins were produced, Zou Ting asked Zhu Yunfeng in surprise.

Zhu Yunfeng said that he received an order from a company that produces spending money, commemorative coins, and Ming Dynasty games, which needed game commemorative gift boxes.

It is said that this kind of spending money and commemorative coins are very popular overseas.

He also searched on online shopping platforms such as Taobao and Xixi and showed it to Zou Ting.

Zou Ting didn't know until she saw it, and she was shocked.

Customized silver coins, spending money, and commemorative coins like these, as long as the silver content is above 70%, will cost at least 188 yuan per coin, and many will cost more than 200 yuan per coin.

Moreover, the purchase orders on domestic platforms are very high. Some stores have sales of more than 10,000 orders per month, and many have sales of thousands. Some stores on foreign platforms even have sales of more than 30,000 orders, which is an astonishing sales volume.

It can only be said that people who don’t understand this circle have no idea about the market. Just on major domestic platforms, hundreds of stores can sell more than one million such silver coins every month.

There are more platforms abroad, and many foreigners are interested in spending money this way.

Therefore, they produce 100 tons a month, which is more than million pieces. Although their market share is high, it doesn't matter as long as there are orders.

So Zou Ting no longer had any doubts.

Anyway, as long as you file your taxes normally, no one cares where the silver coins end up.

After all, this is the reality. The car of the rental company has been rented away, and the renter has mortgaged the car to a certain place. The rental company has all the necessary procedures, but they just can't get the car back.

This is still illegal.

Soon, on April 25, the factory produced the first batch of sample coins, totaling more than 3,000 pieces, according to the drawings that Zhu Yunfeng had someone draw.

It is about the same size as Yuan Datou, with special patterns on the edge and a big "Ming" character in the middle. Four big characters are written around the character "Ming" on the top, bottom, left and right - Hongwu Silver Dollar, and the edge also has the words "Made in the 13th year of Hongwu".

There is no portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang.

During the feudal emperor period when the country was ruled by a family, a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang was placed on it. It was considered disrespectful for the people to touch, step on or take it.

Zhu Yunfeng then returned to the Ming Dynasty and brought more than ten sample coins to show Zhu Yuanzhang.

It was the end of March in the lunar calendar. Spring was in full bloom in Daming and it was about to enter April, summer. The temperature was rising. As soon as I came out of the underground palace, the sun was shining overhead and the feeling of heat hit me in the face.

The air seemed to be a little fresher.

"Your Highness."

Mao Xiang was standing outside the Qianqing Palace. When he saw Zhu Yunfeng climbing the stairs, he quickly went up to him, knelt on one knee and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty is holding court in the palace."

"I gonna go see."

Zhu Yunfeng walked to the gate and looked inside cautiously.

Zhu Yuanzhang was seen sitting on the dragon throne in the main hall, with six ministers including Qian Tang, Xue Xiang, Shao Zhi, Song Ne, Wu Chen, Wu Bozong, Liu Song, Han Yike, Qie Si, Zheng Jiuchen, Xu Duo, Zeng Bingzheng and several newly appointed cabinet ministers standing on both sides.

After the Hu Weiyong case was dealt with, Zhu Biao did not abolish the Secretariat immediately, but instead left the positions of left and right prime ministers vacant and ordered Qian Tang and Xue Xiang to temporarily handle the affairs of the Secretariat as left and right prime ministers.

After Zhu Yuanzhang returned from the modern era, he issued an edict to abolish the Secretariat, and all power was returned to the six ministries. The affairs of each ministry were reported directly to the emperor and no longer went through the Secretariat.

So Qian Tang and Xue Xiang just happened to fill the vacancies of the Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works.

So the six ministries were the Minister of Rites Wu Bochong, the Minister of War Liu Song, the Minister of Personnel Qie Si, the Minister of Revenue Qian Tang, the Minister of Works Xue Xiang, and the Minister of Punishment Zheng Jiuchen.

Later, he promoted Shao Zhi, Song Ne, Wu Chen and Xu Duo to be cabinet ministers, responsible for assisting the emperor in handling government affairs.

There's a meeting going on inside.

Zhu Yunfeng took a look, then stepped out and said to Mao Xiang, "Where is the prince?"

"The prince has been to the imperial farm quite often recently."

Mao Xiang replied.

"That's perfect. I can take a break from my busy life and bask in the sun."

Zhu Yunfeng walked to the railing outside the Qianqing Palace. The railing was very wide. He climbed up first, then lay on it and said lazily, "Old Mao, how is the Hu Weiyong case going?"

This matter started in December last year, and it has been almost five months now, but during this period of time, Zhu Yunfeng often heard that it was not over yet.

Mao Xiang replied respectfully, "The Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the Yiluansi are handling the case together. The Yiluansi has handed over all the evidence to the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple has conducted the trial. Your Majesty is currently handling the case inside."

"Oh? The case is almost closed? How many people were killed?"

Zhu Yunfeng asked curiously.

"So far, more than 300 people have been sentenced to death, and more than 4,000 people have been exiled, sentenced to imprisonment, or sent to the military."

Mao Xiang thought for a moment and said, "But based on my understanding of Your Majesty, I'm afraid the number of people to be executed must at least be raised."

"Then you are right."

Zhu Yunfeng gave a thumbs up. As someone close to Old Zhu, he had some understanding.

If Lao Zhu doesn't kill people, ghosts will come.

of course.

Compared with the historical death toll of 30,000 to 40,000, the current number is only more than 300. Even if it is increased further, it is only a few thousand, which is already good.

"No innocent people have been implicated. Remember what I have repeatedly warned you about? You must have actual evidence."

Zhu Yunfeng asked again.

"Your Highness, please rest assured."

Mao Xiang quickly bowed and said, "The more than 300 people sentenced to death are all corrupt officials. The evidence is clear and there is absolutely no false accusation against good people. In addition, there are hundreds of officials from other places, as well as their relatives and servants. According to your Highness's wishes, if the relatives, servants and people related to them did not participate in the evil, they will not be investigated. However, there are not many such people. Many officials attached themselves to Hu Weiyong, plundered by trickery and committed all kinds of evil. Many of them had accomplices, so they were implicated so widely."

"That's fine." Zhu Yunfeng nodded, then looked at Mao Xiang and said with a smile: "Old Mao, you did a good job. I promised you that as long as you do a good job, I will confer a title on you. Forget about the title of Marquis or Duke, and the title of Hereditary Lord is impossible. Just confer the title of Earl, and I will mention it to His Majesty for you when the time comes."

"Thank you, Your Highness King Wu!"

Mao Xiang was overjoyed and immediately knelt down on one knee to express his gratitude.

He thought to himself that it was a perfect decision to make friends with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu.

"This is nothing. From now on, work hard and serve His Majesty and the Crown Prince."

Zhu Yunfeng waved his hand.

Mao Xiang was bent on currying favor with him, so why not also have the intention of winning over the other party?
It's not that he wants to support his own power, but if he wants to do business in Ming Dynasty, he must have a knife that he can use easily.

This knife can be loyal to the emperor and the prince, but he must also be able to use it himself.

Otherwise, how many people could be intimidated by just the sudden appearance of the title of His Majesty the Prince of Wu?

After all, he doesn't have to do the killing, Lao Zhu can do it.

But you need someone to investigate the case.

There is a high probability that the business empire he established in the Ming Dynasty in the future would basically be the Ming Dynasty’s imperial merchant group, and could also be regarded as the emperor’s private property.

Since it is private property, someone must manage it and protect it, and it must have its own system independent of the court.

Therefore, when dealing with the following matters, it is necessary to borrow the Jinyiwei.

Although the Jinyiwei has not been established yet, it is estimated that it will be established soon.

I talked to Mao Xiang for a while.

Zhu Yunfeng then waved his hand and asked Mao Xiang to stand guard, while he continued to lie there basking in the sun.

I've been running back and forth lately.

Even if you are motivated because you make money.

But still a little tired.

The warm sunshine makes people feel lazy unconsciously.

I fell asleep unconsciously.

Mao Xiang didn't dare to go far. Seeing that Zhu Yunfeng had fallen asleep, he hurried to his side and kept staring at him, fearing that he would fall.

The marble railings of the Ming Imperial Palace are very wide, more than 30 centimeters, about the same width as an average person's back.

But if you turn over, you will fall down, so you still have to keep a close eye on it.

soon.

It was noon before I knew it.

Zhu Yuanzhang also finished his morning court affairs and was going to have lunch, while many ministers took their leave.

After exiting the Qianqing Palace, everyone turned left.

Because the Qianqing Palace Square was blocked, people were not allowed to pass through the Rijing Gate on the left, the Yuehua Gate on the right, or the main Qianqing Gate.

When officials went to the inner court, they could only go through the Chengqian Gate on the east side of the Jiaotai Hall. Instead of going to the Chengqian Palace, they went south along the corridor between the East Six Palaces and the Qianqing Palace, and then went through the small door to the Fengtian Hall Square and left.

So when I came out, I saw a man lying on the railing on the left side of the door and sleeping very arrogantly.

The commander of the Yiluan Guard was still guarding nearby.

"Who is this person?"

"It seems to be His Royal Highness King Wu."

"Shh, keep your voice down, don't disturb him."

Everyone whispered and prepared to leave quietly.

But Zhu Yunfeng just woke up and instinctively wanted to turn over in a daze, but was immediately embraced by Mao Xiang.

But the silver coins in his pocket fell all over the floor.

"Your Highness!"

Mao Xiang carefully put him on the ground and started picking up coins.

Seeing this, many officials hurried over, bowed and said, "Greetings, Your Highness."

"Ah."

Zhu Yunfeng nodded, rubbed his eyes and said, "What national affairs were you talking about with His Majesty just now?"

Everyone couldn't help but frown.

Is His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu planning to interfere in government affairs?

Wu Bozong cupped his hands and said, "What I am discussing with Your Majesty is naturally the affairs of the court. This has nothing to do with King Wu."

"Be bold!"

Before Zhu Yunfeng could speak, Mao Xiang scolded him, "Just answer whatever His Highness asks."

But the court officials disagreed and stared at him coldly.

"Forget it, I'm just asking casually."

Zhu Yunfeng quickly grabbed him, this guy seemed a bit like a lackey.

But it’s not that Zhu Yunfeng is interfering in politics. He just woke up and was bored, so he asked out of curiosity.

He had been in the Ming Dynasty for so long that he already knew what government affairs the emperor handled every day.

He even helped Zhu Biao handle some government affairs and fulfilled his desire to be an emperor.

Therefore, he had no interest in the power of being an emperor. Not only did he work hard every day, but his entertainment life was not as convenient as modern ones. Naturally, he had no intention of working for Zhu Yuanzhang.

It was just that the court officials were so stubborn that they asked a question casually when they were half asleep, and they received such a big reaction, which was unexpected.

"What are you doing, making so much noise?"

Just then, Zhu Yuanzhang came out from the door.

He originally planned to go to the bedroom to rest, have lunch and continue working in the afternoon.

But when I heard some noise outside, I came over to take a look.

"See Your Majesty!"

Everyone hurriedly saluted.

"Nothing."

Zhu Yunfeng yawned and said, "I just slept outside for a while. When I woke up and saw them coming out, I asked them what national affairs they talked about today. I didn't expect them to react so strongly."

"Except for the Crown Prince, the royal family and the harem are not allowed to interfere in government affairs. This is an edict issued by His Majesty!"

Wu Bozong said righteously.

"You want to ask about politics?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhu Yunfeng.

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head: "No, I just woke up and asked out of boredom."

"From now on, you will answer whatever the King of Wu asks you!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the ministers and said, "You all know that when I was seriously ill, it was the King of Wu who assisted the Crown Prince in governing the country. Hu Weiyong was also the one who was secretly investigated by the King of Wu and found evidence of his crimes. Many of you were even recommended and promoted by the King of Wu."

Everyone was shocked. In the past, they only thought that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu and His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan were the mascots of the Crown Prince, following him around every day. Now they knew that the Prince of Wu was actually the one who gave the Crown Prince advice.

For a moment, everyone was ashamed and hurriedly bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Well, excuse me now."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "Yunfeng, follow me."

"Hey, hey, hey, old man, what are you doing?"

Zhu Yunfeng followed Zhu Yuanzhang into the hall, and when no one was around, he complained, "I was just asking casually. I'm so mean. I won't do it again next time. Is it necessary?"

"Humph."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and said, "Since you like to ask so much, I will let you ask as much as you want. I will find you something to do so that you don't have to do nothing all day. Come here every morning to hold court meetings."

I blanch.

Zhu Yunfeng shuddered all over, now he really hated himself for being so mean.

He's running a successful business and is set to make a ton of money, so why would he come and work for you?

"No, I can't get out of bed."

Zhu Yunfeng rolled his eyes and refused.

"Then come in the afternoon."

Zhu Yuanzhang took him to the study, sat him down at the desk and said, "You are free anyway, so why don't you help me with some small matters?"

Zhu Yunfeng understood.

The cabinet was set up, but it lacked talent that could provide advice.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had seen things in later generations and read history books, he knew what policies should be implemented and how to adjust them.

But in terms of the breadth of knowledge, there is still a long way to go.

After all, Zhu Yunfeng has been exposed to the impact of modern information technology for more than 20 years, while Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao have only been exposed to it for a few months, and the amount of accumulation is completely not at the same level.

They have been able to make their own policies, but the details and the consequences at different times are unpredictable.

Therefore, individuals are needed to check them.

Okay.

Are you going to be a cabinet minister?

(End of this chapter)