Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 613 Old Zhu is dissatisfied and deliberately tests him [Seeking further subscriptions]

Since the last time Zhu Yuanzhang went to the cross-river bridge with Liu Kuan to wait for the strange fog, but his laptop broke down, he stopped going with Liu Kuan to wait for the strange fog for the next few years.

After Zhu Biao fell seriously ill and passed away, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally had even less inclination to do this.

Therefore, for the past few years, Liu Kuan has been the only one to go up the bridge on the third day of the eighth lunar month to wait for the strange fog.

Unfortunately, I never got to see it even once.

Liu Kuan originally thought that Zhu Yuanzhang would no longer concern himself with the strange fog, but unexpectedly, Zhu brought it up again.

Having encountered the strange fog so many times without ever being in danger, Liu Kuan nodded and said, "Your Majesty may go to the bridge to wait for the strange fog, but apart from Le'an, Ruoxue, and Ping'an who go home to rest at night, the rest of the children stay at school. Would you like me to send someone to call them back?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Then let's call them back—our health isn't good these days, and it's not easy for us to come to the capital."

Liu Kuan nodded and immediately sent several servants to various schools to call the children back.

As dusk fell, Liu Kuan's children returned to the mansion one by one and came to pay their respects to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Of the children, Ruoyue was the closest to Zhu Yuanzhang, followed by Chang'an. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang often took these two children on incognito trips back then, and they developed a deep affection for each other, even more so than for most of Zhu Yuanzhang's grandchildren.

After Liu Ruoyue returned, she hurriedly bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and then came over to massage his shoulders, saying, "Grandfather, why didn't you send us a telegram in advance when you came to the capital? If you had, I would definitely have asked for leave to accompany you."

Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled and said, "I appreciate your filial piety, but there's no need to neglect your studies just to accompany me."

"Grandpa, university courses are easy and flexible, especially in our art school. Even if you take a few days off, it won't cause any problems."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Really? Then you should take leave tomorrow and accompany us to tour the capital."

Liu Ruoyue said, "Taking leave is fine, but what's there to see in the capital?"

Zhu Yuanzhang thought, "I want to take a look at various universities—the young people today are very different from those of twenty years ago, we need to understand them."

"Oh, that's okay too."

At this moment, Liu Chang'an said, "I'll also ask for leave to accompany Grandpa."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Won't this interfere with your studies?"

Liu Chang'an laughed and said, "It's only one day, it won't cause any trouble."

Seeing that Lao Zhu already had two people accompanying him, Liu Ruoxue and the others naturally didn't say anything more—Lao Zhu wanted to visit various universities, and having too many people accompanying him would be counterproductive.

Because Old Zhu had come, and the sons rarely gathered together, the dinner at the Liu residence was quite lavish. There weren't many delicacies, mostly home-style dishes, but Old Zhu had a hearty appetite and ate quite a lot.

Whether it was because he was in a good mood or because the food at the Liu residence was truly to his liking, he didn't know.

After dinner, Zhu Yuanzhang did not return to the palace immediately, but chatted with Liu Kuan for a while longer.

"Now that U.A. has been in power for a year, what do you think of his performance? Is there anything wrong with his policies?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty's governance is without fault; seeking progress while maintaining stability is excellent."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, "To receive such a high evaluation from you, it seems that Xiong Ying has done a good job."

Zhu Yuanzhang then changed the subject, saying, "However, the Yellow River diversion project has now reached a critical stage. We went to see it the other day, and it seems that some people are taking advantage of the situation to seek personal gain."

Upon hearing this, Liu Kuan was shocked and exclaimed in surprise, "Is this really true?" The Yellow River diversion project is now a key project in the internal affairs of the Ming Dynasty. It is supervised by the censors of the Censorate and secretly monitored and investigated by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Liu Kuan found it hard to imagine that under such strict supervision, someone would still dare to take the opportunity to seek personal gain—would they be willing to risk their lives for money?

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "From what I understand, those people didn't actually pass off inferior goods as superior ones; they were just taking advantage of the situation to make more money off the court, which makes us very uncomfortable."

'I see. ’

Liu Kuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he said, “Your Majesty, a considerable portion of the construction materials for the Yellow River diversion project were purchased from outside sources. As such, it is inevitable that merchants will profit from it.”

"As long as the quality of materials can be guaranteed, and there is no cutting corners or using inferior materials, it is their skill to make more money."

Zhu Yuanzhang scoffed, "What do you know? A thousand-mile dike can be destroyed by an ant hole! It's secondary that they're making more money off the court; the key issue is that they're breaking the rules and laws."

"Once this precedent is set, there will inevitably be people who use inferior materials and cut corners—this trend must be severely punished and curbed!"

Liu Kuan was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, and then said, "Your Majesty is right, I was mistaken—is Your Majesty aware of this matter?"

“We haven’t told Xiong Ying yet. We want to see when he will find out the clues. Since we gave way to Biao’er, the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been divided into two. A small part of it was used by us, and most of the rest was used by Biao’er. Now it has been passed on to Xiong Ying.”

"It seems that neither father nor son has a very good grasp of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The fact that we've investigated this matter while Xiong Ying is still completely unaware of it speaks volumes!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Kuan secretly felt a pang of worry for Zhu Xiong Ying.

At the same time, he secretly admired that although Zhu Yuanzhang was old and frail, he was still shrewd and experienced when it came to doing something, which was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

But since Zhu Xiong Ying was his student, he had to say a few words in his defense, so he said, "Your Majesty is busy with many affairs of state, and it is inevitable that there are things you cannot attend to."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Since this matter has not yet affected the project, don't tell him yet. Let's see when he will realize the problem with the Yellow River diversion project and the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Liu Kuan smiled wryly, but still replied, "Yes."

Then, Zhu Yuanzhang talked with Liu Kuan about other things, mostly about national governance, and mainly about "minor" local matters.

This shows that although Zhu Yuanzhang was in poor health in the first two years, and even showed signs of Alzheimer's disease, he still cared about the Ming Dynasty.

The two talked for over an hour before Zhu Yuanzhang finally returned to the palace after his campaign...

···
The next day.

Liu Chang'an and Liu Ruoyue both went to school early to ask for leave before returning to have breakfast with their families. Zhu Yuanzhang also arrived early to freeload breakfast at the Liu residence.

This left Liu Kuan speechless.

He suspected that if it weren't for concerns about causing a bad influence, Old Zhu might have stayed at his residence.

After breakfast, Liu Kuan, Liu Ruoxue, and Liu Pingan went to work, while Liu Ding'an and Liu Le'an went to school. Liu Chang'an and Liu Ruoyue did indeed take Lao Zhu with them and they went out in a four-wheeled carriage.

Inside the carriage, Liu Ruoyue said quite lively, "Since Grandpa wants to visit different universities, why don't we go to our art academy first?"

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "Alright, we've never been to an art academy before, let's go and see for ourselves."

Liu Ruoyue immediately began to introduce, "Our art college is much more interesting than other universities. You can see all kinds of musical instrument performances everywhere on campus, and there are also many people singing songs and performing dramas..."

(End of this chapter)