While wiping his riding boots, Zhao Hongrun asked his brother Huan Wang Zhao Hongxuan: "I remember that you promised your mother and concubine the day before yesterday that you would go to the palace to accompany her in the past few days?"
Speaking of this matter, Zhao Hongrun was somewhat gloating about his misfortune. Who made his younger brother Zhao Hongxuan so "daring" that he did not return to Daliang during the Chinese New Year? This younger brother also did not come to his crowning ceremony in the first month of the year. As a result, when he went to the palace to pay homage to Concubine Shen Shu the day before yesterday, he was ignored by Concubine Shen Shu.
He was scolded severely.
Since his brother had attracted the firepower from Concubine Shen Shu on his behalf this time, Concubine Shen Shu had no time to urge him to get married as soon as possible.
Hearing the word "mother concubine" appear in his brother's mouth, Zhao Hongxuan's excitement immediately dropped. It's no wonder, after all, while Shen Shufei was urging Zhao Hongrun to get married as soon as possible, she was also urging Zhao Hongxuan. After all, the two brothers were only one year apart.
"Brother, tell the truth. When I went to see my mother-in-law last time, she kept trying to introduce me to a match. Did you instigate this?" Zhao Hongxuan looked at his brother with distrustful eyes.
"How is that possible?" Zhao Hongrun put on a righteous look and said angrily: "In your eyes, is this the kind of person your brother and I are?"
"...like." Zhao Hongxuan said doubtfully. After all, he had been tricked by his brother countless times since he was a child.
"Do you still remember that time when you ate fish heads?" He said gloomily: "At that time, brother, you said that people who eat fish heads will be smart, but I believed you. You ate the fish body, and I ate the fish head. I ate two
Months later, I realized that you were lying to me!"
"So, eating fish heads makes you smarter, otherwise how would you have discovered it?" Zhao Hongrun smiled and blinked, and Zhao Hongxuan was so angry that he was speechless.
On the side, the guards of the clan suppressed their laughter. They all knew more or less that His Highness had tricked his younger brother so many times that sometimes, they really felt sorry for King Huan Zhao Hongxuan for having such a brother.
.
"Okay, okay." Seeing Zhao Hongxuan looking at him with an indifferent expression, Zhao Hongrun said with a smile: "If you have anything to say, tell me quickly."
Seeing this, Zhao Hongxuan told his brother what he had just gone to see the eldest prince, Zhao Hongli.
As he expected, Zhao Hongrun was no longer very resistant to this matter, and generally had an attitude of "If you don't mention it, I won't ask."
But now that his brother has mentioned this matter, Zhao Hongrun naturally wants to make some comments: "Are the people who still support Zhao Hongli planning to move to Shangdang County? Humph, it's a wise choice... Luo Yao proposed it?"
"Yes." Zhao Hongxuan said without any secret.
Zhao Hongrun nodded and said nothing more.
I remember that he used to be quite jealous of Luo Yao, but now that he has three staff members, Kou Zheng, Wen Qi, and Jie Ziu, who are as talented and knowledgeable as Luo Yao, the original thoughts have gradually faded away.
"Has Zhao Hongli joined forces with King Yong?" he asked.
"No." Zhao Hongxuan shook his head and said truthfully: "Brother Changhuang just wants to get back the staff. He doesn't want to get too involved in the fight between King Yong and King Qing."
"Hmm." Zhao Hongrun nodded, not surprised by this. After all, if Zhao Hongli can't find a way to get back the official staff, then he will no longer have a foothold in the court. For Zhao Hongli, the former prince of the East Palace who lost power,
is very disadvantageous.
According to Zhao Hongrun's guess, Luo Yao suggested that Zhao Hongli take this opportunity to take back the official department. The main reason was to send Zhao Hongli's voice to the government and the public, so that the eldest prince would not be forgotten by the government and the public. Otherwise, everything would really be over.
Already.
Just like the seventh "Xi King" Zhao Hongyin, the most unknown among their brothers, so much so that the government and the public sometimes forget the existence of this prince - a prince like this is almost never destined to become a high-ranking prince.
But having said that, Zhao Hongrun is still not optimistic about the eldest prince Zhao Hongli. After all, the Donggong Party was deceived by Zhou Min. The "North No. 1 Military Camp Roar" incident is at best Zhao Hongli giving up the title of Prince of the East Palace, which really makes the East Palace
The reason why the party was in tatters was precisely those northern Xinjiang strategies proposed by Zhou Min back then that seemed to be extremely beneficial to the Donggong Party.
It is no exaggeration to say that if Zhou Min had not wisely chosen to defect to King Huan Zhao Hongxuan, otherwise the noble families like the Wang family in Zhengcheng who had lost all their money would have paid to kill this person long ago.
In this matter, Zhao Hongrun could not help but feel a little chilled by Yong Wang Hongyu's actions, not because of Yong Wang Hongyu's ruthless plan, but because the second brother gave up Zhou Min at the last moment to avoid being implicated in the matter after the incident was exposed.
He had to say that although he could understand Yong Wang Hongyu's behavior, Zhao Hongrun did not agree - if it were him, he would protect Zhou Min to the death even if his own reputation was involved.
But having said that, Zhao Hongrun didn't want to say much about this matter. After all, in the end, the biggest beneficiary of this matter was his younger brother Zhao Hongxuan, who got a force of 60,000 to 70,000 people in vain, with a full establishment of 100,000 people.
Northern First Army.
It is precisely because of this that Zhao Hongrun could not believe at first that the eldest prince Zhao Hongli would really hand over the First Army of the North to his younger brother Zhao Hongxuan, thinking that there must be a fraud. Only now, Zhao Hongrun has slowly accepted this fact: Maybe Zhao Hongli really has what he has.
The side that I don’t understand.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun did not say much about his younger brother Zhao Hongxuan's high-profile return to support Zhao Hongli. After all, his younger brother's behavior was in line with the two brothers' principles of "repaying kindness with kindness and revenge with hatred."
"Brother, I want to discuss something with you..."
Just when Zhao Hongrun was thinking about Zhao Hongli, Zhao Hongxuan changed his expression to a flattering one.
Zhao Hongrun glanced at his younger brother, still polishing his riding boots, and said lightly: "Did Luo Yao ask you to ask me about distilled liquor?"
After hearing this, Zhao Hongxuan immediately widened his eyes and showed an expression as if he had seen a ghost: "You...brother, how do you know?"
"Heh." Zhao Hongrun smiled faintly.
Of course he could guess it. After all, he knew very well how difficult the situation of the Donggong Party was now. After being cheated by Zhou Min and losing all their money, even the Wang family in Zhengcheng sold some of their fields and vacant houses in Zhengcheng.
Houses, not to mention other nobles of the East Palace Party.
Compared with the current weakness of the Donggong Party in the government, in fact, the lack of money is the biggest problem of the Donggong Party.
Therefore, if Zhao Hongli wants to make a comeback in the future, then before that, the Donggong Party must earn enough money to push Zhao Hongli to the top.
As a result, Luo Yao came up with the idea of going to the party to drink. Zhao Hongrun could guess this kind of thing just by thinking about it.
The question is, should we hand over the distillation process to Zhao Hongli?
Zhao Hongrun hesitated for a moment. After all, he had thought about making it himself. After all, the sales of high-strength liquor were considerable, and the hundreds of thousands of Wei soldiers were its potential users.
But unfortunately, Zhao Hongrun really doesn't have this spare time, because all his financial and human resources have been invested in big projects such as Bolangsha, Lianglu Canal, and Rail Carriage. If he can just gather a thousand people to brew Shangdang
As for wine, the production could not increase, so it was better not to engage in it, so the matter has been put off.
Unexpectedly, Luo Yao actually inquired about this matter.
After thinking deeply, Zhao Hongrun nodded and said: "Okay, but for this process alone, I will need 20% of the net profit. If Zhao Hongli wants to use the Su's Chamber of Commerce... 50%!"
Zhao Hongxuan was stunned when he heard this, and took a breath of air and said: "Brother, are you too cruel? This craft alone costs 20%?"
"Go back and talk to Zhao Hongli, he will agree." After patting his younger brother on the shoulder, Zhao Hongrun immediately tried to put on his hunting suit.
Zhao Hongxuan nodded, then looked at his brother wearing hunting clothes and asked curiously: "Brother, are you going hunting with your father?"
"Ah." Zhao Hongrun responded casually.
It is undeniable that hunting has always been his favorite entertainment activity. Unfortunately, over the years, he has been either fighting in the north or south, or busy with the Smelting Bureau and the Ministry of Industry, so that Zhao Hongrun has almost forgotten what hunting feels like.
What's more important is that the imperial hunting organized by his father is different from ordinary hunting. The hunting ground will be filled with prey that the soldiers have driven over in advance. It will not be like the situation when brothers Zhao Hongrun and Zhao Hongxuan were in Shangdang County in the winter.
I can't see any prey even after running for ten miles.
"Brother, can you hit the prey with your bow skills?"
Zhao Hongxuan asked curiously.
Zhao Hongxuan had no doubts about his brother's riding skills. After all, his brother Zhao Hongrun was the commander of the 100,000 King Su army. After several years of fighting in the south and north, he was naturally familiar with riding skills, but not necessarily with bow skills.
However, after Zhao Hongrun heard his brother's teasing joke, he curled his lips and picked up an arm crossbow from the table, and introduced with a calm expression: "The Smelting Bureau's test arm crossbow is made of 40% steel alloy and 50% ash.
, a string made of deer sinew and hemp fiber, weighing twelve kilograms, and has a range of more than 140 steps..."
As he spoke, he fiddled with another long crossbow on the table and said calmly: "The second generation sniper crossbow of the Manufacturing Bureau is equipped with a far-sighted glass lens based on the first generation, and the weight is reduced... It weighs forty kilograms.
, the range is more than 400 steps..."
Having said this, he squinted at his younger brother, his eyes seeming to say: What era is this? Who still uses a bow? Now is the era of mechanical crossbows!
Zhao Hongxuan looked at the two murder weapons with his mouth open, then looked at Zhao Hongrun, turned around suddenly and ran away from the study. He shouted as he ran: "Brother, leave one for me. I'll go too. I'll go back right away."
Prepare."
Seeing the display of His Highness, the Zongwei shook their heads with a wry smile: In order to hunt, two war weapons being researched by the Smelting Bureau were used as hunting bows. Only His Highness could do such a thing.
At this moment, a person walked in outside the door and said with a strange expression: "Hongrun, I just saw Hongxuan running out in a hurry. What's wrong?"
Zhao Hongrun looked up and realized that the person coming was actually Zhao Yuanli, the sixth uncle.
It turned out that Zhao Yuanli, the uncle of the Sixth Prince, sent Princess Yulong, who was temporarily staying in his house, back to Prince Su's Mansion today. He wanted to take a look at Zhao Hongrun, so he happened to meet Zhao Hongxuan in the courtyard.
"Nothing, I just showed off a few hunting tools, hehe." Zhao Hongrun said with a smile.
"Hunting gear?" Zhao Yuanli frowned, then noticed that the nephew in front of him was wearing a hunting suit.
His heart skipped a beat.
"Uncle Liu, what's wrong?" Zhao Hongrun noticed Uncle Liu Wang's expression and asked in confusion.
Zhao Yuanli opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.
He sincerely did not want Zhao Hongrun to participate in this imperial hunt. Even if his impression in the nephew's mind was shattered after the imperial hunt, he did not want Zhao Hongrun to witness the process with his own eyes.