"Third uncle, your smile is... a bit penetrating."
Sitting down opposite Zhao Laiyu, Zhao Hongrun said with a strange expression.
It's no wonder, after all, the third uncle Zhao Laiyu's face has already become wrinkled with old age, so his smile is even more charming.
Since he already understood Zhao Hongrun's character, Zhao Laiyu was not angry. He just rolled his eyes and then said with a half-smile: "Yesterday at Jiying Palace, Hongrun, you did a great job..."
At this time, Zhao Hongrun had just received the tea offered by the people in the house. Hearing this, he couldn't help being stunned and said: "Third uncle, have you heard about it?" After saying that, he didn't wait for the long-winded old man to speak, and took the initiative to admit his fault:
"I was impulsive this time, third uncle, please forgive me."
Unexpectedly, Zhao Laiyu stroked his beard and said with a smile: "It's good to be impulsive, it's good to be impulsive..."
"Did this old man eat something wrong? Why are you so talkative today?"
Zhao Hongrun glanced at Zhao Laiyu suspiciously and asked tentatively: "Third uncle, why are you here today?"
"It's King Chengling and the others who asked me to...come and have a look." Zhao Laiyu said something mysterious, then stood up and said, "It's getting late, I should say goodbye."
After that, he left the stunned Zhao Hongrun and actually said goodbye and left.
"Isn't this old man really old and confused?" Looking at Zhao Laiyu's leaving back, Zhao Hongrun muttered in shock.
You know, in terms of winning over the domestic nobles, he still needs the guidance of the old horse Zhao Laiyu.
Just when Zhao Hongrun was in a daze, Zongwei Weijiao and Gao Kuo walked in from the distance of the yard. After respectfully greeting Zhao Laiyu who was passing by, they walked into the hall.
Compared to Wei Jiao, Gao Kuo looked at his Highness, vaguely wanting to speak but Zhao Hongrun was drinking tea and didn't notice.
"Your Highness, do you have any plans today?" asked Wei Jiao, the chief of Zong Wei.
Zhao Hongrun thought for a while and said, "Let's go to the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing first."
"Yes, I will immediately order someone to prepare the car." Wei Jiao said.
Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun waved his hand and said: "Don't take the carriage. I drank all night yesterday and I haven't recovered yet. If the carriage bumps, I will vomit in the carriage... Wei Jiao,
Ask someone to prepare some horses, and we'll get there slowly."
"Yes!" Wei Jiao nodded in response.
After a while, Zhao Hongrun led Que'er, Wei Jiao, and Gao Kuo on horseback to the General Smelting Administration.
Today's itinerary is very simple. We will first visit the General Smelting Administration in the city, and then go to the workshops and furnaces outside the city to inspect. If there are no problems, today's work is over.
However, when Zhao Hongrun and his party were riding horses slowly towards the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, Zhao Hongrun found that many people on the streets along the way stopped to watch him.
Obviously, it was because of the people in the city congratulating him on his victory the day before yesterday that the number of people in Daliang City who recognized Zhao Hongrun increased dramatically, and it was no longer the original situation of "only knowing his name but not his face".
Suddenly, a man on the street shouted: "His Royal Highness King Su, we support you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the people of Daliang who stopped to watch on both sides of the street also spoke out to express their support for Zhao Hongrun.
"Eh?"
Although Zhao Hongrun felt baffled, it did not cool down the hospitality of the people in Daliang, so he returned the favor and said: "Okay, thank you all for your love."
I don't know if it was because of his humble behavior, but on the way to the General Administration of Metallurgy, people on both sides of the street made remarks like "support His Highness King Su", which made Zhao Hongrun feel confused.
Because the scene was too heated, a group of patrol guards encountered along the way temporarily acted as Zhao Hongrun's bodyguard, protecting His Royal Highness Prince Su as he headed to the Smelting General Administration while the people watched.
Finally, Zhao Hongrun arrived at the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, smiled at the guard team and said: "Today, for some reason, the people in the city are too eager..."
The team leader smiled, and then said excitedly: "Your Highness, most of my brothers in the military support you! ... Although I am a humble person, I am still willing to do your best for Your Highness!"
"Uh...thank you." Zhao Hongrun was speechless and signaled Wei Jiao, the chief of the Zongwei clan, with his eyes.
Wei Jiao understood and was about to come forward to reward him, but he saw Gao Kuo pulling the team leader aside first. He didn't know what he said. Anyway, when the soldiers and guards finally said goodbye to Zhao Hongrun and others, they started beating them one by one.
As excited as chicken blood.
"Gao Kuo, how much did you reward them?" Zhao Hongrun asked Gao Kuo curiously afterwards.
Gao Kuo replied: "Twelve."
"Twelve taels? That's not much. How can you do it..."
Glancing at the retreating figures of the soldiers, Zhao Hongrun became increasingly confused.
After the group of people walked into the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, Zhao Hongrun felt strangely that the craftsmen and officials from his Metallurgical Bureau were extremely excited when he saw them along the way.
"Your Highness, are you here?"
"Your Highness Prince Su, are you here to inspect our Smelting Bureau?"
"Your Highness, we are waiting for you, Your Highness, to obey us!"
Seeing a large group of people surrounding him to express their loyalty, Zhao Hongrun felt even more confused.
"Did I lead the troops outside during this period and neglected these people from the Manufacturing Bureau? Why... it's like it's the first time they see me?"
Just when Zhao Hongrun was secretly guessing, he saw Wang Fu, the director of the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, who had received the news, hurried over, bowed his hands and saluted: "Your Highness, Wang Fu missed the opportunity to meet you from afar, and I hope that your Highness will forgive you."
"It doesn't matter." Zhao Hongrun never cared about such false courtesy. He waved his hand to show that he didn't care, and at the same time signaled Wang Fu with his eyes.
Wang Fu understood, coughed, clapped his hands and said: "Everyone, everyone, it's all gone, it's all gone."
Seeing this, the craftsmen and officials of the Smelting Bureau who surrounded Zhao Hongrun and his party reluctantly left and continued to busy themselves with their work.
Under Wang Fu's guidance, Zhao Hongrun came to the former's prison room.
Sitting on a chair in the room, he took the account book handed over by Wang Fu and carefully looked at the income and expenditure of the Smelting Bureau over the past six months. He saw that the account book clearly listed various amounts of money.
, he nodded secretly in his heart.
You must know that today's Smelting Bureau is no longer in decline as it was in the past, and its income and expenses are astronomical. Zhao Hongrun must grasp this.
However, after verification, the income and expenses of the Metallurgical Bureau are relatively standardized. Of course, this is also related to the fact that the Metallurgical Bureau does not have any spare money - the cooperation between the Metallurgical Bureau and the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry is all through signing orders.
For appropriations, every signature will be signed by the person in charge of the project. If something goes wrong in a certain link, just go to the person in charge directly.
While Zhao Hongrun was flipping through the accounts, Wang Fu was reporting on the recent project progress of the Smelting Bureau.
The latest project progress is mainly due to two things. The first is the "Bolangsha River Port". This major project that the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau has been working on for six years has finally been completed quickly thanks to Zhao Hongrun's spared no effort in investing a lot of manpower and material resources in its construction.
Entering the final stage.
Of course, this refers to the port area.
The next step that the General Administration of Metallurgical Engineering needs to do is to demolish some irregular buildings in the Bolangsha River Port - these buildings are mainly temporary buildings built to facilitate the food and accommodation of the craftsmen during the construction of the river port.
After demolishing these irregular buildings, the Construction Department of the Ministry of Industry will rebuild houses and shops here. By then, Bolangsha may become a river port city more prosperous than Daliang and the center of the river trade line.
As for another major event, it is the completion of the "Liang Lu Canal".
In fact, this canal has been completed, but because the canal passes through the sphere of influence of the "Song Rebels", for this canal to be truly put into use, some agreements must be reached between the imperial court and the leader of the Song Rebels, "Song Yun"
——In fact, in the second half of Wei's war, the Song rebels saw that Wei was at a disadvantage and faced the dilemma of insufficient food and grass, so they temporarily acquiesced to Wei's use of the Lianglu Canal.
It was precisely because of the acquiescence of Song Yun's rebels that the Wei State was able to purchase a large amount of grain from Qilu and transport it back to the country, just like Zhao Hongrun's Wang Yong merchant Wen Shaobo.
But now that the Wei State had won the war, Song Yun, the leader of the Song rebels, was worried that the Wei State would kill them all together, so he sent rebels to blockade the upper reaches of the Si River and cut off part of the Lianglu Canal near the Lu State.
——Only by solving the problem of the rebels in Song Dynasty, the Liang-Lu Canal can be put into use again, and Qi and Lu can be considered to have truly joined the Wei State's trade circle.
Zhao Hongrun doesn't need to worry about this. I heard that the imperial court has sent people to recruit the rebels in Song Dynasty. However, the final result is still unclear. If Song Yun, the leader of the rebels in Song Dynasty, insists on disrespecting the Wei State, Wei will probably send troops.
Not sure.
After all, the agreement on "Song County Autonomy" was originally signed between the Wei court and Nangong Yao, and now that Nangong Yao has committed a bad act of betraying Wei, the Wei court should of course abrogate this agreement and truly incorporate Song into its territory.
After all, more than ten years have passed, and the Song people's disgust and resistance to Wei are no longer as strong as before. Under such circumstances, the imperial court was naturally happy to take back the rich Song land.
As for the attitude of the Song Dynasty rebels towards this, Zhao Hongrun was not sure, but he knew very well that the court's Ministry of Rites extended goodwill to Song Yun this time just because the Song Dynasty rebels would stand firm during this war.
The face of the Wei camp's attack on the Chu army does not mean that Wei is unable to deal with this rebel force.
If the rebels in the Song Dynasty are stubborn, I believe it will only be a matter of time before Wei sends troops to the Song Dynasty.
In the war between the five forces of "Qin, Sichuan, Chu, Han, and Nangong" against the Wei State, the Wei State defeated all armies. Now, no country or force in the Central Plains can stop the Wei State from doing so.
The pace of rise.
Han Chu is like this, let alone the rebels of the Song Dynasty?
Closing the account book in his hand with a snap, Zhao Hongrun ordered sternly: "Let the Lianglu Canal be put aside for the time being. Waiting for the results of the Ministry of Rites' recruitment, we will first step up the affairs in Bolangsha and demolish the irregular buildings in the river port as soon as possible, and then hand it over."
I have asked the Ministry of Engineering to take over, and I hope to see Bolangsha begin to take shape this year."
"Yes." Wang Fu bowed his hands respectfully to accept the order. Then, he saw Zhao Hongrun getting ready to stand up and said resolutely: "Your Highness, I and the Smelting Bureau are all following His Highness!"
"..." Zhao Hongrun was stunned and looked at Wang Fu without knowing why.
"Did all of the people I met today eat the wrong thing?"