"Your Majesty, we manufacture a large number of weapons and equipment for the new recruits. The forging industry has also been greatly affected. There are too many soldiers recruited, and there are also many obstacles in terms of military pay..."
"Your Majesty, in some cities, the people are unable to bear the taxes, some riots occurred, and many people died..."
Lu Yuanzhang's face became darker and darker as he heard the reports from ministers one after another.
Every day when I go to court, there is almost always some negative news, and all the news is caused by the massive recruitment of troops.
Of course, everything has a buffer period. Lu Yuanzhang believes that in three or four months, everything will gradually get better, and the court is also comprehensively solving these problems.
But this incident has had a great impact, especially the shortage of salt, which has caused the price of salt to rise across the board, affecting all fields.
Some people took the risk to smuggle salt from Daqian or Dayan, and the price was ridiculously high.
Lu Yuanzhang began to discuss these matters with ministers, arranged enough manpower, and allocated a large amount of silver to allow major cities to continue to open warehouses and release grain.
After discussing for more than two hours, it was almost noon, and all the problems were temporarily solved.
Lu Yuanzhang had a great headache. Although he sat on the throne, there were too many things going on.
Being an emperor is not that easy, especially in such a war-torn era.
"If there is something going on, go ahead and leave if there is nothing going on!"
Just when Lu Yuanzhang was about to retire, the second prince stepped forward.
"Father, I have a happy event to report."
happy event?
Lu Yuanzhang suddenly became interested.
Because what he hears every day is worrying things. When he hears a happy event, he hurriedly says: "Your Majesty, if you have anything to do, please tell me quickly."
The second prince said: "Father, now Dayan is eyeing us and may launch a war against us Dayan at any time. As we all know, Dayan has very powerful weapons, and these weapons are made of black gunpowder."
"And the good news is, I got the recipe for black powder!"
As soon as he said these words, Lu Yuanzhang's expression changed, and all the civil and military officials were extremely surprised.
Everyone knows the value of black powder!
That is a supreme treasure!
Lu Yuanzhang lost his composure, looked excited, and said hurriedly: "Are you serious about this?"
"Father, it's absolutely true!" the second prince said with certainty.
Lu Yuanzhang couldn't wait to say: "Your Majesty, why don't you come up with the formula of black gunpowder?"
Soon, the second prince took out a thick stack of information.
These information were all given to him by Fang Chen.
Lu Yuanzhang read the information carefully. After reading it, although he did not understand many parts, he was still very excited.
"So, with this formula, you can refine black gunpowder?"
The second prince explained: "Father, this formula may be a little incomplete. We need professional talents to study black gunpowder according to this formula. I believe that after a lot of experiments, we can find out the key points of the formula and develop black gunpowder." ."
The second prince got the formula one day earlier than the eldest prince.
After getting the formula, he found relevant talents to configure it.
As a result, after a busy day, several small explosions were caused, but all failed.
Originally, he wanted to develop black gunpowder and give it to his father, but it turned out that he could not develop it. He could only give the formula to his father and recruit a large number of talents to jointly develop it.
Lu Yuanzhang and all the civil and military officials were very excited, but when they heard the second prince saying that the formula was incomplete and needed to be tested, many people felt that something was fishy.
Lu Yuanzhang frowned and asked, "Where did you get this formula?"
The second prince did not dare to mention Liu Dachang at all.
He took all the credit on himself.
"To be honest, my father and I have been sending spies to look for the formula of black gunpowder in Dayan. Through my unremitting efforts, I arranged for a stunning beauty to be by Fang Chen's side and obtained these formulas from his mouth."
"Father, there is absolutely nothing wrong with these formulas. After long-term experiments, black gunpowder can definitely be refined."
Lu Yuanzhang dotes on the second prince very much. He knows that the second prince said that he arranged for a beautiful woman to go to Dayan to confuse Fang Chen. This is not credible!
Obviously, there are some unspeakable secrets.
However, this formula must be real, and Lu Yuanzhang knew that his son would not lie to him with a fake formula.
"Very good. Now that we have the formula, even if it is incomplete, we in Dakang are full of talented people. We will definitely be able to experiment according to the formula and create black gunpowder."
"This time the emperor has made a great contribution and will be rewarded with ten thousand gold!"
The second prince was very excited, "Thank you, father!"
"However, I still don't want the reward from my father. I will take out the gold and send it to the disaster-stricken cities and the people in need."
"Hahahaha!" Lu Yuanzhang was in a good mood and laughed again and again.
"Your Majesty, it's rare for you to care about the people. Then, I will deal with the gold according to your method. When the black powder is developed, I will reward you heavily!"
All the civil and military officials also had smiles on their faces. This incident was the biggest happy event in recent times.
At this time, the Prime Minister who had been silent until now spoke.
"Your Majesty, I am afraid that the recipe for this black gunpowder is not the work of His Highness, but a friend of mine who secretly brought it back from Great Yan."
Prime Minister of Dakang, Wei Zhongliang, veteran of the Three Dynasties!
This time Lu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor because he joined forces with Wei Zhongliang to rebel!
Lu Yuanzhang wanted to make the second prince the crown prince, but Wei Zhongliang had been secretly siding with the eldest prince.
Regarding the plan to deal with the second prince, the eldest prince could not take action in person. Instead, he told the prime minister the plan and asked the prime minister to take action, and then the eldest prince would come forward.
As soon as he said these words, the second prince's expression changed slightly.
Lu Yuanzhang was very surprised.
The second prince stared at Wei Zhongliang coldly.
"Master Prime Minister, what do you mean by this? You said this recipe was brought over by your friend? Which friend of yours?"
Wei Zhongliang looked calm.
"This friend of mine used to be the vice president of the Tongtian Chamber of Commerce, the first chamber of commerce in the Great Yan Dynasty. His name is Liu Dachang. It is he who brought the formula."
As soon as the three words "Liu Dachang" were spoken, everyone present changed their expressions.
Because both the Dayan Dynasty and the Daqian Dynasty are looking for Liu Dachang!
Liu Dachang has done all the bad things and is full of evil.
When everyone heard that the Prime Minister actually called this man a friend, many people were extremely shocked and stared at him angrily.
Lu Yuanzhang's face turned even uglier!
He knew very well who Liu Dachang was, because the beauties he and his second son had obtained before were all sold to them by Liu Dachang's power!
Even some officials at the scene had contact with Liu Dachang's people!
What makes Lu Yuanzhang even more strange is that the Prime Minister always acts cautiously and values his honor and face the most. What happened today?
Calling a bastard with a history of evil deeds a friend?
He also said that this person brought the formula. What on earth was he going to do?
The second prince was gloating in his heart.
He knew that the Prime Minister was from the First Prince's side, so even if the Prime Minister told the truth, he didn't have to worry.
He believed that the prime minister had brought humiliation upon himself.
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, everyone knows who Liu Dachang is."
"I never expected that the Prime Minister would become friends with such a person!"