After listening to Xu Guangqi's words, Zhu Youxiao didn't have any unhappy look on his face, but looked at him with a smile.

Of course Zhu Youxiao knew what Xu Guangqi meant by palace construction.

In fact, this matter is not my fault. If I really want to pursue it, I can just go to my grandfather, Emperor Wanli.

In the 25th year of Wanli, the three main halls of Huangji Hall, Jianji Hall, and Zhongji Hall and the three gates of Huangji, Huiji, and Guiji were burned down.

Since then, the construction of the palace has been intermittently repairing these areas.

During this period, there were many disputes between the emperor and his ministers. The most famous one was that the wood needed for these halls needed to be cut and transported from the mountains of Yunnan and Guizhou, and then transported to the capital via Huguang and other places. This journey can be said to be

It cost a lot and resulted in heavy casualties.

After his father, Emperor Taichang, ascended the throne, the Huangji Palace project finally resumed. His father used 1 million taels of internal treasury to finance the construction period, but it was only half completed.

In other words, the space used by Zhu Youxiao for daily residence, court meetings, and court meetings is only half of the original three halls.

Regarding the behavior of Emperor Taichang, who dug out his inner treasury to build the palace, the Donglin Party supported it with both hands and feet.

Ever since Dad came to power, the Donglin Party has been deceiving Dad into spending money from his inner treasury, which can easily amount to millions of taels.

Several million taels of money went out of his father's inner treasury. Thinking about it now, Zhu Youxiao felt very distressed.

Even in the original history, Wang Huazhen was still working in Liaodong, asking for 1 million taels of silver to bribe the Mongols to work for him. The purpose of this military policy was to get his father to pay another million taels.

Now that Xu Guangqi said such words, he was obviously focusing on the matter of repairing the Third Hall.

In fact, according to normal development in history, this construction will stop next year.

But it will restart again from the fifth year to the seventh year of the Apocalypse. The Ming Dynasty will invest 6 million taels of silver in these two years to complete the construction of these three halls.

Many people in later generations said that building the three major halls was a sign of Emperor Tianqi's mediocrity. The country was already in such difficulty, how could you, an emperor, spend so much money building three major halls just for your own comfort?

But if you look at it from a country's perspective, being able to spend so much money to build these three halls, and doing it in just two years, proves that the country still has this money.

Moreover, at the same time, various places in the Ming Dynasty were reducing taxes, Shaanxi was providing disaster relief, many river projects were under construction, and military pay in Liaodong was relatively sufficient.

But after Emperor Tianqi died and Emperor Chongzhen came to power, everything took a turn for the worse, and the court was unable to get any money out of it.

The situation in Liaodong deteriorated sharply, and civil unrest broke out in Shaanxi. There were numerous uprisings and disturbances by refugees in various places, and things entered an uncontrollable situation.

It can be seen that it is not that Emperor Apocalypse should not have spent the money to build the three main halls, nor was it that this money was so important to the Ming Dynasty at that time, but that it would be useless for the Ming Dynasty to have this money at that time, because it was not money at all.

The problem.

After his father ascended the throne, he gave away four to five million taels, all of which were from his own inner treasury.

Now that Xu Guangqi and Zhu Youxiao have made this matter clear, they are going ahead with it, because if they continue to cultivate, they may not be able to use the money from the inner treasury again.

Because the last time the house was ransacked, Zhu Youxiao returned all the money to the national treasury, so continuing to build would require the use of money from the national treasury.

Xu Guangqi was trying to get ahead of schedule with Zhu Youxiao, and he also hoped that Zhu Youxiao would not invest too much money and energy in the historical issues of these three palaces.

"My dear, don't you hear that there is no majesty without magnificence?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Xu Guangqi with a smile, and asked with a bit of playfulness in his tone. He also looked at Xu Guangqi with a bit of teasing in his eyes.

, I want to hear what he said.

"Your Majesty, I believe that without the foundation of the country, no matter how magnificent the palace is, it is just a castle in the air." Xu Guangqi bowed and said respectfully. His voice was not loud, but everyone heard it clearly.

As soon as Xu Guangqi said these words, the surrounding people became even more silent, and no one dared to speak.

You, Xu Guangqi, dare to talk to the emperor like this? You are simply risking your life!

Everyone looked at Xu Guangqi differently. This little old man really dared to speak.

Because when you speak like this, you are mocking the Ming Dynasty as a castle in the air. Are you willing to die?

Zhu Youxiao didn't take it seriously, because he also agreed with Xu Guangqi's words.

No matter how well-built or beautiful the palace is, what’s the use?

In the words of later generations, this is a typical image project. In later generations, if the better and more beautiful the local government office building is, it will be scolded by the people.

However, after listening to Xu Guangqi's words, Zhu Youxiao thought of something. He seemed to be able to take this opportunity to do something.

"But my dear, in this world, it is important for people to live in their own homes. Even though I am the emperor, I still need a place to live; I work with the ministers on weekdays, and I also need a place to talk. If this palace is not repaired, where will I go?

?" After Zhu Youxiao said this, he looked at Xu Guangqi again.

Raising his head and looking at Zhu Youxiao, Xu Guangqi said: "It's not that I don't want your Majesty to build the palace, I just think it's not appropriate now. The country is in difficulty, the court is in trouble, and the people's lives are hard. At this time, we should pool all our money

, do some big things.”

"Once the army is strong and the country's supplies are sufficient, I would like to ask you to build a new palace for your majesty."

After saying this, Xu Guangqi knelt directly on the ground and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, what I said is from the bottom of my heart. For the sake of Your Majesty and the Ming Dynasty, please investigate it carefully."

Zhu Youxiao looked quietly at Xu Guangqi who was kneeling on the ground.

Xu Guangqi said the last sentence, asking your Majesty to check it in detail, which means that everything I said is true and your Majesty can check it, but the results of the investigation will be left to your Majesty.

This is not a statement of forcing the emperor, but a statement of request,

Putting away the smile on his face, Zhu Youxiao stretched out his hand to Xu Guangqi to help him up, and said: "I have remembered your words. After I go back, I will think about it carefully. Please get up quickly, my dear."

Xu Guangqi was helped up by Zhu Youxiao, and he said respectfully: "I would like to express my advice frankly. If I have violated your Majesty in any way, please forgive me."

"Ai Qing's words are serious." Zhu Youxiao waved his hand and continued: "Of course I know that Ai Qing is doing it for my own good and for the good of Ming Dynasty. I feel deeply in my heart, so how can I blame you? As long as Ai Qing's words are meaningful,

I will definitely not express my anger."

After the people around saw this scene, they looked at Xu Guangqi differently.

We had heard before that this deputy minister of the cabinet was favored by His Majesty, but we had not experienced it personally. But after seeing this scene at this moment, everyone had a new understanding of Xu Guangqi's favor.

After saying that, His Majesty was not angry, and even expressed that he would seriously consider it. This Xu Guangqi was simply extremely favored!

"As for this matter, I'll go back and think about it. Aiqing, it's better to take a good look here. Is the place in front of you the place where the hydraulic stamping machine works?" Zhu Youxiao pulled Xu Guangqi and continued walking forward.

"Back to Your Majesty, it is true. Some parts are being stamped there right now." Xu Guangqi said quickly, and then led Zhu Youxiao to the workshop.

There was a clanging sound throughout the workshop. Xu Guangqi reached out and took a stamped finished product from the bamboo basket and said, "Your Majesty, this is the finished product."

Zhu Youxiao picked up the finished product and looked over it a few times. He didn't see what it was, so he put it aside.

Zhu Youxiao was not interested in this thing, and he didn't understand it. He just took a look at it, expressed his support for the officials working here and expressed his condolences to them, and then turned around and walked out.

You must know that if you want to visit a place, you cannot actually visit it. You must bring your care and condolences to it.

This is why when superior officials come, they usually bring some policies or some benefits. You can't come in vain.

The last group of people finally came to the place that Zhu Youxiao was interested in, which was the firearms research and development department.

New artillery and new firearms are being developed here.

There were many artillery pieces in the Ming Dynasty, but the types were also complicated, which was not conducive to the use of soldiers. Therefore, it was necessary to cast new types of artillery, and it was best to spread them across various soldiers and various usage environments to form a series of artillery pieces.

This is also the order Zhu Youxiao gave to Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang.

It has now moved from the drawing stage to the trial production stage. The prototype of the imitation is Napoleon's cannon. As for when it will be built, I don't know.

But now that the technology has improved, the cost should be reduced.

In addition, Zhu Youxiao issued an order to Xu Guangqi and others to find a way to use steel to cast the cannon, and to let them find a way to make the steel qualified for casting. This is very, very critical.

Because the cost of making bronze cannons is too high, the cost cannot be reduced, and there is no ability to produce large-scale batches.

Weapons are always consumables, they need to be cheap, durable and easy to use.

Among them, cheapness is a very, very important point, and production costs must be reduced.

Just like the ak series of later generations, the more famous ak47 has a simple structure, strong and durable leather, and low cost.

In addition to cannons, Zhu Youxiao is more concerned about flintlock guns, because this is a firearm that he needs very much.

It is impossible for me to mass-produce matchlocks. That thing is actually a backward product. The research and development of weapons must be new and epoch-making.

Zhu Youxiao even proposed a front-loaded rifled flintlock gun, but now the flintlock gun is still on the drawing board, but it seems that it is ready to start production.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were all experienced types, and they were better at finding and correcting errors in practice. Therefore, it was more conducive to their research and development to make some samples, even if they were just failures.

When Zhu Youxiao went to the firearms research and development department, he also saw some steel cannons that the craftsmen tried to produce, but they all failed.

In addition, there are some matchlock guns made by craftsmen, all of which are forged with the latest techniques. They can be said to be the pinnacle of Daming Palace technology in this era.
Chapter completed!