Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1160 Discovery
"Your Highness!" An officer who was supervising on the scene saw Zhu Mincheng and his men walking towards them. He hurriedly gave an order to his men, then trotted towards Zhu Mincheng and saluted respectfully when he got close.

His eyes fell on the other person's face, and Zhu Mincheng asked with a smile: "Li Yong?"

Li Yong was immediately surprised and said, "Slave... No, no, I am Li Yong. I didn't expect that the prince actually remembered me."

"Hahaha, how could I not remember you?" Zhu Mincheng reached out and patted the other's shoulder and said with a smile: "You made great contributions when you followed General Li to the battle last time. You chopped off two of the three bandit chiefs' heads. For this achievement, you were rewarded with a centurion and a beautiful woman. I saw you at that time, how could I forget?"

"Hehehe..." Li Yong grinned. Li Yong was originally a member of the Eight Banners, and his current name was changed later.

After the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners were required to keep their hair and wear different clothes, and at the same time, all of them were required to change their names and surnames to Chinese names and surnames.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's policy absolutely did not allow these people to use translation or one of the characters to keep their original surnames, such as Aisin-Gioro changed to Jin, Luo, or Ai, Yehlala changed to Ye or Na, Anjia changed to An, Qijia changed to Qi, and so on.

All these Jurchen people's surname changes were random, they were drawn from the Hundred Family Surnames, and the drawn surnames were used as new surnames. As for the given names, it was even simpler, just any ordinary one would do, and then they were compiled into a book, shuffled and rearranged.

So Li Yong drew the surname Li, and he has the surname Li. As for the character Yong, it was just given to him by the person who registered him at the time because he looked strong and tall. Zhu Mincheng's subordinates all had people like him who gave themselves new names, and no one cared about his original name.

Zhu Mincheng had carefully selected all of these people when he and Li Dingguo went to Liaodong together. Zhu Mincheng knew most of them, and he had a good memory and could call out most of their names. Moreover, Li Yong had made great contributions in the last expedition and was promoted directly from an ordinary soldier to a centurion. The reward for him was personally issued by Zhu Mincheng. How could he not remember him?
"How are you doing lately, kid? Are you enjoying the woman I gave you as a reward?" Zhu Mincheng asked with a smile.

"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I have been eating well and sleeping well recently. I have also been promoted to a centurion and am now in charge of supervising the construction of the city wall. As for the woman you gave me, I am very happy with her. To be honest with Your Highness, my woman is pregnant and I will be a father soon." As he spoke, Li Yong couldn't close his mouth with a smile. As a person who was thousands of miles away from his hometown and far away overseas, what could make him happier than this?
He never thought that he would one day get married and have children. Although he fought bravely in the Eight Banners, he was not a noble of the Eight Banners. His ancestor was just a member of the wild Jurchens who were captured by Nurhaci. Even though he had made contributions, he could not compare with others. When the Qing Dynasty was destroyed, he, Li Yong, was still just an ordinary soldier of the Eight Banners.

But now, Li Yong has not only been promoted, but also has a wife and is about to have a child. With all this, he is full of hope and is grateful to Zhu Mincheng for giving him all this.

"Good! Good!" Zhu Mincheng was also very happy. He said a few words of blessing to Li Yong's woman for being pregnant, and asked if most of the women he had given birth to were pregnant. After learning that this was indeed the case, Zhu Mincheng was even happier. This was a good omen! He immediately told his subordinates to take note of this matter and planned to make good arrangements after returning. To gain the loyalty of his subordinates, the best thing was to eliminate their worries. This was a good opportunity to show his favor.

As they walked towards the city wall that was still under construction, Zhu Mincheng casually asked about the progress of the construction and the daily work. Although Li Yong was good at fighting, he was also very concerned about being a supervisor. It can be seen that he was very attentive to this matter. Although he was not well educated and spoke directly, some of his expressions were not accurate because of the lack of fluent official language, but Zhu Mincheng was very satisfied with his seriousness and encouraged him to keep up the good work.

When he got closer, Zhu Mincheng looked carefully at a section of the city wall that had been built. He even raised his foot and kicked the wall hard a few times. The stone bricks of the wall did not move at all. Instead, his foot felt a dull pain. Zhu Mincheng nodded with satisfaction and walked slowly around this section of the city wall. When he found that every part was built very solidly, he was even happier.

Although the city wall required a lot of manpower and a slow progress because it had to first mine stones and then transport them back to build them step by step, Zhu Mincheng didn't care. He never thought that the construction of the new capital could be completed in a short time, and from the current situation, the future new capital would not only be several times larger than the original place, but even part of the dock would be included.

This is the capital of his Song State, how can it not be built better? And even if it takes a few years, as long as it is finally completed, it is enough, so Zhu Mincheng is not in a hurry.

While talking to Li Yong, explaining some details and asking about some situations that occurred during the construction, Zhu Mincheng was having a great time chatting when he suddenly remembered something. He turned around and was about to call his subordinate who was in charge of the construction to say something, but when he turned around, he found that the person was not behind him.

"Where is Jian Hu?" Zhu Mincheng asked with a frown.

"Lord Jian was here just now..." An official was also puzzled. He looked around and suddenly saw Jian Hu on the other side of the city wall not far away. He raised his hand and pointed over there: "Your Highness, look, Lord Jian is over there on the city wall."

Looking in the direction of the finger, Zhu Mincheng also saw Jian Hu. This guy was standing in front of the city wall, concentrating on looking at something. He also reached out his hand and touched the built city wall. This behavior made Zhu Mincheng puzzled.

"What is he doing?"

"I don't know about this. How about asking Lord Jian to come over and ask?" "Forget it, I'll go over and take a look first." Zhu Mincheng thought for a moment, then led his men towards Jian Hu. When they got closer, Jian Hu was still looking at the bricks and stones on the city wall carefully, his hands touching the stones, and he was so focused that he didn't even notice Zhu Mincheng standing behind him.

"Jian Hu! Jian Hu!" Zhu Mincheng couldn't help but call him when he saw him like this. But Jian Hu didn't seem to hear him and continued to study the stone in front of him. Zhu Mincheng walked over curiously and looked at the place where his hand touched, but he couldn't see anything different after looking at it for a long time. Finally, he couldn't help but raised his hand and patted his shoulder.

"Prince...Prince..." Jian Hu, who was concentrating on his studies, was startled by the pat on his shoulder. He shook his body subconsciously, turned his head and saw that it was Zhu Mincheng behind him. He then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Master Jian, what are you doing? Is there a flower on this stone? Why are you looking at it so intently? Didn't you even hear me calling you?"

Jian Hu did not answer Zhu Mincheng's joking question, but said seriously: "Your Majesty, please wait a moment. I have something important to do."

Zhu Mincheng frowned slightly, but said nothing, waving his hand to signal him to do as he pleases. Jian Hu apologized to Zhu Mincheng, then ran to the side to find a hammer. This hammer was used to smash stones, and it was quite heavy. Jian Hu had a little difficulty holding it, dragged the hammer back to its original place, and then spit twice in his palm, then raised the hammer and smashed it hard towards the city wall.

"Jian...!" When Jian Hu raised the hammer, Li Yong on the side suddenly became anxious, for he was afraid that Jian Hu would destroy the city wall. But before he could open his mouth to stop him, he was stopped by Zhu Mincheng. Zhu Mincheng looked at Jian Hu's actions curiously, and he wondered what Jian Hu meant by doing this. As for destroying the city wall, he didn't care at all. If the newly built city wall could be knocked down by Jian Hu's hammers, then there was no need to build the city wall. Don't forget that his Xinjing city wall was built according to the city wall of Daming County. The thickness of a wall alone is terrifying. When it is completed, it will be difficult to blast it open even with a cannon.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Jian Hu raised the hammer and hit it several times without saying a word. After a few hits, he threw the hammer to the side panting, and then pounced on the place that had just been hit. Then he scratched at the wall with both hands, and put his eyes closer to look at something.

"Really! Really! Haha! Hahaha!" Suddenly, Jian Hu saw something and burst into wild laughter. Looking at him like this, Zhu Mincheng was even more curious about what was going on. Could it be that this guy suddenly went crazy?
"Lord Jian? What happened?" Zhu Mincheng couldn't help but ask.

Jian Hu turned around with a smile on his face, holding a few pieces of rubble in his hand, and walked happily to Zhu Mincheng.

"Your Majesty, please look at this."

"What is this?" Zhu Mincheng was puzzled. Jian Hu directly handed the gravel in his hand to Zhu Mincheng and asked him to take a closer look.

Zhu Mincheng took the gravel and looked at it. At first glance, he didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Isn't it just gravel? It's no different from ordinary stones. Just when he was a little disappointed and was about to ask more questions, he suddenly saw a flash of gold in his eyes. Zhu Mincheng was stunned for a moment, and quickly raised the gravel in front of his eyes to take a closer look, and even looked at it in the sunlight. After looking at it for a few times, Zhu Mincheng couldn't help but get excited, and his hands even trembled slightly.

"This...this is...?"

"Your Highness, you are not mistaken! This is gold! To be more precise, it is a gold mine!" Jian Hu nodded seriously, and then he pulled Zhu Mincheng to the place where the wall was smashed just now, and asked Zhu Mincheng to look at the wall. At this time, Zhu Mincheng saw more directly that a piece of gold was clearly exposed in a rock of the smashed wall. Although the gold was difficult to detect without careful observation, as long as you look along the reflection of the sunlight, you can clearly see its existence.

"Gold mine? Gold? Gold!"

"Yes! Yes! Gold! Haha! Gold!" Jian Hu nodded repeatedly and laughed heartily. Although he was a civil servant, he was proficient in fortifications and had worked in the Ministry of Works. When accompanying Zhu Mincheng to inspect the city wall, Jian Hu accidentally discovered that there were a few rocks somewhere on the wall that seemed slightly different from the ones next to them, which caught his attention.

After careful observation, Jian Hu had some guesses, but had not yet fully confirmed them. When he personally took a hammer and smashed the surface, revealing the gold mine inside, the excitement in Jian Hu's heart was indescribable.

Not only him, Zhu Mincheng was even more excited. This was a gold mine! What did a gold mine mean? Even a fool could understand! With a gold mine, there was gold, and with gold, there was wealth. Even though Zhu Mincheng was the King of Song, he was stunned by this huge pie that fell from the sky.

(End of this chapter)