I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 201 Searching for the Cause
Zhu Houxuan looked at the several swords on the table, picked them up at random, observed them carefully, flicked them a few times with his fingers, listened to the buzzing sound, and said: "The iron used is not good, there are many impurities"

After that, he bent the blade back and forth a few times and said in a positive tone: "Supposedly, this kind of waist knife should have steel clips, but this waist knife doesn't have steel clips."

When he put down the knife, he found that the people around him were looking at him with surprise.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I am an expert!" Zhu Houxun said in a calm tone.

Everyone suddenly remembered that Zhu Houxun was a great forging master of the time. The high-end wrought iron swords produced by the Prince of Jing's Mansion occupied a large share of the high-end cold weapon market in the Ming Dynasty and were also sold overseas. The reputation of the Prince Blacksmith spread throughout the world. Strictly speaking, Zhu Houxun was also a figure who could establish his own school in the forging industry.

For such a person, it would be easy to check the quality of a few military swords.

It's just that Zhu Houxuan has made a big name for himself in business in recent years, and he is busy managing the Ming Royal Group all day long, so everyone almost forgot that he was good at forging.
"Yes! My brother is an expert! Hahaha!" Zhu Houzhao was overwhelmed by this turn of events and burst into laughter.

Everyone laughed along.

After Zhu Houzhao stopped laughing, his face darkened again. He was not stupid. The appearance of weapons of this quality in the frontier army, which he valued the most, showed that this matter must be of great importance.
"What should we do next?" Zhu Houzhao looked at everyone with a gloomy face.
The two officials from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War who rushed over were only sixth-rank officials, and seeing the situation, they did not dare to speak for a moment.

"The name of the maker is written on it. They should be the craftsmen on duty. Let's go to the Ministry of Works to see if we can find these people. If we find them, bring them here to ask them. At the same time, go to the Ministry of War's Arsenal and the Qingli Division to look for the storage records of this batch of swords." Zhu Houxun said, pointing to the small words engraved on the handle.

Zhu Houzhao's expression eased a little, and he nodded heavily, "Just do as the King of Jing said!"

The two officials from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War quickly took the order and left.
"Wait!" Zhu Houxuan said again.

Everyone looked at Zhu Houxuan again. Zhu Houxuan said slowly under everyone's gaze: "We should send a few more people to go with us, so as to avoid the situation where the craftsmen commit suicide out of fear of punishment."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this and buried their heads even lower.

"That makes sense," Zhu Houzhao said with a sneer, looking at the crowd
"I'll send someone. No. I'll go there myself." Zhang Yong stood up.

"Good!" Zhu Houzhao was very satisfied with this.

The two officials from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War became uneasy, but they did not dare to raise any objections.

Zhang Yong acted quickly. After more than an hour, he brought four or five craftsmen to the parade ground, and the head of the Ministry of Works followed behind.

At this time, Li, the Minister of Works, and Lu, the Minister of War, also received the news and rushed to the training ground. The four or five craftsmen were escorted to the tent with sad faces and trembling bodies.

"Your Majesty, the craftsmen who made the inferior swords have been brought here," Zhang Yong reported back to the tent.

"Bring him up here, I want to interrogate him personally." Zhu Houzhao said gloomily.

This batch of problematic swords has been sorted out, there are more than 800 of them in total
The craftsmen who were brought here this time are just representatives of them.

"Your Majesty, these craftsmen are extremely cunning and of low status. How can I trouble Your Majesty to personally interrogate them? I am willing to share your worries," said Li Chulie, the Minister of Works.

"Mr. Li has the intention. I have made up my mind. There is no need to persuade me anymore," Zhu Houzhao said, waving his hand.

Li retreated with an embarrassed expression.

The five craftsmen were tied up tightly and were so frightened that they lost their ability to move. They were dragged into the tent and collapsed on the ground.
Jiang Bin threw several broken swords in front of the craftsmen. "Confess honestly. You can avoid a lot of physical pain if you confess honestly." Jiang Bin said in a vicious voice. The scars on his face looked a little scary.
When the five craftsmen saw the sword on the ground and heard Jiang Bin's words, they burst into tears.
Jiang Bin showed an impatient look on his face, and reached out to pull out the sword from his waist. It was a long iron sword made in Qizhou, with patterns all over the narrow and sharp blade, which shone with a cold light under the firelight.
The sharp sound of the gun being unsheathed put an abrupt end to the cries of the craftsmen.
The middle-aged craftsman knelt on the ground, hesitated for a moment, took two steps forward on his knees, and said in a sad voice: "I am willing to confess. I knew that I could not hide this matter. I was worried every day. Now that this matter has been discovered, I feel much more relieved. Before I die, I will tell this matter to make myself feel relieved."

The people in the tent had different expressions, and they were all listening carefully to the words of the craftsman in the middle.

"We have accepted the task from the government, so we dare not neglect it at all. However, the government only gave us iron materials, and the iron materials were inferior iron. According to regulations, this kind of waist knife must be sandwiched with steel. In the past, Su steel was the best steel material, and in recent years, Qizhou steel, which is of better quality and cheaper, has been the best. But how can we sandwich steel without steel materials? Only by sandwiching steel can the strength and toughness of the blade be improved." When talking about his profession, the middle-aged craftsman's words became much more fluent.

"We knew we couldn't do the job this way, so we went to find the manager to explain the matter, but the manager refused to provide any steel. He just kept pushing for the deadline and also withheld our food rations. We thought about buying steel to fill the hole ourselves, but there were so many swords that required a lot of steel, and we simply couldn't fill it, so we had to reluctantly finish the job."

The middle-aged craftsman's words made the people present look different.
"Haha." Zhu Houzhao chuckled, "This matter is becoming more and more interesting. Do you think what these craftsmen said is true or false?"

"Your Majesty, this is only the craftsman's one-sided statement. The truth needs to be carefully investigated!" Minister of War Lu Wan immediately stepped forward and said.

Others also expressed their opinions, but most of them tried to smooth things over.
Zhu Houxuan looked at the craftsmen and suddenly said, "These craftsmen are thin and pale. If they had embezzled the steel, they wouldn't be living in such hardship."

No one mentioned this angle, but when Zhu Houxuan said this, several people immediately echoed him, "Your Highness Prince Jing is right."

The tied craftsmen suddenly raised their heads and looked at Zhu Houxuan. The middle-aged craftsman in the lead said in a trembling voice with excitement: "You are actually His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing. Thank you for speaking to us."

Zhu Houxuan glanced at the craftsmen and did not respond to them.
Zhu Houxuan was not surprised by the reaction of the craftsmen, because his title as the Prince of Blacksmiths gave him a high reputation among the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty.
(End of this chapter)