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

Chapter 45 Accident
That day, Concubine Liu gave Zhu Houxuan a list, which included the officials in the palace who had been well-fed by the previous king and the heads of various industries outside the palace.

Zhu Houxuan spent several days looking for people on this list to talk to. Although it was not easy to do it too obviously, everyone actually knew it.

The power of the Prince of Jing's Mansion was thus handed over to Zhu Houxuan. As for how much power he could get in the end, it depended on his subsequent actions.

After all, many officials in the royal palace only have a relationship with him based on interests. In name, they still have to be loyal to the emperor, not him.

After seeing off Commander Zhao of the Guard Command Headquarters, Hou Sen suddenly brought a message, asking him to cancel the subsequent arrangements and go directly to Gongzheng Office.

Hou Sen did a good job in the factory and was familiar with the work flow, so he came back one day every three days to serve Zhu Houxuan.

When we arrived at the Gongzheng Office, we found that all the blacksmiths had stopped working and were huddled together.

"The prince is coming, get out of the way!" Hou Sen shouted loudly.

The blacksmiths quickly made way for him, revealing Master Luo lying on the ground, with Jin Tong standing beside him, feeding him water.

I saw that Master Luo was covered in smoke and fire, most of his goatee was burnt off, there were burn marks on his body, and there was a cut on his head that was still bleeding.

The most important thing is that he was shrouded in an extremely decadent feeling, and his eyes were extremely dull.

"Go to the medical clinic and call a doctor over. We need to treat the injuries on your body first." Zhu Houxuan quickly instructed Hou Sen.

Then he squatted down and said, "Master Luo! Master Luo! What happened? How did it become like this?"

Master Luo did not react at first. He stared at Zhu Houxuan in a daze for a long time before a hint of light appeared in his bloodshot eyes.

"Your Highness! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm useless! Useless! Please kill me! Please kill me! What's the point of me living?" Luo Dajiang suddenly wailed, and slapped himself in the face while wailing.

Jin Tong quickly held down Master Luo to prevent him from hurting himself.

But Luo Dajiang had lost control of his emotions and the ability to communicate, and Zhu Houxuan tried to talk to him several times but failed.

The doctor from the Medical Clinic arrived quickly and began to treat Luo Dajiang's wounds. Only then did Luo Dajiang calm down and sit there blankly without saying anything.

"Does anyone know what's going on?" Zhu Houxuan stood up and looked around.

Jin Tong hesitated for a moment, but still stood up and said, "The person who just sent Master Luo here is familiar with me. He told me the reason."

“Speak now!”

"Master Luo was testing the new iron smelting furnace given by the prince this morning. As a result, part of the furnace collapsed and the fire rushed out. Two people died and five were injured. One of the two dead was his apprentice."

"The burns on Master Luo's body were caused when he was rescuing people."

Zhu Houxuan's heart sank. He knew that the flame coming out of the furnace was at least 1000 degrees. If he was hit head-on, the scene would definitely be extremely tragic. No wonder Master Luo was so shocked.

"Then what about the wound on his head? It doesn't look like a burn!" Zhu Houxun asked in a deep voice.

"It was smashed by the family of the dead blacksmith." Jin Tong said with a sad face.

Zhu Houxuan's heart sank, and the morale of the blacksmiths present dropped visibly, and Gongzheng Institute fell into deathly silence.

Zhu Houxuan did not let his inner emotions control himself for too long. He knew what he should do now.

He whispered a few words to Hou Sen, and Hou Sen left quickly. After a while, Hou Sen came back with two young eunuchs carrying a wooden box.

"Bang!" The box fell to the ground with a dull sound.

Zhu Houxuan opened the box directly, and found that it was full of large white silver ingots!

The crowd around suddenly became a little agitated, and everyone stretched their necks to look at the silver ingots in the box. It was the first time they saw so much silver.

Zhu Houxuan slowly took out eight silver ingots and placed them in front of Master Craftsman Luo. These silver ingots were all standard fifty-liang silver ingots, which were uniformly cast by the Prince of Jing's Palace. They were made of solid materials and had beautiful and elegant appearance.

The breathing of the people around them became much heavier. The large silver ingots arranged in a line were so impactful that even Master Luo's dull eyes had some more spirit.

"Two masters died in the mine while developing a new iron-smelting furnace. They were heroes of the Prince of Jing's Mansion! I cannot let these heroes shed blood and tears! I cannot let them worry about their affairs after death. Each of them will be given 200 taels of silver as compensation!" Zhu Houxuan said loudly.

The dejected atmosphere of Gong Zheng was swept away, and everyone looked at Zhu Houxuan with admiring and passionate eyes.

"Jobs will be arranged for the survivors, and the children will receive a certain amount of financial support every year until they reach adulthood," Zhu Houxuan added slowly.

After that, he took out two silver ingots and placed them in front of Luo Dajiang. "These fifty taels are for the five injured masters. Ten taels each is considered as work injury compensation. The other fifty taels are for the five injured masters to get medicine to treat their illnesses and recuperate."

"I will not treat the dead heroes unfairly, and I will not treat the living master unfairly either!" Zhu Houxuan raised his voice.

"Plop!" Jin Tong knelt down on the ground and kowtowed hard, "I, Jin Tong, write the reward for the dead and injured brothers!"

The other blacksmiths also knelt down and shouted, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward!"

Their morale was back, even higher than before, and for the first time they felt respected.

Zhu Houxun, who had the experience of later generations, naturally knew that no matter how many sweet words were used, it would be useless in this matter. There were only two words - spend money, and spend more than they expected.

These 200 taels of silver are the income of an ordinary craftsman for 15-20 years. What is the average life expectancy in the Ming Dynasty now?

"Your Highness! I, Luo, cannot let Your Highness spend this money! I have wasted so much of Your Highness's money and achieved nothing. I cannot let Your Highness spend this money again. I, Luo, will pay this money even if I have to sell everything I have." Master Luo came to his senses without knowing when.

Zhu Houxuan hurriedly tried to comfort him, and soon after, Luo Dajiang fell into a deep sleep because he had exhausted too much energy.
Looking at the sleeping Master Luo, Zhu Houxuan's heart was filled with guilt. In fact, 80% of the responsibility for this accident lay on him. It was he who asked a group of craftsmen who had all dropped out of prenatal education to experiment with open-hearth steelmaking. They did not understand the principles involved, and it was only a matter of time before something went wrong.

But this was Zhu Houxuan's helpless move. He couldn't get out at all, so he could only let them experiment like this.
However, Zhu Houxuan had another idea in mind.
Two days later, when Luo Dajiang's injuries were almost healed, he was called over by Zhu Houxuan.

"Master Luo, please look!" Zhu Houxuan pointed to a dilapidated building at the corner of the city wall and said, "What do you think about building the furnace there?"

"Your Majesty, please think twice!" Master Luo knelt down immediately. "If the iron smelting furnace is built in the palace, the masters in the palace will kill me."

"Your Majesty, please think twice!" Hou Sen could not help but advise, "Building an iron smelting furnace in the palace is unprecedented! The two chief officials will not agree to it either."

"What iron smelting furnace!" Zhu Houxuan looked at the two men fiercely, waving the blueprint in his hand and saying word by word:
"This is clearly an alchemy furnace! An alchemy furnace! I want to open the furnace in my house to make alchemy!"

As for any strange byproducts that may appear when refining elixirs, hasn't that been the case since ancient times?

I worked overtime until very late yesterday and just woke up now, so I am a little late today.

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(End of this chapter)