My uncle is Zhu Di

Chapter 29 Just Don't Agree

Xu Qin returned to the mansion with doubts, and heard from his servants that the prince had arrived.

When we arrived at the living room in the front yard, we found Xu Huizu busy assembling machines.

"father!."

"Your cousin is in my study, go ahead!" Xu Huizu spoke before Xu Qin could say anything, signaling Xu Qin not to say more.

"Oh!" Xu Qin became even more confused. He pushed open the door of the study and saw Zhu Gaochi sitting there snoring.

Xu Qin walked over and gently pushed Zhu Gaochi: "Cousin, cousin!"

"Well, Sakyabao is back?" Zhu Gaochi woke up and found that it was Xu Qin, and sat up immediately.

"What are you doing? Cousin, I'm not your cousin. I'm saying that you also need to take care of your body. You can't party every night. You can't do that!" Xu Qin said to Zhu Gaochi with a smile.

"Go away, what do you mean by partying every night? You were drugged before. Now I, your cousin, am very honest. Sit down, I have something to tell you!" When Zhu Gaochi heard what Xu Qin said, he immediately asked Xu Qin to sit down.

"Then how can you still sleep? Didn't you sleep well last night?" Xu Qin continued with a sneer.

"Hey, when can I sleep well? I have to deal with court affairs every day, and my father doesn't care about me. He still has nothing to do to scare me. Okay, let's not talk about this. I'm here to talk to you about something!" Zhu Gaochi waved his hand and said with a wry smile.

Xu Qin got up to make tea for himself and also added some hot water to Zhu Gaochi's teacup.

Zhu Gaochi also began to talk about Zhu Di's conditions, hoping that Xu Qin's family's workshops would be merged into the Weaving Bureau and that he would go to the Weaving Bureau to take up a position there.

After hearing this, Xu Qin understood what was going on. This meant that Zhu Di had finally reacted and was thinking of the weavers.

But what does it have to do with me? As a businessman, why should I care about the lives of the people? If I am in charge, what is the purpose of the government, what is the purpose of the emperor? I am just a normal businessman, doing legitimate business.

"How about going to the Weaving Bureau to serve as the chief producer?" Zhu Gaochi said to Xu Qin with a smile.

"Are you kidding me? Huh? What's the matter? Your father was unwilling to kill my father, and now you want to make my family extinct?" Xu Qin sat down, leaned on the recliner, and said reluctantly.

"What are you talking about?" Zhu Gaochi asked immediately.

"The people in charge of the Weaving Bureau are all eunuchs and palace maids. What? Should I go to the cleansing room to cleanse myself? Will your father be relieved then? You might as well kill both my father and I. There is no such way to insult people!" Xu Qin said indifferently.

Zhu Gaochi said quickly: "I didn't ask you to be castrated. Besides, if my father dared to ask you to be castrated, my mother would be furious if she knew about it. You just go and take care of it!"

"No, your father is too bullying. He still wants 10 million taels a year, and he has to arrange for the weavers. My family and the Duke Dingguo's family account for 10%. I am uneducated, but I can still do simple calculations, right? According to what your father said, our family can only make 500,000 taels a year at most!
What a joke, I can easily get one million taels in my house now, not to mention that I am still expanding the workshop!" Xu Qin said proudly while lying there.

Zhu Gaochi also knew this would be the result, but he still tried to persuade him, saying, "Shakabao, you have to think it over carefully. If you disagree, you won't be able to expand your workshop any further!"

After hearing this, Xu Qin turned his head and looked at Zhu Gaochi and asked, "Why? Did I steal or rob? I am doing an honest business. You royal family members do it, and so do the princesses. But I, Xu Qin, cannot do it? Besides, I have an imperial decree. Why? It doesn't count?"

"Oh, you, I say, Sakyabao, can you listen to my advice?" Zhu Gaochi said helplessly, thinking to himself, the imperial edict is of no use, even the golden medal of immunity from death is of no use!

"I won't listen, cousin, how could your father do this? Is this to deny our family a way to survive, or in other words, he doesn't want our family to live well?

What do you mean? You all know how poor we were before. Now I'm trying to make a living on my own. I've finally made some progress, but your father is already thinking about me. How can this be? You can't just bully one family! If you have the guts, just ask the weaving bureau to stop doing the cloth business and make sure there are no cloth merchants in the world.

Why can't I, Xu Qin, do the cloth business? I am just a commoner. As long as I don't break the law, I can do anything for a living. Does your father care about this?" Xu Qin said to Zhu Gaochi while lying there complaining.

"Oh, that's not what I meant. Sakyabao, if you do this you will leave millions of weavers with nowhere to go!" Zhu Gaochi persuaded Xu Qin helplessly.

"What does it have to do with me? I'm a government official. Millions of weavers have nowhere to go. That's the court's business. Why should I care about it? I'm not a court official!" Xu Qin sat there with a teacup, smiled and said.

How could millions of weavers have nowhere to go? It was because the court had not arranged a good way for them.

Things from the Ming Dynasty are sold all over the world at high prices.

"You, can you please listen to my advice?" Zhu Gaochi said helplessly to Xu Qin.

"Cousin, tell me yourself, is your father a bully? Is he jealous of me? I am a cloth merchant! If I were not my aunt's nephew, I would just be an ordinary cloth merchant. Tell me, if I sell the machines, will those cloth merchants like it? Will those weavers still have nothing to do then?" Xu Qin sat there and asked Zhu Gaochi.

"This!" Zhu Gaochi was speechless after hearing this.

"Just because my aunt is the queen, well, now I've made a great machine! But you don't let me make any money! Fine, it's ok if you don't let me make any money, at least I should get equal compensation, right?
A fourth-rank official in the weaving bureau plus five hundred thousand taels of silver a year, and that's what they're sending me to? Plus the Duke of Wei's mansion? My father isn't the Duke of Wei anymore, why should we go back to the Duke of Wei's mansion? Won't it make people laugh?" Xu Qin continued to complain to Zhu Gaochi. "Hey, Sakyabao, you also know that your aunt is the queen, sometimes you need to consider my mother, right?" Zhu Gaochi could only use family affection to persuade Xu Qin.

"I have considered it! But this kind of thing is not something I should consider. I am just a commoner. What's the point of me considering it? If I don't do it, others won't do it. I haven't oppressed the people, nor have I extorted their wealth!" Xu Qin smiled and said to Zhu Gaochi.

"You, you, just wait and see, you will get into trouble! Okay, I'll go talk to my uncle!" Seeing that he could not persuade Xu Qin, Zhu Gaochi could only get up and talk to his uncle. It would be no good if he went against the emperor in this matter.

"My father has no say in this matter. He is confined at home!" Xu Qin waved his hand and said.

Zhu Gaochi looked at Xu Qin, sighed, and went out!
When Zhu Gaochi went outside, he found that it was dark and Xu Huizu was still busy assembling the machine.

Zhu Gaochi walked up to Xu Huizu, cupped his hands and said, "Uncle, you can't let Sakyabao do this. I'm worried that if I anger my father, I'll suffer the consequences!"

"We are not getting any good results now, so what's wrong with our family doing a legitimate business?" Xu Huizu continued to busy himself with his own things and said without raising his head.

"Uncle, why don't you try to persuade him and just let him do what he wants?" Zhu Gaochi said helplessly.

"I am a person confined at home. What can I do? All I can do is assemble machines for my son. I know nothing about what's going on outside!" Xu Huizu said without looking up.

"Okay, then, uncle, I'll take my leave first!" When Zhu Gaochi heard Xu Huizu's attitude, he knew there was no point in talking.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Go after dinner. Your aunt has prepared the meal. Let's eat together before going back!" Xu Huizu then looked up at Zhu Gaochi and said.

"I'm not going to eat anymore. I guess my father is waiting for my news! Hey, uncle, please think about it again!" Zhu Gaochi said helplessly.

"Okay, I'll persuade him!" Xu Huizu stood up and walked Zhu Gaochi to the door of the living room.

After Zhu Gaochi left, Xu Huizu came in and saw Xu Qin lying on his recliner, thinking about something.

"Baoer, do you have any idea about this matter?" Xu Huizu asked Xu Qin.

"Yes!" Xu Qin nodded and said.

"Well, okay!" As soon as Xu Huizu heard Xu Qin say this, he went out. Xu Huizu did not ask Xu Qin why he was so confident.

Xu Qin was of course confident. First of all, he had the imperial edict, which was of course useless, but the righteousness still stood.

Another thing is that if he compromised so easily, Zhu Di would definitely be suspicious. Zhu Di was a suspicious person, especially towards his father and Jianwen's old ministers. Many of the ministers who surrendered to him before did not end well and were dealt with.

Besides, if he did not expand and offend more people, Zhu Di would not feel at ease with his family.

Zhu Di just wanted to offend as many people as possible in his family. The fights before were just minor ones, but now stealing other people’s jobs is the real offense!
As for the millions of weavers, that is bullshit. There are millions of weavers, but many of them are actually housewives. They just weave at home to earn some money to supplement their family income. The number of people who really make a living by weaving will not exceed 300,000.

Besides, among these 300,000, tens of thousands are supported by the Weaving Bureau, and tens of thousands are supported by the Chen family's cloth shop. Unless they close the cloth shop, they will not be laid off easily.

Besides, even if those weavers were dismissed, they could absorb some of them. Moreover, in the future, perhaps this number of workers would not be enough!

Xu Qin lay there thinking about this matter. He could not easily agree to Zhu Di's request. Even if he agreed, he would need to get sufficient conditions in return. It was nonsense to expect that if he handed it over voluntarily, Zhu Di would reward him. He cured his aunt, but Zhu Di only rewarded him with such a small amount of money.

When Zhu Gaochi returned to the palace, he went directly to the warm room of the Qianqing Palace to report.

"Is Shakyabao the boss of your uncle's house? Your uncle assembles machines there?" Zhu Di asked in surprise after hearing this.

"Yes, basically, most of the machines in the workshop were made by my uncle. Of course, there are some helpers!" Zhu Gaochi bowed and nodded.

"Disagree? Didn't they put forward any conditions?" Zhu Di asked, stroking his beard while sitting there.

"No, they said that the conditions were too unequal!" Zhu Gaochi continued to bow.

Zhu Di sat there and thought for a while before waving his hand at Zhu Gaochi.

Zhu Gaochi didn't know what Zhu Di would think, but it was getting late, so he could only leave.

After Zhu Gaochi left for a while, Zhu Di said, "Go and call Princess Baoqing over!"

(End of this chapter)