Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 535 Looking for Chen Ce
Ever since the Annan envoys entered the Forbidden City, Li Tao ordered people to guard outside the Forbidden City day and night, paying attention to every face going to the Forbidden City.

It is not difficult to find Chen Ce. As long as you can find a strange face that entered the Forbidden City in the past few days, it must be Chen Ce.

Inside the Honglu Temple Embassy.

Li Tao didn't care at all. She said to Li Yi calmly, "Plotting against the Ming Dynasty? Do you have any evidence?"

Li Yi shouted, "Do you think the top leaders of Daming are fools? We have signed a purple silk order with them, and all the raw materials for making purple silk from Daming have been bought."

"Isn't this enough to make Daming suspect that we are the ones behind this?"

Li Tao asked back, "But do they have evidence? Besides, even if they knew, what would happen? Would they not allow others to buy the raw materials for purple silk?"

"Let's take a step back and say that if the Ming Dynasty eventually breaks its promise to Annan, won't they have to compensate you three times the value? You didn't do anything, but you got three times the money for nothing. Isn't that good?"

"Don't worry, the Ming court will not dare to use force against you, Annan. They have no reason or excuse. Even if they knew, they would not dare to do so because they still have to trade with other countries."

Li Yi sneered: "Maybe we will get the upper hand this time, but what about in the future?"

Li Tao asked, "How can I know what will happen in the future?"

"you!"

Li Tao sat on the armchair with a nonchalant look on her face, trimming her nails with a nail clipper in her hand. If these Ming Dynasty high-ranking officials couldn't solve the problem, then she would find someone who could!

She wanted to see whether Chen Ce and Chen Chunjian, who were controlling the Ming Dynasty behind the scenes, would come out to save the Ming Dynasty when it was in trouble!
Before that, she went to Wo Island to investigate the cause of death of King Anhua, her father.

King Xingxian Zhu Youjun told her the speculation about the cause of death of King Anhua, and that his father's death was most likely caused by Chen Ce!
The hatred for killing my father is irreconcilable! After learning the news, she sent two groups of people to Beijing to assassinate Chen Ce, but they both failed in the end. That's why she had to do it herself this time. She wanted to see how long Chen Ce, the coward, would hide!
……

Zhu Houzhao came to Chen Ce's residence with a sad face. His father had been very angry these days. Zhu Houzhao had also heard a little about what Annan had done. After learning the whole story, he was angry and powerless, so he could only find his younger brother to complain.

After listening to Annan's plan, Chen Ce frowned slightly and asked, "Why?"

Zhu Houzhao: "Those Annan barbarians must have done such a despicable thing just for the sake of money. They are really despicable and shameless!"

Chen Ce shook his head. After all, the other party represented a country. For the sake of the 300 million yuan in compensation, they would never dare to do such a risky thing.

This is not worth the loss for the small country of Annan. Even if they get a taste of the sweetness this time, what about the future? After this incident, will the Ming Dynasty still have any trade with them?
After losing the Ming Dynasty as a supplier, how will their economy develop in the future? Obviously, this is not a decision that should be made at the national level, because it is really stupid.

Zhu Houzhao also felt strange after hearing this and said, "Well, little brother, what do you think they are trying to do?"

Chen Ce thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't figure out what Annan was planning. Could it be that the other party's top leaders were really a group of short-sighted idiots?

"Father has been summoning the six ministries to discuss countermeasures these days, but he still can't think of a good way to solve this problem. I wanted to summon you to the palace, but I was worried about your poor health, so I asked me to ask you if there is any good solution."

Chen Ce said: "This is not a difficult task."

He never said what the difficulty was. He was just curious about what Annan was planning.

"Ah? Not a difficult thing?"

Zhu Houzhao was shocked. His father and the six ministries of the cabinet were all helpless, and you said it was not a difficult task?
"Should we confront the other party? Or should we send someone to talk to them?" Zhu Houzhao asked Chen Ce. The only solution he could think of was to negotiate through diplomatic means so that the other party would make concessions and avoid economic losses for the Ming Dynasty this time.

Chen Ce shook his head and said, "If you lack purple silk, then just make it."

Zhu Houzhao: "..."

"Didn't you hear clearly, little brother? All the raw materials for purple silk have been bought by them. We can't find so much raw materials in a short time."

The production of purple silk was not high in the Ming Dynasty. The main reason was that the materials used to make purple silk were very precious in ancient times. Except for the Ming Dynasty, other countries did not have the ability to produce silk of this color. That was why these small countries loved purple silk so much.

The traditional coloring method of the Ming Dynasty was to use the color mixing method. Purple is not a single tone, but needs to be mixed with red and blue.

The Han people were the first people to master this skill. It was not until the 19th century that Westerners mastered the method of directly extracting purple material.

This process is actually very simple. By neutralizing quinine with alcohol and sulfate, you can directly extract purple pigment.

Quinine is not unfamiliar, because Chen Ce had used it in the southwest before. This thing is used to treat malaria. Chen Ce had used it to treat malaria epidemics in the southwest before.

Cinchona tree.

Although the Annanites bought all the blue raw materials, there were still many cinchona trees in the southwest, from which quinine could be extracted, and then quinine could be directly used to extract purple pigment.

This was naturally not a difficult task for Chen Ce, which was why Zhu Houzhao had been chattering about it since his arrival, but Chen Ce had never taken it seriously.

Chen Ce smiled and said, "It's not a difficult task. Don't worry. Try to get some cinchona bark and I'll help you get the purple material."

hiss!
Zhu Houzhao took a deep breath. He originally thought Chen Ce was just joking, but who knew you were serious?
"Okay! I'll go right away!"

Zhu Houzhao hurriedly left Chen Ce's mansion. Since the last malaria outbreak, cinchona trees have been planted everywhere to prevent malaria.

It was not difficult for Zhu Houzhao to get cinchona trees in the capital, for Chen Ce already had several of them in his mansion on Zhengyang Street.

The Zhang brothers are currently living in that house.

When Zhu Houzhao found the Zhang brothers and asked for the cinchona tree, the Zhang brothers asked suspiciously, "Nephew, what are you going to do?"

"These two trees are cinchona trees that cure malaria. Do you want to cut them down to make toys for Chen Ce? Can't you cut down other trees?"

Zhu Houzhao: "..."

It's already this late, and you two are still thinking about toys. Zhu Houzhao said angrily, "No! Little brother wants to refine the purple material."

Did I lose it?

What if Chen Ce did something against the will of heaven? The brothers had all heard about what happened in the court recently.

The Zhang brothers rolled their eyes and laughed, "Nephew, take us with you to have a look, and we will chop down the tree for you right away!"

(End of this chapter)