Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

The secret room next door.

Zhu Di asked in a deep voice: "Have you written down everything you need?"

"Reply to Your Majesty, I have already written it all down!" Guo Jing and Chai Che said quickly.

"Read it to me once, and then inform General Tong after confirming it is correct."

"Two piles of coke, two coke ovens, two porcelain vats, two porcelain tubes, and some green vitriol."

"Prepare ten copies and send them to the prison immediately!"

Chai Che bowed and said yes, and immediately took the list to the secret room to find Tong Xin, the commander of the Zhongyi Guard, to make preparations.

The necessary items were settled, but Zhu Di didn't look relaxed.

"Father?"

Zhu Gaochi asked with concern: "Is this inappropriate?"

Zhu Di waved his hand to indicate that he was not worried. He sighed and shook his head, turned his eyes to the wall, and said slowly and with a slightly distant tone: "It's not inappropriate."

"My son, I don't understand."

Zhu Gaochi frowned slightly.

Zhu Di pondered for a moment, then slowly said: "I always feel that this is a bit sloppy? Can it be possible to refine the products of the fairy prescription and increase the fertility of farmland with just these things?"

"Of course what Father is thinking makes sense." Zhu Gaochi first agreed and then said, "Actually, I also think it's a bit sloppy, but I haven't tried it before. What Mr. Jiang said is probably the simplest and easiest way to achieve it. Since Father If it seems sloppy, if the production is successful, I will order someone to improve the alchemy tools."

Zhu Gaochi took advantage of the situation and asked: "Father, do you think it is better to call the craftsmen from the Ministry of Works, or to call Master Zhang?"

Zhu Di was slightly startled, apparently not remembering that there was another option.

"Master Zhang is in Nanjing?"

"Yes, after hearing the news of His Majesty's enthronement, Tianshi Zhang rushed over from Xianquan Jingshe to pay his respects. It may be because the Taoist sect was somewhat suppressed in the past few years."

This is a vague statement. In fact, during the Jianwen Dynasty, under the deception of Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, both Buddhism and Taoism were severely suppressed.

The so-called Heavenly Master Zhang, named Zhang Yuchu, is a Heavenly Master of the Zhengyi sect of this generation and one of the most erudite among the Heavenly Masters of the past generations. He is known as a master of Taoism.

Song Lian, a great Confucian in the early Ming Dynasty and the author of "Preface to Ma Sheng in Dongyang", once praised Zhang Tianshi as "a wise scholar with literary talent, and he is known as the Confucian of Immortals", which shows his knowledge.

Zhang Yuchu was the 43rd generation Celestial Master in the 10th year of Hongwu's reign in the Ming Dynasty. In the 13th year of Hongwu's reign in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang personally received the edict of "Zhengyijiao Tao combined with Wuwei Chanzu Guangfan Da Zhenren" and took charge of Taoist affairs all over the world.

Zhu Di never thought there was anything wrong with recruiting a powerful heavenly master to make elixirs. Without him, Zhu Di Fengtian Jingnan, the Taoist sect would never be able to hold its head high in the Jianwen Dynasty for the rest of his life.

"Then go and recruit Zhang Tianshi and ask him to bring his alchemy skills with him."

Guo Jing was also sent out to deliver the message.

Only Zhu Di and his son were left in the secret room.

Zhu Di was silent for a while, and finally let out a long breath.

"Today's rebellion by the Valley King makes me feel a little uncomfortable."

Zhu Gaochi stretched out his arm and held his father's rough hand with his fat palm: "Father, don't worry, the other vassal kings know how to advance and retreat."

"I always have a feeling."

Zhu Di spoke softly.

Zhu Gaochi listened carefully to his father's words.

"It's like, above the court, these people always think that I am a arrogant warrior, a thief who usurps the throne with a knife."

"The more I feel like this, the more I want to make some achievements, not to prove it to these civil servants, but to prove it to Qingshi and your grandfather."

"Of course I have something I want to do in my heart."

"Cutting down vassals, moving the capital, amending canons, sailing to the West, and conquering Mobei!"

"But it wasn't until I met Jiang Xinghuo that I suddenly realized that I had missed one thing, one thing that would allow me to meet your grandpa with peace of mind and confidence a hundred years from now."

Zhu Gaochi listened slowly and seemed to vaguely guess the answer his father wanted to say.

“The sky is vast and the earth is vast, and farming is the largest!”

"This is what your grandpa Huang said himself!"

"Let the people of the world cultivate good fields, have enough to eat, and be less troubled by things other than farming. The court will provide them with more things that will help them farm."

"Can Jianwen do this?!"

Zhu Gaochi replied affirmatively: "It's impossible. Jianwen grew up in a deep palace and was raised in the hands of women. How can he understand the hardships of the people and the sufferings of the people? As soon as he became the emperor, he was deceived by a group of civil servants with gentry origins to reduce or reduce Su Songjiahu's salary. The land tax also abolished the ancestral teaching of Taizu that Songjiang people could not be the chief officials of the household department."

Zhu Gaochi added: "This is trying desperately to help the gentry squeeze the people. How can it be possible?"

"That's it."

Zhu Di stood up wearing armor and took his son's hand, then held his son's shoulders with both hands, bent slightly and looked at the big boy sitting on the chair, and said seriously.

"But with Mr. Jiang's guidance, I can do it!"

"Working on the farm as a slave laborer relieves farmers of the pain of corvee labor, and silver treasures relieve the common people of the pain of paying taxes and being exploited. And Mr. Jiang's magical recipe can help farmers all over the world increase their production and income, and fill their bellies!"

"After completing these three things, even if I go to the underworld and see Grandpa Qin, I can still stand up and tell him that I am worthy of being the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, because only if I become the emperor, the people of the world will not be immune. The suffering of these three mountains!”

Zhu Gaochi was in awe: "My father cares about the world, and my sons and ministers admire him very much!"

"So, you are not really planning to start a fire in the prison, are you?"

When Zhu Gaoxu appeared in the empty courtyard carrying a small charcoal-burning coke oven weighing hundreds of pounds with one hand, Jiang Xinghuo naturally felt some suspicion.

"I asked you to write it down first and let the old Taoist priest try it out and see the effect of fertilizing the finished product. I didn't let you start refining it on the spot! This is a prison sentence!"

"It's all the same." Zhu Gaoxu threw the coke oven beside the tree pit without blushing or gasping for breath. "It just so happens that there is a pit for piled coke."

"What do you mean they are all the same? We are prisoners!"

Li Jinglong said with a smile: "What kind of prisoners are not prisoners? Are powerful people called prisoners when they are in prison? That is called choosing a place to be protected and recuperate."

Jiang Xinghuo was speechless for a moment.

He couldn't figure it out at first, but if he thought about it, if he converted the noble children of the Duke level to

Forget it, it’s better not to do the math.

Anyway, according to the news he sees in the modern world.

Even if "Sun Mouguo", the son of an ordinary local official, committed a crime and could "invent and create" in prison, then the second generation of the top nobles of the Ming Dynasty could create a chemical fertilizer in prison. , also very reasonable, right?

Yes, Jiang Xinghuo actually hid a little bit of selfishness, just a little bit.

Jiang Xinghuo had not planned to create such a physical object before, but instead lectured on political affairs every day, because no matter how extravagant the lectures were, it would still be bragging in prison and would not have much actual impact on the world.

After all, the people I was lecturing to were only two second-generation nobles, and they were not the real people in power of the Ming Empire. If they knew about "shared labor to the mother" and "silver treasure", could they implement it? It is estimated that they will have to wait until they grow up to be the powerful people of the Ming Empire before there is a chance.

As for Japan's "Iwami Ginzan" and "Sado Jinshan", that is far away after they are released from prison.

However, the meaning of any cross-era object is different from that of lectures.

Because things actually exist and are right in front of you.

And if small-scale production of fertilizers can be produced, these two second-generation nobles, as long as they are handed over to the court, will probably have their sentences reduced or even exempted from prison immediately.

Human hearts are made of flesh!

The bearded Gao Yu twice spent a lot of money to find someone to save him from prison; Mr. Cao also helped him when he was down and rescued him on the boat after he fell into the water. He was also imprisoned because he was hanged. Entered the imperial edict.

Although all these things went against Jiang Xinghuo's subjective wishes, objectively, they were just helping him.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo is also ready to do his part to help these two brothers.

Time passed very quickly, and in just one meal, under the special instructions of Jin Yiwei commander Ji Gang, Jin Yiwei invited Yuan Gong, who was responsible for healing people's injuries, and drove in with a cart of strange alchemy tools. courtyard.

Soon, all the tools were available.

Jiang Xinghuo has become completely numb to the behavior of the privileged class treating the prison as their own home.

With power, you can really do whatever you want.

Looking at the smoke outlet of the coke oven in front of him, it was blocked by the porcelain tube that Yuan Gong removed from the mercury refining equipment and led into the porcelain jar where the green vitriol was placed.

"Start practicing?" Yuan Gong asked.

"Start testing." Jiang Xinghuo corrected.

Yuan Gong cleared his throat.

"Okay, let's start practicing now."

Soon, Yuan Gong showed Jiang Xinghuo and others the various professional equipment of the alchemy Taoist priests of this era.

What Jiang Xinghuo didn't expect was that although the alchemy Taoist priests did not know the specific chemical element properties of these substances, through generations of practice (suicide), they had inherited and mastered a set of mature and reliable operating methods.

Yuan Gong first applied a thick layer of grease to his hands and face to prevent the sulfuric acid fumes from corroding the surface of human skin after boiling the green vitriol.

Later, Yuan Gong put on a layer of alchemy robes made of cotton, silk, and linen, and also put on something similar to a mask.

Zhu Gaoxu is holding a shovel and shoveling coal into the coke oven.

Li Jinglong hid and watched from a distance, fearing that some accident would kill him.

In the secret room separated by a wall, only Guo Jing and Chai Che were recording the conversations inside the wall.

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi, as well as the summoned Hubu Shangshu Xia Yuanji, and the contemporary Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu of the Longhushan Zhengyi sect, all came to another farther courtyard.

After all, only the secret room over there was soundproof, but they couldn't do coking in the secret room, so they had to run far away and rely on the guards disguised as Zhongyi Guards guarding the door of Jiang Xinghuo's courtyard to observe with the naked eye. It is then combined with the records in the secret room to transmit information in a non-real-time manner.

"His Majesty."

Xia Yuanji, who was sweating after riding his horse, straightened his official hat and couldn't help but ask.

"Mr. Jiang really said that his magical recipe can increase soil fertility and double the yield of crops per acre?"

"Indeed."

Zhu Di seemed to have read through Xia Yuanji's thoughts and said calmly: "Xia Shangshu, don't say you don't believe it. I heard it, and I still don't believe it, but..."

Xia Yuanji wiped his sweat and said with a smile: "But because it was Master Jiang who said this, your Majesty also plans to give it a try?"

Zhu Di said nothing and nodded.

Although Zhu Di hid it well, Xia Yuanji, an old bureaucrat, still saw subtle clues in Zhu Di's expression.

The emperor hoped that this fairy prescription was true.

Xia Yuanji couldn't help but sigh, Master Jiang really knew everything. Not only did he have a lofty vision on how to run the country and benefit the people, but he also had great courage and great wisdom in bringing forth the old and bringing forth the new. He also had such insight in agriculture and could actually invent. A fairy that increases soil fertility.

Yes, it is a fairy.

In the eyes of people of this era, farming is the foundation of everything. Wealth is the output of the fields. The best way to measure a person's social status is to see how many acres of land he has.

In the eyes of the people, the emperor owns the world, so the emperor has the highest status.

It is not the emperor's high status that controls the world.

In this era of land-only theory, land and future generations’ assets can almost be understood as equal signs.

So let me ask, as long as you get something that can double your assets, what is it if it is not a fairy?

Not to mention that Xia Yuanji's mind was constantly spinning. In front of the emperor and the eldest prince, Zhang Yuchu, the Heavenly Master of Longhu Mountain who was commanding several alchemy priests to open the furnace, was also murmuring in his heart.

Zhang Tianshi was wearing a feathered Taoist robe, a square scarf on his head, and a fly whisk on his arm, looking slightly lost in thought.

At the beginning, when Zhang Tianshi was sitting in the capital and was watching, he was very happy when he heard the emperor summoned him.

Because during the Jianwen Dynasty, Taoism was very hostile to Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, who were close to Emperor Jianwen.

Zhang Yuchu was thirty-eight years old. He was in the prime of life and had rich life experience. It was the best time to start a career.

As the leader of Taoism, why doesn't Zhang Yuchu want to revitalize Taoism? However, under the pressure of the imperial court, he could only retreat to the foot of Huang Ruo Peak, and could not even return to the Qing Palace in Longhu Mountain.

Fortunately, four years later, Jianwen was kicked off the throne by King Yan. Zhang Yuchu quickly set off for Nanjing to express his loyalty to the new emperor and strive for opportunities for the revitalization of Taoism.

Who would have thought that the emperor summoned him to the imperial edict and asked him to make coal and burn green vitriol?

Zhang Tianshi never expected this.

As for the "immortal prescription" the emperor said, Zhang Tianshi didn't believe a word of it.

We at Longhu Mountain are a sect of elixirs that have been taught for more than a thousand years starting from the Five Pecks of Rice Sect. What kind of elixir can we, at Longhu Mountain, not know how to make?

As for the one that can double the grain yield per acre?

Sorry, I've never heard of it. Lu Zu doesn't even have this ability.

Even if you are the emperor, and you tell me, Zhang Tianshi, that a prisoner in prison today has this immortal recipe and wants to practice it on the spot, then I can only laugh in my heart and say "Okay, Your Majesty" to you on the surface.

"Master Zhang, is it okay?" Zhu Di glanced at Zhang Yuchu and said, "If it's okay, you can start practicing with me. It's already started over there."

"Okay, Your Majesty."

Zhang Yuchu didn't think that this so-called "immortal recipe" could be successful at all. He came here just to practice it in order to complete the emperor's mission.

Soon, the fire was started.

But this time what Zhang Tianshi was refining was not elixir, but charcoal

In order to show off in front of the emperor, Zhang Yuchu personally held a shovel and shoveled a few shovels of coke in, and then he was choked by the smoke.

"Ahem!"

Zhang Yuchu quickly covered his mouth with his Yuyi Taoist robe, took out the remaining coke from the shovel and threw it aside. He rinsed his mouth with a water bottle and coughed twice more before he felt better.

This Heavenly Master is choked to death!

Zhang Yuchu took another deep breath and felt the smell of burning coal filling his chest, which was suffocating.

Master Tianshi gave up the idea of ​​going to work personally to show off in front of the emperor, and began to command the alchemy Taoist priests.

The coke oven spewed black-gray smoke into the newly boiled green vitriol porcelain vat. The golden green vitriol liquid was smoked and became turbid, and traces of grease-like things came out along the glaze. Exudes corrosive gas.

The Taoist priests' robes specially used for refining elixirs were burned with small holes, making a "sizzling~" sound, and some places were even burnt.

But this does not prevent everyone from concentrating and dedicating themselves to the work in front of them.

"Three flavors are really hot, start!"

The old Taoist priest standing at the front suddenly raised his hand to form a seal.

Then three young Taoist priests put some kind of combustion accelerant under the porcelain jar.

Under the porcelain vat was the stove with the mark of Longhu Mountain, from which a red and whitish flame shot up, and then became more and more prosperous.

The entire porcelain jar was suddenly illuminated in a brilliant red, with waves of heat.

The Taoist priests gathered around the stove, chanting incantations and making incantations with their hands.

——Full of ritual sense of feudal superstition.

It's as if he really has the magic power and wants to pour it all into it

This ritual of lighting a fire and having to talk about it made Zhu Di frown.

Zhu Di stood aside with a slight frown on his brows, seeming to be thinking about something. He did not urge Zhang Yuchu to refine it, as if he was nervously waiting for the results.

After a while.

"puff--"

After a muffled sound, the water in the green vitriol tank absorbed a large amount of soot, and finally boiled completely, gurgling upwards, with countless bubbles and foam coming out, and at the same time, rich and pungent medicinal residues were mixed in. Float out...

This situation lasted for about half an hour, and it stopped after almost all the water had evaporated.

The Taoist priests evacuated from the porcelain vat, sat cross-legged and rested for a while, waiting for the green vitriol to dry and cool completely.

Finally, the alchemy Taoist used a silver spoon to dig out the red-gray solidification that was full of gas smell, and then pressed it with an elixir mold.

Zhang Yuchu held the brocade box in his hands and presented it, looking down at the "elixir" in the brocade box that had zero quality and zero smell.

You call this the Yield-increasing Immortal Formula?

Zhang Yuchu sighed, shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid my refining failed. This magical recipe for refining coke gas is too mysterious. I can't turn it into an elixir. Please punish me."

Zhu Di looked at the product of the "immortal prescription" steadily and hesitated for a moment.

Is this the elixir that can increase soil fertility and double the yield per mu?

Just when Zhu Di felt a little disappointed, Guo Jing suddenly ran over like crazy.

"It's done! They said it's done!"

There are two chapters in today’s 5,000-word chapter, which makes a total of 10,000 words, so I won’t split it into three chapters.