153, Chapter 153
The eunuchs came in with two large bags of things, and it was four eunuchs who carried them. Chief Steward Chi handed Qin Fang's memorial to the emperor.
Everyone in the imperial study saw this memorial. Du Ke was a little embarrassed. He knew that Qin Fang was verbose and liked to write trivial things in his letters, but he didn't expect that the memorial to the emperor could be so thick. He remembered that he had taught Qin Fang that memorials should be long and short, concise and incisive, so why...
"Hahaha..." The emperor laughed loudly. The monarch who had a gloomy face just now laughed cheerfully and happily, which shocked the ministers in the imperial study. "Du Ke, only Qin Fang would write such a thick memorial to me. Speaking of which, Qin Fang is also your disciple, why didn't he learn your efficiency?"
When everyone heard what the emperor said, they all looked at Du Ke.
In fact, Qin Fang can indeed be considered as Du Ke's student. In the civil service examination, the candidates can be said to be the students of the chief examiner. The imperial edict that Qin Fang was conferred as the General of Wude was brought by Du Ke, and in addition to the matter of Huanshui County, Du Ke was the imperial envoy. Moreover, Qin Fang sent two consecutive letters to the residence of the Minister of War, so it is also possible to say that Qin Fang is Du Ke's student.
Du Ke was relieved when he heard the emperor say this. He was afraid that the emperor would not say anything and would speculate about him in his heart. Du Ke hurriedly said: "No matter whose students they are, they are all pillars of the court and subjects of the emperor."
The emperor raised the memorial in his hand: "You have always known him. Tell me, is there any trivial matter in his memorial this time? My time is precious. If he writes trivial matters in the memorial, he is far away and I can't punish him. I will hold you, the teacher, accountable."
Du Ke thought to himself, this is really a case of finding a pretext for a crime? However, this cannot be said. Du Ke stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, if Qin Fang wrote something about chicken feathers being counted as a match, I am willing to accept the punishment. But if Qin Fang wrote something about meritorious service to the court, then this credit will also be given to me?"
The emperor laughed and scolded, "You shameless man, why are you competing with Qin Fang for credit?"
The emperor and Du Ke often joked that although the people present were all the emperor's confidants, even confidants had different degrees of intimacy, and Du Ke was the emperor's closest confidant.
So, they were used to the things between the emperor and Du Ke.
The emperor then read Qin Fang's memorial. When he was reading the memorial, the imperial study was silent. Many people were curious in their hearts, who is this Qin Fang? How did he become Du Ke's disciple? The emperor valued Du Ke. If Qin Fang was Du Ke's disciple, then Qin Fang's future would be amazing. And judging from the emperor's tone, he must have a very good impression of the man named Qin Fang.
Some ministers had some tricks in their minds and began to want to inquire about Qin Fang.
Qin Fang praised the emperor at the beginning. Qin Fang was not a literati, so he praised him very directly, so directly that the emperor could understand it at a glance. For example, when someone said that the emperor was amazing, wise, and wise, Qin Fang said, "Your Majesty, you are really amazing. I read your letter... and so on. Such straightforward words would make even a thick-skinned emperor feel a little embarrassed.
However, the emperor always had a smile on his face, and everyone observed him carefully. If the emperor talked about a person, his expression could be used to judge the weight of this person in the emperor's heart, and Qin Fang, who had never been mentioned by anyone, was already very important in the emperor's heart.
Some people thought that Qin Fang was Du Ke's disciple, and Du Ke must have reminded him many times in front of the emperor.
The emperor looked at him with a smile at first, but after a while, he pursed his lips, his eyes gradually became sharp, and finally he said: "Du Ke stays, and the others leave."
Everyone was stunned: "Yes, I will take my leave."
A minister came out of the imperial study, and one of them walked to Wei Hong: "Sir Wei, do you know who Qin Fang is?"
Wei Hong smiled: "Sir You has to ask Minister Du." His son Wei Ting is still doing the business of Huo Yao in Yunxiang County. The emperor told him about such an important thing. He is confident that he has a lot of weight in the emperor's heart, so he is not jealous of some things. Moreover, the business of Huo Yao is a secret, so he naturally doesn't say anything about Qin Fang's identity.
However, seeing that the emperor mentioned Qin Fang so much today, he had some thoughts in his heart. In the past, when his son Wei Wu wrote to him, he mentioned that Qin Fang's wife was a maid of the Yang family, and she was also a maid next to Miss Yang. He also joked that he recognized her as his sister. It was his son who recognized his sister, not the Wei family who recognized his goddaughter. Moreover, Wei Wu could not represent the Wei family, so Wei Hong had no opinion on this matter. He just wrote back to ask his son to be careful and not to do such a thoughtless thing in the future.
But now... the man named Qin Fang first discovered sulfur and saltpeter mines. It must be said that this person is indeed lucky. And the emperor likes people with luck the most. If a person with bad luck is in the royal family, the emperor will definitely not like it. Because the royal family does not need people with bad luck except the emperor and the prince, but if it is a minister, and a minister without a backer, it is different. The emperor has ministers with great luck, which represents that the emperor and his ministers are of one mind. It is the emperor's blessing to have such ministers.
So, Wei Hong's eyes darkened, and he made a plan in his mind. However, he was not impulsive. The emperor said today that Qin Fang was Du Ke's disciple, which was a disguised way of finding a backer for Qin Fang. Why did the emperor want to find a backer for Qin Fang?
The emperor didn't care about the thoughts of outsiders. At this moment, the emperor showed the memorial to Du Ke: "Old Du, your disciple is really... really a good minister of mine." What a lucky person. After Qin Fang discovered sulfur and saltpeter mines, and his wife discovered that saltpeter could make ice, the emperor said that Qin Fang was lucky. And now, how long has it been? Only a month or so, Qin Fang gave him another surprise. Although it was discovered by his wife, they were a couple, and there was no difference between what Qin Fang discovered.
Du Ke didn't understand why the emperor said this, but judging from the emperor's meaning, Qin Fang should have made another contribution. Du Ke muttered in his heart, is this Qin Fang still God's own son? How can he make meritorious deeds? Then he read the memorial written by Qin Fang while complaining. The memorial was very long, and Du Ke wanted to write a letter to scold Qin Fang.
Fortunately, although this memorial was long, it was not full of trivial nonsense like before. The reason why this memorial was long was that Qin Fang wrote a plan for potato flour and sweet potato flour franchise in it. After Du Ke finished reading the plan, Du Ke had only one idea: "Your Majesty, it's a pity that Qin Fang is a general guarding the city. He should be transferred to the Ministry of Revenue. If our Ministry of Revenue has money, why worry that Qiguo can't unify the world?"
Unifying the world is the ambition of every emperor in history.
The emperor laughed when he heard it. He liked to hear Du Ke say such ambitious words the most. He dared to seize the throne, and his courage and ability were not small. Du Ke came from the Ministry of War, so he was naturally warlike, so they were so compatible as monarchs and ministers. "It's a long way to unify the world. What do you think of the plan in Qin Fang's memorial? I will set up a grain alliance and recruit franchisees from all over the country. Franchise fees are required, and the franchise fee will be auctioned. The highest bidder will join. I will give the secret recipes for making potato flour and sweet potato flour to those who join. In this way, the potatoes and sweet potatoes grown by the common people will be bought by people."
Du Ke: "In terms of current grain production, potatoes and sweet potatoes have the highest production. However, although the production of potatoes and sweet potatoes is the highest, they are also the cheapest. Therefore, potatoes and sweet potatoes are not easy to sell. If potatoes and sweet potatoes can be made into flour, then the income of the common people can indeed be improved. Moreover, it can also improve the flour whose production has always been low. In fact, flour is durable and not easy to spoil." The reason why potatoes and sweet potatoes are not easy to sell is that the aristocratic families and the rich people look down on this kind of thing, thinking that it is something that only the poor eat.
The emperor said: "There is one franchisee in each prefecture. There are a total of 120 prefectures in Qi State, which means there are 120 franchisees. How much franchise fee do you think the 120 franchisees can receive if they join?"
Du Ke said: "Even if each franchisee pays 10,000 taels of silver, it will be 1.2 million. There are 100,000 people in a prefecture, and there is only one franchisee in a prefecture. There is only one output of potato flour and sweet potato flour, and the sales volume is very high. So if it is auctioned, I am afraid that each person will pay more than 10,000 taels of silver. If each person pays 50,000 taels of silver, it will be 6 million taels."
After hearing this, the emperor swallowed his saliva. He realized one thing, the power of a franchisee is limited, but if all franchisees unite, it will be different. For example, 50,000 taels of silver from one franchisee cannot solve the problem of the imperial treasury, but 6 million taels of silver from 120 franchisees can indeed temporarily make the imperial treasury full.
The emperor thought for a while: "Who should be responsible for this matter? Qin Fang mentioned in his memorial that this plan represents me, and franchisees are crucial. If franchisees exploit the people, then I will lose face. If franchisees are of good character, this is an opportunity to lead the people to become rich. What is this called... the rich first lead the rich later, oh, what Qin Fang said is that I will lead the people of the whole country to become rich. Hahaha... This slogan is also quite interesting."
Du Ke thought, it was not Qin Fang who said it, but Qin Fang's wife who said it. Although Qin Fang wrote in his memorial that he and my wife came up with this plan...But Du Ke had met Qin Fang, and Qin Fang was indeed an honest person, not the kind of person who had a scheming mind. Similarly, he was not well-informed. He did not look down on Qin Fang. It might be possible for Qin Fang to lead troops to fight, but Qin Fang certainly did not have the ability to come up with such a plan. Not to mention Qin Fang, even he could not think of it, so the truly smart one should be the wife behind Qin Fang. "Your Majesty, this matter is of great importance. Who do you think can take on this important task in your name or in the name of the court?"