Chapter 178 My dear father, you are such an economic genius! The emperor is the first to set up a honey trap, right?
After working until late at night, Zhu Gang finally completed the design of the character storage area, had someone hand it over to Gongshu Qi, and went to bed hastily.

"Third brother, the emperor sent someone to ask you to have dinner at Kunning Palace today."

Xie Yuer got up early and said as she helped Zhu Gang tidy up his clothes.

"Ok?"

"Go to Kunning Palace?"

"That's right. I haven't visited my mother for some time. Yu'er, you should get ready and go with me."

Zhu Gang nodded and said to Xie Yuer.

"But the emperor didn't order Yu'er to go."

Xie Yuer said with hesitation.

"The imperial edict didn't say so, so you won't go?"

"I know my old man very well. He has tacitly agreed that I will take you with me."

"Yu'er, there's no need to be so reserved. You were fine here before, weren't you? Why are you so reserved now that you got married?"

Zhu Gang looked at Xie Yuer speechlessly.

How come we are a family but now we are alienated?
"My... mother said that after I marry here, I will no longer be just Xie Yu'er of the Xie family, but the Princess of Jin, and everything must be done according to the rules."

Xie Yuer blushed.

"Don't listen to your mother-in-law's nonsense. Just stay the same as before."

"Also, don't always do things like serving people yourself in the future. Just hand it over to the group of palace maids and eunuchs below."

Zhu Gang rolled his eyes.

"No, I like to stay next to you, Third Brother."

Xie Yuer tacitly agreed to go to Kunning Palace together. She also liked the atmosphere of the Zhu family's family dinner, but Xie Yuer directly refused what Zhu Gang said later.

"Forget it, it's up to you."

Zhu Gang shook his head helplessly. Since Xie Yuer was willing, there was nothing he could do. She was his own wife, so he couldn't just push her away.

The sun was high in the sky, and Zhu Gang took Xie Yu'er to Kunning Palace early in the morning in a carriage.

"Coming?"

"You and the boss have been very busy these days and rarely attend court."

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was sitting on a recliner in the Kunning Palace, looked at Zhu Gang and spoke with a hint of complaint in his tone.

Although, with Zhu Yuanzhang's majesty, his words were law in the court and no one dared to act rashly.

But without my two sons by my side, I always feel empty inside.

"Cough cough!"

"Dad, I'm really busy lately. My eldest brother is busy with school matters."

Zhu Gang said to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"I know that the boss is running a school. It is a good thing to give children from ordinary families a chance to study and enlighten the people. It will also help us balance the power of the court in the future."

"But the boss asked you why you had a printing press in your house. How come the boss asked you to print books yourself?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Gang, as if to say, "Let me make the decision for you."

"Not really. I'm working on a new printing press."

Zhu Gang told Zhu Yuanzhang the truth.

"A new printing press? How new can a printing press be? Are you burning new type blocks for the boss?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was confused.

"Um... Dad, didn't the boss tell you anything?"

The corner of Zhu Gang's mouth twitched slightly. Why did he feel like Old Zhu had no idea about this?

"He said shit! That bastard told us that what you made was too intricate and complicated, and he said he didn't understand."

"Let me ask you myself when I have a chance. Isn't it just movable type?"

"I'm really confused. How can this thing be so sophisticated? Although I didn't have the opportunity to study when I was young, I read a lot of books later. How could I not understand movable type printing?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's face darkened.

"Well, actually, I improved the way of selecting characters. By using dozens of sets of gears, I can probably increase the speed of printing and typesetting by dozens of times."

Zhu Gang said to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Only a few. How many? Dozens of times? Third brother? Are you kidding?"

"Dozens of times! That means he can typeset several books in just one hour. You can't lie to your father!"

Zhu Yuanzhang widened his eyes and looked like he was saying, "I'm not well-educated, so don't lie to me."

"How could I lie to you? If it is the ultimate speed that is fully proficient, a hundred times is possible."

"When my new typewriter is ready, I will send one directly to you, Dad."

Zhu Gang said to Zhu Yuanzhang helplessly.

"Prodigal son! A hundred times, wouldn't that require thousands of kilograms of copper and iron to smash into it?"

"Don't send it to me. Let's go and see it ourselves. We'd be sad if this delicate thing got broken."

Zhu Yuanzhang grinned.

Iron is fine, its value is not so intuitive, but copper is directly money!

"Not really. If it's the current version, it would weigh over a thousand pounds, but after the latest version comes out, the heaviest is less than a hundred pounds, and one person can carry it."

Zhu Gang chuckled.

"Okay, Chongba, why didn't Biao'er tell you? Wasn't it because you couldn't help but go to Tan'er's place to watch and cause trouble?"

"Come, Yu'er, come here and let me see. Did that brat, Yan'er, bully you?"

Queen Ma came out from behind and laughed.

"The daughter-in-law pays respects to the father and the queen mother."

Xie Yuer bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma.

"Hey! How can you be so polite after marrying into our family? There's no need to be so pretentious when there are no outsiders here today."

Queen Ma said with a scolding tone.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was muttering softly beside him.

"Sister, what are you talking about? You make it sound like I owe you something."

Zhu Yuanzhang curled his lips.

However, what Empress Ma said was correct in one thing. If Zhu Biao had told him earlier, Zhu Gang's printing press would be dozens or hundreds of times more efficient than the previous rotary typesetting movable type printing press.

Zhu Yuanzhang really couldn't help but go and see what this exquisite thing was.

"Hey, Jian'er, we agreed that when the new printer is ready, please don't forget to send us one. If it's that fast, we won't write the imperial edicts anymore. We can just dictate them and have them do the typeset printing."

Without waiting for Empress Ma to react to Zhu Yuanzhang's complaint, Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly and deliberately spoke loudly to Zhu Gang.

The typesetting efficiency is dozens or hundreds of times faster. Isn't this faster than Zhu Yuanzhang's speech? Who will write imperial edicts in the future?

Although Mr. Zhu is a gifted workaholic, why should he endure unnecessary hardships?

"Don't worry, Dad. Once it's debugged, I'll send you the first one. But this typewriter must be used in conjunction with the Daming Pinyin."

"I'll have someone send you a batch later. You can ask the palace maids and eunuchs there to learn first."

Zhu Gang said to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Oh, yes, yes, there is also Daming Pinyin. The boss told us about this. Daming Pinyin is a good thing. It can help children with no basic knowledge to learn to read quickly."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

"Hey! Third brother, you're here? Looks like I'm late."

Outside the door, Zhu Biao's hearty voice rang out.

The person arrived as the voice came, and before the words fell, Zhu Biao had already pulled Chang Qingyun to the courtyard gate.

"You little brat, how dare you laugh like that? Come here!"

Zhu Yuanzhang cursed lightly and said to Zhu Biao.

"What's wrong, Dad? Why are you so angry?"

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with some doubts. After all, when Zhu Biao was outside, he heard Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Gang chatting happily inside, so why did he look sour now?

"Let me ask you, why didn't you tell us about that new printing press of the third brother that can improve efficiency so much?"

Zhu Yuanzhang glared.

"No, Dad, you didn't ask? And I don't know exactly how much it can be improved."

"What? Third brother, you made it?"

Zhu Biao couldn't help but look at Zhu Gang with joy.

"Not yet, but it will be soon. Now we are basically sure that it can be done. It's just a matter of time."

Zhu Gang shook his head slightly.

It is indeed a matter of time, but Zhu Gang is not worried about it taking too long now.

Instead, he was worried that he was moving too fast. He even felt that Gongshu Qi, the king of curling, might come to Kunning Palace tonight to tell him that the word storage area had been built.

Then let Zhu Gang take the next design.

So when Zhu Gang thought about this, his head started to hurt. What was the point of risking your life with that little salary?
"Okay, then we'll see how useful this typewriter is. If it's not too difficult to operate, we'll learn how to do it."

"Then let the generals of our Ming Dynasty learn from this. After all, marching and fighting require one step faster, and every step is faster. Maybe just a little bit of speed can make the difference between victory and defeat."

"A hundred pounds isn't heavy anyway."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

"Dad, I think your idea is not feasible at the moment."

"After all, this typesetting machine is just an accelerated typesetting machine. The movable type inside is not generated infinitely out of thin air. The machine is light, but the font library is heavy."

Zhu Gang coughed twice, interrupting Zhu Yuanzhang's fantasy.

"What are you afraid of? We can replace the movable type with wooden ones. When we don't need them, we can use them as firewood to cook."

"You kid, don't think that you can give your father military advice just because you have fought a few battles. You are still far from it."

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression froze, then his eyes widened.

"Dad, if you say so, then I have nothing to say."

Zhu Gang's mouth twitched.

It must be said that Zhu's military intuition was indeed amazing. No wonder it was said that "Since ancient times, the best military men were Li Shimin and Zhu Yuanzhang."

"Oh, by the way, Third Brother, I remember you mentioned before, what is the standard of our Ming Dynasty treasure notes?"

"After all, our Ming Dynasty is now considered wealthy, so we have calculated this account. Moreover, we should have enough gold and silver now. When can we start?"

Zhu Yuanzhang then looked at Zhu Gang and said.

"Ah."

"In principle, there is indeed enough gold and silver, and it can be implemented."

"But if we want to implement this matter, we still need time to prepare."

"After all, in essence, the Ming Treasure Note is actually a deposit certificate representing the standard commodity."

"That is to say, our Ming Dynasty needs to first send some of the gold and silver to banks across the country for storage, and then determine the exchange rate before it can be put into use."

"Besides, it's time for our Ming Dynasty treasure notes to make money for our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Gang narrowed his eyes slightly.

"The Ming treasure notes make money for us?"

"Why, your treasure can produce a child?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly startled.

"Dad, the so-called economy is not about money, but the flow of money."

"Money, when placed in the treasury, is just a pile of waste paper with words written on it."

"Now that the silver standard will be replaced, the economy of our Ming Dynasty will also be stabilized. Naturally, we need to release the money in the treasury that is not temporarily used to earn money back."

Zhu Gang laughed.

"You, you want to lend money to the common people?"

"No! This is absolutely not allowed. Cheating people to borrow money will ruin their families, right?"

"We can't do this kind of thing that cheats ordinary people!"

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head like a rattle and refused directly.

"Dad! Don't worry."

"We don't lend money to poor people. No matter what, if they can't pay it back, we'll lose money, right?"

"We only lend to wealthy businessmen. Don't they like to leverage to buy more goods and sell more goods?"

"We lend them money, and when they make money, they will pay us back with interest."

Zhu Gang said to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"That won't work either. The business world is too unstable. If they lose everything, won't the Ming Dynasty also lose money?"

Zhu Yuanzhang spoke again.

"Dad, don't rush to refuse. I haven't finished speaking yet. Didn't I say this before?"

"We don't lend money to the poor. If we can lend money, we must ensure that they have the ability to repay the money, which means we must verify their capital and mortgage."

"If they lose money in business, we can just take over their houses, shops, land and caravans. We won't lose money no matter what we do."

"More importantly, after our Daming starts operating in this way, those wealthy merchants will have no choice but to listen to us and become the workhorses that make money for us."

Zhu Gang gave Zhu Yuanzhang an evil smile.

"how do I say this?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's pupils shrank. He was rather disgusted with businessmen, but if he could really tame the profit-seeking businessmen, he would be willing to do it.

I don’t know if it was Zhu Yuanzhang or Zhu Biao who leaned over, but even Chang Qingyun and Xie Yuer pricked up their ears.

"It's simple. Borrowing debt and leveraging is like gambling. Once you do it once, you can't stop."

"As long as they are on our Ming ship, if any wealthy merchant disobeys us, we will simply cut off their loans, artificially create a debt collapse, and then take their property openly."

Zhu Gang's lips curled up.

"Although... I don't quite understand what you mean by lever or chain."

"But does it mean that in order to make more money, they will borrow money from our Ming Dynasty again and again, and when our Ming Dynasty stops lending to them and they can't pay back what they owed to our Ming Dynasty, we can directly confiscate their property openly?"

"That's fine. Then we can stop borrowing and confiscate all of them. Then, won't all the caravans' property belong to the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately said with a smile on his face.

"Oh my god, you are such an economic genius! The emperor is the one who started this honey trap, right?"

Zhu Gang immediately put his hand to his forehead.

"What's wrong? What's wrong with what I said? What do you mean by 'immortal'? Are you praising me for being as smart as a god?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was quite pleased with himself.

"Not Dad."

"I talk to you about the city gate tower, and you talk to me about hips and elbows."

"I asked you to build a pig pen, but you treated the Ming merchants like pigs and now you want to kill all the pigs."

"If you do this, who will dare to enter our pigpen when they grow up?"

Zhu Gang lay back, feeling no desire to live.

Destroy it, I can't carry it anymore! I'm tired!

"Oh, so that's what you thought. Why didn't you say so earlier? I thought we could get a big one straight away."

"But what if they all borrow money and we don't have enough money in the Ming Dynasty?"

"After all, your eldest brother Mu Ying and our second son are about to go to Tibet, and they need money and food to pave the way."

As Zhu Yuanzhang spoke, a hint of sadness flashed across his eyes again.

(End of this chapter)