Chapter 185 begins the subtle cultural invasion and the containment of the gentry.

"Well, then you should take the workers recruited by the Ministry of Works and prepare to start construction."

Zhu Gang glanced at Shan Anren, finally nodded and spoke.

"Yes, Your Highness. Don't I, the craftsman of the Ministry of Industry, design the steel plant?"

Shan Anren was a little dazed.

"Then you are late. We have already finished the design. You just need to be responsible for the construction. My people will supervise you in the construction."

Zhu Gang waved his hand and said.

"this…"

Shan Anren paused slightly.

"how?"

"Does Master Shan have any questions?"

Zhu Gang spoke calmly.

"This old minister will follow the orders of His Royal Highness Prince Jin."

Shan Anren bowed and said.

"Okay, then you can go and hand over the next matter to Gong Shuqi."

Zhu Gang said to Shan Anren.

"Here!"

Shan Anren responded, but he disagreed in his heart. In his opinion, Zhu Gang's craftsmen were just recruited from the public.

How could he compare with the great craftsmen from the Ministry of Works? When it came time to hand over Gongshu Qi, he asked the craftsmen from the Ministry of Works to discuss it, and they rejected Gongshu Qi's proposal.

After all, this steel plant was personally instructed by Zhu Yuanzhang, which shows that Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to this matter and could not afford to mess it up.

"Your Highness, this is the complete list of people involved in the empty seal case after interrogating Hu Weiyong and his gang and conducting an in-depth investigation."

After returning to Prince Jin's Mansion, Lu Feng found Zhu Gang holding a list and reported to him.

"Well, in that case, let's arrest him."

Zhu Gang took a look and found that the number of people was about what he expected, so he spoke calmly.

"Your Highness, won't you discuss this with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince before taking action?"

Lu Feng said hesitantly.

"If I'm not mistaken, Jiang Li should have already sent it to the boss, right?"

"If you waste any more time here, all the credit will be taken away by Jiang Li."

"Remember, you just need to follow my instructions. I will handle the rest of the pressure."

Zhu Gang glanced at Lu Feng and said coldly.

"Here!"

Lu Feng responded and immediately went downstairs to arrange for his men to arrest the man.

"Prepare the car. I want to go to the East Palace."

When Lu Feng left, Zhu Gang immediately shouted.

"No need, I'm already here!"

But before Zhu Gang could make any move, Zhu Biao's voice was heard outside the door.

"Prince Jin is really quick in his actions. He really knows how to take care of his subordinates."

Zhu Biao walked into the room and teased Zhu Gang.

"What? Could it be that your Jiang Li hasn't made a move yet, Boss?"

Zhu Gang raised the corner of his mouth and asked.

"Cough cough!"

"Based on the mutual understanding between you and me, is it necessary to ask this question even though you already know the answer?"

Zhu Biao coughed twice.

"Isn't that okay?"

"Your Highness the Crown Prince needs to strike first, but you don't allow me, the Prince of Jin, to act quickly?"

Zhu Gang curled his lips.

"Ok."

"I came here this time because I really want to discuss with you the matter of Hu Weiyong and the others."

"The Hu Weiyong case, plus the empty seal case involved, involves more than 50,000 people who should be tried, and most of them are people who hold official positions in the Ming Dynasty court. What should we do?"

“Could it be that they were all chopped off?”

Zhu Biao asked Zhu Gang with some hesitation.

With such a large number of people, if the case was handled in two batches, Zhu Biao would not have any hesitation and would have executed them all directly. After all, Zhu Biao's reputation for benevolence was only relative to Zhu Yuanzhang, the difference was that one liked to execute nine clans while the other liked to execute three clans.

But now, if so many officials are dealt with at one time, it will inevitably affect the Ming Dynasty’s bureaucratic system.

"What can we do?"

"Those people with ill intentions have been keeping an eye on our Ming Dynasty. As long as we show the slightest sign of weakness, they will pounce on us without hesitation and suck our blood."

Zhu Gang sighed and shook his head.

"Don't you have any compromise?"

Zhu Biao said with some anticipation.

"Big brother!"

"Do you really think I'm a god? I can make wind and rain come as soon as I ask for it? If I really had these two skills, why would I bother to deal with the government? Wouldn't it be better to directly order the heavens and the earth to give our Ming Dynasty an extra 10,000 years of national fortune?"

"Either you compromise and kill only the main culprit, or you cut the Gordian knot and kill them all!"

Zhu Gang rolled his eyes.

"Alas! Never mind. If that's the case, then it's their fate."

Zhu Biao sighed and shook his head.

"Yingtianfu School has basically been established and started to operate."

"When can you deliver the mass-produced typewriters you have over there to me?"

Zhu Biao then turned to Zhu Gang and asked.

"That's it for the past few days."

"I'm already recruiting apprentices for those craftsmen. Once they become proficient, you can grant me a piece of land to build a production line."

"With the demand from your Yingtianfu School, at most it would only consume one day's production capacity of my production line."

"When the time comes, I will send the typewriters I have produced to various places in the Ming Dynasty. First, to pave the way for the promotion of your school, second, to establish printing houses in various places to print cheap books for the people, and third, to prepare and print the Ming Hongwu Dictionary based on the Ming Dynasty Pinyin to promote further literacy among the people."

Zhu Gang said to Zhu Biao.

"But what if those wealthy and powerful families interfere and buy up all the books you print? After all, you sell them cheaply."

Zhu Biao paused and said.

"Haha. Boss, you still don't know the capacity of the typewriter. When the time comes, I will add two new paper production lines. We can make paper every day, set plates every day, and print books every day. Even if we sell them cheaply, won't we still make money?"

"No matter how rich these powerful families are, how much of my production capacity can they consume?"

"One month? Or two months? We expect them to do this. What's the difference between this and donating money to the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Gang said with a disdainful smile.

"Haha! That's true. What if we have all the classics of famous authors and practical technical books in Ming Dynasty and we have finished typeset printing?"

"You can't sell something as good as a typewriter to Bei Yuan, right?"

Zhu Biao laughed and then asked again.

"Enough of the layout? Boss, what nonsense are you talking about? Can you ever have enough layout?"

"Don't worry, our Daming Publishing House will never stop working."

"The old books are gone, so we can write new ones. Our Ming Dynasty lacks everything except scholars who can write."

Zhu Gang raised his head slightly and smiled proudly. "But, the words of saints, the works of great scholars, and technical books all take time to accumulate. How can you produce a large number of new ones in a short time? Even if you print out all the craftsmanship you have studied, it will not be enough, right?"

However, Zhu Biao could not laugh and looked at Zhu Gang in confusion.

"Brother, why do you always fail to think at critical moments?"

"Who told you that we have to print these? Why do we need to print travel notes? Can't we print vernacular novels? Anyway, we can sell them cheaply, so ordinary people won't be able to afford them."

Zhu Gang said speechlessly to Zhu Biao.

"Except for the wealthy and powerful, these things are printed for entertainment. Can ordinary people buy them?"

Zhu Biao was still somewhat suspicious.

"Of course I will buy it. Boss, do you want to make a bet with me? Among ordinary people, travel novels definitely sell better than classics and practical books of sages."

Zhu Gang raised his eyebrows and said to Zhu Biao.

"If you don't bet, who will bet with you? Anyone who bets with you is a fool!"

"Hurry up and tell me, what's going on?"

Zhu Biao rolled his eyes.

"It's very simple. Once the common people can recognize some Chinese characters through the Ming Hongwu Dictionary, which is the sequel to the Ming Dynasty."

"They are actually not interested in the classics of sages and most books that have nothing to do with their work."

"After all, they have been farming for decades. You suddenly tell them, 'Hey, old man, the opportunity has come. You are at a good age now. You should work hard and read the classics of sages to get a good reputation!' Do you think this is reasonable?"

"So those people who have long been accustomed to their own way of life, once they know a few words and have a few copper coins to buy books, will definitely buy travel notes and novels that are more entertaining."

Zhu Gang explained to Zhu Biao.

"I see!"

Zhu Biao looked as if he had suddenly realized something.

It is true. An old farmer who has been farming for decades had the opportunity to learn some words because of the Ming Dynasty.

It is really ridiculous to ask people to suddenly change their career and start reading books of sages and taking exams for imperial examinations. It is not as attractive as cheap travel notes and novels.

"You can do it, but I think we in the Ming Dynasty should be cautious about the public printing of practical technical books."

"There are many barbarians who have spies in our Ming Dynasty. If our Ming Dynasty technology is learned by them, it will be a disaster."

Zhu Biao instructed Zhu Gang.

"Wow! You actually realized this. Yes, I thought so too. Don't worry."

"The technology that can be printed and published publicly must be considered advanced to the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Gang patted Zhu Biao and said.

"I think you still don't realize the seriousness of the problem. Even if it is not advanced to the Ming Dynasty, it cannot be made public to the barbarians."

Zhu Biao slapped Zhu Gang's hand away.

"That's why you are a little cautious, Boss. What is not considered advanced by our Ming Dynasty must have been thoroughly popularized."

"Technologies used on a large scale. Even if the Ming Dynasty does not make these technologies public, it is not difficult for the barbarians to obtain them by offering gold and silver to lure relevant practitioners and then buying some samples."

"Since this technology will be learned sooner or later, we in the Ming Dynasty might as well be generous and write it in a book so that they can buy it."

"When the time comes, we can also sell some novels praising our Ming Dynasty together with the rest of the country."

"We will gradually change the barbarians' view of our Ming Dynasty, so that they will all regard the Ming Dynasty as a fairyland on earth and be loyal to the Ming Dynasty."

"Wouldn't it be more beneficial?"

Zhu Gang looked at Zhu Biao, his eyes full of brilliance.

"This"

Zhu Biao paused for a moment, shocked by Zhu Gang's words. It turned out that this was possible!
Compared with Zhu Gang, it seems that the Crown Prince Zhu Biao is not broad-minded enough.

"Well, I am narrow-minded."

"But you have to protect the advanced technologies that are the focus of our Ming Dynasty, even though they are just some tricks."

"But after getting along with you, I found that these unique skills and tricks are often more useful in improving national strength than sage books."

"After all, sage books may not necessarily cultivate a few great talents in governing the country, but the craftsmanship will definitely enable my Ming Dynasty to have the ability to produce more things."

Zhu Biao said with some emotion.

"It is true that science and technology are the primary productive forces."

“As for the books of sages, most of them are just nice-sounding, sanctimonious bullshit that no one but the sages themselves can say!”

Zhu Gang curled his lips, with a hint of disdain in his eyes.

"Shh! Shut up, Third Brother. If those old gentlemen in the court knew about this, they would definitely impeach you."

Zhu Biao raised a finger and said awkwardly.

"Let them come! Our Zhu family was born in the countryside, so we understand one thing: things that benefit the common people are good things."

"Anyway, I, the King of Jin, don't value the gold given by those so-called great scholars."

Zhu Gang snorted coldly.

"That's true, but in order to govern the Ming Dynasty, don't we still have to test those scholars?"

"If we really openly challenge their beliefs, it will not end well."

Zhu Biao said helplessly.

"Don't worry about this matter. Wait for a few years until my publishing and printing company is fully operational."

"The faith of scholars in the world will no longer be the so-called saints and sages."

Zhu Gang chuckled.

The so-called aristocratic families' magic weapons for survival have begun to dissolve overtly and covertly after Zhu Gang's operations.

The tax was distributed according to the amount of land, and the Ming Dynasty money houses and silver vaults were established to break the wealth of the aristocratic families.

Clean up the court, crack down on cliques and break the power.

Printing books widely so that people all over the world can read and have faith in the Ming Dynasty will be the magic weapon for cultural inheritance!

The Ming Dynasty, after all, is the Ming Dynasty of the Ming royal family and the Ming Dynasty of the Ming people. The aristocratic families will become more and more powerful.

How could Zhu Gang really leave the Ming Dynasty with peace of mind?
"I see!"

"First, you should make all the people in the world literate, and then insert your private opinions into the travel notes and novels that the people of Ming Dynasty are more inclined to read."

"Subconsciously, the people of Ming Dynasty will no longer admire the so-called saints and sages, but will completely support Ming Dynasty. This is really a good strategy to cut off the fire from the bottom of the pot."

"As for the outside world, you used the not-so-advanced technology of our Great Ming as bait, and took the opportunity to export the travel notes and novels you brought with you. This was considered a covert attack!"

Listening to Zhu Gang's words, Zhu Biao's eyes showed deep understanding and he exclaimed.

"No, Boss, what are you talking about?"

"I just let those who write books to selectively describe some facts."

"Describing the good of the Ming Dynasty and describing the sacrifices made by the Ming Dynasty court for the people, how can that be considered as carrying one's own agenda?"

Zhu Gang's mouth twitched. This boss's words were really rude.

"Wait! What if those people with bad intentions also write travel notes and novels to criticize our Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Biao then said with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Criticizing the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Gang looked at Zhu Biao, with a hint of looking at him as if he were a fool.

"Don't look at me like that. What should I do? Tell me!"

Zhu Biao said anxiously, he felt this question was very important.

"Big brother!"

"Do you want to listen to what you are saying? You are still criticizing the Ming Dynasty. Don't you see who owns the publishing house that publishes books criticizing the Ming Dynasty?"

"Are you a little confused about the difference between the big and small kings? You are almost walking into a trap."

Zhu Gang explained to Zhu Biao speechlessly.

(End of this chapter)