Zhu Gaoxu’s words almost made Zhu Di’s nose crooked with anger.
‘Second brother, I heard that you closed down the Arms Bureau. What happened？’
Zhu Di was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and directly asked what he was most concerned about.
Now that the Northern Expedition is approaching, the Ordnance Bureau is busy building weapons and armaments, but this second-in-command has blocked the Ordnance Bureau.
The soldiers don’t have the weapons they need, and the army doesn’t have enough baggage. How do you want me to fight this battle？
Upon hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu shrugged his shoulders and nodded to the craftsmen who were devouring the food.
‘The shabby salary of the craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau has been completely deducted, and their lives are worse than beggars.’
‘The craftsmen are like walking zombies, without any hope for life or the future. Dad, what do you think of the quality of the weapons and armaments created by their hands？’
Zhu Di was startled when he heard this, and his brows knitted together tightly.
This is indeed a situation that he, the emperor, has never thought of.
‘Even if you want to investigate the corruption problem in the Ordnance Bureau, you can’t shut down the Ordnance Bureau. With every day of delay, more Northern Expedition soldiers will not be able to get weapons…’
Zhu Di only cared about his Northern Expedition plan. If the Northern Expedition military aircraft were delayed for the sake of these low-level craftsmen, he would never agree to it.
Zhu Gaoxu was also furious after hearing this.
‘Northern Expedition, you know the Northern Expedition. You let the soldiers of the Northern Expedition take the shoddy and inferior products manufactured by the Ordnance Bureau and go to the front line to fight in blood. Isn’t this a waste of their innocent lives？ You are committing murder!’
When Zhu Di heard this, he immediately became furious, pointed at Zhu Gaoxu and cursed angrily, ‘You bastard, what do you know？ You said these weapons and armaments are inferior products, then how did the Ming Dynasty win so many battles？’
‘Oh, how did it happen？’ Zhu Gaoxu sneered, ‘It was done at the cost of human lives!’
‘You traitor!’
‘You butcher!’
The father and son were furious and yelled at each other with big eyes and small eyes.
Song Li and Xia Yuanji were stunned and hid far away in fear.
When the craftsmen who finally had a meal saw this, they were so frightened that they didn’t dare to move at all.
Zhu Gaoxu cursed angrily, ‘What are you looking at？ Eat your food!’
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned back and glared at the livid Emperor Yongle.
Song Li had just returned to Beijing. When he saw this, he couldn’t help but asked in a low voice, ‘Master Xia, what is going on with Prince Han？ Do you dare to yell at the emperor？’
Xia Yuanji stroked his beard, looked at the father and son with big eyes and small eyes, and twitched the corner of his mouth.
‘I don’t know. Ever since Prince Han was injured in the assassination, his mind has been a little abnormal. Even the emperor can’t stop him from committing evil acts.’
‘What should we do now？’
‘His Royal Highness should be arriving soon, and only he can hold these two.’
Thinking about it, Xia Yuanji couldn’t help but sigh.
If the Empress was still here, she could at least ease the situation.
But now, I can only count on His Highness the Crown Prince.
Soon the prince arrived at the Ordnance Bureau sweating profusely. He was born obese and had leg problems. After hearing the news, he was very tired from coming all the way.
Big Fatty came to Xia Yuanji first and whispered, ‘Hey…what’s going on？ Why are they doing it again？’
Xia Yuanji explained the cause and effect with a wry smile, and the prince was stunned for a moment.
In other words, Li Wenhui, the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, used his position to enrich himself and deducted the meager salary of the craftsmen. The second brother suddenly visited the Ordnance Bureau and was furious when he saw it. He directly ordered the sealing of the Ordnance Bureau.
Xia Yuanji, the cheater, went to Jiming Temple again and invited the old man to make the decision, and the two started to fight.
In the final analysis, it was still because of the Northern Expedition.
With the Northern Expedition imminent, the Ordnance Bureau cannot be shut down. Even if it is necessary to investigate corruption, that will have to be done after the Northern Expedition.
It’s true that the second child doesn’t understand the importance of such things.
Big Fatty took a few deep breaths, then cautiously stepped forward and coughed twice.
‘Dad, second brother, if you have anything to say, let’s talk about it back to the palace. Don’t let others see the joke…’
‘Oh, I won’t go back. Anyway, my old Zhu family has been laughed at a lot.’
‘What kind of palace are you going back to？ Don’t you believe that these are not inferior products？ Then go and see the arsenal with your son？’
Almost at the same time, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu both chose to refuse and continued to glare at each other.
After Zhu Di heard what he said, he immediately chuckled twice.
‘Okay, I’ll go with you and have a look. If there’s no problem, your country won’t need to be imprisoned anymore!’
‘Who cares if you love prison or not？’
‘You traitor!’
The father and son cursed all the way to the arsenal, where Nie Xing and others had been waiting for a long time.
After a while, Zhou Chen walked out of the warehouse and bowed to the ground.
‘Well, Zhou Chen, right？ I remember you, tell me, are there any problems with the Ordnance Bureau’s accounts？’
Zhu Di glanced at Zhu Gaoxu and then said.
Zhou Chen immediately opened his account books and replied solemnly, ‘Your Majesty, not only do you have a problem, but you also have a big problem!’
‘The minister led his people to conduct a preliminary check of the accounts of the General Arms Bureau for the past three years, and found that hundreds of thousands of jins of iron materials and tens of thousands of jins of copper materials were missing. In addition, other materials such as leather, fish glue, etc. were more or less missing. The ground is not up to par, and a rough calculation shows a deficit of about three hundred thousand taels of silver!’
As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked, Zhu Di even took a breath, and his face instantly turned livid!
A loss of three hundred thousand taels of silver!
This is only the accounts of the past three years, and so many corruption and shortfalls have been found!
Who knows how staggering the amount of corruption in the Ordnance Bureau has been over the years!
Xia Yuanji felt strange at this time, and stepped forward to ask, ‘Zhou Chen, have you thoroughly investigated the accounts for three years in such a short period of time？’
‘And since Li Wenhui and others dare to enrich themselves, they will definitely make false accounts so that no one can find out the specific amount. How did you calculate it？’
After hearing this, Zhu Di was also stunned and looked at Zhou Chen with suspicion.
Is it possible to calculate three years of accounts so quickly？
Could it be that it was the bastard Lao Er who deliberately framed her？
Zhou Chen handed the account book to Xia Yuanji and explained, ‘Master Xia, please look at this. This is the debit and credit accounting method and the Ming Dynasty figures taught by His Highness the King of Han. All the accounts of the Arms Bureau in the past three years are recorded on it. It is clear at a glance… ‘
As the Minister of Household Affairs, Xia Yuanji has always dealt with money and grain figures. He has never seen such a novel accounting method.
Soon he understood the ingenuity and practicality of this method, and looked at Zhu Di excitedly, ‘Your Majesty, Your Highness the King of Han, this method is wonderful and exquisite. If it is extended to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the administrative efficiency of our officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs will be greatly improved. It will increase hundreds of times and more than a thousand times!”
The Ministry of Accounts is in charge of the world’s money and food, and a large amount of manpower is used to calculate the annual income every year. If you learn this accounting method, it will play a huge role in sorting out the accounts of the Ministry of Accounts and save a lot of expenses.
Zhu Di was dumbfounded and a little confused.
Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand, ‘Old Xia Tou, if you want to learn, just ask Zhou Chen yourself. I am not in the mood to teach you.’
Xia Yuanji’s expression froze, and then he looked at the honest Zhou Chen.
This guy is a great talent!
Zhu Di touched his nose awkwardly, not knowing what to do next.
Fortunately, Lord Zhu Gaoxu has a lot of knowledge and does not have the same experience as him.
‘Dad, you can leave this arms bureau to your son. My son promises you that not only will it not delay the Northern Expedition military aircraft, but it will also increase the production efficiency of the craftsmen by more than a hundred times.’
‘If your son can’t do it, you can do whatever you want with him.’
Zhu Di squinted his eyes and finally went down the stairs.
‘In that case, I will trust you for now and let you do whatever you want!’
After hearing this, the big fat man was dumbfounded.
who I am？
Where am I？
What am I going to do？
what does it mean？
I rushed over in a hurry, and before I even said a few words, you made up？
‘Hey…you two are really…just try your best to torment me to death!’