Chapter 104: A Single Order for a Forced March

Having achieved his goal, Zhu Gaoxu turned to slip away.

Just at this moment, Lao Zhu spoke up and called Zhu Gaoxu to a halt.

"I heard you little monkey recently got your hands on some good liquor; today your old man even had a drink of it, so why didn't you send some to me?"

It was no surprise that Lao Zhu knew Zhu Gaoxu had brewed fine liquor.

After all, Ada and the others, being Embroidered Uniform Guards, had gotten dead drunk, so they surely must have reported it back.

Zhu Gaoxu deliberately slapped his forehead and said, "Grandfather Emperor, don't you worry, I will send some to you later."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and waved his hand impatiently, telling Zhu Gaoxu to leave quickly.

In truth, he hadn't really intended to ask Zhu Gaoxu for liquor.

After all, he was the Supreme Ruler; even if he wanted it, asking directly was a bit beneath his dignity.

But the Embroidered Uniform Guards had specifically reported this liquor to him.

They had praised the liquor to the high heavens, which immediately piqued Zhu Yuanzhang's curiosity, and today he had even heard that his own son had been drinking it.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang had been unable to resist speaking up.

As Zhu Gaoxu walked out of the Imperial Palace, he felt quite ashamed.

If he had known, he should have brought some for Lao Zhu; always asking people for favors while showing up empty-handed was truly inexcusable.

However, Zhu Gaoxu didn't take it to heart; first, he collected the paperwork, and then he planned to return to the Wangfu first.

Back home, this time Zhu Gaoxu did not look for his father, but instead found Wang Guanjia.

Without any nonsense, Zhu Gaoxu said immediately, "Wang Guanjia, I have come this time mainly to take away a few servants to give them some work to do."

Wang Guanjia did not doubt him; as the steward, he naturally had no right to refuse, so he nodded and immediately began to give orders.

Before long, ten household servants were assembled, but seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu still shook his head.

"Too few."

This was still too few?

Wang Guanjia was a bit bewildered; he had been afraid that this master before him wouldn't have enough help, so he had specifically called for more people, yet he hadn't expected it to still not be enough.

Seeing this, Wang Guanjia called for another ten servants, but the answer he received was still that it wasn't enough.

"Little Prince, what on earth are you planning to do?"

"Don't worry about what I'm doing; hurry up and round up more people, the more the better."

Seeing this, Wang Guanjia dared not ask any more questions and ran off to continue calling for people.

Just like that, after tossing back and forth a few times, a total of fifty people were called, and only then did Zhu Gaoxu nod reluctantly, waving his hand to lead the group of servants out the door.

Wang Guanjia stood in the empty courtyard, his mind in a state of confusion for a moment.

With this call, Zhu Gaoxu had basically taken away eighty or ninety percent of the Wangfu's servants; if Zhu Gaoxu still wasn't satisfied, he would probably be calling for the Wangfu's cooks next...

Just shortly after Zhu Gaoxu left, Zhu Di walked out of the Study and came before Wang Guanjia, asking with a puzzled face, "Why is the house so quiet? Where are those people?"

"Re... replying to the Prince, those servants were all taken away by the Little Prince."

"That little brat..."

Zhu Gaoxu had no idea what had happened at the Wangfu after he left; in any case, he already had the people in hand, and returning them was absolutely out of the question.

Just like that, Zhu Gaoxu led a large group of people in a grand procession to the outskirts of the city.

The first thing to do was certainly not to go and look at the land; that wasn't urgent. The first thing was to go to the Military Camp.

In the current situation, he had nothing but the land.

There were no factory buildings, melting furnaces, raw materials, or anything else.

Fortunately, these things could be solved as long as there were people, and what he lacked least right now was people.

Why, right there in the Military Camp ahead, he had over seven thousand men.

Thinking this, Zhu Gaoxu called for Mao Xiang, waved his hand, and gave the order for everyone to pause their training.

They were to conduct an emergency field construction training session.

As he spoke, Zhu Gaoxu turned his head to have the servants go into the city to buy raw materials.

Mud, sand, stone, bricks, coal, and the like—everything was to be bought.

As for the money?

Why, everything would be put on the account of the Wangfu; anyway, since his father hadn't provided the land this time, it wouldn't be too much to ask for some money, right?

In an instant, following Zhu Gaoxu's order, the entire Military Camp was mobilized.

And those fifty servants also entered the city one after another to make purchases.

As for why Zhu Gaoxu hadn't mentioned it when they first left the city, it was simply because he had felt very imposing at the time and hadn't thought of it.

Of course, he would never admit to such a thing; he only urged them to hurry.

For the remaining time, Zhu Gaoxu led the group toward their destination.

This place was very close to the Royal Hunting Ground and was destined to be uninhabited; the land Lao Zhu had given to Zhu Gaoxu also had no one on it.

Zhu Gaoxu was actually very satisfied with this; this was the effect he wanted.

Once the things he manufactured were successful, there was no telling how much of a shock it would cause; if anyone were to covet them, manufacturing them here would make it very easy to spot any thieves.

Next, the army set out, the entire force marching at a run, and Zhu Gaoxu finally got to see the cross-country capability of his own troops.

It was quite good: ten li, five thousand meters.

In about half an hour, basically everyone had arrived.

Zhu Gaoxu did a quick calculation; if they went at this speed, after accounting for eating, drinking, relieving themselves, and sleeping, they could probably conduct a forced march for six or seven hours a day.

Ten li in half an hour, twenty li in an hour; six or seven hours would be over one hundred and twenty li.

That's almost sixty kilometers of marching in a single day!